School Systems Blog
Recent Posts
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Understanding Common Core Texts: 10 Questions for Students
You are What you Read
As most know by now, the Common Core has put an emphasis on reading nonfiction texts– but why is this? In a study conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, students were reading less than 4 minutes of nonfiction per day, compared to about 25 minutes of fiction. While it’s great that students are reading, researchers are now seeing that it’s not only how much they read, but also what they are reading that counts.
More specifically, students need to be reading and comprehending more informational texts as … -
Assessment Apps for the 21st Century Classroom
What is one thing that every teacher has in common? I’ll give you another clue– teachers do it every day. Can you guess what it is?
Okay, so it could be a lot of things. However, I am referring to assessment; more specifically the assessing and observing of students in the classroom. Thanks to mobile devices, doing this has been easier than ever before, especially when it comes to managing, recording, and even improving these assessments.
That being said, I would like to share some apps that are great for assessment in … -
PowerTeacher Gradebook and upcoming Java updates: A note from the CTO
Dear PowerSchool customer,
At Pearson, our top priority is to provide our customers with the very best solutions to reliably and accurately improve education. We never forget that more than 775,000 educators use PowerSchool every day as they teach over 13 million students, and that those educators are counting on Pearson to ensure PowerTeacher Gradebook delivers the same great experience 24×7.
Unfortunately, we are aware that recent updates to the underlying Java technology used by PowerTeacher Gradebook and ReportWorks have, on several occasions, interrupted that reliability which all of our customers rightfully … -
Streamlining Online School Choice and Lottery
“School choice” used to be quite simple: you chose to relocate or your child would go to a less-than-ideal school. Recently, school choice and open enrollment programs have grown and expanded across the nation. These lottery systems aim to provide a selection process and equal opportunities for students by randomizing the selection of students to certain schools rather than just having them be assigned based on home address. What makes the “ideal” district in your area could vary greatly – community involvement, technology access, low student to teacher ratios, etc.
For … -
Teaching with Tablets: Tips and Tricks
I just joined the party – late as usual. I broke down and bought an iPad last night and I love it!
It is believed that tablets will soon outsell laptops, as predictions suggest that around 80 million tablets will be sold every year by 2018. In fact, we have already seen a large rise in the use of tablets specifically in education, highlighted recently by Bloomberg Businessweek HERE.
Most educators could probably name the benefits of using tablets with students off the top of their head, but when it comes to …
