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"Performance Enhancing Drugs in Schools: How Big is the Threat to Kids? By Jeff Roberts on August 9, 2013 2 Comments Lance Armstrong. Ryan Braun. A-Rod. Marion Jones. Tim Montgomery. Tyson Gay. Bill Romanowski. Rafael Palmeiro. And so on … and so on. We've all heard the names. We're all familiar with the historic heights each of them achieved in their respective sports. And we have all witnessed their tragic, self-induced falls from grace.  Their respective careers are ruined. Their legacies disgraced. And, perhaps most tragically, all of the youngsters they once inspired are left confused and heartbroken. The worst part? The high-profile names mentioned here are a tiny fraction of the incredibly long list of professional and amateur athletes who have tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). Over the past decade, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency has sanctioned cyclists and soccer players, water poloists and weightlifters, rowers, wrestlers, boxers and archers. And that's just a small sample of the offenders.   But when officials in Texas revealed last July that nine high school athletes tested positive for steroid use - and that just recently, scandal-ridden Biogenesis of America provided PEDs to high school athletes in Miami - the conversation became slightly more sickening. We were immediately filled with questions: What is the prevalence of PEDs in high schools? What types of PEDs are being used among high school athletes? What can be done to combat this trend? Let's answer these questions one by one. The prevalence of PEDs in high schools Roughly 3.2 percent of American high school kids - boys and girls - took steroid pills or shots without a doctor's permission at least once in their lives, according to the U.S. Department of Health's Youth Risk Behavior Survey published in June 2012. Bear in mind that the data collected reflects the 2011 school year and four U.S. states did not share data. Still, powerful co

ATN READING LIST Welcome to ATN Reading Lists. ATN Reading Lists was started in 1996 as part of a librarian collaborative project, All Together Now, begun by Dale Copps. The intention was that librarians could not only use this resource but contribute to it as well. At that time, there were several of us who began web sites and hoped that we could use this fairly new technology as a place to share and collaborate. As well intended as the goal was, it soon became apparent that the vision was really not viable at that time. Dale handed the list over to Nancy Keane in 1999."

One of the main goals of reading is to possess the ability to understand, or comprehend, what you have just read. A great strategy to help children comprehend text is to teach them how to summarize.

The practice of sustained silent reading (SSR) is based on the belief that motivation, interest, self-selection, modeling, and time spent reading contribute to student reading achievement. This article describes a study designed to ascertain the prevalence of SSR in classrooms in a particular geographic area and the degree to which the program's original goals are being met. Seventh-grade teachers were surveyed regarding participation in SSR, organization of the program, material selection, and methods of evaluation. Findings indicate that silent reading is popular in the classroom in part because of the opportunities for instructional decision making it provides teachers. However, the individual implementation of the program has resulted in many aspects of the actual practice of SSR deviating from the original model. Questions regarding the integrity of current practices as compared to the original model are discussed, and suggestions to teachers who plan to implement or revise SSR programs are offered.

Teachers of Writers and Readers Workshop Support Hi! Thanks for checking out WritersRock, an interactive website for middle school teachers who are using the TC Writers and Readers Workshop Models. Our goal is to support each other in our teaching practice by sharing resources, systems and management strategies, and other practices that will help us spend more of our time directly serving our students. Use the menu on the left, or the links below, to navigate this site. Let us know what you think by adding a comment!

"Using Graphic Organizers Graphic organizers are excellent tools for helping students connect ideas and see relationships between different pieces of information. The goal is for students to expand their knowledge by understanding the material in their own way. Graphic organizers can be used for a variety of purposes, such as eliciting prior knowledge, demonstrating a sequence of events, and comparing and contrasting. "