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Schools Feel the Clutches of Higher Gas Prices
2008-06-02 19:01:00
Like all of us, schools around the nation are feeling the effects of high gas prices. As but one example, Nash-Rocky Mount schools in North Carolina burned through about $729,000 in fuel in the last fiscal year ? nearly twice as much as in the previous year. In an effort to cope, schools are coming up with a range of strategies--all of which involve cutting services. In Minnesota, for instance, one district plans to eliminate classes every Monday to come up with the extra $65,000 it needs to fill its buses' tanks. The superintendent commented "I know $65,000 may not sound like a lot, but it's more than one teaching position,"
More About: News , Schools , Gas Prices , Higher , Feel

The Right Way to Write?
2008-05-30 13:56:00
Reading, and reading problems, get lots of attention. But writing, and writing problems, which are equally important receive far less time and effort. The consequences of this neglect are serious?as many discover once they leave college and try to move up the career ladder. Skilled writing is an enormous advantage for both academic and job success. It is also in enormously short supply. To deal with the problem, schools have placed one technique into center stage. It goes by the name of ?journal writing.?
More About: Writing , Write

The State of Education in the State of Our Nation
2008-05-26 18:43:00
Former Colorado Gov. Roy Romer is the chairman of "Ed in '08"--a project that received $60 million to try to make education a prominent issue in the race for the White House. In a recent radio interview, he acknowledged that, even though it is of central importance to our children and to the nation, it has been difficult to get candidates to talk about education. It keeps being pushed into the background by issues of the economy, health care and the war. But the project has lots of valuable things to say about ways to fix our schools and strengthen the economy. Those who want to keep up with the state of education today can turn to http://www.edin08.com/
More About: Education , Nation , Achievement , State , The State

The Magic Touch
2008-05-21 17:01:00
A few weeks ago, a familiar scene played itself in my office. It started when a mother brought her six year old son to see me because he had not made any progress in reading during this school year and she was, understandably, distraught. I began some preliminary testing. In the one-to-one situation, it was not easy, but at least it was possible to keep his attention to the task at hand. However, if at any point, I did not attend directly to him (for example, when I turned to the mom to get some information), he bounded out of his seat in an instant. Then he raced over to one or another of the toys in the room. It would not be amiss to characterize his behavior as much like ?a jack in the box.?
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Older Students Filling California College Campuses
2008-05-19 15:07:00
High school graduates are not the only ones waiting for college acceptance letters. Increasingly, the older generation is in the same boat. At California State University, Sacramento, for example, the number of students between the ages of 50 and 64 grew by 76 percent from 1986 to 2006. Across the state, the number of California college students between the ages of 50 and 64 rose 61 percent between 1986 and 2006. Among people ages 40 to 49, enrollment increased 32 percent. Overall enrollment climbed 33 percent during the same two decades.
More About: College , Students

"The Debacle of Testing Literacy Ability"
2008-05-10 22:19:00
As those who follow the education scene know well, literacy testing takes up a huge amount of time, effort and money. Tom Sticht, an international consultant in education, in reviewing the field has termed the situation "The Debacle of Testing Literacy Ability." He summarizes the state of affairs as follows: "Despite extensive use of standardized tests by the 50 states, 30-year reading trend data show minimal if any improvement for 9-, 13-, or 17-year-old children since the early 1970s...Further, the testing of adult literacy in 1992 and again in 2003 shows little or no improvement in literacy at the lowest levels and a decline at the highest levels."
More About: Achievement

Musical Genes? They May Even Tell Us Something About Dyslexia
2008-05-08 20:58:00
As a four year old, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was reported to "play faultlessly and with the greatest delicacy" Behavior like that makes musical talent intriguing and mysterious. Given that certain families produce abundant numbers of musicians, sci­en­tists have long sus­pected that talent in this realm mu­sic might have ge­net­ic roots. Now research indicates that they may be right. Sci­en­tists in Finland say they?ve found ap­prox­i­mate loca­t­ions in our ge­nome where genes af­fect­ing mu­si­cal tal­ent may lie. The find­ings suggest not only that mu­si­cal abil­ity is partly ge­net­ic but it may share ev­o­lu­tion­ary roots with lan­guage.
More About: News , Musical , Dyslexia , Genes

Reading First ?But Not With Comprehension
2008-05-07 02:01:00
At the heart of the No Child Left Behind law is a $6 billion program called Reading First. In a front page story this past week, the Washington Post offered the disheartening news that that "students enrolled in the program are not reading any better than those who don't participate." Guided by the idea that comprehension is the ultimate goal in reading, the study focused on reading comprehension, rather than other aspects of reading such as whether kids grasp phonics.

Dyslexia and Different Languages
2008-04-28 18:15:00
This month, a fascinating study was reported, showing that dyslexia affects different parts of children's brains depending on whether they are raised reading English or Chinese. The study was conducted by Li-Hai Tan, a professor of linguistics and brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Hong Kong and was reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI's), Tan's group studied the brains of students raised reading Chinese. They then compared those findings with similar studies of the brains of students raised reading English.
More About: Reading , Languages , Dyslexia

Education in America: An Institution in Crisis
2008-04-22 14:02:00
We hear over and over again about the problems in America n education. Unfortunately, dire warnings have become so commonplace that we often don't pay them much heed. But Bob Herbert, a columnist in the New York Times, has offered some facts and figures that should make us take notice. For example, An American kid drops out of high school every 26 seconds. More than a million drop out every year. These are among the highest dropout rates in the industrialized world. Roughly a third of all American high school students drop out. Another third graduate but are not prepared for the next stage of life ? either productive work or some form of post-secondary education. Think about it! Two-thirds of all teenagers old enough to graduate from high school are leaving, without the skills to negotiate the modern world.
More About: News , Education , Crisis

Time for Some Smiles
2008-04-18 19:41:00
With all the many problems that are swirling around us, it's easy to feel a bit downcast. When that happens, a smile can work wonders. Hopefully some of these one liners will do that for you. Time is a great healer, but a terrible beautician. If #2 pencils are the most popular, are they still #2? I live in California, and my watch is three hours fast, I can't fix it, so I'm moving to New York. Living on Earth is expensive, but it does include free trips around the sun. If lawyers are disbarred and clergymen defrocked, doesn't it follow that electricians can be delighted, musicians denoted, cowboys deranged, models deposed, tree surgeons debarked and drycleaners depressed? It's not who you know, it's whom you know. (It's so nice when jokes also teach some language.)
More About: Smiles

A Different Approach to ADD?
2008-04-10 18:20:00
Many of the families who consult with me for help have children with attention problems. Often medications such as Ritalin are being used--or even more often, such medications are recommended. But many are reluctant to take this path. Fortunately, there are other paths that are open. Reichenberg-Ullman & Ullman in a well researched book Ritalin Free Kids report their experiences in treating ADD children via homeopathy. If you are interested in learning more about this, you can go to http://www.amazon.com/Ritalin-Free-Kids-E ffective-Homeopathic-Behavioral/dp/076150 7191 :
More About: Tips

Yes, There Really Is An International Pun Contest
2008-04-08 16:31:00
One of the great pluses of language is the sheer fun it offers. You need look no further than the top 10 winners in the International Pun Contest . Here they are: 1. A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at him and says, "I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger." 2. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. The one turns to the other and says "Dam!"

Writing with Proficiency --30% Success Is Welcomed!!!
2008-04-04 16:19:00
If you were buying a car and found one that had a 70% chance of ranging from fair to downright bad, you would almost certainly turn away. But that level of performance is being welcomed by officials when it comes to the writing skills of American students. According to a new national study, about a third of the nation?s eighth-grade students are proficient writers. The results are even worse for high school seniors where only roughly a quarter achieve this level. The results are about the same as those in 2002, when a similar exam was last given. A success rate of 30% may not sound like much--and indeed, it isn't. But it is the best performance by eighth-grade students in any subject tested in the national assessment in the last three years. For example, only 17 percent of eighth graders were proficient on the 2006 history exam, for example.
More About: News , Writing , Success

Train Your Brain!
2008-03-26 16:27:00
No one today needs to be told that exercise is good for us. But, beyond the physical benefits, the latest research is indicating that it can also build the brain by boosting memory, alleviating stress, enhancing intelligence and allaying aggression. For example, scientists from Yale University reported last year in the journal Nature Medicine that regular exertion affects the hippocampus, the area of the brain responsible for mood. And physical activity boosts the flow of blood to the part of the brain that is responsible for memory and learning, promoting the production of new brain cells.
More About: Tips , Train , Brain

Some Benefit to the Economic Pain?
2008-03-24 17:06:00
You don't have to be told that the current economic situation is causing enormous difficulties. But, as often happens, there are some silver linings. For example, many state colleges and universities are reducing their out-of-state tuition for students. One place where this is happening is California State University located near San Francisco Bay. It is trying to raise its profile to lure applicants from a variety of Western states including Washington, Oregon, and Montana. Many other state universities across the nation are following a similar path.
More About: News , Pain , Economic , Benefit

The Price of Poor Education
2008-03-16 19:28:00
The high cost of education steadily draws headlines, as parents struggle to finance their children's college education and towns grapple with ever-increasing school budgets. In all the turmoil, the cost of not educating America's children goes largely ignored. Now the Brookings Institute has come out with a new book: The Price We Pay: Economic and Social Consequences of Inadequate Education . It highlights the enormous costs--private, fiscal, and public--of not providing an adequate education for all our children.
More About: News , Poor

Drinking Water--Some Troubling News
2008-03-10 20:51:00
Most of the families whom I meet in the course of my work are knowledgeable about health issues and concerned about what their children are encountering in the course of daily life. A new report from the Associated Press is an example of why their concerns are justified. It found that a vast array of pharmaceuticals ? including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones ? are in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans. Fortunately, the concentrations of the pharmaceuticals are tiny, and far below the levels of a medical dose. But the presence of so many prescription drugs ? and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen ? in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health.
More About: News , Water , Drinking

Hold On--The College Frenzy Is Going to Pass
2008-03-08 21:05:00
If you have a child, or know of a child, who is awaiting the "verdicts" on college applications, you know the pressure and anxiety that accompanies the process. Each year, for the past several years, the tension has been increasing. But all that is likely to ease--though not in time to help out this year's contingent. Specifically, the demographics are changing. After a 15 year period of steady growth, the annual number of high school graduates in the United States will peak at about 2.9 million. The number is then expected to decline until about 2015. Most universities expect this to translate into fewer applications and with that, less selectivity. As a result, most students are like to find it easier to get into college.
More About: News , College , Pass , Frenzy , Hold

Is There Genius in Autism?
2008-02-22 14:06:00
A leading psychiatrist from Trinity College in Dublin, Michael Fitzgerald, has put forth the idea that many leading figures in the fields of science, politics and the arts achieved success because they had a form of autism known as Asperger's syndrome. Included in his list are such towering figures as Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, George Orwell, H G Wells and Ludwig van Beethoven.
More About: News , Autism , Genius

An Ambassador for Children's Reading
2008-02-18 03:11:00
As parents know only too well, America's children aren't reading very much or very well these days. Concerns about the situation keep growing as scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress have shown little improvement in the past 15 years. In an effort to turn matters around, the Library of Congress and the Children's Book Council, a trade group, announced the appointment of the USA's first "ambassador for young people's literature," a sort of poet laureate for the Harry Potter set. As the inaugural ambassador, they named Jon Scieszka--a renowned author of 30 books.
More About: News , Reading , Ambassador

Paying Students to Learn? Good Idea?
2008-02-13 04:00:00
At a number of schools in the poorer sections of New York City, students are being paid to do well on citywide exams in reading and math. Seventh-graders earn up to $750 and fourth-graders up to $250. This is all part of the Spark Program--part of Mayor Bloomberg's ant-poverty initiative. As you might imagine, the idea is generating lots of discussion---and controversy.
More About: News , Students , Idea , Good , Learn

Homework: Questions about its Value
2008-02-10 03:20:00
The many families who struggle with the nightly homework ritual might will be interested in a new Canadian study involving almost 1000 families. It reports that, at least at the elementary school level, homework offers a double whammy. It's of little value to the children while leading to burn out in the children and their parents. At the older grades, things were different with benefits shown for students in grades 7 and 8 and high school. Significantly, the findings do not include reading. Indeed, reading with, or to, children every day has been shown to be a key factor in boosting academic success.
More About: News , Questions , Homework

Know of Someone Who Might Want to Enter a Contest?
2008-02-07 23:32:00
One of the remarkable advances in the last several decades has been the growing understanding and acceptance of individuals with learning disabilities. As we know from major figures such as Paul Orfalea, the founder of Kinko's and Charles Schwab, the investment banker along with many others, individuals with learning disabilities can be enormously talented and make phenomenal contributions. As part of the growing acceptance that has been taking place, The National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) holds a "Portraits of LD" competition. The grand prize winner will win a trip to New York City along with other treats. In addition, two runners-up will be chosen to receive a cash prize of $200 each, while selected submissions will be showcased on the LD.org Web site and showcased at the annual benefit dinner of the society. The competition is open to all children, teens and adults with LD. But there is not a lot of time left to enter. The deadline is February 8th. So if you...
More About: News , Contest , Enter

Is College in Your Child's Future?
2008-01-30 16:59:00
As parents know only too well, higher education in our country is expensive and becoming more expensive each year. At the same time, modern nations know that if they are to have a productive population, they need to have a highly educated citizenry. That is why Ireland, over a decade ago, abolished tuition fees for all citizens in the European Union. This has been one of the key factors in the phenomenal economic transformation that has taken place in that country. But back to the USA.
More About: News , College , Future

Spelling: A Mirror into Reading
2008-01-28 19:05:00
Years ago, spelling held a place of importance in literacy. As Thomas Jefferson wrote to one of his daughters, ?Take care that you never spell a word wrong. Always before you write a word, consider how it is spelled, and, if you do not remember, turn to a dictionary. It produces great praise to a lady to spell well.? For lots of reasons, that has changed. But if you want to get some insights your child?s reading, you would do well to take a look at his or her spelling.
More About: Reading , Mirror , Spelling

Jokes: Fun and Learrning in One Package
2008-01-26 20:31:00
It's great to see kids' faces light up when they hear or tell a Joke. And because of the word play that jokes offer, at the same time, their language skills are enhanced. When you have a chance, you might try these out. Q: What do you call a sleeping bull? A: A bull-dozer. Q: What did the farmer call the cow that had no milk? A: An udder failure. Q: What do you get from a pampered cow? A: Spoiled milk. Q: Why are teddy bears never hungry? A: They are always stuffed!
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In Praise of Immaturity
2008-01-19 18:26:00
For lots of good reasons, we all take children's development very seriously and do everything we can to help them mature in the best way possible. But with our eyes always geared to the future, we sometimes overlook the fun and value in being immature. Fortunately, the editors of Klutz are around to get us see things a bit differently. Their efforts which are aimed at "never growing up" started in 1977. It was then that they published their first book--Juggling for the Complete Klutz®. It showed that anyone and everyone can learn the totally non-essential, but fun-filled, activity of juggling. Now they've written what they describe as the ultimate how-not-to guide for ages 8 and up. It is The Encyclopedia of Immaturity and it contains more than 300 entries such as How to Skip a Stone, How to Do a Wheelie, How to Hang a Spoon from Your Nose, How to Really Annoy Your Older Sibling. They are presented with lots of full-color photographs, illustrations and diagrams that can ena...
More About: Tips , Praise

Word Families: Is It Time to Disown Them?
2008-01-17 15:48:00
If youve had contact with a child in the early primary grades doing "reading homework," you're bound to have seen what are typically referred to as "word families." Those are the words that end with the same sets of letters--such as fat, cat, sat, mat or sand, hand, land or fall, tall, call. In many reading programs, these word families occupy a central place --since the groupings are thought to help children learn to identify (i.e., read or decode) words more easily. But is that really what happens?
More About: Reading , Time , Word , Families

Toys: The Right Choice
2008-01-05 17:29:00
Parents and other family members often wonder about the best toys to give. Now there is a website that offers some valuable advice. It was set up by teachers and is called TRUCE--an acronym for Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children's Environment. The goal is to help adults make informed choices about toys--both inclusion (that is, by highlighting the ones that are most productive to play and thinking) and exclusion (that is, by eliminating those that encourage violence and overstimulation). For more information, you can go to http://www.truceteachers.org/toyguides/T_ Guide_web_07.pdf
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