Notes from ASSEC

February 1st, 2013  

For the remaining issues of the school year, we will be featuring learning from educators that attended ASSEC! Please send your learning to Denise Kelly (who reserves the right to edit to fit in the space allotted).

Ron Glodoski was a keynote speaker at ASSEC. He spoke of the critical importance of developing relationships with students – especially the ones that drive us crazy! His personal experiences included school avoidance, gang membership, drug use and dealing, criminal activity, prison, and ultimately therapy, the road to recovery, and development of self – esteem. He urged the audience to be that one person who is there for the difficult students unconditionally. Be the one who keeps coming back to help even when they don’t want help.

His student activity workbook, “How to be a Successful Criminal: The Real Deal on Crime, Drugs and Easy Money,” (it’s a “reverse psychology” type of title!) is available at the district office. Contact Rebecca Stilchen – Jaime, and she can bizhub you the entire notebook or make you a hard copy at no cost to you.

For more information, check out
http://www.ronglodoski.com/bookstore.html

If you use the activity workbook, let us know what you think!

The Focus is Math

October 1st, 2012  

For almost all of our schools, SBA scores in math need to be raised—the pressure is mounting. Pupil Services is looking at how to support special education teachers with curriculum and other resources. Hopefully this information is helpful!

www.learner.org—free website from the Annenberg Foundation. Provides professional resources for all academic areas.

www.khanacademy.org—free website for many academic areas, including math, from basic computation to calculus. Provides video explanations as well as practice problems for each of the areas.

www.sosmath.com—free website for practice problems from Algebra to differential equations

According to the Council for Exceptional Children’s math webinar series last school year, we need to use language to move student learning from one level to the next. Ways to increase these language interactions in math class include:

 Allow students to interact frequently with the class materials and concepts

 Model and encourage level appropriate math vocabulary in class dialogue

 Use white boards to assess step by step processes

 Set up cooperative groups with systematic interactions

 Use journals to practice student think alouds and conceptualization

Thank you for all of your work with math (and everything else) for our students!

 

Helping Students Develop Friendships

September 1st, 2012  

Parents and professionals often struggle with helping children learn to be good friends or to understand the complexities of social interactions. Below are a number of strategies that can help children develop friendships.

1. Get Involved – Participate in community sports teams, art programs, and special events. These are wonderful opportunities for children to engage in structured activities with peers. Ask professionals and support groups for information on these programs or check your community newspapers, centers, and websites.

2. Leverage the Child’s Interests – If the goal of enrolling a child in a program is to provide opportunities for making friends, look for activities the child enjoys. If a child is particularly shy, look for activities that initially have less direct contact. Tumbling and swimming are examples of individual sports while soccer and basketball involve more contact with peers.

3. Role Play Difficult Skills – Practicing social skills is a way to work on specific aspects of social interactions. For example, if you notice your child stands too close to peers or repeatedly asks the same questions, help them learn about personal space or conversational skills through role play.

4. Provide Examples – While reading books or watching television, explain social situations to children. Point out how helping others, using kind words, and listening when friends talk are ways to be a good friend. When characters are being hurtful or invading someone’s personal space, point these actions out and ask the child what the character could do differently to be a better friend.

5. Model Being Good to Others – Part of being well liked and being a good friend is being kind. Demonstrate kindness by saying nice things about and to others. Point out when a co-worker does something thoughtful and how this makes you feel about them. If your child is sympathetic or says something complimentary, tell them their actions made you happy.

6. Do Not Force Friendships – Just like adults, children get along better with some peers than others. Teaching children to be kind and to include everyone in activities is important, but they do not have to be best friends with everyone.

To receive a free customizable children’s book on waiting, visit our website:    www.sandbox-learning.com Copyright © 2006 by Sandbox Learning. All Rights Reserved.

 

Story Champs

May 1st, 2012  

Story Champs is a multi-tiered language curriculum for young children. The program teaches story  structure and complex language features necessary for coherent storytelling. A preponderance of research suggests that narrative language supports the development of other language and literacy skills such as social communication, listening comprehension, and eventually reading comprehension.

Several schools in coordination with their speech pathologists are incorporating this program into instruction for students who are already identified for special education services, as well as finding great success with it for students who are currently in the RtI process.

Ask your school’s speech-language pathologist about Story Champs or visit http://languagedynamicsgroup.com/storychamps.html for more information.

Check it Out!

November 4th, 2011  

Check out this website! What a great resource for behavioral interventions!

http://polkdhsd7.sharpschool.com/staff_directory/p_b_s_behavior_intervention/

Thanks to Kay Downs for passing it on!