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.

Listen EVERYWHERE Helps Student Fully Participate in Musical Theater

BLUFFDALE, UTAH – Listen Technologies Corporation, a leading provider of wireless listening solutions for 24 years, is proud to report that Listen EVERYWHERE has helped a high school student with hearing loss participate more fully in his school’s musical theater production of Anastasia.  

Fremont High School (Plain City, Utah) Senior Hayden Reeve has a cochlear implant and utilizes an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter, but that was not enough to help him keep track of lines, songs, and other stage cues. For previous productions at other schools, Reeve would resign to signing just one musical piece because it was too difficult to keep up with everything happening on and off the stage. 

Paco Aguilar, a manufacturer’s representative and former Broadway sound engineer who consulted with Reeve’s teachers at Fremont High School, suggested the Listen EVERYWHERE assistive listening system to assist Reeve in participating more fully in productions. Listen EVERYWHERE streams live or recorded venue audio over Wi-Fi to smartphones.  …Read More

Risk assessments are awful, but necessary

Between 2021 and 2022, 56 percent of K-12 education organizations were hit by ransomware, a nearly 25 percent increase from the previous year. That’s a staggering number, and a clear indication that threats against schools are only getting worse.

While risk assessments are one of the best things a K-12 school can do to understand their cybersecurity vulnerabilities in order to be strategic about how to protect against them, this critical tool is often avoided. After all, they can be absolutely awful to perform, taking up valuable time, involving confusing jargon and often not even seeming to solve any problems.

If this sounds familiar, there’s some good news. Yes, risk assessments are far from sunshine and roses. But you can get through them with less friction and pain, and ultimately improve your security posture, if you adhere to the following guidelines.…Read More

The ups and downs of girls in STEM

Are girls really underrepresented in STEM?

Yes. 

In the US, the workforce is pretty evenly split between men and women, but in STEM fields men make up 73 percent of the workforce to women’s 27 percent. Why?

It’s easy to want to find a well-meaning solution for this disparity, or even to brush it off as unimportant. But achieving a gender parity in STEM fields (particularly computer science, engineering, and programmers, among others) isn’t just a feel-good social justice crusade. The number of open tech jobs far outpaces the population of traditionally qualified candidates—data projections have pointed to a global shortage of 85 million tech workers by 2030.

It’s not a matter of encouraging girls to pursue STEM programs just for the heck of it, to prove they can and earn a good paycheck—it’s a matter of graduating enough highly-skilled workers to meet economic demand.

Still, the imbalanced statistics for the genders in STEM are damning. What can K-12 schools do to play their part in preparing the next generation for a talent-hungry workforce?

Let students lead…Read More

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Cook Center for Human Connection Offers up to $100,000 in Matching Grants for School Calm Rooms

Salt Lake City — The Cook Center for Human Connection, a nonprofit dedicated to mental health and suicide prevention, launched today at the Mental Health Summit, co-hosted with the America Association of School Administrators, the Calm Room Grant to enable schools to create an in-school safe space for students to reset when they feel anxious, stressed, overwhelmed, angry, or frustrated.

The Cook Center is offering a nationwide matching grant of up to $5,000 per school for up to 20 schools to create a Calm Room in their building. A calm room is a supportive therapeutic environment for students to go where they can focus on self-calming efforts and learn to self-regulate their bodies and their emotions. An important component of an overall mental health approach, calm rooms feature quiet spaces with low-stimulation decor and fixtures, soft furniture and carpet, and other materials that reduce stress and foster positive coping techniques.

“More and more schools are developing calm rooms as part of a strategy to improve student well-being based on new psychological research,” said Cook Center CEO Anne Brown. “We are thrilled to offer the grant program to expand these efforts to more schools across the country and help them address student mental health, which has become one of the most critical issues of our time.”…Read More

Waterbury Public Schools Partners with BloomBoard to Address Teacher Retention Crisis

WATERBURY CONN. & PITTSBURGH (PRWEB) — Waterbury Public Schools and  BloomBoard today announce a partnership to create  Waterbury U. This innovative initiative addresses the current teacher retention crisis while supporting the unique needs of all students. Waterbury U offers educators on-the-job professional learning opportunities to prepare, promote and advance them in their professional journey. The program allows educators to earn graduate credit, which can lead to a full master’s degree and salary advancement. In addition, Waterbury Public Schools will cover all costs associated with participation for up to 800 staff members.

“This partnership gives our hard-working educators a voice and a choice in their learning,” stated Dr. Verna Ruffin, Superintendent of Waterbury Public Schools. “I see BloomBoard as a partner in helping us grow our own talent, including the number of paraprofessionals who aspire to become teachers or aspire to be better paraprofessionals. An effective and happy teacher is paramount to ensuring student success. Therefore, supporting teachers with Waterbury U is the key to supporting the unique needs of all students.”

A recent  CT Insider article reported anywhere from 1,200 to 1,600 current open teaching positions throughout Connecticut. Therefore, this program aims to provide a special incentive that encourages current education staff to stay within the district while encouraging new teachers and staff to join the school community.…Read More

Building a Successful Certification Program at Your Institution

In a world where competition for jobs, pay increases, and academic success continues to increase, certifications offer hope because they are a credible, third-party assessment of one’s skill and knowledge for a given subject. According to a study conducted across the state of Florida, those who earn certifications while in school are more likely to have a higher GPA, are more likely to graduate, are more likely to enroll in a post-secondary program, and are less likely to drop out. Furthermore, once the candidate is in the workforce, certification improves a candidate’s marketability and earning power, with some professionals making up to 7% more than their non-certified colleagues.

Building a certification program from the ground up often involves significant legwork from educators and administrators. Get advice below on the best ways to build a successful certification program at your school.

Research Funding Options

One of the common issues faced by many educators is a lack of funding. Asking for additional budget to grow or increase resources in your classroom can be a frustrating process.…Read More