By Kade Wells, Advance Middle School English Teacher and Founder of BuildingHeroez.com As Dungeons & Dragons approaches its fifth decade, its influence remains larger than ever. With more than 50 million fans worldwide, D&D continues to inspire fans of all ages with the power of collective imagination. “[In my time running games for students, I’ve

As the school year begins, teachers and students are facing challenges to their intellectual freedom like never before. From state legislation to executive orders to school district policies to administrator actions, book bans are at an all-time high, and teacher shortages are affecting every corner of the nation. But as a K-12 educator, you do

While censorship of one form or another has always plagued society as the definitions of what is “acceptable” in published works have shifted over time and all over the world, book bans and challenges in the US have doubled between 2020 and 2021, according to the American Library Association. This surge in challenged books is

As educators, we know how important it is to give students access and opportunity to books that provide “windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors” (Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop). It’s vital that we support every student and help them address issues they confront both in and out of the classroom. Finding those books and creating lessons

Calling all new teachers: welcome to your first official school year! Not sure where to begin? No problem! We’ve got you covered with our Resource Pack for New Teachers: Tips, Ideas and Booklists to Help You Get Started in the Classroom (Grades K-8). We asked two veteran educators to share some strategies and best practices

At Penguin Random House Education we believe that all students’ experiences, cultures, and languages must be valued and honored; to that end, we work with experienced educators to create classroom collections and resources that center, celebrate, and amplify students’ unique and diverse backgrounds.  Visit the PRH Education Translanguaging Collections product page to see booklists, download

The Penguin Random House Education Middle School and High School Digital Collections feature outstanding fiction and non-fiction from across Penguin Random House’s publishing divisions and distribution clients. Peruse online or download these valuable resources to discover great books in specific topic areas such as: English Language Arts, Social Studies, STEM, and Professional Learning. These new

The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) has officially launched “This Story Matters”, a campaign that includes a new online database which contains over six hundred book rationales highlighting plot summaries, teaching objectives, grade-level suggestions, alternative book titles, and more, all designed to help support educators when they are challenged in adopting new books into

In honor of their 75th anniversary, Penguin Classics has partnered with #DisruptTexts, a renowned education organization that works to create a more inclusive, representative and equitable language arts curriculum for K-12 students. Facilitated by Penguin Random House (PRH) Education, this partnership includes a number of new initiatives focused on connecting with, and supporting, educators through

The new DK Learning website is here! Building on DK’s 48 years of experience in producing award-winning books that have delighted and fascinated children worldwide for generations, DK Learning offers educational materials covering all key subject areas, mapped to U.S., British, International Baccalaureate, and Montessori curricula, from preschool through secondary school. The website—www.learning.dk.com—was developed alongside

Translanguaging is a communicative practice of bilinguals and multilinguals, that is, it is a practice whereby bilinguals and multilinguals use their entire linguistic repertoire to communicate and make meaning (García, 2009; García, Ibarra Johnson, & Seltzer, 2017)   It is through that lens that we have partnered with teacher educators and bilingual education experts, Drs.

By: Michele Borba, Ed.D.   “Why do some kids thrive while others strive?” My quest to find that answer began as a college student when I first learned of my own father’s childhood struggles. His parents were illiterate and destitute. His father died when he was two, and Dad was placed in an orphanage. Yet,