Excited About Education, After all these years

Even after all these years, I am still excited to talk about education. I am still always thinking about ways to empower teachers to reach all students.

In a recent interview, I realized my existence in the space of education is to promote easy to implement strategies and resources that will help teachers in their classroom. I just can't seem to get away from that desire.

ScienceDaily: mindfulness and learning

ScienceDaily: Your source for the latest research news.

Another post about more research with 10-11 yr olds. Thy were trained to be mindful: pause, be present, and not be judgmental.

Further research suggested for kids with adhd.

Yoga for High Schoolers

Huffington Post posts almost daily on the benefits of yoga and meditation. Here is another report which states the benefits of yoga for high schoolers, especially for increasing positive emotions and self-confidence.

Mindfulness based therapy

http://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/mindfulness-teachers-special-needs-children-0320123/

Reading Interventions

Working as a Reading Teacher has helped me to hone my reading intervention strategies. IES claims that when reviewing 50 years of research, their aren't any clear agreements on a specific way to help students who struggle the most with reading.


From The Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read  (NICHD 2000) which recommends that reading instruction be based on four components: fluency, word study, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. In addition, we have added the component of writing for learning. This work has been heavily influenced and guided by CORE Teaching Reading Sourcebook for Kindergarten through Eighth Grade (2000).

Reading intervntions based on tiers from IES What Works Clearninghouse :
Tier 1: Everyone does in the general classroom

• Screen all students at the beginning, middle and end of the year. Regularly monitor students at risk for a problem in reading. 
• Provide time for differentiated reading instruction for all students based on assessments of students’ current reading level.

Tier 2: More specific interventions done in small group:

• Provide intensive, systematic instruction on up to three foundational reading skills in small groups to students who score below the benchmark score on universal screening.Typically, these groups meet between three and five times a week, for 20 to 40 minutes. (Strongest level of results)
• Monitor the progress of tier 2 students at least once a month. Use these data to determine whether students still require intervention. For those students still making insufficient progress, schoolwide teams should design a tier 3 intervention plan.

Tier 3: Even more specific interventions done one-on-one or very small group:

• Provide intensive instruction on a daily basis that promotes the development of the various components of reading proficiency to students who show minimal progress after reasonable time in tier 2 small group instruction

A very good manual for reading interventions was developed by Jim Wright at interventioncentral.org. 

Foundational reading skills K-2

Kindergarten

Phonemic awareness

Letter sounds

Listening comprehension

Vocabulary development

Grade 1 

Phonemic awareness

Phonics

Fluency (high frequency words)

Fluency with connected text (second half of the year)

Vocabulary

Comprehension

Grade 2 

Phonics

Fluency with connected text

Vocabulary

Comprehension

New Book on Mindfullness Meditation

A new book called The Now Effect: How this moment can change the rest of your life by Elisha Goldstein reports more information on how mindfullness training can treat ADHD symptoms. "As mindfulness meditation is seen to be an effective treatment for ADHD (when included in a multimodal approach), I decided to speak with Goldstein to find out if his latest book has something to offer those of us with ADHD." This blog shares questions and answers with the book's author in a two part series. 

Teaching Your Child Self-Discipline

My friend and I have already discussed the two books mentioned in this article as we actively work with our toddlers to learn patience. We both want our son and daughter to learn to wait for dinner, or to sit at the table and wait for us all to finish. But I love what this author says about truly teaching self-discipline, "Effective approaches for building self-control combine fun with progressively increasing challenges. Rather than force activities onto an unwilling child, take advantage of his or her individual tendencies." Very Vygotsky. This is using a child's strengths rather than his weaknesses. They also suggest other ways to learn self-discipline, self-control and patience by learning another language, exercise like yoga and meditation, and helping children recognize their emotions when they are upset. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/opinion/sunday/building-self-control-the-american-way.html

More Meditation in schools!

http://www.vancouversun.com/touch/health/story.html?id=6159558

Personal Biases

This came to me via Teaching Tolerance, a great resource from the Southern Poverty Law Center. It works best for teachers currently in the classroom. 


How Fair Are You? Find Out With Our Teacher Perception Tool
Life experiences and personal biases all contribute to how we perceive others. But does that perception influence our expectations about students? The Teacher Perception Tool is a survey containing scenarios that get you thinking about perception and influence. Registration is required. Once you've completed the survey, we offer further resources and research. This tool can help you create a more equitable school environment.