GLOBAL
New Indian Express. One teacher training institute for 1,057 schools in Odisha Neighbouring Andhra Pradesh has one teacher training institute for around 156 educational institutes at elementary, secondary and higher secondary level.
Sydney Morning Herald. How to help kids prepare to return to school after a topsy-turvy year Separation anxiety, particularly for younger kids, may be an issue initially, says Dr Daniela Acquaro, director of initial teacher education at the University of Melbourne. “Kids really have spent a lot of 2020 with parents and carers.”
The Guardian. What job opportunities are there for young people in the UK? The government is offering bursaries and scholarships for teacher training in certain subjects, including chemistry and computing. For 2021-22, up to £26,000 of financial help is available to individuals.
Vanguard. USAID launches new early grade learning book in local languages USAID-NEI Plus has improved reading skills for more than 952,565 pupils, trained 9600 teachers, and distributed more than 6 million teaching and learning materials to schools… The Federal Ministry of Education under the leadership of the Minister of Education Mallam Adamu Adamu has recorded several strides in its efforts to improve the quality of education in Nigeria: school feeding program, teacher training, online learning…
UNITED STATES
AACTE.
1) AACTE Launches New Online Community AACTE is excited to introduce AACTE Connect360, an engaging and interactive online community that will link individual educators from its 700 member institutions to bring educator preparation full circle.
2) Senator Elizabeth Warren To Headline AACTE Opening Keynote Series U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren will address the AACTE community during its 2021 Annual Meeting Opening Keynote session on February 24.
Capitol News Illinois. GOP members hope to block new teacher standards The new standards would apply to teacher training programs at Illinois colleges and universities rather than K-12 school curricula. They are scheduled to come up for legislative review on Tuesday, Feb. 16, before the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, or JCAR, a legislative body that has oversight authority over state regulatory agencies. If approved, the standards would take effect in October 2025 in order to give state-approved educator preparation programs ample time to incorporate them, according to a statement from the Illinois State Board of Education.
Chalkbeat. Colorado joins multistate effort to improve how teacher prep programs cover reading. The Mississippi-based Barksdale Reading Institute is spearheading the effort — called The Path Forward — with an inaugural group of six states. Besides Colorado, they include Arizona, Massachusetts, Missouri, North Carolina, and Ohio. Path Forward will allow state leaders to share strategies for embedding the science of reading into teacher training programs, holding those programs accountable for early literacy outcomes, and enlisting the help of philanthropic groups in such efforts.
Early Learning Nation. New Mexico On Verge of Securing State Constitutional Change to Ensure Stable Funding for Children Zero to Five “I just believe education is important at every age, and I believe that educators need fair pay,” Natachua said. With more funding that enables better pay, she thinks that early childhood educators will be able to get more training and degrees, and that the industry will see less turnover.
Forbes. The Puzzling Gap In Research On Writing Instruction A hugely popular curriculum developed by literacy guru [& TC Professor] Lucy Calkins, often referred to as Writers’ Workshop, is the subject of a recently released rigorous evaluation—the first ever conducted of the approach, despite the fact that it’s been around for decades. Researchers found significant gains beginning in the second year of implementation, although they were smaller for students from lower-income families and other vulnerable groups.
Hechinger Report. Singing in the parking lot, and other pandemic strategies for music students … next-generation music professionals are inventing — and reinventing — the music teaching tools and techniques we all will need to see our way through the pandemic.
New York Times. Schumer Pushes a $50,000 Student Debt Forgiveness Plan.
Showbiz Cheat Sheet. How Tony Bennett’s Wife Susan Benedetto’s Background As a Teacher is Helping Her Care for Her Ailing Husband Benedetto worked for many years in arts education. A graduate of Fordham University and of Columbia University’s Teachers College, she eventually launched Creative Artists Management and assisted performers and artists in the navigation of their careers. She and her husband in 1999 opened in Queens, New York City the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, where Benedetto worked both as a social studies teacher and assistant principal.
Washington Post.
1) How to start ending the school-to-prison pipeline — by an educator just elected to the U.S. House First, we must teach BIPOC history and culture in our schools, so that children can learn the global contributions of BIPOC people and our BIPOC kids can feel empowered. The majority of public school teachers are White; we must recruit, train and retain more teachers of color, and train all teachers using an anti-racist curriculum.
2) Teachers to Biden: What we want from your administration In order for democracy to continue to thrive, we need to rethink the way we educate our nation’s students. And we need to equip our teachers with the training and support they need to be changemakers in the classroom. * Ensure teacher education programs require current, fact-based science coursework, for elementary school teachers as well as secondary science teachers.
* Support the development and spread of professional learning programs that show efficacy in anti-racist training for teachers.
*Require science-based training for all preservice teachers, and ongoing training for in-service teachers, in trauma-informed teaching, including spotting and understanding signs of mental illness.
3) What you need to know about standardized testing It is time to relax the heavy hand of federal regulation and to recall the original purposes of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act: to distribute funding to the neediest students and schools; to support the professional training of teachers; and to assure the civil rights of students… At this critical time, as we look beyond the terrible consequences of the pandemic, American schools face a severe teacher shortage. The federal government can help states raise funding to pay professional salaries to professional teachers. It can help pay for high-quality prekindergarten programs.
NEW YORK STATE
Governor Andrew Cuomo. FY 2022 Executive Budget Briefing Book.
* Eliminate Teacher Support Programs. In recent years, the State has provided $27.4 million annually for several recurring teacher support and training programs, including the Teachers of Tomorrow Program ($25 million), Teacher Mentor Intern Program ($2 million) and the Albert Shanker Grant Program ($0.4 million). The FY2022 Executive Budget eliminates these programs, starting in the 2021-22 school year, in order to achieve necessary State savings while preserving programs that provide direct services to sensitive student populations. These spending reductions may be restored if the State receives requested Federal COVID relief funds
*Streamline New Education Program Approval to Meet Workforce Needs. To ensure responsiveness to the rapidly evolving skills that New York’s employers require of their employees, the Budget will streamline the process to approve programs and degrees at New York’s colleges and universities. This change will help fuel New York’s economic recovery and enable New York to better compete in the Global Economy.
NY1. New York Senate Approves Education Diversity Measures Lawmakers in the state Senate on Wednesday advanced measures meant to boost diversity in the state’s schools and education policy, including mesures meant to encourage school and college officials to attract underrepresented candidates for teaching positions… The bills include the “Grow Your Own” initiatives for school districts, cooperative education services and higher education institutions to attract diverse teaching candidates.
NYSED. NYSED seeks educator input on how program activities can best support teaching students in remote/hybrid instructional settings. [Survey deadline: Feb 15]
NEW YORK CITY
NYTimes.
1) Missing in School Reopening Plans: Black Families’ Trust Sonya D. Horsford, a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College, said the moment presented an opportunity for public schools to rethink much of what was not working for Black children. “It’s a great time to have that conversation about the source of mistrust and what we want as part of this recovery,” …
2) Sylvia Lieber, Creative Kindergarten Teacher, Dies at 102 To Sylvia Lieber, there was no reason that the kindergartners and first graders she taught at P.S. 26 in Fresh Meadows, Queens… After graduating from New Utrecht High School, Sylvia received a bachelor’s degree in education from Hunter College and began teaching.
Patch. Chelsea Camin, Voice Teacher: Long Island’s Best Kept Secret A graduate of Teachers College, Columbia University, Ms. Camin received her Master’s in Music & Music Education, she continues to uphold those ideals and formulates curriculum for her private studio. An asset that sets her apart from other voice teachers.
Teachers College.
1) Imagining and Re-Imagining Teaching, Becoming and Being Teacher Educators: A colloquium series [12 Noon on Feb. 5 & 12]
2) Redefining Scholarship: With the new year under way, the Teachers College Record is amplifying a diverse new range of voices and topics The articles in the year’s opening issue included: “Invisible Shifts in the Classroom: Dynamics of Teacher Salary and Teacher Supply in Urban China;” “White Supremacy and Teacher Education: Balancing Pedagogical Tensions when Teaching about Race”…
3) Two Teachers College Alumni Will Serve in the Biden-Harris Administration Cardichon most recently directed the Washington D.C. office and federal policy arm of the Learning Policy Institute. Earlier in her career, she was a teacher in New York City for seven years and then worked at TC as a program manager for implementation of early career educator induction programs.
