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.

Big Deals—Khan Academy Boosts National Civics Bee, AI Tackles Campus Safety, and Stanford Offers Online Math

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation this month announced the launch of the 2024 National Civics Bee. The competition is expanding to 27 states for the 2023-2024 school year, tripling its reach from nine states last year. Students may apply for the competition here. The deadline to enter is January 8, 2024.

The National Civics Bee is a nationwide competition that encourages young Americans to engage in civics and contribute to their communities. Middle school students in grades 6-8 flex their civics knowledge for a chance to win recognition and cash prizes. Chambers of commerce across 27 states will host in-person contests in their communities this school year. Top performing students will advance through local and state rounds, culminating in a national competition held in Washington D.C.

This remarkable expansion reflects the deepening civics education crisis in America and has been made possible by significant multi-year grants from supporters like the Daniels Fund. Recent studies have shown alarming gaps in Americans’ understanding of our democratic processes and systems. More than one third of U.S. adults cannot name the three branches of government. The National Civics Bee taps into business leaders’ deep commitment to strengthening civics education and the long-term health of our democracy.…Read More

The pandemic is over–but American schools still aren’t the same

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters.

On a recent Friday at Gary Comer Middle School in Chicago, you had to squint to see signs of the pandemic that upended American education just a few years ago.

Only a handful of students wore face masks, and even then, some put them on to cover up pimples, staff said. The hand sanitizer stations outside every classroom mostly went unused, and some were empty. Students stopped to hug in the hallway and ate lunch side by side in the cafeteria. …Read More

Unlocking middle school potential: Exploring career education and soft skills 

This episode of Innovations in Education, hosted by Kevin Hogan, is sponsored by McGraw Hill.

In this special edition of Innovations in Education, Content Director Kevin Hogan speaks with McGraw Hill’s Patrick Keeney about various aspects of career and technical education (CTE), including its expansion beyond traditional vocational or trade-focused subjects, the importance of soft skills, and the curriculum and teaching methods used in CTE courses for middle school students.

Patrick emphasizes the value of helping students explore different career paths and develop essential skills early in their education. The conversation also highlights the evolving nature of CTE in middle schools and its potential to provide students with a more comprehensive and purposeful educational experience.…Read More

Like it or not, ChatGPT is our new learning partner

Key points:

You may have heard of ChatGPT. According to Google, about 350,000 articles have been written on the subject, and a significant percentage are related to education. With so much publicity, it is reasonable to assume that all students from middle school through post-secondary are aware of its power. Whether you like it or not, we have a new partner in the classroom.

Many primers on ChatGPT are available, but I want to focus on teachers’ and students’ concerns about using it in the classroom. Some schools (such as the entire NYC public school district) have attempted to ban it entirely, while others such as Yale have taken the opposite approach. In my opinion, attempting to ban anything in the world of ubiquitous cell phones is a waste of time and effort. Students are ingenious, especially when it comes to getting around the rules. From a search of articles, both scholarly and in mainstream media, the approach I am suggesting has not yet been proposed. I came upon it while thinking about the eternal pedagogical problem: how to grade group projects.…Read More

Aperture Education Launches Two New Solutions to Cultivate Students’ Social and Emotional Competence 

Charlotte N.C. – Aperture Education, the leading provider of research-based social and emotional learning assessments for K-12 schools, has added two new solutions to its product suite. Aperture’s student-facing portal offers a new DESSA Middle School Student Self-Report to capture student voice regarding their social and emotional skills and deliver gamified activities to build student’s competence, guiding them through self-paced key growth areas designed specifically for grades 6-8. Also debuting is the SEL Strategies and Interventions Package, which supports busy teachers with recommendations for universal and targeted instructional practices that are directly aligned with students’ DESSA assessment results. 

These new offerings further Aperture’s commitment to build resilient school communities using a proactive, strength-based approach that fosters positive student and educator mindsets in order to accelerate learning.

“As schools continue to grapple with the disruptions to learning caused by the pandemic, investing in social and emotional learning is critical if we want to help students build a strong foundation for success in the classroom and beyond,” said Evelyn Johnson, vice president, Research and Development at Aperture Education. “With our research-based foundation and accurate and actionable data, Aperture empowers both students and teachers with the appropriate steps for nurturing social and emotional competencies. Our new offerings – Middle School Student Self-Report and SEL Strategies and Interventions Package – are important components for changing the trajectory of learning with a focus on students’ strengths, while driving positive classroom environments and optimal learning outcomes.” …Read More

Advocating for student mental health starts here

Key points:

  • It is imperative for school leaders to understand the dire need for student mental health support
  • Partnering with a care coordination service can help bridge mental health support gaps
  • See related article: Why student and teacher wellness comes first

For the last 17 years, I have devoted my career to advocating for comprehensive school counseling programs. This is my passion and the focus of my efforts every day. But I did not choose this career path because I had an amazing school counselor in middle school. In fact, it’s the opposite. I did not have access to a school counselor at all. I was in the academic middle and did not need school counseling. Right? WRONG! I was desperate for guidance about my future and was overlooked due to the high student to counselor ratio.  

I do not want what happened to me to happen to other students. School counselors play a vital role in a school’s ecosystem–and it is absolutely paramount to ensure every student has access to the support they need–especially today. …Read More

4 ways to use ChatGPT in your STEM classroom

Key points:

  • ChatGPT isn’t a tool to be feared–it can contribute greatly to STEM learning
  • AI tools aren’t going away, and harnessing their capabilities is important

“If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow.” – John Dewey

Back in 2007 when I was teaching Algebra I at the local middle school, the biggest question for mathematics teachers on our campus was whether students could use their calculators while doing classwork and on standardized tests.  A few years later, the discussion changed to an argument about the pros and cons of using a Desmos calculator on their classroom iPads.  Using Desmos was seen as being particularly egregious, as educators feared that students may have access to the internet and may surf the web while they should be learning or during summative assessments.  …Read More

5 ways to help educators experience more joy

I was recently working with middle school educators and asked them about the biggest challenges they are facing. Without skipping a beat, they said dealing with discipline issues, students who at times just don’t seem to care, and their own lack of motivation.

This made me think about the struggles of maintaining a positive school culture, how students often do not get what they need, and how exhausted these educators must be. Whether we are talking about life in general or education specifically, it’s very difficult to adjust, see different perspectives, and find joy when you are in the thick of it.

But, it’s not impossible.…Read More

Carousel Cloud Scales with Indianapolis School District for K-12 Communications

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA – The Metropolitan School District (MSD) of Washington Township in Indianapolis is midway through a district-wide Carousel Cloud digital signage network deployment that will eventually reach more than 11,500 students and staff in eight elementary schools, three middle schools and one high school plus a career and technical center. The district reports 70 screens are live today with Carousel digital signage content coming from multiple contributors per school, with approximately 150 screens expected upon completion.

The Carousel Cloud deployment coincides with a district-wide remodeling project that includes the school district’s Central Campus, home to North Central High School, Northview Middle School and the J Everett Light Career Center. The district has adopted a “one school at a time” rollout strategy that helps its technology specialists effectively train staff before using the system. 

“We wanted to implement a digital signage network that invites many contributors, and that means the system has to be easy to learn and easy to use,” said Matthew Whitt, Audio Video Specialist – Technology, MSD of Washington Township. “We also wanted software that could be flexible for the needs of different education levels. With Carousel, each grade has a unique channel with its own voice.”…Read More