Use Imagination for Learning!

Check out this engaging article which highlights the importance of imagination as a learning tool!
Just what the Common Core Standards need!

Training the Educators

 LEARNING HAPPENS!

I am passionate about learning!  Why? I know learning happens!  I witness so many individuals incredible perseverance living with all sorts of learning challenges, such as dyslexia, ADHD, dysgraphia, dyspraxia, NLD,....I am lucky to be a part of overcoming their learning challenges.    First, assessment is critical in understanding and demystifying learning difficulties. Students are working and trying, many times harder than their more successful peers and they need to know why!  Second, appropriate instruction facilitates learning and the processes we need for efficient and effective learning.

Conversely, I know when learning isn't happening, or happening with undue strain and stress, that I need to take a look "underneath" the tasks at hand to figure out the underlying cognitive pieces that need building and supporting.  So, many times---usually much more quickly than anyone expects---by providing direct instruction in the cognitive processes needed to do certain tasks, say, read or write, as part of reading or writing instruction, I can facilitate leaps in student learning.  And, this, if you haven't experienced it, is REALLY FUN! If my students don't exceed expected growth in a year, I know I am not doing my job.

Like Sal Khan said in his presentation in Seattle at Town Hall this week, when we don't teach to mastery, we set up students to fail.  He used a building analogy.  We start with a foundation that is, say, only 80% up to code.  It passes. Then, we go ahead and build the first floor, hoping that the bad corner won't affect the structural integrity of the building.   Oh, well, the first floor is 74% up to code, so let's go for the second floor....and so on.  At some point, the structure will crumble. We build failure into our system, when we can build success. 

On the other hand, if we address underlying processing difficulties, including sensory integration, fine and gross motor development, automatic visual - auditory processing, direct instruction in language, along with strategic study strategies as we are learning reading, writing, and mathematics, we can teach to mastery and students can build a solid foundation for creatively pursuing their goals and interests.  While our focus on standardized tests needs rethinking, we can help students succeed  and pass standardized tests.

DREAM JOB

Again, I was lucky to teach some in-service classes for the North Olympic Peninsula AmeriCorps volunteers, all of whom work with students in schools and for various before and after school programs,. Very impressive group of dedicated,  service-oriented young adults, who accept the challenge of believing success is a possibility for their students. Yet, even with 100% willingness to try, in order to integrate new strategies takes practice and on-going reinforcement.  The first shifts in thinking are as simple and as profound as examining learning as opposed to finishing a worksheet.

So, my goal in offering training classes is to facilitate a collaborate learning community that supports and trains  tutors,  teachers, and parents so that students experience success.  Ideally, we start with in-service trainings for several weeks, and then, continue to meet with tutors and teachers every  few weeks for on-going training and consultation. We take time for closer examination of their hardest to reach students.  What is working? What is not working? How do we provide effective instruction for this student? for this group of students? etc.  Through a year-long, on-going training, consultation, and facilitation, we can together dramatically impact student achievement.  Mostly, every child deserves the right of enjoying school and of surpassing their highest expectations.  And, as the AmeriCorps volunteers know, we all have to have more FUN getting there!

Pasi Sahlberg and GERM Theory

Pasi Sahlberg introduces the GERM Theory prevalent in all aspects of education in our country today--the Global Education Reform Movement and he highlights how the Finnish educational system differs.

Furthermore, as a response to globalization, educators need to rethink the ways teaching and learning are organized in schools, promote appropriate flexibility at school level,
creativity in classrooms and risk-taking among students and teachers as part of their daily work in school.  - Pasi Sahlberg Teaching and Globalization

Another interesting article by Pasi Sahlberg Education Policies for Raising Student Learning: The Finnish Approach.  


 

Training for North Olympic Peninsula AmeriCorps

I am having fun planning the second of two 3 hour training sessions for the North Olympic Peninsula AmeriCorps volunteers who work with students, tutoring in schools and extended school programs. We are lucky to have so many compassionate, intelligent, educated, and dedicated volunteers to work with our struggling students. To get everyone started in the morning, or for a study break to wake up those brain cells, try this!

Join JUMP MATH Classes

Following the fall series, JUMP Math classes continue for 5th - 8th grade students. New students welcome, as each set of ten sessions can be taken independently. This series, we will be delving into patterns, algebra, number sense, and more. JUMP improves skills, confidence, and mathematical thinking skills. 

New classes starting Wednesday January 23,  meeting once a week on Wednesday afternoon for ten classes ending March 27  $15 per class/ $150 per session includes materials.

JUNIOR UNDISCOVERED MATH PRODIGIES

January 23, 30, February 6, 13, 20, 27, March 6, 13, 20, 27

Session One: 5th - 6th Grade   4:00

 Session Two: 7th - 8th Grade   5:00

Have fun with math! Improve your skills! Challenge your understanding! Sharpen your genius!

"We are ecstatic about the math progress our son is making with the JUMP math program.  Melinda is a remarkable teacher!  Her combination of enthusiasm and special training have made River feel very comfortable diving into the world of math and he is now excited by his math classes with her. He leaves the JUMP sessions energized and his confidence in math has built dramatically in only one month of working with her.  Melinda's tools and expertise are ideal for helping students develop real, integrated understanding of the concepts.  We couldn't be more pleased and it is a great relief to have found a curriculum and teacher that really make MATH classes both an emotionally safe and intellectually adventurous place to be."  --Crystie Kisler

Teaching Students with Dyslexia

The International Dyslexic Association states that one in ten individuals is dyslexic.  From my teaching experience, I would estimate that closer to one-third of individuals have a dyslexic learning profile and benefit from teaching routes that ameliorate dyslexic traits. The markers of a dyslexic profile vary in intensity and degree, yet, from the non-reading adult to the non-writing teen, with appropriate instruction, all can make progress and usually, several grade levels of progress, in academic skills in ten to twenty hours of individualized, one-on-one instruction.

Over and over, I have witnessed students, from seven years of age to seventy-seven years of age, decrease directional confusion and dramatically increase the automatic and accurate processing of two-dimensional symbols through a combination of multi-sensory direct instruction methods in symbol stabilization.  Many times, students note decreased reading fatigue and improved decoding in six to eight hours. Creating more accurate and automatic memories for letters in turn, improves the ease of  not only reading, but also writing, spelling, keyboarding, copying from the board, etc.

Additionally, dyslexic profiles include a delay in one or more features of the language system---delays not just in phonological processing, but also in one or more aspects of receptive and/or expressive vocabulary and/or grammar. Complicated? Can be.  The more areas of delay, the more profound the difficulties in reading/writing/speaking/listening.  Yet, a large percentage of dyslexic learners make incredible progress with just several hours of atypical, direct language instruction in vocabulary and/or grammar.  Combined with multi-sensory activities, such as building and transposing sentences with 3-dimensional pieces---which improve reading comprehension and writing structure, cognitive strategy training develops the skill of using one's own language to guide thinking, organize oneself in time and space, and complete tasks.

While the majority of people who struggle to read or write efficiently dramatically improve their skills in ten or twelve hours of instruction, the same strategies work with those who have more severe forms of dyslexia. So, for instance, I have worked with students with broad-based motor and language delays, who may require a year of instruction, but make several years of progress which enables them to "catch up" or surpass their expected grade level.

While assessing, designing, and delivering direct instruction requires training, the methods are basically simple.  With careful observation, instruction does not have to be "drill and kill."  We can expect all our students to succeed, and meet or surpass grade level expectations.  If they do not, we are not doing our job!

Dyslexia Resources K-12

Check this out! 

Washington State Office of Public Instruction now has a page of information for parents and teachers with resources on dyslexia!

This is progress....more on Dyslexia in my next post!