When Upton High School in Wyoming switched from a traditional to a self-paced education model last year, Weston County School District Superintendent Summer Stephens' 15-year-old daughter reacted the way many students did. "'I don't know how to make choices,' she kept saying" Stephens recalls. "But now a year later, she has organized her classes and […]
The life of a military family comes with a powerful sense of patriotism and pride, but also definite, daily challenges. Personnel are typically transferred every two to three years, which means their children may attend as many as nine schools during their lives.
Building principals, assistant principals and other school administrators engage frequently with students in conversations to address inappropriate behavior. The goal of these interactions is not only to provide consequences, but also to help students to avoid the initiation of similar infractions in the future. School administrators are in an ideal position—when setting consequences—to help students […]
The suicide rate among 10- to 14-year-olds is on the rise. While the statistics are dire, a solution seems to be taking shape. Prevention may be in the hands of the students themselves. Dan Cohen, a University of Missouri doctoral candidate specializing in suicide prevention, cites a 2015 study titled "Saving and Empowering Young Lives […]
Education faces no shortage of important challenges in the quest to improve our nation's schools. Whether it's the debate over testing, racial issues, learning standards or shrinking funding, 2017 promises to be a year of change—for better or worse. We asked education thought leaders and experts to identify a single issue in K12 education where […]
Marc Prensky, an authority on the connection between learning and technology, coined the phrase "digital native" in 2001. In his new book, Education To Better Their World: Unleashing the Power of 21st-Century Kids (2016, Teachers College Press), Prensky says our current education system is wrong for the future—not because we haven't added technology and so-called […]
These days, McKenna Smith is back in the classroom. She's a high school student in Missouri's Nixa Public Schools, but had been unable to attend classes since elementary school because of chemotherapy treatment. But Smith didn't miss as much interaction with teachers and classmates as she could have because she connected with them remotely—via robot. […]
Like many teachers, I've been grateful throughout my life for the professionals I've called upon for vital services and expert guidance. Similarly, students and parents rely on me every day. Yet many teachers find themselves isolated in classrooms without the right training or support. Others receive only one or two afternoons of PD per year. […]
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 […]
Kelley Castlin-Gacutan was unanimously chosen superintendent of Alabama’s Birmingham City Schools in May. Birmingham City is the fourth-largest district in the state, with more than 30,000 students. Castlin-Gacutan is a native of the area, and was the interim superintendent for Bibb County Schools in Georgia. She has worked as a teacher, principal and administrator. She […]
