Search Results for: blog do high school students need a later start

Simple Sanity Savers

Believe it or not, summer vacation just started for students attending Chicago public schools.  Last fall’s highly publicized teacher strike, which affected nearly 400,000 students, forced kids to stay in school through the end of June. But, now they are free and can join the rest of their compadres in making the most of summer… or what’s left of it. If you are looking for ways to keep your kids busy during their break from school consider the following simple and affordable projects: FLOWER POWER Rather than letting fresh flowers go to waste after they’ve sat pretty in a summer … Continue reading →

Special Needs Blog Week in Review – April 15 – 21, 2012

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At the end of the week, it is nice to do a quick review of all the blogs that appeared in the past seven days. The Special Needs Blog Week in Review is a great way to catch up on the blogs that you missed, but wanted to read. It gives you a brief description of each one, and a link that will take you directly to it. The Special Needs Podcast Roundup went up on April 16, 2012. This time, I’d like to point out an episode from The Coffee Klatch which was called “National Autism Association”. It features … Continue reading →

Teens With Diabetes More Likely to Drop Out

A new study reveals that teens and young adults who have diabetes are at a higher risk of dropping out of school, and ending up with a worse job outlook than their peers who do not have diabetes. These are issues that haven’t been focused on before in previous studies. A study was published in the journal of Health Affairs. Researchers looked at data that came from about 15,000 people who were examined in four separate waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The first wave was made up of students who were in grades seven through twelve. … Continue reading →

Creating Community: Volunteering

Yesterday we talked a bit about how informal, community acts of helping and giving can create community connections and teach your children about how giving does not need to be onerous. Today, let’s talk about another way of giving (and receiving!): volunteering. I started volunteering as a young child. I recall spending many of my lunch hours in the school store, helping sell yogurt and drinks to other students as a fundraiser for our school council. I worked with one of our supervision aides, a gruff but kind woman who taught me how to make change and do very quick … Continue reading →

A Thesis

My wife is a high school teacher and she often assigns to her students the task of writing a short (really really short) research paper each year. She gives them ample time, lots of revisions, and a great deal of feedback. Needless to say, many of the students she encounters (along with other students and teachers I know) don’t take their instructors’ advice to heart. They allow the knowledge to go in one ear (if any) and out the other quite quickly as they are seeking to do less than the minimum to get by with help from a little … Continue reading →

Guests in Class

Students often respond better to visiters in a classroom setting. There is something about the teacher you see every day droning on about something that tends to lose its importance for many students. I know it was true for me. Even if the instructor was relatively interesting in the way they presented the material my eyes would often gloss over when they started talking about something else. For some reason I just couldn’t believe them that what they were saying was important was really important. Other times I just got sick of hearing the same person talk or teach in … Continue reading →

High Schools: Back to One Path?

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As most know, students are being required to do more and more at an earlier age and grade level. Higher standards and skills are being required of students at earlier ages than ever before. Students are being asked to identify what they want from their future at an age as early as seventh grade. In many cases, students are asked to determine whether or not they will attend college. Students who attend college are required to take more and different high school courses than students who are not planning to attend college. However this may change for some students. It … Continue reading →

The New Craze of High School Quilting

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It seems that a new craze has taken over the interests of high school students in Pittsburgh. Thankfully this is an interest worth having! The new cool thing to do at Elizabeth Forward High School is making quilts. Rebecca Fest has begun teaching students to quilt through her quilting class. In the beginning the students were more interested in making clothing. However after a couple of students had completed quilts to show off, everyone wanted one! The quilts that these students are making are far from being the old patterns that our grandparents once made. The students create the quilts … Continue reading →

Are High Schools Challenging Enough?

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In some cases it seems that we are raising a very lazy and unmotivated society of children. Students often seem less interested in applying themselves and pushing themselves to excel and do their best. Children and parents alike are more acceptable in settling for minimum requirements. Fewer parents push their children to go above and beyond the expectations. As a whole most of society lives by the rule, “just do what you have to do to get by”. Recently, an article was written by Barry Stern Ph.D. Stern gave his thoughts on how today’s high schools are not demanding enough … Continue reading →

Start Saving for your Kid’s College Education NOW!

I have a New Year’s resolution for you to start 2008 off right. Vow to begin a college savings plan for your kids and add as much or as little as you can each month starting next year and beyond. It doesn’t even matter if all you have to save is $25 a month or $1000. Save what you can and get started. The sooner you begin investing, the further your savings will go. The less money you have to set aside for your kids, the sooner you need to start. Money saved when your children are young… less than … Continue reading →