50+ engaging lessons you can use in class tomorrow

Ed Tech

Ed Tech | Saturday, March 9, 2024

50+ engaging lessons you can use in class tomorrow

Disney and Pixar. NASA. The NBA.

If we could package that level of excitement into a daily lesson, we’d never have to worry about student engagement again, right?

But here’s the challenge: finding high-quality clips is time-consuming, and figuring out the legalities of showing them in class is a headache.

That’s why you need to check out The Achievery. Created by AT&T, this is a FREE online learning platform designed by education experts to connect K-12 students to digital learning through stories that actually entertain while they educate.

What is The Achievery?

Developed by AT&T in collaboration with Warner Bros. Discovery, The Achievery is a treasure trove of educational activities and lesson plans cleverly paired with captivating video clips from popular partners like Disney Pixar, NASA, the NBA, AI Edu, Learn Fresh and more. This engaging combination allows students to explore various subjects, from core curriculum areas like English and math to exciting fields like coding and digital literacy, all while being entertained by familiar characters and stories.

The Achievery website is set up to make it easy to get started right away, with:

  • Searchable database: Easily find content aligned with your specific curriculum needs.
  • Educator guides: Access detailed guides that provide step-by-step instructions on using The Achievery in your classroom.
  • Professional development: Explore webinars and workshops designed to help you make the most of this platform.

Getting started with The Achievery:

The Achievery is completely free to use! Simply visit The Achievery and create a free account. Once you're in, you'll have access to a vast library of content, organized by grade level and subject.


How can you use it in the classroom?

The Achievery lessons can be integrated into your existing curriculum in several ways:

  • Introduce new concepts: Captivate your students' attention by using engaging video clips as a springboard for introducing new topics.
  • Enhance lesson plans: Supplement your lessons with interactive activities and resources that reinforce key learning objectives.
  • Differentiation: The platform caters to diverse learning styles by offering a variety of activities, making it easy to differentiate instruction.
  • Independent learning: Encourage self-directed learning by assigning relevant videos and activities for students to explore independently.

NEW features in The Achievery 

The Achievery has evolved from a library of great "hooks" into a full-blown instructional powerhouse. Whether you’re looking to assign a deep-dive learning path or simply need a better way to manage how your students interact with digital content, these latest updates are designed to save you time and boost student agency.

More collaborators

The platform has recently expanded its "village" of collaborators! You’ll now find content from Disney and Pixar (including Elio), as well as specialized education partners like aiEDU (for AI literacy), A21, EcoRise, and Fizzy’s Lunch Lab.

New Achievery "Classroom"

The biggest update to the platform is the launch of the Classroom tool. This is specifically designed to help teachers move beyond just "finding" a lesson to actually "managing" their instruction.

With the new Classroom feature, you can:

  • Create Digital Classes: Set up your specific classes in three easy steps.

  • Assign & Sequence: Select specific videos or units you want your students to watch and assign them directly to your class. You can even set expiration dates for assignments to keep everyone on track.

  • Track Progress: See real-time data on how students are engaging. You can track video plays and activity completion.

  • Privacy-First: Insights are anonymous—students aren't asked to provide real names, helping you understand participation trends while keeping student data safe.

Courses vs. Units

The Achievery has also evolved from offering single lessons (Units) to Courses.

  • Units: Single, standalone lessons paired with a video clip.

  • Courses: Sequential sets of lessons designed to guide students through a topic step-by-step. This is perfect for building deep knowledge in areas like Digital Literacy or AI.

Interactive Units

The Achievery provides free, interactive, video-based learning units designed to engage students in grades K-12 across core subjects like English Language Arts, math, science, and digital literacy. Created with partners such as Code.org and Common Sense Media, these units blend short videos (typically 5 minutes or less) with hands-on, self-guided, and teacher-led activities to encourage critical thinking.

50+ engaging lessons you can use in class tomorrow

Ready to take The Achievery for a spin? We have curated 35 lessons below to give you an idea of some of the incredible resources available to you now. Click on the icons below to be taken directly to that section or just scroll through them all. There are hundreds more available in The Achievery library!

Look for the "New" tags to see where you can find new content, deeper learning paths in courses and interactive activities in units!

English Language Arts

NEW! Drawing Glordon

Guided by a professional Pixar artist, K-3 students will learn how to draw Glordon—one of the film’s original alien characters—and describe him using vivid, descriptive language.

Alphabet Practice 

Practice identifying different letters and saying letter sounds through fun letter games. Grab all of the K-3 phonics units here.

Character Trait Concentration

Students practice describing the traits of important characters in stories to grow their vocabularies and better understand the text.

Dropping The Reader Into The Narrative

Learn about a tactic writers use to engage their readers called dropping the reader into the narrative.

NEW! Face Your Fears

In this middle school learning activity from Weird Enough, you’ll explore the importance of facing your fears.

NEW! Interactive Video - Writing Authentic Dialogue

6-8th grade students will learn a method for identifying every day phrases and words you use to create authentic dialogue.

NEW! Interactive Video - Celebrating America, a Hub for Innovation

Through videos and activities,  9-12th grade students learn how innovation grows—from a bold idea to the infrastructure that connects people across thousands of miles.

NEW ELA Courses

NEW! Phonics for Early Readers Course

Phonics and Word Discovery for Early Readers is an engaging course that helps young learners build essential reading skills through fun, interactive activities. Students will practice sound recognition, decoding strategies, word identification, and early writing techniques.

NEW! Reading Rangers Course

Get ready to saddle up for a reading adventure! In this course, students will join the Reading Rangers, a team of curious minds who journey through stories to uncover what makes them tick. From predicting what comes next to understanding how characters change, learners will practice key comprehension skills through playful, hands-on activities. 

NEW! Voice Meets Vision Course

From authentic dialogue to connotation, from revision to resolution, learners will develop the tools to write stories that are not only well-crafted, but meaningful. This is where voice meets vision—and storytelling becomes art.

NEW! Tell Your Story Course

This course empowers high school students to take ownership of their stories and identities through writing and reflection. Students explore how they are represented, how media influences perception, and how they can reshape narratives—both personal and public. Through practical writing strategies, storytelling tools, and audience awareness, they’ll craft and share meaningful stories that reflect who they are and who they’re becoming.

Social Emotional Learning

Steps to Staying Safe

This lesson, designed for students in grades K-3, focuses on real-world personal safety. It teaches children how to identify trusted adults and tricky people, and to understand the difference between safe and unsafe secrets. 

The Value of Cooperation

Learn about the value of “cooperation” online and off. This is when a group of people work together and combine their unique strengths and talents to achieve a common goal.

What Makes You Unique?

We all come from different backgrounds and cultures—but we may not realize that the things that make us unique can also help us build real-life skills! In this lesson, you’ll see how different ways of growing up can help people build skills for life.

Skills to Help You Succeed: Problem Solving

When a friend is facing a problem, what do you do? In this lesson, you’ll break a big problem down into smaller, actionable steps in order to help your friend solve his problem.

NEW Social Emotional Learning Courses

NEW!  Digital Pathways: Building Community

Digital Pathways is a transformative course designed to help upper elementary  students navigate both the digital world and real life with strong character and social-emotional intelligence. 

NEW! Power Up Your Skills

This course helps high school students recognize, build, and apply the skills that matter most in school, careers, and life. Through personal reflection and real-world examples, learners will explore what power skills are and why they’re critical. 

Technology & Engineering

Adventures in the Internet

The internet is like a big city! There are lots of places to go and things to see. Some places are safe and other places are not. Let’s learn how to stay safe online.

NEW! Interactive Video - What is AI?

Learn how to define artificial intelligence and distinguish AI from other technologies.

How Computers Work: Data and Binary

Complete an unplugged activity from Code.org with number cards to understand how computers represent numbers and other data.

Computer Vision and NBA Data Tracking

Learn how the NBA uses technology to capture and analyze data on the court.

Computational Thinking with Girls Who Code Alumni

Welcome to Computational Thinking with Girls Who Code Alumni! In this series, our very own GWC Alumni introduce you to the core concepts of Computational Thinking, a problem-solving approach used in computer science to break down complex problems. 

NEW Technology and Engineering Courses

NEW! Inventors at Work Course

Whether it’s powering a submarine or building a belt-driven system, learners will practice resilience, problem-solving, and teamwork. Best of all, they’ll have fun doing it. Perfect for upper elementary  classrooms, after-school makerspaces, or curious kids who love to build.

Computational Thinking with Girls Who Code Alumni

This hands-on course invites students to step into the shoes of an engineer and bring their ideas to life through exciting mechanical builds. From creating a whimsical pneumatic creature to launching a sleek glider, each project blends science, creativity, and problem-solving. 

NEW! Grow With Confidence: Career Stories in Tech Course

This course takes high school students through eight real-life stories of professionals working in technology, highlighted by Girls Who Code. Through short videos and reflective activities, students will explore resilience, identity, bravery, and community.

Digital Arts

The Construction Crew

In this activity, you’ll learn how people work together to make media and how Foley artists make sounds for movies.

Composing Music

Composing Music is something we all can do. In this two-part video lesson, you will learn about music notation and create your own musical language using a grid instead of staff notation. And the best part is that you get to perform your music with your friends.

Allegories in Artwork

Learn how allegories in art and media help us understand and reflect on deeper meanings and messages in the world.

Game Engines — GameMaker and RPG Maker

All video games are made on a game engine, software that makes it possible for developers to create games. In this lesson, we will explore two game engines used in the industry — GameMaker and RPG Maker. In a different lesson, we explored other game engines, notably the Unity and Unreal game engines.

Creative AI: Crafting Comic Strips

Learners will gain an understanding of how generative AI can enhance creativity in artistic endeavors, learn to use AI tools to create a comic strip, and reflect on the implications of integrating AI into traditional art methods.

NEW! Telling Your Story

In this activity, you’ll learn how to tell your own digital story.

NEW! Digital Arts Courses

NEW! Creative Coding with Scratch Course

This course empowers students to strengthen their writing and communication skills through the creative world of Scratch programming. By designing interactive stories, animations, and games, learners will explore various forms of writing, including opinion pieces, arguments, informative texts, and narratives.

NEW! Creative Coding and Art in Scratch Course

In this course, students will use Scratch as a canvas for digital art, animation, and interactive visuals. They’ll experiment with loops, stamping, text, turtle graphics, and even voice and motion input. 

NEW! Game Design 101 Course

Students will analyze different types of game structures, compare real-time and turn-based systems, and learn how playtesting refines game mechanics. By the end of this course, students will have a solid foundation in designing meaningful, balanced, and engaging game experiences.

Math

Strategies to add and subtract within 100

Learning how to add and subtract with big numbers? Boddle can help! Here are some strategies to help when doing problems with large numbers.  

Explore all Boddle math units.

Measuring Time Through Basketball

Learn how units of time are applied to measure a basketball game's length and structure.

NEW! Interactive Video - Measuring the Court

Explore the relationship between units of measurement and apply them to the basketball court.

The Football Field as a Number Line

In this lesson, students use a football field as a number line to understand positive and negative numbers. By tracking yardage gains and losses, calculating net change, and exploring absolute value, grade 6 learners develop a stronger conceptual understanding of integers and distance from zero through engaging sports-based scenarios.

NEW! Interactive Video - Identifying Functions

A function is a specific type of relation in which each input value has one and only one output value. Relations can be written as ordered pairs of numbers or as numbers in a table of values. The domain of the function is the set of input values, and the range of the function is the set of output values.

NEW! Math Courses

NEW! Math Adventures: Counting & Adding Course

In this joyful and interactive course created with Boddle Learning, Kindergarteners explore the exciting world of numbers through colorful images, hands-on counting, and fun addition and subtraction challenges. With a strong emphasis on visual learning and concrete math skills, students will practice composing numbers, counting objects, and using pictures to understand how to add and subtract.

NEW! Beyond Numbers Course

Some math problems take more than one step—but that just makes solving them more rewarding! In this course, students will practice breaking down multi-step word problems, build a deeper understanding of fractions, and explore decimal notation.

NEW! Interactive Video - Identifying Functions

This course is designed to introduce students to the essential concepts that form the foundation of algebra. Through relatable, real-world examples, students will discover how algebra is all around them—from calculating expenses to understanding patterns. They'll explore the different sets of numbers and develop skills in solving both basic and multi-step equations.

Science

NASA Thermal Blanket Technician

Find out how Paula Cain took her of love of sewing and fashion design and transformed that love into her career at NASA as a thermal blanket technician. Thermal blankets, or “clothes for spacecraft,” help spacecraft function in the extreme environment of space. NASA’s Thermal Blanket Lab is a vital part of ensuring that the important equipment that NASA sends into space remains protected from getting too hot or too cold.

Build a Self-Powered Rocket

Use a simple chemical reaction to launch a small object.

Oceans Mapping

Learn to build confidence through skills development in perspective formation and expression (speaking/writing).

NEW! Exercise

Students explore how exercise supports body systems and mental health, while also understanding the energy transformation from food to ATP. Younger students identify screen-free alternatives for healthy living, while older students investigate physical laws in sports and model digestion and energy flow. 

NEW! Science Courses

NEW! Engineering in Motion Course

This hands-on course invites students to step into the shoes of an engineer and bring their ideas to life through exciting mechanical builds. From creating a whimsical pneumatic creature to launching a sleek glider, each project blends science, creativity, and problem-solving. 

NEW! Smart Fuel for Growing Minds Course

Welcome to Fizzy’s Lunch Lab, where young learners become food detectives, science explorers, and kitchen heroes—all in one course! Through a series of high-energy videos, colorful comics, and hands-on activities, students will explore what makes a balanced diet, uncover the power of whole grains and healthy fats, and discover the vibrant world of vegetables.

NEW! Guardians of the Deep Course

Join an exciting journey beneath the waves to uncover the mysteries of the ocean! In this course, students will explore how scientists map the ocean floor, design their own submarine to navigate underwater environments, understand the challenges of deep-sea exploration due to extreme pressure, and discover how to become guardians of our planet’s most vital ecosystem.

Digital Literacy

Being Kind Online: Introduction to Kindness

The way we treat other people matters. This unit will teach you about kindness. You will watch videos that teach you what kindness is, how to show kindness, and why kindness is important offline AND online.

Creating a Good Password

In this activity, you’ll learn how to make a good password for your online accounts.

Social Media & You

While social media can be a lot of fun, in these lessons you will learn how it can also be an important tool for civic engagement.

Taking Action on Ethical AI

Learners will explore the concept of ethical AI, understanding its significance and societal impact. They will engage with AI ethics organizations, design a campaign button to express their stance on an AI issue, and develop strategies to influence a more ethical and equitable future for AI.

Dealing with Digital Stress

Learn how social media can cause stress, and practice strategies for coping with digital stress.

NEW! Digital Literacy Courses

NEW! Adventures in Digital Safety Course

This course equips K-3 students with essential digital literacy and internet safety skills through engaging, age-appropriate lessons. Students will explore how to navigate the online world responsibly, recognize potential risks, and make informed choices while using technology. 

NEW! Navigating Digital Realities Course

This course equips 6-8 grade students with essential media literacy skills to navigate the digital world responsibly and confidently. Through interactive lessons, learners will explore how online content is created, shared, and targeted. They'll uncover the truth behind algorithms, advertisements, and social media trends while learning how to protect their privacy and well-being.

NEW! Cybersecurity for Social Media Users & Gamers Course

This 5-lesson mini-course is designed for students in grades 6–9 and focuses on cybersecurity for social media users and gamers. Building on the foundation from previous mini-courses, this course provides specific tips for students engaging on social media or online gaming. It covers key concepts such as online privacy, digital citizenship, and responsible decision-making.

NEW! Mastering AI to Shape Your Future Course

This course introduces high school students to the exciting world of artificial intelligence (AI), empowering them with the knowledge and skills to navigate, utilize, and think critically about this transformative technology. While exploring real-world AI applications, students will also strengthen their math and ELA skills, such as problem-solving, data interpretation, critical reading, and persuasive writing.

FREE teaching ideas and templates in your inbox every week!
Subscribe to Ditch That Textbook
Love this? Don’t forget to share
>