Tired of being forced to eat what she felt were nutritionally sub-par meals at school, a 9-year-old student took to her blog in an effort to draw attention to the issue. It didn’t take long for that attention to go viral as Martha Payne's blog, Never Seconds, was eyed by several media outlets in her native Scotland. The attention grew to the point of a nationally-televised interview with the BBC. She explained how she would take pictures of the meals presented to her with a digital camera and write up a summary of the food including a Food-o-meter rating of how much she likes it, a mouthful count, a health rating and a number for how many pieces of hair were in the food.
She started in April and by May 15, school and town officials were seen leading journalists on tours of the school’s dining area. It was then that Payne blogged that there was a new system for ordering food, and that "cherry tomatoes, radishes, carrot and cucumber shreddings," began appearing in the meals.
When visiting classrooms, I often feel for introverts—those who prefer to work alone and gain strength from their own thoughts and ideas. Classrooms have been transformed into collaborative factories, full of teamwork, groupwork, small groups, debates and discussions.
Let me say right off the top, that I believe these configurations are valuable to students and help prepare for them for the work force, which depending on the field and job, more than likely will be designed around...

“Why should there be only one teacher in class? Why not everyone teach and learn?”- Abhijit Sinha
India’s rural schools struggle with high rates of teacher absences and student dropouts. How do you educate youth without sufficient government funding, resources and teachers?
Abhijit Sinha...
Whenever I ask my daughters what they did in school, the answer is they generally took a test.
One day, they sighed and asked me if I had taken that many tests as a child, to which I replied “no.” They then ask me why they have to take so many tests, to which I don’t have any answer.
The testing culture in schools is absurd and shows little signs of slowing. Depending on what report you read, students spend anywhere from 10 to 19 school days each year testing. That number...

“We create a mechanism or an environment made up of a few simple but clear rules. Within this context, the children are free to explore autonomously.” – Alessandro Lumare
Wanted: Learning that nurtures innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship. These skills play an essential role in helping us to...

C. M. Rubin’s Global Education Report
Democratic innovation is a passion for Adam Cronkright because he believes “the dominant conception of leadership is deeply flawed.”...
As a teacher, do you know your state’s acceleration options for students? If you don’t, you’re not alone. In my experience, in the state of Florida, for instance, few parents and, even teachers, were aware that a law exists to provide acceleration options to advanced students grades k-12 in public schools. The little-known, relatively unadvertised policy, passed in 2012, only seemed known to a few, savvy parents at the school where I worked as a teacher of the gifted.
However, the...

Learning that can excite learners to continue their work well beyond the school day sounds like the kind of exercise schools would want to encourage more. Project-based learning has come and gone since the early 20th century. Today, thanks to real world challenges such as the United Nations’ SDG’s, it is...