Columbia Spotlight

Summer is always a great time to try new things. In fact, with all of your free time, why not try CODING? If that is the case for you, then you might be interested in the 2021 Congressional App Challenge which launches on June 24th, 2021. Students can enter their apps between then and November 1st, 2021. We are fortunate at Columbia to have the Superintendent & Board's support to introduce AP Computer Science A next year. We also have thriving robotics and Girls who Code clubs as well mentored by two great faculty members.  For those interested in female coders, their history, and the financial opportunities for coders today, check out the following resources: 1. This  60 Minutes  clip  reveals the need for diversity in Silicon Valley and how determined companies are to hire more female coder$! 2. This informative WIRED article  identifies the "10 Women in Science & Tech Who Should Be Household Names." Both the   NYT   & the   Washing...

This summer we will be updating the Health curriculum as we continue our focus on "Healthy Relationships." Of course, we will be using the 2020 NJ Learning Standards as our basis.  In addition to the NJ standards, we may want to review these resources as well: 1.  Amaze Videos . These videos are geared towards middle school and early school and cover a great variety of topics in fun but genuine ways.  2. Character Strong . Thanks to a state grant, Ms. Balassone has been able to acquire the grades 9 - 12 curriculum from this company. We will look to fold in the lessons with guidance programs, advisory sessions, and health classes!  3. CSM's Digital Citizenship . This curriculum by Common Sense Media is replete with awesome units and lessons for high school students.  4.  The 3 Rs . This program by Advocates for Youth focuses on Rights, Respect, and Responsibility. It is a great resource, especially as one of our community members is a leader in this organiz...

Check out these three options from tech guru/blogger Richard Byrne on how to provide AUDIO feedback to your students.  This is a great option for all teachers, but especially World Language teachers who want students to practice even more in the target language. Plus two of them allow you to archive "canned replies" so you can use similar text and audio replies over and over. Mote  is a Chrome extension that can be used to record voice notes directly within Gmail, Google Classroom, Google Slides, and Google Documents. One of its many convenient features is that students do not need to have the extension installed in order to listen to your voice notes.  This video  shows you how to add audio notes to Google Documents and  this one  shows you how to add audio notes to Google Slides. e-Comments   is a Chrome extension that lets you add canned comments to Google Docs, Word documents (when opened in your web browser), Google Classroom, Canvas, Schoology, ...

Junie is Pride Month and there are many activities being scheduled in South Orange and Maplewood , including Lavender Graduation right here at Columbia High School on June 6th.  Last year, the  NJ Legislature passed a bill  mandating the inclusion of LGBTQ+ history in grades 6 - 12 curricula. As resources become available, we will make sure that teachers get access to them. The law went into effect for the 2020-21 school year. One of the best websites is Learning for Justice which has a specific section focusing on Gender & Sexuality identification  (see image above).  There you can access webinars, articles, videos, and lessons using reading. Below you can find their unit on the Stonewall Uprising, a seminal event in LGBTQ+ history. In addition,  Garden State Equality is also launching a pilot program for a select number of schools to bring  LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum  into classrooms starting now in 2021. GLSEN also has a collection of res...

I  know many of us prefer to consume our news in hand, even though we all loathe ink smudges. However, it is worth checking out major newspapers' online offerings -- especially their incredible interactives. Below are just several awesome examples that bring the news (or in some cases, history) to life for our students: 1. NYT's Tulsa Massacre . This is an incredible recreation of what was tragically destroyed in Black Wall Street a hundred years ago. You can use this NYT Learning Network lesson plan as well. WaPo also has an interactive and illuminating articles on the centennial of this historical travesty and the current quest for reparations for the living survivors and the descendants of Tulsa victims.  2. The Cicadas . Many newspapers have interactive with the coming Brood X party when billions of cicadas will return across the east coast ( Vox Map ) in the next few weeks. The NYT has one with audio, but you can also put "cicada" in the search menu and you...

In a former post , we reviewed some of the best free Social Studies resources including NYDOE's mini-units and Standford's teaching lessons. Now, let's highlight a new approach to teaching social studies: the Harvard Case-Study method. This blog pos t will take you through the rationale and provide some resources for using this method with your classes.  Here is a  list of Moss’s cases , which you can use to engage students in conversations about US history and democracy. We hope you find these cases helpful. James Madison, the ‘Federal Negative,’ and the Making of the U.S. Constitution (1787)   and as a supplement: In Detail: Debt and Paper Money in Rhode Island (1786) Battle Over a Bank: Defining the Limits of Federal Power Under a New Constitution (1791) Democracy, Sovereignty, and the Struggle over Cherokee Removal (1836) Banking and Politics in Antebellum New York (1838) Property, Suffrage, and the "Right of Revolution" in Rhode Island, 1842 Debt and Democrac...

As part of our celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month , we are highlighting resources teachers can use to highlight the accomplishments and contributions of influential Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. (Here are some resources from last month .) In addition, in response to the recent violence targeted at Asians and Asian Americans across the country, we will also be sharing resources on dismantling racism throughout the month to help facilitate dialogue in classrooms and schools.  If you have additional resources or materials, please let me know so we can add them here. This infographic  from ASCD includes fast facts about Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month to help you kick off the celebration.   1. MAPSO/SOMA's AAPI events in 2021 & SOMSD's links for K-12 students 2. The Federal Government has a great platform of educator resources from the Library of Congress, the National Archives, NEH, the National ...