3 ways to decrease the teacher dropout crisis

Guest post by Eric Williams @ewilliams65

Ron Maggiano, an award-winning teacher in Virginia recently announced his retirement, stating, “I can no longer cooperate with a testing regime that I believe is suffocating creativity and innovation in the classroom.” Maggiano is not alone. In an ongoing blog post, Lisa Nielsen uses text and video to tell the story of teacher dropouts. The stories of teacher dropouts share a common theme, a concern for the impact of high stakes testing.

Advocating for education reform is one way to decrease teacher dropouts. But don’t stop there educators.

1)  Share stories of students doing meaningful work with value that extends far beyond preparation for success on standardized tests. Share these stories with your colleagues and others with whom you learn.

Coding: What Goes Around Comes Around

How connected is your school? Take this quiz to find out.

In our Web 2.0 world, schools can communicate, connect, interact and engage like never before.  As we leave 2013 behind and move into the 2014 school year it is time to think about how we will replace the one-way communication of the backpack note home with a truly interactive and connected experience for the school community.   This quiz will help you take a look at where you are so you can think about where you want to go. Digital interaction helps us break down barriers, bring communities together, and develop and improve the critical relationships we want to cultivate within our school communities.  

The hottest posts that everyone's reading

Here’s the roundup of what's been popular on The Innovative Educator blog. Below you’ll see the top posts along with the number of pageviews. I hope there's something that looks of interest to you.  If it does, check it out. If you’re inspired, share it with others by clicking on one of those little logos below and/or leave a comment.

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5 ways to use Pinterest as a creation tool for lea... May 3, 2013,	3766
4 Ways to Provoke Change In Our Education System May 23, 2013,	3313
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Use social media to shine on school quality reviews

Not only is use of social media good classroom practice, but in places that have quality reviews (an assessment and evaluation system for schools), engaging parents with social media will help schools shine.

School quality reviews are used as evaluation tools in places such as England, Wales, and New Zealand and have recently made their way to the United States in places like New York City. Quality reviews are generally customized to a particular district, but one thing they all have in common is placing a value on the home and school connection.  

Here are some key areas that social media can be used to help schools engage families and do well on the school quality review.

Do You Have to Be an Entertainer to Engage Your Students?

A contributing factor to the high school dropout rate and one of the biggest complaints of students is simply that “I’m bored.” And...many teachers know that their students consider them boring.   So, what’s the answer?  Some would say that you need to be an entertainer.   I was recently interviewed on BAM radio by Rae Pica along with Mike Muir, Lee Kolbert, and Pat Hensley who wrote, “Should Teachers Be Entertainers?” While many feel forced to entertain, is this the best approach? In the show we discuss how teachers can expect to engage students in the face of all that competes for their attention.