May 2010
4 posts
CP Myths
One of my best friends has Cerebral Palsy and one of my best childhood friends as well. I was teaching a student the other day who thought he made a ‘stupid’ mistake, and he started hitting his chest and imitating someone with poor vocal control. I had a heart to heart moment, and thought I’d share it with you in case the distinction was never made in your lives like it was in...
The Mentor Always Dies
My sister reminded me of a Batman quote from “Dark Knight” – “You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villian.” It was apt because I’m facing a tough client situation where I am starting to become part of the system. I had to remember why the mentor always dies in the hero sagas: if she didn’t, the hero could not learn to stand...
Nietzsche Induced Coma
I’m reading Geneology of Morals for a student’s paper, and I was about to tear my hair out with the translation I had. No paragraphs, more commas than I thought possible; my eyes couldn’t figure out what line I was on. Anyway, went back to the bookstore and found the one by Walter Kaufman (p.s. he’s the best,) now I can read and stay awake. Nietzsche is totally worth some...
Visual Vocabulary
It’s getting nearer to end of term. Here’s a cool visual trick for studying things like vocab, names, dates, etc. First you look at the thing you need to remember, (alliteration). When you read or say this word, figure out what the first association you have with it is. Example: A lit nation. Whatever your association, make it visual. Colors, shapes and so forth. Try not to have it...
April 2010
1 post
It's getting difficult
It’s that time where things are just getting harder. I’m stuck with a few of my clients. Grades matter and then they don’t. Part of the reason I get paid is to improve ‘performance’, but the environment is so wrong at times. I haven’t found the right mix yet, and I’m afraid there isn’t one. Even when I was in school, about this time was when it felt...
March 2010
4 posts
Slant Board and Parallax
So, I’ve always seen how a slant board helps with reading and doing book work, but I hadn’t really questioned why. One of those, it just does so why bother with science. However, I was working with my college student yesterday and we reviewed how the brain fixes the way a page is skewed due to perspective so that we still think of it as flat. But if your right brain is too heavily...
Hearing Tests
There are a number of auditory issues that aren’t picked up by a standard hearing test. Especially an nerve based auditory processing issue, or problems processing auditory symbols, like language, in the brain. No matter what you are experiencing, don’t assume that hearing isn’t entering into it. Did you know that students with auditory processing disorders also have trouble...
It's not always about less
Ran into a teen at Borders who had to read 600 pages by next week. He’s dyslexic and it was obvious that reading was not hard, but grueling. When I inquired about the accommodations that he was receiving his mom told me that the rest of the kids had to read 800. It’s a fallacy to think that accommodation means less of the same thing. He learns differently, reading is a entirely...
Depression
Sometimes the moody and argumentative child could actually be depressed. There are even rare cases of BiPolar effecting children as young as six. There are certain types of mood disorders that come directly from brain chemistry. If you have a family history, keep an open mind about your ‘moody’ child. Early intervention could mean a huge world of difference.
Being Heard
I have a student that wouldn’t talk when I met him. Now, he’s handling important phone calls on his own, and he said it started less than a week ago. Before this he’d been improving, but I can see the sudden surge myself. Two things happened, the first is he communicates very well with his deaf ASL instructor, and the other is his new dog. Both of whom are doing an excellent job...
February 2010
7 posts
“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher...”
– William Arthur Ward (via orangefret)
Sign Language -- Update
Still seeing amazing results when using sign language in math with my one student. I’ve begun branching out into phonics and eventually english, to a degree. It has helped my students to move nearly visual while doing the cognitive training I’m working on, and it’s nice not to talk all the time when I’m working with Auditory Processing issues. Basically, I’m very...
Auditory Processing -- Social Impact
Met two guys recently, both with some variation of an auditory processing issue. There is a bit of a social impact on the way I was interacting with them, and the way they interacted with others. There is a tendency to agree because you’re not sure exactly what was said at times. Actually, I noticed they were both very friendly, very engaging with their eyes. Conversation moved a bit slow,...
my french teacher..
loveloana:
is pretty awesome.
first, today for the midterm she brought juice boxes, granola bars and tangerines for us :D how nice is that?! it was 7:20 in the morning and that’s EXACTLY what i needed n_n i had a juice box and a granola bar, yuummm. Then we spent 20 mns studying before the midterm, answering questions and what not. Also, i kinda forgot about my “Sunday Routine” project, and...
Woodcock/Johnson = No Love
Officially personally despise the WJ test. Their cognitive test is everything in a bundle that is bad for dyslexia, and one token rotate these shapes exercise. Head is still mushy, and there wasn’t even a digits forward so I’m not sure how they can tell if there is a discrepancy in working memory. The one that really scared me was a test of hearing through background distraction. Um,...
Handedness
It’s really easy for teachers and pre-school workers to assume that all children are right handed. Met with a student who will probably end up with a symmetrical brain and bi-lateral processing abilities. But he’s already been directed to use his right hand, when he writes his letters the correct way using his left. Aside from all the studies that tell us to watch out for this, I think...
January 2010
5 posts
How do I say this less awkwardly?
curiouslyashley:
I can pretty much say that the first semester of high school was not as glamorous as I thought it would be. One back stab, attempted suicide, and suspension later; here I am on the brink of my extinction. It’s semester two of my freshman year. Half way done! My English teacher is amazing! He’s a ginger too which makes my day because it’s such a pretty hair color. He’s gay and...
It's like a game
One of my students has a genetic issue that makes verbal communication difficult. His brain is stuttering, trying to find the words and process them back. It is very confusing and annoying for him. He’ll know the correct answer, but be unable to say it, or say a different answer entirely, all the while knowing it was wrong. He also suffers some emotional tension from not being able to...
Verbal Bias
It’s hard to see, but we as speaking/hearing humans are incredibly biased toward verbal abilities. The IQ test is conduct verbally, we assume that misspelling words means the writer is either careless or not very good. Mispronunciation is a capital faux pas, yet most everyone pronounces words incorrectly depending on the region and dialect. My english teacher this morning pronounced in media...
Sign Language
Have student who is taking ASL this semester, so I jumped into a local JC class and I’m very thankful to have the push. Been meaning to look into it much sooner, I have a feeling about using it to aid in teaching language and other material in a more visual fashion. Some sort of mixed media approach. I’d also really like to see some work down with Down’s and other language...
December 2009
4 posts
Watchsamchase:
Prisencolinensinainciusol, written by Adriano Celentano in 1972, was meant to illustrate which English phonemes and syllables carry into the foreign ear.
What English Sounds Like to Foreigners (via Making Light)
Think in Spirals
Often when a student is having difficulty with writing it is about the linear string of thoughts and not so much about grammar elements. If they say it out loud, that usually fixes whatever screwy sentences they are constructing. “Write what you say,” or for older students “Write what you mean.” However, when it comes to a paragraph, they often can’t see the whole...
When not to push
Met with a student’s teacher yesterday and had to work with her to discover the best way to push my client ahead in math. I saw it from her perspective, my client has made exponential change in the last six months compared to years of special education before. The teacher sees this change and wants to push him to try more complicated math. But I had to walk her through how doing so might...
Was stodgy, now flexible
Once I figure something out, I make sure it sticks. There are certain visualization techniques for learning that I worked through many, many incarnations before finally hitting the right way to introduce and use it. But, just because it works well most of the time doesn’t mean it works well all of the time. Had to overrule myself twice this week because of it. I use a grids technique to...
November 2009
6 posts
Learning Styles Myths
There are more than a short post can handle, but I though I’d hit a few. Using a manipulative is not the same as visualizing. Just because you see it, that doesn’t make it visual learning. In fact, all of those “kinesthetic” tricks are not really doing much for a child that isn’t learning through normal channels. Visualizing is best done by looking up, at the ceiling...
Grades vs. Rubrics
I’m not sure a grade ever told me anything useful about how I could get better. Why don’t we use rubrics and metrics instead? SAT, AP, and some GRE all grade using a rubric. Wouldn’t it be nice to see where and why I lost points and how to make it better next time. With my students were always guessing at the meaning, or the why. It’s not effective. Education should be...
How to Recognize Auditory Problems
There are a few tell tales for a neurological/biological Auditory Processing Disorder. Mushy or mumbled speech, inattention to volume, lack of tone quality in speech; any of these could be associated and when present to a significant degree, it’s time to consult an audiologist. But not all problems are directly based on the auditory nerve. So here’s some other stuff to watch for: 1)...
Too many diagnoses
I happen to adore doing assessments; it’s a crazy obsession with being able to explain everything. However, I learned very early that most of it is pointless when it comes to actually helping people. The real problem is that no one looks at the whole picture, the whole person. Eye doctors explain it through muscle problems, cognitive trainers say it’s a matter of practice, and...
The Dark Hole
In the midst of academic angst, it’s easy to loose sight of the emotional context that adolescence is caught up in. Nobody wants to do badly, we are social creatures and the acceptance of the herd effects us greatly, even if we wish it wouldn’t. But that doesn’t mean we react rationally when life seems to be swallowing us into a dark hole. My client used that metaphor and it...
Masking Symptoms
A rather unfortunate effect of the high intelligence found in most individuals with dyslexia can occur when coping strategies are employed for moderate to great success in dealing with learning difficulties. This means that individuals who are able to figure out ways to adapt, even if they are not productive of lasting strategies, are less likely to be seen as having a learning difference. I...
October 2009
44 posts
Success Modeling
I just started working on a new course of tutoring with an ongoing client. Part of the issue is a lack of understanding about how to achieve success, the actual steps that must be walked and what to say or do along the way. It’s very easy for us to assume that everyone got those things down through some sort of magic during the early years of school. This is sadly not even close to the case....
My papa told me...
We really have to move past some of the old sayings that just aren’t true, and are being proven false by psychologists every day. Video Games do not rot your brain; staying in front of a bright light source for twelve hours will hurt your eyes though. And focusing for that long when you already have problems managing your attention will yield exhaustion. The truth is that our new interactive...
“Diplomacy is the art of saying ‘Nice doggie’ until you can find a...”
– Will Rogers
“Being a hero is about the shortest-lived profession on earth.”
– Will Rogers
“Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate; now what’s going to happen...”
– Will Rogers
“An ignorant person is one who doesn’t know what you have just found out.”
– Will Rogers
“Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to...”
– Mark Twain
No is an okay answer
I have a student that hates to say ‘no’ or ‘I didn’t do it’ in regard to his assignments. Instead the student will get very, very quiet and try to engage in something else. We have to let it be okay to be truthful. Let the circumstance become a teaching opportunity. But reacting strongly, even yelling will only make it less and less likely for them to be honest. Also,...
“When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands...”
– Mark Twain
“Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.”
– Mark Twain
“There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of...”
– Mark Twain
“Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I...”
– Mark Twain
“Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food...”
– Mark Twain
“Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.”
– Mark Twain
The Blank Page
Sometimes just the sight of blank paper or a white computer screen would send me into fits of procrastination. There was this great anxiety about what I wanted to say, and more about how I wanted to say it. That was the part I couldn’t figure out, that took more brain power than the actual ideas. There just didn’t seem to be the words to express what I was thinking. So I would spend...
“It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral...”
– Mark Twain
“It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than...”
– Mark Twain
“In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school...”
– Mark Twain