Kidsgardening.org has a great resource for teachers that not only contains sample lesson plans for educating students about bees, butterflies, and how to have a bee-free barbecue, but that also connects their classrooms to others that are experiencing the marvels of gardening.

Classes nationwide are discussing the oil catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, listening to news updates, and getting a crash course in environmental science. Teachers are changing lesson plans to incorporate current disaster facts, and students, even as some prepare for graduation, are making the time to leave their thoughts and opinions tagged to comment boxes and blog walls.

Disability can happen to anyone—at any time. In fact, an employee under the age of 65 is more likely to become disabled than to die. May is National Disability Insurance Awareness Month, and there is no better time for employees to learn about their risks and how to protect their incomes, families, and selves from an unfortunate injury that prevents them from returning to work.

As the school year winds down, the question often arises, "When should we end health insurance coverage for faculty who aren't returning next year?" The answer depends on what is written in your contract with the insurance carrier as well as how your employment contracts are structured.

Since the fall, we've written a good amount about social media and school policies. In fact, we even released a storybook and postcard series alerting schools to the risks of using social media to screen applicants—which seems to be the latest fad in the HR world—Risk #86: Curiosity Sued the School. But, just as there are risks associated with social media, there are tons of positives, too. Let's weigh a few of the pros and cons again as a refresher before summer sweeps our focused thoughts under the shade.

The suicide of 15-year-old Phoebe Prince—attributed to relentless, vicious bullying by a group of fellow students—has once again put an exclamation point on a problem that is rampant with youth today. In the Prince case, the community has been torn apart—citizens demanding justice for Phoebe, the police attempting to conduct a thorough investigation while they simmered, indictments for the alleged bullies, parents being charged, and fingers pointed at the high school's faculty and staff who knew of the bullying.

Just a big iPod Touch. Just a big iPhone. Just a big gaming device. And that name. You are probably hearing all these things about the latest release from Apple, the iPad—the company's new e-tablet. But just walk into an Apple retail store (if you can manage to get in—even at the height of the recession, the place was always mobbed), wait your turn, and then belly up to one of the dozen or more iPads on display.

Q: We issue contracts to all faculty members and some (but not all) administrators and staff. We're thinking of eliminating contracts for administrators. What issues does this raise?

Let's come out and say this first—text messaging is NOT the root of all evil. And, it's certainly not the only reason why teens are sleep deprived. It is, however, a major contributor to the issue. Teens need an average of nine hours of sleep each night. However, if you take into consideration all the activities, homework, chores, and social networking "required" of the average teenager, that hardly leaves six hours dedicated to sleep, let alone the recommended nine hours.

As school is already out for the summer in some parts of the country (and rapidly wrapping up in most other regions), we wanted to offer a "Top 12" list of tips and "action items" to help you enhance your HR practices this summer. We'll present the first six in this edition and the final six in next month's e-Letter before taking a break for the summer.