Your child has been counting down to this all semester long: winter break. Finally, a chance to kick back and relax. And for you to spend quality time together as a family. Except you’ve blazed through ALL of your plans in the first 48 hours. Now your child is climbing the walls and you’re fresh […]
Search Results for: winter
Stop Learning Loss with 5 Ways to Keep Learning Over Winter Break
It’s (almost) Winter Break! That glorious week plus reprieve from school for kids, and added entertaining responsibilities for parents. Teachers will tell you that kids will forget a few things over winter break, but there are easy ways to keep learning over winter break.
How to Track IEP Goals and Assessments Efficiently
Doing a data or document deep dive is excellent and a great start, but it’s what you do next that can help your child get the most out of their IEP. Knowing what’s in the IEP is good, and keeping track of all the details is better. When you track IEP goals over time, you […]
5 Tips to Understand Extended School Year
Special education doesn’t stop just because it’s summer vacation. Extended school year, or ESY, is a continuation of your child’s IEP when school is out of session. But it doesn’t just happen. Here’s what you need to know. 5 Tips to Understand Extended School Year Just a reminder: nothing on this website or in this […]
5 Easy Ways to a Great Teacher Relationship
One of the best things that parents can do during back to school season is to build a great relationship with their child’s teacher. It can seem pretty daunting. After all, this person does hold your child’s education in their hands from September to June. You might not know the first thing about K-12 education. […]
Easy Valentine's Day Ideas for Busy Parents
My best-laid plans were rapidly going down the drain. Instead of sweetly crafting Pinterest-perfect Valentine’s, my three-year-old was trying to place 1,000 stickers on the dog. The baby was screaming. And I was trying to figure out if I could use artisanal wrapped wire to mainline wine. There HAS to be a better, less stressful, […]
The Kids are Already Antsy. Can You Survive December? Use These Super Easy Tips!
Right now, I’m dreading December. Not because of the holidays. I love those. It’s because for the whole month of December, until winter break, there will be no breaks. Three straight weeks of school. It’s bad enough for the teachers, but at least we get paid. For the kids, it’s pretty awful. All the excitement […]
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Ok, so I’m two days early, but this gives you time to prep your lessons, right? Here are some of my favorite teaching ideas for St. Patrick’s Day! St. Patrick’s Day is a super fun, easy holiday to celebrate in the classroom. It brings multiculturalism, color study (green, white, and orange), folklore (hello, leprechauns!), nature […]
Make Reading Fun with a Books Made into Movies Marathon
So snuggle up, grab the popcorn, and cue up the DVD player. Here are my TOP children’s and classic books that were made into movies.
Sow the Seeds of Caring with the 5 Easy Ways to Give as a Family
Today is Giving Tuesday, a day devoted to charitable giving of all kinds and to all places. And the time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve is full of opportunities, both big and small, to give to others and give back to our communities or to a favorite cause.
The Absolute Top 10 Things Teachers are Thankful For
What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?
Celebrate All the Holidays!
Holidays are super fun. For almost every person and religion that I have encountered, these special times revolve around food, family, traditions, and community. Yet, we don’t take the time to honor or teach these very important aspects of life, or we focus on only one particular culture’s traditions. As teachers, and families, we can turn holidays into learning experiences.
Bullying Lasts Beyond Childhood
I can guarantee that there is a little girl or little boy out there tonight in tears because her best friends just dumped her, because his lunch money was stolen again, because it seems like the whole world is against them.
Last Week of Summer Checklist
It’s here! Time to slurp up last ice cream cones, pull out those fresh new clothes and silently mourn the end of summer. Or maybe cheer if you have been entertaining the kids ALL SUMMER LONG. There are only so many times a parent can hear “I’m bored” before she goes insane.
I Will Do Anything to Save You
Lock down drill day It is my hands down least favorite day of the year. It terrifies me. More than the day after Halloween, the day before Winter Vacation, or a full moon. Combined. It terrifies me to think about losing a student, a child, a person I love. It scares me that I would […]