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Researchers in the University of Toronto's neuroscience department are planning to launch a website that will make information about neuroscience and its implications for instruction available to educators this fall. The website is part of a project called "The Adolescent Brain: Implications for Instruction," which will also include a quarterly newsletter and professional development courses. Hazel McBride and Michael Ferrari, both researchers with the University's well-known Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, say they're responding to teachers' interest in using research in neuroscience to inform classroom practices.

"We have textbooks that exist within our system and other systems ... science books, for example, (that) are outdated. We still have science books that call Pluto a planet," says Coteau. "So, with digital technology and digitization of materials, we could really put together a course curriculum that is flexible and has the ability to be changed instantly." The school board spends $8 million per year on textbooks. Over a 10-year period, if half the books are digitized, it could save up to $50 million.

Lest history repeat itself, Ontario has laid the educational groundwork for a new generation of students who appreciate the perils of interest rates and debt, and know the real cost of borrowing money. The province's Ministry of Education has released comprehensive teacher guidelines that identify places in the Grade 4 through 12 curriculum where financial literacy can be inserted into classes as varied as mathematics, computer science and native studies.

B.C. teachers have given 72-hour strike notice for Sept. 6 - the first day of school. Forty-one thousand teachers will abandon administrative duties like filling out report cards, supervising playgrounds or meeting with principals - unless an agreement is reached with the province.

Concerned at the growing number of students diagnosed with clinical depression and anxiety disorders - and more who seem headed that way, especially in Grade 9 - North Toronto Collegiate has launched an unusual program to teach teens how to handle the stress thrust on them by parents, the school system, and themselves. Through lunch workshops in meditation and kick-boxing, laughter therapy and yoga and even listening to new-age music played on crystals, the school is trying to teach kids what guidance head Michelle de Braux calls "the fourth R - relaxation."