Numerous studies in the last few decades have examined how physical and biological scientists make discoveries and face challenges in their labs. A new collection of essays and original research -- Social Knowledge in the Making (University of Chicago Press) -- applies this sort of analysis to the social sciences, exploring the process of creation in very different disciplines. Chapters in the volume cover such topics as peer review, academic conferences, interdisciplinary work and institutional review boards. The Faculty Learning Communities are entering the start-up phase. The leadership teams have been empowered and the communities will begin to meet very soon. There is still a small window of opportunity to participate this academic year. Contact the facilitator or co-facilitator of the FLC you are interested in joining now. Micheal Winerip wrote a very interesting article about the topic of college readiness. He highlights a new program implemented by the community college system in New York City that focuses on improving the math, reading and writing abilities of their freshmen. The intense semester long program called START has proven to be effective. A recent article in the Austin Statesman notes that University of Texas researchers have found that about 70 percent of new public high school principals in Texas leave their jobs within the first five years. Only about half of new principals stay on the job at least three years, education researchers found. And principals in high-poverty schools are leaving the soonest. Everyone should be familiar with Bloom's Taxonomy. What you may not be as familiar with is Dee Fink's taxonomy that can be used specifically to redesign a course. Carolyn Fallahi, Laura Levine, Joan Nicoll-Senft, Jack Tessier, Cheryl Watson, and Rebecca Wood have written a terrific article describing how a course redesign project turned into a writing group and has continued to provide new opportunities for its participants. They write, "We now always begin our course design by asking three questions: What do we want students to retain from this course? How can we make this learning personal for the student? and How can we make this a human experience that will make them care about the material?"