A Resource, a Recommendation, and a Request
Plus a chance at an Amazon gift card for sharing your great ideas!
Today’s email is going to look a little different. I’m dividing it up into three sections—a resource, a recommendation, and a request.
THE RESOURCE
I didn’t make this resource, I’ve just used it in the past and it was a lot of fun for my students and me. It’s Pixar in a Box from Khan Academy.
It includes videos on how Pixar artists do their jobs, and it also walks students through lessons on how to do different elements of the Pixar process. For an English class, the Unit 2: The Art of Storytelling is awesome to lead kids through to help them create stories through the same process as the storytellers at Pixar. It’s something you can lead your whole class through, or you could allow some of your faster workers to turn to it when they need some enrichment.
THE RECOMMENDATION
This recommendation is not for your students—it’s for you. It’s April, and maybe summer seems forever away for you OR just around the corner. But it’s coming, and you’ll probably want some summer reads! My book club just read one of my favorite books that I have read in awhile—Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus.
Set in the 1960s, it highlights protagonist Elizabeth Zott, who is a gifted chemist trying to navigate the inequality of the times. It has it’s darker moments, but the characters are enjoyable and the story is ultimately one of triumph. Now, on to my request for you, which I’ll tie back to this recommendation…
THE REQUEST
The month of May and general end of the school year can be fun, but it can also be a beatdown. Testing. Kids who can’t wait for summer. Teachers who also can’t wait for summer. That being said, there are 60+ educators who get this newsletter each week, and I KNOW that as a group we have some fun ideas and activities that we’ve done that are perfect for helping get through the May Madness and bringing us into summer. So, I’m asking you: Would you share one of your tried-and-true, end-of-year survival lessons with this group so we can help each other through it?
If you do, you’ll be entered to win a $20 Amazon gift card! You could use to buy your own copy of Lessons in Chemistry or some other summer read! Or put it toward literally anything else you’ve been wanting to ask Jeff Bezos for!
To submit your lesson, click here to access a Google Form where you can explain it and provide any resources for it you’d like to share with the group. Later this month I’ll compile them all and send them out so you can incorporate these awesome ideas into your planning for the rest of the year! To be eligible for the Amazon gift card, please submit you lesson no later than 11:59 pm on Wednesday, April 19!
Thanks for being here, thanks for reading, and happy Wednesday!
-Jonda