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Finding Your Child's Strengths

3/24/2021

Lately, I have been doing a lot of work focusing on how to provide help for students by uncovering their strengths to meet their needs.

This can often be a daunting task because in truth their strengths may be hard to take or in some cases truly difficult to see. I thought that you might be having a similar problem. How do you uncover your child’s strengths and then make them the foundation of support in school?

I thought it would help if I give you a very specific example of something that recently happened in my life. I have a grandchild that is very quiet. Unlike her siblings, her language development has been slow. She could obviously understand what was being said yet rarely responded to questions or participated in spontaneous speech.

Last year, in pre-school her teacher asked her mom if she speaks? One of her little classmates was there and said, ‘yes, she does, just not to grown-ups’. This pattern has continued into this year.

I began spending a lot of time with her and her younger brother and was running out of ways to keep them occupied. A dear friend suggested I bring a Mary Poppins bag of things to do. Great idea! What could I bring?

I decided on basic wooden puzzles - you know the ones with the little knobs and pictures on each piece that go into specific places on the board. I had three so we started with them. At first I had to show her what to do. She liked them and would do them over and over again. She rarely spoke while she was doing them.

I began to notice that she was more and more excited and verbal when I came to the house. She asked me for the puzzles. She started talking while she worked on this very simple activity. At first it was how to do the puzzle and then it was about the pictures. She was ‘processing out loud’.

I had a Peppa Pig set of 7 puzzles that I was saving until she was a bit older. She likes Peppa. I decided to bring them believing they were going to be too difficult. Completing these would require a huge jump in skills. It was puzzle pieces with no preformed frame. These pieces locked together - they did not go into specific spaces on a wooden board. The puzzles went from 12 pieces to 24. Here is where the story gets exciting!!!

She did those 7 puzzles with no help and no picture to follow in 15 minutes. Talking the entire time. She spoke to herself - processing out loud. She looked for connections I would have never noticed.

She is a visual/kinesthetic learner - combining visual stimulation with body movement.

She does it her way not mine or most other adults that try to direct her work. She has become the puzzle princess - doing puzzles of all shapes and sizes. During this time her language has taken off. She is more spontaneous. She is speaking in sentences, asking questions, using pronouns correctly and joining in conversation. Is it because she was using her language in a way that drove her learning? I do not know. What I do know is that she used what language she had while working in her gift.

I have spent a significant number of years in education. Uncovering my granddaughters gifts is a highlight of my life. It serves as a reminder that our jobs as adults is to find what our children are good at and grow those skills. They may be different than ours. They may be more challenging. They are there for us to uncover and focus on and provide the best learning opportunities.

As adults we manipulate our lives to work in our strengths. When we uncover our children’s strengths we can manipulate how they are instructed so that their learning is better suited to them.

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Hate Teaching - I Never Thought I Would Hear Her Say This!

2/15/2021

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A zoom ‘night out’ with my teacher friends turned into a sad commentary on the state of education when one of them said ‘she hates teaching this year’. How could she? Or rather, why would she?

Generous by nature, smart, innovative, caring, child centered she has taught elementary school for a little over 20 years. She has been in all grade levels K-5, as both a regular education teacher and a special educator. She loves her students. Never gives up. Has a crazy sense of humor and is passionate about her students' success.

Her name is Lisa. I have written about her before. She is the one who has the sign on her desk that goes something like this: The child sitting in front of me is living the life they have been given, my job is not to make it worse. You can imagine how she feels knowing that despite her best efforts she is failing her students.

She is currently teaching Kindergarten - virtual and in-person at the same time. She spends most of her time just trying to get the attention of the 5 year olds who have no experience of what school is like.

When she is focused on the children sitting in the classroom she loses the little ones in the virtual environment and vice versa. She feels as if she is herding cats and puppies. As much as this is not right for her - she knows this is not right for them.

The children have a very long day. They wear masks except when eating. They bring their own toys for recess. Their backpacks weigh far too much for 5 year olds to carry. They come to school before breakfast, eat 2 meals and snack in the classroom. They never leave the classroom unless they get to go outside. All special area teachers come to their room. They start before 8 and end at 3:30.

She prepares daily lesson packets that are stapled together in the order they will be used and yet she spends a good deal of time explaining what page they are on because so many little ones do not understand what the next page means.

While she is doing this in the presence of the students in her classroom she is trying to teach her kiddos on the other side of the screen. Some of them have no one in close physical proximity to assist them. She needs to be their helper in a virtual space.

Anyone who knows me understands that the minute I hear something like this my mind goes at ‘WARP SPEED’ into what we can do differently. The school district is forced to change the academic model due to the pandemic. We all get that. We know it is not working for the majority of our students.

Why are we insisting on combining the 18th -20th century model of school with 21st century learning at the same time, on the same day? Every adult that has attended a virtual meeting knows it is not the same as in person. How often have we heard ‘if you are multi-tasking come back to me’?

Would it be more beneficial for our youngest students to attend in-person school two days a week as a split class? They would get their excellent teacher’s undivided attention. Instead of her normal 25 she would have about 12 students.

Logic would tell us, she would be infinitely more effective with the 12 she has on those two days than she is with the in person/virtual split. The children who are not in school could work on review packets at home.

The 5th day of the week could be an all virtual day. Everything would be directed to the students at home. Teachers reading from big books, storytelling and math games, PE, Art and Music would take place on this day too. All big movements that young children could manage without adults helping them.

These youngest of learners have no frame of reference as to what is expected in school. They have no actual model to refer back to as what ‘school looks like and how I participate’. In a year we will be talking about these little ones and their lack of executive functioning skills.

Vince Lombardi said: Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect. Let’s give our youngest learners a chance at perfect.

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Not Handing in Homework Epidemic of 2021

2/8/2021

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The Covid 19 pandemic has created a parallel epidemic of students not handing in assignments. We can point to the change in what going to school looks like as having an
impact. It certainly has. We need to remind our children they are in control of their own behavior regardless of what is happening around them. We need to support them in their move towards success in all they do.

The routine our children have followed for their entire school career - whether it be a 1 year or 12 has changed. ‘Going to school’ has taken on a new meaning. There is no reason to argue differently. It is what it is, and will, most likely, be in the future. The possibility of never having a ‘snow day’ again is a reality!

Why are students not handing in assignments? In my work as an advocate my students often get accommodations of extra time, they can hand in work at a later date. Sometimes, they have a modified, or smaller workload. Another option may be the ability of showing what they know in a different way. Some students get larger assignments broken down into smaller ones with varying due dates. They never get an accommodation of no homework.

So when students are not handing in assignments I do not mean 1 or 2 - I mean 30 to 40 per marking period. This is new behavior, not typical of these students. What is happening? Have they lost the idea of the purpose of homework because of remote instruction?

What is homework?
Homework is a conversation between your child and the teacher. It let’s the teacher know that your child understood what the teacher taught. It may tell the teacher, your child learned some of the material yet other parts were not understood. It may tell the teacher WHOA! I need to teach this material again - because no one in the class did it correctly.

When your child hands in their work tells the teacher they tried. It tells the teacher the level of success they have or do not have based on what they did. It gives the teacher a path to follow that better meets your child's needs the next day.

When homework is not handed in it sends an immediate message that your child did not care enough to do it. Unfortunately, that is the message. There is no conversation to make learning better. T: “Where is your homework?” S: “I didn’t do it.” T: Why? S: I didn’t understand it? T: “Show me what you did, so I can see where you were having the problem.” S: “I didn’t do it.” End of conversation.

Doing homework reinforces the day's learning. It ‘pushes’ what is learned from short term to long term memory. Doing homework provides the scaffolding for the next day's instruction. It is the daily foundation of success.

If your child is having an issue with understanding the material being taught, whether it is in
person learning or remote - that is not a homework issue. Consistently not understanding
needs to be addressed as a learning issue.

If your child is not handing work in as a choice it is vital that you address it. Don’t let this
become a habit. Make sure they turn in whatever they have done regardless of how well they did it. Some homework is better than none. Having the ‘homework conversation' with the teacher is vital to your child’s success. It sets them up for success in life. You can not have ‘a well done job - if the job is not done’.

Have a question or concern, reach out today.

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Turning in Work for Virtual Learning

1/18/2021

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Hearing again about a student who has just failed the first marking period in school, due to not turning in work, has almost hit epidemic proportions. This was a challenge for many students as soon as computers became part of the classroom. The move to remote learning has added considerably to the problem.

I was recently told by a parent of a straight A student, who failed for the 1st time, that 30% of her child’s grade level in a middle school failed the first marking period - Unacceptable.
Here are some ideas for lessening that work turn in problem. I am just ‘spit balling’ here. If you have an idea be sure to add it in the comments.

Students Can:

Create a screensaver that says TURN IN YOUR WORK! HAVE YOU TURNED IN YOUR WORK TODAY? SUBMIT DON’T QUIT! GIVE YOUR TEACHER THEIR HOMEWORK!!
If they have a phone they can set a reminder on that.
They can buddy up with a friend to remind each other.
Use Post It Notes around their work space.
If possible link a sound to the submit button (Technology is not my love language)
Use a wipe board with all assignments listed by day - when it is submitted it is erased or ‘X’ out.

Parents Can:

Ask to see the submitted work.
Learn how to use the schools reporting system.
Check the teacher reporting system DAILY.
Set a reminder on your phone/watch.
Use Post It Notes around your work space.
Ask to see the submitted work.

Teachers Can:

Make sure that every parent understands how to check digitally on their student.
Send a Bcc email to parents simply stating ‘Your child is missing work’ daily -
please check Canvas, Google Classroom, whatever.
If you work in a team have one person a day that sends the Bcc email.
Play music and have a virtual dance party while assignments are being handed in.
Give time during class to work on homework. Have them submit what they have done before they leave.
Have the student’s create a HW RAP they can perform while collecting assignments.
Give BREAKS at the beginning, middle and end of every class.

Endless screen time is so draining. Let’s be kind to each other-working together we can make
this work.

Be sure to post what is working for you in the comments.

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Finding Your Child's Strengths

Hate Teaching - I Never Thought I Would Hear Her Say This!

Not Handing in Homework Epidemic of 2021

Turning in Work for Virtual Learning

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