The following blog post is contributed by Dr. Anthony Rao a nationally known expert in child psychology, and author of The Way of Boys. Dr. Rao will be a speaker at the INSPIRE 2014 Conference in October 2014.Getting noticed or standing out is usually a good thing, but not for American boys in school. Their diagnoses for ADHD continue to be too high. What drives this? In my practice, it seems to be coming from teachers. They don't realize it, but over the last few years they have been … [Read more...]
Unequal and Unjust Public Schools in America
Marian Wright Edelman, President of the Children's Defense Fund and vocal advocate for our nation's children, has pulled important data from the most recent Department of Education Civil Rights Data Collection Survey. Citing the 2009-2010 version, she speaks to things we know all too well: "inequities in funding and educational resources place poor children in low-performing schools, with inadequate facilities and often ineffective teachers."The litany of practices that contribute to the … [Read more...]
Maybe We Should Think of Homework as Being “Diagnostic”
When reviewing another article in the seemingly endless debate about homework ("Are You Down With or Done With Homework?"), it struck me that educators and parents would be better off using this time-honored educational tradition as a way to zero in on an individual student's approach to learning or their grasp of the work being covered in class.Homework has far more potential as something to start the conversation between a teacher and a student than as the key to promoting greater academic … [Read more...]
NISCE Workshop: Stand Up To Bullying
On April 13, following the premiere of the movie Bully, NISCE did a feature on What Can We Really Do to Fight Bullying, and provided a toolbox of resources from The Bully Project for readers from a variety of backgrounds to use. Included in the resources was a Toolkit for Parents, Toolkit for Students, Toolkit for Educators, and a Toolkit for Advocates.However, the conversation did not and should not stop there.On Wednesday, April 25th educators, parents, and concerned community members … [Read more...]
Educators Building Interpersonal Bridges
Boston University’s School of Psychiatric Rehabilitation provides a public resource to educators looking to build better relationships with students struggling with disabilities. On their How-to Tips for Educators page, they review interpersonal strategies that we feel can be seen as not only helpful to the student with disabilities but to all students in our nation's schools.The following tips are suggested to help educators:Interpersonal strategiesDevelop a working alliance with … [Read more...]
