Embracing Change

Posted on July 12, 2022 Written by

The last two school years have had a significant impact on almost every aspect of education. The challenges of the pandemic (not to mention the politicalization of numerous topics) has required a level of agility and flexibility unlike anything educators have ever faced before. More importantly, it has required strategic thinking and decision making with little to no guidance or previous experience to draw upon.

In this article, one superintendent shares the collective steps her district has taken to embrace change. It offers several key strategies for dealing with new challenges and provides “a framework for choosing joy.”

While educators have little control about what issues they may face in the future, they do have control over the way they meet those challenges. In the words of the author, “Education will never be the same. Leaders must be realistic and willing to adapt to our changing world” (Williams, 2022).

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SEL Helps Close Equity Gaps

Posted on June 28, 2022 Written by

Here’s another great SEL resource. This article shares one school’s experience with using Social Emotional Learning (SEL) to close equity gaps. In the words of the author, “Teaching SEL skills helps us address lack of motivation, problem behavior, and academic failure” (DeMarzo, 2022).

The article also includes a link to 10 ways for Schools to Gain Traction with SEL which outlines “best practice” recommendations from the experts.

Previous posts on this topic can be found here, here, and here.

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Cyberbullying

Posted on June 14, 2022 Written by

Cyberbullying is the use of electronic communication (usually via Facebook or texts) to bully a person, typically by sending messages of a humiliating, intimidating, or threatening nature.

While much of student cyberbullying takes place outside school hours, especially on weekends, the resulting problems often spill over to the classroom. That makes cyberbullying an issue that teachers and administrators can’t afford to ignore. As Sameer Hinduja1 reminds us, “Schools believe the Internet and computers are part of kids’ lives when honestly, it is their life.” 

The Cyberbullying Research Center provides a wealth of information on this topic. In addition, Addiction and Bullying offers several helpful ideas and insights for dealing with bullying. While the latter site has a decidedly Christian bent (including the founder’s personal story), it shows the clear connection between bullying and substance abuse. It also contains useful descriptions of bullying tactics, plus statistics about the extent of this troubling problem and a list of bullying support hotlines.

Since bullying (both face-to-face and cyber) can have devastating and often life-long consequences, please consider this to be a call to action. (Note: Principals should consider sharing this link with teachers and bookmarking it for quick reference.)

1Cyberbullying: What teachers and schools can do. Scholastic (n.d.). https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/cyberbullying-what-teachers-and-schools-can-do/

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Real World PBL

Posted on June 7, 2022 Written by

The closer Project-Based Learning comes to the messy, complicated problems of our world today, the more students benefit.

This article offers five strategies for aligning PBL to real-world problem-solving. According to the author, making PBL more fluid rather than using a static, linear model is especially useful when dealing with uncertain situations like those teachers faced during the COVID pandemic. (McDowell, 2022).

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