Tech & Learning.com - Rethinking Learning Spaces - April 2023

WHY WELLNESS IS SO IMPORTANT NOW

SCHOOL WELLNESS COORDINATORS:

WHAT TO KNOW

By Sascha Zuger

Busy educators already at their limit for time and energy in the classroom face a struggle to add more tasks to their plate, so districts are hiring wellness coordinators to lend a hand in implementing initiatives into the daily lives of their students.

A WELLNESS COORDINATOR:

• Provides leadership in the school setting, acting as a liaison between educators and the various programs and policies affecting students’ (and in some cases, employee) well-being.

• Offers guidance to promote a positive and healthy environment on campus and share knowledge of the latest programs, policies, and initiatives offered to help learners.

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Managing Editor Ray Bendici ray.bendici@futurenet.com

Senior Staff Writer Erik Ofgang erik.ofgang@futurenet.com

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• Devises plans on how to organically incorporate these positive models and offerings into the classroom, rather than to have programs competing for precious instruction hours.

• Evaluates long-term needs for students and staff within a campus or district and creates a plan to reach goals for improvement.

• Recommends specific programs to solve issues, or provide guidance on how to follow existing policies in a positive and cohesive way.

RETHINKING LEARNING SPACES: 4 STRATEGIES FOR STUDENTCENTERED LEARNING

By Erik Ofgang

Le arning doesn’t just take place between the four walls of the traditional classroom, says Glenn Robbins, Superintendent and Principal of The Brigantine Public School District in New Jersey. “It also takes place outside and takes place anywhere we go,” Robbins says.

To capitalize on this idea, the preK-8 district recently transformed its indoor and outdoor education spaces.

AMONG ROBBINS’ INITIATIVES: Create Inviting Spaces - “The second you’ve walked through that threshold into that building into that room, whatever it may be into that arena, you want the kids to go, ‘Wow, I want to be in here, and it’s the same thing for our staff,’” Robbins says.

Bring Learning Outside - B eing in a coastal community, teachers have been encouraged to take lessons off campus with mini walking field trips to explore the oceanside environments near the school.

Incorporate Student Voice - Student input has helped guide the district’s redesign process and continues to influence overall learning.

Work With Other Education Leaders

But Recognize Your District is Unique - Connect with other educators to share best practices but don’t try to compete as every district has its own special challenges.

3 WELLBEING INITIATIVES THAT WORK FOR SCHOOLS

By Ellen Ullman

If you’re looking to start some wellness initiatives and or ways to make your teachers, staff, and students try and manage their stress, here are three to consider.

A Mindfulness Infusion - Downers

Grove South High School in Illinois addresses wellbeing by having a counselor who specializes in mindfulness practices and holds Mindfulness Monday every week, offering a mindfulness club for students, and providing teachers and staff with a free subscription to a mindfulness app.

Creating Digital Wellness RoomsIndian Prairie School District 204 in Illinois

established The Grizzly Zen Den, a virtual space in which students can take a quick break, play a game, or do a mindfulness activity or breathing exercise.

Reevaluating School Through a Wellbeing Lens - Glenbrook High School

District 225 in Illinois has developed six wellbeing pillars – belonging, mindfulness, purpose, optimism, vitality, and identity – and incorporated those into all aspects of the district.

Read the full article here

SUPPORTING STUDENT & TEACHER WELLBEING

By Matthew X. Joseph

Teachers need to be able to create emotionally safe spaces in their classrooms and be willing to play a critical role in the emotional well-being of their students. Providing strategies for them to do so is critical.

SOME BEST PRACTICES TO SUPPORT TEACHER WELLBEING:

Value Your Staff - An act of thanks or kindness produces positive sentiments, stronger professional connections, and improved wellbeing.

Provide Time To Talk To Peers - Create structures that allow teachers time to discuss issues and focus on solutions rather than constantly venting about the problems.

Encourage Collaboration - Sharing knowledge and ideas allows teachers to feel supported and reach the desired results much more quickly.

Manage Administrative

Communication - Education leaders should consider sending emails at reasonable times and avoid it altogether on weekends.

Create a Space Where Teachers Feel

Welcome - In addition to creating a staff room that is open to all with a relaxed atmosphere, consider providing healthy snacks, treats, drinks, and music. Read

BEST PRACTICES FOR SCHOOL LEADERS TO SUPPORT WELLBEING

By Ray Bendici

As Superintendent of Ypsilanti Community Schools in Michigan, Alena ZacheryRoss has focused on wellbeing through a variety of efforts, including providing trauma resilience training, hosting regular wellbeing events for staff and families (such as town hall meetings with mental health professionals), creating a resiliency center, and offering food and learning labs in the community to help students feel physically and mentally safe.

ZACHERY-ROSS ALSO RECOMMENDS:

Encourage Ownership - “One of my mottos is, ‘People support what they help create,’” says Zachery-Ross, adding that by doing so in regard to wellbeing initiatives, they’re more likely to be enthusiastic and engaged.

Support Teacher Voice and Student Choice - Educators, students, and families are all fatigued right now, so creating opportunities for teachers to express their voice and students to have choice has been a priority to boost enthusiasm for learning.

Keep Moving Forward - The pandemic necessitated innovation and new approaches to instruction, and Zachery-Ross encourages that spirit to continue.

Embrace Failure - Zachery-Ross holds an annual “Fail Fest” during which educators share some of the mistakes they’ve made and chances they took that maybe didn’t work out as planned, and what they learned from these experiences.

Be Present and Communicate Clearly

- “How can you lead if you don’t understand, and the way to understand is to get to know people,” she says. “We can’t do it by pointing the finger – I always say people don’t follow your fingers, they follow what you do, how you communicate.” Read

HOW ONE DISTRICT’S MENTAL HEALTH PROGRAM IS SAVING MILLIONS & HELPING STUDENTS

By Erik Ofgang

Afew years ago Randolph Township Schools in Randolph, New Jersey, launched a comprehensive program to support mental health for everyone as well as providing training. Even though there were initial startup expenses, the program has ultimately saved the district significant money because they are no longer paying for as many students to attend schools or programs out of the district, says

Walter Curioni, Director of Special Services.

SOME KEY ASPECTS OF THE PROGRAM: A More Proactive Approach -

The dist rict partnered with an organization dedicated to providing effective mental health programs at schools, and hired several full-time counselors.

Real-Time Data - Staff monitors daily student data to stay ahead of issues. “We’re looking at attendance, we’re looking at discipline, and we’re looking at any sort of outlier that gives us a glimpse of if a child is in crisis or not,” says Curioni.

Shifting the Culture - Mental hea lth is emphasized district-wide. “Everyone in the building can tell you about the supports, everyone in the building could tell you where you could get those supports, and I would say everyone in the building feels more comfortable because they know now through the work of their colleagues, what is expected and what role they play,” Curioni says.

BEST AT BETT: TECH & LEARNING’S EXCLUSIVE CONFERENCE REPORT

Best at B ett, the largest edtech conference in the world, was back in full swing at the Excel Centre in London. Taking place the last week of March this year, Bett has earned a reputation as the go-to conference to get a sneak peek at some of the most innovative emerging technologies for schools, and is often a sneak peek at what edtech is headed to the US.

BY THE NUMBERS, THIS YEAR’S

BETT DREW:

• 30,000 attendees

• 123+ countries represented

• 600+ exhibitors

Highlights included the “Esports @ Bett” area, “Kids Judge Bett”, where students and parents visited stands, exhibitors, and products to choose their favorites, and the “Design4SDGs” competition for students to help provide solutions for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The Tech & Learning UK editorial team was on site to gather some of the highlights from the event.

STEAM Careers for All: How District Leaders Can Create Equitable STEAM Programs to Engage All Students

Wednesday, April 26, 2023 2:00 PM ET I 1:00 PM CT I 11:00 AM PT

Today’s students are our future STEAM leaders – the ones reimagining and rebuilding a better world for all of us. In this Tech & Learning District Leadership Roundtable, Dr. Kecia Ray talks with experts about specific ways school district leaders can easily integrate STEAM programs into their schools and support their teachers with lessons that engage and inspire our future innovators and problem solvers. The roundtable will discuss why it’s critical to expose all students to STEAM careers early on, and will provide effective ways for getting students excited about STEAM learning.

All attendees will receive a ‘Certificate of Completion’ from Tech & Learning which can be used towards one hour of Professional Development.

Plus, enjoy a coffee on Tech & Learning! Attendees working in the education sector will receive a $5 Starbucks coffee voucher once they’ve attended as a thank you.*

REGISTER FOR FREE NOW

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN:

•How to ensure all students are exposed to STEAM career possibilities

•What tools and solutions you can use districtwide to show students what’s possible and allow them to see themselves in STEAM careers

•How supporting handson learning can increase student engagement and success

•Strategies and resources to incorporate hands-on lear ning into classrooms to help students develop cognitive, emotional,

*Coffee vouchers are for event attendees working within the education sector. Registrants must attend at the time of the event and for the duration of the whole event to receive their voucher. Not valid for on-demand viewing. One voucher per registrant / device. Vouchers will be emailed within

TECH & LEARNING’S REPORTER LUKE EDWARDS CAPTURED SOME OF THE MOST INNOVATIVE PRODUCTS ON DISPLAY AT

BETT 2023.

Jamworks Shows Bett 2023 How Its AI Will Change Education

Jamworks has revealed at BETT 2023 just how artificial intelligence could work to change our classrooms in the future - and it’s started right now with its own bespoke education AI.

Based on the GPT-4 learning model, the Jamworks AI was created for education specifically. The AI allows teachers or students to ask it to summarize otherwise voluminous content. It is also built to help with class notes, record and transcribe the audio of a lesson, and generate quizzes.

Read the full article here

EntrySign Shows Bett 2023 How Visitor Management Works Best

EntrySign is the ideal sign in and visitor management system for education institutions. Everyone who visits the school can sign in and sign out easily, without the need for staff to play a part in the process. Consequently, visitor access can be managed safely but also monitored, allowing schools to collect all the information that is needed for the safest possible experience.

Read the full article here

LapSafe Smart Lockers Shown Off At Bett 2023

LapSafe Smart Lockers exhibited at BETT 2023 are the future of lockerbased storage for laptops in education buildings. With smart digital access and built-in charging, this is the way lockers are supposed to be. The locker system houses laptops in an easily accessible space that is also super secure. This setup is also powered, so when a student or educator comes to take a laptop out, it should be charged and ready to go.

Read the full article here

MakeKit AS Educational Robots Revealed at

Bett 2023

MakeKit AS displayed its micro:bitpowered robots aimed at education use for STEM and STEAM learning subjects. The hardware is based on the BBC micro:bit technology that is affordable and offers a system which, once learned, can be easily scaled.

Unlike other micro:bit builds, there is a special MakeKit AS control board that helps to manage everything. Think of it like a translator that speaks to all the different languages you need.

Read the full article here

Dobot Magician E6 For Education Appears At Bett 2023

The Dobot Magician EG for education shows how robots can help in varying subjects at K12 and higher education institutions. This little robot looks very much like the automation machines seen in manufacturing plants across the world and includes impressive features scaled down to a desktop size that makes it ideal for classroom use.The Dobot Magician E6 is a plug-and-play device, making it very simple to setup and use for both educators and students alike.

Read the full article here

Veative Takes To Bett 2023 To Show What VR Education Can Be

Veative is a well-established VR brand that was created purely for education purposes, as was shown at Bett 2023. While there are more and more virtual reality headsets out there, Veative stands out as unique. Unlike many others this is a totally independent system, so you don’t need a computer, smartphone, or even internet to use this. That makes these ideal for school use as it can be moved between classes.

Read the full article here

THE BETT 2023 AWARDS

The Bett Awards, hosted in association with the British Education Suppliers Association (BESA), are a celebration of the inspiring creativity and innovation that can be found throughout technology for education. Being a Bett Award-winner showcases education organizations with this prestigious award of excellence. Congratulations to this year’s winners, which included (find the full list of winners here):

• C ollaboration with a School: CREATE Education

#InspiringLancashire

• Transformational Impact: Lyfta Education

• Education Resource for Parents/Home: Mussila Family Solution

• Wellbeing, Digital Wellness & Safeguarding: Lightspeed Systems – Lightspeed Alert

• Digital Learning Product Learning Product - Language & Literacy: Crick Software – Clicker

• Hardware, AV, VR/AR, Robotics or Digital Device: Discovery Education – Discovery Education Sandbox AR

• C ompany of the Year (more than £12M): IRIS Education

Watch highlights of the Bett Awards ceremony here

TECH & LEARNING INTERVIEWS FROM THE SHOW FLOOR

Tech & Learning reporters also interviewed the following edtech solution providers to take a deeper dive into their offerings:

The Microsoft Learning Accelerator Initiative comprises tools and devices within Microsoft that help accelerate progress in the classroom, boosting learning for students of any age. The Learning Accelerator tools allow teachers to personalize learning for students, no matter what their skill level.

Read the full article here.

At Bett 2023, Philips showcased its display solutions for education, `screens(opens in new tab) with built-in features such as an interactive whiteboard, wireless screen sharing, mirroring, casting, display chaining solutions, Android app compatibility and web browser.

Read the full article here.

Intel showcased its latest innovations at Bett 2023, focusing on the Intel Skills for Innovation program. The program aims to provide teachers with the resources and support to prepare students for the “fourth industrial revolution.” Covering: AI and machine learning, programming and coding, data science, simulation and modeling. Read the full article here.