Every teacher aspires to create the ideal lesson! You want to convey the knowledge and skills in the best possible way while also keeping learners motivated. In our design case, we focus on the complex skill of collaborative problem-solving (CPS). In today's complex world, the acquisition of CPS competencies is considered an important learning…

The Young Olympians Program was developed to further a partnership between a university and the local Boys and Girls Club in central Illinois. The program was developed to improve youth participants' academic efficacy and social and emotional learning, while also engaging them in physical activity. This article shares the project-management stages…

As schools endeavor to provide all students with access to computational thinking and computer science, the hackathon emerges as a competitive and high-energy event that uses authentic problems to motivate learners to engage in the domain of computing. This article presents the design case of a hackathon for teenagers as enacted over five…

"Autism at-a-Glance" is a series of practitioner and family-friendly documents created by the Center on Secondary Education for Students with ASD (CSESA) designed for high school staff members supporting students on the autism spectrum, as well as family members of adolescents with ASD. The purpose of the "Autism at-a-Glance"…

In education, "dialogue protocols," or "protocols," are structured guidelines that were developed to promote meaningful and efficient communication and learning. They are "vehicles for building the skills--and culture-- necessary for collaborative work. The authors share protocols that were found to transform practices…

Youth with juvenile justice (JJ) interactions and/or adjudications face a number of challenges as they transition back into their community, including college and career readiness needs. In addition to the typical concerns of adolescents facing postsecondary decisions, these youths' decisions are complicated by a myriad of other factors, often…

Understanding the computational concepts on which countless digital applications run offers learners the opportunity to no longer simply read such media but also become more discerning end users and potentially innovative "writers" of new media themselves. To think computationally--to solve problems, to design systems, and to process and…

John McNamara shares his wisdom and humbly credits Camillo Grazzini, Jenny Höglund, and David Kahn for his growth in Montessori. Recognizing more than what he has learned from his mentors, he shares the lessons he has learned from his students themselves. Math, science, history, and language are so integrated in the curriculum that students…

This article describes a type of professional development focused on students' thinking that occurs in middle school mathematics classrooms. This type of professional development is called "Classroom Embedded" and occurs over one or two days in a classroom with middle school students and their teacher. Teachers actively participate in…

Digital games have become popular for engaging students in a range of learning goals, both in the classroom and the after-school space. In this article, I discuss a specific genre of video game, the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMO), which has been identified as a dynamic environment for encountering 21st-century workplace…

Youths in residential care have likely experienced trauma as they have had atypical and disruptive events occur in their lives that has contributed to their out-of-home placement. For people who have been traumatized, the regulation of emotions is an important feature of their recovery. This article presents a model that traces phases from…

In this article, the author looks deeply into the thinking that takes place in the context of bookmaking projects. She argues that there is an additional and perhaps more compelling justification for the inclusion of book arts in the K-12 curriculum. This justification is centered on the learner. Bookmaking is a powerful and holistic means of…

This article describes a unit of work that was designed for a Year 9 class of mixed ability and which involved the definition and measurement of angles, as well as the practical application of angle properties--such as complimentary angles and the relationships in a transversal. The unit considered the numeracy skills required to interpret a…

The process of creating child-developed board games in a counseling setting may promote social, emotional, and behavioral development in children. Using this creative approach, counselors can actively work with children to address referred concerns and build skills that may generalize outside of counseling sessions. A description of the method is…

Over the past half century, in the United States and other developed nations, children's free play with other children has declined sharply. Over the same period, anxiety, depression, suicide, feelings of helplessness, and narcissism have increased sharply in children, adolescents, and young adults. This article documents these historical changes…