News Article - Considering the ongoing traumatic upheaval on school communities in recent years, and the unrelenting pressure on educators to work under difficult, uncertain and constantly vacillating circumstances, it is not a matter of if educators will experience the corrosive effects of prolonged and extreme stress, but rather when. The question is, what can schools do to prioritize and support the mental health and well-being of the invaluable educators at the heart of their school communities?

News Article - "Students come to us regularly and share the trauma that they have gone through this past year and a half. And so, what do I do with that trauma that I'm literally taking or trying to carry and absorb from the kids?...Where do I go to share it? Where do I go to leave it?"

News Article - “When the murders happened in Atlanta, my school said nothing.” On March 16, 2021, a 21-year-old white man went on a targeted shooting rampage across Atlanta, driving 30 miles to three massage businesses and killing eight people, the majority of whom were Asian women. Upon capture and questioning, the shooter evoked long-standing, entrenched tropes of sexual violence, racism and misogyny to justify the slaughter. In a year where hate crimes targeting Asian Americans spiked over 300 percent...

App Content - 1,300+ curricular and professional development resources designed to improve quality learning afterschool.

Sponsored Feature - When Amazon Web Services (AWS) and SXSW EDU collaborate to issue a challenge, the edtech world answers. In July 2019, the Amazon Alexa EdTech Skills Challenge gave developers a chance to make cutting-edge Alexa skills for creative educational improvements. Edtech companies across the U.S. submitted innovative ideas to bolster student learning, teacher productivity, accessibility and the home-school connection. The winners for this competition will be decided in two parts...

Contributing Author - "One cannot change the world unless one can imagine what a better world might look like. Civic imagination is the capacity to conceptualize alternatives to current cultural, social, political, or economic conditions; it also requires the ability to see oneself as a civic agent capable of making change, as a participant in a larger democratic culture. Popular Culture and the Civic Imagination represents a call for greater clarity about what we’re fighting for—not just what we’re fighting against. Across more than thirty examples from social movements around the world, this casebook proposes “civic imagination” as a framework that can help us identify, support, and practice new kinds of communal participation..."

Sponsored Q&A - When creating the transformative, deep learning experiences we all want for our students, relationships matter. Intuitively, we know this to be true, but what does it actually look like in schools?

Sponsored Q&A - We are just getting started with voice technology in education. From simple commands that retrieve stored information to a future where voice-activated AI coaches help us set and reach educational goals across a lifetime, the potential for growth is undeniable. Voice, after all, is one of the most natural ways to interface with technology, says Coursera’s Alexander Sanchez.

Sponsored Q&A - "Digital skills are vital for students today because this is what their jobs will look like in the future," says veteran middle school teacher Kay Vanzant-Bradney of Nelson Academy in Long Beach, California. "And given our circumstances right now, with the pandemic and remote learning, if you don't have digital skills, you literally can't connect with your education." This is why her students use Google's Applied Digital Skills, a free, video-based, online digital literacy curriculum.

Sponsored Q&A - “Instructional coaching is like sports coaching,” says Teresa Engler, K-12 Instructional Technology Coach for McGuffey School District in southwestern Pennsylvania. “From the sideline, a coach gives the team a play, explains how it will work in the field and then watches as the players execute. The coach then huddles up with their team to talk about whether the play was successful, and then guides players through how to approach future situations,” she explains.

Sponsored Feature - In July 2019, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and SXSW EDU issued a challenge to the edtech world: Design an Alexa skill to transform education. Developers across the U.S. presented an expansive range of innovative ideas for using voice technology to address the most pressing problems facing education today. Their solutions for the Amazon Alexa EdTech Skills Challenge focused on improving the home to school connection, teacher and administrator productivity, accessibility and student learning.

Educational Resource & Media Library - 500+ media artifacts and curricular resources that help students and teachers explore popular stories, media representations, and the politics of identity (including race, ethnicity, class, religion, gender, sexuality, age, religion, and ability).

Blog Post - We cannot change the world unless we can first imagine what a better world might look like. These hopeful reflections for a more just, more educated, more community-oriented world were written three weeks after the November 2016 election as part of a world building and civic imagination workshop imagining what the future can look like in 2040. This collaborative exercise shows how imagining a better world is essential to social change, and emphasizes the importance of being able to see oneself as a connected civic agent capable of making those changes in networked, supportive communities.

Web Resource & Media Archive - Tools, curricular resources, and library of media and civic participation exemplars. Developed with and for educators fostering youth civic engagement in schools, after school programs, and activist networks.

Toolkit - Supports comprehensive planning and early implementation processes of programs and initiatives that help families support the success of at-risk high school students though graduation, college or advanced training, and life. Highlights best practices from 15 local United Way pilot sites that brought together schools, community organizations, families, and other stakeholders to develop outcomes-focused approaches to building stronger connections between families and schools.

Blog Post - Awhile back, my friend sent me a simple email with the subject line, “Calling out the representation of Asian women in Harry Potter books,” and a short one-line message: “Saw this and thought of you – the videos are really interesting!!”...

Research Report - Multi-year study of 200 after school programs with high participation and retention rates, serving low-income adolescents located across 6 cities (Chicago, Cincinnati, NY, Providence, SF, Washington D.C.). Report identifies characteristics most successful in retaining older youth in after school programs, which is linked to higher engagement and retention in school.

Podcast Curriculum - Learning materials and resources for advancing equity and justice through narrative strategy, entertainment, and culture change.

Academic Journal Article - Built on Scalar, a free, open source, media-rich publishing platform, the By Any Media Necessary (BAM) site features a range of resources designed with and for activists and educators. These resources include original media produced by activist groups and networks, critical reflections and conversations with project partners and participants, curricular resources and activities, a book companion to the forthcoming By Any Media Necessary book, and more.

News Article - Students watched in rapt disbelief as the video clip played in class. “The transformation is frightening. My skin’s really dark and I’ve always wondered what I’d look like as a different race. In the end, it all came together and I feel like I looked really exotic.”