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Tips for Coping with Personal Mental Illness
Listen According to NAMI (the National Alliance on Mental Illness), on average, 1 in 5 Americans in the general population experience mental illness at some point in their adult life. 1 in 25 experience severe or chronic mental illnesses. It comes as no surprise that teachers are not an exception...
Combatting Personal Bias in the Classroom
Listen Humans have a natural tendency to want to group themselves with other people who are similar. It’s likely an instinct that at one point helped us survive and keep our families intact. Now, however, the instinct can be less helpful. There are many ways we separate ourselves including race,...
Dysgraphia and Writing Disorders: Beginning with Dyslexia
Listen The first cases of dyslexia were written about in the 1880s, around the time both Samuel Orton and Anna Gillingham were both born. In the 1920s, the two had started working toward what is now known as the Orton-Gillingham approach, which laid the foundation for educating students with dyslexia...
Dealing with Difficult Parents of Middle and High School Students
Listen It has often been said that teaching would be easy if it was just dealing with students; it’s the adults who make it so difficult. Parents can be a teacher’s greatest ally, but it just takes one or two difficult parents to make it feel like they are all...
Dealing with Difficult Parents -In the Elementary Setting
Listen The relationships we build with families through the school are unique and sometimes filled with complications. We tend to feel very strongly about our students, and we wouldn’t be in the education profession if we didn’t want the best for each one of them. Yet, we often forget that...
Great Games for Learning, Part 4: Math Games for 3rd-5th Graders
Listen Math is one of the best areas to use board games as practice and review for learning skills. Math just lends itself so nicely to gameplay. We’ve searched for some of our favorite board, dice, and card games that can be used for building math skills and placed them...
Working with Young and Inexperienced Parents of Students
Listen Parenting is a tough gig, and when working with younger children, it’s especially clear when your student is coming from a family with very young parents who have little social support. Educators are in a unique position to help young and inexperienced parents. Here are a few things we’ve...
How Administrators Can Influence Adult Bullying
Listen Many of us in education grew up in a time where bullying was just seen as part of everyday life - something nearly everyone must endure as some sort of rite of passage. Unfortunately, that attitude not only puts our students at risk of being bullied by their peers,...
Helping Parents Navigate the World of Education
Listen Read Finish this statement: “The kids aren’t the problem. It’s the ______.” Did you say either adults or parents? Then you are not alone! Many teachers say the same. After years in the public school setting, one of our writers transitioned from teaching to being a stay-at-home parent, though,...
Handwriting Hacks for Any Age
Listen Read Have you ever tried to grade an assignment and been unable to understand anything on the paper? Does it seem to be getting worse? Handwriting instruction was written out of state standards in many places in 2010. Some held onto teaching it until around 2013. Once something is...
4 Homeschooling Myths
Listen Read When the word “homeschooling” comes to mind, what do you think? If you’re like most public (or even private) school educators in the United States, chances are your ideas are very different from the current reality. Or, perhaps we should say, homeschooling has evolved into a lot of...
Teaching Low-Achieving Elementary Students in the General Education Environment
Listen Read In 1975, the first version of what we now know as the IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) was passed. Amendments passed in 1990, 1997, and finally in 2004 to create what we now know as the document that ensures children with disabilities receive a “free and appropriate...