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Maya and other students in Ms. Hopkins class study techniques used by Thomas Jefferson as they grow pea plants and compete to see whose will produce a bowl full of peas first. Includes an afterword about Jefferson.

As libraries adjust to the needs of the 21st century, there needs to be a different way of thinking in regards to its design. School libraries have traditionally been designed as large rooms for the storage of materials for research and pleasure reading. As more and more districts focus their attention on digital acquisitions, the need for storage and shelves will naturally diminish while the need for space in which students experiment, create and explore will increase. This article focuses on the shifting nature of school libraries and how renovating existing spaces and the design of news ones must also evolve to accommodate the changing roles of libraries and librarians in schools.

A fictionalized account of how plant scientist George Washington Carver came to an Alabama school and taught the children how to grow plants and reap the rewards of nature's bounty. Includes factual note about George Washington Carver.

Middle school librarian Susan Grigsby believes strongly in teaching independence in book selection, and has been able to back up her belief by putting programs in place that provide evidence to show her administrators how fostering independence works. She spends time creating personal bibliographies for her students based on an interest survey. She teaches her students how to create resource lists in the library's online catalog so they have a handy list of likely titles when they are ready to read something new. She works with her language arts teachers to set aside time for monthly book talks to share stories that might fly under students' radar or exist outside their comfort zones. When all of this is combined with a commitment to know her students, know the literature, and keep current on titles and authors for middle school, she is able to provide a program that not only encourages independent self-selection but helps middle readers broaden their scope in preparation for high school. In this article, she describes the steps she took to teach and support student independence in book selection and to teach her school community the importance of independent self-selection.

This article describes how school librarians in Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS) in Georgia addressed a concern regarding the performance evaluation tool that stemmed from the passing of House Bill (HB) 244, which was passed in response to the state's Race to the Top (RT3) application requirements. The bill became law on July 1, 2014, and the resulting evaluation instrument was called the Teacher Keys Effectiveness System (TKES). Twenty-six school systems in Georgia were part of the original RT3 application; these systems educate about 40 percent of the state's public school students. In preparation for the passage of HB 244, those twenty-six systems used the first five months of 2012 to implement the TKES and Leader Keys Evaluation System (LKES) as a pilot program. GCPS, the largest system in Georgia with 134 schools and more than 170,000 students, participated in the program. With the teacher evaluation system about to begin a pilot in Gwinnett, school librarians across the county were concerned and unclear about how their performance would be measured in the upcoming years. In response to this concern, the Media Services and Technology Training team at GCPS began work on an evaluation instrument for school librarians. Program coordinators at the university level, library coordinators at the system level, active members of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL)-affiliated state-level organization, and building-level practicing school librarians worked together to develop a process that has assured district leaders that the preparation programs around the state are aligned in philosophy and mission, and are producing young professionals for the field who will help lead their schools in the development of 21st-century learning environments. Throughout the process, all of the consortium members consulted with colleagues in other areas of education, and the tool became an advocacy piece that started conversations that might never have happened otherwise.

Human aging presents an evolutionary paradox: while aging rates remain constant, healthspan and lifespan vary widely. We address this conundrum via salutogenesis—the active production of health—through immune resilience (IR), the capacity to resist disease despite aging and inflammation. Analyzing ~17,500 individuals across lifespan stages and inflammatory challenges, we identified a core salutogenic mechanism: IR centered on TCF7, a conserved transcription factor maintaining T‐cell stemness and regenerative potential. IR integrates innate and adaptive immunity to counter three aging and mortality drivers: chronic inflammation (inflammaging), immune aging, and cellular senescence. By mitigating these aging mechanisms, IR confers survival advantages: At age 40, individuals with poor IR face a 9.7‐fold higher mortality rate—a risk equivalent to that of 55.5‐year‐olds with optimal IR—resulting in a 15.5‐year gap in survival. Optimal IR preserves youthful immune profiles at any age, enhances vaccine responses, and reduces burdens of cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's, and serious infections. Two key salutogenic evolutionary themes emerge: first, female‐predominant IR, including TCF7, likely reflects evolutionary pressures favoring reproductive success and caregiving; second, midlife (40–70 years) is a critical window where optimal IR reduces mortality by 69%. After age 70, mortality rates converge between resilient and non‐resilient groups, reflecting biological limits on longevity extension. TNFα‐blockers restore salutogenesis pathways, indicating IR delays aging‐related processes rather than altering aging rates. By reframing aging as a salutogenic‐pathogenic balance, we establish TCF7‐centered IR as central to healthy longevity. Targeted midlife interventions to enhance IR offer actionable strategies to maximize healthspan before biological constraints limit benefits. Human aging shows puzzling diversity: similar aging rates yet vastly different health outcomes. Our study of ~17,500 people revealed a health‐promoting trait (more common in women) linked to strong immune resilience and high expression of TCF7, a key immune gene. This trait enables individuals to fight infections like COVID‐19 more effectively, respond better to vaccines, avoid comorbidities, and live longer. Its decline after age 70 may explain lifespan limits. These findings redefine aging as a tug‐of‐war between health‐promoting (salutogenic) and disease‐driving (pathogenic) processes, opening new treatment paths.

Cover legend: The cover image is based on the article The 15‐Year Survival Advantage: Immune Resilience as a Salutogenic Force in Healthy Aging by Muthu Saravanan Manoharan et al., https://doi.org/10.1111/acel.70063.

Ryan Lee, a U.S. Air Force service member, typically begins his futurecasting process by \"compiling sources from various fields (technical data, economic trends, historical facts, expert opinions, social and cultural data, and so on) on the topic of interest\" (2016, 94).Dr. Dustin Dooly, a classroom teacher and mother of a transracial family in Fort Smith, Arkansas, challenges school librarians to develop programs that help students to live multidimensional lives, recognizing perspectives, perceptions, and experiences beyond their own lived realities.[...]James Allen, a K-12 school librarian in Eminence, Kentucky, describes what is possible in a school library that changes gradually and organically to meet the evolving needs of its user population.

The author believes strongly in teaching independence in book selection, and she has been able to back up her belief by putting programs in place that provide evidence to show her administrators how fostering independence works. One point she made that really hit home was her belief that labeling or color coding lulls one into the false security that students can rely on a number like Lexile or AR levels for appropriateness. She pointed out that neither of those designations factor in the maturity level of a title's content when determining reading level. Some administrators, parents, and teachers will always believe that leveling and labeling a school library is a way to help drive students toward appropriate literature. But, if they truly believe that their job is to foster independence so that students can use any library anywhere in the world, then they must teach and support that independence, and they must teach their school community the importance of independent self-selection.

In the year 2013 Georgia passed House Bill 244 in response to the state's Race to the Top (RT3) application requirements. The bill was passed to revise certain provisions relating to annual performance evaluations; and to provide for the development of evaluation systems for teachers of record. The bill became law on Jul 1, 2014, and the resulting evaluation instrument was called the Teacher Keys Effectiveness System. Twenty-six school systems in Georgia were part of the original RT3 application; these systems educate about 40 percent of the state's public school students. One of the benefits of having district-level leadership involved in the consortium was their close connection and understanding of what principals and other school-level leaders would need from the evaluation instrument. As was mentioned above, this new instrument for school librarians was developed shortly after a new evaluation system for teachers in Georgia was developed and implemented. It is difficult enough to make sure that principals know what quality school librarians should do.