Blog

The Aftermath Of Growing Up As A Gifted Child
Listen Read Ever heard someone say, “Oh, yeah, I used to be gifted, but I’m not anymore”? Gifted and talented is not a social club that you try out for or even a class for kids who like to study and make good grades. When done correctly, the goal of...

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...

What Does It Mean to Label Someone GT?
Listen Read A Brief History on Gifted and Talented Education and Its Evolving Perceptions Should I put my kid in GT? Many advocates for gifted and talented education frequently find themselves having to justify to a parent why they should allow their child to be in their school’s gifted and...

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...

What Happens in Pre-Kindergarten
Listen Read In education, it’s uncommon to have much of an opportunity to see what happens in other classrooms, let alone what happens on campuses of a different level. Yet everything done in one level is built upon all that has happened before it, and each new level provides a...

Whose ARD Is This, Anyway?
Listen Read 10 Tips for Making Sure the Secondary Student Is the Focus of the ARD Imagine being an adolescent who struggles in school, walking into a stuffy room and sitting at a table with 8 adults while they all talk about you as though you weren’t even present. This...

Teacher-friendly Kindergarten Science Lessons
Listen Kindergartners LOVE science. They are naturally curious so anything that has to do with figuring things out, nature, animals, water…kindergartners want to know more. Even with their natural curiosity, sometimes it’s hard to keep them focused on the lesson or activity. Here are some teacher-friendly activities that you and...

The Importance of Motor Breaks in the School Day
Listen The expectations placed on children of all ages are getting harder and harder to achieve. It is great to challenge children to problem solve and learn, but sometimes the frustration of non-developmentally appropriate activities far exceeds the threshold of a child’s skills. It is of the utmost importance, now...

The Best Ways to Support Young Children In and Out of Class
Listen It seems like the longer I teach, the fewer skills students come into kindergarten with. Most students used to have numerous self-help and problem-solving skills, but now those skills are in the minority. Why is that happening? Why do more and more children come to school unable to do...

Literacy/Math Activities That Your Students Will Love
Listen When working with young children, you have to come up with activities that grab and hold your students’ attention. They have done most of their learning through play so anything that can make learning fun will be helpful. Listening to the teacher talk about a skill may only reach...

The Best Back to School Books
Listen There is a plethora of wonderful children’s books available. Sometimes it’s hard to decide which ones to read and which ones to skip. The majority of children’s books that I have read have fallen into the “I LOVE THIS BOOK” column. I have also read some children’s books that...

Mindfulness in the Classroom
Listen The demands put upon students these days, from kindergarten through high school, have become overwhelming. Kindergartners, 5 and 6 year olds, are expected to read and write by the end of the school year. Upper elementary age students need to be able to use a computer and take multiple,...