Edutopia

Moving into a new leadership role is exciting. I stepped into mine with a list of what to work on first: auditing curriculum and assessment practices, developing policies, and being a daily, positive presence in and around the school. Of course, it wasn’t long before more pressing priorities took over. My to-do list grew, decisions spawned more decisions, and all those blank timetable slots I had from the reduced teaching load vanished.

A high school Shakespeare unit, unsurprisingly, can lead to some hesitation for both students and teachers: The plays were written over 400 years ago with labyrinthine plots and characters, as well as words you need to look up in almost every sentence. But there’s a reason these plays are so often studied: Every scene contains action, complicated emotion, and lessons to be learned.

In my ninth-grade reading class, a boy looks endlessly at the passage he has to analyze. Other students in the class have moved on to discussing the content, but he is stuck. What happens to this student when the resources given to teach word learning are uninteresting and geared toward younger children? Generally, when students reach middle school and high school, they stop learning to read and switch over to reading to learn.

Zoe Caponegro has taught a wide range of grade levels: from 6th to 12th grade. She holds a Master's degree in adolescent English education and enjoys instilling wonder and a sense of purpose within her students. She believes that educators can strike a balance during this ever-changing age of learning by providing a mix of analog coursework and newer technologies.

Though I’ve taught a variety of grade levels, this year presented a new challenge: teaching high school seniors. Going in, one of my top priorities was to make sure students stayed engaged and focused through their final exams and graduation ceremonies. I wanted to introduce a fresh and unique project—something that instilled intrinsic value and a desire to not only attend class, but also work diligently. Seeking inspiration, I went to a conference where I took a workshop about game-based learning.

As a school leader, I’m constantly talking to my leadership team about our school’s data, our instructional plans, and our professional development. While these conversations are critical to improving our students’ outcomes, there is often something important missing; leadership teams very rarely discuss the emotional intelligence of the people leading the work.

In my elementary classroom, along with other subjects, I prioritize civic learning. My students have opportunities to lead, vote, express their concerns, be empathetic listeners, and solve real-world problems that affect their classroom, school, and communities. I encourage my students to identify issues in and outside the classroom and share solutions by speaking up and listening to others.

A few weeks into my superintendency, I learned a tough lesson. As I launched our districtwide strategic development process and the work took shape, I quickly realized that if I wanted our daily work to align to our goals, I needed to implement consistent, repetitive checkpoints. What dawned on me is that while the vision may be clear on Monday, other priorities can quickly blur it by Wednesday. It wasn’t because the administrators didn’t care or suddenly lost focus.

Reading has the power to open doors to new worlds and ignite curiosity and passion in people of all ages. As a teacher, I have witnessed firsthand the joy on a child’s face when they become enthralled with a new book or topic—that irresistible urge to keep reading, or to stop and share everything they’ve just discovered. Yet each year, I notice that the passion begins to fade.

Great ideas for education practices pop up all the time: on my social feeds, in newsletters, and as part of professional development. I love when I can implement these ideas in my classroom the very next day. But sometimes I need a bridge between the idea and the implementation. For me, I now often use AI to build that bridge. After I encounter a great idea, I turn to AI as a thought partner, using the idea as input and carefully directing AI to create the materials I need to put it into practice.