All Blog Posts (452)

Here are some great New Years resolutions created by a seasoned teacher and administrator. What are YOUR New Years resolutions for yourself or your students?

I will find more time to make…

 My nephew, Kylar, has many gifts. He wrote an essay thanking his third grade teacher for understanding what he needed when he was in third grade. I find it a poignant reminder of all the fantastic educators I have met. Teachers that don't insist 'this is my class, and students need to do as they are told.' The essay is about teachers that allow children to learn in the way that is best for them, whether it is…

I recently saw an interview with Oprah Winfrey who named young Mattie Stepanek as one of her greatest inspirations.  Mattie was a young man with a rare form of  muscular dystrophy who through his writings became quite well known, including several of  his books of poetry which made the New York…

This is the time of year when food seems to be in abundance. Everyone looks forward to their favorite holiday recipe and sharing meals with loved ones. Then when the holidays are over, we will see a plethora of diet ads for everyone to shed off the pounds they gained and…

Keeping in mind a few small things will enable all of your children to communicate their wishes this holiday season.

Remember, there are many ways to communicate including writing/drawing, facial expressions, actions/movement, technology,…

With my busy travel schedule this fall, I missed the release of this movie so have settled into the book entitled: Waiting for Superman: How We Can Save America's Failing Public Schools. It's a fascinating look at the challenges our teachers, schools, students all face and the future of our educational system as a whole. In case you missed the movie like I did, here is the trailer. The DVD release date is expected to be in February…

Special needs kids present a unique challenge when it comes to potty training and there are many tricks, tools and devices that I would love to have you share.



This week my last child, finally succeeded in being dry at night. It is time to celebrate and burn the pull-ups!



Personally,…

They're coming! My grandchildren and nieces and nephews will be with me for the holidays. I am joyful...and a little nervous! Many of the kids staying over are bringing gifts. Many of them are gifted intellectually. Some of them have the gifts of ADD, and some ADHD. Throw in some SPD and sprinkle with a speech delay...and we have lots of gifts!…

We appreciate your continued support in our effort to start 50 paper making programs across the United States. Please continue to vote for us by going on line at http://www.refresheverything.com/noteworthy and texting 104407 at 73774.

Also let us know of any programs that might benifit from a paper making business. We will be looking for 50 such programs when we win the grant.

I understand from Sue that the link to our site, at the Pepsi Refresh Everything Grant, didn't work. To get to our site to vote you can go to the home page of http://www.refresheverything.com and push the education button. Then push the $25000 button. The name of our idea is Note Worthy. Another way is to add /noteworthy to the end of refresheverything.com address so it looks like this:…

Hi,

I am honored to announce that I have been asked by Sandra Schefkind, Pediatric Coordinator for the American OT Association (AOTA) to lead a virtual chat on sensory processing and team empowerment. You (parents, educators, therapists, administrators, school therapists and clinic therapists) can log on to http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/73733 on Dec 14 at 4 PM EST.

The title will be :…

Several months ago the paper making program that I started for my Intellectually Disabled students was featured on this site. We won several awards for innovative teaching and were featured in the news paper. Now I want to take the idea a step further by starting 50 new programs across the United States. I need your help in 2 ways.

First, I need your votes. Only the top ideas will be funded. You can go to…

Seems like we are all hearing these days about the overuse of cell phone texting as a form of communication especially among teens. I certainly experienced this first hand with our 15 year old nephew visiting us for the Thanksgiving holidays.…