I was asked the following question: “What are the best practices to help children overcome obstacles and challenges they face in their educational journey, and how can we create a more inclusive education system for all children, regardless of their social background?” by Qusmano Kind I have an easy answer. We need to place more
I was asked,” How important is parent and teacher communication?” My answer will surprise you. “Not as important as student to teacher and child to parent communication. I believe we need to teach children the Art of Self-Advocacy“ When students learn how to be self-advocates, communication between parent and teacher is less important. Reasons for
Checking in with students about their goals and how they feel they are doing is crucial to help them maintain their mental health. Hundreds of students are suffering silently, because of they have perceptions of how they should be performing. They are questioning if they can maintain their current level of performance. The stress of
My first failures in the classroom led me to discover Homework Solutions that promotes self-advocacy in students. Students fear mistakes. As young as 4 years old, I have seen children fall apart because they made a mistake. By time these same children enter third grade, they either know the value of a mistake or the
The start of school is exciting. Students love getting new school supplies and can’t wait to start writing on the fresh pages with hopes of a better year. The first weeks are designed to be easy to help students settle in, but then the novelty of the new supplies wanes as the placement testing begins.
I receive questions like this from middle and high schoolers, as well as college students. Frankly it has come up too many times in my practice the last year. These students are not alone, yet they think they are. Why is performance waining? I can speak to this myself. I was able to make it
I have never experienced a more stressful time in our country and for teachers specifically in my 50 years in the classroom and as a parent. The media won’t let us stop worrying about one thing or another. Teachers aim to provide a nurturing safe space for their students so they can feel some relief
“Why does my daughter beat herself up because her twin’s talent is in math and he can do it easily while she struggles. He constantly corrects her?” asked a mother of gifted children. To answer this questions we need to do the following: Examine the power of beliefs formed at an early age. Examine our
Labeling children can often be more destructive than helpful, and can prevent us from discovering the real reason behind the behaviors being manifested. I recently heard a fourth grader I am homeschooling in math and language referred to as being ADD. His supervising teacher said, “I’m sure you already have noticed signs of ADD.” I
Working with procrastinators for over 48 years has been very telling. Some procrastinators are simply over scheduled and lack time-management strategies. A good number of procrastinators put off hard things. They will avoid those tasks that take more mental energy, while others hold deeply rooted secrets that interfere with the ability to complete tasks on
Victoria is an educational consultant, nationally recognized speaker. Her over 50 years in education has been focused on developing resilient self-reliant self-advocates who know how to tap into their innate ability to independently solve challenges.