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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: , ,

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.

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

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.

Filed Under: Student Rights Tagged With: , ,

How Different Teaching Methods Work

May 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

There are many different teaching styles that individual teachers use and incorporate into their classrooms. There are many things that help educators determine which type of strategy is going to work best in their classroom. These indicators include skill and age level of the students. Another fact that comes into play is that not every student learns the same way. Many teachers, therefore, use several different teaching methods in the classroom. Here is a look at some of the different teaching methods.

Arts and Crafts
Those teaching younger students such as those under the second grade often use arts and crafts as a method because younger children are better able to focus when doing creative things.

Lecturers
As students get older and advance through the grades, teachers may start to use the lecture method. This type of teaching requires that the students have the ability pay attention and take notes.

Speakers
Using guest speakers can help students engage in the material being presented. These speakers can be professionals such as firefighters or physicians who will speak on their professions. An added bonus to using guest speakers is that these speakers can also provide a hands on look at different professions.

Group Discussions
The teacher or instructor basically leads the discussion, allowing for student interaction and input. This is an effective method because it allows for communication between the students.

Experiments
These teaching methods provide a platform that allows students to learn about a subject for themselves. Teachers using this method will provide needed information and instructions for the experiment. During the experiment, students discover findings and results, followed by a conclusion.

Filed Under: Teacher Rights Tagged With: , ,

Good Teaching Methods: What’s your function?

March 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

When entering the classroom on the first day of school, the teacher has a plethora of responsibilities. In addition to ensuring that students respect one another in behavioral practices, teachers must also find ways to engage the class with the lesson plan that they have planned for the day. Although the traditional lecture with open discussion appears to be the only way to spark involvement in the classroom, there are many other methods of teaching that educators may use in the classroom.

As aforementioned, lecture is the standard tool that educators use to convey an idea. In the lecture setting, teachers present factual information to students in a logical order. A history lecture, for instance, will begin at the beginning of time instead of in the middle of time. While lectures typically presents the teacher as an expert in the field, they do not always encourage discussion for a number of reasons. First, experts are not always the best motivational speakers. The ability to convey information in a logical manner does not make a teacher interesting, and a boring classroom renders uninterested students. There is also a lot of preparation time involved with lecture that some teachers may not be able to cope with.

An alternative to the classic lecture setting is brainstorming. Although this method can prove ineffective without proper supervision, a good brainstorming session will engage the minds of students and prepare them to actually take part in the lecture. A five to seven minute sharing of ideas before lecture can do wonders for any classroom.

Filed Under: Teacher Rights Tagged With: , ,

Differentiated Teaching Methods Important for Higher Test Scores

February 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

While the No Child Left Behind legislation sought to assure the government that all schools were preforming well and those that were not were being brought up to standards. All students are given the same test, with the same questions, the same four answers to choose from for each test question. All students are held to the same standards.

When it is time to teach children the information that is on the tests however, in course of daily classwork, they can not be all taught the same way. Each and every child in a classroom learns differently than the others. While a majority of them may be able to get the information one way, that does not mean that the bet way for each child was used.

Three basic ways of learning a piece of information are hearing it, reading it, and writing it. While some students will be completely frustrated when it comes to having to write out pages of information, others will soak it up better as they put the pencil to paper.

In addition to that, some children learn more slowly than others. This doesn’t mean these children have learning problems. It just means that they do not always pick up the same types of material as quickly as other children. In fact, while some children breeze through math class, they are slower in reading. It happens the other way around as well. It is not as often that one find a child who excels in both areas of study.

Children need to be given time to learn at their own pace without slowing down those who are learning at a faster pace than they are. This can be difficult to do in a classroom of 25 children, but is possible. Besides time constraints, students need to know how they best learn so that they can incorporate it intot heir lessons.

Helping children understand their own differentiated learning styles is one way to give them the power to push themselves towards excellence.

Filed Under: Teacher Rights Tagged With: , ,

Mediocrity On The Rise

December 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

It should come as no surprise that the school system in the United States is failing. In the 1980′s the Reagan Administration released their report, “A Nation At Risk.” Contained within the report where a variety of statistics and recommendation aimed at stemming what President Reagan termed the “rising tide of mediocrity.”As we move forward into the next generation of school reforms, we should take time to reflect on the original five recommendations made by the National Commission on Excellence in Education.

1.Content: It is no secret that our nations schools are seriously lagging behind other schools on a global level. Reagan’s team recommended changing the content for students with the aim of better preparing our students for college.
2.Standards and Expectations: Somewhere along the line, teaching to the lowest common denominator became accepted. Reagan’s committee urged schools and administrators to focus on higher expectations and standards.
3.Time: Simply put, our students need more education”face time” in order to be competitive. The committee urged schools to lengthen not only the school day but also the school year.
4.Teaching: In order for our students to be truly successful, our teachers must be more adequately prepared.
5.Leadership: Leadership isn’t just found at the government level. Involving parents and community groups in the effort to hold our schools, our teachers and our government responsible for improving the education system for our students is critical.

When these recommendations were written our K- 12 systems was in serious need of reform. Some of the recommendations were implemented while others were virtually ignored.

Maybe it is time to revisit Reagan’s recommendations and see if we cannot stem the tide of mediocrity in the K – 12 education system in The United States. Our schools and our students must be better prepared so we can be successful on a global level.

Filed Under: Government Rulings Tagged With: , ,

The Pulse of Education in America

December 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

As a parent or educator, you may be concerned about the state of the education system. Thinking your concerns relate only to your child or your particular district may be easy until you look at the state of home schooling in America. You may say that the number of students participating in home schooling programs is a good way to measure the health or “pulse” of the public education system.

Alternative forms of education, primarily home schooling, have grown in popularity and visibility over the past decade. While critics of the home schooling program claim that home schooled students are the children of religious fanatics, this isn’t the case. Recognize that a portion of the families who rely on home schooling or other alternative education forms do so because of religious views but that many have chosen alternative education to address the lack of adequate education in our public school system.

Whatever the reason for enrolling a student in an alternative education program, many parents and students are finding that the programs offer them the chance to challenge themselves, provide them with a strong basis for further education and allow for greater flexibility.

Unfortunately, some parents are turning to alternative education instead of working within their local community to hold schools and educators responsible for the education of their children.

When parents feel their best chance at educating their children is through a system other than the public system, there is a problem. Failing to address the underlying problem of our education system and to reform them may eventually lead to a country where only the wealthy have access to a “real” education.

Whether you are a parent, educator or administrator, the time has come to take an honest look at the health of our education system and to make the needed changes.

Filed Under: Education History Tagged With: , , ,

Framing Our Children’s Future

December 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

It seems like everyone has a solution to one of the biggest problems our nation faces: our decaying education system. From changing class content to lengthening the school day, one thing that nearly all parents, educators and administrators agree on is that our education system is in serious need of reform. One of the most encouraging concepts is that of curriculum framework.

At its core, curriculum framework is simply a set of standards or guidelines that are used to define the curriculum and content for a group of students. The goal of this framework is a pre-defined outcome. In other words, curriculum framework is designed to be outcome specific.

Educators, administrators and parents could work together to create a list of clearly defined outcomes for their students. The standard should be set high and the ensuing curriculum and content should be developed to allow students to meet these goals. This system is drastically different from our current educational system that focuses primarily on the content as opposed to the outcome.

Under this system, all students would be held to the same standards. This means no group of students will have an advantage. All students will need to perform equally well. While opponents of this system believe it does not take disabilities into consideration, proponents drive home the fact that students that met these high goals are better prepared to compete on a global scale.

It is equally important to note that a framework concept has been adapted by some states, but not in the truest sense. States have used the framework concept to meet academic standards instead of other, more constructive, objectives.

Developing a curriculum framework that sets high, but achievable, objectives for our students may be the most effective way to prepare our children for competition on the global scale and change the face of our education system.

Filed Under: Parental Involvement Tagged With: , ,

Education That Is HOTS

December 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Think for minute about how we learn. The easiest way to learn is studying facts – rote memorization. Unfortunately, this form of learning does nothing to help our students develop critical thinking skills, problem solving skills or creative thinking skills. Instead this simplified method of learning, called simple thinking skills, teaches our students only about the subject matter at hand.

Higher order thinking skills, or HOTS, is a teaching methodology that educates students to not simply memorize facts, but to develop plans, think creatively, solve problems and more. Still, many of our K -12 learning institutions do not focus on HOTS, focusing instead on teaching the information only.

In order for HOTS to be taught and for our children to reap the benefits of this advanced thinking methodology, educators must learn to focus on the following critical areas of education:

Remembering: The simple act of memory and recall is vitally importing. Students should understand how to recognize, list, describe, retrieve, name and find information, data and facts.
Creating: In order for our students to be successful, the must understand the process of generating new products, ideas, viewpoints, designs and more. Including in this skill is planning, production and inventing.
Understanding: The ability to clearly explain ideas to others is vital.
Analyzing: Students should be taught to analyze problems and objects and break them into component parts in order to more fully understand the underlying structure or issue.

Other critical thinking skills should be taught as well with the end result being students who can look at problems objectively and use their skills to solve them, create new and exciting ideas and better function in the world.

HOTS should be at the forefront of the K – 12-reform movement. This method of thinking, when compared to simple thinking skill, is simply better for students hoping for success.

Filed Under: Education History Tagged With: , ,
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