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"Educators in the Jefferson County Public Schools have made it their mission to teach children to be not only skilled thinkers but also successful human beings and citizens of the world. CARE for Kids, the Louisville, Kentucky, district's program for social and emotional learning (SEL), is less than two years old but is already showing signs of success. (Watch the Edutopia.org video A Districtwide Initiative to CARE for Kids.) "

"Creating a Twitter board is simple. Make a template with space for a profile picture, the student's real name, a Twitter-style handle, a short bio, and a list of followers. That takes about a quarter of a page, leaving room for tweets. Have students fill out profiles-some of mine drew a profile picture, but most used a photo-and slip the profiles into clear sheet protectors. When we do this exercise, I display the profiles on a whiteboard for a few days, using magnets to hold them in place. When we're done, I store the profiles in a folder-they don't take up much space and are ready for next time. Cut some paper into small slips that students can use for tweets, which they can tape onto the appropriate profile."

"Who doesn't want to improve the tone of the whole day in 5 minutes or less? What better commitment to make in the new year than to positively impact your own life, the lives of those around you, and your school's culture? The science of character strengths and social emotional learning (SEL) is well-documented and quite actionable. All that is needed is a bit of intentional leadership. Click here to download the 5 to Thrive Toolkit! Mayerson Academy, a non-profit professional learning organization, launched the "5 to Thrive Challenge" to encourage education leaders to dedicate five minutes each day over the next month to engage in simple activities that will reframe their thinking and improve the culture in their school. To help get started and frame your thinking, Mayerson Academy provides a free "5 to Thrive Toolkit" that will get you started."

"The gap between the skills people learn and the skills people need is becoming more obvious, as traditional learning falls short of equipping students with the knowledge they need to thrive, according to the World Economic Forum report New Vision for Education: Fostering Social and Emotional Learning Through Technology. Today's job candidates must be able to collaborate, communicate and solve problems - skills developed mainly through social and emotional learning (SEL). Combined with traditional skills, this social and emotional proficiency will equip students to succeed in the evolving digital economy."

"Edutopia's curated list of blogs, articles, and videos for parents about fostering kindness, empathy, resilience, perseverance, and focus in children."

"The start of a new school year is a great time to think about long-term plans for the upcoming year, but also the plans we need to make for our students for years to come. Each day there are news alerts on topics such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, augmented and virtual reality, digital citizenship and literacy and their relation to education. These are the trends and terms that are already a part of our world and will become an increasing part of our future. Beyond these technology-themed trends, we're learning more about social-emotional learning (SEL), mental health awareness, mindfulness and trauma-informed teaching. These are important issues and educators must stay informed on best practices and ways to make these 'themes' part of our daily practice. As educators today, it's no longer about simply planning instruction with our students in mind. We also have to consider how changing technology trends and important societal issues will impact our students both now and beyond high school. How can we best prepare them to not only find success for themselves but also make an impact on others? So the pressure is on, to really consider how we can best prepare students not just for this school year, not just for life after high school graduation, but well beyond. We need to prepare our students for the year 2030 and the future. But how?"

"You live in the age of robots. A robot built your car, opened your garage door, and made the espresso that went into your double mocha. In large and small ways, robots are everywhere in our lives. The robots in my classroom amplify learning for my students. Robots are another tool in my high-engagement toolbox. I use the term high-engagement as a description and a warning. In my experience, high-engagement tools need to be matched with high-challenge learning. If we are using robots to support learning goals, the learning goals have to be robust and demanding. Without a carefully crafted learning context to support a demanding learning goal, students end up engaging the learning medium and just playing with robots."

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"Recently, my students gave me one of those golden moments in teaching.  Allow me to set the stage. We were over six weeks into a project-based life science unit in which students apply systems-thinking to closely examine the inner workings of a body system and relate that system to others as a subsystem. The set of standards housing our work is juicy with Crosscutting Concepts and ripe with potential for Science and Engineering Practices.  We began the unit exploring how cells themselves, a structure students often initially perceive as an end-all-be-all baseline to life, are instead a very complex system of subsystems.  That particular day, students were outlining components of their selected body system in preparation for writing  a podcast."