Sat.Jul 16, 2022 - Fri.Jul 22, 2022

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Leading When You Don't Have the Answers

A Principal's Reflections

There is no shortage of advice on how to lead effectively. The simple fact, though, is that the process is rarely easy. Decisions must always be made, and sometimes delegation and consensus—both powerful elements in building a positive culture—are not suitable courses of action. The bottom line is that the buck stops with the one who has the title or is in a position of authority, whether we like it or not.

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The Pandemic Put Student Poverty in Plain Sight

ED Surge

“He called me a ‘b h’ and then kicked my door in when I tried to shut it.” I’m sitting at my desk listening to Kris, one of my eighth-grade students, during our lunch. I have room-temperature leftovers and day-old coffee. She hasn’t brought anything because she doesn’t have anything. She depends on the food pantry at school. I let her eat some of mine.

Library 138
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OPINION: Let’s start thinking about climate change as a modern educational problem — and solve it

The Hechinger Report

We face a problem with the problem of climate change. We can’t seem to decide what kind of problem it is. Technological? Economic? Geopolitical? This indecision allows us to imagine that the solution rests with someone else — scientists or economists or politicians. Further, such diffuse ownership of the problem results in newer crises easily taking precedence.

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Educators Need Each Other to Thrive: Why Educator Networks Matter

Digital Promise

“Changes come from the power of many, but only when the many come together to form that which is invincible… the power of one.” – Bryce Courtenay, The Power of One. Educators are a resourceful bunch. Despite the evergreen challenges to the teaching profession—most recently exacerbated by a global pandemic and the trauma and tragedy of another mass school shooting—educators still show up and find ways to engage, meet the needs of their students, and provide powerful learning experiences tha

Education 129
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What are you hiring for?

Dangerously Irrelevant

I completed a reference check for one of my former students today. They were applying for a teaching job. These are the check boxes that I had to complete: Clearly this school district is NOT hiring for innovation…. What are you hiring for? What messages are you sending your applicants? Related Posts. My thoughts on a proposed social media policy for school employees (Part 2).

Teaching 116
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How Do You Grade a Creative Assignment?

ED Surge

Dear Bonni, I'll be teaching a course on the history of Ireland later this year. I've been having trouble coming up with a good project for the students to work on. I want it to be something useful, interesting, and (perhaps most importantly) memorable, but I'm not sure what it should be. Seeing as how art has been such a big part of Irish history and culture, I was thinking about something artistic in some way, but how on earth do I grade something creative?

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OPINION: We need reading instruction that starts later and continues far, far longer

The Hechinger Report

There’s no shortage of “solutions” to mend the cracks in our broken education system. Pay disinterested kids to learn. Pay exceptional teachers to stay. Incorporate more technology. Incorporateless technology. Change educator prep programs. Change district administration. We’ve tried so hard but still fail too many of our students. As educators, we dig deep and find optimism.

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Creating & Maintaining Community with Teams During Tough Times

Education Elements

March 2nd is a day that will never be forgotten in Putnam County, TN. Our small community woke up to the sirens of an EF4 tornado that rocked our community and two weeks later our school system closed when the COVID pandemic hit home all across the state of Tennessee.

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How to Help Teachers Tell Their Stories — And Why It Matters

ED Surge

When teachers tell their authentic stories it can lead to powerful insights and spark discussions about how to solve the many problems facing school communities. That’s the premise of the Voices of Change Writing Fellowship, which EdSurge kicked off last year. We brought together a group of diverse educator writers from across the country—representing a wide range of identities, experiences, backgrounds and perspectives—to share their experiences navigating the school year.

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A ‘summer camp’ for teachers fills a gap in environmental education

The Hechinger Report

Editor’s note: This story led off this week’s Future of Learning newsletter, which is delivered free to subscribers’ inboxes every other Wednesday with trends and top stories about education innovation. Subscribe today! In early June, a group of Louisiana educators spent a week in floating cabins on the west bank of the Mississippi River in the sweltering heat.

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On Living Deliberately

Facing Today

In the 200+ pieces I have written during my time at Facing History, I have written only one other essay in the first person. I am writing just one more to announce that I will be leaving my role at the organization at the end of July and that this will be my last essay as a primary author of content on this platform. As I have approached this transition, I have been sitting with the many lessons I have learned during my 3.5 years at the organization, both through my engagement with Facing Histor

History 52
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Civics U: Progress

Civics U

“Progress” is commonly taken to mean improvement and forward movement toward a desired goal; it is thus seen as and assumed to be a good thing. THE DRIVE FOR PROGRESS In American history early colonists’ and settlers’ desire and drive for progress was necessitated by the need to organize ways to survive, and fed by the opportunity to use the new territory that they took and occupied.

Civics 52
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Congress Bailed Out the Airline Industry. Why Won’t It Do the Same for Child Care?

ED Surge

Air travel has now surpassed its pre-pandemic level. Resorts and hotels are overflowing with guests again. Indeed, many parts of our economy are not only returning to normal, they’re overwhelmed with success. Except the part of the economy I’m invested in: early childhood education. Eight years ago I started a child care program in Freeport, New York.

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PROOF POINTS: Pace of learning back to normal during the 2021-22 pandemic school year but student achievement lags far behind, data shows

The Hechinger Report

What do we know about how kids are catching up at school as the pandemic drags on? The good news, according to the latest achievement data, is that learning resumed at a more typical pace during the 2021-22 school year that just ended. Despite the Delta and Omicron waves that sent many students and teachers into quarantine and disrupted school, children’s math and reading abilities generally improved as much as they had in years before the pandemic.

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7 Summer Listens for Teachers

Facing Today

While summer is an important time for many teachers to take a break from the rigors of the school year, the summer often introduces its own unique demands, responsibilities, and opportunities. This month, we are sharing seven audiobooks that educators can listen to while attending to other things outside of the classroom. These audiobook titles have been released in the last year and bring important themes related to education and the unique experiences of teachers to the fore.

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Summer Learning Programs Struggle — and Devise Solutions — as Staff Shortages Persist

ED Surge

It’s summer time, and the learning is not easy. That’s in large part because the widespread staffing shortages that plagued the 2021-22 school year have stretched into summer programming, which, in many cases, relies on licensed school teachers to sign up to continue working with students. But teachers are exhausted. They may want— even need —the extra income from summer jobs, but many are also desperate for a break after the last two-and-a-half years and trying to prioritize their mental health

K-12 107
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Why Ending Gender Segregation at Work Requires Affordable Child Care

ED Surge

A participant in the Women in Construction program. Photo courtesy of Moore Community House. When Hurricane Katrina swept through the Gulf Coast in 2005, the storm decimated entire communities in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. Demolishing the wreckage and rebuilding infrastructure required significant labor. To a nonprofit based in East Biloxi, an area of Mississippi with high rates of poverty, that sounded like an opportunity to help women find work.

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Announcing Our New EdSurge Voices of Change Writing Fellows

ED Surge

EdSurge is excited to introduce the 2022-2023 EdSurge Voices of Change writing fellows, all educators who were selected through a competitive application process and, over the next year, will write first-person essays about how their needs have changed, how their students’ needs have changed and how their school community has supported student and teacher well-being as challenges in education persist.

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OPINION: After two decades of studying voucher programs, I’m now firmly opposed to them

The Hechinger Report

In recent years, nearly half of all states have created publicly funded private K-12 tuition plans, collectively known as school vouchers. This summer, advocates of these plans are pushing to expand their reach, boosted by the Supreme Court’s ruling in Carson v. Makin that states permitting vouchers may not exclude religious schools. Arizona just expanded its already large voucher program; in Michigan, former U.S.