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Find the Ones Who Haven’t Given Up by: Laura McDonell
Listen One of my favorite movie scenes is the final scene in the movie Tomorrowland. The movie stars scientist Frank Walker, played by George Clooney, who at the end instructs Casey Newton (Britt Robertson), as well as several other kids in Tomorrowland, to go out and find the people who...
Dealing with New Technology by Hollie Hamaker
Listen For many teachers, virtual teaching is a four-letter word. The idea of having to use technology to teach can fill some with dread. Some teachers have even quit or retired, so they do not have to deal with technology's ever-changing world. It seems that virtual teaching might not...
Reformation: Content Delivery
Listen Lecture is incredibly difficult to get away from, isn’t it? Even in the earlier grades, it’s often difficult to let go and let discover rather than presenting all the information known to mankind in the areas in which we are certified experts. Science tells us that lecture is ineffective...
Tips for Virtual Teaching for Lower Elementary
Listen Introduction Teaching elementary students online is a difficult prospect, but a necessary one given the circumstances of the world today. There are naysayers who will say that teaching online at this age is impossible, that the difficulties and barriers make virtual teaching ineffective.This is not true, but it is...
Reformation: Defining Your Purpose
Listen Have you ever asked a student, “Why are you here?” when they seem to be floundering in school? We want them to find a reason for attending school that is their own, something that will drive them forward when they are worn out or have lost their will to...
Reformation: Technology
Listen Perhaps the first and most obvious way schools are changing right now is in the area of technology. We are using it in ways we definitely never could have predicted!And that is very frustrating for so many teachers and students. However, when the pandemic dies down and we find...
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...
Multicultural Fun for the Early Elementary Classroom
Listen It’s never been more apparent that we need to be both accepting and welcoming to students from all cultures and backgrounds than it is now in our society. Children need to see themselves reflected in the things we do - in our literature, in our lessons, in the ways...
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...
Your Most Marketable Skills, Part 2
Listen Leadership and Management, Data, Technology, and Social Skills Educators are being released from districts around the U.S. due to financial difficulties. Some teachers are having to find more conducive work environments due to districts either doing virtual, in-class learning, or some combination that just doesn’t work for them. Others...
Non-Education Careers That Fit Well with Education Experience
Listen Whether you’ve been ousted from your position as the result of downsizing, you’re choosing a different path because of issues with the setup of the next school year, or you’re just looking for a way to add income to your salary each month, there are many non-education jobs that...
Building an International Community of Educators
Listen While teachers are usually great about sharing lesson plans, borrowing decorating ideas, and team planning, many schools attempt to recreate systems in-house rather than seeing what other districts have done in the region, throughout the country or even across the world. With the world at our fingertips and education...
How Administrators Can Help Prepare Teachers for Blended Learning, Pt. 2
Listen Remember, one positive that can come out of this bleak and trying time is a fundamental shift in the structure of formal education across the board. Now is the time to move forward into what we all know is the right way to teach. Here are a few more...
Elementary Remote Blended Learning
Listen This is the third article in this series, so if you haven’t read the other two about what blended learning is and what it looks like in the classroom, you may want to scan that before continuing. Blended learning in the classroom and blended learning remotely can look very...
5 Pro Tips for Working From Home
Listen Many teachers have suddenly found themselves teaching from the most unexpected place: home. Although you may have lots of new colleagues (your family members and pets), access to a refrigerator and pantry, and plenty of comfortable places to work from, the challenge to adjust to working in that environment...
Remote Learning Idea #1: Novel Studies for Secondary Students
Listen For most of us, the notion of remote learning is a totally foreign experience, but many of the things we have been doing in class can be translated to fit into this new platform. The reality is that not all parents are properly equipped to teach heavy content, and...
8 Tips for Teaching Classes Online
Listen UPDATE 2: 3/14/2020, 5:30 P.M. The free version of Zoom is back up and in order. UPDATE: (3/13/2020, 12:31 P.M.) We recommended Zoom below as a free service, but in the past 12 hours, we’ve become aware that their free services are temporarily suspended because they are overwhelmed...
What Do We Do About Cell Phones in School?
Listen Contrary to what some may say, never before in the history of the world has the human population been more literate. People of all cultural, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds are reading and writing more than ever before. This reading and writing may not look like what literacy has...
Teaching Low-Achieving Elementary Students in the General Education Environment
Listen Read In 1975, the first version of what we now know as the IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) was passed. Amendments passed in 1990, 1997, and finally in 2004 to create what we now know as the document that ensures children with disabilities receive a “free and appropriate...
2019 Changes In Education
Listen Education is an ever-evolving industry. Changing families, changes in society, and even our political climate have the potential to impact what is happening in and around the classroom. Industry insiders predict that there will be several significant changes to education in the coming year....from school lunches to the way...
Don't Forget About Vocational and Trade Schools
Listen Traditional academic education is presumed to be elementary, high school and college with post graduate for professional careers in medicine and law. For many years the most overlooked educational curricula was viewed as "an option" for hands on careers in HVAC, plumbing, electrical, cosmetology, hair styling and culinary arts....
Most Valuable Professional Development For Teachers
Listen Participating in professional development is of incredible importance for teachers. The field of education sees advancements and changes on a regular basis, and teachers want to know how to best serve their students. The type of professional development to pursue can certainly depend upon many factors, such as the...
Teaching Children in a Google and Wikipedia World
Today's world is a much different place than it was just a few short decades ago. The way that children learn has shifted completely, leaving some teachers scrambling. This is particularly true for veteran teachers, those that have been working with children for many years. They may look at their...
The Effect Of YouTube Kids on Education
There is no denying that we are living in a digital age, and that applies to adults as well as kids. Students are increasingly exposed to digital technology as part of every facet of their lives, which means that educators must decide whether to embrace or shy away from that...
Up and Coming Classroom Tech
As this decade draws to a close, we are seeing more classrooms have access to technology. More teachers now utilize technology as a part of their classroom routine. Thus, there has been a bit of settling in. The following are the most noteworthy trends in technology in the classroom for...
How Chromebooks Have Changed The Classrooms
Intro – 2012 to 2019 - According to the Associated Press, in five years, Google Chromebooks have gone from being 9 percent of the mobile devices present in classrooms in the U.S. to having over a 49 percent mobile device market share in the classrooms in the U.S. How did that happen?...
Is Being a Teacher Harder Now Than 20 Years Ago?
Teaching is a really tough profession that requires an educator to invest an incredible commitment of time and energy to their work throughout the school year. Teachers often go home with piles of papers to grade and are often required to do lesson planning in their own time. They often...
Challenges Students Don't Face Any Longer in 2019
Long gone are the days where students had to write notes on small chalkboards, walk over miles to their school, and have only one school to choose from in order to receive their education. With the rampant increase in technology, the landscape of the classroom has changed dramatically. While some...
5 Ideas To Help the United States Education System
Idea#1: Schools of the United States Must Focus on Accountability The accountability of the schools of America depends on whether the students are held to high standards. Accountability may not be popular, but it will eliminate the achievement gap between underperforming schools and those that are performing well. Unfortunately, all too often...
Time to Play Games: Using Games to Encourage Learning in the Classroom
Imagine this: a student who's usually on his best behavior is caught playing a game on his cell phone during a lesson. Annoyed by the rule infraction, the fact that it came during a lesson, and the distraction it created amongst other students, the educator politely and firmly tells the...