NANCY BAILEY: Kindergarten Learning Loss Message Is HORRIFYING for Children!

Kindergarten Learning Loss Message Is HORRIFYING for Children!

Kindergarten Learning Loss Message Is HORRIFYING for Children!

No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, high-stakes testing, Common Core, and other bad school reform measures are coming together with Covid-19 to destroy the futures of America’s youngest learners!

They include the same equity and disparity talk used to ramp up the above harmful policies. Those changes to schools, all that rigor talk, did not work before, and they’ll not work to fix pandemic losses.

What child is going to welcome learning, look forward to going to school, some for the first time, when they hear about how far behind they’ve already fallen?

When parents read dire reports they will feel compelled to push their kindergartners and early learners harder. They’ll worry about the next test. Children will see learning as something to fear not a joyful experience.

Last November we saw Dallas Students Suffer ‘Horrifying’ Learning Loss During Pandemic, New Data Suggests. Such hyperbole is harmful.

Dallas doesn’t stop with the November report. Now we learn Dallas Trustees  CONTINUE READING: Kindergarten Learning Loss Message Is HORRIFYING for Children!

Opinion: Teachers are more than Covid data points - CNN

Opinion: Teachers are more than Covid data points - CNN

Too many parents and decision makers treat teachers like they don't matter

(CNN)Julie Davis, 49, was an inspirational third grade teacher, a "mother to everyone," who attended her students' extracurriculars and donated to children in need. About three weeks after a student at her North Carolina school tested positive for Covid-19, Davis fell ill. This mother and grandmother died certain, her brother said, that she caught the virus at school (an assessment the superintendent said was unproven). One week after Davis's death, her school system shifted to virtual instruction because of rampant Covid-19 infections in the schools and community.

Alexandra Robbins

Amid growing numbers of Covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths, I've spoken to educators who told me they're afraid for their lives and the health of their loved ones. Meanwhile, some organized groups of parents are issuing increasingly forceful calls to reopen schools. But too many of them neglect the teachers.

This neglect fits a pattern. In March, some districts initially failed to heed teachers' pleas to close, forcing them to keep working in person; at least 70 school-based staff died in New York City alone, though it's unclear whether they contracted the disease in schools. In a statement emailed to New York City outlet THE CITY in response to questions in May about how the Department of Education had handled the situation, a spokeswoman said that DOE's practice was to "immediately" notify school communities about Covid cases confirmed by the state Department of Health and added, "All our decisions are informed by public health experts in order to protect the health and safety of our students and staff." In the summer, some decision makers excluded teachers from discussions about how to operate pandemic classrooms. And now, many parents and pundits alike are ignoring teachers again.

America faces a dissonant, CONTINUE READING: Opinion: Teachers are more than Covid data points - CNN

Survey: Oklahoma educators 'overwhelmed' and 'scared' - NONDOC

Survey: Oklahoma educators 'overwhelmed' and 'scared'

Survey: Oklahoma educators ‘overwhelmed’ and ‘scared’

In a recent survey, the Oklahoma Education Association asked more than 3,100 teachers, support professionals and administrators to use one word to describe their current feelings about their job. Words like “stressed,” “overwhelmed,” and “scared” landed in the top 10.

The survey (embedded below) was conducted online Dec. 1 through Dec. 14, and it asked respondents to express their feelings on issues like the pandemic in general, school safety, student learning and how school employees are doing. A total of 3,580 Oklahoma educators completed the survey, with 3,147 responses deemed to be valid. The survey took about 30 minutes to complete and had a 54 percent completion rate, with responses coming from 230 communities.

“As you’ll see in the survey, the number one concern of our members has been the educational progress of our students,” OEA President Alicia Priest said during a Monday press conference announcing the survey results. “However, when the governor released a video last week where blame was placed on OEA and educators for the current state of fear regarding COVID-19 in Oklahoma, or when he declared that all schools must return CONTINUE READING: Survey: Oklahoma educators 'overwhelmed' and 'scared'

We are 'scared, frustrated, and anxious'; Weingarten says this Yale course can help educators

We are 'scared, frustrated, and anxious'; Weingarten says this Yale course can help educators

We are 'scared, frustrated, and anxious'; Weingarten says this Yale course can help educators

NEW HAVEN — The Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence has created an online course designed to aid educators battling the anxiety and stress of teaching during the pandemic and, in turn, students.

The course came after a recent YCEI survey “of over 2,500 educators nationwide found that their top emotions were anxious, exhausted, frustrated, stressed, and overwhelmed,” prompting members of the center to strive to “preserve the well-being of the nation’s school staff and their ability to teach and work” through the new educational offering, according to a university statement.

The course, “Managing Emotions in Times of Uncertainty and Stress,” will offer participants information on “why social and emotional learning is an important component of education” and how to “identify and manage emotions, including how to support their students with their emotions in scientific and culturally responsive ways.”

Participants will use what they’ve learned to fill out weekly plans, which as designed to give them a guide toward lasting change, according to the statement.

“Research shows that school staff who are better at managing their emotions have greater physical health, well-being, and job satisfaction,” said Dr. Marc Brackett, founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and professor in the Child Study Center. “They also create more supportive learning environments for students where there’s more CONTINUE READING: We are 'scared, frustrated, and anxious'; Weingarten says this Yale course can help educators