Table of Contents | Feb 2010: Social & Emotional Learning

Up Front

It's All About Community

Among the many highlights of our year were launching Edutopia's online community and making our presence known on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Feedback: The YES Prep Story Inspires

Educators are paying attention to the charter school's successful strategies.

Dispatches: Community-Based Assessment Makes the Grade

In scoring student performance, top marks go to teachers rather than the testing industry.

Sage Advice: Innovation in Education

What are your predictions for educational innovations in 2010 and the coming decade?

Features

Louisville's CARE for Kids Starts with the Heart

How do you boost achievement, reduce racial and economic performance gaps, and nurture happier, healthier, more confident students?

Teachers Shake Up Shakespeare with Digital Media

Rap and film bring the Bard's characters to life.

Teachers and Community Members Practice TLC with PLCs

Create a culture of collaboration and constant improvement with professional learning communities.

How to Create a Professional Learning Community

It takes careful planning to form a useful and functional PLC, but once the foundation is built, the benefits will soon be evident.

How to Break Down Barriers to Starting PLCs

Here are the five most common obstacles to starting professional learning communities -- and how to address them.

Students Explore Storytelling with a Real-Life Adventurer

Bounding from far-flung expeditions to public school classrooms, Peter Lourie shows students how to write with verve and detail.

How to Build Your Own Multimedia Adventure

Add music and images to your classroom writing exercise, and see how exposure to virtual adventures spurs students' imagination.

A Teacher's Guide to Generation X Parents

How to work with well-meaning but demanding moms and dads.

Mixed Media

Mixed Media: The Edutopia Guide to the Educational and the Entertaining

What's on our radar -- everything from books to DVDs to software.

Pop Quiz: Michael Chabon

Head of Class

Design Thinking: Creative Ways to Solve Problems

Stanford University's k12 Laboratory applies the design process to teaching.

Children Create the Playground of Their Dreams

Seattle students design commanding castles and slithery slides, then watch their sketches come alive.

Guided Homework Help Goes Online

The New York Public Library's homework program pioneers new ways to connect students with teachers after class is dismissed.