Columbia Spotlight

I am not sure if you heard the news , but earlier this week Governor Murphy signed a bill requiring NJ schools to ensure the contributions, history, and heritage of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) will be reflected in our curriculum. NJ will now be the second-only state to do so. (You can find AAPI materials we curated last May here at this blog post .) This is not surprising when one considers that earlier this year, Governor Murphy signed into law P.L.2021, c.32, requiring each school district to incorporate instruction on diversity and inclusion in an appropriate place in the curriculum of all k-12 students.  The great news is that with these laws, new funds and resources will be provided to schools like ours. In fact, the NJDOE recently opened the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Educational Resources , a website designed to support districts in implementing the requirements of this law. The website identifies a wide range of resources from brief articles and ...

Please re-read the podcast post for updated resources including a NYT contest on podcasting. Plus, NPR has great new resources too!

Edutopia is one of the best clearinghouses of education information and pedagogy. I don't usually get snookered into top 10, clickbait articles, but I knew this one from Edutopia would be key. Check it out and see if you adapt/adopt any of these practices.  It was a year of unprecedented hardship for teachers and school leaders. We pored through hundreds of studies to see if we could follow the trail of exactly what happened: The research revealed a complex portrait of a grueling year during which persistent issues of burnout and mental and physical health impacted millions of educators. Meanwhile, many of the old debates continued: Does paper beat digital? Is project-based learning as effective as direct instruction? How do you define what a “good” school is? Other studies grabbed our attention, and in a few cases, made headlines. Researchers from the University of Chicago and Columbia University turned artificial intelligence loose on some 1,130 award-winning children’s books in...

T his blog has various Black History Month resources that we hope you explore for your classes. Today we add a new contest by the New Jersey State Bar Association.  To participate, New Jersey high school students are asked to read the  2022 Essay Topic  and submit an essay (1500 words or less) answering these questions: What is the cultural relevance of today’s Hip Hop music? Are the lyrics of artists like Lil Baby, Pop Smoke and Megan Thee Stallion a trivial source of entertainment, a reflection of reality or something else? And does it matter? Discuss the relationship, if any, between Hip Hop lyrics and the behavior of young adults.  Finally, consider the implications of criminal court cases like the case involving Hip Hop Artist, Tekashi69. This contest is open to all New Jersey high school students (grades 9 -12). There is no entry fee for this contest. All entries must be written in English and submitted online as a PDF file or Microsoft Word document.  Cl...