It is one of the most beloved film franchises of all time, and now Star Wars has been examined and presented as a means to teach world history. A new book entitled Star Wars and History claims that the epic space story parallels many earthly historical events. Star Wars creator George Lucas has denied any intentional links to actual events, but admits that due to the films' overall narrative of good vs. evil and war and rebellion, it would be impossible to avoid any similarities.
Nonetheless, authors Nancy Reagin and Janice Liedl have created an interesting way to present world history to students via a pop-culture phenomenon that is almost universally loved. CNet sat down with Liedl for an interesting look behind the making of the book. Read the interview here.
A pumpkin grown by Tim and Susan Mathison,Napa, California, has smashed the record for its mammoth size. The giant pumpkin weighed in at 2032 pounds! Grown in 105 days, the pumpkin surpassed the 2012 record pumpkin of 20089 pounds. Photograph from http://napavalleyregister.com.jpg)
Pretend you are a pumpkin sitting on a front porch on...
Teaching elementary students, as young as first grade, to research is no easy task. It requires enormous patience, persistence, and a belief in your students.
Training children to be young researchers provides them with all kinds of skills, which will help them succeed in college and the workplace.
Research skills have found their own place in the national Common Core English Language Arts standards, which requires students to conduct short and sustained research projects....
One of the greatest challenges that the education community faces in implementing the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) initiative is ensuring that the education workforce is ready to help students succeed under these new, higher standards.
Facing this challenge requires providing the current workforce with high-quality professional learning opportunities, something we talk about a great deal at the national level. But it also...
Researchers from Brigham Young University have found that people who mention suicide in their Twitter posts are likely to attempt the act in real life.
What seems like an obvious conclusion is being interpreted as evidence that teens use the social media platform for more than just posturing. Rather, in many cases, teens take...
" Go big or go home. Because it's true. What do you have to lose?"
Actress Eliza Dushku
This school year, I implemented a school wide enrichment cluster program---and boy, did I learn a lot.
Anytime, you roll a program out to the entire school population, you better be ready for some things to go wrong. In fact, after I expanded this enrichment program, the problems seemed to grow exponentially.
The good news is that the benefits to students and the...
A teenage broadcaster is in trouble with his school after using a phrase borrowed from a popular video game while calling a middle-school football game.
The Sandusky (Ohio) Register reports that the unnamed boy was serving as the play-by-play talent during the broadcast...