AWSP Blog

Last session, the Legislature created the School Employees Benefits Board (SEBB). The SEBB will help ensure K-12 employees get the affordable, high-quality benefits they deserve. Washington state public employees have long been the beneficiary of a great health benefits program through the PEBB, and it's great to see similar benefits coming to school employees across the state.

Welcome to another episode of AWSP News, where we discuss delivering AWSP News to you through rain, sleet, or snow, African American History Month, our Future Educators Month and Future School Leaders Day workshop, revisit the Give 'Em Your Keys campaign, update you on what's happening with the Legislature, discuss our "Day on the Hill" and your advocacy, thank partners Capturing Kids' Hearts and Freshgrade, remind you to register for summer conference and a couple awards to nominate someone for, Ron's departure and hiring his replacement, and some contract negotiation resources for you on our website.

Dr. Karen Burke (Vice President of Data and Academic Planning) and Pam Allyn (Senior Vice President, Innovation and Development), both from Scholastic, drop by our studio to talk about K-12 literacy and what principals can do to promote schoolwide literacy efforts. Lots of great advice and takeaways in this episode.

What happens when 40+ scarf-wearing principals visit the Capitol? Great stories, great data, and great impact. On Monday, January 28, our AWSP Advocacy Committee and members of our AWSP Board took to the Capitol to advocate for principals, the principalship, and each and every student. Watch the video to learn a little more.

Recess in an outdoor natural environment is more restorative than recess in an outdoor built environment. Cognitive assessment results demonstrated better sustained and selective attention and children reported greater restorativeness in an outdoor natural environment than in an indoor built environment. This finding applied to both group playtime and individual free play.