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As 2019 comes to a close, NAESP would like to wish its members, partners and other education professionals a safe and happy holiday season. As we reflect on this past year in education, we would like to provide the readers of NAESP's Before the Bell a look at the most accessed articles from the year. Our regular publication will resume Tuesday, Jan. 7.
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By Anne Rose
From July 19: Have you ever had one of those days where nothing goes right and everything goes wrong? No matter what you touch, there’s a screw-up. At the end of the day, you have nothing to show for your work and just wish you could have a "do-over." I had one of those days recently. Absolutely nothing went right. Total failure. Failed culinary skills. Failed computer skills. I was a failure. The day was a failure! The next morning it occurred to me what my biggest failure was: measuring my day by whether or not activities proceeded according to my plan.
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By Angela Cleveland
From April 9: In the past, the title "guidance counselor" was used to describe counselors working in a school. Their role was primarily focused on "guiding" students to post-secondary education and scheduling. Their days were filled with tasks like sending out transcripts, writing letters of recommendation, etc. The title "school counselor" today recognizes that counselors address the needs of the whole student. They are proactive, data-informed leaders in the school community. Watch this video to learn more about the difference in roles.
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By Brian Stack
From May 14: "The same boiling water that softens the potato hardens the egg. It's about what you are made of, not the circumstances." Years ago, as a high school math teacher, this quote was displayed in my classroom as a way to remind my students that, regardless of their circumstances and their environment, they could overcome adversity and succeed. In life, we make do with the hand that is dealt to us. Yet, for all the promise of a positive outlook when dealing with shortcomings in life, the reality is that sometimes an upgrade can go a long way towards changing one's promise for a better future.
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By Hank Boyer
From Feb. 8: For most people, being listened to equals respect. It's true across cultures and true over time. True in your personal life as well as your professional one. And it is a best practice of people who want to be successful, regardless of who they are, what they do, or and how old they are. Hearing is an act of the brain registering a sound. Listening gives the sound meaning and considers an appropriate response. Active listening requires intentionality on the part of the listener. It enables the listener to extract critical content from what is being said.
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By Patrick Gleeson
From June 21: Let's begin with a lede borrowed from the June 5 edition of the Los Angeles Times: "Leaders of the Los Angeles school district made a calculated gamble: The January teachers strike made such a huge, positive impact on the public that sympathetic voters, they thought, would overwhelmingly pass a tax increase to benefit schools." Here's the background: Los Angeles public schools, like public schools across the country, are overcrowded and lacking in resources, particularly in the resources needed to educate minority students with special needs.
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Now in English or Spanish, Benchmark Workshops combine mini-lessons with culturally responsive texts, collaborative conversations, social-emotional learning, and small-group instruction. Engage diverse K-5 students in developing literacy, communication skills, and content knowledge, using innovative and effective resources that save teachers time and are easy to implement. FREE Sampler
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By Patrick Gleeson
From Sept. 6: School districts just can't get enough good teachers. According to the nonpartisan Learning Policy Institute, for example, in the 2017-18 school year there was a shortage of 110,000 qualified teachers. That sounds pretty bad — but when you consider this is a shortage out of 3.8 million teachers — it begins to appear that the teacher shortage may be exaggerated. Overall, in fact, there is a higher percentage of unfilled U.S. jobs in almost every area of science, technology, engineering and mathematics than in education. So how bad is it, really?
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By Bambi Majumdar
From June 4: The Economic Policy Institute's recent paper on teacher shortages states that the crisis is growing worse than ever in America. The real magnitude of the teacher shortage is even scarier when one considers the scarcity of credentialed teachers, more so in rural and low-income areas. One ray of hope comes from new school-university partnerships that aim to prepare future teachers by giving them real-life experience and, in the process, help fill funding gaps. One such example is the partnership between Ohio University and some of the state's school districts.
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IRIS Center
 Supported by the U.S. Department of Education’s Department of Special Education Programs (OSEP), the IRIS Center creates reliable, trustworthy online open educational resources covering a huge variety of the issues most important to educators in today’s classrooms. In this article, we’ll tell you a little about IRIS, our resources, and why for almost 18 years the IRIS Center has been hailed as one of the most proven and credible sources for information about evidenced-based instructional and behavioral practices.
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By Anne Rose
From Nov. 29: Here's the quandary: you've allowed an employee's unacceptable behavior to continue long term without serious repercussions. Now what? You personally like this employee. When she's at work, she does a good job. Co-workers and customers like her. The problem is her chronic absenteeism or tardiness, for example. You tried talking with this person months ago, which resulted in a lot of tears that only made you somehow feel guilty for hurting her feelings. She promised to improve, and for a couple of days, she did.
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By Bambi Majumdar
From Dec. 6: At a time when education leaders and policymakers are focused on tackling growing racial segregation in public schools, a new Urban Institute study states that early-childhood programs are more segregated than K-12 settings. The study compared the variety of learning arrangements for children five and under and K-12 schools. The Northeast was most lacking in integration according to the numbers, while the Midwest showed the most promise when it came to reducing segregation. Most urban and rural areas showed more segregation than suburban areas.
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By Howard Margolis
From Aug. 6: Some parents of children with disabilities readily accept whatever the school's IEP team members recommend. After all, they reason, these people are the professionals. They know best. Other parents believe it's critical that they participate in every aspect of developing, implementing, and assessing their child's IEP. They believe that they know a great deal about their child's needs that school-IEP team members need to address but may not know or fully appreciate. They see much that school personnel don't.
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By Angela Cleveland and Stephen Sharp
From May 14: Today's educators recognize that they are not just teaching a subject; they are teaching life skills to students so they can successfully navigate academic, career, and social-emotional challenges as they arise. Integrating developmentally appropriate mental health and wellness strategies into all content area subjects is increasingly as commonplace as integrating study skills strategies.
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By Howard Margolis
From July 9: Many teachers of struggling readers know what works. They've studied the research; spoken to experts; observed the programs, methods, and strategies; and discussed implementation with well-informed colleagues. But many is not all. Other teachers continue doing what's traditional; what they're comfortable with; what's hyped by testimonials and advertising; what politicians, administrators, and parents want; or combinations of these. Do these other teachers intentionally stress instruction they believe will, at best, perpetuate trivial progress? No.
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By Candice Gottlieb-Clark
From Feb. 19: Communication always comes with a level of messiness and ambiguity. Even with the best of intentions and clearest of communication we can portray mixed messages, leading to misunderstandings or conflict. Add to that the array of communication platforms we deal with: meetings, email, Google chat, passing remarks in the hall, phone calls. The opportunities for miscommunications are introduced at almost all hours of the workday. These miscommunications are at the root of distrust, misled beliefs, and conflict, especially in a corporate culture.
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By Brian Stack
From July 23: Earlier this summer, the International Association of Online K-12 Learning, better known as iNACOL, released its most recent map displaying the implementation of statewide K-12 competency-based learning policies across the nation. The map now shows 17 states that have reached an advanced level of implementation with comprehensive policy alignment and/or an active state role to build capacity in local school systems for competency-based learning. This current map is in stark contrast to the 2012 map, which listed just three states at the advanced level.
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By Hank Boyer
From Aug. 13: Remember when the latest buzzword was empowerment? The premise was that employees who were empowered would be more committed to successful outcomes because they had the ability to make decisions, commit resources, own the decision, etc. What's wrong with empowerment? Plenty! What if you empower someone who is not capable of handling the responsibility? Or someone who intends the right things, but makes ineffective choices in working towards objectives?
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