This message was sent to ##Email## To advertise in this publication please click here November 3, 2020 .PRINCIPAL LEADERSHIP 4 ways leaders are keeping teachers motivated through pandemic disruption Education DIVE From the pressure put on first responders to the demands placed on essential workers, COVID-19 upended professional norms across all industries — especially education. Last spring, teachers had to retrofit in-person curricula for a virtual environment and adopt new approaches for teaching students from afar. Then came fall, with the question of whether buildings would reopen hanging over every district. READ MORE How far behind did students fall during spring closures? District Administration Magazine Learning losses during remote instruction this spring were more severe in math than in reading, a new analysis has found. Using a model that treated spring school closures like an extended summer break, NWEA researchers found that students likely started school this fall with 37% to 50% of the typical annual learning gains in math. In reading, students began the year with 63% to 68% of the typical learning gains, according to a new research brief from the nonprofit testing company. READ MORE Educators and school staff are on the front lines of suicide prevention. Here's how to help students in distress The 74 When it comes to suicide prevention, school mental health professionals, teachers and staff are in a unique position to identify the warning signs from students who may want to harm themselves or others. These signs can range from withdrawal from normal activities and sudden behavioral changes to explicit statements that they are thinking of taking their own life. Educators have a unique perspective and can compare one student's behavior with that of others in the same age range and in the same environment. READ MORE Can public education return to normal after the COVID-19 pandemic? The Brookings Institution In the familiar nursery rhyme, Humpty Dumpty fell off a great wall and couldn’t be put back together again. After being broken apart by COVID-19, will public education be like Humpty, or can it be put back just as it was? The latter possibility seems simple enough: Wait until the pandemic is over and then, after a year of coping, bring all the students and teachers back into schools as if the shutdown had never happened. READ MORE VIDEO SHOWCASE Mitigating the Risk of Aerosolized Transmission Promoted By Erlab Boost Your School's Immunity Promoted By Apothepack 5 'big' rules for helping to stay healthy at school We Are Teachers Whether you're back in school now or planning to return later in the school year, we know you're thinking about how to keep everyone safe during in-person instruction. The CDC released its considerations for operating schools during COVID-19. READ MORE 8 big consequences the elections could have for K-12 schools Chalkbeat Most education decisions are local decisions. But the pandemic has thrust education policy onto the national stage, bringing unusual attention to new debates about when to reopen schools and what resources schools need to get back on track. That means that the elections for president and Congress will almost certainly have some concrete implications for schools in just the next few months. And even though education hasn't been at the center of President Donald Trump's or former Vice President Joe Biden's campaigns, the two candidates offer starkly different visions for the future of America's schools — when it comes to both navigating the COVID crisis and improving education over the long haul. READ MORE 3 actions for assessing students' social-emotional learning skills District Administration Magazine A student with a disability who regularly becomes distracted after lunch may be goofing off, feeling overwhelmed by the assignment or worried about the risk to his family's health in light of the novel coronavirus. Having a teacher observe the student's behavior, as well as that of the rest of his classmates, and using rating scales as a part of universal screenings three times a year, can help in identifying anyone who may need intervention within a multi-tier system of supports to be able to benefit from his education regardless of his circumstances. READ MORE  SPONSORED CONTENT Promoted by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. A School Leader’s Guide to Crisis Communication Free 3 PD Hour Course: Building Relationships in Online Learning Free 3 PD Hour Course: An Exploration into Social and Emotional Learning Teacher Resources: Supporting Students of Color and Battling Racism Appropriate Ways for Principals to Build Relationships with Teachers How COVID online learning is canceling snow days District Administration Magazine An early winter storm in the Midwest this week did not give students in many districts what they might have eagerly expected: a snow day. Thanks to the COVID-era shift to remote instruction, high school and middle school students at Valley Center Schools near Wichita, Kansas, continued with online learning on Monday when, in past years, the weather would have given them a day off. "It wasn't a big disruption even though we were not expecting a snow day in October," says Superintendent Cory Gibson. whose district operates a 1-to-1 program that covers 4th- through 12th-grade. READ MORE The team is your destiny The Lead Change Group "Why didn't you tell me!" Karen was angry. I knew right away this wouldn't be anything like the happy call we'd had a couple of weeks earlier when she told me she was getting the promotion she wanted. Henceforth, she wouldn't be "Karen the marketing analyst." She would be "Karen the team leader." Karen is a focused and disciplined woman. So, she didn't rant for more than a couple of seconds. She got right to the point. READ MORE What's love got to do with it? Leadership Freak What’s love got to do with being a great leader? A lot it seems as new research reveals that love is the differentiating quality that distinguishes good from great leaders. But what is love really and how can it make a difference to the way we lead our teams and our businesses? To be clear we are not talking about romantic or sexual love here, but rather love displayed as caring, nurturing, tenderness, and devotion. Love in this form is displayed daily in human life, it's a core human value, and yet rarely has love made it into the list of traditional leadership virtues like integrity, hard work and courage. READ MORE  PRODUCT SHOWCASE Bakpax: Hybrid Learning on Any Device Empower and engage students with instant feedback Solve for digital access issues Use for in-person, virtual, and seamless hybrid learning LEARN MORE How the best leaders answer 'what are we here for?' Harvard Business Review In a crisis, the possibility of failure feels close. This often drives leaders into command-and-control mode: more-rigid schedules, tighter budgets, exaggerated targets, hyperbolic promises. Military metaphors proliferate. But during a crisis of deep ambiguity and uncertainty, what's more important than the rhetorical demonstration of certainty is the formulation of a strong, shared sense of meaning. Leaders can't impose this from above. READ MORE Earn employees trust though effective communication Forbes The COVID-19 pandemic appears to be with us for the foreseeable future, creating a fog of uncertainty for much of the workforce. People have worries about their personal and family health and safety, their children's education and care, their parent's well-being, and a lot more. At the same time, work-related issues abound including how to return safely to the workplace, job security, difficulties with off-site work including missing human interactions and apprehensions about the company's very survival. READ MORE 4 highly effective ways to deal with anxiety Fast Company Chances are you're experiencing some stress and anxiety right now. Between the pandemic, politics, and the economic downturn, there are plenty of potential calamities out there. But what is actually happening in your body? When you notice a threat, you engage your avoidance motivational system, which gives you energy to engage in activities that will help you to evade that threat. READ MORE  SPONSORED CONTENT Promoted by Tangible Play (Osmo) Whether you’re teaching in-person, online, or a mix of both, Osmo can make a difference. Explore the many ways Osmo can integrate with mainstream curriculum, special education, and more. Learn about the Osmo for Schools difference: educator resources for an educational environment. 6 questions to ask to find out if you're an ethical leader Fast Company Unlike the purely ceremonial royals of today, kings of old were absolute sovereigns. They answered to no one. Their word was law. And they held unchecked power over life and death in their hands. If so, what distinguishes kings from despots? Only this: the way they appear in the eyes of their people. A despot is merely a tyrant, whose decrees and edicts may be irrational and capricious, without regard for individual rights or the common good. Subjects serve a despot out of fear alone, secretly wishing and waiting for their demise. READ MORE How to live up to your aspiration — Not doen to your disappointment Leadership Freak You can't control everything, but you can control responses. Don't give control to disappointments. Disappointment controls life when you say, "I won't bring my best because I'm disappointed." READ MORE Nothing stays the same in a crisis. Don't try to make it Inc. One of the hallmarks of crisis is that life as we know it seems to change in an instant. Chaos reigns and information changes rapidly. We find ourselves at a loss of what to do or how to move forward. The one thing we do know for certain is that the status quo is untenable — we can't go back to where we were nor can we stay where we are. So how do we get through crisis? Not to oversimplify, but we just adapt. We remain flexible to the situation as it is presented to us and not stuck in old patterns. READ MORE  PRODUCT SHOWCASE Don't Go It Alone The learning landscape is changing. Let us help you navigate it. Our experts are available for early-morning check-ins, or late in the evening as you reflect on your day. Bottom line: Leadership doesn’t have to be lonely. We’re here, day and night, to help you lead your schools into the future. Learn more LEARN MORE Great leaders show vulnerability, but here's how to do it without seeming weak Forbes Being vulnerable, e.g., showing weakness or admitting that not everything is perfect, can be terrifying for a leader. In fact, it's so scary that only a small fraction of leaders is willing to even admit that their organization is experiencing challenges right now. Leadership IQ's new report, The State Of Leadership Development In 2020, surveyed 21,008 employees to assess leaders' effectiveness. One of the findings from this study is that only 20% of employees say that their leader always openly shares the challenges they're facing. READ MORE .EDUCATION POLICY US Department of Education releases parent and family digital learning guide U.S. Department of Education The U.S. Department of Education released a new Parent and Family Digital Learning Guide, a resource to help parents and guardians understand how digital tools can provide tailored learning opportunities, engage students with course materials, encourage creative expression, and enrich the educational experience. "As technology continues to iterate and benefit every part of our lives, all students need more opportunities to leverage the potential of technology in education," said U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. READ MORE Tax higher incomes to fund schools? National debate gets traction at the state level Education Week The highest income earners should pay more taxes to provide more funding for education. That was and common refrain in the Democratic presidential primaries, and a key part of former Vice President Joe Biden's K-12 platform. It's also on the Nov. 3 ballot in one state, where arguments about that measure mirror those taking place on the national level. READ MORE .SCHOOL TECHNOLOGY The biggest cloud threats to remote education — And how to thwart them EdTech Magazine With most schools continuing remote or hybrid learning, it has become clear that investing in a robust and resilient IT infrastructure such as cloud technology is a smart and necessary move. The cloud enables schools and districts to adapt quickly in times of crisis and continue learning for students at scale. However, the cloud is not without risks. For example, 54% of IT professionals in education said employees put data at risk by sharing it in the cloud without their knowledge, according to a 2020 Netwrix report. Meanwhile, 65% of educational organizations don't review permissions regularly. READ MORE Schools clamored for Seesaw's app. That was good news, and bad news. The New York Times The first requests that upended Seesaw, a popular classroom app, came in January from teachers and education officials abroad. Their schools were shutting down because of the coronavirus, and they urgently wanted the app adjusted for remote learning. The company figured it could do that with a single short hackathon project. READ MORE Applying task-based learning to extended reality Language Magazine Once technology enters the classroom, it rarely leaves. These days, as online learning emerges as the next technology to find a home inside the classroom, we have an opportunity to look further into the future. This is a great time to consider the next digital horizon for education — specifically the emerging fields of augmented reality and virtual reality. Both technologies are already being experimented with for learning in general and language learning in particular. READ MORE  FEATURED ARTICLE   Benefits of an Early Childhood Leadership Certificate from Bank Street   A child’s first few years of educational experiences set the stage for how they will learn for the rest of their lives. The Bank Street Early Childhood Leadership Advanced Certificate Program is designed for mission-driven educators seeking to advance their professional opportunities and fill the need for exceptional leadership in early childhood education. Areas of study within the program include curriculum and development, social justice, systems thinking, progressive education and law. LEARN MORE   A new way to judge ed tech products: 'learner variability' Education Week School districts have long been disappointed with the fact that many of the thousands of ed-tech products pitched to them each year are developed as "one-size-fits-all" tools. They need something different: products that can be adapted to meet students’ multiple needs. READ MORE .PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT We're pressuring students to read too fast, too much, too soon We Are Teachers If 2020 has taught us anything at all, it's the value of slowing down. So why hasn't that translated to how we teach reading to our early learners? If there was ever a time to push back on developmentally inappropriate standards for beginning readers, it's now. Because current practice is not only failing to produce children who love to read — it's failing to even improve reading scores. READ MORE The gender gap persists in computer science education eSchool News K-12 educators and parents still hold computer science education in high esteem and believe it is a core component of students' future success, according to the latest research from Gallup and Google. While parents in every demographic believe computer science is important for their own child to learn, Black parents and guardians in particular (78%) agree that learning computer science is important or very important for their children. READ MORE  SPONSORED CONTENT Promoted by McGraw-Hill Identify and Address Individual Learning Gaps Many students will experience learning losses and have gaps in their knowledge and skills. With Rise, long-term learning loss doesn’t have to be one of the consequences. An adaptive math and ELA supplemental solution for grades 3-8 with over 1,100 learning objectives Rise can be used as independent practice work for progress monitoring, request a sample Expanding social emotional learning so all students can benefit EdSource This fall, a typical "classroom" looks unlike anything we've seen before. Yet, during every Zoom session, teacher Paul Drake of Santa Rosa's Hidden Valley Elementary School uses a familiar and powerful strategy to gauge his second-grade students' readiness to engage and learn: He takes the time to ask students "How are you?" READ MORE When kids say 'I'm not a reader': How librarians can disrupt traumatic reading practices MindShift "I'm not a reader." It's a common refrain Julia Torres, a teacher-librarian in Denver Public Schools, has heard throughout her 16-year career. She's seen students tear up books, throw them away or check them out only to immediately return them all because they didn't have confidence in their ability to read. READ MORE Writing workshop ideas for the middle grades MiddleWeb Writing workshop can be an exciting part of the day for middle school students. The goal is to make sure that students are always writing. If your schedule is not a good fit for a daily workshop format, creating opportunities for students to connect with literature and respond in writing is another way to grow successful writers. READ MORE 3 secrets from a stylist to present your best self online Teaching Channel Teaching online comes with lots of opportunities and challenges, most of which you've probably encountered this school year and are working through. But what about how you, yes, Educator You, actually show up online? In addition to lesson planning, navigating the vagaries of Zoom, and learning how to provide an enriching educational experience in an online space, there's also the matter of how you look and feel on camera. READ MORE Strategies to meet the needs of deaf learners eSchool News At the beginning of each school year, teachers often take the time to get to know their students—their favorite subjects, their goals, their families, etc. With hard-of-hearing and deaf learners, though, many educators stop and let that one characteristic define the student and the student-teacher relationship. But in the edWebinar "Deaf Learners: Designing Practice to Support Their Learner Variability, Culture and Families," sponsored by Digital Promise, the presenters explained why educators need to dig deeper and understand all of the factors influencing the student's motivation and interest in learning. READ MORE Getting math students to show their work MiddleWeb (commentary) Michelle Russell, a contributor for MiddleWeb, writes: "I was talking with a teacher in my department about the best way to teach factoring. We were discussing the pros and cons of two different methods. She said that she preferred a certain method because it made more sense logically and it was easier for her to see what the students were thinking. That was of first importance." READ MORE PRODUCT SHOWCASE Create a Safe Learning Environment Sneeze Guards allow for proper social distancing while keeping maximum capacity in the classroom. Made from clear acrylic, set up is easy. Made in Michigan. Variety of different sizes available.   LEARN MORE   Reach Your Prospects Every Week Thousands of industry professionals subscribe to association news briefs, which allows your company to push messaging directly to their inboxes and take advantage of the association's brand affinity. Connect with Highly Defined Buyers and Maximize Your Brand Exposure   LEARN MORE   Teaching robots through positive reinforcement Tech Crunch There likely isn't a robotics teacher institute in the world actively pursuing robotic learning. The field, after all, holds the key to unlocking a lot of potential for the industry. One of the things that makes it so remarkable is the myriad different approaches so many researchers are taking to unlock the secrets of helping robots essentially learn from scratch. READ MORE Educators wanted vulnerable students to return first for in-person learning, but a racial divide spoiled their plans The 74 When Northside Independent School District superintendent Brian Woods designed his reopening strategy, he started with the kids who needed to be there most. He felt certain that poor, largely Black and Latino San Antonio families without access to the internet, frontline workers in need of childcare and those struggling to keep food on the table would be desperate to get their kids back into the school buildings. READ MORE Why teachers need interoperability — Whether they know it or not EdSurge Imagine a world in which a teacher begins the school year with a comprehensive personal profile of each student in her class — a report that incorporates insights on academic performance, social-emotional development, behavior, attendance and a host of related data. Without having to conduct numerous assessments and informal interviews throughout the opening weeks, she can actually "know" her students before they arrive in her classroom and meet them where they are on day one. READ MORE .EDUCATION RESEARCH Survey finds most teachers assigned busy work in the spring. Now, experts say, it's time to give students more challenging assignments — Remote or not The 74 80% of students in a new survey said their teachers gave them more assignments when classes went virtual, but 60% of them said most of the work was easy or covered material they already knew. That's left students — especially those in middle and high school — anxious about keeping up with the curriculum this year, according to the study, titled "Upended Learning." About two-thirds of students at those levels responded that they're worried about being unprepared. READ MORE Survey: More than half of teachers felt less successful after COVID-19 The 74 New public opinion research indicates that COVID-19 and the hurried transition to remote learning presented teachers with an array of challenges that seriously damaged their sense of self-efficacy. The quality of school working conditions, including fair expectations and clear communication, was found to be critical in sustaining the educators' perceptions of professional success. READ MORE .IN THE STATES New York's school reopening is not proceeding as planned The New York Times Shortly after this newsletter was published on Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York dropped two bombshells. First, he revealed that only 26% of students in the school district, the nation's largest, have attended any class in person this year so far — way below expectations. At the beginning of the year, about half of the 1.1 million children in the system chose a hybrid approach that combines online teaching with some in-class instruction. But according to the new data, only 238,000 students actually showed up. READ MORE .ASSOCIATION NEWS Trials of a first-year principal: Transition plan NAESP Have you ever signed up to do something not actually thinking you would be chosen for the task? If so, you know the feeling of “yikes, what do I do now?” After receiving the call from my current superintendent that he was recommending me for the principalship and after a moment of exhilaration, that reality set in for me. READ MORE Going to the source for COVID-19 cases in schools NAESP NAESP has joined AASA, the School Superintendents Association, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, Brown University, and Qualtrics to create a first-of-its-kind dashboard to systematically map COVID-19 cases in K-12 schools. The National COVID-19 School Response Dashboard is the largest and most robust nationwide effort to collect data on how many students and staff have been infected, what mitigation strategies schools are using, and how school reopenings have fared. READ MORE   Principal Insights Connect with NAESP Dennis Hall, Director of Publishing, MultiView, 469-420-2656 | Download media kit Hailey Golden, Senior Education Editor, 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. ADVERTISE SUBSCRIBE PAST ISSUES   7701 Las Colinas Ridge, Ste. 800, Irving, TX 75063