includes/rss/xml.rss Itchy's Alphabet en-us (c) 2012 Itchy's Alphabet 2012-02-05T23:16:40+01:00 Itchy's Alphabet http://www.itchysalphabet.com/whats-new-details/prevention_is_the_key Date: February 1, 2012

In my presentations, my goal is to give teachers strategies that will help to prevent problems from occuring in the first place.  The following quote from  Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth through Age 8, an NAEYC Position Statement, 2009, supports this: "Prevention of reading difficulties is far less difficult and expensive than remediation." (Snow, C.E.,  M.S. Burns & P. Griffin, 1998, Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children, Washington, DC: National Academies Press.) Strategies such as working with letter sounds and lower case letters rather than names and upper case, signigicantly reduce confusion for children and ensure success with these key foundation skills. ]]> http://www.itchysalphabet.com/whats-new-details/prevention_is_the_key http://www.itchysalphabet.com/whats-new-details/reduce_pre-holiday_sress Date: December 13, 2011

I can certainly remember the tension building as routines changed with concert preparations.  These are good suggestions to try!  http://edge.ascd.org/_Classroom-Management-During-the-Holidays/blog/5638229/127586.html]]> http://www.itchysalphabet.com/whats-new-details/reduce_pre-holiday_sress http://www.itchysalphabet.com/whats-new-details/get_parents_involved Date: November 3, 2011

Today's CEC SmartBrief included this article on involving parents in the classroom.  Some good ideas: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/creating-strong-parent-community-marisa-kaplan]]> http://www.itchysalphabet.com/whats-new-details/get_parents_involved http://www.itchysalphabet.com/whats-new-details/children_with_dyslexia_can_be_helped Date: October 30, 2011

The LInk, Homeschooling Magazine email featured this article on dyslexia:  http://www.homeschoolnewslink.com/blog/?p=961]]> http://www.itchysalphabet.com/whats-new-details/children_with_dyslexia_can_be_helped http://www.itchysalphabet.com/whats-new-details/blended-learning_in_kindergarten__ Date: October 14, 2011

I tend to be 'betwixt and between' on this one!  Being "old school" I still favour direct instruction by the teacher.  However, this program seems to provide this, but in smaller groups with instruction directed to specific student needs.   One problem seems to be finding good quality software.  Putting children on 'any old program' just to keep them busy while the teacher works with others may not create the desired results!  When I watch my Kindergarten-age granddaughter have such fun 'learning' on the computer, I can see the value of a balance of both types of instruction. http://hechingerreport.org/content/kindergarteners-at-the-keyboard_6485/]]> http://www.itchysalphabet.com/whats-new-details/blended-learning_in_kindergarten__ http://www.itchysalphabet.com/whats-new-details/fun_fine-motor_activities Date: October 13, 2011

This Edweek article shares some great ideas to support children with fine-motor problems.  http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2011/10/11/tln_sampish.html?tkn=NLVFJhBiGsRzZJvB6awKbpwaOos3NrR4PbmB&cmp=ENL-TU-NEWS2]]> http://www.itchysalphabet.com/whats-new-details/fun_fine-motor_activities http://www.itchysalphabet.com/whats-new-details/education_around_the__world Date: October 12, 2011

Thought some of you might be interested in seeing how Canada and the US compare to other countries in the field of education.  Read more: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2012007]]> http://www.itchysalphabet.com/whats-new-details/education_around_the__world http://www.itchysalphabet.com/whats-new-details/reading_checklists_help Date: September 22, 2011

This EdWeek article supports the use of tools such as our Accuracy and Automaticity Drills.   These tools assist children in raising their decoding skills to an automatic response level:  http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2011/09/21/ruth_checklist.html?tkn=UZRF8qPCW4f57NIo8LbDBftTLPjzSZkcyxOF&cmp=ENL-TU-NEWS1]]> http://www.itchysalphabet.com/whats-new-details/reading_checklists_help http://www.itchysalphabet.com/whats-new-details/early_education_webinars Date: September 20, 2011

Education Week was advertising these upcoming webinars - I've signed up and hope you might find some of them valuable as well. http://www.hatchearlychildhood.com/pages/early-learning-technology-webinars?utm_campaign=Webinars2011&utm_source=EdWeek&&utm_medium=email&utm_content=1stInvite&campaign=Webinars2011&Source=Email]]> http://www.itchysalphabet.com/whats-new-details/early_education_webinars http://www.itchysalphabet.com/whats-new-details/tool_of_the_week_from_cec Date: September 14, 2011

Today's CEC SmartBrief has this link to a Tool of the Week site they now have.  It is designed for Special Education Teachers, but I'm sure there will always be ideas that work for everyone.  The one for today is more secondary, but I checked the previous one and it was a really good checklist for classroom management.   Hoping there will be some great things posted!  Check it out:  http://www.tooloftheweek.org/?utm_source=cec&utm_medium=smartbrief&utm_campaign=spotlight]]> http://www.itchysalphabet.com/whats-new-details/tool_of_the_week_from_cec