ASP Faculty

Sometimes we take social skills for granted. Here is a good resource which provides for simple class discussion and role-playing.

Carol, Some of the attached activity sheets that can be printed from this article are great. They can truly be used by students through the middle grades.

Food for Thought

An interesting video from TedTalks regarding the power of student driven learning...

Amazing video on a kindergarten in Tokyo designed to let kids be kids.... It shows how effective play is in the process of learning.... And how developmentally appropriate it is for children of that age...

This is a great article on how educators can use the Internet to access free professional development in online spaces.

A blog post about the Shadow Puppet Edu iTunes app. It is free and you can create videos with up to 100 images and up to 30 minutes long.

Sign up to be chosen as one of 1000 schools across the globe to participate in the Oracle Raspberry Pi Weather Station for schools with topics covering comping and weather - for ages 11 and up. Free!

Further to my last post, please see another more recent article of June 2, 2014 printed in the Science Section of The New York Times asking the question, "Does handwriting matter?" Please note the interesting points raised here as well as the further coverage of psychologist Karin Harmin-James's 2012 Study on children's brain scans and their handwriting...

Although this article was printed on April 12, 2012, it raises some amazingly valid research points in favor of the necessity of Cursive Handwriting Instruction in schools in spite of the increase in key-boarding. I feel the most impressive points are Indiana Univ. Karin Harmin-James's MRI brain-scans of children and Neuroscientist Norman Doidge's book which discusses how the brain changes and develops neuropathways in relation to habit changes and repeated actions. Further, Doidge's research describes how handwriting and keyboarding require different actions and affect the brain in different ways.

"TpT Teacher-Authors have come together once again to bring you the best tried-and-true technology integration tips. The tips you find here will help you incorporate technology into learning in meaningful ways and manage the technology you have in your classroom to keep technology activities and centers running smoothly. Transform your classroom into a 21st century classroom where students are motivated and excited to learn and explore the world around them in new ways. "

"Join teachers, administrators and parents for a FREE day of learning. EDnado is about promoting innovation and inspiring educators to try new things in their classrooms. At EDnado, educators from Monmouth County and beyond will be able to learn and share what WORKS in their schools. FREE breakfast and lunch will be provided. Get ready, because here at EDnado, we are taking education by storm!" May 25, 2015

You can sign up for a tour inside NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and meet the scientists and engineers working on some of our nation's space programs.

Today I attended a Zaner-Bloser sponsored workshop on Spelling and Word Study for Literacy with research presented by J. Richard Gentry, Ph.D., who is key to Zaner's Spelling Program. Please look at the link and be sure to read his replies to questions on pages 10-14 - interesting material...

Duolingo provides a fun way to practice Spanish or more than 20 other foreign languages.

Did you know that Spanish is the third most used language on the Internet, after English and Mandarin Chinese? Check out Spanishdict.com to learn more fun trivia about the Spanish language! Great tool for translating words and verb conjugation.

In an increasingly global economy, New Jersey is right to require world language instruction.

It's called "the summer brain drain" because during those long, hot months away from school, kids supposedly forget a lot of what they had learned in class. Research, however, tells a more nuanced story: Some learning is lost among some groups, and others gain. What do you guys think?? Does "Summer Brain Drain" truly exist or is it just a myth??

We're always looking to improve recess. This document contains some links that might be of use.

Tips and Resources

Very interesting article; it calls to mind the original practices some students have come up with in various jobs which I have assigned for them to do around the classroom from organizing bookshelves to putting up boarders on bulletin boards and window frames. When I discover they are NOT executed as I would have thought to do the job, I give great thanks and praise, and restrain from changing to my preference! It reminds me of my mother's dislike of how I folded towels or loaded the dishwasher when I was younger - I refuse to show any exasperation over the student's creative execution of the task or project. (Although I must say I would NEVER encourage our middle schoolers to cartwheel into the library or any other classroom as a test of social acceptances of behavior as referenced in the article!)