I was thrilled to be joined by eight other educators from Fort Madison Community School District at the Decoding Dyslexia Iowa Conference this past week. We were treated to a host of sessions that furthered our knowledge around dyslexia and structured literacy. Our keynote speaker on Thursday morning was Mindy VanZuiden, a reading tutor and … [Read more…]
If you haven’t read Who Moved My Cheese, by Spencer Johnson, M.D., I highly recommend it. It’s short, it’s lessons apply to both personal and work-related situations, and the advice is timeless. The gist is quite simple: the unexpected can happen to us at anytime. It (an unexpected change) occurs regularly at home, at work, … [Read more…]
The Science of Reading The Science of Reading is gaining momentum, thanks in large part to folks like APM journalist Emily Hanford. The funny thing is, it’s not a new concept; knowledge about the Science of Reading has been around for upwards of five decades. According to The Science of Reading, A Defining Movement, “The … [Read more…]
I have had the good fortune of working with amazing teachers for my entire 25 teaching career. On each team that I’ve been a part of, we have worked together, laughed together, cried together, shared ideas, lesson plans, successes and failures. Teaching in a silo, without the support of others, whether self-chosen or forced on … [Read more…]
I did not intend for this blog to be a confessional, yet I feel compelled to confess to yet another of my many missteps in the classroom, this time around spelling instruction. In the January 5, 2021 Psychology Today article “Why Spelling Instruction Should Be Hot in 2021,” J. Richard Gentry highlights the current research … [Read more…]