Teaching successful students Archives - Page 13 of 17

Nov 15 2022

Homeschool Time Management

Homeschool budgeting sometimes has nothing to do with math and money, but with time. Planning for the school day and year is crucial for the success and sanity of both teacher and students. At least for most of us. I have friends who are very unstructured in their homeschooling and their children seem to thrive. While I applaud them, I need a plan!

When I started homeschooling, my planning consisted of choosing curriculum and following the scope and sequence. I planned for the week and tried my best to get it done. If I didn’t, I felt like a failure. Throughout the year, I got distracted by all the bright, shiny opportunities available. Weekly homeschool choir and drama? Ultimate frisbee? Cool field trip tomorrow? Sign the kids up and we’ll make it all work!!! [Read more…]

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

Oct 04 2022

How to Improve Your Children’s School Successes

As an elementary school principal, I provide guidance and resources to support our students’ social-emotional and academic successes. Our school also uses Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) to reinforce positive social behaviors and define consequences for problem behaviors. We focus on ensuring a predictable, consistent, positive, and a safe school environment for all students. By using a common language on school-wide expectations, less time is spent on discipline. More time is focused on instruction, building a positive school climate, and promoting positive interactions between staff, students, and families. [Read more…]

Rafael Zavala

Dr. Rafael Zavala became passionate about learning at an early age. As a child of farmworkers in the Salinas Valley, Rafael attended Santa Clara University for his undergraduate degree and completed Masters’ Degrees at Saint Louis University and Harvard. Most recently, Dr. Zavala completed his Ed.D. from San Jose State University.

Mr. Zavala started teaching in 2002 at Solidad Unified School District in California and later at Cambridge Public Schools and Malden Public Schools in Massachusetts. After returning to California in 2015, Dr. Zavala served in diverse administrative roles including Assistant Principal, Administrator of School Climate and Culture, and Administrator II of Personnel Services. Rafael became the Principal of Sakamoto Elementary School in San Jose, California in 2021.

A primary focus of his work is to ensure the equitable educational support services for all students by implementing Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). Mr. Zavala firmly believes that when district and school staff collaborate to create effective tiered behavioral support strategies, students will succeed at grade level and beyond.

www.GenParenting.com

Sep 20 2022

Homeschool to Traditional Classroom

As our son approached middle school, I realized that I was no longer equipped to teach him adequately in math and science. Neither subject was enjoyable or interesting to me in middle school, except that time we took apart our science teacher’s lawn mower, cleaned it, and managed to get it running again. He called it a unit on engines. I think it’s called free labor. Either way, it was memorable. But I digress.

As seventh grade loomed around the corner for my son, I knew that I wanted someone who excelled in math and science to teach him. I could either hire private tutors and shuttle him to those classes, or he would need to return to a traditional classroom where the teachers could handle his questions without having to google the answer. We chose to find a school.

Since he had been homeschooled since kindergarten, I wanted the transition to a classroom to be successful, both socially and academically. I had been his primary teacher since kindergarten, and I had some educational concerns. How would he adjust from a flexible homeschooling schedule to a traditional school day with several different teachers and formal grading? Would we discover that he had major gaps in his learning that would prevent him from succeeding? [Read more…]

Jo Baldwin

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

www.GenParenting.com

Jul 26 2022

How Covid Affected Student Learning – Part 1

The Week of March 4th, 2019

The country had been going crazy with the politics of President Trump. Protesters were wreaking havoc in cities. Random fires were being set. A real threat to our safety was felt throughout the neighborhood, school, and home.

My first experience/awareness of the panic with COVID-19 was a routine Thursday evening trip to Costco. The parking lot was full like it was a day in December getting close to the holiday season. We could barely find a place to park. The store was packed and buzzing with people. This is super unusual for Thursdays. The main reason I shopped on that day of the week was because it was not packed. On this particular Thursday you could find some people masked while shopping. [Read more…]

Danielle Gentry

Danielle’s first step in education did not begin with education at all. It began with her first love for science. She received a B.S. in Biological Science, with a concentration in Molecular Biology. Her five years of experience as a chemist in the biotech industry at SYVA and Dade Behring Diagnostics include both areas of quality control and research and development. Her contributions were qualifying products for release to sell to the diagnostic market as well as developing new diagnostic technology for immunoassay detection. Danielle’s subtle transition to discovering her passion for education was through the birth of her daughter. She became a stay at home mom. Her uber volunteerism at her daughter’s elementary school gained her access to her path of education. She now holds a multiple subject teaching credential and M.A. in Education from National University. She has over ten years of experience at Sakamoto Elementary School as an educator in kindergarten, sixth grade, second grade, and a 2/3 combination class. Her teaching is rooted in a constructivist model while fostering independence and accountability in the classroom.