Thursday, August 27, 2015

Did you miss Tuesday's webinar: Technology, Training, and Teaming to Ensure Great Teaching for All Students?

If so, our friends at Alliance for Excellent Education have the webinar available "on demand" on their website! Click here to watch Technology, Training, and Teaming to Ensure Great Teaching for All Students from Alliance for Excellent Education and  the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF), featuring our CEO Julie Evans and Matthew Baker from Manheim Central Middle School (PA) and Pennsylvania’s Keystones to Opportunity Literacy Initiative.

If interested, you can also download Julie's presentation from the event - click here or click on the image below.


Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Around the Web Wednesday

Happy Around the Web Wednesday! Browse all the links below for the latest news and topics trending in education and technology. Be sure to let us know which article intrigued you the most!


Speak Up 2015 is now open for registration! Join the 3.9 million students, parents, educators, administrators, and community members who have spoken up about education and technology since 2003. Surveys will run from October 1 - December 18, 2015. Register today to ensure your voice is heard this fall! http://bit.ly/SU15survey

We are also pleased to announce the finalists for this year's Innovation in Education Awards! Click here to learn which Orange County, CA schools, educators, and students have been recognized.

How High Schoolers Spent Their Summer: Online, Taking More Courses - New York Times
6 concerns students have about MOOCs - eSchool News
Colleges shift to using ‘big data’ - including from social media - in admissions decisions - The Hechinger Report
The Educator's Guide to Social Media - ConnectSafely
Early Results from Common Core Tests Show Academic Gains - The Journal
Arne Duncan: Where California schools need to put their money - Los Angeles Times

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Don't forget to pick our panel and vote us onto the official SXSWedu 2016 line-up!

There are only two weeks left to pick our panel ! Julie Evans is featured in a proposal for SXSWedu 2016's panel picker,where educators can cast their votes for the most compelling ideas and ultimately shape the conference line-up. Voting ends on September 4th so make sure to give our sessions a "thumbs up" - you'll need to create a SXSW username and password if you don't already have one, but the process is simple and free! Check out the session information below:

Pink or Blue? Examining gender in games

Contrary to what we may want to believe, emerging research indicates that use of digital tools and content within learning is not gender-blind. While girls and boys share a common interest in technology to support personalized learning, their uses of and aspirations for digital learning are often quite different. This is especially true with game-based learning. In this workshop, we will roll up our sleeves and interact with a variety of games that are popular in education. Using a new evaluation tool, participants will gain an insider perspective on gender-bias or sensitivity within games by examining the characterization, imagery and language, storyline and results of the game play.

Additional Supporting Materials
http://www.tomorrow.org/docs/Guide_EvaluatingGender-Sensitivity_DigitalGames.pdf

Questions Answered
  1. Learn background and terminology associated with the emerging field of gender-sensitivity in digital learning, most notably in digital content & games
  2. Gain first-hand experience in determining the gender-sensitivity of specific types of games through the use of a new evaluation tool and game play
  3. Understand the importance and impact of gender-sensitivity when designing, implementing and evaluating games for K-12 education

Monday, August 24, 2015

FREE webinar tomorrow: Technology, Training and Teaming to Ensure Great Teaching for All Students

Don't forget - tomorrow is Julie Evans's free webinar with the Alliance for Excellent Education and the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future! Plan to take part in this special event about technology and teacher training - see below for more information.

Technology, Training and Teaming to Ensure 
Great Teaching for All Students

Tuesday, August 25, 2015
1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. (ET) 
Registration required

Panelists
Patrick FinnNCTAF Commissioner and Cisco Systems
Julie EvansProject Tomorrow
TeacherDigital Learning Day Partner
Bob WisePresident, Alliance for Excellent Education

Please join the Alliance for Excellent Education and the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF) for the first in a series of webinars exploring the conditions needed to support great teaching for deeper learning. The promising practices, recommendations, and lessons learned will inform a collective effort, led by NCTAF, around supporting great teaching.

This inaugural joint webinar will focus on the potential of technology to transform the teaching profession, increase opportunities for collaboration and professional learning, and improve student learning. Panelists will share data and experiences and discuss digital best practices to build teachers’ expertise and their ability to create powerful learning environments for their students. What opportunities exist now and in the near future for using technology to support great teaching? How can research results be connected with what is happening in practice? What recommendations should be put forward regarding technology integration and policy?

Bob Wise, president of the Alliance and former governor of West Virginia, will moderate the discussion. Panelists will also address questions submitted by viewers from across the nation.

Register and submit questions for the webinar online at http://all4ed.org/webinar-event/aug-25-2015/

Please direct questions concerning the webinar to alliance@all4ed.org. If you are unable to watch the webinar live, an archived version will be available athttp://www.all4ed.org/webinars approximately 1–2 business days after the event airs.

The Alliance for Excellent Education is a Washington, DC–based national policy and advocacy organization dedicated to ensuring that all students, particularly those who are traditionally underserved, graduate from high school ready for success in college, work, and citizenship. www.all4ed.org



The National Commission on Teaching & America’s Future (NCTAF) was founded in 1994 as a bipartisan effort to engage education policymakers and practitioners to address the entrenched national challenge of recruiting, developing, and retaining great teachers in order to ensure that all students have access to quality teaching in schools organized for success. For twenty years, NCTAF has worked to drive and inform the national dialogue about the importance of great teaching, especially in hard-to-staff schools. NCTAF’s research and recommendations inform innovations and improvements in teaching quality nationwide, focus attention on the importance of equitable distribution and retention of teachers, and promote promising practices for the development of teachers’ skills and career pathways. www.nctaf.org 

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Welcome back to school with YouthTEACH2Learn and Educators Rising California!

As students and teachers head back to school, we wish them the very best for a successful year.  The first day of school always brings with it a slew of other “firsts” and new experiences.  For Project Tomorrow and our Tomorrow’s Teachers Initiative, which seeks to recruit the next great generation of teachers by building new, early career pipelines, 2015-16 is especially remarkable for its “firsts.”  From the first day of teaching for alum from our first YouthTEACH2Learn math class in 2010, to the first day of new YouthTEACH2Learn classes for El Modena High School and Canyon High School in Orange Unified, to the first ever YouthTEACH2Learn Environmental Science course, piloted at San Juan Hills High School, we could not be more excited that the school year is here.

In another first, we just completed the first two days of instruction in a partnership with Loyola Marymount University and the Mathematics Leadership Corps.  Nine AP Calculus high school students from Culver City High School are earning a LMU Extension Certificate as Common Core Math Tutors, and will be providing tutoring during the school day for Algebra I students as part of a pilot of YouthTEACH2Learn.  In the first two days, the students began to learn about the thousands of decisions teachers make every day, from when to question, to listen, to guide, and to model for their students.  At the end of the second day, after role-playing scenarios such as “you are working with a student who only wants the answer to the problem: Solve the system of linear equations 3x – 2y = 12 and –x – 2y = -20,” the instructor asked, “Teaching: easy or hard?”  The students sat in stunned silence.  Like most people, these students had probably not given much thought to the intellectual challenge teaching presents.  Our Tomorrow’s Teachers Initiative programs, YouthTEACH2Learn and Educators Rising California, provide high school students with these challenging experiences so that they will know what teaching is really like, and can experience the rewards of rising to the challenge and making an impact in another student’s life.

Rising to the challenge requires support, so we work to ensure that teachers have the support and resources they need to best meet the needs of the students in our programs.  Project Tomorrow could not do this successfully without the support of our partners and financial contributors.  We are thrilled to acknowledge new support this year for our Tomorrow’s Teachers Initiative programs from Bank of America, Clovis Unified School District, and the Leonetti/O’Connell Family Foundation.  They join continuing and returning sponsors for 2015-16, such as the Annenberg Foundation, the Green Foundation, Pacific Life Foundation, Rancho Santiago Community College District, and the Roosters Foundation.  With their help, we look forward to the challenges, rewards, and successes ahead in 2015-16.

To learn more about YouthTEACH2Learn, visit http://www.tomorrow.org/programs/yt2l.html or click on the logo below.


To learn more about Educators Rising California, visit https://www.educatorsrising.org/ or click on the logo below.

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Around the Web Wednesday

Happy Around the Web Wednesday! Browse all the links below for the latest news and topics trending in education and technology. Be sure to let us know which article intrigued you the most!



Speak Up 2015 is now open for registration! Join the 3.9 million students, parents, educators, administrators, and community members who have spoken up about education and technology since 2003. Surveys will run from October 1 - December 18, 2015. Register today to ensure your voice is heard this fall! http://bit.ly/SU15survey

We are also pleased to announce the finalists for this year's Innovation in Education Awards! Click here to learn which Orange County, CA schools, educators, and students have been recognized.


Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Download our Speak Up badges and banners!

Display our Speak Up 2015 badges and animated banners on your school website and emails to spread the word about the survey. Add the participant badge to your email signature, class website, blog posts, and more to proudly show others that you're speaking up! Click here to download your Speak Up 2015 participant badge, or click on the image below.


Provide easy access to the Speak Up surveys by embedding one of our URL linked Speak Up banners on your website. Our clickable banners will direct participants to the Speak Up survey homepage with one click. To help spread the word about Speak Up, we recommend adding our Speak banner to your district or school’s homepage, blogs or social media outlets, in your email’s signature or sharing the banner with other community websites (such as your city or county’s website). Another great idea is to suggest that your teacher’s add a banner to their classroom webpage! Click here to view clickable Speak Up banners, or click on the banner below.


How are you spreading the word about this year's survey to your school(s)? Let us know in the comments section below!

Monday, August 17, 2015

Check out our new Speak Up 2015 promotional materials!

With 50% of schools across the nation starting school this month, we've updated our Speak Up 2015 promotional materials to help spread the word about our survey! Start the school year strong by encouraging school and district participation in the annual Speak Up survey -  download our welcome packet, flyers to post up around school, sample emails, sample tweets, and more. Click on our sample flyer below, or visit http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/promo.html to download the materials.


Thursday, August 13, 2015

Teacher shortage reaching crisis proportions in California and across the nation

We’ve been sharing news about the teacher shortage, especially in science and math, for a while now (see previous posts here and here).  This past weekend the New York Times reported that the shortage is now reaching crisis proportions in California, and increasingly, across the nation. Check out our summary below:

"[The teacher shortage] is not impending. It's here."

Monica Vasquez, chief human resources officer for the San Francisco Unified School District, is just one of several school district members nationwide who have experienced teacher shortages in their schools. Last spring her district offered early contracts to over a hundred teachers in order to secure candidates before other districts.

The teacher shortage in the United States has been noted as a huge change from just a few years ago, when school districts handed out pink slips to teachers. Now, districts across the country struggle with a shortage of teachers - a result of the aforementioned layoffs (during the recession years) combined with the improving economy in which fewer people are training to be teachers.

Although teacher layoffs happened nationwide, California was particularly hit, with 82,000 school jobs lost from 2008 to 2012, according to the Labor Department. This academic year, the California Department of Education estimates that districts will need to fill a total of 21,500 slots - a difficult task, as California issues less than 15,000 new teaching credentials each year.

In order to combat this shortage, schools nationwide are looking to hire applicants as soon as possible - which means sacrificing experience and credentials for some. One school in Rohnert Park hired a high school cross country coach as an elementary school physical education teacher before he began taking teacher credential courses; meanwhile, a masters degree student in Stanford University's school of education was hired as a fourth grade teacher after a 45-minute telephone interview. During the 2013-2014 school year, nearly a quarter of new teaching credentials issued in California were for teaching internships, which enabled candidates to work as teachers while taking classes after school or on weekends.

"We don't like it, but we do it," noted Paul Beare, dean of the school of education at California State University, Fresno, where 100 of the 700 teaching credential candidates will teach full time while completing their degrees. While this may not be the ideal approach for schools, it is certainly a popular short-term remedy for the problem of teacher shortages.

To learn more, check out the original article, "Teacher Shortages Spur a Nationwide Hiring Scramble (Credentials Optional)" by Motoko Rich (New York Times).

Two of Project Tomorrow's initiatives, YouthTEACH2Learn and Educators Rising California, work to combat the issue of the teacher shortage.

YouthTEACH2Learn is a career exploration program where students explore teaching as a career. During the course, the students gain practical experience by observing elementary school classrooms, learning how to teach, developing and teaching standards-based lessons to younger students in neighboring elementary schools and participating in local community service projects. In addition, students also have the opportunity to meet local educators, attend career panels and visit local college campuses in order to determine if the teaching is a "good-fit" for their professional goals. To learn more about YouthTEACH2Learn, visit http://www.tomorrow.org/programs/yt2l.html.

Educators Rising California, formerly California F.E.A., encourages students to learn about careers in education and aid them in exploring teaching while providing meaningful opportunities to receive the mentoring and support they need to actualize their career aspirations. The California affiliate of Educators Rising has made several accomplishments during the 2014-2015 school year, including but not limited to increasing its chapters from 3 to 14 (with membership increasing from 55 to 358), producing a webinar on National Board Certification with National University, and doubling participation in the Educators Rising state conference with over 400 members in attendance. To learn more about Educators Rising, visit https://www.educatorsrising.org/.

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Pick Your Panels: Vote Us Onto the Official SXSWedu 2016 Line-Up

We need your help! Julie Evans is featured in a proposal for SXSWedu 2016's panel picker,where educators can cast their votes for the most compelling ideas and ultimately shape the conference line-up. Voting ends on September 4th so make sure to give our sessions a "thumbs up" - you'll need to create a SXSW username and password if you don't already have one, but the process is simple and free! Check out the session information below:

Pink or Blue? Examining gender in games

Contrary to what we may want to believe, emerging research indicates that use of digital tools and content within learning is not gender-blind. While girls and boys share a common interest in technology to support personalized learning, their uses of and aspirations for digital learning are often quite different. This is especially true with game-based learning. In this workshop, we will roll up our sleeves and interact with a variety of games that are popular in education. Using a new evaluation tool, participants will gain an insider perspective on gender-bias or sensitivity within games by examining the characterization, imagery and language, storyline and results of the game play.

Additional Supporting Materials
http://www.tomorrow.org/docs/Guide_EvaluatingGender-Sensitivity_DigitalGames.pdf

Questions Answered

  1. Learn background and terminology associated with the emerging field of gender-sensitivity in digital learning, most notably in digital content & games
  2. Gain first-hand experience in determining the gender-sensitivity of specific types of games through the use of a new evaluation tool and game play
  3. Understand the importance and impact of gender-sensitivity when designing, implementing and evaluating games for K-12 education

Monday, August 10, 2015

FREE Webinar: Technology, Training and Teaming to Ensure Great Teaching for All Students

Technology, Training and Teaming to Ensure 
Great Teaching for All Students

Tuesday, August 25, 2015
1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. (ET) 
Registration required

Panelists
Patrick Finn, NCTAF Commissioner and Cisco Systems
Julie Evans, Project Tomorrow
Teacher, Digital Learning Day Partner
Bob Wise, President, Alliance for Excellent Education

Please join the Alliance for Excellent Education and the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF) for the first in a series of webinars exploring the conditions needed to support great teaching for deeper learning. The promising practices, recommendations, and lessons learned will inform a collective effort, led by NCTAF, around supporting great teaching.

This inaugural joint webinar will focus on the potential of technology to transform the teaching profession, increase opportunities for collaboration and professional learning, and improve student learning. Panelists will share data and experiences and discuss digital best practices to build teachers’ expertise and their ability to create powerful learning environments for their students. What opportunities exist now and in the near future for using technology to support great teaching? How can research results be connected with what is happening in practice? What recommendations should be put forward regarding technology integration and policy?

Bob Wise, president of the Alliance and former governor of West Virginia, will moderate the discussion. Panelists will also address questions submitted by viewers from across the nation.

Register and submit questions for the webinar online at http://all4ed.org/webinar-event/aug-25-2015/

Please direct questions concerning the webinar to alliance@all4ed.org. If you are unable to watch the webinar live, an archived version will be available at http://www.all4ed.org/webinars approximately 1–2 business days after the event airs.

The Alliance for Excellent Education is a Washington, DC–based national policy and advocacy organization dedicated to ensuring that all students, particularly those who are traditionally underserved, graduate from high school ready for success in college, work, and citizenship. www.all4ed.org



The National Commission on Teaching & America’s Future (NCTAF) was founded in 1994 as a bipartisan effort to engage education policymakers and practitioners to address the entrenched national challenge of recruiting, developing, and retaining great teachers in order to ensure that all students have access to quality teaching in schools organized for success. For twenty years, NCTAF has worked to drive and inform the national dialogue about the importance of great teaching, especially in hard-to-staff schools. NCTAF’s research and recommendations inform innovations and improvements in teaching quality nationwide, focus attention on the importance of equitable distribution and retention of teachers, and promote promising practices for the development of teachers’ skills and career pathways. www.nctaf.org 

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Around the Web Wednesday

Happy Around the Web Wednesday! Browse all the links below for the latest news and topics trending in education and technology. Be sure to let us know which article intrigued you the most!


Speak Up 2015 is now open for registration! Join the 3.9 million students, parents, educators, administrators, and community members who have spoken up about education and technology since 2003. Surveys will run from October 1 - December 18, 2015. Register today to ensure your voice is heard this fall! http://bit.ly/SU15survey

India Loves MOOCs - MIT Technology Review

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Why should you participate in Speak Up?

Still trying to decide if your school/district should participate in Speak Up this year? Hear firsthand from past participants about why they Speak Up and why they think the annual surveys are important to their schools.

"Via Speak Up, I finally have data that is useful and meaningful; it is an amazing service that is provided to schools.   I can't wait to compare data from last year to this year to see how we've changed, how we've grown, etc.  It is an amazing planning tool."
—Milena Streen, St. Ignatius High School (OH)

"What impresses me [about Speak Up] is the attention to relevance in the national conversation and the level of local detail."
—Fran Glick, Baltimore County Public Schools (MD)

"Each year the Blue Valley School District administers the Speak Up survey to students to obtain insights into how students are using technologies throughout the learning process. Responses to the surveys provide evidence on the variety, frequency and types of applications where students use technologies."
—Kristy Sailors, Blue Valley School District (KS)

"One of [Speak Up’s] most helpful features was questions concerning professional development and how and what teachers wanted to learn.  Also, some of what parents are wanting from us."
—Lauren Woolley, Shelby County (AL)

"When used the first time, Speak Up data provides our schools with baseline data on a wide array of topics related to curriculum and technology. It helps us assess “where we are” and provides the data needed to plot a course of action designed to build upon this base. Future surveys in subsequent years are helpful in determining our success in meeting the perceived needs of our students, teachers and other stakeholders, including parents. Speak Up provides us with a realistic picture of our community and helps us prioritize our needs when it comes to technology and curriculum planning."
—Paul Caputo, Southern Columbia Area School District (PA)

"Participating in Speak Up provides individual building and district administrators with anonymous responses to a variety of topics. Themes included in the survey questions align with a majority of technology initiatives implemented by districts. The Speak Up survey allows school administrators to gauge the student’s access, use and need for additional classroom technologies and supports throughout the learning process."
—Dr. Kristy Sailors, Blue Valley School District (KS)


To read more testimonials from Speak Up participants, or to share your own Speak Up experience with us, visit http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/speakup_in_action.html.

Monday, August 3, 2015

Follow our Speak Up 2015 timeline to help plan your school year

Speak Up 2015 is only two months away! To those starting the new school year this month or the beginning of next month, we've provided a short timeline with key Speak Up dates and suggestions to help you plan your year.

June-September 2015
October 2015
November 2015
  • Starting in November, Speak Up preliminary results will be available for contacts to view online. These results will be updated on a weekly basis until the official data release in February 2016.
  • Encourage your teachers to take the survey as a class activity before Thanksgiving break – check out our lesson plans to help facilitate the process.
  • Utilize our sample Speak Up tweets by sharing them to your Twitter page, or retweet our @SpeakUpEd tweets.
  • Continue checking your survey counts, sending weekly reminders to your school(s), and looking out for our weekly email messages.
December 2015
  • Final stretch! Speak Up closes on December 18.
  • Encourage your school(s) to take the survey before leaving for winter break.
  • Unsatisfied with your survey totals? Use our sample emails to spread the word to parents and educators.
January 2015
  • Welcome back to school! Enjoy the beginning of the new year while we prepare the Speak Up data for release.
February 2015
  • Early February 2016: release of Speak Up 2015 data to participating schools and districts. Check your email for instructions on how to access your data.
  • Share your Speak Up data with your school(s) through our PowerPoint presentation template or by posting the data on your website.