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How Teachers Support Students’ Unique Learning Talents

How Teachers Support Students’ Unique Learning Talents

I work primarily with kindergarten through 2nd grade students. Each student I work with has unique talents, skills, and needs to remediate or nurture. When working with over 20 students in a classroom, I must focus on creating curriculum for the greater good of the student population based on the grade-level common core standards mandated by California. Then I must adapt my curriculum to meet the needs of highly challenged students as well as gifted and talented students. When working with second grade students after the COVID school shutdowns, a few students are still emerging at the first-grade level in their reading and math skills while others are performing at the 4 through 5th grade levels. [Read more…]

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What is Response to Intervention Education?

What is Response to Intervention Education?

If you look inside any general education classroom, chances are good that you’d see different students struggling for different reasons. It can be hard for a teacher to tell right away which students are struggling or why. Simply put, Response to Intervention (RTI) is a framework for implementing proactive data-driven decision-making. It provides teachers with better, more timely information about students to improve student learning and performance. [Read more…]

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Magnificent Magical Mud

Magnificent Magical Mud

by Mary Ann Burke

INTRODUCTION: GenParenting bloggers will periodically feature select children’s stories with educational and social-emotional growth themes. Magnificent Magical Mud was written to support second grade learners. Students will complete mud science projects and research online informational text to write a mud report.

Why do I love mud?

I have loved mud since I was three years old. I liked the way it squished through my fingers. It was fun to smush my feet in sticky, muddy puddles. Mud was my favorite ingredient for pies and sloshy rock leaf soup. My favorite activity was slinging mud balls at my irritating older brother. Maybe I liked mud because my mom hated mud. Perhaps it was because our backyard became flooded with lots of muddy puddles that I played in whenever it rained. Then my mom would make me change out of my muddy clothes before I stepped into the house.

What is mud?

I was excited when our teacher, Mrs. Hecklebee, asked our class, “What is mud and how do you make it?”

We learned that you can make different types of mud when you mix water with various types of soil. Clay soil is heavy, sticky when wet, and has very fine mineral specks. Sandy soil consists of small pieces of weathered rock and is light and crumbly. Loamy soil has clay, sand silt, and dead plants in it. I was amazed that there were different types of soil that could make mud. I must have used clay soil for great mud pies when I played in my backyard.

Sophia excitedly asked our teacher, “What is the difference between sandy mud and clay mud?”

Then Manuel exclaimed, “Does one type of mud take more water to make? Can you add leaves and branches to make the mud thick?”

My teacher responded to our questions by having us make a quart of clay mud. First, we scooped 4 cups of clay soil into a bucket. Second, we mixed it with a few cups of water to make it stick to our fingers. Finally, we added lots more water to make the mud roll off our fingers. [Read more…]

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Grandparenting an Athelete

Grandparenting an Athlete

It has been an exciting school year. The younger granddaughters are learning gymnastics as they advance in their ballet classes and performances. Our middle school grandson has completed a full season of cross country. Our passionate middle school granddaughter juggles a full schedule of select soccer and volleyball. And our older grandchild loves to sail and snow ski. Our greatest challenge is to be fully present for each grandchild as we watch them compete and follow their passions. Each has their individualized preferences for how we are present for their various activities. All request various levels of encouragement. Some love us to cheer loudly while others want us to observe quietly. The older grandkids accommodate our support while the younger grandkids want our full-time participation at all events. Thankfully, we are the grandparents. Our only job is to support each grandchild with their preferred level of support and drive them to an event when requested. [Read more…]

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Understanding Parent Participation in Special Education

Understanding Parent Participation in Special Education

As part of this series, I wrote about the special education law IDEA. One of the key principles of IDEA is “parent participation.” Parent participation, as outlined in IDEA, refers to the active involvement of parents of children with disabilities in the special education process. The law recognizes that parents are essential partners in their child’s education and aims to ensure that they have a meaningful role in decision-making and planning for their child’s education. Here are some key aspects of parent participation under IDEA: [Read more…]

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