Dear Morningside Center Friends,

With warm Happy New Year wishes to everyone, and big gratitude to the generous donors who make our work possible, let us bring some Morningside magic right from the top!

Below find upcoming climate educator events, inspirational what-we’re-reading articles, and highlight TeachableMoment lessons for the season—and all it brings.

Finally, you can always give to support Morningside and our communities. Thank you!

With all our wishes that your 2026 is filled with joy and justice!

Join Tom Roderick for Teach for Climate Justice Study Groups

Morningside Center founder Tom Roderick is hosting study groups this winter and spring!

• Winter Study Group: Weekly sessions on Tuesdays, Jan 20-March 3
• Study Group for Early Childhood Educators: Every other week for ten weeks Wednesdays, Jan 21 – May 27
• Retreat for Climate Justice Educators in Costa Rica: April 5 -11 (during spring break for the NYC public schools)
• Spring Study Group: April 14 – May 19, 2026

The guiding text for the study groups and the retreat is Tom’s award-winning book Teach for Climate Justice: A Vision for Transforming Education. Participants receive a free copy of the book; learn with a group of dedicated, like-minded educators; and chart an empowering path forward for their work.

Find out more & register!

Featured on TeachableMoment

SEL Tip: After a classroom meltdown, try a ‘reset’

How can we turn a rough day with students into a teachable moment? Ms. McCormack shares how, after a rough day in her fifth-grade classroom, she used a strategy that she calls “a reset” to not only reconnect with her students, but strengthen her own teaching. 

Navigating The Winter Blues

Students reflect on their feelings about winter, including its challenges, and share their coping strategies through a poem, a circle, and exploration of the "wheel of holistic health."

What We're Reading

NYC schools chief Kamar Samuels signals integration, culturally responsive education as priorities

"In a letter to Education Department staff on Monday, New York City schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels began sketching out some of his priorities, including school integration and lessons that reflect the system’s diversity." By Alex Zimmerman at Chalkbeat

A public school for hip-hop is coming to the Bronx

"New York City’s Panel of Educational Policy, the school board that approves new schools, voted unanimously on Wednesday night to green light the new school after Bronx residents and education officials spoke passionately about bringing the Bronx School of Hip-Hop to District 9 in the South Bronx." By Jessica Shuran Yu at Chalkbeat

Integrating Spontaneous Learning Into Pre-K Curriculum

"It is less about changing the daily schedule and more about cultivating a way of seeing, learning to notice how numeracy, inquiry, communication, and social and emotional development naturally emerge in children’s everyday actions." By Cecilia Cabrera Martirena at Edutopia

"I didn't come to teach to be someone who makes kids feel anxious or sad or upset while they're at school—my goal is to teach! My goal is to teach them whatever I know and whatever I can and in order to do that...relationship building is what needs to happen."

—Ms. McCormack, Teacher