recs
Amplifying Black Voices Through Twitter
StandardLaudato Si’ Week Book Rec
StandardIn 2017, my friend Brother Mickey McGrath took Pope Francis’ Encyclical, Laudato Si’ and created a wonderful visual meditation using the Pope’s words and Brother Mickey’s art. It is just breathtaking. I would highly recommend reading and exploring it, especially if you can do it outdoors with the breeze ruffling your hair and the leaves on the trees.
Our Common Home is published by World Library Publications. From the back cover:
Our Common Home invites us to slow down, look areound us, and remember that all we see has been granted to us and is in our care.
Election Connection: 24 Weeks: Political Podcasts
StandardElection Connection: 30 Weeks: What Can You Do Before November 3rd?
StandardThree recommendations:
1. Dan Pfeiffer‘s new book, Untrumping America: A Plan for Making America a Democracy Again
2. David Plouffe‘s two new books, one for adults, and one for children: A Citizen’s Guide for Beating Donald Trump and Ripples of Hope: Your Guide to Electing a New President
3. David Plouffe’s Podcast: Campaign HQ with David Plouffe
Links go to publishers, but books can be bought at any indpendent bookseller or online book retailer. Podcasts links to Player.FM but can be found wherever you get your podcasts.
What to Do in Isolation/Quarantine (Updated 4/29/20)
StandardWe’ve got our milk, bread, toilet paper, and kids home. It’s only been a few days, and we are in it for the long haul: two weeks, four weeks, six. We just don’t know right now. What can we do from the sanctity of our homes without risking our health or the health of others? Here are a few suggestions.
Imagineering in a Box – Free online course where you will “go behind the scenes with Disney Imagineers and complete project-based exercises to design a theme park of your very own.” (In collaboration with Khan Academy.)
Good Night with Dolly Dolly Parton will read weekly bedtime stories beginning on April 2 at 7pm ET. The first book will be The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper. The rest of the ten weeks of books will be: There’s a Hole in the Log on the Bottom of the Lake by Loren Long, Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney, I Am a Rainbow by Dolly Parton, Pass It On by Sophy Henn, Stand Tall Molly Lou Mellon by Patty Lovell, Violet the Pilot by Steve Breen, Max & The Tag-Along Moon by Floyd Cooper, Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña, and Coat of Many Colors by Dolly Parton
Children’s Book Authors Read-Aloud
National Aquarium in Baltimore – Livestreams of The Blacktip Reef, Jellies Invasion, Pacific Coral Reef
New York Public Library – (for NYC residents with a library card) (CONTACT YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY ABOUT THEIR E-BOOK PROGRAMS)
NASA makes their entire media library publicly accessible and COPYRIGHT FREE
33 National Park Tours You Can Take Virtually
15 Broadway Plays and Musicals You Can Watch on Stage from Home (best filmed and where to find them)
FREE Coloring Books from 113 Museums
Virtual Field Trips – including San Diego Zoo, Yellowstone National Park, Mars!!!, Animal Cameras, Virtual Farm Tour, US Space and Rocket Museum in Hunsville AL, Discovery Education, The Louvre, The Great Wall of China, Boston’s Children’s Museum
12 Museums Offering Virtual Tours – including British Museum (London), Guggenheim Museum (NY), National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC), Musee d’Orsay (Paris), National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Seoul), Pergamon Museum (Berlin), Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam), Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam), The J. Paul Getty Museum (L.A.), Uffizi Gallery (Florence), MASP (Sao Paulo), National Museum of Anthropology (Mexico City)
14 Beautiful, Dramatic Waterfalls in North Wales (this is primarily a travel article, but they’re still pretty to look at! And Wales!
Metropolitan Opera offering Nightly Met Opera Streams – see the link for details and limits.
Five Gardens You Can Virtually Visit – Waddesdon Manor (Waddesdon, England), Claude Monet’s Garden (Giverny, France), Chicago Botanic Garden (Chicago, IL), Hawai’i Tropical Botanical Garden (Papaikou, Hawai’i), Kew Gardens (Richmond, England).
Ivy League Courses Online for FREE
How to Be Happier in Your Daily Life (popular Yale University course – ONLINE FREE (Source: Business Insider)
Tour New York State Parks (virtual)
Twitter for Voice Actors Read. There are many voice actors reading books aloud to you and your children.
Tour The Winchester Mystery House (virtual tour)
Tour the Paris Catacombs (virtual tour)
I Love NY Landmark Coloring Pages
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
The Parents’ Guide to Google Classroom
What to Do with your Kids When Schools are Canceled
Harry the Dirty Dog read by Betty White
The Very Hungry Caterpillar read by author, Eric Carle
Outdoor Scavenger Hunts from Buttonwood Park Library
Easy Toilet Paper Roll Crafts (when you use up your stash of toilet paper!)
Outdoor and Indoor Scavenger Hunts from Leicester Library
Home Safari at the Cincinnati Zoo
50 Ways to Keep Kids Engaged at Home During the Coronavirus Shutdown
Miniature Bookshop DIY – cost $36.99
NASA Space Station STEM Activities
Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY (Safe at Home Program)
Election Connection: 36 Weeks: Leave it All on the Field
StandardCrooked Media is promoting and supporting the 2020 Election. One way they are doing that, in addition to Fair Fight 2020 and Vote Save America is Leave it All on the Field. We know that to win in 2020, we need to be in the field, on the ground, organizing, informing, talking to voters about the future they want to see, and doing everything we can for the Democratic nominee in order to get Trump out of the White House, his cronies out of the Senate and further down ballot, and begin to repair what’s been done to our country.
Leave it All on the Field is starting with Organizing Corps 2020 from the DNC. Their goal is $500,000 and they’re more than halfway there. Let’s get them there!
Black History Month Information and Resource
StandardBy happenstance, author and activist, Charles A. Preston appeared on my Twitter timeline through the retweet of someone I follow, and I consider myself lucky to have found his amazing resource for Black History (this month and every month of the year). The multi-folder Google doc is chock full of information about many aspects of Black History from Afro-Futurism to Zora Neale Hurston and many others in between. I believe he is continuing to update it. When using his folders, remember to give him credit as well as linking to his Twitter or website.
In addtion, you can follow Mr. Preston on Twitter or visit his Website.
Election Connection: 38 Weeks: Voter Registration Deadlines (General Election)
StandardVoter Registration Deadlines (by date)
For more specific information, visit Vote Save America and check out your state for both the primary and general election. Thanks Crooked Media!
States with Early Voting have an *
First Time voters require ID in states that have +
ID required for states that have #
Election Connection: 40 Weeks: Democratic Primaries
StandardBeginning next Monday is the first of nineteen voting days to choose the Democratic candidate for President. Voting will take place in fifty-seven primaries and caucuses from the fifty states and seven territories. What follows is all of the primary/caucus dates. Find your state, make sure you’re registered, and vote for the candidate you feel passionate about. Be part of the process; make your voice heard. Then after the Democratic National Convention in July, unify behind the candidate (more on that in later weeks) and return the country to the rule of law and common decency.
Before you review the primary schedule, visit Vote Save America. They have tips on how you can help the candidates, stop gerrymandering, volunteer, donate to the eventual nominee, check your voter registration, and other resources to make your vote count. Check them out.
February 3
Iowa (caucus) 41 delegates
February 11
New Hampshire 24 delegates
February 22
Nevada (caucus) 36 delegates
February 29
South Carolina 54 delegates
March 3 (Super Tuesday) 1344 total delegates
Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, American Samoa (caucus),
Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennesee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia
March 10 365 total delegates
Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota (firehouse caucus), Washington
Democrats Abroad voting period ends
March 14
Northern Mariana Islands (caucus) 6 delegates
March 17 577 total delegates
Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Ohio
March 24
Georgia 105 delegates
March 29
Puerto Rico 51 delegates
April 4 107 total delegates
Alaska, Hawaii, Louisianna, Wyoming
April 7
Wisconsin 84 delegates
April 28 663 total delegates
Connecticutt, Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island
May 2 46 total delegates
Guam (caucus), Kansas
May 5
Indiana 82 delegates
May 12 57 total delegates
Nebraska, West Virginia
May 19 115 total delegates
Kentucky, Oregon
June 2 215 total delegates
District of Columbia, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota
June 6
United States Virgin Islands (caucus) 7 delegates
July 13-16
Democratic National Convention, Milwaukee, Wisconsin