True, that's no good. My student that I think a lot about DOES know he has dyslexia, and it's been a relief to him and a classmate. They both refer to it often - but one thinks he can overcome it and learn, and the other thinks it means he'll never learn 😞

Definitely!! Well said.

This makes me sad for the boys, too. There obviously wasn't much of a growth mindset at that school! I agree with you that each student needs to be handled differently.

I vote for being a major pain in the butt! 😀

I agree with this. It sure sounds like she would qualify for a 504 plan. With that, she could have accommodations like quiet place to test, small group, a place to decompress during the day, time with a social worker, friend group at lunch, on and on. Our 504 plans are quite individualized. I would be surprised that anxiety, mood disorder, depression, etc. would not get her a 504. Although it's not an IEP, a 504 plan is just as strong and legally binding. You DO have the testing to show she has these conditions. I'm not sure if it's the same "wait to fail" model as for academic IEPs, though. Seems like it shouldn't be, since she has medical diagnoses.

My mom was feeling SO tired all the time, and then the doc gave her a B12 shot. She felt amazingly better, immediately, and then it wore off after a month or two. She's doing well on sublingual B12 supplements, but I think the shot would help a lot more. THere's a test you can have done to see if your body produces the enzyme necessary to produce B12 (or to use it? something like that). So glad you feel better!!

I agree with this. Depending on the student, staying for part or all of the meeting can be very empowering. The amount of data shared just needs to be customized to the student. I disagree with my colleagues who think that kids need ALL the info at once. On the other hand, kids are certainly aware that they are not able to do what their classmates are doing. I just don't think they have a full awareness of how big the gap is, which is fine with me! One of my students recently said something about reading at a 2nd grade level in 4th grade (true), and I don't know how he found that out. I certainly never told him. Ever since then, he's been much more resistant to our interventions, so quick to say "I can't read, I can't spell," when before he was so proud to be able to rattle off syllabication rules, all the different ways to make long a, etc. Going from a K reading level to 2nd in a year is a huge accomplishment, yet he feels like a failure. It really breaks my heart... AND we get a lot less done now because I have to take time convincing him to do every single thing rather than just getting on with it. The less we get done, the more he feels behind, and the cycle continues.

That's good news, thank you so much! I'm glad your sister in law and MIL had no problems 🙂

My mom (66) had her second routine colonoscopy two weeks ago. I'm so proud of her for not putting it off, like I probably would. Everything went well, they removed 6 small polyps and they were all benign. Her mom also had lots of polyps during colonoscopies. The bad news is that they also found a 30mm flat polyp that she has to go to a specialist for, since it's harder to remove. That's happening via a 2nd colonoscopy on Thursday. I'm kinda freaking out worrying about complications (perforation, bleeding), or the possibility of something sinister in the polyp itself. I'm hoping that the other benign ones are a good sign, but who knows. She didn't share the full report with me because I get all worked up about medical things, and go into research overdrive, which in turn stresses HER out. Any experiences with having flat polyps removed? Will she be ok that night on her own (she lives alone), or should I spend the night? I'm taking her to and from the appointment, she lives about an hour from me. I don't want to take a 2nd day off of work (end of school year things happening), but will definitely do it if necessary. I could also spend the night and then just leave at 6am to get to school, if all is well.

I've found a lot of useful info here: https://www.retrievalpractice.org/ I'm not sure if it's the right way to go about things, but with my math students, I do a "warm up" worksheet every day with 5 questions - one subtraction w/ borrowing, one addition w/ regrouping, one multiplication, one division, one word problem. I tailor it to what they've been forgetting, or throw in something they haven't done for a while to keep it fresh. I hope it's helpful to them. They definitely forget quickly.

Thanks guys, I had a feeling we'd likely agree on this one. At a meeting last week, a teacher described a kid (likely ADHD) as "unmotivated." I was really angry. I don't think any 9 year old is really THAT "unmotivated" about schoolwork unless there is something going on. I mean, I was not thrilled about school as a kid, but I did the bare minimum to keep teachers off my back! These kids aren't able to do the bare minimum... they may look unmotivated, but you can bet that they'd MUCH rather be able to quickly do the work so the teacher would stop nagging them. I also got the opportunity to clear up some misconceptions about ADHD, which was fun.

Just gathering some thoughts. Some of my colleagues believe strongly that kids should know their levels - reading levels, NWEA scores, percentiles, etc., and that knowing their levels will motivate them to improve (with support of course). I heartily disagree. Seeing progress is motivating, yes, but there are other ways to show progress other than cold hard numbers. For my SpEd students (and maybe all students!), knowing that they're at a 2nd grade reading level in 5th grade would not be motivating, it would be crushing. I'd rather say, hey look, in September you could only read 5 of these 2-syllable words, now you can read 30! Hooray! But I wouldn't want to say that these words are actually 3rd grade words and you're a 5th grader. It just feels wrong to me. What do you think? How honest should we be with kids about their levels?

This app on the iPad is AMAZING: https://explaineverything.com/ It's a shared whiteboard, so teacher and student can both write at the same time. I used a stylus, or sometimes just my finger. It also records sound, if you want it. There are "sheets" so when you fill up the screen, you just swipe over to a fresh sheet, and they're all saved together. I used it to tutor a student of mine who was on homebound instruction. We both loved it (he was only 9 at the time 🙂

The website looks gimmicky. I get suspicious when a program says it will "correct" dyslexia, ADHD, etc. I also don't like the "learning styles" part - learning styles have been debunked. As for it being multisensory... I don't know how multisensory it can really be on the computer, but who knows. Sorry to be a wet blanket!

This makes sense to me.... and since your DD is already off to college, maybe your DS will have an easier time because he won't have younger siblings moving past him. Sorry he's having a hard time 😞 One of my students said the other day, "Am I with you because I'm not smart?" 💔

Webinar! I LOVE David Kilpatrick, too. And here's an older Reading League one: I just typed his name into YouTube and got a bunch of stuff.

I'm watching a webinar featuring David Kilpatrick. He said that the typical child only needs to see an unfamiliar word 1-4 times before it is forever stored in long term memory, for automatic recall. Our struggling readers, not so much.... I, too, am working with a NT child in reading. It's crazy how fast she is progressing. AND she's reading words that include sounds that I've NEVER taught... she's just getting them somehow. It's mind blowing!

At the private school where I used to work, potential students would visit for 3 days. It sounded like overkill initially, but it turns out that you see a lot more in 3 days than you do in just a one-off visit... from both the potential student AND from the school!

Definitely! My DH's grandfather is 97, and his "ladies" come and cook, chat, go to the thrift store, go walking, take him fishing with their husbands, etc. He loves it and it's so great for him to have people to see and places to go!

This is a really great way of showing why categories are important. If so many things have their own specific file, but aren't put together in the same folder, quickly accessing information is impossible. I was thinking about this at the grocery store the other day - I ran into a friend and we couldn't figure out where the panko bread crumbs would be. They weren't with bread, they weren't with spices/baking stuff, and it turned out they were in the aisle with croutons and stuff. It was really annoying trying to figure out what the heck category we should be looking for. I imagine that's what it's like a lot of the time for someone who doesn't have knowledge efficiently categorized. At the store, I was just trying to FIND something... imagine how much more frustrating it would be to not be able to express my thoughts/feelings/needs quickly and efficiently. That 100% vocabulary book is great for working on these skills, but it's way above the level of a 5 year old. Is there some kind of primary-age book that works on this? I'm picturing something with picture cards that can be sorted different ways (like the Word Callers book, but more little-kid friendly). That reminds me. I borrowed a box of picture cards from the SLP at school, and they're broken up into categories like clothes, foods, school stuff, etc. I like to take 3 or 4 cards and have kids tell me why they're all the same (all things you write with, for example), or which one doesn't belong (pencil, pen, marker, stapler), etc.

So that's quite different from something like Wilson... sticking with one sound and multiple ways of spelling it for a whole lesson. Most programs tend to space out the different spellings.

Woo!

Aww, she's beautiful. I love the glass of ice water 🙂

I'm starting to sound like a rep for Boden, but their dresses really are gorgeous. There are plenty of jersey dresses in the women's section that would be appropriate for a 13 year old. There are a couple in the girls' section, too, but I think they're a bit young. Something like this? https://www.bodenusa.com/en-us/penelope-jersey-dress-dijon-daisy-stripe/sty-j0334-yel?cat=C1_S2_G4 Or this? https://www.bodenusa.com/en-us/amelie-jersey-dress-black-chalky-pink-spot/sty-j0326-blk?cat=C1_S2_G4 Or this? https://www.bodenusa.com/en-us/joanna-ponte-dress-woodland-green-daisy-cloud/sty-j0443-grn?cat=C1_S2_G4

I should update an old thread, but the RTI people at my school are now using High Noon, along with some other phonics-focused materials (like Megawords), and lo and behold, the kids are learning to read! I wouldn't say the teachers have been converted, but at least they don't think that systematic phonics is awful anymore.