This week’s TED Radio Hour considered violence, including domestic abuse (in a segment featuring Leslie Morgan Steiner).

Last month’s May 2013 (May 4) post below included relevant information.

There are recent reports in the NPR series on cities and innovation.

Earlier this spring, the New York Times featured “the mayor's geek squad.”

This year’s national seminars, as well as New Haven seminars, have begun with public school teachers participating as Fellows.

An addendum to the May 5 post below about Teacher Appreciation Week: In a May 7 Edutopia post, George Lucas, filmmaker and founder of Edutopia, reflected on teachers as "unsung heroes."

Teacher Appreciation Week is May 6-10; the National PTA is among the organizations with resources. (Disclosure: My wife is active in a New Haven PTA.)

May 2012 and earlier posts contained related material.

Charles Blow of the New York Times cited Coaching Boys into Men in his recent column about abusive coaches – and about the need to counter their behavior with constructive alternatives.

This blog mentioned Coaching Boys into Men in a December 2011 (December 24) post about “positive coaching.”

The Futures Without Violence organization (formerly the Family Violence Prevention Fund) offers the Coaching Boys into Men (CBIM) tools for free download at CoachesCorner.org.

One can also join "men who give" to counter domestic violence, cited in a January 2013 (January 5) blog post.

The New Haven Independent published my account of a recent Literacy Forum on Early Learning, "It's about WORDS" – as the WORDS Project of the New Haven Early Childhood Council was a focus of the forum.

On public television this week, my wife and I watched The House I Live In – a provocative documentary about the human and social, as well as financial, costs of the “war on drugs” in the U.S.  The film includes glimpses of New Haven, where filmmaker Eugene Jarecki lived briefly as a child and where his friend Nannie Jeter has lived for many years.  This important movie merits a large audience, as does Jarecki’s earlier documentary, Why We Fight.
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In the realm of documentary film, another that deserves attention is Charles Ferguson’s 2010 Inside Job, mentioned in a June 2011 (June 4) post.

Friday evening, April 5, my children and I had the opportunity to attend a joint New Haven Symphony Orchestra/Fair Haven School performance at that New Haven public school.  We enjoyed the show, including the young dancers who are part of Ballet Haven.  Afterward, we greeted that organization’s founder, Mnikesa Whitaker.

One of my oldest and closest friends, Jeff, is a U.S. Army veteran who yesterday recommended Tomas Young’s "The Last Letter" on the occasion of the 10^th anniversary of the Iraq War.

From a mutual friend, I just received terrible news – of the sudden death of Eli Richbourg.  Peace and comfort to his widow and son.  Eli was a talented, conscientious, warm and good person.

This weekend’s New York Times included an article, “One Way to Cheer Up: Cheer Harder” – a piece that evoked a January 2010 (January 24) post, as well as an April 2011 post, which followed an improbable NCAA championship by the University of Connecticut men’s basketball team.

This past Friday, my kids and I were at Yale to see that university’s men’s basketball team defeat Princeton.  Last night, we were unable to attend when the team defeated Penn.  It was “senior night,” the final game for Yale's seniors, whose plans range from architecture to law school.  Sophomores, including two known for their sobriety, helped lead the victory.

To the northeast, the University of Connecticut men also concluded their season yesterday.  UConn’s “senior day” ceremony honored a graduate student, who played a part in the team’s overtime win.  I was in the crowd to applaud his effort and that of the team, throughout the season. 

Appropriately, as both Yale and UConn anticipate promising seasons in 2013-14, they can prepare for one game in which they will directly compete, according to Yale’s tentative schedule.

John Lawrence, who recently retired after 38 years working in staff roles for the U.S. House of Representatives – including the last eight as Nancy Pelosi's chief of staff – has launched a blog called DOMEocracy.

Casey Gerald, a 2009 Yale graduate, sent me information about MBAs Across America, a new venture of which he is one of four founders.

The Black Male Engagement Initiative (BMe) is a network of men in cities across the country.  Among those men is Samuel Reed, a middle-school teacher in Philadelphia who has been a leader in the Teachers Institute of Philadelphia.

I voted for Sam Reed here, by clicking on Philadelphia and scrolling through the alphabetical list to view his one-minute interview and a written description of his project.  He writes:

“The ‘BME—Artistic and Literary Cafe Showcase’ will bring a collective force of young people together to leverage their talents and connect their passions and creativity to address youth issues…. This project will connect … with traditional literacy skills and provide inspiration and foundational skills for reading, writing, making and thinking skills required for the creative economy.  Engaging disengaged African American males will be particular focus of this project.  This project will produce performance art through an interactive video documentary and digital media using art and literary works produced for and by youth participating in the project.  This project will draw muse from comics, sports, art and literature and run parallel with the work I am doing with students at the Beeber Middle School….  We will … disseminate the work-in-progress via electronic forums (web sites), professional workshops and out-of-school forums. The culminating multi-media installations will be presented at community art venues.  After completing the community art showcases, interactive commentary will be posted on the BMe website and other community sites.”

Paul Turner, who chairs the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department at Yale, is among the authors of a recent study of the adaptability of a virus subjected to temperature changes.

He was quoted in a subsequent article: “Our study shows, that in the time allowed, (the viruses) weren't able to cope…. They could not rely enough on the mutations that were being generated in that population for anything to emerge and dominate that could deal with this highly unpredictable environmental change.”

Paul Turner led a 2009 Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute seminar on “Evolutionary Medicine” and will be leading a 2013 seminar on “Asking Questions in Biology: Discovery versus Knowledge.”

The Institute’s 2013 seminars begin next month.

Maria Popova’s Brain Pickings site includes an excerpt from Bertrand Russell, originally published in the New York Times Magazine in December 1951.  Russell argued for “a new decalogue, not intended to replace the old one but only to supplement it.”  The “Ten Commandments that, as a teacher, [Russell] . . . wish[ed] to promulgate” are here.

Richard Blanco and Elizabeth Alexander spoke together at Yale recently, the occasion a tea for the two poets who (in 2013 and 2009, respectively) read their poems at President Barack Obama’s inaugurations.

Hosting the campus event was Stephen Pitti, who (like Elizabeth Alexander) is a Yale faculty member.

Steve Pitti has led New Haven and national seminars – in which public school teachers have participated as Fellows – on “Latino Cultures and Communities.”

The snow on the ground this morning appears to rival or even surpass levels from the Blizzard of 1978, when the school in my hometown closed for the entire week.  My family and I expect to spend much of our day shoveling!

February is designated as Black History Month.

A 2012 national seminar addressed “Narratives of Citizenship and Race since Emancipation.” 

Jonathan Holloway – Professor of History, African American Studies, and American Studies at Yale – led that seminar.

Public school teachers participated as National Fellows and prepared related curriculum units.

Waltrina Kirkland-Mullins of New Haven's Davis Street School developed one of the units, on “Diverse Journeys -- Americans All!”