Karissa is an award-winning writer, seasoned editor, and former educator with a passion for storytelling and marketing. When not searching for the perfect word or phrase, she's busy trying (unsuccessfully) to convince people that plaid is a color.
Gender Equality.Feminism. Civil Rights.Racial Equality. Human Rights Issues These are some of the topics considered “controversial” in society, on social media, and in the classroom. But why? In today’s society — more than 150 years since the end of America’s Civil War, almost 100 years since women gained voting rights in America, and 55 years…
If your students are just reading our Studies Weekly Social Studies newspapers or magazines each week, they are missing out on so many other experiences. We love our products so much and we love the teachers who help create our lessons. We also love coming up with new classroom strategies for using our publications. You…
Reginald Wright took an indirect route to teaching — but it was one that led him to a career he loves. “Every day is a new day,” Wright said in a recent interview with Studies Weekly. Wright works as an instructional coach for 6th through 8th graders at Aldine Middle School in Houston, Texas. “Even…
How do you teach today’s culturally and socio-economically diverse students when often their history and literature curricula are predominantly Eurocentric? That is a question we’ve been grappling with at Studies Weekly. In the past, some of our own publications included this unconscious bias. Recognizing that, we’ve been working diligently to completely revamp and reframe them.…
Discovering new perspectives, new voices and new sources is one of the most fascinating things about studying history. For many of us who attended school in the 70s, 80s and early 90s, we learned history from a very Euro-centric white male perspective. With current societal trends that push for authenticity across the whole of society,…
Most successful entrepreneurs say they overcame many mistakes, challenges, and setbacks to get where they are. “I’m convinced that about half of what separates successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance,” the late Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, is quoted as saying. Students — from elementary to secondary — can and should learn…
Politics today are highly polarized, and are in danger of becoming more so. “Politicians used to recognize that their opponents had the same goal: Make the world a better place for their constituents. Now debate’s greatest accomplishment has been to diminish the integrity of office,” said Lawrence Lhulier in his March 2017 Education Week article,…
In society today, schools cannot avoid the controversial issues and events of our world. Nor should they. Our nation’s schools are more racially diverse than ever, and that trend will continue. According to the Pew Research Center and the National Center for Education Statistics, teacher diversity in those same classrooms lags behind. This begs the…
For better or worse, students in classrooms today — even down to the elementary level — are firmly part of the selfie generation. Many, in just a few years’ time, have more pictures on a smartphone of their own faces than older generations have from their entire lifetimes. Teachers, principals and districts have a unique…
Technology and globalization connect the world more today than in any era of history, but our children may not be prepared to be responsible citizens within it. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, elementary teachers increased English and mathematics instruction time over the past two decades in response to assessment pressures. Conversely, social…