During the 86th Texas Legislature session in 2019, House Bill 3906 was signed. This house bill creates a number of changes to education and...
All Blog Posts
School safety doesn’t have to cost a lot of money or involve a campus-wide push for new buildings, policies, and procedures. In fact, some of the...
The School Progress Domain measures your campus progress in two areas: the number of students that academically grew by at least one year, and the...
The STAAR interim assessments are free, optional, online assessments that measure a student’s understanding of a broad span of student expectations...
In this episode, behavior specialist Angela Isenberg and Melinda Marquez discuss developing a solid discipline matrix that loops teachers and...
Each year the STAAR tests are offered online as an accommodated version of STAAR. The online STAAR tests are identical to the print tests. The only...
An intruder assessment is one of the most valuable things any school leader can do to assess the safety of their school. This process is one of the...
If you’ve never used them before, sentence stems are a scaffold which help students respond to questions and prompts using complete sentences...
Finding time for student writing in an ELAR class is hard, but it’s especially challenging in non ELAR classes. However, we know that the key...
There’s not many jobs as difficult or rewarding as that of a principal. So we pulled together pieces of advice from some of our former...
Every classroom type is different and every classroom requires a unique approach to organization. However most classroom organization guides are...
How would you teach a young child to ride a bike? Would you give them a regular bike and say, “Go for it!” or would you start them off on a bike with...
Campus Leadership, School Communities
Interview with Deirdre Doughty, 2020 Secondary Teacher of the Year
In August, the 2020 Teachers of the Year for Region 13 were announced, and we couldn’t be more thrilled with the results. Dozens of talented...
Restorative circles are strategies you can use in your classrooms to develop relationships, build communities, and respond to conflicts and problems...
This guest post was written by Adam Metcalf of the free app ZeeMee. Your child is more than a test score. As parents, we all know this to be true...
Campus Leadership, School Communities
Interview with Keri Swanson, 2020 Elementary Teacher of the Year
In August, the 2020 Teachers of the Year for Region 13 were announced, and we couldn’t be more thrilled with the results. Dozens of talented and...
There are new changes in the route to Texas principalship that will have a major impact on the internal leadership pipeline. Here’s everything...
Social Media. Students love it, parents fear it, teachers compete with it, and administrators underestimate the power of it. Social media allows you...
It’s that time of year again when teachers are gathering together in Professional Learning Communities (PLC). The acronym “PLC“ has come to mean many...
What do you think of when you hear PLCs? The idea of Professional Learning Communities in schools has been in practice for decades. The PLC teams...
The success of your students depends on whether or not they are absorbing the information you’re teaching them. Often as educators we get bogged down...
Guest post by Dr. Marcia L. Tate. Posted originally on Developing Minds, Inc. as “20 INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES THAT ENGAGE THE BRAIN: #7...
In School Suspension (ISS) programs are founded on the principle that punishing students results in decreased behavior. SMART ISS is a program that...
When we talk about classroom management, we often lean on theory but forget the practical steps you can take. One of the best things you can do for...
In School Suspension model is broken and yet most schools still use it. Schools across Texas and throughout the country practice the traditional...
Professional development (PD) is an important way to help teachers grow. PD should be relevant, timely, and based on data. Otherwise, you risk...
Plenty of schools use behavior charts to track their students’ behavior. Behavior charts come in all shapes and sizes and are used primarily to...
STEM activities integrate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math into lessons in order to teach students 21st century skills through problem...
The guru of organizing, Marie Kondo, took America by storm when she came out with her Netflix series Tidying Up with Marie Kondo earlier this year...
If you’ve been in education for any amount of time, you’ve likely heard the words “Social Emotional Learning” before. It’s not a new concept, Social...
This guest post comes from Melinda Crockom, public education coordinator at the Texas Commission on State Emergency Communications. Emergencies can...
The new school year is always stressful, no matter how many years of education experience you have. School leaders are meeting new students, parents...
Your program or initiative isn’t going well and you aren’t seeing the progress you were hoping for – what’s next? Conducting a root cause analysis...
One of the most challenging tasks for teachers is figuring out how to foster and manage independent work in the classroom. We asked education...
The hardest part of starting any new school year, or even a new semester is setting up effective and efficient classroom rules. Classroom management...
Not too long ago, I had the opportunity to interview students from a school that we serve. The purpose was to learn more about how the school was...
There’s an unfortunate reality about teaching that you’ll eventually comes across: you’ll eventually end up angry at one of your students or your...
As a teacher, you’ve likely encountered your fair share of difficult students. Students have all sorts of different behaviors and personalities. Some...
I have been asking this question for a few years now. I wish someone told me I could possibly not get a job or get fired from my current job because...
In this episode, host Jennifer Russell explores challenging classroom behavior: how it can leave you exhausted, the causes behind it, and how to...
In this episode, host Jennifer Russell and guest Darcy Schiller discuss teacher burnout: how to avoid it, and the importance of self-care for special...
In this episode host Jennifer Russell and education specialist, and transition expert, Elizabeth Danner, discuss the importance of transition...
In this episode, host Jennifer Russell explores Evidence Based Practices, or EBPs, that can transform your classroom. Audio Transcript Download the...
In this episode host Jennifer Russell talks with Katie Adams, educational specialist in PPCD, and Elizabeth Danner, Transition Specialist, as they...
You might have heard the term “learning intentions” thrown around a lot on your campus. It’s one of those terms that’s used a lot but often not...
Strategic Instruction
Personal Accounts: The Need for Integrated Decoding and Phonics Skill-Building
In 2019 I’ll be celebrating thirty years as an educator with fourteen years of that time in a high school English classroom. Although perhaps...
Our days are jam-packed full of conversations. We talk about the weather, about sports, about album releases, politics, movies, TV shows we’ve...
Progress in the General Curriculum
Designing for All: Universal Design for Learning in the Classroom
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) offers all students a variety of ways to engage with the content you’re teaching. Today’s students enter...
Literacy happens in more places than just our English classrooms. It’s important to practice literacy in all content areas. After all, students...
We asked our education specialist, Amy Fanetti to give us a little bit of insight on how to write great functional behavioral assessments and...
