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| | LATEST NEWS FOR PRINCIPALS |
The Washington Post
The number of homeless children in public schools has doubled since before the recession, reaching a record national total of 1.36 million in the 2013-2014 school year, according to new federal data. The latest homeless count, an 8 percent increase over the 2012-2013 school year, is a sign that many families continue to struggle financially even as the economy recovers from the housing collapse of 2008. And it offers a glimpse of the growing challenges that public schools face nationwide as they seek to educate an increasing number of low-income children.
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The Associated Press
When a new school year began at the Sierra Sands Unified District 150 miles north of Los Angeles in August, students in four classes were greeted by a substitute. The small district's human resources department had worked aggressively through the summer to attract new teachers. Staff members made out-of-state recruiting trips, highlighting their area's low cost of living and proximity to Los Angeles. The district revamped its website and asked residents to tap their families and friends for job candidates. "We were leaving no stone unturned," said Dave Ostash, assistant superintendent of human resources of the 5,000-student district. Still, when the bell rang on the first day of class, they fell four teachers short.
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District Administration Magazine
A physical education program that brings commercial-grade fitness equipment to under-resourced schools — along with a curriculum based on boosting confidence and fun — dramatically increases students' performance on California's standardized physical fitness test, according to a UCLA study titled "Targeting the Body and the Mind: Evaluation of a P.E. Curriculum Intervention for Adolescents." The UCLA Health Sound Body Sound Mind curriculum, which focuses on mastering basic physical tasks that can be done in small spaces, such as using free-weights and jumping ropes, tripled the percentage of students who passed the California state Fitnessgram test in schools where it was implemented.
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Te@chThought
This is part 1 in our #iteachthought campaign. This is our equivalent to "back to school," and is intended to help you focus in the 2015-2016 school year on taking a thoughtful approach to your craft as a teacher. Among these shifts we'll talk about is turning our focus from content and teaching to thinkers and thinking.
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The Conversation (commentary)
Children begin telling stories as young as age two or three. And they continue to develop storytelling skills in their interaction with parents and others who provide guidance and feedback. The ability to tell a coherent and well-developed narrative may be important for children's literacy development. However, most of the studies on children's storytelling and reading skills have been conducted with samples of middle-class white children. To address this gap in the research, my colleague, Iheoma Iruka, and I studied data of children from different socioeconomic and racial/ethnic groups from across the United States.
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Science Weekly Magazine
Science Weekly Magazine
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MindShift
English language learners are a growing yet underserved segment of the U.S. student population, and teaching these diverse learners presents teachers with a host of unique and very complex challenges. ELL teachers regularly employ a variety of specialized and unique teaching strategies and best practices aimed at helping their students acquire English and thrive academically.
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Psychology Today (commentary)
One of the most common misconceptions regarding teaching and learning is the belief in using personalized instructional strategies with specific students based on the perception of the student's "learning style" preference. Learning styles are typically defined as "the view that different people learn information in different ways" (Pashler, McDaniel, Rohrer, & Bjork, 2009, p. 106). After all, it makes intuitive sense that a person who prefers to read might find listening to a lecture boring, and someone who dislikes reading will learn more by watching a video. This differentiated presumption often leads to a revision in teaching methods by educators who strive to meet the alleged individualized needs of learners.
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eSchool News
When author and IT director Mike Ribble talks about the importance of teaching students appropriate online behavior, he likes to share a few eye-opening statistics. According to Common Sense Media's study Zero to Eight: Children's Media Use in America, the percentage of children ages eight and under who've used a mobile device nearly doubled from 2011 to 2013, from 38 percent to 72 percent. What's more, about two in five children under the age of two have used a mobile device. "Kids are coming to school having already had some contact with technology," said Ribble, who works for the Manhattan-Ogden Unified School District 383 in Kansas.
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Education World
Many teachers want to use social media in their classrooms but just need some guidance. What better way to find out what works than for educators to talk with one another. Understanding the legalities of minors posting personal information on social media accounts for class, general ways to use Instagram and other social media effectively in the classroom, and finding a sense of equality and ethical standard within BYOD policies, were only a few of the highlights of the expansive conversation on using such tools in K-12 at this year's EdCamp Connecticut.
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By: Howard Margolis
 Many parents of children with educational disabilities know their children need to rid themselves of behaviors and habits that jeopardize their future. They need to develop ones that propel and sustain progress. Thus, a critical question plaguing parents, teachers and researchers is: "How can we help children make changes vital to their future?" A more precise way of saying this is: "How can we help children develop the behaviors and habits vital to their futures?"
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District Administration Magazine
One central Virginia high school replaced hundreds of lockers with device charging stations this fall to bolster its 1-to-1 program. Of the 2,000 high school students in Albemarle County Public Schools, only 25 requested lockers last school year, as more students carry their devices and books in backpacks, says Principal Jay Thomas. The school fully implemented 1-to-1 this fall, and administrators replaced three hallways of lockers with benches, whiteboards and outlets so students could continue collaborating on assignments in the hallways.
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PRODUCT SHOWCASE
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Learn more about these new online training programs to help improve the climate and culture in your schools. Based on the movie, Contest, Stand Up Say No to Bullying teaches students how to handle conflict and bullying. Signs Matter helps teachers and administrators identify students who may be contemplating suicide. You can help save lives.
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U.S. Department of Education (commentary)
Meredith Morelle, a 2015 Teaching Ambassador Fellow at the U.S. Department of Education, writes: "As an educator with more than a decade of classroom experience, I'm encouraged by several of the data points in the PDK/Gallup Poll on the Public's Attitude Toward the Public Schools. It is especially heartening to learn that the majority of Americans want to better support the critical role teachers play in the lives of our young people and the prosperity of our nation. Teachers are among the most hardworking, dedicated and creative professionals in any field, and this survey reveals that the public believes in taking steps — including increasing pay — to support and recognize them in a manner that reflects the vital nature of their work."
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The Atlantic
Christine Rodriguez vividly recalls her early school years. A native of Brooklyn's Bushwick neighborhood, a working-class predominantly black and Latino section of New York City, her most vivid memories of elementary school consist of crammed classrooms with inadequate books, insufficient chairs, and the constant presence of the school-safety agent. (School Safety Agents, or SSAs, are New York Police Department officers assigned to K-12 campuses and charged with protecting students, campus staff and visitors.) Now a college freshman at The New School studying education, Rodriguez rattles off with ease how school discipline shaped her K-12 education.
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Education Week
By 10 a.m., the teacher referrals are already starting to fill the box outside Ari Gerzon-Kessler's office at Monaco Elementary, a low-income, high-minority school in this district at the northeast edge of Denver. The principal will bring in parents and call students from their classes, as he does several times a week. In most schools, parents and students dread being called to the principal's office, but at Monaco Elementary, these are all "positive referrals," for which Gerzon-Kessler reads detailed praise from a teacher to the student, in English or Spanish, as his or her family looks on.
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| | FEDERAL ADVOCACY AND POLICY |
Education Week
Perhaps no single K-12 policy is more closely associated with the Obama administration than teacher evaluations tied to student test scores, which the president and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan have championed, first through Race to the Top, and then through No Child Left Behind Act waivers. And perhaps no policy has been as difficult to implement, particularly as states make the transition to new tests aligned to the Common Core State Standards. The administration initially took a hard line on evaluations, asking states to roll them out over a specific time period and to include state test scores as part of the mix.
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"The Fundamental 5 maximizes teacher effectiveness. It is the best instructional system I have ever observed." Robert Brezina, U.S. Academic Decathlon Past President.
Order now on Amazon.com
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U.S. Department of Education
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced the names of four principals to be the Department's Principal Ambassador Fellows for the 2015-2016 school year, in addition to nine teachers as 2015-2016 Teaching Ambassador Fellows. One principal will serve as a full-time Washington Fellow, while three will work part-time as Campus Principal Ambassadors in addition to their leadership in their districts.
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Education Dive
In many ways, Gillian Quinn-Pineda took a typical route to the principal's office. She spent years as a teacher, both in charter and traditional public schools, and got a chance to test out increased leadership before making the leap. But Quinn-Pineda, now the founding principal of KIPP Northeast College Prep in Houston made an unusual move before fully taking the reins. Four years ago, she enrolled in an MBA program designed for educators, Rice University's Educational Entrepreneurship Program. The program has graduated six cohorts, with over 200 schools now featuring REEP-trained leaders. But MBA programs are still unusual for school leaders and educators. Some, like Quinn-Pineda, have started to test them out as a way to build skills they might not build in a traditional leadership program.
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NAESP
NAESP's new principal panel is the first and only national program dedicated to gathering and sharing the experiences of new principals in rural, urban and suburban schools across the country. Panelists participate in six online surveys each year on a relevant topic, which take less than 10 minutes to complete. Panelists receive the survey results and resource recommendations from their peers, and for each survey completed, panelists also receive a $10 credit for the National Principals Resource Center online store or merchandise from national sponsors such as Scholastic.
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NAESP
Interested candidates should request the electronic Prospective Candidate Data form by contacting Jennifer Shannon, NAESP Governance Services Manager, at jshannon@naesp.org or 703-518-6286. All nomination materials must be submitted to NAESP by Oct. 1.
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ZipKrooz™ brings zip line-like adventure to the playground in an exciting, inclusive and safe way!
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Math Problem solving contests for teams of up to 35 students in grades 4 through 8.
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