There seems to be one in almost every classroom. That student that just can’t get it together. Maybe it’s the homework that never gets turned in or the desk that resembles a pigpen. Possibly the student is disruptive, blurting out inappropriate remarks or just can’t stop tapping her pencil even when you have asked her a million times to stop.

As teachers, we know its normal for students to forget their homework or daydream and get fidgety from time to time. But how do we distinguish between “normal” kid behavior and ADHD behavior? Are we too quick to diagnose and medicate in hopes that these behaviors simply disappear? Is ADHD being over diagnosed when kids are just really being kids? And if it really is ADHD, how do we accommodate these students so they succeed in our classroom?

The 3 Sub-Types of ADHD

Here are a few facts to consider about ADHD, also known as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

• ADHD is the most commonly studied and diagnosed psychiatric disorder in children. It is considered a neurobehavioral developmental disorder.
• ADHD affects approximately 3-7% of all children globally with symptoms typically presenting before the age of 7.
• Boys are 2 to 4 times more likely than girls to be diagnosed with ADHD.
• Scientists are not sure exactly what causes ADHD, although many studies suggest that genetics and brain chemistry play a large role. It is thought that ADHD may result from a combination of factors including genetics, brain injuries, nutrition, environmental factors and/or social influences. (NIMH, National Institute of Mental Health).

To make the disorder even more confounding, ADHD has three subtypes according to the DSM-IV. A child who is diagnosed with ADHD will fall into one of the following categories:

ADHD- Predominantly Inattentive (also known as ADD)

A child with this diagnoses presents symptoms that are more inattentive in nature. They are easily distracted, forgetful, have trouble with organizing and completing a task, become bored easily, struggle to follow directions, have difficulty focusing on one thing, daydream and/or have trouble completing or turning in homework assignments. Children with this subtype are less likely to act out or have difficulties getting along with other children. In fact, they tend to be very quiet and are often overlooked. Parents and teachers may not notice that he or she has ADHD.

ADHD- Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive

Students who are diagnosed with this type of ADHD may display symptoms such as talking nonstop, fidgeting and squirming in their seats, having difficulty doing quiet tasks, are very impatient, blurt out inappropriate comments and act without regard for consequences.

ADHD- Combined Hyperactive-Impulsive and Inattentive

These students have the symptoms of hyperactivity, impulsivity and inattention. Most children who are diagnosed with ADHD fall into this category.

Diagnosing ADHD Is Not a Simple, Single Event

ADHD, and other mental illnesses, do not allow for a blood test to provide a definitive diagnoses. Instead, diagnosing the disorder is based upon the observations of the student by parents, teachers and other caregivers.

Questionnaires regarding behaviors in the classroom and at home help a mental health professional or doctor determine if a child is indeed suffering from the disorder. Professionals also look at how long the symptoms have been present and whether the behaviors are excessive or not age appropriate.

What To Do As Teachers and Parents If We Suspect ADHD?

Erin’s son, Matt, started having trouble once he began Kindergarten. He was placed on a behavior chart for inattentive behaviors. Every year, Erin would get the same email from his teacher. “Matt has trouble focusing, so we are going to start him on a behavior chart.” Erin became so sick of the smiley face, frown face chart, as they just didn’t seem to work.

Matt’s 3rd grade teacher realized that his inattentive behaviors were something that Matt couldn’t help, so she asked if she could have him observed by the Vice Principal. From there, Erin and Matt saw his pediatrician who suggested a psychologist for a diagnosis as well.

Once Matt was officially diagnosed with ADHD-Inattentive type, Erin and the school professionals wrote a 504 Plan. Erin honestly didn’t think it worked well, if at all, because the teacher didn’t follow it. She was not a good communicator and didn’t check Matt’s backpack like what was written in the plan.

At home, Erin tried a no sugar diet and found that didn’t help either. What does help is making sure to check Matt’s backpack every night and talking to him about school, pointing out the positives. Erin also has Matt repeat back to her directions given at home.

After about 10 months and no success using the 504 Plan, Erin decided to start Matt on ADHD medicine. Matt began on a low dose and the teacher reported seeing a difference right away, much more participation, attention and interest in math. Matt takes a low dose in the morning with the school nurse on the days he is at school. There has been a real positive change in Matt since beginning the medicine.

Is ADHD Over Diagnosed?

Are we too quick to label a student as ADHD just because he can’t sit still or because a student’s grades are slipping? A recent study conducted by the CDC (Center for Disease Control) showed that 11% of school-age children in the United States have received a diagnosis of ADHD.

What has alarmed many is that in which the rate has climbed. According to the study, the rate has skyrocketed 16% since 2007. The rise was most dramatic among boys, with an estimated 1 in 5 boys of high school age diagnosed with ADHD.

Like most mental health disorders, ADHD is not black and white.

Like most mental health disorders, ADHD is not black and white. It is a perplexing condition that can affect the academic and social lives of affected children, possibly into adulthood. A few points to consider about the rising rates of ADHD: Family doctors, who aren’t always adequately trained in providing the detailed evaluation that a reliable diagnosis requires, are diagnosing many children with ADHD when there really may be another condition going on, or in fact, nothing at all.

This problem may lie in the detail that doctors are required to sort out a very complex condition in a short amount of time. Just because a child is showing a few symptoms does not necessarily point to a positive diagnosis. The symptoms must be present every day for a long period of time and must lead to an impairment on the child’s life.

20 Ways To Support Students With ADHD

Regardless of the how’s and why’s of ADHD, as teachers it is vital that we support our students on their academic journey. How do we support parents and students who are affected by ADHD?

1. Learn about which subtype of ADHD the student has been diagnosed with. Get to know the individual student and be mindful of his or her uniqueness.
2. Seat the student away from doors and windows that may distract him or her. The student may work best closest to the teacher.
3. Allow physical activity breaks (stretching) and incorporate movement activities into a lesson. If possible, allow for outdoor instruction time.
4. When possible, provide academic instruction to these students with ADHD in the morning. Evidence suggests that on-task behaviors of a student with ADHD worsen over the course of a day.
5. Write important information down where the student can easily reference it, most likely at their desk.
6. Divide large assignments into small segments. Write these segments down. Have the student cross the items off as they are completed.
7. Provide frequent breaks for the student to get a drink or walk around the room.
8. Allow the student with ADHD to run errands for you (take a note to the office) or have them be in charge of sharpening the classroom pencils.
9. Provide the student with a stress ball or other object for the student to play with discreetly at their seat, especially when they need a break.
10. Write the schedule of the day on the student’s desk and allow him or her to cross off each item as it is completed.
11. Recognize and praise aloud all good behaviors. Be specific in what the student is doing correctly.
12. Provide an assignment book for the student to keep track of homework and daily work. Encourage this book to be signed by parents so parents know what is going on in the classroom. Communicate with the parent as much as possible.
13. Form small groups for students with ADHD to work in so as not to get distracted and lost in a large group.
14. Allow the student with ADHD to work in a quiet zone within the classroom. This should be a place in the room that is quiet and free from visual stimulation.
15. Establish a secret signal with the student to use as a reminder when he or she is off task.
16. When giving directions, make eye contact with the student and be as brief as possible.
17. Use visuals. Highlight words in colored chalk or bright ink. Underline and circle important things to remember.
18. Use auditory cues. Set a timer and encourage the student to work uninterrupted until the timer goes off. Allow the student a break following the work period.
19. Provide specific, well-defined rules to the student with ADHD. Write these rules down and tape them to the student’s desk. These rules should have clear consequences.
20. Most importantly, students need guidance, compassion and understanding from their parents and teachers as they navigate the path of dealing with ADHD. It isn’t their fault that they have been diagnosed with ADHD.

The post Teaching Children With ADHD: Classroom Strategies To Engage The Easily Distracted appeared first on InformED.

When I was first learning basic math, I played a computer game at home called Math Rescue. Math Rescue was an educational platform game developed by Redwood Games and published by Apogee Software in 1992. As the title suggests, it revolved around solving math problems, which appeared on the screen whenever your avatar jumped into the air— from the ocean floor, the roof of a castle, a boardwalk in space, an icy underground cave, the side of an active volcano— to capture a floating box. I remember that some of the boxes contained word problems, which I dreaded because they slowed down the action of the game. Plus, there were Gruzzles— nefarious blobs with frowny faces— to stop from wreaking any more havoc in the pixelated world. Eventually, I figured out how to turn off the word problem setting so that only numeric problems appeared.

Looking back, I realize two things: first, I probably avoided the word problems because they were too hard (and Gruzzles would descend upon me from mid-air if I answered incorrectly), and second, they were too hard not because of the math but because of the language.

Say what?

To illustrate my point, let me revisit a story you may be familiar with. In 2008, Fran Simmons, an English teacher at New Dorp High School in New York—at that time one of the lowest-performing secondary institutions in the nation— devised a simple test for her students in an effort to keep district officials from pulling the plug. First, she asked her freshman class to read Of Mice and Men. Then, using information from the novel, she asked them to answer the following prompt in a single sentence:

“Although George …”

She was looking for a sentence like: Although George worked very hard, he could not attain the American Dream.

What Simmons received was alarming in the truest sense of the word. Some students wrote passable sentences, but many could not manage to finish the line. More than a few wrote the following:

“Although George and Lenny were friends.”

At this point, Simmons said in an interview with Peg Tyre of The Atlantic Monthly, a light bulb went on in her head. These 14- and 15-year-olds didn’t know how to use some basic parts of speech. With such grammatical gaps, it was a wonder they learned as much as they did. “Yes, they could read simple sentences,” but works like the Gettysburg Address were beyond them—not because they were too lazy to look up words they didn’t know, but because “they were missing a crucial understanding of how language works. They didn’t understand that the key information in a sentence doesn’t always come at the beginning of that sentence.”

Similarly, when I saw a word problem like, “In the pet store, Lupe sees 9 snakes in one cage and 6 fewer snakes in another cage,” I may not have understood, at such a young age, that the word “fewer” signified a subtraction problem.

Of slightly greater concern, when a world history student is told to assess the economic success of the Cultural Revolution in China, and proceeds to write a poorly constructed essay, maybe it isn’t because she hasn’t studied—maybe it’s because she doesn’t understand that the word “assess” is asking her to do more than just cite evidence; it is asking her to take a side.

The Psycholinguistic Case For Writing Education

In many of today’s writing-intensive classrooms, instructors highlight the importance of thinking-to-write. Critical thinking skills are crucial in forming a clear argument and writing a cohesive essay. Even the controversial Common Core Standards Initiative states, regarding writing standards in grades 6-12, “Each year in their writing, students should demonstrate increasing sophistication in all aspects of language use, from vocabulary and syntax to the development and organization of ideas, and they should address increasingly demanding content and sources.” The Common Cores emphasize the importance of making and supporting claims, using valid reasoning, conveying complex ideas, and organizing component thoughts into a coherent whole.

If a student can’t write it, however, why should we assume that she can think it?

Many of us assume that thought influences language, in that order, because that is the order in which expression usually occurs— We have a thought, and then we use speech or writing to express it. One of the best courses I took in college was on the philosophy of language. I remember starting the class with a piece by German philosopher Gottlob Frege, who asserted that you can’t have thought without language: language influences thought, which results in more language. If you have a vocabulary of 100 words, you aren’t likely to be a good writer or speaker because you don’t have the necessary tools to express yourself. You can only express yourself with the tools you have.

If a student can’t write it, why should we assume that she can think it?

Take the Alaskan Eskimos, for example, who have, by some measures, over 50 different terms for “snow.” In the Inupiaq dialect of Wales, Alaska, there are a purported 70 different words for sea ice, including “utuqaq,” ice that lasts year after year; “siguliaksraq,” the patchwork layer of crystals that forms as the sea begins to freeze; and “auniq,” ice that is filled with holes, like Swiss cheese.

In Standard English, if we don’t have a word for something, we may just think about it as an abstract concept but not be able to express it clearly, or at least with a single term. This happens to people all the time, from both educated and uneducated walks of life. But there is also another phenomenon, and that is when, because we don’t have the language for it, we don’t think about it at all. I have never seen ice filled with holes like Swiss cheese, so how could I think about it, let alone have a word for it?

Considerable academic attention has been given to the way language influences one’s perception of reality, beginning with Yale anthropologist Benjamin Lee Whorf in the 1940s. The varying perceptions found among speakers of different languages has been especially instructive. I find these studies quite analogous to what’s going on in a student’s head when she doesn’t fully understand the structure of her own language before trying to speak the language of, say, government and economics. Insufficient writing skills may, in effect, alter her perception of government and economics as a graspable subject.

“When your language routinely obliges you to specify certain types of information,” writes author and researcher Guy Duetscher in a New York Times column from 2010, “it forces you to be attentive to certain details in the world and to certain aspects of experience that speakers of other languages may not be required to think about all the time. And since such habits of speech are cultivated from the earliest age, it is only natural that they can settle into habits of mind that go beyond language itself, affecting your experiences, perceptions, associations, feelings, memories and orientation in the world.”

Similarly, when insufficient language skills limit you to citing only certain types of information, they simultaneously force you to be attentive only to a limited number of details in the world, thus limiting your understanding of other subjects as well.

In recent years, multiple experiments have shown that grammatical genders can shape the feelings and associations of speakers toward the objects around them. In the 1990s, for instance, psychologists compared associations between speakers of German and Spanish. When speakers were asked to grade various objects on a range of characteristics, Spanish speakers deemed bridges, clocks and violins to have more “manly properties” like strength, but Germans tended to think of them as more slender or elegant. With objects like mountains or chairs, which are “he” in German but “she” in Spanish, the effect was reversed.

“More recently,” Duetscher writes, “psychologists have even shown that ‘gendered languages’ imprint gender traits for objects so strongly in the mind that these associations obstruct speakers’ ability to commit information to memory.” Does this mean that there are emotional maps imposed by a gender system that may have behavioral consequences for everyday life? Do the opposite genders of “bridge” in German and Spanish have an effect on the design of bridges in Germany and Spain? Do they shape tastes, fashions, habits, and preferences in German and Spanish societies?

English speakers, in this case, are like the equivalent of illiterate students in the English classroom. Since we don’t have the advantage of considering words like “bridge” or “violin” in terms of gender, there is no chance of impaired or enhanced memory, emotional maps, or behavioral consequences due to gendered objects. We’re left out of the loop. Some may even call us mentally challenged…

Studies have shown that bilinguals change how they see the world depending on which language they are speaking. Two sets of findings published in 2010 demonstrate that even something as fundamental as who you like and do not like depends on the language in which you are asked. It has also been demonstrated in several experiments that we perceive colors through the lens of our mother tongue: If we have two different words for what is the same color in another language, then our brains exaggerate the nuance between these shades of color. As the author puts it, “Our experience of a Chagall painting actually depends to some extent on whether our language has a word for blue.”

Studies have shown that bilinguals change how they see the world depending on which language they are speaking.

Some cultures of the world—including parts of Polynesia, Mexico, Namibia, Bali, and Australia— use cardinal directions— north, south, east, and west— to express orientation in space. In most Western cultures, people use egocentric directions— behind you, in front of you, to your left, to your right. In the former cultures, in order to speak the language, you need to know where the cardinal directions are at each and every moment of your waking life. “Regardless of visibility conditions, regardless of whether you are in thick forest or on an open plain, whether outside or indoors or even in caves, whether stationary or moving,” Duetscher explains, “you have a spot-on sense of direction.” This language has actually led its people to perceive reality differently.

One report relates how a speaker of Tzeltal from southern Mexico was blindfolded and spun around more than 20 times in a darkened house. Still blindfolded and dizzy, he pointed without hesitation at the geographic directions. Psychological experiments have even gone as far as to show that under certain circumstances, these people remember “the same reality” differently from others. In twin hotel rooms across the corridor from each other, which naturally seem “mirrored” to egocentric speakers, geographic speakers see and remember the rooms not as “the same room twice” but as two different rooms, since everything is reversed north-side-south.

If the world changes depending on what language you’re speaking, then the world must also change according to the capacity with which you understand your native tongue.

Can You Better Teach Math and Science By Teaching Writing?

At New Dorp, instructors discovered that the only way to improve school performance was to highlight the importance of writing-to-learn, or, as I like to call it, writing-to-think.

By fall 2009, nearly every instructional hour except for math class was dedicated to teaching essay writing along with a particular subject. So in chemistry class in the winter of 2010, those same students who wrote “Although George and Lenny were friends” were required to complete worksheets describing the properties of hydrogen and oxygen with subordinating clauses like although.

Although … “hydrogen is explosive and oxygen supports combustion,” one student wrote, “a compound of them puts out fires.”

Unless … “hydrogen and oxygen form a compound, they are explosive and dangerous.”

If … “hydrogen and oxygen form a compound, they lose their original properties of being explosive and supporting combustion.”

The results of this “Writing Revolution” were extraordinary. By the time they were sophomores, the students who had begun receiving the writing instruction as freshmen were already scoring higher on exams than any previous New Dorp class. Pass rates for the English Regents, for example, bounced from 67 percent in June 2009 to 89 percent in 2011; for the global-­history exam, pass rates rose from 64 to 75 percent. The number of kids enrolling in college-prep courses shot up from 148 students in 2006 to 412 students last year.

Most important, although the makeup of the school has remained about the same—­roughly 40 percent of students are poor, a third are Hispanic, and 12 percent are black—a greater proportion of students who enter as freshmen leave wearing a cap and gown. This spring, the graduation rate is expected to hit 80 percent, a staggering improvement over the 63 percent figure that prevailed before the Writing Revolution began.

The results of this “Writing Revolution” were extraordinary. By the time they were sophomores, the students who had begun receiving the writing instruction as freshmen were already scoring higher on exams than any previous New Dorp class.

The reason for this change is simple: Students’ inability to write was contributing to their inability to think, severely impeding intellectual growth across many subjects. Once students began understanding the mechanics of the English language, they began understanding the language of chemistry, social studies, history, physics…

So the question is, why aren’t the rest of us giving language the spotlight it deserves in the classroom?

The following list highlights ten features of writing education that can be used to enhance student learning across all subject areas, ultimately resulting in higher academic performance. These are features that can be emphasized by instructors not just in English and writing departments, but in other academic departments as well, as they see fit. The goal is to promote the interdisciplinary power of writing, as instructors at New Dorp did.

I want to preface this by saying that these are not the tools that the teachers at New Dorp used to incorporate writing into their classrooms; these suggestions are my own. However, I do think that many of these probably reflect the mechanisms that were at play during the New Dorp Writing Revolution, whether instructors recognized them or not. I also want to preface by saying that these points have more than a few things in common with the concept of writing-to-learn, which has been around for decades, but in light of the earlier emphasis on psycholinguistics, I’d like to delve a little deeper into the mechanics of language itself.

Writing To Think In The Classroom

1. Vocabulary Across The Disciplines: Emphasize that the concept of a word may change depending on the context in which it is used.

Consider the following excerpt from an Introductory Chemistry textbook. The Chapter is on Accuracy and Precision.

“Accuracy is the degree of closeness of measurements of a quantity to that quantity’s true value. Precision is the degree to which repeated measurements under unchanged conditions show the same results. The measurement of a system can be accurate but not precise, precise but not accurate or both or neither. It can be hard to discover a quantity’s true value, so the more the sample size is increased, the closer we can get to correctly getting a quantity’s true value.”

Not only are accuracy and precision two different concepts in Chemistry; they are two different concepts in English. If a student already respects the fact that similar words in English can have slightly different meanings, she will be able to grasp this concept more readily when it occurs in another context. When her math instructor marks her down for forgetting to round to the nearest tenth, for example, she will  be able to appreciate the fact that her answer is still accurate, if not precise.

2. Syntax Across The Disciplines: Emphasize that every math problem and essay prompt has a hierarchical structure. 

It’s not all about vocabulary-building. Grasping the structure of language itself can also help students learn across various disciplines.

Although the New Dorp School ignored math as a subject that can be influenced by writing-to-think, I believe it is actually very closely related to language. Take the order of operations, or PEMDAS, for example. PEMDAS stands for Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction (or Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally). The rule demands that, in solving any problem, you pay attention to the numbers inside the parentheses first, then to the exponents, if there are any, then multiplication/division, and finally addition/subtraction.

7 x 2 + ( 7 + 3 x ( 5 – 2 ) ) / 4 x 2 = ?

If you follow the order of operations, the answer is 22.

No matter what problem you’re trying to solve, question you’re trying to answer, or statement you’re trying to respond to— whether it’s in math, history, or English—you always regard it as a hierarchical structure: some things in the expression are more important than others, and you pay attention to those first.

Take the following essay prompt:

Analyze the extent to which the Byzantine Empire was a continuation of the old Roman Empire and in what ways it was a departure.

Here’s one way you could break it up, according to the hierarchy of the language, assuming that X stands for “the extent to which” and “Analyze” is asking you to solve for X:

X = (Byzantine Empire + old Roman Empire) – (Byzantine Empire – old Roman Empire)

How did I translate this?

First, I identified the most important characters (or factors) in the statement: Byzantine Empire and old Roman Empire. Then, I identified the action (subtraction, addition, etc.): continuation, a positive value, and departure, a negative value. Although it sounds like the action is directed toward old Roman Empire (“continuation of…”), you are actually being asked about the Byzantine Empire: To what extent is the Byzantine Empire…? “Continuation of old Roman Empire” may as well just be “+ old Roman Empire” and “departure” might as well be “- old Roman Empire.” When the statement asks for “the extent to which,” it is simply asking for the difference between value added and value negated. So you have two main concepts, separated by parentheses: the traits of the old Roman Empire added to those of the Byzantine Empire, and the traits of the old Roman Empire subtracted from those of the Byzantine Empire. You want to find the difference between these, as manifested by the Byzantine Empire. That difference is X.

I’m not suggesting that a history teacher should break down a statement like this into a math equation. I’m just trying to make a point about how much logic writing requires—as much logic as thought, if not more. Thus, in requiring such logic, writing becomes a terrific exercise in thinking.

Thus, in requiring such logic, writing becomes a terrific exercise in thinking.

When a student writes, “Although George and Lenny were friends” without a follow-up clause, it means she has an insufficient concept of the hierarchy (or “order of operations”) of language. This phrase is like a numeric expression begging to be an equation.

3. Concision Across The Disciplines: Emphasize that concise writing skills lead to efficiency of thought in all subject areas. 

Not only do languages influence what we remember, but the structures of languages can make it easier or harder for us to learn new things. For instance, because the number words in some languages reveal the underlying base-10 structure more transparently than do the number words in English (there are no troublesome teens like 11 or 13 in Mandarin, for instance), kids learning those languages are able to learn the base-10 insight sooner. And depending on how many syllables the number words have, it will be easier or harder to keep a phone number in mind or to do mental calculation. This is hard evidence that language does, in fact, shape the way we think, even the efficiency with which we think, which is often associated with intelligence. If a student can’t think of the word “analyze,” she will write something like, “Think very hard,” spending more time than necessary searching for the right combination of words when she could have used one and moved on.

In Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace, grammarist Joseph Williams offers some brilliant insight into the relationship between writing and cognitive efficiency, especially in his chapter on “Concision.” In particular, he advises replacing phrases with words. “Nominalizations,” referenced below, are abstract nouns that could be replaced by active verbs for greater efficiency, as in “My suggestion is that our discussion of the issue be done with care” versus “I suggest that we discuss the issue with care.”

As an extreme example, he writes:

“As you carefully read what you have written to improve wording and catch errors of spelling and punctuation, the thing to do before anything else is to see whether you could use sequences of subjects and verbs instead of the same ideas expressed in nouns.”

Then he makes the sentence more concise:

“As you edit, first replace nominalizations with clauses.”

Not only does this kind of attention to concision make reading our students’ essays a more pleasurable experience; it also influences our students’ capacity to think.

 Take the old history prompt again, which is full of nominalizations:

Analyze the extent to which the Byzantine Empire was a continuation of the old Roman Empire and in what ways it was a departure.

Now try this on for size:

How closely did the Byzantine Empire resemble the old Roman Empire?

If a student can economize the first statement into the second, she obviously understands what the prompt is asking.

4. Coherence Across The Disciplines: Emphasize the importance of considering each part in terms of the whole.

Coherence is arguably the most important feature of an effective essay, simply because it reflects the organization of one’s thoughts. If we can think coherently, then we can write coherently; if we can write coherently, then we can think coherently. The two go hand-in-hand.

But we expect our students to be able to think about the parts in terms of the whole in any classroom, regarding any subject, because this skill— perhaps more than any other— fosters sound logic and reasoning.

This is one huge reason the New Dorp School reform was so successful. Writing forced students to organize their thoughts on every lesson, in every discipline. And as soon as they learned to write coherently, they had already trained their brains to think coherently in the future, whether they’d be wielding a pen or not.

5. Attention Across The Disciplines: Emphasize that since writing forces you to highlight the important things, it also teaches you to pay attention to the important things when you’re reading, listening, etc.

Along the same lines as the point about hierarchy in syntax, but on a larger scale, writing teaches you to pay attention to the important things and discard the unimportant things when you are learning. This skill has been tied to intelligence by more than a few researchers.

Writing teaches you to pay attention to the important things and discard the unimportant things when you are learning. This skill has been tied to intelligence by more than a few researchers.

Considering the sheer volume of information students are exposed to every day at school, it is a wonder their brains don’t implode. The human brain filters out some peripheral information automatically, but it takes a special effort to sort out the rest. When a student is listening to a lecture in class or reading a text at home, it will save her time and mental effort if she thinks about details in terms of how she might write about them. A student who knows how to chip away at the irrelevant details until a succinct thesis statement is left framing a logical progression of paragraphs also knows how to navigate her thoughts through a lesson to maximize learning.

6. Memory Across The Disciplines: Writing helps you remember facts better.

Students take notes in class not only to use as study material before a test, but also to reinforce learning. Psychologists have found that the number of modes in which you learn something— auditory, written, digital, oral, etc— correlates positively with the strength with which you recall that information later.

There’s a reason writing isn’t easy. It requires more mental effort than competing in an expert chess tournament, learning to type, and mastering a musical instrument. The more effort you put into writing about a topic, the more effort you put into thinking about it, thus making it harder to forget.

As New Dorp instructors saw during the Writing Revolution, essay writing— even more than note-taking— enhances this effect. You interact with your topic at every level, from sea of information to individual word. In the 1970s, Flower and Hayes defined the writing process in terms of three main stages: planning, translating, and reviewing. Because thought processes are hierarchical, not linear, composition often involves the embedding of one stage within another. Since writing is a complex process involving complex thought, it is only natural that, each time you explore a topic in writing, you create strong neural pathways—like a network of breadcrumbs— leading you back to the important details whenever you need them.

7. Revision Across The Disciplines: Emphasize that the revision process applies to all subject areas.

The term “revise” is usually used to describe a stage of the writing process, but if you break it down into its barest meaning, you’ll see that it shares its definition with “re-envision.” Revise, rethink, re-conceptualize, re-envision— whatever you want to call it, it’s a healthy habit of mind to cultivate in any classroom.

Granted, few disciplines teach you to “kill your darlings” like writing. The writing process requires heavy revision and re-conceptualization. The most successful pieces I’ve written were the result of merciless revision. But students should be ready to translate revision in the English classroom to adaptability and open-mindedness across other disciplines. They should know not only how to revise their writing, but their thoughts as well.

Our society places significant emphasis on getting things right the first time around, but in certain disciplines this attitude can be detrimental to academic progress. Take science, for example, which relies on proving itself wrong in order to prove itself right. Scientists are constantly revising their theories to reflect their findings; if they called the first “draft” of their findings fact, human civilization would never have advanced as it has.

8. Discourse Across The Disciplines: Emphasize that Standard English is but one tool in a box of varying discourses.

When I was in high school, English class only became “English class” my junior year. Before that, it was “Communications.” I have no idea why administrators opted for this devolution; “Communications” was a much better descriptor of what the course should have entailed. It’s a wonder that English class is ever still called “English class.” Unless the course only teaches Shakespeare, it’s a gross oversimplification of a curriculum that should cover dialects, accents, colloquialisms, varieties of slang, formal and informal written English, theories of grammar… 

If students are taught to view Standard English as a tool, and not just a skill, they will realize and appreciate its use in other subjects as well.

My point is that writing in Standard Anglo-Saxon English should be taught as one of countless forms of communication, one that can be used as a powerful tool to help students apply for jobs, conduct successful interviews, and network in society. But it is not the only discourse there is. At home, students may not use Standard English— and that doesn’t make what they use improper. Formal Standard English just happens to be the primary language students need to pocket in order to be college-bound and career-ready in our society.

If students are taught to view Standard English as a tool, and not just a skill, they will realize and appreciate its use in other subjects as well. For example, in scientific discourse, it is acceptable to litter your prose with nominalizations, just as in The Color Purple it is acceptable for Alice Walker to disregard the rules of grammar. Teachers in each content area can help students understand what it means to communicate in that discipline by framing language as a tool.

9. Fast Talking Across The Disciplines: Emphasize that writing skills are communication skills, first and foremost.

I’m not kidding about this one; it may be the most important and relevant point of all. I can guarantee you that the “B+” I got in my Buddhism class in college— I had taken on too many credits and didn’t have time for it— came not from hours of diligent study but from my writing skills.

I’m not endorsing that students coast through school without engaging in their courses. My point is simply that communication skills can save you when you are in a tight situation. They can save you on the AP History exam, they can save you on your college admissions essay, they can save you on your cover letter, they can save you in your job interviews.

I promise, you will be the coolest English teacher your students have ever had if you preface a lesson by saying, “I’m going to teach you how to cheat in your classes” and then proceed to teach them how to write.

10. Language Across Disciplines: Emphasize that everything with which we engage in an intellectual environment is a form of language.

From the publishing industry to the IT industry, language is everywhere. Math is a language, computer programming is a language, Swahili is a language. Language shouldn’t be intimidating or foreign or misunderstood: It’s an exciting, ever-expanding landscape that welcomes us all. Students who struggle with writing should learn to be empowered by it; students who excel at it should come to understand its full range of potential as an educational tool.

Our students deserve to be let in on every learning secret in the book, and the interdisciplinary power of writing is no exception. The decisions students make and the thoughts they generate in any classroom, at any point in their educational careers, are motivated and defined by the language they possess. At New Dorp, instructors realized this and used it to save an entire school from failing out.

Now it’s your turn.

The post Writing To Think: When a Student Can’t Write It, Can She Think It? What High Achieving Students Have In Common appeared first on InformED.

Every teacher wants parents to feel like they’re part of a team in support of a child’s learning.  Most teachers realize that effective communication with parents does not consist of a single act — such as a parent-teacher conference — but is instead part of an ongoing, two-way exchange.  Creating supportive, understanding relationships with parents starts from the very beginning of the school year — even before — and requires thought and effort in designing ways to keep parents informed and involved.

Teachers increasingly must be creative in their approach to communication with parents.  Parents work longer hours and have a variety of schedules and many other commitments.  In addition, teachers must think about families — such as those whose first language is not English — who come from populations that may not always feel included in school events.

How Can Teachers Create Effective Partnerships With Parents?

Here are 50 ways that teachers can use to build and strengthen this critical relationship:

1. Create a welcome packet for the new parents in your class to mail home during the summer.  Introduce yourself, your teaching philosophy, your class goals.  Tell families a little about your background and tell them why you’re excited for the new school year.  Begin your relationship on a friendly, approachable level.  Be as personal in your approach as you’re comfortable with.  Parents want to know that you are a real person, with interests, hobbies, and your own family.

2. Call home once before the start of the school year.  Many parents may be less intimated with a brief, welcoming exchange before meeting you in person.

3. Survey parents at the beginning of the year to figure out parent work schedules and prior commitments.  This will help in scheduling class events, parent conferences, and arranging phone conversations.

4. Ask parents about all the caregivers that are a part of the child’s daily life.  There may be grandparents, babysitters, afterschool clubs, and neighbors who may play a significant role in the daily schedule of a child.  They may also be able to provide you with valuable input about a student’s progress or challenges.

5. Create a detailed information sheet at the start of the year about each student.  On the back of that information sheet, create a chart with a running log of contact dates between you and the parents.

6. Display your diplomas and other teaching credentials in your classroom.  Talk about ongoing professional development in which you are involved.  Present yourself to families and students as a lifelong learner who loves his or her profession. Parents will respond to your professional passion.

7. Create a professional business card and staple it to first newsletter or welcome letters.  Again, parents will respect professionalism and seriousness about your career.

Inform parents about your classroom management philosophy.

8. Be open to parents about how to communicate with you right from the beginning.  Give specific times and methods.  If you have an e-mail address but do not check it, let them know.  Inform them how often you check voicemail and how long they can expect before they receive a response from you.

9.  Think about your own strengths and weaknesses as a listener and communicator.  Examine the (unintentional) nonverbal signs that you may be sending through your posture, tone, and eye contact.  One approach to active listening is called S.O.L.E.R.  It stands for Squarely face the person, Open your posture, Lean toward the person, Eye contact maintained, and Relax.  Be relaxed, direct, and open in your body signals.

10. When you are speaking with parents, make sure that you are hearing what they are trying to say to you.  Try another active listening strategy called “paraphrasing.”  Try to restate what you are understanding a parent’s main points to be and make sure that they agree with your rephrasing.

12. Create a “Parent Center” in your classroom.  This can be an area of the room – or outside the classroom – where parents can sign in when they are volunteering, pick up extra copies of forms, look through student work, browse the class calendar, and read school materials.

13. Inform parents about your classroom management philosophy.  In either a handout at the start of the year or during Open House, clearly outline your discipline policies and expectations.  Describe how you will keep parents informed about disciplinary actions and what your expectations for their participation are.

14. Make parents feel welcome before they enter the classroom.  Outside your classroom, include student work and welcome signs, particularly if many of the families in your class do not speak English at home.

15. Assign students to write “letters of appreciation” for their parents before Open House.  Ask students to describe why they are grateful and excited that their parents will attend and what they can expect to see and hear.

16. Make open house night a special event.  Ask for parent volunteers well in advance to bring food and refreshments.  Create a special invitation to parents for Open House, describing the evening’s agenda and refreshments.  If you are planning on showing a video previewing class events or showing student work or activities, mention that in your invitation.

17. Prepare a Power Point presentation for Open House and practice it.  Keep it short, friendly, and focused.  Include a slide with your contact information, class procedures, class rules, and yearly objectives.

18. Create a laminated chart or bookmark for each subject or class that you teach.  List basic skills for each subject and general ways that parents can assist with each area.

19. Send home information about a new topic before a new unit is started in class.  Students are often not the best communicators of what they are studying in school, and many parents will appreciate knowing a little bit about each unit’s goals and major assignments.

20. Give parents a list of suggested questions about what to ask their child about school or about your class.  Many parents are baffled about how to get clear or detailed answers about what and how they’re learning in school.  Talk about this with your students, and practice how they might answer if an adult asks about an assignment or a unit.

21. Recognize all cultural traditions in your classroom.  Talk about and acknowledge to students and families the holidays and traditions that they may be celebrating.  Research them, if you are not familiar with them, and communicate your respect and enthusiasm for all backgrounds.   Put up posters, pictures, and other items from students’ homes.

22. Create a “school to home” notebook for communication with families.  Particularly in the younger grades, these can be useful for writing personalized reminders and updates about progress.  Think about how often you want this form of personalized communication.  Usually, these notebooks work best when they are used once or twice a week.  Be sure about what your expectations from parents are.

23. Create a short newsletter each month, week, or season to talk about class events.  Try to standardize each issue’s format, color, and size so that parents know what to expect when they are reading it.  Determine in advance how often the newsletter will be published.   In the newsletter, speak directly to parents in everyday language with no educational jargon.

24. Experiment with new forms of newsletters.  For instance, many teacher create newsletters that are primarily image-based.  Ask students to participate in taking photos to be included in newsletters, and publicize the “student photographers” to parents in your newsletter.

25. Ask for parent feedback at the end of the year about your newsletter.  What worked?  What are their suggestions for improving it?   Which issues were their favorites, and why?

26. Proofread carefully all of your communications home to parents.  Get a friend, co-worker, or spouse to read them over to make sure that you’re conveying a friendly, positive tone.  Parents will be more likely to perceive you as a professional if you take the time and effort to communicate clearly.

27. Call home to parents when there is “good news” to report about student behavior or progress.   Parents will be more likely to view you as someone who invested in the full range and potential of their child if they know that you are also looking for a child’s strengths and achievements.

28. Do not use e-mail as a replacement for face to face or phone conversations.  E-mail does not convey tone, and it’s easy for parents to misunderstand or jump to conclusions about your message.

29. If there is an issue, particularly if it’s serious or ongoing, the report card should never be the first time that a parent learns about it.  The teacher-parent relationship is likely to suffer if parents feel blindsided during one of their only opportunities to discuss their child with you.

If it’s serious or ongoing, the report card should never be the first time that a parent learns about it.

30. Have a clear agenda for a parent-teacher conference distributed in advance.  Parents will feel less anxiety if they know what to expect.

31. Consider student-led conferences, a growing trend in many schools.  Depending on the age of your students and your school’s policies, student-led parent-teacher conferences can provide remarkable results in opening up communication between you, the child, and the parent.  Student-led conferences are more likely to be attended by parents and have been shown to lead to greater accountability by students for their own learning.

32. Take your parent-teacher conference “on the road.” Think about offering “parent conferences” in places other than school.  If parent participation is an issue, consider holding parent meetings in local apartment or housing complexes where large numbers of your students may live or in local restaurants.

33. Ask parents to preview work samples in the weeks before a conference.  Conversations are more likely to be specific and goal-directed if parents have an understandable context for your points.

34. Create a written conference summary to distribute each parent and other teachers who may find the information provided in the conference to be useful.

35. Follow up on parent-teacher conferences with other faculty and staff.  Create a checklist of follow-up items from all of the conferences, and update parents with any progress.

36. Before an assignment is given out, think about how parents can participate – if at all – most productively in helping students.  Be clear and outline to students, as well as to parents, your expectations for how parents can help out.  If you do not wish students to get any form of assistance from their parents, be clear about that as well.

37. Offer frequent chances for parents to volunteer in your class and promote them.  Arrange a schedule of volunteer opportunities, and ask for parents to participate at least once.

38. Ask parents for suggestions about how they would like to spend time in the class.  Do they have skills or interests that they would like to share or teach the class?  Have they learned a new video editing software?  Be open to ideas about how parents can find a place for themselves in your class community.

39. Always send home thank you notes when a parent volunteers in your class.  Students can also write personalized thank you notes to their parents.

40. Inform yourself of school-wide events and keep track of the school calendar.  Parents will appreciate when your own class events and projects do not conflict with community events.

41. Think about using online photosharing tools.  Many teachers take a lot of pictures of their classrooms, student projects, and class events.  Consider posting them online to a private account for your class so that parents can see and purchase them.

42. Create an online class calendar that parents can link to.  Link up videos, assignments, and forms that are due on certain dates.

43. If it is permitted by your school’s administration, create a class Facebook page.  Many schools and classrooms have found Facebook to be an effective way of promoting events, sending reminders, and asking for supplies or volunteers.

44. Inform parents when any disciplinary action is taken, well before scheduled parent-teacher conferences.  Parents do not like to be surprised that their child was punished in school.  Make sure to make a quick phone call or send home a note.

45. Maintain confidentiality about families at all time.  If a student is having difficulties, inform faculty members who are directly involved.   Similarly, do not talk about specific students’ tests scores, family backgrounds, or learning issues. You can show your respect for the families in your class by refusing to gossip or complain about individual students and their families.

Inform parents when any disciplinary action is taken, well before scheduled parent-teacher conferences.

46. Create a guide for parents about local and national media opportunities.  If there is an episode on a television show or a feature in a local newspaper that might inform or interest families in your class, let them know about it.  If you read a research article that might be of interest to parents, copy it and send home a summary of why this article is useful or important.

47. Find out about local support groups in your area and include them in beginning of the year information and in class newsletters.  Parents may need additional parenting help beyond what is provided by the school.  Ask the school guidance counselor or other professionals to recommend support groups that parents can check out.

48. Make sure that the parents in your school know the full range of resources provided by the school.  Ask representatives from other departments (counseling, special education) to introduce themselves at Open House or other class events. Ask these staff members to write “guest columns” in your class newsletters.

49. Use postcards to communicate with parents about meetings and conferences.  Many businesses give out free packets of postcards.  Postcards are cheap to send and are reminders that parents can put on refrigerators about events and meetings.

50. Be slow and determined in building relationships with parents.  There is no one-size-fits-all solution to creating a supportive relationship with every family.  But do not give up.  Parents may bring with them negative experiences from their own school histories and they may have cultural or language differences that make communication more difficult.  You may have to use trial and error, as well as a set of approaches, if you are successful in communicating successfully with each parent.

The post 50 Tips On How To Work Harmoniously With Parents appeared first on InformED.

Embed This Infographic

<img src="http://informed.s3.amazonaws.com/informed/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/600px_final.jpg"></p> <p>An Infographic by <a href="http://www.opencolleges.edu.au">Open Colleges</a></p> <p>

1. More Homework Means More Learning

Researchers have found that the connection between more homework and greater learning is tenuous at best. This is especially true for grade school and middle school students. In an effort to redesign the student workload, many districts around the US have begun prohibiting homework on weekends, holidays, and even week nights.

2. More Money Means Better Schools

Although school spending has increased over the past several decades, neither graduation rates nor test scores have budged from their relatively dismal standings. Since 1970, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has been administered yearly to a representative sample of US students, and the scores have not correlated positively with the boost in expenditure and the rise of technology over time.

3. The Myth of Insurmountable Problems

Many policy makers are quick to blame society for underperformance in schools. But the belief that education can’t help is dangerous. Reforms that focus on the incentives of public schools lead to educational gains, and accountability and choice have often been shown to deflate the significance of social problems like poverty.

4. Test Scores Are Related To Economic Competitiveness

Consider Japan, whose current economy flags while its students continue to ace assessment tests. Or Finland, New Zealand, and Sweden, each of which produces at least as many research engineers as the US per 1,000 full time employees. Quality education can prevail in an economically challenged nation. There’s no doubt about it.

5. Schools Alone Can Close The Achievement Gap

The achievement gap is already apparent in students on their first day of kindergarten, due to a number of factors including economic background, educational background (how educated are the student’s parents?), nutritional intake, genetics, and parental guidance. Because of this contingency, researchers have argued that it reflects poor reasoning and poor policy to believe that school reform alone could ever close the gap.

6. Private and Charter Schools Are Educating Kids Better

NAEP scores of private and charter school students are no higher than those of public school students. Studies suggest that the “boons” of private schools may amount to nothing more than the exposure to other students with educated parents and affluent backgrounds.

7. Teachers Are Clueless About The Content They Are Teaching

Twenty-eight states require secondary-level instructors to have majored in the subject area they plan to teach. All candidates must pass content exams before completing their program or being certified to teach. Twelve states require elementary school teachers to have earned a content degree, and nineteen require middle school teachers to do the same.

8. The “Teacher-Proof Myth”

There are no teacher-proof solutions. None to be legislated, none to be bought, and none to be accessed virtually. The human task of helping a student cannot be replaced by automated learning models, nor by one all-purpose instructional method arising from trial and error. More trust must be placed in our teachers.

9. Our Teachers Work Less And Get Paid More

According to an OECD report, US teachers spend between 1,050 and 1,100 hours per year teaching – much more than in almost every country. Argentina and Chile are also high on the list. Despite high spending on education, teacher salaries across the world are far lower than those earned by other workers with higher education credentials.

10. Unions Defend Poor Teachers

Between 2006 and 2010, 245 teachers resigned or were dismissed in the US. This is because the unions have made an effort to monitor underperforming teachers in school districts across the nation. If students in one classroom are performing worse than students in another, it makes little sense to blame the teacher before considering other factors.

11. Student Achievement Has Been Deteriorating For Decades:

Contrary to popular belief, today’s students perform about as well as their parents in terms of standardized assessment tests and high school graduation rates. There is simply no hard evidence for the statement that student performance has been declining for decades. These are myths put forward by teachers’ unions and education policy makers.

12. Teachers Are Solely Responsible For Learning

Learning is an interactive process. Teachers are not the only people in the classroom who have valuable knowledge to share or responsibility to shoulder. Students, too, can teach each other and benefit from working together. A teacher is a facilitator, first and foremost.

13. The Disadvantaged Don’t Have The Same Capacity To Learn

There is no evidence that students from disadvantaged communities have a lower capacity to learn than students from privileged backgrounds. Economically challenged students may perform worse on assessments; experience anxiety and lack of control, which lead to underachievement; react negatively to authority; skip multiple classes on a regular basis; and abandon formal learning -� but none of this is due to lower educational capacity.

14. Schools Don’t Matter

Intellectuals and politicians alike have claimed that education can’t save disadvantaged youth, and that the problem lies in socioeconomic policy and reform. However, since the instatement of acts like No Child Left Behind, schools have been instrumental in giving underprivileged students a chance to escape poverty. Education is power for the impoverished.

15. Small Classes Would Produce Big Improvements

Although research has highlighted the perks of reduced class sizes, especially in college settings, there is little evidence that it benefits students on a wide enough scale to make a difference. Considering the financial challenges of breaking students up into smaller groups, hiring more teachers, and investing in more resources, reduced class size should not be looked upon as a means of “saving”� education.

16. Teacher Preparation Matters Little For Student Achievement

Although Teach for America has produced some excellent teachers with little to no training, the National Bureau of Economic Research has shown that beginning teachers with more extensive clinical training (like internships or certification programs) produce higher student achievement gains and retain their positions longer than teachers with less preparation.

17. Most Teachers Don’t Care:

If student performance is low, it doesn’t mean that teachers don’t care. Teachers become teachers precisely because they do care. But it is not an easy job. Educators face many challenges every day – say, with a particularly disruptive child or a time-crunch due to a school assembly -� and do their best to help students succeed despite these difficulties.

18. Credentials And Experience Don’t Matter. Only Content Knowledge Does

It benefits every teacher to be an expert in his or her subject field, but experience is key. If instructors don’t know how to engage and audience and relate their knowledge to others, their expertise will be as good as useless in a classroom setting. Credentials and experience count.

When educators teach the same subjects and grade levels consistently, especially during their first five years of teaching, it behooves them – and their students -� to be not only experts in their field but to have experience relating their subject to others. Experienced teachers are more organized, strategy-driven, and creative in the classroom.

The post 18 Myths People Believe About Education appeared first on InformED.

One of the most remarkable aspects of modern education is the great diversity of today’s classroom. Thanks to mainstreaming and inclusion policies, students of all abilities study in all classrooms from kindergarten through college, even when they have physical, psychological, or cognitive disabilities that seem too challenging to integrate or excluded them from traditional classrooms in the past. This has been a benefit not just for disabled students, who gain  educational opportunities, but also for their non-disabled colleagues, who learn that a student with a disability is in most ways just the same as they are, and no one to fear.

However, this integration creates challenges for educators. For example, the cost of teaching disabled students has more and more often fell on the already-stretched budgets of public schools. As one American school official told Huffington Post, this “raises an ethical responsibility question. We welcome our students with special needs, but the most expensive programming is on public districts.” This means that many schools may not be able to afford the kinds of special tools and equipment that may be needed.

In some instances, online college programs are also inaccessible to many students. A study by Wichita State University showed that “as many as 80% of all online instructors do not consider the needs of students with disabilities when designing or instructing their courses despite the high percentage of post-secondary students with disabilities.” This situation has resulted in a lawsuit against the University of Montana, brought by the school’s Alliance for Disability and Students at the University of Montana on behalf of students who could not enroll in important courses for their major that are only available online. 

Thankfully, educators today can implement many new technologies to make their courses more accessible at little to no cost, to aid students with disabilities, whether those students are in a traditional or online classroom. While most people may be familiar with alternative keyboards and touch screens that replace traditional touch-type keyboards for people with mobility challenges, other new technologies are constantly in development, and each is a great boon to the learning process, opening doors, expanding learning experiences and even broadening the parameters of what can be learned for millions of students.

Check out some of the many tools that students can use to access your course materials and participate in online courses:

1. Screen Readers are described by the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) as “software programs that allow blind or visually impaired users to read the text that is displayed on the computer screen with a speech synthesizer.” The AFB suggests them for those with low vision, because “learning to listen to speech output will prove more productive for such individuals than struggling to read text while leaning close to the computer screen.” 
2. Word Talk is a free add-in for Microsoft Word, this program can read aloud any document written in Word and create audio files that can be saved. In addition, assistive technology expert Paul Hamilton writes that “WordTalk functions can be accessed by customizable keyboard shortcuts–for individuals with vision challenges, or those who cannot use a mouse effectively, or to speed the work of anyone who relies extensively on WordTalk.” In addition, students with reading disabilities can also use screen readers to help them understand course materials.   
3. Word Prediction programs include a number of different applications, some of which can be downloaded from the Internet, are available to help students with writing challenges. Word predictors “can help a user during word processing by ‘predicting’ a word the user intends to type. Predictions are based on spelling, syntax, and frequent/recent use. This prompts kids who struggle with writing to use proper spelling, grammar, and word choices, with fewer keystrokes.” Students who struggle with memory difficulties might find this program useful, too. 
4. Supernova Access Suite is “a complete screen reader with natural sounding speech and integrated screen magnifier with Braille display support.” This product can be downloaded from YourDolphin.com, which also offers a free trial so that students can make sure it will work for them. This company offers many varieties of this technology, making it easy for students to select the right program for their needs. 
5. Video Magnifiers are also sometimes described as a form of closed-circuit television (CCTV) that “uses a video camera to display a magnified image on a monitor or television screen.” Students with low vision can use them to read their course materials with greater ease. A company named Ulva offers a variety of styles for students to choose from to suit their academic requirements. 
6. Close Captioning and Subtitling: Services such as those provided by the CPC company can be used on both Mac and Windows formats, and enable deaf students to watch the same online video material as their colleagues. This makes it easier for them to participate in online courses that offer video lectures of their professors. They can also use the program to create their own videos with subtitles or close-captioning, which may come in handy for students with speech disorders. 
7. FaceMouse: For students with limited mobility, Claro’s FaceMouse turns a standard webcam into a mouse operator, allowing students to use their head and facial gestures to perform a number of tasks, including pointing the cursor, clicking on sites, or typing on the keyboard. For example, “Claro FaceMouse effectively turns the user’s head into a remote ‘joystick’ controller. Claro FaceMouse has a variable setting for sensitivity, making the mouse pointer easier to control. Specific head or facial actions can be linked to keyboard presses. ‘Head Down’ can be assigned as the ‘Down Cursor’, and ‘Mouth Open’ could be ‘Enter Key’. All the various face actions can be assigned to a keystroke.” 
8. Sip-and-Puff Systems: A truly innovative tool that makes computer use easier for students with mobility challenges, including paralysis and fine motor skill difficulties, sip-and-puff systems allow users to control a mouthstick, similar to a joystick, using their breath. Students can direct the mouthstick to click on web pages, type, and perform other functions. 

These technologies can make an enormous difference to students by increasing accessibility and academic performance. No matter what programs you decide to implement or suggest to students, it is important to remember that students using these technologies may require more time to complete assignments and participate in online forums. Also, make sure that the materials you use in your courses are clearly written, scanned properly, and in other ways easy for assistive technologies to access.

One way to do this is to learn more about Universal Design for Learning, a method of preparing course materials, classroom activities, and lectures in such a way that students of all abilities can access and understand them. The National Center on Universal Design for Learning in the United States is a good place to start because it is dedicated to “creating instructional goals, methods, materials, and assessments that work for everyone–not a single, one-size-fits-all solution but rather flexible approaches that can be customized and adjusted for individual needs.” 

Finally, if you would like to learn more about the different kinds of technologies that are appropriate for your classes, you can use Dell’s Assistive Technology Configuration Tool, which will help you determine the software and hardware best suited to your students’ needs.  You might also consider joining one of the many  several associations and groups that work to provide students with access to assistive technologies, such as the Alliance for Technology Access. 

Remember that no matter what you do, it will help expand opportunities for a great variety of students to become more intellectually fulfilled and succeed in their academic goals. 

The post 8 Online Tools To Help Educate Students With Disability appeared first on InformED.

In psychology, intelligence is not the primary predictor of success. It is the ability to persevere in hardship, persist and learn after failure, and have a resilient spirit in the face of obstacles. Intelligence is a gift that can be developed and nurtured, but continuing on a difficult path when the gratification is far away? That is an invaluable skill for all of us to learn.

Even though resilience is partly a genetic trait, you can teach this skill in the classroom. It is imperative that you do, because many lessons and concepts require days, weeks, and months of practice before your student will feel that warm feeling of satisfaction. In a world filled with streaming Internet and fast food joints on every corner, you’re going to have to deliberately make it a topic point.

Here are some ideas to get you started.

1. End of the day reward

Set up simple (and frequent) opportunities for your students to practice delayed gratification. If you have young children in the classroom, it can be something as simple as an end-of-the-day reward. If your students had a good day, offer them a token that goes towards a free homework pass (10 tokens = pass). Most kids will want to take that token and start building their cash flow, but offer something a bit better if they wait.

For example, if they forfeit the free homework pass each day for a week, at the end of the week, the kids who did get an extra 15 minutes of recess. You’ll quickly see who likes the immediate gratification and who is willing to wait it out.

2. Visual savings

Use a jar of marbles or some sort of visual so your students can watch it get filled up as they perform tasks, help each other, and showcase good behavior. A full jar can equal an ice cream party or some other special reward.

3. Math fact practice

If your goal as a teacher is to have your student fill out 100 multiplication facts in five minutes, use it as an opportunity to teach resilience. Rather than waiting until you’re sure they can meet the goal easily, set up a chart for practice and growth. Explain to them that you don’t expect them to meet the goal, but to simply record the time it takes to do the 100 problems.

First time around, it may take the student 15 minutes. Have him/her write it in the chart. Each day or week, have them redo the exercise and record the time – watching as it slowly gets lower and lower as the days pass. When he/she finally reaches that 5-minute mark, there will be tremendous sense of accomplishment.

4. Break down big projects

First, you need to make sure your students are engaged in a long-term project. Just like running, athletes train very differently for a sprint than a marathon. The long project will help them to learn about process, mini-goals, and step-by-step persistence to a final destination.

5. Give an assignment that isn’t meant to have a perfect ending

In other words, once in awhile it will benefit your students to give them a problem or worksheet that they cannot complete perfectly. Warn them ahead of time that the goal of this exercise is simply to try – not to succeed. At the end, hand out a reward or grade that is dependent on their effort, not the aptitude.

6. Group assignments

Nothing promotes learning how to “grit your teeth” and get through it more than group work. In these situations, kids must not only produce a product or presentation, they must also learn to work with other students and use teamwork to accomplish the goal.

7. Create a classroom bank

If you have the time and motivation to set up a classroom bank, you can teach all sorts of delayed gratification lessons. In one corner of the room, set up a store. You can sell homework passes, pencils, Chapstick, etc. Each child starts out the year with a certain amount of classroom cash. They can earn more throughout the year doing various things, but as you add new and better “items” in your store, the students will have to forgo the immediate reward in order to save up for the item they really want.

8. Use educational simulation computer games

The Oregon Trail is a classic example of this type of game. You have to get your family to the West Coast safely, and budget your supplies and money accordingly. The same principle works in games like SimCity, where the student is master over a domain and must learn how to manage his/her resources.

9. Group competitions

If you have the students’ desks arranged in groups, have them participate in friendly competitions. For example, to encourage healthy snacking, have each team earn a point every day the whole group brings in a healthy snack. The reward will be something that happens in the future (like an ice cream party or movie). In this case, students will have to be mindful of their snack each morning at home when they pack it.

10. Offer positive distractors to help during difficult tasks

During long state mandated testing or big tests, offer the students the chance to chew gum, something that isn’t normally allowed but might help with focus and/or concentration. The same goes for listening to music in earbuds (provided you can trust them to not cheat).

11. Play-it-out visual exercises

When children can imagine and follow through with a scenario in the mind, it is easier to make a decision that delays gratification. For example, if you are offering a child a free recess instead of a chip in a jar, walk through with them how it will feel on that day when the sun is beating on their arms and the smell of fresh grass signals spring. Engage the senses to they have motivation to wait it out.

12. Delayed gratification in physical education

Sports like golf and cross-country running help develop an appreciation for long-term rewards.

13. Write down goals and hang them up

If the children have a concrete reminder of what it is they are reaching for, they are more likely to wait it out. When you are helping your students assess their goals, have them decorate a paper and keep it in front of the room or in their cubby. It should be seen daily.

14. When a student doesn’t show grit, offer a time of reflection

Help him/her to see how it feels when the immediate reward wears off. Usually a disappointment sets in because it wasn’t part of the ultimate goal. If they can remember that feeling, it might deter them in the future.

15. Avoid the “all or nothing” disease

Children can see things in black and white. If they haven’t gotten a 100 on a test, it might as well be a zero. It helps to model a positive attitude of progress. Getting some right is better than nothing.

16. Don’t test willpower to the point of exhaustion

These sorts of activities mentioned above must be balanced with positive reinforcement. Just like dieting can induce binge eating, you want to make sure the stress isn’t going to lead to a pendulum swing in the opposite direction. A good mixture of delayed and immediate rewards are the best way to keep a student motivated.

The post 16 Ways To Promote “Grit” and Delayed Gratification In The Classroom appeared first on InformED.

Education is the backbone of a successful society. Every human being should have the right, privilege, and opportunity to get the best education possible. Unfortunately in our world, this is often not a reality for many impoverished people groups. Education falls by the wayside as people groups struggle to find food, shelter, and healthcare. Changing the social infrastructure is an enormous endeavor requiring manpower, money, and agreement among opposite ends of the political spectrum.

Thankfully, we don’t have to wait until all that is straightened out to make a difference. Right now, there are hundreds of opportunities born out of non-profit organizations whose mission it is to target the less fortunate. Here is a list of 50 non-profits you should know about.

Roll up your sleeves and be a part of the change this world needs.

Achieve

Founders: Achieve was founded in 1996 and is run by a board of governors and business leaders.

Targeted People: They provide technical assistance to states and their curriculum development.

Mission and Goal: Central to Achieve’s work is the ability to convene leaders from across states to come together to share their experiences and tackle common challenges.

Current Projects: Achieve is the founder of the Future Ready Project- an advocacy resource center for state and local college-readiness programs.

Corazones Para Peru

Founders: Hearts for a New World is based in Konigstein Germany and founded in 1998.

Targeted People: Children in the Peruvian Andes Chicon Valley.

Mission and Goal: Improve the living conditions in rural populations.

Current Projects: Building children’s home, school networks, dormitories, day care, a social business center, and health center.

4th World Love

Founders: Misty Tosh and Lisa Colangelo.

Targeted People: Remote villages that aren’t considered “3^rd” world but need support and guidance to grow and better their communities.

Mission and Goal: Community empowerment through grassroots projects in distant lands.

Current Projects: Building village water tanks in Sembalum.

The General History Project

Founders: Laura Lee P. Huttenbach is the founder and director. The organization started in 2009.

Targeted People: TGHP targets African people groups in danger of losing their passed down oral history as the older members of the community begin to die off and current missions organizations are setting up a more “Classroom” like structure.

Mission and Goal: Record life stories of the aging community leaders in African villages.

Current Projects: Writing the General’s biography, a tea farmer in Kenya. The book will spread awareness about the mission and fund future projects.

Grameen Foundation

Founders: A Board of Directors with headquarters in Washington DC, partners with other non-profits and volunteers around the globe.

Targeted People: Poor communities in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.

Mission and Goal: Enable the poor to create a world without poverty.

Current Projects: Through financial programs, Grameen Foundation gives people the funds to start up businesses, make sound financial decisions, and grow their profits. In 15 years, 9.4 million people have been impacted.

PIE (Policy Innovators in Education) Network

Founders: Suzanne Tacheny Kubach, PhD, and Executive Director.

Targeted People: PIE targets policy makers, educators, and students.

Mission and Goal: The mission of the Network is to build, support and promote a network of education advocacy organizations working to improve K-12 education in their states so that every student graduates world-ready.

Current Projects: Ongoing work with policy makers and educators.

RSF Dhaka Project

Founders: Emirates Flight attendant Maria Conceicao started the RSF Dhaka Project in April 2005.

Targeted People: The Dhaka Project helps impoverished children in the slums of Korail, Banani, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Mission and Goal: Through education, the project hopes to empower the children by providing free education and other basic resources. Currently, 424 children have been transformed in some way.

Current Projects: Four programs are currently underway to help the children adjust to modern society. The focus areas are education, food, medical, and awareness.

CloudHead(dot)org

Founders: Leah Shulman is a designer, artist and teacher. Noah Edelblum is a painter, photographer, and business consultant.

Targeted People: Youth of all backgrounds and economic statuses.

Mission and Goal: Through the use of art, technology, and education, the goal of CloudHead is to teach self-expression through the arts.

Current Projects: Adobe Youth Voices is a program that provides software, training, and support for youth to incorporate art into their community. Wichi/H20 is a program that took used digital cameras and brought them to the indigenous children in Argentina to take photos. Juvenile Detention is an art and photography workshop taken to the children who are serving time in a detention center.

Child Empowerment International

Founders: Adam and Janet Salmon are husband and wife, and have been working in the field since 1998.

Targeted People: Their work focuses on the children in Sri Lanka.

Mission and Goal: Child Empowerment International creates a future for marginalized children in regions of civil unrest. It is a non-profit organization that provides schooling and care for over 6800 orphans.

Current Projects: People interested in partnering with CEI can volunteer to participate on the field, apply for an internship, or sponsor a child.

Boma Project

Founders: Kathleen Colson started the Boma Project in 2005 in Africa.

Targeted People: BOMA works in primarily in Northern Kenya where the people groups are impoverished and lack critical infrastructure.

Mission and Goal: Sustainable income and long-term solutions are only possible when the locals themselves are able to initiate change. Boma aims to help the community develop programs and strategies to fight poverty.

Current Projects: The REAP program provides impoverished women with business training and funds to start up small businesses that in turn support and feed their families.

Acrobat of the Road

Founders: Juan Villarino has been traveling the world as a nomad since 2005.

Targeted People: Acrobat of the Road doesn’t target one people group specifically, but currently Juan and his wife Laura are on a backpacking trip from Antarctica to Greenland.

Mission and Goal: Document and record world hospitality in hopes to promote peace and awareness between cultures and people groups.

Current Projects: As Juan hitchhikes through the world, he brings his photos and experiences to educational programs that are teaching empathy and intercultural understanding.

WALU International

Founders: Zack Parker, an avid surfer, traveled to Lido, Papua New Guinea in November of 2007 looking for the perfect wave. Instead, he embarked on a lifelong mission to help the residents who warmly welcomed him.

Targeted People: Coastal communities in Papa New Guinea.

Mission and Goal: To provide water and sanitary living conditions in the coastal areas of Papa New Guinea.

Current Projects: Using the Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach, WALU empowers the locals to identify and fix their own sanitary problems.

Khan Academy

Founders: Sal, a graduate from MIT and Harvard with several degrees, runs the company with a small team of individuals.

Targeted People: The Khan Academy is about free education for the world. They have no specific demographic target, although the poor are able to benefit most from this type of educational model.

Mission and Goal: To build a global classroom filled with students who are getting a free world-class education.

Current Projects: there are over 4000 videos to choose from and cover subjects like math, science, and humanities.

The Hunger Project

Founders: A board of directors and leadership team runs this organization that has been around since 1977.

Targeted People: The Hunger Project services impoverished people groups in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Their focus is on women.

Mission and Goal: To end world hunger by empowering women to provide sustainable strategies to feed and help their families.

Current Projects: The Hunger Project is currently running community centers for basic needs, fostering government accountability, and partnering with media to reach women interested in running small businesses.

Mercy Corps

Founders: This organization began in 1979 and largely employs locals as the directors of various programs and initiatives.

Targeted People: Mercy Corps targets areas affected by war and political unrest. They have worked in over 20 countries across all the continents.

Mission and Goal: The goal of Mercy Corps is to build secure, just, and productive communities through local programs that alleviate poverty.

Current Projects: Currently, Mercy Corps is rebuilding a water system in Goma Africa, where a volcano destroyed the infrastructure.

Tilapiana

Founders: Justin King is the owner and founder.

Targeted People: Tilapiana’s work is targeted to fisheries and farmers all over the world.

Mission and Goal: Provide solutions to fishermen who are losing their livelihood because of the declining resources.

Current Projects: Tilapiana gives locals a “business in a box” so they can set up a tilapia fish farm and make a living with a sustainable earth-friendly fish farm.

New Futures Organization

Founders: The organization is run by a group of local Cambodians who in some cases, donate all their time for free.

Targeted People: Their targeted demographic are impoverished children in Cambodia who cannot get an education.

Mission and Goal: Helping vulnerable and orphaned children receive adequate care, love, and education so they can grow up to lead productive and meaningful lives.

Current Projects: Today, New Futures Organization runs several community schools, English classes for local police, plus a children’s home and vocational training facilities.

One Laptop

Founders: Nicolas Negroponte is the current chairman of the One Laptop per Child organization.

Targeted People: Impoverished and uneducated children all over the world..

Mission and Goal: The one laptop program’s goal is to give every child a low-cost, rugged laptop that will give him/her the tools to get educated and connected with others around the world.

Current Projects: Since 2005, the OLPC has delivered over 2.5 million laptops around the world. Their project in Ethiopia (tablets delivered to a remote village with no teacher and no instruction) was very successful and is changing the way we think people learn.

Room to Read

Founders: Mr. Dinesh Shrestha is a cofounder of Room to Read and oversees directors in several countries. Room to Read started in 2000 in Nepal and has spread throughout Asia.

Targeted People: Room to Read targets children who don’t have access to education or literacy resources.

Mission and Goal: By 2015, Room to Read hopes to have reached 10 million children. Their two goals center on literacy and gender equality in education.

Current Projects: Room to Read partners with other agencies to help build libraries, train educators, publishing books, and building classrooms.

The School Fund

Founders: Matt Severson’s trip to Tanzania in 2007 changed his life forever. As a founding member, he realized just how powerful an education can be.

Targeted People: The School Fund targets young adults hoping to get a post-secondary education.

Mission and Goal: The School Fund wants to build a world where anyone can get an education, and schools have the resources to reach any student eager to learn.

Current Projects: Their process includes screening students who need funding, looking for schools that are under-equipped and understaffed, and to help students create networks of support.

Shared Interest

Founders: Mark Hayes was the founding investment manager in 1990. The organization is an ethical investment co-operative and the world’s only 100% fair trade lender.

Targeted People: Shared Interest reaches out to small enterprises in poor nations, knowing that the success of these small businesses is an effective way to fight poverty.

Mission and Goal: The mission of Shared Interest is to provide business support and resources to developing nations.

Current Projects: Account holders invest money and the funds are pooled and used to provide low-interest loans and services to new start up businesses in the 3^rd world. Currently, Swaziland is the primary focus of Shared Interest, as it has the highest HIV/AIDS nation in the world.

Sustainable Bolivia

Founders: Erik Taylor is the current executive director and founder of Sustainable Bolivia.

Targeted People: Current resources are focused in on the Andean Highlands in the country of Bolivia.

Mission and Goal: The goal of Sustainable Bolivia is to provide economic sustainability and educational opportunities in the country.

Current Projects: Currently, they are running a language school, along with grant and scholarship programs.

What Took You So Long?

Founders: What Took You So Long are a team of filmmakers led by director Alicia Sully roam the world, looking for untold stories to document.

Targeted People: The team looks for stories in remote areas. To date, they have filmed and lived in over 60 countries.

Mission and Goal: The method of “guerrilla” filmmaking includes living in the community and encouraging locals to participate in the project. They are storytellers.

Current Projects: They are currently using video, social media, training, and other avenues like TED talks to tell stories of unsung heroes.

WhizKids Workshop

Founders: Started in 2005, Shane Etzenhouser and Bruktawit began this small organization in their living room.

Targeted People: Currently the WhizKids Workshop is focused on children in Ethiopia.

Mission and Goal: The mission of WhizKids is to make educational materials fun and engaging, as well as easily distributed on a mass scale to children all over the world.

Current Projects: Tsehai Loves Learning is an award-winning television series for preschool children. In addition to TV, they provide training as well.

The Annenberg Institute for School Reform

Founders: Its first director was Dr. Theodore R. Sizer.

Targeted People: Their focus is on other educational organizations and underserved communities in need of educational resources.

Mission and Goal: The Annenberg Institute’s mission is to develop, share, and act on knowledge that improves the conditions and outcomes of schooling in America, especially in urban communities and in schools serving disadvantaged children.

Current Projects: Educators, researchers, and parents work on numerous projects that promote learning, develop leaders, and facilitate opportunities in all levels of education.

College Summit

Founders: J.B. Schramm, Derek Canty and Keith Frome founded College Summit in 1993 while overseeing a teen center in the basement of a low-income housing project in Washington, D.C.

Targeted People: College Summit targets youth in low-income communities.

Mission and Goal: College Summit’s mission is to increase the college enrollment rates of youth from low-income communities.

Current Projects: Multiple projects are ongoing and include providing high schools with postsecondary planning courses, professional development for educators, and providing summer workshops for high school students

Citizen Schools

Founders: Citizen Schools was founded by Eric Schwarz, Ned Rimer, and Sanjeev Verma.

Targeted People: They target low income middle school students.

Mission and Goal: Citizen Schools has been re-imagining the learning day to bring more time, more talented adults, and more relevant learning experiences to middle-school students in low-income neighborhoods.

Current Projects: Multiple projects partnering with middle schools around the US.

Education Sector

Founders: Kristen Amundson is the Senior Vice President for External Relations and John Chubb is the Interim CEO.

Targeted People: This independent think tank works to change educational policy through engagement with policy makers and policy influencers.

Mission and Goal: The mission of Education Sector is to promote changes in policy and practice that lead to improved student opportunities and outcomes.

Current Projects: Multiple projects targeting K-12 and higher education policy change to promote improved and innovative learning.

The Posse Foundation

Founders: Deborah Bial, Ed.D. is the President and Founder.

Targeted People: Students in high school through college.

Mission and Goal: To ensure that a diverse pool of students have access to higher education institutions with welcoming environments and continue through graduation.

Current Projects: “The Posse Program”, a unique program developed by the Posse foundation. They also have ongoing events that can be found on their website.

AERA, American Education Research Association

Founders: Felice J. Levine Ph.D. is the Executive Director.

Targeted People: AERA targets policy makers, educators, and students.

Mission and Goal: AERA strives to advance knowledge about education, to encourage scholarly inquiry related to education, and to promote the use of research to improve education and serve the public good.

Current Projects: Their focus is on communication and outreach, education research & policy, and professional development.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation

Founders: Jim Casey and his siblings George, Harry and Marguerite. They named the foundation after their mother. Annie Casey was a widow and raised her children alone.

Targeted People: Providing grants to cities, states, and neighborhoods.

Mission and Goal: The primary mission of the Annie E. Casey Foundation is to foster public policies, human-service reforms and community supports that more effectively meet the needs of today’s vulnerable children and families.

Current Projects: Multiple initiatives that provide education opportunities and assistance to organizations, families, and former foster care children.

Center for American Progress

Founders: Joe Podesta, former White House chief of staff to William J. Clinton.

Targeted People: They target policy makers, college students, and educators.

Mission and Goal: The Center for American Progress is an independent nonpartisan educational institute dedicated to improving the lives of Americans through progressive ideas and action.

Current Projects: Multiple initiatives around the globe including “Campus Progress” and the “Enough Project”, which fights crimes against humanity.

CTQ, Center for Teaching Quality

Founders: Barnett Berry is the founder and a former high school teacher and social scientist.

Targeted People: CTQ targets policymakers, administrators, union leaders, and teachers.

Mission and Goal: To connect, ready, and mobilize teacher leaders to transform our schools.

Current Projects: Collaboratory, an idea-sharing platform for teachers, ongoing webinar series on topics such as, school redesign, text complexity and selection, and writing.

Teach for America

Founders: Matthew Kramer is the current CEO and oversees a large board of directors and administrative officers.

Targeted People: Teach for America recruits energetic and intelligent adults to be educators in areas of economic difficulty.

Mission and Goal: The goal is to give impoverished children excellent education. Their mission also focuses on supporting leaders and educators in the field.

Current Projects: There are programs all over the United States that not only focus on teaching, but on policy making and long-term educational changes in the United States.

Blue Engine (dot) org

Founders: Founded in 2009 by a former Teach forAmericaa teacher Nick Ehrmann.

Targeted People: Blue Engine targets students in low-income areas.

Mission and Goal: Blue Engine partners with public high schools to prepare dramatically greater numbers of low-income students for postsecondary success.

Current Projects: Blue Engine has 3 schools with 44 classrooms and servicing over 700 students. Their program covers four components: small group instruction, data and assessment, social cognitive curriculum, and extended learning time.

Teach Plus

Founders: Teach Plus began in 2007 in Cambridge Mass with 16 teachers.

Targeted People: Teach Plus targets new teachers and urban students.

Mission and Goal: Improve outcomes for urban children by ensuring that a greater proportion of students have access to effective, experienced teachers.

Current Projects: They currently have three programs: The Teaching Policy Fellows, the T+ network for teachers, and Turnaround Teacher Teams (called T3).

BellWeather Education Partners

Founders: Founded by Andrew Rotherham and Monisha Lozier. They oversee a team of educators.

Targeted People: BellWeather works with start up education initiatives that need to go beyond the structure of their initial organization.

Mission and Goal: They provide resources, business strategies, and consulting to non-profit educations that need a broader infrastructure to further their mission and goals.

Current Projects: They currently work with over 50 organizations including well-known names like Sesame Street, Teach Plus, and MATCH Teacher Training.

Achievement First: Public Charter Schools

Founders: Achievement First was born after the Amistad Academy proved that urban students could outperform on standardized tests like the CMTs. In 2003, they became a non-profit organize to further the practices of Amistad into other schools.

Targeted People: Achievement First works with charter schools in low-income urban areas.

Mission and Goal: The mission of Achievement First is to deliver on the promise of equal educational opportunity for all of America’s children.

Current Projects: They have charter schools in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New York.

Uncommon Schools

Founders: Norman Atkins is the founder and board chair of this organization that started in 2005.

Targeted People: They work with teachers and students in urban low-income areas.

Mission and Goal: Uncommon Schools starts and manages outstanding urban charter public schools that close the achievement gap and prepare low-income students to graduate from college.

Current Projects: They have a network of 32 charter schools in the Northeast that provide management, support, fundraising, and training.

New Teacher Center

Founders: Norman Atkins is the founder and board chair of this organization that started in 2005.

Targeted People: NTC works with schools districts, state policymakers, and educators across the country.

Mission and Goal: New Teacher Center (NTC) is a national non-profit dedicated to improving student learning by accelerating the effectiveness of new teachers and school leaders.

Current Projects: Their most well-known project is the New Teacher Induction program that focuses on teacher effectiveness.

The Broad Foundations

Founders: Entrepreneur Eli Broad runs this organization with assets numbering at 2.1 billion dollars.

Targeted People: NTC works with schools districts, state policymakers, and educators across the country.

Mission and Goal: The goal of the Broad Foundations is to transform education, foster appreciation for contemporary art, advancing scientific research, and contributing to civic projects in the L.A. area.

Current Projects: The Broad Foundation is currently leading stem cell research initiatives and opening a new art center in LA in 2014.

New Leaders

Founders: New leaders was founded in 2000 by a team of social entrepreneurs.

Targeted People: They provide technical assistance to states and their curriculum development.

Mission and Goal: The mission of New Leaders is to ensure high academic achievement for all children, especially students in poverty and students of color, by developing transformational school leaders and advancing the policies and practices that allow great leaders to succeed.

Current Projects: New Leaders oversees the Emerging Leaders Program-turning educators into transformational school leaders.

New Schools Venture Fund

Founders: Ted Mitchell is known as an education “disruptor” and the current president and CEO.

Targeted People: They invest in both nonprofit and for-profit organizations that are working to improve public education in a variety of ways.

Mission and Goal: The mission of New Schools is to transform public education through powerful ideas and passionate entrepreneurs so that all children – especially those in underserved communities – have the opportunity to succeed.

Current Projects: Invested in over 70 programs including TEAM Charter Schools, Unlocking Potential, Focus, and Core Spring.

Harlem Children’s Zone

Founders: The organization began 1970 as Rheedlen, working with young children and their families as the city’s first truancy-prevention program.

Targeted People: The Children’s Zone serves more than 8,000 children and 6,000 adults. Overall, the organization serves more than 10,000 children and more than 7,400 adults.

Mission and Goal: HCZ offers education, social-service and community-building programs to children and families.

Current Projects: The Harlem Children’s Zone is partnered with Promise Academy Charter Schools to impact and improve childhood education.

The Education Trust

Founders: Kati Haycock is the president and a leading advocate in the field of education.

Targeted People: The Education Trust targets schools and teachers to promote funding fairness, accountability for struggling schools, and quality curriculum.

Mission and Goal: The goal of TET is to close the gaps in opportunity and achievement that consign far too many young people—especially those from low-income families or who are black, Latino, or American Indian—to lives on the margins of the American mainstream.

Current Projects: The Education Trust is currently promoting policy that will make college education more affordable.

TNTP: Reimagine Teaching

Founders: TNTP was founded in 1997 by a group of teachers.

Targeted People: Educators are the primary demographic targeted by TNTP.

Mission and Goal: TNTP works with schools, districts and states to provide excellent teachers to the students who need them most and advance policies and practices that ensure effective teaching in every classroom.

Current Projects: TNTP is focused on improving policy, developing ideas and innovation, and training great teachers.

KIPP

Founders: Founders Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin began KIPP in 1994.

Targeted People: Low-income students and communities.

Mission and Goal: Create classrooms that help children develop the knowledge, skills, character, and habits necessary to succeed in college and build a better tomorrow for their communities.

Current Projects: KIPP is a national network of 125 KIPP public schools in 20 states and the District of Columbia enrolling more than 41,000 students.

Gates Foundation

Founders: Bill and Melinda Gates.

Targeted People: People needing assistance, education, and opportunity.

Mission and Goal: Working to help all people lead healthy, productive lives.

Current Projects: The Gates Foundation works all over the world leading initiatives like tackling widespread illness, vaccine delivery, sanitation and hygiene, and agricultural development.

Acumen

Founders: Acumen Fund’s dedicated team works across its four global offices in New York, Mumbai, Karachi and Nairobi.

Targeted People: Impoverished people groups all over the world..

Mission and Goal: Acumen Fund is creating a world beyond poverty by investing in social enterprises, emerging leaders, and breakthrough ideas.

Current Projects: To date they’ve provided housing in Pakistan, Hippocampus Learning Centers in India, developing irrigation systems in India, among many other projects.

Sesame Workshop

Founders: The Sesame Workshop began in 1966 with the question, “Can television be used to teach children?”

Targeted People: Our international programs are tailored to children in their native country and culture, created with local educators, advisors, and puppeteers. This often results in a fully local Sesame Street.

Mission and Goal: Using the educational power of media to help children everywhere reach their highest potential.

Current Projects: To date they’ve gone far beyond the television program to reach children through radio, videos, books, and a partnership with the Joan Ganz Cooney Center.

Do you know more? Let us know by leaving a comment!

The post 50 Non-Profit Organizations That Educate People In Need appeared first on InformED.

A recent story on The Onion, the Internet’s beloved satire site renowned for its ability to pinpoint painful truths in its “fake news” stories, last week underscored one of the saddest dynamics of modern education. In “Inspirational English Teacher Cancelled out by Every Other Teacher at School,” the problem of teacher burnout is readily apparent:

“Despite her effusive passion for education, constant encouragement, and heartfelt devotion to her pupils, English teacher Marcia Belsheim’s inspirational influence on Clement C. Young High School students is reportedly entirely canceled out by the attitude and conduct of every other educator employed at the institution, sources confirmed Tuesday. “Mrs. Belsheim makes me feel like I can do anything I set my mind to, but then unfortunately the rest of my classes convince me that school is a waste of my time and I probably won’t amount to anything,” said student Paul Whitaker, 15, adding that the brief glimmer of excitement he feels toward learning in his first period English class is quickly and permanently extinguished by his six other teachers’ apathetic and detached classroom behavior.”

It’s just that the teaching profession is unlike most other jobs in its unique demands. Teachers at every level, from kindergarten to college, are expected to be sources of knowledge and wisdom, entertainers, cheerleaders, and innovators—all at the same time.

Look, we’ve all been there. There are days when we just can’t recapture our enthusiasm for teaching, or have to cover a topic for the millionth time, or are struggling with a class that just doesn’t seem to get it. When our colleagues are in a similar place, it’s as contagious as a virus—and that can bring down even the most enthusiastic instructor.

It’s not that we don’t love teaching. It’s just that the teaching profession is unlike most other jobs in its unique demands. Teachers at every level, from kindergarten to college, are expected to be sources of knowledge and wisdom, entertainers, cheerleaders, and innovators—all at the same time. Such a diverse load of responsibilities to juggle can be wearisome.

That’s why educators need to join together and support one another. For college instructors, this is a little more difficult because we generally work more in isolation than those who teach in the K-12 levels and have their own dedicated classrooms in smaller schools, see each other in the hallways, and attend school events. Online instructors are even more isolated, and lack even the most minimal opportunities for collegiality and mutual support.

So how can college instructors support and inspire each other? Try some of these suggestions and build a better, more collaborative team!

1. Build an online resource database: We can all benefit from collective wisdom, and one of the more effective uses of new online technologies is the opportunity to share our expertise and creativity with our colleagues. Most schools now have online learning management systems, including Blackboard, Moodle, and Edmodo are just a few. But even schools without a full online component at least have web pages for the departments and the college itself. There’s a great opportunity here to create a database of creative assignments, worksheets, readings, research instructions, etc. Let each faculty member contribute and establish a user agreement system, perhaps through Creative Commons licenses that give permission for other faculty members to use the assignments.
2. Start a reading group: This week I’ve been reading Bruce MacFarlane’s “Teaching with Integrity: The Ethics of Higher Education Practice” (2004), a book I’ve been meaning to read for years. It addresses some of the most common ethical challenges college instructors face, including how to treat all students equally (i.e., if we give an extension to one student are we ethically obligated to give one to all students?) I cannot wait to discuss this book with my teaching colleagues, but I won’t really be discussing it with them as much as I’ll be telling them about it, because we haven’t all read it. A regular book discussion group focusing on professional issues would solve this problem, and allow faculty to bond over the kinds of discussions that transcend departmental divisions, and help us maintain our own critical faculties.
3. Collaborate on lesson plans and rubrics: There’s no reason to reinvent the wheel every time you teach. Work together to build cohesive instructional strategies and create consistency across your department. It helps you get to know your colleagues and their teaching philosophies, as well as encourage meaningful dialogue about your common goals. These plans and rubrics should not be mandatory, to preserve academic freedom, but on those days when teaching seems especially challenging, it helps to know you’re your colleagues have your back. As with the resource database, this can be shared in an online format. It will also come in handy any time your department comes up for accreditation review.
4. Mentor new teachers: St. John’s University has an Online Faculty Mentoring Program that should be emulated by universities everywhere. New online instructors are paired with experienced faculty who volunteer to “help instructors to expand and refine their strategies while incorporating approaches offered in University courses that prepare them to teach online. Mentors also provide feedback about student-faculty and student-student interactions.” This not only provides new professors with a sounding board and resource, it also helps those new instructors integrate into the school and faculty culture.
5. Team-teach by taking over in your area of strength: Many times when I’ve taught ancient history survey courses, I’ve wanted to invite scholars of ancient Greece and Rome to take over my course for a lecture or two. It’s not that I am not fully-versed in those areas—I couldn’t teach those courses if I wasn’t. But faculty members with specific research interests always bring a uniquely personal element to their subjects, and I’d like to take advantage of that more often. It’s a way of acknowledging and honoring the achievements of my colleagues, and also an opportunity for me to learn, too—and that’s inspirational.
6. Create a Facebook page just for your faculty group: Social media today is what cocktail parties were to coworkers back in the 1950s, but now professional and personal news is shared across the cloud rather than a crowded room. Borrow a page from your students and start sharing interesting articles, stories of funny teaching moments, and department information through a Facebook page just for you and your colleagues. Don’t be surprised when invitations start to fly back and forth; your department will become a friendlier one when there’s more informal, low-pressure contact. Just remember to keep it professional and preserve student confidentiality. Read more about creating a professional learning network.
7. Create a Collegiality contract: Last week one of my colleagues arrived early to class and walked into the room to dump his bags while I was still teaching. It was distracting to me and my students. While it’s helpful to make sure that everyone in a department shares a common commitment to collegiality, that’s clearly not always possible. Some departments seem fraught with conflict that can be rooted in professional disagreements, personality clashes, or both. Ask your colleagues to collaborate on a collegiality pledge or contract, because it’s well-known that people are more likely to honor decisions they have a part in making. Establish basic rules of conduct and civility, and promise to stick to them.
8. Design and conduct a research project together: Another way to show respect for your colleagues is to unite your department through a shared project that shows off the other professional skills of your teaching faculty. You can design a project that analyzes student outcomes or another relevant factor of your academic program, and then publish your findings or present what you’ve learned at an academic conference. The interaction between fellow teachers can be a bonding experience that strengthens your department.
9. Pick an “instructor of the month” to highlight: You may not always agree with your fellow instructors, but it’s important to take time to show appreciation for the hard work that everyone in your department does. This can be as simple as allowing one of your colleagues to share what they’re doing in class during a faculty meeting or as elaborate as inviting them to share their most recent research in a guest lecture open to the whole school. The important thing here, though, is to do this for every instructor, including adjunct, part time, or other contingent faculty, such as those on visiting or temporary contracts.
10. Observe your colleagues in action: All too often, college instructors are locked into their own cocoons as they struggle to balance the various aspects of their careers, including teaching, grading, research, writing, committee work, etc. One way to maintain your momentum is to find inspiration in your colleagues. Is your curiosity piqued by the rave reviews your students give to another instructor? Ask that professor if you can sit in, unobtrusively of course, on one of their lectures. It’s flattering and helps encourage greater collegiality in your department. You may even discover a whole new style that you can incorporate into your own teaching.

These are just a few of the ways that you, as an instructor, can initiate positive change in your department or at your college. Inspiration can come from anywhere, but if you find it among your fellow instructors, you will help your department become a positive and effective environment for both students and the hard-working faculty members that serve them.

The post 10 Ways to Inspire Your Colleagues As An Educator appeared first on InformED.

“Social entrepreneurs don’t just pursue a social end, they pursue that end in a fundamentally communal way.” –Sally Osberg, Skoll Foundation

In a not-so-distant past, college degrees were the safety nets that led to job security. Now those nets are riddled with holes, sagged down by the weight of so many recipients. And unless young professionals have something new to offer, awarding them some leverage back into the net, they slip between the seams into the greatest hole of all: unemployment.

Because of this new development, the term “entrepreneur” has moved beyond the walls of the business school and into many secondary classrooms across the world. It now has a much broader definition, welcoming anyone— in any field— who plants a seed of change and directs its growth. The definition includes serial entrepreneurs, lifestyle entrepreneurs, family entrepreneurs, creative entrepreneurs, extreme entrepreneurs, non-profit entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs, and others.

Regardless of which path our students take, it is the entrepreneurial values of ownership, innovation, and sustainment that we should be cultivating in them from an early age. This way, our students will be prepared to hold onto that net when it starts to sag.

In his 2012 article for TIME, Steve Mariotti (founder of the Network For Teaching Entrepreneurship , which provides programs that inspire young people from low-income communities to stay in school, recognize business opportunities, and plan for successful futures) writes, “As an educator of at-risk youth for over thirty years, and NFTE’s founder, I’ve seen only one thing consistently bring children raised in poverty into the middle class: entrepreneurship education.”

Over the past several years, educators have taken off running with the idea of teaching entrepreneurial values to youth.

At a Middle School in Cheshire, Connecticut, eighth grade students are planning and managing their own “businesses” through a project called Mind Your Own Business (MYOB), selling food and crafts to the school’s faculty and study body.

In Kansas, the Center for Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS) provides students with a specialized, entrepreneurial alternative to traditional high school. Here, young innovators can develop and test their ideas, receive support from business and engineering experts, meet venture capitalists and investors, and apply for provisional patents in order to commercialize their products.

“Owner-entrepreneurship education empowers young people to make well-informed decisions about their future, whether they choose to become entrepreneurs or not,” Mariotti says. “Our students discover that, like every individual, they already own five powerful assets: time, talent, attitude, energy and unique knowledge of one’s local market.”

It makes sense. In a world economy where jobs have become scarce and degrees insufficient, entrepreneurship offers a promising alternative: If you can’t find a job, why not create one?

The Rise Of The Social Entrepreneur

Social entrepreneurship, in particular, has risen to the occasion as an appealing alternative. As our governments and markets fail to provide solutions to social problems, a new legion of self-appointed individuals all across the world swells in influence and number.

Bornsetin writes, “There have always been people who build organizations that demonstrate new possibilities and spark change. In business, they were given the name “entrepreneurs” some 200 years ago. In the social sector, until recently, we called their counterparts — people like Dorothea Dix, Gifford Pinchot or Asa Philip Randolph — humanitarians or revolutionaries. It’s only in the past 30 years — and primarily in the past 10 — as the number of social entrepreneurs has multiplied, that we’ve come to appreciate their role in social change — and begun to study their methods.”

There is now a host of post-secondary and graduate programs— such as the Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship (AGSE) the School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) first launched in the UK, and Ashoka U in the US— that provide the resources and guidance young professionals need to travel this path. Activity can also be seen at the elementary and secondary levels, as middle and high school teachers begin implementing lessons on social entrepreneurship in their classrooms.

In 2010, members of the Network For Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) in Greater Los Angeles commenced a year-long pilot program in an underfunded LA school to teach the fundamentals of business, entrepreneurship, and giving back to the community— all through the lens of a social entrepreneur.

Each student was challenged to create a marketing campaign with a “pop-up” retail store in their high school, where they were given $20, taken to a local wholesale market, and told to negotiate and create retail products to sell at lunch. The catch: every “pop-up” store had to have a cause attached to it. The NFTE also teamed up with MyCorporation.com to provide the most innovative students with a real-life business launch kit that included free entity incorporation, websites, logos, accounting software, business guide books, and more.

The Grand Prize winner, sophomore Hayley Hoverter, created eco-friendly, dissolvable rice-paper sugar packets that can be dispensed from a bamboo container on a coffee shop counter, preventing businesses from tearing through nearly 1,000 paper packets a day.

The Problem

This is all fine and good, but one detail seems to have gone awry: In defining social entrepreneurship, aren’t we neglecting community?

The term “entrepreneur” connotes a sole effort, however wide the sweep of its impact. Even when preceded by “social,” the term points not to the method involved but to the cause for which the method is enacted. A social entrepreneur tries to change the world, and almost certainly connects and works with others along the way, but is typically portrayed as a one-man team.

David Bornstein hits the nail on the head in his New York Times column from last November: (quoting Sally Osberg, president and chief executive of the Skoll Foundation) “For a long time, Osberg said, she viewed social entrepreneurs as ‘individual actors’ whose ideas led to the ‘creative destruction’ necessary to ‘replace a societal status quo’ with systems that were more just. ‘But over recent years,’ she added, ‘I’ve come to see how the “social” that characterizes their purpose also characterizes their way of working. In other words, social entrepreneurs don’t just pursue a social end, they pursue that end in a fundamentally communal way.’”

This concept – defining “social entrepreneurship” by its method as well as its purpose—is not new. It has simply been masquerading under different names, namely “system building,” “network weaving,” “infrapreneurship,” and “intrapreneurship.” But it has not been featured as an important aspect of the term we use in our classrooms.

In a recent blog post on Forbes.com, an Ashoka contributor blamed the higher education crisis in the United States on untapped social potential: “The problem isn’t that higher education doesn’t have anything of value to offer (colleges are nothing if not mountains of world-class learning opportunities), but that students aren’t getting any of that value. “ The community is intimate, the resources are plentiful, the network is waiting to be built— but students have not been properly advised on how to proceed.

A Social Means To a Social End

Frustrated with this oversight of traditional higher learning, Weezie Yancey-Siegel, now a social impact program manager for Flavorpill, decided to take matters into her own hands. After spending two years (and a pretty penny) at a prestigious liberal arts college in California, she took a year off of school to travel around the United States and Europe, attending conferences and interviewing other social innovators.

One of her interviewees, Rithesh Menon, is the Director of Partnerships for StartingBloc, a network and training program for young leaders. StartingBloc is a community of people who are brought together by a common trait: they are all wanting to change or impact the world in some way. For some people this may mean that they have an idea for a social venture that they are willing to build and lead.

Menon says he isn’t a big fan of the term “social entrepreneur.” There are many other roles that are needing to be filled in order to leverage true change, he says.

Weezie first began thinking about these roles in October 2011 when she met with Cassie Robinson of the co-working space Hub Westminister. Cassie is a perfect example of someone who is deeply committed to the system as a whole rather than just one project. As she puts it, “I’m interested in system builders as opposed to entrepreneurs.’”

Cassie works on several different projects, and is able to bring various perspectives and opinions to them. Cassie and Weezie talked about how much their society celebrates the entrepreneur, when it really needs to be looking at these system changer roles as well.

As Cassie explained, “I can never apply to any programs for personal development, or support, or funding. You can apply if you’re a social entrepreneur.”

She gave Weezie an example of something called The Big Venture Challenge, which awards 25 of the top entrepreneurs in the country. “I phoned them up because I just wanted to challenge them a little bit. In the application you had to say how you would go into an area in the UK and how you would basically help low-income people out of poverty. My argument to them was, ‘Why are you looking for a lone entrepreneur with one idea to be able to do that? There’s no way one organization or entrepreneur will be able to do that. There’s different aspects of a social problem like poverty and it would require a system for people. Why don’t you invest in people who know who those ten organizations would be and who could hold that together?’”

On May 8, 2012, Weezie posted the following on her blog, www.eduventurist.org :

“Funders and investors need to recognize, reward, and incentivize these critical roles to enable more people to take them on as jobs in the realm of social development. On the other hand, there is also a need for those who work within an organization or business that already exists and who innovate from within. I’m all in for creating new structures and recombinations. But the fact is, there are so many existing things that can benefit from fresh insight and begin to evolve to become something more adapted for the present and future. We call these people intrapreneurs, and like system builders, I feel that there is not enough emphasis or even education on these roles and their importance. Let’s ensure that the evolving educational systems will be mindful of these gaps that need to be filled.”

How You Can Redefine Social Entrepreneurship

Amid the anarchical din of MOOCs and anti-college movements, there is one lasting ray of hope for traditional schooling, and that is social entrepreneurship.

For a moment, forget the Common Core Standards and assessment tests, the push for college preparation and career success. Forget the emphasis on the individual student, whom, to the student’s own dismay, we have forced into premature self-awareness.

For a moment, imagine a learning space where students are first and foremost encouraged to work with and depend on one another for success.

With a little guidance, students will be prepared to take full advantage of the community-building resources that a college campus has to offer, and will carry this skill with them into the real world.

Here are five steps you can take to promote system building in your own classroom:

1. Instill a sense of inter-dependence in your students. Create a social activity, such as building a mock-organization that provides clean drinking water to underdeveloped countries, and let them research, identify, and “fill” various roles needed to design and execute each project.
2. Encourage design thinking. The three pillars of design thinking are human desirability, technical feasibility, and business viability. Although these seem like advanced concepts that belong in a business school lecture, you can introduce the same basic habits of thought to students in a sixth grade class. Break students up into groups and hold a “design your own robot” day, where groups are further divided into three “panels” for Who Does It Help, How Does it Work, and What Does it Cost.
3. Require students to lead workshops rather than give presentations. This way, students can ask and respond to questions, exercise leadership and discussion skills, present ideas in a more collaborative (and less judgmental) setting, and make their peers feel involved and socially responsible.
4. Emphasize the importance of organizational and collaborative skills in areas like human resource management, business/nonprofit law, marketing, and fundraising. Turn your classroom into a business model by breaking students up into “departments” that work together to improve the functionality and efficiency of the group overall.
5. Expose students to organizations and resources that encourage social entrepreneurship through collaboration: Skillshare, School of Everything, Ashoka U, Breaker, Skoll Foundation, Echoing Green, Social Spaces, Trade School, the Middlebury Center for Social Entrepreneurship, and ThinkImpact, just to name a few. Many of these organizations hold internships, apprenticeships, and competitions throughout the year.

To ensure that our students take full advantage of the incredible value educational institutions have to offer, help them first understand the value of community.

For a great resource on teaching social entrepreneurship to students, check out Ashoka U’s “Social Entrepreneurship Education Resource Handbook.” Originally designed for faculty members interested in teaching social entrepreneurship, the Handbook was revised to include uses and applications for administrators eager to advance social entrepreneurship at their colleges and universities, students interested in launching their own social ventures and plugging into relevant resources, and practitioners of social entrepreneurship with an interest in higher education programs.

The post The Real Meaning of Social Entrepreneurship and How To Promote It In Your Classroom appeared first on InformED.

Over the years, I’ve noticed how one question can change the dynamics of any situation. Everything might be moving along quite nicely at the dinner table, everyone’s happy and laughing but one question can send those same smiling faces into a frenzy of shouts and upset.

This also holds true in a classroom. Students may be working quietly and the teacher might be content but one question or comment from a student or the teacher can turn that quiet into bubbling sea of chatter.

Beyond textbooks and worksheets, at the core of every basic lesson lies the key to teaching students anything and everything.

Routines give rhythm and security to any learning environment. For students, the rhythm begins with knowing that when they enter the classroom, they need to begin writing in their journals about the topic on the board.

In another class they might start with a set of problems to solve. In yet another, they might pick up from where they began with the lab work they left behind in the previous class. In online classrooms, routines give students order and direction.

It’s when these routines turn into lullabies that it’s time to change the rhythm. These suggestions aren’t meant to become a project where the teacher spends endless hours planning. These are just quick tricks to step up the beat so that students stay interested.

Enter Math Class

1. Lesson: Money and Multiplication

Multiplication and money go hand in hand. Word problems center on pulling apart large amounts into smaller ones and the number of $5, $10, $20, and $50 dollar bills which make up the equations.

Beginning class with a lesson in multiples only makes practical sense. So, students write times tables then often answer a word problem to demonstrate multiplication. After the routine sets in, add music—actually add rhythm.

Add Music.

Teachers can take it as far as you want, with short tapping, dancing or even a jump rope routine, but be sure not to penalize students who aren’t good at this part or don’t find it helpful. It’s simply a break in a routine.

2. Lesson: Measurements

Students may be learning the basics of measurements or even learning the conversion table. Either way, repetition helps understanding settle in. But, once it’s clear that this has happened, break into the pattern and challenge them.

Add Objects.

Challenge them to bring in objects to measure or weigh. Suddenly the lesson becomes three-dimensional and the daily routine has a heartbeat.

3. Lesson: Mental Math

With mental math lessons, students are practicing multiples in conjunction with addition and subtraction. They may also be rounding and working on place value. So they answer routine questions daily. Then move on to more challenging formats and ask students to create their own problems.

Add Candy.

Essentially, all mental math equals visuals so give them a series of problems with lollipops or any other candy that you know they’ll love. Then, reward them with it once they solve the problem correctly.

4. Lesson: Computations

Whether it’s a lesson in associative property of multiplication or distributive property of multiplication over addition, repetition of the ideas creates comfort for students. However, application seals it in their minds so add a little challenge into the routine.

Add a Party.

Have students plan a party. Give them a budget and a quick list of criteria to complete such as a shopping list and a supply list. Students can partner with each other or even work in groups of four.

5. Lesson: Algebra

Students must practice equations and word problems constantly in order to keep their minds focused. For a practical problem such as y + 8 = 32, students work their answers easily and move to more complex equations quickly. Fine. Then, they get the challenge of the word problem and essentially, so do you because you have to make sure they’re still learning.

Add Grapes.

Bring in grapes or nuts or chips. The idea is that you allow students to focus on an object or reward to motivate them to create word problems centered on their object of devotion. Again, they do the creating. They’re motivated. You’re free to teach within their enthusiasm.

Enter Reading Class

6. Lesson: Fluency

Never before has just the act of reading on a daily basis been more important to a student’s learning experience. Making sure that students can form words correctly and sound out new ones can be a tiring task for teacher and student.

Add Choice.

Simply ask the students what they’d like to read and only read that no matter how simple. It builds confidence and gives them a feeling that they have some control over what they’re learning.

7. Lesson: Comprehension

It would only follow that if a student achieves fluency then they should be able to comprehend what they read. That’s not always the case or teachers wouldn’t spend so much time reading passages and having students answer comprehension questions.

Add Quiz Masters.

After several days of reading and answering questions have students ask the questions. Tell students to ask the questions and have them quiz each other, either in groups of 2 or 4. It can be a large-scale challenge or a small one. The idea is that they are in charge.

8. Lesson: Vocabulary

Whatever the grade level, teachers are constantly making sure students are acquiring new vocabulary. But, while matching definitions and looking up definitions may clarify the meanings of the words, it doesn’t ensure that students will remember the words.

Add Passwords.

Simply enough, at least at first, have them build a story together. Each student takes a word and begins a story with one sentence. This takes 10 to 15 minutes and means a lot to them in the end: attention, laughter, and challenge.

9. Lesson: Central Idea

There’s nothing more important and more difficult than teaching the central or main idea of stories large and small. Right when you think they’ve got it, students turn around and give you the completely wrong idea. So, it’s important to keep training them by constantly asking the same question. When teachers start to feel themselves collapsing, the class may collapse too.

Add Fishbowl.

Turn your class into a fishbowl. Put six or seven chairs in the middle and the rest surrounding those. Switch out students throughout the lesson. The students in the middle have to come up with the main idea and the students on the outside take notes and critique them.

10. Lesson: Analysis

Analysis for short stories or novels requires a lot of critical thinking questions in which students justify their answers with evidence from the story. Without analysis infused into daily lessons students would be lost in any subject requiring them to think outside the box. When practice becomes redundant, have them be the characters.

Add Drama.

Have them write a one-page response to the class from the characters point of view. Have the character analyze them. The character could be humorous or angry or even bitter about the whole thing. Whatever the view, it should give them some added interest.

Enter Writing Class

11. Lesson: Opinion pieces

Daily journal writing is a great way for students to practice expressing their opinions on most any subject. Teaching them to respond to different questions gives them a sense of comfort with various topics.

Add Tension.

Ask a deliberately uncomfortable question. At this point you should know your class pretty well, so asking this question shouldn’t be too difficult. Just make sure that it’s within the limits of being appropriate for their age group.

12. Lesson: Structure

Teaching structure is like pulling teeth. Students either love it so much that they sound like robots or they hate it so much that they fly off topic after the first couple of sentences. Forcing them to remain on topic on a daily basis means they’ll do it automatically when under pressure.

Add Bubbles and Boxes.

Students who hate structure love bubbles. Students who like structure love boxes. Tell them to use either for the next few daily lessons and insert their information accordingly. When they check over their work, they must then write anything unfocused outside the bubbles or circles.

13. Lesson: Argument and Support

Students usually enjoy persuasive essays until they’re on their fortieth prompt and it’s still the beginning of the school year, so mixing things up becomes more than important.

Add Posters.

There’s something about doing the same thing, only bigger that makes students pay attention. Break the room into groups of four or five. Have them brainstorm and work on introductions one class period then put it on a poster by the end of the class. The same can be done for the three supporting paragraphs and conclusion.

14. Lesson: Expository and Information

One of the most misunderstood formats that students write, expository essays need constant practice depending on the grade level. There are several variations within the essays themselves. But, students begin to gripe about it after they’ve gotten over the first groans of protest and are deep into their routine.

Add Gummy Bears.

Gummy bears, chocolate, Skittles, or whatever candy they love to snack on. Have them research how it’s made then write about it. The essays that receive above a “B” or include certain criteria win free packages of their favorite candy. It all depends on how deep the lesson needs to go.

15. Lesson: Grammar and Style

Identifying parts of speech and how to use them may mean endless reviewing and writing. Picking apart sentence structure and practicing syntax requires discipline. Diagramming sentences feels like a routine vaccine visit unless you add some interest.

Add Magazines.

Have students first read a high-interest story then pull some sentences from that. This will break up the lesson but also give the student and teacher a better idea of what’s really being learned.

Enter Science Class

16. Lesson: Solar System

While learning about the solar system makes for an interesting lesson for most, some of the actual terminology needs repetition to be learned. After they’ve learned all the basic planets and that Pluto is now one of the dwarf planets, offer a challenge.

Add Meteors.

Students believe the world revolves around them anyway so play into that. By now, many have read about the meteor blast in Siberia, so ask students to not only read about it but come up with their own theories on how this affects the rest of the world. Teachers and students can also read more about current theories and discoveries at sciencemag.org

17. Lesson: Matter & Chemistry

Acids and bases, atoms, chemical equations, and so forth require reinforcement with repetitive lessons. But, minus movies and lab experimentation, try sealing in some of the terminology with some twists and turns.

Add Everyday Items.

The familiar world around us changes when we look at it differently, so have students find chemistry in their everyday lives. Challenge them to bring in various items as you move forward in the lesson. Simplicity matters. Use tea and add lemon to demonstrate the lightening effect.

18. Lesson: Energy

Teaching energy efficiency, renewable energy, thermodynamics, or energy transfer gives students the knowledge they need in order to become literate in the subject matter. If the daily lesson involves answering a set of questions or rewriting definitions or simply reviewing, don’t allow the information to float away.

Add Critiques.

Simply asking students what they think of the way the school uses energy may be enough. Have them continue to follow their lesson but tell them to look around them and bring in five alternatives to the way their school consumes energy. The idea is that students are doing the work and finding the solutions to problems while doing one of their favorite things: complaining about school.

The U.S. Department of Energy has great lessons for teachers with useful ideas for practical purposes at www1.eere.energy.gov

19. Lesson: Life Science

Biotechnology, cells and cell processes, and genetics are among the many topics covered in Life Science lessons. Although interesting enough, the lessons require students to acquire and use new vocabulary as well as connect all the new concepts introduced. Making sure students retain this information can be a challenge in itself. The key remains repetition with connection.

Add Cloning.

With ideas and vocabulary swarming around the room on a daily basis, ask them what they think about cloning humans. This question alone should start the discussion up and then refocus them to the matter at hand. Teachers can take it as far or as little as they want. Find out more at www.discoveryeducation.com

20. Lesson: Minerals

For some, learning about rocks and minerals naturally sparks interest. For many students, it only affirms their boredom. This means that even a demonstration with actual minerals will provoke little curiosity. So, once routine sets in…

Add Aliens.

Ask a simple question. How does our study of minerals help us search for extraterrestrial life? Then, let them argue their points and challenge them to use what they’ve learned about minerals so far.

Enter Social Studies Class

21. Lesson: Maps

Students love to look at maps and pretend they know how to read them. They love to take notes on them and act like they’re experts after a day’s lesson. But, ask them to answer a question about distance traveled or where a team of travelers ended its journey and students suddenly have no idea where to start.

Add Scavenger Hunts.

Have them use their maps and create points in the class that represent a point on the map. It takes five minutes to put together and students love it. Add a reward to the mix, and they’ll like it even better.

22. Lesson: Government

Teaching the branches of the government and how they work may be important but it can be an excruciating process. So many students despise the thought of it. So adding interest needs to be sprinkled throughout the lessons.

Add Current Events.

There’s no other way to get students to learn this part of social studies than to tell them to find a story on a weekly basis that’s related to the topic at hand. Or, just have UpFront, Scope, or Time for Kids available in the classroom for students to find stories that apply.

23. Lesson: Civil Rights

One of the most important lessons taught to students, this gives them a deeper understanding of right and wrong and why laws exist and need to be enforced. Sometimes students see it as ancient history though. So keep it current as well.

Add Students.

Ask the important question: How have things changed? Have them list it or journal it then expand on that as the lesson continues. They need to understand their relationship to it.

24. Lesson: American History

Teaching students about the Revolutionary War may be interesting to the two history buffs whose eyes sparkle when they hear the topic. But, the rest of the class might be going comatose. So, give them options.

Add Inventions.

Ask students what they would’ve done without air conditioning or even electricity considering that it had just been discovered. Ask them what they would’ve invented. Possibly assign them inventors to research.

25. Lesson: World History

Teaching world history can actually be a very interesting lesson for students because they learn so much about parts of the world that they otherwise may never have known. However, ingesting this information means a lot of textbook chapters. To break the routine, just think of the wild, imaginative stories created by cultures around the world.

Add Stories, Myths, and Legends.

Learning about countries and their unique cultures through myths, legends, and other stories makes the countries live inside the students’ minds and gives value to their knowledge. So, ask them to bring in an article or information about a legend or story unique to a particular country then share it with the class.

The post Running on Empty? 25 Tricks to Jumpstart Routine Lessons appeared first on InformED.