Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

VHS Learning Is Awarded Teaching with Primary Sources Grant from Library of Congress 

 Boston – VHS Learning has been selected to receive a $25,000 grant to create a high-quality U.S. History curriculum and professional development supporting discussion-based primary source analysis online and in other learning settings. This project is funded by a grant from the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) Eastern Region program, managed by Waynesburg University.

“The goal with this grant project is to engage online learners in frequent primary source analysis experiences that increase their sense of connection to classmates, self, and the curriculum,” President & CEO of VHS Learning, Carol DeFuria said. “We are honored to receive the TPS grant from the Library of Congress to deepen student discussions through primary source analysis, and we look forward to bringing this to high school students through an online U.S. History curriculum.”

During the grant project, VHS Learning will design 33 primary source analysis lessons within a cohesive, newly-developed U.S. History curriculum. Primary source analysis will be integrated into weekly discussions within all three course formats of the curriculum, including asynchronous, paced, and self-paced models. …Read More

Certell’s Poptential™ Free American History Curriculum Highlights Legacy of African Americans for Black History Month

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Poptential™, a family of free, award-winning social studies course packages that infuse lessons with digital storytelling, offers an array of engaging content about the Civil Rights Movement for instruction during Black History Month. Click to tweet.

Observed in the United States since 1976, Black History Month is celebrated yearly in February to honor the contributions and legacy of African Americans across U.S. history and society. Poptential’s American History Volume II curriculum, Bell Ringers, and digital media clips feature the accomplishments of African American leaders and civil rights activists as they fought for racial equality.

Poptential’s Unit 6: The Fracturing of America includes content and multimedia to help teachers lead discussions on the Civil Rights movement, including:…Read More

Poptential™ Free History Curriculum Helps Teachers Explain the Significance of Labor Day With Media-Rich Content

INDIANAPOLIS, (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — When teaching about the labor movement in the United States, instructors often focus on Cesar Chavez and Peter McGuire to illustrate the rise of unions and workers’ rights. Poptential™, a free curriculum that infuses lessons with digital storytelling using pop culture references, also uses SpongeBob SquarePants.

“It’s been more than 125 years since the first Labor Day was observed, and the labor movement can seem a little dry to today’s high school students,” said Julie Smitherman, a former social studies teacher and director of content at Certell, Inc., the nonprofit behind Poptential. “Adding digital storytelling—like the SpongeBob clip—helps students better relate to these topics.”

Poptential uses a variety of pop culture media to illustrate concepts, including those taken from sitcoms, movies, animations, cartoons, late-night shows, and other sources.…Read More

Texas education board to consider rule on Islam’s portrayal in textbooks

Just when it appeared the State Board of Education was done with the culture wars, the panel is about to wade into the issue of what students should learn about Islam, the Dallas Morning News reports. The board will consider a resolution next week that would warn publishers not to push a pro-Islamic, anti-Christian viewpoint in world history textbooks. Members of the board’s social conservative bloc asked for the resolution after an unsuccessful candidate for a board seat called on the panel to head off any bias against Christians in new social studies books. Some contend that “Middle Easterners” are increasingly buying into companies that publish textbooks. A preliminary draft of the resolution states that “diverse reviewers have repeatedly documented gross pro-Islamic, anti-Christian distortions in social studies texts” across the U.S. and that past social studies textbooks in Texas also have been “tainted” with pro-Islamic, anti-Christian views…

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