American Federation of Teachers New Jersey, AFL-CIO

The New Jersey Assembly’s Transportation Committee on May 12 released A1282, which would require the Department of Environmental Protection to develop and implement an electric school bus program.

In other bus-related developments, Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel on May 11 unveiled a proposal to allow the use of federal E-Rate funding for Wi-Fi in school buses.…

Empowering students “so that their minds and hearts become the engines that drive learning in our classrooms” is one thing, but giving “too much voice and choice without proper scaffolds” can lead to chaos, writes teacher and educational consultant Paul Emerich France for Edutopia.

To cultivate learner agency in the classroom, France suggests trying these moves.…

When Tom Harrison purchased a cellphone for his 11-year-old daughter, he put in place rules regarding usage and approved content.

He subsequently switched gears, drawing from his research in the field of digital character and values education: “I found that rule-based educational strategies might help my daughter survive in the digital world, but I needed to apply character-based strategies if I wanted her to thrive,” he writes for Education Week.…

The National Lieutenant Governors Association (NLGA) is now accepting applications for its first STEM Scholarship Program.

The NLGA will award up to $1,000 to 12 schools in 12 states and territories to support STEM-related programming, projects, equipment, curriculum and other endeavors. Funding will be awarded directly to schools in summer 2022, with receipt of the funding to be acknowledged by the school within 90 days.…

The Respect, Advancement, and Increasing Support for Educators Act of 2022 (RAISE), recently introduced by U.S. Sen. Cory Booker on behalf of himself, U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez and others, would provide all eligible early childhood and K-12 educators with a $1,000 refundable tax credit, regardless of the poverty level in the school in which they teach.…

Fourth-grade teacher Justine Hitchcock has witnessed students treating their iPads as if the devices were “an extension of their own arms.”

“They seem lost without their devices next to them,” Hitchcock writes for The Educator’s Room. “When it’s there, they can’t help but open it and begin to aimlessly scroll through apps, pages and photos, flitting from diversion to diversion.”…

Writing for Edutopia, New Orleans special education math teacher Rachel Fuhrman shares four essentials “that help me make the most of my classroom walls in a way that feels authentic and reflects my students.”

Read her story here.

According to brain scientists, students are in the best place to take in information “if they work in what’s known as the flow state,” writes Hank Pellissier for The 74.

“This mindset is reached when their consciousness is fully ‘in the zone,’ entirely focused on activities they find so pleasurable that time flies and all distractions disappear,” Pellissier adds.…