6 female tech leaders offer advice for women in STEM

It’s common knowledge that engaging–and retaining–girls and women in STEM classes, STEM degrees, and STEM careers is an ongoing challenge.

Some key elements in this equation are representation, along with ensuring girls and women have role models to support them in their STEM learning and career paths.

The pandemic has prompted many workers to change their career paths, and many STEM sectors like cybersecurity struggle with talent shortages. Women only account for 28 percent of the STEM workforce today.…Read More

Commemorate the 20th Anniversary of 9/11 with a New Virtual Field Trip hosted by NBC’s Jenna Bush Hager from 9/11 Day and Discovery Education

Silver Spring, Md. (Thursday, September 2, 2021) – To honor the 20th anniversary of 9/11, Discovery Education and the 9/11 Day nonprofit invite students to join the engaging new 20th Anniversary of 9/11: Paying Tribute Through Good Deeds virtual field trip (VFT). Premiering September 7th at 1 PM ET, the 20th Anniversary of 9/11: Paying Tribute Through Good Deeds VFT shows students how good deeds can honor the past and build a brighter tomorrow. Discovery Education is the worldwide edtech leader whose state-of-the-art digital platform supports learning wherever it takes place.

Developed for students born after September 11, 2001, this experience highlights ways people in the United States came together during and after the terrorist attacks. During this event, students will meet Jenna Bush Hager, co-host of NBC’s Today with Hoda & Jenna, in a town-hall-style session at the 9/11 Tribute Museum. Students will hear from their peers about the power of good deeds, as well as from other leaders. These leaders include Jay Winuk, a 9/11 family member of a first responder and co-founder of the September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance (“9/11 Day”); Terri Tobin, the Chief of Interagency Operations for the New York City Police Department, who was injured in the line of duty on 9/11 and is also a 9/11 family member; and Hillary O’Neill, a college student who was born on September 11, 2001.

To learn more about this powerful event and to register, visit the 20th Anniversary of 9/11: Paying Tribute Through Good Deeds homepage here.…Read More

Illinois’ Decatur Public Schools Selects 7 Mindsets for District-wide Implementation

ROSWELL, Ga. – Sept. 1, 2021 – Decatur Public Schools in Decatur, Ill., has selected 7 Mindsets, the leader in online social emotional learning (SEL) solutions, to support the emotional wellbeing of its students and teachers. Starting with the 2021-22 academic year, the 7 Mindsets curriculum will be used throughout the district’s 11 elementary schools, middle school, and two high schools.

The district made its decision after a two-year pilot of three programs. 7 Mindsets was initially implemented in a select number of Decatur’s elementary schools for that pilot project. Users provided feedback on their experience to a student services panel, and administrators conducted a districtwide survey. “From those two, it was decided overwhelmingly that 7 Mindsets would be the program for the district,” said Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning, Jeff Dase.

According to Dase, even teachers who had not used 7 Mindsets in their schools voted for the program. “I guess they were hearing about it from their colleagues,” he said. “So, the majority selected to either stay with 7 Mindsets or move to 7 Mindsets.”…Read More

3 reasons to use spaced repetition

When we learn in classrooms, there is a built in sequence of events that helps us go from initially learning a topic to full mastery. Our mastery of each topic is reinforced multiple times: after learning about the topic, we do homework involving it, take a quiz the next day, then prepare for said topic to appear in the final exam.

After all of these check-ins, we should have effectively retained all the concepts we’ve learned.

What is spaced repetition?…Read More

Catapult Learning Introduces New High-Dosage Tutoring Program To Reinforce Foundational Math And Literacy Skills For K-12 Students

August 23, 2021, PHILADELPHIA – Catapult Learning, a provider of intervention programs for students and professional development solutions for teachers in both public and nonpublic K-12 schools, today announced the availability of its new high-dosage tutoring offering, an intensive program designed to reinforce students’ foundational skills and quickly recover their unfinished learning. Debuting as students return to school, the program supports academic and social emotional growth during this critical time in their educational journey. It is uniquely designed for grades K-12 and features an acceleration approach that targets key prerequisite and grade-level standards and skills, providing a personalized plan to guide instruction and support differentiation.

With more than 5,000 educators, Catapult’s proprietary high-dosage tutoring program is designed to scale individualized learning. Led by expertly trained tutors, the program begins with an academic diagnostic assessment to pinpoint areas in which support is needed. From there, an individualized plan is created to set learning goals, followed by flexible instruction up to five times a week, with 45+ minute sessions in small group settings. Students are re-assessed throughout the program to monitor progress and growth, allowing for ongoing plan recalibration and goal resetting.

“Our high-dosage tutoring solution is an evolution in Catapult’s mission to help our partners positively impact every child with whom they engage,” said Devon Wible, vice president of academics, Catapult Learning. “This comprehensive and integrated approach for families and schools focuses on the whole student, optimizing academic and social-emotional outcomes to accelerate learning and enable significant achievement over a single school year.”…Read More

3 steps to creating classroom equity

Writing about equity is always a bit awkward for me. I am extremely white, extremely male, solidly middle class, and I have not had the same experience with some of these issues that other people have. It makes for a gigantic elephant in the classroom, so to speak. Yet, student equity is still something I care very much about, and I believe that many other educators feel the same way.     

Regardless of who you are and what your life experiences have been like, the issue of equity is a critical one to help all students grow and thrive. To better promote equity for our students, we need to understand who they are: how they see themselves, how they see the world, and how the world sees them. This is not simple and involves listening to our students and how they frame their own stories.

Small, bold steps…Read More

3 critical attributes for any edtech ecosystem—and where to find them

This year’s return to in-person education feels different.  Yes, the enthusiasm is palpable, as it is at the beginning of every school year.  But I also believe COVID-19 has changed teaching and learning in ways we may not yet fully comprehend. 

In the Lake Washington School District, where I serve as a Digital Application Instructional Alignment Specialist, 30,000 students continued learning during the global pandemic through the remote learning experiences created by my talented colleagues.

These learning experiences were delivered by educators using a variety of digital tools chosen by our school district.  Together, they formed a powerful ecosystem through which Lake Washington’s students could feed their natural curiosity as they continued their academic development. …Read More

Engaging New Virtual Field Trips from Discovery Education and Partners Welcome Students and Teachers Back to School

Silver Spring, Md. (Thursday, August 26, 2021) — To welcome K-12 students and teachers back to school, Discovery Education—the worldwide edtech leader whose state-of-the-art K-12 digital platform supports learning wherever it takes place—and leading corporate and community partners proudly introduce four new engaging, no-cost virtual field trips (VFTs). Debuting this September, these unique VFTs connect classroom learning to the people, places, and ideas shaping the world we live in.

Discovery Education offers educators, students, and families hundreds of no-cost, on-demand VFTs that empower educators to provide all students with access to remarkable learning experiences without ever leaving their desks. Adding to the robust collection, the following virtual experiences—developed in conjunction with Discovery Education’s social impact partners—will be available this September:

20th Anniversary of 9/11: Paying Tribute Through Good Deeds Virtual Field Trip with 9/11 Day
Premiere: September 7th at 1 PM ET…Read More

8 fun digital learning tools for the new school year

This fall’s back-to-school season brings with it a variety of emotions–excitement, relief, anticipation, and hesitation prompted by concerns around COVID-19’s Delta variant. And because schools may move to hybrid or virtual learning despite starting in person, digital learning tools that work in the physical or virtual classroom can prove invaluable.

Recent research from Texthelp shows that teachers believe students were significantly less engaged this past school year, but that digital tools were a bright spot in their classrooms. In fact, 90 percent of teachers say they plan to use edtech tools this upcoming school year.

Through using these tools, teachers say they experienced increased efficiency across the board and that students now have the accessible and engaging tools they need.…Read More

Here’s why digital math tools are a must-have

Over the last 20 years, I have worked with education technology in many different ways. As a teacher, I saw how much time it took to search for and learn about new classroom tech. When I transitioned to a district employee, technology continued to be a part of my job in a different way. During this time, I worked on a program that put a laptop into the hands of every student. And now, I’m helping to develop technology for other teachers.

Regardless of where I was at in my career, one thing has always stayed the same. I’ve always found that technology can be an incredible aid in both teaching and learning.

Getting the right tools in students’ hands…Read More

Whatever it takes: How one underserved district continues to make it through the pandemic

Listening to Alena Zachery-Ross, Superintendent of Ypsilanti Community Schools in Michigan, managing her district through this pandemic almost sounds like a positive story.

In this conversation with eSchool News, Alena recalls her strategies for success. From a new appreciation for student voice to closer interactions with the wider community, her ideas will help any district not only survive, but thrive, in these times.

The following has been edited for clarity.…Read More

How Minecraft leads to engaging play and strong learning

Of all the tools available to educators today, Minecraft is fast becoming one of the most useful. It may seem strange that we say that about a video game, but it is the case. Put aside the popularity of Minecraft, which has sold over 200 million copies, and you find a game that is immensely engaging with today’s youth.

That singular nugget, engagement with youth, has allowed it to become a tool that helps educators teach students things like leadership, organization, physics, agriculture, and more.

One of the reasons why Minecraft and its various versions work so well as educational tools is because it isn’t an artificial game-based education tool. Too often students recognize when game-based educational tools just have a veneer of games layered over the top of educational tools. They see through this right away and therefore don’t become as engaged.…Read More