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Monday, November 13, 2023

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8 Tips for Teaching Kids with AD/HD + Teaching Students With Exceptionalities College Course from CCEI Parent Company, StraighterLine

I have always loved teaching the high-energy, fidgety kids whose attention tends to jump tracks at the slightest distraction because... I am one. I embrace the distractions and struggle to stay on task long enough to finish something in one sitting. Knowing this about myself has always made me especially interested in finding more effective ways to both manage my own attention issues and to teach children who have similar, and sometimes stronger, struggles. 

Now that you know this about me, you can probably guess what the most interesting aspect of the online college course Teaching Students with Exceptionalities from CCEI's parent company, StraighterLine, was for me. If you guessed the portions on teaching children with AD/HD, you were right!


In this article, I'm going to share some of the tips the course has for teachers with students with AD/HD, and then I'll give you a brief overview of the course (Teaching Students with Exceptionalities) and StraighterLine and CCEI in general.

I know this course is designed for teachers, but this information about teaching children is important for all parents (and anyone who works with children) to know. The more we know, the better we understand the children we work with. The better we understand our children, the better parents, teachers, and community members we become.

Before I jump into tips for teaching kids with AD/HD, it is important to point out that every child is unique. Every tip will not help every child, but having a range of tools that might help your child will let you discover the best ways for your child to grow and develop.

The course introduces AD/HD, how it affects the brain, three broad types of AD/HD, how it is diagnosed, medications, and many more aspects that I will not be going into here. I'm assuming that if you're reading this it's because you already know what AD/HD is and you're probably thinking of someone with it, hoping to find some more teaching methods to use.

So let's get started.

8 Tips for Teaching Kids with AD/HD



#1: Use explicit direct instructions (with an advance organizer, rationale, demonstration, guided practice, and independent practice)
When you're teaching something, you need to be very clear about it. I love the mantra: "Tell them what you're going to teach them. Teach them. Tell them what you just taught them." You can use this in a classroom, at home, or in any other teaching situation. An advance organizer tells your children what you're about to teach/tell them. It could be as simple as an outline for older children, a series of pictures for younger children, or a series of dots or signposts to indicate steps in what is to come.
After you tell your children what you will be doing, give them a rationale, or reason to put in the time and effort to learn it. Learning is work, and our children engage in that work much more readily if they have a good buy-in to do so.
For your actual instruction, demonstrate what they are to learn, supervise and instruct them as they practice it (guided practice), and then let them practice on their own (independent practice). They may still need help and supervision as they work on their own, but independent practice is the only way to find out if they have acquired the new skill or information for themselves. The course points out that there should be THREE TIMES MORE independent practice than instruction or demonstration. We learn by doing.
After your lesson, a post organizer is also very helpful to review and cement new information. New skills and information should be reviewed again during follow-up lessons.

#2- Use clear, simple expectations. This doesn't take much explanation. I'll just point out that children with AD/HD will get distracted if your expectations take too long to explain or remember. They aren't trying to ignore you. They just struggle to focus on something for 4 minutes when a 30 second summary would have worked.

#3- Use cue cards to help with self-regulation for independent work. As mentioned above, independent work is essential to learn new information and master new skills, but self-regulation is something that children (and adults) with AD/HD struggle with. Cue cards might help. These are simply reminders (either text or images) about what the child is supposed to be doing. Checklists are often very helpful---they remind your child what he/she is supposed to be doing and provide a reward (checking the box) when the task is complete.

#4- Use checklists to help children learn to ask themselves about their own past behavior. This is another tool to help with self-regulation. Many children do not recognize that they are off-task. Agree on a signal (perhaps a timer, a hand signal, a word, etc), and when you give that signal, the child pulls out a checklist to analyze their own behavior. The checklist might have questions like "What am I supposed to be doing? Am I doing it?" Simple questions that let the child metacognitively analyze where their mind is at a designated time helps them refocus on a task. The stronger the child's ability to self-regulate becomes, the better he/she will be at focusing and paying attention for longer times.

#5- Use external reinforcements to help motivate. The course points out that external reinforcements can be powerful for some children, but the rewards will need to be changed frequently, perhaps as often as every 2-4 weeks. If they help, use those sticker charts, prize bins, and other point systems! Just remember to change the available prizes at least every month or so. 

I personally prefer to only use external reinforcements for short term systems. Special occasions, a new skill that takes extra focus, and countdowns to holidays are some of my favorite times to break out extra rewards.

#6- Use technology. Creative teachers use all the resources available to them, and there are a ton of technology options! Games and gamified drilling activities can help children memorize everything from letters and sounds to number facts, geography and more. Apps can be used as cue cards, metacognitive checklists, and even external reinforcements. One of my own teens even showed me a "study app" that you open when you start studying, click a button to start a timer for you, and then click it again when you're done. The amount of time you spent working gives you rewards in the app!

The course has a lot of tips in helping you choose websites that are educational as well.

#7- Use short assignments. Assignments should have a purpose. Long assignments that are not necessary for the child to master the information become overwhelming and boring, and students are more likely to misbehave when they are expected to do too much work at once. This ties into #8 as well.


#8- Use frequent breaks. Again, children will become overwhelmed, bored, and distracted if they are required to focus on something longer than they are able. This leads to behavior problems. An easy solution is to schedule your time in blocks. Spend 10 minutes focused on one activity, take a break, and then return if you're not done with the first activity. The course suggests that breaks be structured, for example, 10 math problems followed by 5 spelling words followed by reading gives you a break from math with another subject. My personal experience is that unstructured breaks are important as well. You can also take breaks while remaining focused on one subject. For example, if you write down a few notes about plants, draw the parts of a plant, go outside and identify those parts, and then return to make a playdough model, you've taken breaks and stayed focused on the topic.

The online college course Teaching Students with Exceptionalities from StraighterLine, parent company of CCEI, provides a broad overview of a range of conditions that fall under the Special Education department in public schools. It helps teaching professionals to effectively design learning for students with special needs alongside students with exceptionalities to meet all students' needs.
The course includes an introduction to Special Education, litigation in the field, and methods for teaching children with dozens of traits, ranging from learning disabilities to gifted and talented. Here is a list of some of the topics:

Learning Disabilities
Reading Disabilities
Math Disabilities
Writing Disabilities
Language Disabilities
Social & Emotional Challenges
RTI (Response to Intervention)
Intellectual Disabilities
Emotional & Behavioral Disorders (like anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder, conduct disorder, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and psychotic disorders)
Communication Disorders
Deaf or Hard of Hearing
Blind or Have Low Vision
Autism Spectrum Disorders
Severe Disabilities
Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
Gifted and Talented

The course includes 11 quizzes to complete and 2 lesson plans with accommodations to create.

Each topic has several lessons within it, except for the lesson plans, which have the instructions for completing the lesson plan with accommodations. If you score less than 90% on your lesson plans, you have the option of "retaking" the assessment for a higher grade.

The Assignment List helps you organize all the quizzes and assignments at a glance:


The textbook for the course is Exceptional Students: Preparing Teachers for the 21st Century by Lydia Smiley, Stephen Richards, and Ronald Taylor and contains most of the instructional material for the course.

Most people complete courses with StraighterLine in about 45 days, though some finish in as little as two weeks.

Teaching Students with Exceptionalities is one of five online college courses that StraighterLine offers adults beginning a degree in Early Childhood Education. Those five courses are:






All of StraighterLine's courses can be easily transferred to more than 3,000 partner colleges and universities that StraighterLine has relationships with. I wrote more about the courses from StraighterLine and CCEI here. And you can learn more about resources from StraighterLine and CCEI here.

These courses provide an excellent foundation for a career in teaching. They, as well as hundreds of courses offered through CCEI, are excellent courses for continuing ed or professional development.

Teaching Students with Exceptionalities provides an excellent overview of hands-on methods and tools for teaching children with a wide range of challenges, disabilities, and gifts. It is a 3-credit online college course offered through StraighterLine. I recommend the course for anyone beginning a career in education, for teachers looking for more tools and methods to use in their instruction, and for parents who would like to learn more about special education in public schools.

This article is sponsored by ChildCare Education Institute. All opinions are mine--you know I only recommend products and companies I love!


Happy Educating,
Carla




Dinosaur Made Me Sneeze!
This awesome book introduces the rock cycle with dinosaurs, volcanoes, and more!
(hint: You can buy it on Amazon or use the code Dinosaur25 at OakieBees.com!!)



Have you seen HEEP? It is a preschool homeschool curriculum! Learn more here!



Never miss another post again!  Sign up for our weekly updates newsletter and get links to all our posts once a week in your inbox!  Sign up here!!



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Wednesday, November 8, 2023

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Free Printable Preschool Thanksgiving Activities

Thanksgiving is around the corner, so I thought I'd share a little print-and-go packet of activities for you!


This packet has 7 activities you can print for free! They're perfect for preschoolers and early elementary kids. The pages include:

1- Build a Turkey

2- Thankful Flower

3- PreK/K Maze

4- Find the Differences

5- Happy Thanksgiving Coloring Page

6- I Spy

7- Gratitude Alphabet







Happy Educating,
Carla


Dinosaur Made Me Sneeze!
This awesome book introduces the rock cycle with dinosaurs, volcanoes, and more!
(hint: You can buy it on Amazon or use the code Dinosaur25 at OakieBees.com!!)



Have you seen HEEP? It is a preschool homeschool curriculum! Learn more here!



Never miss another post again!  Sign up for our weekly updates newsletter and get links to all our posts once a week in your inbox!  Sign up here!!




Read More

Tuesday, October 3, 2023

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Brain-Building Activities for Preschoolers + Early Childhood Development College Course from CCEI Parent Company, StraighterLine

I have always had a fascination with how the brain works and how children learn, so I was very excited about the opportunity to review the course Early Childhood Development through a partnership with ChildCare Education Institute (CCEI) from its parent company, StraighterLine 

Today, I'm going to share some awesome brain-building information and activities from the course and then give you an overview of the course also.


I want to start out with two huge myths in educational neuroscience. I have heard so many teachers and adults express different variations of these ideas, so I want to start out by getting rid of them right away!

MYTH #1: Children's brains stop growing after they are three years old.

While there are a lot of variations on this idea, the fact is that children's brains have plasticity, which means they can grow and change throughout childhood. One of my favorite examples shared in the course was a young man who started having seizures after he was four years old and had to have the entire left hemisphere of his brain removed to stop them. This was done over two major surgeries which happened when he was seven and ten. His recovery took a long time, but the right side of his brain eventually "re-wired" itself to be able to take care of functions like speech that are usually controlled by the left side of the brain.

Additionally, the course pointed out that synaptic formations don't even stabilize until after the age of ten.

If you consider your own experiences, you would know that you learned, grew, and discovered many things after you turned three. I really wish we could convince all teachers and parents that older children are capable and can even be excited to learn new skills and behaviors!

MYTH #2: The right and left hemispheres of the brain each have their own specific jobs, and some people are just "right-brained" or "left-brained."

This myth often comes up when parents, teachers, or sometimes even children make excuses for why they cannot learn something. The fact is that both sides of the brain communicate extensively for all major tasks that a person engages in. Some activities might involve one side of the brain more than the other, but both are used and increased communication across the two hemispheres often correlates with faster learning!

The story I shared above about a boy having half his brain removed also demonstrates this principle.


As children grow and develop, new neurons and synapses are established in the brain to help children learn. What kinds of activities can help preschoolers develop these cognitive skills? I'm so glad you asked! Here are seven that any parent or preschool teacher can implement:

1- Ask your children to compare things. You can do this when you play, eat, or even during lessons. Ask about which toys or food items are bigger, smaller, taller, wider, heavier, longer, etc.

2- Let your children practice ordering and organizing things. When your kids bring you three books, ask them to put them in the order they'd like to read and then ask why they organized them as they did. Take turns lining up from tallest to shortest or shortest to tallest. 

3- Let your children experience natural change. Grow a plant and compare it to pictures of each stage of growth. Watch caterpillars grow to butterflies and make charts showing how caterpillars change to chrysalis and then to a butterfly. 

4- Encourage your children to draw pictures that show perspectives. If they draw your yard, ask what's at the far end. Is it a tree or mailbox or animal? Encourage them to place that at the far end of their drawing. Talk about background and foreground, and ask them to tell you what's in the background of their pictures.

5- Let your children experiment with ramps and hills. After they roll marbles, cars, and balls down it, encourage them to figure out why different items rolled faster. Actually, let your children experiment with a variety of natural processes like speed, water flow, gravity, etc.!

6- Invite your children to draw conclusions and explain and justify their answers. Questions like "Why do you think that?" or "How could you show that to a friend?" invite them to reflect on their own thinking, which is a form of metacognition.


7- Ask questions like "How...?" and "Why...?" How and why questions encourage children (and adults, lol!) to think beyond easy and/or obvious answers. It requires their brains to connect what they're experiencing and thinking with prior knowledge, which contributes to improved cognitive thinking and memory formation.



Would you like to print the image above? These activities are really easy to incorporate into any schedule. As you practice asking questions like these and letting your preschoolers have similar experiences, you are helping their brains build synapses and skills that will enable them to grow into life-long learners! Click here for an easy (and free) printable pdf!


These brain-building activities for preschoolers are a tiny part of the Early Childhood Development course from StraighterLine, parent company of CCEI! Let me tell you a few more things about it so that you can decide if you'd like to take it too!


Early Childhood Development from StraighterLine is a 3-credit hour online college course that provides an overview of Educational Psychology and the scientific study of behavior and mental processes with an emphasis in perspectives and strategies that teachers need to stay flexible in the classroom.


My favorite sections in the course include brain development, cognitive approaches to learning, memory, metacognition, attention, and motivation. Other large sections include cognitive and language development, behavior and social development, exceptional learners (including both learning disabilities and gifted learners), planning, instruction, technology, teaching, and managing a classroom


The course is organized in 6 topics, two of which are exams:



The course also includes 20 assignments, which vary to include quizzes, reflective writings, and the two exams. You can see the list here:



All the assignments can be "retaken" if you are not satisfied with your score. Both the midterm and the final include a detailed study guide and are "open note." There is a time limit (1 hour and 40 minutes) to answer the 50 questions. The final requires an online proctor, which you can schedule through the system.


Most of the course material is offered through an online textbook (Educational Psychology by John W. Santrock) easily accessible through StraighterLine. Options to take notes, highlight sections, and add comments are all super easy to find. Some videos and other short readings are available through the course "home" page when you log into StraighterLine.


The entire course is extremely user-friendly! I absolutely love how you can access it 24/7, any day, any time of the week. They have very friendly support staff and teachers too! If you are looking for a super convenient way to take online college courses, I highly recommend starting here!


Early Childhood Development is a 3-credit online college course filled with research-backed tools and resources to help anyone working with young children. Understanding the science behind child development is crucial to teaching young children, and this course includes not only that science, but hands-on practical ways of using it!


Early Childhood Development is one of five foundational Early Childhood Education courses that StraighterLine offers as part of their Early Childhood Education Career Pathway Program to help you jumpstart a career in Early Childhood Education!  The other four courses are Foundations of Early Childhood, Teaching Students with Exceptionalities, Classroom Management, and Language and Literacy.


These courses, as well as the hundreds of courses offered through CCEI, also work great for continuing ed or professional development!


Once you complete the course, you can easily transfer it to more than 2,000 partner colleges and universities StraighterLine has relationships with! As I mentioned above, it's a 3-credit course! I wrote about more of the details for courses from StraighterLine and CCEI here!


I highly recommend the course for anyone interested in teaching children or for parents hoping to understand how their children grow and learn better.


This article is sponsored by ChildCare Education Institute. All opinions are mine--you know I only recommend products and companies I love!



Happy Educating,
Carla


Dinosaur Made Me Sneeze!
This awesome book introduces the rock cycle with dinosaurs, volcanoes, and more!
(hint: You can buy it on Amazon or use the code Dinosaur25 at OakieBees.com!!)



Have you seen HEEP? It is a preschool homeschool curriculum! Learn more here!



Never miss another post again!  Sign up for our weekly updates newsletter and get links to all our posts once a week in your inbox!  Sign up here!!



Read More

Saturday, September 30, 2023

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Build a Pumpkin Preschool Activity Free Printable

Pumpkins are some of my favorite things ever! You can cook with them, play with them, smell them, and do all sorts of pumpkin-themed activities! This free preschool printable lets your kids design and build their own jack-o'lanterns. It's perfect for small groups or even a craft station!


You can print this free packet on colored paper or let your kids color their pumpkins any way they like! And you can use the provided facial pieces or just give your preschoolers black paper and let them cut and design their own faces!

Craft activities like this one are lots of fun and they help your child develop important skills, like the following:
** eye-hand coordination (important pre-reading skill)
** fine-motor control
** problem-solving
** multi-step project skills
** design and engineering
** confidence

If you would like to print the free build-a-pumpkin packet, just click here to get a copy! Also, consider being inspired by the printable packet, and just providing your children with orange and black paper, glue, and scissors. I love watching their creative minds work!



Happy Educating,
Carla


Dinosaur Made Me Sneeze!
This awesome book introduces the rock cycle with dinosaurs, volcanoes, and more!
(hint: You can buy it on Amazon or use the code Dinosaur25 at OakieBees.com!!)



Have you seen HEEP? It is a preschool homeschool curriculum! Learn more here!



Never miss another post again!  Sign up for our weekly updates newsletter and get links to all our posts once a week in your inbox!  Sign up here!!



Read More

Monday, August 28, 2023

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Early Childhood Education Career Training

Are you considering a career in childcare? Do you need professional development courses? 



Today I have a lot of really great information for you about childcare training, professional development, and degree options. 

These courses are perfect for a lot of different scenarios:
** Beginning a career in childcare or early childhood education
** Childcare providers and teachers looking for credentials
** Childcare providers and teachers looking for professional development
** Anyone looking for a head start in an early childhood teaching career

ChildCare Education Institute (CCEI) has always been the leader in online childcare training and certificates. Their courses are user-friendly, available 24-7, and cover hundreds of topics with a wide variety such as early literacy, music, growth mindset, brain development, and working with parents and other professionals. 

I have been happy to share CCEI's programs during the last few years because they are so relevant and convenient!

You can take courses from CCEI individually or follow the training path they have to earn your CDA (Child Development Associate) Credential. This credential opens up new career opportunities for childcare professionals and increases your earning potential.

We all know Early Childhood Education is a rewarding career for adults, but it is also a career path that teenagers can begin during high school with a part time job. CCEI makes it easy to earn state-required IACET CEU professional development hours, no matter how busy your schedule is! Their professional development courses are available online every day, every week, all year!

And now CCEI has partnered with StraighterLine to offer even more options!

If you want to start working on an associates or bachelors degree, this is the perfect way to do it!

StraighterLine has five foundational early childhood education courses that easily transfer to more than 2,000 colleges and universities! Those courses are:





You can also take their other general education courses to make your degree path easier. They have more than 60 options! Just check with your college and see how many you can transfer!

All of these courses are accredited and available online and on your favorite devices! Check back with me in September and December, and I'll share specific reviews of two more of the StraighterLine early childhood education college courses too!

I hope this is helpful information for you! If any of it sounds exciting, I encourage you to learn more about potential career pathways with CCEI's CDA + StraighterLine's 5 ECE college courses today!

This article is sponsored by ChildCare Education Institute. All opinions are mine--you know I only recommend products and companies I love!



Happy Educating,
Carla


Dinosaur Made Me Sneeze!
This awesome book introduces the rock cycle with dinosaurs, volcanoes, and more!
(hint: You can buy it on Amazon or use the code Dinosaur25 at OakieBees.com!!)



Have you seen HEEP? It is a preschool homeschool curriculum! Learn more here!



Never miss another post again!  Sign up for our weekly updates newsletter and get links to all our posts once a week in your inbox!  Sign up here!!



Read More