K-12 Greatest Hits: Your shortcut to what works in education

While some educators see cell phones and digital devices as distractions and sources of attention deficit, others say these are wonderful, undervalued teaching tools. Do we need to suppress the use of cell phones in classrooms or bring today's teachers up to speed on how to teach with this new tool?

Greg Graham is the author of, "Cell Phones in the Classroom? No, Students Need to Pay Attention." Liz Kolb is a clinical assistant professor at The University of Michigan and authored "Cell Phones in the Classroom: A Practical Guide for the K-12 Educator." Lisa Nielsen,award-winning blogger and author of "Teaching Generation Text," is a long time public school educator.

Between the increasing mandate for academic outcomes, expanding class sizes and the daily litany of demands by students, parents and administrators, teaching can drain even the most energetic of educators. In this segment our guests share thoughts and strategies to keep your energy high and your stress low.

Dr. Jack Singer, is a Clinical Psychologist and author of "The Teacher's Ultimate Stress Mastery Guide." Carol Bergmann

Corporate Coach, Consultant, and DiSC-Certified Facilitator Shelly Sanchez Terrell is a teacher trainer, the author of The 30 Goals Challenge for Educators. She has also founded various acclaimed educational projects and trained teachers face to face and online in 100 countries. Joan Young is a 4th-grade teacher and a clinical psychologist;

Our guest today shares with us how she took a challenging, failing school and turned it into a stellar performing, award winning high school by simply focusing on getting every teacher to concentrate on literacy. It's a fascinating story with useful insights about actionable tips.

Dr. Susan Szachowicz is the principal of Brockton High School, a large (4,350 student) comprehensive urban high school. Under her leadership, Brockton High has been recognized as a Massachusetts Compass School, a National Model School by the International Center for Leadership in Education for five years in a row, a recipient of the National School Change Award, and received a Bronze Medal from U.S. News and World Report as one of America's Best High Schools.

Too much to do, too little time. It's an old problem that just keeps getting bigger as more demands are placed on education leaders. But our guests say they have found extra time in some unexpected places and share their discoveries with us in this segment.

Zoë Chance is a postdoctoral researcher at Yale School of Management specializing in decision making and social welfare. Lisa Dabbs spent 19 years as an education administrator. Jessica Johnson has been an elementary school teacher in Minnesota, Arizona and is now an Elementary School Principal in Wisconsin.

In addition to dealing with a generation of students who feel entitled to good grades and special treatment, teachers are often finding they have to deal with parents who feel equally entitled. How do savvy teachers handle parents in the age of entitlement?

Dr. Mari Cortez is co-autho of Parents as Partners in Education. Karen Deerwester is the owner of Family Time Coaching & Consulting, as well as the Mommy & Me director. She is the author of The Entitlement-Free Child. Nancy Flanagan is a retired teacher, with 31 years as a K-12 Music specialist. She is co-founder of the Network of Michigan Educators.

The education world is not exempt. Education leaders have rivals and enemies. In this segment our guest presents new science which explains why it's so difficult to turn workplace enemies into allies. He then builds on this new knowledge to offer a viable strategy for getting more of your rivals to becoming willing collaborators.

Brian Uzzi, Richard L. Thomas Professor of Leadership and Organizational. Business School, MBA, Executive Education, Executive Program, Kellogg School of Management; Justin Baeder is a public school principal in Seattle, Washington. He speaks and writes about principal performance and productivity, and is a doctoral student at the University of Washington in Educational Leadership & Policy Studies. He writes "Leader Talk" at Education Week. writes a blog called "On Performance."

The holidays are coming and with them comes the challenge of celebrating the holidays while being sensitive to an increasingly culturally diverse student population. Add to the mix widely varying school policies and guidelines, and the holidays can quickly become a stress-inducing balancing act. What's an educator to do? Our guests offer some sage advice and practical tips.

Maurice J. Elias, Ph.D. is Professor and Director of Clinical Training, Psychology Department, Rutgers University. Julie is the director of Epiphany Early Learning Preschool in Seattle Washington and is the author of "Celebrate! An Anti-Bias Guide to Enjoying Holidays in Early Childhood Programs." Lee Kolbert is a educator and blogger. She has been with Palm Beach County Schools for over 27 years

You know the student we're talking about. Yes, the one who regularly makes you want to consider a new career. Dealing with difficult students has always been a part of teaching, but with all the new demands, many teachers are feeling more challenged in this area than ever before. Our guests offer proven strategies that can make a difference immediately.

Sheryl K. Pruitt, M.Ed., ET/P, is the Clinical Director of Parkaire Consultants, a clinic she founded to serve neurologically impaired individuals. She is the Co-author of Challenging Kids, Challenged Teachers. Ross W. Greene, Ph.D. is the author of The Explosive Child and Lost at School and he is Associate Clinical Professor, at Harvard Medical School. He is also founding director of the non-profit, Lives in the Balance, through which he provides free, web-based resources on Collaborative Problem Solving.

Our guest is considered a leading innovator of strategies to engage underrepresented groups in science, technology, engineering and math. His program has become the leading producer of African Americans who complete Ph.D.s in primarily white universities. In this segment he shares the strategies he has used to achieve such extraordinary success.

Freeman A. Hrabowski, III is President of UMBC (The University of Maryland, Baltimore County). His research and publications focus on science and math education, with special emphasis on minority participation and performance. He chaired the National Academies’ committee that recently produced the report, “Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation: America’s Science and Technology Talent at the Crossroads.

We hear it all the time: teachers feel disrespected by principals; principals feel disrespected by superintendents;

superintendents feel dissed by local school boards; school boards feel discounted by the feds; early child-

hood educators feel dismissed by the rest of the education community; and parents feel marginalized by all levels of professional educators. - Why do so many educators feel disrespected? What can be done about it? We start with principals and teachers.

Gail Connelly is Executive Director of the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP). Kathleen Hoffman is Teacher & Spokesperson for the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). Stephen Sawchuk is an assistant editor for Education Week. He is the senior writer of Joining Forces, a recent special report on the topic of labor-management collaboration.