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.PRINCIPAL LEADERSHIP
What educators are learning during the pandemic
Edutopia
In 2020, educators have faced pandemic-driven remote schooling and also widespread inequities in education and society that have been made obvious by the virus. As schools were forced to switch to distance learning overnight, huge disparities became undeniable: We witnessed children, especially children of color, facing poverty, hunger, mental health issues, lack of computers and internet access, and consequent fears of falling behind.
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Should schools be giving so many failing grades this year?
Education Week
From coast to coast, school districts that have primarily served students via remote learning are seeing dramatic increases in the number of failing or near-failing grades on students' quarterly report cards and progress reports.
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MULTIBRIEFS EXCLUSIVE
How educators can best focus on the social-emotional needs of boys
By Sheilamary Koch
 Creating safe spaces for youth, in particular boys and young men, to express what they're going through and heal from trauma is one of Chad Reed's overriding objectives. His personal history and work with nonprofits serving youth of color in the San Francisco Bay Area has made him a strong advocate for social-emotional learning, which he believes is a must before academic subject matter. While developing the soft skills reflected in CASEL's five competencies can be challenging for all students, one's gender, socio-economic level and cultural background can shape how readily a student can integrate this learning.
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Key insights for new and aspiring school leaders
MiddleWeb (commentary)
James P. Spillane and Rebecca Lowenhaupt, contributors for MiddleWeb, writes: "Looking back, I see I submitted my first MiddleWeb book review six years ago — in the summer of 2014. Although I first began to teach in 2005, I took a break after five years and decided to return to the classroom in 2013. As the 2014 school year began, I was a new middle level history teacher with a passion for the subject, a love of working with children, and a desire to gain valuable teaching experience."
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Promoted By
Erlab
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Promoted By
Apothepack
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This teacher's brilliant 'door principle' explains why so many of us feel conflicted about our jobs
We Are Tachers
This year more than ever, so many of us are questioning whether we belong in the classroom (or more accurately, on Zoom). Teachers are leaving the profession at a record rate. They're exploring other job opportunities. But in most cases, it's not because of the kids or the actual teaching. It's because of everything else. It's a feeling captured brilliantly in this Reddit user's "Door Principle."
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The connective power of school culture during the pandemic
Teach & Learning (commentary)
"Never has school culture been more important for cohesion and community than during the pandemic. For a firsthand view into the power of school culture, I spoke with Shomari Jones, director of Equity and Strategic Engagement for the Bellevue School District in Washington state. The district, about 8 miles from Seattle, serves about 20,000 students, and is multiculturally diverse with 64% students of color plus a large Asian subpopulation. School is remote except for 130 students with special needs who are served in person."
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3 ways real-time communication tools help schools navigate COVID
eSchool News
Like many schools last spring, the Archdiocese of Baltimore Catholic Schools went fully remote as the pandemic took hold, creating many challenges for staff and administrators, as well as students and their families. Our teachers and students ran into the same problems schools experienced across the country: technical difficulties with Zoom, getting kids connected with laptops and Wi-Fi, making sure students were paying attention, and more.
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MULTIBRIEFS EXCLUSIVE
Will 'robots' make good teachers?
By Patrick Gleeson
 We humans have long been fascinated by our interactions with robots. For decades, the interaction was largely fictional. In reality, robots were primitive, shaky and limited. Recent advances in artificial intelligence, however, make the idea of a classroom led by a robot or other artificial intelligence-informed entity at least plausible. They won't look like HAL 9000 or R2-D2, but eventually artificial intelligence-informed programs will almost certainly take on a significant part of a child's education — and probably sooner than you think. Here's why and likely how.
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• Empower and engage students with instant feedback
• Solve for digital access issues
• Use for in-person, virtual, and seamless hybrid learning
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As districts return to remote learning, are they any better prepared?
EdSurge
When educators describe their frenzied switch to remote learning in the spring, most talk about being caught off guard. Some mention how little they knew then — about virtual learning, as well as the virus that forced them out of their school buildings. Others shudder at the tight timeframe they were given to completely reconstruct the instructional day. There was no time for preparation or "best practice." It was an emergency.
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Compassionate leadership is necessary — But not sufficient
Harvard Business Review
A global pandemic, Depression-level unemployment, civil and political unrest — from New York to Barcelona to Hong Kong, it feels as if the world as we know it is faltering. Economies are unwinding; jobs are disappearing. Through it all, our spirit is being tested. Now more than ever, it's imperative for leaders to demonstrate compassion.
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Figuring out whether you're a good leader is harder than you think
Fast Company (commentary)
Art Markman, a contributor for Fast Company, writes: "In 2011, I was asked to serve as director of a new program at the University of Texas called the Human Dimensions of Organizations. We were a startup inside the university that aimed to bring the humanities and the social and behavioral sciences to individuals in organizations who wanted to learn about people."
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If you're too busy for these 3 things, your leadership skills may need a tune-up
Inc.
Hundreds of books, articles and podcasts are published each year offering the answer to the question: How do I lead well? To really grasp the principles of effective leadership that will lead to results, one primary lesson that many of those books and podcasts won't teach comes down to one short sentence: Leadership is a heart matter. If the heart is not right, your leadership isn't going to be right.
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MULTIBRIEFS EXCLUSIVE
Hindsight is 2020: Putting the year in perspective
By Linda Popky
 Admit it. If two years ago someone had walked into your office with a movie script containing half of the things that happened in 2020, you would have laughed them out of there. Or perhaps suggested they needed psychological help. None of us saw this coming. Yes, the infectious disease experts warned we should be on the lookout for a viral pandemic, but they couldn’t tell us how or when this would arrive or the impact it would have on our society. Now that we’re getting close to the end of this tumultuous year, what learning can we take forward for the future?
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4 strategies to help you learn to take constructive criticism
Fast Company
We often hear that it is a sign of emotional maturity and intellectual curiosity to be open to constructive criticism from others, and that negative feedback can help us identify important gaps between the person we are, and the person we want to be. That said, nobody loves to be criticized. It would require a degree of intellectual masochism that is rarely found in people, with the exception of extraordinary achievers.
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Covid-19 spreads indoors via microscopic droplets in the air. Therefore, increasing the rate of ventilation in your classrooms is critical.
But how do you know if your ventilation is sufficient? Aranet4 – an easy to use CO2 monitoring device lets you know the rate of air exchange is good!
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How do you evaluate performance during a pandemic?
Harvard Business Review
The ongoing crises of 2020 are affecting women's careers and, as we enter performance review season, managers have a responsibility to make sure that bias against women — and women of color in particular — doesn't do further damage. If you want to retain this critical group of talent and avoid lasting consequences for workplace diversity, it will help to rethink how your organization handles performance reviews.
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.EDUCATION POLICY
Biden's call for school reopening relies on cooperation from Congress, a divided public
Education Week
President-elect Joe Biden has sharpened his calls to reopen schools since the election, but he will still have to overcome big barriers to contain the coronavirus and bring children back to classrooms. "If Congress provides the funding we need to protect students, educators and staff, and if states and cities put strong public health measures in place that we all follow, then my team will work to see that the majority of our schools can be open by the end of my first 100 days," Biden said Dec. 8.
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CDC: Here's how much it would cost schools to safeguard against COVID-19
Education Week
Strategies to help schools minimize the risk of coronavirus transmission would on average cost between $55 and $442 per student, depending on what measures are used, according to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The cost estimates of COVID-19 mitigation strategies cover a range of expenses for K-12 public schools.
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.SCHOOL TECHNOLOGY
5 must-have technologies for the hybrid classroom
EdTech Magazine
As schools navigate the realities of partial reopening, hybrid classrooms will prove to be the norm. In an effort to guide conversations and ideas on how to improve the hybrid classroom, we asked several technology vendors to tell us about the features, functionalities and benefits of their must-have technology products for the hybrid classroom.
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What is flippity and how does it work?
Tech & Learning
Flippity is a useful tool for taking Google Sheets and turning it into helpful resources from flash cards to quizzes and more. Flippity works, at its most basic, by using a selection of Google Sheets that allow teachers and students to create activities. Since these templates are ready to use, all one requires is personalization to the task and it's ready to go.
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3 ways online STEM education combats the COVID slide
eSchool News
Student regression is no longer just a summer issue, and we are seeing the learning losses magnified since remote learning began. What Dr. Megan Kuhfeld and Dr. Beth Tarasawa call the "COVID slide" in performance is going to slip right into spring 2021. Overcoming the pronounced academic setbacks characterizing the COVID slide will challenge STEM educators for years to come. High impact learning losses are predicted for foundational skills in math and reading as early as third grade, placing future success in STEM areas on shaky ground.
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 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.
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Data shows K-12 videoconferencing is overwhelmingly one on one
EdTech Magazine
The "how it started vs. how it's going" meme has become social media's shortcut way to acknowledge that nothing in 2020 is going quite as planned. It's a reminder that the pandemic has upended just about every assumption we had for this year and caused us all to expect the unexpected in the year ahead.
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4 ways schools use video game design to spark interest in computer science
K-12 DIVE
In the Lewisville Independent School District in Texas, video game design and programming courses typically get 200 students a year to sign up — but only about 150 can enroll. That interest, and the subsequent waiting list, is a sign of how eager students are for these courses that Technology Exploration and Career Center East Director Adrian Moreno, along with teachers Billy Carter and Kevin O'Gorman, shepherd in the district.
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Strategies for remote and hybrid STEM
Tech & Learning
Teaching STEM is all about engaging students. Achieving this amidst a pandemic with all of the challenges and changes requires that educators get creative. We chat with Chris Kaldahl, 2016 Department of Defense Education Activity Teacher of the Year and chemistry teacher with Arlington Public Schools in Virginia (whose district has been virtual this year), John VanFradenburgh, Department Head Technology Education at New York's Valley Central Middle School, and Erik Gillman, AP Physics teacher at Gilbert Classical Academy in Arizona, about their experiences.
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| Promoted by
McGraw-Hill |
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Identify and Address Individual Learning Gaps
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Many students will experience learning losses and have gaps in their knowledge and skills.
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With Rise, long-term learning loss doesn’t have to be one of the consequences.
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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
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.PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Teaching the 'roomers' and the 'zoomers:' No small task for elementary school teachers
The 74
San Antonio teacher Celina Quintanilla has names for the two groups of 5th-graders she is simultaneously teaching — those in her classroom are the "roomers" and those on Zoom are the "zoomers." It's an arrangement that has sparked resistance from teacher's unions across the country as teachers say they feel stretched too thin to be effective.
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Moving your classroom outside during the pandemic
Edutopia
As rural schools in my home state of Vermont planned for the start of school this academic year, many education professionals here anticipated that a return to in-person schooling was likely due to the relatively few cases of Covid statewide. In the case of my K–6 school, the Albert Bridge School, we were able to turn some things that were previously considered challenges into advantages, including small class sizes.
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COVID-19 urges schools to reimagine classroom space
EdTech Magazine
For all the challenges emergency remote learning brought in 2020, a window of opportunity may have been opened. Presenting at ISTE20 Live, CDW education strategist Jennifer Brown highlighted a dramatic shift in teacher and parent mindsets that could enable school leadership to make progress on long-term road mapping for the classrooms and schools of the future.
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Identifying long-term English learners can help students' academic progress
eSchool News
Students who begin elementary school and haven't become proficient at speaking English after five years in school should be identified as what educators call "long-term English learners," according to a new paper from Rice University researchers. The report from the Houston Education Research Consortium, a program of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research, aims to standardize the definition of an LTEL to help educators identify students who may need more help learning English. It is part of a broader study seeking to better understand students classified as LTELs.
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Use the '3 presences' to help kids thrive
MiddleWeb (commentary)
Elizabeth Stein, a contributor for MiddleWeb, writes: "Months into this unique school year, there is one thing I feel certain about. We all need to make intentional time to come up for some air! In fact, at this very moment, as I make time to write this post, I feel as if I'm jumping off a moving treadmill that chooses to incline and decline — speed up and slow down — without notice."
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PCS Edventures is awarding 8 winners, $12,000 in STEM curriculum & materials. Hurry, the entry period ends on December 7th, 2020. Enter sweepstakes at: https://contest.edventures.com
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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
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New criteria for judging SEL providers unveiled by influential group
Education Week
An influential research organization focused on social-emotional learning has revised the criteria through which it judges the quality of programs created by commercial companies and other providers. The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, or CASEL, announced the revisions, the first it has made in five years, this month.
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Why I believe teaching money skills should be part of every math class
We Are Tachers (commentary)
"As a sixth-grade math teacher, I'm always on the lookout for ways to motivate my students. And one of the best ways I've found to do that is to connect what we're learning to finance and money. My students are the age when their wants, like PlayStations and Frappuccinos, are starting to play a bigger role in their lives. I've found that when my students understand how the math concepts they're learning connect to their real lives, they're much more engaged."
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.EDUCATION RESEARCH
CDC: Black, Latino parents more concerned about school reopenings than whites
U.S. News & World Report
Black and Latino parents are more concerned than white parents about schools reopening for in-person learning in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concludes. The report, issued Thursday, details the racial and ethnic differences in parents' attitudes and concerns about school reopenings, with the notable top-line finding that Black and Latino parents are troubled to a greater degree about various aspects of schools reopening – such as compliance with prevention measures, safety and their child contracting or bringing home COVID-19 – than white parents.
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CDC: ER visits for child abuse drop during pandemic
UPI
Hospital emergency room visits related to child abuse and neglect declined by more than half nationally during the first nine months of 2020, compared with the same period in 2019, according to a report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This happened despite the risk for child abuse rising, perhaps by as much as five times, since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
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.IN THE STATES
New Mexico education spending plan focuses on student equity
The Associated Press
The New Mexico Public Education Department proposed a new formula for funding schools with high numbers of low-income students as the agency looks to fund efforts aimed at helping students who are falling behind due to the challenges brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
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Indiana's COVID enrollment dip driven by 10,000 fewer preschoolers, kindergartners
Chalkbeat
When Pike Township opened a new child care center in 2019, it was expected to grow each year. But instead of expanding this fall, enrollment at the fledgling preschool fell by nearly 40% from last year to 130 children. At the same time, the number of kindergartners in the Indianapolis district dipped by more than 20%.
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.ASSOCIATION NEWS
NAESP midyear survey: Schools and COVID-19
NAESP
Back in July, NAESP surveyed its members to get a better sense of how COVID-19 has impacted their schools and what issues are most pressing for principals. As we approach the halfway point of the school year, NAESP hopes to gain a better understanding of the impact of COVID-19 on principals and their schools: How classes are being conducted safely, how districts are coordinating their efforts, and whether the necessary funding is in place to appropriately respond to the impacts of the pandemic.
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