ABCs of a School Meeting is a self-paced training for educators and families which covers:

Why family involvement matters
Types of school meetings
How to prepare
The importance of effective communication
Techniques to build partnership with your child’s team

The goal of the training is to enable families, teachers and students to have knowledge of the different kinds of school meetings related to disabilities. The takeaway is to look for the best ways to expand communication and build a team with the school and family to support the student with disabilities.

In this lesson, students interrogate their own assumptions about Abraham Lincoln in order to arrive at a deeper understanding of who Lincoln was. They investigate primary source documents in order to analyze the elements of Lincoln's life that have become legend and those that have been forgotten by history.

In this lesson, students watch a clip from the episode Woolworth Sign in which they learn about the use of sit-ins and nonviolence in the Civil Rights Movement. They then examine period images and news footage in order to analyze the strategies of the Civil Rights Movement and their effectiveness, and create a newspaper article about the events of the time period.

Explore the conditions and circumstances of Alexander Hamilton’s youth and the strengths he carried with him into his adult life. He rose from being a poor boy in the Caribbean, to a key leader in the founding of the United States government.
As a culmination, students are encouraged to reflect on their own lives and think about how, like Hamilton, they might translate their childhood experiences into success later in life.

How do we remember the Civil War? Whose stories are told in the art and memorials from and about the time period? In this resource students will examine works of art from and relating to the Civil War era. Students will also learn about the 54th Regiment of Massachusetts, an all-Black regiment, and compose a written response to a cause they are passionate about.

Sensitive: This resource contains material that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether this resource is suitable for their class.

This video explains how scientists construct computer-generated climate models to forecast weather, understand climate, and project climate change. It discusses how different types of climate models can be used and how scientists use computers to build these models.

The lesson helps students understand the background and impact of the Columbian Exchange both now and in the past.

To read a review of standards alignment, go to: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WFF3rHfOobKe3bBZ8o9_WDJ9FQbT6Wah/edit

Developing a Vision for and with Your Child is a self-paced training for educators and families which covers:

What do we mean by vision?
Why is vision important as an advocacy tool?
How can a vision statement support my child at school and in the community?
How do we develop a vision statement?

The goal of the training is to enable families, teachers and students to have a vision of a future. The vision is a work in progress that will develop over time, but sets goals and directions for students with disabilities.

This video collection features strategies for comprehensive literacy instruction for students with significant cognitive disabilities. The purpose of the collection is to support educators and families in understanding how all students can learn and make progress in Common Core English Language Arts standards.

In each video, classroom educators demonstrate research-based instructional strategies in literacy, language and communication including the use of augmentative and alternative communication systems. The videos feature students in both inclusive general education classrooms and self-contained settings.

In this lesson, students will explore the travels and discoveries of the Vikings. After viewing a short video about the Eric the Red and Leif Ericson, students will analyze a painting that depicts a Viking ship at sea and then read an Icelandic saga written about the early Norse people. The lesson will conclude with students researching the impact the Vikings had on the region of their choice and completing a report or presentation.

In this lesson, students will learn about what type of information we can learn from photographs. They will
draw conclusions about the past through exploration of photos and explain how people can learn more about their family history through the use of historical records.

The First Amendment holds some of our biggest rights as American citizens. Nick reviews them for us!

TRANSCRIPT
"We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America."

Our constitution sounds pretty good to me. Nothing to change there, right? Wrong. Even the founding fathers knew they couldn't make a perfect guide for running the country. Enter amendments. An amendment is any improvements, revisions, or corrections to the Constitution. There are currently 20-plus amendments to the Constitution, but I want to focus on the first one. It provides some of our most important rights.

The First Amendment states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." So within the First Amendment, we've got these five protected rights. Freedom of religion, the freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to assembly, and the right to petition the government. Let's take a look at these a little closer.

Freedom of religion was super important to the founding fathers. It's one of the reasons they came to America in the first place. They wanted to escape other countries where they were forced to follow a specific religion. Because of the First Amendment you can now practice any religion or no religion at all. The freedom of speech and assembly can be grouped together. They basically mean we can express our own opinions. We're allowed to speak out and get together in groups to express our ideas. Of course, there are some exceptions. For example, you can't tell lies about people, or they could try to sue you for it.

That idea of telling the truth leads me to the next protection which is super important for folks who work in the news like me, the freedom of the press. It means journalists are allowed to report on what's going on without fear that the government might get upset and stop them from doing their work. In some countries without the freedom of the press like China, journalists are only allowed to report what the government wants. As you can imagine, if the government makes a mistake or isn't treating people fairly, they aren't going to want the news to tell people about it.

Finally the right to petition the government empowers citizens to address their leaders directly if they're concerned about actions or issues. You may have heard about people writing their Senators, governor's or other politicians to share their opinions or express concern. The First Amendment aimed to set Americans apart from other countries and governments that impose stiff rules and regulations over their citizens or punish them for speaking out. It's all about letting our country stay by the people and for the people. As the country grows and changes so do the needs of the Constitution. It's not stuck in the 1700s. It's a living, breathing part of our democracy.

Many food products, toys, and materials are made through the process of manufacturing. Take a look at the history of manufacturing and conduct some research of your own! Through your research, learn about the history of manufacturing and develop your skills using technology.

From website: the students will explore what it means to them to be an American. They will reflect on their own identities and family histories to better understand their experience. Individually and as a group, students will develop a definition of what it means to be an American and add to that definition throughout the year.

In this multidisciplinary lesson, students examine stereotypes about people with physical disabilities. Using clips from Still Tomorrow, a documentary about Chinese poet Yu Xiuhua, who has cerebral palsy, students will gain awareness of the clues they use to judge people. To better understand Yu’s condition, they’ll conduct research about cerebral palsy and write an “advice blog” addressing stereotypes about people with disabilities. As part of that research, students will consider how they choose what to click on when they do online searches.

Through the short film A Conversation with My Black Son (originally published by The New York Times as one of its Op-Docs) by directors Geeta Gandbhir and Blair Foster, students will hear from parents who have personally struggled with the burden of “The Conversation” and compare/contrast their stories and strategies for keeping their children safe. Students will then research and analyze the history of policing in America from the colonial era to the present as it relates to the African-American community and identify how that history produced the need for black parents to have “The Conversation” today.

In this lesson, students explore how Abraham Lincoln used the power of words in speeches, letters and other documents. In the Introductory Activity, students watch a segment from the PBS film Looking for Lincoln featuring Lincoln quotes and try to identify the origin of each quotation. In the first Learning Activity, students closely examine Lincoln’s use of words in the Gettysburg Address and learn that a short speech can be powerful. In the second Learning Activity, students discuss different reasons for writing letters and review some of Abraham Lincoln’s letters. In the Culminating Activity, students write their own speeches or letters and then present them to the class.

In this interdisciplinary lesson, students gather different facts about Lincoln through a variety of hands-on activities. In the Introductory Activity, students match vocabulary words with pictures to piece together a timeline of Abraham Lincoln’s life. In the Learning Activities, students gather various facts about the life of Lincoln. Students learn about Abraham Lincoln’s work as a lawyer on the prairie and also gain insight into Lincoln through objects and artifacts of his life. Students then select classroom objects that best tell a story about them and/or their class. In the Culminating Activity, students reflect upon the life of Lincoln, revisit the timeline of Lincoln’s life and create their own personal timelines.

In this lesson, students will watch a video about Dr. King that emphasizes his commitment to nonviolence. They will then examine and analyze a 1956 flyer and a 1966 photograph that illustrate King’s approach to maintaining nonviolence. The lesson culminates with a comparison to other leaders who have been consistently nonviolent in spite of great personal risk.

In this episode of NJEA’s Classroom Close-up, Fort Lee’s School No. 1 is using music to extend concentration among general and special education students in kindergarten through second grade. In addition, working one-on-one using dials to analyze a student’s response to various genres of music, educators are studying the impact the music has on a student’s ability to focus, which will help to improve and enhance student learning.