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Gift your students the gift of career readiness

by Interdisciplinary

Nearly three years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, K12 educators and students alike are still adjusting to the new normal. While school districts pivoted quickly to online and remote learning options in March of 2020, the effects of the disruption are still being seen in students’ preparedness as they move on to college and careers. And that’s something the new normal was never meant to represent, unprepared students. In order to help students get back on track, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) continues to offer Elementary and Secondary School Emergency relief (ESSER) funds. A recently released letter outlines how to use the stimulus funds to expand on college and career readiness strategies.

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Supporting Technology Training for Educators

by Interdisciplinary

Supporting Technology Training for Educators

Kyla Jacquez

Digital Marketing Manager • National Geographic Learning | Cengage

As educators prepare to send students home for the holiday season and end a successful semester, they are also preparing for a strong start in the New Year. As schools have transitioned between remote, hybrid, and in-person teaching, the use of technology in the classroom continues to grow each year.  

The implementation of teaching and learning technology in the classroom is constantly improving, with the intent of building online learning solutions that allow for a more immersive and holistic student experience  and leaves teachers time to focus on teaching. However, according to a recent EdWeek article, 48% of educators said that training they receive for educational tools was “mediocre or poor”, and that there was “little or no follow-up coaching or training”.

At National Geographic Learning, a part of the Cengage Group, we strive to support teachers in all stages of implementing learning technologies. With our ability to connect to a variety of learning management systems, and our extensive options for online learning platforms, we make sure that we’re not just a vendor but a partner in education. We have various teams dedicated to easing the journey between adopting one of our solutions and effectively using it in the classroom and beyond.  

Our Customer Success Consultants (CSC) are a team trained to set up educators for the successful implementation of our products. The CSC team specializes in in-person or virtual group trainings for adopted National Geographic Learning/Cengage print and digital programs. Training sessions are tailored to customer needs based on the program and integration setup of online learning platforms. Trainers are well-versed in the integration setups that schools utilize most – including Canvas and Google Classroom.  The team has been able to support over 530 training sessions for K-12 educators across the country during the busy back-to-school season from June through September in 2022. We were able to gather feedback from some of those educators below. 

“This was great. I liked how Brock took the time to ask us what we wanted from the training and then covered those topics exactly.” 

“…the pace was perfect (not to fast or too slow), demonstrations were super helpful and so was pausing often to ask us if we had questions. Incredibly professional and I look forward to working with her if I have any questions!” 

“Trainer knew her group. She was prepared and gave us the material on what we purchased. She gave direct instruction on what we have. It was not a cookie –cutter presentation like so many others. Well appreciated.” 

“Lori was extremely knowledgeable and was able to provide answers to specific questions related to the online platform. I appreciate so much that she was able to meet with me individually as I seek to build capacity in our district. Her follow up after the meeting was immediate and addressed everything we discussed during the meeting. Thank you so much! I felt much better equipped to support our teachers following our time together.” 

Another resource we offer to customers to support their online learning platform needs is our Digital Success Services (DSS) team. This group of agents are specially prepared to assist teachers after the initial setup or group training with the CSC team. This allows users to dive deeper into our programs and ask questions in a supportive, guided, and customized experience. The DSS team offers virtual 1-on-1 training sessions at the convenience of the teacher or administrator.  With this easy setup, our team completed over 600 sessions between June and October of this year. Here’s what our learning partners had to say about our DSS team:

“Brittany was extremely helpful! So much so that I remember she was my initial trainer last year and it was great to be able to pick up where we left off in terms of what my needs were, how far I got in my learning curve last year, and what I hope to do additionally this year. She tracked well with those needs and had the knowledge to bring up suggestions for me to consider that may benefit me and my students down the road. I am very happy with the training and know I can pursue follow-up any time if needed.” 

“Dani is one of the best customer service representatives for ANY company that I have ever encountered. She was professional and patient. Her conversation was helpful and showed respect, helping me with my problem without making me feel inadequate in any way. I am thankful to have talked with her today.” 

“The trainers were pheromonal! Our questions were answered, and the trainers were very patient with us as we clicked our way through their tutorial. Cengage provides awesome personal help for their resources. Keep up the good work!” 

As K–12 education continues to evolve and becomes more reliant on online learning technologies, National Geographic Learning will continue to set the bar higher. Supporting customers along their journey with specially prepared CSC and DSS teams, along with an abundance of on-demand online learning resources available through our website makes implementation and online learning platform usage a breeze.  

If you are interested in learning more about a group session with our Customer Success Consultants, please contact your sales representative for more information. Click here to schedule a personalized training session today! Finally, learn more  about our many online learning resources by visiting our website today.

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Ups and Downs

At the End of the Road: How We Change

by with No Comment Interdisciplinary

At the End of the Road: How We Change

Lillygol Sedaghat and Cory Howell

Multimedia Storytellers • Suān tián kǔ là: The Flavors of Life

Join us in this three-part series as we bike 800 miles down Oregon and California, exploring the impacts of COVID and climate change in coastal communities. This series focuses on stories of people, place, and change.

The City sprawled on the other side of the Bridge. White homes and glass monoliths, patches of grass and beach and trees covered the peninsula. From here it looked like a diorama, cut from construction paper and held together with cheap glue and invisible tape.

Our bikes stood against the railing. Compared to the bridges on the Oregon coast, the Golden Gate seemed so stable, its pathway so wide. And even still, I got a pulling in my stomach when I glanced over the edge.

We tried taking a few photos, tried shooting some video.

It felt like we needed to do something to celebrate, like we needed something to mark the fact that we’d biked all 800 miles.

But mostly, we just stood and looked out at the Bay.

As we crossed into San Francisco, dodging other cyclists, threading our way through hikers and walking groups and tourists taking selfies, I was surprised at the sheer number of people.

I was surprised too, that everyone here was actually wearing masks.

At the start of our trip, it struck me that COVID-19 really was affecting the rest of the world. Intellectually, I knew masks and social distancing weren’t confined to our hometown. But seeing it in person, recognizing other communities were also struggling through the pandemic, it made it feel more real.

And it made the divide feel more immediate.

We saw it at the cafe in North Bend that didn’t mandate masks. It surfaced again in a Mendocino coffee shop, where a family flatly refused to wear face coverings. We felt it at the diner in Klamath where the waitress and cooks and customers–all maskless–stopped and stared at us like we’d walked in from an alternate reality.

We could feel the frustration–the frustration at the mixed messaging, at the constant changes. The frustration that businesses and individuals often feel when they’re left to figure it out on their own.

Mostly we saw people trying to make it work–they followed local guidelines, they put up signs. They adapted.

But everywhere we went, whatever the response, we could feel the fatigue, we could see the desire for normalcy. We could see the longing for things to get back to the way they were.

Everywhere we went, we could see that people just wanted to live their lives.

Social Distancing

We walked the last three blocks. After being out on country roads for so long, all the cars rushing around and hunting for parking, the delivery trucks occupying half the street with their flashers on, the pedestrians looking down at their phones, the urban bikers ignoring traffic signals–it all seemed so overwhelming.

When we found the apartment, actually got inside, and leaned the bikes in the entry hall, we hugged.

“We made it,” I said. “We made it.”

We’d resolved to explore the City on foot today and tomorrow, to avoid the stress of navigating SF on wheels. We changed into dry clothes and headed out to find lunch.

Before walking out the door, we paused, and looked at our bikes. They stood there against the wall. And we left.

CLASSROOM APPLICATION

Our attitudes towards the virus and the way we’ve adapted are strongly influenced by our social environments and cultures. Consider how the pandemic has changed the way you view space, time, and people.

  • • Compare and Contrast: How has COVID-19 changed your social perceptions? Compare and contrast attitudes you’ve seen before and during the pandemic regarding personal space, punctuality, and how people interact with public areas.
  • • Create a Vlog: Pretend to be a Professor of Human Geography 30 years in the future preparing a lesson on the coronavirus pandemic. Discuss how social practices and life have changed in your community as a result of the pandemic. 
  • • Creative Writing: Pick a favorite song and rewrite the lyrics to reflect the changes you’ve had to make as a result of the pandemic. How have these changes affected your perception of life before the COVID-19?

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Navigating Climate Change on a Bike: Riding Through Fire Season

by with No Comment Interdisciplinary

Navigating Climate Change on a Bike: Riding Through Fire Season

Lillygol Sedaghat and Cory Howell

Multimedia Storytellers • Suān tián kǔ là: The Flavors of Life

Join us in this three-part series as we bike 800 miles down Oregon and California, exploring the impacts of COVID and climate change in coastal communities. This series focuses on stories of people, place, and change.

We just wanted to sleep in. But when we woke up, our legs sore from the previous day’s 43 miles, the eerie orange light streaming through the window caught our eyes. Something wasn’t right.

We pulled on our sweatshirts, our sockless shoes.

And when we stepped outside, the sky was an apocalyptic yellow. Something about all the smoke made the air seem thick–like we could swim through it, like we could touch it and feel it.

The fires had erupted seemingly overnight. Dry conditions and high winds created a nightmare situation that would ultimately lead to 1,000,000 scorched acres and 40,000 evacuees in Oregon in that week alone.

Flecks of ash began to gather on my shoulders. I saw headlights shine dimly through the smoke. A truck heavy with timber rumbled by–slow, like it was driving through fog or rain–and disappeared at the end of the block.

“What do you think?”

I didn’t know what to say. It couldn’t be healthy to ride our bikes in this, it couldn’t be healthy to breathe this in.

But the fires hadn’t overtaken our route yet. And the longer we stayed here, the worse it might get.

I used to think of climate change as something that affected other places.

Rising sea levels would get to Florida and Louisiana and the Pacific Islands first. Hurricanes are a Gulf Coast problem, typhoons a problem in the Philippines. Drought and extreme heat would strike at the equator.

Growing up in California, fires were an ever-present danger, but the extreme cases only seemed to hit every five or ten years. Recently, it’s felt like every year is a bad one.

I’ve heard the argument that when climate change becomes a real issue, we’ll have the technology to solve it. We’ll grow plants in space. We’ll terraform Mars.

But climate change is here. And I wonder if we’re ready.

We decided to make the 28-mile ride. It felt like our best option was to keep moving.

At first, it didn’t seem so bad. We could breathe through the smoke as long as we took it easy.

We stopped at a cliffside viewpoint in the San Sebastian Scenic Corridor. Up there, the air felt a little thinner, the ocean view lost to the smoke.

We were exhausted when we finally rode into Brookings, our eyes scratchy, our throats dry. The ocean fog seemed to mix with the haze here, the smell of salt and burning wood filled our senses.

My head started pounding for the last few miles of the ride. I just wanted to get into warm clothes and get something to eat.

We were supposed to ride the next day, but the fires out east were mostly uncontained, and the dry and the wind persisted. We still had a decision to make, but we resolved to rest for now. And tomorrow, we thought, we’ll do what we can.

DISCUSSING “CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION” IN THE CLASSROOM:

Human Geography is about understanding our place in the world. Different physical, geological, and cultural elements affect how we live, and how we adapt to our surroundings.

Climate change will affect different parts of the world in different ways. As the earth’s climate changes, what might this mean for the region you live in?

  1. Create a map of your school, town, or region. Outline what areas are prone to climate change. Consider things like water supply, public health, and agriculture, as well as natural factors.
  2. Create your own climate adaptability plan.
    • • What effects do you think climate change will have on your region?
    • • Create an infographic or step-by-step plan on how you would deal with these changes.
  3. Find your city or region’s climate adaptability plan.
    • • Based upon the plan, what effects might climate change have on your region?
    • • Are there any environmental concerns you have that the plan doesn’t address?

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How Google Classroom Prevails in a Post-Covid Landscape

by with No Comment Interdisciplinary

How Google Classroom Prevails in a Post-Covid Landscape

Megan Fileccia

Senior Product Marketing Manager • Digital Learning Platforms • National Geographic Learning | Cengage

How many of us have a notebook or at least one Post-It(s) somewhere in our office with a password written down for online access to something?  According to a new study (2021), BetaNews.com reports that 57 percent of American employees are currently writing down work-related passwords on sticky notes.

Teachers and students, like those of us at our own jobs, must manage many accounts to access various online tools and resources.  COVID resulted in the need for even more account creation, which in turn, led to more required login credentials.

As a result, MANY of these impacted schools, in an effort to streamline access points for themselves and their students, began to increase usage of Google Classroom.

Several teachers that I spoke with recently indicated that they used Google Classroom as their one-stop shop for everything related to classroom management.  Within Google Classroom, teachers can post assignments, post discussion questions, post videos, and host virtual classes through Google Meets all in one place. 

Students also benefit greatly from Google Classroom. Taryn, a student from a school district in a Chicago suburb told me, “I use google classroom for multiple hours every day as my teachers post classwork, homework, lesson presentations, and other resources.”  Parents that I spoke with who had students using Google Classroom felt like it was easier to support their student’s classwork and be more engaged in their student’s schoolwork.

Given the prevalence of Google Classroom across the country, I was excited to hear about how student learning materials provided by publishers like National Geographic Learning can be made available right at point-of-use for students.  Students log into their Google Classroom class and with one click are able to access their coursework seamlessly. Thinking about my Post-It note of usernames and passwords, it will be nice for students to have less to manage.

I also know from those recent conversations with teachers how cumbersome it was at the start of the school year to register students into all the different systems. Now that is eliminated once their Google Classroom is linked to their NGL/Cengage course. What a relief!

How does it work at National Geographic Learning?  The instructor will create an account and course from NGLSync, our access portal. Then they just link that course to their Google Classroom class. That simple!  When the students log into their Google Classroom Class they see their NGL course link and once selected they have seamless access to their materials.

Being able to access content the way that works best for me based upon my preferences and workflow is important to me.  My educator friends have shared that same sentiment.  Having easy to access content by having to register/create and manage fewer accounts and passwords sounds like a WIN/WIN to me.  How would having to manage fewer account logins impact your work?

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Biking the Pacific Coast: People, Place, and Change in a COVID World

by with No Comment Interdisciplinary

Biking the Pacific Coast: People, Place, and Change in a COVID World

Lillygol Sedaghat and Cory Howell

Multimedia Storytellers • Suān tián kǔ là: The Flavors of Life

Join us in this three-part series as we bike 800 miles down Oregon and California, exploring the impacts of COVID and climate change in coastal communities. This series focuses on stories of people, place, and change.

We were biking a towering cliff, a 300-foot drop to rocky shores and cold waters.

Low railing on our right was all that separated us from a downward tumble. On our left, cars zipped along a single lane, semi-trucks and RVs flew past, each one blowing a powerful wind that pushed us closer to the edge.

This part of Oregon’s Highway 101 lacked a shoulder for bicyclists. When we heard a revving engine approach from behind, we gripped our handlebars, gritted our teeth, and waited for them to blast by. 

When we told people we were biking 800 miles from Portland to San Francisco, we got one of two reactions: “That’s awesome!” or “You must be crazy.”

Now that we’re out here, I get the feeling it’s a little of both.

The idea for the trip came because we wanted to learn more about the effects of COVID-19 and climate change on coastal communities. 

This route was both geographically and culturally close to home. Doing this journey on bikes would have a smaller carbon footprint, afford us a closer view of the communities we visited.

It’s only been a week, and the journey has changed our perspectives. We live in a city where using a car is the dominant means of transportation, our sedentary lifestyles only broken up by dancing and the occasional hike. 

Now, mileage isn’t just a number on a sign, it’s something we traverse with our own bodies. Cars seem faster than we remember–and louder. Food and water don’t just get us through the day, they’re necessary fuel for the ride. 

Even our perceptions of people have changed.

Before the trip, I was worried our bright yellow vests, biking shorts, and bulging packs might attract unwanted attention. Would people see us as dangerous because we’re outsiders? Would they see us as carriers of the virus? 

But every place we’ve stopped, people have been open and friendly. More than anything, they’re curious. 

“How far are you biking?” 

That’s usually how it starts. 

The tight lanes of Highway 101 opened to a viewpoint overlooking the Pacific. We hopped from our bikes, leaned them against the stone wall perimeter of the parking lot. 

Lilly pulled a lemon poppyseed scone and an oatmeal sugar cookie from her pack. A friendly barista at a cafe had given them to us; he said he’d done long-distance biking before and knew what it was like to be hungry on the road.

I leaned my hands onto the wall and looked over the edge, at the sheer drop below. From here, from my stationary safety, the white foam and sharp rocks didn’t seem as scary. 

The road we’d just biked stretched along the cliffside, distant, steep, narrow. An RV barrelled along, almost scraping against the guardrail as it took a tight curve.

Did we really just come from there?

We munched on the sugar cookie, passed it back and forth as we surveyed the horizon. The road stretched out ahead, and we still have far to go.

APPLYING “CHANGING PERSPECTIVES” IN THE CLASSROOM:

Human Geography is about understanding our place in the world. There are many different ways to live, and even making small changes to your routine can help you understand these differences.

You don’t have to bike 800 miles to change your perspective, you can discover something new right where you are! 

  • • Write a short story, create a note for a friend, or eat a meal using only your non-dominant hand.
  • • Try to go an entire day sitting in new physical locations–find a different chair, sit on the floor, or do your homework someplace new. Even a small move can make big changes!
  • • Create a short (1-2 minute) documentary about a day in your life but tell it from a documentarian’s point of view. View your day from an outside perspective and see what you find!

Assessment Questions: How did this exercise change your daily routine? How can adjusting our space or actions affect how we view ourselves and others?

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Meeting Social and Emotional Learning Needs – A Critical Part of College and Career Readiness for High School Students

by with No Comment Interdisciplinary

Meeting Social and Emotional Learning Needs – A Critical Part of College and Career Readiness for High School Students

Megan Fileccia

Senior Product Marketing Manager • Digital Learning Platforms • National Geographic Learning | Cengage

311 days. Never would I have guessed on March 16th, 2020 that our then ninth grader would go 311 days without being in the same physical space as her peers and her beloved teachers.  While she values the college and career preparedness high school offers, prior to the pandemic, her main motivator for attending school was friendship. It was her chance to talk about boys and TikTok and make weekend plans.  

When we began navigating remote learning, it became very clear that we had to make sure we were not only supporting her academic needs, but in order for her to be successful in that area, we needed to attend to her social and emotional needs. If you talk to any parent, teacher or administrator in the country they will tell you kids are adjusting. Teachers are adjusting. Parents are adjusting.  

As high schools prepare students for college and career readiness, now more than ever, they must not only consider, but also infuse social and emotional learning (SEL) needs into every interaction. As Lauren Kazee, an SEL Consultant in Michigan points out, “This has always been the case but is even more so now in light of our current landscape nationally; pandemic, social and political unrest, the emotional needs of students (and staff) has been exacerbated.” 

Social Emotional Learning

According to The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), “Social and emotional learning (SEL) is an integral part of education and human development. SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions, achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relations, and make responsible and caring decisions”…. “CASEL 5 addresses five broad and interrelated areas of competence and highlights examples for each: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.” (https://casel.org/)

CASEL has many resources to learn more about SEL research and how to successfully implement an SEL program. Additionally, you can access previously held and upcoming webinars that focus on many important strategies and issues related to SEL education: https://casel.org/weekly-webinars/.

As I began to be focused on what my ninth-grader was experiencing, two focus areas came to the surface:

  • • In order to be college and career-ready, she needed to become more confident and skilled in the areas of Communication, Problem Solving, Team Building, and Decision Making.  She needed more activities to engage these soft skill attributes.  
  • • In order to be college and career-ready, she needed the opportunity to have exposure to successful and fulfilled people who she aspired to be like.  Whether she wanted to explore her natural love of animals or investigate trends within the tech world, she needed to have more exposure to people who can model for her what positive social and emotional health looks like.

My daughter is very people-centered and because of this, I was able to leverage and engage her with the work being done by our National Geographic Explorers. Conceptually, her learning about the explorer’s past, what challenges they have had, what initially sparked their interest within their field of study, how they stay motivated and persevere through challenges, helps her to frame her understanding of the work they are doing.

National Geographic Explorers

My daughter has found these scientists and change-makers to be fascinating which has encouraged her to do more research. Currently, she is most interested in researching any and all work with animals. For opportunities to bring National Geographic Explorers into your home and classroom, check out the exciting fieldwork being done around the globe by visiting National Geographic Explorers. There are also many opportunities to engage and “meet” the NGL explorers within some high school programs. Given her interests and also her challenge areas, she has looked to  Environmental Science, World History Voyages of Exploration, and U.S. History America Through the Lens to investigate explorers. These programs allow her to not only read about but watch videos and use other visual aids to guide her understanding. Not so secretly, given all that I have learned about her needs, learning style, and motivators, I am really excited for her to start looking into the explorers featured in the new program for AP® Human Geography.

Soft Skill Activities for College and Career Readiness

Industry and Admissions decision-makers continue to stress the importance of soft skills. Not only for students to possess these skills but also to be able to articulate the skills and provide examples of evidence. We have been working on these skills at home too. There are activities that can be found online as well as curricular programs to support these initiatives. Below are just a few of the many examples that can be used to strengthen skills and also provide opportunities to showcase each skill in an application setting.

9 Awesome Classroom Activities That Teach Job Readiness Skills -Published by We Are Teachers

National Geographic Learning also publishes a Soft Skills high school series. These two on-demand activities focus on Team Building and Problem Solving. As a 5 part series, the other three programs from the series focus on Professionalism, Verbal Communication, and Written Communication.

• On-Demand Team Building Activity

• On-Demand Problem Solving and Decision Making Activity

If you are seeing a similar scenario in your classrooms or in your own homes, and are looking for additional resources, the resources above are just a few of the many examples for students to make motivating and meaningful connections as they work on their social and emotional learning needs as they prepare for college and career readiness.  

The last eleven months have taught us so much about high school students’ social and emotional needs as we prepare them for college and career readiness. What have been some of the best strategies you have used to meet these needs while teaching in a distance or hybrid learning environment this past year?

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Keeping Students Connected, Focused, and Engaged During Remote Learning

by with No Comment Digital ExperienceInterdisciplinary

Keeping Students Connected, Focused, and Engaged During Remote Learning

Jeremy Walts

Senior Director of Product Marketing • Math, Science and Digital Learning • National Geographic Learning | Cengage

A friend of mine is an educational administrator for STEM in my district. While an avid tech user himself, he has often questioned technology use in education. He emphasizes teacher development and using research-based high-impact strategies with an eye toward equity. Hard to argue with that. But now, given the move to remote learning, his views about technology are beginning to change.

But let’s step back for a moment. COVID has brought such difficult challenges that we all feel every day but we can also look at the opportunities that arise from crisis. For example, we are seeing districts across the country supplying devices and internet to many households that could otherwise not afford it. While this is a small step toward equity, it is a step. Second, teachers all over the country are learning new tools. I suspect that when COVID subsides, and the long-awaited day comes when students and teachers can safely come together again, these tools will still have a role. 

Back to my friend. Since the move to remote learning, the district quickly adopted an online learning program over the summer. Now my friend talks about the engagement students have with technology, the consistency of the content, and the advantage for a teacher seeing real-time data on student progress. Certainly, he knows the limitations of tech, but he sees the power, too.

A digital platform, powered by a dedicated teacher, can open pathways of learning for students. One of our online learning platforms here at National Geographic Learning, MindTap, is a good example as I look at online educational technologies through the lens of distance learning. 

Using MindTap as a teacher, you know your students have one place to go for their content and can independently study when you cannot be there. You can track their usage to see which students have engaged with the program and for how long.  Students take on manageable segments of learning and then take formative assessments. In real-time, you can see where they are progressing, and where they are struggling.  The platform contains powerful visual images with associated lessons so you can teach live and have an exploratory discussion about the images. You can make the course personalized by inserting your own web link activities right in the students’ learning path. 

Some of these features are not unique to MindTap, but they provide a good example of how online learning can be made more effective with the right tools. And while screen time is a concern, many recent studies show that any concern should be more about the quality of the screen time and not the quantity. 

We may not know for a while if these tools become more prevalent after schools return to normalcy. I suspect they will be, though time will tell.

To learn more about MindTap, I have provided several videos below.

Introduction to MindTap

Quick MindTap Introduction

MindTap for Distance Learning

In-Depth Overview and Highlighted Features

Full MindTap Overview

Differentiating Assignments

Customizing MindTap

Google Classroom Integration

The Study Hub for Students

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Jimmy Chin and the Tyranny of Passion: A Letter To Your Students

by with No Comment Digital ExperienceInterdisciplinarySocial Studies

Jimmy Chin and the Tyranny of Passion: A Letter To Your Students

Marcie Goodale

Product Director • Social Studies and Advanced Placement • National Geographic Learning | Cengage

Some of you may have seen the person pictured on this page, National Geographic photographer Jimmy Chin, win an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in February 2019.

Jimmy is a man of many talents. He won the Oscar for producing a documentary on Alex Hannold, an American professional rock climber who had completed a “free solo” climb—meaning no ropes, harnesses, or protective equipment—of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. Jimmy himself is a professional climber, skier, photographer, and now filmmaker.

As writers and editors for a World History textbook for National Geographic Learning, we have access to hundreds of National Geographic Explorers and photographers. All of them are completely brilliant and inspired and doing work that contributes to the common good either by capturing ideas and images that reveal our world to us in new ways or by using their considerable knowledge and creative skills to innovate new processes and new approaches in their fields.

When several of us were in the audience at a National Geographic Explorers Symposium in 2018, we watched Jimmy Chin talk with another NatGeo photographer about the work that they both do. He used the phrase “the tyranny of passion” and explained that the words aptly describe the way he lives his life.

Jimmy has found in his work something so fundamental to who he is, something he loves so much, that he simply can’t not do it. His work is so much a part of his thoughts, feelings, and actions that he can’t imagine a different life. Jimmy found what he wants to do with his life. He admits that he found a direction that caught him—and his family—by surprise. He’s never looked back.

The tyranny of passion. Those words have meaning for all of us.

Our message to you, then, is to know that there is something wonderful that you can do with your life, something that draws on your heart and your mind and that you will love to do. You have only to seek it.

Your ideas and your actions are important.
Share them with others.
Be heard.
And along the way, listen to others’ voices too.

From the National Geographic Learning Social Studies team

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Start school (through distance learning or in a classroom)with a program that meets 100% of the College Board Course and Exam Description and engages students with rigorous but accessible content and stunning resources from the National Geographic Society.
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Engaging Online Students for Career/College Readiness

by with No Comment Digital ExperienceInterdisciplinary

Engaging Online Students for Career/College Readiness

About the Author: 

“Learning for a life worth living” is the teaching emphasis of Les Dlabay, Professor of Business, Emeritus, at Lake Forest College in Illinois. He has authored or has adaptations of over 40 textbooks in the United States, Canada, India, and Singapore, including Principles of Business, International Business, and Business Finance with National Geographic Learning, a part of Cengage. In addition, he has taught more than 30 different courses in high school, community college, university, teacher preparation, and adult education programs. Three times he has been honored with “The Great Teacher” Award at Lake Forest College. Dr. Dlabay has presented more than 300 workshops and seminars emphasizing interactive learning strategies, team projects, and field research activities. His “hobbies” involve a cereal package collection from more than 100 countries, and banknotes from 200 countries, which are used to teach economic, cultural, and political aspects of global business.

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