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
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In January 2016, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced its Oscar Award nominations. For the second year in a row, no actors of color were nominated. This has led
History has a way of smoothing out the complexities of real-life events. This brief TeachableInstant lesson explores some forgotten or misrepresented facts about the movement for
Students learn about how much coverage the media are providing to different presidential candidates and discuss why coverage of the candidates varies so widely.
This brief activity includes a quiz, reading and discussion about the occupation of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon by anti-government protesters.
In the closing days of 2015, some of the highest flood waters ever recorded hit the Mississippi River valley. This activity encourages students to empathize with flood victims, and
Three short student readings provide background on the sharing economy and its critics and examine the pros and cons of Airbnb and Uber. Questions for discussion follow.
Some facts and questions about how much many Americans buy and waste over the holidays - and how we feel about it.
In the wake of recent anti-Muslim attacks by Trump and others, students read and discuss profiles of diverse Muslim Americans, consider how they may be feeling about recent events
Students learn about the historic global climate agreement reached in Paris on December 12, 2015, and consider different reactions to it.
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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