There are hundreds of ways to make education more meaningful that teachers and community members are pursuing– and the public needs to hear more about them. Here are two very different initiatives featured today at Education Week – Teacher.

In Washington DC, the Young Playwright’s Theater Program partners with schools, enabling students to write and perform their own plays on issues that matter to them. Good teachers hook up with and make great use of such programs there and in other cities around the country.

And in Los Angeles, two teachers explain how an online management system enables teachers, students, and families to better understand what transpires in classrooms every day. Interestingly, the teachers must adjust to greater transparency — part of what has held teachers back from greater communication with the public. But it pays off, as these teachers explain.

So, people, there are all sorts of high-quality education tools and strategies you can tell the public about. It’s time to start doing it.