Month: December 2023

Kindergarten can be a big step for your child, and it’s okay for them to have a range of emotions. They may be nervous or excited, shy or a social butterfly.

In the past decade, kindergarten classrooms have shifted toward a greater focus on academic skills, says U.Va. researcher Daphna Bassok.

Social Skills

Children’s social skills are critical to their wellbeing. Social behaviors like taking turns, listening to others and reading body language help kids develop friendships and positive relationships. These are essential for a child’s emotional and cognitive development. Kids who lack these skills are more likely to experience difficulties in later life such as relationship problems, job loss or run-ins with the law.

In kindergarten, a child may have trouble expressing themselves verbally and will need to learn more constructive ways to express their feelings (e.g., tugging on a friend’s hair instead of grabbing it). They will also need to learn how to interpret other people’s emotions and understand empathy.

Research suggests that kids have unique trajectories of social skill development. It has been found that girls’ trajectories are different to boys’, suggesting that gender differences should be taken into consideration when identifying children who may have social challenges. These differences can be influenced by a variety of factors, including their home-rearing environment and demographic characteristics.

Emotional Development

Children’s social and emotional development is a critical milestone in their learning. It’s how they develop a sense of who they are and what they feel, form close relationships with family and other caregivers, explore their environment and learn new things. Children who do not have strong social and emotional foundation skills often struggle in school and in life.

Emotional development includes noticing emotions in others, sharing feelings with one another and learning how to comfort themselves when upset. It also teaches them how to interact positively with adults and peers.

Teachers who understand the importance of emotional development can create a classroom climate that supports it. They can provide opportunities for students to engage in meaningful interactions with each other, play and work together cooperatively. They can also encourage children to persevere when they are challenged by a task. This is a critical skill that will carry them into their future school and professional life.

Language & Literacy Development

Literacy development includes both receptive and expressive language skills, which are the building blocks for reading and writing. Children learn vocabulary through interactions with their families and teachers, and they develop the foundation of their literacy skills through exposure to written language and experiences with storytelling and reading.

Parents play a critical role in literacy development by providing a language-rich environment and reading aloud to their children. They can also support a child’s learning of literacy skills by helping them with daily tasks, such as making grocery lists or writing cards.

Emergent literacy is the first phase of a child’s developing ability to read and write. It involves behaviors such as pretending to read and being able to identify the first letter of their name, singing the alphabet song and recognizing letters and their sounds. This stage usually lasts until a child starts school. Children in this phase can also begin to understand the connection between written syllables and words, which is called orthographic consistency.

Thinking Skills

While young children may not be able to grasp sophisticated reasoning or formulate detailed arguments, they can begin to build a critical thinking mindset. Parents can encourage this by asking open-ended questions that require thought and analysis (as opposed to rote memorization), and by helping them develop their own interests and passions.

In kindergarten, it’s especially important to promote creative thinking skills. The earlier students learn how to analyze, compare, innovate and have an open mind, the better they’ll be able to solve problems.

During this developmental stage, it’s also useful to introduce students to concepts like describing, comparing/contrasting and sequencing. A great resource for this is the book Teaching Thinking Skills & Common Core Concepts by Sandra Parks and Howard Black. This student book contains powerful lessons that help students learn key kindergarten skills while improving their observation and description skills. It’s ideal for classroom use with the corresponding teacher’s manual, sold separately.

Reading intervention is a method of helping a struggling reader improve their skills. It focuses on improving the main aspects of reading: phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary and comprehension.

Teaching phonological awareness helps students decode words and learn their sounds. Studies show incorporating phonological awareness instruction, decoding practice and reading aloud results in improved accuracy.

Phonics

Phonics is an important component of reading intervention because it helps students learn the alphabetic principle – that written letters represent sounds. Without understanding this, students can’t decode new words and become fluent readers.

Systematic synthetic phonics instruction has had a positive impact on disabled students’ reading skills and has also been shown to improve the literacy abilities of children from low socioeconomic backgrounds. This is because phonics teaches children to read new words by sounding them out, blending them and manipulating them into spelling patterns.

Fast Phonics is a highly effective, research-based program designed to teach foundational reading skills using a clear scope and sequence. Our phonics program uses a placement test to place students at the appropriate level, plus end-of-book quizzes and reading passages to measure progress. Get started with a free trial today!

Vocabulary

Developing students’ vocabularies is essential to comprehension. In fact, experts estimate that a child must know 90-95% of the words in a text to comprehend it.

Explicit vocabulary instruction is important, particularly for students with underlying weaknesses in reading. Studies on vocabulary interventions have yielded high effects on both comprehension and word reading.

For explicit vocabulary intervention to be effective, target words should be chosen carefully. The target words should be: (1) unknown to the student, (2) critical for understanding a text, and (3) used in other contexts (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2004).

When teaching new vocabulary words, teachers are encouraged to use an explicit instructional routine that provides multiple opportunities for students to process the meaning of the words in a variety of formats and contexts. For example, the four step routine discussed in this video is a great instructional tool for introducing and practicing new vocabulary words. This helps students remember the words and increases their chances of using them in their own writing and speaking.

Comprehension

Whether reading for fun or information, comprehension is key. Comprehension allows readers to visualize stories, make inferences, and learn new ideas. Without it, students struggle to absorb the content they read and may experience the “fourth grade slump” where reading comprehension skills decline.

In addition to building phonemic awareness and decoding, reading intervention also focuses on teaching students a variety of comprehension strategies. These include rereading, asking questions, summarizing and retelling. Reading interventions that teach morphological awareness — the ability to pull apart and define words that don’t follow traditional patterns, such as prefixes, suffixes and base words — have been shown to improve a student’s understanding of text.

Students who receive a reading intervention may receive instruction in a variety of ways, including within a classroom setting or in smaller groups by teachers or paraeducators. They typically work on one or more of the five core aspects of reading until they reach a level that is sufficient for their reading capabilities.

Fluency

Fluency is a critical part of reading comprehension. Less-fluent readers must focus most of their attention on figuring out words, which leaves little time for understanding the text. Regular practice, immersion, and meaningful interactions with text can greatly improve fluency.

Encourage learners to read aloud to an adult who provides model and assistance. Repeated oral reading is an effective strategy for building fluency, especially if the texts are one or two grade levels below learners’ assessed reading levels. Collecting record sheets of timed readings can help identify areas for improvement and track growth.

Provide readers with books that have predictable vocabulary and rhythmic patterns. This helps them “hear” what fluent reading sounds like, making it more enjoyable for them to work on improving their fluency. It also increases their confidence as they lose themselves in the story. Using a metronome to guide their reading pace and systematic progress monitoring have also been shown to significantly improve fluency for struggling students.

Children learn to get along with others in school. They also develop the ability to be independent. Eventually, kids will need to be able to live without their parents and must learn to manage their expectations when they go into new environments.

Although the principles that govern development and learning are generalizable across subject areas, there are important differences among subject-matter domains. These differences influence how the skills and content are taught and learned.

Social Development

Children need a supportive social environment to learn and grow. In the right setting, they can put their social skills to work in group activities and games, learning how to communicate with others and develop healthy associations with peers.

As they build relationships with other people, young kids are able to explore and experience their world. They can begin to understand their place in the universe, and they develop moral thinking.

During this time, they also learn how to solve problems and deal with conflict. It is important for these social abilities to be nurtured so that they can continue their education throughout their life.

Emotional Development

Children learn to recognize and manage their emotions as they grow. They learn what feelings are and how they occur, such as joy, anger, fear and sadness. They develop understanding of their own feelings and those of others, such as empathy and sympathy. They also learn social skills, such as taking turns and cooperating with other children in their play.

Early emotional development depends on the quality of parents’ relationships with their children. Parents who support the expression of positive emotions and use appropriate discipline methods promote effective emotion self-regulation in their children. In contrast, frequent outbursts of negative emotions and harsh disciplinary responses can interfere with a child’s developing sense of control and lead to poor emotional self-regulation.

Cognitive Development

Research on cognitive development has emphasized children’s abilities to learn through interactions with knowledgeable adults and peers. These experiences are inherently social, and young children rely so heavily on the social context of their learning that they become astute at distinguishing adult speakers who can provide them with reliable information from those who cannot.

As they engage in meaningful activities with responsive adults, early elementary school children use cognitive control processes to plan and execute goal-directed action. These processes include short-term and working memory, attention control and shifting, and the ability to inhibit unproductive behaviors. These skills also contribute to the growth of general knowledge and competencies, as well as subject-matter content knowledge and skills. These skills are sometimes referred to as noncognitive skills, although they play an important role in cognitive development and learning.

Language Development

During their early years, children learn to express themselves in the spoken word. They develop a wide vocabulary and become proficient at grammar and phonology. They are able to use their new skills to understand written language and express themselves in writing.

They begin to notice that words have different syllables and play rhyming games. They also start to add grammatical features such as ‘-ing’ to verbs and’s’ to forms of nouns that need to change to make them plural – for example, ‘feets’ rather than ‘feets’.

Their ability to use language is linked to their knowledge of the world around them. For this reason, reading books with your child is a great way to help them develop their vocabulary and understanding of the world.

Creative Expression

Children need lots of opportunities to explore, experiment and pursue their ideas through creative activities. They must also have time to discuss their thoughts, actions and materials with others, especially when working on extended projects like those inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach.

When children express themselves through artistic activities, they learn to communicate their feelings and ideas, practice visual representations of events and experiences, and refine fine motor skills. Artistic expression helps them explore their imagination, practice reasoning and logic, and understand cause and effect.

Children with learning differences can exercise their motor, logic and abstraction skills through creative activities. These skills can be transferred to other academic subjects to help them brainstorm, solve problems and overcome obstacles. New material innovation — such as the use of recycled plastic, hand-dyed paper and clay — offers even more possibilities for creative exploration.

Education support is a UK charity that champions the mental health and wellbeing of teachers. It was founded in 1877 as a benevolent fund for teachers and today also supports students and staff at further, higher and adult education.

Many companies offer a tuition assistance benefit to help employees pay for school. This is an excellent way to promote professional growth.

Guidance or Counseling Office

Guidance counselors assist students with personal and family issues that may interfere with their learning process. Counselors work with teachers and other staff members to help students develop coping skills and make informed decisions in order to prepare for life. Counselors also provide information regarding academics and graduation requirements, colleges, scholarships, career and vocational training. Counselors use school orientation programs, homeroom visits, guidance classes and individual appointments to become acquainted with each student. They also study standardized placement scores and review each student’s academic history.

Counselors may also address the educational and career development needs of special target groups, such as minorities, women and handicapped students, by developing and implementing programs to improve and expand counseling services for these special populations. They are also required to comply with civil rights statutory and regulatory requirements related to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

ESL (English as a Second Language) Specialists

Students who are learning English as a second language often find that they need help with their academic writing, so the CUNY Writing Center (1.88) has ESL Specialists on staff to help them. These professors, who have a Master’s in Teaching English as a Second Language, can work with students on everything from essay writing to preparing for class presentations.

ESL administrators reported that a key – albeit challenging – responsibility was to collaborate with mainstream classroom teachers. However, many of these partnerships were reported as informal and not sustained over time. Mainstream teachers need greater preparation in understanding the complexities of ELLs, including second language acquisition and culture as it impacts student learning.

ESL administrators need to be able to conduct high quality, data driven professional development for mainstream teachers. This is particularly critical in schools with a large percentage of ELLs. The resulting collaboration between ESL and mainstream teachers can make the difference in student achievement.

Library and Media Services

Our school library media programs provide students and teachers with intellectual and physical access to a wide range of literature and informational reading materials. They aggressively promote reading and nurture a love for learning. Through collaborative work with classroom teachers, the library media program teaches inquiry-based research skills and helps students become effective users of information by integrating technology into curriculum activities and developing a network of connections to local and global resources and institutions.

The library media collection supports the curriculum and provides students with opportunities to develop literary, cultural and aesthetic appreciation, intellectual integrity and ethical standards. All materials are selected with a focus on supporting student needs and the growth of knowledge in an environment that is welcoming, respectful of all people and free of bias or prejudice. This collection is supported by a full-time certificated library media teacher and staff. INFOhio is an online resource that allows students and teachers to locate a variety of scholarly articles, journals, databases and books.

Teachers

In addition to delivering instruction, teachers must provide guidance and counseling to students concerning academic and personal issues. They also may collaborate with other staff members on grade-level or subject-area teams to plan and coordinate instructional activities.

Teachers should also develop effective parent-teacher communication and engagement strategies and support students to set and achieve goals. They are also responsible for the analysis of data to determine student progress and improvement opportunities, as well as developing instructional strategies to meet individual student needs.

Education support professionals work full-time during school hours and usually have several weeks off of work during the year for school and federal holidays. Most have little on-the-job training and instead rely on their prior education and training to perform their job duties. NJEA continually strives to safeguard and advance the professional interests, training, pay, pension and health benefits of ESP. Visit our ESP Resources page for additional information and Department-funded projects that local programs and individuals may find helpful.

Schools play an important role in providing a foundation for knowledge. They teach children to be inquisitive and lifelong learners. They also promote social learning. This enables students to build confidence in their abilities and interests.

Schooling also cultivates habits of punctuality and reliability, which are valuable in the workplace. In addition, consistent attendance helps students retain information.

Education

Schooling is a vital part of any society. It teaches people to communicate, think critically, and be responsible citizens. It also teaches them to respect different cultures and values. The more educated a nation is, the better it can compete in the global economy.

Many schools offer a wide variety of subjects and programs, but they all have one thing in common: they teach students to learn. The process of learning is a complex, multi-faceted journey. It involves a great deal of work, dedication, and effort.

While some schools may be more effective than others, all schools have an important role to play in a student’s life. They are not just places of instruction, but are also social hubs that allow students to connect with other people.

Boarding schools

Boarding schools provide students with a unique opportunity to learn how to live independently in a structured environment. Living away from home teaches students the importance of time management, and also develops their work ethic and strong commitment to academics. This can help students prepare for college and other future endeavors.

Students in boarding schools typically attend classes with smaller student-to-teacher ratios. This allows teachers to identify individual strengths and weaknesses. This individualized approach to learning is one of the main reasons that boarding school graduates excel in their lives after graduation.

In addition to academics, boarding schools provide a variety of extracurricular activities. These include art, music and sports. Many schools even have beautiful performing arts centers and stunning museums. The shared communal experience of dorm life creates deep friendships and encourages peer mentoring.

Madrassas

Across the Muslim world, students attending madrassas—religious schools—learn a fundamentalist brand of Islam that rejects modernity. Some of these schools are criticized for acting as recruiting centers for violent radicals who attack the West. Others teach a moderate form of Islam, including Islamic mysticism.

Madrassas began to develop in the 11th century, when Seljuk Vizier Nizam-ul-Mulk established a seminary for training ulema, or religious scholars. The schools were designed to create a class of clerics to administer the Muslim empire, legitimize rulers, and define an unalterable version of dogma.

But now the madrassas are getting attention for their role in fostering extremism and militancy. The US has included madrassa reform as a key element of its global counterterrorism strategy. Taking out religious hatred and anti-American rhetoric from the curriculum would diminish the influence of these schools, which are heavily funded by zakat and other charitable donations from the Gulf countries.

Public schools

Government schools are financed by the state and provide education to citizens free of charge. They are governed by locally elected school boards and are generally under the control of three levels of government: federal, state, and local. Curricula, funding, and teaching policies are set by these school districts.

These schools typically offer day-to-day education from kindergarten to 5th or 6th grade. Secondary-level schooling varies from country to country, with grammar schools (known as independent schools in the UK) and other institutions like Eton or Harrow educating students for residential fees.

The issue of whether or not schools should stamp out familial views and impress children with socially approved beliefs is one that has occupied many reformers. Finding a balance between family and state authority is important to a democratic society.

Private schools

Private schools are a popular choice for parents looking to provide their children with a well-rounded education. They offer a wide variety of extracurricular activities, such as sports, arts, and clubs. In addition, students are taught to think critically and develop creativity. This holistic approach to education helps students become leaders in their fields.

While the press tends to focus on the most elite private schools, such as Eton and Harrow, there are many more that cater to a range of families. These schools are often classified as independent schools as they do not receive funding from the state and are governed by a board of governors.

Private school admissions are often selective, and the acceptance criteria may be based on religious belief, academic specialty, or student conduct.

Kindergarten introduces kids to the routine of school life and builds on their learning from preschool. They learn to sit and listen to stories, and develop better self-control.

Reading and writing are important focuses in kindergarten. Kids learn to recognize all 26 letters of the alphabet (uppercase and lowercase), and their sounds. They also begin to write high-frequency sight words.

Social and Emotional Development

Social-emotional development includes a child’s ability to make and keep friends; understand his or her own feelings and those of others; and engage in prosocial behaviors (like helping out, taking turns and treating people fairly). Kids develop these skills by interacting with adults, especially parents and caregivers. Kindergarten is a time to build on these skills, and it’s where kids first learn how to interact with their peers in a school setting.

Many schools offer programs that help students get to know their classmates better. Some kindergartens allow children to participate in sports teams, for instance, so they can learn about teamwork and a healthy lifestyle. Others bring in people who work in the community, like firefighters or doctors, to talk about their jobs and answer questions from kids. These experiences help students develop empathy and curiosity. This, in turn, helps them become confident learners. Children need these skills to succeed in the classroom, at home and in their future careers.

Physical Development

A child’s physical development includes advancements in motor skills that allow them to move, play and interact with their environment. From an early age, children want to touch, look at, smell and taste the world around them. This exploration is supported by physical movements such as sitting, crawling and walking.

Throughout kindergarten, children improve their balance and coordination as they grow, which leads to more accuracy within their movements (Auger & Rich, 2009). This helps them play with a variety of materials and objects that require fine motor skills.

Supporting a healthy physical development involves encouraging a daily active lifestyle and reducing sedentary time. It also requires educators and families to understand that each child’s progression toward certain milestones can be different. You can help support their development by creating flexible physical development plans and providing plenty of indoor and outdoor space and activities that encourage movement and motor skill practice. Provide training opportunities for staff and families to deepen their knowledge of child development.

Language Development

Children develop language skills from an interaction of their genes (which hold innate tendencies to communicate and be social), their environment and their own thinking abilities. They use cries, gestures and body language to communicate even before they say their first words.

Kindergarten students often have strong oral language and conversation skills, and are able to express themselves clearly and understand other people’s speech. They are able to follow directions and take turns speaking in groups, and have a solid foundation for reading and writing.

Teachers will expand these oral language skills by introducing new vocabulary words, and describing how things look or feel. For example, if a child is excited about something, the teacher might ask them to describe what it looks like. Having a variety of small group activities, such as show-and-tell and pairing students up to read and answer questions together, will encourage a broad range of vocabulary. It is important that teachers don’t interrupt a student when they are talking, but rather encourage them to continue their thought process by listening attentively.

Academic Development

Kindergarten students are taught phonics and early reading skills. They will also learn about numbers, patterns and fundamental arithmetic. Kindergarten instructors work to provide a nurturing environment that fosters learning and growth.

Teachers regularly evaluate the academic progress of students through a variety of assessments. Students who require additional support are referred to content specialists for additional instruction or practice.

Historically, research has indicated that children who start school at older ages do better on standardized tests of math and language arts. But this advantage is not consistent and may disappear. One surprising finding in recent years is that teachers rated children who started school at younger ages more highly on a letter-word recognition subtest than did children who began school at older ages. However, these results did not appear to hold up when the prediction model was rerun using a more robust base regression model. This suggests that these one-time findings were either statistical anomalies or products of some not-yet-understood process of suppression.

Students requiring reading intervention often have trouble with one or more of the five core aspects of literacy. Teachers should choose strategies that will work best for each student, providing plenty of support.

Upon seeing that a child is below grade level on a universal screener, teachers give diagnostic assessments to identify weaknesses. They then reteach skills from the most basic to more complex.

Phonics

Learning to read requires the ability to decode words into their component sounds. Without this knowledge, students struggle to understand the relationship between written symbols (graphemes) and their corresponding spoken sounds (phonemes).

One of the first and most critical Reading intervention strategies is to teach phonics. This includes helping students to recognize the 44 distinct sounds in our alphabetic English language, as well as how they combine to form words like Mary Poppins’ famous “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!”

Teaching phonics is crucial for beginning readers. However, it’s also important to give struggling readers a solid foundation in single-syllable words. This is because being able to distinguish the differences between long and short vowel sounds (and the schwa sound!) is more difficult than decoding consonant sounds.

A good phonics program will have a clear and consistent routine that allows teachers to focus on specific skills for small groups of students. For example, using power words that are high-utility for struggling readers is an effective way to introduce new skills such as short u.

Comprehension

Comprehension is a student’s ability to understand what they read. Children who comprehend can visualize a story, predict what is going to happen next, laugh at a joke or make inferences. Comprehension is tied to other components of reading including phonics, vocabulary and fluency.

To build comprehension students can use graphic organizers that include Venn diagrams, story maps, mind maps and cause and effect charts. Having students mark up texts with symbols to signal when they have questions or find something funny or interesting is another great strategy to get students thinking about text.

Activate prior knowledge to help students connect to text by having them think about what they already know about the topic. Teach grammatical structure to support comprehension by teaching prefixes, suffixes and base words. This ties back to the importance of differentiating instruction according to learners needs. It may not be useful to have a whole group of students work on the same skill at the same time.

Reading Fluency

Reading fluency involves being able to read a passage of text quickly and effortlessly. It also includes the ability to group words together into correct phrases. When children are proficient, they spend virtually no time processing words on the page and instead are able to focus on making meaning out of groups of words, sentences or paragraphs.

A variety of strategies are used in reading intervention to help learners build reading fluency. Many of these strategies involve repeated readings of easy-to-understand books. Reading to your child and then having them read aloud to you can be a great way to engage your child in this activity. Try using different voices, funny voices and expression when reading with your child.

Research suggests that a combination of vocabulary instruction, repeated reading and performance feedback (reading to a criterion), and using easier level passages are key factors for improving students’ fluency outcomes. FastBridge offers several interventions that incorporate all of these components, including Voyager Sopris Learning’s LANGUAGE!

Vocabulary

Vocabulary is a key component to reading comprehension. Students who have high vocabulary scores tend to score higher on standardized tests of reading comprehension than those with low vocabulary scores (McGregor et al, 2002). Vocabulary development and instruction should be integrated into classroom instruction and be aligned with the curriculum.

Research suggests that children learn words more quickly and effectively when they are tied to a meaningful context. This includes the lexicon of the classroom textbook, subject matter taught in the classroom, or social cues such as the speaker’s tone and gestures that convey the meaning of an unfamiliar word.

To be effective, vocabulary instruction should include a range of instructional strategies that target the underlying concepts and shades of meaning that are found in academic Tier 2 words. These words are most likely to appear in a variety of texts and will help readers understand texts across genres, domains, and topics. Explicit instruction in vocabulary can include direct presentations of easy-to-understand definitions, use of both example and nonexamples, short discussions, and opportunities for repeated practice to build students’ breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge.

Educators, developmental scientists, and economists know that learning is not just about subject-matter knowledge. It also involves learning the competencies that govern how children enlist cognitive resources, motivate advances in their knowledge and skills, and self-regulate during challenges.

For example, young children implicitly build explanatory systems–implicit theories–about language; number; object characteristics; and physical causality. Their developing theory of mind affects how they perceive others and themselves.

Language and Literacy

Language and literacy development are key to children’s success in all aspects of their life, including cognitive development, school performance and social relations. Strong literacy skills help children become confident, inquisitive learners and set them up for a lifetime of learning enjoyment.

Literacy is the ability to read and write. It begins in early childhood as infants start to discriminate and encode the sounds of spoken words, an ability called phonological awareness. They also start to store these sound structures in memory – an ability called vocabulary.

When children engage in activities that involve print, like storybooks, they can begin to learn about the symbols that represent syllables and words in written form. This is called pre-reading literacy.

It is best to provide young children with literacy experiences in their first and primary languages. This allows them to understand, enjoy and talk about the texts they are reading and it also helps to prepare them for the experience of gaining literacy in other languages like SAE later on.

Thinking Skills

As babies take in information about their world, neurons (brain cells) branch out and create connections with each other. These connections are known as neural pathways and pass messages using gaps between neurons and brain chemicals called neurotransmitters.

Kids with strong critical thinking skills are able to analyze and assess different factors and outcomes in a situation before making a judgement. They are also able to use their knowledge and experience to find solutions to problems that they may encounter.

Teaching children to question their own assumptions and not simply repeat what they have been told is a crucial part of critical thinking development. This also helps them resist peer pressure and form their own opinions. It also means that they are better able to think independently, which is an essential skill in the workplace. Teaching kids to build hypotheses during playtime is another great way to encourage their thinking skills and to get them to consider alternatives.

Physical Development

Children’s physical development is the advancement of their motor skills. It is an important foundation for learning through exploration and supports other domains like cognitive and social-emotional development. It also helps children be more comfortable moving around and using their hands to explore the world.

Physical activity can help children maintain a healthy weight and build strong bones and muscles. It can also help them develop a positive attitude towards exercise and a willingness to participate in regular fitness activities throughout their lives.

Encourage children to run, jump, skip, climb, and ride a bike (gross motor activities). Incorporate fine-motor activities in the classroom such as threading beads, drawing with crayons or markers, mark making with clay or dough, pressing, pinching, and catching. Children are often less irritable and frustrated when they have an opportunity to work through their emotions physically like running or playing on the playground. This is because they can use their bodies to express their feelings and communicate them in a way that others can understand.

Social Skills

The development of social skills helps children form friendships and create positive relationships with their peers. It also contributes to their academic performance and well-being in school. Children who lack these skills may have difficulty making friends, be unable to read social cues such as body language and tone of voice or have trouble with understanding humor and figurative language.

Interacting with both children their own age and older ones teaches them essential developmental skills such as problem-solving, conflict resolution, sharing, kindness and empathy. Students also develop responsibility and leadership skills through classroom responsibilities, group activities and assignments that encourage teamwork.

Social skills learning increases a child’s positive behaviors and reduces negative behavior, including substance abuse, violence, truancy and bullying. It promotes academic success and overall health, and fosters family well-being. Parents, teachers and mental health professionals can help children develop these important life skills through a variety of strategies. If a child continues to struggle with social skills, it may be a sign of underlying emotional or behavioral problems.

Education support is a UK charity for teachers, trainees, serving teachers, heads, and education professionals. It champions good mental health and wellbeing at work.

School support staff – paraprofessionals, secretaries, custodians, and transportation workers – are essential to making public schools work. They deserve resources and respect. They shape and enrich students’ learning journeys.

Observe and Collaborate

Education support staff (ESP) are the backbone of every school. They are everywhere in the halls, classrooms, cafeterias, and offices – working to make teaching and learning possible for all students.

Collaboration with specialists can look different for each educator based on school policies and individual schedules, but it’s important to find a way to communicate regularly about student progress, challenges, and successes. Some educators choose to participate in structured meetings between a general education teacher and the specialist, while others may choose to meet on a more casual basis.

In addition to communicating regularly about student progress, it’s also a good idea for teachers and ESP to share their knowledge of teaching and learning with one another. This can happen in the form of formal collaborative meetings or informal conversations during breaks between classes. This will help cultivate a supportive culture that values each other’s work.

Share Knowledge

Using the theory of knowledge acquisition known as Bloom’s taxonomy, sharing creates more depth in learning. Creating resources takes time, but it’s an investment that employees can use again and again to learn and improve their performance in the workplace. Sharing knowledge also helps employees take their career to the next level.

One way to share knowledge is through a professional learning community (PLC). These are groups of teachers who meet on a regular basis to discuss teaching best practices and strategies. They collaborate and work together to improve student outcomes.

The MSEA fights to protect and advance the interests of education support professionals, or ESPs, who play vital roles in our schools and communities. From the classroom to the cafeteria, ESPs deserve respect and decent wages. ESPs are the backbone of every school. They’re the bus drivers, secretaries, custodians, and food service workers who keep our schools running smoothly. They make crucial observations about students’ needs and day-to-day classroom occurrences, and they bring invaluable experience to the workplace.

Be Inclusive

Getting to know students’ backgrounds and their families is important. Teachers should ask about preferred names, other languages spoken, and hobbies and interests. They should also make it a point to collaborate with special education staff so that they can offer a full range of support services for their students, including accommodation plans and academic interventions.

Instructors should model inclusive language and avoid using exclusionary language, even if unintentional. They can do this by ensuring that their lesson materials have a variety of perspectives represented, including ethnic and racial representation; expanding reading lists to include nonwhite authors; varying case studies and lecture examples to incorporate different gender identities; and using inclusive pronouns.

Inclusive education requires substantial resources at the school, local and national levels to address issues like teacher training, building refurbished facilities and providing accessible learning materials. But research shows that a strong culture of inclusion can help to foster more tolerant and understanding attitudes toward people with disabilities and other marginalized groups.

Celebrate

Educating students is a team effort. The people who drive the buses, clean the buildings, cook the meals and bandage scraped knees are a crucial part of any school’s staff and should not be forgotten. National Education Support Professionals Day is a day to honor them for all they do.

NJEA is proud to stand up for the interests of ESPs from local to national levels. ESP members count on NJEA to champion their jobs and careers, including protecting their job security, pension and health benefits and advancing their pay and working conditions.

ESPs are the secretaries, classroom aides, custodians, bus drivers and other transportation workers, food service employees, janitorial and maintenance workers and paraprofessionals that make schools work. This year’s celebration was held on the Wednesday of American Education Week. ESPs are dedicated to both their jobs and their communities and deserve a day to be celebrated and recognized for all they do. You can show your support by posting on social media using #EducationSupportProfessionalsDay and writing to your elected Federal or State representatives and senators asking for a proclamation for National ESP Day.

Choosing the right school for your child is an important decision. Attending new parent nights and open houses is one way to learn about a school, but they may not be able to address all of your questions.

Teachers are an essential part of any student’s life. They share their knowledge and wisdom with children, and help them to understand the world around them.

What is a school?

School is an educational institution for the teaching of children or adults. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is typically compulsory. These schools may include kindergarten or preschool, primary school and secondary school. Students may also attend a university, vocational school, or college for further study after completion of secondary school.

School helps develop a child’s moral character, social skills and responsibility. It allows young people to learn from other children and adults of different backgrounds, encouraging them to be more tolerant and accepting of differences.

The word school can also refer to a group of pupils or students, or to the body of knowledge or methods taught in a particular type of subject: the Latin school; the animism school; the Platonic school; the Florentine school. It can also mean a group of artists, or writers or musicians, whose works share a similar conceptual or stylistic influence: the modernist school; the French school.

Is school for getting a job?

Many people believe that the main purpose of school is to help with getting a job. This is because they see school as a way to get an education that will lead to more opportunities in life. They believe that schools teach them important skills such as time management and communication which will help them in their future careers. In addition, they also believe that regular attendance at school helps them show potential employers that they are dedicated to their education.

Other people, like Srey Hin, think that the main purpose of school is to provide them with the empowerment they need to succeed in their lives. This is because they believe that education has the power to break unjust inequality cycles.

In this view, the goal of school is to prepare students for different aspects of their lives, including getting a job. This is why it is important to find a school that offers a broad educational experience. This includes extra-curricular activities such as playing sports, participating in the school newspaper or joining a club.

What is a school for?

School is a place where students are taught to work with others. This helps them to develop social skills that will help them in their future. It also teaches them how to respect different people and understand that everyone is unique.

It is often thought that schools are important because they provide opportunities for further education and career advancement. While this may be true, schools have many other purposes that are less well-known.

One of the most important functions of a school is teaching children how to be responsible. This is accomplished through a variety of means, such as requiring students to complete assignments on time, participating in group projects, and maintaining an ethical standard.

School is a great way to learn about the world around us. It teaches students to become aware of the problems that exist and motivates them to do something about them. It is also a great place to interact with other people and build friendships that will last a lifetime.

Why is school important?

School is one of the most important institutions in any society. It provides a structured environment for students to learn a broad range of subjects, including math, science, languages, social studies, and the arts. It also helps develop critical thinking skills and prepares students for college.

Schools help students develop social skills and form lifelong friendships. They also teach students to work well in a team, which is an essential skill for many jobs. In addition, schools expose students to a variety of topics that may spark their interests. This can encourage them to explore their passions further or even pursue careers in these fields.

Finally, education is a key driver of economic mobility. People who receive a quality education are more likely to earn higher wages and live healthier lives. This is why countries should strive to provide everyone with access to quality education.