Timely resources to help K-12 educators encourage social responsibility and foster social & emotional learning. Find out more.
TeachableMoment Lessons
Featured Lessons
This two-part lesson consists of two readings on the efforts to confront mental health stigma in the United States. Each reading is followed by a post-reading microlab activity where students discuss mental health issues in their own lives with their peers.
Nine suggestions for supporting students and strengthening your classroom community in these challenging times. Some are quick and easy, to calm the mind and body, keep in your pocket and have at the ready. Others are more complex for a full- or half-period lesson, and can build on one another.
In the wake of the 2024 presidential election, educators are looking for ways to address students' anxieties, build the classroom and school community, counter bias and harassment, and address political issues raised by the election.
SEL & RP
Activities to support students' social and emotional learning and restorative practices
Current Issues
Classroom activities to engage students in learning about and discussing issues in the news
Tips & Ideas
Guidance and inspiration to help build skills and community in your classroom and school
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The demand for reparations surfaced during the 2016 presidential election, creating a teachable moment on this long-debated issue. In this activity, students learn some background
Presidential candidate Ted Cruz's plans to speak at a Bronx high school were scrapped after students there wrote a letter to their principal describing how Cruz's views were
We use plastics all the time. So often, in fact, that they’re practically invisible to us. In this lesson, students keep a log of their plastic use, take action to decrease it, and
Eight tips on what to do when students make hurtful remarks.
Students learn about and discuss the massive revelations included in the Panama Papers, the impact of tax avoidance on this scale, and how the story relates to the gap between rich
What is fracking and what is its impact? Students explore the issue and the political landscape around it, including efforts by activists to ban the practice.
In some states, voters have stood in line for hours to cast their ballot. Why? In this short Teachable Instant activity, students explore the controversy over voter suppression in
These guidelines, which we developed following last year's Paris attacks, may be helpful in the wake of the recent violence in Brussels.
What are the demands of the Black Lives Matter movement, and what progress has it made in bringing social change? Students explore these questions with readings and discussion.
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This video shows the power of a student-facilitated restorative circle to build community through storytelling. The circle is implemented with fidelity, according to the key
A restorative conversation can turn a student’s problematic behavior into a teachable moment.
In this video students talk about restorative circles in the academic classroom and the impact circles have had on them and their school community.
This video shows the power of restorative circles to build community and address harm. Circles are discussed and implemented with fidelity, according to the key restorative circle
This lesson uses current civil disobedience actions by the Poor People's Campaign as an invitation to explore why people engage in civil disobedience. Students consider the goals
Morningside Center's Daniel Coles shares the poem "Shoulders" by Naomi Shihab Nye, and suggests ways to use the poem in your classroom.