Educators!  You’re invited to submit a piece of writing for a book tentatively titled: Teaching from the Heart: Poetry that Speaks to the Courage to Teach. The book will be an anthology of poems identified by educators as having a meaningful impact on how they think, feel about, and do their work. Each poem will be introduced by a short personal commentary that describes how the teacher has been touched by that particular poem. The concept of the project hinges on the idea that reading poetry stirs up an inner conversation about questions, emotions, and things that matter. Because poetry slows us down and focuses our attention, it can yield poignant insights into what is most significant and enduring in our work as educators.

Before long, a small revolution was brewing on cafeteria trays. Children around the world began submitting photos of their own school lunches for contrast, comparison and critique. Jamie Oliver, the world’s most high-profile champion of better dining options for kids, took up Payne’s cause, calling her “inspirational.” Her local council soon revised its school eating plan to offer “unlimited salads, fruit and bread.” And Payne helped raise nearly $40,000 for Mary’s Meals, an international organization that sets up school feeding projects in underprivileged areas so students can get nutritious food.

Image courtesy of Flickr user chidorian

Caine dreamed of the day he would have lots of customers visit his arcade, and he spent months preparing everything, perfecting the game design, making displays for the prizes, designing elaborate security systems, and hand labeling paper-lunch-gift-bags. However, his dad’s autoparts store (located in an industrial part of East LA) gets almost zero foot traffic, so Caine’s chances of getting a customer were very small, and the few walk in customers that came through were always in too much of a hurry to get their auto part to play Caine’s Arcade. But Caine never gave up….

This short film tells the story of Caine’s Arcade, and of our attempt to make Caine’s day. Watch the film: http://cainesarcade.com

Photo courtesy of Manauvaskar Kublall

1. Will this be the year that some school districts say ‘No mas!” to No Child Left Behind’s harsh rules?

2. Will we have that long-awaited national conversation about the goals of public education?

3. And will political leaders rise up against the excesses of for-profit education, so effectively documented in the New York Times (December 13, 2011), where we learned that the school superintendent of one for-profit charter chain that enrolls 94,000 students is paid $5,000,000 a year? (By contrast, Dennis Walcott, who is responsible for over one million New York City public school students, earns $213,000 a year.)

I’ll list the ones I think are the best first, followed by the worst. However, it’s too hard to rank them within those categories, so I’m not listing them in any order.