vrinda sharma

Winners Announced for 2024 Crystal Apple Awards

School Specialty today announced the 2024 winners of its annual Crystal Apple Awards, which celebrate teachers who embody inspiration, leadership, and passion in teaching. Each year, students, parents, administrators, fellow teachers, family, and friends nominate teachers who go above and beyond to touch the lives of students every day. School Specialty selects 10 finalists from…

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High School Math Can Be Playful, Too

When students reach high school math, play typically disappears from the curriculum. But Kathy Sun is discovering new ways to bring play into high school math.  A student’s math identity is usually focused on procedural proficiency rather than a broader view of mathematical contributions and community, said Sun, a researcher and professor at Santa Clara…

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Microschools with a World Vision: Insights from the First International Micro School Conference

By: Lizette Valles Recently, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC, served as a vibrant venue for the first-ever International Micro School Conference hosted by Microschools.com, Mysa, and Prenda. This event gathered a global community of microschool leaders, educators, researchers, social entrepreneurs, and innovators, all sharing a common goal: to explore…

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Learning from Long Shadows

My decade-long involvement in shadowing projects across the country has taught me that the average percentage of time that multilingual learners (MLLs) are speaking is often 5–10%. This is in contrast to what researchers like Pauline Gibbons (2015) tell us—that MLLs should be spending at least 30% of their school day in academic talk. This…

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Implementing a Bilingual Authorization Program

In Fall 2022, Whittier College’s Teacher Education program launched their online bilingual authorization program (BILA). In year 1, the program was initially fully asynchronous, but after surveying BILA students mid-way through the semester, they provided feedback that they wanted more synchronous instruction with their instructors. Whittier College students are used to personalized and small group…

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