Teacher Heskett 🇺🇸🍎🌻

This teacher runs on coffee! my hobbies are walking, reading and listening to books, and chasing my 4 girls.

[Rachel Swearengin @rachelteachkc]

Elementary teachers: this is for you too! I’ll be sharing a great @Gilder_Lehrman lesson for you!!

[Teacher Heskett 🇺🇸🍎🌻 @HeskTech]

Just reading a little America 250 book at the pool. Summer days are here!

[Teacher Heskett 🇺🇸🍎🌻 @HeskTech]

@lauramcfarren @NHTOYMc @lmchervinsky @RetroReport Yes! I’ll add this to my list for next year!

[Teacher Heskett 🇺🇸🍎🌻 @HeskTech]

@AmyWalkerKS @CarlAzuz That’s awesome!

[The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History @Gilder_Lehrman]

📚Teachers: A new Affiliate School Offer is available!

Claim your free 2027 GLI Calendar now! This calendar highlights events that shaped the U.S. between the signing of the Declaration and the ratification of the Bill of Rights.

Learn more at https://t.co/22kPUNagMB!

[iCivics @icivics]

Megan Thompson has won the Civic Gold Star Award Prize of the Civic Star Challenge essay contest, earning her school a $10,000 grant and an all expenses paid trip to a national civic education event. 

Read more about Thompson and the essay contest: https://t.co/Ax6hqS0M4L

[Teacher Heskett 🇺🇸🍎🌻 @HeskTech]

Thank you! It was a great meal! Love the A250 flag!

[Foote Cattle Company @footecattle]

We wrapped up our #BEEF Month school lunch tour on Wednesday at Hoxie Community Schools!

Huge thank you to every school that welcomed us and all the employees who helped make these lunches possible. We couldn’t do it without you! #FooteCattle #BEEFMonth

[Teacher Heskett 🇺🇸🍎🌻 @HeskTech]

This year is winding down but that doesn’t mean learning stops. This year is the 250th of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. To help celebrate Hoxie JH StuCo handed out some America 250 swag bags! Inside is a ticket for the Eisenhower Museum 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸

[White House History @WhiteHouseHstry]

In just 50 days, the United States will mark its 250th anniversary, a historic milestone in the American story.

To honor this occasion, our America’s 250th Collection of keepsakes and gifts reflects on the people, events, and ideals that have shaped the nation across generations, including the Official Commemorative Ornament of America’s 250th Anniversary.

Explore the collection and join us in the countdown to this defining moment in history: https://t.co/ti47ckRlSY

[iCivics @icivics]

It's not too late! Be sure to enter your activities to the Civic Star Challenge before the deadline tomorrow, May 15, 2026, for a chance to win $300!

PS: It takes less than two minutes to enter and the more you enter, the better your odds!

Enter now: https://t.co/3J0NuxFOeh

[U.S. National Archives @USNatArchives]

#OnThisDay in 1778, George Washington signed the Oath of Allegiance to the United States symbolizing his commitment to the United States "to be Free, Independent and Sovereign States," and "the people thereof owe no allegiance or obedience to George the Third.”

[Teacher Heskett 🇺🇸🍎🌻 @HeskTech]

Which American 🇺🇸 civic virtue is most important? 🤔 That's the big question my civics class is tackling today! They're even creating a podcast to share their thoughts. Stay tuned! #CivicsExplorers #PodcastLife

[Mount Vernon @MountVernon]

No car? Take our new shuttle from Old Town Alexandria to Mount Vernon.

[Teacher Heskett 🇺🇸🍎🌻 @HeskTech]

@teachergoals 3

[Teacher Heskett 🇺🇸🍎🌻 @HeskTech]

@kansashistory The Civil War tracing trunk was a huge hit! What a great way to engage students!

[Teacher Heskett 🇺🇸🍎🌻 @HeskTech]

Today, in JH Civics class we had the @ConstitutionCtr share a Civic Story about virtues on zoom. It’s a great way to have an engaging lesson when over half of the class is at a track meet.

[RonaldReaganLibrary @Reagan_Library]

Happy National Jelly Bean Day!

Visit the link below to learn about Jelly Beans and #PresidentReagan.
https://t.co/e21MqmAKsE

[NASA @NASA]

Artemis II may have splashed down, but our photos and videos from the mission are still rolling in! Keep an eye on the latest: https://t.co/rzM1P0QbOl

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

Your kid's piano teacher was reshaping their brain. A Harvard-led team tracked children from age 6 to 9 and found that kids who practiced an instrument at least 2.5 hours a week grew the corpus callosum (the cable connecting the left and right halves of the brain) by about 25% in the region that handles movement planning. Kids who practiced less or quit showed zero growth there.

USC ran a separate study starting in 2012 that followed children from low-income LA neighborhoods. One group learned violin through the LA Philharmonic's youth orchestra program. A second did soccer. A third had no structured after-school program. Two years in, only the music group showed brain changes: stronger white-matter connectivity, faster maturation of auditory processing, and greater activation in networks involved in decision-making and impulse control. The soccer and no-program groups looked the same on brain scans.

A randomized trial at the University of Toronto tested 144 six-year-olds assigned to keyboard lessons, voice lessons, drama, or nothing for a full school year. The music kids gained about 7 IQ points on average. Drama and no-lessons kids gained 4-5. That roughly 3-point gap showed up across every subtest, including reading and math.

Now the language side. Bilingual kids outperform monolingual kids on task-switching tests (jumping between different sets of rules quickly), and it holds regardless of which second language they speak. Brain scans of nearly 1,300 children and young adults from a 2021 Georgetown and University of Reading study showed that bilinguals kept more grey matter (the layer where the brain's processing cells live) as they grew up than kids who spoke one language.

The long game is where this gets serious. A 2025 Monash University study of 10,893 Australians over 70 found that people who regularly played an instrument had 35% lower odds of developing dementia. Bilingualism shows an even sharper effect. Studies across India, Canada, and the US consistently find that bilingual adults develop dementia symptoms 4 to 5 years later than monolingual adults. A 2024 door-to-door survey of 1,234 people over 60 in Bengaluru, India, found dementia in 4.9% of monolinguals and just 0.4% of bilinguals.

Both piano and a second language work through a similar mechanism. They force the brain to manage competing systems at once, left hand versus right hand, one language versus another. That constant switching strengthens the frontal regions responsible for planning, focus, and filtering distractions, building what neurologists call cognitive reserve: a buffer that lets the brain keep working even as age-related damage accumulates.

Those parents running their kids between piano on Tuesdays and Mandarin on Thursdays were basically running a two-front neuroplasticity program without knowing it.

[Retro Report @RetroReport]

We are excited to welcome Nathan McAlister (@NHTOYMc) to Retro Report's education team! Nathan will serve as our new Education Manager for Professional Development and Outreach.

Nathan taught middle and high school social studies for 24 years, and recently served as the Humanities Program Manager for the @ksdehq. Please join us in giving Nate a warm welcome!