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Does Your Teacher Preparation Program Meet These Five Standards?

So you want to be a teacher! That means you’re most likely looking for a teacher education program. To ensure proper training and the best chance at certification, you’ll want to enroll in a TEAC accredited teacher education program. But why? Why does TEAC accreditation matter? Well, to receive accreditation from TEAC, programs have to provide evidence that their program is of the highest quality. Schools that would like to apply for TEAC membership must first gain candidate membership, and then successfully matriculate through the accreditation process. Because of the similarities of their missions and accreditation philosophies, it was only …

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9 Tips for Preventing the Summer Slide

When the school year ends, teachers are happy to have a break from the drudgery of the school year, but they also want students to avoid the summer slide. The summer slide occurs when children lose some of the academic skills and dispositions that they gained during the school year due to the absence and scarcity of quality learning activities during summer vacation. As the old saying goes, if you don’t use it, you lose it. To succeed academically, children need continuous opportunities to acquire new skills and practice existing ones. This need is especially heightened during the summer months, …

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Top 5 Techniques for Culturally Responsive Teaching

The growing popularity of culturally responsive instruction is slowly causing traditional trends to be reversed. Teachers are increasingly being expected to adapt to the demands of a multicultural classroom. Given the wealth of diversity in our nation’s public schools, it is no wonder that instructional theory is advocating a shift toward a pedagogy that emphasizes a comfortable and academically enriching environment for students of all ethnicities, races, beliefs, and creeds. Culturally responsive pedagogy is a student-centered approach to teaching in which the students’ unique cultural strengths are identified and nurtured to promote student achievement and a sense of well-being about …

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5 Facts Everyone Needs to Know About the School-to-Prison Pipeline

Our nation’s public schools play an integral role in fostering talents. They also play a role in building our children’s internal worth. It is therefore not surprising that our schools can assist in reducing our nation’s prison population as well. Here are five facts everyone should know about the school-to-prison pipeline, and how to end it: An increased prison population costs us all money. Those of us who fall outside the group of perceived misfits who make our nation’s prison population may wonder why the school-to-prison pipeline should matter. Aside from caring about the quality of life for other individuals, …

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Ask An Expert: What are the Benefits and Drawbacks of Year Round Schools?

Question: I am considering taking an accounting job with a district that has year round schools. Since I am unfamiliar with the concept, I would like to know what the benefits and drawbacks are. Me and my husband have 3 school aged children, and we want to do what’s best for them. Virginia S. Answer: Virginia, first of all, congratulations on the job offer. I know that it must be difficult for you and your husband to consider exposing your children to something that is unfamiliar. In this column, I will explain the benefits and drawbacks of year round schools, …

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Why High School Graduation Is the Key to Improving At-Risk Communities: Part II

A guest post by Frank Britt, CEO of Penn Foster When an at-risk student graduates high school, it creates a significant and positive trickle-down effect: it de-risks a family unit and the power of example encourages friends to also become contributing members as high school finishers, and can be a catalyst for galvanizing a community, and even a single building or street. At scale, it can help build work forces with higher productivity, leading to lower poverty and reduced crime rates. What Drives (and Improves) Crime Rates in a Community? Crime rates are linked to educational attainment, according to a 2013 …

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I’m an Educator, What Should I Tweet about?

**The Edvocate is pleased to publish guest posts as way to fuel important conversations surrounding P-20 education in America. The opinions contained within guest posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of The Edvocate or Dr. Matthew Lynch.** A guest post by Craig Kemp As an educator that is addicted to using social media for professional learning, I wish I had a list of things to tweet about when I first started out. This week I was inspired by @shiftparadigm and his list of Personal Rules for Twitter and a list of what …

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3 People (Besides Teachers) Who Play a Role in Students’ Success

As someone who train educators for a living and have written books about following “the calling” to become a teacher, I do believe in the power of teachers to make an impact, both positive and negative, on their students. But what about “superstar teachers”?  You are probably familiar with the concept, particularly since it is perpetuated in popular culture through movies like the classic Edward James Olmos film “Stand and Deliver” and 2012’s “Won’t Back Down.” The idea is that with the right teacher – a committed, bright, in-tune, talented teacher – P-12 problems like the achievement gap and high …

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5 Keys to an Effective School Mission

Instructional leadership offers administrators the opportunity to create a shared vision of learning for the entire school environment – allowing both educators and support staff to get behind a common goal. That common goal is most often articulated in the form of a school mission statement, which must be built effectively in order to be compelling. What are the characteristics of a good school mission statement? 1.    Academically Focused A school’s mission must be academically focused, as after all that is the primary function of the school environment. While there are other functions that a school serves, other roles that …

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The Benefits of Browsing: Why Teachers Should Indulge in Online Social Networking

The Internet is not just about consuming – it’s also about connecting. Forums and other forms of online social networking provide opportunities for educators to come together and commiserate, encourage, and share information. Online social networking encompasses different online communities of people who share common interests. It allows members of that community to interact in a variety of ways. They can conduct live chats, or they can leave comments in blogs or discussion groups. These communities are shaped by different profiles of individuals who link to each other. Each member of the community creates a personal profile that can include …

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