Sep 19 2017

Places to Take Your Preschool Kids

As the summer days draw to a close, you probably have exhausted places to take your preschool kids. Parents have identified the following fun activities to pursue with your children this fall:

Inclusive Parks: Several parks have created Magical Bridge Playground areas that are inclusive for children with varying developmental needs. These areas typically include ramps with climbing structures, swings, and slides. Magical Bridge Playgrounds provide a lifetime of kindness and compassion through truly inclusive play. Details can be found at magicalbridge.org.
Water Activities: Many parks now provide a water play area with water tables and water channels to promote exploration when playing with water and “cooking” with sludge. Children can learn the basic science concepts of sink and float, and observe the velocity of objects floating through the channels. As an added bonus, children must learn how to take turns with the various activities. Typically, children, who bring their own toys, must share as they watch their toys gush through the channels of water. [Read more…]

Joyce Iwasaki, Early Parenting

Joyce Iwasaki has over thirty years of educational experience working with diverse students in grades from preschool through high school. Joyce’s extensive background includes teaching elementary school, serving on early childhood advisory boards, and advocating for educational initiatives as a legislative aide. During her tenure as a legislative aide, she helped create legislation that allowed incarcerated mothers to keep their newborn babies with them while in prison. Additional legislation was enacted to allow incarcerated pregnant mothers to remain unshackled during labor and delivery. Ms. Iwasaki established and served as the president of an educational scholarship foundation for fifteen years. Her foundation awarded college scholarships to emerging student leaders who provided service to their schools and communities. Joyce is active in performing arts and cultural organizations. She also provides ongoing support to her daughter and family by raising her grandson in her home.

Jul 18 2017

How You Can Help Your Daughters Find Their Inner Beauty!

At a very young age, our daughters feel rushed to grow-up and be “beautiful”. Our television programs and the media promote female images of beauty and success that are almost humanly impossible to achieve without Photoshop and editing. There are too many advertisements that promote physical beauty over inner beauty and make-up instead of the contributions our daughters can make. What messages are being sent to our little girls? How can we help our daughters become confident and self-reliant with so many disturbing messages? [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.

Jul 04 2017

Oh No! My Son’s Off to College!

Oh No! My Son’s Off to College! How Do I Prepare for the Next Six Weeks?

After many years of dreaming, guiding, coaching, nagging, and finally helping our son graduate from high school, he will be traveling to a new home and a new school within the next few weeks. My primary concern is to help my son become adjusted to a new location, new people, and how to navigate through the new school system. My personal solution to these challenges is to help my son create a survival checklist of what to do and where to go when all else fails in this transition. My basic checklist at this time includes the following: [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.

Jun 06 2017

Celebrating Your Child’s High School Rite of Passage!

I vividly reminder when my precious son turned one year of age. We celebrated with a delightful family birthday party that included a committed family and friends’ rite of passage. Our rite of passage included:

Asking all to become part of a village of support as guardians and godparents in our son’s journey to adulthood
Standing in a circle and having all explain how they would support my son’s emotional and social growth
Offering words of encouragement on how they would support their newly adopted godson as aunties and uncles
Envisioning how our son would mature into young adulthood
Providing a prayer of thanks to all for being part of our extended family in our son’s village

[Read more…]

Yvette King-Berg, College Readiness

Apr 18 2017

Decision Making and the Gift of Perspective

“The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. The most you can do is live inside that hope, running down its hallways, touching the walls on both sides.” — from Animal Dreams, Barbara Kingsolver

Decision Making

Decision making for our children can be stressful. Some of the decisions we face during the spring of the school year are:

How can I keep my children safe when they are home in the summer and I cannot be with them?

What school should my children attend next year?

What summer programs are best for my children?

How can my children get into the best colleges?

[Read more…]

Karen Salzer, Special Education

Karen Salzer has over thirty years’ experience as a resource teacher in the Palo Alto public schools. She earned a doctorate in education from Stanford University. Her areas of expertise involve working with culturally diverse students with special needs including autism, emotional disturbances, learning disabilities, and health issues. As a special educator, Ms. Salzer served as a liaison between parents of special needs students and school staff. She guided parents and staff in identifying an appropriate education for each student in the public school setting. Additionally, she aided students and parents in navigating the educational requirements for graduation, test-taking and in finding support services within the community. Through her leadership, Ms. Salzer encouraged collaborative problem-solving between parents and school staff – such as accommodations for test taking, extended time and use of technology. She loves to follow-up with her students when they become adults and to highlight their many successes in education and careers. Ms. Salzer uses these success testimonials to reassure parents of other children and to encourage them to help their children pursue their full potential. Ms. Salzer is the mother of four adult children and helps care for her five grandchildren