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Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

Using online modules to strengthen teacher leadership programs

Teacher leader programs offer opportunities for teachers to assume leader roles and leverage their expertise in teaching without leaving the classroom. Despite some of the potential and promise of teacher leader programs, new programs often struggle with problems that stem from mismanagement that limits their effectiveness.

As teacher leader programs become more prolific across the country, there is a growing need for district- and school-level staff to design policies and practices to select, develop, support, manage, compensate, and retain teacher leaders. While there is a plethora of literature on teacher leadership that addresses these components, the information is not accessible to educators in a manner that allows them to easily and efficiently digest all of the different approaches and lessons learned to adapt to their context.

To make the literature on teacher leadership more accessible and engaging, we chose to develop interactive online modules—Managing Teacher Leadership—that cover nine components critical to managing teacher leadership programs. The modules focus on increasing awareness and understanding of how to design, implement, and evaluate a teacher leader programin a school building or district. …Read More

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Meet the 2022 K-12 Hero Awards winners!

eSchool Media is pleased to announce the three winners of the eSchool News  K-12 Hero Awards: Dr. Ann Hughes, Director of Student Intervention for Sanger ISD in Texas; Kim Leblanc, Chief Technology Officer for Calcasieu Parish School Board in Louisiana; and Daniel Olivas, Network Analyst at Austin Independent School District in Texas.

Winners were chosen for their commitment to education during and in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, their creativity and innovation in helping all students continue learning while ensuring students felt safe, empowered, and engaged.

The K-12 Hero Awards Program, sponsored this year by JAR Systems and SAP Concur, recognizes the dedicated efforts of education professionals across K-12 departments, including IT, curriculum, instruction and administration. …Read More

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Minnesota’s South Washington County Schools Selects the Discovery Education’s Suite of Digital Services to Support Science Instruction in Grades K-8

Charlotte, NC —Minnesota’s South Washington County (SoWashCo) Schools today announced a new partnership with Discovery Education supporting science education in K-8 classrooms across the district. Through this multi-year collaboration, educators and students in the district’s elementary and middle schools will return to the classroom this fall with access to award-winning digital resources supporting science instruction. These new resources will drive the development of students’ critical thinking skills and create opportunities for the study of scientific mysteries and the development of design solutions. Discovery Education is the worldwide edtech leader whose state-of-the-art digital platform supports learning wherever it takes place.

SoWashCo Schools is a suburban district located southeast of St. Paul and serves students across 16 elementary schools, 4 middle schools and three traditional high schools. The district spans 84 square miles and is located near 3M Global Headquarters, a long-time partner of Discovery Education.

Seeking a digital solution that would meet both the district’s goals for K-8 science education and align to the new Minnesota Science and Native American standards, SoWashCo Schools reviewed several viable options. Following careful review, SoWashCo Schools selected the following Discovery Education services for use across its elementary and middle schools:…Read More

How your communication strategies create safe schools

School district leaders have no higher priority than to create secure and informed campus environments. Having a campus-wide communication ecosystem is imperative. 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.

Join an eSchool News panel of experts, including Brent Thrasher, Instructional Technology Coordinator at Overton County Schools and Todd Eddy from Galaxy Next Generation, on October 6 as they discuss how to make better decisions, prevent risk, and strengthen communication between faculty, administration, and first responders during an active threat.

Register now!…Read More

5 school safety questions your district should be prepared to answer

With students and educators reentering their classrooms for the 2022-23 school year, district leaders need to be able to reassure everyone in their school community that school safety is a priority and that they will be safe physically, socially, and emotionally.

Decades’ worth of research have shown that school safety, school climate, and student well-being are all important for academic achievement. The conditions that support them are complex and ever-shifting, which means it’s a constant challenge to create an optimal learning environment. That’s why district leaders should always be ready to explain what their school safety plans are and how their administration arrived at them.

Be prepared to answer these five questions on the topic of school safety from parents, educators, and students as you head back to school:…Read More

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New Report: Equity, Cybersecurity Top List of State Education Technology Priorities

As students return to another school-year impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, a new report sheds light on how state education agencies and policy-makers are adapting to an increasingly digital, post-pandemic world.

The 2022 State EdTech Trends Report, released by the State Educational Technology Directors Association in collaboration with Whiteboard Advisors, draws on the results of SETDA’s flagship annual State EdTech Trends Survey of edtech directors, state superintendents, chiefs of staff, and other senior state officials from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Department of Defense Activity (DoDEA), and the Northern Mariana Islands.

The report supplements the survey findings with interviews of leaders in a number of states to spotlight their efforts to support digital learning. “Our job at the state is to advocate for what districts need and to promote our mentality that we are all in this together to help our students achieve,” stated Rob Dietrich, Senior Director of Teaching and Learning at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.…Read More

4 ways to avoid cybersecurity snake oil

When it comes to cybersecurity, you want to do right by your students, your schools, and your district–but it’s not that simple.

The cybersecurity industry is massive, representing literally thousands of vendors in the United States alone, with the global cybersecurity market staged to grow to over $350B by 2026. The options are extensive and confusing, and sales teams have mastered the art of introducing fear, uncertainty and doubt into the minds of their prospects.

In a perfect world, sales teams that exist to protect organizations would be trustworthy and altruistic, but with that much scrap up for grabs, snake oil salespeople are out in full force trying to get your business. To help you sidestep this minefield, here are four steps to take with your cybersecurity program.…Read More

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Education’s Great Resignation

Just outside of Des Moines, Iowa, an opening for a sixth-grade teaching job sits vacant… with zero applicants.

An hour northwest of Chicago, a shortage of bus drivers, special education teachers, counselors, and paraprofessionals is forcing teachers to reexamine their workload and look outside of the profession.

Public concerns around books, curricula, and learning platforms, combined with debate over masks and vaccines, have compelled college students who intended to major in education to choose a different career path.…Read More

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