Social Media and Blogging in Kindergarten [Guest Post]

Social media and blogging in kindergarten is where I begin to model explicitly how I get my students and their families connected. Through social media, my students and their families experience the benefits of being a digital citizen and its positive impact on our learning.

 

I model right on the first day of kindergarten how to tweet and what it looks and sounds like. I start with inviting my parents to follow our classroom on Twitter and/or set up a Twitter account for themselves. When this happens, our conversations begin. I ask parents that I know are familiar with Twitter to tweet at us during the day. Through this type of modeling, my students begin to understand the value of connecting online, but also begin their digital journey with a familiar “face.”

Right away, I have an opportunity to model the importance of being a safe, kind and responsible digital citizen. My students understand that when we tweet it is just like we are having face-to-face conv…

 

Helping to Increase Literacy Around the World [Infographic]

Millions of children around the world don’t acquire some of the most basic literacy skills necessary for success in today’s global society. These deficiencies in literacy often result from problems with the students’ schooling, or even a lack of schooling altogether. Fortunately, there are a variety of organizations worldwide who are leading the charge to close the literacy gap for those who do not have access to quality education.

Education and Skills 2.0: New Targets and Innovative Approaches, a new book from the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Education and Skills, discusses some of the many organizations and programs that focus on increasing literacy. Teach.com and the Global Agenda Council have teamed up to create the following Infographic,Helping to Increase Literacy Around the World, to highlight some of the key initiatives of these organizations.

 

Girls’ Education: The 2013 Report Card [Infographic]

Did you know that worldwide, more females than males are enrolled in higher education? In high-income countries the disparity is 82 percent versus 65 percent and is reversed in lower-income countries. Education and Skills 2.0: New Targets and Innovative Approaches, a new book from the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Education and Skills, has an entire chapter exploring disparities in girls’ education across seven key areas: literacy, primary enrollment, secondary enrollment, out-of-school tally, tertiary enrollment, complete rate and transitions, and repetition rate.

Teach.com and the Global Agenda Council on Education and Skills have collaborated to create the following Infographic, Girls’ Education: The 2013 Report Card, to better illustrate the current state of girls’ education internationally.  

Turning Struggling Students into Superheroes: Comic Books as Teaching Tools

The following guest post is an excerpt from Michael Strom’s graduate thesis Finding Comfort in Comics: Using Comic Books and Graphic Novels to Reach Struggling Male Readers. Strom is a graduate student at C.W. Post where he is pursuing his Masters of Science in Literacy.

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The Hero’s Journey

I don’t remember what it was about reading that got me hooked so young. Did I really enjoy it, or was I pressured into it from my mom? Either way, I didn’t fight it. Reading was the ultimate adventure, and I was the hero in that journey.

The structure of a hero’s journey is outlined in Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Campbell argues that the fundamental structure of a hero’s journey (or “monomyth”) is found…

 

10 Promises Every Special Education Teacher Should Make To Their Students’ Parents

Guest post by Tim Villegas

1. I promise to stop calling parents who have high expectations and advocate for their children “high maintenance” and I will equally try to discourage the term “high profile” if due process is involved.

2. I promise to presume competence (always assume that your child can learn and is interested in learning) even if they are unable to communicate to me what they know (yet!)

3. I promise to never use the “R” word and to speak up against it when I hear it used in private or public.

4. I promise to ask your input on the educational goals for your child BEFORE the IEP meeting and realize that without your collaboration we have no team.

5. I promise to remember that YOU were your child’s first teacher and YOU are an expert on your child…not…

 

Mike & The Nasty Self Fulfilling Prophecy [by Dr. Laz]

By Dr. David Lazerson, 2008 Inductee National Teachers Hall of Fame

“You’re wasting your time,” a colleague advised me. “He’s just a little kid in a big body.”

“You might be right,” I responded. “But I’ve seen music work its magic before.”

“Yeah,” he said shrugging his shoulders. “But not with all the issues this one has. Even his IEP says that he’s unable to predict outcomes.”

It blared off the paper like a flashing neon light. But this was not something to be taken too lightly. After all, it was the “holy grail” in the wide world of special education: the IEP in all …

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