stuggling students Archives - Page 6 of 14

Sep 15 2023

Elements of a Free and Appropriate Education

Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) is a legal term used in the United States that ensures that children with disabilities have access to an education that is tailored to their individual needs and is provided at no cost to their parents or guardians. FAPE is a critical component of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which is a federal law enacted to protect the educational rights of students with disabilities.

Under IDEA, all eligible children with disabilities between the ages of 3 and 21 years are entitled to receive special education and related services that are designed to meet their unique needs and help them make meaningful educational progress. These services are provided in the least restrictive environment, which means that to the maximum extent appropriate, children with disabilities are educated alongside their non-disabled peers. [Read more…]

Alison Whiteley

Alison Whiteley has been a special education teacher for over 15 years, spending most of her time working with elementary students and families. After graduating from the University of Colorado with a Bachelor of Arts in Special Education and Psychology, she continued her education with a Masters in Reading from Walden University. In addition, she has achieved endorsements supporting Early Childhood Special Education and Diverse Learners which she uses to help identify needs across all learners.

Ms. Whiteley is trained in Wilson Reading System and Yoshimoto Orton-Gillingham. She believes all students can learn to read and be successful. She has served as a Special Education Coach and Mentor to fellow specialists and teachers, facilitated the creation of her elementary school’s Response to Intervention/Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (RTI/MTSS) process and helped parents through the Special Education process as IEP Coach for parents. In 2013 she completed the National Boards of Professional Teaching in Exceptional Needs with recertification in 2022. Her areas of expertise involve working with students with learning disabilities, supporting stakeholders moving through the special education process, and helping parents and teachers understand what they can do to support struggling learners in the public school settings.

She is a founding member of the Colorado Reading League and a member of the International Dyslexia Association in Colorado. Alison has two greyhounds and two nephews who keep her busy outside of school. She is the CEO of Toad-ally Exceptional Learners at http://www.toad-allyexceptionallearners.com. Alison is a valuable source of information to support teachers and parents, although she is not a lawyer and does not give legal advice. Her services support families through the IEP process and how they can be an equal member of the team through positive interactions. She focuses on collaboration and using tools to take IEPs to the new level of helping students achieve.

www.GenParenting.com

Sep 12 2023

10 Strategies to Get Your Child Excited About Learning

Each fall most students return to school and are excited about their new grade level and teacher assignments. Some become anxious because school is challenging for them. Others may have a history of struggling to learn or functioning successfully in a classroom setting. These students need added intervention support to ensure that they will succeed in school. [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.

Aug 29 2023

Recycling and Environmental Conservation

I am passionate about conserving resources and mindful recycling (or reducing waste). Each school year I want to help students become aware of what is going on around them in relevant and useful ways. My hope is for each child to connect with something that interests them as they become an advocate or steward for change and making a difference in their community.

Get Kids Excited

Initially, I get the kids excited about their learning environment by adopting a class mascot. Last year our class adopted sea otters. We learned that sea otters are important in managing sea urchins and keeping the ocean’s kelp forests healthy. Students were excited as they learned more about these topics:

Sea otters are aquatic engineers and balance harm to ocean environments.
Kelp feeds sea otters and absorbs carbon in the ocean.
Management of microplastics and single use plastics in the environment can reduce pollution.
Effective conservation strategies in the home, community, and the environment can have a significant impact on waste reduction.
Kids can make a difference in their communities.
Honey bees are important in balancing the ecosystem.

Learn About Recycling

Our end of the year project was to invent and create new objects on collage boards after collecting recycled trash at school and in neighborhoods. The students worked as teams to build a honey bee playground. They used plastic tape, food packaging, bubble wrap, cereal cups, straws, and plastic bags. As students worked on their projects, they learned it takes 20 years for a plastic bag to decompose and 200 years for a plastic straw. Now their next challenge will be to study products that can made from these byproducts. For example, I recently purchased a recycled purse made from cork and gave a friend a recycled cosmetic bag with recycled soaps.

Limit Waste

As we enter our next school year, what can students, parents, and teachers do together to limit the pollution and waste in our communities? Please share your ideas in the comments section below this blog.

Melissa Donahoe

Melissa has been an educator for over 20 years, and has spent the largest block of her teaching career in second grade, with additional experience in Grades 1 through 4.

After graduating from the University of Nevada with a Bachelor of Science Degree in education, with a dual degree in special education, Melissa traveled through Europe. Ms. Donahoe taught her first teaching assignment at a Department of Defense School in Germany. Following her husband’s military career, she also taught at a Title 1 school in Ft. Lewis, and finally landed in Silicon Valley, where she has taught for the past 16 years.

Melissa trained with the Noyce Foundation’s Writer’s Workshop. She has served as a Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) coach at her school, where she facilitated curiosity and a love for learning among her students.

Melissa developed a passion for biodiversity after visiting Monterey Bay Aquarium with her nephew. She adopted a sea otter mascot named “Loutre” and discovered her fascination with ocean health, imparting to her students the relationship between sea otters and their critical role in maintaining healthy kelp forests. Along with ocean health, Melissa inspires awareness among her students about microplastics in the environment. She is a follower of the Jane Goodall Institute’s Roots & Shoots program and believes that small changes at home can foster activism that leads to healthy life habits.

Melissa has a daughter who is a junior in high school and a son who is attending his second year of college at the University of Nevada.

Jun 20 2023

Getting Kids to Read

It’s summertime! School is out of session and our children love to sleep in and play outside. It is hot and our children enjoy waterplay and staying up late. But what can we do to avoid the summer slide? As a teacher, I send home 12 donated books for each child to use for summer reading. I instruct them to read each day throughout the summer and write in a journal their reflections about what they read and learned from each book. Then I tell them to bring their journals into class in the fall and share with their teachers their wonderful reading adventures. I also warn my younger readers that if they do not practice reading each day, they may forget how to read at the start of a new school year. They agree that they must practice and are proud when they have completed extended reading homework assignments. [Read more…]

Mary Ann Burke, Digital Education Expert

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.

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