This message was sent to ##Email## To advertise in this publication please click here August 24, 2021 ##\member## .PRINCIPAL LEADERSHIP Burnout busters: 5 strategies to help school leaders combat pandemic fatigue K-12 DIVE Burnout isn't a new concept for school leaders and staff, but prolonged uncertainty and intensity of the pandemic is pushing educators in all roles to reconsider their careers. Results of a national survey of teachers released in April by Christopher Newport University found high levels of stress and varying degrees of anxiety. And an increasing rate of superintendent resignations and early retirements is a reminder of the toll of COVID-19. READ MORE Helping students feel seen and heard: Along, a new digital SEL tool, helps teachers engage their pupils — And unlock better learning The 74 Teachers' ability to connect individually with students went from tricky to downright challenging during the pandemic. But a new digital reflection tool, Along, can help teachers create personal relationships with students while allowing each student to feel seen and understood. READ MORE How districts are coping as COVID worsens school bus driver shortage District Administration Magazine Administrators have been forced to delay reopening schools and to recruit parents to transport students as a worsening shortage of bus drivers spreads along with the latest COVID surge. Pittsburgh Public Schools postponed the first day of school by two weeks, until Sept. 8, because the district is short about 425 drivers. This leaves about 11,000 students without a seat. READ MORE COVID quarantines: 4 strategies to keep kids in class as delta surges Tech & Learning During the 2020-2021 school year, kids quarantining with COVID or after an exposure to COVID, were frequently able to watch and participate in class from home through Zoom or other video conferencing software. But in the pre-Delta variant days of spring and early summer, many districts announced remote learning options would not be available going forward. READ MORE VIDEO SHOWCASE Principals say this is the go-to fundraiser for the upcoming school year. Promoted By Boosterthon Positive Environment for All Students Promoted By HONORABLE CHARACTER 8 COVID learning practices this district is keeping eSchool News As educators across the U.S. enter their classrooms for a new school year–one that is still a bit uncertain given concerns over new COVID variants and how to safely bring students back to school–many are bringing new strategies, tools, and practices with them. READ MORE Why school leaders should develop a portrait of a graduate Edutopia Today, much attention focuses on the "achievement gap" as the central problem facing education. We do not want to minimize the persistent disparities that subgroups of students continue to experience. Indeed, in many communities, the COVID-19 crisis has put a spotlight on longstanding racial and socioeconomic inequities that society — and our schools — must address. READ MORE What are the elements for a more impactful, focused school leadership team? Education Week Schools often face challenges, but COVID-19 exacerbated those challenges when it comes to issues of equity, student and adult mental health, the effective use of technology, and developing authentic student engagement. Many times, schools can address these issues within their school-based teams, often called shared-decisionmaking teams or instructional-leadership teams. READ MORE  SPONSORED CONTENT Promoted by Peaceful Playgrounds Enter the U.S. Map Contest. It’s free to enter Playground Stencils A Recess Program that Works Use Coupon Code naesp2021 for 10% off your order COVID Social Distancing Playground Schools across US staff up to address pandemic-fueled rise in mental health needs Chalkbeat Selma City Schools in Alabama didn't have any of its own social workers last year. Over the next few months, the district plans to hire four. A few of its eight schools lacked a full-time counselor last year, too. This year, there will be a counselor for each. READ MORE Surging delta is now making new school year look just like last year District Administration Magazine Hopes for a return to normal in-person instruction are being dashed as the delta variant forces dozens of districts to shift back online or close altogether. Last week, Georgia and Mississippi saw the most closures but disruptions over student and staff infections and quarantines are now spreading across the country. READ MORE Parents of high-risk students face tough decisions amid delta surge Disability Scoop Severe asthma, chronic rhinitis, genetic disorders, pectus carinatum. "The list goes on," Sarah Malone says about the health conditions of her four school-aged sons, before even mentioning her own three autoimmune diseases. Malone's children are enrolled in Dothan City Schools, where masks are "strongly encouraged," but not required, and social distancing "will be practiced when feasible," according to the district's reopening plans. She's worried that policy will leave her children vulnerable to COVID-19 infections. READ MORE  PRODUCT SHOWCASE On-Demand: SEB Professional Learning Social-emotional behavior (SEB) competencies will be essential in helping to successfully move learning forward for students when they return to the classroom this fall. Grow your knowledge of SEB and learn how to equitably assess students skills in this free online SEB Academy. Earn CEUs. Watch now. Stuck in the virtual basement? Schools must not use COVID safety rules as a reason to exclude special-needs kids The 74 After more than a year of largely remote learning, many schools are, despite some lingering virtual offerings, returning to primarily in-person instruction for nearly all students. That is raising some very serious questions that we have never faced before: Do students with disabilities have a guaranteed right to be educated together with other children in person? READ MORE We'll need a lot more than academics to help students recover from the pandemic The Hechinger Report This year will be like no other when it comes reengaging students in learning. Educators — working with parents and the community — are now planning how to close gaps in learning to get students on grade level. But job one is to address the social, emotional and physical issues that will make academic learning more challenging if they are not met, particularly for the students who have fallen most behind. READ MORE Empower K-12 COVID resilience with analytics District Administration Magazine The COVID-19 pandemic disturbed nearly every aspect of modern life, and the U.S. education system was particularly hard-hit. When schools across the country were forced to close their doors, K-12 students, educators, and administrators faced serious remote learning challenges due to access, funding, technology and engagement. READ MORE  SPONSORED CONTENT Promoted by SignUp.com Help save hundreds of hours scheduling parent conferences with SignUp! Time-saving tips and savvy solutions for your back-to-school planning Try SignUp's Campus Plan Fresh school spirit ideas to get everyone onboard Teacher and staff appreciation ideas - easy ways to say thank you! Leaders are missing what employees really need Fast Company When it comes to concerns about employee engagement in 2021, The Great Resignation is quickly making conversations about hybrid work and hot desks seem quaint. In fact, research from Microsoft warns that nearly half of all employees are considering leaving their current role this year. Leaders at every level of business will have to contend with a new talent truth. It isn't enough to focus on how to bring their people back together, they must figure out how to keep them from leaving for good. READ MORE Positive influence: The leader who helps people become their best self The Lead Change Group According to Michael and Glenn Parker, there are four types of positive influence leaders, and we can all leverage the strengths of each to become the type of leader who helps people become their best self. Join us as we discuss the strengths, styles, and effectiveness of all four types of positive influence leaders, and specific tips to help you become a transformational positive influence leader. READ MORE 7 ways to immediately open your mind to useful ideas Leadership Freak You can't be open to everything. Open-minded leadership is a pernicious waste of time when you lose sight of outcomes. So how can you open your mind without wasting time on useless conversations? READ MORE  PRODUCT SHOWCASE Strengthen Professional Learning (Free Download) Give teachers meaningful insights that fuel professional learning teams using your existing classroom assessments. Forefront puts teachers at the center of efforts to systematically collect and analyze evidence of student learning. Aggregate these results for an unparalleled vision of student learning. Download our free data discussions checklist.­ How to avoid 'compassion fatigue' as pandemic stress drags on Fast Company Think back to the early days of the pandemic, when many of us were still figuring out our Zoom features and feeling a little shell-shocked by what was happening around us. Seeing a coworker's cat jump on the desk to investigate the laptop or hearing the raucous children in the background was funny and a bit endearing. READ MORE Hey, leader! Are you hearing voices The Lead Change Group Strong leaders are surrounded by a plethora of voices. The challenge is knowing which ones to listen to — to which should I pay attention or seek out? Voices matter! READ MORE .EDUCATION POLICY Biden administration escalates fight with GOP governors over masks in schools Politico The Biden administration is stepping up its criticism of Republican governors in states like Texas and Florida for bucking federal public health guidance, as classes resume in much of the country — and as coronavirus case counts continue to swell. READ MORE .SCHOOL TECHNOLOGY Syncing up technology and curriculum: A major need in the COVID era Education Week Vendors need to guarantee strong customer service, integration with learning management systems, and strict data privacy, say a pair of K-12 tech leaders from Indiana. READ MORE Virtual tools adopted during pandemic can enhance classroom projects K-12 DIVE As schools return to in-person learning, many of the virtual and digital tools adopted over the past year can be woven back into the classroom — and doing so is particularly critical to maximizing the emergency investments in digital school modernization during pandemic remote learning. READ MORE The role of digital learning platforms in curriculum alignment to standards Education Technology The pandemic has overwhelmed the functioning and outcomes of education systems worldwide, some of which were already stressed in several respects. As soon as the pandemic hit its first peak, more than 55 million school children in the U.S. were confined to remote learning. The shutdown of schools, along with the associated public health and economic crises, presented big challenges for both students and their teachers. READ MORE  SPONSORED CONTENT Promoted by Xello Does Gender Bias Still Influence Career Choices for Young Learners? How to Implement SEL Activities in Your Elementary Classrooms This School District Introduced Career Exploration to Elementary Students Using a Full K-12 Solution How Early Should Students Start Planning Their Futures? Spark Career Curiosity in Your Youngest Learners with Xello for Elementary What is Floop and how does it work? Best tips and tricks Tech & Learning Floop is a powerful and free teaching tool that is designed to help optimize teacher feedback to students. The tool is built around the idea that feedback is the No. 1 driver of student success, and all its features are designed to allow teachers to tighten their feedback loop with students. READ MORE .PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 5 strategies for implementing accelerated learning Education Week We have been lamenting the phrase "learning loss" since we first heard it in June 2020. Has there been learning loss? Are the sixth-graders now reading like third-graders? Did students forget all that they knew? Unlikely. If we accept this phrase, and the thinking behind it, we run the risk of lower expectations for students. The logic goes, there was learning loss during the 2020-2021 school year, so we need to spend time remediating that loss during the 2021-2022 school year, thus not teaching all of the things we would regularly teach. Then the next year, we need to catch up again. READ MORE We hold all the keys to student participation MiddleWeb There is a predictable pattern that plagues many of our classrooms. It often plays out something like this: Step 1: The Grind – A teacher works for hours ... developing and refining a lesson or learning task in hope that students will find it relevant, challenging and engaging. READ MORE What have I been doing for my students that they could do for themselves? Edutopia Katerina Watson, a contributor for Edutopia, writes: "As educators, we've all been there — pressed for time, trying our hardest to stick to a tight schedule. As we push the day forward and keep our students on track, it can be easy to fall into the trap of doing things for them. In the past, I found myself tossing a leftover snack wrapper into the trash can. If a student was having difficulty cutting out a circle, I would absentmindedly complete it for them." READ MORE What science tells us about improving middle school PBS Newshour In a middle school hallway in Charlottesville, Virginia, a pair of sixth grade girls sat shoulder to shoulder on a lime green settee, creating comic strips that chronicled a year of pandemic schooling. Using a computer program called Pixton, they built cartoon panels, one of a girl waving goodbye to her teacher, clueless that it would be months before they were back in the classroom, another of two friends standing 6 feet apart from one another, looking sad. READ MORE Using robots to help preschoolers love STEAM eSchool News In the spring and summer of 2020, Brooklyn Preschool of Science closed down for six months due to COVID-19. During those same six months, almost 300,000 people left New York, so there are certainly fewer families in our zip code than there were in March. READ MORE PRODUCT SHOWCASE Promoting Sanitary Schools With Quad-Sinks James Tressel, President of Youngstown State University said, “We feel blessed that we have this opportunity to really make our employees and our students and or community confident, because all of these..." Quad-Sink is a mobile, high volume hand washing station that can service 120 students in just 10 minutes.   LEARN MORE   Connect From Anywhere Extraordinary virtual learning opportunities are still available for the summer! Explore space, travel to prehistoric times or enjoy our many other STEAM-focused virtual workshops.   LEARN MORE   Students who are more adaptable do best in remote learning — And it's a skill we can teach The Conversation The speed and scale of the shift to remote online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic has really tested students' adaptability. Our study of more than 1,500 students at nine Australian high schools during 2020 found strong links between their level of adaptability and how they fared with online learning. READ MORE How novice and expert teachers approach classroom management differently Edutopia Good classroom management is mostly invisible. While outbursts and disruptions are inevitable in the course of an academic year, they can be kept to a minimum by employing subtle techniques that work behind the scenes to create a positive classroom culture. READ MORE When remedial education gets woven into class time The Hechinger Report As students return to school for the 2021-2022 year, educators are thinking about how to teach children who have missed months of instruction because of the pandemic. Should they step back or proceed ahead? Should math teachers start fourth grade, for example, by reviewing important third grade topics such as multiplication and fractions? Or should they start fourth graders off at the usual beginning, learning place values through millions and billions, as if third grade hadn’t been disrupted? READ MORE Why a project-based approach to environmental science makes sense Teaching Channel Environmental Science is taught in a variety of ways. Most students are exposed to it through lessons and units aligned to NGSS standards. Some students learn about it informally through participating in extracurricular clubs or visiting a local park or nature center. Others may even take it as a rigorous elective focused on preparing them for the eventual AP exam. But whatever form that engagement takes, one thing is clear; the best way to ensure that the next generation of conservationists and citizens are ready to tackle the planet's most urgent problems is through project-based learning. READ MORE How 5 teachers are changing their back-to-school routines to calm COVID worries and help students readjust Chalkbeat This year, Konstantyn Goldin is taking a different approach to tracking student participation. Instead of singling out students, even for doing a good job, the sixth grade science teacher in Brooklyn will keep tabs privately, so it's more "for me and for the student," he said. His goal is to let students show they're engaged however they're comfortable, even if that means a student passes him a note instead of responding aloud. READ MORE Pandemic teaching year 3 — How are you feeling? We Are Teachers In March, toward the end of the 2019-2020 year, schools were forced to close due to the pandemic. We were hopeful that things would calm down over the summer, but then the 2020-2021 year started with schools closed in most areas. In the months that followed, we went through a roller coaster of openings and closures, masking and social distancing guidelines, and never-ending quarantines. READ MORE Let's start this year by focusing on learning gains Edutopia (commentary) "Don't ever let anyone put an asterisk on this year." That's what I told my graduating seniors at the end of one of the most difficult years of teaching I've had in my career of more than 14 years. It would be easy for any employer or college admissions board to reduce last year to a footnote: "Class of 2021. That was a pandemic year. You didn't get a 'normal' education." True, it was anything but normal. But the 2020–21 scholastic year doesn't need a disclaimer. It needs a celebration. READ MORE Prepping for my next Google classroom MiddleWeb (commentary) Kathleen Palmieri, a contributor for MiddleWeb, writes: "As the new school year approaches, I've spent a great deal of time organizing files, cleaning out, and redesigning my physical classroom. Now I am organizing my digital files and redesigning a fresh new Google Classroom." READ MORE 5 money myths middle schoolers believe and activities to teach smart money skills We Are Teachers (commentary) Rebekah Sager, a contributor for We Are Teachers, writes: "The first time my son started earning money was in middle school. He decided to run a lemonade stand, and I was so proud. I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to teach him about the basics of making smart financial decisions. I must admit, though; he was shocked when I told him he could keep the money he earned but would have to repay me for the supplies." READ MORE 4 keys to robotics activities for young learners THE Journal As more students return to classrooms in the fall, they will be looking for the kinds of hands-on activities they couldn't experience during distance learning. Educators will also be looking for ways to get students problem-solving, collaborating, and sharing ideas in ways that couldn't happen over Zoom. Making physical computing with robots part of a makerspaces program addresses these issues and re-engages students in learning. READ MORE MLs thrive on collective teacher efficacy MiddleWeb The days of warehousing multilinguals in segregated classes separated from the entire school community are thankfully over. It's now time to unite as a school community to serve our multilingual students. READ MORE Multiplying the impact of math catch-up eSchool News Elementary school education is accumulative, building on whatever instruction came during the prior grade. One year you’re learning polynomials, the next how to graph them, while social studies gradually becomes more nuanced and comprehensive. So, what happens when a break occurs in the educational track? Across the nation, despite teachers' best efforts, students are suffering from the impact of a year of online learning, and it's crucial to recoup that lost training and engagement before the chance is lost forever. READ MORE 11 strategies that improve emotional control at school and home ADDitude Magazine Emotional regulation is a life-long skill that yields benefits in school, work, and relationships. Here are simple strategies for teaching kids to recognize, name, and mange their intense ADHD emotions. READ MORE Virtual rewards that work for in-person and online classrooms We Are Teachers Many teachers like to use rewards as part of their classroom behavior management systems. Kids love classic rewards like pizza parties or a dip into the prize box, but new ways of teaching and learning have made virtual rewards a popular choice too. Even though most teachers are back in the classroom in person this year, virtual rewards still have plenty of uses. Here are some of our favorites. READ MORE .EDUCATION RESEARCH Study finds reopening schools linked with improved parent mental health EdSurge The unusual school, work and home conditions that so many Americans have faced during the pandemic have given researchers new opportunities to study the causes and consequences of family stressors and behaviors. When school buildings and child care centers closed, that led to an increase in the time kids spent using screens and worsened parent mental health to boot, according to a study from Boston College and the University of Maryland. READ MORE Parents report declines in academic, social-emotional skills of young children The Hechinger Report For the youngest children, the pandemic's academic and emotional toll might not have received as much attention as it has for older kids, but it has still been severe, according to a new report from the Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative’s Early Learning Study at Harvard. READ MORE .IN THE STATES Many states have left schools hanging about how to reopen safely, analysis finds Education Week As schools scramble to reopen amid the spread of the highly contagious COVID-19 Delta variant and changing conditions, many states have ceded their role in ensuring students are safe and able to learn in-person. READ MORE .ASSOCIATION NEWS NAESP conversation with CDC on back-to-school questions NAESP On Tuesday, Aug. 24 at 6 p.m. ET, NAESP members will have the opportunity to speak directly with CDC experts about the latest on the Delta variant and the CDC's recommendations to keep students and staff safe. READ MORE What great assistant principals do differently NAESP What are the specific qualities and practices of great assistant principals that elevate them above the rest? This session reveals what the most effective assistant principals do differently than their colleagues. Participants will focus on what the most successful leaders do ... that others do not do. Everyone will leave knowing why these strategies make them more effective and how to implement each of these practices into their own schools. READ MORE SUGGESTED COMPANIES Landscape Structures @Landscape Structures © Introduce a revolutionary swing forward in inclusive play experience with We-Go-Swing™. Read more   First No–Transfer Inclusive Swing   Promoted by Landscape Structures Stepping Stones Museum For Children © Explore space, travel to prehistoric times or enjoy our other STEAM-focused virtual workshops and camps. Read more   EXTRAORDINARY Virtual Learning Opportunities   Promoted by Stepping Stones Museum For Children GE Healthcare @GEHealthcare © We provide medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Read more   Healthcare Collaboration   Promoted by GE Healthcare   Principal Insights Connect with NAESP Jason Zimmerman, Director of Publishing, Multiview, 469-420-2686 | Download media kit Hailey Golden, Assistant Executive Editor, MultiView, 469-420-2630 | Contribute News National Association of Elementary School Principals 1615 Duke Street  |  Alexandria, VA 22314  800-386-2377  |  Contact Us  |  www.naesp.org Click here to unsubscribe.  Learn how to add us to your safe sender list so our emails get to your inbox. 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