Six Capitol Region middle and high school students will have their One World Reflection about culture and local and global issues published and will split $1000 in cash and gift certificate prizes.

Students should share their ideas, perspectives and knowledge about:

-Their ethnic origins

-A place they have traveled

-An issue affecting young people in their community

-A national or global issue that impacts youth

All One World Reflection submissions are due by March 1, 2010 and prizes will be awarded at our Youth, Culture & Learning Celebration on April 15, 2010.

  - March 11 4-8pm $12 Explore exciting ways to infuse your classroom with O'Keeffe's life and art. This program explores the special exhibition Georgia O'Keeffe: Abstraction and Teach with O'Keeffe, a national art and education program. 

To learn more and register online for the program click

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provides grants up to $4,000 to help support innovative projects to incorporate environmental education into all subject areas. Classroom Earth is committed to helping teachers integrate environmental education into their curricula to inspire their students to help solve environmental problems.

Teachers from all subject areas are encouraged apply.

This is Part III in a series on Teaching the Whole Child. Read the previous issue (Are my students healthy?) here.

If something flammable spills in the science lab or a faulty thermostat makes the temperature in our classroom unbearable, we don't carry on with our lessons as if these things don't matter. The physical safety of our students is essential to their ability to learn and to the extent that we have any control over the state of our school facilities, we do whatever we can to ensure that safety every day.

When it comes to emotional safety, our classrooms aren't readily equipped with the social equivalent of blunt scissors or non-toxic glue. The dangers of whispered taunts are harder to spot than those of a wobbly chair leg or broken window. But emotionally stressful situations can be just as detrimental to the learning experience as physical hazards.

Our brains are wired to get us out of danger above all else, so if students do not feel safe, physically or emotionally, that feeling receives the bulk of their attention.

According to the NEA:

What can be done to combat these statistics? Even if we have a well-behaved classroom devoid of conflict, we have no control over what happens in the hallways or on the playground. Or do we?

A safe classroom doesn't avoid conflict, which is a natural part of the experience of being a human around other humans. A safe classroom is one in which students are able to learn how to address things like conflict, frustration, anger, or embarrassment in productive ways.

If our students genuinely learn to work together and use their minds well -within the walls of our classrooms- it follows that they will also be able to do so outside the classroom.