Home News HERE’S WHAT I THINK: New year, new motivation

HERE’S WHAT I THINK: New year, new motivation

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Ty Ankrom

The new year often brings with it a resurgence to change something. One’s diet, weight or plans for retirement are some areas that are often on the to-do list.

The new year can also be a good time to give students a boost with their academics. For some students, the past few months may have left them exhausted. For others, they may be excelling but not enjoying their schoolwork.

The following resources may provide teachers and parents with ideas to motivate students and themselves.

Scholastic’s Web site (www.scholastic.com) has links for teachers and parents.

On the teacher page, teachers can access lessons and ideas, books and authors, a blog that is broken down by grades and a tool kit.

On the parent page, visitors can choose an age up to 13 and a topic, such as guides for raising a reader and child development, book lists, and crafts and activities. On the parent page, there is a tool kit under the blog link.

Scholastic’s site also has links for administrators and librarians.

The Edutopia Web site (www.edutopia.org) was created by the George Lucas Educational Foundation. It provides articles on such topics as brain-based learning, critical thinking, literacy, social-emotional learning, teacher collaboration and development and teaching strategies.

The site also has an extensive video library that showcases evidence-based learning practices.

Innerchoice Publishing focuses on books about social-emotional learning. The Web site has resources (www.innerchoicepublishing.com/resources.html) that feature a resources archive, weekly activity and activities from Innerchoice books.

The Josephson Institute is an organization dedicated to promoting character development and ethics in young people.

Visitors need to create an account to access its resources (resources.charactercounts.org), but once done, they can access resources for bullying prevention, classroom management, a quotations bank (quotes relate to the organization’s six pillars of character) and a lesson plan bank.

I hope some of these links are helpful. If you have a favorite education site, please let me know.

Ty Ankrom is the superintendent of the Pickaway County Educational Service Center. He can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on The Pickaway News Journal