Boosting Students’ Literacy Skills With Help From the School Librarian | ||
Teachers in every content area can build partnerships with the school librarian to support students’ academic literacy across the curriculum. 
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Saturday, September 30, 2023
Edutopia: Boosting Literacy Skills & Distance Learning
Friday, September 29, 2023
Motivational Bulletin Boards
Encouraging confidence and self-belief in young individuals. The message board is located in the corridor of an Ontario school. An excellent technique to emphasize to young people that nobody should be able to undermine their confidence. Some of the motivational slogans on the board read, "No one is like you and that is your power, believe in yourself and you will be unstoppable, and Self-confidence is the best outfit. Rock it. Giving students a secure environment in which to discover their confidence is a wonderful addition to any school.
In the hallway of a school in Ontario, there is a bulletin board that reads, "You are a star." Students can use this board to look in the mirror and remind themselves that they are valuable. You are beautiful, you are brilliant, and you are distinct are just a few of the motivational sayings on the speech bubbles that surround the mirror. To encourage children and serve as a constant reminder that they are perfect just the way they are, this is a lovely addition to any school corridor.
Presented by: KarenB@NUO
Wednesday, September 27, 2023
EduTopia: Building a Reading Culture
3 Ways to Build a Positive Reading Culture in Middle School
From spooky read-alouds for Halloween to a spring Battle of the Books, middle schools can use these strategies to get all students excited about literacy.
Click the title above or the picture below.
Courtesy of Friends@NUO-2022
Tuesday, September 26, 2023
Proloquo2Go Communication App
Proloquo2Go is an amazing augmentative and alternative communication app for non-verbal autistic students. It helps students grow and minimize their frustration when trying to communicate their thoughts, wants, needs, and also helps increase their academic skills. There are a variety of symbols students can use for daily communication.
I have been an EA for many years and have worked with a variety of non-verbal students and would highly recommend Proloquo2Go!
Proloquo2Go can be used on an iPad, iPod touch, or iPhone.
Amazing Features Prolo2Go offers:
Choose from 3 vocabulary levels and 23 grid sizes
4750 unique words, another 7250 pre-categorized in storage
Customize to user interest
Over 20000 symbols or use your photos
Move buttons, modify appearance and spacing
Customize vocabulary per student with multi-user support
Transition vocabulary levels as student's skills grow
Consistently located core words
Grammar support
Available in English or Spanish
Activity templates
Word prediction in typing view
Share messages through mail, messages, twitter, facebook
Over 45 natural sounding TTS voices
Pre-recorded expressions and sounds
Share folders between users and devices
Use through Apple Watch
For more information, you can visit:
https://www.assistiveware.com/products/proloquo
Not being able to speak isn’t the same as having nothing to say. Children, teens and adults who can’t speak can use this app and from the first time someone opens the app, a few taps are all it takes to start talking to the world.
Brought to you by: AmandaL@NU
Saturday, September 23, 2023
I like Myself Story
This book "I like Myself" was written by Karen Beaumount is a great story to read to students in the primary and junior division. My class used this book to educate the grade 1 and 2 students on the concept of self-confidence. This was an effective teaching tool to promote confidence, self- love, and acceptance in your students, it can be followed up with having your student write a journal and creating a self- portrait. The grade 1 and 2 enjoyed listening to this story and the classroom teacher found a great read aloud for this story.
Friday, September 22, 2023
Using Vibrating Mouthing Toys in a Community ASD Classroom
One of the students I work with has been diagnosed with complex ASD and has an extreme oral fixation. We have tried many oral toys, such as chew necklaces, chewy tubes, chewable pencil toppers, etc. Unfortunately, these oral toys did not hit the stimulus input that this child required. They continued to chew textbooks, their clothing, and any item they could get tangibly. This is when we decided as a team to get a vibrating oral toy to see if this would help and provide safety for the child with the consistent mouthing of non-preferred items.
Oral-mouthing toys provide engaging and gentle stimuli for individuals with exceptionalities. It can help a child feel calmer when they need that sensory feedback or to build sensation tolerance. These toys help children to have a safe experience and give them control over the sensory input.
These types of devices are created with the needs of children in mind, whether hyposensitivity or hypersensitivity.
Sensory Toys can help/benefit children by:
Allowing for safe exploration
Teaching children cause and effect
Helps build skills (cognitive, motor)
Help feel calm and relaxed - even when escalated
Gain focus within their environments
You can find great devices at: https://enablingdevices.com/
Tanisha@NUO
EDUTOPIA Article: Reflective Practice
6 Tips for Making Reflection a Consistent Habit |
Reflecting on teaching practices and classroom events is valuable, but it can be tough to regularly make the time for it. These tips can help.  Brought to you by Friends@OTU-2023 |
Violence in the Classroom and Inclusion
Almost 80% of Elementary school teachers in Ontario have been victim to or witnessed violence in the classroom. (Elementary Teachers Federation Ontario, 2023)
Does this number surprise you? It absolutely should!
A simple google search of "violence in the classroom Ontario'' results in hundreds of news articles in which teachers speak out about the violence they or are experiencing everyday in their schools and classrooms. There are many articles that discuss the extreme cases of violence where a student has attacked staff and the police were called. Recently, in Ontario we have seen an incident where a 12 year old girl was tasered by police because of a violent outburst at school. This student attacked 3 staff and 1 student which resulted in the hospitalization of 1 victim. The overarching messaging in the media seems to be that it was unacceptable for the police to take these steps. The thing that the media doesn't see is that this child had multiple violent incidents over multiple years, beginning in JK. This student had scissors at one point and the staff and police tried every other means of de-escalation possible. If this was an 18 year old running around the streets attacking random people with scissors, sending 1 to hospital, and the police tasered them, would we as a society be as outraged as we are about this? Probably not. But other than age, where is the difference?
The fact that we have schools in our province that have locks installed on the doors so if a student becomes aggressive, the staff can leave the room and lock the student in the room alone. Hallways are shut down and 4-5 staff escort 1 student into a classroom dressed in padded "Stealth Wear" jackets, hard hats, arm guards, shin guards, face shields, gloves and many other types of Personal Protective Equipment. Students are put into contaminants on a daily basis sometimes multiple times in 1 hour. How is this EDUCATION? What are we teaching these students? What are we teaching other students that witness this or have to have their education disrupted? As a system we are failing when it comes to inclusion and whose rights do we violate. What is inclusion? It's definitely not this.
Ontario Curriculum states "Human rights principles recognize the importance of creating a climate of understanding and mutual respect for the dignity and worth of each person, so that each person can contribute fully to the development and well-being of their community. Indeed, human rights law guarantees a person's right to equal treatment in education. It requires educators and school leaders to prevent and respond appropriately to discrimination and harassment, to create an inclusive environment, to remove barriers that limit the ability of students, and to provide accommodations, where necessary." (Government of Ontario, n.d.)
Are the students who are in multiple contaminants a day contributing fully to their well being and development? Are we really removing barriers that limit these students, or are we creating other barriers for the other 34 children in the classroom? Who's right trump who's?
I am by no means saying these children do not deserve an education, I am simply saying that maybe their education is inclusive in a school setting specifically designed for them to succeed instead of a system where they are set up to fail. Our current system doesn't have enough supports in place for this to ever be equitable and all our children to succeed. How do we begin to fix a broken system that is truly fair and equitable for ALL kids? How do we protect our children from the traumas they are experiencing on a daily basis caused by the violence that is occurring in our classrooms? Ontario we need to do better.
-Jill@NUO
References:2023 ETFO All-Member Violence Survey Results. (2023). Elementary Teachers Federation Ontario. Retrieved September 21, 2023, from https://www.etfo.ca/news-publications/publications/etfo-violence-survey-results
Added information:
Click the picture below to watch news conference on School Violence in Ontario:
Outdoor Exploration
This week during our morning outdoor exploration, we invited the Kindergarten students to explore magnifying glasses, cause and effect play in the sandpit, as well as water colour painting.
The students explored different bugs and insects, and even found a grasshopper that sparked a whole inquiry of learning. The children mixed water and sand to discover that it makes mud! They were so excited about this discovery. They also enjoyed painting pictures of trees, the school landscape, their friends, and a special memory at school.
Outdoor exploration allows the children to feel free and in control of their learning. Our learners really enjoyed these activities.
CaitlynS@NUO
Self-Regulation and Self-Control
This blog post aims to explore the concept of self-regulation and highlight the distinctions between self-regulation and self-control. The post also outlines the five strategies (5Rs) that can assist in facilitating self-regulation in children and other resources that will help educators, families and all stakeholders.
Self-regulation is the ability to manage your own energy states, emotions, behaviours and attention, in ways that are socially acceptable and help achieve positive goals, such as maintaining good relationships, learning and maintaining wellbeing. Dr. Stuart Shanker
Now that we know…. Now what?
How can we help children Self-Regulation?
Some children need help controlling their emotions while minimizing impulsivity.
The 5 R's in Self-Regulation:
1. Reframe the behavior.
Understand the behaviour from the child is not malicious.
2. Recognizing the stressors:
This may be a scent, an event, an emotion, a sound or light etc. that causes physiological stress in the child.
3. Reduce the stress:
Consider where else we can reduce the stressors.
4. Reflecting and enhancing stress awareness{
See what works and what doesn't work each time and ensure it's consistent.
5. Respond to personalized ways to support the resilience in the child:
This can be done through praise with the child. Praise them when they successfully regulate their emotions.
Additional resources for educators, families and all stakeholders:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INGgzIO7vOY
You can visit these websites as well:
https://www.thepathway2success.com/15-classroom-practices-to-build-self-regulation-skills/
Courtesy of FrancineV@NU
Thursday, September 21, 2023
A Few Stories & Issues to Read About
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Submitted by Friends@OISE-2020
Culturally Appropriate Texts (Elementary)
Click the picture above to take you to another site and check out these booksI'm excited to share a presentation packed with culturally relevant resources. These invaluable tools are designed to support teachers working with Black-identifying students.
You'll find clickable links in the presentation leading to a wealth of materials, including books, songs, poems, and more.
These resources not only celebrate Black excellence but also serve as powerful tools for empowerment which helps students feel safe and included.
By Teia@NUO
Wednesday, September 20, 2023
Yoga in the Classroom
An early learning environment can be a very stimulating place sometimes. There is always so much going on and so many learning experiences happening and connections being made in one single room all at once. So how can we regulate the children downwards after so much stimulation or even overstimulation? Using yoga in the classroom is a wonderful tool for many reasons, for starters it promotes self-regulation. It also teaches children how to utilize their breath in high-adrenaline situations. When we learn to use our breath in calming scenarios we allow more oxygen to move towards our brain, and this helps to settle our nervous system which regulates us into a calm and ready-to-learn state, otherwise known as "rest and digest".
I started doing yoga myself about thirteen years ago, and it became a necessary part of my daily routine. I decided four years ago that I wanted to share this tool with the children I interact with every day so I began the process of becoming a certified yoga teacher. While this is an ongoing learning process, it has been one of the most beneficial tools I use while working with little people. Whether it be to calm a room, for fun, or to help a child regulate their emotions after a particularly difficult moment, yoga always comes through for me. September is "National Yoga Awareness Month." If you're not sure how to incorporate yoga and mindfulness into your primary classroom but want to try, here are some small tips, tricks, and tools to try in the classroom.
Books: There are a plethora of books out there that are all based around yoga, breathing, kids' meditation, and mindfulness. You can simply read the books, or take ideas from the books that you think resonate for you.
Calming Music: Using nature sounds or calming music in your environment is a great energy shifter. You can invite the children to lie on a mat (or the floor), close their eyes and listen to the music, or have them color or move to it. You could even invite them to share with you how the music makes them feel.
Games: One of the easiest ways to keep the children's attention when leading yoga activities is through games. Two that always get a great reaction for me are "Simon Says" and "Freeze Yoga." If you are new to yoga or don't know many poses, you can purchase easy to follow yoga cards with poses on them on Amazon for as little as $10, or check out Pinterest for many (free) great examples.
Breath Work: Explore different ways we can breathe to help change our mood. A short and simple one is, "Smell the flowers (deep inhale), and blow out the candles (exhale)."
Guided Meditation: Being mindful of little attention spans, you can guide the children through their own personal adventures using their imaginations. This is also a great bedtime activity, but keep it to a maximum of about 5 minutes for little humans.
Using yoga in the classroom is a really simple way to provide SEL experiences in your learning environments in an organic and fun way. Yoga is a great opportunity to engage in mindfulness using a holistic learning approach that can work for all children. What yoga tip or trick will you try in your classroom?
Brought to you by KristenM@NU
Literacy in Kindergarten
With the new Ontario literacy curriculum for grades 1-8, it is vital for the literacy program in kindergarten to have a strong foundation of fundamental literacy skills. Kindergarten has a wide range of skilled students in many aspects of their learning, mainly because it is a two-year program. When teaching literacy skills in kindergarten, we want them to have fun, engage and retain the information being taught and practiced. As an educator, we display a variety of tools for the same skill being learned. Here are some great resources to use with your own students.
YouTube vids:
https://youtu.be/q3M_rdef7sw?feature=shared
https://youtu.be/VgDmGu7Pur8?feature=shared
Reading books that relate to the student can also be helpful and engaging. Asking questions, describing what they see or feel about the story being read. Have them choose a book they are interested in.
Games:
Alphabet Matching game
Spin & Rhyme
Suggests a creative alternative to boring work sheets. Use a paper towel roll and clothes hanger to easily create rhyming words (e.g., cat, pat, mat, sat). This exercise also helps your little one learn how to break down words and identify word families. The simple setup is easy to transport and provides a kinetic twist to a basic phonics activity.
Mystery
Bag
An educator puts in items and describes the items with the same letter sound in the beginning. This is when you are teaching a lesson on a specific sound. It is easy, keeps the children engaged and helps them retain information as they are having fun
Courtesy of Ashley@NU
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