A positive and affirming look at skin color, from an artist's perspective. Seven-year-old Lena is going to paint a picture of herself. She wants to use brown paint for her skin. But when she and her mother take a walk through the neighborhood, Lena learns that brown comes in many different shades. Through the eyes of a little girl who begins to see her familiar world in a new way, this book celebrates the differences and similarities that connect all people. Karen Katz created The Colors of Us for her daughter, Lena, whom she and her husband adopted from Guatemala six years ago.

In the face of authoritarian, divisive trends and multiplying crises, when politics-as-usual is stymied, Awakening Democracy through Public Work shows it is possible to build foundations for a democratic awakening grounded in deep American traditions of a citizen-centered commonwealth. Awakening Democracy through Public Work begins with the story of Public Achievement, a youth civic education and empowerment initiative with roots in the civil rights movement. It describes Public Achievement's first home in St. Bernard's, a low-income Catholic elementary school in St. Paul, Minnesota, and how the program spread across the country and then abroad, giving birth to the larger concept of public work. In Public Achievement, young people practice "citizen politics" as they tackle issues ranging from bullying, racism, and sexual harassment to playground improvements, curriculum changes, and better school lunches. They develop everyday political skills for working across differences and making constructive change. Such citizen politics, more like jazz than a set piece of music, involves the interplay and negotiation of diverse interests and views, sometimes contentious, sometimes harmonious. Public Achievement highlights young people's roles as co-creators—builders of schools, communities, and democratic society. They are not citizens in waiting, but active citizens who do public work. Awakening Democracy through Public Work also describes how public work can find expression in many kinds of work, from education and health to business and government. It is relevant across the sweep of society. People have experimented with the idea of public work in hundreds of settings in thirty countries, from Northern Ireland and Poland to Ghana and Japan. In Burundi it birthed a national initiative to rework relations between villagers and police. In South Africa it helped people in poor communities to see themselves as problem solvers rather than simply consumers of government services. In the US, at Denison University, public work is being integrated into dorm life. At Maxfield School in St. Paul, it is transforming special education. In rural Missouri, it led to the "emPowerU" initiative of the Heartland Foundation, encouraging thousands of young people to stay in the region. In Eau Claire, Wisconsin, it generated "Clear Vision," a program providing government support for citizen-led community improvements. Public work has expanded into the idea of "citizen professionals" working with other citizens, not on them or for them. It has also generated the idea of "civic science," in which scientists see themselves as citizens and science as a resource for civic empowerment. Awakening Democracy through Public Work shows that we can free the productive powers of people to work across lines and differences to build a better society and create grounded hope for the future.

Winner of the 2023 Outstanding Book Award from AERA's Moral Development and Education SIG! In PRIMED for Character Education, renowned character educator Marvin W Berkowitz boils down decades of research on evidence-based practices and thought-provoking field experience into a clear set of principles that leaders, administrators, and teacher-leaders can implement to help students thrive. The author’s original six-component framework offers a comprehensive guide to shaping purposeful learning environments, healthy relationships, core values and virtues, role models, empowerment, and long-term development in any PreK-12 school or district. This engaging and heartfelt book features tips for practice, anecdotes from award-winning schools, and straightforward tenets from moral education, social-emotional learning, and positive psychology.

Digital Citizenship in Schools, Second Edition is an essential introduction to digital citizenship. Starting with a basic definition of the concept and an explanation of its relevance and importance, author Mike Ribble goes on to explore the nine elements of digital citizenship. He provides a useful audit and professional development activities to help educators determine how to go about integrating digital citizenship concepts into the classroom. Activity ideas and lesson plans round out this timely book.

Teaching Global Citizenship brings together perspectives from former and current teachers from across Canada to tackle the unique challenges surrounding educating for global awareness. The contributors discuss strategies for encouraging young people to cultivate a sense of agency and global responsibility. Reflecting on the educator’s experience, each chapter engages with critical questions surrounding teaching global citizenship, such as how to help students understand and navigate the tension at the heart of global citizenship between universalism and pluralism, and how to do so without frightening, regressing, mythicizing, imposing, or colonizing. Based on narrative inquiry, the contributors convey their insights through stories from their classroom experiences, which take place in diverse educational settings: from New Brunswick to British Columbia to Nunavut, in rural and urban areas, and in public and private schools. Covering a broad range of topics surrounding the complexity of educating for global citizenship, this timely text will benefit those in education, global citizenship, curriculum development, and social studies courses across Canada. FEATURES: - Grounded in narrative inquiry, experiential learning, and teacher-based research - Includes study questions at the end of each chapter - Written by teachers for teachers with the accessibility of the material, diverse voices, and a broad spectrum of classroom settings in mind