How to Make “a Bad Kid” See Themselves in a New, Positive Light
If a child believes they are bad, they’ll likely act that way because that’s the role they think they’re supposed to play, writes Dr. George Philhower, the superintendent of Eastern Hancock Schools, a rural district located just east of Indianapolis, in eSchool News. Labels can become self-fulfilling prophecies, he writes. A child is labeled “troubled,”…
3 Qualities that Every Great Teacher Shares
“I am a high school AP English Language and Composition teacher and a college professor of English composition,” writes Eduardo Barreto, a high school teacher at Palmer Trinity School and an adjunct professor of English Composition at Miami Dade College, in an Education Week article. “I have the privilege of acknowledging the impact high school…
Nation’s Report Card Shows Growing Gap Between Top Students & Struggling Peers
Results from the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are not encouraging, according to article in The 74. The alarming results are consistent with earlier iterations of NAEP and highlight decade-long trends of both stagnation in overall academic growth and growing disparities between top students and their struggling classmates. The so-called Nation’s Report Card…
How to Help Mentors Work Better with Teachers
Effective mentors can help novice teachers improve student learning in their first year on the job as much as teachers without mentors perform in their third year of teaching, according to an article in Education Week. But many schools and districts design mentoring programs that can undermine these relationships, according to a new report by the nonprofit…
Stressed-Out Teachers Take Note: New Health Warnings Issued about Alcohol Abuse
Countless teachers put their students, and their work, before their own health while facing high levels of stress—a leading risk factor for alcohol abuse, according to an article in Education Week. Educators rank among the top 10 professions most likely to abuse alcohol, according to data collected between 2008 and 2012 by the Substance Abuse…
How to Unlock the Full Potential of AI Tools? Ask the Right Questions.
As ChatGPT, Copilot and similar tools become increasingly embedded in education, knowing what questions to ask is a critical skill, says Nesren El-Baz, an ESL educator with more than 20 years of experience, writing in eSchool News. The effectiveness of AI depends on the quality of the questions asked, he asserts. “Whether a student is…
How Much Autonomy Should Teachers Be Given?
Are the four million women and men in K–12 classrooms in the U.S. professional educators or working teachers? Paul E. Peterson, the Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Government and director of the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard University, takes on that question in an article in Education Next. The Education Futures Council recently…
9 Strategies to Support Student Mental Health
“Any of us in the classroom—or connected to it in some way—clearly see the need to support our students’ mental health,” says Larry Ferlazzo, an English and social studies teacher at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, Calif., writing in Education Week. In the article he elicits strategies from experienced educators. Here are nine strategies…
What Will Shape the K-12 Landscape in 2025?
K-12 Dive points to six trends to watch in 2025: 1) Budgets will be stressed by rising costs and limited funding. The expiration of federal American Rescue Plan funds — the last and largest of federal COVID-19 emergency aid that has helped schools recover from pandemic hardships since 2020 will be one of the biggest…
How to Build Better Teacher Observations
Teacher observations should be a matter of support rather than judgment between teacher and principal, according to many educators writing in Education Week’s Opinion pages. Here’s how to deliver that support through observations: 1) Lead with enthusiasm. More than professional development, more than goal-setting and professional standards, my principal cheered me on with just one…
