Kathie Nunley's Educator's Newsletter
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Dr Kathie Nunley's Educator's Newsletter
---Mid-March '11 Edition--- (current subscribers: 21,330)
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News and updates to Kathie Nunley's Layered Curriculum® Sites for Educators:
http://Help4Teachers.com
http://brains.org
Do you have a NEW EMAIL address? You can unsubscribe your old one and
subscribe the new one using the link at the bottom of this newsletter.
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--------SECTION ONE: TEACHING TIPS ------
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TEACHER TIP # 1: With spring approaching, have a "plant race". Use
the basic seed-in-a-paper-cup germination activity, but award prizes for
fastest growth or most leaves, etc. Let students try various things from
their own home to affect growth.
TEACHER TIP # 2: Time for spring parent-teacher conferences -
remember to have a bowl of candy or some other munchie available
at the conference table. A small, sweet offering goes a long way to
get the conference off to a good start.
Send your favorite teaching tip to me at Kathie@brains.org
Watch for more tips via Twitter: http://twitter.com/
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------SECTION TWO: HOT TOPICS in Neuro & Educational Psychology------
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HOT TOPIC # 1: Schools always encourage parents to notify them if their
children are bullied at school so that everyone can work together to resolve
the situation. A new research study just released sheds more light on
parents' response and perception of their child being the victim of bullying.
If parents have a favorable perception of their child's school climate, they
are less likely to contact the school and are also less likely to talk to their
child about their victimization. While much of what contributes to a parents
response is the age of the child and the form of bullying, a parent's perception
of their school is a large influence.
Waasdorp, T.; Bradshaw, C; & Duong, J. (2010). The link between parents'
perceptions of the school and their responses to school bullying: Variation by
child characteristics and the forms of victimization. Journal of Educational
Psychology, Vol 103 (2),
HOT TOPIC #2: We predict another person's behavior by looking at the logic
of their action within the situation, make assumptions based on their gaze
direction and read emotional cues in facial and body expressions. Children
with autism have trouble understanding and predicting the behaviors or intent
of others, yet it was not known which inference or extracting cue they were
missing. A new study compared typically developing children with children
with autism and how they watch and gaze at others. The researchers found
that actually children with autism are quite typical in considering the logic of
situational constraints and in reading the emotional expressions to infer intent.
Where they struggle is in correctly interpreting a persons direction of gaze
and misinterpret, or do not understand referential cues like a head turn.
Vivanti, G. et al. (2011). Intact and impaired mechanisms of action
understanding in autism. Developmental Psychology, Vol 47 (March)
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---SECTION THREE: WEB UPDATES ---
BRAINS.ORG & HELP4TEACHERS.COM
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Twitter Tips available via our Twitter Account:
http://twitter.com/
Interested in the research on Active vs Passive Procrastination?
Check it out on my YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/
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Bookshop at Brains.org
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**We offer the Layered Curriculum® TEXT and WORKBOOK set for the
direct, discounted price of $42.00
**We also offer the individual teachers Study kit for $89.00
http://help4teachers.com/
http://brains.org/store
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Uganda Project
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Thank you to the Kern (CA) Reading Association for their donation to buy lunch
for the Springs Alive School children in Kakiri.
Thank you to Woodside Intermediate in Connecticut for their donation of
mosquito netting for the village.
Still needed: teacher salaries. Right now the school uses volunteer community
adults as teachers. For $100 a month, they can hire a certified teacher in a
classroom.
Can your school help? More info at: http://help4teachers.com/
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-----SECTION FOUR: KATHIE'S EMAIL
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(from FaceBook)
Hello. I have a question about Layered Curriculum. I teach high school
special ed English. I know students get to pick when and which assignments
to complete. Since I am using the Layered Curriculum with a novel, I worry
that a lot of the assignments need to be completed once students are far
into the book. For example, I have created assignments on symbolism, theme,
characterization, making inferences, etc. Students need to have read a lot
of the book in order to gather information to work on those skills. Should I
tell students which assignments need to be completed after a certain date?
Thank you for your help. Kristy Borse
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Kristy,
Absolutely! Layered Curriculum® units need to provide a structure and direction
for the students - they don't necessarily have "free run" of when, what and how.
So I would definitely list assignments that can be completed after reading
say Chapters 1 - 3, then assignments available after finishing Chapter 6...etc.
The more direction and structure you can offer students, the better.
Hope you'll share your unit!
- Kathie
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------SECTION FIVE: WORKSHOPS / SCHEDULE / MISC CHAT------
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Welcome to the first day past the Ides of March....while Caesar may
not have liked that day, I look for it as a day with first signs of spring. And
yesterday was absolutely beautiful here in New England. The sun was
shining, the mourning doves cooing up a storm and the chickens found
a piece of dirt between remaining snow patches to take their first dirt
bath of the season. It was a day to enjoy.....good thing, because this
morning we had snow!
I'm heading down to New York City tomorrow to work with a group of
high school teachers in Brooklyn on Layered Curriculum®. Always
enjoy my trips to the Big Apple.
Then later this month, I'm off to Cape Town, South Africa for the SAALED
International Conference on Inclusion: "From Inclusion to Belonging: The
Language of Learning". I'm excited to be sharing Layered Curriculum® and
differentiation strategies with the teachers in that global region.
I'm scheduling now for fall 2011 workshops. If you need a workshop hosted
at your school or district, just send me an email.
As always, my best to you and yours,
Kathie
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