« August 2007 | Main | October 2007 »
Link: Internet
As children head back to school savvy teachers are looking for the best ways to help students maximize their learning potential. Laptops are replacing traditional notebooks and educators are using technology to provide individualized instruction and online tutoring, which can add variety and help students to learn better.
Link: Special Needs
Finding out your child has a learning disability is often just the beginning of what can at times be a long, grueling process revolving around a search for information. Jen Schaeffner and Chris Baylow are hoping to ease that process by providing parents with resources and networking opportunities many parents desperately seek.
Link: ADD
With school about to start, kids are coming in for their physicals -- and for medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. I'm seeing more kids each year with symptoms of ADHD. Some just have the attention problems and others are hyperactive, too. New treatments can be given once a day. They are relatively easy for kids to take at home and don't require the involvement of the school nurse during the day, as shorter-acting older medicines do.
Link: Opinion
The volume of legislation addressing the educational needs of students with special needs, while admirable and no doubt necessary, is staggering. Keeping track of the various statutes, regulations, and provisions is a test that even the most knowledgeable school administrator, or parent, might fail.
Link: Reading
"The big thing is creating a language-rich environment in their homes, having ongoing conversations about what's happening in the world, and moms and dads are reading books themselves and talking about them," said Don Deshler, special education professor and director of the Center for Research on Learning at the University of Kansas.
Link: NCLB
With reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act high on the agenda as Congress returns from its recess, lawmakers must confront the fact that the law is causing many concerned parents to abandon public schools that are not failing. These parents are fleeing public schools not only because, as documented by a recent University of Chicago study, the act pushes teachers to ignore high-ability students through its exclusive focus on bringing students to minimum proficiency. Worse than this benign neglect, No Child forces a fundamental educational approach so inappropriate for high-ability students that it destroys their interest in learning, as school becomes an endless chain of basic lessons aimed at low-performing students.
Link: Testing
School officials across the board say that the tests, a requirement of the federal No Child Left Behind law, have helped raise expectations and achievement for many of the area's special education students. But some also question aspects of expecting children with proven learning disabilities to pass the same standardized tests as their peers -- and punishing the school if they don't succeed.
Link: Personal Story
There have been many times in the past where I have felt lost and overcome by confusion, going through the world without knowing what I'm doing or where I'm headed. This confusion aptly describes the periods of my life when I'm off my medications.
Link: Mainstreaming
Early intervention is the key to helping more students — potentially thousands — leave special education and enter mainstream curriculums, say educators in Franklin, Dover and Wolfeboro. Districts by law must provide preschool programs for children ages 3 and up who have learning or developmental disabilities, said Amy Cammack, director of programs and support for the Franklin School District.
Link: Clare
Arriving at a gym in Gaithersburg, Clare Kearney bounds inside -- 13 years old, petite, with fine brown hair and delicate glasses. Excited. This is a place where competitive cheerleaders practice, girls who can pull off perfect roundoffs and handsprings and back tucks.
