Showcase your students progress The idea of a student digital portfolio is for the pupil to collect their achievements as digital artifacts and then display those online — often that’s a website. The practice is growing in popularity across the country, and Class Dismissed tracked down a district that’s seeing results. “It’s the idea of having a showcase place or place where students can curate their work. Their successes, their failures, the things they care about, some of their classwork, things like that,” says Daniel Whitt, the instructional technology coordinator for Madison City Schools in Madison, Alabama. “The basic concept for all students is practicing constant ‘show then reflect,'” Whitt is a champion of Digital Portfolios at his district, and he and his colleagues have compiled tools to implement the curriculum. In Episode 94 we chat with Whitt about the need and challenges for school districts to roll out a digital portfolios curriculum. “The idea here is to showcase things that are not easily quantified,” says Daniel Whitt with Madison City schools in Madison Alabama. To hear our full interview about digital portfolios, listen to Episode 94 of the Class Dismissed Podcast on iTunes or your favorite podcasting app. Other Notes During the episode, Whitt refers to a Google Drive with tools for success. That Google drive can be found by following this link. All Rights Reserved. Class Dismissed Podcast 2017 – 2019

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Duncan Lyon and Olaf (Ole) Jorgenson are experienced leaders. Each guide independent schools in California and both know the importance humor can play when leading a team of educators. "I start every faculty meeting with something humorous," says Jorgenson. "Usually these meetings are at the end of the day and everybody is tried and not everyone likes meetings. For whatever the reason, starting with laughter just lightens everything." Lyon and Jorgenson know that most people would not argue with them, humor works in leadership. But they wanted to dive deeper into the topic of humor and laughter. So they surveyed other school leaders across California and asked them how humor helps build trust. They also found existing research supporting the impact humor can have. Developing... This podcast has been uploaded to your favorite podcast app. Check back for a written summary. All Rights Reserved. Class Dismissed Podcast 2017 – 2019

Cybersecurity Incidents Strike Often A recent report highlighted on EdSurge says a new cybersecurity incident strikes K-12 schools nearly every three days. Now more than ever, school districts are reliant on using computers and servers to store student and employee data and burden of securing that data is a massive undertaking for educators. For most districts, the challenge of protecting data is a chief responsibility for the director of technology. The person charged with guarding that data has to plan for attacks in several forms, which include but are not limited to. Denial of Service AttacksPhishing ScamsRansomware How to "mitigate" the problem? "The key is not complete containment. That is not possible," says SchoolStatus CEO Russ Davis. "The gold standard is mitigation." Davis has been working with school districts for over a decade and he says there are steps districts can take to reduce risk to a reasonable amount. Davis believes that districts need to have policies and plans in place to prevent extreme damage from cyberattack. "What happens when there is a breach? What do we do?" Davis says these are the types of conversations districts should be having. Don't store student's social security information Dane Conrad, who is the technical on-boarding specialist at SchoolStatus spent the past few decades serving as the Director of Technology for large school districts. Conrad says they quit storing student's social security numbers in their SIS (Student Information Systems). Conrad says criminals would love to have students social security numbers because those socials often go unchecked for foul play. "If somebody steals my identity and they use my social security number. Typically I'll fumble upon it. So I'll see information being accessed on my credit card or my debit card," says Conrad. "But for a student, they are not necessarily in that environment." Conrad says criminals could use that number for years before anyone realizes the damage. Superintendents should ask their director of technology if they're storing student socials anywhere on their servers. If so, find out why? Is it a necessity? Educate about Phishing One of the most common ways districts are compromised comes from phishing attempts. This is typically when a fraudulent email tricks employees into handing over sensitive information. Often employees may be tricked into handing over their login credentials. Conrad says it's critical for districts to educate their staff about what a phishing attempt may look like. He also recommends using a resource like knowbe4.com. He says they offer literature you can share with employees and they'll even run phishing attempts to test the system and see where you may have vulnerabilities. How to combat Denial Of Service Attacks A Denial of Service AKA DDOS attack occurs when multiple systems flood bandwidth or web servers. As a result, your schools network could be temporaily shutdown. Davis says having a quality ISP (Internet Service Provider) can help prevent this. He says that good ISPs offer intrusion prevention and detection systems. He also suggests that districts should tighten up their firewall. Frequent Backups to protect against Ransomware A district unprepared for a ransomware attack can be devastating. Ransomware can infect a computer system or server and block access to crucial data and files. The ransomware may quietly go through and encrypt a server until a ransom is paid. So what do you do if one of your servers is encrypted with ransomware? Davis says fixing it may make it worse. "First of all, mitigate the risk by disconnecting that device from the network." It's important to isolate the risk and contain it before it infects the entire network. Davis says one of the challenges is that most people don't have any kind of detection mechanism. They don't find out there's an issue until employees start letting th...

For the past 20 years, Elena Aguilar, the founder and President of Bright Morning, has worked as a teacher and instructional coach for educators. During that time she's witnessed and experienced something that many teachers know all too well. The feeling of being overwhelmed. As part of an ongoing series, Aguilar recently published: "How to Coach the Overwhelmed Teacher." In it, she offers five tips for working with a colleague or employee when they feel overwhelmed. Describe itRecall Previous ExperiencesIdentify a next stepListenPlan for Action To hear our full interview with Elena Aguilar listen to Episode 90 of the Class Dismissed Podcast on iTunes or your favorite podcasting app. Resources from Episode 90 The Core Emotions Resource discussed with Aguilar. Teachers as young as 20 could be in classroom as Mississippi struggles with teacher shortage Arkansas legislator proposes cutting lunch funding from schools that struggle to improve reading skills All Rights Reserved. Class Dismissed Podcast 2017 – 2019

Kim Marshall spent decades monitoring education in the United States, so we asked him how we're doing. For 50 years, Kim Marshall has been deeply involved in education in the United States. Between 1969 and 2002, Marshall served as a teacher, policy advisor, speechwriter, director of curriculum, and a principal for Boston schools. Once retiring from public education in 2002, Marshall started serving as a coach for principals, and he started writing the Marshall Memo. A weekly publication, well known in education circles, which he designed to keep educators in the know about current education research and best practices.  "When I was a principal I did not have enough time to read," said Marshall. "Once I got finished being a principal, out of exhaustion by the way. I decided that I now had time to read and that I should write summaries of the very best ideas from a wide variety of publications and send it to principals so they could get some of the best ideas from all around the world." Kim Marshall reading. Credit: marshallmemo.com The State of Education? Over the past 15+ years, Marshall has published over 700 memos and he's had his fingers on the pulse of the education community. So who better to ask about the state of education in the United States. Overall, Marshall is upbeat about where we are. He notes that surveys find that people are happy with their local schools, but they're down on schools nationally. "Generally the US is doing really well, but there are pockets of problems," said Marshall. "They are mostly schools where you're educating children coming from poverty. Children with other issues in their lives. But Marshall says there are some "beat the odds schools" that fascinate him. He says he was inspired to become a principal when he started reading the research on how some schools and principals produced really great schools for students that were challenged. When were we at our best? Since Marshall has been involved in education from 1969 to 2019, we challenged him to state when education in the US was at its best. "I think now we've done better and I think part of that was through some things that were controversial," said Marshall. He says the George W. Bush reforms had its flaws with testing and narrowing the curriculum. "But I think one of the best things that came out of it was producing data broken down by race, by class, by different schools." Marshall says No Child Left Behind, allowed educators to shine a spotlight on those pockets of schools that are not performing well. "The big picture is we're getting better", said Marshall. To hear our full interview with Kim Marshall listen to Episode 89 of the Class Dismissed Podcast on iTunes or your favorite podcasting app. All Rights Reserved. Class Dismissed Podcast 2017 – 2019

How to spark a love for reading Dina Leygerman was tired of having her high school students pretending to read the classic novels assigned in her class. She knew many of them were using SparkNotes and other shortcuts online and she guessed that some had probably never read a novel cover-to-cover. So Leygerman set a new a much loftier goal. She aimed to spark a love for reading amongst high schoolers. With the support of her principal, Leygerman decided to take a break from the classics. She passed out a set of Young Adult books that a friend recommended to her. The book, "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman, is a dystopian title. One that she admits she had not even read herself. "I wanted to find something that would possibly interest them and that they can't find on the internet. Like information about it on the internet," said Leygerman. Teaching a book you've never read At first the students were skeptical because their teacher had not read the book herself. Dina Leygerman - Credit: Dina Leygerman (Medium) "They were like, wait you didn't read this? How are you are going to teach us" says Leygerman "And I said, we're going to learn together, that's going to be the beauty of that." It didn't take long before the students were hooked. Since Leygerman didn't have a unit planned out yet, she set the students up in literature circles and she sat in with a different group everyday. "I was pleasantly surprised when the students just got into it. Like two chapters in, they were really into it." Leygerman says she had about 40 of her 45 seniors clearly engaged with the novel. This was a massive improvement over the classic novels she introduced in the past. At times, the students would read well beyond their teacher and the results were heartwarming. "They would be like, Ms. Leygerman, did you get to that part yet -- Oh my God, oh my God, we can't wait until you get there," said Leygerman. "They were so excited, and they were so excited for me to get to the part they were at. That to me was like, I won!" Once the students finished the book many of them came up to Leygerman and said "this was the best book I ever read" and some even said "this was the only book I ever read." Several of the students even asked for a copy of the sequel. Leygerman referred them to the school principal and the students made the effort to request the book through the administration. The principal ordered 25 copies of the sequel that could be borrowed. "Out of the 25 copies that she ordered, the kids borrowed 20 copies," says Leygerman. Breaking from tradition turned out to be a huge success. To hear our full interview with Dina Leygerman listen to Episode 88 of the Class Dismissed Podcast on iTunes or your favorite podcasting app. Other show notes NPR Student Podcast Challenge Setting up a podcast for kids -- Equipment Needed All Rights Reserved. Class Dismissed Podcast 2017 – 2019

Podcasting live so educators can learn Each winter educators from around Mississippi gather in Jackson for the Mississippi Educational Computing Association, better known as MECA. Recording a live Podcast from the event is becoming somewhat of a Class Dismissed tradition because it allows for us to interview the MECA keynote speakers. It's also an opportunity for those of us at Class Dismissed to teach educators how they can set up a podcast for themselves or their students. Our Guests This year we had the privilege of interview Oxford Assistant Superintendent Bradley Roberson and Oxford Math Coach Brian "Buck" Buckhalter. Roberson, a believer in change, is pushing his school district to adapt to new teaching styles to better fit the needs of Generation-Z. Roberson knows that Gen-Z students are always "plugged in" and he says that the classroom is not about acquiring knowledge anymore. "We have to able to implement a curriculum to where students can transfer the knowledge we're giving them to new situations," says Roberson. This means that school districts need to design an autonomous classroom where students can leave the class and still act independently, transferring their knowledge to new and unique situations. Roberson's colleague, Buckhalter knows there are a lot of strongholds that can get in the way of building a new curriculum for Generation-Z. But Buck believes that can all be overcome with love. During our recording, Buck shared what he calls "The Story of Moises." It's a beautiful story that you won't want to miss. To hear our full interview with Roberson and Buck, listen to Episode 87 of the Class Dismissed Podcast. You can find Class Dismissed in your favorite podcast app or on iTunes. All Rights Reserved. Class Dismissed Podcast 2017 – 2019

A Better Way with Open Textbooks Each year public schools spend millions of dollars on copyright protected textbooks. Districts do this even though we now live in a digitally dominated world, which is full of open textbooks. Open textbooks are textbooks that have been funded, published, and licensed to be freely used, adapted, and distributed. School districts around the world are currently exploring Open Educational Resources (OER), and they're finding out that the cost-saving results can be significant. The Man With The Answers Cable Green is the Director of Open Education with Creative Commons. He knows that if states use open education resources correctly, they can experience not just lower cost educational tools, but arguably better education tools. Cable Green courtesy of Twitter Green has over 20 years of experience in academic technology and online learning, and he’s a leading advocate for open licensing policies. He says that the many states are spending millions of dollars on textbooks that are sometimes six to ten years out of date. “The United States, just in K-12 spends somewhere between $6 and $9 billion a year on textbooks and other curriculum,” says Green. Green says for that money, we get pretty terrible results. "On average our books are 7-10 years out of date. They're paper only, we don't have any digital versions for the most part." Green says he gets irritated because it doesn’t have to be this way. With educational resources from the past decade originating in a digital format all that information can be stored, copied, and distributed for a minimal cost. Green believes by informing school districts about open educational resources; districts can spend a lot less money and get a lot better results. Hear Green explain how Open Educational Resources (OER) can change your school district by listening to Episode 86 of the Class Dismissed Podcast on iTunes or your favorite podcasting app. This interview with Cable Green is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The interview with Green was initially recorded in October of 2017.

"The New Childhood" The unknown surrounding new technologies often cause concern. In the case of iPhones and Xboxes, parents worry their kids are over-engaged. But Dr. Jordan Shapiro is offering a different perspective. In his new book, "The New Childhood" Shapiro argues that everyone needs stop worrying about our children's device usage and instead harness that usage for good. Shapiro, who teaches the Intellectual Heritage Program at Temple University, says the reactions to smartphones and video games today are not much different than the way society acted to new technologies in the past. Jodan Shapiro Credit: jordanshapiro.org For example, when the printing press was invented and books were bound for people to take home there was an uproar that stories would become too isolated of an activity. "Because stories had always been told communally, whether that's around a campfire or at church," says Shapiro. While we forget that trains were once a new technology, Shapiro says physicians and neuroscientists were once worried about kids staring out the window of moving trains. "Because the images go by so fast and the human brain is not capable of taking in things at that speed," Shapiro says back then the physicians were concerned about brain damage. Play video games with your kids Several years ago Shapiro was going through a transition in his life. He and his wife were separated, and he was worried about his kids. "They were little, and it was hard enough on me, I couldn't imagine how hard it would be on them to go through such a giant shift in their life." Shapiro wanted to find a way to spend time and bond with his kids. So he tried sitting on the couch and playing video games with them. "And that gave me the opportunity to talk about so many other things cause we were just sort of sitting next to each other playing," said Shapiro. But he also believes he was helping his kids create narratives about their digital life. "I was both using the digital world to help them make sense of their none digital life, and I was also preparing them to have a much more stable and healthy digital world," said Shapiro. To hear more of our conversation with Dr. Jordan Shapiro listen to Episode 85 of Class Dismissed. You can find Class Dismissed in your favorite podcast app or on iTunes. Other notes from Episode 85 To protect kids, don’t send report cards home on Fridays All Rights Reserved. Class Dismissed Podcast 2017 – 2019