Timely resources to help K-12 educators encourage social responsibility and foster social & emotional learning. Find out more.
TeachableMoment Lessons
Featured Lessons
In honor of Teacher Appreciation week, Morningside Center offers this Circle-based lesson as an invitation for students and Circle keepers to reflect on the impactful teachers and “teachers” in their lives; what lessons were learned; and ways they’ve passed this learning forward.
Spring is a natural time for transformation, for embracing new beginnings while shedding those attitudes or mindsets that no longer serve us. It’s also an ideal time to consider the changes in our lives and their impact. In this lesson students reflect on change, grief, and loss through a scrawl wall, a circle, and building a collective playlist.
In this lesson students examine New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s inauguration speech to learn what a speech can reveal about a leader’s values, priorities and vision for democracy—and how a speech can shape how people see themselves and others in a community.
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
Filter TeachableMoment Lessons By:
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.
In communicating with students, focus on the behavior you want to see and encourage, not the off-task or disruptive behavior you want to stop.
This lesson uses the example of a bidding war by cities to become Amazon's second headquarters to explore the question of providing public subsidies to private companies. Students
In this video the school to prison pipeline is explained and connected to how punitive discipline in schools disproportionately targets African American students, pushing them out
Filter TeachableMoment Lessons By:
Students explore ways to creatively connect, show each other support, and display kindness amid this pandemic.
12 tips to help you take care of yourself in the coming weeks and months.
The effects of the $2 trillion coronavirus relief package will be felt by everyone. Students read about and discuss this historic and controversial legislation.
Both teachers and parents may find these basic social and emotional learning (SEL) practices, from deep breathing to self-talk, helpful during this stressful time.
As schools and districts shift to online learning in response to the coronavirus, we educators need to create supportive and caring classroom communities in this new virtual
It's helpful to create community guidelines for our online gatherings of staff - during the coronavirus pandemic, or at any time. Here are some sample guidelines from a recent