Breaking Major League Baseball’s Color Barrier

The 75th Anniversary of Jackie Robinson | By Shirelle Phelps| On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s long-standing color barrier when he debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Since 2004, Major League Baseball (MLB) has celebrated this historic date annually. One way the MLB honors Robinson is by having all Major League players and on-field … Read more

Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Godmother of Rock & Roll

| By Traci Cothran | When pop sensation Lizzo appeared on Saturday Night Live in December, her guitarist, Celisse Henderson (pictured at left, below), paid tribute to the late Sister Rosetta Tharpe (at right) via her guitar, outfit, and shredding. But who was Sister Rosetta and what should we know about her? Her career as … Read more

Justice and Redemption

| By Andrea Drouillard | The movie Just Mercy tells the story of attorney Bryan Stevenson, who has made it his mission to help poor and vulnerable people who have been sentenced to death. While watching it, I couldn’t help but draw parallels to some of the quotes of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In … Read more

In Context: For Educators Lesson Plans

| By Michelle Lee | Gale In Context: For Educators includes exclusive lesson plans and classroom activities that target core curricular topics and are aligned with national and state standards. The lesson plans, which include links to content from the Gale In Context suite of databases, help teachers and students by providing customized instruction using engaging … Read more

Standards-Aligned Instructional Content: Behind the Scenes

| By Julie Pitlock | As an instructional designer and content strategist, I was thrilled when the opportunity arose for me to work on Gale’s new product, Gale In Context: For Educators. I knew this was finally the chance for teachers to easily experience Gale’s quality content in their classrooms. We have an embarrassment of … Read more

Leveled Content: Behind the Scenes

| By Julie Mellors | The creation of Gale In Context: For Educators brought with it many new features to aid in classroom instruction, and now the In Context student databases have a new classroom feature of their own with leveled content. Leveled content meets teacher needs in the classroom as well as meeting student … Read more

Building Gale In Context: For Educators—A Product Manager’s Perspective

| By Liz Collins, K-12 Product Manager | “No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.” The sentiment of this quote, attributed to Theodore Roosevelt, rings true for product managers who are trained to think about problems or “pain points.” We turn challenges into data that can be used … Read more

Traveling through History: The Erie Canal

| By Traci Cothran | Confession: I have an Erie Canal fascination. This is, in part, geographically inspired—I grew up in upstate New York, home of this mega-tool of westward expansion, where you learn the Erie Canal song in elementary school (“We towed some barges in our day/Filled with lumber, coal, and hay/And we know … Read more

Joy Harjo Becomes the First Native American U.S. Poet Laureate

| By Laura Avery | Multifaceted author, artist, and musician Joy Harjo made history in 2019 when it was announced she would become the first Native American U.S. Poet Laureate. A member of the Muscogee Creek Nation, Harjo is also the first Oklahoman to hold the honor. While studying art in school, she attended readings … Read more