PAL: Positive Alternative Learning

When you believe in your students, they believe in themselves, too.

So true!

❤️

New Toolkit & Tutorial from the National Center on Improving Literacy: School-based Screening for Dyslexia Risk. Educators can learn more about universal screening, how it works, and what to consider when choosing a dyslexia screener. http://ow.ly/cLtm50LaitR

A gentle reminder to never underestimate the impact you have on your students. ❤️

(via Rainbow Sprinkle Studio)

Thursday is !!!

To celebrate early, we'd like to share some tips for one of the most common struggles: Poor Grip!

Once hand dominance has been established, try some of the following sensory-rich ways to encourage quick and efficient handwriting remediation:

✏️ Small Tools✏️
It is important for children to use writing tools that promote the correct use of the thumb, pointer, and middle fingers. Often, when children are given regular size pencils and crayons, their grip becomes awkward because these tools are too heavy and long for their hands. Break full-size crayons and chalk in half or try our FLIP Crayons® and Little Chalk Bits to maximize your students’ control over their letter formation.

✂️Creative Play✂️
Children learn best with imaginative activities. Provide creative opportunities for children to develop fine motor skills that are necessary for correct grip, such as cutting paper dolls, manipulating play dough, or stringing beads to strengthen fine motor abilities.

🖐Work Those Fingers!🖐
Keep the little finger and ring finger in the palm. Have children hold a small sponge or penny in the palm with the little finger and ring finger. This keeps those fingers out of the way as the thumb, index, and middle fingers hold the pencil.

For more pencil grip teaching tips and activities, our FREE "Hold On...You Have to Teach Grip!" guide ➡️: https://bddy.me/3zcZciA

Why We're Forever Fans of the "Nothing Note" The technical term is "antiseptic bouncing," giving a student a reason to leave the classroom for a few minutes when they need a break.

Keep planting those seeds. 🌱

(via Big Life Journal)

School Districts Move to Ease Teacher Stress, Burnout Many districts, facing hiring challenges, see tending to educators as a way to both help students and retain teachers.

'The Great Pacific Garbage Patch!' - REVISED (better!) PRINTABLE LESSON + VIDEO
Topic: OCEANS & SEA LIFE / PLANET EARTH
Level: Elementary to Pre-Intermediate
Find the Free, Complete, Printable 60-min-Reading Lesson (with Vocab Preview Exercise, Grammar Practice, Reading Comprehension Check, Discussion Qs, Writing Homework, with Answer Keys attached + Downloadable Audio Files and Matching 3-min YouTube Video with subtitles at:
https://www.allthingstopics.com/oceans-and-sea-life.html
~Robert :D

"The best teachers are those
who show you where to look,
but don’t tell you what to see."
Alexandra K.Trenfor

Thomas Eakins - Amelia van Buren with a Cat on her Shoulder, 1891.