Dec28
As we continue to enjoy our family and friends, please know that we wish you all the best for the end of 2009 and a FANTABULOUS 2010! Amazing things are happening with us, and we’re SO glad you’re along for the ride!
Stacey Kannenberg, Get Ready to Learn Mom!
No Comments »Education, Life Balance, Passion for Life, Relationships, Work at Home
Dec21
No Comments »Education, Life Balance, Passion for Life, Relationships, Work at Home
Dec15
As we anticipate the upcoming holiday season and all its excitement, you may have had a chance to participate in the base tree lighting ceremony which will took place Dec. 3 at Building 11777. It was an occasion upon which we could spend time with family and friends to welcome this special time of year.
And, as we approach the holiday season and the New Year, it is a great time to reflect on the past year’s accomplishments. One purpose in doing so is to evaluate where you stand and then take the time to set or update your personal and professional goals for the next year and beyond. As part of the “Year of the Air Force Family,” personal and professional development is the focus area for the month of December 2009. I both encourage and challenge you to take the time this month to plan for your education.
Dec08
Are your students too focused on the “gimme” elements of the holiday season? Teach about the true meaning of the season by emphasizing the giving over the getting. Included: Ten classroom activities that focus on doing good things for other people!
Christmas trees spring up in shopping malls even before the trick-or-treaters have arrived at your doorstep.
The gifts — even kids’ toys — grow more sophisticated and more expensive each year.
TV ads scream out buy, buy, buy! — as they compete to out-scream one another…
Getting caught up in the commercialism of the holidays is easy — but teachers are in a unique position to remind students that holiday time is as much about giving as it is about getting. Lessons in holiday-giving present models of good citizenship for a new generation; and giving unselfishly can generate good feelings that students will carry with them for a lifetime!
Dec01
I came across an article in the CEC SmartBrief that came from the Newton Daily News in Jasper County, Iowa, titled “Teacher writes book to raise awareness,” written by Jessica Lowe. It is about Jennifer Springer, a special education teacher at Delaware Elementary School, who was concerned about the teasing and bullying she had seen her students endure at the hands of fellow students. She was quoted in the article saying: “One of the more unfortunate things I have seen in my experience as a special education teacher are instances where my students are made fun of and rejected by peers. I feel that the issue for most kids is not that they are just cruel children, but that they are not educated and do not understand whey children with special needs do the things they do.”
As a tutor of those with learning disabilities I do not often see the actual bullying, but I have stories recounted to me by my students about their experiences of being teased and bullied. On a more personal level, my son, who is dyslexic, has shared with me his painful struggle with these types of encounters. The one that he remembers most and brings up occasionally is being called “dumbo” by a class mate after he received a low score on a spelling test. Others have made fun of his handwriting, which looks very juvenile with floating letters of different sizes and incorrect spacing due to his dysgraphia. I agree with Springer that these kids are not just cruel children but really do not understand the issues associated with dyslexia and so to them, it does appear as it will to most that these students are simply unintelligent.
Nov17
While painting together at the easel, Sonia and Ashley keep dipping their brushes into all of the paint containers. After they make a fascinating discovery that the paints have turned a muddy brown, the preschoolers abandon their brushes and begin to make handprints on the easel paper. Then, continuing this messy process, the four-year-olds giggle as they decide to paint-print each other’s faces!
Because young children frequently make a mess with art media, you need to think through about how you feel about the mess. For example, did you feel that the girls were developing their cognitive skills as they experimented with color mixing? Did they discover that paint could be applied with a tool other than a brush? Were they learning about the concept of cause and effect? Was this a pleasurable social interaction between friends? Or, were you more apt to feel that they were making a mess because they ruined all of the paints and got paint all over themselves?
Nov03
Families play a vital role in educating America’s children. What families do is more important to student success than whether they are rich or poor, whether parents have finished high school or not, or whether children are in elementary, junior high, or high school.
Yet, for all that common sense and research tell us, family involvement often remains neglected in the debate about American school reform. To focus more attention on this important subject, the U.S. Congress recently added to an initial list of six National Education Goals another that states:
Every school will promote partnerships that will increase parental involvement and participation in promoting the social, emotional, and academic growth of children.
The Office of Educational Research and Improvement has produced Helping Your Child With Homework to contribute to the drive to increase family involvement in children’s learning. As the handbook points out, we know that children who spend more time on homework, on average, do better in school, and that the academic benefits increase as children move into the upper grades.
Oct27
Adults often become frustrated when communicating with young children.
Parents and teachers often ask me, “Are we really communicating? Do they understand me? Do I truly understand them?”
Children, especially young children, are still learning to use words. Their communication skills are relatively new. Language may be the last piece added as a child solves the puzzle of communications.
Learning words and sentences are a much harder skill set than mimicry or gesturing.
Parents usually understand their infant’s needs from the baby’s facial expression, or the tone of his or her cry.
Later, adults see clearer nonverbal communication in children, and encourage them. For example, most young parents learn quickly what the “wee wee” dance looks like, and rush to help the child to the bathroom.
For a young child, it can be easier to use body language or display emotions, than to try to find the right words. For a toddler, language can be an onerous, intellectually consuming thought process.
Oct06
All of these methods may not work with every student, but some may be the key for some students. These are geared toward parents, but apply well to teachers:
Sep29
“Don’t talk back to me!” Thus scolded in irate and ignorant mother to her young son. The boy was attemping to make her understand his view of the matter. Her words to the boy simply said to him: “I don’t want to hear your side.” Many parents tyrannize over their children in this manner. The superior strength or official authority of the older person is used to shut off, in advance, all argument from the child. He is forced to accept in silence what he conceives to be a false statement of a case.
The child feels that he is being unjustly treated. He feels that he is entitled to a hearing. When he does not receive this, a spirit of resentment and rebellion is kindled in his mind. His whole disposition and temper is affected by it. To demand a mechanical and unreasoned obedience from a child, where a reason can be given, is little short of a crime against the child. Those who hold that children should not be reasoned with, but should be made to obey orders without question or hesitation would make good slave drivers but poor parents and educators.
This section is from the “The Hygienic Care of Children” book, by Herbert M. Shelton. Also available from Amazon: Hygienic Care of Children
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