In the ever-evolving landscape of education, it’s becoming increasingly important for educators to amplify their voices and share their insights with the world. Blogging has emerged as a powerful platform for teachers to do just that. However, we understand that educators are busy individuals, and time is often a precious commodity. That’s where innovative tools like K12 Co-author come into play, helping you jumpstart your creativity and maximize the impact of your writing. Let’s explore why teachers should become blog authors and how teacher authors like you can overcome the time constraint hurdle with the assistance of AI.

1. Share Your Unique Perspective:

Every teacher has a unique perspective on education shaped by their experiences, challenges, and successes in the classroom. By becoming a blog author, you have the opportunity to share these insights with a global audience. Your voice matters, and your ideas can inspire and influence fellow educators, administrators, parents, and even policymakers. Blogging allows you to contribute to important conversations in education and make a positive impact on the field.

2. Reflect and Improve:

Blogging is not just about sharing; it’s also a powerful tool for personal and professional growth. When you write about your teaching experiences, you’re forced to reflect on your methods, strategies, and outcomes. This self-reflection can lead to valuable insights and improvements in your teaching practices. It’s a win-win situation – you help others by sharing your experiences, and you help yourself by becoming a more effective educator.

3. Connect and Collaborate:

Blogging creates opportunities for networking and collaboration. When you publish your thoughts and ideas online, you open the door to connect with like-minded educators who share your passion for teaching and learning. These connections can lead to exciting collaborations, partnerships, and opportunities to learn from others. By joining the blogging community, you become part of a supportive and dynamic network of educators.

4. Overcoming the Time Barrier with AI:

We understand that teachers are incredibly busy, and finding time for blogging can be challenging. This is where AI-powered tools like K12 Co-author come to your rescue. K12 Co-author can assist you in several ways:

* Generate Ideas: Stuck on what to write about? Co-Author can suggest relevant topics and brainstorm ideas to kickstart your writing process.

* Speed Up Writing: AI can help you write more efficiently. It can assist in drafting articles, proofreading, and even generating engaging headlines and introductions.

* Enhance Research: AI can help you gather information and data quickly, saving you precious research time.

* Increase Productivity: With AI’s assistance, you can write more in less time, allowing you to focus on other important aspects of your teaching profession.

Becoming a blog author is a powerful way for teachers to amplify their voices, share their experiences, and make a meaningful impact on education. Don’t let a busy schedule hinder your writing aspirations. Embrace AI tools like K12 Co-author to streamline your writing process and make the most of your limited time. Your insights and ideas have the potential to shape the future of education, so start blogging today and join the community of educators who are making a difference through their words. Your voice matters, and the world is waiting to hear your story.

Is it every week that social media tries to re-invent itself? For all the (valid) dissatisfaction we seem to have with the social networks we’ve relied on for the past several years, it’s clear that we are also (justifiably) suspicious of the “next new thing.” But, as we pointed out when we launched K12Leaders last year, there is an unmistakable need for change… especially for educators.

K12Leaders has grown significantly over the last several months. We’ve had our awkward moments, but we know that what we’re doing -creating a safe online space for educators to grow in their practice- has a huge value to the educators, staff, administrators, and partners we serve.

Perhaps more precisely, it’s actually <you> we see growing… the K12 community. And we are certain that as the online community on K12Leaders grows, so will the value we collectively draw from it.

Here, we’ll take a look at three ways we make it easy to invite, engage, and grow your community of practice. Including one important way we never will! Your invitation is not merely a connection; it’s an opportunity to engage your friends and colleagues in a learning environment that’s committed to supporting their personal and professional growth. Oh… and, yes. You can become a K12Leaders Ambassador, a testament to your commitment to our ongoing learning, along the way 😉

So, let’s delve into these methods, unlocking the potential of connecting, collaborating, and collectively advancing education through K12Leaders:

Exploring Three Methods to Invite Friends and Colleagues to Join K12Leaders

Here are 3 ways to connect and grow your network. And every invitation you send adds to your tally of K12Leaders Ambassador Points.

Top Menu Invites

Navigate to the top menu and select “Invite.” This simply lets you to enter the names and email addresses of the individuals you’d like to invite. Feel free to personalize both the subject and content of the invitation. It’s worth noting our dedicated mail server handles these invitations. That means there’s a chance the invitation might be flagged as spam. To ensure a successful connection, consider sending a follow-up message as well.

Ad-hoc Sidebar Invite s

While browsing pages like the News Feed and Member Directory, you’ll notice a sidebar with a unique URL you can easily copy and paste into your own email message. The embedded codes in this URL link the invitation directly to your account, guaranteeing you earn Ambassador Points for each invitation extended.

Invitations to a Community

To invite someone to join a specific community within the platform, the Community Organizer can activate the “Send Invite” menu. Upon selecting this menu, you’ll be presented with two options: inviting your K12Leaders friends from your internal network or opting for the “send invitations by email” choice. If you choose the email option, you can paste up to 200 email addresses and customize the invitation. Once your friends register, they will receive a notification, informing them of your invitation to join your group.

And that really important one thing we’ll never do?

Right… we didn’t forget. And this really is important.

We’ll never suggest you “import your address book.” Ever.

In our mind this is simultaneously one of the worst things we could ask of you, and one worst things we could do for this network.

First, we see this option on other platforms as grossly devaluing their members. It betrays the fact that those platforms think numbers are more important than individuals. None of us chose a career in education to treat anyone “like a number.”

Secondly, importing everyone would simply dilute the value of the network. K12Leaders isn’t for everyone; and that’s okay. We are here to serve those who serve education.

Inviting friends and colleagues to join K12Leaders not only enriches your network but also contributes to the vibrant educational community we’re building together. Explore these three options to connect, collaborate, and earn Ambassador Points as you help K12Leaders grow!

We as educators must strive to create a supportive learning environment for the students and their families by providing them with the necessary resources and guidance to ensure their success. We must create a safe learning environment, where all members of the school community are respected and valued. We must welcome and encourage parental involvement in all aspects of their child’s education.

We must also keep in mind that parents are the primary agents of socialization and moral formation for their children. Therefore, we must ensure that our educational strategies and curriculum are consistent with the values and beliefs of the families. We must also strive to help parents understand the importance of education and their role in their child’s success.

Finally, we must be open to feedback and suggestions from parents, as their insights can help us to better meet the needs of the students. It is essential that we maintain open communication and dialogue with parents to foster a strong partnership in the education of their children.

Are the digital literacy efforts in your district as strong as you would like them to be?

A survey conducted by Pew Research Center in 2022 found that 97% of teens use the internet daily, and 46% use it “almost constantly.” When online, teens can be exposed to thousands of media messages – some requiring extra effort to analyze and contextualize. With the continued technological advancements, even our youngest students have access to media messages.

Do our students fully understand what they are seeing? Can they distinguish between real or altered AI-generated content? Now more than ever, digital literacy – the ability to use technology to locate, evaluate, interpret, and create – is a critical skill that needs attention if students are going to thrive in the classroom and beyond.

The Learning Technology Center of Illinois (LTC) is helping prepare educators to confront these challenges through our 3rd annual Digital Literacy Conference. This year, #DigLitCon will be held September 14-15, 2023. The first day will consist of in-person workshops on important topics such as Media Literacy, The Power of Visual Note-Taking, and Artificial Intelligence in Education. Join other educators to learn what works for their students and make new connections. The second day will occur virtually and kick off with a keynote from media literacy expert and educator Julie Smith, followed by twenty breakout sessions. Attendees will receive access to recorded sessions for 30 days after the conference.

Don’t miss the opportunity to participate in this unique and important event. Sign up to send your team today.

Find the full schedule of sessions here: https://www.ltcillinois.org/diglitcon/ and register for one or both days here: https://ltcillinois.tfaforms.net/100?eid=a031Q00002JYjLtQAL

Hello fellow Licensed Professional Counselors!

I am in the dissertation phase of my PhD in Counselor Education and Supervision through Capella University. Throughout this program, my interest in advocacy that counselors can engage in has grown significantly and increased my curiosity about the engagement of advocacy in counselors’ roles and barriers to advocacy engagement that may exist. I was interested in the study topic due to my experience working with children living in poverty that were students in a k-12 therapeutic alternative school setting and in a therapeutic ECSE setting through a school district in MN. Additionally, I have friends that have worked in school settings as LPCs through school-based partnerships which increased my interest in learning more about the role of LPCs in school settings across the nation. After moving to New Mexico in 2022, I gained awareness of the impact of living in a rural setting on mental health service availability and the unique needs of the rural population. I hope that this topic interests you to help me complete this study for describing LPCs’ advocacy engagement experiences working with students in rural school settings.

I am working on a doctoral project, entitled, “GENERIC QUALITATIVE STUDY OF LICENSED PROFESSIONAL CLINICAL COUNSELORS’ EXPERIENCES WITH ADVOCACY ENGAGEMENT.” My research will be overseen by my faculty mentor, Dr. Carrie VanMeter.

My research examines how clinical counselors working in the school setting will describe their experiences of advocacy engagement in rural areas utilizing the theoretical framework of Ecological Systems Theory for the guided interview questions. The main research question is “How do licensed professional counselors in rural school settings describe their experiences with advocacy engagement?” I will be recruiting clinical counselors that have both outpatient mental health setting and school setting work experience to participate in my study. I would like to conduct my research with participants from each region of the United States by incorporating multiple states with significant rural populations.

I am requesting permission to engage in the following research activities::

•  To recruit participants for the study
•  To post about the research study on the group’s social media page for sharing about the study for recruiting participants

This project will begin once I have obtained approval from Capella University’s Institutional Review Board (IRB). The IRB will review the adequacy of my plan for protecting participants. They will review data security and confidentiality procedures. A copy of the final letter from the Capella University IRB can be provided to you before any research activities begin. No recruitment will occur prior to IRB approval.

My anticipated projected start date is August 2023 and I expect that this study will last 6 months.

I am responsible for the preservation of the privacy of research participants. I will not name the research participants when I write my doctoral paper. I will not describe the participants in such a way that they will be identifiable. I will work to preserve site anonymity when I write my paper. However, I cannot guarantee that the site will remain unknown.

If you have any concerns about this request or are able to support with participant recruitment, please contact me at the phone number or email listed below.

Sincerely,

Christine Herzog, MS, LPCC

Cherzog@capellauniversity.edu

(651) 238-0525

This is the second blog post in my summer series on instructional redesign in K-12 public education. Before I dive into the nitty gritty in future posts, let’s consider what mindset is required to effectively investigate, generate, evaluate, and implement the needed changes.

Growth Mindset – It never hurts to start with some Carolyn Dweck, right? I’ll delve into her work in a future blog on the brain, cognition, and the science of learning. From a change management perspective, I like this definition from a Harvard Business School Online Blog: “When you have a growth mindset, you believe you can gain the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed, which makes every challenge a learning opportunity. People with a growth mindset tend to embrace challenges, persist in the face of setbacks, see effort as a path to mastery, learn from criticism, and find lessons and inspiration in the success of others.”

Open-minded – How often do we find ourselves instinctively defending the status quo? It is understandable. In fact, it is human. Millions of years of evolution have conditioned us to resist change due to uncertainty, loss of control, fear of failure, and perceived loss of status. And there are times to defend – like from harmful groups like the Marms for Flibbertigibbet. (Using the words moms and liberty in the group’s actual name is an affront to both.) And, of course, we need to protect children. But that can’t keep us from considering new ideas that can better educate them. The principle of risk-reward applies to all improvements. And we need to honestly assess whether aspects of the traditional instructional do more harm than good.

Check for bias – In Thinking, Fast and Slow , Daniel Kahneman explains System 1 or “fast thinking” – the ability to perform tasks unconsciously, automatically, and effortlessly. Based on his work with Amos Tversky, he also reminds us that this ability is vital to our survival but comes with a dark side – cognitive biases. (Here is a shortlist of 24 cognitive biases that are warping your perception of reality.) We know biases contribute to serious issues like institutional racism. Bias also influences perceptions of new ideas. We like homeostasis – things in balance – so we are more likely to be dismissive of new ideas or protective of traditional practices. It also means we should have a healthy skepticism of things that seem too good to be true. In short, I recommend ABtC, always be thinking critically. And since I’ll posit solutions to complex challenges in the coming blogs, please let me know when my Dunning-Kruger effect or illusion of explanatory depth are showing.

Listen to the other side and challenge your side – I serve as a Town Meeting Member. (It’s an old New England thing.) We were fortunate to hear from Arthur Brooks recently that it is harder – if not impossible – to convince the other side in an argument. So it is better to listen and seek longer-term consensus. He said the best near-term change often comes from addressing issues on your side as a critical friend.

Beware the False Dichotomy and binary thinking – I have worked with virtual schools for many years. If only I had a dollar for every time someone asked me, “Is virtual school good or bad?“ I wonder if we seek simple yes/no answers because we don’t consume K-12 education directly. I answer that it depends on which virtual school and the unique student needs they serve – which stops the conversation cold. My biggest peeve is the statement “teachers are,” followed by anything. Even if empathetic, it denies recognition of teachers as individuals. When administrators make blanket statements about teachers, it patronizes and contributes to teacher turnover. Education is complex. To improve it, we must use the appropriate lenses and be willing to disaggregate and think deeply.

The Power of ”and” / “I don’t know” / “why?” – We have an incredible ability to hold two or more multivariate ideas in our head. So why do we offset, reconcile, or cancel things out? We need to focus on the idea and not just the person. For example, I agree with E.D. Hirsch, Jr.’s belief in core knowledge because you can’t think critically about nothing. And I disagree with his Core Knowledge curriculum’s Euro/Western-centric bias. A disagreement about some content does not cancel out the concept.

Penn Jillette shared this nugget in a show, “The most important revolution in human history – more important than agriculture, more important than writing – is the scientific revolution which came down to three words – I don’t know. No institutions, no church, no king, no power structure had ever said in history I don’t know.” How often do we use those powerfully honest three words instead of blurting out an opinion to protect our ego? The older I get, the more I have learned. And yet, the more I accept all that I do not know. I guess I am developing greater intellectual humility. And the wisdom to ask questions and listen more.

Regarding questions, I just finished reading The Great School Rethink by Frederick “Rick” Hess. He encourages us to use intellectual humility to challenge our assumptions of the “whys” of public education and collaboratively explore new, old, or remixed ideas of what might be. Rick emphasizes, “Resets start with recipes; rethinking with the right questions about what comes next.”

Sorry this blog is so long, but I often think about barriers to change. Before focusing on education, I consulted on organizational and strategic change management for companies like GE and GM. Managing change in these companies was easy compared to public education. But they also had less at stake. I once asked Michael Fullan, a Canadian educator and researcher who studies educational change, why change in the education industry is so hard. His answer was something like, “I don’t know.”

In the next blog, I’ll explore the history of school system design and how it influences instructional delivery.