Classroom Management

Classroom Management

Instruction During COVID-19: Less Learning Time Drives Fears of Academic Erosion

1 week ago Jennifer

Natasja Billiau’s two children, Victor, 8, and Anna Laura, 5, study at the kitchen table in their Seattle area home during the coronavirus school building shutdowns. Billiau devised a learning schedule for her children that closely matches what they would have done at school.

—Natasja Billiau via AP

The picture of instruction that has emerged since the coronavirus forced students and teachers into remote learning is clear and troubling: There’s less of it, and the children with the greatest need are getting the least. These dynamics carry serious implications as schools plan to reopen in the fall.

But even though

Classroom Management

Artificial Intelligence in K-12: The Right Mix for Learning or a Bad Idea?

3 weeks ago Jennifer

—Getty

Last year, officials at the Montour school district in western Pennsylvania approached band director Cyndi Mancini with an idea: How about using artificial intelligence to teach music?

Mancini was skeptical.

“As soon as I heard AI, I had this panic,” she said. “All I thought about were these crazy robots that can think for themselves.”

There were no robots. Just a web application that uses AI to build original instrumental tracks from a library of prerecorded samples after a user selects a few parameters.

Equipped with Chromebooks, Mancini’s students could program mood and genre, manipulate the tempo or key,

Classroom Management

How Educators Can Use Artificial Intelligence as a Teaching Tool

3 weeks ago Jennifer

—Getty

Deb Norton spends her days helping teachers in Wisconsin’s Oshkosh Area school district get more comfortable with technology tools they’re using to engage students. A few years ago, she started seeing increasing mentions of artificial intelligence. Around then, the International Society for Technology in Education asked her to lead a course on the uses of artificial intelligence in the K-12 classroom.

She was initially intrigued when she saw students light up at the mention of artificial intelligence. It soon became clear to her that they were already experiencing AI in their daily lives, with tools like Instagram filters or

Classroom Management

6 Classroom Changes Teachers Will Make When Schools Reopen

3 weeks ago Jennifer

First Person

—iStock

Lessons from teaching during the pandemic

By

Gina Denny

By now, we’ve all read pieces about how COVID-19 is exposing cracks in our educational system, how schools are essentially assigning grades based on resources of family support and technology, and how socioeconomic differences are making a difference in ways they haven’t for a generation or more.

While most educators can see these problems and agree that these stories are necessary, there’s a component missing from the dialogue: What will we do about it once traditional classroom learning resumes? And, since that day appears to be receding for

Classroom Management

Teachers Work an Hour Less Per Day During COVID-19: 8 Key EdWeek Survey Findings

4 weeks ago Jennifer

—iStock/Getty Images Plus

Less time teaching, dramatically reduced exposure to new learning material for students living in poverty, and lots of Zoom lessons.

That’s the emerging picture of public K-12 education in America under the coronavirus, according to a new nationally representative survey of the nation’s educators from the Education Week Research Center.

Since President Donald Trump declared a national emergency to combat the pandemic on March 13, 48 states, four U.S. territories, the District of Columbia, and the Department of Defense have ordered or recommended school building closures for the remainder of the academic year, affecting nearly 51 million

Classroom Management

Survey Tracker: Monitoring How K-12 Educators Are Responding to Coronavirus

1 month ago Jennifer

By

EdWeek Research Center

The EdWeek Research Center is conducting surveys every two weeks of school district leaders and teachers to see how they are responding to the challenges they are facing under COVID-19.

The nationally representative surveys are keeping tabs on the impact of the virus on schools by tracking educator morale, student engagement, remote learning, and other trends over time.

Here are the latest findings. Check back every two weeks for updated data and survey results.

Note: The EdWeek Research Center COVID-19 surveys are administered every two weeks, but not all questions are repeated on that cadence.

Web

Classroom Management

Loving Our Students From a Distance

1 month ago Jennifer

First Person

—UnitoneVectors/iStock

By

Justin Minkel

When our governor announced in early April that school would remain closed until the end of the year, the teachers I know experienced a combination of relief and devastation. Relief because this virus is real and deadly, and we don’t want anyone we know and love to die. Devastation because we knew we would desperately miss that daily contact with students who have become our second family.

During a typical school year, teachers experience many of the same emotions that moms and dads experience with their own children: the joy of their constant company,

Classroom Management

Virtual Teaching: Skill of the Future? Or Not So Much?

2 months ago Jennifer

Kelly Dighero, a 3rd grade teacher at Phoebe Hearst Elementary School in Sacramento, Calif., gives a thumbs-up during her first online meeting with students and parents on the front lawn of her home.

—AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli

Before the coronavirus, few K-12 schools expected educators to be prepared for—much less have real-world experience—teaching students remotely.

But with 55 million American schoolchildren out of traditional classrooms for prolonged periods and many schools attempting to provide some form of virtual learning, will this change after the pandemic ends?

Anecdotal evidence suggests that post-pandemic expectations will depend largely on schools’ current preparedness for digital

Classroom Management

National Survey Tracks Impact of Coronavirus on Schools: 10 Key Findings

2 months ago Jennifer

—iStock/Getty

By

Holly Kurtz

The disruption in K-12 education due to the coronavirus is way more than anyone could have imagined just a couple of months ago. A system that has relied primarily on face-to-face interactions in school buildings for generations is now operating almost entirely virtual. That big, rapid shift has dampened morale among both teachers and students, and it has exposed huge equity problems in K-12 schools.

At the same time, it has forced educators to learn how to use new technologies, such as video conferencing, very quickly. That rush to use new technologies, though, opened the doors