GLOBAL
National Center for Education and the Economy. Preparing Teachers To Use Technology While strategies vary, each of these jurisdictions trusts teachers to serve as experts and lead their peers in the rapidly evolving space of online teaching and learning… While strategies vary, each of these jurisdictions trusts teachers to serve as experts and lead their peers in the rapidly evolving space of online teaching and learning.
Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. Minister Warr Recognizes Early Childhood Educators Week Today, the Honourable Brian Warr, Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development virtually joined the Association of Early Childhood Educators to proclaim Early Childhood Educators Week, May 24-30…. There are approximately 2,200 certified early childhood educators in communities throughout the province working in child care centres, family child care homes, family resource centres, educational institutions, businesses, and not-for-profit organizations.
Standard Media. Teachers Back Calls to Suspend, Reset Exams. “Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) should reset national exams since the syllabus will not be covered adequately and promptly,” reads a joint report by the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut), Universities Academic Staff Union (Uasu) and Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC)… The findings came after the team unsuccessfully lobbied to be included in the government’s Education Response Committee led by Dr Sara Ruto that seeks to advise on the reopening of all basic learning institutions, teacher training colleges and adult education institutions.
UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1) 2020 Annual Meeting Opening Session: Robin DiAngelo, Keynote Speaker
2) Teaching Online: Moving from Emergency to Planned
3) Updates to AACTE’s COVID-19 Educator Preparation Policy Tracker Map These changes include guidance analysis of 12 new states, specifically Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Wyoming. We have also updated data for New Jersey, which recently issued new guidance waiving edTPA.
Baltimore Sun. Desks 6 feet apart? Elementary only? Temperatures taken at the door? Maryland schools plan for coronavirus contingencies “It is not about cramming them back into the same old school so we can do six months of teaching in one month,” said Tom Hatch, a professor at Teachers College….Some teachers with pre-existing conditions or older teachers may not feel comfortable coming back into school buildings, and there’s already a teacher shortage in Maryland, where teacher colleges do not produce enough graduates each year to fill vacancies.
Chalkbeat. How the National Teacher of the Year connects preschoolers and senior citizens, even during the pandemic How did you decide that you wanted to be a teacher? I always knew that I wanted to help people, but when I was a senior or a junior in high school, I was taking a dual-credit college Spanish course, and part of that was volunteering to teach Spanish to preschoolers. For the first time, I got to observe a teacher. I got to see teaching as an art form in that classroom. And I knew then that it was something that I wanted to be a part of.
EdSurge. Pandemic May (Finally) Push Online Education Into Teacher Prep Programs Even teacher prep programs that are offered via online courses don’t necessarily instruct teacher candidates how to educate students remotely, says Lynn Gangone, president and CEO of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.
Education Writers Association. Teacher Prep, Interrupted: Licensing Educators During Coronavirus: Experts discuss emergency waivers and their potential impact [May 15 Webinar now available]
Hechinger Report.
1) Are we ready? How we are teaching – and not teaching – kids about climate change at all. Mead teaches at a private school where he is given the freedom to explore climate change in depth. However, he mentors teachers around the state who say they’re fearful of broaching the issue. Some teachers tell him they don’t even feel well versed enough in climate science to pass on any expertise to students.
2) Schools call parents “co-teachers,” but we have no idea what we’re doing: Learning only happens with a high-quality teacher, but parents have been dropped into the role with no training and little support Because even the most engaging, thoughtful remote learning programs will not be enough to close the educational divides that are opening wider by the day unless we can provide a serious amount of support and training not just for teachers, but also for parents — holding our hands as we hold our children’s hands through this stressful time.
3) The educational value of a black teacher: Coronavirus is offering a chance to ‘reimagine’ education, but if the new landscape doesn’t include efforts to recruit and retain more black teachers, reform will be a farce For years, researchers such as Gloria Ladson-Billings, Pedro Noguera, Lisa Delpit, Adrienne Dixson, Christopher Emdin, and James A. Banks — all people of color — validated the need for black teachers in New Orleans schools through their studies on teachers of color… If the purpose of education reform is to boost students’ academic outcomes, reduce suspensions, raise expectations, and even recruit (less racist) teachers into the profession, research suggests that increasing the number of black teachers should be part of any serious strategy.
InsideHigherEd. Can Active Learning Co-Exist With Physically Distanced Classrooms? Ellen Maddin, co-director of the Center for Teaching and Learning and associate professor of teacher education at Northern Kentucky University, also suggested ways instructors could tap students’ own laptops, tablets or phones to stimulate active learning. “I use Padlet for many purposes — to capture ideas in small group work, as a backchannel if we watch a video clip, to brainstorm challenges and potential solutions, to analyze case studies, etc.” Padlet works well in a face-to-face setting, Maddin said, especially when the instructor pulls the whole group back together to discuss individual/group responses — shared on the large screen.
NEA. Remote Teaching and Learning Courses Enroll in one of NEA’s virtual remote blended learning courses to learn the basic components of remote learning and successful instruction outside of the traditional classroom. [courses begin June 15]
NYTimes.
1) Remember the MOOCs? After Near-Death, They’re Booming The pioneering online learning networks offer hard-earned lessons for what works and what doesn’t with online education.
2) The Future of College Is Online, and It’s Cheaper: The coronavirus forced a shift to virtual classes, but their continuation could be beneficial even after the pandemic ends. Professors would need to undergo training on how to effectively teach to a blended classroom. Universities would also be well served to build competencies in content production. Today, almost all theory-based content, whether in chemistry, computer science or finance, can be produced in advance and effectively delivered asynchronously. By tapping their best-rated professors to be the stars of those productions, universities could actually raise the pedagogical standard.
U.S. Education Dept. FY 2020 Call For Peer Reviewers: Effective Educator Development Division … seeking peer reviewers for the upcoming grant competitions. Those grant programs are Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED), Teacher and School Leader Incentive Program (TSL) & Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP).
Washington Post.
1) ‘The future of public education is at stake’: An open letter to Joe Biden from 215 school advocates
* Guarantee tuition-free public colleges, universities, HBCUs, Minority Serving Institutions and trade-schools to all, not just those who qualify through means-testing.
* Cancel all student loan debt and place a cap on student loan interest rates moving forward.
2) How to recover from our school disaster: Top curriculums, training and resolve Petrilli recommended against dumping the Common Core standards, since the likely alternatives would be old state standards “that were mediocre, unclear and targeted at basic literacy and numeracy.” The writers said that if states banned weak curriculums and overhauled teacher preparation, progress could be made.
NEW YORK STATE
Gotham Gazette. New Yorkers Can Weigh In On Recommendations for New Student ‘Civic Readiness’ Standards In a recent email, the chair of the task force, Michael Rebell of The Center for Educational Equity at Columbia University’s Teachers College, wrote that “Despite the budgetary uncertainty stemming from the ongoing coronavirus crisis, Governor Cuomo and the New York State legislature approved a $1 million appropriation for ‘education in civics, diversity and religious freedoms.’ As a result of this appropriation, the New York State Education Department (NYSED) is now seeking feedback on the policy recommendations developed by the Regents’ Civic Readiness Task Force.
LOHUD/USA Today. Regents to name task force on reopening schools, Rosa says Rosa said the Regents have been working on its reopening project for about a month and have a “massive” plan to include teachers, administrators, parents and other stakeholders.
NYSATE/NYACTE. Award Nominations Though the in-person Fall 2020 NYSATE/NYACTE Conference is cancelled, we still want to encourage you to consider nominating a colleague for NYSATE’s Appleby or NYACTE’s Mackey Award.
NYSED. New York Register Public Comment Period regarding the Proposed Amendments to Sections 52.21, 60.6, 61.19, 80- 1.2, 80-3.7, 100.1, 100.2, 100.4, 100.5, 100.6, 100.7, 100.19 and 151-1.3 and addition of Section 80-5.27 to the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Relating to Addressing the COVID-19 Crisis. Data, views or arguments may be submitted to: Julia Patane, NYS Education Department, 89 Washington Avenue, Room 148EB, Albany, NY 12234, (518) 474-6400, email: [email protected] Public comment will be received until: 60 days after publication of this notice.
NEW YORK CITY
Chalkbeat. Carranza’s No. 2 at the education department is job hunting outside NYC Cheryl Watson-Harris was briefly one of more than 20 candidates vying to become superintendent of Sarasota County schools…Aaron Pallas, department chair of education policy and analysis at Teachers College at Columbia University, said it’s likely that Watson-Harris is simply looking to take on her own leadership role.
