AIS - Scheduling and Progress Monitoring

Academic Intervention Services are necessary to support student learning and increased achievement. These educational services deserve the respect due and should be scheduled into the "master schedule" as an independent class. Teachers should have the opportunity to assess student performance through progress monitoring weekly or monthly depending upon the student's individual needs.

Nip it in the Bud - Proactive vs. Reactive Classroom Behavior Management

I've designed a classroom behavior management workshop for teachers, paraprofessionals, and other school personnel who encounter and engage in conversation with students of all ages. I have presented the workshop numerous times this year in public schools and at the State University of New York at New Paltz (where I have been an adjunct professor since 1993) for student teacher candidates. The evaluations of this full or half day workshop are overwhelmingly positive.

I am in the midst of writing a book of the same name expected to be available for purchase in late January 2010.

Brain Ignition TM - Launch new book - Think, Link and Learn for Literacy Using Brain Ignition TM

Think, Link and Learn is a result of my preliminary findings based upon an extension of earlier research in what I call Brain Ignition TM. I define Brain Ignition TM as causing an explosion of new neuro-pathways through the compilation of hearing, seeing and movement for the purpose of aquiring and remembering new information. Using the ARA (aquire, remember and apply) system while engaging in new learning, this research suggests that the learner's ability to remember new information long term improves. The book offers many instructional strategies that can be used and adapted in anyone's everyday classroom.

I go on the premise that we ask students to adapt to our thinking process while we teach content or explain directions. Our personal teaching style and methodologies are based upon our prior knowledge and experiences that we have accumulated throughout our lives to this point. We are asking our students, with expectation, to decipher our adult thoughts, prior knowledge and experiences with an understanding of what WE want THEM to do. We assume they can do that; we expect that they will do that. The truth is, some can, most cannot. That's not to say that traditional teaching methods don't work, many do, but for what period of time is this new information retained? True, not all new learning is equally relevant, yet we think it must be relevant, we're teaching, right? I think it becomes relevant if we connect the learning to the student's life by causing them to think, then the student makes the link so they can learn.