Be Opened Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” – Mark 7:34 NKJV The story never gets old to me–a group of friends bring one of their own, a man who cannot hear or speak, to Jesus. Our Lord touches his tongue and his ears and […]
We Skip the Easy Stuff In my years supervising teachers as an administrator, and now as I am working with pre-service teacher candidates, I have noticed a common thread. We tend to skip the easy stuff. In an effort to get to the meat of a lesson, we skip one of the most necessary steps […]
It might be just me. It usually is. You see I am continually caught off guard by folks being so enthusiastic about a presentation on diversity in the classroom. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not caught off guard because I don’t think it’s important. I do. I lead one or two courses on teaching in […]
The reform of education has reached new levels of resolve and accountability, and the constant demand to meet those measurements of success continue to add confusion and anxiety to educators struggling to meet the requirements of a limited and archaic mandated curriculum. Educational bureaucrats across the nation have created standardized curriculums intended to provide a […]
The Every Family Program The number of children diagnosed with autism has increased substantially. Educators need to understand how to meet the individual learning needs for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the school, home, and in the community. In order to better address their complex communication, social, and learning needs, school, family, and […]
Struggling Adolescent Readers in the Middle Grades Within the United States (US), the middle-grades level encompasses grades 5-8. As students move from the elementary level into the middle grades, they encounter more complex forms of literature, which require well-developed literacy skills with which to interact with these materials. In these grade levels, classroom instruction moves […]
Background In 2018, the International Literacy Association (ILA) launched a new initiative, Children’s Rights to Read, which aimed at “ensuring every child has access to the education, opportunities, and resources needed to read” (O’Donnell, 2019, para. 1). With the Initiative, ten rights were identified that children have regarding reading. One of the rights that children […]
More than 150 years ago, Louisa May Alcott’s most famous book Little Women hit the bookstores and was immediately embraced by critics and the general population of those who loved to read family stories. To its credit, the book has maintained its popularity and since its publication Little Women has never been out of print. […]
After a long year of teaching and learning, summer vacation has come and gone for nearly 3.8 million teachers and 50.6 million students in American schools (Ingersoll, Merrill, Stuckey & Collins, 2018; Alliance for Excellent Education, 2010; NCES, 2019). School leaders have been planning for the beginning of the school year, preparing budgets, maintaining the […]
With perennial teacher shortages in our Lutheran schools (Muehl, 2017) and the high costs associated with recruiting quality teachers (Simurda, 2004; Curran & Goldrick, 2002), principals must educate themselves about the best practices for retaining teachers in their schools. Principals play an important role in the recruitment and retention of teachers (Brock & Grady, 1998). […]