Columbia Spotlight

Check out the NJDOE's newly launched website  that supports the development and implementation of New Jersey’s Climate Change standards.  From the website: "The 2020 standards are designed to prepare students to understand how and why climate change happens, the impact it has on our local and global communities, and to act in informed and sustainable ways. This new online resource will provide K-12 educators with materials, tools, and strategies to provide high-quality instruction in climate change education. Resources and materials The Climate Change Educational Resources website , located on the NJDOE’s website, supports the planning and development of interdisciplinary units that include authentic learning experiences, integrate a range of perspectives, and are action-oriented."   This website provides a variety of resources that includes the following:  guidance documents to assist in the creation, evaluation, and selection of climate change instructional resources;

  Last week I popped in one of our colleague's classroom because you could see from the hallway his makeshift skiff to help students better visualize what was happening in their reading, the classic Old Man & the Sea . It reminded me of the Ken Burns documentary Hemingway, and all of the great resources you can find on the  Ken Burns Classroom on PBS LearningMedia .   Ken Burns Classroom on PBS LearningMedia  is a one-stop online destination for free teaching and learning resources inspired by Ken Burns’s renowned documentaries. Created for 6-12 th  grade educators, the new hub houses a full library of classroom-ready content – aligned to state and national standards – to help students further explore the complex historical events and issues illustrated in Ken Burns’s films. So you can find the general Educator's Guide for Hemingway on the website. Of course, my favorite OL&S resource is the 2000 Academy-Award winner for animated short that was painstaking hand-paint