Read Your World: Rock Music Activism and Asian Reappropriation

Non-fiction narratives in particular can inspire children by highlighting the accomplishments of historically oppressed groups. As an Asian-American, I enjoyed the inspiring true underdog story We Sing From the Heart: How The Slants® Took Their Fight for Free Speech to the Supreme Court by Mia Wenjen, from Red Comet Press. It tells an empowering story of reappropriation through a punk rock First Amendment legal battle.

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Alison Travis
Read Your World: Bilingualism as a Benefit

Read Your World is a non-profit that supports multicultural children’s literature. Parents and educators understand that multilingualism is an asset for young learners. This year, I was gifted the bilingual Mandarin-English book Ge Ge and Di Di's Big Day with Elephant by Karen Yee, from Green Cows Books. It is an excellent resource to introduce young children to Chinese language.

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Alison Travis
Tomatosphere: Pairing Plant Lifecycles with Space Exploration

Students participated in an interdisciplinary citizen science experiment by planting two sets of tomato seeds: one that had traveled on the International Space Station and one that had stayed earthbound.

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Hands-on and Feet-on Geography with Giant Maps

Create whole-body immersive experiences for your students by increasing the scale of your lesson and materials! Use National Geographic giant maps, sidewalk chalk, shower curtains, butcher paper, and more to create engaging, active learning experiences.

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Multimedia Research Rotations in the Elementary Classroom

Students can learn about a topic using videos, texts, online databases, and virtual “field” research. By rotating in groups, you can break away from whole group instruction and stretch a smaller number of resources.

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