Teachers, do you need classroom tools and supplies at the best prices? The first 100 teachers at each Staples store location on Teacher Appreciation Day, Wednesday, August 17, will receive a free sample kit with special coupons plus every teacher with ID will get 10 percent off of their purchase. NICE, right?! Find the closest Staples store to you HERE. Besides the 10 percent discount, … [Read more...]
Play: How to Raise a Happy, Creative, and Smart Child
You want your child to be happy, creative, and smart, right? Let her play. Yes. Play. Ignore our adult created concept that kids need scheduled activities. It’s not true. It’s not how kids learn. How to Raise a Happy, Creative, and Smart Child Kids actually learn by playing! (See links below to the decades of scientific research proving this.) So . . . what are you supposed … [Read more...]
A World of What If
written by Luke Reynolds, teacher, and author of The Looney Experiment After being a student for many years, and now in my 12th year of teaching, I am in a state of constant amazement at what students e-mail to say they remember after years away from our classroom. It makes me recollect what is most vivid about my own schooling experience. Way back in fifth grade, I had a teacher named Mr. … [Read more...]
Help Your Child Develop a Lifelong Love of Reading
Raising a Rock-Star Reader: 75 Quick Tips to Help Your Child Develop a Lifelong Love of Reading by Amy Mascott and Allison McDonald arrives to well-deserved fanfare November 10, 2015 and is available for pre-order now! Parents, this book is for you. It's easy-to-read, well-written, and filled with expert advice for cultivating your child's lifelong love of reading. I think this book belongs on … [Read more...]
Classroom Strategies for Sensory Processing Disorder
Despite the DSM's (poor) decision last year not to recognize Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) as a disorder, it exists. And it affects many of our children. (One of mine included!) Fortunately, in the classroom, more teachers are becoming aware of SPD and the unique needs of children who have it. So what are helpful classroom strategies teachers are using for students with SPD ? First, let's … [Read more...]
Your Studying Strategies Aren’t Working (& What To Do Instead)
Let's talk studying strategies. Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Reedier III and Mark A. McDaniel takes the latest research in cognitive psychology and other disciplines and synthesizes it into practical learning and studying strategies. And it's not what you think. In fact, how you studied in your educational life probably wasn't the best method. … [Read more...]
How to Support Introverted Children
Introverted children, that's about one-third to one-half of the population, recharge their energy from time spent alone. (As opposed to time spent with other people.) Back-to-school time can be especially challenging for introverts. (We were so happy and comfortable at home during the summer with more control and choice over our activities. Now we're thrust into a crowded classroom that's most … [Read more...]
Inspiration for Innovative Educators
I'm excited to share about an innovative education conference here in Denver, CO that will help teachers and administrators (you?) get their mojo back. It's a conference that will renew your energy and give you inspiration, even if you have to take it back to a constraining environment. It's 5 Sigma Edu Conference. You'll learn, talk, and apply. You'll be treated like … [Read more...]
5 Parenting Strategies to Develop a Growth Mindset
I have a daughter who dislikes challenges. She'd rather give up than persevere. This is probably hugely affected by her sensory processing disorder and ADHD. How, I don't really know. But I do know that she does not have what professor Angela Duckworth calls grit and author Carol Dweck calls it a growth mindset. Or at least it's hidden somewhere. And I'm worried. She's living with a fixed … [Read more...]
Read This If Your Child is Unhappy at School
written by Natalie, mom and blogger at Afterschool for Smarty Pants I am very honored to be posting on Imagination Soup today, but I am going to talk about a difficult topic. When our children go to school, we all want them to be happy and motivated. We want them to love learning, make friends, and keep growing in their abilities. But what if things don’t go well at school? What if your … [Read more...]
Be a Teacher for a Day
Blue plastic-backed chairs wait on desks in the empty room. It won't be like this for long. I know that the parents and students I trailed to the building are arriving at the playground from the surrounding streets and soon at the classroom. I'm spending the day shadowing third year, second-career teacher, Mrs. Jennifer Nelson, in her second grade classroom at College View Elementary, a K-5 … [Read more...]
Summer Reading List – 5 Books for Thinking Parents
One morning while channel surfing, I stopped on a morning show to listen to a woman talking about my daughter. Well, not exactly . . . but exactly. She described kids who preferred to observe, who didn't like to make eye contact, who get overwhelmed in social situations, who enter new situations slowly . . . The guest, Dr. Marti Olsen Laney, an expert in introversion, was talking about … [Read more...]