Chapter 1: Why We're Here

WATCH

• A Day in the Life of a Typical American School District (from the Go Public Project)
• Good school, bad school (from Learning Matters TV)
• Arielle: Pushing Your Limits (from What Kids Can Do)
• Kenneth: Being Someone, Doing Something (from What Kids Can Do)
• “Youth and Adults Transforming School Together” (feature story on WKCD.org)
• Responsive Schools (from Responsive Classroom)
• A high school weighs in on sustaining greatness over time (from Eagle Rock PDC)
• On Play and Learning (from The Center for Children's Learning)
• The World Becomes What You Teach (from Institute for Humane Education)
• My School (from Ashoka's Start Empathy Initiative)

READ

• How Do Schools Sustain Greatness Over Time? by Michelle Hughes
• OK, Obama Won. Now What? by Sam Chaltain
• New Rules for School Reform by Sam Chaltain
• Fires in the Mind: What Kids Can Tell Us About Motivation and Mastery (from What Kids Can Do)
• “The Classroom is Obsolete, It’s time for something new.” by Prakash Nair
• Redesigning High Schools: What Matters and What Works by Linda Darling-Hammond and the School Redesign Network at Stanford University
• In Our School: Building community in elementary schools (from Responsive Classroom)
• Getting to the heart of educational reform: Social and emotional learning for academic success (from CASEL)
• No new wars needed (from CASEL)
• Project Based Learning (from Edutopia)
• Teacher Development (from Edutopia)
• Parent Engagement Resources (from Edutopia)
• Democratic Education in Practice: Inside the Mission Hill School by Matthew Knoester
• The Power and Promise of Humane Education by Zoe Weil
• A Visit to Mission Hill: 5 Lessons from a Leading Changemaker School (from Ashoka's Start Empathy Initiative)
• What Makes a School Great? (from Ashoka's Start Empathy Initiative)
• Teachers at Work: Six Exemplars of Everyday Practice (What Kids Can Do)

LISTEN

• What’s the Big Idea? A conversation Between Josh Starr & Sam Chaltain (Montgomery County Public Schools podcast
• Respecting and Reflecting School Culture (from ASCD)

DO

• Connect with others on Facebook about "A Year at Mission Hill"
• Share Your Most Powerful Learning Story (from Faces of Learning)
• Take a snapshot assessment of your school (from IDEA)
• Start a Friday morning coffee talk session, like the Koinonia Coffee Friday Forum in Jackson, MS
• Start building positive community at your school (from Responsive Classroom)
• Nominate an Ashoka Changemaker School! (from Ashoka)
• Take an online course Teaching for a Postive Future (from Institute for Humane Education)
• Download some of the free activities and lesson plans (from Institute for Humane Education)
• Consider an online M.Ed or Graduate Certificate in humane education/education transormation (from Institute for Humane Education and Valparaiso University)