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.

I’m going to share a secret that took me way too long to learn… are you ready? Parents don’t care what the craft is as long as they can tell their kiddo made it. I used to spend so much time trying to come up with these elaborate, fancy crafts. I often spent WAY too much money, felt super stressed, and then never...
Virtually never addressed, this topic influences every aspect of one’s teaching career.
Office politics, or as I call it, the politics of teaching.
Politics exist in schools across the country, however, aspiring teachers learn nothing directly of this matter in classrooms or internship experiences. Perhaps their education of the political dynamics of education start occurring through observation and osmosis. For instance, they might see the dynamic of their mentor teacher and...

Why do teachers become teachers in the first place? Research indicates it’s for a number of reasons, including the variety the job offers, love of their subject or a great experience in their own schooling that inspired them to make a difference in the lives of others. Research also indicates that to improve the...

“Technical skills alone are not sufficient for students to flourish in today’s world and in the future – a strong foundation of crucial life skills is necessary for students to continuously learn and adapt throughout the course of their lives.” — Donella Rapier
For the third year running, BRAC (the world’s largest NGO founded in 1972) has...
As a k-12 teacher, I often struggled with how to explain enrichment to elementary students. I also questioned myself over when it was academically appropriate to offer enrichment—that is until I stumbled upon the analogy of dessert before dinner. I don’t even remember where I picked up this analogy but somehow it stuck. It helped me visualize when was the “right” time to provide enrichment activities to students, whether gifted students or other students who happened to master a learning...

“Our goal is not to become a winning team. Our goal is self-development.” – Ville Turkka
As automation and artificial intelligence continues to disrupt our workplaces and our societies, experts agree that skills, and particularly social skills, are a critical part of future learning for all youth. Research has...