May 09 2023

Ten Strategies to Ensure Student Success

Our staff met these past few weeks to reflect on the many successes that we have achieved with our students this school year. [Read more…]

Yvette King-Berg, College Readiness

Yvette King-Berg, is the Executive Director of Youth Policy Institute’s Charter Schools. She was the former California Charter Schools Association Vice-President of School Development and Outreach-Southern California. Ms. King-Berg has over thirty years of experience working with teachers, students, parents, and organizations in a variety of positions including Director, Assistant Director, Curriculum Advisor, Bilingual, and Title 1 Coordinators, classroom teacher (K-12) in Pasadena and LAUSD. She has been married for twenty-three years, and is the proud mother of her son, EJ, who attends UC Berkeley.

Feb 28 2023

How to Make Writing Fun

How to Make Writing Fun (Part 2)

Most students feel challenged to complete their writing assignments. As an intervention elementary school teacher, I love to empower students with imaginative and engaging writing assignments. For example, my second-grade students wanted to learn more about rattlesnakes after hearing my personal story about being bitten by a rattlesnake. Here is an outline of questions they asked for our writing activity:

How did I get bitten by the rattlesnake?
Why do snakes bite people?
Where was I when it happened?
What did the bite feel like?
Did I catch the snake or did it get away?
What did I do after the bite?
Did I phone 911?
Did an ambulance transport me to the hospital?
What did I do while waiting for the ambulance?
What happened when I arrived at the hospital?
What type of medication did the doctors use to fight a venomous snake bite?
What does venomous, antivenom, and antidotes mean?
How is antivenom created?
What types of animals help create antivenom antidotes?
How long did it take to get better?
Do I still have problems with the bite?
What can a person do so they do not get a snake bite?

[Read more…]

Mary Ann Burke, Digital Education Expert

Mary Ann Burke, Ed.D., Digital Education Expert, is a substitute distance learning teacher for Oak Grove School District in San Jose, California and the author of STUDENT-ENGAGED ASSESSMENT: Strategies to Empower All Learners (Rowman & Littlefield: 2020). Dr. Burke creates digital language arts and substitute teaching K – 12 activities for teachers and parents. She is the Cofounder of the Genparenting.com blog. Burke is the former Director II of Categorical & Special Projects for the Santa Clara County Office of Education that supports 31 school districts serving 272,321 students in Santa Clara County. She is also a previous Director – State & Federal Compliance for Oakland Unified School District, the former Director – Grantwriter for the Compton Unified School District, and was the initial VISTA Director for the Community Partnership Coalition in southern California. Much of her work focuses on creating innovative digital trainings and partnership programs for teachers and families to support students’ learning. These programs were featured as a best practice at a National Title I Conference, California’s Title I Conferences, AERA Conferences, an ASCD Conference, the NASSP Conference, and statewide educator conferences.

Jan 31 2023

How to Get Kids Inspired to Write (Part 1)

Last October I was asked to teach how to write a scary story with second grade students. First, I read a scary story to the children. Then I provided them with writing prompts and strategies on how they might create and write their own scary stories. As a personal example, I dramatized a scary story about how I was bitten by a rattlesnake and was given antibodies from a horse to fight the poison in my body. The students were captivated by my story and suggested that I write a children’s book about my experience. They also were eager to learn more about rattlesnake bites. I promised I would return at a later date for students to learn more about this adventure. [Read more…]

Mary Ann Burke, Digital Education Expert

Dec 27 2022

Being a Mom and Homeschool Teacher

One of the beautiful benefits of homeschooling is how well I know my “students” before the school year even begins. I know their interests and aversions, their academic strengths and gaps, and their personality traits and quirks. I can adapt the curriculum and our days accordingly. I often know before the school day begins if they got a good night’s sleep, argued with a family member that morning, felt a little under the weather the night before, or have recently experienced the emotional loss of a family member. I also can anticipate that they might have trouble concentrating if something exciting is approaching, like a family road trip or a friend’s birthday extravaganza.

Understanding Our Children’s Learning Needs

Because I wear the hats of both mom and teacher, I have this information ahead of time. I can adapt the lesson, be an empathetic listener, take the time to teach them coping skills and process what is happening. As I homeschool my own children, I am grateful that I have the knowledge and flexibility to help them through the ups and downs of childhood and adolescence during the school day.

Being Objective as the Teacher

However, there is a flip side to doing life and school together with my children. Sometimes, the lines between school and home get blurred. Most of the time, we are traveling through life experiences together. If my child is hurting, struggling, or grieving, I often am experiencing those emotions as well.

Balancing Mom Responsibilities with Teaching

As a classroom teacher, it was easier for me to compartmentalize my life inside and outside of school and not bring my personal worries and distractions into the classroom. As the mom and teacher, it takes a concentrated effort during hard or stressful seasons of life to not let my personal life seep into our school day. Children are so intuitive. They can sense and often reflect the emotional state that we project. I can get sidetracked by the growing pile of laundry, the upsetting doctor’s call that came right before the school day, or the worries that interrupted my sleep the night before. If I do not set these distractions aside to focus on our school day, those emotions will transfer to my kids, interrupting their education.

Blending Home and School Needs

It takes intention to know when to blend home and school, when to process life together during the day, and when to set it aside until later. The close proximity of school and home can be a blessing and a burden. Recognizing this duality is the easy part. Finding a healthy balance takes awareness and commitment.

Jo Baldwin

Jo Baldwin first considered teaching as a career in seventh grade after helping a cousin survive summer school homework. Jo’s high school English teacher also inspired her love of teaching and continues to be one of her mentors to this day. After graduating with a B.A. in English and a secondary teaching credential from Northern Illinois University, she moved to California and taught in a private secondary school and then a public middle school. Jo now spends her time homeschooling two of her children, chasing animals on her hobby farm, and writing children’s literature. She loves to travel and explore wherever life takes her, wander through used bookstores, drink strong coffee with plenty of cream, and use newly sharpened pencils. She agrees with William Butler Yeats’ viewpoint on learning: “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”

www.GenParenting.com

Aug 23 2022

Why I Homeschool

I never thought I would homeschool. Ever. As a third grader, I cried when my best friend announced she was going to be homeschooled. I was devastated! To me, homeschoolers were isolated and terribly bored. The homeschoolers I knew wore long dresses, rode in big passenger vans with multiple siblings, and stared awkwardly at strangers in public without speaking. I was, of course, overjoyed the next year when my friend returned to class.

As a parent, I fell into homeschooling rather accidentally. I had taught in traditional classrooms and always planned for my children to attend public school. In order to maximize family time with my husband’s crazy work schedule and because we knew we would be moving halfway through the year, we decided (very last minute) to homeschool. [Read more…]

Jo Baldwin