March, 2025

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Future-Proofing Learning: Preparing Students for an Uncertain Tomorrow

A Principal's Reflections

" The future doesn't need us to memorize its answers; it needs us to master the art of asking better questions." The future won't wait for us to catch up; it will demand that we've already anticipated its needs, making future-proofing learning not a luxury but the very oxygen of survival. Recently, on my podcast Unpacking the Backpack , I discussed this topic in detail after revisiting a blog post I wrote in 2021.

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Cold War Stations Activity

World History Teachers Blog

Here is a Cold War Stations activity that I use with my AP World students when we cover the Cold War. One of my colleagues developed it years ago. It includes seven stations, each with cartoons, documents, or photographs for students to process. I printed it out for seven different stations, but students could also work on it online. Here's a google link to the handout that students complete.

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A System for Meeting Absent Students’ Needs (and Everyone Else’s Too)

Cult of Pedagogy

Listen to the interview with Robert Barnett: Sponsored by Boclips Classroom and Zearn This page contains Bookshop.org links. When you make a purchase through these links, Cult of Pedagogy gets a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you. What’s the difference between Amazon and Bookshop.org? In the very first minute of my first day teaching at Eastern Senior High School in Washington, DC, I received a rude awakening.

Pedagogy 172
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Teachers Believe That AI Is Here to Stay in Education. How It Should Be Taught Is Debatable.

ED Surge

One of the perks of Angie Adams job at Samsung is that every year, she gets to witness how some of the countrys most talented emerging scientists are tackling difficult problems in creative ways. Theyre working on AI tools that can recognize the signs of oncoming panic attacks for kids on the autism spectrum in one case, and figuring out how drones can be used effectively to fight wildfires in another.

K-12 138
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25 Reading Strategies That Work In Every Content Area

TeachThought

Reading strategies useful in every content area include Questioning the text, Visualization, and using Context Clues to infer meaning.

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TEACHER VOICE: Instead of assuming kids won’t read novels anymore, build a curriculum that showcases books’ worth

The Hechinger Report

By now, you may have seen the recent spate of articles bemoaning the plight of the novel, that outdated 18th-century technology that adults have long forsaken and that some schools are beginning to shrug off. The best case against novels goes something like this: Theyre long, students dont read them outside of class, and they should make way for other aspects of instruction.

K-12 135
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How Heavy Metal Fuels Indigenous Revival in Patagonia

Sapiens

An anthropologist plunges into the world of Patagonian heavy metal music in Argentina to explore how the genre relates to language and cultural revitalization. I FIRST HEARD Patagonian heavy metal on a cold winter night in Esquel, Argentina. The song roared to life with guitar riffs and drumming resembling a U.S. or European thrash metal record. But around the 35-second mark, unfamiliar wind instruments grabbed my attention.

Heritage 129

More Trending

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Decolonization in Ghan & Kenya: Two Short Documentaries

World History Teachers Blog

Studying decolonization? Here are two terrific short (25 to 30 minutes) documentaries about two independence movements in Africa--in Ghana and Kenya. Both are from CCTV News, a 24-hour English news channel, of China Central Television, based in Beijing. You can find questions for both videos in the New Visions Global Curriculum for 10th grade. Look for the unit on decolonization and nationalism.

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What Will Districts Do With All Those Empty School Buildings? Some Look to Fill Them With Younger Kids

ED Surge

Several years ago, Oklahoma City Public Schools shuttered more than a dozen of its school buildings. It was part of a realignment process in the district to right-size student populations within schools some were overcrowded, others were underenrolled and to make the school experience better and more consistent for students across the city. But what to do with all of those empty buildings?

K-12 122
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Mentorship in motion: Student perceptions of experiential learning in forensic anthropology

Teaching Anthropology

Cristina Abbatangelo, Brendan Newton, Ellie Wan, University of Toronto, Canada The experiential learning course FSC485: Professional Opportunity in Forensic Science at the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) provides upper-year students a unique opportunity to engage in self-directed professional forensic experiences that enhance their career readiness.

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The Week That Was in 234

Moler's Musing

This week was all about using EduProtocols to drive deeper thinking, engagement, and writing practice as we explored westward expansion and Manifest Destiny. Instead of just reading from the textbook and answering questions, students worked through activities that encouraged them to generate their own questions, analyze sources, and compare perspectives.

History 122
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Teaching the Legislative Branch

Passion for Social Studies

The laws of our country are the foundation of our democracy, safety, and prosperity. Without laws, there would be no protection for citizens rights and freedoms. There would also be no framework of laws to maintain order in the country. As such, citizens and their rights would be in grave danger and the nation could fall into a state of chaos. Thats why teaching the Legislative Branch and its importance to students is so crucial.

Teaching 130
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The Multilingual Cradle: How Babies in Ghana Absorb Up to Six Languages from Birth

Anthropology.net

A World of Languages from the Start For decades, research on infant language acquisition has been dominated by studies conducted in what scientists call "WEIRD" societies—Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic. These studies have shaped the prevailing notion that infants primarily learn language through direct one-on-one interactions with a primary caregiver, often in a single language.

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Online Archive for WWII

World History Teachers Blog

Here is a cool new online archive of 20th-century resources surrounding Winston Churchill. The archive includes primary sources such as images, cartoons, and documents. One of the most interesting parts of the archives is the investigations of significant issues designed for high school students. Find out what went wrong at Gallipoli or if Britain could have done more for the Jews during WWII.

Archiving 126
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Why the Dire State of the Early Learning Workforce Is ‘Alarming and Not Surprising’

ED Surge

The state of early care and education today is, in a word, unsustainable. Thats what a recent survey of 10,000 early childhood educators found, and its what providers continue to share anecdotally. With the pandemic in the rearview and the accompanying funding it brought the field now a fading memory many early education providers find that they cannot keep up with rising costs, staff shortages and low morale.

Advocacy 114
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Most college students are taking online classes, but they’re paying just as much as in-person students

The Hechinger Report

Emma Bittner considered getting a masters degree in public health at a nearby university, but the in-person program cost tens of thousands of dollars more than she had hoped to spend. So she checked out masters degrees she could pursue remotely, on her laptop, which she was sure would be much cheaper. The price for the same degree, online, was just as much.

Economics 117
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Four Stages Of A Self-Directed Learning Model

TeachThought

The goal of the model isn't content knowledge (though it should produce that), but rather something closer to wisdom--learning how to learn.

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King of the North: Martin Luther King’s Freedom Struggle Outside of the South

Zinn Education Project

On Monday, March 24, 2025 , historian Jeanne Theoharis and Rethinking Schools editorJesse Hagopian will discuss Theohariss book, King of the North: Martin Luther King Jr.s Life of Struggle Outside the South. Jeanne Theoharis is a distinguished professor at Brooklyn College. She is the author or co-author of numerous books and articles on the Civil Rights and Black Power movements and the politics of race and education.

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Early Copper Crafting Among Anatolia's Last Hunter-Gatherers

Anthropology.net

The narrative of human technological advancement has long positioned metallurgy as a hallmark of settled agricultural societies. However, recent findings from the Gre Fılla site in southeastern Turkey suggest that the roots of metalworking may extend deeper into our hunter-gatherer past than previously understood.​ a) Location of early metallurgical activities in Anatolia and Gre Fılla archaeological site. b) The context where the vitrified material (GRE-VRF) was found. c-d) Stru

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Why Government Teacher Amy Messick Ran For School Board

Teaching American History

Teaching government at Hilliard Darby High School in Ohio (a suburb of Columbus), Amy Messick helps students understand how our constitutional system works. She also encourages them to figure out their own political views and to actively engage in civic life. One former student who appreciates what he learned from Messick now serves on the school board for the district in which Messick teaches.

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Can Colleges Do More to Help Students Succeed?

ED Surge

Near the beginning of every semester, Sarah Z. Johnson has her students make her a promise: If they think about dropping the class, they will meet with her first. While many of the students roll their eyes, it may save at least one student a year, says Johnson, who is a writing instructor and head of the writing center at Madison Area Technical College in Wisconsin.

Tutoring 113
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Let’s talk: Teachers pushed to converse more with youngest kids

The Hechinger Report

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. When Rickeyda Carter started teaching young children, she led story time the way she remembers being taught as a child. That meant children were expected to sit, listen and remain silent. When the teacher is reading, you dont talk, Carter recalled. Carter didnt think anything of this approach for nearly a decade, until the program where she was employed, New Rising Star Early Childhood Development Center, opted to participate in an initiative aimed at improving the interaction

K-12 98
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4 Neurosystems Of Learning

TeachThought

It is suggested that the brain does not have one learning system but four--each with its own unique memory pattern and accompaniments.

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Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future

Zinn Education Project

Register We are delighted to host scholar Jason Stanley in conversation with Rethinking Schools editor Jesse Hagopian for an online class on Monday, May 12. Here is why: In Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future , Jason Stanley exposes the ways authoritarian regimes manipulate historical narratives to maintain power. Stanley demonstrates how attacks on education and historical memory support authoritarianism, undermining public understanding of past struggles for j

History 98
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The Shape of a Face: What Neanderthal Growth Patterns Reveal About Human Evolution

Anthropology.net

Neanderthals are often recognized for their distinct facial features—large, forward-projecting midfaces, prominent brow ridges, and wide nasal openings. In contrast, modern humans have relatively smaller, flatter faces with retracted midfaces and more delicate bone structures. For decades, researchers have debated the evolutionary forces behind these differences.

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The Week That Was in 234

Moler's Musing

This week was all about making westward expansion more engaging and interactive while reinforcing key historical concepts through EduProtocols. From annotated maps and Thick Slides to Map & Tell and Parafly , students used a variety of strategies to build knowledge, analyze sources, and develop writing skills. We started with a Great American Race to introduce westward territories, followed by a Map & Tell to break down the meaning of “5440′ or Fight.” Parafly helped st

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Black Boys in Gifted Education Deserve More — and My Journey Is Proof of It

ED Surge

Looking back on my educational journey, I recently reflected on my classroom experiences from kindergarten to fourth grade. The summer before I entered the fourth grade, my mother informed me that I would be attending a new school in my same community with one caveat: it was a class in the gifted and talented education (GATE) program. Before that moment, I was blending in with my peers and navigating the typical challenges of elementary school.

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Students try using AI to write scholarship essays — with little luck

The Hechinger Report

Will Geiger estimates that he read about 10,000 college application essays over the course of a years-long career in college admissions and scholarships before ChatGPT came on the scene in 2022. Shortly afterwards, Geiger began to notice that essays felt less and less like they had been written by 17- or 18-year-olds. He saw more hyperorganized five-paragraph essays; more essays that were formatted as a letter to someone; and certain examples and words being used over and over again by different

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Using The 3-2-1 Learning Strategy For Critical Thinking

TeachThought

The 3-2-1 strategy is a simple way to frame a topic or task, making it useful for anything from discussion prompts to inquiry learning.

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Bits and Bytes Don’t Leave Bones

Anthropology News

Migration is always more than just a transferit is a point of tension where preservation, power, and priorities intersect. Cultural artifacts, traditions, and knowledge do not simply move; they shift, adapt, and sometimes disappear in the process. Digital artifacts follow the same patterns. When MySpace lost 50 million songs during a server migration , it wasnt just a glitchit was a reshaping of independent music history, determined by infrastructure choices rather than cultural value.

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A Forgotten Chapter in Human Evolution: The Hidden Ancestry of Modern Humans

Anthropology.net

For decades, the story of modern human origins seemed relatively straightforward: Homo sapiens emerged in Africa roughly 300,000 years ago, evolving as a single, continuous lineage before expanding across the globe. But new research suggests that this narrative is missing an entire chapter. Modern humans descended from not one, but at least two ancestral populations that drifted apart and later reconnected, long before modern humans spread across the globe.

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Sherlock Holmes and Covert Thieves of Attention

The Effortful Educator

I recently returned from an absolutely lovely trip to London and Windsor, where I presented at The Teaching and Learning Summit at Eton College, hosted by InnerDrive. I was provided 22 minutes to speak on a subject that is near and dear to my heart as a teacher. I chose to present about attention contagion in the classroom; what it is and how it can negatively impact learning.

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For Families, School Choice Doesn't Mean Easy Decisions

ED Surge

In late January, the White House instructed the Department of Defense to craft a plan that would make funds available for military families to pay for public charters and private religious schools. Its part of the administrations push to decentralize education, which comes along with a burst of energy for school choice options around the country. The administration argues that unlocking funding will give families options and lead to better outcomes.

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Refuting the Statement: A New Rack and Stack

Moler's Musing

Today, I ran a new Rack and Stack using some familiar EduProtocols but with a fresh flow. The whole lesson was built around this opening statement: The Lowell Mill Girls had an extraordinary opportunity. That one sentence carried us through the entire class. I wanted students to come back to it over and over again, thinking critically about whether or not it was actually true.

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60 Critical Thinking Strategies For Learning

TeachThought

Critical thinking strategies often employ multiple data sources and perspectives in pursuit of understanding.

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Math can be a path to success after prison

The Hechinger Report

Hancy Maxis spent 17 years incarcerated in New York prisons. He knew that he needed to have a plan for when he got out. “Once I am back in New York City, once I am back in the economy, how will I be marketable?” he said. “For me, math was that pathway.” In 2015, Maxis completed a bachelors degree in math through the Bard Prison Initiative, an accredited college-in-prison program.

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When Did Humans Start Talking? Genomic Evidence Pushes Language Back to 135,000 Years Ago

Anthropology.net

Few traits define humanity as clearly as language. Yet, despite its central role in human evolution, determining when and how language first emerged remains a challenge. Fossils do not speak, and ancient DNA does not carry recordings of conversations. Traditionally, scholars have debated linguistic origins based on indirect clues—symbolic artifacts, brain size, or the complexity of tool-making.