I’ve had my book, “Please Help Me With My Homework: Strategies for Parents and Caregivers” translated into Spanish. I was advised to have it translated into Castilian Spanish so that it would be universal. So, that’s the dialect the book is presently in. I am not Spanish speaking. I had the book translated because of the need for Spanish speaking parents to have a resource to support their students. I do a lot of work with schools that have a significant bi-lingual population and believe this book may help some families.
Does anyone have an idea as to how I might ‘get the word out’ about this valuable resource for Spanish speaking parents and caregivers? I’d appreciate suggestions.
What are “multiple intelligences”? What does it mean for teachers and teaching if we ask them to take into account their students many individual styles of learning?
There are too many factors involved in learning and too many ways of approaching the question of how learning happens to think that any one theory can answer those questions definitively. But one person whose work has proven really fruitful for me is psychologist Howard Gardner, who has distinguished eight or nine distinct types of intelligence (he’s still adding to his list), each of which benefits from different approaches to learning and communication in the classroom. Gardner’s types have proved tremendously helpful to my own work developing teaching strategies for working with the special needs of all children in the classroom (e.g., Special Needs in the General Classroom: Strategies that Make it Work, 2nd edition. 2010).
The two most familiar types of intelligence–the linguistic learner and the logical-mathematical learner–fit in well with our dominant models of teaching and recognizing achievement. The odds are good that many teachers, themselves, are examples of these types of intelligence. …Continue reading ‘About Types of Intelligence’
Here’s a great way for making co-teaching a benefit rather than a hassle for teachers: Be flexible.
I know you’re all looking at that line and saying to yourselves, “Well of course I’m flexible; I fully intend to be.” However, I’m not talking about your own personality, though that is important too. I’m talking about what you plan together in the classroom. In essence, if you and your co-teacher can come up with some kind of a flexible plan that would meet the requirements of kids with an IEP and, at the same time, meet the requirements of the regular education kids, you’re going to have an easier time making …Continue reading ‘Co-teaching? Consider Flexibility as a Co-teaching Tool’
So, I’m literally pondering, “How can I make a bigger difference in the world” as I proceed to unwrap a Dove Dark Chocolate …and the wrapper says, “Shape the future by dealing with the present”.
On January 4th, 2010 I had the pleasure of presenting a seminar on teaching strategies to over 150 teachers from Havana School District 126 in Havana, Illinois. The Superintendent, Dr. Mark Twomey, was there too meet me before the session started, he not only introduced me, he STAYED for the entire presentation. It’s not uncommon for an administrator to stop by and greet me, or to say a few words of motivation before I begin a presentation, but for an administrator to make the time to spend his entire day, on the first day back from holiday break, in a seminar… that is huge.
We spent the day discussing teaching strategies and ways to involve all learners in the classroom. At the end of the full day session, Dr. Twomey got up and endorsed the ideas I had spoken about. He expressed his desire to see the strategies that we covered actually being implemented in the classroom and was so passionate about that desire that he offered an incentive to his staff. He asked that teachers nominate each other and identify who they saw actually using strategies to differentiate instruction in their classrooms. He promised that he would have periodic drawings to recognize and reward those teachers for implementing strategies learned in the session.
I learned late last week that Dr. Twomey had just awarded a FREE day off to each of three outstanding teachers (one from each district campus). I’m not talking about extra prep time, or a sick day. This administrator awarded each of these outstanding teachers a day off, with pay, and no strings attached!
So often administrators fail to follow through, or simply don’t know how to support their teachers, or motivate them to be the best teachers that they can be. I could not pass up the opportunity to recognize Dr. Twomey and the tenacious support he offers his teachers and, in turn, the students of Havana School District 126.
Congratulations to Wendy Saylor, Music Teacher at New Central Elementary, Janet Barker, 5th Grade Teacher at Havana Middle School, and Barb Ramsey, Chemistry Teacher at Havana High School for their hard work and dedication to good teaching!
Though many of the buildings still stand—including several here in New Hampshire—and a few are still in operation scattered around the United States, the one-room schoolhouse is pretty much a vestige of the past as an educational model. It was far from ideal, of course, with limited resources and curriculum, entirely dependent on the education and skills (or lack thereof) of one teacher.But in other ways, the one-room school did possess some positive qualities and values that our public school systems are …Continue reading ‘Schoolhouse of the Past… Schoolhouse of the Future’
I was asked this question today at a public seminar on Inclusion Strategies that I was delivering in the Chicago area. The teachers asking the question have experienced great success for their students and themselves through co-teaching. Their administrator, however, doesn’t believe it works. A national guru on teaching strategies (not co-teaching) announced in one of their in-services that it does not work. That guru did not give an explanation, rather just made the statement, they explained. I wonder if that guru …Continue reading ‘Does Co-teaching Work?’
I wrote a note to my building principal to update him on my progress in Kung Fu since the “Kung Fu Parable”. I told him that my experience in Kung Fu will make me a better teacher. It has reminded me of what it feels like to be a “kid/student” again, therefore, giving me a much better perspective on where my students are coming from.
No matter what subject you teach, using singing and music to help students remember material can be one of the most powerful tools in your teaching toolkit. Math teachers use “Pop! Goes the Weasel” to help students remember the quadratic formula. English teachers use “Mary Had a Little Lamb” to teach the various forms of ‘to be.’ And in Social Studies…well, let’s look at an example. …Continue reading ‘The Power of Songs for Memorization’
There’s a world of difference between those words, particularly when they are applied to students and how they learn. It’s all too easy (and common) for people who merely learn differently to be branded as “learning disabled,” “hyperactive,” “ADHD,” or “unteachable,” and shunted into the educational backwaters of Special Education. If ever there was a time when society needed their rich diversity of intelligence and fresh ways of thinking, this is that time. We can’t afford to let the ideas and abilities of our different thinkers go undeveloped simply because they don’t fit into one narrow educational model. …Continue reading ‘Disability, Difference, and Diversity’
I learned late last week that Dr. Twomey had just awarded a FREE day off to each of three outstanding teachers (one from each district campus). I’m not talking about extra prep time, or a sick day. This administrator awarded each of these outstanding teachers a day off, with pay, and no strings attached!
But in other ways, the one-room school did possess some positive qualities and values that our public school systems are 
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