Spring 2023
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Welcome to the Spring 2023 Newsletter!
In this newsletter, we celebrate the rebirth and renewal that comes with this season. Look for inspiration from others and locate resources to inspire and engage learners.
It is time to return to longer days and to look toward the sun. Ada Limon inspires with a sonnet on Instructions on Not Giving Up. In Teaching with Light, Carol Pelletier Radford, inspires lessons in, "Bloom Where You're Planted." And, Nina Simone reminds us that the sun returns after Winter...after all, seasons change and we grow with change.
United States Poet Laureate, 2022-
Instructions on Not Giving Up
Instructions on Not Giving Up
Ada Limón is the author of The Carrying (Milkweed Editions, 2018) and Bright Dead Things (Milkweed Editions, 2015), which was a finalist for the National Book Award. Click on the author's name to learn more: Ada Limón 1976-
Listen to Nia Simone's, Here Come's the Sun.
Listen to Nia Simone's, Here Come's the Sun.
Click the picture to listen to Here Comes the Sun and more music by Nina Simone.
Use this PBS resource to teach about Nina Simone and help students make a connection to Nina Simone, from Tryon, North Carolina and who graduated from Allen High School in Asheville, North Carolina.
Use this PBS resource to teach about Nina Simone and help students make a connection to Nina Simone, from Tryon, North Carolina and who graduated from Allen High School in Asheville, North Carolina.
(Click the Timeline to locate the resource)
The Enduring Value of Show-and-Tell
The Enduring Value of Show-and-Tell
Show-and-tell in high school can help amplify the learning from a unit and allow students to practice oral presentation skills. By Jason Abril April 14, 2023
THE CASE FOR SHOW-AND-TELL IN THE UPPER GRADES
"Additionally, show-and-tell activities provide a creative outlet in the waning months of the school year when students and teachers are in the thick of standardized testing, end-of-course exams, finals, SATs, ACTS, and Advanced Placement exams."
There are moments from elementary school imprinted in my memory: gold stars, colorful comic-book stickers, butterscotch candy, cubbyholes. Among those memories, there’s one experience from that era I have never forgotten, one that never fails to hold educational value for me to this day: show-and-tell. For many of us, our ability to speak in front of a crowd began somewhere around third grade with show-and-tell, the popular activity implemented in elementary classrooms that continues to maintain its power to inform and educate and enthrall.
This deceptively simple activity crosses curriculum and grade levels and allows for a potent learning experience for both teachers and students. Additionally, show-and-tell activities provide a creative outlet in the waning months of the school year when students and teachers are in the thick of standardized testing, end-of-course exams, finals, SATs, ACTS, and Advanced Placement exams. They’re easy to implement and, with careful planning and time management, allow students a break from the fill-in-the-bubble answer sheets of typical tests, standardized tests, and assessments that seem to stack up at the end of the school year. Read more here
Creating Safe Spaces to Spring Forward with Ideas: Ensuring Everyone's Voice is Heard
Creating Safe Spaces to Spring Forward with Ideas: Ensuring Everyone's Voice is Heard
Encouraging Engagement During Testing Season:
Encouraging Engagement During Testing Season:
Testing season can be disruptive, but teachers can use it as a chance to try instructional strategies that boost student engagement.
Testing season can be disruptive, but teachers can use it as a chance to try instructional strategies that boost student engagement.
Read full article with resources.
Positive message maps: Have students visit The Curriculum Corner to get motivational coloring pages, a reflection word of the day, and other activities.
Fictional literary world map: Creating a fictional world encourages students to engage in creativity and imagination. For more ideas and creative ways to create fantasy maps, you can check out Rocket Expansion.
Design a trip: Who doesn’t love planning a trip? Students will have a budget of $1,000 to design their dream trip. Will they go camping, go to the beach, visit a big city, or take a cruise? Using a graphic organizer, they’ll budget for transportation, accommodation, food, and activities. Students can share their trip itinerary with the whole class during the post-testing celebration.
USE CHOICE BOARDS FOR STUDENT-DIRECTED ENGAGEMENT
USE CHOICE BOARDS FOR STUDENT-DIRECTED ENGAGEMENT
Any of the above activities can be made into a choice board. Choice boards are a great way to promote student autonomy, motivation, engagement, and differentiated learning. They are easy to create using Google Docs, index cards, or even frozen-pop sticks. Students can choose one, all, three in a row, etc.
Lesson 2 - Bloom Where You’re Planted
Lesson 2 - Bloom Where You’re Planted
Bloom where you’re planted tells me to stay put and not to run away from my present circumstances. These authors offered me practical ways to integrate mindful actions into my daily life.
Jon Kabat-Zinn
Jon Kabat-Zinn
When I first read, Wherever You Go There You Are, I felt it was speaking to me personally. Its message is clear and doable. I recommend it to people beginning their exploration of meditation and especially those who may not be open to mindfulness but have physical health issues they want to address with an alternative method.
Jon Kabat-Zinn is an American professor emeritus of medicine and the creator of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. His yoga practice studies with Buddhist teachers led him to integrate their teachings with scientific findings. He teaches that mindfulness can help people cope with stress, anxiety, pain, and illness. His videos, books, and resources offer all of us a way in to meditation processes where ever we are. His stress reduction program mindfulness-based stress reduction is offered by medical centers, hospitals, and health maintenance organizations, and is described in his book Full Catastrophe Living. https://www.mindfulnesscds.com/pages/books-by-jon-kabat-zinn
Thích Nhất Hạnh
Thích Nhất Hạnh
Because Kabot-Zinn studied with Tich Nhat Hanh it was a natural progression for me to read his books too. I just kept following the bread crumbs and new books came to me. The simplicity of his words and the small books, How to Eat and How to Rest, gave me insights into how mindfulness can actually be practiced in real life.
Thích Nhất Hạnh is a Buddhist monk, peace activist, and founder of the Plum Village Tradition where he spent most of his later life. Nhất Hạnh has published over 100 books. He is active in the peace movement and promoting non-violent conflict. https://plumvillage.org/about/thich-nhat-hanh/biography/
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