Engaging the student, utilizing knowledge of various senses, taking advantage of free online tools, my son’s fourth grade social studies teacher did all these things when she showed the kids the following in class today:

In my years as an educator, I have repeatedly experienced examples proving what intuition has always told me: People – children included – will “rise to the occasion” when high expectations set for them, assuming those expectations are reasonable, and support is provided. Even very young students know when someone accepts less than best efforts, [...]

As we quickly approach the upcoming school year, think about creating a space in your home that is a designated “quiet space” conducive to studying and reading. In these days of pervasive media, it is difficult sometimes to ‘turn it all off’ and focus. Your child should have an area that is dedicated to his/her [...]

This list from an article in the July 2009 ASCD Educational Leadership magazine includes books by age level that are good for teaching social responsibility. If anyone has used any of these or done any specific activities with their kids to encourage social responsibility, I’d love to hear about it! – Heather

Parents, we hope you take a moment to check out our free summer mini e-course, and send us some feedback! We’d love to hear your opinions! Happy Fourth of July everyone! – Heather

PBS has done it again! A new site, called PBS Teachers, has activities, resources, webinars, discussions, etc. etc. etc. for teachers (and parents who teach!) of kids from pre-K to grade 12! Check it out and enjoy! – Heather

FREE for 7 – 13 year olds – Peak Experiences is putting up the 350′ zipline over the quarry at the West End of Belle Isle tomorrow (Sat.) between 9 and 2 – kids must be with a parent or guardian! (The xterra race series is this weekend; this is part of the expo.) Get [...]

“In this lesson, students explore the differences between e-mail and letter writing by contrasting and identifying different forms, and experimenting with their own e-mail and letter compositions.” Check it out at ReadWriteThink*. * ReadWriteThink is a website from the International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English. It’s purpose is to provide educators [...]

I just stumbled across a set of videos to support Language Arts Education from Discovery Education. Downside: they are not interactive. Upside: they are free, short, and interesting. – Heather

PBS has launched PBS Read – a site where kids, parents, caregivers can work together on reading! PBS already has some great reading and writing resources available for kids and adults, and it was great to see that they merged the two audiences with this website. In my mind it encourages families to take a [...]