This message was sent to ##Email##
|
|
|
|
|
| | LATEST NEWS FOR PRINCIPALS |
eSchool News
Gaming is growing, that's for sure. We read about it in survey results, we hear about game-based learning in conference sessions and during webinars, and we stumble across it in news coverage. In fact, teachers' use of game-based environments and online apps has doubled in the last six years, according to the annual Speak Up survey. In 2010, only 23 percent of surveyed teachers said they used games, compared to 48 percent of those surveyed in 2015, according to the survey. In 2010, 47 percent of teachers said they used online videos, and that jumped to 68 percent of teachers in 2015.
READ MORE
Education Week
Corporal punishment has declined so rapidly in the United States in the last 15 years that many people think it's practically nonexistent in modern American public schools. To the contrary, more than 109,000 students were paddled, swatted, or otherwise physically punished in U.S. classrooms in 2013-2014, according to Education Week Research Center analyses of the most recent wave of federal civil rights data. Corporal punishment is often seen by proponents as a good alternative to suspending students.
READ MORE
By: Fern Goldstein
 As the new school year arrives, mandated testing, ESSA, inclusion and core curriculum all loom. And special education teachers face a dilemma: whether to teach at the students' instructional level or at grade level. Voices clamor that the frustration engendered by rigorous curricula can be detrimental to students' hard-won, fragile confidence. On the other hand, parents, administrators and state officials are concerned that students aren't making adequate yearly progress.
READ MORE
|
Promoted by
|
|
|
|
 |
By: Brian Stack (commentary)
 This summer, my 10-year old son Brady and I decided to build a deck around our above-ground pool after he convinced me we could learn how by watching a 15-minute video posted on YouTube. Building a deck seemed like a lofty idea, but I decided to give my 10-year-old the benefit of the doubt. "You can learn anything by watching a video on YouTube," he said. Brady's comment about the power of YouTube as a learning tool really got me thinking.
READ MORE
Edutopia (commentary)
Rebecca Alber, a contributor for Edutopia, writes: "Routines and consistency matter greatly and are necessary for creating a smooth learning environment in your classroom. Routines help with creating community, checking for understanding, and managing the classroom. I'm going to share three opening routines and three closing routines that you can start using in your next class."
READ MORE
 |
|
Increase student’s movement and social interaction with colorful activity stencils by Fit & Fun Playscapes. From hopscotch to chess, yoga to four square, and so much more! Inexpensive, easy-to-implement fitness and wellness games that engage all kinds of kids! Just roll the full-size stencils out and paint.
Visit us at www.fitandfunplayscapes.com
|
|
Los Angeles Times
The teacher asked her fourth-graders to sit in a circle and rate their feelings from one to 10. Christopher Bland clenched his fists. He ripped a piece of paper to shreds. As his classmates spoke, he rocked back and forth. Tonia Rowe-Russell made a mental note: Keep an eye on this one, usually so smiley, eager to please. He stopped writing during writing time. She asked what was on his mind. His baby sister died that summer, he told her. She hadn’t known. Her mom had passed away, she said. She shared a silly memory and asked if he could think of one. He drew himself and his sister atop a colorful castle, surrounded by trees.
READ MORE
ADDitude Magazine
Children with ADHD experience a lower level of brain arousal, which means they are easily distracted by internal and external stimuli. Use these school and home strategies — like allowing short breaks between assignments and using distraction blockers — to improve focus and comprehension.
READ MORE
District Administration Magazine
A third-grader studying the Spanish settlement of California found a virtual tour online and shared the trip with her classmates by slipping a smartphone into a Google Cardboard viewing device. Such limitless online resources represent a big, blended leap beyond the essays students in Coalinga-Huron USD in Central California used to write. Blended learning for the district's 4,400 students began three years ago, and in the past year has gravitated to blended 2.0, says Joe Casarez, associate superintendent for instructional services.
READ MORE
Powerful instructional coaching
for your professional learning community.
For a demonstration call (832) 477-5323.
|
The Atlantic
In the past several years, more than 100,000 children from Central America have fled the violence and poverty of their home countries to travel north — often all alone — for the chance at a better life in the United States. Most reporters' accounts of their journeys have detailed their vexing treks and the immediate aftermath of their arrivals; the media has chronicled the possibility — now largely dead — of immigration reform and the ramifications of the surge in unaccompanied minors on U.S. politics. But much less has been reported about the long-term question of what actually happens once these young people are sent to live with family or other caregivers. Across the U.S., children are now attempting to build lives for themselves, contending with immigration hearings and facing the looming possibility of deportation.
READ MORE
eSchool News
While almost all educators feel support of parents with children younger than school age is important, only 23 percent of educators have sufficient tools to do so, according to a survey from Office Depot. The nonprofit Center for College & Career Readiness and Office Depot's "Committed to Learning" initiative surveyed thousands of teachers to understand their perceptions of early education preparation.
READ MORE
EdTech Magazine
When Google Classroom debuted in 2014, the tech giant started its quest to create an innovative — and paperless — world for teachers. Since then, Google reports that 10 million students and teachers use the platform as of last October. With a smartphone and virtual viewer headset made of cardboard, Google Expeditions has allowed students to take virtual reality field trips to over 200 destinations. And its Google Apps productivity suite, which includes applications such as Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Forms, has streamlined classroom assignments and records.
READ MORE
| | FEDERAL ADVOCACY AND POLICY |
The Washington Post
A federal judge in Texas has temporarily blocked an Obama administration directive meant to expand bathroom access for transgender students in the nation's public schools, the latest development in an ongoing battle pitting the federal government and LGBT advocates against those who believe the policy violates student privacy and infringes on states' rights. Texas and a dozen other states sued in an attempt to block the federal directive shortly after it was released in May, and in a 38-page opinion issued Sunday, Judge Reed O'Connor of the Northern District of Texas temporarily prohibited the federal government from enforcing it as that lawsuit proceeds.
READ MORE
|
Missed last week's issue? See which articles your colleagues read most.
|
|
Don't be left behind. Click here to see what else you missed.
|
Disability Scoop
The U.S. Department of Education is shelling out millions in funding to help recruit and train teachers and administrators serving children with disabilities. The federal agency said this week that it's sending $7 million to seven states to enhance preparation and professional development focused on early intervention, special education and transition services. Grants ranging from about $530,000 to nearly $1.5 million are headed to state education departments in Colorado, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina and Oregon.
READ MORE
Education Week
Teacher shortages became a major story in some states last school year, and they have continued to make headlines across the country this summer, with districts struggling to fill hundreds of openings as classes begin. While the overall U.S. student-teacher ratio has remained relatively steady, shortages of teachers are common in certain subject areas, including special education, science, and mathematics, and in particular regions, like rural districts. In some hard-hit states, the shortages have prompted legislative and administrative action.
READ MORE
The Associated Press via Fox News
In a victory for teacher unions, the California Supreme Court decided to let the state's teacher tenure law stand. The high court decided not to review a lower court ruling that upheld tenure and other job protections for teachers. That ruling came in a lawsuit by a group of students who claimed that incompetent teachers were almost impossible to fire because of tenure laws and that schools in poor neighborhoods were dumping grounds for bad teachers. The appeals court said in its decision in April that the students had failed to show California's hiring and firing rules were unconstitutional.
READ MORE
The Boston Globe
At the Curley K-8 School in Jamaica Plain, there were about 15 teaching positions open when hiring season began earlier this year. Principal Katie Grassa, however, is proud to say that she filled all those posts by May 30 — quite fast for a public school in Boston, where traditionally 90 percent of teacher hiring had been completed after July 1. Late hiring had put the Curley and other Boston schools at a competitive disadvantage, by allowing charter schools or other districts to scoop up the best candidates. The Curley reflects the success of the city's controversial early hiring initiative, now in its third year. As contract negotiations resume with the Boston Teachers Union, maintaining principals' new flexibility in hiring has to be a top priority for the system. Meanwhile, the union has a chance to show it's responsive to the system's changing needs.
READ MORE
The Christian Science Monitor
An eight-month court battle — between Detroit's struggling school district and teachers accused of inciting illegal strikes — ended with a court decision in the teachers' favor. Two teachers won the months-long case against the school district because their protests were essentially political rather than work-related, Ann Zaniewski reported for the Detroit Free Press. The court decided that if teachers see politics as the cause of work-related problems, then complaints about those work conditions — even taking the form of intentional sick-outs — receive First Amendment protection.
READ MORE
USA Today
Children head back to school in Miami-Dade County, Fla., where health officials are battling a Zika outbreak in the Wynwood neighborhood part of Miami Beach. Students also return to schools in other cities, including Houston, whose steamy climate, large number of international travelers and hefty mosquito population increase the risk of Zika. USA TODAY's Liz Szabo asked health experts to talk about the health risks for children and whether youngsters could help spread the virus.
READ MORE
NAESP
The average principal now spends only two to three years in each school. In fact, nearly 50 percent of new principals leave by their third year in the profession — while research shows that school leaders may need five years to make lasting changes. What can school leaders and districts do to help fix and strengthen the pipeline?
READ MORE
NAESP
Principals must constantly innovate, challenging the education communities they lead to raise the bar, as well as to shift direction to respond to new initiatives and technologies. In Principal magazine's four-part series, Connect & Innovate, experts and educators offer strategies principals can use to be more innovative in their leadership. Here are three ways you can connect with fellow educators, and try new ideas at your school.
READ MORE
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
7701 Las Colinas Ridge, Ste. 800, Irving, TX 75063
|
