Can choreographing a dance help students grasp the water cycle? Or painting a portrait demonstrate their understanding of the achievements of a historical figure? The Kennedy Center's CETA (Changing Education Through the Arts) program is betting on it. CETA works with schools in the Washington, D.C., area to help teachers integrate the arts with…

Yekaterina McKenney offers a plea to writing teachers: Don't emphasize the conventions of writing, the regurgitation of facts, and correct spelling and grammar over the generation of ideas and the creativity of storytelling. She offers up fresh ideas and suggestions about how to make writing meaningful and personal for student writers--from…

A high-poverty, previously low-performing elementary school in Maine shifted its from looking mainly at achievement and test scores to focusing on ways to create motivated, confident, engaged students. They created Rise and Shine, through which all 3rd-5th graders start each day with a fun, challenging activity chosen from a big menu--from…

The way special education is carried out in U.S. schools must change. Special education has become weighed down by its emphasis on deficits and disorders: As regular education has opened to new ways of thinking about brain neuroplasticity, growth mindsets, and other innovations, special education has held fast to its diagnostic categories,…

In Prince George's County Public Schools in Maryland, the Our Lives, Our Words program puts digital cameras in the hands of elementary-aged English language learners. Teachers plan lessons that allow students to use photography as way to support and extend their writing.

Using academic conflicts for instructional purposes is one of the most dynamic, involving, and least used teaching strategies. Teachers fear divisiveness and also lack fitting instructional models for structuring controversial discussions. This article discusses the controversy process and how teachers can organize and use it to enhance cognitive…

Drama in the classroom means honing thinking skills, increasing comprehension, bringing the written word to life, and fun. And it's effective with general, gifted, and at-risk students from K-12. (Author/TE)

Even in schools termed "outstanding" by local and state reviews, few teachers demonstrate artful, inspired classroom instruction. Probable causes include (1) the emphasis in schools on order, competency, and basics, (2) random minilectures, (3) teachers' growing old in place, and (4) the dearth of younger career teachers. (IW)