Rick Steves Classroom

I ran across this gem on Rick Steves' Facebook Page. 

Seeing it, I knew it was something I needed to check out.

The Rick Steves Classroom Europe is a free library that has over 400 video clips, arranged by themes (over 30!), historical eras (8), countries, his television program, and art. But the best place for newbies to start is at their upper right hand links of FAQ and Playlists. At FAQ's you'll get an overview of Rick's intention, including a short "how to" video of how to maximize your experience in this portal. At Playlists, you can search pre-created public playlists (listed by title/topic with some listing the grade levels they work best for) or log in to save your own playlists.

What a wonderful resource to bring the travel, experience, and knowledge of Rick Steves to your classroom... the perfect "apple for the teacher" during back to school season!

Facebook post from https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves/posts/pfbid02K9rNDzqW3RZR9dWBHR7NtgDGyV3RytFnU9WMUucracExdhfD6gNZqADFg1kucfzZl, photo from https://classroom.ricksteves.com/introduction

YouTube: A Teacher's Best Friend

As an educator, I'm always looking for go-to resources. I happened on this graphic about the bounty of teaching channels on YouTube at Educators Technology the other day. (Educators Technology is a resource in and of itself. I wrote about it in early June. I learn something from their Facebook page almost every day!) 

I love how this infographic divides the channels by subject area. Likewise, I love how many of my tried and true favorites are listed, which makes this a super one-stop-shopping teacher resource! Just in time for back-to-school! 

Click to enlarge or print.

Graphic from https://www.facebook.com/Edtechandmobilelearning/posts/pfbid0HFK1ybboprxHkdppMnVqoGn6X2wunxJ4qjqfAHfUxfECJHeGJpf21UrGn5K9WpD9l

New Year, New Mindset: A Garden of Ideas

Summer always feels like an invitation to breathe differently. It's a good respite after 10 long months of teaching. It's a time and space to create life differently, reset, and refresh.

This time of year, teachers everywhere are doing what I am: reflecting on their summer, readying for the racetrack ahead. We all are taking in how the summer went, making mental notes of how we want to shape the school year ahead.

So, looking back: did I dabble in some back to school techno-babble, digging into the world of AI, lesson planning, sharpening skills through some professional development over summer? Of course I did... because that's what we teachers do. We grow our skills. 

But I'm happy to say it certainly wasn't a summer of "all work and no play." I made plenty of time for reading, pool-lounging, sleeping in, running around with my family, working out, road-tripping, appreciating my husband's gardening and the fruits his labor (or rather: vegetables), and more. 3 cheers for sun & fun, and R & R!

Stepping away from structure and slipping into the slower side of summer definitely includes travel, as I mentioned last week. Travel is the ultimate teacher:

• In Quebec City, I could see the connectedness of both history and people as I stood in this fortified city, gazing upon centuries-old walls that were originally designed to protect, but now serving as an embrace of the many who gather in this multicultural city. 

• In Montreal, I stood amongst the 1976 Olympic Park, now reimagined & "repurposed" through innovation to bring joy to visitors by way of the Biodome and surrounding sights that are now a concert stadium, a pool, a planetarium, and more. The same could be said of my experience at Bota Bota Day Spa, a former ferry boat turned health and wellness oasis.

• In the Midwest, I drove stretches of highway from Chicago to the center of the state to reunite with family... much in the same way I walked stretches of beach in Ocean City, Maryland. This opened time and space to think about pace: in life, in the moment, and even ultimately thinking forward to this fall's school year and how I want to run my classes.

The destinations changed, but the throughline stayed the same: 

Connection. Curiosity. Perspective.

These 3 guiding principles are the same things I want to bring back with me to the upcoming school year and to my classroom. 

Teaching, like traveling, is not about the destination, but rather the journey. It's about what grows and happens in between. It's what we take in when we slow down and let the unexpected shape us. Teaching too is like gardening. It is the roots that anchor everything down. They support the growth and harvest ahead.

Connection, curiosity, and perspective do all of this.

Before the first school bell rings, here are some nature-centric points to ponder while putting up bulletin boards, unpacking boxes, and setting up shop. Plant these questions like seeds in your mind. Growth comes from steady care and the courage to nurture what matters. 

🌱 How can I "grow forward" this school year ahead?

🌱 What connections can I make (to both people, students, and ideas)?

🌱 Where can I grow in my curiosity and shift my perspective?

🌱 How can I innovate and create when needed, shooting and rooting for potential not perfection?

🌱 How can I remind myself that "letting go" is part of growth: letting go of expectations, self limitations, fear of failure, control (always a hard one), the past and "how things have always been done." One thing I’m letting go of this year… 

🌱 How can I make it a year to stretch, branch, and bloom....as a person, as a teacher, as a global citizen in a partisan world, as an educator navigating this ever-expanding edtech world?

🌱 How can I teach smarter not harder, always aligning with these values?

🌱 This year, I want to feel more ______ in my teaching.

🌱 A student strength I want to notice (or encourage) more this year… 

🌱 A space in my classroom I want to reimagine or make more alive… 

🌱 One edtech tool I’m excited to try (or try differently)… 

🌱 One way I’ll bring more nature, climate awareness, or global acceptance into my classroom…

Images created at Canva.com

Unpacked: Summer's Travel Souvenirs

This summer I've been very fortunate. I've been able to see....

• The beach & waves of the Atlantic Ocean
• The small towns and coastal sights of the Eastern Shore of Maryland
• The mountains and quaint towns of New England
• The traffic of New York City and the New Jersey Turnpike via rental car
• The majesty of Canada's Montmorency Falls while hiking about
• The skyline of Old Montreal from the top of the La Grande Roue de Montréal (ferris wheel)
• The view of historic Vieux-Québec City & across-the-river Lévis by ferry, funicular, and foot 
• The quaint homes and busy life of DC's Dupont Circle neighborhood
• The Chicago skyline from the air, flying into Midway airport
• The flat farmlands of the Midwest prairie 

It's been a summer of planes, (metro)trains, and automobiles...not to mention ferries, boats, bikes, funiculars, foot traffic, Ubers, and pool floaties. I've been fortunate to have a teacher "summer off" of a variety of long and short trips, getting the opportunity to see a lot of unique sights and eat some amazing food along the way. I also got to try out my fr'anglais in Canada--which even after 4.5 years of high school and college French, it was not pretty. 

I'm finding in my reflection that my summer travel souvenirs tie in both with the richness of our trip to Spain over spring break and my recent read: Rick Steves' book Travel as a Political Act. The benefits from travel go on and on: it gets you out of your comfort zone, allows for greater understanding of the world, provides opportunities to interact with locals and embrace different cultures, changes your perspective, challenges preconceived ideas, gets you out of your routine, and gives you new insights to yourself while you see all these places out of the ordinary. I especially love that it shows you how many people and how many unique places are out there in this great big world. Feeling small on a big planet every now and then is a very good thing. 

There's still some summer ahead. Likewise, fall, winter, and spring. The beauty of travel is that it isn't season specific, and there's no time limit. Where it's out in nature or a version of (what I call) "urban hiking," you can go near or far, be extravagent or go on the cheap, and experience something new. Go find somewhere new to explore!

Images from https://www.adventureinyou.com/travel-inspiration/best-travel-quotes/ and my own camera compiled at https://www.canva.com/design/DAGuwRFlXdk/spkLrRbLBRagSQIXgO4mNw/view

Coral In Crisis

Right now, coral reefs across the globe are undergoing the most severe bleaching event in recorded history. Warming oceans are to blame for pushing our already fragile corals to their limits. As the warming occurs, so does the bleaching: a loss of color, life, and balance to our ecosystems. 

Here are three tools to build your toolkit to help you learn more about coral in crisis:

1. Real-Time Coral Bleaching Tools

You don’t need to be a marine biologist to witness what’s happening. Use these free, open-source platforms to explore reef health and bleaching alerts across the planet. By zooming in and tracing lines on these mapping tools, you can explore the reefs to get a bigger picture on what is happening with coral communities.

• Allen Coral Atlas--this website tracks real-time satellite data on bleaching risk, reef habitat, and human stressors.

• NOAA Coral Reef Watch--this website shows weekly heat stress maps, temperature anomalies, and historical comparisons.

Want to take your coral curiosity further? Become a Citizen Scientist by using one of the following platforms to contribute live data:

• Reef Check – Participate in global reef monitoring efforts.

• iNaturalist – Record marine species sightings, tag reef health, and connect with a global community of observers.

• Marine Debris Tracker – Document plastic waste near coastal and reef areas.

2. Read Up on the Topic

Here are some good articles to show the concern, brought about by climate change.

• NBC News' article: 84% of the World’s Coral Reefs Hit by Worst Bleaching Event on Record
  
• The Guardian's article: ‘Catastrophic’: Great Barrier Reef hit by its most widespread coral bleaching, study finds
• Scientific American's article: Coral Crisis: Great Barrier Reef Bleaching Is "The Worst We've Ever Seen"

3. Play Coral Reef Jeopardy

Gamify your knowledge base with this coral-oriented Jeopardy-style game on Factile.com to learn more.

To go to a larger screen version, click here.

Explore more at Playfactile.
Jeopardy-style game, created by me at factile.com: https://www.playfactile.com/jeopardy-game/mcce2bax7w, Image from https://ejfoundation.org/news-media/corals-and-communities-ejf-report-highlights-devastating-impacts-of-climate-crisis-on-reefs