Posted on

5 Events that Show How Powerful Education Really Is

The concept of basic education is taken for granted across much of the civilized world today — but there are still corners of the world where the simple ability to read and write are reserved only for an elite few. Most recently, young girls and women in such countries as Pakistan and Afghanistan have been killed, shot and threatened for simply seeking, or supporting, literacy rights. Restricting the right to education is not a new idea. It has been used by groups in power for centuries. Here are some historical and current events that show how valuable and powerful education really is. …

Continue reading “5 Events that Show How Powerful Education Really Is”

Posted on

5 Tips You Can Use to Become an Academic Entrepreneur

More and more academics are recognizing the potential to supplement their income from higher education positions with out-of-the-box projects and schemes. To try and get to grips with the so-called academic entrepreneur, I met with Shonell Bacon, Instructor of Mass Communication at McNeese State University. In this article, you’ll see some of her tips on understanding the relationship between academia and entrepreneurship—and how you can marry the two concepts together to generate supplementary income. You can be an academic entrepreneur. Bacon defined “academic entrepreneur” as “someone who knows what their talents are and is able to capitalize on them. They …

Continue reading “5 Tips You Can Use to Become an Academic Entrepreneur”

Posted on

4 Transformational Leadership Practices That Motivate Teachers

The emotions of teachers are an often ignored, but very important part of a school’s learning climate. With each decision or policy they put in place, school leaders have an effect on the emotions of their teachers. Transformational leadership practices that have emotional consequences reflect four sets of “core practices” for effective leadership. These practices form a major part of what most successful school leaders do, in many different organizational and cultural contexts. Here are four core practices that keep teachers excited to come to work every day. Direction-setting. The practices of school leaders geared at building an inclusive sense …

Continue reading “4 Transformational Leadership Practices That Motivate Teachers”

Posted on

3 Critical Questions We Must Ask about the K-12 Online Learning Trend

Online learning is more than a fad. The facts are staggering: According to the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, there are nearly 1.9 million K-12 enrollments in online courses every school year, up from under 50,000 in 2000. The current number does not even include students enrolled in primarily online schools. Thirty-one states have full-time online schools that serve on a statewide basis. But is this trend, quickly becoming a permanent feature of our education, a positive one? Here are three questions to ask to determine whether online learning is changing the quality of education for the better or …

Continue reading “3 Critical Questions We Must Ask about the K-12 Online Learning Trend”

Posted on

8 Ways to Rescue Public School Libraries from Becoming Obsolete

Public school libraries have always served an admirable purpose in education. In an indirect way, K-12 libraries have given students support in learning endeavors and been a go-to spot for information. With that being said, as the first Internet-generation rises through the public school ranks, libraries need big changes to remain relevant. It is not enough to simply “be there;” school libraries need to reach out to students and pull them in with helpful resources that combine traditional and contemporary theories in literacy. Many school libraries are already making strides to capture and maintain the interest of students, while others …

Continue reading “8 Ways to Rescue Public School Libraries from Becoming Obsolete”

Posted on

4 Ways to Find (and Keep) the Best Teachers

When it comes to school reform, we often think of getting rid of bad teachers. However, an issue that is possibly more pressing is hiring, training the best teachers. School districts continuously engage in the complementary processes of recruiting and retaining teachers. The strain on school budgets impacts the ability of school districts to hire and sometimes to retain high quality teachers. There are steps that every school and district can take, however, to strengthen its staff no matter what the financial situation. We will soon discuss a few ways to do this, but first, let’s look at why teachers …

Continue reading “4 Ways to Find (and Keep) the Best Teachers”

Posted on

5 Advancements in Special Education You Should Know About

It is estimated that over 6.5 million children in the U.S. have disabilities. Meeting the needs of these students poses special challenges. This is one area of education that is a priority for many people and entities. In this article, I will talk about five advancements and findings that are specifically related to special education in this country. Special education preschoolers learn better in mainstream settings. A study from Ohio State University found that preschoolers categorized as having special needs or disabilities learned more with at least some time in mainstream classrooms than outside of it. “We found that children …

Continue reading “5 Advancements in Special Education You Should Know About”

Posted on

2 Sex Ed Approaches—Which One Works Better?

Abstinence-only sex education When I first saw the headline, I thought it was too ironic to be true: Texas school teaching abstinence-only sex ed suffers chlamydia outbreak. I would’ve probably even laughed if I hadn’t realized quickly that it was not only true, but that it meant dozens of kids now had to deal with the discomfort and potential long-term harm of a sexually transmitted disease. These are kids that were clearly not practicing abstinence and were ill-prepared for real-life sexual encounters. It isn’t the fault of these kids, either. It is irresponsible of school systems to teach abstinence-only sexual …

Continue reading “2 Sex Ed Approaches—Which One Works Better?”