The Socially Intelligent Leader

Psychologists have known for a century that people do their best when they experience both high motivation and manageable stress. Brain studies have clarified the link between emotions and the capacity to think and learn. Furthermore, new discoveries in social neuroscience reveal that what is now called “the social brain” attunes itself to the state of the person with whom we are interacting and adjusts our own feelings and actions to get into sync with the other person - particularly those in power. Such discoveries hold great significance for the emotional climate of schools, where a principal who wants to create a positive school environment typified by trust and caring relationships must be emotionally grounded and skilled in personal interaction, both as a model and as the source of an emotional ripple effect.


Profiling the Certificate Student

According to the findings of a new survey by Eduventures, some of the most rapid growth in higher education is in certificate programs, which tend to be quicker and less expensive than traditional degree programs, and serve a wider range of students. Certificate program participants see earning a certificate as a means to a practical end, with nearly half of respondents saying that a certificate would help facilitate a career change or allow them to fulfill a continuing education requirement in their field of employment. The largest percentage of both certificate seekers and their counterparts are employed in the education, management, financial operations, and training and library fields, according to the survey.


Early Repairs for Foundation in Reading

Children with severe reading problems usually struggle for years before getting the help they need. However, a growing number of neurologists and educators say that with the latest diagnostic tests, children at high risk for these problems can be identified in preschool and treated before they ever begin to read. The National Early Literacy Panel, a committee of experts convened by a consortium of federal agencies, has found that these tests, when given to 3- and 4-year-olds, predict later reading problems as effectively as they do when they are given to kindergartners and first graders. The committee plans to recommend increased preschool screening when it publishes its findings later this year.


Visual Learning: Using digital images to enhance instruction

One of the benefits of the federal No Child Left Behind Act is that it is forcing educators to rethink their pedagogical approaches to reach out to all types of learners. Perhaps the biggest beneficiaries of this trend have been students who are visual learners. Using video and still images in classroom instruction can improve attention, appeal to students with different learning styles, and help get a point across quickly and effectively. Now, advances in technology are making it easier than ever for educators to incorporate digital images into their instruction. ESchool News offers this resource list to assist educators in their efforts to incorporate digital images into classroom instruction.


Task, Text, and Talk: Literacy for All Subjects

An important and difficult challenge facing education today is raising the literacy achievement of secondary school students. But many content-area teachers resist training in generic reading and writing strategies because they are already expected to teach more biology, history, or algebra content than time permits. A new approach, however, is based on the premise that students can develop deep conceptual knowledge in a discipline only by using the habits of reading, writing, talking, and thinking which that discipline values and uses. The disciplinary literacy framework is grounded in designing rigorous, inquiry-based instruction that integrates academic content and discipline-appropriate habits of thinking. Teachers who utilize this approach demonstrate how content knowledge and literacy development can go hand in hand.


Tips for a Better Parent-School Relationship

In many ways, parents are the most important teachers children will ever have. But drawing them into schools and forging a constructive parent-school relationship, however, is often difficult. Teachers complain about parents who meddle too much and those who can't be found. This article offers these ten recommendations from educators and school-savvy parents for better home-school relations: stop using jargon, visit parents on their turf, ask parents to teach what they know, welcome complainers, hire parent-friendly principals, seek parent volunteers, offer educational activities for parents and kids, get parents to observe classes, provide courses for parents, and create a great school.

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