Turning paraprofessionals, parents, bus drivers and others into full-time educators is gaining momentum as one of the best ways to staff classrooms in an era of worsening teacher shortages.
"Kids are already using it," Superintendent Minerva Garcia-Sanchez says. "To them, it's no big deal. It's us making a big deal of it, and causing it to be more than it really is."
Building the social-emotional competence of prospective educators and their ability to support their students should begin in college coursework. But it requires more than a "one-and-done" approach.
Reinvigorating youth sports may be the answer. It’s the ideal environment for kids to build life skills such as resilience and alleviate feelings of loneliness.
Planning for summer reading right off the bat establishes it as something that happens consistently every year, rather than a one-off project for the coming summer.
In this video Q&A, Wisconsin Superintendent of the Year Mark Hansen covers his priorities: career-based learning, community engagement and early-college.
“The biggest part of this bill will identify the top-performing teachers in the state who are leaders in their school, mentors to their colleagues, and who are in assignments where they do the greatest good for the kids that are in the most need,” said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, R-South Jordan.
Staying connected with networks of other district leaders is key to Superintendent Joseph Macary's leadership philosophy at Vernon Public Schools in Connecticut.
Integrating AI and CS education into K12 curricula with an emphasis on ethics and inclusivity is no small feat, but the potential benefits are enormous.
