Professional Learning Communities (PLC’s) in Schools Improving Instruction for Students with Learning Disabilities

Teachers in NJ have formed PLC’s to work on adapting lessons for students with disabilities in inclusion settings.  Grant money has been used to provide training and purchase technology to improve practices in the classroom.  Link to Article.

For more information regarding evaluation and consultation services for students with suspected learning problems such as dyslexia email Ron.

Live Online Technology Helps Expand Learning for Students

The Walnut Valley Unified School District in California is using technology to live stream an algebra II honors course to students across schools. This idea started when the district wanted to expand access to advanced courses. "Streaming allows students who do not want to miss any instructional time at their home school to learn a curriculum that has not been offered at the middle school level until now," principal Les Ojeda said.  Link to Article.

Dyslexia

What is Dyslexia?  What Causes it?  What can be done about it?

Dyslexia is a neurobiological disorder that affects the development of both decoding (reading words) and encoding (spelling).  Go to Dyslexia learn more about symptoms and types of dyslexia.

Dyslexia can range from mild to severe and can impact reading and spelling at different times in a person's academic career.  Some people do not struggle significantly until they are in college or demanding graduate programs.  Others struggle from the very beginning of school.

Factors that improve a person's rate of improvement in reading and spelling:

1.  How early the person is identified

2.  Number of hours spent in a proper intervention

3.  Number of months during which the intervention was continued

4.  The person's level of intelligence

5.  The severity of the reading disability

6.  The extent of personality and behavior difficulties.

7.  The experience of the teacher providing the intervention

8.  The closeness of the supervision of the intervention techniques

Interventions and accommodations can be used to help students of all ages to cope and succeed.

For dyslexia consultation and evaluation services email me at rhockman11@gmail.com

Essentials of Dyslexia Assessment and Intervention

US Attitudes on Key Public Education Issues

Highlights from the results of its annual Gallup poll of U.S.attitudes on key issues in public education:

 Charter schools probably offer a better education than traditional public schools.

Most Americans don’t know about the Common Core and those who do don’t understand it.

The significant increase in testing in the past decade has either hurt or made no difference in improving schools.

Students’ standardized test scores should not be used to evaluate teachers. Teacher evaluations should be available to the public — and so should evaluations of doctors and police.

High school students should be able to earn college credits via the Internet while attending high school.

Lack of financial support continues to be the biggest problem facing public schools.

To see more poll data, visit www.pdkpoll.org

Neuroscience for the Classroom

Researchers from the University of Minnesota have put together some concepts borne out of the flood of amazing information from neuroscience that can be helpful for the classroom.  The researchers believe that these concepts have the potential to help teachers teach students how they think about their own learning.

BRAIN U LINK

Drawing on a 2008 paper on neuroscience concepts, Dubinsky, Varma, and Roehrig
suggest that the following points are most helpful for K-12 teachers:
- The brain is the body’s most complex organ; it has more than 100 billion neurons and
well over a trillion synapses. The brain’s wiring is remarkably similar among all
humans, with individuality coming from variations at the synaptic level.
- The brain’s neurons use both electrical and chemical signals as they respond to stimuli
from the five senses. All perceptions, thoughts, behaviors, and memories result from
combinations of signals among neurons.
- Life experiences – a teacher’s lesson, a movie, dancing, talking to a friend, texting,
feeling stressed, using a drug – change the brain, growing new synapses and circuits
and turning on nervous-system genes.
- Early-childhood experiences – behaviors, thoughts, and memories – shape different sets
of associated synapses and neural pathways, which continue to change throughout life
in response to every interaction.
- Synaptic pathways are loosely grouped into sensory, motor, emotive, homeostatic,
attentional, and decision-making systems (among others) in the central nervous system.
- The brain is the foundation of the mind; intelligence arises as the brain reasons, plans,
and solves problems. Intelligence is the accumulated history of synaptic activation
among the myriad brain pathways.
- Using language to communicate with others enhances communication skills by
exercising neural pathways.
- The brain is naturally curious as it tries to make sense of all incoming sensory
information. It recognizes conflicts, makes predictions, and guides behavior.
- The salience of experiences determines how well they are retained; only experiences
with an emotional stamp are committed to long-term memory.
- Communication among neurons is strengthened or weakened by patterns of use – the
more stimuli, the more learning; the fewer stimuli, the less learning. The act of
remembering something strengthens that specific memory.
- Learning strengthens a set of electrical and chemical imprints distributed throughout the
brain. Mastery comes from repetition, rehearsal, application, and self-evaluation.
- Our physiological state – nutritional, hormonal, emotional, level of stress, adequacy of
sleep, oxygen intake – will influence how well we learn, remember, and make
decisions.
- Structured learning environments – schools, for example – provide opportunities to
build our mental capacity and capabilities.