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"Maps can be a remarkably powerful tool for understanding the world and how it works, but they show only what you ask them to. So when we saw a post sweeping the Web titled "40 maps they didn't teach you in school," one of which happens to be a WorldViews original, I thought we might be able to contribute our own collection. Some of these are pretty nerdy, but I think they're no less fascinating and easily understandable. A majority are original to this blog, with others from a variety of sources."

An American Studies class blog from Winnetka, Illinois. Perhaps we can interact with them on something.

In honor of J.D. Salinger, who died on January 28, 2010, at 91, we offer the following Times and Learning Network resources for teachers and students.

The NY Times celebrates the 50th Anniversary with lesson plans and resources.

The moral is that the brevity of an e-mail message, a blog post, a text message, even a tweet, is no obstacle to powerful information, a persuasive argument, a literary moment, a zinger, a joke.

The aim of this blog is to take you there... to the 1920's! I'll be posting photos, illustrations, magazines, music, and all kinds of vintage things that come straight from the 1920's.

In my free ebook Google for Teachers I included directions for creating and publishing a quiz using Google Documents forms. Recently, Dr. Mark Wagner published a blog post that includes directions for creating formulas that will result in quizzes created in Google Docs forms being self-graded. His post includes a video screencast and slides.

StoryCorps is a nonprofit organization that records and gathers the stories of Americans from all walks of life. The stories range from light-hearted feel-good stories to serious and sometimes sad stories. Many of the stories are played on National Public Radio. Today, through my colleague Abbie Morrison (check out her great photography blog) I learned that StoryCorps has turned some of the stories into short, animated videos. So far there are five videos available that you can view on the StoryCorps site or view on Vimeo.

"Catcher" could almost serve as a guide to the city of a certain time, a city that has been lost forever, but still somehow exists: dark, enigmatic, grown up. Follow in Holden's footsteps by clicking on the Interactive Map of his experiences in New York City.

In this lesson, students experience various works of fine and performance art in the classroom and online as well as consider artists' and critics' definitions of art. They then create their own definitions and express them in the form of original works for an evening gallery opening.

"The son of the founder of The Hollywood Reporter is apologizing for the trade paper's role in what he calls "Hollywood's holocaust," the blacklist that destroyed the careers of those accused of communist sympathies. In an article published Monday by the trade paper, W.R. Wilkerson III wrote that the 1947 Blacklist "silenced the careers of some of the studios' greatest talent and ruined countless others merely standing on the sidelines.""

"In case you are just now waking up from a coma, let me tell you what happened Wednesday at Donald Trump's first press conference as president-elect. (Yes, that Donald Trump! He will be the next president!)"

"The online survey is not scientific but offers a wealth of information and insight about the post-election school climate. Participants included teachers from nearly all states and the District of Columbia. According to the report, those who responded may have been more likely to perceive problems than those who did not. It was distributed among several organizations that reach a large teacher population, including the American Federation of Teachers.  The report also offers a set of recommendations to help school leaders manage student anxiety and combat hate speech and acts of bias. In short, these recommendations are: Set the tone. Take care of the wounded. Double down on anti-bullying strategies. Encourage courage. Be ready for a crisis. Teaching Tolerance will further analyze the survey results and use the data to shape our resources and offerings to K-12 teachers and others who work in schools. Visit Voting and Elections: Resources for a Civil Classroom to view a package of materials currently available to help educators navigate these troubling times.

"Art can shake us out of complacency, introduce abstract ways of thinking, and help us imagine the impossible."

"At EL Education, we believe that this is best done consciously and intentionally. We are unafraid to say that teachers and schools shape student character. We specify what we believe they should work towards: students who are not just effective learners, but also ethical people, and active contributors to a better world. We believe that this is supported when educators elevate student voice and leadership and model a schoolwide culture of respect, compassion, honesty, integrity, and kindness. In times of crisis, small-scale or large, this also means modeling courage in standing up for those values, and standing against racism, injustice, acts of hate, and the undermining of public education. One unheralded but powerful possibility is this: giving students real material to engage with and supporting them to do work that matters to them. This is what helps students become ethical adults who contribute to a better world. In EL Education schools, this deeper learning is the daily fare of classrooms. And, it's what empowers them to engage in civil debate. If students are fearful about what may happen to them or their loved ones, we can help them research what has actually been said or proposed, and what is possible according to the U.S. Constitution as it has so far been interpreted. We can help them respond in ways that build their own agency: writing letters, like students at World of Inquiry, or making videos and organizing actions like the Melrose Leadership Academy Peace and Kindness March. We can tell our students they matter, not just to us personally but as members of a society. We can show them we mean it by giving them chances to create work that both responds to and acts upon that society. We can walk side by side with our students as we all process this political transition together. We can show them, and they can show us, what kind of adults to be: what it looks like in 2017 to be an ethical person, contributing to a better world. "

"The case can be made that all subject areas are important, but students often lack the educational opportunities to put their learning from these subject areas to work in the real world. My students now take part in community research projects where I ask them to identify a problem or issue that they care about in our local community. Their topics have included the school dress code, teen drug use, bullying, rural road conditions, and suicide prevention. In this process, students undertake a variety of research efforts. They work with primary sources. They interview community members, fellow students, and school officials. They create online surveys, and they visit the library, the museum, and the courthouse. They seek out knowledge from experts (including other teachers) regarding statistics, technology, and hazardous chemical compounds. They even become experts on the ins and outs of state laws that are relevant to their causes. They learn to value evidence. Sometimes that causes students to change their minds too. But just gathering the information isn't enough. We have to do something with that information. We have to take action and argue for reasonable solutions to our community issues based on the best information available. The secret is harnessing the spirit each student holds for the issue they seek to solve and allowing that spirit to develop each student's ability to reason. If I can accomplish that, I find that my students care enough about their writing to revise, edit, spell, and punctuate just fine. A recent study also confirmed that students' mastery of conventions can improve as a by-product of writing arguments on topics they care about. But first I had to go bigger with my expectations and with the lessons I valued. I had to believe they could change the world around them if I gave them the opportunity."

"There are good reasons to teach Julie Otsuka's novel today. In addition to helping students build historical empathy, I believe there is a chance that reading about distant lives can help us learn empathy for those around us today. When the Emperor Was Divine is a difficult story about difficult history. It can be deeply unsettling to teach and to learn about a moment in our country's past that was identified at the time and has been rightly described ever since as a source of national shame. It can be hard to reconcile the historical reality of Japanese internment with American ideals, past and present. However, the difficulty of this story does not excuse us from teaching it. Indeed, in our present moment, filled with xenophobic rhetoric, building empathy is more important than ever."

"Here, then, are the most basic answers to your most basic questions. First, a disclaimer: Syria and its history are really complicated; this is not an exhaustive or definitive account of that entire story, just some background, written so that anyone can understand it."

"ow, NPR Music is bringing you a 24-hour stream of music inspired by the civil rights era. There are few better ways to immerse yourself in that era than through its sounds. If you flipped on your radio in the '60s, you might have heard Nina Simone's rambunctious - yet incredibly pointed - "Mississippi Goddam" seeping through the stereo."

"Documerica set out to capture how America viewed the rapidly deteriorating environment marked by issues of pollution and waste taking shape around the country. Founded by Gifford Hampshire, Documerica lasted about six years, hired roughly 70 photographers, and knocked out 115 assignments in all 50 states. Photographers were paid $150 a day plus film and expenses and were given the creative freedom to interpret environmental issues outlined to them from EPA employees. The results-22,000 images-ended up documenting environmental issues and brought another meaning to environment that focused on local neighborhoods, social issues, political changes, and the remarkable fashion trends typical of the 1970s."