Guest: Andy Snyder, a social studies teacher from School of the Future

Host: Betty Ray, community manager @ Edutopia

Audience: Perfect for middle and high school teachers, administrators, and policy makers ready to explore comprehensive assessment strategies.

Description: Andy Snyder teaches social studies at New York's School of the Future, the subject of Edutopia's latest Schools That Work on comprehensive assessment. He and his colleagues also implement a new model of assessment known as "authentic" assessment using everything from end-of-class exit notes, to large-scale presentations and exhibitions, to more traditional tests and exams to measure progress.

Andy will be joining us for an hour-long live chat to discuss the practical aspects, benefits and challenges of implementing authentic assessment. Bring your questions and ideas to share.

Presenters: Gary Hoachlander, president of ConnectEd and Joe Cocozza, teacher at Bravo Medical Magnet High School and assistant professor at USC Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles

Host: Kathy Baron, features producer and research editor

PowerPoint: You can download the presentation (PowerPoint 26 MB).

Audience: Perfect for teachers, administrators, and policy makers ready to explore a proven reform that's shaking up the traditional high school experience, including a ground-floor guide to creating a program in your school.

Description: Students enrolled in programs that fuse core academics with career and technical skills are less likely to drop out of high school and more likely to complete the classes required for college admission. This approach to high school reform is also known as Linked Learning, partnership academies, and multiple pathways -- and it's reinventing the traditional high school curriculum. Instead of separate tracks for vocational education and college preparation, high schools are combining them, by merging courses in occupational skills into a rigorous academic curriculum in order to prepare all students for both college and careers.

The most successful programs embrace a set of guiding principles and components that focus on interdisciplinary, project-based learning, strong partnerships with local business, industry and institutes of higher education, and a culture of collaboration in schools. Our webinar panelists will share tips for building successful programs, share examples of high quality academies, and summarize the research findings.

Support for this Edutopia webinar is provided, in part, by a grant from The James Irvine Foundation.

Presenters: Milton Chen, senior fellow, The George Lucas Educational Foundation and Anthony Armstrong, a middle school teacher and member of the foundation's National Advisory Council

Host: Grace Rubenstein, senior producer, Edutopia

Audience: Ideal for educators who want a bird's-eye view of the leading edges of change in education, plus practical tips for how to bring some of these innovations to your classroom.

Description: We are living in a time ripe for powerful educational change. We have the tools, the passion, the political will and -- most importantly -- the shared belief that we can and must do better to help our children become creative, capable competitors and contributors in the world.

In this session, Milton Chen, senior fellow of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, paints a picture of what this transformation could look like. Jumping off from his hot-off-the-presses book, Education Nation, he outlines six leading edges of innovation in our schools, ranging from where and when children learn to who their teachers are. And he points to real-world examples of the pioneering work being done on these educational frontiers.

Joining Milton is the impressively innovative Anthony Armstrong, a middle school teacher and member of the foundation's National Advisory Council, who uses free technology tools and rigorous discussions to challenge his students. Anthony shares his best practices and advice and shows what this new Education Nation looks like in a real classroom. Join the discussion: Ask a question you'd like to address to the webinar presenters, make a comment, or network with like-minded educators on this subject.

April 15, 2010: "The Power of One: Greg Mortenson's Mission to Promote Peace through Project Learning"

Presenter: Greg Mortenson, best-selling author of Three Cups of Tea

Editor's Note, 4/18/11: According to numerous press reports, including CBS's "60 Minutes" broadcast on Sunday April 17th, there are many inaccuracies in Greg Mortenson's books "Three Cups of Tea" and "Stones Into Schools." Edutopia is following these reports closely and will provide clarifications for our audience as soon as we know more.

Meanwhile, we suggest that readers proceed with caution before involving students in the Pennies for Peace program mentioned in this video. Pennies for Peace is a project of the nonprofit Central Asia Institute, founded by Mortenson. "60 Minutes" has raised questions about CAI's financial accountability.

Host: Suzie Boss, journalist and Edutopia.org blogger

Target audience: Ideal for K-12 educators and students interested in building global awareness through service learning. Excellent for school assemblies and classroom participation.

Description: Can one person really make a difference in the world? Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea, describes his own unlikely path from mountaineer to humanitarian. His best-selling story has inspired thousands of students to contribute to school-building efforts in remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan through a service-learning program called Pennies for Peace. Supported by a multimedia, standards-based curriculum for grades K-12, Pennies for Peace culminates with student-driven projects that develop leadership skills and build cross-cultural understanding. Mortenson explains how the program works, how teachers can get involved, and why students benefit from authentic opportunities to make their own difference in the world. Learn more at the webinar's resource page.

Support for this Edutopia webinar is provided, in part, by Viking and Penguin Books, Members of Penguin Group (USA).

February 25, 2010:"Social and Emotional Learning: Making a Case in an NCLB World"

Host: Grace Rubenstein, senior producer, Edutopia

Presenters: Tim Shriver, Chairman of the CASEL Board of Directors, Sheldon Berman, superintendent, Jefferson County Public Schools, Louisville, Kentucky, and Kati Delahanty, English teacher, Charlestown High School, Boston

Target audience: Educators in the elementary and secondary grades interested in evidence for the value of social and emotional learning and practical ideas for implementing it

Description: Reading, writing, and arithmetic are important -- there's no doubt of that. But it takes more than those basic academic skills for students to grow into happy, successful adults.

As educators know well, children also need to learn self-esteem, self-discipline, and strong communication skills in order to succeed in school and life. But it's easy for those essential lessons to get lost in the race to raise standardized test scores.

In this session, two pioneering educators and a national education leader explain why social and emotional skills deserve time and attention -- SEL has been shown to raise test scores -- and how they provide it effectively in their schools. Learn more at the webinar's resource page.

December 10, 2009:"Creating a Strong School Culture: Inspiration from Houston's Successful YES Prep Schools"

Host: Grace Rubenstein, senior producer, Edutopia

Presenters: Chris Barbic, founder of the YES Prep Public Schools, Mark DiBella, school director at YES Prep North Central, and Mayra Valle, a senior at YES Prep North Central

Target audience: Ideal for teachers and administrators interested in strengthening the culture at their schools

Description: Anyone who has worked in public education knows that school culture can make or break the experience. Great teachers, programs, and practices succeed best only with a culture that supports them. In Houston's YES Prep Public Schools, educators put culture front and center, and it's a major force behind their success. Teachers support each other and constantly seek to help their colleagues improve. They build relationships with students to help them thrive even under the schools' rigorous demands.

The end result: happy teachers, and hundreds of low-income students becoming the first in their families to attend college. There's no magic involved -- just good ideas, dedicated people, and deft execution. In this session, YES Prep leaders explain what they do, how they do it, and how you can put some of these ideas in action at your school, too. Learn more at the webinar's resource page.

November 17, 2009: "Lessons from Abroad: International Standards and Assessments"

Host: Kathryn Baron, features producer and research editor, Edutopia

Presenter: Linda Darling-Hammond, Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Teaching and Teacher Education, Stanford University

iTunes: You can also download and listen to this recording on iTunes.

Description: The Race to the Top is on, and it's being driven by the next generation of standards. Learn about how top-performing nations assess student learning and examine its implications for the next generation of U.S. assessments. The world's top-performing school systems are said to be the model for new Common Core standards. Learn about the assessment systems in these countries, and how the results challenge the status quo in the United States. Learn more at the webinar's resource page.

October 29, 2009: "Greening Your School: How One Educator Can Make a Difference"

Target Audience: Ideal for teachers, staff members, and site-based administrators who want to team up with students to care for the Earth while learning.

Host: Amy Erin Borovoy, coordinating producer, Edutopia

Presenters: Tim Grant, coeditor of Green Teacher magazine, and Tom Koulentes, assistant principal at Highland Park High School, in Highland Park, Illinois, and cosponsor of the school's Green School Initiative

Description: When the big challenge of protecting the environment feels overwhelming, we can often do best by looking at the impact we can have in our own backyards -- or, in this case, schoolyards. Educators and students working together can make some real eco-achievements, empowering students and deepening some academic lessons along the way. In this session, Tim Grant and Tom Koulentes highlight some of the best ideas, examples, and strategies they've found. Learn more at the webinar's resource page.

August 27, 2009: "The Fundamentals of Funding: How to Identify, Write, and Submit Grants for School and Program Initiatives"

Host: Grace Rubenstein, senior producer, Edutopia

Presenter: Kathleen Petersen, director of Title I programming for Utah's Washington County School District and former principal of the district's Santa Clara Elementary School, in Santa Clara, Utah

Description: To expand on our coverage of the federal stimulus package for education, we drew on the grant-writing experience of school administrator Kathleen Petersen, also a member of The George Lucas Educational Foundation's National Advisory Council. She demystified the process of researching, designing, writing, and implementing grants. Learn more at the webinar's resource page.

June 4, 2009: "Engaging the Digital Generation: Insights from Kids, Teachers, and Parents"

Host: Amy Erin Borovoy, coordinating producer, Edutopia video

Presenters: Teacher Vicki Davis, who also blogs at the Cool Cat Teacher Blog, and her student Virginia, researcher Nichole Pinkard, and parent Scoop Jackson.

Description: Today's students use digital media in ways hardly that were imaginable just a few years ago, revolutionizing how kids create, collaborate, and teach one another. A stimulating discussion took place in this webinar with innovative educators, parents, and students from the Digital Generation Project, and they shared practical tools and strategies for engaging the digital learner. Learn more at the webinar's resource page.

April 9, 2009: "How the Brain Learns Best: Strategies to Make Learning Stick"

Host: Grace Rubenstein, senior producer, Edutopia

Presenter: Judy Willis, middle school teacher and neurologist and authority on learning-centered brain research and classroom strategies derived from this research

Description: Neuroscience is a complex field that educators don't often turn to for inspiration, but knowing a few basic concepts can help you plan teaching strategies that will prompt your students to be more receptive to learning. Find out how introducing a few simple techniques to your craft -- and increasing some of those you may already employ -- can encourage productive learning and actually change brain chemistry, increasing children's ability to learn (and retain) new skills and information. Read more at the discussion page for the webinar.

February 12, 2009: "A New Day for Learning: How to Cultivate Full-Time Learners"

Host: Milton Chen, executive director, The George Lucas Educational Foundation

Presenters: Hillary Salmons, executive director, Providence After School Alliance (PASA), and Karen Dvornich, continuing education coordinator, NatureMapping

Description: Discussion and exploration of A New Day for Learning, which showcases model programs that engage students in the array of learning opportunities inside, and outside of, the classroom. You'll walk away from the webinar with lesson plans, best practices, and tips you can implement in your school, your school district, or your community. Read more at the discussion page for the webinar.

November 6, 2008: "Small World: How to Bring Your Students into the Global Classroom"

Host: Grace Rubenstein, senior producer, Edutopia

Presenter: Blogger and author Will Richardson, a member of Edutopia's National Advisory Council

Description: Unlike books, radio, and other media, the Internet is a two-way communication tool. Online, everyday people are able to shape and contribute to the collective experience -- it empowers you and your students to become information producers, rather than mere consumers. We know that the Web is changing politics, business, and the media, but what does that mean for teachers and schools? That's what we'll be talking about during the webinar.