High School Nation Takes Blackmagic Design Cameras to NFL Pro Bowl and MLB Spring Training
High School Nation is now using Blackmagic Design’s URSA Mini Pros as their main cameras with the organization’s nationwide high-school outreach program. The URSA Mini Pro cameras were recently used by High School Nation to film interviews at the NFL 2019 Pro Bowl and Major League Baseball’s 2019 Spring Training events. High School Nation regularly takes student broadcasters to events such as the NFL Pro Bowl, NBA Summer League, MLB All-Star Week, and more. High School Nation videographer Ryan Slattery welcomed the upgrade to the Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 4.6K, simply because it gives them professional options.
Moving from DSLR technology into a URSA Mini Pro was a leap, but one that was welcomed by the students, who had the opportunity to put the systems together and experience the setup as they prepared for their interviews. High School Nation hopes to continue to expand their programs and intends to push further into digital production, so that schools that want to introduce their students to digital media and production can have the professional equipment they need to prepare students for careers in digital media.
A new third-party research study from the Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO), in collaboration with Century Analytics, demonstrates that Curriculum Associates’ Ready® Mathematics Blended Core Curriculum for Grades K–5 meets the guidelines for the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) evidence under ESSA. The HumRRO study, which meets the rigor of ESSA’s evidence requirements for quasi-experimental studies, analyzed 21,000-plus students across 91 schools nationwide, 32 of which were Ready® Mathematics users. The results showed that students using Ready® Mathematics in grades K–5 improved 5 to 10 points more on average, as measured by the i-Ready Diagnostic, than students not using the program. This is roughly equivalent to 6 to 12 percentile ranks on state tests.
“Our study provides evidence that using Ready® Mathematics Blended Core Curriculum in grades K–5 results in greater student math achievement than using only i-Ready Diagnostic,” says Dr. Rebecca Norman Dvorak, Senior Scientist of HumRRO. “Our results are both statistically and practically significant.”
Securly Announces Free Student Safety Audit for all US School Districts
Securly, the leading student safety company, is offering school districts across the United States a free audit of the entire district’s online student safety and wellness. This audit provides districts with the same professional review of their school networks as paid customers receive with 24 by Securly.
Securly’s Filter and Auditor products allow districts to monitor what kids are searching for on Google, saying to each other on Facebook, Twitter, or email, watching on YouTube, and browsing on the web. Filter and Auditor not only monitor and log activity, but they also use sentiment analysis AI algorithms to scan and flag messages from students’ emails, web searches, social media posts, and other content for signs of self-harm, bullying, violence, and suicidal thoughts. Districts participating in the free audit will first be set up with Securly’s free Filter and Auditor products. After this, student safety analysts from the 24 team will compile a customized report for the district showing up to 30 days of student safety risks they find—including cyberbullying, self-harm, violence, and abuse. Finally, one of Securly’s student safety experts will schedule a call with the district to review the report and answer any questions the district may have.
Major League Baseball and Discovery Education Create Global Sustainability Challenge
Major League Baseball and Discovery Education, the leader in standards-aligned digital curriculum resources, engaging content, and professional learning for K–12 classrooms, invite all students and educators nationwide to participate in the summer Global Sustainability Challenge. During this unique no-cost event, participants will explore their impact on the environment and learn about the importance of environmental stewardship through a set of flexible digital resources that either can be integrated by educators into classroom instruction or completed independently by students over the summer as part of an enrichment activity. Through a weekly challenge, participating students will explore different conservation efforts currently ongoing in MLB ballparks across the United States and Canada. Each of the six challenges will be accompanied by a video from an MLB executive that will immerse students in a variety of topics including recycling, local food sourcing, water conservation, and energy efficiency. By learning how various baseball teams address these important sustainability issues, students will be challenged to think about how these topics relate to their own communities.
