Defining Bullying
Ask yourself these two “yes” or “no” questions:
1: Do I enjoy hurting people who are weaker than me and doing so repeatedly?
2: Have I sometimes done things to people that upset them?
If you are like most everyone, you answered No for Question 1 and Yes for Question 2.
The first question corresponds to […]
Leaving a Child Home Alone or What Age to Babysit?
Most States do NOT have regulations or laws about when a child is considered old enough to stay home alone or to babysit other children. Some states have guidelines or recommendations.
It is estimated that over 40% of children are left home at some time, though rarely overnight. Following are links to resources and […]
Using Formative Assessment at School
Formative assessments at the school level can be used to:
Track student progress through the approved curriculum and against state and provincial standards;
Identify the needs and challenges of specific classes, grade levels, and demographic groups;
Create profiles of individual student learners, and identify students with specific needs, and plan instructional sequences that […]
Setting up Blocks in a Moodle Classroom
It’s important to set up an online Moodle classroom so that it is a space conducive for effective teaching and learning.
The blocks of information located in on the “sidewalks” (left and right columns of your online classroom space) are called Blocks.
You’ll want to get rid of Blocks that won’t be used and then […]
Classroom Behavior: Root Causes & Drivers
A student’s behavior is not random but is determined by one or more root causes or behavioral drivers, the most common of which include:
Social attention (adult or peer)
A student may call out sarcastic comments in class because she gets peer attention for doing so.
Escape or avoidance of tasks, settings, or situations
A student who […]
Reading & Phonemic Awareness
Many students who seem bright actually struggle with reading. When tested, most of their cognitive skills test high — except for one: phonemic awareness, which is the ability to blend, segment, and manipulate sounds.
Over 130 federal studies done between 1985 and 1995 show that 88% of all kids with reading […]
Streamlining Standards-based Instruction
Standards-based instruction streamlines and eliminates random teaching practices that tap into the preferences of the teacher rather than the instructional needs of the student. For instance, a classroom teacher would not teach a concept considered not “standardized” or recognized as the prescribed content focus for that grade level. […]
For Teachers: The Five Senses
How many senses do human beings have?
If you said “as many as two dozen,” you are correct!
Some of them (for example, sensory awareness of hunger and thirst) are still questionable. And, no, common sense did not make the resource lists we consulted at all.
For the purpose of this post, we will focus on […]
School Principal Tips for Keeping Student Data Secure
Schools are responsible for housing much student and staff information and private data. Following are important considerations for school computers that have special programs to access secure data (payroll applications, student management applications, etc):
Limit login to specific user accounts
Secure the computers physically in a limited access room
Set to automatically lock the screen after […]
Strategies for Reading Comprehension
Members of the National Reading Panel (NRP) (2000) concluded seven types of comprehension strategies that met their criteria for effectiveness in an evidence-based assessment of the experimental and quasi-experimental research on reading.
The panel’s findings, which were based primarily on research conducted in grades 3-8, suggest that the […]
