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The United States Justice Department recently struck a blow against bullying behavior. Officials there reversed a decade-old policy and asked to intervene in a harassment suit brought by a gay youth.

Over 3,000 schools across the country challenged social boundaries on national Mix It Up at Lunch Day last November. Some schools took it to the next level by actively embracing respect and inclusiveness as core values of their school communities.

Among the baby pictures, reports on summer activities and other news reported by my many former students on Facebook, I saw this status update about a week ago: “… it’s good to see fear-mongers called out for spreading misinformation …”

Today’s conventional wisdom is that English language learners (ELLs) need to master English as quickly as possible. Everything else is secondary. If these students remain fluent in their primary languages, good for them. If not, no big deal.

The passing of this literary great reminded us: We’re still learning from her masterpiece.

This toolkit accompanies the article “How Will You Mix It Up in 2013?” and provides classroom and professional-development resources to help plan a successful Mix It Up at Lunch Day and build on that success all year.

Racial inequity, gender stereotypes and heternormity continue to dominate children’s books. This toolkit will help you assess your classroom library and make future selections that reflect a range of cultures, genders, immigration and socio-economic statuses, sexual orientations and family structures.

December started off right with expanded rights for transgender students attending public schools.