Often teachers complain to me about student behaviors that interfere with learning or with having a productive, safe learning environment.

“These kids don’t listen to me,” or “These kids are lazy.”

These teachers are probably using strategies that were used on them by their own parents or teachers, but they’re not necessarily the most effective.

The teacher asks a question and calls on one of the few students who raises a hand. The teacher says “right” and moves on.

What’s wrong with this picture? Well, a lot – only one student gets to respond, and only one has the opportunity of teacher feedback.

What are the other students doing? Those who weren’t called on, may be less likely to volunteer again. But most have no incentive to keep paying attention in class.

The school was closed because the icy parking lot was not safe for teachers, student drivers or school buses. So I returned to my hotel, deciding how I should use my unexpected day off. I sent a few emails, unaware that I was about to have a visit that would crystallize my purpose in school consultation: to integrate efforts of ALL stakeholders.

Have you discovered the benefits of foldable graphic organizers yet?

When I first saw them, I thought they were a nifty way to help elementary students practice cutting and folding. I had no idea of their power for secondary students. Once I learned about the impact on the adolescent learning brain, I started using them in my professional development sessions with teachers too.

In 1970, my more seasoned colleagues smiled at my optimistic zeal.

“Ah, yes,” they’d say. “I was a beginning teacher once. You’ll learn that you can’t reach all kids. Some of them have already reached their plateau.”

I generally respected their opinions, but I was determined to prove them wrong.

It’s obvious everywhere I go that teachers are overwhelmed with too many isolated sessions of professional development.

This is especially true if they are not provided the other pieces of the puzzle (see my earlier blog) that support them to practice the new approaches. On the other hand, teachers I’ve met are committed to their own professional growth. They want information that is directly useful for their own practice.

When you are working with struggling students (with or without disabilities), what’s the difference between being their cheerleader and their coach?

There is no point in having teachers sit through one more professional development session!

For the last nine years, I have been providing professional development in schools and school districts related to inclusive practices, secondary transition, youth empowerment, and family engagement.

While researching implications of new brain research on memory, I stumbled upon this information:

“Somewhere in the left hemisphere of our brain is a module called “the interpreter” that makes sense of sensory input, seeking patterns and inserting judgments based on received data. This module makes sense of random pieces of information by making up a story that creates meaning, including cause and effect. Further, our brain rewards us with a burst of dopamine for each story that makes sense to us. This process is required for memories to form. ”

Do you know about personalized learning?

When I first heard the term, I thought it was just a new way of talking about differentiated or individualized instruction, but curiosity prompted me to investigate. I bought several books and signed up for a five week online course. I soon discovered that differentiated and individualized instruction are what ADULTS do to adapt instruction to student interests, preferences, prior knowledge, skills gaps and/ or disabilities.

The opening keynote speaker at the CEC Division on Career Development and Transition Conference in Myrtle Beach was Michael Bortolotto. His clarion call message rang through the audience.

I’d like to send it out into the world.

We have been asking children this question as far back as I can remember: What do you want to be when you grow up? Then we smile with approval at their answers: fireman, teacher, scientist, astronaut, ballerina, athlete.

Everybody accepts that student learning and behavior improve if parents are our partners in their education. But that’s where the general agreement ends. Too many school leaders are unclear about what strong family engagement looks like and what it would take.

Those who don’t know how to get started say, “We need to get our act together first. Then we will invite our parents.”

Special educators don’t know their job.

Now, that sounds like I’m slamming special educators, but nothing could be further from the truth.

When I was the Special Education Graduate Director at Towson University, I interviewed prospective candidates. Every time – with men and women of all ages, all shapes and sizes, all background, races and cultures – I was touched by the sense of heart-felt purpose in their response.

People have asked me to explain why I chose Included with the End in Mind as the title for my newly released book.

It is an expression of my frustration and my passion. As an educational consultant, I talk with a variety of people who have their own perspectives about inclusive education and secondary transition.

I had an opportunity to travel to Scottsdale to be a national expert for the Arizona Transition Conference. But I learned something from the breathtaking countryside.

Did I pay more attention to twitters of bird song and the caress of the gentle breeze because I stepped outside the stressors of my busy life? Was it because I took vacation time, that I became more aware? I inhaled the vivid colors of endless crowds of glowing sunflowers nodding to each other all the way back to the shadowed blue-grey goal post of the mountains.