Great Educational Resources

Every educator is familiar with the concept of literacy—the ability to read and write. A person who is illiterate, who cannot read or write, will inevitably struggle to get along in society. It’s impossible to go on to higher education or get a high-paying job without the ability to read and write. Even daily tasks, like reading a newspaper or filling out job applications, are difficult for an illiterate person.

In today’s world, literacy goes beyond just the basic ability to comprehend text. Today’s students will also need to master a new skill—digital literacy. Cornell University defines digital literacy as “the ability to find, evaluate, utilize, share, and create content using information technologies and the Internet.”

There is so much work and preparation that goes into being a great teacher. As a principal, you see what your teachers have to offer on a daily basis—from their deep relationships with students and families to their commitments toward improving their practice to the teamwork they demonstrate with their colleagues. Those reasons alone are why the stats about teacher turnover should be so concerning to you. Almost 16% of teachers leave the field each year, with 40%-50% of new teachers abandoning the profession within the first five years.

For many people, Shakespeare’s work is timeless. However, students notoriously find the olde English difficult to understand and often complain when teachers begin a Shakespeare topic or unit of study. How can teachers modernise his plays to reach today's students? William Shakespeare remains the world's most famous wordsmith. With 38 plays and 154 sonnets to his name he was a prolific playwright and poet and transformed the literary world.

Educating students truly takes a village. From teachers to administrators, board members to maintenance staff, there are a lot of adults involved in making schools productive and safe places for students to learn. So often the focus is placed upon the relationships between these adults and the students they reach. However, maximizing the value in these staff-to-student interactions requires the adults to form positive bonds amongst themselves as a school faculty.

When I was a kid, I’d always get told off for being glued to the TV. Nowadays, all we hear is how little TV kids are watching! Instead, the youth of today are firmly seated, smartphone in hand, watching the current hottest YouTube influencer. It’s not surprising that they consume media in this fashion. YouTube provides infinitely more possibilities than television ever could. Social interaction, supreme choice over what to watch, portability and an easy way to speak with the real person behind the screen.

One of the most important modern concepts in education today is “personalized learning.” As Education Week explains, the concept isn’t entirely clear and has many different practical applications. However, what is clear about personalized learning is that it centers the student as the most important subject in the classroom, which results in an emphasis on individual student learning styles, needs, and interests.