How Books and Television Affect Your Brain Differently There’s a perception that books are good, while TV is bad. Spend a day curled up with a book and you’re an intellectual, but spend a day watching your favorite show and you become a couch potato. Similar to how candy gives you cavities and sun tanning is bad for our skin, it’s common knowledge that reading books is good for you. But why is that? After all, there are all sorts of books. What Science Says About Books and Television In 2013, a study was performed at Tohoku University in Japan. Researcher Takeuchi found that the more TV the kids watched, parts of their brain associated with higher arousal and aggression levels became thicker. The more hours of television the kids watched, the lower their verbal test results became. In the same year, a study was done on how reading a novel affected the brain. College students were asked to read Pompeii by Robert Harriss, a thriller based on the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy. There are also long-term effects from reading books.
Strip Designer Review Upon opening the application, the user is shown a quick splash screen and introduced to the template menu. There is an excellent help feature in the top right with a search feature that provides detailed guidance for the user. There is also an option to ‘Import’ a design from a range of sources. For this review we will focus on the tools that will be used most by the users. Inserting a Photo – Simply hold on the chosen panel and insert a photo from the camera roll. Adding text – So for our younger users we found that adding photos and adding text were the two features that they used the most. The app also includes the possibility to install fonts from Dropbox or free fonts online. The share feature within the app will appeal to teachers and children. We love the fact that the app saves the comic even if it is accidentally shut down by the user. Once you have finished a comic you can preview the final result in every detail. Features: • Multipage books • Text with per-letter colors, fonts
Instructional Series The English-medium literacy instructional series support teaching and learning through years 1–8. They include: reading materials designed to support learning across the curriculum and students’ development of more complex literacy skillstargeted materials for students who are not yet meeting literacy expectations. Each series is designed for a specific stage in students’ learning, providing supports and challenges to scaffold their growing understandings and to prepare them for the next stage in their learning. All series include student and teacher support materials, and many are accompanied by audio versions. On this site This site gives information on the individual series, provides links to the teacher support materials, and includes news of upcoming publications. Ready to Read Ready to Read is the core instructional reading series designed to establish the foundations of literacy for students in years 1–3. Junior Journal School Journal Story Library School Journal Connected Related content
Data Collection - The School Counseling Files The School Counseling Files CAPTURE DATA using google drive Consider putting this information into your end-of-year report "Drop-In" Data Here's a way to track data using Google Docs (in my case) on my Samsung tablet. ***UPDATE: While the above Google Doc has been quite helpful, I've found that it doesn't quite cover all the data I'd like to have (like how much extra time I 'm having to spend with kids in crisis, and how that impacts my delivery of services to students who are on my schedule). End-of-Year Teacher Survey Of course teacher input is crucial for assessing whether or not we are providing services in a way that they find helpful and user-friendly. What My Customers Have to Say
21 Reading Strategies And Activities All Teachers Should Know | Top Notch Teaching One of the most popular topics here on Top Notch Teaching is that of teaching children to read. It’s also an area that I’m passionate about. We’ve published plenty of posts on the topic over the years but to help you find them we’ve pulled together 21 of the most popular reading strategies and activities and listed them below. 1. How To Teach Children To Read – This was the beginning of a fascinating journey for me and helped me to reassess my whole approach to teaching children to read. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 6 Practical Ideas To Help Students Improve the Skills Needed for Reading – I share with you some of the strategies that I use to improve the essential reading skills of segmenting and blending. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. If you’re looking for a complete set of resources to help you with your teaching of reading and spelling then you might like to check out the phonics resources in my Teachers pay Teachers store. Get Email Updates Thanks!
ABOUT US – Infinity Learning | Infinity Learning Maps Infinity Learn Limited Infinity Learn Limited is a new and exciting company led by consultants Brian Annan and Mary Wootton with expert support from our experienced and successful Affiliates. Many schools and communities are looking for creative ways to engage children and young adults into learning in the modern world. We have the design and facilitation expertise to support you in that endeavour. Most of our ideas are simple ones. Like believing that all kids are cognitively capable – it is a matter of drawing that capability out of them rather than scripting stories that some have it and some don’t. We developed that sort of expertise by dedicating our early careers to teaching, school leadership and improvement to weave together assessment, inquiry learning and evaluative capability. We tipped things upside down in our contribution to the Learning and Change Networks strategy. Learning became easier for kids in challenging circumstances and well being blossomed.
Teacher Mom of 3: The Boy Who Grew Flowers: A Book Review Recently, I discovered this gem of a picture book, The Boy Who Grew Flowers by Jen Wojtowicz. A few months back, I attended a Barefoot Books party and was instantly attracted to this picture book. After I read this synopsis, I just knew I had to purchase it! "This heartwarming story celebrates difference and friendship, as Rink meets a girl with her own secret, and they discover ways to help each other." What is the book about? Rink Bowagon lives on Lonesome Mountain with his eccentric family. Because he is different, he is ignored at school and isolated, sitting in the back of the class. Angelina with her beautiful, compassionate heart, befriends Rink, and from there everything changes for Rink. Themes and Messages When I first read the book summary on the website, I was intrigued by Rink's character and immediately thought of my eight year old son who has Selective Mutism. Why use the book in the classroom? This beautifully illustrated story is targeted for students ages 4-10 years old.
Emotional Empathy and Cognitive Empathy | Blog – Teleos Leadership Institute Chris Allen Thomas Empathy is the ability of people to recognize and respond to the emotions of others. It’s the foundation of both sympathy and compassion. Withoutempathy, sympathy and compassion are more likely to be inaccurate and may lead to increased friction and resentment. In leadership literature, empathy is an ability to recognize a broad spectrum of emotional signals, allowing leaders to feel the unspoken emotions of other individuals or groups. Empathy provides a foundation for guiding our behaviors toward others. Emotional empathy, also called affective empathy or primitive empathy, is the subjective state resulting from emotional contagion. When we look at emotional and cognitive empathy through the lens of emotional and social intelligence competencies, we see that developing cognitive empathy skills is linked to self- and social awareness, while developing self-management and relationship management competencies is linked to emotional empathy. [4] Staub, E.
Roald Dahl Activity Ideas To celebrate Roald Dahl Day on the 13th September, I’ve put together a fun collection of Roald Dahl inspired science activity ideas. My 8 year is currently devouring Roald Dahl books and I remember spending many happy hours reading them as a child so this collection has been such fun to put together, it’s not quite complete and I will be adding to it over the next few weeks so do pop back soon. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Chocolate covered strawberries and changes of state Learn about changes of state by melting chocolate and then using it to cover strawberries. Extension ideas: Try adding a little golden syrup to the chocolate, does this affect the texture and taste? Photo thanks to The Crazy Kitchen Making Giant Sweets Investigate how to make your sweets bigger, by leaving them cold and warm water for a couple of hours. Extension Ideas Try different types of sweets and compare the changes. Skittle Magic Place some coloured sweets in water and watch as the colours leave the sweets. The BFG
GUYS READ The Official Roald Dahl Website Melulater: Modelling Books - how I use these to plan, teach and assess in my class Modelling Books were not around when I began my training to become a teacher. I didn't know anything about them really until 2005 when my school began their journey with the Numeracy Project. We had two facilitators come into our school to guide and support us in taking on the Numeracy Project, and part of that was demonstrating how to set up our modelling books and use them to aid us to teach a group of students. I credit Reshma (currently at Hautapu School) as being the Numeracy Project advisor who really started my journey with modelling books and my love affair with them. Anne, who was with the Literacy Project in 2006 and 2007 when I was at a school that was involved, and Tonia, the RTLit from Te Awamutu, have also influenced how I use modelling books for guided reading as well. I've been lucky enough to be inspired by others. Everyone makes these sorts of books their own to suit their teaching style and the children they work with. Reading: My modelling books always have a format.
Connected - Teachers' Notes You are here:Introduction Connected is a series designed to show mathematics, science, and technology in the context of students’ everyday lives. The articles are intended to stimulate discussion and to provide starting points for further investigations by individuals, groups, or a whole class. A shared or guided reading approach to using these texts will support students in understanding the concepts and technical vocabulary. Connected 1 is designed to appeal to year 3–4 students who are working at levels 1–2.Connected 2 is designed to appeal to year 4–6 students who are working at levels 1–3.Connected 3 is designed to appeal to year 5–8 students who are working at levels 2–4. This site provides Teachers’ Notes for the Connected series. PDF files of Teachers’ Notes for issues of Connected published prior to 2008 are provided on this website. Connected and the key competencies The relationship between the learning areas of science and technology and the key competencies Thinking Managing self