If you have ever been to Disney World, you have experienced the pinnacle of customer service. Disney is intentional in its commitment to creating a positive, memorable experience for its guests. Disney has a specific training program for all employees, predicated on creating magic. Disney's core values are clear in the actions of each employee, […]
Allowing students to explore news articles that spark their curiosity can provide a bigger literacy boost than having them read nonfiction texts about random topics far removed from a youngster's interests. At Lancaster Middle School near Buffalo, New York, students read news articles to help write stories for a classroom magazine and to prepare for […]
Educators want more effective ways to implement new teaching methods into lesson plans. The professional development market is advancing, offering flexible and sustainable solutions rather than one-off workshops, lectures and in-service programs. Many companies offer PD tools that show teachers how to embed lessons into learning management systems, so students have universal access to educational […]
Most educators are enrolling in online professional learning courses in part because they want to increase their knowledge, according to a report by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA). The 2016 Vision K-20 Professional Learning (PL) survey sampled 705 education professionals, including teachers, principals, librarians and tech directors from pre-K through grade 12 and […]
Media specialist Samantha Edwards wants noise in her library—and she hears it. Last fall, Edwards, the librarian at Fogelsville Elementary School in Parkland School District in Pennsylvania, opened a modest self-publishing center in the library outfitted with an iMac, a printer and a machine to bind books. She noticed how excited her students were to […]
At Napa Valley USD in northern California, classroom technology integration has been a priority since 1997, when the district opened the country's first New Technology High School. So bringing in digital books in order to provide easily accessible content to the 18,000 students and faculty in 34 schools was a natural—and important—step. "The challenge was […]
Increasing the use of digital library content was one of the goals outlined in the North East Independent School District's (ISD) instructional improvement plan starting in the 2013-14 school year. The San Antonio district, which enrolls 68,000 students, had many eBooks and digital audiobooks, but most students were simply not using the content. "It is […]
American history could be in trouble. Decades of reliance on contentious textbooks and rote memorization have driven students away from the subject, despite its influence on contemporary issues. American history could be in trouble. Decades of reliance on contentious textbooks and rote memorization have driven students away from the subject, despite its influence on contemporary issues. […]
Teaching research skills once meant asking students to turn stacks of library books into essays on the poetry of Emily Dickinson or the causes of the Civil War. But today, it's just as likely to mean asking second-graders to design a museum exhibit on the physics of flight, encouraging a 10th-grader to make the case […]
Transforming school libraries into communal learning "playgrounds" offers students technology support, remote access to research resources and expanded opportunities for creative exploration. Librarians can collaborate with teachers to develop lesson plans that incorporate a multifunctional library's media programs, books and other online resources. For instance, students in a history class at New Canaan High School […]
