By eighth grade, only one in four students is reading at grade level. This video shows how we can improve those odds:
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
School name-calling: 15 tips for eliminating bullying
No sticks. No stones. No dissing. That’s the motto for No Name-Calling Week, a project inspired by The Misfits, a young adult novel written by popular author James Howe. The book tells the story of four friends who grow tired of being constantly teased in middle school and decide to run for student council on a no name-calling platform.
Inspired by this idea, GLSEN and Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing created the No Name-Calling Week Coalition, which now consists of over 50 national partnering organizations. In March 2004, the coalition organized the first No Name-Calling Week in schools across the nation. Since then the project has gained thousands of supporters who believe in its cause, which is to end name-calling of all kinds and provide schools with the tools and inspiration to launch an ongoing dialogue about ways to eliminate bullying in their communities.
As someone who has seen close family members suffer from the effects of bullying, I was thrilled to learn about this project and how I can participate. While it originally began in middle schools, the NNCW project has since been extended from kindergarten through twelfth grade because all students can benefit from learning how to be more understanding of one another and how to address name-calling and bullying.
Would you and your students like to participate in this powerful project? Here are 15 ways you can make the eighth annual No Name-Calling Week meaningful in your school or classroom:
Monday, January 17, 2011
3 ways to make your classroom an innovation zone
Do you put your clothes on in the same order every morning? Do you take the same route to work every day? Do you eat the same kind of food for lunch or listen to the news at the same time every evening? We’re all creatures of habit to some degree, and we will rarely change our habits if they don’t negatively affect our lives. But what if there is a faster route to work that you just haven’t found yet? Or what if there is a delicious new food you just haven’t tried? You might be missing out on something incredible if you never change the status quo.
Friday, July 30, 2010
How to bully-proof your struggling students
During the move to our new building, our office plant broke in half. I was heartbroken, but I put the broken half of the plant into a container of water with the hope that the plant would grow new roots. For the first few snowy months, nothing happened. No roots. Then, spring came and the weather started warming up. Seemingly overnight, my struggling plant was thriving, and all because the conditions were finally right. My plant had to be comfortable before he could really start to grow. So what does a plant have to do with bullying?
Like plants, students need the right conditions to really send out their roots and start growing. Unfortunately, many students hold back because they don’t feel comfortable in the classroom. One of the big reasons for this is bullying. Bullying can happen to any student, but English learners, struggling readers, and students with disabilities can be especially vulnerable because they may feel out of place or have low self-esteem. Luckily, you don’t have to wait for a weather change to banish bullies and strengthen your struggling student.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Slowing the “summer slide”
You may have noticed that some students seem to lose academic ground over the summer break. Well, you’re right. This phenomenon, sometimes referred to as the “summer slide,” can indeed affect student achievement levels in the fall. In fact, some students lose up to three months of reading achievement over the course of one summer.
But while you may already be familiar with the affect summer sliding can have on student achievement levels, have you ever wondered how to stave off those summer learning losses?
