Get help for children before the cute lisp becomes cumbersome

I'm a Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech
and a heck of a teacher dear. ;-) My trip last week
to Atlanta has me thinking about the importance of
speech therapy and how I'm glad I got it for one of
my own children.

Last week, I was at the Georgia Tech men's basketball game and sat in front of eight boys who were about ten. I admit, I'm a people watcher - but not really a people watcher but a people lover. Precious children with the world ahead of them just pull on my heart strings every time.

As I sat down, the boys were getting settled and one of them commented.

"Hey, look, there's girls dancing."
"Hey, they don't have many clothes on."

All at the same time all eight of them said.

"coooooool"

(I guess they were just getting to the age that it was ok to say that.) We were sitting in some great seats that my Dad got us because he supports Georgia Tech's fundraising program. At halftime, they were debating what they would do and said:

"What do we do? Sit in our seats and be bored, or get up and go eat desserts and drink drinks and tell stories and have fun?"

They promptly got up and left. Because I work with teenage boys, it was just so like the teens (and grown men), that it made me smile. I love that about the men in my life... they love to eat and tell stories...and I love to listen.

But the little, extroverted boy in the white T-shirt with the lisp just cracked me up. After his halftime during which he must have had quite a bit of the chocolate and Coca-Cola, he came back talking a mile a minute. First, there was the Zaxby's Foul shot.

"He got the 'thaxby's thoul thot!' The 'thaxby's thoul thot!!'"

Then, when they were shooting shirts in to the stands.

"Pulease help usth! We need uh t-sthirt."

Finally, near the end, he talked to his friend with the Wake Forest Tshirt

"Dude, wake foresth losth - there is no way they can sthore 30 poinsth in the lasth sthecond."

I wanted to turn around and say,

"Oh, do you mean the last six seconds?"

It was so cute. But this conversation came back to me as I was talking to a person who was discussing when and if kids need speech therapy.

Cute can become cumbersome.

One of my own children had a lisp as a child. Sure, it was cute, but I knew if we didn't do something at a very young age, that it would no longer be cute, it would be cumbersome.

So, in first grade we found a VERY GOOD speech therapist and by third grade, the lisp was gone. My child no longer has the lisp and I'm so relieved and sometimes don't even think of it. But this Mom was saying that she wasn't sure that she wanted to get her child help because it was 'cute." Another chimed in about an older child she knew who still had the lisp and it was no longer cute, in fact, it was limiting her in what she wanted to do but she couldn't "fix" it.

Speech Therapists are important

All of this comes together to mention the importance of good speech therapist. Teachers come in all sizes and shapes and speech therapists are needed, valuable people -- especially good ones. I've watched speech therapists in action and it looks like they are playing games. The difference is that the good ones actually are able to get results and the others do not.

Partnering with parents and teachers to help children is important to correcting speech issues

I recall with my child that the speech therapist actually met with me and my child's teacher and we had cues that we'd give my child when he/she would revert into the bad habits. We were all partners to help the child move forward and speak articulately. Our health insurance even helped.

I'm writing this to all of you out there who work with children or have children of their own. There is an age that children do need help with their lisp or their speech impediment... the tough thing is that age is just at the edge of cuteness turning into a problem. I'm so glad that we got my child help for this.

Physical therapists and speech therapists - you are teachers too and my hat is off to you. If more parents would realize that cute turns into limiting very quickly and the longer you wait from "prime time" for helping children overcome such things, the harder it will be and more expensive it will be to help the child overcome the issues.

Physical and speech therapists -- remember your noble calling. Work with teachers and parents and remember that we're all on the same team.

Be the adult because kids won't know why they need to change

Far too many parents care more about being popular than being a parent. From experience, when I've gotten my children tutoring, physical therapy or speech therapy, or even shots - my children were rarely happy about it.

Kids complain about such things because they literally don't see or hear anything wrong with what they are saying or doing. It is our job to see the big picture and long term and do the right thing by our children when they become adults.

Remember your noble calling, teacher... parent...therapist.  You are "coooooool" and important!

Read More

Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock 02/03/2013

• Ten Websites for Science Teachers | Edutopia

  Edutopia has a great list of websites for science teachers. It is a bit older but the sites are still great. I shared some sites for math teachers last week and got some messages from Science teachers for me to find a good article. My friend Eric Brunsell from University of Washington at Oshkosh wrote this and it is on the Edutopia site.

  tags: science teaching

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Read More

Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 02/03/2013

• New SMART Table® 442i inspires collaborative learning - SMART Technologies

  YEs, they are here. Smart furniture. This is the smart table. Expect to see desks and more as we begin to merge our technology with everything around us. This would make a great unit for a demo or cool interactive learning center. " SMART Table® 442i collaborative learning center. Publicly unveiled at the British Education Technology Conference in London today, the SMART Table features an engaging 360 degree, multitouch surface with a brilliant 106.68 cm (42") high-definition 1080p LCD display. The SMART Table enables up to eight students to interact simultaneously and actively collaborate to achieve shared learning goals."

  tags: education news microsoft_surface_techonolgy edu_newapp edu_trends edu_news techintegrator technology

• A Parent's Guide to 21st-Century Learning | Edutopia

  An interesting guide from edutopia for parents that you can share with your parents and PTO. They share a lot of examples of 21st century learning and as you work to build support for these things, this is a great document to share. (Full Disclosure: The digiteen project is listed for middle school - after this was listed, we saw such an inundation of schools wanting to do the project, we created the DigiTween project for kids aged 10-12 and Digiteen is still for kids aged 13+.) There are a lot of other great sites including the World Peace game, information on Skype in the Classroom, World of Warcraft in School and the Digital Youth Network. Download and share.

  tags: education flatclass news tumblr digiteen inthenews evernote bestpractices edu_trends edu_news

• Stylus Touch Pen

  This is the stylus that the college student working at GameStop in Atlanta swore was the best stylus for her Galaxy Tab. It is far better than any stylus I've ever used on my ipad and I admit that I was a bit jealous. I'm going to get one of these for my Kenna Tablet and try it out with Handy Notes.

  tags: news productivity droid studenttools technology

• Handy Note: Almost like a real notebook

  I met a girl working at GameStop who is a college student. She was furiously working with a somewhat beat up Galaxy Tab. I talked to her about what she used and she said that Handy Notes ROCKED. She got her Caseen stylus and showed me what she was doing and I loved it. She said that she had a whole semester's worth of notes. She took notes in this and went back to her dorm and printed off the notes so she could highlight and study them but that when she needed to review, she could. I have to admit, I was quite envious. There are some classes I took that I'd love to have in evernote. If you use a Droid, I'd recommend trying out handy notes. This is a link to the app review on Android Authority.

  tags: news productivity droid android studenttools edu_newapp

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Read More

Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 02/02/2013

• Education Is My Life | Global Education By Design

  Over on Education is my life, they've just posted my guest post about how to design global education, big picture. If you're interesting in designing global projects, head over there and take a look.

  tags: flatclass evernote education news teaching globaled flatclassroom

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Read More

Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock 02/01/2013

• Education Is My Life | Global Education By Design

  Over on Education is my life, they've just posted my guest post about how to design global education, big picture. If you're interesting in designing global projects, head over there and take a look.

  tags: flatclass evernote education news teaching globaled flatclassroom

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Read More

When you're angry

There are times we all get angry with students. Not just red but boiling, lava infused, steam producing fury.

This was put in our teacher's lounge when our PTO gave us a surprise breakfast recently. We do give kids a great start, but what happens when something they do starts our blood boiling? How do we react and stay professional?

I think it is important to be self-aware and determine what you will do when you are that angry. I've developed a method that has helped me from making mistakes.

When you're angry, and I'm talking anger at a student here, usually the student has done something very very wrong. You know they are wrong but you don't know their side of the story. You are furious but you aren't listening. Now, if you go and say something awful or get so mad that you can't control yourself then you will do something wrong and it will be YOU in trouble.

Losing control in your anger is kind of like this. If you've ever had one string loose on a pair of pants, and those pants were, perhaps, a little snug. When that string broke and boom - you realize that you now feel air where no air should be hitting and run to go see what happened (to the bathroom or some other private place.) That is what this kind of anger is like. You're about to expose a part of you that must remain hidden.

When I am experiencing britches splitting anger - and it usually only happens about once a year -- but it happened to me recently... I do the same thing I would do if my britches busted wide open -- I run. I get away to a private place so I can calm down and think clearly.

I used to stay and confront.

That was until I had to reap the consequences of the stupidity and lack of clear headedness I have when I really lose it.

Now, I go take a moment.

Now, if I have a class and lose it, I stick my head next door to the teacher I know very very well - she's seen me lose it the other 10 times in the last 11 years and knows when I'm unglued -- I will tell her - I'm at my limit, I'll be right back, can she keep an eye on them. Meanwhile, I'll send the student to the office immediately and I'll go to the ladies room in the back and catch my breath and calm down. I call on other teachers to stand in the gap until I can sew myself back in and gain composure.

Recently, I lost it with someone but wasn't in class. I said, "I'm sorry, I can't talk about this right now, I'm about to make a scene because I'm so upset. I WILL talk to you first thing in the morning after I can think through this clearly." I did immediately speak with the principal.

The tough thing about this method is that the child will usually realize that he is in trouble and will run home to Mom with a fabrication (if he's smart.) But if I tell the principal while I'm upset - he can understand that this IS a big deal and he can think clearly for me but he can also know and see in my face, a face that is usually smiling and kind, just how mad I am. He needs to know what a big deal it is to me.

Again, this DOESN'T happen often and shouldn't. You shouldn't be one of those teachers who comes uncorked ALL of the time. If you are, see someone, talk to someone, try to get at why you're having these problems. Learn to change how you deal with behavior issues so you're able to only rarely be in those flame up moments infrequently.

But there are times you will get upset. Very upset. And when you do, go ahead and think about what you can do to prevent your own words from becoming nails to crucify yourself and your career.

When great educators say dumb things, it is usually in the heat of anger when they are not thinking. But it is still you and you are responsible for yourself. We are adults and there is no excuse for us not having control over ourselves.

Plan your escape route and take it. Plan ahead for when you lose your head or you may just lose your job. Good teachers do lose their temper, but good teachers know how to keep a bad situation from getting worse. Kenny Rogers sang "you gotta know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em" -- a teacher version of this song is "you gotta know when to scold 'em and know when to withhold 'em" -- you don't HAVE to say everything.

I wonder. What are your tips for when you get really really angry so that you can be a professional, an adult, and do the right thing. It usually only takes me 5 minutes to calm down, but before I did this, I regretted it later. Now, I recover, and can move on and move ahead.

Thoughts?

 

Written by Vicki Davis, author - Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds - Posted with Blogsy from my iPad

Read More

Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 02/01/2013

• The Most Popular Podcasts Of 2012 | Fast Company

  As you recap 2012, here's a listen to 2012 in audio. Sticher put together the most popular podcasts of 2012 and what defined us as a world. Take a listen and travel down memory lane - or play if for your current events class and talk about why these events made the cut.

  tags: education news 2012

• Connected Learning versus Blended Learning: New Terms, Old Debate - EdTech Researcher - Education Week

  If you are a researcher or college professor and you're not reading Justin Reich, Edtechresearcher, you should be. I like Justin because he helps me see clearly the different "sides" in debates and connects it to research. This is totally not my area but he explains the conversation in a way that anyone can understand. In this week's article, he shares the differences and debates between Connected Learning and Blended learning, and no, they are not the same thing. So, educate yourself before using these terms. "By contrast, advocates of Connected Learning hold more radical beliefs about the inadequacy of fundamental structures of schooling and learning. Connected Learning advocates argue that universal curriculum is a dated concept for an era of infinite subspecialties and a deeper understanding of learner variation. They argue that understanding learning through the activities of schools is far too limited a canvas for the age of lifelong and lifewide learning. They argue that technologies are not best suited to optimizing student pathways through a prescribed curriculum, but for connecting learners with mentors, peers, and resources for learning experiences that tap into students interests and passions and span from school to home to library to cultural institutions to informal learning spaces."

  tags: news research connectedlearning blended learning

• Azhar's Reflections: Twitter in a new dress!

  I love this reflection from Azhar Youssef, an EFL teacher in Egypt who is so passionate and excited. This is what MOOCs are all about - connecting the world and finding the best wherever they are. Hat tip to my friend Lee Graham of #diffimooc who let me know about Azhar's work. This is her introduction video that she used for the Mooc work. I think that all teachers in the near future, are going to need to have an introduction video. Like a resume, you'll need it to use to introduce yourself when you participate in elearning projects. Do you have an intro flyer or video? Isn't it time? I love her smore flyer. (via Azhar's Reflections: Twitter in a new dress!)

  tags: teaching flatclass news mooc edreform highered all_teachers

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Read More