6 Updates to Welcome Your School Community + Prepare Students For Success

Schools should be welcoming environments for students, staff, parents, and community members, but they often don't feel that way. Unmarked doors. Uniformed guards. Impersonal communication. Ear-piercing bells. We can do better.

Which school would you rather enter?

Here are updates schools can make to create more welcoming environments.

The Hottest Posts Everyone's Reading

Here’s the roundup of what's been popular on The Innovative Educator blog.

Taking the lead again are tips to keep in mind when using social media with students. I hope readers will share how that goes with their students this year. A new entry into the top posts is a new social media platform called Class Story that helps teachers strengthen the home-school connection. Rounding out the top post is the winner of the "Back to School Supply Contest." Check it out.

There's a few more posts to round out the top including one that addresses what is most important when it comes to learning and another about how you can tap into the strengths of all your students. I hope there's something that looks of interest to you.  If it does, check it out. If you’re inspired use one of those icons below the post to share it with others and/or leave a comment.

Entry	Pageviews
10 #BacktoSchool Tips for Students to Keep in Mind... Aug 16, 2015,	8765
Teacher Entrepreneurship - Learn What It's All Abo... Aug 23, 2015,	3869
Relationships, Not Fines, Lead to Great Schools + ... Aug 20, 2015,	3750
Should cellphones be allowed in school? My Respons... Aug 12, 2015,	3528
Don't Go #BacktoSchool without Knowing How Every C... Aug 9, 2015,	3491
What's Most Important When It Comes To Learning? Aug 25, 2015,	2995
Class Story (an Instagram for Parents) Helps Stren... Sep 6, 2015,	2736
Winner! The 3 #BackToSchool Supplies Necessary to ... Aug 30, 2015,	2671

Google for Education Certification and Exams

Google is updating the way they do certifications. Google is providing these certifications as a concrete and tangible way to measure skills and knowledge. Level 1 is for educators and 2 for trainers and innovators.  Below is a brief description with a link to more information. 

Read More	Read More

This post from Shake Up Learning provides additional insight and you can read below from Google's newsletter.  If you don't get the newsletter you can click here. The monthly newsletter showcases relevant tools and programs from across many Google teams and partners.

Class Story (an Instagram for Parents) Helps Strengthen The Home-School Connection

Building relationships with families is hard work. Especially with today’s busy parents. If you’re lucky, you’ll see your student’s parents on one or two parent-teacher conferences or events each year. That hardly makes for relationship building.

Parents want to be involved and teachers want to involve them, but many parents are not afforded the luxury of free time that makes this possible. Teachers want to involve parents, but they often don’t have time to put together quality websites or newsletters.  

Fortunately, various social media tools have come along to help strengthen the home-school connection.  For example some teachers use Twitter to give parents a window into a school or class. Other teachers use  Facebook to keep parents connected.  And, others are using texting services like Cel.ly.  

Now, there is a tool designed specifically for teachers and the families of students.  

The Hottest Posts Everyone's Reading

Here’s the roundup of what's been popular on The Innovative Educator blog.

Taking the lead this week are tips to keep in mind when using social media with students. There was also interest in learning about becoming a teacher entrepreneur and intrapreneur. I was pleasantly surprised to see my post about the importance of relationships to build community at the top of the list.  

There's a few more posts to round out the top including one that addresses what is most important when it comes to learning and another about how you can tap into the strengths of all your students. I hope there's something that looks of interest to you.  If it does, check it out. If you’re inspired use one of those icons below the post to share it with others and/or leave a comment.

Entry	Views
10 #BacktoSchool Tips for Students to Keep in Mind... Aug 16, 2015,	8311
Teacher Entrepreneurship - Learn What It's All Abo... Aug 23, 2015,	3866
Relationships, Not Fines, Lead to Great Schools + ... Aug 20, 2015,	3755
Should cellphones be allowed in school? My Respons... Aug 12, 2015,	3530
Don't Go #BacktoSchool without Knowing How Every C... Aug 9, 2015,	3283
What's Most Important When It Comes To Learning? Aug 25, 2015,	2683
How I Became A Teacher Intrapeneur. 4 Ideas to Ins... Aug 24, 2015,	2300

10 Tips + 10 Resources that Use Tech to Keep Wandering Children Safe

Guest post by Jacob Gutnicki

It seems there is a story almost on a daily basis about a missing child. This is not surprising as the National Crime Information Center statistics in 2014 show that there were 466,949 entries for missing children under the age of 18. These statistics, along with the following statistics on child danger, are unsettling:

• Roughly half of children with an  (Autism Spectrum Disorder) ASD attempt to elope from a safe environment; a rate nearly four times higher than their unaffected siblings.
• Two in three parents of elopers reported their missing children had a “close call” with a traffic injury.
• 32% of parents reported a “close call” with a possible drowning.
• Half of families with elopers report they had never received advice or guidance about elopement from a professional.

The last bullet is particularly disconcerting as it means the parents who are most susceptible to this problem are the least prepared for dealing with the challenges of a wandering child. Fortunately, there are many technology-based resources that can help parents and schools who care for wandering children. With this in mind, I have prepared 10 resources followed by 10 tips that can support parents and schools keep wandering children safe.