Infusing Current Events in the Classroom

Teachers can use the world around us to connect and integrate subject areas. Infusing current events into our instruction is necessary to teach our students how to participate in society. We must move students beyond merely consuming information and provide them with experiences to examine issues and develop critical thinking skills. Engaging with current events … read more »

Empowering Students through Transformative SEL

“SEL is the universal life jacket, keeping students afloat and open to learning. Only when children learn in psychologically safe environments that nurture their emotion skills can they move from helplessness to resilience, from anxiety to action, from scattered to centered, from isolated to connected.” – Marc Brackett, Ph.D. Social and emotional learning (SEL) can … read more »

Using Thinking Routines to Apply Historical Context Through Music

In the 1930s, swing jazz emerged as a dominant form of music in the United States. The upbeat tempo of this music provided temporary relief from problems plaguing the country and the world—music and dance halls filled with people dancing to the big band sound. On January 16, 1938, Bennie Goodman performed the first jazz … read more »

Tech Tool of the Month: Elementari – Part 2

In Part 1 of this blog, we introduced you to Elementari—an engaging tool that allows you to create digital stories by making slides—and discussed applying the SAMR Model and the Triple E Framework to using Elementari in your instruction. You can add images, backgrounds, speech bubbles, voice narration, and other cool features to your slideshows. … read more »

Tech Tool of the Month: Elementari – Part 1

Elementari is a colorful and engaging website that allows you to easily create digital stories as slideshows. The tool features various fonts, speech bubbles, animation, backgrounds, voice audio options, and drag-and-drop images. The site provides step-by-step instructions to help navigate the many features. Share your story using the provided URL (there is also an option … read more »