Learning assessments: Be careful what you wish for.

April 16, 2010

Yesterday I heard the Chairperson of my local School Board talk about how upcoming financial cuts will change the services they offer. This is never good news, but something else she said almost was even more worrying.
Parents who are concerned about their child’s education and want to know what can be done to [...]

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Quote of the week

April 14, 2010

I am not a teacher, only a fellow traveler of whom you asked the way. I pointed ahead, ahead of myself as well as you.
George Bernard Shaw 1856- 1915

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8 reasons why you may be frustrated by the support your childis getting in school.

April 13, 2010

I was talking to the husband of a ex-colleague of mine, asking about how his eldest son was doing, when he told me how frustrated he had been with the education system and how he felt that his son had been cheated out of the education he deserved.
Remember, I had worked with his [...]

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Learning is too important to be left to teachers!

April 8, 2010

Before I start this blog post I want you to know that I was a teacher for over 35 years. I think that most teachers do a great job, often in difficult circumstances, and are committed to helping children learn. Good teachers always have this feeling that whatever they do they could always [...]

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7 signs that your child is a backward learner.

April 2, 2010

I am a teacher with two diplomas, a masters degree, and a Ph. D. and I am a backward learner!
There, I have said it.
It has taken me many years to accept and to understand that I learn backwards. I used to call myself a slow learner and I told people that it was because [...]

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The best and easiest way to help your child learn, guaranteed!

March 30, 2010

Last week I was part of a group of parents and preschool kids who went on a field trip to their local library. I had managed to get myself invited because my Rotary club supports family literacy initiatives and we have started working with this group.
It was a wonderful visit. There were over [...]

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How to help your child make it to the end of the school year successfully

March 26, 2010

It is still March but already schools are in the final part of their year. After what can seem like a long, unrelenting winter teachers are tired and students are ready for a break from learning.
It can be difficult to motivate children to do their work and to continue learning as the delights of [...]

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Quick Quote

March 25, 2010

The object of teaching a child is to enable him (or her) to get along without a teacher.
Elbert Hubbard, American author

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Why the latest Sylvan ad bugs me and why it should bug you too!

March 24, 2010

Before I start – I have absolutely no problem with Sylvan as a learning resource for some children, they do a good job for children who want to get better grades in school. The problem I have is with the ad, you know the one, the one where a girl is trying to get [...]

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What funding cuts mean to you and your child.

March 23, 2010

The local school board has been told that there will be cuts of several million dollars to their budget this year. It was expected, but it still comes as something of a shock and is a bit hard to take when we have just spent so much money on staging the Olympics!
Very soon the [...]

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Does your child’s school measure up?

March 23, 2010

How well do schools teach children to love learning? Not very well at all says a report that measures parent’s attitudes about school performance. In fact nearly 40% of the parents in the study said that they did not think their child’s school did this well at all. That is a lot [...]

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How stress effects learning

March 18, 2010

When I talk about the emotional learning skills children need if they are to reach their learning potential I rarely mention how stress prevents children learning. Perhaps I should.
Stress, the kind of stress caused by persistent bullying, has been shown to lead to cognitive deficits in children but new research goes further, it shows [...]

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How Precious got an A- in English

March 16, 2010

saw the movie ‘Precious’ a few days ago. There was on incident I noticed that many might not have noticed. Don’t worry, for those of you who haven’t seen it yet this doesn’t spoil the plot.

Early in the movie Precious, a high school student, is called in the the Principals office. She doesn’t know why. Her first reaction is to defend herself, which she does, by saying that she has an A minus grade in English so she doesn’t know why she is there.

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Are you surprised by your child’s report?

March 15, 2010

Most parents find their child’s report cards confusing and uninformative. That is what nearly all the parents that I interviewed for my research told me. In fact, it was the one thing that every parent talked about – how they couldn’t get the information they needed from report cards.
I could go on for [...]

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You influence your child’s learning even before birth!

March 14, 2010

I knew that it was really important for parents to start reading to their children at a very early age, long before a child begins to speak, but I did not realize how, even before birth, parents help their children get ready to learn one or more languages.
I have just read about some amazing research [...]

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Teachers can tell.

March 13, 2010

My friend teaches a kindergarten class and at the beginning of each school year I ask her what her class is like, what type of children will she be handling, what hopes does she have for the children in her class.
She tells me about the children who cannot put on their own coats yet, or [...]

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Book on how to develop your child’s language skills

March 11, 2010

This book is a classic and should be on every parent and every teacher’s bookshelf. It is into its umpteenth edition, that is how good it is, and I know parents who have worn out their first copy and bought a new one!
You can dip into it, but I bet that you want to [...]

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Is your child an underachiever?

March 11, 2010

This is a question looks simple enough to answer but is, in fact, quite difficult to answer. You need to know several things before you can answer it.
* What does it mean to underachieve?
Too often we think that children ‘could do better’ in school and get better marks, learn more, and achieve more [...]

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Quote of the week

March 10, 2010

‘Over 30 years’ research has proven beyond dispute the positive connection between parents’ involvement and student success. Effectively engaging families in the education of their children has the potential to be far more transformational than any other type of education reform.’
National Standards for PTA’s.
So now you know.

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Learning ‘what’ or learning ‘how’- which is the most important?

March 9, 2010

Have you heard the saying ‘Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him how to fish and you feed him for life’? I am sure that you have, but you may not have related it to your child’s learning.
I would like to change the saying to “Give a [...]

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