Letters About Literature

LAL Submissions Due January 12

With the holidays and the end of the fall semester upon us, we write with a gentle reminder of the Thursday, January 12 deadline of the 2022-23 Letters About Literature program in Massachusetts. (Earlier submissions are always welcome!)

Bring a handkerchief: Ukrainian Children's Choir performs at Carnegie Hall

I was practically in tears reading about the Ukrainian Children's Choir in New York getting ready to perform this weekend at Carnegie Hall. I never knew that the Carol of the Bells was written by a Ukrainian composer! And the fact that these kids who are hardly older than our students had to practice in bomb shelfters before coming here to perform - wow.

Here's a TV story about the children's choir in New York this weekend and it includes a video of them singing at Grand Central Station. The news anchor is also choking up!
https://youtu.be/Ids53WGVk9Q

And a page on the Carnegie Hall website has more about the history of this beautiful composition, which includes a video about it. It was first sung at Carnegie Hall in 1922 by the Ukrainian National Choir!
https://www.carnegiehall.org/explore/articles/2022/11/29/carol-of-the-bells

The power of music!

Guardian: I've Lost My Children to Vaping

‘I’ve lost my children to vaping’: the tragic stories behind the soaring rates of youth addiction

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/dec/02/ive-lost-my-children-to-vaping-the-tragic-stories-behind-the-soaring-rates-of-youth-addiction

Reading Resource Project

The Reading Resource Project is an ongoing program that runs throughout the year. The program distributes high quality, softcover books for Read Across America Day, National Drop Everything and Read Day, Children's Book Week, International Children's Book Day, and other Literacy Programs.

Reading Resource Project books are 100 book sets. Any literacy based effort qualifies for these books. You do not have to be a school or teacher. Reading Resource Project books are available in a limited quantity on a first come, first served basis.

Each 100 book set will contain a variety of at least 10 different titles. Recipients merely pay shipping, handling, and administrative costs, which is only $0.88 cents per softcover book ($88.00 per set of 100 books).

https://www.lefbooks.org/reading_resource_project/

Movie Licensing for Schools

In case you weren't sure about where to get the licensing, Swank is the main one for libraries and schools. They have material from pretty much every studio and can do one-time events or licenses that go for the whole building for a period of time. For one-time events they need to know the title of the movie and the number of expected attendees to do a quote.

There's more information and you can also search for movies here:
https://www.swank.com/k-12-schools/licensing-options/

Native American Storytellers - School Visit Resources

Plimoth Patuxet has both in person and school visits available

The Massachusetts Center for Native American Awareness is actually based in Danvers. Among their offerings are educational programs.
They have these speakers on their site:
https://www.mcnaa.org/speakers-presenters

Cynthia Fox Tree, just did a presentation at the Lynnfield library that was a joint presentation by them, the Beverly PL and the Peabody Institute. It looks like she may be geared more toward adults

Larry Spotted Crow Mann, looks like a good possibility
or maybe the third one, Annawon Weedon.

Robin Pease is listed on the Young Audiences of Massachusetts (YAMA) site. She is a Mohawk descendant, comes to your school in traditional regalia to take you on a journey through Native American culture. The program features audience participation in the form of stories, songs, dance, and/or games.

Anne Jennison - presented at Abbot Hall in Marblehead in October. She is chair of the New Hampshire Commission on Native American Affairs. She is only doing online live events, not in person.

Jennison is the co-producer of Dawnland StoryFest, a daylong event at the Strawberry Banke Museum in Portsmouth, NH featuring storytelling “concerts” or performances by five experienced Indigenous storytellers as well as a keynote address. It just happened in early November.

James Bruchac is in New York state but I think he does programs around here sometimes too.

Smartphones Are Like Cars. So Why Don’t We Maintain Them?

Smartphones Are Like Cars. So Why Don’t We Maintain Them?

Regularly replacing our phones takes a toll on our wallets and the environment. We should instead take care of them as we do our cars.

History of Elections in America

In 1845, Congress designated the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November as Election Day for presidential elections by federal law. Today, we invite you to explore the history of elections in America with resources from the Gilder Lehrman Institute archives!

https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/curriculum/8-election-day

Bud Not Buddy @ Wheelock Family Theatre

Bud, Not Buddy
April 14th – May 14th, 2023

Adapted by Reginald André Jackson
Based on the novel by Christopher Paul

Directed by Dawn Simmons

https://www.wheelockfamilytheatre.org/performances/2022-season/bud-not-buddy/

Portuguese Language Books

If you want an alternative to Amazon, BuoBooks (https://www.buobooks.com/) claims to be "the world's first Portuguese language bookstore" and are headquartered in Florida with offices in Portugal and Brazil. I think they have free shipping in the US.


I'm looking for some information about who some of the top Portuguese language YA and middle grade writers are so I could look into or recommend books that are not translated into Portuguese but written in that language. (And also similar info for Spanish language books.)

How to Use TikTok’s Parental Controls

How to Use TikTok’s Parental Controls
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/10/26/technology/personaltech/tiktok-parental-controls.html?searchResultPosition=1

• Tells you how toset a child’s account to Private
• set daily time limits on using TikTok, schedule mandatory breaks that lock a child out of the app and see a summary of how much time was spent using the app.
• Content Preferencesto set the app to block videos containing certain keywords or enable the password-protected Restricted Mode.
• Family Pairing feature allows a parent to link their own TikTok account to a child’s

News Literacy Project

I love the News Literacy Project materials and have used them a bunch. If you ever wanted me to do anything with your students using these resources, let me know -- or perhaps you want to use them yourself. I'd be happy to show you how their website, Checkology, works.

What Do American’s Middle Schools Teach About Climate Change?

What Do American’s Middle Schools Teach About Climate Change? Not Much.
Around the United States, middle school science standards have minimal references to climate change and teachers on average spend just a few hours a year teaching it.

Live Stream Event with Justin Baldoni

Were any of you interested in this? It's a live streamed event, which is kind of fun, but it will probably be available after the fact to view as well.

Join filmmaker, actor, and author Justin Baldoni who recently published a book Boys Will be Human. for a real-talk on helping boys embrace their feelings and fears and find their confidence to be their authentic self. You’ll hear tips and get advice on how you can become the strongest, kindest, bravest person you can be.

The live streaming event is on Tuesday, Nov. 1 from 1-1:30pm, so it mostly falls during grade 8 GA2 block

Behind the Curtain Reader's Theatre books

I came across one of these books on Sora today and they have a bunch of them. I want to show it to you - may be of interest!


https://cherrylakepublishing.com/series/205-behind-the-curtain

Sold a Story Podcast

Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong
There's an idea about how children learn to read that's held sway in schools for more than a generation — even though it was proven wrong by cognitive scientists decades ago. Teaching methods based on this idea can make it harder for children to learn how to read. In this podcast, host Emily Hanford investigates the influential authors who promote this idea and the company that sells their work. It's an exposé of how educators came to believe in something that isn't true and are now reckoning with the consequences — children harmed, money wasted, an education system upended.


Here's a review and overview from Forbes
New Podcast Examines Why Teachers Have Been ‘Sold A Story’ On Reading Instruction

Congressional App Challenge

Registration for the 2022 Congressional App Challenge is by November 1st, 2022 (Next week).

The Office of Congressman Seth Moulton is proud to host the 2022 Sixth District Congressional App Challenge (CAC), an app competition for students in middle and high school. The CAC accepts computer programs (or apps) written in any programming language, for any platform (desktop/PC, web, mobile, raspberry Pi, etc.) The Challenge’s submission portal is now open and students can register and submit their applications until November 1st, 2022. The competition is available to all students who meet the eligibility requirements, regardless of coding experience.

We strongly encourage students of all skill levels to participate and learn how to create their own apps. Winners will be selected by panels of judges drawn from the local community and honored by their Member of Congress. Their apps are eligible to be featured on display in the U.S. Capitol building, on house.gov and on the Congressional App Challenge website.

MA Independent Comics Expo

You or some of your students may be interested in this...

The MA Independent Comics Expo is happening this weekend at BU. It’s free and features workshops, panels, exhibitors, etc. from folks like Jarrett Krosoczka, Maia Kobabe, Gail Galligan, Chad Sell and more. There are some pre-show events tomorrow night.

More info here: micexpo.org

Create Papel Picado in Google Slides

Celebrate Día de los Muertos with Applied Digital Skills

Teachers - celebrate Día de los Muertos with the new Applied Digital Skills lesson Create Papel Picado in Google Slides. In this lesson, students can learn about the holiday tradition and create a digital version of the Mexican folk art, papel picado.

Jason Reynolds Live Stream Event

The Jason Reynolds live stream event is Tuesday 10/18 at 1pm. 

The topic is "Learn What Makes You Strong" Reynolds' new novel, Stuntboy, in the Meantime, is about a boy who finds his inner strength by helping others shine. You can see/show the trailer for his new book here:
https://youtu.be/Dfy2a0lcmTM

Find out more here:
https://info.flip.com/events/jason-reynolds.html