According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, only 35% of fourth-graders are reading at or above a proficient level. For decades, K-12 educators have tested different methods to improve the way they teach children to read. Currently, there is no national mandated approach that educators have to follow. Structured Literacy has proven itself a…
An important question a lot of people ask is: “How do we teach kids to read?” An important question we don’t ask enough is: “How do we teach kids to read independently?” We need to figure out the answer to the second question because it is undoubtedly, inextricably stitched into the answer to the first…
When I was a twenty-nine-and-a-half-year-old middle school English teacher, I bought my first house. I was also single. Normally my singledom isn’t important but then it signaled my financial independence: no dual income to fall back on, no wealthy partner to sign the check. I was fully dependent on me to make the biggest financial…
Advocating for your own kid, or teaching other people—doctors, dentists, teachers, etc.—about your kid, is something you learn as you go along. Even if you don’t work with any single barrier for long, your overall advocacy skills build with experience. I learned this the hard way. I successfully advocated for my illiterate, suicidal fourth-grader to…