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How schools are going solar
Bambi Majumdar EducationThe Solar Schools 2025 initiative seeks to target 50 schools each year to go solar. The initiative, launched by the nonprofit Renewable Nation, encourages K-12 schools to increase photovoltaic panel usage. Many schools and districts are willing but administrators are unsure about the process, time frame and costs involved. Nine out of 10 schools in the U.S. that are solar-ready have not yet gone solar yet. Therefore, there is immense potential to be harnessed. Studies show that if 450 U.S. school districts install solar, they could each save more than $1 million over 30 years.
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Don’t swim alone
Debra Josephson Abrams Education"Don't swim alone. Use the buddy system so someone always knows where you are and can get help if needed," warns a standard water safety tip. Educators need buddies, too, because it is dangerous to swim alone in the often deep and treacherous waters of teaching. As we saw previously, mentoring has its specific place in addressing the needs of teachers who are young and new to the profession. There are other approaches to help educators, regardless of their age or their experience, one of which is a buddy system. Unlike mentoring programs, which situate an experienced professional in a hierarchical position above the new and inexperienced teacher, the buddy system relies on buddies as equal partners though with roles different from one another.
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6 ways to end music class
Aileen Miracle EducationPondering the best way to end music class? In today's post, I'll write with my favorite ways to end music class before another class walks through the door! For example, a simple but fun way to say goodbye to your students is to sing goodbye to them. If your first-graders are working on sol-mi, you could sing "Goodbye first grade," on sol-mi-sol-mi, and they could sing back "Goodbye Mr./Mrs. ________." Then, you could sing "Have a good day," and they could echo that. You could even sing to individual students and have them sing solos back at you.
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Maintaining student progress
Douglas Magrath EducationAs I wrote in October 2017, "The concern among those serving international students is shifting from recruiting to retention. Student retention is especially critical at the college level, because there are many programs from which students can choose." To be ready for college, students need to have a variety of skills, behaviors and other characteristics. ESL students in particular face a variety of obstacles. Teachers and administrators need to monitor students and give them encouragement to keep them on track. Recent arrivals to the U.S. go through several stages of culture shock.
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Teachers in America: A present-day overview
Bambi Majumdar EducationUSA Today's story on days in the life of 15 teachers has ignited serious debate. But it's not about teacher shortage or hardships, because we know these problems exist. It’s about a profession in crisis and whether we can do anything to save them. Each story is harrowing. There is no escape from the gloom and hardships our public school teachers face today. In a new development, the nation is talking about their pressures and frustrations.
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Umbrella skills for expressive language
Sheilamary Koch EducationCan you say "Kwuggerbug?" Not knowing how to rhyme and change first sounds of words would put Dr. Seuss readers at a loss. Fortunately — thanks to their phonology skills — successful readers possess the ability to break an unfamiliar (or in this case a nonexistent) word into parts and to rhyme an unfamiliar syllable with a familiar one to sound out words they’ve never seen previously. Phonology, a set of expressive skills needed for learning to read, is the final umbrella skill belonging to the framework we have followed for this series on expressive language from an SLP perspective.
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Helping your school go green
Brian Stack EducationLast month for an Education Week blog, Fulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching Program participant Michael Cruse, a special educator from Arlington, Virginia, talked about his travels to Israel to study different models for green schools. Cruse's biggest takeaway from his Middle East experience that he would apply to American schools was this, "Since coming back to work at my school and reflecting on how my experiences in Israel translate into my teaching, I realized that the best lessons about sustainability are actually about people. That can be in their classroom, on the playground, at home, or in the community."
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Is our focus on academic language promoting a colonial mindset?
Erick Herrmann EducationTeachers actively work to dismantle the disadvantages our students face, especially in our service to students of color, English learners, students who live in poverty, and other marginalized groups. In the case of this article, and English learners in particular, we should address if our focus on academic language is instilling an attitude in our students of the superiority of the dominant language and culture at the expense of their home languages and cultures. Given this, is our focus on academic language promoting a colonial mindset? The short answer to this provocative question is, hopefully not. But it may depend on the way you focus on language and culture in your classroom, and the purpose of learning academic language.
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My life vs. the workforce
Amy Temple Education"What is it like living with learning disabilities?" some of you might be asking. Do I wish I were any different? Do I complain about why I have these difficulties learning? In all honesty, no... I don't. I fully accept my learning disabilities. I always have. Besides... what could I do about it anyway? The thing that I have personally experienced and seen is the — dare I say — ignorance from others about learning disabilities.
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Using points to reward your music classes
Aileen Miracle EducationSince I started teaching, I've rewarded individual students for exemplary behavior by choosing star students, or one or two children at the end of the class who have showcased exemplary behavior. It wasn't until a few years ago that I began rewarding whole-class behavior. I read "Classroom Management for Art, Music, and PE Teachers" by Michael Linsin, which is a great read for any special areas team. In the book, the author outlined a four-point system for rewarding whole-class behavior.
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