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Reformation: Adjusting Responsibilities of Learning and Control
Listen In the past, both the responsibility for learning and classroom control rested squarely on the shoulders of the teacher. If your students were loud and misbehaving, or if they failed a standardized test, you were not only held responsible for it in a figurative sense. Instead, you could lose...
Reformation: Identifying Sources of Inspiration
Listen One of the purposes of this series of articles was to talk about schools, leaders, administrators, philosophers of education, technologists, architects, and teachers who were visibly succeeding in education and making an impact. But our eleven schools are notably only a small sampling. Since beginning this series, we’ve heard...
Elementary Focus: Dolls for SEL and Social Studies
Listen There are few adults who spend any time with kids who haven’t heard of the “Toy Story” franchise. In one of the movies, the toys gather around a new playmate, Forky, created by the child who is the center of their world.The child in the movie makes this “doll”...
Education Podcasts, Part 2: What We Have Learned from Them
Listen We wanted to share some of what we have learned recently from the education podcasts we have been listening to. Principal Center Radio Douglas Fisher - The Distance Learning Playbook (Jul 31) Douglas Fisher’s has some great, practical tips on distance learning! He suggests that teachers should integrate synchronous...
The New Hope of New London
Listen 2020… right?!? What a bizarre year. We thought now would be a good moment to ponder some amazing schools, districts, and communities that have lived through their share of trying times and come out on the other side in a way that can provide some inspiration for us as...
Teacher Reflections After Returning to School
Listen For many teachers, administrators, and school employees around the world, August has meant returning to campus for the first time in 4 or 5 months. Some are teaching to cameras in empty classrooms while others are trying to figure out how to teach with masks covering the expressions of...
How to Create, Record, & Close a Lesson in Google Meets
Listen With so many schools going either 100% virtual or offering some sort of hybrid option, teachers are having to become tech gurus overnight and learn to rely on programs that had previously been just something that “those young teachers were using” or things to tinker with to check the...
The Next Pandemic - Mental Illness
Listen The pandemic of COVID-19 leaves behind more than physical health changes for the general population in its wake. Many doctors, psychiatrists, and health advisers (including the CDC and WHO) are telling the medical community and the public to brace themselves for the next big pandemic - mental illness. Many...
Making Legal Change
Listen This is the final article in our series for educators who want to advocate for changes in their community, state, and national government in regard to education. This article gives tips on how to affect changes to the law - either by introducing something new or by amending laws...
Approaching the Board
Listen In our last few articles, we’ve discussed the reasons and ways you can (and should) advocate for change within the school system. In this article, we want to specifically talk about working with your district’s school board in creating and advocating change. Let’s begin by talking about who the...
Presenting Ideas for Change Mindfully and Effectively
Listen It is always wise to know your audience, but this rings particularly true when you are addressing an administrator who is in a supervisory role to you. It’s safe to say that every campus has its clicks. Within those groups, there are teachers who have a closer personal relationship...
What Do Schools Need to Do to Prepare for the Fall? Part 2
Listen In our previous article in this series, we addressed the fact that schools need to prepare plans A, B, & C as well as a hybrid of the three and the fact that teachers will need continued support. Consider Accessibility for Both Students and Teachers The last three months...