

Table of Contents | October 2006
Editor's Note: Keeping Things in Focus
In today's high-tech world, the ability for students to focus takes effort.
Letters: Adding Class
Reminder of an accurate portrayal of an inner city school.
Dispatches: Pecking Order: Parent Pressure Is Eclipsing Teacher Control
Parental input is always welcome -- but is it always a good thing?
Sage Advice: Deciding What Students Learn
What factors should drive the curriculum we teach?
Pop Quiz: Penn & Teller
One talks. the other doesn't. One's tall. The other's not. One liked school. The other didn't.
Features
The Internet Breaks School Walls Down
What happens to time-worn concepts of classrooms and teaching when we can now go online and learn anything, anywhere, anytime?
Celluloid Hero: Bringing Cultural Education to Kids
Filmmaker Ronald Chase uses the power and mystery of cinema to prepare teens for their toughest assignment: real life.
Schools Must Validate Artistic Expression
Creativity is a key part of the educated mind.
Free Radicals: Loosening the Reins on Education
In the country's most alternative classrooms, there's no such thing as a report card.
Room to Learn: Talk to the Animals
A place of learning can be a room, but it can also be a truck that transforms a room -- any room -- into a jungle/laboratory/art studio.
Cool Schools
Cross Training: Arts and Academics Are Inseparable
At one Boston school, arts and academics are inseparable.
How to Grow Students' Opportunities Through Private Partnerships
Tips for creating beneficial community relationships.
Design
Grand School: A New Design, a New Year
At Chicago's North Grand High, great design inspires great attitudes.
Heart and Soul
Loss Prevention: Schools Confront Teen Suicide
Taking one's own life is no longer a taboo subject in school.
Head of Class
Lessons for Sale: Looking For a Cool Curriculum?
Step right up.
33 Percent: Bad Stuff in Schools
Nasty cleaning products in academia.
Online, on Alert: Teaching Students How to Interpret the Web
Most kids believe that if it's on the Internet, it must be true
Wild for Wi-Fi: Connecting the Cell With the Screen
Combining cell phones and the Internet.
Joint Resolution: You Kneed to Read This
Keep your knees together.
Personal (Digital) Trainer: iRun, iListen, iHealthy
iTunes, iPhoto, iChat, iMovie, iCal(endar), and now iLife.
It's Crush Time: The Countryside -- and Wines -- of Northern California
Skip the crowds of Napa Valley and head over to Sonoma's unspoiled Russian River
Hot Stuff: Good Stuff for Teachers
Helpful resources for educators.
Field Trips: Events for Educators
Places to go, things to do, people to see.



