In an effort to boost achievement and better prepare students for the workforce, President Obama is spearheading a program that will bring high-speed Internet access to 99 percent of America's K-12 schools.
Dubbed ConnectED, the program aims to accomplish its goal in the next five years. In addition to bringing Internet speeds of at least 100 Mbps and as high as 1Gbps, the program will provide comprehensive training to teachers so that they are up-to-speed on best practices for using the Web in class.
A particular focus of ConnectED will be rural schools that have difficulty accessing the Internet. In a statement, Obama was clear that getting students connected and teachers trained is a priority. "We are living in a digital age, and to help our students get ahead, we must make sure they have access to cutting-edge technology," he said. "So today, I'm issuing a new challenge for America -- one that families, businesses, school districts and the federal government can rally around together -- to connect virtually every student in America's classrooms to high-speed broadband Internet within five years, and equip them with the tools to make the most of it."
As all school administrators must know, there is a very real teacher shortage currently in American schools and the projections are that it will only be getting worse. What is causing this shortage? It is estimated that 50% of new teachers will leave the profession in their first five years of teaching. Some of the reasons for this high turnovers are: lack of district and state funding for positions, student enrollment is climbing, the pandemic has caused many teachers to leave their jobs,...
1) Come to school...
If you have seen the news lately, you are likely aware of what’s happening on commercial flights. The number of incidents involving unruly passengers is threw the roof, a rate higher than any other time since airlines have been recording this data.
Flight attendants are getting attacked and may be required to take self-defense classes. Passengers fighting each other over COVID-19 masks. Airlines, like Southwest, have curbed back serving alcohol.
To put it in perspective, the...
I have written two other articles that you may want to consider taking a peek at before reading this article. They are using STEM and STEAM in the Classroom and Planning,...