Kathie Nunley's Educator's Newsletter
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Kathie Nunley's Educator's Newsletter
---June 2005 Edition--- (current subscribers: 15,081)
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News and updates to http://brains.org and Kathie Nunley's
Layered Curriculum (tm) Site for Educators: http://help4teachers.com
~~NO MEMBERSHIP REQUIRED to access any parts of the website~~
Newsletter subscription available at: http://help4teachers.com/newsletter.htm
Unsubscribe & email change information link at the bottom of this newsletter
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SECTION ONE: Teaching Tips -
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Teaching Tip #1: Use tape to attach a plastic spoon to the end of some
pens. Put the pens into a cup and leave the cup on your desk for students
who need to borrow one. The first year I tried this I started out with a full cup
of pen/spoon combinations and ended the same way without having to add to
the cup. It seems students have a hard time forgetting to return a pen with a
spoon attached to it. I love this trick. Diane Sekula, Berlin High School, CT
Teaching Tip # 2: Try teaching history backwards. Start with the end chapter
and go forward. This helps students understand the impact of past events
on future events in history. No name - Ewing, NJ workshop.
Teaching Tip #3: Rather than having students complete a reading log
with parent signatures, I just ask parents to have students read for 30
minutes each school day and I have a book report due every two weeks.
Students can use a book report form or do a skit, shoebox display, etc.
They explain the book to the class. - Deborah Lara, Monte Vista Elementary.
Send your favorite teaching tip to: kathie@brains.org
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SECTION TWO: Hot Topics
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As the school year winds to a close, most of us start worrying and thinking
about the most important brain of all - our own. We may be reminded of the
passing years as our colleagues retire or we get a service pin marking our years
of teaching. Perhaps more than other professions, teachers worry much about
the effect of aging on our brains. So, for this issue I've decided to update
you with some of the new research on Alzheimer's, aging and dementia.
HOT TOPIC #1. If you are one of the many who are confused by the differences
between the terms dementia and Alzheimer's disease, you may want to
look at a new study out of the UK on just that topic. Researchers had persons
with dementia, Alzheimer's, and a control group take a series of cognitive
performance tasks. No surprise that people with both dementia and Alzheimer's
perform rather poorly on many cognitive tasks. Of particular note was serious
problems for both groups with executive control function skills (organization
and execution). But the differences between the two were found on 2 specific
skills - face recognition and episodic memory. Persons with Alzheimer's
disease score poorly on these tasks. Persons with dementia do not. Voss, S.
& Bullock, R. (2004). Dementia & Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, Vol 18(2), 207-218.
HOT TOPIC #2: Alzheimer's disease is a condition where plaques made up of
a group of proteins called amyloids grow in the brain followed by a serious loss
of brain cells or neurons in the hippocampus region. A loss in cognitive
function results. You would have a condition called "pre-clinical Alzheimer's
disease" if you had the protein plaques but were not yet cognitively impaired.
Researchers in Denmark wanted to see exactly at what stage does the brain
experience neuron loss, They counted actual neuron numbers in samples
from the brains of persons with Alzheimer's, pre-clinical Alzheimer's and controls.
Persons with Alzheimer's had significantly fewer neurons in the regions of
the hippocampus known as CA1, hilus, and subiculum. But persons with
pre-clinical Alzheimer's still had a similar number of neurons in these
regions as the control group. So Alzheimer's apparently doesn't "officially" begin
until you start losing neurons. West, M. et al. (2004). Neurobiology of Aging,
Vol25(9), 1205-1212.
HOT TOPIC #3: So what's a person to do to about an aging brain? How about
the natural supplement, Ginkgo biloba touted by so many as a treatment for
aging and dementia? German researchers find some marginal positive effects
from using ginkgo,but it doesn't bring near the benefit of traditional treatments
such as donepezil, rivastigmine and galantamine. Kurz, A. & Baelen, B.(2004).
Dementia & Geriatiric CognitiveDisorders,Vol18(2), 217-226.
More Hot Topics at the websites!
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SECTION THREE: What's new at the Websites
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**** New Layered Curriculum Units posted this month:
Bud, Not Buddy; Search for the Shadowman; French 3; Pricing;
Viruses & Diseases; Vertebrates; Plants & Fungi; Metric System;
Geologic Tiime; North Africa; West and Central Africa; Art,
The Civil War.
**** Layered Curriculum Trainer's Week-end DEADLINE: JUNE 16!!!
We are tentatively scheduling a week-end session for Layered Curriculum
educators who are interested in becoming licensed trainers. The session will take
place in western New York on the week-end of August 5,6,7, 2005.
If you are an experienced Layered Curriculum educator and are interested in
sharing your experience with others in your district or region, you can
get more information at http://help4teachers.com/certifiedtrainer.htm
Space is very limited, so email me as soon as possible if you are interested
in attending.
**** BRAINS.org Shop
If you're looking for summer reading ideas, make sure you visit the Brains.org
shop for my recommended reading lists. Best sellers include, Gregory & Chapman's
"Differentiated Instructional Strategies: One size doesn't fit all." and Sennett's
"101 Stunts for Principals to Inspire Student Achievement."
We had a big run on Layered Curriculum texts this month so I apologize to
those of you who had to wait a few days for them. They are now back in stock
and as usual, offered at our special educator's discounted price at both the shop:
http://brains.org/store/ and at help4teachers: http://help4teachers.com/books.htm
**** Video Kits: Layered Curriculum training is now available in a video kit for
your school or district. The training kit consists of texts, workbooks, handout
masters, instructions and a 90 minute, two-part video on Layered Curriculum.
Order information is available at: http://help4teachers.com/video.htm
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SECTION FOUR: Kathie's Email
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Kathie,
We are teaching using guided inquiry with the PYP philosophy. How
does this fit with Layered Curriculum? How do they connect?
(no name) teacher, Victoria, BC
[editor's FYI note : the PYP program is a philosophical teaching approach
generally found in elementary programs which feed into IB or International
Baccalaureate high schools).
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Dear "BC"
I love guided inquiry and most inquiry based approaches. Layered Curriculum
can connect beautifully here. As usual, you'll need to modify the model a bit
to fit your classroom. I may suggest that you start with your B layer
project as a place to begin the inquiry. Once students have started generating
their own real need for more information, send them back to the C layer
to do that then bounce back into the B layer to re-work that inquiry with
their new learning and cap it off with the A layer.
Let me know how things go,
Kathie
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SECTION FIVE: Workshops/calendar schedule/misc
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Whether you're still in school this week or out for the year, summer is here!
For those of you who have been reading my newsletter for several years, you
know June means I've moved to my mountain cabin for the summer.
And if you've ever had an old mountain cabin you know the annual work
involved in opening it up! This week I've been painting, scrubbing, hanging
gutters, mowing and moving things around. So I'm rather enjoying today's
respite as I fly to Abilene Texas for a couple of days to work with the
teachers at their regional center. But I'll be back in western New York
hanging my hammock before the weekend's over! I've got one more
trip to Region 15 in San Angelo, Texas later this month before settling into
some serious summer relaxation.
My new book, "Differentiating the High School Classroom" is now scheduled
for release in November of this year with Corwin Press. We will offer it also
at help4teachers and brains.org.
New workshops are in the planning stages for Ohio, Las Vegas, Rhode Island,
and Toronto. My complete workshop calendar is posted at the website.
I'll remind you again that if you need Layered Curriculum training for your
school that won't fit my calendar, you may want to consider either our video
training kits or one of the 21 licensed Layered Curriculum trainers located in
various regions around North America. If you need any assistance in locating
a trainer, please email me.
As usual, my best to you and yours,
Kathie
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Dr. Kathie F. Nunley
http://help4teachers.com
http://brains.org
Layered Curriculum (tm) - because every student deserves a special education (tm)
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Workshop information is available at the website
http://help4teachers.com/workshops.htm
or
call: 603-249-9521
email: kathie@brains.org
Brains.org and Help4Teachers is located at:
54 Ponemah Road
Amherst, NH 03031
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