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"'We must reimagine middle school science and math not as a way to prepare students for high school, but as a place where students are inventors, scientists, and mathematicians today.' So say Sylvia Martinez and Gary Stager in this exciting guest article about the Maker Movement and its implications for kids, schools and STEM studies. Martinez and Stager are the authors of a must-read book, Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom. In this informative post, they encourage STEM educators, school leaders and teachers across the curriculum to transform our classrooms into centers of innovative thinking and experimenting. ~ Anne Jolly"

"What happens when administrators throw out the rulebook and try fundamentally different models of education? The models are all different: In one successful school, kids help choose the lunch plan. In another, classes start at 10 a.m. (with less homework-and more field trips). And in a third school, physical education happens three times a day, instead of once a week. Sound like items from a third grader's wish list? Nope. These are initiatives from real schools where, instead of nibbling at the edges of curriculum and technology, administrators have embraced radically new approaches to the very idea of school itself. We caught up with leaders at three such schools to find out how it's working out for them-and to show you what you can steal for your own district, without necessarily ­turning your whole model upside down. "