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October 8, 2015 | Sign up to receive The Teachers Edition.
In This Issue
 This CNN infographic lays out how much 40 states spend per year to educate a K-12 student compared to the cost of keeping an inmate imprisoned. Secretary Duncan called for reform last week.
Secretary Duncan Says
In what was his last public speech prior to announcing his resignation effective December, Secretary Arne Duncan called on state and local governments to shift funding from incarceration to education. He suggested that by finding alternatives to prison for half of those convicted of non-violent crimes, upwards of $15 billion a year would be saved, which he suggested should be used to pay educators more. Among the possibilities: increasing teacher salaries by 50 percent at the highest-need schools and creating more teacher-leader positions to mentor colleagues. "It's about setting a different direction as a society, a different priority —one that says we believe in great teaching early in our kids' lives, rather than courts, jails and prisons later," Duncan said.
 Tapped
Meet the Next Secretary
Meet Dr. John King, who will take over as Acting Secretary of Education in December.
King, a former social studies teacher, school founder, and state commissioner of education, says, "The teachers at [New York City's] P.S. 276 and Mark Twain Junior High literally saved my life" after his parents, both teachers, died when he was young.
Since January, King has served as Duncan's deputy secretary. Read more about the lifelong teacher (Peiser, Hechinger Report).
At a White House press conference, President Obama expressed confidence in King and reflected on Arne's extraordinary accomplishments.
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 Virtual Field Trips
Forget reading about the Red Planet in a textbook: Google recently released new tools for teachers to take their students on virtual field trips to places like Mars, the Great Barrier Reef, and the Great Wall of China. The virtual-reality viewers — composed of cardboard and a cellphone — are just the beginning of Google's effort to help students "see different things that you otherwise wouldn’t," says Jennifer Holland, program manager for Google Apps for Education. (Singer, NewYorkTimes.com)
Compete with the Boys
 First Lady Michelle Obama is publicizing her "Let Girls Learn" campaign to expand girls' access to education in developing countries and to encourage American girls to take advantage of their opportunities. “If we want to end global poverty, if we want to improve the plight of our country, educating girls is the key to all of that,” she said at a recent event in Harlem, N.Y.
To raise awareness about the 62
Million Girls who are
locked out of brighter futures because they cannot get the education they
deserve, the First Lady is asking girls and women to Tweet or Instagram a black-and-white portrait and share what they learned in school with the following message:
“In school, I learned ____. #62MillionGirls don’t have that chance.”
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Staying in School
While the nation’s graduation rate has reached a record high, nearly half a million young people will leave high school this year without graduating. A new report by America’s Promise Alliance offers new insights – from the perspectives of young people themselves – into how support from adults and peers can help close the remaining gap between those who graduate from high school on time and those who don’t. Last Saturday, Michelle Obama, Shaquille O'Neill, and former President George W. Bush joined many other leaders for nationally televised American Graduate Day to bring awareness to students' needs.
Teacher Leadership
Emotional Health
Borrowing and modifying the premise from Stephen Covey (1989), author/educator Rick
Wormeli urges teachers to make emotional health a habit. He
explores
ways to use mindfulness and constructive practices with students in “The Seven
Habits of Highly Affective Teachers” (Marshall Memo). The seven habits he suggests include:
- Find joy in others' success.
- Cultivate
perspective and reframe.
- Ditch the
easy caricature.
- Explore the
ethics of teaching.
- Embrace
humility.
-
Value
intellect.
- Maintain
passion and playfulness.
Read more for the bonus habit at
the end (Educational Leadership).
The Teaching Profession
Arthur Everett
Editor's note: The following is part of a series reporting on excellent African American educators. Educators were selected by the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans.
 Arthur Everett is a Special Educator and Social Studies Teacher at both
the middle and high school levels serving Title I populations in Brooklyn. He was
a New York City Department of Education Common Core Fellow, as well as a speaker
and presenter for the National Council of History Educators. He is a 2014-2015 New York
Educator Voice Fellow.
Why and how did you decide upon a career in education?
Although I come from a family of educators, my attraction to teaching
as a career began in 2002 in the aftermath of the 9/11 attack on the World
Trade Center.Traumatized, unemployed, and questioning my existence, I felt
nonetheless alive and bursting with a desire to make a difference somehow. In particular, I wanted to do something for
the kids: to somehow manufacture my masteries, mistakes and musings into goods
to magnify the next generation.
What is the one thing you most celebrate about your students?
I most celebrate the “aha’ moments that follow productive struggle. I
love when a student says “I don’t know,” because for me that is the beginning
of the conversation. Helping students achieve understanding through questioning
and discussion and watching their self-confidence develop as they “figure it
out” is the highlight of teaching.
In what ways do you encourage parents, family members, and other caring
adults to support the learning and development of African American students?
I believe that it is important to not label my students. I refuse to
handicap them with my own personal prejudices and biases, and I encourage
others to create spaces in which African American students feel safe and
valued. I emphasize strengths rather than
focus on weakness.
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Dear President Obama
A powerful letter by Brian Suits, Georgia's Middle School Principal of the Year, made its way to the desk of President Obama -- and even got a reply. Suits wrote, "Our kids are underestimated at every turn, but they have so, so much to teach us. We just need to value their voices, and listen." Obama agreed in his reply, citing the students' stories by name and telling of how he felt moved to learn about the success they're having at Dalton Middle School. (AJC.com)
A Teacher to Remember
"People don't show up 20 and 30 years later to pay tribute to teachers who helped them do better on standardized tests. We are here because Alan Kaplan did what all great teachers do. He clarified, he inspired, he awakened, he worked in ways that are unquantifiable."
(Teacher Barry Smolin, speaking at former Los Angeles teacher Kaplan's funeral, which was attended by hundreds of students and colleagues.)
Education Policy
Improving Teacher Education. Good teaching is not
only the product of natural talent, but requires excellent teacher training.
It's an idea that Arne spoke about last year. Educators and
policy makers are calling for changes that will lead to better teacher
effectiveness. Read more about some teacher education approaches being
called for and some guiding principles that will help coordinate everyone's
ideas (Willingham, New York Times).
States Supporting Principals. A
new Wallace-commissioned report, Developing Excellent School Principals to Advance
Teaching and Learning: Considerations for State Policy,
offers ideas that can help guide state policy makers interested in better training and
supporting principals.
Resources for Educators
Tool Kit with EL Resources
In this ED blog, Aman
Dhanda and JoLisa Hoover (2015 Teaching
Ambassador Fellows) unveil
features of the English Learner Tool Kit, a new resource companion to the
English Learner Guidance. Written for practitioners, the EL Tool Kit will help
teachers find resources and answers about how to best serve English learner
students.
 A 'Champion' Coder. Last month, 15-year-old Swetha Prabakaran was honored at the White House as one of 11 young women named “champions of change,” for her work as the founder of Everybody Code Now! The nonprofit operates in 12 states and has partnerships in India and Ghana to help elementary school students, from kindergarten through fifth grade, learn how to code. (Shapiro, WashingtonPost.com)
Future Champions. Meanwhile, in New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that all of the city's public schools will be required to offer computer science courses to all students in order to ensure that every child can learn the skills required to work in New York City’s fast-growing technology sector. (NewYorkTimes.com)
Not A Silver Bullet. Technology in the classroom doesn’t always lead to better student performance, according to a new study from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. While student performance improves when they use technology in moderation, overexposure to computers and the Internet actually causes educational outcomes to drop. (Kesling, WSJ.com)
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 Wisdom from educators heard by ED
5. "When you treat teachers as merely deliverers of instruction and take away their opportunity to develop the knowledge necessary for success, it disempowers and demotivates teachers." (Teacher, Colorado)
4. "If you don't get involved in the policy work then someone that doesn't have your values will." (Teacher, Washington)
3. "I learn more and more every day about how race, socioeconomic status, and segregation have led to the predicament we are in." (Teacher, Missouri)
2. "I student-taught at an affluent school, but my first job was at an inner-city school. It would have been better for me to have had been exposed to both kinds of schools before I started teaching." (Middle School Teacher, Texas)
1. "My school as a learning organization has vastly improved with the implementation of teacher leadership in my building." (Principal, Iowa)
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