DonorsChoose.org for Support & Supplies for Schools

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, along with other organizations, donates to DonorsChoose.org  to support teachers from math and science to the humanities with resources for their specific ideas. In the June issue of Vanity Fair magazine, Melinda Gates writes her first Spotlight on this organization that provides support and supplies to American schools, saying it’s “such a smart, simple concept.  Every student deserves a great education, and DonorsChoose helps teachers deliver on that promise.’

DonorsChoose.org lets you share the needs of your classroom with a generous community eager to help.   According to the site, supporters have brought teachers’ ideas to life in more than half of all U.S. public schools. The site provides information about how DonorsChoose works and how teachers can get started, asking “What change do you want in your classroom?”

A great question –We hope you’ll check out DonorsChoose.org and let us know what you think!

Read Full Post »

Transitioning to Digital Content: 3 Recommendations

By staff writers, eSchool News, April 13, 2013 — As a concept, using digital content in the classroom is nothing new. But making the leap from using traditional print textbooks to fully integrating digital content in the classroom can be intimidating. During a webinar sponsored by the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA), some experienced digital content advocates shared how they implemented changes in their schools and districts.

In “Out of Print: Reimagining the K-12 Textbook,” a recent SETDA report, the group issued three recommendations to help school leaders and policy makers guide and implement the use of digital content:

• Complete the shift from print-centric textbook adoption practices to digital resources within five years, beginning with the next major textbook adoption cycle

•  Develop a vision and roadmap for completing the shift, eliminate unnecessary or ineffective policies and regulations, invest in infrastructure and devices, and ensure effective implementation of digital learning policies

•  Ensure a vibrant marketplace for digital and open content

Read the entire article by clicking here

Read Full Post »

Hispanic History, Culture & Spanish Speaking Skills

Expand  students’ understanding of Hispanic history and culture while helping to develop their Spanish language skills with resources from PBS Learning Media.   These  featured interactive games, video clips, and lesson plans  are designed to engage learners and enhance curriculum.  If you’ve  yet to do so, you can  create a free account on PBS LearningMedia to search, save, and share your favorite resources.

The Storm that Swept Mexico: Revolutionary Art
Grades 9-12 | Video | Visual Art and History
Explore the Mexican Muralist Movement and consider the role of art as social commentary using this video resource from Latino Public Broadcasting.

Rough Riders
Grads 6-12 | Video | Spanish American War
Use this resource to enhance lessons on the Spanish American War, Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, and New Mexico’s path toward statehood.

Baseball and Social Change: The Story of Roberto Clemente
Grades: 5-8 | Blended Lesson | Literacy Skill Development
Invite students to examine the relationship between culture and identity through the story of baseball legend Roberto Clemente.

Hispanic Exploration in America
Grades: 4-12 | Media Gallery | Teaching with Primary Resources
Gain insight into the Hispanic exploration, colonization, and conquests in North America by examining a collection of primary sources from the Library of Congress.
*If you like this resource – you might like this online course.

The Red Balloon
Grades K-2 | Lesson Plan, Games | Spanish Vocabulary
¡Pruébalo! Develop your students’ Spanish language skills using this collection of videos and interactive games from “Oh Noah!”

Read Full Post »

Arthur Stands Up To Bullying

ARTHUR, television’s longest-running children’s animated series, kicks off its spring season with a week of all-new episodes, including two devoted to the issue of bullying. The week begins with “The Last Tough Customer” on Monday, May 6. In this episode, the Tough Customers realize it’s time to quit bullying and set out to find a new hobby – but can Molly ever truly change her ways? Watch a sneak preview!

Then on Friday, May 10, in “So Funny I Forgot to Laugh,” Arthur thinks his jokes about Sue Ellen’s new sweater are all in good fun, but Sue Ellen’s feelings are hurt. Has Arthur become…a bully?

Visit ARTHUR’S parents and teachers’ site for more resources, including lesson plans like Arthur’s World Neighborhood with activities, resources, and tips to help kids explore cultural diversity within their own community and around the world. The curriculum was developed especially for students in grades 2-3 but activities can easily be adapted for younger or older audiences.

To also help raise students’ awareness on bullying and tolerance, you’ll find preK-3 resources on bullying as well as those for older grades at PBS LearningMedia.

Read Full Post »

Lesson Plan Feature: Letters to Poets

PBS NewsHour Extra offers this wonderful lesson for grades 7-10 from The Academy of American Poets, which presents a series of activities for the classroom that allow students to explore and interact with poetry by writing letters to poets.  Aligned with the Common Core Standards, activities address the three literacy areas of Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening. You can use the series of activities one right after the other, or separate them as you integrate poetry with other areas of your curriculum. The activities are designed to reach diverse learners, but if you need to adapt them further, you can feel free to do so.

Sections include video, pre-activities, whole class, as well as individual/small group activities, and vocabulary.  Here’s a sample of objectives just for Activity 1:  Selecting Favorite Poems from Historical Poets of Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, Robert Frost, Pablo Neruda and William Carlos Williams

Students will:

Identify poets whose poetic voices speak to them

Select one of these poets and his or her poem to consider more deeply

Provide verbal explanation/evidence about why they have chosen this poem and poet to their peers

As an added bonus, in conjunction with the Academy’s celebration of letter writing and correspondence this National Poetry Month (April 2013), you are invited to submit your students’ letters to the Dear Poet project for a chance to receive handwritten responses from poets.

Read Full Post »

Teaching Environmental Health with PBS LearningMedia

With Earth Day starting off our week, here are fresh new ways to teach students about environmental health from PBS LearningMedia.  Enhance your  curriculum with engaging and inspiring content from PBS and trusted producers like KQED and WGBH. To search, save, and share your favorite resources, create an account for free.

Taking Root
Grades 9-12 | Video | Environmentalism in Africa
Meet Wangari Maathai, the first environmentalist – and first African woman – to win the Nobel Peace Prize and illustrate the connection between the environment and other social issues.

Waste Deep
Grades 7-13 | Video | Human Impact on Environment
Examine the state of food waste in America with host Yul Kwon and get an in-depth look at the a landfill’s inner workings.

Where We’ve Been, Where We’re Headed
Grades 6-13 | Video | Environmental Stewardship
See the environmental stewardship of everyday people who transformed the polluted Bay Area.

Scientist Profile: Renewable Energy Scientist
Grades 4-6 | Video | Scientist Profile
Use this career profile to illustrate the practical application of solar and wind power and invite students to assess the viability of other renewable energy sources.

Nowhere to Hide
Grades K-8 | Interactive | Effects of Pollution
Enhance your health, science, and environmental studies curriculum with this clever interactive resource from Kinetic City.

NEW: Prompt debate among your students using this new resource from ITVS that explores the global politics of climate change.

Read Full Post »

Compelling Classroom Film Modules & More from Independent Lens

The Emmy-winning Independent Lens series on PBS features independent documentary films from around the country and the world.  Here are several examples of powerful classroom modules from recent films that you can integrate into your own lessons:

• Human Dignity – Waste Land (9.32 mins.) portrays the lives of two women working in the world’s largest landfill in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• First Day of School (5.45 mins.) – Pushing the Elephant follows Congolese refuge Nanzabire as she attends her first day of school in the U. S.
• First Woman Leader of a Muslim Nation  (6.59 mins.) focuses on Benazir Bhutto, the first female Prime Minister of Pakistan.

As well as film modules such as these, the Independent Lens educator site also offers lesson plans with standards-based curricula to accompany documentaries on a broad range of topics: immigration, civil rights, women’s rights, religion, the environment and more.

Read Full Post »

Shakespeare Uncovered: O This Learning, What A Thing It Is!

Shakespeare Uncovered explores the complete plays of William Shakespeare. The PBS series looks at the stories that have shaped our cultural history: seeking out each play’s inspiration, finding the moments and places that set every scene, as well as  examining the words that gave life to Shakespeare’s world both past and present.

This PBS LearningMedia thematic collection — which adheres to national learning standards — contains video segments from the series, informational texts, discussion questions, and suggestions for extension activities to enhance your students’ reading, viewing, and appreciation of Shakespeare’s works.

Here’s a sampling of the series of videos available for grades 8-12:

The Use of Soliloquy helps students learn what a soliloquy is and how it is used to reveal character and advance plot in stories.

The Globe Theater reveals the origins, unique characteristics and specific challenges of the famous theater.

Gender Roles in Shakespeare examines how gender impacts the characters in Macbeth and The Tempest.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Side of Shakespeare’s Characters explores how characters struggle with moral and ethical dilemmas and includes examples from The Tempest, Hamlet, Macbeth and Henry IV, Part One.

Read Full Post »

Lesson Plan Feature: Cycling Water Through the Environment

With the spring thaw, here’s a lesson  for grades 3-5 from PBS LearningMedia to teach students that water is a crucial ingredient for life on Earth.  They’ll also come to see that the water cycle is Earth’s natural mechanism for transporting, cleansing, and recycling water between the surface and the atmosphere. In this lesson, students recognize the different forms that water takes and learn about where it exists in the environment. Through class discussion and experiments, students model the water cycle and explore how it can be used to create fresh water.

Objectives

• Understand that water exists in the environment in different forms
• Identify the ways that water moves through the environment
• Recognize that most of Earth’s surface is covered by water but that only a small amount is fresh water
• Produce fresh water from salty water by distilling it

Resources include great images of Water Phases (for grades K-5) and an interactive on Global Water Distribution (for grades 3-12) as well as  many short, engaging videos.

Read Full Post »

Inspiring Interviews and Inspiring Educator Award Nominations

Especially since March is Women’s History, MAKERS.com  is a great site to visit.  Part of the unprecedented digital video and broadcast initiative responsible for the documentary “MAKERS: Women Who Make America,” which aired on WGBY in February, MAKERS.com has numerous interviews that the New York Times described as “often fascinating.”

Whether for you or students, these short, inspiring videos include each woman sharing the most meaningful advice she every received.  Among the many interviews are those of Marian Wright Edelman, founder of Children’s Defense Fund, which includes her experiences surrounding the death of MLKing, and Ophelia Neal, World Health Care Advocate and daughter of actress Partricia Neal and children’s author  Raul Dahl, discussing her mother’s strength during great adversity and her own work in Haiti.

And at MAKERS.com you can also help honor women who are innovating the classroom and developing the next generation of MAKERS by nominating a teacher for a $10,000 grant!

Read Full Post »