Go Beyond Appreciation on World Teachers’ Day Since 1994, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has celebrated World Teachers’ Day on October 5th. Each May we celebrate Teacher Appreciation Day, but World Teachers’ Day goes so far beyond appreciation. UNESCO describes World Teachers’ Day as “a day to celebrate how teachers are […]
Being SDI-Focused In a nutshell: Specially designed instruction (SDI) is a Federal requirement under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) for all eligible students with disabilities who have an Individualized Education Program (IEP). It essentially calls for instruction to be designed by a special education professional that includes: It’s More Than a Lesson There […]
What does engagement sound like? Allowing students to have a say in their work is not enough to build engagement. Adam Fletcher writes a great blog on engagement, including this entry: voice and engagement are not the same. In the Learner-Active, Technology-Infused Classroom (described in my books, Students Taking Charge), engagement refers to the state […]
The Road to Academic Success and Social, Emotional, and Mental Wellness Well, that subtitle sums up many of the goals of schools these days. Who knew you could accomplish it all through play? The reality is that the more schools are concerned about academic achievement, the more they double down on lessons – probably the […]
If you owned an auto factory and the conveyor belt kept delivering cars that had no doors, or had faulty headlights, would you run the factory for a few more hours a day? Of course not! You’d redesign the system to address the root cause. When students attend school all day long and are not […]