51±¬ÁÏ

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Teaching: Using Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality can enhance your lessons safely and efficiently. Virtual reality allows your students to explore worlds they might not otherwise see. We offer some suggestions on how to use VR in your classroom.

I've always been a fan of online courses. Kahn Academy and MOOC caught my attention years ago as excellent ways to enrich both my classroom lessons and my own children's learning experiences. As an old teacher, I can remember enhancing my lessons with slides and dial-up modem connections with some of the early Internet websites. I was teaching Latin to middle school students. The resources I discovered even way back in the 90s captured the imagination of my students and made the subject matter come alive. So, thirty years later, I am amazed at the breadth and depth of the resources available to parents and teachers.

The Purpose of Virtual Reality

These days, taking a class on a field trip poses all kinds of challenges. The cost, the approvals required from parents and guardians, the liability issues, and so on make school-sponsored excursions outside the school campus challenging to organize. Virtual Reality, combined with the high-resolution screens available on laptops and wide-screen TVs and monitors, is the next best thing to being there. As noted previously, it's safer and infinitely easier to manage.

How to use VR in your classroom

Finding out how to use virtual reality in your classroom involves discovering what resources are available and discussing how you may use them in your classroom.

For years, I’ve taken joy in introducing virtual reality to educators at different schools. Armed with cheap Google Cardboard viewers, Lenovo Daydream headsets, and free access to Google Expeditions and Tour Creator,

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Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps or JROTC

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Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps or JROTC
JROTC offers valuable lessons in leadership, character-building and citizenship. Here's a look at the various JROTC programs out there together with a look at the pros and cons of the program.
Wikimedia.commons.org, public domain/PH3 Victoria A. Tullock, USN

Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps or JROTC

I was disappointed to read the story in the about abuse in an Army JROTC program. Why? Because I've always thought very highly of the program available in over 1700 public and private high schools. I will further disclaim that my eldest daughter was in the ROTC program at MIT while she was at Harvard. So, I know first-hand that it is well-run for the most part. The JROTC does an immense amount of good for young people at the high school level.

What is JROTC?

or Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps in 1916. Each branch of the services has its own distinctive JROTC program. However, they all have the altruistic-sounding mission "To Motivate Young People to be Better Citizens."

The U.S. Army Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) is one of the largest character development and citizenship programs for youth in the world. Source:

  • Some people think that JROTC is a recruiting program for the military.
  • But it is not. Indeed, most JROTC participants do not join the military after graduating from high school.
  • Nor are they required to do so.
  • On the other hand, the college-level ROTC programs do require their participants to sign up for a tour of duty after graduating from college.
  • Simply put, the JROTC
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Teaching: Contract Renewal

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Teaching: Contract Renewal
We offer a guide for teachers facing contract renewal, offering practical advice on demonstrating value, maintaining professional relationships, and ensuring successful contract renewal in public schools.

Teaching: Contract Renewal

The reality of being a public school teacher is that you will have to face an annual deadline called the contract renewal.

  • If you are doing a good job, this yearly rite should not present any problems.
  • The district will notify you that it is renewing your contract, and that will be that.

But what if things are not going well?

  • You're unhappy. You sense that things are not going well.
  • Perhaps you have even received a written communication indicating that things are not going well.
  • What to do? If issues remain unresolved, it's best to complete the year and part ways amicably.
  • After all, you will need the district to give you as good a reference as possible.
  • In any case, let's look at the renewal process from the district's point of view. Why, then, should we renew your contract?

This video looks at the pros and cons of signing a new teaching contract.

Give me lots of reasons why we should do so.

We hired you in good faith. You interviewed well and seemed enthusiastic about teaching here. Your transcripts and references were sound, and everything checked out. Consequently, we had great expectations.

  • For the most part, you have not let us down.
  • Your lesson plans are well thought out.
  • You present the
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School Safety: Shootings

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School Safety: Shootings
Essential guidance for parents and teachers on school safety protocols and preventive measures, with practical strategies for protecting students while maintaining a balanced, secure learning environment.

School Safety: Shootings

As I began my research for this article on school shootings, I thought it best to look at the history of shootings in American schools. I expected the timeline to cover the 19th and 20th centuries, but I wasn't prepared to discover that the first shootings dated back to the 1700s.

  • First, read K12 Academics' . That article covers from colonial days through to 2010.
  • Then, to take us up to 2015 read Maria Esther Hammack's . Reporting in the New York Times, Christine Hauser's article chronicles the first five months of 2022.

Having documented shootings, let us look at what you and I can do to keep our children safe in schools at every level.

Inspired by past school shooters, some perpetrators are . However, most school shooters are motivated by a generalized anger. Their path to violence involves self-hate and despair turned outward at the world, and our research finds they often communicate their intent to do harm in advance as a final, desperate . The key to stopping these tragedies is for society to be and act on them immediately. from

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Post-Pandemic Tips for 51±¬ÁÏ Parents and Students

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Post-Pandemic Tips for 51±¬ÁÏ Parents and Students
The 2020-21 school year was unlike any other and hopefully not one we’ll repeat anytime soon. The COVID-19 pandemic changed the face of America’s public education system and we’re still seeing the effects. In this article, we’ll explore the impact of the pandemic on America’s public schools, see how they responded, and talk about some tips for returning to in-person education this fall.

After a year and a half struggling to survive a global pandemic, the world is finally starting to get back to normal. Though challenges brought by the rising Delta variant still exist, many schools are planning to return to in-person instruction in the coming fall. This news comes as a welcome relief to parents who have had to juggle supervising their child’s remote education while continuing to work their own jobs.

Though the COVID-19 pandemic left no one unaffected, it exacerbated a number of existing issues within the public school system and created some new challenges. Returning to school in the fall of 2021 won’t be smooth sailing and parents had better start preparing themselves (and their children) now to ensure as seamless a transition as possible.

In this article, we’ll explore some of the effects the COVID-19 pandemic had on public school systems and talk about what the future holds. We’ll also provide helpful tips for students, parents, and educators as they anticipate their return to school in the fall.

Impact of the Pandemic on 51±¬ÁÏs

In March of 2020, the World Health Organization declared the spread of COVID-19 a worldwide pandemic. Being in the middle of their second semester, schools across the country (and around the world) were sent scrambling to make adjustments. Many schools closed for in-person instruction entirely, switching to virtual learning, and many parents withdrew their children from schools entirely in favor of teaching them at home.

In a

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