Second Avenue Learning

🔐 Today marks the start of 2025!
The National Cybersecurity Alliance will be having sessions all week to empower individuals and organizations with awareness and strategies to help prioritize their data management. Check it out 🔗: https://buff.ly/3PUcdpe
While it is important to be proactive about cybersecurity on an individual level, At Second Avenue Learning we are highly aware of our unique responsibility as edtech providers when it comes to protecting the data of students and faculty, especially in light of recent attacks that have impacted schools across the nation.
Strong cybersecurity is not just a good practice—it is essential to the trust schools place in digital learning tools. This week is a perfect reminder for all of us to review our security protocols and privacy standards.

National Cybersecurity Alliance Launches Data Privacy Week 2025 The week-long campaign will center around empowering individuals and businesses to safeguard their data through education and action...

Check out our blog post about our adventures at I/ITSEC 2024 as finalists in the Serious Games Showcase & Challenge for Election Edge! 🔗: https://buff.ly/3WpUvO6

Big thanks to Jen McNamara for everything she does to make this showcase happen! ✨

Innovations in Serious Games: Highlights from I/ITSEC 2024 - We have exciting news to share! Second Avenue Learning is thrilled to join the EDSAFE AI Alliance Industry Council to help shape the future of AI in education!

What a fantastic week at representing EquIP HQ! Our team had an absolute blast connecting with educators and sharing how this free resource is empowering K-12 invention education. Thank you to everyone who stopped by booth 2686 to learn more about fostering innovation in the classroom!

📅 Today, in an uncommon calendrical occurrence, Inauguration Day and Martin Luther King Day fall on the same day! This will be only the second time a U.S. president has been sworn in on MLK Day since it became a holiday in 1983, the first being Bill Clinton.
🧩 Are you looking for an MLK-related lesson plan that also ties into civics topics like the presidential inauguration? We’ve recently added Dr. King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” as a featured primary source on Election Edge, Second Avenue’s platform for teaching U.S. History and civics.
This letter is a recommended primary source for AP-U.S. History curriculum--and with good reason! It offers a unique insight into not only the philosophy of MLK himself, but also the political dynamics between non-government activists and elected officials that was in play. It can also be an excellent jumping off point for civil discourse in the classroom. We suggest you invite your class participate on a discussion using the free platform created by our friends at Kialo Edu! You can even use one of their premade templates created for the topic like this one: https://buff.ly/3DUQ8Ek
On Election Edge we provide other guiding questions you may wish to use as well, in addition to helpful historical context to help students fully situate primary source material into their understanding of history.
The beauty of a platform like Election Edge is that the curated primary sources for a given year provide different lenses to analyze related events, enabling students to think like historians and investigate to develop their interpretation of the historical narrative. Later this week we will be adding another primary source, a declassified recording from inside the JFK white house in which the President and his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, discuss the violence that had reached a boiling point in the streets of Birmingham by May of 1963—this was after King had bonded out of jail and around the same time his letter was officially published in full. In this particular meeting, the Kennedy brothers discussed whether to deploy federal troops to quell the riots (spoiler, they did) as well as the more long-term answer to the problems that incited the initial non-violent protest: a civil rights bill. Stay tuned!

In the “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” is King’s criticism… One of the most quoted passages from Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is his criticism of the “white moderate.” It is a striking…

📢 Planning your schedule for Tuesday, Jan. 14th? Make sure to mark your calendar for a presentation by Second Avenue's CEO, Victoria Van Voorhis! 📆

Join her in South 320GH during the Mobile Mega Share event (1:30-4:30pm), where she'll share tools and strategies to help you foster civil discourse as a critical part of your social studies curriculum. This session is perfect for educators, librarians, district leaders, and anyone passionate about preparing students for informed citizenship.

✅ Key topics she’ll cover include:

🗳️ Combating truth decay and political polarization starting in the classroom
💬 Facilitating respectful conversations around sensitive political topics
💻 Leveraging digital resources to create engaging, productive learning experiences

Don't miss this chance to gain practical strategies you can implement in your district! Let's work together to empower the next generation of critical thinkers and responsible citizens. 🌟