The organization’s latest report���”From Teasing to Torment: School Climate Revisited”���examines the prevalence of bullying and its various causes. GLSEN polled more than 1,360 middle and high school students, and 1,015 high school teachers.

The study revealed 85 percent of teachers received PD to deal with bullying. However, just 33 percent received training in LGBTQ issues and only 24 percent in transgender issues. Those numbers leave LGBTQ students more vulnerable to victimization than are other students, the report states.

About 1.3 million youths in grades 9 through 12���about 8.5 percent of the national high school population���identify themselves as lesbian, gay or bisexual, according to a report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Conversations and clubs

Half of all teachers surveyed said they offer some degree of support���such as openly discussing LGBTQ issues in their classrooms, the report states. For example, teachers can lead conversations about the harm caused by homophobic remarks, says David Danischewski, research assistant for GLSEN.

“That is great, but it also shows that half are not” he says.

English or social studies teachers can include LGBTQ issues in their curriculum. A lesson on the Civil Rights Act of 1964, for example, can spark a discussion about the rights of LGBTQ people today. And posting anti-hate signs in classrooms can make a student more comfortable, Danischewski says.

In addition, teachers can make themselves available to talk to students who are having problems. And teachers may volunteer to lead gay-straight alliance clubs, which can be a major bullying deterrent.

Students in schools with these clubs reported hearing fewer anti-LGBTQ remarks and had more positive attitudes toward LGBTQ people, compared to students in schools without an alliance, the report states.

About 36 percent of teachers and students reported having such a club at their school.

Power of policy

Respecting gender identity and expression is another critical part of anti-bullying policies, the report states. Students in a school that has a policy���and that protects LGBTQ students���hear fewer homophobic, transgender and racist remarks.

An example is San Diego USD’s policy which states that if bullying or intimidation takes place based on a student’s actual or perceived characteristics���including gender identity���the victim has a right to file a claim.

And follow-up discipline comes in the form of oral warnings, written warnings, mandatory training, counseling or suspension, depending on the incident.

“91心頭istrators are the leaders of establishing the school climate” Danischewski concludes. “If they demonstrate they care, if they promote that culture, I think you’ll see everybody having a safe and affirming space to learn.”

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Though some school districts have robotics heavily embedded in classes and programs, it’s still new in many others. The recently released says this will change in the coming years.

The Horizon Report, created by the New Media Consortium (NMC) and CoSN, identifies global technology trends that will help drive educational change.

While robotics is two to three years away from mainstream adoption in K12 education, according to the report, potential uses are gaining traction for hands-on learning. Many classes and clubs incorporate robotics and programs to help develop critical-thinking and problem-solving skills in students.

At the Robot Rodeo in Vermont, for example, students from 50 schools competed to code the robots in the quickest time and navigate them through an obstacle course of wooden blocks. Students controlled the motion of many of the robots via the use of software on tablets and other mobile devices.

Robots also provide access for students who may need to spend time at home. For example, a student in Commodore Perry School District in Pennsylvania attended classes via a robot while recovering at home from a broken leg. The student, as he watched the teacher on a screen, used his laptop to control the robot’s movements during class and as he went from one class to the next.

The global robot population will double between now and 2019, the report says.

A toolkit accompanying the report provides resources for administrators, including a series of robotics discussion questions to stimulate ideas for how the technology can be used in districts.

���I think the report gives us some tools and allows us to rethink schools,��� says Joani Kay, technology coordinator at Mountain Brook High School in Alabama and one of the members of the panel this year.

Autism’s special aid

Students on the autism spectrum can develop social skills through interaction with humanoid robots, the report states.

For example, Robot4Autism’s Milo recognizes voices and faces, and can help teach children to develop simple emotions and expressions without the challenges that are attached to connecting with a real human.

The report says children who recognizes emotions, empathy, how to act more appropriately in social situations and how to self-motivate with Milo can be engaged 70 to 80 percent of the time, compared to 3 to 10 percent using traditional special education classroom approaches.

In addition to robotics, the report says virtual reality also will increase in schools in the coming years.

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The Satanic Temple���an atheist group known for its public political stances against religion in state affairs���reached out to districts in nine cities this past summer to bring its philosophy to elementary schools in after-school programs.

The After School Satan Club would teach “free inquiry and rationalism” to students, the group says. The Satanic Temple, founded in 2014, does not believe in a personal relationship with any demonic being, according to its website. Satanic Temple leader Lucien Greaves could not be reached for comment.

Vista Elementary School in Taylorsville, Utah���in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area���was one school that the Satanic Temple contacted. Both federal and state law ensures that if such a club formed, it would be allowed as an after-school program, says Ben Horsley, a spokesman at Granite School District.

Law of land opens door

The Supreme Court ruled in 2001 that evangelical group Good News Club���which has clubs in more than 3,500 schools nationwide���could not be excluded from after-school activities. Of the nine districts that the Satanic Temple reached out to, all but one host Good News Clubs, Horsley adds.

A Utah statute designates all public and charter schools as “civic centers” meaning the public should have access to such buildings when they’re not being used for education. However, state law does not require a school to rent out a facility for activities that don’t correspond with a building’s designed purpose, and no organization is permitted to reach out to students or distribute pamphlets on school grounds during the day.

The After School Satan Club would fall under those guidelines, Horsley says.

“Unfortunately, when you talk about an after-school Satanic club, it gets people in a frenzy and they get disconcerted about what that might mean” Horsley says. “I’ve spent a lot of time explaining to people that we would not allow an organization to come in and light fires in our building, sacrifice animals or whatever else people conjure up.”

Granite received a request from the group but has not heard back from them regarding reserving a classroom, Horsely says.

Tucson USD denied the Satan Temple’s request based on the grounds of not producing “the minimum requirement of having a faculty sponsor for the operation of any student club.”

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The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) consists of three primary principles to leverage the what, how and why stages of learning.

UDL’s guidelines also encourage educators to create flexible learning environments to meet the needs of students with different learning styles.

“We want to make our curriculum accessible to everyone” says Nick Williams, coordinator of instructional technology for the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation, a rural Indiana district of 17 schools and 12,500 students. “We focus on whatever barriers any of our kids have, address them and provide resources so that everyone benefits.”

Here’s how UDL taps into the brain:

Recognition networks���the”what”���control how students consume the same information through different methods. For example, the same set of data can be presented as a graph or table.

Strategic networks���the “how”���dictate how students show what they’ve learned. This can include writing a research paper or speaking about a project.

Affective networks���the “why”���dispose students to different methods of feedback and motivation. Different forms of self-assessment are encouraged.

UDL was developed as a concept by David H. Rose, who co-founded the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST)���an education and research organization that has since become the leader in UDL research���in 1984.

Various districts have incorporated UDL’s principles into its LMS, including Houston ISD and Bartholomew schools.

Bartholomew’s LMS, which is itslearning, allows students to demonstrate mastery through videos, blogs and chats, all within UDL’s mission statement.

Monthly workshops encourage teachers to become UDL experts to help co-workers adjust to the new approach. A year after its 2015 launch, 98 percent of instructors and students use the LMS.

Because UDL’s framework can be presented online through the LMS, it allows Bartholomew’s schools to continue instruction when students are at home. Bartholomew has allocated e-learning, or digital classroom, days if schools exceed snow-day limits.

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The $50 million, 86,000-square-foot Sandy Hook Elementary School opened in late August to 400 students in pre-K through grade 4. The building includes a number of new safety measures, such as secure doors, video monitoring and impact-resistant windows. The facility sits on the same grounds as the old school but is located further back on the property.

The old facility was demolished in November 2013 and new construction began in March 2015. The students of that school spent the last three years at neighboring Chalk Hill School in Monroe, which wasn’t being used at the time of the shootings that claimed the lives of 20 students and six teachers.

There is no memorial on the property. One is planned in the future though its location has not been determined.

The theme of the new school is nature. Shelly the turtle���who has been a Sandy Hook mascot of sorts for 10 years���greets visitors in a large tank. The topography of the New England town, with its scenic hills and forests, was considered in the new construction, which features multiple learning tree houses.

“Nature promotes cognition and well-being, and it is disappearing from children’s everyday life” Newtown First Selectman Pat Llodra wrote in an email. “Nature is important to children’s development in every major way���intellectually, emotionally, socially, spiritually and physically.” ���R.L.

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