Data-driven decisions remained a top priority for this district despite COVID’s obstacles

The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, and that means educators across the globe are still finding inventive and innovative ways to support and teach students in classrooms, during hybrid instruction, and in virtual settings.

The eSchool Media K-12 Hero Awards program, sponsored by Trox, recognizes the determined and dedicated efforts of educators throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Never before have educators been challenged and tested as they were, beginning in March 2020 and up until today, and never before has their resilience been more apparent. Administrators, technology leaders, classroom teachers, and educators in all roles have persevered as they taught each and every one of their students during a global pandemic.…Read More

How one educator made computer science a “must” during COVID

The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, and that means educators across the globe are still finding inventive and innovative ways to support and teach students in classrooms, during hybrid instruction, and in virtual settings.

The eSchool Media K-12 Hero Awards program, sponsored by Trox, recognizes the determined and dedicated efforts of educators throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Never before have educators been challenged and tested as they were, beginning in March 2020 and up until today, and never before has their resilience been more apparent. Administrators, technology leaders, classroom teachers, and educators in all roles have persevered as they taught each and every one of their students during a global pandemic.…Read More

How did this district’s leaders champion literacy during remote learning?

The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, and that means educators across the globe are still finding inventive and innovative ways to support and teach students in classrooms, during hybrid instruction, and in virtual settings.

The eSchool Media K-12 Hero Awards program, sponsored by Trox, recognizes the determined and dedicated efforts of educators throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Never before have educators been challenged and tested as they were, beginning in March 2020 and up until today, and never before has their resilience been more apparent. Administrators, technology leaders, classroom teachers, and educators in all roles have persevered as they taught each and every one of their students during a global pandemic.…Read More

3 questions: Making the 2021-22 school year work for students

Editor’s note: This story originally appeared on the MIT News site.

What’s the best way to get K-12 students across the U.S. to bounce back from the pandemic? MIT’s Justin Reich has an idea: Ask them. Reich, an associate professor in MIT’s program in Comparative Media Studies/Writing and director of the MIT Teaching Systems Lab, has co-authored a new report on the return to the classroom in the 2021-22 school year, based on interviews with over 250 educators and 4,000 students, in addition to 10 charrettes involving students, teachers, parents, and school administrators.

A core finding of the report is that the changes students and teachers would like to make to schools are less about Covid-related issues and more about uncomfortable learning environments, resource deficits, stifling curricula, and overly strict behavioral rules. …Read More

A Texas district manages major modernizations and upgrades–all during COVID

The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, and that means educators across the globe are still finding inventive and innovative ways to support and teach students in classrooms, during hybrid instruction, and in virtual settings.

The eSchool Media K-12 Hero Awards program, sponsored by Trox, recognizes the determined and dedicated efforts of educators throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Never before have educators been challenged and tested as they were, beginning in March 2020 and up until today, and never before has their resilience been more apparent. Administrators, technology leaders, classroom teachers, and educators in all roles have persevered as they taught each and every one of their students during a global pandemic.…Read More

Kajeet Education Solutions Now Available to UScellular Customers

MCLEAN, Va. October 1, 2021–Kajeet®, a leading provider of wireless connectivity, software and hardware solutions that deliver safe and controlled internet access, today announced it has expanded its relationship with UScellular, making it the first carrier enabled to sell Kajeet’s solutions directly. Together, the two organizations are making it easier for K-12 education customers to monitor, secure and control internet connectivity and connected devices using UScellular’s fast, reliable network.

“Teaming with Kajeet builds on our commitment to deliver connectivity services to our education customers and offer additional capabilities that empower them to take greater control of their data” Tweet this

Through this new agreement, K-12 administrators can now purchase Kajeet Sentinel® and Kajeet SmartSpot® directly from UScellular, with all data and service fees consolidated into a single statement.…Read More

Learn how this state school admin prioritized mental health and physical safety for all students

The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, and that means educators across the globe are still finding inventive and innovative ways to support and teach students in classrooms, during hybrid instruction, and in virtual settings.

The eSchool Media K-12 Hero Awards program, sponsored by Trox, recognizes the determined and dedicated efforts of educators throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Never before have educators been challenged and tested as they were, beginning in March 2020 and up until today, and never before has their resilience been more apparent. Administrators, technology leaders, classroom teachers, and educators in all roles have persevered as they taught each and every one of their students during a global pandemic.…Read More

Aperture Education Hires Stacey Preator as its New Vice President of Customer Experience

Charlotte N.C. (Sept. 30, 2021) — Aperture Education, the leading provider of researched-backed social and emotional learning (SEL) assessments for K-12 schools, has hired Stacey Preator as its new Vice President of Customer Experience – a new position created by the company to provide additional support to its customer success team, professional learning team, and strategic accounts team. In her position Preator will focus on leading projects to improve the customer experience and create better customer implementations for the schools, districts, and out-of-school time organizations using Aperture’s products.

“SEL has always been a passion of mine and I’m excited to be able to support the teams at Aperture Education as they lead this important work,” said Preator. “At the end of the day, we must make sure we are having a positive impact on students. To do that we need to ensure that the administrators, teachers, and staff members using our products are confident they are implementing our assessments and strategies with fidelity. Improving the customer experience is vital to making sure we are meeting that end goal of helping students grow and succeed.”

Preator, who lives in Utah, has more than 12 years of experience in the educational software industry, including leading teams and spearheading initiatives to improve customer satisfaction and success. Most recently she served as Vice President of Customer Experience Operations at Imagine Learning where she directed an initiative to revamp the customer onboarding experience for more than 20,000 schools, restructured multiple departments, and improved the customer onboarding satisfaction rate by 60 percent during the back-to-school season. Preator also served as Director of Success Operations and Live Teaching for the company, directing teaching teams and working with the product team to improve students and teachers’ experience with the company’s products.…Read More

Discovery Education Collaborates with AWS to Enhance Recommendation Engine

SILVER SPRING, MD (Monday, September 29, 2021) — Discovery Education—a worldwide edtech leader supporting learning wherever it takes place—today announced that it has enhanced its K-12 learning platform with Amazon Web Services (AWS) machine learning capabilities. The pioneering use of machine learning within the Discovery Education platform helps educators spend less time searching for digital resources and more time teaching. 

Connecting educators to a vast collection of high-quality, standards-aligned content, ready-to-use digital lessons, intuitive quiz and activity creation tools, and professional learning resources, Discovery Education’s award-winning learning platform facilitates engaging, daily instruction in any learning environment. Several months of planning and deep collaboration with AWS enabled Discovery Education to innovatively integrate Amazon Personalize technology into the “Just For You” area of its K-12 platform.  The “Just For You” row connects educators to a unique, personalized set of resources based on the grade level taught, preferences, and assets used in the past. 

As the ability to deliver more sophisticated digital experiences has evolved over time, so has the expectation and demand from teachers seeking a more personalized user experience similar to that which they receive through interactions with brands in the retail, media, and entertainment spaces. Today’s tech-savvy teachers expect real-time, curated experiences across the digital resources they use daily, and the integration of the Amazon Personalize technology into Discovery Education’s digital resources for the first time delivers that experience to users in the K-12 education space. …Read More

Back to school but not back to normal

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In Getting There: Innovation in Education, Editor at Large Kevin Hogan sits down with K-12 educators, thought leaders, and innovators to highlight the latest in an ever-changing school year.

This latest episode, Back to School, but Not Back to Normal, includes:

…Read More

This S.C. district leader made student safety and mental health a top focus during COVID

The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, and that means educators across the globe are still finding inventive and innovative ways to support and teach students in classrooms, during hybrid instruction, and in virtual settings.

The eSchool Media K-12 Hero Awards program, sponsored by Trox, recognizes the determined and dedicated efforts of educators throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Never before have educators been challenged and tested as they were, beginning in March 2020 and up until today, and never before has their resilience been more apparent. Administrators, technology leaders, classroom teachers, and educators in all roles have persevered as they taught each and every one of their students during a global pandemic.…Read More

New ParentSquare Community Groups Feature Helps Districts and Schools Extend Reach to Community Members

SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. SEPT. 24, 2021—Community engagement is an important part of K-12 education. To make it quick and easy for districts and schools to reach all interested community members, ParentSquare Inc., provider of the premier unified school-home engagement platform for K-12, today announces a new Community Groups feature.

Community Groups allows interested community members to sign up for various communications offered by districts and schools. Community Groups web pages can be enabled at the district or school level, or both. With this feature, family and community members who are not parents, guardians, students, or staff can sign up for communications in as many categories offered by the school or district as they desire. In addition to making it easier to communicate with a wider audience, this new feature reduces the need for schools or districts to subscribe to a separate mass email distribution service, saving staff time and money by having all contacts and communications in one place with ParentSquare.

With Community Groups, districts and schools can extend their reach to generate greater awareness and involvement. Community members can now keep up with activities and announcements based on their interests, such as fundraisers, afterschool programs, sporting or alumni events. When combined with ParentSquare’s existing social media and website sharing capabilities, community contact is multiplied.…Read More