Eating is one of lifes greatest pleasures. Encourage  students learn to enjoy many kinds of healthy foods.

Protein is the best way to get amino acids which are essential to brain health. Spinach along with other leafy vegetables, is a good dietary source of protein. Nuts and Seeds is another good source of protein, easy to snack on and readily available. Nuts and Seads will improve your brain power.Eggs provide lots of protein for the brain. Learning to eat smart and healthy is good nutrition and the way to go.

Ways that a Blog can be used are:

~~ To post up-to-date News

~~ As a Reflection during a particular project

~~ To Share Content with individuals/students in a group

~~ As a Virtual Journal

My school became a Writer's Workshop school this year. We were trained by the staff developers at Teacher's College Reading and Writing Project.

Our students have made amazing progress this year. They have really bought into the idea of being writers. It doesn't hurt that we frequently tell them they are writers or that we have author's celebrations at the end of each month.

Part of what makes the curriculum so rich is the books we read and later re-read like writer's. (I wrote a lesson plan about how mentor text lessons tend to go: click here.)

Check it out --at the bottom of the page-- and add these books to your writing curriculum!

I’m sorry I haven't blogged much recently. As if being a first year teacher is quite challenge enough, my partner and I have been planning a wedding as well which only adds to the time and stress load. As we approach the end of the academic year, I’m in the process of completing some of the contractually agreed tasks associated with the profession. This is also the time of year when teachers find out if they will have a job next year. With the economy in the state it is, there are quite a few teachers in Washington State who won’t have a job next year. First things first though, I have to make it through this year.

I am a music teacher in an elementary school and one of the biggest things that I have attempted to do is make the composition part of music a lot more hands on. The program that I currently use is called Finale and it is a very in-depth program. The problem that experience is that Finale is really designed for music composers and not necessarily for classroom composition. I have however found a couple of ways of getting around its group work issues. First is the use of a smart board. By having a touch sensitive piece of hardware where the students are able to place the notes they would like to use by simply touching the coordinating area is absolutely the kind of music tangibility that I desire to offer my students. This is of course the most ideal.

I am technology coordinator at Osceola Middle School and we are finishing our 3rd year in a 1 to 1 laptop project. Our school has an enrollment of 1200 students and each one of them carries a laptop to classes. Because of insurance costs and the inability to filter the internet when students are home, laptops are stored in carts overnight located in the 7th period classrooms. We are very proud of the success of this monumental endeavor. There have been some challenges that, through teamwork, have been overcome. I would like to get your input, thoughts, experiences, and questions on 1 to 1 computing in the classroom. Include both negative and positive, please.

Here are some questions to consider when posting to this blog.

I am a retired professor of NeuroPsychology who developed a research program on the relationship between the brain and learning disability. I want to outline one particular study and show its importance in how we diagnose and teach the children we now label learning disabled.

An identified group of poor readers who had clear phonological deficits in reading were compared to average readers on two simple tasks. A group of words preselected to be in the sight vocabulary of all participants were paired under two conditions. In one case the student had to say whether the words meant the same, opposite, or unrelated. In the second task the students had to say whether the two words rhymed.

As my course is nearing an end, I have been asked to reflect on the following questions:

I currently work at a school that wants to incorporate PLC (Professional Learning Communities).   My school doesn't care for change too much which is unfortunate.  Their idea of a PLC is to read a book and meet twice a week for 15 minutes .  That is only if there isn't anything else going on and the weather is ok so our subs can take the students to recess.  Oh by the way, collaboartion is during our break time and not built in to the schedule.  Anyways I know the way we are going about PLC is wrong and teachers are resenting the idea.  I don't think this is fair representing PLC's when I know it would benefit the students.  I need help!  How can I convince my district that we are not giving PLC a fair assessment?