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District Administration Magazine
Every month, Tiffany Anderson, superintendent at Topeka Public Schools in Kansas, emails the district's 3,000 teachers and staff, asking whether anyone needs time off for either professional development or something else that's quite unusual — self-care. "We have self-care space in our schools and some office buildings where the lights are low, and people can have time to themselves or use the exercise equipment to de-stress," says Anderson. The key is that central office staff generally take on that individual's workload — even classroom teaching — during the time off. "It allows us to walk in the shoes of those closest to kids in the classroom, and see that we’re all one team."
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School Leaders Now (commentary)
I'm the vice principal of a small school. My principal has a habit of informing everyone about who has called to say they will not be in for the day and why, and sometimes the reasons are medical. I find this disturbing. An accident kept me out of work for two days. I was told by some that the reason for my absence was divulged. Is this legal? Does this fall under HIPAA?
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By: Michelle R. Matisons (commentary)
 Recently, Los Angeles teachers went on strike for smaller class sizes, higher salaries, and more nurses, librarians, counselors, and community schools. And guess what? It worked. For now. On Jan. 22, the six-day strike that closed schools for 34,000 Los Angeles Unified School District students ended. This was a victory for the United Teachers of Los Angeles, which ratified the new contract with 81 percent of the vote. But after a solid year of effective actions by teachers' unions across the country, a backlash is brewing.
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Education DIVE
Until data reporting on teacher shortages improves, teacher candidates will have "false impressions" about their job prospects, and policymakers will create broad solutions that fail to address states' and districts' specific needs, says a Bellwether Education Partners report. "The misalignment between teacher supply and demand is where the teacher shortage crisis is born and lives,” write authors and analysts Kaitlin Pennington McVey and Justin Trinidad, arguing that there is no “national, generic teaching shortage."
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Reader’s Workshops for Diverse Learners
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- FREE Sampler and more information
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Leadership Freak (commentary)
"I casually asked my wife, "Isn't it surprising how long this toothpaste is lasting?" We laughed for two days when I finally confessed that I had been adding toothpaste to the old tube for two weeks. I rub the tube along the edge of the sink to get all the toothpaste out. You don't know what you have until you use what you've got."
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Harvard Business Review
One of your direct reports isn't performing up to snuff. You've done everything you can think of to help them improve, but you're not seeing any significant progress. And now you're agonizing about what to do. Should you fire them? How can you know for sure? Is it better to take swift action? Who else should you consult? And what are the costs of delaying the decision?
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Forbes
You might think you know what a "transformational leader" is. But it's entirely possible you've never even met one. Below are eight of the most essential qualities of this type of leader, to help you determine how to apply the concept to your own life and leadership experience.
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Dimensions Math® PK-5 provides a rigorous and engaging education based on Singapore math techniques.
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The Lead Change Group
Since change is such a common dynamic in organizations, change leaders and/or change agents are important roles. Authenticity is really a critical element for these roles. Change is difficult for most people, and those most impacted by change look to leaders and agents as people they can trust to steer them through the "rough waters." Trust is seriously hampered if you cannot be authentic.
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Harvard Business Review (commentary)
Rebecca Shambaugh, a contributor for Harvard Business Review, writes: "As a leadership coach, I never miss an opportunity to ask senior-level executives what they see as critical for people and organizations to succeed in today's dynamic business environment. I met with an executive vice president of a Fortune 500 company this week (let's call her Ashley) who has built many national and global teams, and who serves as a highly inspirational leader for her organization and industry. Without reservation, Ashley told me that being creative and innovative are the top critical success factors — not only for companies, but for leaders and their teams."
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Fast Company
To-do lists are the bread and butter of productivity gripes. Although it seems like it should be a simple process, there are many different hacks, systems and methods that people swear by. Some people categorize their items, while others cap it at six items a day. Then there are also those who choose to forgo it altogether.
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Time Redesigned
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Entrepreneur
R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to you (and you're welcome for that earworm now). Every woman wants to be respected and admired at work, but often we are afraid of being perceived as too aggressive or too confident in our pursuit of greatness. While you can't control other people's opinions of you, you can control your own actions and resulting success. Establishing your credibility takes time and effort. Here are 15 habits to master so your company and your colleagues will take you more seriously.
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Education Week
A flood of parents, educators, higher education organizations, sexual assault victims and others have told U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and her team that they have big concerns about her proposed guidance on sexual assault, including its impact on K-12 schools. Some quick background: Back in 2017, DeVos yanked an Obama-era civil rights directive governing the handling of sexual assault and harassment, mostly on college campuses, because it didn't go far enough to protect the due process rights of the accused, in her view. In November, she proposed replacing those Title IX guidelines.
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PBS Newshour
The more than week-long Los Angeles teachers' strike revived an issue Democrats campaigned on in the 2018 midterms and promised to prioritize in the new Congress: funding and support for public schools and educators. But the longest government shutdown in U.S. history and the party's current focus on immigration and border security has stalled momentum on education at the federal level, leaving advocates worried that raising teacher pay could get placed on the back burner long term.
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Education DIVE
With the first month of 2019 on the books, many states have kicked off their legislative sessions, and those that haven't will soon convene. Although the new year has just begun, it's clear education is a top priority for state lawmakers. So, starting this month, Education Dive will publish a legislative tracker to keep you abreast of the education bills and policy proposals being debating in each state's legislative bodies. As of this week, here's the newly effective laws and proposed legislation that's making its way through your state and all the others.
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eSchool News
Sustaining and scaling innovation is one of the top hurdles K-12 district leaders face as they strive to bring new and bold ideas to education, according to a new CoSN report. Hurdles are more than just "pesky obstacles" to innovation, the authors note in Driving K-12 Innovation: 2019 Hurdles. These challenges slow down progress and force educators to make sure they're prepared for the leap to innovation. The report is the first of three in a series focusing on hurdles, accelerators and tech enablers that spur K-12 innovation. The series, which will culminate in a toolkit to inform strategic planning and tech integration, honors the legacy of the Horizon K-12 reports.
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Education Next (commentary)
If you've followed the K–12 education dialogue over the last decade, then you're probably familiar with the term "disruptive innovation." Edtech entrepreneurs and school choice advocates sometimes invoke it as an indomitable force that will redeem and transform broken school systems. Meanwhile, people on the other side of these debates worry that "disruption" is a flawed yet rhetorically powerful narrative used to rationalize K–12 privatization. Somewhere in the middle are skeptics who give consideration to the idea, but wonder if "disruption" is an oversold term that is likely to underdeliver on its proponents’ promises. So how do we make sense of the tumult of opinions? What is disruptive innovation as it relates to K–12 education?
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EdTech Magazine
K–12 schools are evolving their use of data analytics tools as pedagogies such as personalized learning focus on more immediate feedback and the “whole student.”
"We need the data that will help us make better, faster decisions," said Cathy Cavanaugh, principal program manager for learning research and analytics at Microsoft, in a Jan. 29 workshop at the Future of Education Technology Conference. "We want to do what we can and make the right decisions to affect trends moving in the right direction." This means schools will need to reassess the data they choose to collect to find the best measurements to help their students, said Cavanaugh.
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EdScoop
In November, the Arkansas Department of Education launched a voluntary training program designed to help educators throughout the state get a handle on data security. Most teachers realize protecting the privacy and personal data of students is important, but getting all the right people involved can be challenging, says the state's director of data use and privacy, Ray Girdler.
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New America
As with the professions of medicine, law and many others, most states require educators to show proof of engaging in continuing education to retain their license. More than half of states also encourage teachers to go above their minimum professional development requirements by offering an advanced license that provides additional status, compensation and/or responsibility. As such, states can use teacher licensure renewal and advancement systems to encourage meaningful ongoing professional learning and growth — but in most cases, states don't.
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Edutopia
In the past decade, researchers have shown that playing games can boost students' ability to think in systems. Any game is a system, after all and when players take actions, the game itself, as an interactive system, can change. Moving a knight across a chessboard, for example, can change everything for the opposing player.
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Education Next
There are good reasons to assume that teachers’ beliefs and expectations can influence student success—an idea that has been embraced by parents, students, teachers, and policymakers. During graduation season each year, proud valedictorians thank the nurturing adults in their lives for pushing them to do their best. President George W. Bush famously criticized the “soft bigotry of low expectations” in support of his education-reform agenda.
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EdScoop
At St. Albans City School in Vermont, educators are encouraging students to find ways to incorporate digital resources into their everyday work, especially while working in the school's makerspace. In a recent webinar hosted by edWeb.net, one of the school's innovation specialists, Grace Borst, is joined by several of her students, who explain how they're using the technology-laden space to develop personalized learning plans, do service work and augment school activities.
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MindShift
Mindfulness is a fast growing trend both in the world generally and in schools. Teachers are turning to the practice as a simple way to restore calm to the classroom, help students find some quiet space, and build self-regulation skills. Some teachers say their personal mindfulness practice has helped them respond more calmly to students and helps them keep perspective. But it's also important to realize that some of the ways mindfulness is practiced — sitting still, eyes closed, in silence — can also be triggers for students who have experienced trauma.
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eSchool News
STEM education and social-emotional learning will take precedence in 2019, according to teaching and learning predictions from 100Kin10. 100Kin10 is a national network focusing on improving STEM education by adding 100,000 highly-qualified STEM teachers to U.S. classrooms by 2021. The report compiles information from 100Kin10's partner organizations, teachers, researchers, and other STEM leaders, and the 10 reflections serve to direct the group's work and focus areas for 2019. It offers a look at five trends that impacted STEM teaching and learning in 2018, along with five predictions for 2019.
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eSchool News
Social-emotional learning equips students with the skills to regulate their emotions, build resilience to stress and challenges, make responsible decisions, collaborate well with others, and empathize and communicate effectively with their peers — all the skills needed to live a healthy and productive life. SEL is becoming the foundation of many schools across the globe. However, building these core social emotional skills takes time. Like all other skills, social-emotional skills need to be nurtured and learning needs to be ritualized.
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Develop a plan to expand statewide access to school breakfast and receive a $50,000 implementation grant from No Kid Hungry. Proposals due March 6th.
To learn more, refer to the RFP.
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Education Week
More large cities are taking the lead when it comes to providing pre-K programs, but a new study finds that less than half of the 40 largest cities in the country meet a research organization's quality benchmarks for these programs. And, only 60 percent offer a pre-K program that reaches more than 30 percent of the 4-year-old population.
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MindShift (commentary)
Michaeleen Doucleff, a contributor for MindShift, writes: "Over the past three years, I've had one major goal in my personal life: To stop being so angry. Anger has been my emotional currency. I grew up in an angry home. Door slamming and phone throwing were basic means of communication. I brought these skills to my 20-year marriage. "Why are you yelling?" my husband would say."
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Education Week
The push to boost teacher pay was a big factor in the flood of money states pumped into school districts in recent years, but much of that money has been soaked up by competing school budget priorities, rather than landing in teachers' pockets. That's drawing the ire of a growing number of teacher activists across the country — and frustrating governors and legislators who are looking to deliver on campaign promises they made to make statewide teacher pay increases.
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District Administration Magazine
For over 20 years, Fairfield Public Schools received most student transportation services from First Student except bus routing, which the Connecticut district performed internally. "After utilizing the same routing approach for years, we soon realized we could improve," says Doreen T. Munsell, executive director of finance and business services at Fairfield Public Schools. District officials asked First Planning Solutions, a division of First Student, to study their route plan and to identify improvements using a student transportation management solution.
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The New York Times
Carrying protest signs, thousands of teachers and their allies converged last month on the shimmering contemporary art museum in the heart of downtown Los Angeles. Clad in red, they denounced "billionaire privatizers" and the museum's patron, Eli Broad. The march was a preview of the attacks the union would unleash during the teachers' strike, which recently ended.
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Education Week
After campaigning on the expansion of preschool and other early-childhood programs, many of the nation's newly elected governors are following through with budget proposals that include money to support children from cradle to school entry. One of the largest proposals is from California, where Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is in the enviable position of having a budget surplus projected at more than $20 billion.
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NAESP
In an effort to improve and expand the support for principals in achieving the highest results for children, families, and communities, NAESP is pleased to launch the NAESP Center for Innovative Leadership. The center's focus and strategic design is to help principals and learning communities achieve optimal results for every child. The primary purpose of the Center for Innovative Leadership is to disseminate transformative practices and strategies that will serve as catalyst for creating a lasting foundation for principal learning, driving school and student performance, and shaping the long-term impact of school improvement efforts.
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NAESP
We live in a traumatic world. Parents and families are under stress, some neighborhoods are violent and unsafe, and children are witnessing and experiencing violence and aggression. As a result, educators must understand the impact of trauma on students and find ways to implement trauma-informed practices. This article offers an introduction to trauma, its impact, and the strategies to use in leading a school to be trauma-sensitive.
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