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The Industrial Revolution brings to mind smoky factories and puffing trains. But it was much more than just those new inventions. The technology of the Industrial Revolution turned daily life upside down: What to eat. Where to live. How to work, travel, communicate and simply spend the day. What was revolutionary about the Industrial Revolution? Pretty much everything. The Industrial Revolution set off an explosion of change, and history hasn't stopped flying since. During The Industrial Revolution... The world population DOUBLED. Then it doubled again! The invention of the telegraph allowed people to communicate around the world faster than ever.…

This week, the Obamas, the poet Nikki Giovanni and singer Aretha Franklin and thousands of others gathered to dedicate the new Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. You can learn about that story, and others, in the most recent Week in Rap! You don't need to wait till January to teach your students about MLK; this week's dedication is a relevant opportunity to learn more about King's life and inspire students to set lofty goals.

Spread the words on Twitter with the hashtag #favword Last night, we had the honor of hosting a discussion about vocabulary with the creative and dedicated English educators of #engchat. Two topics came up again and again: word ownership & love of language We discussed how it is crucial for students to not only learn new words, but feel comfortable with them, use them, own them. And several teachers remarked upon successful moments where they'd shared their love of language with students. We had an idea. Let's start a Twitter campaign to promote word ownership and love of language. To…

Two Truths & A Lie started out as an ice-breaker or a party game. The rules are simple. You say three things about yourself: two are true, and one is a lie. The rest of the group tries to pick out the lie. And in the process, you get to know some ludicrous things about your new friends or classmates. It's a fun, quick way to build classroom culture. But we've taken this game a step further with The Week in Rap. Each week, we create a varying printable activity to accompany the video. This week, students can play Two…