Features


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The Teacher Support Program That Kept Growing Even Through the Pandemic

When COVID-19 prevented in-person coaching, observing, and co-teaching, the North Carolina New Teacher Support Program started using video and continued in full force, with over 1,000 teachers participating in the 2020–21 school year and the program has continued growing, with nearly 1,400 teachers participating this school year — data shows it is indeed helping the state retain teachers.

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7 Questions About Branching Minds MTSS Platform with CEO Maya Gat

For the 7 Questions Ed Tech Explainer series, Branching Minds CEO Maya Gat explains how its Multi-Tiered System of Supports solution works, how it impacts teachers, administrators, students, and learning outcomes, and how it incorporates a school district's existing data to help teachers equitably and efficiently differentiate instruction and ensure it's helping students catch up.

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7 Questions About PowerSchool's New Data-as-a-Service Platform, Connected Intelligence

THE Journal's 7 Questions: Ed Tech Explainer series features PowerSchool Group VP Shivani Stumpf, who explains the new Data-as-a-Service solution for education called Connected Intelligence, how it works, what it will offer public schools and state education agencies that is not commonly available now, and how she envisions it helping improve K–12 education.

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7 Questions About Discovery Education's Ready-To-Use Resources with SVP Lance Rougeux

This installment of THE Journal’s “7 Questions: Ed Tech Explainer” series gives Discovery Education Senior Vice President Lance Rougeux an opportunity to summarize Discovery Education's new Ready-To-Use Resources for teachers, how they help in the classroom, and what's planned for these kinds of instructional materials.

SchoolStatus CEO Russ Davis answers 7 questions about how the K-12 ed tech solution works

7 Questions about SchoolStatus with CEO Russ Davis

THE Journal’s “7 Questions: Ed Tech Explainer” series gives ed tech leaders an opportunity to summarize their solution(s), explain how their product helps educators and schools, and give a quick overview for K–12 decision-makers — sort of an extended (but not too extended) elevator pitch. For this installment, SchoolStatus Founder and CEO Russ Davis explains how SchoolStatus works in a school tech ecosystem, how it helps educators and students, and how it's pivoted over the past year.

Felisa Ford and two colleagues created Lessons in Good Trouble for Minecraft: Education Edition

How an Educator’s Persistence Led to a Student Leadership Initiative & the Most Popular Minecraft Edu Game of All Time

When Felisa Ford and her instructional tech colleagues in Atlanta had trouble getting the district's teachers on board with using Minecraft: Education Edition, she created a student ambassador program to empower young Minecraft experts to coach other students and teachers, and it was so successful that Microsoft started a learning path for educators to sponsor their own local student ambassador programs. Then came Good Trouble.

InnovateEDU Launches Open-Source Blueprint for Inclusive Research and Development in Education [BIRD-E]

Education nonprofit InnovateEDU today launched the Blueprint for Inclusive Research and Development in Education, dubbed BIRD-E, an open source, universal framework designed to generate actionable, high-quality research that ed tech providers, policymakers, researchers, education leaders, and other K-12 stakeholders can easily access, understand, and apply in the classroom.

How to Use a 3D Printer to Get Students into Design and Engineering

Ffrom Alief ISD in Houston, Texas, teachers Daniel O’Kilen and Carolyn Dersen, shard their enthusiasm for using 3D printing to entice students to learn STEAM concepts at a Tuesday session of the annual convention of the Texas Computer Education Association, and shared their free online guide “11 Classroom Lessons To Use With Your 3D Printer,”

Q&A with Todd Miller: How Rave Mobile Safety Keeps Schools Safe

Todd Miller, senior vice president of strategic programs at Rave Mobile Safety, recently spoke with THE Journal about Rave’s panic button app and how it’s helping keep schools and students safe, how Rave helps automate the instantaneous sharing of information that helps safety responders, and why he believes a statewide approach to school safety technology works best.

Filmmaker Brett Culp Encourages Educators to See Their Actions as Heroic and Stay Focused on the Mission

Documentary filmmaker Brett Culp describes how his journey making documentaries that tell the stories of everyday people doing extraordinary things to make a difference in the lives of others, changed his definition of what a hero and what a leader is — and teachers are both.