In the past two years, schools have faced the herculean task of attending to students' physical and mental well-being while attempting to engage them in meaningful learning. An important aspect of improving and sustaining the well-being of an entire school community is to make changes at the system level. In times of chaos and uncertainty, people…

Dissent is vital to the intellectual life of a classroom, just as it is to the health of a school, a school system, or a democracy, explains high school teacher Mike Miller. Rather than being silenced, healthy dissidence should be taught. Miller draws from his classroom experience to illustrate how educators can cultivate a climate that welcomes…

The author, a veteran ESL teacher, describes a set of specific supports to help long-term English language learners make academic progress that he and other teachers piloted at Luther Burbank High School in California. The interventions included a daily academic support class; monitoring this group's academic progress; "cohorting" them…

"Coming from complexity science, the term emergence describes the dynamic and unpredictable ways through which change unfolds in organizations," writes Shane Safir in this article about how teacher leaders can transform a school's climate and culture. Using Berkeley High School in California as an example, Safir explains how successful…

Educators often encourage students to take risks and work hard to achieve well in school--an approach called "academic press." An assumption behind this approach is that students trust educators enough to take risks and embrace academic challenge; but when a safe, trustworthy environment isn't in place, students won't take risks and may…

When asked about their child-rearing priorities, parents in the United States are likely to say it's more important to raise children who are caring than to raise high achievers. Schools, too, typically trumpet values such as caring, honesty, and fairness. These values are posted on walls, reiterated in assemblies, and included in mission…

When Alexis Wiggins returned to full-time teaching after having a baby, she took with her an idea from the book "A Path With Heart" by Buddhist Jack Kornfield. The idea was that each day might go better if she viewed everyone she encountered during that day, including any student or parent who seemed to make her teaching life harder, as…

Although depression is classified as an adult mental health disorder, middle to late adolescence is the age when symptoms most commonly surface. If teachers can recognize the signs of depression in students, Crundwell and Killu assert, they can provide a supportive, flexible school environment that enables depressed students to learn and thrive.…