All Articles tagged high-school.

STEAM Programs for Everyone

May 22, 2014 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

$STEAM Programs$ The media is always talking about STEM Programs–Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics–but why doesn’t anyone talk about STEAM Programs–Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics? In today’s world, where digital creativity and creative thought in general are intrinsic aspects of education and the learning process, it’s important to also focus on the Arts part of this acronym. Creativity helps kids think about what they’re learning in new ways, and can have positive effects on their later lives in the workplace and beyond. This helpful slideshow depicts how teachers and librarians can help focus kids and students on honing their creativity in topics that are not traditionally thought of as creative. This slideshow has suggestions for STEAM programs for students from preschool to high school, and highlights the importance of why creativity should be part of every lesson – not just lessons in the humanities.

STEAM in the Public Library: Programs & Services for Children from Amy Koester

Written by: Editorial Team, My Learning Springboard, Inc.

What is the Reggio Emilia Philosophy?

May 16, 2014 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

The Reggio Approach derives its name from its place of origin, the town of Reggio Emilia, located in northern Italy. Following World War II, Louis Malaguzzi, a teacher, along with a small group of parents, became interested in building a new school in Reggio Emilia where education would be viewed as a communal activity and sharing of culture would take place through joint exploration between children and adults. Malaguzzi’s approach focused on young children’s development in a setting where they would be encouraged to explore their environment and express themselves through multiple forms (movement, words, arts, dramatic play and music).

In the last several years, what is now known as the Reggio Approach, has become a popular model in the United States, particularly in early childhood education. Traditionally many preschools have employed pre-planned and theme-based curricula where the teachers choose the topics to teach and select activities to accompany them. In this model, the teacher presents only activities deemed age appropriate and plans monthly or weekly themes and lesson plans for an entire year before it even begins. The selection of themes is often based on the assumption that all children will benefit and be interested in the chosen subject. This traditional model lumps children into projects based on age rather than interests, capabilities and learning styles.

In contrast, a cornerstone of the Reggio philosophy is emergent curriculum. Emergent curriculum responds to children’s immediate interests rather than focusing on a narrow or calendar driven topic. As the name suggests, the study of a topic emerges from the interests and ideas of the children. The topics explored are gleaned from children’s discussions as well as interests demonstrated throughout different areas of the classroom. Once the topics of interest are identified, teachers act as co-collaborators, helping the children make decisions about the direction of inquiry and launch into in-depth studies of the concepts, ideas and interests that arise. The resulting investigations have no time limit and can span from several weeks to the whole school year.

The environment serves as a third teacher in the Reggio philosophy. The approach advocates that teachers play close attention to the myriad of ways that space can invite interaction. Small touches such as storing colorful objects in transparent containers can pique children’s curiosity and imagination. The design and use of space in a classroom encourages encounters, communication and relationships. Every corner of every space has an identity and purpose, rich in potential to engage. Spaces are valued and cared for by the children and teachers.

In the classroom, children should have the opportunity to explore and use many materials to discover and to communicate what they know, understand, wonder about, question, feel and imagine. In my classroom, there are an abundant variety of quality materials available to the children, beautifully organized and maintained by the adults and children together. In order to encourage young children to investigate their environments to the fullest, tools are placed carefully within the reach of the child so he or she explore, investigate, question and create. Through their ongoing explorations, children are then able to learn the qualities, possibilities and limitations of each material.

Written by: Editorial Team, My Learning Springboard, Inc.

Tips for the Museum: Going with Kids

May 15, 2014 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

Museums are fantastic local resources that can be excellent destinations for a child-friendly outing. Despite the entertainment and educational benefits, however, museums can be overwhelming. Here are some tips for the museum in order to create successful experiences for children, and yourselves, in your museum-going adventures.

Tap into children’s interests

In a city with hundreds of museums, there is something for everyone! It can be easy to rely on a handful of the most well known and familiar, but it is worth it to do some research to find more off-the-beaten path destinations. For a child who likes fashion or design, check out The Museum at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology). There is the Skyscraper Museum, the MTA Transit Museum, or the New York City Fire Museum. For children interested in math, try the Math Museum (MOMATH). Tapping into a child’s individual interests supports their passions, while simultaneously introducing them to various types of museums and cultural institutions. As an added bonus, these smaller, more focused museums tend to have lower entrance fees, with many offering discounts or even free times for admission.

Make a plan

Before heading off on a museum adventure, it is helpful to have an idea of what you want to do and see. Most museums have websites full of information to help you plan your visit. Check to see if there is a special exhibition, presentation, or activity that you will want to attend while you are there. It is important to be selective; do not try and see an entire museum in one visit. Trying to cover too much ends up making a visit stressful, for both adults and children. Be realistic about your child’s attention span and limits; pushing them past these will risk losing their interest in the trip entirely.

Many websites also include a map of the museum space so that you can know how to move best through the sites when you arrive. It can be fun to involve children in this planning process, and prepare them for what they will see and do during their time in the museum. This can get children excited about their visit, as well as answer some of their initial questions ahead of time.

Be flexible!

Even with all of the planning ahead of time, it is important to remain flexible during a museum visit. If a child passes something in the museum that attracts their attention, allow them to explore and spend time pursuing their own interests. It can be difficult to predict exactly what will reel in a child, especially as children often observe and perceive things differently from adults. Allow children to take some ownership of the experience, and be the “leader” of your adventure.

Some Suggestions for Child-Friendly Museums In New York City

While we still suggest that you look up specific interest museums, here are some suggestions for child-centric museums:

By Jenny Madden, Private Tutor

Every Child Can Win The Memory Game

May 1, 2014 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

By Dominic O’Brien
Original Source: Edutopia
Originally posted May 20, 2014

As a student, I had great difficulty concentrating during lessons, and consequently didn’t retain much knowledge. I was diagnosed with dyslexia and had the symptoms of attention deficit disorder. Academic information just didn’t get through to me.

Here are samples of reports that my teachers sent home when I was ten:

“He tends to dream in the middle of a calculation which leads him to lose track of the thought.”
“Terribly slow. Often cannot repeat the question. Must concentrate.”
“Unless Dominic really shakes himself up and gets down to work, he is not going to achieve any success . . . he is painfully slow.”

The comments contained no evidence that I would one day become an eight-time World Memory Champion and author of over a dozen books and courses on memory training. So what happened?

In 1987, I watched a man on television memorize a shuffled deck of playing cards in just under three minutes. As corny as it may sound, that moment changed my life.

I taught myself to memorize playing cards and realized that the strategy I was developing could be used to remember anything. Today, when I appear on TV and radio shows, one question is always asked: “Why don’t they teach this stuff in schools?” Had I acquired those skills when I was a student, I could have achieved exam success, gone onto higher education, and actually enjoyed the learning process. Instead, I suffered low self-esteem and dropped out of school when I was 16.

Teaching Basic Memory Skills

Here are five strategies that will help students remember academic information:

1. The Story Method

To remember a set of information, create a story that links all the elements together. In chemistry, for example, the noble gases are helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon and radon. Imagine taking off in a helium balloon lit up with a neon light. An argon welder turns into Superman, who takes you to the planet Krypton, and so on.

2. Numeral Shapes

To remember numerical information, give each numeral a picture code. For example, 2 is shaped like a swan, and 9 resembles a balloon and string. To remember that Queen Victoria had nine children, imagine her holding a balloon and string.

3. The Link Method

To remember foreign vocabulary, find a link between the sound of a foreign word and its meaning. For example, the German word for “bone” is knochen, so imagine the pain involved in “knocking” a bone in your leg. You can remember the Spanish word for “boat” – barco — by imagining that a boat has a large “barcode” on its side, or picture a dog “barking” on a boat.

4. The Journey Method

To remember a list, choose a familiar journey, maybe around your house, and picture each item on the list at specific locations. Test your class with a random list of 20 objects, then get them to imagine each item along a 20-stage route around their house. The same method can then be applied to remembering practical information such as the Periodic Table of Elements or the U.S. presidents.

5. The Rule of Five

To avoid having information gradually fade from your memory banks, it’s important to know when to review information. Apply the Rule of Five:

First review: immediately
Second review: 24 hours later
Third review: one week later
Fourth review: one month later
Fifth review: three months

Tapping Potential

To date, I have taught over 10,000 schoolchildren basic memory skills. Typically, I get a volunteer to write down and call out a random 60-digit number, which I then repeat forwards and backwards having heard the number just once.

The faces register amazement. However, the real payoff is when I ask, “Would you like to be able to do that, too?”

“Yeeeeeeeees!”

Next, we discuss how easy and fun learning could be if they knew the secret. After all, if a dyslexic kid can go on to become a World Memory Champion, then all children are potential memory champions.

Teacher Conferences: A Guide for Parents

April 3, 2014 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

A school psychologist offers advice on nurturing this critical relationship.

By Andrea Canter, PhD, NCSP
Original Source: Child Mind Institute
Originally posted October 8, 2014

Here’s some required reading for all parents who are heading into the school conference season. It’s brought to you from our friends at the National Association of School Psychologists and was originally published on their website, NASPonline.org. Our thanks to NASP for sharing it with us.

Home and school—everyone shares the goal of helping children learn and feel successful. Research has proven that when parents and teachers work together, everyone benefits: students tend to earn higher grades, perform better on tests, attend school more regularly, have better behavior, and show more positive attitudes toward themselves and toward school. School programs that include strong parent involvement are more effective. Yet, a collaboration between parents and teachers is not always a smooth process.

Establishing an effective home-school partnership requires efforts from both teachers and parents to create a trusting, equitable relationship. Sometimes parents must first deal with their own discomfort with schools and teachers. If parents have experienced difficulty in school, then they may have to overcome negative feelings that carry over from their own childhood. If parents are new to the community, come from another culture, or do not speak fluent English, then they may feel overwhelmed by the prospect of attending a conference with their child’s teacher or participating in a Family Night or School Open House.

Try not to worry or be afraid of a conference with your child’s teacher. Even if you have talked frequently with school personnel about your child’s failing grades or misbehavior, a conference may be an opportunity to start a cooperative partnership with teachers.

Preparing for the Parent-Teacher Conference

At least once per year, and frequently each semester (or more often), you will receive a notice of a parent-teacher conference. Perhaps you have requested the conference yourself. There are many steps you can take to assure that the conference is productive and positive:

Assemble relevant materials

Gather appropriate materials to help prepare for the conference. This can include records from previous schools and school years, such as report cards, test scores, immunization and other health records, and past and current correspondence between home and school.

Review these materials

Make sure you have gathered all the material you need. If anything important is missing, such as a report from your family physician, try to locate it and add to your file. As a tip, once you have started a collection of your child’s records, it is easy to add new material each year. At conference time, if you or the teacher has specific concerns, you can then find whatever might be important to share with the teacher.

Talk with your child before the conference

Children should understand why the conference is taking place (is it due to a problem or is it a routine meeting held for all parents) and be assured that parents are seeking ways to help and learn about what their children are doing in school. Find out if your child has any specific concerns about schoolwork or relationships with classmates.

Acquire the handbook for students

If your district, school, or classroom has a handbook for students, be sure to obtain a copy well ahead of the conference and review it. In particular look for listings of expectations for behavior and attendance so that you might anticipate what questions the teacher may ask of you. Also, try to assemble a list of questions you may want to ask the teacher if you are unsure of material in the handbook.

Be familiar with your child’s homework assignments

If your child has homework be familiar with the assignments and how your child has been performing. Is the homework getting done? Does your child seem to understand the assignments? Does the work seem too easy or too difficult?

Prepare a list of questions you want to ask your child’s teacher

Is my child meeting expectations for learning and behavior? How has my child performed on daily class assignments, on tests, on homework assignments? How does my child compare to others in basic skills? Does my child follow school rules or does my child exhibit any behavior problems? If my child is struggling in any area, what has been tried to improve performance? Does my child pay attention in class? What else can be done at home or at school? What are my child’s strengths? Are there any concerns about my child’s health, or adjustment? Are there materials or resources that you would recommend? How does my child get along with other students?

Referral to special education

If you or the teacher have concerns about the referral to special education, find out about your rights ahead of time. State and community agencies and advocate organizations can provide this information, and all schools should also have a printed copy of parents’ rights under state and federal law.

Be ready to collaborate

Generally, teachers will give parents bad news because they want to help the child do better and not to place blame on the parent or child. But sometimes the message does not come across that way, and parents naturally become defensive and protective, maybe even angry. Assume the teacher has your child’s best interests in mind, and respond calmly and tactfully. Indicate that you are most concerned with solving the problem and helping your child succeed. Offer to meet further to discuss the problem and to work out a solution. Remember that teachers are often as afraid to deliver bad news as parents are to hear it.

During the Conference

Listen carefully

It is perfectly acceptable to take notes. This is particularly helpful if one parent or other involved relative cannot attend. It can also help you remember details so that you can ask questions later.

Offer your perspective

Many times teachers will ask you about your child’s activities at home and your views of your child’s strengths and areas where help might be needed. Even if the teacher does not ask, speak up and provide your observations and any concerns.

You want to hear good news about your child

If the teacher does not offer any positive comments, ask directly, “What does my child do well?” And remember that teachers often hear only negative comments, too. Be sure to try to offer a compliment, a thank you to let the teacher know you appreciate what they are trying to do to help your child-even when what the teacher is trying to do may not be working.

Do not be afraid to ask questions

If you do not understand something or feel your concerns are not being addressed, then ask the teacher. Teachers and other educators easily slip into jargon and forget that many parents are not familiar with the terms they use every day. Ask what test scores mean and what the results mean for your child. Stop and ask for explanation of unfamiliar terms or programs. Not understanding can quickly lead to misunderstanding.