Joseph V. Erardi Jr. served as superintendent of Newtown Public Schools in Connecticut from 2014 until his retirement in August. During his tenure, the district implemented NaviGate Prepared as a component of a broad safety and security initiative undertaken in the aftermath of the 2012 tragedy there. Talk about preparation versus prevention when it comes […]
Whether and how religion should be taught in public schools is one of those perennial hot buttons in America that seems to defy consensus. So when the National Council for the Social Studies this past June released new guidelines for teaching religion in schools, it raised questions. The council's goal, however, was not to simply […]
Public educators find themselves in something of a Catch-22 situation these days. When we celebrate the great things that are going on in our schools, we are told that we are simply slaves to the status quo who don't recognize the struggles that our system is facing. When we articulate the challenges that our schools […]
Disruptive Classroom Technologies: A Framework for Innovation in Education Sage Publications Ltd. Schools continuously fund technology for classrooms but not always with a clear plan. This book lays out a framework for the T3 system, which categorizes technology as "translational" to help educators perform tasks more efficiently, "transformational" as a way of reinventing old tasks […]
Districts have several options when introducing a badging program. For students, the process tends to be more intricate because these badges, often awarded for soft skills and career-preparation activities, contain metadata that details what students did to earn the badges. Such higher-tech "open badges" can be shared on social media and live on an online […]
The economy is rapidly feeling the impact of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, which allows computers to make decisions, recognize speech and perform other traditionally "human" tasks. Nearly half of all jobs in the U.S. in the next 10 to 20 years will be related to AI, according to a 2016 Obama administration report, […]
Fast disappearing from schools are internet "lock and block" policies that keep students off social media and restrict them to carefully curated websites. Even with sophisticated filters and firewalls, today's learners carry all the access in the world in their back pockets. "We're past trying to stay ahead of the digital native" says Morgen Larsen, […]
Five years ago, Windsor Locks Public Schools in northern Connecticut was designated an Alliance District, meaning it was one of the 30 lowest-performing academic districts in the state and needed help. The good news was that the designation came with funding to improve instruction, inspiring district leadership to go in a new direction—doing away with […]
One of the worst "professional learning" experiences from my teaching days involved a clown nose. The entire teaching staff—700 of us—were gathered in the town's civic auditorium to hear a speaker. Talk about "sit and get." At a pivotal moment, the speaker had us reach under our seats and pull out the envelopes that had […]
David Krulwich, principal of the Urban Assembly School for Applied Math and Science, says new teachers are too often left to fend for themselves, without the benefit of an artisan-apprentice relationship. Teaching is a craft and, as with any craft, neophytes should ideally work alongside the experts and artisans to soak up knowledge and experience along […]
