Social & Emotional Learning

Dr. Danielle Moss Lee (@HEAFNYC on Twitter) is President and CEO at Harlem Educational Activities Fund (HEAF). With a background in administration and non-profits, she's passionate about educational equity, college access, curriculum and youth development. Read her blog at http://www.heaf.org/blog/.

Let me start out by assuring readers that I'm not suggesting it takes a magical coat of arms to survive life on a predominantly white campus if you're a student of color. Over the decades, tens of thousands of students of color have been effectively and happily educated on predominantly white college campuses across this wonderful country of ours, and most of those students look back fondly on their college experiences.

Randy Taran (@RandyTaran on Twitter) is the founder of Project Happiness, a non-profit that empowers youth to create greater happiness in their lives and in the world. She is the co-author, with Maria Lineger, of the Project Happiness Handbook, which makes the best of positive psychology, emotional intelligence and global literacy accessible to students in six countries.

This is part three of the seven-part series, from the Project Happiness curriculum. It explores the many facets of happiness and provides practical techniques to generate greater happiness and a more meaningful life -- from the inside. By reclaiming the happiness you were born with, you influence those around you to tap into the best within themselves, too.

Dr. Danielle Moss Lee (@HEAFNYC on Twitter) is President and CEO at Harlem Educational Activities Fund (HEAF). With a background in administration and non-profits, she's passionate about educational equity, college access, curriculum and youth development. Read her blog at http://www.heaf.org/blog/.

Middle-class families don't always realize it, but we feed our kids a steady diet of college-bound messages from the time of their infancy. At least that's been the case for my husband and me. Our daughter had her first college t-shirts before she reached six months old. The word shirt is plural because my husband and I went to different colleges, and each of us hoped to pass on some subliminal message about the superiority of our respective institutions.

Mark Phillips is a columnist for the Marin Independent Journal and the The Answer Sheet. He volunteers with the California Film Institute's Educational Outreach Program and serves on the Board of the Buck Institute for Education. You can connect with him on Facebook.

A few years ago I spent time at Eagle Rock School, a wonderful school in Colorado for so-called "at-risk" kids from all over the country. I noticed that many of the best students were highly creative kids with extraordinary leadership, presentation and communication skills.

Randy Taran (@RandyTaran on Twitter) is the founder of Project Happiness, a non-profit that empowers youth to create greater happiness in their lives and in the world. She is the co-author, with Maria Lineger, of the Project Happiness Handbook, which makes the best of positive psychology, emotional intelligence and global literacy accessible to students in six countries.

This is part two of seven-part series from the Project Happiness curriculum. It explores the many facets of happiness and provides practical techniques to generate greater happiness and a more meaningful life -- from the inside. Each door can be done alone, or the Seven Doors journey can be done in sequence.

Dr. Danielle Moss Lee (@HEAFNYC on Twitter) is President and CEO at Harlem Educational Activities Fund (HEAF). With a background in administration and non-profits, she's passionate about educational equity, college access, curriculum and youth development. Read her blog at http://www.heaf.org/blog/.

After decades of educational attainment gains among African-American and Latino students, American educators find themselves in the midst of a major retraction of many of those gains for the students who can least afford it. In an ideal world, we'd just add curriculum to young minds and stir for stellar academic results.

Brendan O'Keefe (@insightguy on Twitter) is an a online community facilitator and member of the Telstra social media team in Melbourne, Australia. He describes himself as a versalist, addicted to creative pursuits. Visit his blog reinventing school.

As educators, we all know that learning is a powerful experience. But when that learning comes from a respected elder, it can be life-changing.