Today, corporate users are not the only ones rapidly embracing mobile tablets for daily use--this transition has spilled over into the education sector. Schools have begun incorporating mobile devices such as iPads and other tablets into their curriculum. While this trend brings new and exciting educational opportunities, administrators and…

The application of social-emotional and character development (SECD) in classrooms is about teaching, practicing, and modeling essential personal and civic life habits and skills that are almost universally understood as making people good human beings. Among these habits are respect, responsibility, integrity, caring, fairness, and constructive…

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) documents that the world has become increasingly multicultural and multilingual as international migration rates grow each year. The cultural and language diversity in the United States exemplifies this worldwide phenomenon. It is the authors' belief that teachers have…

Positive adult language is the professional use of words and tone of voice to enable students to learn in an engaged, active way. This includes learning social skills. To guide children toward choosing and maintaining positive behaviors, adults need to carefully choose the words and tone of voice used when speaking to them. Learning to use…

How effective is a community's high school in educating its students? Drawing from the work of leading researchers and educators, the Alliance for Excellent Education has identified 10 key elements that every high school should have in place to ensure that all its students are successful. This checklist can help identify the strengths and…

Figuring out what motivates and engages individual students is essential. Indeed, it is the prerequisite for implementing student-centered approaches to learning. However, today's teachers--confronting large class sizes, fast-paced academic calendars, and standardized assessments--face particular pressures to lump all students together and "teach…

At the beginning of each school term, bulletin boards sport fresh ideas and desks glisten, but will students entering the classroom have their expectations met? Will they be engaged in the learning? How can teachers utilize resources and enlist others to provide an even stronger and more effective learning environment? In this article, the author…

Good classroom management is one of the most important goals teachers strive to establish from the first day of class. The rules, procedures, activities, and behaviors set the classroom tone throughout the school year. By revising, updating, and systemizing classroom management activities, teachers can eliminate many problems created by students…

The green concept has tremendous value in schools, especially when it reflects the central purpose and mission of schools: educating young people to participate and civically engage in society. School communities that keep greening the school on the periphery of their awareness will reap advantages, but those that align this idea with the…

Policy shapes practice, and the increasingly important realm of professional development is no exception. To identify effective professional development policies and strategies, a Stanford University research team examined the policy frameworks supporting high levels of professional development activity in four states--(1) Colorado; (2) Missouri;…

Images can be powerful tools for change, but without compelling images of the future of education, everyone will be forced to use the images of the past. Schools can't be built on old images: they must reflect current best practices that infuse technology, relationships, culturally responsive texts, and cooperation and collaboration with partners…

Throughout American education, black boys and men have struggled for years. They graduate from high school and attend and complete college at disproportionately low rates. The overall college performance of black men is so poor that some college officials and advocates for black students are reluctant to even talk about the problem, for fear that…

In this article, the author shares how she created a "peaceable classroom" through activities which she incorporated into a 1st-grade curriculum and which fulfilled academic requirements. As a 1st-grade teacher at Redlands Adventist Academy in Redlands, CA, she wanted to create a learning environment that would foster values like…

Most state regulations for early childhood programs focus on structural aspects of classrooms: class size, teacher/child ratio, teachers' professional degrees, curriculum, and so forth. Those are not the critical factors, according to Robert Pianta, director of the National Center for Research on Early Childhood Education and professor of…

Teachers often complain about the professional development opportunities. And it is not uncommon for absenteeism to increase among teachers and staff during in-service days. The biggest problem that professional development has encountered is that it is usually developed as an isolated requirement, with no real connection to daily teaching and…