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 […]
North Hills School District in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, wanted to better engage students in grades 6-12 across its English Language Arts curriculum through a commitment to education technology. With the move toward more rigorous digital learning, North Hills piloted StudySync, McGraw-Hill Education’s digital English Language Arts curriculum for grades 6-12, during the 2015-16 school year […]
In rural eastern Kentucky, teacher Jill Armstrong connects her high school students not just with towering historical figures, but also with real-live teens from schools on the other side of the world. Armstrong, who teaches 12th-grade world history at Greenup County High School in the Greenup County School District, partnered with the City School in […]
The issue of fake news drew national attention during the 2016 presidential campaign, when fabricated stories were widely accepted as genuine. According to recent research, the problem extends to K12 classrooms, where students have trouble judging the credibility of online information. A national assessment of 203 middle school students by Stanford History Education Group at […]
Andrew Smith, chief strategy officer in North Carolina’s Rowan-Salisbury School System, is leading a digital-first initiative that three years ago aimed to give an iPad or a MacBook Air to all students—and their teachers—from grades 3 through 12. Rowan-Salisbury became 1-to-1 by the 2014-15 school year. Three years into a digital-first initiative, Andrew Smith, chief strategy […]
The ever-increasing pace and variety of technological developments continues to be a challenge for K12 assistive technology products. As education content becomes available in more digital forms—videos, software programs and apps—adapting platforms for student use is critical to help those with special needs access information as easily as do their classmates. In addition, with more […]
Making Teachers Better, Not Bitter: Balancing Evaluation, Supervision, and Reflection for Professional Growth ASCD Tony Frontier, an educational consultant and educator, and Paul Mielke, a public school superintendent, use their personal experiences to address the importance of encouraging and supporting PD when assessing teacher competence. The authors provide nearly three dozen step-by-step protocols (and actual […]
Classroom environments must keep pace with technology, including 1-to-1 devices, digital curriculum and personalized learning tools, as well as students’ varied learning styles. Student desks and classroom furniture need to promote better metabolic health, greater student engagement and natural collaboration. To achieve the vision of an optimally productive classroom, furniture that has been designed to […]
When Christopher Marczak joined Maury County Public Schools in Tennessee as superintendent in fall 2015, he quickly realized that while every school in his district of 12,000 students was doing the best job possible, each had a vastly different approach to teaching literacy. “There were no systemic solutions” says Marczak. “Yet I wanted to get […]
Many students at Oxnard Elementary School District in Southern California have a dual challenge in gaining reading proficiency. Not only do they struggle with developing literacy skills, but over 56 percent of Oxnard’s 17,000 pre-k through 8 students are learning English as a second language. To help these students overcome their literacy deficiency, in 2014 […]
