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The joys of teaching Huck Finn to today's youth.

Bilingual books are great tools for teaching languages and changing attitudes about other cultures, but finding quality books can be challenging. Here’s what to look for.

This spring, my principal asked who would be interested in teaching a two-week summer session for our own students. I found myself saying, “I’ll do it.” I had previously sworn off summer school as something I would never teach no matter how much I needed the money. But then “summer school” was something I’d only seen in the movies: large groups of unmotivated kids who had even less desire in the summer than they had during the school year. I imagined sweltering classrooms, hours of endless instruction and failure for all—myself included.

While wrapping up the school year, this teacher learned two powerful lessons from her students.

The undercurrent affects my classroom. I can feel its tug and see its effects but can rarely locate the source or the exact flow. Cruel taunts and gossip are the culprits behind my students’ tears, stony faces—their anger and their fear. The ferociousness of the few vicious communications I have been privy to as a high school teacher caught me off guard. High school can be a shark tank and the blood flows with every passing class period, thanks in part to the popularity of online social media. I feel helpless to save the victims because I don’t even know who they are half the time.

This middle school history teacher uses complexity—and all the uncertainty that comes along with it—as the starting point for his unit on the Middle East.

How do you encourage colleagues to participate in sustained conversations about justice, equity and tolerance?