academic success Archives - Page 33 of 34

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

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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.

May 30 2017

Effective Parenting! Capable Kids! Strategies that Ensure Success!

How often do you feel overwhelmed when trying to coax your child to cooperate with you? The typical parent makes several hundred decisions each week while responding to each child’s needs and, at the same time, managing potential conflicts. Effective Parenting! Capable Kids! can be purchased on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1544039166/ref=rdr_ext_tmb. [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.

May 16 2017

What Should You Consider When Selecting Your Child’s Preschool?

Each spring, parents struggle when making a decision about selecting the appropriate learning environment for their preschool child. Important considerations should include the following:

What type of learning environment supports your child?
Does the school provide both academic and play centered learning activities?
Is the school day structured to meet your child’s needs?
Does the school provide for outside activities, free play, arts exploration, and creative expression?
Does the school’s curriculum accommodate a variety of learning modes?
Should you register for a school that requires parent participation?
Is the school accessible from your home and work place?
How much can you afford to spend on a preschool program?
Does the school provide flexible extended care hours beyond the regular school day?
Do the students represent the demographics of your community?

[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.

Apr 25 2017

The Importance of Educational Assessment

Parents often ask us how they can use assessment data to support their children’s learning. Think of assessment as a quilt whose pieces include standardized test results, classroom measures, report cards, and other information on your child’s learning. These quilt pieces should come together to support each student’s academic success.

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Laura Greenstein, Ed.D.

Laura Greenstein has been an educator for over 30 years serving as a teacher, department chair, and school leader in multiple grades and subjects. She combines this background with her experience as a school board member and professional development specialist to bring fresh and original ideas to educators about teaching, learning, and assessing. She consults with schools and districts and presents at workshops and conferences locally and nationally. As an adjunct professor at the University of Connecticut and the University of New Haven, she teaches Human Development and Assessment to undergraduate and graduate students and more recently, Teaching, Learning, and Assessing with Technology in the 6^th year Digital Literacy program. She has a B.S. from the University of Connecticut, an M.S. from the State University of New York at Oneonta in education, a 6th year from Sacred Heart University in administration, and an Ed.D. from Johnson and Wales University in Educational Leadership. Her website, http://www.assessmentnetwork.net, is a valuable source of information on issues and topics in assessment. She is the author of multiple books on assessment including What Teachers Really Need to Know About Formative Assessment, Assessing 21st Century Skills: A Guide to Evaluating Mastery and Authentic Learning, Restorative Assessment: Strength-Based Practices to Support all Learners, and Sticky Assessment: Classroom Strategies to Amplify Student Learning.

Mar 07 2017

How to Find Help for Your Child by Accessing Community Resources

Joey just came home from school. He was crying that he no longer wanted to go to kindergarten because he did not have friends. Joey complained that the teacher put him into timeout again for disrupting the class. He suddenly had a stomach ache. Mom was beside herself. This was not the first time that Joey complained. It was becoming a weekly and sometimes a daily event. [Read more…]

Carole Flowers, Health