I've
come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It's my personal approach that creates
the climate. It's my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I have tremendous power to make a child's
life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor,
hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and
a child humanized or dehumanized.
Get the facts! This common-sense
parent guide clears up the confusion and answers key questions on the functionality, necessity, efficacy, and safety of vaccines.
Visit American Academy of Pediatrics-www.AAP.org/parents.html
On National
Teacher Day, thousands of communities take time to honor their local educators and acknowledge the crucial role teachers
play in making sure every student receives a quality education. This year's event takes place on May
2011.
LEGAL DRUGS CAN LEAD TO LETHAL HIGHS! Connect with Kidsis taking this opportunity to keep you informed of the latest trends faced by
our youth. In support of that, we are highlighting products that you can use -- at school and at home -- to help keep
your kids safe from drugs. Kids are getting high using over-the-counter drugs such as cold tablets and cough syrup.
They're also using prescription pain pills - stealing them from their parents or buying them online - as well as taking other
kids' ADD medicines or selling their own. At Pharm Parties (click for story), they're taking whatever is readily available. Just because these drugs are legal, they can
still be highly addictive, physically harmful and even deadly. Many kids don't know that. Get the Generation Rx DVD to help keep them informed -- and help start the conversation! Visit www.connectwithkids.com or call (888) 598-Kids (5437) for more informaion.
www.pta.org
LEAD POISONING IS A SERIOUS ILLNESS!
Lead is a very strong poison. When a person swallows a lead object or breathes in
lead dust, some of the poison can stay in the body and cause serious health problems. Lead used to be very common in
gasoline and house paint in the U.S. Children living in cities with older houses are more likely to have high levels of lead.Although
gasoline and paint are no longer made with lead in them, lead is still a health problem. Lead is everywhere, including dirt,
dust, new toys, and old house paint. Unfortunately, you can't see, taste, or smell lead.
Lead is found in:
House paint before 1978. Even if the paint is not peeling, it can be a problem. Lead paint is very
dangerous when it is being stripped or sanded. These actions release fine lead dust into the air. Infants and children living
in pre-1960's housing (when paint often contained lead) have the highest risk of lead poisoning. Small children often swallow
paint chips or dust from lead-based paint.
Toys
and furniture painted before 1976.
Painted
toys and decorations made outside the U.S.
Lead
bullets, fishing sinkers, curtain weights.
Plumbing,
pipes, and faucets. Lead can be found in drinking water in homes containing pipes that were connected with lead solder. Although new building codes require lead-free solder, lead is still
found in some modern faucets.
Soil contaminated
by decades of car exhaust or years of house paint scrapings. Lead is more common in soil near highways and houses.
Hobbies involving soldering, stained glass, jewelry making, pottery glazing,
and miniature lead figures (always look at labels).
Children's
paint sets and art supplies (always look at labels).
Pewter
pitchers and dinnerware.
Storage batteries.
Children get lead in their bodies when
they put lead objects in their mouths, especially if they swallow the lead object. They can also get lead poison on their
fingers from touching a dusty or peeling lead object, and then putting their fingers in their mouths or eating food afterward.
Children also can breathe in tiny amounts of lead.
Symptoms
There are many possible symptoms of lead poisoning. Lead can
affect many different parts of the body. A single high dose of lead can cause severe emergency symptoms. However, it
is more common for lead poisoning to build up slowly over time. This occurs from repeated exposure to small amounts of lead.
In this case, there may not be any obvious symptoms. Over time, even low levels of lead exposure can harm a child's mental
development. The health problems get worse as the level of lead in the blood gets higher. Lead is much more harmful
to children than adults because it can affect children's developing nerves and brains. The younger the child, the more harmful
lead can be. Unborn children are the most vulnerable.
Possible
complications include:
Behavior or attention
problems
Failure at school
Hearing problems
Kidney damage
Reduced
IQ
Slowed body growth
The symptoms of lead poisoning may include:
Abdominal pain and cramping (usually the first sign of a high, toxic dose
of lead poison)
The mission of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is to
advance cures, and means of prevention, for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment. Consistent with
the vision of our Founder Danny Thomas, no child is denied treatment based on race, religion or a family's ability to pay.
To make a donation call 1-800-4stjude.
*
What is ExploraVision?
Now in its 16th year, ExploraVision encourages K-12 students of all
interest, skill and ability levels to create and explore a vision of future technology by combining their imaginations with
the tools of science. All inventions and innovations result from creative
thinking and problem solving. ExploraVision offers a ready-made tool to put into practice many of the National Science
Education Standards — particularly in the areas of "science
and technology" and "science in personal and social perspectives." The competition is also an excellent way
for students to learn how to work in collaborative learning groups
on an interdisciplinary project. Visit www.exploravision.org.
AcademicONE
Live e-tutoring!
AcademicONE,
a Tec-Masters Incorporated company, is an online education service
that provides tutoring in math and science courses through a secured web site. Whether from home, school, library, or after-school
program, AcademicONE allows students to receive assistance with difficult homework problems from a live tutor. Wherever there
is Internet access, help is just a few clicks away. Visit: www.itutorlive.com.
Founded in 1988, Give the Gift of Sight is a family of charitable programs providing free vision care and eyewear tounderprivileged
individuals in North America and in developing countries around the world. Sponsored by Give the Gift of Sight Foundation
and Luxottica Group, these programs have helped five million people on five continents and in hundreds of communities across
North America. The program's goal is to help seven million people by 2008. Visitwww.givethegiftofsight.comfor more information and how you can help.
.
****************************************************** How To Improve Education for African-American Students!
Edited by Sheryl J. Denbo and Lynson Moore Beaulieu Foreword by Vinetta C. Jones, Ph.D.
Dean School of Education, Howard University Washington, D. C.
WrightsLaw Advocacy Training! Special Education Law & Advocacy Trainingincludes all the content of the
live program ... and more than an hour of bonus content. The content is divided into four programs:
two about law; two about advocacy strategies. Each program includes several topics.
Go to www.wrightslaw.com for more dates and important special education information!
Black and Hispanic children have made significant gains in health,
safety and income over the past two decades, narrowing gaps between them and white children, according to a pioneering report
on child development. They still fare
worse overall than whites, but they're catching up in several areas and are less likely to smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol,
abuse drugs or commit suicide, according to this report. It was sponsored by the Foundation for Child Development, a philanthropy
that funds research on children. Visit USAToday.com
************************************************* Sink Your Teeth into Teen Read Week! October,
2010.
The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) sponsors Teen Read Week each year to encourage teens to explore and take advantage of all the great resources libraries have to offer. This year's Teen Read Week is in October.
******************************************
¡Colorín Colorado
Welcome
to Colorín Colorado, the leading website for teachers and parents of English Language Learners! Here you'll find lots
of articles, resources, and ideas to support ELLs at school and at home. Teachers:
Take a look at our For Educators section (also available in Spanish) to find more information about ELLs, teaching reading and content to ELLs, and classroom
strategies. Also be sure to check our Topics A to Z section for articles on everything from early literacy and assessment to learning disabilties.
Visit
National School Backpack Awareness Day September, 2010.
National School Backpack
Awareness Day is an annual event held in September. Across the country, events are being held to educate parents, students,
teachers and school administrators, and communities about the serious health effects on children from backpacks that are too
heavy or worn improperly.
Special
occasion gift baskets including birthday, baby shower, sympathy, gourmet and many other gift baskets by category or
price at It's a GiftBasket.com.
A Poem for Everyone Who Has ADHD!
You are amazing. But many don't understand
your ADHD mind. So you can tell them ...
The
ADHD mind is no more than this: A heroic soul born desperately in need of sensation.
To you ... a moment
is an eternity, a rule is a tyranny, a process is a purgatory, a joy is an ecstasy, a daydream is a vision, a
hazard is a playground, silence is suffocation, and completion is death.
Add to this brutally expansive
spirit the overwhelming need to risk, create, and express -- so that without the creating of music or poetry or
books or businesses or buildings or something of meaning, your very breath is cut off ...
You must
create, must pour out your entire being in creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency you do not feel alive unless you are intimately involved in the risk of self-expression.
Thank you for having the courage to create. For without your creations the world would grow dull and listless And the rest of us who are like you would
not have your courageous act to lean on to
inspire our own.
Rock on, Garret LoPorto Author of The DaVinci Method http://www.DaVinciMethod.comThe message above by Garret LoPorto is
partially inspired by a poem by Pearl Buck. This poem is not intended to be an endorsement of the Davinci
method.
*
TeenScreenis a national mental health
and suicide risk screening
program for students and adolescents. For more information on teen
depression and suicide:
Looking for a fun, low-cost activity for your child or teen? Sign them up for an Amazing
Kids! PenPal!
PenPals Building
a Lifetime of New Friendships, Two Kids at a Time(TM) Just
$10 per child. For ages 5-17. Learn more!
Sign up and make
a new friend today! Visit www.amazingkids.org. ******************************************
Girls
with ADHD: Overlooked, Underdiagnosed, and Underserved byAnita Gurian, Ph.D
What happens to the girls? Because they don't disrupt the rest
of the class, it may take longer for girls to get a diagnosis of ADHD and to get the help they need. Most of the research
has been done with boys, and as many as 50 to 75% of girls with ADHD are missed. Those girls who do get identified are diagnosed
on average five years later than boys (boys generally diagnosed at age 7 and girls at age 12). Thus, they lose five critical
years during which they could have been getting help. Here's the good news: Educators, mental health researchers, and parents
are now becoming aware of the unique needs of girls with ADHD.
How
Teachers Can Help—Spotting the Signs in the Classroom? Teachers should be alert to the specific
symptoms of ADHD in girls, such as poor concentration, easy distractibility, difficulty focusing, disorganization (messy backpack,
loss of schedules and homework), and forgetfulness (forgetting to hand in papers, take assignments home). Other possible clues
include nonstop talking, bossiness, interrupting others, slow to pick up social cues, and difficulty paying attention to multi-step
directions.
The Sensitive Teacher Can
Use Strategies Such As:
seat girl in front of room to make sure her attention is not drifting
give her a task to help her refocus
have her buddy share
teach social conventions explicitly (how
to join a group, give a compliment)
To help her organize:
give
her organizing folders and notebooks
break down work into simpler component tasks
assign classroom responsibilities
to make her feel important
teach calming techniques, such as deep breathing and visualization when
she's overstimulated
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Founded in 1988, Give the Gift of Sight is a family of charitable programs providing free vision care and eyewear tounderprivileged
individuals in North America and in developing countries around the world. Sponsored by Give the Gift of Sight Foundation
and Luxottica Group, these programs have helped five million people on five continents and in hundreds of communities across
North America. The program's goal is to help seven million people by 2008. Visit 
