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As each school year comes to an end, teachers around the world look back and wonder, “What did my students really learn this year? Did I cover all the topics I needed to cover? How much do my students understand?” If we are doing our job right, students should come away from the year knowing a lot more than when they started, and they should be excited for their next year of learning. In the moment, the students and teachers are probably slightly more excited for summer break, but hopefully the excitement for learning will come.

There’s a drought sighting on the horizon of STEM education and careers, and it’s got many people worried. The number of U.S. college students obtaining engineering degrees is dwindling at alarming rates, with one science writer citing that in 2006, only 4.5% of American college degrees were in engineering, compared to 33.3% in China.

“A grounding in the arts will help our children to see; to bring a uniquely human perspective to science and technology. In short, it will help them as they grow smarter to also grow wiser.” - Robert E. Allen – Chairman and CEO, AT&T Corporation

Music is a language of its own. The language of music and the technicalities of music composition may seem daunting and scary to teachers without much of a music background. Understanding, reading, appreciating, and writing music are skills that take years of training and practice to hone. The Gateway to 21st Century Skills has a variety of unique ideas to help you integrate music into your teaching in the context of different subjects and themes.

A couple of years ago, some music educators held a Twitter chat to discuss which topics they felt were important to teach students in the music classroom. Many of the teachers mentioned that music composition was given short shrift, and that it should be taught much more widely, and given much more prominence, in the music curriculum.

Every book has the unique opportunity to take its reader on a fantastic voyage, bringing them into a world they have never seen before. This opportunity can also allow books to take readers into subjects and places that some parents and teachers might prefer to avoid. Unfortunately, if that book is censored or banned, a student’s opportunity to learn important lessons from that book is cut short.

Dystopian literature is hot.

In the school media center where I volunteer one morning each week, books like The Hunger Games trilogy fly off the shelves. The waiting list for each of the books in the series numbers into the double digits, and students are constantly checking in to see if a copy has been returned early. Ditto for the City of Ember series, The Giver, Unwind, and The Maze Runner trilogy. While classics such as Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451, and Lord of the Flies are less popular, we’ve still seen a noticeable uptick in the number of copies circulating this year. What’s the big deal with dystopian novels?

The goal of bringing any new innovation into the classroom is to improve the quality of learning in that classroom. Innovations can help lessons be more fun, encouraging students to become engaged with the material. Innovations can make lessons memorable, leaving students with a better recollection of the material later. Innovations can also make a teacher’s job a little easier by encouraging active, student-led learning rather than passive learning. The innovation trend we are talking about this week is using iPads and other electronic devices as learning tools in the classroom.

Mobile tablets are one of the most innovative and versatile tech tools to come on the market in recent years, and their application to teaching and learning has made quick inroads in schools. It’s been just over two years since the first generation of iPads became available to consumers, and an entire industry has developed around the technology – much of it focused on education. While still prohibitively expensive for many public schools, other schools have been quick to adopt iPads and integrate them into the curriculum. Aside from being light, portable, and snazzy, just what types of benefits do tablets offer over laptops, desktops, and e-books?

There are plenty of studies showing the importance of physical activity to overall health, regardless of a person’s age. Teachers should consider adding a physical component to their everyday activities, if only for the sake of creating the habit of an active lifestyle. Newer research on the link between the mind and body has found connections between physical activity and brain function, giving teachers even more incentive to find simple, creative ways to include movement each day in school.

Each May, the nation celebrates National Physical Fitness and Sports Month. Across the country, physical education teachers, fitness instructors, coaches, nutritionists, and others concerned with human health and wellness promote the advantages of physical exercise. The benefits of proper exercise and nutrition are well known for both older people as well as for children, and the month-long awareness campaign prompts many people to make healthy lifestyle changes. An offshoot of the campaign is National Physical Education and Sport Week on May 1-7, which focuses on physical education and activity for K-12 students.