Fulfilling requests for media content in support of classroom and faculty research activities is demanding for academic libraries. Libraries strive to meet requests for media while working with challenges such as intellectual property license contracts, advances in digital communication technologies and copyright issues. This article provides an…

Popular online teacher curriculum sites offer time-strapped teachers lesson ideas and supplemental curriculum--but are these high-quality materials? Researchers Amber Northern and Morgan Polikoff examined several hundred of the most downloaded teacher materials for quality, depth of knowledge, and diversity--and the results might surprise you.

If there was ever a time to review material selection policy and bring stakeholders into the conversation, the time is now. Kowalski discusses the school librarian as an instructional leader who must keep administrators informed, but also organizational partners, and stakeholders. Teachers, family partners, and student partners are also discussed…

While films are popular as teaching tools in social work education, to critique social inequalities, horror films have not been the conventional genre. This teaching note describes the creation and deployment of a course that uses horror films to address social justice issues as part of different critical reflection, which is linked to practice…

In the richly heterogeneous United States, teachers largely decide what students learn. Even in states where state boards adopt a long list of instructional materials, districts can get waivers to substitute their own choices. And even when districts do pick materials, teachers do not necessarily teach them in toto. This article presents how…

How can an open access database annotating pictures, films, music and texts support adults as existential exemplars? This article explores the opportunities of a Norwegian database called the OE-database. Its target group is all adults who want to become better exemplars for children through encounters with art and conversations in small groups.…

This paper describes the development and execution of an exhibition in an academic museum setting. The exhibition is presented as a self-directed learning intervention. The development process included conceptual development, the selection of exhibition materials, the creation of didactic written materials, spatial arrangement of the materials,…

The rapidly changing landscape of instructional materials in elementary education has involved both a wider range of available materials, particularly online, as well as increasing use of materials provided to teachers by other teachers on sites such as Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers. In this commentary, I outline three key shifts in…

The author's eighth-grade ELA curriculum is rich with opportunities for students to bear witness to a variety of experiences. Besides the Holocaust unit, they read "Ghost Boys" by Jewell Parker Rhodes (2018) while exploring police brutality and segregation; "The Giver" by Lois Lowry (1993) while investigating government…

Use the 6-step instructional approach and examples in this article to bring civics learning and understanding to your elementary students.

Since the 2002 UNESCO forum, raising awareness of the benefits and challenges to Open Educational Resources (OER) in higher education have been integral to the broader Open Education (OE) movement. In the K-12 sector, however, an understanding of OER has been less advanced, although there are pockets of K-12 OER innovators throughout Canada and…

Advances in technology and cultural shifts towards a more open sharing of information afford college instructors additional methods to establish a powerful teacher-student connection. By creating and curating Open Educational Resources (OER) for students, instructors customize the learning experience for their students and show them that they care…

The purpose of this Research-to-Resource article is to provide choral directors a short, practical guide to working with male singers throughout their voice change using research-based strategies. Practical recommendations about vocal range assessment, music selection, and vocal warm-ups are provided.

Since their launch in 2002, open educational resources (OER) developed by the Innovative Resources for Instructional Success, better known as the IRIS Center, have become a staple of teacher preparation programs. In the spring of 2019, a survey of users revealed a diversity of ways teacher educators incorporate IRIS Center OERs within their…

At the 2023 American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference, the International Relations Committee, Americas Subcommittee invited panelists from academic, research, and public libraries to discuss various ways of sharing Indigenous-made materials from the United States and Latin America in the panel, "Sharing Knowledge: Projects and…