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Hands-on Teaching for Children with ADD

July 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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Too many students today are expected to sit still and pay attention. These are good attributes for kids, but only for limited periods of time. It’s too much to ask a kid to sit still for 8 hours a day with only a couple breaks for lunch and recess.

This is even truer when it comes to kids with ADD and ADHD. Many teachers don’t understand how difficult it is for these kids to pay attention. For many, kinesthetic learning is the best way for these kids to learn concepts because it keeps their hands busy and allows the students to learn by actually practicing what is being taught.

Reading about plants, for example, isn’t nearly as meaningful as seeing the plants, feeling the leaves, and examining the petals. Teachers with students that have ADD will find that these students are more successful at retaining the knowledge when the lessons are hands-on. If possible, evaluations (such as tests) should also be done with hands-on activities. If that’s not possible, then teachers can help ADD students in other ways such as allowing him or her a scribe, allowing the student to stand while taking the test, or allowing the student to take the test verbally.

The important thing when it comes to teaching students with ADD is to be understanding. Listen to your students when they explain the difficulties of having ADD; this will help you know how to help and what it’s like to deal with this disability.

Filed Under: Government Rulings, Student Rights Tagged With: , ,

Could Vouchers Be the Answer?

July 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

It’s been shown through history that one reason this country is great is the market system economy. It’s also caused some problems, but it’s what has made our economy strong and our products desired throughout the world. We see it in education as well. Universities and colleges thrive on the market system economy. It forces professors to improve themselves in order to keep jobs and it forces these colleges to spend the money they have well so that they can offer their product for the cheapest price possible.

And yet, for some reason, we think that public education is the best route. Some of the Founding Fathers even promoted the idea of free education for all, even though it wasn’t mentioned in the Constitution. The idea of giving everyone the opportunity of learning is a good one, but public education has shown to not be the best solution. Too many teachers are able to gain tenure (often after only a few years of teaching) and then become lax on teaching. They stop showing they care for their students and even state comments to difficult students such as, “You’re mother should be paying me to babysit you.”

But what is the right solution? If we are purely on the market system, then parents will have to find money to pay for schools and children of lax parents won’t be educated. The solution is school vouchers. With vouchers, parents choose the school (making it a market system) and yet the government provides the funds for the student.

Filed Under: Parental Involvement, Student Rights Tagged With: , ,

Is Standardized Testing the Best Way?

July 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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Most can agree that there is something wrong with the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. The idea is that children won’t get further and further behind their classmates. The hope is that their abilities would be raised to others their age, but what is happening instead is that the standard is lowered to the least common denominator instead. Schools are required to be to a certain level by 2014, but it’s just not going to happen. There are few schools in this country that meet the criteria set by NCLB.

The question is, should standardized testing be the way to evaluate children? Every child learns differently — visual, kinesthetic, auditory — and yet they’re all being tested the same way. For those who need a hands-on approach, reading a question and filling in a bubble is not the best to evaluate whether that student understands the concept.

And that doesn’t even take into account those students with disabilities. These could be slight frustrations, such as dyslexia or ADD, or they could be serious disabilities such as cerebral palsy (and these students are required to take the tests just as much as mainstream students).

If we’re going to require testing for students in order to set a baseline of where the schools are at, then the testing needs to reflect the differences in the children. In the classroom, teachers don’t just use tests. As they’re teaching lessons, they’re walking around and evaluating students as they work on assignments. There needs to be a reflection of this in standardized testing as well.

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No Child Left Behind is Leaving Children Behind

June 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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The No Child Left Behind act was passed with good intentions, but the road to you-know-where is always paved with just that.  Good intentions. What has really happened with NCLB is that test scores have become heavily weighted as a measure of education. Instead, a large percentage of school children are falling behind and even failing under the requirements of the act.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan is pushing to significantly alter the No Child Left Behind act. States have taken on the task to change NCLB as well. President Obama is also working to push through legislation that would relieve the burden on schools to succeed at all costs.

Children are not the only ones who suffer under NCLB. Schools do as well. A handful of under performing students drag down the entire school, triggering the NCLB. The school has to hire extra tutors to help with those students. However, the school is burdened with the cost of paying for those tutors, even though the requirement is a federal mandate. The schools then have to tap their local tax base to find the funds, and hope that the tutoring will bring the under performers up to speed

Couple this with the fact that 40 percent of students are not passing the tests, it’s a recipe for disaster. Children who would most likely perform at the average or above are victims of a poorly designed piece of legislation. Requiring that students perform to a set of restrictive standards is almost a guarantee of failure. Changing or eliminating NCLB only helps, not hurts.

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Advantages of Virtual Labs for Students

June 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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Going to school and receiving an education is easier than ever now. Virtual labs that are made available to students by the school, and with the use of the internet and PC combined, people can go to school no matter where they’re located. This advantage has benefited both individuals and schools. Students can attend class without the worry of ever being late. They have the ability to receive all their necessary school work through the internet.

By implementing a virtual computer lab many schools have found the benefit of saving space. Most schools traditionally have one or two computer labs on campus for the convenience of the students. Some schools even find they have no need for a physical lab if they’ve found success with a virtual one. Teaching methods are made easier on instructors because they are able to extend curriculum to online students across the board. Students can utilize programs available on the virtual labs to connect with other students and teachers.

Most virtual computer labs contain specific file sharing software that the student has to download on their computer. This allows them to access the virtual lab, share files and use other school programs the lab so long as they’re enrolled in that particular school. Files can also be shared between the student and teacher. Homework can be accessed from anywhere. Students don’t have to worry about their homework being elsewhere, or missing a deadline. They can pull their homework from the online lab and make use of it when necessary.

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What is “No Child Left Behind?”

May 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 was initially inked by the administration of George W. Bush, shortly after he took office. It is a U.S. Act of Congress that oversees the public education of children. The general goal of this Act is to help all children within the public educational system, reach their full potential by having them meet academic standards.

The Act was co-authored by the late Senator Ted Kennedy and was widely supported and passed by the Congress.

The goal of the No Child Left Behind Act is for standards-based reform of the educational system. The basic premise is that if high standards are set, along with measurable goals, it will improve the outcomes for individual all throughout the educational system.

The Act calls for requirements that will assess student progress in basic skills. All students will be given these tests or assessments at certain grade levels. If schools are receiving federal educational funding, these assessments are a requirement for continued funding. While this is a federal Act, the education standards are set by the individual states.

The Act also gives parents more options as to the schools their children can attend. It also promotes a more focused approach to math and reading skills that children must attain.

There are four main parts that addresses items such as programs for disadvantaged students, neglected and delinquent youth, additional resources for principals and teachers, and the use of technology in schools. It also addresses providing resources for drug-free and safe environment for students.

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Educational Activities Students Enjoy

May 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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Planning activities for students is a complex process. Activities must have a learning objective, and they must teach the children something. In order to teach them, the activity needs to interest the children, and get them thinking. For this reason, the activities also need to be fun. Finally, they need to be safe, comply with school regulations and be easy to arrange. Teachers and student teachers spend a large portion of time planning activities that combine all of these aspects, and this can be very difficult.

One challenge teachers often come up against is getting their students involved in the lesson. To give each child a comprehensive understanding of a learning objective, the children need to be intrigued, and interested. They need to challenge ideas, ask questions and develop problem-solving techniques, which can be very difficult in a standard lesson setting. A possible answer to this problem is the introduction of kid’s costumes in the classroom.

Kids costumes come in a variety of forms, from historical figures to celebration outfits. For example, having male and female colonial kids costumes when teaching about Thanksgiving will change the dynamics of the classroom; remove anything from the room that wouldn’t have been available back then, or use a different, empty room, and allow the children to take it in turns to try on the costumes. Discuss why they are different to clothes now, and why they dressed like that.

Kid’s costumes will capture a child’s imagination, which makes teaching them much easier. A child who is already interested in learning will absorb and question information, and develop a well-rounded understanding.

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Teaching Children Public Speaking

February 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

To many people, public speaking is a very daunting task. And if it seems difficult or fearful for most adults, it must be that much more stressful of a task for children. If we are able to help children get over their fear of public speaking, it will ultimately help them well into their adult lives, whether it is in their college classes, or giving presentations in board meetings at work. The key is to start helping them get over this phobia early on, when they are just getting started in school.

In order to assist them in getting started with public speaking, it is a good idea to have children get up in their classroom in groups of two or three and have them do a team presentation. This way, they will not have the responsibility of directing the entire discussion on their own. It would be a good idea to give them some simple tips on how to deliver a well thought out presentation, by letting them know that it is important to relax. If they need to stop and take a breath, or cannot come up with the exact wording that they are looking for, they need to know that it is okay to pause and regain their composure.

Allowing fear to dictate their speech will only trip them up more, and cause their stress level to escalate. It is a great idea to have children get up and give oral book reports, present material from their science projects, or even have them get up and show their class how to perform a math problem on the board.

Even smaller children can get involved by doing a classic exercise: Show and tell. Much of the remedy for overcoming the fear of public speaking can only come by actually practicing and becoming more comfortable with it as you realize that it is not nearly as horrific as you once imagined. In fact, once a student becomes comfortable with public speaking, it can actually become an enjoyable experience, and something that he or she looks forward to.

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Gifted Children Left Behind

February 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

With No Child Left Behind (NCLB) aimed at making sure all schools make the grade, schools had no choice but to focus on those students who were not doing well on standardized tests to help them improve. While there can be no begrudging a system that helps children who really need it, what about the system that ignores children at the other end of the spectrum?

America’s brightest children are struggling in classrooms that do not meet their needs as independent thinkers. They are tirelessly bombarded with rote memorization and multiple choice tests when what they really need are classrooms structured to give them freedom in their learning.

Many people assume that a child who is gifted is smart enough to survive and excel no matter what the situation within the classroom. This is not true. Gifted students often have social issues as well as problems with motivation and organization. Unfortunately, our classroom teachers have little time to deal with these issues considering the rest of their responsibilities.

One way to make sure that this problem is taken care of is to push the school administration to allow students to be advanced through schools a their own pace. So many times, parents who know what is best for their children ask the schools to help only to be told that nothing can be done. Some choose not to deal with the issue. Others decide that it would be better for the school district to have gifted students who can help raise average test scores in their original grades.

A common comment for parents of gifted students to hear is, “If I let your child do it, I will have to let all children do it.” This is not true. While any student who can pass an adequate test should be allowed to move ahead, every students who asks should not be allowed to skip grades. The only problem is when nobody is allowed at all.

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Math Wars

December 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Math Wars-a funny phrase for a pretty serious issue facing today’s educators. Broken down, the Math Wars amount to a difference in teaching philosophy: should we teach our children math skills based on fixed processes or formulas or should we teach them via an inquiry approach utilizing real life problems? Both sides make strong arguments, making Math Wars one of the leading education reform issues.

Reform supporters often cite the growing research that seems to indicate that students who utilize problem solving skills or inquiry based solving for mathematics excel in conceptual understanding of mathematic principals as well as calculations. They believe that their reform methodology only fails when ill prepared educators teach it. These reformers believe that standard or traditional math education should be completely abandoned.

The other side is equally adamant about sticking to traditional mathematics. They believe that without first providing students with a strong basis in computational math (addition, subtractions and so on), students will be unable to understand more advanced mathematics. They stress practice exercises and memorization first.

Perhaps the strongest argument for not reforming today’s mathematics curriculum is how wide spread it is. The process of math education has not seen any big changes. The way today’s students learns math is much like the way previous generations have been taught. Still, simply because traditional math education is the norm doesn’t mean it is the best method. Today’s educators are still faced with the dilemma originally presented by 1989′s Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics. The Math Wars the publication started is likely to remain an ongoing concern for educators and parents.

Unfortunately this issue is one that is unlikely to be solved by compromise. The two opposing are too different. The Math Wars are likely to continue for the foreseeable future, leaving parents and educators with little choice in their method of teaching mathematics.

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