Beginning the Year Right
I walked into Staples and saw them. Signs plastered everywhere: Back to School Sale. My stomach tightened, my palms sweat and my heart skipped a beat. As much as I or any teacher loves teaching, there is always that [...]
What Dyslexia Isn’t
I just got a text from a friend of mine. You could hear the panic in her texted words: “I have never seen him do this before, but [my son] (8) just showed us a comic he was drawing [...]
Successful People with Dyslexia
Successful People with Dyslexia: Actors, Scientists, Artists, Musicians, Entrepreneurs and Writers Harry Anderson Orlando Bloom Harry Belafonte Ann Bancroft Tom Cruise Danny Glover Whoopi Goldberg Susan Hampshire Jay Leno Christopher Lowell Keanu Reeves. Kiera Knightley Oliver Reed. Billy [...]
Two pathways to weak reading comprehension
Many of the kids who come to me have what I would refer to as garden-variety dyslexia. Bright, verbal kids you would expect to be reading voraciously and writing down all the great stories they love to tell, but [...]
Phonics Conversations
When I talk to non-teaching adults about teaching reading, I often hear, “Phonics can’t be that important. I never learned those rules and look at me!” Yet the preponderance of evidence collected over decades of study agree that phonics [...]
End of the Year Blues, II
You all know the old joke: What are the three best things about teaching? June, July and August. Now, I love a good summer break as much as the next teacher. But I always dread it too. Why is [...]
Why Audiobooks?
One of the first conversations I have with my parents of dyslexic kids is “And your child should be listening to audio books.” Almost like clockwork, they respond, “But I want to make sure she still learns to read.” [...]
Never Miss an Opportunity to Encourage Grit
If you live in the San Francisco bay area, I hope you have been to the Exploratorium, and if you ever visit, I highly recommend you go. In addition to an amazing, totally hands-on science museum, the Exploratorium also [...]
With Bullying, The Teacher Sets the Tone
“Don’t worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.” – Robert Fulghum Bullying in school is rightly a topic of great concern these days. Not that it is necessarily worse than any other point [...]
Learning Difference or Disability?
I sit at the corner of my street and our trafficy cross street, my neck craned to the left, assessing when I can go. Is it clear? “Go, Hon,” my husband says. “There’s space…Still space…Still space…ok, now [...]
Mental Flexibility: It’s Not Just for Students Anymore!
Ask any teacher, should your teaching match the learning style of each student? Almost guaranteed, they will answer an enthusiastic “Of course!” The precept of neurodiversity supports this responsive attitude. All brains are different. Kids learn differently. Play to [...]
The Power of Story
My normally chipper, charming, make-you-smile-no-matter-how-yucky-your-day-has-been, second grader comes into my home office looking down. He’s unusually clingy to mom. I ask if he’s ok, and he looks wistfully at mom and whispers that his stomach hurts. She offers to [...]