Kathie Nunley's Educator's Newsletter
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Dr Kathie Nunley's Educator's Newsletter
---mid-April '10 Edition--- (current subscribers: 21,371)
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News and updates to Kathie Nunley's Layered Curriculum® Sites for Educators:
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: When a child starts to get over stimulated, have them stop
and take 10 very deep breaths before they continue. This helps them center
their mind and body. Rose Coman, one-on-one aide, Lodi Elem., OH
Teacher Tip # 2: Hang the Kleenex tissue box on a hook - just poke it through
the back. No name, workshop participant, Ohio.
Send your favorite teaching tip to me at Kathie@brains.org
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------SECTION TWO: HOT TOPICS in Neuro & Educational Psychology------
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HOT TOPIC # 1: In case you need one more piece of research to tell you
that the cortisol levels associated with acute stress sabotage a learning
environment and hinder memory retrieval - here's another piece released
this month from the neuroscience world. They subjected people to stress
conditions and then had them try to learn social aspects of people (names,
birthdays, favorites, etc). They also subjected another group to the same
learning trials but without the stress. As predicted, social memory retrieval
is significantly impaired when the items were learned under, or right after
acute stress. Merz, C.; Wolf, O.; Hennig, J. (2010). "Stress Impairs Retrieval
of Socially Relevant Information". Behavioral Neuroscience. Vol 124(2), 288-293.
HOT TOPIC #2: Excellent article in Gifted Child Quarterly this month discussing
students referred to as twice-exceptional. These are gifted students who also have
a specific learning disability and are among the most underserved students in our
school system. Students with very high Verbal IQs (+120) and low or average
written language scores are easily overlooked because their academic performance
is not failing enough to be noticed. The author accused the system of doing great
disservice to these students who are "not only waiting to fail, but are failing to thrive"
and additional efforts should be made to support gifted students with specific learning
disabilities. Assouline, S. et al. (2010). "Cognitive and psychosocial characteristics
of gifted students with written language disability." Gifted Child Quarterly.
Vol 54(2),102-115.
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---SECTION THREE: WEB UPDATES ---
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====NEW LC UNITS POSTED====
**Catherine Phelps at Brockport HS, NY sent in a new HS unit on Early African
Civilizations.
**Michelle Keniston at Nobel Middle School in Maine sent a 7th grade math unit.
You can see all the Layered Curriculum® sample units at:
http://help4teachers.com/
I have 3 of our four part series on designing Layered Curriculum® units
now posted on our YouTube Channel.
Lesson #1:
http://www.youtube.com/
Lesson #2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Lesson #3:
http://www.youtube.com/
You can see all my video tips and hot topics at: http://youtube.com/brainsorg
====FROM THE BOOKSHOP ====
We have several new released now in the bookshop including David Sousa's
new
Patricia Belvel's RETHINKING CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
Shop for all the best teaching and learning books at
http://help4teachers.com/
------SECTION FOUR: KATHIE'S EMAIL -----
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Kathie,
I am an instructional coach45722740n West Virginia and I just got an email
from a principal that directed me to your website. I just watched several
of your youtube presentations on the subject of Layered Curriculum.
This is a new term for me and I am trying to grasp the full meaning
from your presentations. I am sitting here scratching my head because
I heard you mention the learning objective, I heard you speak about
the student choices, and I heard you speak of the assessment or
what you refer to as accountability. However, I did not hear you mention
instruction. Are the students self taught? Diana O.
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Diana - Thanks for your note. Layered Curriculum® classrooms use a
differentiated instruction approach so the classroom teacher would offer
a variety of learning strategies including direct instruction, individual and
group work, inquiry labs, etc.
The YouTube videos are really just tips and tidbits for people already
using Layered Curriculum® and are not designed to give you the fundamentals.
I think once you read more on the method, you will have a better global
picture. There are many articles at website that explain the methodology.
There is also a text and workbook. I hope that helps.
-Kathie
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------SECTION FIVE: WORKSHOPS / SCHEDULE / MISC CHAT------
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Greetings from a beautiful "springy" New England. I hope the flowers
are popping wherever you are today too.
This is a GREAT month for me and I'm so excited about the many
trips and projects I've got going. I just returned from Toronto where I
spent another day with teachers from the northwest region of Toronto
District School Board on Layered Curriculum® and differentiation.
This weekend I head to Oklahoma City to work on Monday with Heritage
Hall Academy, also on the "why" and "how" of differentiation.
Then next week it's off to Uganda for our first of what I hope are annual
humanitarian trips to take training and teaching materials to the Springs
Alive village school. Thank you so much to all of you who have sent me
primary teaching tips, ideas and especially thanks to Theresa for the wonderful
power point lessons. I'll update you as soon as I return on the situation
with the school over there so that we can continue to help them thrive and
grow.
There are new additions on my calendar for New York City, Missouri,
Toronto, and Oklahoma. I'm now booking workshops for fall and spring of
2010/2011. If you are looking to schedule a workshop for the next school year,
please send me an email or visit: http://help4teachers.com/
Kathie
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Workshop information is available at the website
http://help4teachers.com/
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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Layered Curriculum® . . . because every child deserves a special education (tm)
