Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.
Even if the old spoon under the pillow trick hasn’t worked for the students in your district yet, it doesn’t mean it won’t be your turn next!
No matter how well prepared you are, weather cancellations can be cause for confusion. It’s worth taking a few extra precautions so your families know exactly what the story is.
Here are a few simple tips districts can follow to make sure weather communication messages are reaching home without causing confusion:…Read More
Engineering is a critical part of STEM education, and engineers play a role in creating, improving, and maintaining some of today’s most valued and essential things, from smartphones and airplanes to zippers and roller coasters.
This year, Engineers Week celebrates “Creating the Future,” and it emphasizes the vital role engineers play in creating innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems and biggest challenges. Highlighting engineering also encourages students to pursue engineering classes and, potentially, engineering career paths.
When students become interested in STEM at a young age, their critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and communication skills have a chance to thrive. Sustaining that interest is important, too, particularly because girls and underrepresented minority groups quickly lose interest in STEM learning–and never regain motivation to pursue it.…Read More
MADISON, WIS. (PRWEB) — Singlewire Software, the leader in solutions that help keep people safe and informed, announces its acquisition of Visitor Aware, a robust tool for visitor and student management. The acquisition enables Singlewire to expand its suite of safety and communication offerings with visitor and student management capabilities that add to the emergency notification and incident management offerings of its InformaCast software.
“It’s becoming more evident that school safety starts at the front door, so when our school customers started asking us for help with visitor check-in and student management, we went looking for a partner that could offer a solution that would exceed their expectations,” said Paul Shain, president and CEO of Singlewire Software. “Visitor Aware develops state-of-the-art safety solutions that help organizations keep their building secure and their people protected, which pairs perfectly with our mission of keeping people safe and informed, everywhere. Every time.”
Visitor Aware provides schools and other organizations the tools to screen visitors so they can identify threats before unwanted guests gain access to sensitive areas. Visitors have their IDs scanned when they enter a building. That information is used in conjunction with encrypted facial recognition to screen visitors against national sex offender and government watchlists and active legal injunctions. Potential issues are flagged to prevent guests from further entering a building, and approved guests are given a printed pass so they can proceed. Visitor Aware also offers tools for volunteer management, tardiness tracking, secure student release and pick-up, rostering and reunification, and setting up a tip line for potential threats.…Read More
In this episode of Innovations in Education, hosted by Kevin Hogan:
Increasingly, district leaders are incorporating video into school-home communication. Many districts that tried video options out of necessity during the pandemic are seeing the benefits that video can provide for parent engagement and are expanding video options even as schools are back to in-person instruction.
Districts are finding that using video can improve school-home communication by making the process of engagement easier for parents. Video options can help with:
Here are five tips for school leaders who want to incorporate video into their school-home communication strategies.…Read More
School counselors and social workers, teachers, and administrators have always been integral to a parent’s support network. This is particularly true for children who struggle in class and have trouble accessing their curriculum. Collaborative communication between a school and parents is critical for ensuring positive student outcomes.
Although clearly an issue before the pandemic, the pandemic has increased our collective awareness of children’s mental health issues and schools’ role in addressing those challenges. At the height of the pandemic, we were aware of the toll that the effects of the pandemic were taking on the nation’s school children, but we were functioning in a survival mode. As we emerge from this survival mode, it is clear that our school-age children are in crisis.
According to an October 30, 2022, Wall Street Journal article, “A mental-health crisis among children and teens that had been brewing for years worsened as routines were disrupted in the pandemic and many kids faced isolation and loss.”…Read More
Learning is social. Remote teaching must have a virtual classroom platform that enables engaging content, student participation and collaboration, professional development, and parent communication to empower student success.
MELBOURNE – Vivi, the leading classroom communication and collaboration platform built exclusively for education, today announced an exciting new and unique partnership with Headspace, a global leader in mindfulness and meditation, with a goal of improving social-emotional health for all students. The partnership will give all Vivi users access to easy and effective mindfulness and meditation practices created by Headspace, designed for use in K-12 classrooms.
“We are excited to give teachers and students easy access to resources needed to build mindfulness skills, to help them focus, recharge, and get the most out of every lesson,” says Simon Holland, co-founder of Vivi.io and a key driver of the partnership. “By delivering access to mindfulness and meditation practices designed specifically for K-12, we hope we can play a role in reducing stress and anxiety in the classroom and further improving emotional health and wellness for all students and teachers.”
A study has shown 30 days of Headspace resulted in 32% decrease in stress, eight weeks of Headspace resulted in a 19% decrease in anxiety symptoms and Headspace has improved focus by 14%. Until now, it has been challenging for teachers to gather insights on students’ social and emotional needs and support them in the moment. By pairing Vivi’s emoji-based polling ability with Headspace’s mindfulness practices, teachers can administer a quick, confidential, whole-class check-in to get a temperature read on how students are feeling about the day or lesson, and then offer targeted support to those students in need.…Read More
Technology’s role has been elevated to an integral strategic function in today’s school districts. But getting everyone to understand the value of digital transformation can be challenging and test the persuasion and people skills of even the most seasoned IT leaders.
Here are some strategies IT teams can use to help build a supportive culture for ongoing technology investments.
Set Up Direct Lines of Communication…Read More
Having a campus-wide communication ecosystem is imperative, and school district leaders have no higher priority than to create secure and informed campus environments.
Being able to initiate a controlled emergency notification protocol to alert, notify and monitor directly from a mobile device, classroom audio system, or interactive flat panel is essential.
An eSchool News panel of experts, including Brent Thrasher, Instructional Technology Coordinator at Overton County Schools and Todd Eddy from Galaxy Next Generation, offers insights into how to make better decisions, prevent risk, and strengthen communication between faculty, administration, and first responders during an active threat.…Read More