Unleashing Innovation: Dive into Kent ISD’s AI Summit 2024 Journey!

“A very solid event that has emboldened me to dip my toes into the AI pool, with the goal of wading by the end of next school year.” was what one participant said as they left Kent ISD’s AI Summit this Spring.

On April 29 over 100 education leaders representing principals, teachers, coaches, counselors, specialists, and district administration packed into Kent ISD to share a meal and learn about artificial intelligence. 

Boost Your Teaching: How to Meet Teachers’ Needs with an Early Literacy Collection

When I was a first-grade teacher at a Title I school on the east side of Michigan, I often spent time with the media specialist and librarians at the local public library trying to find a wide range of books to use for interactive read-alouds that also connected to science or social studies content and standards. I would walk away with many engaging recommendations and titles that made my heart sing. Not to mention the incredible relationships I came to foster with those talented and knowledgeable librarians! I tapped into these resources because I knew my classroom library collection wasn’t robust enough, the provided science and social studies curricular resources were not always high quality or were missing, and getting funds to cover the cost of new resources was sometimes a challenge.

Engage All Learners: 5 Must-Know Tricks for Accessible Presentations

As I was catching up on the latest episode of the For the Purpose of… podcast on Accessible Design, it struck me—how can I, as a graphic designer, ensure my slide decks cater to all learners? Crafting inclusive and captivating presentations is essential for anyone who shares information. After all, if your audience can’t grasp the visuals or decipher the text, your message might get lost in translation.

In this blog post, let’s explore five simple yet effective tricks to enhance your slide show for all learners. Our journey will revolve around universal design, ADA compliance, and, of course, equity.

How Can Social Studies Inspire Student Inquiry and Civic Engagement?

Significant shifts are reshaping social studies instruction, and they’re here to stay. Have you encountered the transformative framework known as the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies? You’re likely familiar with its impact, even if you don’t recognize the formal name. The C3 Framework serves as a guiding light, ushering in dynamic changes in how we approach social studies education.

Unleashing Inquiry: The Role of Social Studies Frameworks

These shifts in social studies instruction encompass the concept of inquiry, emphasizing skill application through social studies-centered content. They promote the integration and expansion of literacy, mainly through civic media, within the social studies disciplines, culminating in actionable insights. The C3 Framework fosters a culture where students are encouraged to actively inquire about their social studies learning. It challenges them to seek credible evidence to address these inquiries and actively share their findings with others.

Teen Tobacco Realities: Key Insights from 2023 and Effective Strategies for Change

In the latest 2023 data, a concerning reality surfaces: more than 2.1 million teens nationwide are currently using e-cigarettes, with a surprising 1 in 4 engaging in daily vaping, as reported by the FDA (FDA, 2023). In Michigan, around 14 percent of high school students are into electronic vapor products, slightly lower at 13.6 percent in Kent County (YRBSS and MiPHY).

Michigan’s Progress and Persistent Challenges

Although rates of high school students in Michigan who have ever used electronic vapor products decreased from 2019-2021, dropping from 50 percent to 33 percent, tobacco use is still the number one cause of preventable death in Michigan (YRBSS).

How North Godwin Empowered Education: Turning STEM Dreams into Reality

Written by Karen Baum, Instructional Specialist Godwin Heights Public Schools

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) is a fantastic way to engage students in learning about the world around them, develop their problem-solving skills, and provide them with hands-on learning where they can create, collaborate, and think critically. We wanted North Godwin students to have STEM experiences where they could enjoy this type of 21st-century learning, but where to start?

The Journey Begins

Conversations about STEM learning goals began in the Fall of 2019. We worked with Kent ISD consultants Marcus Deja, Wendi Vogel, and Keith Tramper. We discussed what other districts were offering students for STEM learning, and we looked at published programs available for elementary students, like Engineering in Elementary STEM Education (EIE). However, we didn’t find any program that seemed the right fit for our community of learners. Equity was our priority, and we realized that we needed to make our program available to all students to achieve it. To achieve this goal, we decided to offer STEM opportunities during the school day, and we made teacher professional learning central to the design of our program. As we continued to plan for the new year, March 2020 brought COVID and school closures, and our STEM plans were quickly put on the back burner. 

Why SEL Matters: Your Journey through the SEL Playground

In today’s rapidly changing world, education is not just about academic knowledge but also about developing essential life skills. Understanding social-emotional learning (SEL), which focuses on students’ emotional intelligence and well-being, is equally important. That is where the SEL Playground enters the conversation! The SEL Playground is a collection of digital and analog activities that allow students (and educators!) to explore different aspects of SEL, take a moment to check in with themselves, and practice strategies for managing feelings and emotions.

A New Vision for Math: Equity and Inclusion through the Michigan Early Math Essentials

Do you have any memorable experiences from your preK-12 math classes? What specifically stands out to you? How did those experiences make you feel? For me, one standout moment was when I memorized my multiplication tables in third grade to go to McDonald’s with my teacher as a reward. My best friend and I planned to pass on the same day to enjoy lunch together. I also recall geometry being quite challenging when I was a freshman. The different shapes and properties were difficult to remember, and I didn’t enjoy it. However, I found Algebra 2 to be enjoyable since I was good at memorizing the rules. Like chess, Algebra is a game where you must “win” by getting the correct answer. I loved that aspect of it.

Historically, students would observe their teacher solving math problems, understand the steps involved, and then attempt to solve the problems independently. They would sit in their seats, facing the front, and take notes or practice the steps quietly on paper. The storylines of students created by these experiences categorized each of them as either “a math person” or “not a math person.”

The Story of Two Best Friends: Student Engagement and School Belonging

“Student engagement” is a commonly used term and a goal shared across all education levels. With so many variables involved, it can be challenging to prioritize the most important factors of what cultivates students to be engaged as often as possible in our classrooms. In an attempt to prioritize, we might wonder what factors need to be held as “best friends” to student engagement versus other factors that might be viewed as an “acquaintance” that you only think about occasionally in its relevance to this goal. The Ignite Engagement program lives in constant reflection around this question of friendship.  

How to Connect Verbal and Visual Worlds to Benefits Student Academic Success

Are you looking for a way to help your students retain information better and increase their comprehension of different content areas? Sketchnoting is the answer! It’s a powerful visual tool that helps students connect verbal and visual information, leading to improved comprehension and retention. Sketchnoting is an effective way to help students gain a deeper understanding of the topics they are learning by combining words, images, and symbols.