Schools debate student cellphone use in class
A newspaper-led survey of more than a dozen school districts in Pennsylvania found that some educators integrate cellphones into classroom lessons while others ban the devices altogether. High-school principal Todd Price says he used to believe in banning phones in class, but that resulted in a “forbidden fruit phenomenon,” and now he lets teachers set their own policies about cellphone use.
How teachers with trauma can cope
The effects of childhood trauma on students are an increasing focus for schools nationwide, but high-school English teacher Emily Donahoe writes that some educators still may be dealing with their own childhood traumas and that may affect them in the classroom. In this blog post, she shares how such teachers could be triggered by even relatively minor events in the classroom, such as a student plagiarizing a paper, and how they can cope with trauma-informed practices.
In more than 70% of US cities, neighborhoods grew less racially segregated between 1990 and 2015, but 62% of cities experienced an increase in school segregation during the same time frame, according to an analysis by Ryan Coughlan, a professor at Guttman Community College in New York City. Coughlan suggests that the end of legal desegregation orders and an uptick in school choice may be contributing factors.
5 tips for hiring effective principals
Superintendents have to be involved in the process of hiring effective school principals, writes Barbara Sargent, superintendent of schools at Readington Township Board of Education in New Jersey. In this commentary, she shares five suggestions for hiring good principals, including establishing an interview panel that includes teachers, a principal, parents, school board members and others.
A faculty meeting can be an opportunity for school leaders to engage educators in meaningful professional development, suggests Michael Gaskell, a middle-school principal in New Jersey. In this commentary, he shares several strategies for turning routine meetings into Edcamps.
Teresa Donnellan is an editor at SmartBrief.
___________________________________
This “most read” feature reflects the most read items in ASCD SmartBrief from the previous week. Sign up for ASCD SmartBrief to get news like this in your inbox, or check out all of SmartBrief’s education newsletters, covering career and technical education, educational leadership, math education and more.