middle schoolers Archives

Apr 15 2025

What Should Parents Know About AI?

As a product of the 80s and 90s, I grew up with a bit of uneasiness with the idea of AI. It seems like a cool idea, to have robots and machines do all of our undesirable tasks. But movies like Terminator drop a bit of fear of a robot takeover into the back of my mind. The list doesn’t stop with Arnold, the killer robot: The Matrix, I, Robot, Bicentennial Man, Short Circuit, Wall-E. They are all movies about how robots take over in some way, shape, or form. It always seemed far-fetched or like a fantasy from a world too far in the future to become my reality. [Read more…]

Kevin Myers

Dr. Kevin Myers is an Executive Administrator for YPI Charter Schools and the Principal at Bert Corona Charter School. He has served the Los Angeles community as a teacher, administrator, and grant director for over 20 years. He has a passion for developing teachers and educational leaders to engage in the challenging work of bringing equity to our schools and our communities. Dr. Myers has developed an expertise in supporting underserved communities, building effective and cohesive school leadership teams, and engaging parents to uplift their communities through engagement at their children’s schools. He wrote his dissertation on teacher self-efficacy and job satisfaction and is a strong advocate for supporting and working with teachers to build a strong and successful school community. In addition to his work at YPI Charter Schools, Dr. Myers is also a faculty member at Cal State Fresno and works with student teacher candidates to earn their credentials as they work through the CalState TEACH program.

www.GenParenting.com

Dec 24 2024

Classroom Differentiated Instruction is Critical for Student Success

Differentiation is a term that has gained significant traction in educational circles over the years and for a good reason. As classrooms become increasingly diverse, teachers are continually challenged to meet the unique needs of each student. Differentiation is an instructional approach that addresses these needs, aiming to ensure that all students have equitable access to learning. [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 17 2024

Parent Volunteers At Your Child’s School

Parent engagement is vital to the culture of a school. Too often, parent engagement is thought of in terms of getting parents to the school for a presentation, or engaging in a fundraiser to fund new classroom technologies. As we all know, parents are our students’ first teachers, and it is the role of the school to provide opportunities for parents to engage in meaningful ways. Just like our students, all of the parents at a school bring their own set of skills and their own, varied needs. Therefore, parent engagement cannot just be a “one-size-fits-all” approach where parents are invited to campus but never asked to participate in the work of educating our children. A parent engagement program needs to be varied, stimulating, and useful to both school programming and initiatives and also for the parents showing up to support. [Read more…]

Kevin Myers

www.GenParenting.com

Jun 25 2024

Summer Play Options for Kids

It’s summertime and our children are excited about laying around and relaxing for endless days. They may run outside and ride their bikes, garden, or explore creeks and nature. Or they may glue themselves to television reruns and computer screens. Each summer, parents struggle with ensuring that their children have sufficient stimulation without getting lost watching television shows or playing computer games. Other parents struggle with overscheduling their children to participate in various camps. This ensures that children have proper supervision while parents are gone from home with jobs and family obligations. [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.

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