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National Student Writing Contests
- Encourage your students to enter free, monthly national writing contest for high school students and college students.
- StageofLife.com once hosted the world's largest international writing contest for high school students and college students. Our essay winners have received mentions by the media including TIME.com, Mint Education, and more.
- Essay contest topics dealt with real-world issues.
- Great practice for AP Test, SAT test, college essay writing, and more.
- View Details, Summaries and more About Our Writing Contests
- View Participating Authors who work with Stage of Life on our Student Writing Contests
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 Contact Us with questions about our writing contests
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Participating Authors
- Question: What do internationally published authors Susannah Cahalan, Richard Louv, Kimberly Rae Miller, Elyn Saks, and Andrew Soloman all have in common?
- Answer: They've all collaborated with StageofLife.com to support our grassroots international writing community.
Explore the dozens of published authors that have worked with us. We're proud of the support these literary greats have put in the digital literacy mission of StageofLife.com...
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 Contact Us if you know an author or celebrity who has writing advice for teens or would like to donate a signed copy of their book.
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Word of the Day
- We featured a new vocab word each day
- Use our Word of the Day as inspiration for a personal essay or blog post on StageofLife.com
- Teachers and educators can integrate the vocabulary in their classroom activities or ask the students to use the word in a free-write activity.
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Notes to the Teacher
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Contact Us if you have a lesson plan to suggest from Stage of Life's content
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Homeschooling Writing Resources
- Our writing resources are great for the classroom, but if you're a homeschooling student or parent, check out our free, homeschooling writing resources.
- Writing contests, educational resources, and homeschooling resources are updated here...
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Get "Writer" Classroom Poster - OUT OF STOCK
- We've created a 18" x 12" color poster for high school or college classrooms.
- We only charge for the shipping and handling fee
- We've sent out over 1000 posters to Language Arts, Creative Writing, and English Teachers!
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 Print mini-poster now
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Questions about our poster?
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Introduction to Student Blogging
- Get the 101 on blogging
- Digital literacy - why blogging is important for the classroom
- Our Blogging Lesson Plans include activities such as...
- Blogging Basics lesson plan
- Values & Beliefs lesson plan
- Reflection & Wisdom lesson plan
- Life stage interview lesson plan
- Food, Health & Writing lesson plan
- Heroes lesson plan
- Teen stress lesson plan
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Print Blogging Lesson Plans
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Contact Us about our Student Blogging Resources |
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Mentor Texts
- Use our past student winners as good examples of essay writing, i.e. Mentor Texts
- Our teen writing winners provide excellent essay examples of authentic voice and utilizing a stylistic point of view
- Read past writing contest winners and finalists by visiting our Teen Trends reports
- View Mentor Texts
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Print Mentor Texts
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Contact Us with questions about our mentor texts |
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Teen Trend Reports
- Over 800,000 teenagers, college students, and teachers visit StageofLife.com each year to either read or submit an essay.
- Because of these visits, we are able to pull together full teen trend reports from our national writing contests and survey results on topics ranging from sports to politics to nature to bullying and more.
- You'll also find in each report links to the relevant student essays, all grouped by topic.
- View Teen Trends
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Contact Us for more information about our monthly teen trend reports
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Writing Conferences and Workshops for Teenagers
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Contact Us to add your Writing Conferences or Workshop to our list
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Writing Prompts
- Are you looking for ideas on though-provoking writing prompts for your Creative Writing, English or Language Arts classes?
- We have scores of writing prompts that deal with real-world issues important to teens
- Each prompt came from one of the previous Stage of Life national student essay contests
- Mentor texts, lesson plans and summary pages are provided as appropriate
- View Writing Prompts
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Print Writing Prompts |
Contact Us to submit writing prompts |
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Library Resources
- As a free literacy initiative, Stage of Life features blogs, articles, statistics, trends, resources and information about libraries
- View our Library Resources
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Contact Us about our Library Resources |
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English and Language Arts Common Core State Standards
- Stage of Life mapped its digital literacy activities to the Common Core State Standards
- Get ideas on how Stage of Life fits many of the Language Arts State Standards, both for those states using the Common Core State Standards and those using their own.
- View the Stage of Life and Language Arts State Standards Mapping
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Contact Us about our Common Core and State Standards mapping |
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Interviews - Students Use Blogging as Form of New Journalism
- Interviewing a professor or teacher, celebrity, band, government official, or really anyone for that matter, is a great way for students to use blogging to explore "new journalism" formats and techniques
- View our blog interview example
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How Would Students Improve Education?
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Print Teens and Education press release |
Contact Us with comments about how students can improve their schools |
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Goal Setting Worksheet
- Help your students set goals
- Our Stage of Life Goal Setting Worksheet can be used as an in-class activity or as a take-home assignment
- Educators are encouraged to use it themselves as a personal or professional tool too
- View Goal Setting Worksheet
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Print Goal Setting Worksheet
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Contact Us with questions about our free goal setting worksheet |
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Teacher Appreciation
- View over 180 positive essays written by teens about their teachers
- Read the five positive relationship benefits good teachers bring to their students
- Get the latest trends on teens and how they communicate
- View Teacher Appreciation page
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Print Teen Communication Trends
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Contact Us about our Teacher Appreciation efforts
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Teens Making the World a Better Place
- Utilize our "Making the World a Better Place" writing prompt to get students thinking and writing about how they can change the world and make a difference
- Read past student essays about making the world a better place
- Ask your class to explore the list of student-nominated, "making a difference" organizations by our teen bloggers and writers - maybe they have their own cause to add to the list?
- View Making the World a Better Place
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Print press release
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Contact Us with questions about our Making the World a Better Place initiative
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Inspirational Videos
- Watch our collection of inspirational videos sourced from YouTube
- After watching the videos, ask your students blog on StageofLife.com about how they intend to change the world or be a positive change in the world.
- View Inspirational Videos
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 Contact Us with an inspirational video for teens or teachers
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Digital Literacy - Using Blogs in the Classroom
- Hear from our panel of experts who use blogging in the classroom
- Get tips on how to increase your students' digital literacy by incorporating technology into the classroom
- View Digital Literacy experts
- View latest trends on Teen Communication
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Contact Us about Digital Literacy |
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Health and Writing
- Read about the positive health effects of blogging and writing
- Help your students reduce teen stress through journaling, blogging or writing
- View Writing is Healthy
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Contact Us to add resources about how writing is healthy |
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Poem Writing Tips
- Tips for writing poetry from author of Poemcrazy, Susan Wooldridge
- View Poem Writing Tips
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Contact Us to add poem writing resources |
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Education Resource Partners
Stage of Life has been fortunate to either work directly with or referenced by organizations, schools, non-profits and programs who see a value in our mission to improve digital literacy and have a like-minded mission to support students, teachers and educational initiatives.
A few examples of our educational partnerships or features...
- NCTE - Stage of Life was an exhibitor at the 2013 NCTE Annual Convention in Boston. Hundreds of high school Language Arts teachers and college English professors stopped by to meet our VP of Education, Rebecca Thiegs, and pick up our classroom writing contest poster.
- Teach.com - inspirational resource for anyone currently teaching or thinking about becoming a teacher. Our very own Stage of Life education consultant, Rebecca, was featured on the Teach.com blog.
- Mint Education - helping teach students about financial literacy. Mint featured several of our Stage of Life student blogs about money.
- Lancaster Museum of Art - Stage of Life CEO, Eric Thiegs, was invited by the LMAPA to present a seminar to teens on the power of writing and artistic collaboration.
- Tech.IT.U - Stage of Life CEO, Eric Thiegs, was a featured speaker on "the Benefits of Teen Blogging" at the Penn State York sponsored Tech.It.U conference.
- PCTELA - "Voices of Literacy" Conference - Stage of Life co-Founders, Eric & Rebecca Thiegs, were featured session speakers on "Extending Writing Outside the Classroom Through Blogging" at the 2012 PCTELA conference (Pennsylvania Council of Teachers for English and Language Arts).
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Up to 50% Off Discounts for Teachers
Because of the generous support of our national education sponsors, our Stage of Life members can save up to 50% off at many top brands and retailers. Check out Stage of Life's free My Life Rewards® program to find great coupons and discounts for teachers to save money inside the classroom and out!
  
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Contact Us about our discounts and coupons for teachers
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