I’m testing for my next level in Kung Fu in a couple months and one of the requirements is to memorize quite a bit of information from the Kung Fu Members Handbook. Memorization has never been easy for me. I think that’s why I have so many strategies in my seminars to help students memorize information. I’ve used the strategies myself with tremendous success and have found students surpass all expectations (their own and those of their teachers) when they use memorization strategies.

And finally, Microsoft’s website has templates for flashcards and designates exactly which Avery product fits the dimensions.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/CT102530781033.aspx

 Enjoy making flash cards and seeing your students increase their test prep success!

In today’s educational world, immediate, ongoing assessment has taken on increased importance. One way to assess students is to allow them to self-assess. We can do this in the classroom at any given moment in time. Once we know where students are in regards to their understanding of a lesson, we can group them based on their ability, or group them in mixed ability groups where peers can teach each other. How do we do this efficiently? One method is to simply use a show of hands:

Organization tip: Put a sticky backed hook on the side of the desk and hang the cards there.

Have a wonderful day!

I presented an hour and fifteen minute conference session today at the 2008 Annual Education Conference in Portsmouth, NH. The session was titled, “Differentiating Instruction within Tier 1 and Tier II RTI Guidelines”. That’s a HUGE topic in and of itself yet, there’s a demand for information about the topic. Response to Intervention generates questions amongst most school district administrators with few answers available. So, I feel the need to at the least, start the dialogue about what it is and what it isn’t.

I always struggle, however, with trying to cover huge topics in very short blips of time. I was able to quickly go over the RTI process for Tier I & II and then cover some very basic, and powerful best practice strategies that participants could take back to their colleagues and classrooms. To me, if participants can leave with something concrete, that’s a good thing. The challenge is picking which strategies to cover in that hour.

I spend anywhere from 10-40 hours of prep for every hour that I present. But it seems no matter how much I prep for a one hour+ session, I never know whether participants really got anything they can USE tomorrow. The bottom line is: It’s not enough time!

I’d be interested in knowing what participants of short sessions hope to get out of them. What’s most important to you? Do you expect the session to skim the surface? Do you prefer when they cover just one thing but go deep? The risk in that is with a varied audience, if the presenter picks just one thing, it could be the wrong thing for many people. When I go to a school district to present a short session, I poll the participants with a survey ahead of time. I talk to teachers and administrators to find out what they hope to gain from the session. None of that is possible at a conference.

So, I figured I’d try this forum to ask the question: What do you hope to gain from a short conference session when you attend one? 

I’m a huge advocate for using individual white boards for participation. I just worked with a teacher who added one more option to this strategy: Sheet protectors. 

Cover the whiteboard with a sheet protector with two sides cut so it easily slips over the board. Then students can work out math problems on the ’sheet protected white board”. When called up to the overhead projector to show how they worked out the problem, they simply take the sheet protector off the white board and lay it on the overhead. Voila! they have a visual to explain their process to the class! Encourage students to speak slowly and clearly when explaining their process for solving the problem.

 Here’s the original instructions for using white boards to encourage class participation. It has been excerpted from my book, “Special Needs in the General Classroom: Strategies that Make it Work!” p. 110. http://www.aimhieducational.com/Books/CogentCatalystPublications.html

Use marker boards to encourage participation:

Every student has a

• Whiteboard
• Dry-erase marker or wipe off crayon
• Little kid sock (for wiping and storing marker or crayon)

1.      Teacher asks a question.

2.      Students write answers on white boards.

3.      After fair amount of time, teacher asks students to hold up boards.

• The teacher can see how ALL students are doing in one look across the room.
• It stops blurters.
• Allows those that need processing time to finally get it!

I’m always recommending that teachers use storytelling as much as possible to convey important lessons. Instruction is more memorable when presented in a ’story’. Stories connect with previous learning, with emotions, and patterns in long term memory. They are an excellent way to teach. Many of us, however, don’t feel confident in our storytelling skills. Here’s a wonderful workshop presented by a colleague of mine that remedies that lack of confidence!

Telling Stories to Children
4 Day Course with with nationally revered storyteller and educator Judith Black in the seaport town of Marblehead, MA 01945  June 23, 24, 25, 26,  2008.

Storytelling speaks simultaneously to the heart, imagination, and intellect of the listener.  There is no better teaching tool for bringing literature and curriculum alive. Come and learn how to shape your curriculum material into stories that will resonate for your students.  Explore your own power and possibilities as a teller, and expand your techniques for teaching  science.  Massachusetts PDP’s offered.

Fee: ($375) For more information contact
Judith Black E-mail : jb@storiesalive.com  phone: 781-631-4417
www.tellingstoriestochildren.com

Jen was soft spoken and frail in her appearance. She walked with a slow, short stepping gait. Her handwriting was neat, but pained and laborious. People who knew her appreciated her sweet, gentle personality. Jen learned that she had a debilitating, progressive, incurable neurological disease. The news was a devastating blow to Jen and all who knew her.

One day, Jen physically attacked another girl. This behavior was totally uncharacteristic of her. Jen, however, had been cruelly and continually taunted by this girl and a few other students for at least two years. Jen and her parents had notified her school administration of the problem. She had sought help from a school counselor to deal with the harassment. The students were spoken to. No direct disciplinary action had been taken. There are no specific consequences attached to this type of verbal bullying. Finally, distraught over the news about her illness, and tired of silently enduring the verbal abuse of her tormentors, Jen physically lashed out. She was suspended.

Jen showed up to class one more time after that incident. Then she disappeared. She attempted suicide. Fortunately, she did not succeed. She didn’t return to school. She feared the taunting. She didn’t feel safe. The high school failed to provide a safe learning environment for this student. Consequently, she sat home alone. She couldn’t get an equal education. Who is responsible?

The sad news is: most faculty at Jen’s high school was unaware of what happened to her. The majority of the school’s student population didn’t know. If we randomly asked teachers whether teasing, taunting, or harassment was a problem at that school, the majority of faculty and students might say no. The school demographics consist of a mid to upper middle class population in a small New England town. It is not the inner-city. No knives or guns were used. The weapons were words, expressions and gestures. Were they any less damaging? The emotional scars for Jen will last much longer than it takes for a physical wound to heal. Jen was a victim of verbal bullying.

Jen’s story is a drastic example of verbal bullying. What about the kid who jokingly puts down another student in the name of friendly bantering? Sometimes it ends after a few sarcastic remarks. Sometimes it comes to blows when one of the players no longer sees the humor in the situation. I’m not talking about playful teasing that doesn’t cause hurt feelings. I’m talking about put downs. Words that can be taken as insult — even when the players are laughing about them.

I’ve taken a stand on this type of humor in my classroom and home. I simply don’t allow it. I explain to my high school students that my classroom is a safe haven. It is a place for them to come where they do not have to worry about being put down. When they defend their humor, I explain that teens have to take a lot of garbage from too many people. Too many people are quick to put them down. So why should they have to listen to put downs in my classroom. I want them to feel good when they are in my room. I encourage them to say kind things to each other. I remind them how important respect is to me. I tell them that they deserve respect. Put downs are not respectful. What’s interesting is that once they hear the reason behind the rule, they accept it. I give them permission to call me on my behavior if I ever break the rule. (I suggest they do it politely.) I rarely hear insults in my classroom.

When people think of a bully, they think of a punching, kicking, and physically aggressive person. If they had to give a bully a gender, it would be male. This narrow view of bullying causes us to only react strongly to physical bullying in our society. In reality, verbal bullying, which includes harassment, taunting, mocking, exclusion and shunning, can have equally devastating consequences. With the exclusion of death, or permanent injury, physical bullying heals rather quickly. The consequences of verbal bullying can last a lifetime.

I hesitate to refer to verbal bullying as anything other than verbal bullying because I find that there is a tendency to minimize it as a social problem. People react to the word ‘bully’ with a certain sense of alarm. People don’t react to taunting, mocking, exclusion, or shunning with the same degree of concern. I think the alarm should sound just as loudly for verbal bullying as physical bullying.

Consider the typical disciplinary procedures for physical fighting in our schools. They usually involve suspension or expulsion. In contrast, verbal bullying, with the exception of sexual harassment, is often dealt with very lightly and inconsistently. Often, the only consequence is a verbal reprimand. Many teachers ignore it. Verbal bullying is much more prevalent than physical bullying. It is a major problem in our schools and our society.

Verbal harassment is not only minimized as a problem by school faculties and administrations, some school personnel use verbal bullying as a disciplinary or motivational tool. In specific settings, it is also accepted and expected. One only need go to the locker room or the football field to see verbal bullying at peak performance.

Myriam Miedzian, Boys Will Be Boys, writes, “The language of sport is filled with insults suggesting that a boy who is not tough enough, who does not live up to the masculine mystique, is really a girl or homosexual.” She sites football player, David Kopay as saying “like many other coaches, Dillingham [fictitious name] used sexual slurs — ‘fag,’‘queer,’ ‘sissy,’ ‘pussy’ — to motivate (or intimidate) his young athletes.” (Miedzian, 1991, p.202) 

I’ll never forget the look of dismay on a friends’ face when she told of standing on the sidelines of a high school football field shocked at the language being used by the coach to reprimand the team during practice. She was horrified at the example being set for her son by an adult role model. “My husband and I didn’t bring him up that way. We taught him to respect women. This isn’t right, but, there is nothing I can do. My son would never forgive me if I complained about it.” 

During a spirit rally, a football team brought out a stuffed dummy representing the opposing team. They threw the dummy on the field and proceeded to attack it, tearing it to pieces.  “Take ‘em apart” was the epithet. The team was dehumanized, symbolically abused before the entire student body. The message was, “bullying in the name of wining and sports was OK.” The reality is: It’s not OK.  In order to play the game, boys, and in many cases, girls also, must work hard at repressing empathy. They must steel themselves to the humanity of the other team. They must hide their own humanity and feelings to endure the abuse of the coach they are supposed to look up to. (Miedzian, 1991)

High school teachers, coaches and parents of adolescents need to be aware of the price society pays when we ignore, or at worst, participate in verbal bullying. I rarely speak to a parent or teacher who is not concerned about the fate of our society. Disrespect, rudeness, selfishness, bullying and lack of regard for other human beings are rampant in our culture. Before we become discouraged and throw up our hands in resignation, remember: We set the example for our youth. We set limits and boundaries for them to live by. We can make the difference for our society through our words and our actions.

 Excerpted from “Free the Children: Conflict Education for Strong Peaceful Minds” by Susan Fitzell.

Book available @ http://www.aimhieducational.com/Books/CogentCatalystPublications.html

Response to Intervention is becoming the buzz-word in administrative circles and quickly filtering down to classrooms.

R.T.I is the practice of providing high-quality instruction and intervention matched to student need, monitoring progress frequently to make decisions about change in instruction or goals and applying child response data to important educational decisions. (NASDSE, 2005)

Why do it? IDEA 2004 provides for the use of RTI as part of the process to determine eligibility for learning disabilities.  Today, school districts are facing the challenge of sorting out what RTI should look like and how it might be best implemented.

How do we do it?

To Get There in Practice: We Need to Do Three Things:

1. Adopt a three tier intervention system structure.
2. Use a problem-solving method to make decisions within the multi-tier model.
   • Is there a problem and what is it?
   • Why is the problem happening?
   • What are we going to do about it?
   • Did our intervention work?
3. Use scientifically validated teaching practices to the greatest degree possible.

This sounds simple, right? Well, changing our teaching practice is never simple. There is much theory at present about R.T.I. and few simple, common sense and practical strategies. I’ve researched some of the best online resources to support your efforts to implement Response to Intervention in your school or district.

The following links give you 12 outstanding resources to support Response to Intervention in your school or district.

1)    http://www.aimhieducational.com/Books/CogentCatalystPublications.html Click on Products & scroll down to RTI Posters

These two posters create a visual flow chart of how Differentiated Instruction, Response to Intervention, Marzano’s Strategies & Susan’s best-practice strategies and techniques are connected.Administrators are saying, “Finally, I have a visual that helps my teachers to ’see’ how all this fits together. This demonstrates how the process can work!”

2)   http://www.ideapartnership.org/report.cfm?reportid=238

3)   http://www.interventioncentral.org/

4)   http://www.lehigh.edu/collegeofeducation/mp3/links/links.htm

5)   http://www.nasdse.org/projects.cfm?pageprojectid=23

6)   http://www.nrcld.org/research/rti.shtml

7)   http://www.osepideasthatwork.org/toolkit/index.asp

8)   http://www.ncpublicschools.org/ec/development/learning/intervention/

9) http://www.ncpublicschools.org/ec/development/learning/intervention/rtimaterials

10)  http://www.wested.org/nerrc/rti.htm

11)   http://www.jimwrightonline.com/php/rti/rti_wire.php

12)   http://www.w-w-c.org/

I was doing some research for a teacher that I’m coaching in differentiating instruction and decided to share the results of the search with my blog readers. She teaches language arts.

If your students or children (I realize they are often both the same) could use some extra practice with grammar, dictionary skills, parts of speech, etc. Check out these resources!

Dictionary skills (and more) Read the rest of this entry »

The Internet is full of lists of homework tips for parents that focus on setting up the environment and managing behavior. The one aspect of helping children with homework that is rarely addressed is “how”. How do I help my child to memorize those spelling words? How do I help him or her to comprehend what is read? How do I help the child with that paper he/she has to write. Parents often end up frustrated and feeling ineffective because they don’t know how to help their children to be successful. This is especially true of parents with children who have learning difficulties.

Recent scientific research has confirmed that we all have different learning preferences and that we all learn best with different strategies.  Brain research has shown that regardless of learning style, we all process information in specific ways. 

For example, here are some of my favorite (and very easy) strategies: 

* Have children print information to be memorized.
* Border key spelling words, people, places, etc.
* Have children use two colors when working alternating the color of each fact they are writing in their notes.

(Color makes facts stand out as unique.   If all notes are in one color, nothing stands out as unique and is therefore harder to remember.)

*  Highlight important information, not EVERYTHING.
* Alternate color gel pens, markers, crayons, etc.

Here’s a strategy for studying vocabulary words:

Vocabulary Study Strategy
1. Choose a vocabulary word.
2. Print it on one side of a “flash” card. (Use index cards, heavy paper cut into strips, etc.)
3. Ask your child to tell you what he or she thinks it means so that it draws from what your child already knows.
4. Reinforce the correct definition.
5. Print the definition on the other side of the “flash” card.
6. Stand and act out a movement for the word while spelling it aloud three times!

Start the process over with the next word on the spelling or vocabulary list.

If your child’s teacher requires that he or she write the words three times each in cursive, ask the teacher if your child can write the word two times in cursive and one time printed on a flash card. Explain that you are better able to help your child with flash cards. Some children will not mind writing the words four times each. My children, however, objected to the extra work and even insisted, “But the teacher says I have to do it THIS way!” So, I made a deal with the teacher to have one set of words on flash cards and the teacher told my child that it was Okay.

Parents might want to “Look inside this book: Please Help Me with My Homework! Strategies for Parents and Caregivers” at  http://tinyurl.com/3626nf.The book provides the reader with simple, proven tools to help children increase academic performance and make the homework experience more rewarding and productive. It can seriously reduce homework stress.Smooth Homeworking!