Kathie Nunley's Educator's Newsletter
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Dr Kathie Nunley's Educator's Newsletter
---mid-June '09 Edition--- (current subscribers: 21,482)
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News and updates to Kathie Nunley's Layered Curriculum®
http://Help4Teachers.com
http://brains.org
You can subscribe to this newsletter at: http://help4teachers.com/
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--------SECTION ONE: TEACHING TIPS ------
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Teacher Tip # 1: Upon returning from lunch, give the students 2 minutes
to talk to each other before going into routine. This helps to get out that
"goofy" energy before settling down and focusing on the lesson. Use this
time to take roll, set out bell work, etc. Kayla Pearce, Watson Learning Ctr, TX.
Teacher Tip #2: Do (physical) exercises while learning and practicing new
spelling words. Ha Dinh, Parkview Elementary, Ft. Worth, TX.
Send your favorite teaching tip to me at Kathie@brains.org
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------SECTION TWO: HOT TOPICS------
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HOT TOPIC # 1: Be happy and not just because it's summer, but make it a
habit. Researchers have been studying happiness. Happiness is a combination
of life satisfaction, coping effectiveness and positive emotions. Happy people
have more desirable life outcomes in general. And it's not enough to just have
a general positive view of your life, you need in-the-moment positive emotions.
These build resilience and help you develop resources for an overall satisfying life.
Cohn, M et al. (2009). Emotion. Vol 9(3), 361-368.
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HOT TOPIC #2: When teaching early elementary classes containing students
who are English-language learners (ELLs), the teacher may want to enhance
vocabulary instruction with multimedia. So say researchers looking at this
instructional method. In settings with both ELLs and non-ELLs, the researchers
found that using multimedia significantly improved ELLs' knowledge of instructional
words to the point where the gap between ELLS and non-ELLs was nearly closed.
The effects for the non-ELLs, while not detrimental, were not significant.
Silverman, R. & Hines, S. (2009). Journal of Educational Psychology.
Vol 101(2), 305-314.
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------SECTION THREE: WEBSITE UPDATES------
at HELP4TEACHERS.COM and BRAINS.ORG
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===Layered Curriculum® Units:
**Angela Kanerva, a Layered Curriculum® trainer in Michigan sent in 5 new
math units.
**Tom Plocker in Michigan, also sent an Algebra I unit. Tom tells me he made
units for the entire year of Algebra I this past school year, so I hope he'll share more
with us soon!
===Humanitarian Effort - Springs Alive School in Uganda
If you've ever read Dr Seuss's"Horton Hears a Who" you may appreciate our
new humanitarian project in Uganda. Springs Alive is a school near the city of
Kampala, Uganda that works with children who cannot attend the village school.
These children are generally prohibited from the "regular" school for a variety of
reasons - physical or developmental disabilities, the fact they have no parents
to pay tuition, or simply because they lack any clothing to wear. The teachers
at Springs Alive contacted me with a plea for help.
Brains.org is now trying to solicit schools here in the US to send teaching
material, instructional aids, fabric and other material to the school. Our first
shipment was sent last week thanks to Linda Maxwell at the Smithsonian
Anacostia Community Museum in Washington DC. If you are interested
in helping in our "Whoville Project" with your class next year please email
me for additional information or read about it at:
http://help4teachers.com/
in October to help their teachers with instructional ideas.
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Notes from the Bookshops (Brains.org & Help4Teachers.com)
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==>NEW Layered Curriculum® study kit for individual teachers.
I've made a narrated DVD of slides designed to accompany the
texts and workbook. The first one (using HS Science examples) is
now available. You can order it now at http://help4teachers.com/
==> Ever Popular - Layered Curriculum® Video Training Kits
==> All sorts of recommended books on a variety of subjects specific to education.
We appreciate your business. http://www.brains.org/store
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------SECTION FOUR: KATHIE'S EMAIL------
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Hi Kathie,
I came across some of your work. I understand and agree with your
anti-extrinsic system thinking. I have recently been reading Alfie Kohn’s
work. Is there any research data that actually supports intrinsic motivation?
Robert P, AP Psychology, Wisconsin
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Hi Robert,
Yes, in fact there is quite a bit of research. Teresa Amabile has interesting
research (regarding creativity and intrinsic motivation) and the king of that
research topic is Edward Deci. Search through the APA journals - Journal
of Educational Psychology in particular, and you will find quite a bit.
Best, Kathie
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Happy Summer. I know most teachers are now "out" for the summer and
the rest of us are finishing up. I hope you are finding some time to recharge
and enjoy some warm weather. Here in the northeast, we're still waiting
on the summer weather - kinda hard to "recharge" your spirit in the cold
misty rain.
I had an absolutely fabulous week last week, however. Thank you, thank you,
thank you, to the teachers / administrators at Cashman Middle in Las Vegas,
Independent Schools of the Southwest in Santa Fe, and Saginaw - Eagle
Mountain district in Fort Worth. I look forward to seeing some of the
Layered Curriculum® units you and your teachers put together.
I've got a few projects I'll be working on over the next month including a Layered
Curriculum® lesson planner for math, reviewing a couple of new books, and
working on our Uganda project. I'm off for a little rest now through the month of
July, but I'm never out of touch -
you can follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/
If you are planning ahead for fall and looking for a workshop to attend, you will
find my calendar at: http://help4teachers.com/
If you are looking for a Layered Curriculum® workshop to be conducted at your
school next year, my Spring / Summer 2010 calendar are now open. You can get
information at: http://help4teachers.com/
Kathie
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Workshop information is available at the website
http://help4teachers.com/
call: 603-249-9521
Email: kathie@brains.org
Brains.org and Help4Teachers is located at:
54 Ponemah Road
Amherst, NH 03031
Layered Curriculum® is a trademark developed by and registered
to Dr. Kathie F Nunley. Usage information available at:
http://help4teachers.com/
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Dr Kathie F Nunley
Layered Curriculum
