What a Year!

A smorgasbord of Edutopia favorites from 2006.

by Edutopia Staff

One of the pleasures of year-end favorites and best-of lists -- which have become an annual epidemic -- is their utter subjectivity. No one agrees on them, something's always forgotten, misjudgments are invariably made, and many admonishing and corrective letters are forthcoming from readers across the land and around the globe.

Credit: Edutopia

Indeed, when it comes to things to do with words on screen or paper, such lists are one of the more entertaining ways to wrap up a year, and then it all starts over and the twelve-month accumulation process begins anew. It's enough to keep one going -- just to see how wrongheaded (or spot on) the next lists will be.

We'll admit that we weaseled a bit on our five Edutopia lists for 2006. First, instead of calling them Best Of lists, we've identified them as Favorites -- in our view, this is marginally more accurate and fair, because this list-compiling process is so danged biased. Also, given the volume of terrific material we're fortunate to publish online and in the magazine, we don't have the heart (or the wisdom) to deem a mere five in each category the best for an entire year. In our opinion, "the best" defines what we publish --all of it.

So, employing a highly imperfect, unscientific process -- a ragged and impromptu poll of staffers we were able to buttonhole -- we've managed to decide on five in each category to call favorites. We had plenty of other top picks, sure, and so did you, but we were able to more or less agree on the following. Take a look and let us know what your 2006 Edutopia.org favorites are. We always enjoy hearing from you.

Favorite Videos

World Party
A Seattle school excites students with the promise of an interconnected world.

PBL in Action: The Wing Strength Design Project
Aviation High School, in Seattle, Washington, is described as "the premier public high school of choice for students . . . who wish to pursue their passion for aviation and aerospace in a learning environment that prepares them for higher education, citizenship, and work."

Learning from the Pros
Animation students link up with professionals for modern-day mentoring.

Rock and Roll into Town
The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus takes the band out of the garage and on the road.

Living History
An extraordinary experience-based education project enables a group of Washington students to live their Native American culture history curriculum.

Favorite Web Features

The School of Second Life
Creating new avenues of pedagogy in a virtual world.

Behind the News
A series of profiles of education journalists. (More coming in 2007.)

In Defense of Homework
A former teacher stands by her assignments.

Global Nomads in Magnolia, Texas
An ambitious videoconferencing program brings together teens from all over -- and wakes them up to the world at large.

One Ruff Field Trip
Human students visit a school for service dogs.

Favorite Edutopia.org Blog Postings

Does Project-Based Learning Lead to Higher Student Achievement?
Not only the most viewed post, but the one with the most buzz in the blogosphere. The reader comments aren't bad, either.

A Teacher's Tour of YouTube
Chris O'Neal accepted our challenge to surf around YouTube and share his observations.

A Pencil Is a Word Processor
Cell phones in class, controversial? High school teacher Ron Smith's first blog post set the tone for his out-of-the box postings on Spiral Notebook. Sure to get the conversation going.

The Power of Digital Storytelling in the Classroom
Peggy Benton's post gets people started. The comments section is rich with readers' suggestions and favorite resources.

Finding Pearls of Wisdom
Who would have known that video excerpts set in the context of specific curricular themes would be so popular? We'll continue these thematic groupings in the blog throughout 2007.

For more 2006 blog favorites, including personal selections by moderator Diane Demée-Benoit, go to Spiral Notebook.

Favorite Magazine Articles

It Takes a Planet
The world is filled with great ideas about education. Take a look. (OK, we're cheating -- this is not a single article, but an entire special issue of the magazine. This link takes you to the introduction for this great package.)

Fishy Business
A high school hatchery protects endangered species and demands academic excellence.

The New Face of Learning
What happens to time-worn concepts of classrooms and teaching when we can now go online and learn anything, anywhere, anytime?

Resilience
In every wounded child, there is a beautiful chord waiting to be played.

Adolescent Literacy
Again, we're cheating a little here, but you win -- this is a series of four articles made possible in part by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York:

Why Johnny (Still) Can't Read
The New Drill
Reading Rules
Tech Teaches