By Ashley Pursley - Anderson School District Five As the dedicated educators of South Carolina enter their schools every day, each step is guided by a compelling vision: each student graduates with world-class knowledge, skills, and life and career characteristics. This vision is presented on a blue and gold poster in classrooms across the state. However, the poster alone is just the finishing move, and like the best wrestling finishers of all time, it requires a preliminary series of strategic moves to weaken the opponent and ensure success. The Champ is HereArmed with a belief that the P ..read more

By Dr. Eugene Bellamy, Jr. - Jasper County School District Importance of Vision Oftentimes, as leaders, we miss a prime opportunity for personal and collective growth within our team by allowing our vision to remain in our mind or to become dormant. Leaders must become more reflective and have the ability to challenge one’s own process, protocols, and systems in order to create an environment that leads others to become more thought-provoking and be able to see beyond their own personal experiences. This is the power that vision has, but vision only works if all team members develop an unders ..read more

By Heather Wallace, - Richland School District One Reflecting on my past three summers, I've been deeply immersed in summer programs, actively engaging in conferences and training sessions, and eagerly participating in networking events. Yet, as the whirlwind of activities swept me along, I found myself at the threshold of the new school year without having fully indulged in personal unwinding sessions. While I felt professionally invigorated, I realized that I lacked the rejuvenation necessary to feel entirely revitalized at the beginning of the new academic year. As we bid farewell to anot ..read more

By Sarah Kelly, - Lexington School District One Have you ever been in a class where your students struggled with engagement? Or maybe you currently have a class that you think could benefit from increasing overall engagement. If you answered yes to either of these questions, this blog is for you. This school year I worked with Dr. Candace Lett, Reading and Language Arts Coordinator for Lexington School District One, on looking at ways that we could level up engagement within classrooms. Being a Social Studies teacher, I knew that this would look different in my classroom than it did in an En ..read more

By Shane Peek - Greenville County Schools See that plant to the left in the image (below)? Take a glance and you'll spot a magnificent Azalea thriving in my backyard. But here's the twist: three years back, I nearly gave up on it. Despite its potential, it constantly wilted and hardly ever bloomed. Multiple branches were infected, rendering it lopsided and awkward. In short, it wasn't like the picture of vitality you see below - it was not thriving, green, or healthy. After nearly tossing in the towel, I decided to try and relocate it to a new location - I wanted to give it one more chance.&n ..read more

By Marian Simmons - Richland School District Two Marian Simmons is the Magnet Curriculum Specialist at MED (Medical/Engineering/Arts) at Bridge Creek Elementary School in Richland County School District 2.  Her session's instructional research based strategy focuses on building student engagement using Canva for Education aligned to our ASCD whole child tenets of challenged, supported, and engaged ..read more

By LaKeyseah Brennan - Lexington and Richland Counties of District Five Shifting Mindset and Practice for Teachers and Students:   Using UDL (Universal Design Learning) to address the WHOLE Child  Summary: This blog highlights the benefits of UDL for the holistic development of students, emphasizing its role in creating safe, supported, engaged, healthy, and challenged learning environments. It stresses the importance of addressing the needs of the whole child and sees UDL as a means to achieve that goal, not as an additional burden for teachers but as a liberating approach th ..read more

By Megan Mayes - Anderson School District One Webinar/Vlog - Practical strategies for digital learning coaches to effectively bridge the gap and enhance collaboration within their team environments to support the whole child Webinar Recording  Canva Presentation  ..read more

By Shane Peek - Greenville County Schools Recently, my electricity bill left me bewildered. It was a mammoth $600, and in the quest to solve this budget-blowing mystery, a friend with HVAC expertise came to my rescue. While examining my cooling system, he revealed the hidden truth—a heating element was running constantly, which warmed the O2 that my air conditioner was diligently cooling. The thermostat was caught in a loop of confusion, causing the AC to work overtime. It was a classic case of a negative feedback loop. As we crawled around the dark, dusty crawl space and closely examine ..read more

By Dr. Kayla Hostetler - Aiken County School District I have had the privilege of working with teenagers for many years as an educator and as a mentor of Aiken’s Next Generation Youth Leadership Network, a program of Write to Change. The Aiken Next Generation program focuses on growing South Carolina youth as leaders and advocates. Youth participate in think tanks and develop actionable plans to make a difference in their local communities. Next Generation teens in Aiken serve locally as mentors to children, teens, and youth-serving organizations. They lead Family Literacy Nigh ..read more