We need to ensure that every generation knows the historical legacy of Juneteenth and how it informs the ongoing movement for racial justice and equality. Awareness and knowledge all begin with a simple first step: READING!

Check out our newest Choice Board filled with activities and lessons you can use with your class to teach about the significance of Juneteenth. Pick one or do them all. The choice is yours! 

Download the Choice Board!

Activity 1: Search for your vocabulary word of the day

Use this word search game to introduce and pre-teach vocabulary terms for Juneteenth. Pro tip: The first word your students see can be the vocabulary word for the day!

Activity 2: Read about the history of Juneteenth

Give students this reading comprehension lesson that uses informative and historical texts. 

Activity 3: Discuss and debate current events 

Spark deep discussion and reflection with your students with a current events debate question.

Activity 4: Create a Public Service Announcement 

Inspire action within your students. Allow students to create a public service announcement to educate others about the significance of Juneteenth.

Activity 5: Lead a diverse team in a Read to Lead game

Sign up for free or log in, and assign your class learning game, Unconcious Bias. As the boss, students will learn how to identify and address when a person, whether a friend or colleague, mistreats others based on an unconscious bias.

Activity 6: Watch diverse leaders in the spotlight

Pull up a chair, grab some popcorn, and listen to the journey of any of our guests on Read to Lead: Live! our student-friendly webinar series that gives students a front-row seat into career exploration. 

Activity 7:  Celebrate Juneteenth with your community

Hold class presentations, and give your students a platform to share what they learned with the community.

What are you waiting for? Sign up for a free Read to Lead account, and use the Choice Board to teach Juneteenth this year!

The post 7 Ideas for Teaching Juneteenth appeared first on Read to Lead.

According to the NCCP, nearly one in five children in the United States show symptoms of a mental health disorder, yet 80% of them will not receive treatment. 

While not a subject that is tested in school, giving students the social-emotional skills and tactics to help them better understand themselves and those around them can positively impact long-term learning and achievement.

To help educators teach Mental Health Awareness Month, we’ve bundled our favorite immersive learning games, activities, and resources that help students develop, recognize, and practice good mental health. 

Click here to download the free bundle!

Week 1: Support students in finding anxiety relief 

Finding outlets for anxiety and stress relief is becoming more and more important in our everyday life, and how we all manage this is different. This week, play learning game Vital Signs: High Anxiety with your students. When students take on the role of the boss in this immersive workday, students are challenged with diagnosing a patient who might be suffering from Anxiety. See the Answer Key here!

Later in the week, spark a discussion with your students to help them identify their feelings, explore strategies to manage anxiety, and make space to uplift each other with our Mental Health Awareness Supplemental lesson Anxiety Relief.

Week 2: Help students identify how to look for helpers

Knowing you’re never alone in life is key to managing mental health. This week play learning game Vital Signs: Diagnosis Unknown! As the director, students will need to work with their team to figure out the mysterious symptoms a patient is experiencing.  Answer Key.

Take it one step deeper and use Look for the Helpers supplemental lesson for students to find reassurance and hope while practicing compassion for the helpers in their communities.

Week 3: Support students in navigating complex decisions

Being able to navigate tough decisions is a muscle that has to be built over time. This week play learning game Community in Crisis: Medical Mystery to help students build that muscle. During this game, the community center team discovers a mold issue at the community housing complex. As the director, students must decide what they should do for the apartment residents while resolving the mold issue. Answer Key.

Later in the week, reinforce the importance of making informed decisions based on multiple forms of information using this supplemental lesson plan, Prioritizing Aid.

Week 4: Develop students’ self-awareness toward a bright future

Knowing your strengths and values is key to making the best decisions for a happy future. This week play learning game Community Pharmacy: Career Crossroads to help students develop their self-awareness. During this game, your student pharmacist is graduating and is torn between two career paths. As the Head Pharmacist, students must decide whether to support their student pharmacist’s decision to follow a new career path or recommend them for the hospital pharmacist job opening. Answer Key.

Later in the week, reinforce the importance of making decisions that will help students explore a future that can bring them happiness and a sense of fulfillment with this discussion and debate guide.

Bonus content: Show students how to manage emergencies

Unfortunately, in life, students will at some point have to manage emergency situations. To help them prepare, play learning game After the Storm: Emergency Management. During this game, the day after a hurricane hits the town, the editor-in-chief needs to decide the best method to get vital news and information out to the community while managing staff who are also dealing with the storm’s effects. Answer Key

Take it one step deeper and reinforce reading comprehension while promoting thoughtful reflection of the decisions made during the immersive work-day with this Discussion Guide. 

Quick tip!

You can now assign the learning games in the Mental Health Awareness Bundle right from the playlist section of your Activities Page Tab on the Read to Lead platform! Assign to your students in one click (yes it really is that easy!) A great activity for morning work, early-finisher activities, or extra credit!

Sign up for a free account to get started

Are you planning on using Read to Lead this month to support mental health awareness and social-emotional learning in your class? Sign up for a free account, and download your free lesson bundle!

The post Teach Mental Health Awareness Month appeared first on Read to Lead.

Women’s History Month is a celebration of women who have taken risks, broken frontiers, and paved the way for future generations. It is a recognition of the impact of women in history.

From the Daughters of Liberty, founded in 1765 as one of the earliest formal organizations of women in the US, to the Suffragettes who fought for women’s rights to vote – 

From Hedy Lamarr, who invented the technology that forms the foundation for WiFi, first used in World War II, to Claudette Colvin, a teenaged activist and pioneer in the civil rights movement who refused to give up her seat on the bus – 

And in more recent times, from Kamala Harris, the first Black-South Asian woman to become the Vice President of the US, to Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani activist for female education and the world’s youngest Nobel Prize laureate – 

Incredible women have pushed boundaries, expanded the role of women, and left their mark on history. Indeed, their work continues to impact our lives today.

Our students also have great potential to be the next generation of leaders, innovators, and women making history.  They stand poised to be the pioneers for the next generation, and we, as educators, have to equip them with the necessary tools to create history. 

Find out how you can empower your students to become the trailblazers of the future with these four strategies!

1. Debate and Discuss

Women’s issues have come a long way, and every day, countless women are out there continuing to pave a better, brighter future for our youth. However, there is still room for improvement and a myriad of issues that women are still fighting for. 

What better way to teach women’s history in the making than to bring these discussions into your classroom? Whether it’s how to get more women into leadership roles, or close the gender pay gap, introducing these topics to your students through debates and discussions can help them become more engaged in issues concerning women.

If you’re wondering where to start – don’t worry; we’ve got you covered! Use this debate question about mandatory paid parental leave from Read to Lead’s special Women’s History Month supplement to promote a discussion through debate. 

2. Introduce Representation and Diversity through Read to Lead Games

Do your students love games? Why not use Read to Lead learning games to highlight just how your students too can become women who make a difference in their communities?

The Read to Lead gamified platform gives students the opportunity to interact with a diverse staff in a wide range of professions, as well as introduces students to women in positions of leadership – all while playing fun games. This array of characters helps expose students to different career paths and shows them that women, too, can try new things, push boundaries, and be agents of change in their community.

By introducing representation and diversity that showcases women occupying important positions in different fields and industries, we empower our students to see themselves in these roles.

Each game in Read to Lead also presents an issue that students need to resolve. By working through these games, students hone their critical thinking and SEL skills. In addition to that, these issues are related to common issues in the workplace and society, including women’s issues.

For example, in the learning game, Financial Crisis (Morning), LaDonna Watkins asks for a pay raise. Educators can use this as a springboard for discussions around the gender wage gap and how this negatively impacts not just women but everyone in society.

3. Tune in to Read to Lead: Live! a career chat webinar series 

Pull up a chair, grab some popcorn, and listen to the journey of a trailblazing modern-day woman entrepreneur – Tiffany Norwood, Founder, and CEO of Tribetan. 

At the young age of 27, she raised $670 million to build the first-ever global digital radio platform, launch three satellites into space, support the development of MP3/MP4 technologies, and invest in a new generation of digital radio receivers. Tiffany was also the first in her family to be born with all of her civil rights, thanks to the women activists who fought for them.

Want your students to learn from other women who have smashed gender stereotypes and challenged the status quo? The Read to Lead: Live! Library also has a selection of great interviews with other women who have made an impact in their industry – all for you and your students’ viewing pleasure!

4. Build Literacy Skills to Empower Women Trailblazers of the Future

Reading and literacy skills are a strong predictor of future success and the foundation to create empowered women. If we want to cultivate the women leaders and trailblazers of the future, we have to start now. By helping our students develop their literacy skills, we are setting them up for success.

But we get it: getting students to read can be difficult! That’s why we’ve created the Million Words Read Challenge! 

Combining competition and collaboration while constantly cheering on students to success, this isn’t your average reading challenge –  but it’s sure to get your students in the spirit of reading! And with 5,000 words read per Read to Lead game completed, students will be expanding their literacy skills by leaps and bounds, putting them on the path to future success.

Women’s history month is a great time for us to celebrate the successes and achievements of the women who have paved the way to where we are today. It is also a time to look to the future – and see our students as the future generation of women pioneers making history. 

Get started on empowering your students with Read to Lead by clicking here!

The post Teaching Women’s History in the Making appeared first on Read to Lead.

As educators, we can help students explore options before they have to start deciding on diploma paths. We can help them increase awareness in their self-discovery and education. 

National Careers Week is March 7 – 12th this year, and we’re here to help you boost career readiness for your students. Let’s get your class started with career exploration in the pharmacy industry. Here’s what to do with your class!

Download the Lesson Bundle!

Monday

Expose your students to a career in pharmacy. 

Engage students in deep career exploration and social-emotional learning experiences through immersive gameplay with the Community Pharmacy learning game. 

You’ll want to create a free Read to Lead account if you don’t already have one! See the lesson plan here.

Students will gain literacy and decision-making skills as they help their student pharmacist make their own career path choice — all within the immersive context of a day at work. 

Assign your students their first learning game, Career Crossroads.

Tuesday

Engage students in healthy debate.

Practice skills like listening, speaking clearly, and respecting all opinions by hosting a debate based on yesterday’s immersive work-day. 

Use this debate guide to center the discussion!

Tech Tip: You can post the debate in Google Classroom and allow students to comment on each other’s responses using conversation starters!

Wednesday

Give students a front-row seat into career exploration.

Grab the popcorn and watch an on-demand Read to Lead: Live! session where students will get an inside look into the leadership journey of passionate professionals around the country. 

If you thought the on-demand session was powerful, you have to catch a LIVE session! Sign up for the next one on April 1st here!

Thursday

Spark deep class discussion.

Read to Lead: Live! always seems to spark deep questions and reflections for students about their passions, desires, challenges, and futures. 

Use this discussion guide to spark deep discussion and reflection with your students!

Friday

Connect literacy to career readiness.

We know reading unlocks all other learning. Since your students have already played one Read to Lead game, each student has read 5K words!

Help students reach one million words read by joining the Million Words Read Challenge. 

When your class reaches Millionaire status (collectively), we send you student prize packs to celebrate this achievement with your class!

Check the leaderboard to see where your class stands!

And that’s a wrap! We hope your students leave this week feeling inspired, encouraged, and most of all confident in what’s next in their self-discovery and career journey. Want to continue bringing career worlds to your students? Sign up for a free account and start building students’ literacy, life, and career skills year-round!

The post Celebrate National Careers Week 2022 appeared first on Read to Lead.

Here are a few of our favorite mic drop moments captured live.

How did you turn your childhood hobby of making videos with toys into a career?

“When I was a senior in college I made a film. — Might as well do the thing that is most interesting to me, and so I made a LEGO film as my senior thesis.– I had a professor who told me in terms of making films- whatever your idea is, pick something that you’re really going to fall in love with. That really stuck with me. After I graduated, it was a couple of years later that people who worked at the LEGO company saw it.  I transitioned somehow from making films with toys in my spare time to making films with toys for the company that makes those toys.”

Can you talk about how it is instrumental to have a team of folks that we trust and rely on for different reasons ?

“None of what I have been able to accomplish was on my own. I can’t overstate how helpful the people in my life have been. — Filmmaking is inherently a collaborative effort.”

What does leadership mean to you?

“Knowing how to admit to mistakes and apologize when necessary. Having a humility and recognizing that not everything is going to go your way sometimes and sort of taking care of the people that you work with.”

How can students show and embrace leadership opportunities now?

“Find your team. Getting involved. There is no age requirement for that. If there is something you know a lot about or if there is something where your time or effort or just your presence can be helpful, seek it out if it’s something that interests you.”

What would you tell your 10-year-old self?

“The word no doesn’t have to be a negative thing, it can be you treating yourself with care.”

Our middle schoolers sent in so many questions for David that we couldn’t get to them all during this one session, so we sent him the most popular unanswered questions and asked if he could put on his author’s hat and write in his responses for you to read…

Where does a student start if they’re interested in getting into the film industry? – Nakul

“For a student in middle school, here’s what I would suggest:

• Watch films. Rent old and new movies, watch TV shows, and keep an eye on commercials and advertisements. Try and seek out things you wouldn’t normally watch, too! If you pay attention, you can begin to pick up on how things are done, and why.
• Read about filmmaking. There are some great books you can check out about film history and technique. I am, of course, partial to “The LEGO Animation Book” but there are tons of others.
• Start making films. To be a filmmaker, you have to make films—it’s pretty much that simple. Get access to a camera (if you don’t already have one) and check out some editing software and tutorials online. A quick web search will pull up many different software packages for Macintosh, Windows, and mobile devices.

Then, just have fun and play around. Be prepared to make lots of bad movies in between the good ones—everyone does this (myself included) and it’s the only way to get better.”

What is your most favorite project you’ve worked on? – Asher 

“The latest project I’m proud of is “Little Guys… In Space!”—the biggest, craziest, most complicated film I’ve ever made. Everything in the film is built from LEGO bricks and elements. There are 27 characters across 11 different locations, and the characters alone took a total of 33,286 LEGO pieces to create. It took a crew of 18 people 2,528 hours over the course of 7 1/2 years to complete. And the film is only 3 minutes long.”

What does the day-to-day look like for you? – Unknown

“This is difficult to answer because I work on many different types of projects, and I perform different roles on each. Some days, I’m running the show, wrangling the big-picture details and making sure I’m communicating clearly with my team. Other days, I’m the one receiving direction, and I need to make the thing that I’ve been hired to make as good as it can possibly be.

For me, the best days are when I get to work with my friends on a really complicated or clever stop-motion shot, and we get really excited or can’t stop cracking up at what we’ve made. It’s satisfying, and it helps reassure me that an audience might find it funny and exciting, too. But even the best days can take many forms. I like that there is no one typical day on the job.”

What kinds of skills and personality traits do you need to be a Filmmaker? – Keshav

“This can vary from project to project, but here are a few important ones that come to mind:

• Problem-solving. On every project, there are going to be hiccups and issues that are impossible to anticipate. Bad weather, late shipments, broken cameras, and so forth. As a filmmaker, you need to be good at thinking on your feet to solve these things as they come up.
• Being decisive. This ties in to problem solving a bit, but you need to be good at taking action in order to keep the production moving and meet your deadlines. When other people are counting on you, there’s not much room to waffle back and forth.
• Being a good communicator. Your crew will do their best work when they know exactly what you have in mind, what is expected of them, when the deadlines are, etc.
• Working well with others. Filmmaking is an inherently collaborative art form, and no two artists are alike. Being able to navigate different personality types and work together towards a common goal is key.” 

Do you have a favorite app you use? – Unknown 

“ At Paganomation, we use a number of computer programs in our productions:

• Dragonframe is used for stop-motion photography. We animate each individual shot as its own series of still photos. 

• Adobe After Effects is used to put the stop-motion shots together, and to add special effects. 

• Adobe Premiere is used for video editing (for live-action and behind-the-scenes work). 

• Adobe Audition is used for sound editing and mixing. 

• Logic and GarageBand are used for music scoring. 

• Bricklink Studio is used to create building instructions for our LEGO creations. That way, we have the option to rebuild old sets and props for future projects.”

Do you have a favorite LEGO character? – Unknown 

“ The LEGO sets of my childhood didn’t really have defined characters in the way that modern LEGO play themes do. That said, I’m very fond of the Captain Redbeard and Johnny Thunder minifigures.”

Do you ever get writer’s block? – Tia’s classroom 

“ All the time! I typically solve my writer’s block by doing something entirely unrelated to the project I’m working on. I go off and play a game, exercise, or wash the dishes. (I wrote much of “The LEGO Animation Book” on the train and at the laundromat.)

Focusing on chores or other unrelated activities can provide moments of inspiration, and like many things in life, they’ll come at you when you’re completely unaware.”

Your career has mostly been stop-motion animation and it’s safe to assume that is your preferred medium, is there another medium you like to do, like live-action or digital animation? and why? – Unknown 

“ I primarily use LEGO stop-motion because it combines many of my interests:

• physical storytelling and performance
• creating mixed media and assemblage artwork from pre-existing component parts
• surrealism, abstraction, and experimentation
• work that can primarily be done in a small studio or spare room

But for me, it’s less about a specific filmmaking medium and more about checking as many of these boxes as possible. 

For example, the live-action documentary I’m directing right now (“The Importance of Being Ernest“) is about Jim Varney, a physical storyteller who played some very surreal characters. I’ll be assembling his story out of interview footage, old film clips, and music. And I’m not yet sure where we’ll be shooting the interviews, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was in a small studio or spare room.” 

And that’s a wrap! Whether you caught this session live or will be watching it on-demand, we hope your students feel inspired by David’s story. Add your name to the waiting list to get up to date news for the next Read to Lead: Live!

The post Filmmaker, David Pagano, Speaks to Middle Schoolers on Read to Lead Live appeared first on Read to Lead.

This is one of many questions posed to career leaders who participated in Read to Lead: Discover, a virtual career fair that introduces middle school students from across the country to an exciting range of professions.

On November 19th, more than one thousand students joined Read to Lead: Discover for an afternoon of career exploration. Students were divided into various breakout rooms, which allowed them to interact with professionals working in industries such as technology, real estate, pharmacy, education, and the performing arts. Throughout the day, these middle school students were given an opportunity to imagine their own career paths as they learned about the journeys and current roles of the career leaders involved.

 Watch the re-cap REEL on Instagram!

The keynote speaker was Kwamara Thompson, who works to elevate Read to Lead’s national community of educators and leads the strategic vision for school partner acquisition and retention. She shared with the students how pursuing a career is not always a straight line, but one that might have hills to climb as well as detours. 

Read to Lead: Discover expands on Read to Lead’s innovative learning games, which empower students to “be the boss” in immersive workplace scenarios while building their literacy and leadership skills. Originally imagined by Read to Lead’s passionate community of educators, the career fair is designed to provide middle school students with real-world insights into how their own skills and talents can contribute to their future career journey. 

For teachers, the exposure to careers at the middle school age is invaluable. One teacher expressed that she appreciated how students could participate in live sessions with a number of career leaders. One student responded that they enjoyed “asking about their career experiences and challenges,” while another shared that it was interesting to learn about jobs in human resources, a field they did not previously know about.

Kerri Rauschenbach, Senior Director of IT Governance at General Atlantic, shared why she chose to participate as a career leader:

“I love how the program, Read to Lead, provides children the opportunity to apply their reading, writing, and social-emotional skills in real world situations. I would have loved this program when I was in my middle school years.”

This fall’s Read to Lead: Discover was made possible through the generous signature sponsorship of the General Atlantic Foundation, along with the sponsorship of Empire State Realty Trust. 

Are you and your company interested in participating in our next Read to Lead: Discover in spring 2022? Email Matt Chacko at mchacko@readtolead.org to join in on our next career exploration day!

The post Read to Lead: Discover Provides Real-World Career Exploration for Middle School Students appeared first on Read to Lead.

Can’t spend all month on Career Development? That’s ok – we got you covered with a week planner or day planner if that’s all the time you have!

Get the free lesson planner!

Week 1: Build background knowledge around job qualifications

Start the week by identifying characteristics of an effective boss with a skill-building activity. Continue the conversation with a lesson focusing on defining and discussing the purpose of a job posting. Students will put these skills into practice when they play learning game, A Job to Do, as they look to fill a new role at the community center. Close the week with Read to Lead: Live!, A student-centered webinar career chat series. Sign up for your tickets here!

Week 2: Start exploring careers

Allow students to spend some time thinking about career opportunities they express an interest in. Engage in reflective class conversations and support students in organizing their ideas using graphic organizers as the first step in their career exploration.  

Then, engage them with a real-word scenario with a Read to Lead learning game, Come Together, where students help an employee at the medical clinicas  they learn about budgets and staff development.

Week 3: Explore different roles in the workplace

Use a group activity lesson, Worst Case Scenario: Making Decisions, with your students. Each student will be assigned a different role and learn to collaborate with a team of peers to make the best possible decisions.  Then come together as a whole class to share strategies, and discuss different methods of problem solving each group used.

Deepen the understanding and importance of responsibilities one has in the workforce, with a close reading activity using an excerpt from President John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural address.

Week 4: Experience the job search and hiring process

Begin conversations about how organizations go about hiring employees and how job seekers prepare themselves when job hunting. Students, as editor-in-chief of a digital magazine, will experience this process as they learn about job qualifications and staff development in Staffing Plan. 

Afterwards, review the job description they were fulfilling and discuss the type of information a job description should include to attract the best candidates.

Week 5: Create a resume

Compile all that knowledge and research your students completed, and have them work on their resumes. It’s never too soon to start building a resume. 

And that’s a wrap! We hope your students leave this month feeling inspired, encouraged, and most of all confident in what’s next in their self-discovery and career journey.

Get the free lesson planner  to get access to all the learning activities in this post and more! Follow along on social media @readtoleadgames and post your class in action – we want to see those future leaders!

The post What to Teach for Career Development Month appeared first on Read to Lead.

As part of the educator community, we know how important it is to weave anti-bullying life lessons into instruction so students are prepared to address bullying through effective conflict resolutions, instead of resorting to bullying tactics themselves. Instead of just sharing and reading stories about how others deal with bullies, let’s pumpkin spice things up a little and put your students in the mediator role with a fun activity: playing Read to Lead’s immersive learning games!

Check out our FREE Anti-Bullying Mediator Bundle filled with learning games, lessons, debates, and projects you can use with your class to teach students how to recognize bullying and how to resolve issues without resorting to bullying tactics. Pick one or do them all. The choice is yours!

Download the Anti-Bullying Mediator Bundle! 

Week 1: Play immersive learning games

Put students in a real-life scenario while they play learning game, Restorative Justice, where they gain literacy and reasoning skills while learning anti-bullying techniques. Or support students to learn the difference between gossip vs. fact and the dangers of bullying while playing Truthteller.

Week 2: Read about Anti-Bullying Month

Give students this reading comprehension lesson that uses informative text to uncover  the essential question “How does declaring October Anti-Bullying Month help reduce bullying?” 

Week 3: Discuss and debate 

Spark deep discussion and reflection with your students with an Anti Bullying Debate question.

 Extra credit: Watch past or upcoming debates on your local news channel and use it as an example of what not to do in preparation for respectful debates in your classroom.

Week 4: Create a Public Service Announcement 

Inspire action within your students. Allow students to create a public service announcement to promote kindness, acceptance, and inclusion.

There you have it! Four weeks of teaching National Bullying Prevention Month and fostering the skills students need express kindness, acceptance, and inclusivity.

The post Teach Kindness for Bullying Prevention Month appeared first on Read to Lead.

As one educator puts it: “On Read to Lead: Live! my students have the opportunity to see and hear individuals who look like them, “in-person.” This allows them to connect what they’ve read, seen, or learned in class to the real world.”  – Kimberly 

Misty shared her incredible story as an artist, author, and leader with 15,000 students across the country, including the inspiring message that “everyone has it inside them to be a leader.” 

If you missed the live session, you can catch it on-demand here. After watching the live session with your class, you can use this discussion guide to spark reflection and discussion with your students. 

Here were a few of our favorite mic drop moments captured live. ????

What would you tell your 10-year-old self?

“Be patient and know that your passion, hard work, & belief in wanting a better life for yourselves and your family is enough. Love yourself and allow other people to love you.”

What does leadership mean to you?

“Leadership is really about believing in yourself and others.”

What does it mean to be a good leader?

“We all have it in us to be leaders. It’s not necessarily being the loudest person in the room. Leadership is about being fearless, about having faith in yourself and your abilities, and believing in the things that are important to you.”

Our middle schoolers sent in so many questions for Misty that we couldn’t get to them all during this one session, so she wrote her responses to some of the many unanswered questions.

How do you stay so motivated to continue training? – Tahirah

“Seeing how this generation of young people is so invested in making our world a better place is [the] motivation for me to keep striving even on the hardest of days. “

How did you balance ballet and school work? – Kaitlyn 

“Ballet actually pushed me to be better in school. The more responsibility I had, the easier it was for me to add on work. But I definitely had to make sacrifices. I wasn’t hanging out with friends during the week, and I was doing homework any free moment I had between dance classes and rehearsals.”

Do you get nervous before going on stage? And what do you do to calm those butterflies? – Cadence

“I never really got nervous as a child and only started to feel that way as a professional once I started to realize the weight of the roles I was dancing and what it meant to dance them as a Black woman. But when I do start to feel anxious or nervous, I first remind myself why I love to dance and perform. Then I dive deep into the character I’m portraying. It makes things less scary if it’s not you on the stage, but the character you are becoming during the show.”

What would you consider to be the highlight of your career? – Sophie

“I have two highlights for sure. My first NYC performance of the ballet Firebird in 2012 was the first time I saw so many black and brown people come to Lincoln Center to see a ballet. The second would be when I was promoted to Principal Dancer with American Ballet Theatre in 2015.” 

I am an aspiring ballerina, and I want to know how you got so good at ballet? – Katherine 

“ Twenty-five years of hard work, dedication, sacrifice, and commitment. But what’s been equally necessary and important was having support from those around me.”

When you were in middle school, how many ballet class hours did you take a week? – Ashanti 

“ I was taking two ballet classes a day, and sometimes I would take a modern dance class on those days as well. So some days it was three classes a day, and I was dancing six days a week.”

Why did you want to become a ballerina? – Hannah 

“ Because it was an escape from a lot of hardships in my life, and I loved moving, performing, and expressing myself with my body. I fell in love with classical music, as well as the history and structure of ballet.”

What’s your favorite song and why? – Bryn 

“ There is an old song by Mariah Carey called, Looking In. It has been a favorite of mine since I was about 14 years old because the lyrics resonated with me at the time. It’s about feeling different and trying to get people to understand you and why you are who you are. I felt like she wrote it just for me.” 

And that’s a wrap! Whether you caught this session live or will be watching it on-demand, we hope your students feel inspired by Misty’s story. Sign up to save your seat for the next Read to Lead: Live!

The post Misty Copeland Speaks Directly to Middle Schoolers on Read to Lead: Live! appeared first on Read to Lead.

As educators, we can help students explore options before they have to start deciding on diploma paths. We can help them increase awareness in their self-discovery and education. 

National Careers Week is March 1 – 6th this year, and we’re here to help you boost career readiness for your students. Here’s what to do with your class!

Monday

Engage students in an immersive work-day experience. 

Engage students in deep career exploration and social-emotional learning experiences through immersive gameplay with the Community in Crisis learning game. 

You’ll want to create a free Read to Lead account if you don’t already have one! See the lesson plan here.

Students take on the role of the “boss” as they read closely, think critically, lead a diverse team, and solve complex problems — all within the immersive context of a day at work. 

Play Community in Crisis game 12: Come Together

Answer key

Tuesday

Engage students in healthy debate.

Practice skills like listening, speaking clearly, and being respectful of all opinions by hosting a debate based on yesterday’s immersive work-day. 

Use this debate guide to center the discussion!

Tech Tip: You can post the debate in Google Classroom and allow students to comment on each other’s responses using conversation starters!

Wednesday

Give students a front-row seat into career exploration.

Grab the popcorn and watch an on-demand Read to Lead: Live! session where students will get an inside look into the leadership journey of passionate professionals around the country and learn about different careers across multiple disciplines and industries. 

If you thought the on-demand session was powerful, you have to catch a LIVE session! Sign up for the next one on March 12th here!

Thursday

Spark deep class discussion.

Read to Lead: Live! always seems to spark deep questions and reflections for students about their passions, desires, challenges, and future. 

Use this discussion guide to spark deep discussion and reflection with your students!

Friday

Connect literacy to career readiness.

We know reading unlocks all other learning. Since your students have already played one Read to Lead game, each student has read 5K words!

Help students reach one million words read by joining the Million Words Read Challenge. 

When your class reaches Millionaire status (collectively), we send you student prize packs and a gift card to celebrate this achievement with your class!

Check the leaderboard to see where your class stands!

And that’s a wrap! We hope your students leave this week feeling inspired, encouraged, and most of all confident in what’s next in their self-discovery and career journey.

The post Celebrate National Careers Week with Read to Lead appeared first on Read to Lead.