eSchool News | educators page 89

5 ways teachers can improve student learning based on current brain research

The brain is an experience-dependent organ. From our very earliest days, the brain begins to map itself to our world as we experience it through our senses. The mapping is vague and fuzzy at first, like a blurred photograph or an un-tuned piano. However, the more we interact with the world, the more well-defined our brain maps become until they are fine-tuned and differentiated. But each person’s map will vary, with some sensory experiences more distinct than others depending on the unique experiences and the clarity and frequency of the sensations he or she has experienced.

Educators can positively influence students’ learning by understanding how the brain is shaped by their early experiences—and how it can be rewired and reorganized to work more quickly and efficiently.

The Plastic Brain and the Critical Period…Read More

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These schools are leveraging E-Rate for a complete digital transformation

Textbooks and blackboards have become a thing of the past in K-12 schools as educators collaborate with IT teams to shape a full digital core curriculum as part of their educational strategy for 2017 and beyond. In a 2016 survey conducted by the Consortium for School Networking (COSN), 90 percent of IT administrators at K-12 schools expect that curricula will be at least 50 percent digital over the next three years.

As the world undergoes a digital transformation—with connectivity and access to computers and mobile devices playing an increasingly prominent role in everyone’s lives—elementary schools know they need to incorporate technology in the educational process to prepare their students for future success. To support these initiatives, the Federal Communications Commission’s E-rate program has recently been expanded to provide schools nationwide with subsidies for high-speed broadband and gigabit wireless networks.

According to the “2016 Digital Curriculum Strategy Survey Report” sponsored by Ruckus Wireless, hardware and network spend is estimated at $16.2 billion in 2017. Whereas currently 78 percent of students have device and network access for almost a full day, the expectation for this year is that schools will have close to one-to-one access, or one device per student.…Read More

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SmartMusic Teacher Appreciation Sweepstakes

The SmartMusic Teacher Appreciation Sweepstakes will award three prizes to educators, and one grand prize winner will receive a free trip to attend the NAfME National In-service Conference in Grapevine, Texas on November 12-15, 2017.

REcharge Academy Educator Scholarships

The REcharge Academy is a week-long educator training workshop about renewable energy. The intensive training blends lectures from experts and tours of energy facilities with replicable hands-on K-12 lessons to give educators content as well as context. A REcharge Academy combines materials from REcharge Labs, WindWise Curricula, KidWind, and Vernier, as well as other materials we find applicable and useful in the classroom. After successfully completing an Academy, all attendees become REcharge Instructors, and are certified to teach REcharge programming in their own areas.
Note: Scholarship deadline has been extended.

Colocation America STEM Youth Program Grants

Colocation America proudly supports the development and integration of STEM learning opportunities for youth in the communities we serve. One of the ways we support these activities is by funding innovative Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) youth programs. Youth organizations and K-12 educators with STEM programming may apply and be awarded upwards of $7,500 for their new or reoccurring program.

Breaking: Microsoft just made its biggest education investment in history

Beginning this Saturday, May 6, Microsoft Store locations across the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, and Australia will host STEM Saturdays throughout May in all full-line locations in addition to the range of free programs year-round that empower students and educators. STEM Saturdays brings pop-up classrooms to Microsoft Store and offers hands-on experiences like building a sensor that measures the flexion and extension of a finger to learn about the anatomy of a human hand.

Microsoft also introduced new offerings for education, representing its biggest investment ever in education, designed to empower the students of today to create the world of tomorrow.

New offerings include:…Read More

How an edtech innovation is giving performance assessments new life

Across the country, educators and policy makers are searching for ways to develop and implement innovative assessment programs to address accountability requirements and to reform instruction. As both local and state educators consider new assessment models, they find themselves coming up against many issues of time. It’s widely agreed that there’s too much time spent on testing and test prep, and there’s too little time to teach and take on additional responsibilities to transform instruction. Educators often feel that innovation represents an additional burden on their time rather than a benefit.

Since the last big push to reform instruction and assessment nearly a quarter century ago, we’ve developed new psychometric techniques as well as new technologies to assist us in our attempts to innovate.

Internet access, electronic collection of student work, and online distributed scoring, for example, can all play significant roles in making performance assessments more manageable and efficient.…Read More

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This is what Gen Z-designed curriculum looks like for the future

[Editor’s Note: This story is Part 3 of our month-long series on “What it means to teach Gen Z.” Click here to read Part 1 on Gen Z and parents, and click here to read Part 2 on Gen Z and librarians. Check back every Monday in April to read the next installment!]

The generation in school now is the first generation raised entirely in the Age of Technology. They are digital natives, many of them using computers, smartphones, and other digital tools nearly from birth. As technology continues to grow and expand, so too will the ways we use it. This growth and expansion will impact the types of jobs that will be available in the next 10–20 years. So how do we as educators prepare Gen Z for jobs that may not even exist yet?

Go Cross-Curricular…Read More

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Pitsco $350 Educator Grants

Pitsco Education appreciates everything educators do to positively affect learners. We also know that funding enriching learning opportunities for students can be difficult. Pitsco is proud to offer a $350 grant each month to assist with making hands-on learning possible. Nominations are accepted from the first day to the last day of each month (for example, the February grant application period is January 1-31).

Carton2Garden Grant

Show us your students’ creativity by re-purposing milk and juice cartons from your school cafeteria to either build or enhance your school garden. Educators can engage students in a hands-on experience creating teachable moments on environmental stewardship, sustainable packaging and healthy living. The best use of cartons in a school garden gives your school the chance to win one of 14 prizes with a grand prize valued at $5,000.