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.

Aperture Education Partners with Move This World to Provide Additional Social-Emotional Learning Strategies

Social-emotional learning (SEL) companies Aperture Education and Move This World have partnered to provide Aperture’s customers with additional resources to support the development of students’ social-emotional skills. Aperture customers can now access a sampling of short videos created by Move This World that help develop and strengthen students’ social-emotional skills such as self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision making. The videos will be added to the hundreds of social and emotional learning Growth Strategies Aperture already offers through its DESSA Comprehensive SEL System.

“Move This World’s resources to help students identify, manage, and express their emotions completely align with our work so a partnership made perfect sense,” said Jessica Adamson, CEO of Aperture Education. “We’re now able to offer additional strategies to our customers and get Move This World’s amazing videos in front of even more teachers and students.”

Aperture Education’s DESSA Comprehensive SEL System provides assessments to measure the social-emotional competence of students in grades K-12. Its Growth Strategies are research-informed social emotional learning interventions, lesson plans and activities created for teachers, by teachers for grades K-8. Once they administer the DESSA, teachers, counselors, and out-of-school-time providers can use the applicable strategies to help bolster SEL skills of students in areas in which they need additional support. The strategies can be administered at school or at home.…Read More

10 distance learning writing lessons

Editor’s note: A version of this article originally appeared on The Character Tree’s blog.

When we were just a couple weeks into distance learning, I started to really miss writing workshop time. Over the years, I’ve come to cherish this part of the school day and I know my little writers feel it’s a special time too! I became determined to find a way to bring the feel of writing workshop into the homes of my kindergartners.

As a result, I have been creating and recording writing lesson videos for my students. I have been assigning 2-3 videos a week for my students and since I have been doing this, I’ve received such positive feedback from my students and families about writing time being their favorite part of the at-home school day!…Read More

Education will play a bigger part of TikTok

Bryan Thoensen, who oversees content partnerships at TikTok, said that during the coronavirus pandemic TikTok is seeing people not only spending more time watching videos but also experimenting with the creation of different types of content, including in sports, gaming, cooking, fashion, and beauty. TikTok users are already doing more than just dancing and lip-syncing on the video app.

“It’s not just music. It’s, you know, all these different formats, from cooking to Q&A…” Thoensen said.

Read more at cnet.com…Read More

Free online resources to help address “summer slide”

Miacademy.co, the online homeschooling website, is proud to collaborate with ASU in offering fun, free online resources to help address “summer slide,” the loss of academic mastery during weeks away from the classroom. Many educators expect this to be profound this year, on top of the missed weeks this spring due to the pandemic, which creates their own loss of academic proficiency.

As part of ASU’s commitment to supporting parents by providing free educational resources, ASU created https://asuforyou.asu.edu/miacademy where parents can find hundreds of original teaching videos covering every K-8 grade level across every core subject.

Each of these educational videos forms part of a learning module on Miacademy.co, where student members can practice what they’ve learned, use online simulations, complete graded assessments, and work through related offline activities independently or together with family members. As an ASU For You learning partner, Miacademy is offering these videos, aligned to Arizona learning standards, free to Arizona families and all online learners. “I’m proud that Miacademy was chosen as a partner by one of the most prestigious online education providers in the U.S.,” says Dr. Johannes Ziegler, CEO of Miacademy. (Learn about Johannes and the founding of Miacademy here: https://parents.miacademy.co/help/about)…Read More

Stream 75+ character and fitness videos

To support school administrators, teachers, and school families nationwide, Booster is making their fitness and character resources available to ALL families through the end of the school year. They welcome you to share this link and access code for your friends, family
and colleagues to utilize these resources with their children.

View more at www.boosterthoncharacter.com
Access Code: ONLINE

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Helping educators digitize their curriculum

Over the past few weeks, hundreds of thousands of educators have turned to Screencastify to digitize their curriculum and communication in preparation for (or in response to) school closures. In response, we have created a number of free e-learning resources to help both new and experienced Screencastify users get more comfortable using video for this purpose.

To make the transition to distance learning a little easier, we are granting all impacted educators free access to our suite of products through at least April 30. This includes:

  • Recorder. Unlimited access, no restrictions.
  • Video Editor. Full access. Edit, merge, and polish all videos, not just Screencastify recordings.
  • Submit (phased release). We have accelerated the development and launch of Submit, a new product specifically designed for distance learning. With Submit, teachers can easily collect recordings from their students, no extension required.

We will be monitoring the situation closely, and will extend access beyond April 30 if necessary.…Read More

Dictionary.com Launches Learning At Home Center: Free Educational Resources for Kids and Parents

 

Dictionary.com announced today it has launched the Dictionary.com Learning At Home Center, offering free, educator-reviewed materials and resources for kids from pre-K through 12th grade and their parents. With virtual learning a reality for many families for the rest of the school year, the Learning at Home Center is an educational and fun supplement that features daily activities, printable worksheets, test prep quizzes, videos, and book vocabulary lists.

Written by the Dictionary.com editors with the help of educators from around the U.S., the learning center offers activities that kids can do on their own and tips for parents to help their kids, as well as family-centered projects to help bring parents and kids together in the evening. Educators spanning all grade levels review the site’s daily activities and are able to contribute their own activities and vocabulary lists.…Read More

National Dropout Prevention Center Offers Resources

School closures are traumatizing students, families, and educators, presenting a new dropout risk factor and requiring schools to develop immediate virtual solutions. The National Dropout Prevention Center (NDPC) has produced topical videos and virtual professional development to support schools and educators during current uncertain times.

As an overview of the current school situation and its long-term effects, NDPC offers three videos suitable for viewing and subsequent online discussions for faculty. The Trauma of Pandemic School Disruption, hosted by John Gailer, developer of the Trauma-Skilled Schools Model, explores the far-reaching implications of trauma related to school disruption for students, staff, families, and the community at large. View video on YouTube. A second video, School Disruption as a Dropout Risk Factor, hosted by Dr. Sandy Addis, Director of National Dropout Prevention Center, discusses the short- and long-term effects of school disruption on the nation’s dropout rates. View video on YouTube. A third video, Virtual Learning in a Time of School Disruption, hosted by Ray McNulty, President of Successful Practices Network and National Dropout Prevention Center, explores the advantages of capitalizing on virtual learning. View video on YouTube. As a supplement, each host is available for online discussions regarding his topic and for follow up interviews.

Additional offerings from NDPC include on-line courses that can deliver high-impact virtual professional development to educators who must work remotely during extended school shut down periods. Courses include five online courses in the Trauma-Skilled Schools Model, one course for each step of the model. Each of the three-hour interactive virtual courses addresses a component of chronic stress and trauma. Together, the five courses prepare an educator to implement trauma-skilled measures and to support other educators in their work with trauma-impacted students.…Read More

Online summit for all special education stakeholders

The 2020 Special Kids International Summit, presented by Kidskintha in partnership with UNESCO’s New Delhi Office and MindRocket Media Group, is a free online conference set to take place April 7-11. Session videos will also be archived for later viewing. The event is for all education stakeholders, including teachers, administrators, counselors, and special educators. Presenters include 30+ experts from the fields of neurology, psychology, teaching, entrepreneurship, and medicine, who will cover topics such as understanding ADHD and autism, supporting emotional regulation, advocating for the rights of your learners and much more. Register for free at https://www.kidskintha.com/kidskintha-spins-2020

 

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4 common barriers to accessible content for all students

This summer, many faculty will work on developing or revising curricular content for their courses. One of the keys in developing new digital materials is verifying that those materials offer accessible content for all students.

Today, most learning management systems (LMS) and software programs offer some level of accessibility compliance checking. However, they are not always thorough or error-free.

Related Content: 5 steps to ensure accessibility…Read More