Links I Loved Last Week: A Round-Up of Online Reading 5/1/16

Jess Lifshitz has a fascinating post about a lesson she designed using picture book covers to help her students begin to think about their own racial and gender biases and stereotypes. This is such important work.

If you love podcasts as much as I do, be sure to check out these Five Fun Podcasts for English Teachers.

Supergirl is maybe our favorite show right now, and if you love it too, you’ll enjoy 15 Things I’m Grateful to Supergirl For.

I appreciated these suggestions for toning down your tech (via Doug Belshaw’s always excellent weekly newsletter, Thought Shrapnel.)

Ed Catmull, the President of Disney and Pixar, shares some interesting thoughts on creativity, risk, and failure in this interview.

If my son has to go back to school (long live homeschooling!), I’m definitely sharing 20 Tips to Help De-escalate Interactions with Anxious or Defiant Students.

I love using Book Bingo Challenge Sheets as invitations to read and really like Three Teachers Talk’s version: the students make their own personal reading challenges.

Pernille Ripp has a powerful piece about the troubles with standardized testing: The Test Does Not Care.

Moving Writers shares several writing activities with the goal of Making “Writer” A Label Students Can Wear.