How can a teacher carve out a deeper sense of community in an inexpensive way? Across the nation, many schools have managed to craft creative and inexpensive community-building projects. Perhaps the three projects featured here will spark some new ideas for your own school: (1) The Hunger Games Come to Texas; (2) Tough Mudders in Macungie; and (3)…

Before Michelle Hatchell and her partner, Liz, sent their child, Mimi, to school for the first time, the family sat down and created a script. "What can you say," Hatchell prompted, "if someone asks if you have two moms?" They sent Mimi's teacher picture books depicting families with two mothers. And they met with the principal, requesting Mimi be…

Sports rivalries can energize school spirit. But keeping events respectful takes a dynamic blend of foresight, leadership and buy-in from the community. Sports rivalries are dynamic relationships with many moving parts--athletes, coaches, students, pep squads, parents and others. When it's healthy, fierce competition can engender respect as well…

Policies that encourage police presence at schools, harsh tactics including physical restraint, and automatic punishments that result in suspensions and out-of-class time are huge contributors to the school-to-prison pipeline, but the problem is more complex than that. The school-to-prison pipeline starts (or is best avoided) in the classroom.…

Fueled by two decades of historic immigration, American demographics are changing. Many school districts are often ill prepared to meet the needs of limited English proficient (LEP) students and families. "Teaching Tolerance" created best practices for engaging LEP students and families in an effort to help administrators build a supportive…

It's easy for overweight children to feel singled out and shamed about their body size, at home and at school. Experts say children can easily interpret even the well-intentioned "war on childhood obesity," meant to promote health, to mean a war on their bodies and on them. Size-based stigma stems in large part from the myth that being fat is a…

Bullying is seldom the only factor in a teenager's suicide. Often, mental illness and family stresses are involved. But bullying does plainly play a role in many cases. These students feel that they have no way out of the pain heaped on them by their tormentors so they turn the violence inward with a tragic and final exit. Bullying involves three…

The National Association of Hispanic Journalists tracks the presence of Latinos in the news. It reports that news stories in which Latinos are the subject most often concern immigration, poverty and crime. And Hollywood does no better in reflecting the broad reality of Latino life. Latino characters are often portrayed as poor and uneducated. In…

Schools in Maryland and Connecticut are rethinking suspension policies and practices. They are finding that promoting positive behavior choices rather than punishing the negative is leading to higher graduation rates, especially among students of color. In the 2003-2004 academic year, Baltimore City Public Schools recorded 26,000 suspensions. Six…

Tia Hall wanted to learn German. As a student at an elite private school, Hall felt that this was a reasonable request. But she still recalls the teacher who ridiculed her, saying, "Why on earth would a black kid want to study German?" She never forgot how it felt to be the "only one." As an adult, she married a man who'd had a similar school…

Homeless children can be hard to identify and even harder to help. But teachers can do a great deal to make sure that they do not fall through the cracks. Teachers of highly mobile students must develop the skills to make these children and youth feel welcome while quickly weaving them into classroom routines. They must rapidly assess new…

In Chicago's public school system, LGBT students were three times more likely than straight peers to miss school because of threats to their safety, according to 2003 districtwide survey; and students who face regular harassment were more like to drop out. In this article, the author shares her thoughts on the move of Chicago school officials to…

There is no "typical" rural teacher. But wherever rural teachers are, they struggle against mighty forces, and they often struggle alone. This article provides a glimpse into the lives of three teachers in diverse, far-flung settings: Haralson County High School in northern Georgia, Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge Reservation…

Being an LGBT youth in America has never been a Gay Pride Parade, no matter the community setting. But most rural schools prove an especially unhappy and dispiriting place for kids whose sexuality or gender expression does not fit within community expectations. Those are the findings of researchers for the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education…

This article features the Smith-Holladay family, an interracial family, and describes the family's journey to find a "perfect" kindergarten classroom for their daughter. When the time came to find a kindergarten classroom, the family sought to translate that goal into a vision for their child's schooling. They wanted: 1) a public school that is 2)…