This site uses cookies to improve your experience. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country, we will assume you are from the United States. Select your Cookie Settings or view our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Used for the proper function of the website
Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Strictly Necessary: Used for the proper function of the website
Performance/Analytics: Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
" 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It’s a fact of life, when you assign work or projects in social studies class, you’ll have early finishers. What should you do with them? Let them hang out and talk? Ummm, no, that’s just asking for classroom management nightmares. When you fail to set procedures for students, they’ll create their own procedures 100% of the time, so make sure students know what assignments they must complete and what they are able to do once finished with their required work.
It’s a fact of life, when you assign work or projects in social studies class, you’ll have early finishers. What should you do with them? Let them hang out and talk? Ummm, no, that’s just asking for classroom management nightmares. When you fail to set procedures for students, they’ll create their own procedures 100% of the time, so make sure students know what assignments they must complete and what they are able to do once finished with their required work.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 5,000+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.
You know about us, now we want to get to know you!
Let's personalize your content
Let's get even more personalized
We recognize your account from another site in our network, please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.
Let's personalize your content