As parents, our short-term goal is to get our children to listen to us and follow the rules and limits we set for our family, and how children learn morality plays a huge part in this. The long-term goal is to raise children who truly understand why we have created these rules and limits and develop an internal motivation to be kind and do the “right” thing. In other words, we want them to follow…
When teachers familiarize themselves with students’ reading lives and histories, they may uncover reading trauma — moments when students had a negative experience with a peer, teacher or librarian that turned them off of reading. Students with reading trauma associate reading with painful feelings of shame or stress and doubt their reading abilities, said Boston-based educator Kimberly Parker in a recent webinar organized by the Texas A&M Collaborative for Teacher Education. Take reading logs, for…
You try to fake it, but it limps out of your mouth, barely alive: “How was school?” You might use a slight variation like, “What’d you learn in school today?” but in a single sentence, all that is wrong with ‘school.’ First, the detachment–you literally have no idea what they’re learning or why. You leave that up to school because that’s what school’s for, right? Which means you know very little about what your children…
From field trips and retreats to special assemblies and holiday celebrations, children should enjoy an enriching classroom experience, both during the school day and after school. These memorable events and enrichment programs make learning fun and build a sense of community among students. Here are twenty ideas for elementary school clubs, ranging from standard to out of the box. 1. Culture club. This is a multicultural association for students. At meetings, members can share their…
They say playing is the work of children—and it’s true! Play is how children learn about the world, themselves and each other. It’s as much a part of healthy development as eating vegetables, reading books together and getting a good night’s sleep. Even the United Nations lists play as one of the basic rights of every child. There is no right or wrong way to play. It’s anything from sticking a hand in mashed potatoes to…
During development a child’s mind is a veritable sponge, absorbing knowledge in ways adult brains simply cannot. This is why it’s an ideal stage to start learning a new language! Here are five key points that make learning foreign languages at an early age so valuable. 1. Better language acquisition. A child who learns a foreign language at a young age (from birth to about 10 years old) will pick it up much easier, and…
2021 featured an unprecedented number of weather disasters in the United States, including a deep freeze in Texas, bouts of scorching temperatures in the normally temperate Pacific Northwest, a continuation of severe wildfires in California, and historic flooding in the New York area from Hurricane Ida. Today’s children are likely to live through more severe weather events; one study estimates children who are currently 6 years old will experience, on average, three times the number…
We’ve all heard about the benefits of learning to read quietly and independently. A big part of learning at school is all about reading, but it’s not always easy to find time for more reading at home. Families have busy schedules filled with after-school activities and homework. Plus — let’s be honest — with all the tech at kids’ fingertips and school days already filled with required reading, it can be hard convincing kids that…
Addressing the differing needs of students can make teaching reading a daunting task. Students are expected to have a deep understanding of what they read and provide answers grounded in text. One way for students to interact with the text is through close reading, which can become a powerful classroom tool for fiction and nonfiction texts across grade levels. Teaching close reading to younger students is very doable–here’s how. SETTING THE STAGE At the beginning…
The recent shift toward social-emotional learning (SEL)–accelerated by the shift to remote teaching and learning and the isolation of a global pandemic–is, of course, a wonderful thing. If nothing else, it’s a nod to the idea that students are first people. Emotion drives us as human beings–our brains literally, for example. Emotion enhances our ability to form vivid memories of even trivial events. Norepinephrine (NE), a neuromodulator released during emotional arousal, plays a central role…
