I hope you’ve had a good week. This week there is a letter to the Education Minister, some Google Chrome hacks, good advice for parents about synthetic phonics and ideas about sharing. I hope you enjoy the articles and I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
Minister, Reading Recovery Requires More Than Reading Recovery // Notes From Harefield
This is a letter to the NSW Education Minister about the Reading Recovery program. It follows some news articles published last year that have found that the Reading Recovery program used in schools in NSW does not work. The author of the article has been advocating for the removal of the program for over twenty years. When I published the news article on my Facebook page last year, it seems some of you believe in the effectiveness of the program . You may find this letter interesting as it does have some other facts and research mentioned.
Does Your Classroom Tell a Story? // Edutopia
This article gives you a few ideas of how you can include ‘mystery objects’ in your class to grab the interest of your students. What objects do you have in your class that also spark a conversation with students?
These 13 Google Chrome Hacks Will Change The Way You Use The Internet // Business Insider
Do you use Google Chrome as your web browser? I do, so this article has been quite useful. I like the Panic Button extension, it lets you hide all of your tabs with one click of a button. Could come in handy if you don’t want kids or parents to see what you’re looking at 😉 There is also the Adblock Plus extension, which allows you to remove annoying banner ads and pop-ups.
Help! What Are Phonics? A Confused Parent’s Guide // Huff Post Parents
This article explains synthetic phonics and gives you some more information about phonics, sounds/spellings and why we teach reading and spelling in this way. This could be a handy article to pass on to parents or education assistants that you work with.
Why You Shouldn’t Teach Your Kids to Share // Popsugar
I don’t really like the title of this article, but it did make me want to read it 🙂 I don’t think it’s so much about promoting no sharing, but rather it is more about allowing kids to self-regulate when they have had enough of a toy and when/if they want to give it to another child. I have been in situations where my child has waited for another child to give up a toy, only to just start playing with it and then a parent coming up to her and asking her to share it with their child. What are your thoughts on sharing, and how do you do it in your class?
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