Cybersecurity Incidents Strike Often If the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack had a silver lining, it was that it brought worldwide awareness to the fact that ransomware attacks are a costly epidemic. For years, school districts have been a target of such attacks creating costly headaches for those trying to educate our children. A report highlighted on EdSurge says a new cybersecurity incident strikes K-12 schools nearly every three days. For most districts, the challenge of protecting data is a chief responsibility of the director of technology. The person charged with guarding that data has to prepare for attacks in several forms, which include but are not limited to. Denial of Service Attacks Phishing Scams Ransomware 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 cyberattacks. “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 onboarding 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 school's network could be temporarily shut down. 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 de...

Only 1% of the things in our body make us human.  Doug Chadwick is a wildlife biologist, author, and frequent National Geographic contributor. During his 35 year affiliation with National Geographic, he's offered in-depth coverage of wolverines, grizzly bears, and whales, to name a few.   Now Chadwick has a new mission; he wants us to think differently about how humans mesh with nature. And he believes that a new way of thinking may need to start in the K-12 science classroom.  The idea is that if humans had a better understanding of what we're made of and how alike our DNA is to other living things, we may have a better appreciation of our purpose on Earth. "You are 23% a wine grape." One important fact that may help digest this thought is that only 1% of the things in our body make us human. This means that remarkably, 99% of our genetic make-up is no different than a chimpanzee or a bonobo.  Another thing that many people don't realize is that we share 80-85% of our genes with most mammals?   But the mind-numbing science doesn't stop there. "You are 23% a wine grape." says Chadwick, "You're also 7% a bacteria," "Every critter out there above the level of a bacterium is a joint partnership," says Chadwick.  It's an enlightening perspective that could cause us to look at the Earth and our [human] impact on the Earth differently. Four Fifths a Grizzly Chadwick breaks down the science of this thinking in his new book, "Four Fifths a Grizzly: A New Perspective on Nature that Just Might Save Us All"  The wildlife writer who has churned out over a dozen books says this latest release is the hardest thing he ever wrote, but he believes he got it right. And it's a critical perspective that he hopes science teachers worldwide will take into consideration. "I feel like a bit of a fraud telling science teachers how to teach," he says. Chadwick is admittedly not an educator. At least not in the traditional sense.  But for him, this way of thinking started when he looked through a microscope when he was about 7 or 8 years old.  "The overwhelming majority of life on earth is invisible."  "I realized that there is wonder everywhere, and the harder you look, the more you find," he says. "The overwhelming majority of life on earth is invisible."   "You shouldn't be able to get through a high school biology class without understanding a heck of a lot more about who you are," says Chadwick.  "I think a great majority of people out there think that when I say microbes, bacteria, they think that's germs. There's a negative connotation to it."  Chadwick says that we need to embrace what science has been telling us about these connections since the 1970s, which is that we're all the same. To hear more of Chadwick's interview and find out what question he would begin science class with, listen to Episode 193 of Class Dismissed.  You can listen to the latest episode of Class Dismissed on your favorite podcast app or iTunes. All Rights Reserved. Class Dismissed Podcast 2017-2021

Dr. Dave Neumann is an Assistant Professor of History Education at Cal Poly Pomona and he was recently published in “Social Education” with his article titled “A feeling for the Past: The Role of Emotion in History Education.”  In it, Neumann highlights some of his students (future educators) who were presenting their culminating model lessons in his history methods class and he noticed a crucial missing element to their presentation. “The students had presented this model lesson in a pretty exemplary way, in terms of the content,” said Neumann. “But as I was sitting observing it, I noticed the rest of the students participating in it just really didn’t click with it, and I felt like something was missing.” What became apparent to Neumann is that the students were missing the emotion in the lesson. His students had presented the topic in a very cold analytical way. In Episode 192 of Class Dismissed, Neumann tells us what his students could have done better at that moment and he gives us some tips on how educators can bring more emotion into their lessons. You can listen to the latest episode of Class Dismissed on your favorite podcast app or iTunes. Other Show Notes This is a map of America's Broadband Problem Is your student data safe? All Rights Reserved. Class Dismissed Podcast 2017-2021

Nathan Levenson, a former school superintendent, has consulted with hundreds of districts about ways to improve special education. But in March of 2020, COVID 19 magnified the challenges surrounding special education. “Despite heroic efforts, by teachers and districts, kids with disabilities really did not thrive in any way shape, or form and the gaps got bigger,” says Levenson. Pre or post-pandemic, Levenson believes that if educators are going to serve kids with disabilities well, general education has to be lead. “When we’re in person, the goal is to have general ed teachers providing the vast majority of high-quality instruction to students.” Admittedly, Levenson says that doesn’t always happen, but when the pandemic came the split became even greater. “Everyone turned to the special education department and said what are you going to do for kids with special needs? And many of the things they do, don’t translate at all to a remote setting.” Levenson recently released a book, “Six Shifts to Improve Special Education and Other Interventions” In it, Levenson explains why the vast majority of students in special education need to be in the general education classroom most of the day. “The research is really clear,” says Levenson. “The quality of the teacher is central, and if you’re going to teach grade-level material, kids have to be in the classroom to be taught that material.” Levenson says studies show that students who struggle often get less instruction from a classroom teacher than if they didn’t struggle. “I want to be really clear on this,” says Levenson. “Imagine a second grader who struggles to read. They get less reading instruction from a certified reading teacher or a classroom teacher than a student who doesn’t struggle.” Levenson says we can’t be shocked if the student falls behind. To learn more about Levenson’s six shifts to improve special education, listen to Episode 191 of the Class Dismissed Podcast on your favorite podcast app or iTunes. All Rights Reserved. Class Dismissed Podcast 2017-2021

Learning through play is a great way for children and adults to develop new skills, but it’s also a great way to alleviate stress and trauma and even tap into some different parts of the mind.  Our guest on Episode 190 of Class Dismissed is an expert on learning through play. Dr. Bo Stjerne Thomsen is the Vice-President and Chair of Learning through Play in the LEGO Foundation. The Lego Foundation has partner researchers and labs throughout the world that study learning through play. And they have also recently released a new study out on children, technology, and play. Thomsen and the LEGO Foundation have examined the science behind learning through play and they know that children have wholly emerged in learning when being hands-on with toys and trying things out. "First, you understand things much deeper when you test it try it out," says Thomsen. "You basically remember things for longer and understand concepts better." In this episode of Class Dismissed, Thomsen dives into the skills learned while playing Attention Limiting Distractions Retain information while building (Working memory) Recognizing symbols - Same as language? Spacial abilities, quantify, sort and count.  Regulating Emptional Frustration To hear our full discussion with Thomsen, listen to Episode 189 of Class Dismissed. You can listen to the latest Episode of Class Dismissed on your favorite podcasting app or iTunes. All Rights Reserved. Class Dismissed Podcast 2017-2021

How schools can help overcome the disadvantage of poverty. When illustrating the need for systems of support in our schools’, Harvard Graduate School of Education Professor Paul Reville uses an example close to his heart; his daughter. He’s open about the list of advantages his daughter had when she showed up for her first day of kindergarten at an urban public school. a stable two-parent family adequate income healthcare stable housing full nutrition read to every night well-traveled Reville says many of the children she sat next to in kindergarten had none of the advantages above. Plus, some of those children had already experienced various trauma on top of it. We’ve always thought that schools would be the great equalizer, but that hasn’t turned out to be true. “If you think of it as a hundred-yard dash, she’s [Reville’s daughter] already on the 50-yard line,” says Reville. The student she’s sitting next to, who has all the disadvantages, is a hundred yards behind the starting line. “And we fire the starting gun and when they don’t finish at the same time 13 years later at graduation, we act surprised,” says Reville. Making change outside the school Our current system is not enough to make up for the profound differences outside of school. Reville says that we’ve always thought that schools would be the great equalizer, but that hasn’t turned out to be true. This is because children learn a lot outside of school. So if you only fix the school and you treat everybody equally when they’re in school. You’re not going to get a closing of the gaps. “The access to opportunity outside of school is controlled by your financial and social capital,” says Reville. “We live in a society now, that has been recently demonstrated quite vividly, that there are huge disparities in wealth, income, and opportunity.” Reville is optimistic that many solutions can be created at the local level. He says he witnessed great progress with community programs like City Connects in Salem, Massachusetts. “The teacher connects with the student and the family. They develop a plan and they track progress against that plan,” Reville says. Reville and his co-author Elaine Weiss, recently release a new book on the topic. Broader, Bolder, Better offers solutions on how schools and communities can work together to help students overcome the disadvantages of poverty. To hear our full discussion with Reville, listen to Episode 189 of Class Dismissed. You can listen to the latest Episode of Class Dismissed on your favorite podcasting app or iTunes. Other Show Notes "A New Way to Inoculate People Against Misinformation" Bad News Harmony Square Go Viral Will FEMA Reimburse Schools for COVID-Related Costs? Here’s What We Know All Rights Reserved. Class Dismissed Podcast 2017-2021

Jerald L. Hoover is an award-winning Young Adult fiction author and has garnered success and multiple accolades over the years. He was awarded Best New Male Writer of the Year by the Literary Society in Virginia in 1993 for his novella My Friend, My Hero. He was also listed as a bestselling author among black writers from 1994 – 1996 in various African American publications and was awarded the WritersCorp Award by President Bill Clinton in 1995. Hoover's series of YA fiction, known as "The Hero Book Series" is a group of Young Adult Fiction geared toward young black men ages 12 and up.  His first title in the series “My Friend My Hero” has become recommended reading in many classrooms throughout the world.  However, Hoover's success did not come easy. In Episode 188 of Class Dismissed Hoover tells us about the challenges he had to overcome to first get published in the 1990s. He says he was rejected by publishers over 40 times. To hear our full interview with Hoover listen to Episode 188. You can also hear any of our episodes of Class Dismissed on your favorite podcasting app or iTunes. About "My Friend My Hero" Bennett Wilson has the world at his fingertips. One of the top basketball players in New York State, he is destined to lead Mount Vernon High to the state championship for the first time. Many of the nation’s top colleges are already reaching out, eager to sign him to their roster. Scholarships are guaranteed. Still young, Bennett is seduced by the promise of fame and fortune. Yet all is not as it appears. Bennett’s life is plagued with strife and conflict. The oldest of three, he has grown up with his single mother in the tough inner-city projects of Mount Vernon. Life is hard but Bennett refuses to choose the fast life of the streets. He knows his only ticket to freedom is through basketball and academics. Bennett’s dreams come to a screeching halt when he learns his sick mother has fallen far behind on her rent and is threatened with eviction. He knows he can get easy money on the streets, but at the cost of ruining his future. Will Bennett finally succumb to a life he’s avoided and if he does, what will it cost? You can learn more about The Hero Book Series at this link.  All Rights Reserved. Class Dismissed Podcast 2017-2021

Here on Class Dismissed, we've published over 180 episodes. However, as we reflect on all the great topics we've covered, we must admit that we haven't focused enough on the subject of rural education. What are schools like in rural America? What are the myths and stereotypes about rural education? If you keep up with education news, you may also notice the coverage of students educated in rural communities often feels like an afterthought. Why is this the case? After all, the number of students educated in rural America is greater than the number of students educated in the top one hundred urban school districts combined.  Geoff and Sky Marietta join us in Episode 187 to shine some light on the topic. The husband and wife duo are co-authors of "Rural Education in America: What works for our students, teachers, and communities."  The Marietta's have a unique perspective. They both grew up in rural towns, and they have both taught in rural communities. But they've also spent several years living in urban communities in the northeast while obtaining degrees from Yale and Harvard. Now the couple lives in Harlan, Kentucky. The city of Harlan has a population of about 2000 and sits along the Appalachian mountains. Part of Marietta's reasoning for writing "Rural Education in America" was to correct the caricature of what it means to be rural.  Sky says that they see rural America get misrepresented all the time. "We have a lot of very talented teachers in rural America," she says. "We don't want to pretend like rural America is utopia. We're not saying it's perfect. But we lived in Boston for 11 years and moved from Cambridge to Harlan County, Kentucky. People are not that different." In Episode 187 of Class Dismissed, the Mariettas explains how programs like Title 1 often use a formula that can lead to funding discrepancies for rural students. They also list the topics they'd like to see lawmakers address. For instance, they say the need for universal broadband internet is a national emergency and should be a top priority.  You can listen to Episode 187 or any of our episodes of Class Dismissed on your favorite podcasting app or iTunes. All Rights Reserved. Class Dismissed Podcast 2017-2021

As educators, we sometimes need a spark. One great place to find that inspiration is from movies. In Episode 186 of Class Dismissed, we highlight some of the most inspirational movie scenes for teachers. The movie scenes that made our list include... Stand and Deliver (Rotten Tomatoes Score 82%) Los Angeles high school teacher Jaime Escalante (Edward James Olmos) is being hassled by tough students like Angel Guzman (Lou Diamond Phillips). But Jaime is also pressured by his bosses, who want him to control his raucous classroom. Caught in the middle, he opts to immerse his students in higher math. In our highlighted scene Escalante tries to convince his jaded colleagues that they just need "ganas," which translates to desire. School of Rock (Rotten Tomatoes Score 91%) Overly enthusiastic guitarist Dewey Finn (Jack Black) gets thrown out of his bar band and finds himself in desperate need of work. Posing as a substitute music teacher at an elite private elementary school, he exposes his students to the hard rock gods he idolizes and emulates -- much to the consternation of the uptight principal (Joan Cusack). In our highlighted scene Finn discovers his students' potential as musicians and his own potential as a teacher. Mr. Holland’s Opus (Rotten Tomatoes Score 75%) Composer Glenn Holland (Richard Dreyfuss) believes that he'll eventually write a transcendent piece of music, but in the meantime, he's taken a job at an Oregon high school. In our highlighted scene, Holland has a breakthrough with one of his struggling students. Lean on me (Rotten Tomatoes Score 69%) In this fact-based film, a New Jersey superintendent, Dr. Frank Napier (Robert Guillaume), watches helplessly as East Side High becomes the lowest-ranked school in the state. With nowhere else to turn, Dr. Napier enlists maverick ex-teacher Joe Clark (Morgan Freeman) to take over as principal of the declining school. In our highlighted scene Clark catches some students in the bathroom and challenges them to recite the school song. Their response surprises the hard-nosed principal. Remember the Titans (Rotten Tomatoes Score 73%) In Virginia, high school football is a way of life, an institution revered, each game celebrated more lavishly than Christmas, each playoff distinguished more grandly than any national holiday. And with such recognition, comes powerful emotions. In 1971 high school football was everything to the people of Alexandria. But when the local school board was forced to integrate an all-black school with an all-white school, the very foundation of football's great tradition was put to the test. In our highlighted scene, Coach Herman Boone, played by Denzel Washington, takes his players to a hallowed ground to prove a point. Dead Poets Society (Rotten Tomatoes Score 84%) A new English teacher, John Keating (Robin Williams), is introduced to an all-boys preparatory school that is known for its ancient traditions and high standards. He uses unorthodox methods to reach out to his students, who face enormous pressures from their parents and the school. In our highlighted scene Keating explains to his students the importance of the arts and self-purpose. You can listen to Episode 186 or any of our episodes of Class Dismissed on your favorite podcasting app or iTunes. All Rights Reserved. Class Dismissed Podcast 2017-2021

You may know "Survivorman" from the hit Discovery Channel TV show (2000-2018), Les Stroud's passion for the outdoors has driven him to some of the planet’s most remote locations. Now Stroud is reaching out to kids about the lessons that can be learned through outdoor adventures. Stroud says he worked with kids in camps for years, so the idea of a book directed at 8-12-year-olds just made sense. The result was Wild Outside: Around the World with Survivorman. In the book, he retells 12 true Survivorman stories, sharing nature facts and practical advice along the way. It's like sitting around a campfire with Survivorman himself, plus kid-friendly tutorials on using a compass, signaling for help, building a wildlife blind, tracking weather patterns, and packing a survival kit. In Episode 185 of Class Dismissed, Survivorman tells us that he actually grew up in a city. "I would go to a creek behind a hospital in the middle of Toronto," says Stroud. Adventure with nature exists even in an urban environment he says. In our interview with Survivorman, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to ask about all of the amazing things he's seen in his travels. Specifically, he tells us the scariest moment he's ever been in. The most awe-inspiring places he's ever stood, and which place he's visited that he'd like to move to. Stroud also has two new TV programs airing nationally, "Surviving Disasters" and "Les Stroud's Wild Harvest." They can also be viewed on his YouTube channel. You can listen to Episode 185 or any of our episodes of Class Dismissed on your favorite podcasting app or iTunes. All Rights Reserved. Class Dismissed Podcast 2017-2021