Every spring, Graham Local Schools fourth- and fifth-graders hatch and release trout during a unit that covers aquaponics, hydroponics and conservation. Older students raise corn and soybeans on a sustainable farm operated by the rural district in southwest Ohio. Teachers in the Jim Thorpe Area School District in Pennsylvania have incorporated software such as GarageBand […]
Advocates of design thinking in education know what you've heard. "Its hard to look at design thinking and not see it as a buzzword" says Ryan Bretag, director of instructional innovation at Glenbrook High Schools District 225 outside Chicago. "When we narrow down design thinking to just a bunch of steps that you can follow […]
Ware County School District in Georgia has downsized its inventory of assistive technology. Thanks to a slew of technological advances, many of the specialized tools their special education students had used to communicate and learn are now redundant. "We don't need portable keyboards or word processors anymore" says Barbara Sonnier, the district's assistive technology coordinator. […]
This spring, schools have experienced a profound increase in student suicides and attempts, as well as school shootings. Recognize that as bad as things have been this spring, things are likely to be worse next fall. Contention over race, origin, LGBTQ, and sexual assault/harassment will increase, along with contention over gun control in the context […]
You know the names. Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Sandy Hook Elementary School, Columbine High School, Santa Fe High School and many more. These examples of domestic terrorism have heightened our awareness, making us feel vulnerable when entering a school. Students are trained what to do if a shooter opens fire in classrooms, corridors and […]
Looking to illustrate an abstract concept from a novel she'd read, an Oklahoma high school student turned to her building-level school librarian. Then, with the school librarian's encouragement to tinker in the makerspace, the girl sculpted a clay model of a kneeling woman balancing a 3D-printed replica of the earth on her back. "She was […]
NMSI's mantra is that education empowers opportunity. How have you experienced that? During speeches, I say, "As I stand before you, I stand as a physician, as an astronaut and as a businessman. All of that was empowered by education." When I was 13, I saw Neil and Buzz land on the moon. It became […]
Math understanding at the elementary and middle school levels has increased over the last 30 years, but has stagnated in high school. In its 2018 report "Catalyzing Change in High School Mathematics" The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics has issued a call to action to drastically change the way math is taught so that […]
In fall 2017, an elementary school art teacher in Mansfield ISD in Arlington, Texas, introduced herself to her fourth-grade students with a slide show about her life. It included a photo of her partner, who the teacher presented as her future wife. The photo, and a lesson about an artist and his same-sex partner, led […]
