This message was sent to ##Email##
|
|
|
|
|
| | LATEST NEWS FOR PRINCIPALS |
School Leaders Now (commentary)
You know what they say — with great power, comes great responsibility. So, if you're a new principal, feeling some (okay, a lot) of back-to-school jitters are to be expected. In fact, you should embrace them! But, if you still need a little more reassurance and motivation, we asked veteran principals on our Principal Life Facebook group to offer just one simple thing they want new principals like yourself to know. They had a lot of surprising, important and even whimsical advice on everything from staying visible to connecting with your teachers to squeezing in "me" time. Print these out, hang in your office or click whenever you need a boost or need to keep your priorities in check! Good luck!
READ MORE
Education World
The National Teacher and Principal Survey has released its 2015-2016 report that represents the 3,555,600 public school teachers and principals working in the United States. The report provided insight into how much time teachers spend working versus their required number of work hours and where they feel they have an influence in the climate of their schools. Among public school teachers and principals, on average, full-time teachers spent 53 hours per week on all school-related activities. This included 27 hours spent in the classroom delivering lessons to students. In order to receive a base full-time salary, teachers were required to put in an average work week of 38 hours.
READ MORE
NBC Washington
A recent series of sex assault cases by public school employees against students revealed possible safety vulnerabilities for children, according to a News4 I-Team investigation. In each of the cases, the adult charged is an unlicensed school employee, not formally licensed by the state department of education, but still able to have private, one-on-one access to children inside buildings.
READ MORE
|
Promoted by
|
|
|
|
 |
MindShift
Many elementary school teachers love to teach reading and writing, but are less comfortable with science and math. It's not a hard and fast truth, of course, but learning to read is a big focus of the early school years, so it makes sense that teachers who gravitate toward elementary school like teaching literacy. But it's also important to expose kids to science early and get them excited about the practices that define scientific inquiry. And literature may be the perfect starting point. Stories are full of tension, conflict and dilemmas that make wonderful departure points for engineering projects that weave subjects together.
READ MORE
By: Sheilamary Koch (commentary)
 So far in this article series, we have looked at art disciplines that have existed in one form or another for ages — some even predating written history. The legacy of these arts gives them a power that we as humans can feel when we engage in them, whether by creating our own works or experiencing the creations of other artists. Traditional arts like music and visual art can now been produced digitally. Previously nonexistent art forms have emerged to form a new category: media arts.
READ MORE
 |
|
Your students don’t all learn in the same way, so why deliver instruction in the same way? Exact Path is focused on understanding where your students are academically and then taking that data a step further. Adaptive tools offer targeted instruction that is aligned to your goals and paced to your students’ needs.
Click here to learn more.
|
|
eSchool News
Learning shouldn't stop when students leave for summer vacation. Rather, this extended break from the classroom is the perfect time to introduce kids to a variety of mobile apps that can continuously promote creativity and critical thinking. From kindergarten to grade 12, the vast assortment of digital offerings can meet any student's interests, all while providing valuable lessons that will appropriately challenge each user. Here are a few great options for rainy days, road trips or any time in between.
READ MORE
By: Mark S. Miller (commentary)
 As an educator at the midpoint of my career, I have witnessed numerous colleagues retire from a successful career in education and transition to a second, unrelated career almost seamlessly. I have often asked myself how is this possible? Do they possess a special skill or training that has enabled them to transition so effortlessly? Each, regardless of position (i.e., administration, special education, regular classroom teacher, etc.), never stopped exploring.
READ MORE
|
|
By: Betty Boyd (commentary)
 In today's current work environment, soft skills are losing to the role of technology. With smartphones, tablets and all forms of social media, soft skills can get lost in the shuffle. What exactly are soft skills? They are attributes that will help you in both business and in life. It all starts with communication. Because we depend upon our mobile devices for communication, having a conversation with someone in person is becoming a thing of the past.
READ MORE
Gallup
As another school year begins, Americans believe private schools provide students with the best K-12 education of five different types of schools in the U.S. The 71 percent who rate the quality of private school education as excellent or good exceeds the ratings for parochial, charter, home and public schooling, in that order.
READ MORE
eSchool News
As more and more ELL students enter the U.S. public school system, teachers are facing the twofold challenge of communicating not only with these students, but with their families as well. After all, non-English-speaking families have the same desires as native English speakers to know how their child is doing academically, emotionally and socially.
READ MORE
Edutopia
Effective communication between educators and parents is an important — if not crucial — aspect of helping students learn. But as any teacher will tell you, it can be one of the most challenging parts of the job. Of course, every classroom is unique, and we all face different challenges: Some teachers suffer from in-box fatigue trying to keep up with a constant barrage of parent emails, while others struggle to get parents involved at all. But effective communication remains the goal in every case.
READ MORE
EdTech Magazine
If you are on the lookout for an educator community, or you happen to be an administrator trying to find out what teachers are talking about, look no further than Twitter. The social media platform is a treasure trove for teachers seeking advice on how to make learning better for students (or "Ss" as they're called on Twitter.)
READ MORE
The Atlantic
Urban schools don't inspire much confidence these days. Politicians and policy leaders routinely bemoan their quality. And media outlets regularly run stories of "failing urban schools." Middle- and upper-income parents have expressed misgivings, too. But they've done it much less volubly. With relatively little fuss, they've simply picked up and moved — departing from city school systems at ever-greater rates. Among expressions of no-confidence, this has arguably been the most significant, because it has reshaped district demography. Each year, it seems, urban schools serve larger concentrations of poor students, racial minorities, and English language learners. As higher-income families depart, resources go with them and schools are faced with the daunting prospect of doing more with less.
READ MORE
|
|
Education Week
Schools with a higher enrollment of black and poor students are more likely to be shut down for poor performance, and the majority of students displaced by closures do not end up in better schools. But for those students who landed in better schools, their academic progress outpaced that of students in low-performing schools that remained open, according to new research released by the Center for Research and Education Outcomes, CREDO, at Stanford University.
READ MORE
Education World
Students are not the only ones excited about starting the new school year off with some new style. Teachers across the country are getting in on the action and giving their classrooms a design update to help welcome students back. Newly decorated classrooms help to visually stimulate students' minds and help usher them in with enthusiasm for learning in a fresh and comfortable classroom environment.
READ MORE
EdTech Magazine
Asked annually around this time of year, what we really want to know is: Where did summer go? The answers may vary — "Time flies when you're having fun." "The same place as my will to live right now." "Why are you talking to me?" — but as summer break starts to wind down, it's time again for administrators, students and teachers to gear up for the school year.
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.
|
| | FEDERAL ADVOCACY AND POLICY |
Education DIVE
Signed into law in December 2015, the Every Student Succeeds Acts passage was heralded at the time by former President Barack Obama as a "Christmas miracle" that broke deep partisan divides in Congress. The latest reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, signed into law in 1965 by President Lyndon B. Johnson as part of his "War on Poverty," replaces its Bush-era counterpart, the No Child Left Behind Act. And where NCLB issued federal accountability mandates aimed at closing achievement gaps between students across racial and socioeconomic backgrounds — particularly in math and reading — ESSA seeks to return much of the decision-making power around those efforts back to states.
READ MORE
District Administration Magazine
The PTA at an elementary school on New York's Upper East Side raised nearly $1 million in one school year — about $1,260 per student. In a wealthy suburb of Boston, an elementary school PTA brought in $1,680 per student that same year, while a Washington, D.C., school's PTA intake totaled $2,220 per student. These extreme cases point to an issue gaining more attention: the educational inequities that can result from lopsided fundraising.
READ MORE
The Atlantic
For Tracy Horodyski, a teacher in the Kenowa Hills school district in Michigan, a new district schedule has her returning to the classroom on Monday, Aug. 28 — her first pre-Labor Day start in more than a decade. But rather than wishing for a longer vacation, the change comes as something of a relief. After more than two months away, Horodyski, an elementary reading and literacy specialist and Michigan's 2016-2017 Teacher of the Year, said she's eager to get back to school. The students she's talked to, including her two young sons, say they're looking forward to seeing friends, meeting their new teachers, and getting back into a more regular routine.
READ MORE
NAESP
On Tuesday, Aug. 29, NAESP is sponsoring a Title II National Day of Action along with other national organizations representing educators, or teachers and principals, to stop the program from being eliminated in the FY 2018 budget. Early Tuesday morning an alert will be sent to all NAESP members to contact their Congressional lawmakers as they get ready to return to Washington to consider funding for federal agencies and programs in education.
READ MORE
NAESP
Parent engagement is key to successful school communities, but it’s often hard to accomplish in a significant way. It can be especially difficult for those working in schools with a high population of English language learners, where the differences in both language and culture present unique challenges. Home visits can provide an important opportunity for educators to meaningfully connect with families, create trust, and overcome some of these challenges.
READ MORE
|
|
|
|
7701 Las Colinas Ridge, Ste. 800, Irving, TX 75063
|
