Kathie Nunley's Educator's Newsletter
Wednesday, October 05, 2011
Dr Kathie Nunley's Educator's Newsletter
---October '11 Edition--- (current subscribers: 15,383)
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News and updates to Kathie Nunley's Layered Curriculum® Sites for Educators:
http://Help4Teachers.com
http://brains.org
unsubscribe and email change links at the bottom
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--------SECTION ONE: TEACHING TIPS ------
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TEACHER TIP # 1: Ideas for helping students remember something to
(2) Teacher post a tweet on class Twitter site. (3) Using their cell phone,
have them call home and leave a message. (4) use bracelets
(found @office stores) that you can write on. (5) Have students send an
email to themselves. -Compiled from the teachers at Muskego-Norway
School District, Wisconsin. (more to come)
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 and all facets of society need to work on
changing the current obesogenic environment we've created for kids.
To help fight child obesity, we have to do more than just increase
exercise. We have to work on portion size, soda consumption and finding
alternatives to food as reinforcers. (The average person in America,
consumes 45 gallons of soda per year. That's enough to put on 20 pounds
of weight.)
Yes, increasing exercise at school does help, but a child would have to run
for 3 and a half hours just to burn off the calories consumed in a kids' meal
consisting of a burger and fries with a 20 ounce soda! Research shows us
that building social relationships with children helps prevent obesity. In treating
obesity, both Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Interpersonal psychotherapy
have proven to be effective. Denise Wilfley, “Beyond Willpower: A Multilevel
Framework for Understanding , Treating and Preventing Obesity. Presented
at the American Psychological Association's National Conference,
Washington DC. August 5, 2011
HOT TOPIC #2: For years, we've trusted the "Kennard Principle" - the idea
that children return from Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) better than adults. New
research is now showing that is not true. Some brain regions, when damaged,
become as plastic in an old brain as a young brain. Actually, some regions
of the brain are just more prone plasticity while some are extremely stable.
Each age has different plastic and stable areas. After damage, at any point
in life, plasticity increases. Maureen Dennis, PhD. "Plasticity and the Immature
Brain: Historical and current Ideas." Presented at the American Psychological
Association's National Conference, Washington DC. August 6, 2011.
More Hot Topics at the webstie: http://brains.org
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---SECTION THREE: WEB UPDATES ---
BRAINS.ORG & HELP4TEACHERS.COM
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We have combined the Brains.org Bookshop with the Layered Curriculum®
training materials shop. "One Stop Shopping" at: http://brains.org/store/index.
We appreciate your support.
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The Brains.org BOOKSHOP
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New Books:
=> "ENHANCING YOUR LAYERED CURRICULUM CLASSROOM:
Tips, Tune-ups and Technology" This is my newest book for
Layered Curriculum® teachers. $22.00
=> "Buddha's Brain: The practical neuroscience of happiness,
love and wisdom." $15.95
http://brains.org/store/index.
*** We always offer the Layered Curriculum® TEXT and WORKBOOK set
for the direct, discounted price of $42.00 as well as individual multi-media
study kits for teachers.
You can order any of these and other recommended books at either online bookshop:
http://brains.org/store
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------SECTION FOUR: KATHIE'S EMAIL ------
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Kathie, I love your newsletters! Thank you so much.
I had to write this time though because I take great issue with teaching tip #1
[in the last issue] about settling student disagreement. It is my experience
(I work with ELL and immigrant families) that if you do something like this,
the status quo wins; that is, he/she who holds more power will have the
version that goes down in history. The student of a lesser power or
status is more likely to surrender. There are also racial, cultural and
gender differences with regard to power and conflict avoidance and
we must also acknowledge the socio-historical context of our students.
I feel a better suggestion would be to take some class time to introduce
dispute negotiation and dialogue (early in the term), narrative and
counternarrative and their co-existence and then be able to refer to
specific steps that are healthy and maintain the dignity and point of view
of each party. My 2 cents. -Melanie Schikore
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Melanie,
Thanks so much for your note and for reminding us that we all work with
unique populations and what may work with one, may be quite counter-
productive with another. Appreciate the insightful tip! - Kathie
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------SECTION FIVE: WORKSHOPS / SCHEDULE / MISC CHAT------
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Hello October!! You are most welcome indeed. We had such a warm
September that here in the northeast, we are still fighting mosquitos and
flies - something unheard of for this late in the year! I'm looking forward
to a little "frost on the pumpkins" and soon!
I was able to enjoy a bit of cooler weather last week on my visit to Wisconsin.
I want to thank the teachers in Muskego for a great day! They were quite
generous in sharing some of their best student organization tips with us.
I listed many of them above and will include more in the next newsletter
issue.
Tomorrow I'll be heading to Idaho for the Idaho Science Teacher Association
conference in Idaho Falls. I always enjoy my trips back west.
We are also putting together a series of workshops for next June in
South Africa / Botswana. Right now it looks like we'll have a day in Cape Town,
a day in Gaborone and a couple of days in Johannesburg. If you are in the
region and would like to join in, let me know. To see a list of all my workshops,
check the calendar page: http://help4teachers.com/
If you are looking to host a Layered Curriculum® workshop this school year, my
spring calendar is now open. Just send me an email.
As always, my best to you and yours,
Kathie
Dr Kathie F Nunley
Layered Curriculum® . . . because every child deserves a special education (tm)
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