What Teachers Are Talking About This Week
April 13, 2017 | Sign up to receive The Teachers Edition.
 Celebrate National Library Week
First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country each April. “Libraries Transform” returns as the theme for 2017, reminding us that today’s libraries are not just about what they have for people, but what they do for and with people. Several events going on during the week include National Library Workers Day; National Bookmobile Day; and Take Action for Libraries Day. To learn more, check out the newly released The State of America’s Libraries, that captures usage trends within all types of libraries. The report finds that library workers’ expertise continues to play a key role in the transformation of communities by empowering users to navigate our ever-changing digital, social, economic, and political society. Thank you, school Librarians!
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 Florida
Principals Hope to Use New Autonomy to Face Challenges
Districts
in Florida can now grant up to three
low-performing schools waivers from certain requirements in exchange for
innovative leadership through the Principal Autonomy Program. Principal Lisa Lee at Orchard View Elementary in Delray
Beach, Fla., says “They are trusting me to think out of the box,” and wants to
revive music lessons and implement project-based learning at her school.
Principal Philip Bullock of Walker Elementary in Fort Lauderdale chose to enhance
performing arts and debate and encourages students to select a major and minor
field of interest (Solomon, SunSentinel).
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 Reversing the High Stress Culture
At Lexington High School (Mass.) students and parents have come together to fight student stress. Students posted notes on what gives them strength and painted rocks with inspirational slogans like: Yes, You Can; Positivity - it's too important to live without; you are NOT your grades; and more. Students have created a comfort zone and filled it with art supplies and messages encouraging visitors to decompress, helping students to fight depression and worry (Spencer, New York Times).
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Personal Mythologies Guide Students' Paths
Students who are continually told they can succeed learn
to believe in this narrative and follow the path of least resistance to success,
writes Ashley Lamb Sinclair in a
moving post about the power of narrative. Sinclair, who is an English teacher
at North Oldham High School in Louisville, Ky., has experienced this
first-hand. In contrast, students who are told – explicitly or implicitly
through systemic programming and scheduling, for example, - that they are
deficient, will internalize this belief. “I know the possibilities that could
open up for some students if they are told a different story and given a
different myth to believe,” writes Lamb Sinclair (Washington Post).
 Having a single black teacher in the early years of school
increases the likelihood that low-income black students will graduate and
consider college, according
to a recent study by the IZA Institute of Labor Economics. For black boys,
that number is stunning: the decrease in dropout risk is 40%. Johns Hopkins assistant professor and
co-author of the study Nicholas
Papageorge calls the study’s results “eye-popping” (Camera, US News & World
Report).
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When
students miss school for minor ailments, the missed class time can really add
up. Now there’s telemedicine: an approach
to providing health care in schools, but remotely. How does it work? An
on-site nurse examines the student with the help of a doctor who video-chats
in. The nurse can even take pictures of a child’s ears, nose, and throat. As
long as a doctor doesn’t have to touch the child to diagnose him or her,
telemedicine can help students avoid missing school: 89% of students return to
class after an appointment (De La Rosa,
District Administration).
 Antarctic Adventure: Bringing Biology Home
Nematodes. Rotifers. Tardigrades. These tiny animals live in
the Antarctic soil, and now students at Timpanogos
High School in Orem, Utah, will
get to learn about them from someone who studied them first-hand: their biology
teacher. Josh Heward was
selected from hundreds of applicants by Polar
Trec to spend a month in Antarctica conducting research with about a dozen others.
Heward plans to bring his knowledge back: "I want to mimic some of the procedures that
we did both in collecting the animals in the soil and also looking at them
under the microscope” (Rascon, KUTV.com).
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Lisa
Westman, an instructional coach from the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, believes that there is a general misconception of what
“differentiation” instruction entails. In
Westman’s opinion, differentiation requires using assessments as well as data
to construct a more comprehensive view of students’ needs. However, her
interactions with education stakeholders have led her to believe that data and
assessment may be four letter words at times and uses her most recent piece to
break down their uses (DeWitt, Education Week).
Several
barbershops in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin
area are participating in a joint initiative with the Milwaukee Public Library to introduce books in barbershops. Alderman
Cavalier Johnson founded Books in
the Barbershop to encourage young African-American males to improve their
reading and literacy skills while also narrowing the achievement gap in the
state (WISN Milwaukee).
Students
at a Washington, DC charter school
are combining learning and technology in the classroom.
Washington Leadership Academy’s students
work to solve real-world problems in collaborative, flexible environments.
Benchmarks of the Academy’s program include using virtual reality and computer
science while becoming responsible global citizens. The school was one of 10
institutions nationwide to receive a grant from XQ, The Super School Initiative as well as support from Laurene Powell Jobs’ philanthropic organization Emerson Collective (Rolph,
XO).
 5.“Schools are more effective if leadership focuses on validating
needs than on offering solutions.” Administrator, Washington
4.“Our most successful PD ever was when we engaged teachers and
made them leaders.” Administrator, Washington
3. “Our teachers don’t have a heck of a lot of planning time.
They need more.” Administrator, Washington
2. “There is a culture around not taking risks. We need to help
students know it is OK to ask questions and be wrong.” Teacher, Massachusetts
1. “PBL works best with authentic product and a real audience for
student work.” Teacher, Massachusetts
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