Teaching Beyond the Timeline: Engaging Students in Thematic History is a practical guide for shifting the the way we teach history in the middle and high school classroom. In order for our students to be truly engaged, we need to help them see the relevance of events in the past, moving from simple rote memorization to requiring students to meaningfully connect historical concepts, people, and events using patterns of comparison, causation, and elements of continuity and change over time. Courses organized around central themes also help to ensure inclusive and relevant curriculum for all our diverse students, a challenge that is difficult to overcome with a traditional, chronological approach.
As humans who teach, there is so much that we want for our students and for ourselves. We want to make our classrooms welcoming and equitable places for students, and we want to lead lives full of peace, love, and joy. However, the ways in which we have been socialized can hold us back. In Humans Who Teach: A Guide for Centering Love, Justice, and Liberation in Schools, Shamari Reid lays out a path for working toward liberation for our students and for ourselves by honoring our own humanity and choosing love over fear.
As trauma and adversity become increasingly common, teachers and educators need the tools to support their students through these challenges. Trauma-Responsive Pedagogy is an actionable guide that offers research and inclusive frameworks to help you create a trauma-responsive classroom.
Centered on the whole child, this resource promotes healing and wellness for both students and educators. Turn wounds into wisdom and create a safe, supportive space for learning with Trauma-Responsive Pedagogy.
Tom Newkirk, lifetime educator and bestselling author of Minds Made for Stories, discusses eight powerful literacy practices-- and the democratic values that connect them. Newkirk argues that "the house of literacy has a thousand doors, and our job is to help students find one that will let them in." Yet for many students reading and writing is made unnecessarily difficult and uninviting. We need to tell a better story. Literacy's Democratic Roots celebrates eight door-opening ideas that can help us make room for all students.
While challenging the teacher as hero trope, We Got This shows how authentically listening to kids is the closest thing to a superpower that we have. Cornelius Minor identifies tools, attributes, and strategies that can augment our listening, allowing us to make powerful moves toward equity by broadening access to learning for all children.
