SMARTBRIEF ON SPECIAL EDUCATION

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Curriculum & Instruction Sponsored By 3 ideas for teaching thinking skills Students who are gifted may be reluctant to participate in lessons that require them to think and discover because of their fear of failure, educator Sherwanda Chism writes in this blog post. She shares three teaching strategies to provide the support structures students need to develop thinking skills. Teaching Channel/Tchers' Voice blog (4/15) Share:  Using mentoring to support students' social, emotional needs Cross-grade, student-based mentor programs can help support students' social, emotional and physical needs, suggests Dan Ajerman, a science teacher at Leman Manhattan Preparatory School in New York City. In this blog post, he explains how mentoring supports the "whole child." SmartBrief/SmartBlog on Education (4/16) Share:  Other News Class teaches young teens, adults with disabilities creative writing AL.com (Alabama) (4/16) Share:  7 ways to engage middle-schoolers in complex texts Learn from curriculum and early adolescence experts the best ways to help middle school students develop close-reading skills as required by the new college- and career-ready standards: the ability to analyze challenging texts and to grasp literal and inferential meanings. Click here to download guide. Educational Leadership How teachers can tackle unconscious beliefs Teachers need to acknowledge their mental models -- assumptions about people that unconsciously affect behavior -- to make education equitable for all students, transformational leadership coach Elena Aguilar writes in this blog post. She outlines a six-step process to shift this mindset. Edutopia.org/Teacher Leadership blog (4/15) Share:  Other News 5 ways to combat burnout Edutopia.org/Teacher Burnout blog (4/16) Share:  Technology Trends 4 tips to help build an affordable digital media lab A digital media lab can help create a project-based learning space for the 21st-century student, library media specialist Donna DeLuca writes in this commentary. She shares how she helped construct an affordable digital media lab in her school's library and suggests four ways to help others set up their own labs. eSchool News (free registration) (4/17) Share:  Policy News NCLB rewrite passes Senate education committee A bill to rewrite No Child Left Behind was unanimously approved by the U.S. Senate's education committee on Thursday. The full Senate is expected to debate the bill later this spring. "We've never been able to get it to the floor, because we've not really agreed on anything. This time it's different," said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. The Washington Post (tiered subscription model) (4/16) Share:  Eye on Exceptionalities Most pediatricians aren't properly trained to diagnose autism in children Some pediatricians may dismiss a parent's concerns about a child's symptoms of autism because most doctors and other health care professionals lack the training to diagnose the condition, according to a study in The Journal of Pediatrics. Pediatricians are advised by the American Academy of Pediatrics to screen 18-month-old children during their checkups and again when they are between 24 months and 30 months. National Public Radio/Shots blog (4/15) Share:  PRESS RELEASES South Carolina Department of Education Implements Enrich State to Streamline Special Education Processes Post a Press Release SmartQuote If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?" -- Rumi, poet and theologian Share: