Nail polish and baseball bats; Googling for content with your student
Did you know you should use a base coat when painting your nails because a base coat is stickier and softer than nail polish, so it not only helps the polish adhere, but it expands and contracts with your [...]
How to teach students who are too [insert emotion] to learn
One of the greatest benefits of my profession is the opportunity to collaborate with talented, intelligent and kick-butt colleagues. Such is Anne-Marie Morey, an awesome Educational Therapist who runs a smart, helpful, fun blog chock full of educational information [...]
Wise Women of the Association of Educational Therapists
Yeah, I said women. While the language is gendered and maybe exclusive, I want to tell you why I’m sticking to it. Most of the members of the Association of Educational Therapists (AET), like the majority of the [...]
Adventures in Neurodiversity: The Webinar!
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An Homage to Mr. Briley, or It’s the Relationship, Stupid
I recently got the news that one of my very favorite teachers of all time--my high school History teacher, Mr. Briley--is retiring. Although it has been 27 years since he was my teacher, I was dismayed. It hadn’t [...]
Origins of narcissism in children: a critique, Part III
How (really) not to raise a narcissist In case you missed it, a few weeks ago, a new study out of Amsterdam, “Origins of Narcissism in Children,” purported to show that parental overvaluing of children turns them into [...]
Origins of narcissism in children: a critique, Part II
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. As I wrote in Part I of this three part series, the media-parenting world was all a-twitter (both in the old-fashioned and [...]
Origins of narcissism in children: a critique, Part I
A few weeks ago, it seemed like every blog and news source dedicated to children, education or parenting--and a whole bunch that aren’t--couldn’t stop talking about a new study out of Amsterdam purporting to show that too much [...]
Cross-cultural What? (Happy Easter and Passover)
It’s my second year teaching elementary school. My third graders at this primarily Hispanic charter school in the Fruitvale district of Oakland are all preparing for their First Communions in their all-Spanish-speaking Catholic churches. At Passover, I bring [...]
Grieving the Loss of the Ideal Child
“I try to read to her every night, but she keeps talking. She doesn’t listen. I can never get through a book.” The concerned mom looks at me over the back of the IHOP booth that separates us. [...]
To Punish or Excuse?
I just read a provocative article in the Hechinger report with which I mostly agree. Cossondra George, a veteran middle school teacher in Newberry, Michigan, wrote “How to keep kids with special needs out of prison and in middle [...]
The Who, What, When and Why of Reading Instruction
Orton Gillingham, Lindamood Bell, Wilson, Slingerland, Language!, Read Naturally, oh my! Ever wondered with whom you should use each one and why? Enjoy my webinar, The Who, What, When, and Why of Reading Instruction Enjoyed this [...]