Northeast Association of Learning Specialists- NEALS News

Reflections: Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning (CTTL) Winter Webinar Series

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 17:04:31 GMT

By:

Chris Ouellette, M.Ed., NEALS’ Vice President,

including a reflection on Prepositional Listening by

Kerrie Husband McGregor, M.Ed., Reading Specialist, Newton North High School,

NEALS’ Board member

What does it look like when educators truly go and get their learning?

Earlier this winter, five members of the NEALS Board committed to doing just that by participating in the Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning’s (CTTL) Winter Webinar Series. This series, focused on Belonging and the Brain: Why the Human Teacher Matters, was held over three evenings in January and February. While we were proud to see NEALS finish at the top of the interaction leaderboard (a fun and slightly competitive point of pride!), what mattered far more was the richness of the learning experience and the practical ideas we brought back with us.

Last month, I reflected on the importance of being proactive in our own professional growth. This experience served as a powerful reminder that when educators intentionally step back into the role of learner, it not only strengthens our own practice but also benefits the communities we serve. As we prepare to welcome CTTL Director Glenn Whitman as our keynote speaker at the NEALS’ Annual Conference on April 24 at New Hampton School, it feels like the perfect time to reflect on what we gained from this experience and why we are so excited to share this learning with our NEALS community.

Day one of the series focused on the idea that dignity sits at the foundation of belonging. To help bring this concept to life, CTTL welcomed John Krownapple, co-author (with Floyd Cobb) of Belonging Through a Culture of Dignity. His work centers on a simple but powerful truth: effective teaching begins with respect, empathy, and the belief that every student deserves to feel seen, valued, and understood. His message encouraged us to move beyond simply managing behavior and instead focus on creating dignity-centered classrooms where growth, belonging, and human connection can take root.

As I reflected on this learning, it struck me how naturally this aligns with the work so many learning specialists do every day. When we start with dignity and student wellbeing, it shifts not just what we do, but how we do it. It brought me back to Bill Preble’s powerful reminder about school culture: “students can’t learn when their pants are on fire.” When students are overwhelmed, disconnected, or unsure if they belong, learning is simply harder to access.

Day two was another solid day as we had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Mesmin Destin, whose research and his TED Talk How Our Interactions with People Can Shape Their Futures highlight the powerful role that everyday interactions, messages, and environments play in shaping students’ motivation, identity, and long-term outcomes. His work demonstrates that when educators intentionally communicate possibility, through encouragement, information about opportunities, and identity-affirming messages, students become more likely to see achievable futures for themselves and to take the academic steps necessary to reach them. Destin’s concept of future identity emphasizes that how students see their potential selves directly influences their engagement, persistence, and decision-making.

When viewed alongside CTTL’s Enhanced Simple Model of Learning (2026), Destin’s work reinforces the idea that learning is not just a cognitive process but a human one shaped by belonging, emotional safety, and lived experience. His research on the importance of identity-affirming interactions aligns closely with CTTL’s emphasis on belonging as a core condition for learning, suggesting that when educators intentionally create environments where students feel seen, valued, and capable, they are not just supporting wellbeing, they are directly strengthening attention, motivation, and academic engagement. Together, these frameworks suggest that the daily interactions educators have with students are not peripheral to learning; they are central to it. By combining research on future identity with the science of learning, both Destin and CTTL point to a shared conclusion: when educators intentionally foster dignity, belonging, and possibility through their interactions, they help expand not only what students learn, but who students believe they can become.

Day three introduced us to Dr. Nicole Furlonge and prepositional listening. Please enjoy this reflection from Kerrie Husband-McGregor.

***As a seasoned professional, how I spend my time is one of my most important investments. I am drawn to opportunities that genuinely improve my ability to reach students and maximize their learning. Often, professional development offers a useful takeaway or two; but, when my curiosity is sparked and I find myself “listening with my heart,” that is when new growth happens.

Serving as a board member for the New England Association of Learning Specialists (NEALS) has been a meaningful addition to my professional life. It intentionally builds time each month to connect with and learn alongside like-minded colleagues. Together, we challenge ourselves to think creatively and push beyond traditional approaches. Our decision to attend an online webinar as a group was one such effort, providing an opportunity to explore something new while previewing the work of The Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning (CTTL) and connecting with Glenn Whitman, who will be presenting at our annual April conference.

Attending CTTL’s Winter Webinar series proved to be a truly impactful experience. One session, in particular, has stayed with me: Dr. Nicole Brittingham Furlonge’s Belonging and the Brain: Why the Human Teacher Matters.

Dr. Furlonge challenged us to reconsider what it truly means to listen, not just to the words students say, but to what exists beneath them. She introduced the concept of prepositional listening, a powerful and intentional practice that goes beyond surface-level understanding. This idea, which she explores more deeply in her book Race Sounds: The Art of Listening in African American Literature, opened both my heart and mind. It highlighted an area of growth that, notably, was not explicitly developed in my own formal training, yet feels essential for educators and administrators alike.

As educators, we often focus on content delivery and measurable outcomes. Dr. Furlonge gently reframed that focus, reminding us that learning is deeply connected to emotional experience. When we listen closely, attending to tone, pauses, and subtle cues, we create space where students feel genuinely seen and heard. And when students feel heard, they feel safe. When they feel safe, learning becomes not only possible, but lasting.

This session affirmed something I have long believed but had not fully articulated: it is often not just what students learn, but how they feel while learning that determines the depth and longevity of that learning. Feeling understood, valued, and connected is foundational, not only for students, but for educators as well.

I am fortunate to experience this sense of belonging in my own professional environment, where I continue to grow and feel supported. It is my hope that this sense of connection continues to deepen in the years ahead.

Dr. Furlonge’s work is a reminder that teaching, and leading, is not only a science and privilege, but an art rooted in human connection. I am grateful for the opportunity to learn from her and inspired to practice a deeper level of listening, prepositional listening, into my daily practice. ***

Not only did we have the opportunity to build community while learning alongside some truly thoughtful and innovative minds in education, we were also introduced to the CTTL’s Enhanced Model of Simple Learning(2026). Building on Dan Willingham’s Simple Model of Learning from Why Students Don’t Like School?, this updated model reinforced something many of us see every day in our work with students: emotion and cognition are not separate, they are deeply interconnected.

As learning specialists, we often find ourselves advocating for the idea that if a student does not feel a sense of belonging, safety, or understanding, learning becomes that much harder to access. What this work provided was the research language to support what many of us already know through practice. As Whitman and Kelleher (2026) note, “emotion directly affects attention, memory recall and storage, decision-making, and executive functions.” Simply put, how students feel matters just as much as what we ask them to learn.

What particularly resonated with me was how CTTL surrounded the traditional Simple Model of Learning with three interconnected conditions: a student’s sense of belonging, their emotional and physical safety, and their lived experiences. It felt like a powerful affirmation of the work NEALS’ members do every day by seeing the whole learner, not just the academic profile, and recognizing that our role often sits at the intersection of support, advocacy, and high expectations.

My biggest takeaway from this learning experience was a reminder that while strategies and structures matter, relationships and environments matter just as much. When we intentionally create spaces where students feel known, safe, and valued, we are not stepping away from rigor, we are making rigor more accessible.

Taken together, these three days of learning reinforced a powerful and timely reminder: the human elements of teaching (dignity, belonging, environment, and truly listening to students), are not extras to the work of learning; they are the conditions that make learning possible. This experience affirmed that the work NEALS’ members do every day lives at this intersection of research and practice, where relationships, advocacy, and high expectations come together to support the whole learner. As we look ahead to welcoming Glenn Whitman and continuing this learning together at our Annual Conference, we are excited not only to deepen our understanding of the science of learning, but also to continue strengthening the professional community that makes this work both sustainable and impactful.

Cheers,

Chris and Kerrie

Go Get It (Your Learning)

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Go Get It (Your Learning)

By: Chris Ouellette, M.Ed., NEALS’ Vice President

When my partner Jennifer and I joined our first session as fellows in the Leadership + Design Fellowship program, one message stood out right away: you are responsible for “going and getting your learning.” At first, I found myself wondering why that needed to be said. I had always embraced professional development and was an early adopter for new ideas and tools.

As the idea unfolded, it became something more meaningful. It wasn’t just about showing up to what was offered; it was about digging deeper, making sense of what you encountered, and taking ownership of your own growth. It meant engaging not only with the resources provided, but also with your own curiosity, initiative, and reflection. While I had always been quick to say yes to professional learning opportunities, this experience shifted something for me. It encouraged me to be more intentional in my pursuit of knowledge, both to strengthen my specific skill set and to more thoughtfully shape my overall practice. The strategy I am offering up today: Be Proactive in Your Learning and Development.

One of the questions I often pose when working with school communities is, “Where do you go for your continued learning?” For some, the response comes with energy and enthusiasm as they share a recent podcast, a meaningful conference, or a new idea they are eager to try. Just as often, however, I notice a flicker of hesitation or concern. The answers tend to sound familiar: “I keep my certification up to date,” or “I read articles and books when I can. I am just so busy.” When I gently probe further by asking about conferences attended or visits to other schools, the response is often the same. Stepping away, even for a day, feels like too much to manage within already full and demanding schedules.

The pace of independent school life can make anything beyond our daily responsibilities feel daunting. As learning specialists, we are often supporting students in navigating both their academic and personal commitments, and our skill sets position us to anticipate potential roadblocks before others may see them. With these layers of responsibility, the idea of stepping away for one, two, or even three days can feel as though we are letting our students down. At the same time, if we limit our own opportunities to grow and expand our toolkit, we may also be doing them a disservice. Since we all want to do the best for our students, maybe the challenge isn’t within the schedule?

Another significant barrier to professional development is the perception of top-down, mandated initiatives. During my time in New Hampshire public schools, each year brought a new set of directives from the state, the school, and the special education department. While often well-intentioned, these initiatives frequently shifted or disappeared within a year, leaving the time, energy, and planning invested in them feeling diminished or lost. Over time, this cycle can erode trust and enthusiasm. It becomes difficult to fully invest when past experiences suggest that the work may be short-lived. Walking into opening meetings each fall, only to be introduced to yet another new set of priorities, often reinforced that sense of fatigue and skepticism.

*Quick note here just to say that all professional development is not created equally. There are some pretty ineffective ones that unfortunately leave just as sour of a taste in your mouth! The lesson here: don’t let one or two bad experiences cloud your entire idea of professional development.

I would be remiss not to acknowledge the financial realities of professional development. It can be easy, particularly in smaller schools, to assume that there simply are not resources available to support growth. Having personally funded many of my own professional learning experiences at times, I understand how real and discouraging that challenge can feel. At the same time, my conversations with administrators often reveal a different perspective. I frequently hear, “We have funds allocated for professional development, but we struggle to get educators to take advantage of them.” This disconnect is worth paying attention to. If there is one small encouragement to take from this, it is simply to ask. Opportunities and resources are far more likely to exist than we might assume, but they remain out of reach if we do not advocate for them. Too often, the answer feels like “no” only because the question was never asked.

Alright, so as Jon Oliver says, “What can we do?”. One of the best ways I have found (both for myself and for working with others), is to think of professional development as a multi-tiered system of support. Yeah Chris, but what does that look like?

Tier I: Reading Books and Articles

Reading books and articles, staying current with research, and stretching your thinking are all valuable forms of professional growth. They offer flexibility, autonomy, and the freedom to engage with ideas at your own pace and in ways that best fit your practice. At the same time, this kind of learning can be isolating. Without opportunities to exchange ideas, challenge assumptions, and learn alongside others doing similar work, an important dimension of professional growth can be lost.

Tier II: Webinars

Webinars offer a meaningful opportunity to learn within a community of educators who are engaging with the same ideas in real time. They create space for questions, shared insights, and a sense of collective growth that extends beyond the content itself. With so many accessible, often free resources available (check out EdWeb), they can be a powerful entry point into ongoing professional learning. At the same time, it can be tempting to default back to solitary engagement by watching recordings on your own. While convenient, this approach often misses the richness of real-time interaction and the sense of connection that makes the learning experience more dynamic and impactful.

Tier III: Conferences

Conferences come in all shapes and sizes: intimate gatherings and large-scale convenings; local meet-ups and national stages; highly specialized, content-driven sessions and broader, interdisciplinary explorations. Most offer multiple modalities for learning, allowing participants to engage through keynote addresses, workshops, panels, and collaborative discussions. Beyond the content itself, conferences provide invaluable opportunities to build relationships in real time. Depending on the scope of the event, your professional network can deepen within your niche or expand across regions and disciplines. That being said, the very elements that make conferences exciting can also present challenges. An abundance of choice, particularly at national conferences, can feel overwhelming, making it easier to default to familiar topics rather than stretch into new areas of growth. And, as with any live learning experience, the impact often hinges on the quality and delivery of the speakers. When sessions lack energy, clarity, or relevance, it can be difficult to stay engaged. The key, then, is not just attendance, but intentional participation, approaching conferences with curiosity, strategy, and a willingness to step beyond what is comfortable or known.

Tier IV: School Visits

School visits offer a powerful opportunity to examine educational practice in action. Through intentional collaboration with the host team, you can shape the experience, ask focused questions about pedagogy, and explore the thinking behind their approach. Beyond reflecting on shared concepts, you witness how those ideas are actually implemented within a living school community. Choosing the “right” school, however, requires clarity. What is your purpose? Are you seeking new insight or affirmation of your current practice? Do you hope to collaborate deeply or primarily observe and listen?

Whenever possible, engage in multiple visits, varying your lens each time. By doing so, you broaden your perspective, deepen your understanding, and expand your sense of what is possible within your own educational setting.

I want to close by leaning into Priya Parker’s The Art of Gathering. Parker notes that people often hesitate when she emphasizes the role of the host (p. 71). Yet hosting matters. As you think about your own professional development, consider yourself the host of that gathering. You set the purpose. You choose what belongs. You shape the experience with intention.

Because ultimately, as Parker reminds us, “who wants to sail on a skipperless ship?” (p. 71).

Cheers,

Chris

Parker, P. (2020). The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters. Riverhead Books.

The Power of Reflection: A Critical Tool for Learning Specialists

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 14:18:48 GMT

The Power of Reflection: A Critical Tool for Learning Specialists

by Jen McMahon, M.Ed.

Academic Support Program Faculty, New Hampton School

NEALS' Board Member

Over the holidays, I received a card from a former student who had just completed her first semester as a college freshman. In her note, she shared that she had done very well and graciously thanked me for teaching her the tools and skills she needed to be successful. While I was deeply appreciative of her words, I found myself wondering why this realization had come only now. That question led me to reflect on my own practice and ask: Am I intentionally creating enough opportunities for reflection with my students?

Philosopher Edmund Burke once said, “Learning without reflection is like eating without digestion.” This metaphor captures the essential role reflection plays in meaningful learning. Reflection is not an add-on to instruction; it is a powerful process that transforms experience into understanding. It involves deliberately thinking about what has been learned, how it was learned, and how that learning can be applied to future situations. Reflection deepens understanding, promotes self-awareness, and helps learners connect new knowledge to what they already know.

Reflection also plays a critical role in developing a growth mindset. Through reflective practice, students learn to evaluate their performance, identify mistakes, and view challenges as opportunities for improvement rather than evidence of failure. When students reflect, they move beyond simply completing tasks and begin to understand how and why learning occurs.

Unfortunately, many students are primarily focused on submitting work and earning grades, with little time devoted to reflecting on their learning process. When reflection is absent, learning can remain superficial. In contrast, when students engage in reflection, their critical thinking skills are activated, their understanding of the learning process deepens, and information becomes meaningful knowledge connected to prior learning. Reflection allows students to recognize their strengths, identify areas for growth, and take ownership of their learning.

For students with learning disabilities, reflection is especially powerful. It allows them to see tangible evidence of progress, recognize how far they have come, and develop confidence in their ability to succeed in the future. Too often, however, students with learning disabilities are not explicitly taught how to reflect or shown the benefits of doing so. Reflection is a learned skill that requires modeling, guidance, and consistent practice—making it a crucial responsibility of learning specialists.

In their book Make It Stick, psychologists Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, and Mark A. McDaniel describe reflection as a process that strengthens learning through several key activities. These include retrieval, or recalling recently learned information; elaboration, which involves connecting new ideas to existing knowledge; and generation, where learners rephrase concepts in their own words or mentally rehearse what they might do differently next time. Each of these practices reinforces learning and builds long-term understanding.

There are many effective tools learning specialists can use to foster reflection. Journaling allows students to articulate their thinking and track growth over time. Structured discussions that include open-ended questions—such as “How did you figure that out?”, “Is this what you expected your work to look like?”, or “What can you do now that you couldn’t do last semester?”—encourage metacognition and self-assessment. Digital tools such as Mentimeter or Answer Garden can also provide accessible, low-pressure opportunities for reflection and student voice.

Ultimately, reflection helps students recognize that learning is a process, not a destination. By intentionally embedding reflection into our work with students, learning specialists can help learners build self-awareness, resilience, and confidence—skills that extend far beyond the classroom and into lifelong learning.

References

Costa, A., and Kallick, B. “Learning Through Reflection”

Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind. (2008)

Georgetown University Center for New Designs in Learning and

Scholarships: Reflection in the classroom.

Routines That Matter

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 12:52:26 GMT

Routines That Matter

by Kerrie Husband-McGregor, M.Ed.

Director of the Student Success Center, The Newman School

NEALS' Board Member

As a learning specialist, I frequently communicate about classroom management. Teachers seek advice regarding students with attentional challenges. Recently, I had the pleasure of hosting a professional conversation about how to best support these unique learners and how to effectively redirect off task behavior; it resurfaced the importance of routines. Routines work not just for unique learners and children, but for adults too. Especially as we move through seasons of challenge and busyness. Routines help us to feel grounded and foster a sense of knowing what to expect.

When I walk into classrooms and observe students, I often see teachers engaging in deep lectures and fostering conversations that stimulate my brain. But, when I look around and do not see agendas posted with class goals and built in brain breaks, I anticipate that students may not have a clear sense of the routines being applied to that class. Routines like these help manage behavior. If students walk in late or need to be redirected to the task, due to their mind wandering, agendas reduce cognitive load by informing students about what to do now and what to expect next. Additionally, this habit provides a compass for the teacher to reference and use to ensure they stay on track AND build in a break. Research continues to evidence that brain breaks are just as important for high school students as middle and elementary school students.

Modeling the use of clear agendas also teaches executive function skills that so many of our Gen Z and Gen Alpha students need to see modeled. Agendas are to educators as planners are to students. On this day, during this professional conversation, I found that sharing this simple hack not only reminded many seasoned teachers about this habit and why we use it, but it fostered the beginning of many shares. Teachers began to open up and share how they incorporate a minute of mindfulness and other healthy routines into the beginning of class, small group, or tutoring sessions.

The professional conversation highlighted research about how starting class with routines can lead to:

1. Improved executive functioning

2. Reduced cognitive load

3. Enhanced dopamine regulation

4. Better emotional regulation

Discussing these things as a team of educators choosing to spend our time together was fun and we connected, talked, and laughed. We made space for this conversation, and it was clear that we all needed to prioritize these types of professional development conversations and that we need to do it more.

Together we also ran some respectful redirection role plays that fostered deeper connection amongst as we had real time opportunity to practice these redirections. Teachers noted this as a highlight and an area that needed more time and space, which we will emphasize moving forward.

After our time together, teachers provided feedback and shared that they really enjoyed the authentic use of time as a professional conversation. They enjoyed the hacks and many began sharing with me their use of agendas, timers, breathwork, and respectful redirection examples.

We all have a wealth of knowledge as learning specialists; sitting around the Harkness table with colleagues and sharing our time and ideas was worth the time. I plan to use this refreshing PD strategy again and make it a new routine for my approach to collaborating.

Here’s to routines for each of you that reduce your cognitive load this busy season. Thanks for reading what I wrote and feel free to reach out if you would like to collaborate more about professional conversations or routines.

Warmly, Kerrie Husband-McGregor

Research sourced from https://neurolaunch.com/adhd-and-routines/

Guiding Students Toward Career Readiness

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 14:22:16 GMT

Guiding Students Toward Career Readiness

by: Sarah E. Ross, M.Ed.

Footbridge Education LLC

NEALS' Board Member

The term “career readiness” appears everywhere—in program outcomes, strategic plans, and everyday conversations with colleagues—but what does it actually mean? In my observations of college, graduate, and medical students, readiness for a career, and especially for a specific professional path, emerges most clearly in how students approach increasingly complex tasks: studying more intentionally, monitoring their understanding, and adjusting when familiar strategies no longer meet the expectations of the work (Cutrer et al., 2019; McGuire, 2015; Zimmerman, 2002).

By the time first-year students arrive on campus, many have already developed strong recall-based study habits: rewriting notes, following rubrics meticulously, or rereading until the material feels “comfortable.” These strategies often served them well earlier in their schooling. But as cognitive demands rise—particularly in upper-level or professional coursework—I’ve heard familiar refrains: “I studied for hours, but the exam didn’t look anything like what I reviewed,” or “I studied for hours and still failed—I don’t understand how.” Students are often convinced, with all this “failure,” that they’ve chosen the wrong career path—and then start to panic: I thought I was on my way to becoming a nurse/doctor/social worker…so what now? What happens if I don’t make it?

These questions—about uncertainty, decision-making, and applying knowledge in real contexts—continue to shape how I think about professional preparation. When I began working with medical students, I first encountered the Master Adaptive Learner (MAL) model, and it immediately gave language to what I was seeing. Its cycle—Planning, Learning, Assessing, Adjusting—captures the adaptive moves students are already trying to make (Cutrer et al., 2019), or at least the moves they need to make to develop academic effectiveness and, ultimately, career readiness.

The MAL model aligns closely with frameworks many educators already use. For example, it resonates strongly with Bloom’s Taxonomy (Louisiana State University Center for Academic Success, n.d.): students often prepare at one level while being assessed at another. They rely on flashcards without practicing application, or reread and rewrite notes instead of engaging in retrieval and analysis. Once students recognize that the task requires a higher level of thinking than the strategy they’re using, their frustration begins to make sense—and their learning becomes more intentional.

One of the most powerful tools I use to teach this shift—from relying on recall-based strategies to engaging in higher-level thinking—is the Study Cycle, adapted from Frank Christ’s PLRS system (Louisiana State University Center for Academic Success, n.d.) and expanded by Saundra McGuire (2015). Grounded in Bloom’s Taxonomy, the Study Cycle clearly distinguishes

passive review strategies from deeper, retrieval- and application-based learning; it helps students break learning into deliberate phases—previewing and asking questions before class, actively engaging during class, reviewing soon after, and then spacing retrieval and application over time. When I teach it, students can almost always pinpoint where their process is breaking down.

These approaches reflect broader research on how learners make sense of complex tasks. Ritchhart, Church, and Morrison (2011) emphasize the value of making reasoning visible, helping students uncover misconceptions and clarify their approaches. Zimmerman’s (2002) model of self-regulated learning highlights cycles of forethought, performance, and reflection—skills essential for deeper learning. Nilson (2013) shows how learners strengthen awareness and adaptability when taught to monitor and adjust their strategies. And Oakley, Rogowsky, and Sejnowski (2021) illustrate why students benefit from shifting between focused, detail-oriented thinking and more expansive, big-picture thinking, especially when grappling with unfamiliar problems.

So, what is career readiness? As a start, it may be most useful to understand it as a series of small turning points: noticing a gap early, shifting from memorizing to self-testing, or adjusting a strategy after evaluating what actually worked. Over time, these moments accumulate and help learners grow into career-focused thinkers capable of planning, evaluating, and adapting.

Want to continue the conversation? There’s so much more to discuss about this topic—including the social-emotional skills needed to be career ready (and how to teach them), the role of self-regulated learning, how educators can help secondary-school students build strong career-readiness habits, and the reliable metacognitive tools that can transform students’ experiences of school and career confidence. For now, recognizing how students adjust their study strategies as tasks become more complex leads naturally to thinking about how they can become more adaptable, flexible, open, and curious in their professional work. Keep an eye out for upcoming opportunities to explore how we can better support students on the path toward becoming “career ready.” I look forward to connecting.

References

Cutrer, W. B., Pusic, M., Gruppen, L. D., Hammoud, M. M., & Santen, S. A.

(Eds.). (2019). The Master Adaptive Learner. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Louisiana State University Center for Academic Success. (n.d.). Bloom’s

Taxonomy.

Louisiana State University Center for Academic Success. (n.d.). The Study Cycle

(adapted from Frank Christ’s PLRS system).

McGuire, S. Y. (2015). Teach students how to learn. Stylus Publishing.

Nilson, L. B. (2013). Creating self-regulated learners: Strategies to strengthen

students’ self-awareness and learning skills. Stylus Publishing.

Oakley, B., Rogowsky, B. A., & Sejnowski, T. J. (2021). Uncommon sense

teaching: Practical insights in brain science to help students learn. Tarcher Perigee.

Ritchhart, R., Church, M., & Morrison, K. (2011). Making thinking visible: How to

promote engagement, understanding, and independence for all learners. Jossey-Bass. Zimmerman, B. J. (2002). Becoming a self-regulated learner: An overview. Theory Into Practice, 41(2), 64–70.

Recapping a NEALS' Member Meeting

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 12:24:10 GMT

Recap of NEALS' Member Meeting at Taft School

by: Bethany Booth, Director of Academic Resources at Kent School and NEALS' Treasurer

On Wednesday, October 15, learning specialists from independent schools across Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York gathered at Taft School in Watertown, CT to reflect on the start of the academic year and share ideas for strengthening student support.

Discussion topics included:

Engaging Students in the Learning Process
We explored ways to help students focus on how they learn, not just on getting the right answers. Members shared creative ideas for rebuilding process-oriented study habits and carving out time for reteaching within already full schedules.
Using Data to Guide Our Work
The group discussed approaches to tracking student use of academic support services and considered how this information could inform departmental goals for the year ahead. Participants shared meaningful, manageable systems for data collection and use.
Rethinking Staffing and Scheduling
Members compared strategies for staffing, coverage, and scheduling student meetings or test/exam proctoring. The conversation surfaced effective practices and opportunities to adjust systems to better meet student needs.
Growing Through Professional Development
We exchanged workshop ideas and training models that have helped faculty deepen their understanding of learning support and inclusive teaching practices.
Clarifying Student Referral Pathways
Together, we clarified the steps involved in self-referrals, internal screenings, and determining when external testing is appropriate. Members reflected on how to make this process transparent and supportive for students and families.
Managing Accommodations with Care
The discussion wrapped up with strategies for balancing administrative responsibilities, maintaining communication with families, and supporting students as they grow their independence and prepare for the transition to college.

The biggest takeaway from our conversation was that, despite differences in our centers and processes, we are all working toward the same goals in supporting our students and colleagues. These meetings are such a valuable opportunity to learn from one another, and we’re already looking forward to the next time we can meet.

If you’re interested in hosting an upcoming member meeting, please reach out to chrisouellette@nealsonline.org —we hope to see you at one later this year!

Ruminations About Our Students’ Anxiety

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 13:48:13 GMT

Ruminations About Our Students’ Anxiety

by Melissa Rubin, Principal at TheStudentFirst and NEALS' Secretary

Believe it or not, the last two weeks of summer represent one of my favorite times of the year. I know. That sounds crazy, especially because the end of summer means school starting up again. But as a former tennis player, to me, the last week of August and the first week of September simply mean the US Open, the final grand slam of the year. So while I no longer head to New York for the true in-person experience (oh, the stories I could tell!), I watch the matches intently on TV. This year, while watching, I’ve been struck in particular by how much of the conversation among the commentators and players alike has revolved around mental health. And rightly so. All four of this year’s women semi-finalists openly discuss their struggles with anxiety and advocate for the importance of seeking help. Two of the women, Naomi Osaka and Amanda Anisimova, both took over a year off from tennis to focus solely on their mental health - and clearly they are better for that decision.

In stark contrast, students don’t usually have the option to “just step away” from school to focus on how they are feeling. Despite also suffering from anxiety, stress, and even depression like professional athletes, students are still expected to function normally, learn, and excel at everything they do.

Frequently, as learning specialists, these students end up sitting in front of us. This is not to say that anxiety is these students’ primary issue - but certainly when dealing with learning difficulties, how they’re feelings about themselves and their situations come into play. I have found the comorbidity of anxiety with learning disabilities to be profound.

So, as school amps up, I mention these facts to serve as a reminder that much of our responsibility as learning specialists is to help our students learn the skills that help them manage themselves, including their feelings, so that they can be open to learning in the classroom. We are not therapists, but that doesn’t mean we can’t help students strategize for how to handle difficult situations they might face (i.e., an assessment, a presentation, etc). We can offer examples of relaxation and/or grounding techniques - breathing practices, using fidget toys, etc.

I present these thoughts for your consideration and welcome feedback.

Cheers to a successful school year for everyone!

Melissa

You Matter!

Sun, 24 Aug 2025 00:52:56 GMT

You Matter!

By Laura Foody, Director of Learning Support at Dedham Country Day School and NEALS' President

Being a Learning Specialist can be hard. We teach struggling students. We consult with anxious parents. We coach and support overwhelmed teachers. Sometimes. Other times, we celebrate our students’ successes. We guide families to the tools and resources that help their children thrive at school. We watch with joy when a teacher successfully differentiates a lesson. Our career calling has many ups and downs. Sometimes, it may seem easier to throw in the towel and seek employment in another field or go into another form of teaching. But I implore you to hold that towel and don’t give up because you matter. You matter to your students. You matter to your families. And you matter to your colleagues. I consider Learning Specialists to be the heart and soul of a school, and we are vital to the organizations in which we work and the students we serve.

About ten years ago, I was co-teaching a third-grade Math class. We had a very bright but very anxious student who thought he couldn't get through the class on his own. At the beginning of each class, he would hand me a slip of paper on which he wrote “Reservation With You.” I always made sure to check in on him throughout class to make sure he understood the content, remained calm, focused, and on task. And you know what, by the end of the year, he no longer handed me the “reservation” ticket because he knew I would check in on him, and he also knew that he could succeed in Math class. I began to collect the “reservation tickets” and notes from students and families. They rest in an old shoe box in my closet and come out at least once each school year to remind me why I am a Learning Specialist. When I feel burnt out, these notes remind me that I have made a difference in the lives of so many people over the years. And then I remember, I matter, and I continue to matter.

I suggest you get your own shoe box and collect the notes (and emails) you receive, and when the work day has been tough, take out the box and remember why you are a Learning Specialist and that you matter to many, many people.

Wishing you a wonderful school year. The NEALS Board has been working hard to plan events throughout the year that will empower and inspire you. We look forward to seeing you soon!

Warm regards,

Laura

Summer Reflections

Mon, 04 Aug 2025 16:55:12 GMT

Summer Reflections: My First Consultant Role

By Chris Ouellette, M.Ed., NEALS' Board Member

Happy August Folx! After taking a year away from the NEALS organization to focus on family, I’m excited to return to the fold! Our Board recently spent a few days together in Wolfeboro, NH, planning and preparing for the year ahead. We're looking forward to offering a range of monthly events and written pieces. With that in mind, thank you for taking a moment to read as I reflect on my first year-long consultant role!

In May 2024, I was honored to be selected as the Visiting Scholar for the Student Support Services department at a school in the Midwest. The position was made possible through a generous alumni gift, aimed at strengthening and refining the school’s support lens, a meaningful and complex endeavor. The work of student support in independent schools offers a powerful lens through which to examine both student growth and institutional challenges. While it highlights meaningful impact, it can also surface tensions within a school’s overarching goals. A natural push-pull exists as schools strive to find the right balance between academic rigor and necessary support. Faculty and staff often bring differing understandings and entry points around neurodiversity, special education, accommodations, modifications, and inclusion, differences that can lead to moments of uncertainty and difficult decision-making about what is truly best for students. Striking this balance is not simple; it demands courageous, ongoing dialogue about pedagogy, equity, and deeply held experiences. When schools are able to center these conversations around students with honesty and purpose, the balance between rigor and support becomes not only possible, it becomes fully attainable.

It was an absolute privilege to work with another school community throughout the 2024–2025 academic year. The alumni-funded gift that supported this initiative was exceptional in its focus: advancing Student Support through a practical, actionable lens. I deeply valued the opportunity to engage with various stakeholder groups, listening to their hopes, their tensions, and need for greater clarity. This work allowed me to navigate complex scenarios, support strategic decision-making, and celebrate important professional milestones alongside this community.

The experience also presented personal and professional challenges. The academic year began with the profound loss of a parent and the simultaneous transition into a senior leadership role at my home institution. Balancing the competing demands of both communities proved difficult at times, resulting in a temporary communication gap that required honest dialogue and recommitment to move the work forward.

Supporting a community in weighing ideal solutions against realistic constraints is a learning opportunity in itself. These moments often bring with them strong emotions, divergent opinions, and the friction that comes with meaningful change. Within that tension lies the opportunity for growth. When we frame our problem-solving through the lens of long-term vision and student-centered purpose, the result is not just compromise, it is a stronger, more resilient program shaped by shared intention.

As we get ready to head back to school in just a few weeks, take a moment to soak in the words of Bob Marley: “One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.” Let the rhythm carry you through these final summer days with my Summer 2025 Spotify Playlist.

Cheers,

Chris

Supporting Confident, Self-Regulated Learners: Resources for Helping Students Build Strategies for School and Career Success

Wed, 05 Feb 2025 02:22:07 GMT

Supporting Confident, Self-Regulated Learners: Resources for Helping Students Build Strategies for School and Career Success

Sarah E. Ross, M.Ed., Footbridge Education LLC

In my most recent history as a learning specialist at the University of New England, I worked closely with students in undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs to help them build key study and learning strategies for school and career success. I designed and taught a study and learning strategy course to first-year students although I mostly worked with students one-on-one in my office, most of whom would express the same sentiment when they showed up at my door (what I’ve heard routinely from students of all ages over the past 25 years): “I can’t do this” - pass the test, write the paper, give a successful presentation, talk to a professor, get started on a project. I imagine all learning specialists can relate to and empathize with this particular moment, as the instinctive answer from the helper (learning specialist), aside from empathy, is, by the end of the session: “You can!” (I have repeated these words to myself as I am about to revive my educational consulting practice with two of my UNE colleagues. And I have also reminded myself of the strength gained through collaboration.)

When people ask me about the most important skill I teach students (all students), my answer is always the same: self-efficacy - in other words, believing in your ability to accomplish challenging tasks and that your ability can grow with effort. While my general experience supporting students tells me this, there is some theoretical backing to my answer that I love sharing with students as part of a larger conversation about what it means to be a self-regulated learner - in other words, someone who is able to make a plan, monitor their plan, make changes to stay on track, reflect on what worked, and identify what could be improved the next time around (Noonan & Erickson, 2017).

As Schraw, Crippen & Hartley (2006) illustrate, self-regulated learning relies on cognition (involving problem solving and critical thinking), metacognition (knowledge and regulation of cognition - e.g., how one thinks, not just what they think), and motivation, which involves self-efficacy and a drive to engage in learning. My observation is that while most students may have developing or even strong critical thinking and problem solving skills, most students haven’t yet learned metacognitive strategies (routinely thinking about their learning - planning, monitoring, reflecting), and many students lack the motivation they need to feel that they are truly in control of their own learning - and so to manage time well, stop procrastinating, or succeed on the next test.

How do we help students build these skills and strategies? Here are a few useful resources I’ve relied on to help me teach students about metacognitive, self-regulated learning, and critical, interrelated social-emotional strategies:

Teach Yourself How to Learn: Strategies You Can Use to Ace Any Course at Any Level by Saundra Y. McGuire with Stephanie McGuire and Mark McDaniel (2018)

and its companion:

Teach Students How to Learn: Strategies You Can Incorporate Into Any Course to Improve Student Metacognition, Study Skills, and Motivation by Saundra Y. McGuire with Stephanie McGuire and Thomas A. Angelo (2015)

While Saundra McGuire doesn’t explicitly teach about self-regulated learning in these books, she does discuss several metacognitive strategies that have helped motivate my students toward greater academic success and that help facilitate efficient, effective, deep learning. The study cycle strategy is invaluable, with five key steps that promote metacognition and self-regulation: preview, attend, review, study, and assess. I have both read Teach Yourself How to Learn with students and discussed the companion text for educators with colleagues. Students routinely thank me for teaching them about the study cycle which helps them self-regulate their learning and studying. If only I had learned about this strategy when I was in high school!

The Skills that Matter: Teaching Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Competencies in Any Classroom by Patricia M. Noonan and Amy S. Gaumer Erickson (2017)

In their book, Patricia Noonan and Amy Erickson present six key social-emotional skills needed for school and career success, including self-regulation, goal-setting, self-efficacy, assertiveness, conflict management, and networking. I’ve routinely used these key skills in my teaching, working with students to name key connected strategies. I’ve also regularly accessed Noonan and Erickson’s website, www.cccframework.org, for an especially useful College and Career Competency Wheel and other related resources. The wheel names several interrelated interpersonal and intrapersonal skills that are great jumping-off points for conversation with students and colleagues and ones I explicitly teach students in my learning specialist sessions.

Uncommon Sense Teaching: Practical Insights in Brain Science to Help Students Learn by Barbara Oakley, Beth Rogowski, & Terrence Sejnowski (2021)

Barbara Oakley’s Uncommon Sense Teaching has helped me teach students about the neuroscience behind how they learn and to have related discussions with their teachers about inclusive teaching and supporting motivated, lifelong learners. In addition to the book, the Uncommon Sense Teaching co-authors have created a free multimedia Coursera course that is self-paced and fun!

Wanna dive into more conversation together about supporting self-regulated learners? Be in touch and/or join the workshop I’m co-facilitating with Kerrie Husband-McGregor on February 25, 2025, 7-8 p.m. ET: “Helping Students Design their Path to Academic Success,” designed for learning specialists working with students in middle school through higher education. Kerrie and I will share strategies and resources we’ve used successfully with students and there will also be ample time for participants to share their resources and engage in discussion. Click here to register and I’ll see you soon!

References

McGuire, S. Y., McGuire, S., & Angelo, T. (2015). Teach students how to learn: Strategies you
can incorporate into any course to improve student metacognition, study skills, and
motivation. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

McGuire, S. Y., McGuire, S., & McDaniel, M. (2018). Teach yourself how to learn: Strategies you
can use to ace any course at any level. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Noonan, P. M., & Erickson, A. S. G. (2017). The skills that matter: Teaching interpersonal and
intrapersonal competencies in any classroom. Corwin, a SAGE Company.

Oakley, B. A., Rogowsky, B., & Sejnowski, T. J. (2021). Uncommon sense teaching: Practical
insights in brain science to help students learn. TarcherPerigee, an imprint of Penguin
Random House LLC.

Schraw, G., Crippen, K. J., & Hartley, K. (2006). Promoting self-regulation in science education:
Metacognition as part of a broader perspective on learning. Research in Science Education,
36(1–2), 111–139.

Sold a Story: The Aftermath

Sun, 19 Jan 2025 18:30:40 GMT

Sold a Story: The Aftermath

by Susan Cole Ross

The aftermath of the podcast, Sold a Story has been fascinating, and so has the race to embrace a science of reading at a national level.

I remember how difficult it was to get trained in decoding during my first master's in special education in the late ‘80s and in the course of my second master’s in secondary school reading and language arts, 20 years ago. On the advice of an advisor, I got the training on my own. It informed and enhanced my career for 40 years. In demand now, I have been begged out of retirement to address children’s needs through a pandemic of illiteracy and to support teachers out of fumbling approaches to reading.

Teachers love their foundational training and balanced literacy. I don’t blame them. Indeed reading should be joyful, and I love sharing the concept of the reading zone with reluctant readers. I love creating space for a student to get into a reading and lose track of time and space as if they were watching a movie. But for so many of my students, that does not come naturally. Increasingly, it doesn’t come naturally for up to a third of students in the upper elementary in early middle school grades.

The answer is not to be found in special education, though many parents have defaulted to that route in a system where students have to be identified to receive individualized decoding instruction and have to fail to be identified. But schools are on the right road. Dyslexia screening has helped to put more teeth into multitiered systems of support. Direct instruction in all aspects of reading, including but not restricted to phonemic awareness, is increasingly available to all students. Hallelujah.

Thoughts on College Transitions

Mon, 11 Nov 2024 20:15:37 GMT

Thoughts on College Transitions

By Melissa Rubin, Principal of The Student First

Lately, as seniors and their families “get serious” about applying to college, I have found myself having conversations about how students with learning differences can frequently be better equipped to transition into college than their neurotypical peers. I’m sure you all have had similar discussions. While at first dubious, these students tend to walk away with more self-confidence, knowing they have the skills they need to succeed in college.

Here are the skills I think of - I wonder if you all have others to add to this list:

RESILIENCE AND ADAPTABILITY: Inevitably, our students have had to face and overcome challenges in their academic careers. Oftentimes, the students I end up working with are only diagnosed with a learning disability in middle or even high school. That just shows you how resilient and adaptable these kids have been; they were able to develop compensatory strategies that masked some of their difficulties. As these students begin college, unlike others who haven’t needed to be as resilient, they enter with strong coping mechanisms they can apply when they face challenges in school.

OUTSIDE-OF-THE-BOX THINKING AND PROBLEM-SOLVING: In addition to developing resiliency and adaptability, students with learning disabilities will often think creatively about how to solve a given problem. So, navigating academic struggles can lead to developing novel approaches to different tasks, and new and unique perspectives during discussions and/or projects.

TIME MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION: Given how much extra time and effort many of our students need to put into their work, they have developed systems that help them prioritize and manage their time effectively and efficiently. Other students who have seemingly sailed through middle and high school probably haven’t honed these skills as much. Therefore, provided our students continue applying what they have learned, their ability to balance their coursework, extracurricular activities, and social life in college will be more advanced.

SELF-ADVOCACY AND USING AVAILABLE RESOURCES: By senior year (hopefully), our students know when they need help - and perhaps more importantly, know how to seek out resources for the help they need. Whether this means going to office hours or seeking out tutoring or counseling, they know how to take a proactive approach to their learning. Before deciding on their next school, I encourage students to check out and compare what resources are available to them to see whether one will be more supportive than another, should the need arise.

By embracing their unique journeys, students with learning differences can leverage their experiences to thrive in college and beyond, turning perceived challenges into strengths that enhance their educational experience.

I've Never Been a Mathlete, but I Am Mathletic

Mon, 07 Oct 2024 19:10:54 GMT

I've Never Been a Mathlete, but I Am Mathletic

by April Pendergast, Learning Specialist at Kent School

Recently I've had the great honor of being asked to coach some second-year employees of our school (though they are seasoned professionals in education) through their action-research project, which Kent requires of all second-year faculty members. This research project is one of the things that stands out to me as the most valuable experience Kent can offer its community members: a chance for faculty to embrace and model growth mindset in shared inquiry, to experiment, and to hone their craft, whatever that may be.

One teacher I am working with, who has taught middle school through college, is currently facing some challenging experiences in one of the mathematics classes she teaches. "What I'm seeing," she told me one day over lunch, "is that they get the math right. They just don't understand the question, the goal of the problem, or the vocabulary. It's word problems, and they can't really read them."

This echoes something in Treating Math Anxiety by Dr. Aditya Nagrath (which, as an aside, is one of the most nicely specific books about how to instill growth mindset I've read). He states, "Not knowing how best to communicate their anxieties and misunderstandings, children turn to memorization strategies and processes to attempt to get through the materials" (30). This schematic approach to math is one of those strategies that "works until it doesn't." When kids know what to do and how to do it, but don't know why they are doing it -- what the numbers mean, essentially -- then we are teaching grammar with no language. A teacher can explain the "what" of as many example problems as they want, but if a student doesn't understand the "why," then they will never really be learning what the teacher is seeking.

Worryingly, "Students who do not understand the teacher at the classroom level do not tend to 'catch up'" (Nagrath 30). We can't remediate by "going over the same materials but slower" (31), rehashing the schema of the mathematics problem at hand, when the root of the misunderstanding is the fundamental heuristic of the language of mathematics (see "Solving Algebraic Word Problems Using General Heuristics Instruction" by Bradley Witzel amd Jonté A. Myers). The challenge, then, is for us learning specialists, especially those who, like me, are not extremely math-literate, to flex their fluid reasoning and try to understand why the mathematical processes that their students are working with operate the way they do. That usually means going a step back from wherever the student is right now in their work to the previous unit, and having the student explain why the previous concepts worked the way they did. The more a student can explain the logic of known mathematical concepts, the more they will empower themselves to work through the logic of newer mathematical concepts. In the same way coaching a student in writing requires them to articulate their logic, they must also do so with their mathematics work.

While I, admittedly not a mathlete, cannot correct students where they go wrong in a mathematical explanation, I can, as someone who is mathletic, notice when they falter or are unsure in their explanations and tell them to circle that bit to a) go back to the parts they do understand and see if any analogous logic fits, b) ask their teacher or a trusted other person to explain the schema to them, or c) watch a helpful YouTube video that describes the schema.

One nice analogy Dr. Nagrath mentions in Treating Mathematics Anxiety is to treat learning math just like coaching basketball. The coach never shoots the ball for the player, the player just tries again and again. When the player misses many shots in a row, the coach may step in to correct the technique, and once the technique is corrected, the player is still not expected to make 100% of their future shots. The same is true for mathematics practice -- they will not ace 100% of the problems they face, even when they understand both the heuristic and the schema. Lifting that expectation students have of themselves can go a long way to rebuilding their grit when encountering math problems.

September 2024 President's Letter

Mon, 16 Sep 2024 23:12:24 GMT

Dear NEALS Members and Supporters,

I am finding it hard to believe that September is more than halfway through. I just completed my first full week at school and I am happy to say the feeling I have is optimism. The past few years (for me) have begun in a state of anxiety and stress. I feel like the pressures of the pandemic have finally lifted and I can begin to move my attention to being proactive with learning support and developing best practices with students. What a difference a few years make!

The NEALS Board met in August to begin planning our programming for this year. We are kicking our events off on Wednesday, September 25th with an online discussion of The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt. I encourage members to join us online whether you have read the book or not. I think the discussion will help us all be more mindful of how our students use technology in and out of school.

We are also working on planning regional meetings. A few have been added to our events calendar, but we welcome members to help out by hosting gatherings in your area. Please reach out to info@nealsonline.org if you would like to host a NEALS get-together. Meeting hosts will be reimbursed for supplies and/or refreshments. The time I spend connecting with NEALS members is invaluable to me; I am always stimulated and motivated after I get a chance to “talk shop” at a NEALS event.

I wish you all a joyful Fall!

Regards,

Laura Foody

Acting President

You Don't Know What is Going to Happen Tomorrow...

Tue, 19 Mar 2024 16:12:44 GMT

You Don’t Know What is Going to Happen Tomorrow...

by Chris Ouellette

NEALS' President

Director of Learning Support, Learning Specialist Emma Willard School

Happy Tuesday Folx!

As we commemorate 25 years of our journey, we eagerly anticipate our first in-person NEALS’ conference since 2019, with an unwavering commitment to directing our gaze towards the future!

Our educational landscape is rapidly evolving as our understanding of neuroscience grows, we gain more experience with diverse student populations, and innovative ways to meet the needs of our students continue to emerge. Generative AI continues to grow and shape policy at schools, so much so that we centered last year’s conference around it. The College Board plans for the SAT to be fully digital by the end of this year. How do we plan for our future when it is impossible to predict? Looking at trends can be helpful (rise in teen mental health needs) especially as trends often turn into reality (counseling departments at independent schools are seeing more and more students every day). We can also look at the signals (more students missing class days when tests are scheduled), though they aren’t always the best predictors. As Greg Bamford from Leadership+Design told us, “Trends evoke certainty. Signals raise questions. Trends are often discussed. But signals, as perceived outliers, are often dismissed”.

In order for us to really dive into planning for the future, we have secured a dynamic partner of the Leadership+Design group for our Keynote speaker, Antonio Viva. Antonio will be leading us through a keynote and afternoon activity focused on: “Educators as Experience Designers, Thinking Like Futurists”. The hope is that this work will assist you on your task of finding clarity, not certainty, about the future landscape. Bob Johansen reminds us that “the future will reward clarity, and punish certainty”, while Leadership+Design remind us to "be more curious than certain".

A quick search on Futurist Thinking yields: “Futuristic thinkers have the ability to look past the events of today and into the possibilities of tomorrow. They can visualize compulsory new ideas about customers, products, services, strategies and business models” (The Complete Leader). In the realm of education, it's vital to reframe our approach away from purely business-oriented thinking. Our students and their families are not just customers but integral members of our educational community. Instead of selling products, we provide curricula; our services encompass the expertise of specialists. Our strategic plans serve as blueprints for educational models rather than business strategies. Regardless of where you fit into this educational ecosystem, it's incumbent upon us to guide our communities in envisioning the potential future. By doing so, we ensure that we're offering our young learners the best opportunities for growth and success.

We are truly looking forward to seeing you in person at Emma Willard School on April 19th! Please make sure to register on our NEALS’ website by April 10th so that we can finalize our numbers.

The wise words of Immortal Technique tell us that "You cannot change the past but you can make the future". I am truly honored to make the future alongside each of you!

Cheers,

Chris

NEALS 25th Annual Member Conference

Tue, 13 Feb 2024 14:41:53 GMT

Dear NEALS’ Members and Friends,

It is with great pleasure that we extend our warmest invitation to you for the 25th Annual Conference for the Northeast Association of Learning Specialists. This milestone event promises to be a momentous occasion, marking a quarter-century of collective knowledge sharing, collaboration, and innovation within our esteemed community.

Event Details:

Date: Friday April 19th, 2024

Location: Emma Willard School, 285 Pawling Ave. Troy, NY. 12180

Why Attend?

Our annual conference serves as a platform for learning specialists and practitioners to convene, exchange insights, and explore emerging trends and developments within special education. We have invited keynote speaker Antonio Viva, a partner with Leadership + Design, to help us shift towards becoming experience designers as we think like futurists in order to explore and plan for the rapidly changing educational landscape. We hope that this conference offers you invaluable avenues for professional growth, idea exchange, and fostering meaningful connections.

Informational Links:

Keynote Speaker: Antonio Viva

Schedule Sneak Peak: Schedule

Hotel Information: NEALS has a small block of rooms being held for members at Courtyard by Marriott Albany Troy/Waterfront, 515 River St, Troy, NY. 12180. Book Here

Directions: Directions to Emma Willard School

Registration:

You can register for the experience on the NEALS Website

Join Us:

As we celebrate a quarter-century of excellence and look forward to the future, we invite you to join us at the 25th Annual Conference. Together, let us continue to advance our collective knowledge, inspire innovation, and shape the future of education.

We eagerly anticipate your participation and look forward to welcoming you to Emma Willard School in Troy, NY. for what promises to be an enriching and unforgettable event.

Warm regards,

Chris Ouellette

NEALS’ President

President's Letter January 2024

Sun, 07 Jan 2024 15:23:24 GMT

President's Letter January 2024

by Chris Ouellette

NEALS' President

Director of Learning Support, Learning Specialist Emma Willard School

Happy New Year to our NEALS’ Members and Supporters,

I hope your holiday season brought you what you were looking for as we closed out 2023 and rang in the start of 2024. Last week at Emma Willard, we spent some time choosing three different learning sessions delivered by our peers. Nine of our colleagues produced seven 45-minute workshops covering topics ranging from mental health trends to learning from alumni about life after high school. I was thrilled to see that five of the seven offerings focused on student support!

In December, I shared what I was grateful for during the holiday season. This month, I want to take a moment to reflect on both what NEALS has been able to accomplish and what we hope to bring to you moving forward this year.

Gathering and Connection

The NEALS Board continues to meet monthly, a shift that began during the Covid pandemic. While this initially felt like it might be too much, I found that it has kept us on track quite well. In August, we made the commitment to work hard to get back to a strong offering of gatherings and connections, both virtual and in person. NEALS had a virtual Table Talk in September: "Back to School with NEALS," and another in November: "Managing Difficult Discussions" with special guest Dr. Jaime Greene. In addition to our virtual offerings, there were four in-person regional gatherings in NH, Boston/Metrowest, Capital Region NY/Western MA, and CT/NY/MA. I attended two of these, providing much-needed connection with colleagues in the industry.

Upcoming Gathering and Connection Opportunities

Regional Gatherings being organized for February. We are hopeful that these will be in person, and we are ready if Mother Nature decides we need to move to a virtual setting.
Virtual Gathering in March. This will be a great opportunity to meet together and for members to get a small glimpse into the work being created for our annual conference.
NEALS’ 25th Annual Member Conference. We look forward to seeing you on Friday, April 19th, 2024, at Emma Willard in Troy, NY. Our educational landscape continues to change rapidly, so it is our goal to look at learning specialists and the work we do through the futurist’s lens.
Board Participation. We are searching for new members to work with us on the board. We are a small, yet mighty group, and we are looking for more dynamic educators to join us in the work that we do. Please direct any questions or interest in joining to: Chris Ouellette, chriscgo@gmail.com.

I am wishing you all of the good energy I can muster as you return to your work after an extended break. The work that you do is invaluable, whether you hear it or not. I encourage you to seek out those moments where you can find connection and growth. Above it all, make sure to listen to the words of the group ¡MAYDAY! as they tell us to “make room for new blessings”.

Cheers,

Chris

Savor the Moment Because Time Flies

Sun, 10 Dec 2023 13:19:19 GMT

Savor the Moment Because Time Flies

by Chris Ouellette

NEALS' President

Director of Learning Support, Emma Willard

Hello Folx,

Happy December to you! As we approach the end of another calendar year, I wanted to reach out while taking some time to reflect on what I am grateful for during this holiday season. This year has been full of peaks and valleys for sure. Commitment number two in the 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership centers on curiosity. It asks us to “commit to regarding every interaction as an opportunity to learn” and this has been a driving factor for my own personal growth this year. My gratitude list for 2023 is still growing, and here are three of the items on that list:

Professional Development

I was lucky enough to engage with some phenomenal professional development over this past year. I had the pleasure of attending multiple offerings from NAIS including the Equity Design Lab with Joe Feldman over the summer, as well as an offering from Leadership + Design focused on developing Badass Facilitators. As the educational landscape continues to evolve at a rapid pace, continued learning is the only way to keep up. Seeking out opportunities for professional development does not need to rely on your school having a massive budget, there are plenty of free options out there, from webinars to articles to conversations with the experts within your building. Whatever avenue you pursue, the folx at L+D will encourage you to “go get your learning”.

Students

This one seems like the easiest one for me. No matter the day, my students teach me something new. Oftentimes the lesson they teach has nothing to do with academics, yet always helps me to become a better educator. Our students bring to us hope for the future. They bring us a desire to learn and grow into the people who will shape the world going forward. These students bring a range of emotions that shape the world in which we engage, whether joy, frustration, or sadness. These students are thirsty for knowledge, and hungry for challenge, and frankly, who would we be if we denied them that? I believe that we all know this, and it is always worth saying again; building relationships with our students is vital to helping them reach all of their lofty goals. When we focus on these relationships first and foremost, we set up the spaces where students can simultaneously share their successes as well as lean into the discomfort from the areas where they have felt less than.

NEALS

The NEALS group has been an indispensable source of strength and inspiration for me throughout the challenges of the past year. In the course of 2023, I've had the privilege of not only meeting, but also forging meaningful connections and rekindling old ones with numerous exceptional members. Whether in virtual spaces or in person, the time spent together has been a wellspring of support and camaraderie. This work has also allowed me the honor of stepping into the role of President and it continues to offer me the pleasure of working with an amazing team on the NEALS Board. Each team member brings dynamic experience and insight to the table, strengthening all of our conversations and our offerings. Collaborating with a team of thought partners really does make this volunteer work extraordinary.

As you engage with the reflection that is warranted at year’s end, I hope you are able to find the moments that keep you going in this field of specialized education. As you reflect, remember Tupac's wisdom: always “be grateful for blessings”.

Cheers,

Chris

(I Studied) The Routes I Took

Wed, 01 Nov 2023 13:17:04 GMT

(I Studied) The Routes I Took

by Chris Ouellette

NEALS' President

Director of Learning Support, Emma Willard

Hello Folx,

Happy November to you! I hope that your spooky season went smoothly as you supported our youth! We recently received our mid-term grades for the first term, and it's no surprise that this is the period when an increasing number of students proactively reach out to schedule meetings to discuss and enhance their study habits. Before I embark on sharing my insights with these young individuals, I took the time to seek out inspiring quotes on the subject of studying. Whether the wisdom originated from notable figures such as Malcolm X, Gandhi, Abigail Adams, or KRS-ONE, the underlying message remained consistent: achieving a successful education requires dedicated effort and profound thinking. When considering how to impart my guidance to students, I draw inspiration from the words of Jay-Z who aptly reminds us that "nobody's built like you, you design yourself."

We recognize that every learner is unique, with individualized systems that work best for them. However, it's all too common in the independent school environment to find systems that tend to favor a one-size-fits-all approach. Students are often encouraged to participate in structured study programs, allocate more time for teacher meetings (even when teachers are unavailable), and are advised to put in extra effort to create flashcards or dedicate more time to reviewing their notes. Independent schools frequently impose the same structures on all students who have earned a C- or below during a reporting period. If I cannot deconstruct these review structures in favor of transforming them into personalized conversations, I must redirect my attention towards reforming these one-size-fits-all systems. While we should strive to individualize our approach as much as possible, there are a couple of slight shifts I recommend each student take a look at attempting:

Length of Time

Many students come in to tell me that they are devoting hours and hours of time towards studying for a specific test, and oftentimes they report finding success that doesn’t match those hours of studying. I almost always ask students if they are cramming or spacing. Most of my students end up sharing stories of filling the two to three nights before a big test with multiple hours devoted solely to studying (memorizing). I choose to share with them that they may find better results if they shifted to studying using the spacing technique. Exactly what it sounds like, spacing is centered on multiple smaller study sessions spread out over more days:

(Hendrick and Caviglioli, innerdrive.co.uk)

One of the interesting pieces that I encounter are the student reactions to the idea of only studying for 30 minutes at a time. I ask students to do a quick search which yields results on our ability to maintain focus at anywhere from 10-90 minutes before a break is needed. I then remind them that it is whatever works best to maximize their results, and we move on.

Structure

Students often report receiving instructions to reread their notes or review practice problems if they wish to prepare for the next assessment. However, we understand that these approaches are rather passive when it comes to engaging with information. To significantly enhance retention, it's crucial to adopt a more active approach. Some quick and easy recommendations I provide include trying to summarize each concept from memory, attempting to teach a subject to someone else, or partnering up for quiz-style studying. One of the newer concepts I've discovered and started recommending is the idea of interleaving which involves mixing up your study of concepts within a broader topic. Instead of studying each full concept within a topic in a linear fashion, you intertwine concepts with each other:

(Busch, Watson, Bogatchek, @Inner_Drive).

This approach helps students accomplish three specific things. First, it provides an opportunity for discrimination learning, allowing them to identify differences between similar things. Second, it assists in remembering the similarities between different things. Third, it naturally creates spacing within concepts (Busch, Watson, Bogatchek).

There are numerous changes that students can make to improve their study habits. They don't necessarily have to make major shifts, especially if they are uncomfortable doing so. However, the willingness to adapt their habits is just as crucial as acquiring new tools. If a student can recognize that their current habits aren't yielding success and can also identify which adjustments might be comfortable to try out, then they are well on their way to achieving success.

Cheers,

Chris

More Curious than Certain, Though Still Human

Mon, 02 Oct 2023 13:19:51 GMT

More Curious than Certain, Though Still Human

by Chris Ouellette

Director of Learning Support, Emma Willard

NEALS' President

Hello Folx,

Happy October to you all! I hope that your September was both reinvigorating and fruitful as the students returned to being within your walls! When I was selected to become a Leadership + Design fellow for the 2021-2022 school year I was asked to live the phrase “Be More Curious than Certain”. This phrase was one that I wrestled with at first because I thought, of course there were moments that could have certainty. How could we ignore facts? The phrase really clicked in for me when I realized that being more curious than certain was important when there was a human element involved. I was so excited to go back and try out my new phrase. As you can probably imagine, the first time I led with “I am curious about the choice to…”, I was met with some frustration at my choice of words. My colleagues did not believe that I was actually curious about the choice, and felt as if I was just sugar-coating the fact that I thought they were wrong.

The truth is, my colleagues were right. I learned that once your colleagues feel that you are telling them that they are wrong, it doesn’t matter if you were actually curious. This fact was challenging to wrestle with. Last year, we had Monica Guzmán come to campus to discuss her book I Never Thought of it That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times. Similar to L+D, Monica encourages her readers to lead with curiosity. Many of my colleagues asked questions about how to respond when “it feels like the other person already has an opinion”. Her answer was simple: “Of course the other person has an opinion already, they are human, and that doesn’t mean that they aren’t curious”. While I felt validated by this response, it meant that I also had some significant work to do with my colleagues.

My task was clear: how could I help my colleagues see that I cared about what they had to say, even if my previous actions would indicate that I disagreed? Clear, definitely not simple! My ultimate decision was to dive more deeply into the relationships I was developing with my colleagues. It felt right to show how much I cared, and how much I valued their input (which wasn’t any different than when I first said “I am curious”). I also took a pause from leading with “I am curious about the choice to”. I hadn’t lost my curiosity, in fact, it had grown. I just wanted to make sure that my colleagues felt my care first and foremost.

This year I have been committed to a return to leading with “I am curious about”. It has landed with mixed results, though they have been far more positive. Most recently, I was having a conversation with a colleague about a choice around a student’s strong Covid concerns. Before I could share that I was curious, my colleague felt my disagreement. Though they felt judged initially, after a quick reminder about humans and opinions, we dove into my curiosity around the choice. This allowed us to create a stronger solution together! I am committed to seeing this phrase through. I know that the journey will be bumpy at times, and it helps me to continue remembering the words of the GZA, “live a life full of humility, gratitude, intellectual curiosity, and never stop learning”.

Cheers,

Chris

Back to School with NEALS

Fri, 01 Sep 2023 11:21:04 GMT

Back to School with NEALS

By: Chris Ouellette, President of NEALS and Director of Learning Support at Emma Willard School

Happy September Folx! As I sit here thinking about our upcoming orientations for new faculty and the full school, I can’t help but hope for a shared and worthwhile experience. Priya Parker reminds us in The Art of Gathering that, “the first step in convening people meaningfully” is “committing to a bold, sharp purpose”. That purpose for opening meetings is to engage with the evolution of our communities as new and returning folx merge with the goal of best serving our students. Equally as important as thinking about coming together is the need to remember who you are bringing to your community, your signature presence. I wanted to share three tips that could help you reflect on your role within the start of the year using the Liberatory Design mindsets from the National Equity Project as a framework.

-Practice Self-Awareness: We have to start by looking in the mirror if we want to be an effective partner for our colleagues. We should want to see how “our perspectives impact our practice,” so we need to examine our biases to “increase our capacity to work with humility, curiosity, and courage”. The Leadership + Design sticker on my water bottle, “be more curious than certain”, provides a mantra that can support the start of the year, should we all strive to reach it.

-Share, Don’t Sell: We are often bringing a set of knowledge and skills to the group that many of our colleagues might not have experienced on their journey to the current spot. We work in a world that requires a yes from our teachers. It is tempting to want to try “to convince them of value” with the information that we provide. The work of the learning specialist will only be strengthened through the partnership with teachers. This is also where I struggle the most.

-Build Relational Trust: This one feels obvious, and it is also good to remind ourselves of this. When we “invest in relationships with intention”, we are better able to ensure that students receive the support that they are needing within those grey area moments. During orientation and beyond, make sure to work to “invest in each other” so that you can “develop trust, share openly, and collaborate authentically”.

Doug E. Fresh tells us that “hip-hop is supposed to uplift and create, to educate people on a larger level and to make a change”. We can’t begin to make that change happen within education if we don’t start and attend to the continuous process of building and shaping our communities from the jump.

Cheers,

Chris

President's Update August 2023

Thu, 10 Aug 2023 14:29:51 GMT

Happy August Folx!

It is with great excitement, hope, and humility that I share with you that I have stepped into the role of President of the NEALS organization for the 2023-2024 year! My name is Chris Ouellette, and I have been involved with NEALS for nearly a decade, serving as regional and communications coordinator, vice-president of the board, and most importantly, a member.

I am about to begin my 22nd year working in the field of special education, working in public schools, and in therapeutic, alternative, and girl-centered boarding schools. I have worked in independent schools for the last 12 years and have served as a program director for the last six.

My current position is as the Inaugural Director of Learning Support and as a Learning Specialist at the girl-centered community of the Emma Willard School in Troy, NY.

My NEALS mentors are two wonderful humans who set phenomenal examples for me to learn from. Their hard work sets a high bar, and it would be impossible to detail all their accomplishments in this letter. As I watched Susan Cole Ross lead NEALS up to and through our 20th anniversary and watched Laura Foody lead us through a global pandemic and a shift to virtual programming, my admiration and respect grew. They are indeed education leaders to emulate.

The NEALS board will be holding our annual retreat in August, and we are looking forward to the following:

Getting back to being in person together regularly. One of the best parts about NEALS for me is the connections we can foster with the other humans doing this work. While the virtual world allowed for connection in crisis, it was a meager substitute for the energy generated when we are together in person. Please look for more in person regional meetings to begin populating as the school year begins. These events can be found on the NEALS Events section of our website.
Continuing virtual NEALS’ Table Talks. We saw strong attendance at our virtual offerings this past year, so we are committed to continuing these. Particularly since we know some of our members still can’t connect in person for various reasons.
We have started a relationship with Red Purse Marketing to deliver better communication and content to our membership. This President’s Letter is coming to you in the first newsletter curated by the wonderful team at Red Purse.
Sharing the resources from our annual conference in April 2023, focused on: Harnessing the Power of Evolving Technology with Rachael ‘Shelley’ Haven.
NEALS’ 25th Anniversary! It is quite awesome that this organization has been around for so long bringing Learning Specialists and other special educators together. We are planning on being in person at this year’s annual conference. Please stay tuned for more information to come!

This organization has been a strong place of knowledge, information, and camaraderie for me since I discovered it just under a decade ago. I look forward to continuing and strengthening those things that I believe we do very well.

Rick Ross tells us “How many people you bless is how you measure success”, so I look forward to supporting this group of educators as we grow both individually, and together as a community of learning specialists.

Cheers,
Chris

President's Letter June 2023

Mon, 05 Jun 2023 19:47:55 GMT

Dear NEALS Members and Supporters,

I am sitting at my desk writing my last President’s letter for NEALS. My term is ending this month, and I wanted to thank all of you for helping NEALS stay strong these past three years. It was a challenge to pivot over and over to continue to provide services and support to our members; I am proud to say that we continued to provide excellent programming and networking opportunities while the world processed the COVID pandemic. Working with the NEALS Board helped me stay afloat during the pandemic and I urge all of you to consider taking on a more active role with this wonderful organization.

I am now looking forward to my professional growth and wanted to share some of my summer plans with you.

I am beginning my summer break with a quick sentence writing workshop by Think SRSD. This evidence-based program breaks down the writing process into explicit steps. I am looking forward to better explaining to students how to write high-quality sentences.

This summer, I am working with Horizons at Dedham Country Day School. I will be providing reading support to students from Boston and Dedham Public and Charter Schools. This is a great program. I love to share my joy of learning with students who are not familiar with the independent school experience. I urge you to investigate whether there is a Horizons program near you and find out how you can help support it.

I am also taking an online course created by our own member, Caryl Frankenberger. She has made a wonderful certificate program about how to better address the needs of our diverse learners at independent schools. Here is a little blurb about it:

Understanding Diverse Learning Profiles is a six-modular online course that people can take at their leisure. We cover the most salient learning challenges (dyslexia, ADHD, executive functioning, processing speed/working memory, anxiety, pink flags of autism spectrum) because all schools have students who have some of these issues.

Our other modules address misconceptions we bring to our work about students who have learning challenges; how to read and interpret psychoeducational/neuropsychological evaluations; questions you can ask in the admissions process or in the classroom to get a clearer understanding of the students you interview/teach; classroom strategies for all learners; and then a case study.

I am looking forward to sharing this program with my school colleagues so that we can learn more about how to accept and support all our students and hope you investigate it as well.

And finally, I am taking a summer course through the Harvard Graduate School of Education on Instructional Leadership. This program is helping me learn how I can better mentor, coach, and support my classroom colleagues. I have been very pleased with the coursework I’ve done with Harvard GSE and encourage you to investigate their programs.

Thank you all for being a part of NEALS. I wish you a wonderful summer and I look forward to seeing you at our events during the 2023-24 school year.

Regards,

Laura Foody

The Intentionality of Gathering Together

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 15:18:30 GMT

The Intentionality of Gathering Together

by Chris Ouellette, NEALS VP, Director of Learning Support at Emma Willard

Happy April Folx!

Last night, the NEALS Board finished up our final meeting before the April virtual conference on 4/28. I greatly appreciate the connections that I have been able to form through my work with this small group. Priya Parker tells us in the first line of her book The Art of Gathering that “the way we gather matters” (2018). She goes on to define gathering as “the conscious bringing together of people for a reason” (2018). My thoughts have been focused on coming together and building community for quite some time now. When Covid shut the world down in March of 2020, my partner Jennifer and I hosted all of the members of the Darrow campus bubble regularly throughout the Spring and Summer for outdoor frivolities. We were able to keep morale and spirit up through the conscious effort of building that community bubble. The great privilege in having the ability to do that is not lost on me.

Recently over Spring Break, Jennifer and I spent time in Boulder, CO. working with the Leadership + Design folx as participants in their Badass Facilitator Training. The days spent building community and learning by doing with other school leaders feels like it is already lending itself towards positive momentum forward! One of the most simple phrases that was shared with us from the mouth of Greg Bamford was that “when facilitating, your main task is to show up and be helpful” (2023). This certainly does not mean that you merely fly by the seat of your pants as you go with the flow, “don’t be a chill host” Parker reminds us. It means that you are ready to read the room and shift as needed, leading the group on “their journey, not yours” (L+D, 2023).

I have begun to meet more regularly with some of our younger leaders. I had been having conversations in the fall where my colleagues were sharing similar frustrations to the ones I had been having, and by channeling the “go get your learning” L+D mantra combined with the idea that “leadership is lonely” (Center for Creative Leadership), I have been offering up articles, clips, books, and time so that we can begin to gain a shared understanding around pedagogy and approach, and begin to build our community within a community, just as Dr. Ruha Benjamin told us to do it when we were lucky enough to have her visit our campus back in the fall.

The NEALS world has been mostly virtual for a couple of years now. This year we have decided to utilize a two-pronged approach for our annual conference: A virtual offering on Friday 4/28/23, followed by in-person regional gatherings that have already started to populate on the website. Friday we will have the opportunity to work with Rachael “Shelley” Haven, ATP, RET, BSME, as she leads us on a journey through the world of Generative AI and technology to support our own practices! As we move forward into the month of May, the following gatherings will be happening in person:

-NH/ME/VT will see a regional gathering on 5/10 at 4:30p at SawBelly Brewing in Exeter, NH. Register through the events page on the website.

-CT/Eastern NY will see a regional gathering on 5/12 from 12:30-2:30p at the Kent School in Kent, CT. Register through the events page on the website.

-Northern MA/NH will see a regional gathering on 5/16 from 2:00-4:00p at the Pike School in Andover, MA. Register through the events page on the website.

As we get ready to connect again, I will leave you with another quote from Priya Parker, “Every time people gather, they are being brought into the opportunity to help one another, to do what they couldn’t do, think up, or heal alone” (2018).

I am truly looking forward to the opportunity to do something together!

Cheers,

Chris

*We are looking for passionate humans who will be able to help us expand our board. If you have any interest in joining the NEALS board for 2023-2024, please reach out to Chris Ouellette, couellette@emmawillard.org.

Spring Into Your Reading!

Fri, 31 Mar 2023 17:49:25 GMT

Spring Into Your Reading!

by Chris Ouellette, Director of Learning Support, Emma Willard, NEALS VP

Hello Folx!

Happy final day of March! I hope that the start of your spring season has gone as smoothly as you need. If not, I appreciate your resilience and power!

As I close out this incredibly hectic month (multiple conferences and a hiring process), I thought it would be good to take a moment to pause and think about my own professional development. One of the ways I am able to stay current is through reading. I dive into articles regularly, though, oftentimes I find myself lacking the time to fully engage with books. In an effort to “go get my learning" (Leadership + Design), I find myself in the midst of reading several books that I believe will be useful going forward. Since NEALS has been delivering book talks through the Table Talk Discussions, I wanted to share the list of books I am reading or re-reading currently:

-Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman (2016)

-Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Education by Alex Shevrin Venet (2021)

-Visual Thinking by Temple Grandin (2022)

-How to Walk by Thich Nhat Hanh (2015)

-A School Leader’s Guide to Standards-Based Grading by Tammy Heflebower, Jan K. Hoegh, & Philip B. Warrick (2014)

-The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker (2018)

-Design for Belonging by Susie Wise (Stanford d.school) (2022)

-Neuro Teach by Glenn Whitman and Ian Kelleher (2016)

-15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership by Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, & Kaley Warner Klemp (2015)

Good luck as you dive into April, hoping we see you on the 28th for our virtual conference!

Cheers,

Chris

How to Help Your Child With Homework

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 13:23:01 GMT

How to Help Your Child with Homework

By Sarah Bramble, M.S.

Grades 5 and 6 Learning Specialist

Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart

(Adapted from a letter to parents at Stone Ridge, an all-girls independent school in Bethesda, Maryland.)

Parents often ask how they can best support their children with homework. Should I step back completely? Should I let her be completely independent? Should I ask if she would like assistance? Should I just check in occasionally? As with most questions relating to our children, the answer is: it depends.

From a brain-science perspective, the middle-school years are an opportune time for children to acquire and hone good study skills and homework habits.

Homework is assigned as a natural extension of the educational program, as well as to promote self-discipline, responsibility, and decision-making. Homework is a formative assessment tool, designed to reinforce what has been taught in class, to prepare students for upcoming lessons, and to help students develop good study habits, time management, and organizational skills. It should be completed individually and without parental involvement or oversight, unless otherwise noted.

Ideally and aspirationally, students will have–or move toward–full autonomy in the realm of homework. However, for students who are new to a school or are still developing their time management or organizational skills, a bit of parental guidance may be needed temporarily to help scaffold the sort of executive function toolbox needed for effective homework completion. So, aside from completing homework for children, which sends the message that the child is incapable of doing the work, what might a parent do if he or she sees that their child is struggling either with a specific assignment or with homework completion in general?

First, consider all the pieces our children are beginning to juggle as middle schoolers. Often students have a different teacher for each content area. Their days are full, and many have a full roster of activities after school. We ask our children to plan ahead for assignments, projects, and assessments, more of which are long-term assignments as they progress through the grade levels. They must master these new skills alongside navigating big social, emotional, and physical changes. No wonder it’s challenging!

Also, remember that helping a Grade 5 student is very different from helping a Grade 8 student. Whereas a 10-year-old may enjoy organizing and be fairly conscientious about doing homework, she is still developing the necessary skills to be successful and may need guidance. A 13-year-old, on the other hand, may crave independence and want to decide which school supplies she prefers and where she likes to study. You’ll be in a good position if you spend some time standing on the sidelines and observing. Avoid rushing to help at the first (or second) sign of distress. Our kids are resilient, and most have the means to traverse road bumps on their own when given that space.

If you (and your child) feel that some help is needed, carefully limit your assistance to the organization of time, processes, materials, and space.

Start with modeling. Think out loud as you’re breaking down your own tasks. You might make a list and then think out loud about how you will divide them up and in what order you’ll do so. As your child hears your mental processes, she’ll likely begin applying them to her tasks. Additionally, walk through your approach to multistep tasks. This will demonstrate how to chunk tasks to make them more manageable.

Establish routines. For example, imagine your child is expected to spend between one and two hours (depending on grade level) on homework each night, including weekends. One option is to dedicate a time frame to homework completion and stick to it as much as possible. That might mean she works from 4 to 5 pm, and again from 5:30 to 6:00, with a break in between. Many homework assignments are given over several days, so a set amount of time working toward homework will help a student manage her time. If your child has finished early, she might check to see if she can begin to prepare for upcoming tests or review the work done that day. The only way to develop habits is to practice them. In addition, having a set and quiet place equipped with school supplies and dedicated to homework is ideal. For one family, this place might mean sitting at the dining room table; for another this might mean working in the bedroom.

Know your child. Some students like to have a little snack break right after school before starting their homework. Some students like to start with the easier homework and check it off the list before tackling the more complex homework; others like to start with the more challenging assignments while they’re fresh and save the easier ones for last. Talk to your child about her preferences, and let her know you’re on her team. If her strategy isn’t working, let her know it’s OK (and beneficial) to change it!

Take the first step with your child. If you notice your child chronically procrastinating or avoiding homework, it could be a sign that she doesn't know where to begin. Start with the planner. Take a look at what assignments are due and when, and ask if there are any upcoming tests or projects. Help your child prioritize. Will some tasks take longer than others? Would it be useful to estimate how long each assignment will take? Would it be helpful to make a list of materials needed for each task? You can then look together and decide what to do first and what materials are required in order to begin. If your child seems to be struggling with homework concepts or directives, have her contact her teacher. If she has an exceptionally hectic evening or finds herself not feeling well, find out if she can request a homework extension.

Remember the goal. Ultimately, we want our kids to take the reins in managing their out-of-school work. Some kids acquire these skills quickly, and others require a bit of support. Helping kids hone their learning habits–assuming the child is receptive– is very different from doing the work for a child. As your child learns to organize her time, space, processes, and materials for herself, gradually strip away the scaffolding as she becomes more independent and let her fly on her own. There may be a bit of floundering, and that is OK. Resist the urge to help with content, fix mistakes or edit homework for your daughter; teachers’ ability to see where kids are struggling will inform their instructional decisions.

Keep in touch: If you find that your child is resistant to homework routines or is consistently struggling to finish in a timely manner, reach out to her advisor, teacher, or learning specialist. Work together to figure out the stumbling blocks and to create a productive way to move forward.

Working in partnership we can help our children (as stated in Criterion 1 of Goal V at Stone Ridge): “grow in courage and confidence, discover new abilities, cultivate strengths, learn from making mistakes . . . and exercise resilience in meeting challenges.” Supporting our Middle School students requires us to balance providing guidance with allowing them growth and independence.

Upcoming NEALS Table Talk Discussion: Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman 3/7/23 7:00-8:15p

Led by Chris Ouellette, Vice President of NEALS and Director of Student Support at Emma Willard School

"Many schools are currently/have made changes after reading and engaging with the book Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman. Whether your school has made a major change to grading policies, or it is offering up Professional Learning Groups (like the group I am leading at Emma Willard), or if you are just genuinely curious about all of the hype, this NEALS Table Talk Discussion is for you! Even though the majority of us do not assign grades, as Learning Specialists we regularly see the direct impact that grading policies can have on our students. It will be important for us to use our lenses to help support any of our institutions who are thinking about diving into and adopting policies presented by Feldman".

***This session will be recorded

Teaching in Tanzania

Wed, 14 Dec 2022 14:18:27 GMT

Teaching at SEGA in Tanzania

by: Susan Cole Ross (former President NEALS)

Five days in, teaching is the easy part. I have three 13-year-old girls with extremely limited language in English. Their Swahili is beautiful and so is their handwriting. Two of them are excellent artists, drawing intricate calligraphy, swirls, blossoms, and paisleys. We use an ESL curriculum that layers vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure, and social-emotional adjustment to their new school. Away from home for the first time, the girls introduce themselves to each other in English, tell about their family members, learn to sing and play “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” and “If You’re Happy and You Know It” while learning body parts, theirs and butterflies’.

More girls giggle through yoga, my afternoon activity, and several are particularly drawn to it, perhaps experienced. They’re excited to learn, hungry for books, and devoted to classroom time. Their devotion is quickly directed toward their teachers, and I am touched and honored. It’s daunting knowing I will have to say goodbye next Friday. It may take them by surprise. We have no shared vocabulary to explain the passage of time, the extreme distance. It’s not easy to get here, but I know I will want to return.

I meet with the new English teacher: young, kind, and unwittingly debonair. He seems new to teaching but eager to learn as he shadows me in many of my classes. I pull out the Lindamood Bell materials I have brought halfway across the world for him, and he is expressively grateful as it’s hard to come by such resources. I show him pertinent pages in “Solving Language Difficulties” and encourage him to use it with the students who pronounce the silent e, mistake l for r, or don’t understand the syllables that make up English words.

A dozen guard dogs and Maasai warriors keep watch over us and the girls by night. We are safe from snakes and thieves in the middle of this beautiful but barren countryside. When the rains come, I am told, life will return to the gardens. I plan a lesson on composting, a critical skill the girls can take home to their villages.

Each day we rise by seven for a delicious breakfast: always including avocado toast with honey and scrambled eggs with onions, peppers, and carrots. We collect our girls at a central location and take them, in our case, to the Banda, an outdoor meeting place. They read and write English flashing bright eyes and warm smiles, but they’re reluctant to speak much English. After classes, they rattle Swahili to one another with lyrical fluency.

Our curriculum is based on the Total Physical Response Approach to English language learning. We start with introducing oneself, first reading in unison, and then conversing in pairs with only keywords as reminders. Daily lessons progress to cover family members, clothing, colors, numbers, plurals, nouns and verbs, body parts, and activities using the present progressive. We enjoy a book about African animals following our safari to the Mikumi National Park in the Tanzanian savanna. Many of the girls have never seen Tanzania’s famous zebra, lions, and elephants. During breaks they sing “Make New Friends,” dance the Macarena and the Hokey Pokey for body parts, play “Madame Suz Says,” and “Pick, Pick, Pick Bananas” (for verbs).

We end with studying and making coffee filter butterflies which the girls use to adorn their hair, shirts, and wrists. They create a musical performance for the rest of the girls based on friendship because they have named themselves, aptly, The Friends.

And now I reread their favorite book as I eagerly await the letters their teachers tell me they have sent 7466 miles to my home.

SEGA Reflections

Tue, 22 Nov 2022 15:01:33 GMT

SEGA Reflections

by: Susan Cole Ross (former President NEALS)

Three of us head out from Logan after checking 300 pounds of donations to the girls at SEGA Girls’ Secondary School**, including 42 scientific calculators sent by my friends. We meet two others in Amsterdam for lattes and chocolate croissants, which I expect will be our last for the coming 3 weeks.

During our 10 1/2 hour flight from Europe to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, I review the basic level ELL curriculum I will use to teach SEGA’s incoming students. Their English fluency is limited, an obstacle to higher learning. The curriculum seems a good jumping off spot, but I most look forward to taking the girls out into the sustainable gardens and obsessing, as I do, about plants, compost, and food while pointing, pointing, pointing. Or that is my hope…

Hope. Enroute I read Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams’ Book of Hope: A survival guide for trying times. Goodall’s gentle but stalwart commitment to the people, the places, and the animals of Tanzania inspire me. When she speaks of hope in her original, increasingly desperate search for chimpanzees, she says, “of course there was a nagging worry - did I have time? I suppose it’s a bit like climate change. We know we can slow it down - we’re just concerned as to whether we have sufficient time to effectively turn things around.” I share her hope and her concern. I hope that I can make a difference, and I query, “will I have time in just 9 teaching days?”

Waking from a five hour bus jostle from Dar es Salaam, SEGA finally looms ahead on the dusty road. For the girls’ protection, we do not share the address. The girls come from villages where early pregnancy and marriage are common, and young women work relentlessly to access water and food, to create meals and clean homes, and to care for children at an age when, by US standards, they are children themselves. There is little time for school, often a one to three hour walk away, where the inconsistent attendance of teachers sometimes makes the walk futile. The futility of education is reflected in girls 33% attendance in secondary school in the country, lower still out in the bush.

After a day of training we strive to embrace cultural humility and recognize that these girls know things we will never know, and most already speak at least two languages other than English: their native language and Swahili. Surely they are learners and likely they will be our teachers as well. We wonder how.

A bit of a curveball, we learn that due to changes in the national testing protocols, the new girls will be just arriving, directly from their villages, to work with us starting Sunday. Sega’s teachers will have no time to meet with them, to assess their English skills, to evaluate their emotional needs, etc. Young women often bring stories and burdens to set aside when they come to school. So our English Fluency Program leader hops into action creating a game for us to share with the girls, an opportunity to practice the language and to get to know one another. She creates a spreadsheet for us to use during the activity, to measure our new students’ English fluency levels as we go along. Anticipating an exercise of our students’ resilience, I find this is an exercise in our resilience as teachers, as well.

But all that will wait until tomorrow. First, on Saturday, we attend SEGA‘s graduation day. It is a grand celebration of SEGA’s 14th year and 10th graduation, of the girls’ dedication to their studies and to each other, of each of their villages, of heritage, of nationalism, and of joy. Families, in traditional dress, collect around their young graduates. The Maasai, in particular, stand so tall, proud, and intimidating, but I overcome my reluctance, step right up, and greet them, “Jambo!” Men in their warrior garb, holding their long sticks, turn and smile, “kwiheri!”

(To be continued.)

** "Nurturing Minds (NM) is a US-based 501(c)(3) non-profit whose mission is to support quality education, life skills, and entrepreneurship to help girls in Tanzania become leaders in their communities. Nurturing Minds achieves its mission through its partnership with SEGA (Secondary Education for Girls’ Advancement) for the development and operation of a quality secondary boarding school, a continuing education scholarship program, and a community outreach program that brings elements of SEGA’s Life Skills program to girls in rural communities throughout Tanzania. For more information: www.nurturingmindsinafrica.org."

Learning Specialists: Extending Our Reach

Fri, 16 Sep 2022 12:19:56 GMT

By Chris Ouellette

NEALS VP, Director of Learning Support, Emma Willard

Hello Folx! The year is rocking and rolling already! Joining a new community has really been a refreshing experience in terms of my own energy and output! I wanted to take some time to share about an experience I have already had this year where I was able to stretch my reach beyond typical expectations.

As the year began, I was approached by the Head of School in order to tap into my knowledge base of learning strategies in support of a specific administrative team. The team had just rolled out a new protocol to use in some meetings when one of the team members expressed concern about the protocol supporting their own learning needs. This is when I was asked to review the protocol, share my thoughts, and offer up some alternatives to think about. I brought my input to a meeting at the beginning of the week. Here are my thoughts on the overall experience:

This was the first time that I have been asked to support adults outside of delivering professional development (whether group or 1-1). Not only was this an honor, it was a great example of the reach that Learning Specialists can have if they are valued within their school communities.
As I began to review the protocol, and started to find some legitimate frustration points, I was worried about the impact of coming into the meeting and sharing with the Head of School that their protocol should probably shift to something different. I channeled my inner Brené Brown, focused on the mantra “clear is kind”, and mustered up my courage to deliver the message. What a well-received conversation this was!
We work within such an imperfect science that things often feel a bit messy! The level of vulnerability needed to engage in this intricate world is palpable. The nature of our work, no matter how gently we deliver it to our colleagues, can often sound like “YOU’RE BAD AT TEACHING”. This naturally brings out insecurities in teachers (even if that isn’t even close to the delivered message). This moment was a chance for me to be vulnerable and courageous, and was an opportunity to model to my colleagues the ways in which I believe we should all interact.

My challenge to you: find the spot where you need to have a courageous conversation, channel your inner “clear is kind”, and deliver that message both vulnerably and with pride! Even if it is less than successful, it is great practice going forward! Nas tells us that “if you’re afraid to take chances, you’ll never have the answers”, and I tend to agree!

Cheers,

Chris

Reflections on Summer Professional Development by: Melissa Rubin

Mon, 05 Sep 2022 13:14:49 GMT

By Melissa Rubin

NEALS Board Secretary, Principal at The Student First

The summer, traditionally, has been a time to take a deep breath after an intense school year. I can imagine you all can relate. This summer was no different for me - I needed this time to rejuvenate. At the same time, knowing that I did not have as many commitments to students, I saw this as an opportunity to seek out some professional development. I found an on-line, 10 week course offered by UC-Santa Cruz that piqued my interest, Assistive Technology (AT) for Learning Differences. I have to tell you all, taking this course was the best decision I could have possibly made. Shelly Haven, the professor of the course, was not only knowledgeable, but organized, responsive and insightful. The mind-blown emoji ( ) would be an understatement in the best possible way. Shelley not only introduced me to countless new apps, but more importantly, she shifted my mindset and offered a protocol I plan to follow from now on when considering AT options for my students.

I thought I’d share some of my takeaways here, if nothing more than to whet your appetite for what April Pendergast (learning specialist @ Kent, and fellow student in the course) and I will be sharing in October at NEALS’ Table Talk Discussion:

A picture is still worth a 1000 words. The image used to explain the difference between equality and equity can be applied to how to view AT for students with learning differences. AT can help the learning process be more equitable. (https://interactioninstitute.org/illustrating-equality-vs-equity/)
I have been asking the wrong question! Or at least skipping over some really important questions before asking about the “best app” for given students. First, I should be focusing on parceling out the student’s specific need and then how it should be addressed before even thinking about what app to use. Let the student’s needs dictate the most appropriate tech for the situation.
Just giving a student access to AT doesn’t mean that the problem is solved. Careful consideration needs to be given to ensuring that the student understands how to use the tech and assessing the effectiveness of the tech. Furthermore, just because the AT helps for a given task now doesn’t mean it will be the best tool to use in the future - frequent re-evaluation (maybe every term, for instance) is crucial.
Finally, taking this course was a great reminder of what it feels like to be a student. I have to admit it was stressful, not because of the amount or level of difficulty of the work assigned but simply because I knew I was going to be evaluated on my performance in a numerical way (i.e., a grade) for the first time in 25 years. It didn’t matter that the grade would have no bearing on any of my work - I put pressure on myself to get that ‘A’. This experience reminded me of what my students must feel on the daily, and even more so as they are juggling a number of courses at a time. Therefore, as I enter the school year, I come with more empathy for my students.

Ultimately, I came away from the course achieving my initial goal of having more tools to help my students be more effective and efficient. More importantly though, Shelley Haven has truly revolutionized the way I consider the AT selection, implementation, and evaluation process, including the way I use my own computer. All this being said, I look forward to sharing more specifics on Wednesday, October 5th.

4 Things to Do When Starting Anew (School)

Tue, 16 Aug 2022 12:45:09 GMT

By: Chris Ouellette

NEALS VP, Director of Learning Support, Emma Willard

Hello folx! Happy August to you all! As I dive into learning profiles to begin my third week here at Emma Willard, I find myself reflecting on what I can control in order to support my shift to a new school for the 2022-2023 academic year. I have found list formats to be helpful, so here are four things to do when starting at a new school:

1. Know your team

As you begin your time, it is in your best interest to introduce yourself early to the team of people you will be working with. This team should include more than your direct supervisor and/or direct reports. What departments will you be connecting with regularly? What departments will you be connecting with on a less than regular basis? If it isn’t clear, ask. If you were wondering, my list is currently at: Academic Office, Dean’s Office, Business Office, College Counseling Office, Academic Tech Office, English Department, Math Department…

2. Know your students

We know that getting to know your students is the best way to positively impact the strength and outcomes of our sessions. While you read evaluations, previous academic comments, and input from various constituents, it is important to remember that this is only a piece of the picture. Taking the time to develop a relationship with your students is how we help make the best informed decisions with regard to support (I know we all do this, and it is also a good reminder even if we aren’t at a new institution).

3. Know what you know, and don’t be afraid to ask

Be confident in the knowledge you are bringing to your new community. You were hired for a reason, know that what you bring is desired there. That being said, each school has a different set of routines, habits, language, etc. You should bring your entire bag of tools, and it will help to spend some time thinking about how those tools fit into your new community. If you are curious about why something is done, ask! While we are getting to know our new communities, they are getting to know us. We come with the advantage of having fresh eyes on the systems that the schools have in place, so I encourage you to question the ‘why’.

4. Use your previous experience, don’t get stuck in it

It doesn’t matter if your previous job was the best experience or the worst, you definitely learned something. Give yourself time to reflect on what you learned, make a list if you have to. What was that new tool you learned about that was super helpful to your students? Did you find a new way to build relationships that strengthened your student sessions? Did you have specific interactions with colleagues that led you to do something differently as you enter your new community? Did your supervisor act in a way that left you wondering? The things you learned shape who you bring to your new community, and even if all you learned was how not to lead in the future, that’s still a pretty powerful learning outcome.

This list is a solid starting line, and there is so much more you will need to do to acclimate to your new community. The group Atmosphere tells us that “inspiration stems from love and stress compounding," and that seems to be a great way to describe the way I am feeling as I look to inspire a new community!

Upcoming Events:

-Wednesday 9/7/22 Book Discussion- “Think Again” by Adam Grant

led by Chris Ouellette.

Blurb: “Intelligence is usually seen as the ability to think and learn, but in a rapidly changing world, there's another set of cognitive skills that might matter more: the ability to rethink and unlearn. In our daily lives, too many of us favor the comfort of conviction over the discomfort of doubt.” -Adam Grant

Best of luck as you begin your 2022-2023 academic years!

Cheers,

Chris

President's Letter April 2022

Sun, 03 Apr 2022 23:28:56 GMT

Dear NEALS Members and Supporters,

It seemed like winter would never end, and yet April and spring have arrived!

I wanted to take this opportunity to invite you to our Annual Member Conference which is being held online Thursday, April 7th, and Friday, April 8th. Planning for this year has been challenging (due to the ebb and flow of COVID), but I am so very pleased to invite you all to events that will enhance your practice, invigorate your mind, and renew your joy in working with students and colleagues.

I am so excited to have Dr. Chris Thurber present on two amazing topics:

Successful Advocacy:

Easy Ways to Make Difficult Conversations Highly Effective

Advocating for young people should be easy for Learning Specialists, right? You’re the invited expert, everyone wants what’s best for the child, and you’re sharing practical solutions. Yet advocacy can be surprisingly challenging for a host of reasons. Stakeholders—including Learning Specialists—may not agree on what’s possible. To bolster your efforts, this engaging workshop will introduce three specific tools to your advocacy toolbox: Radical Empathy, Appreciative Inquiry, and Motivational Interviewing. With practice, each will become a powerful asset in every future difficult conversation.

Equanimity Essentials:

Five Keys to Professional and Personal Thriving

Self-care is the sine qua non of caring for others. Yet home and work responsibilities often eclipse personally restorative practices. This inspiring workshop will review the foundations of self-care before challenging participants to employ five different hacks that transform self-care wishes into self-care realities. For example, you’ll learn how to become one of the 9% of people who actually follow through on their New Year’s resolution. After all, you know how and why to take care of yourself. Now it’s time to embrace durable solutions to the perennial predicament of finding a healthy work-life balance.

A little more about Dr. Thurber:

Dr. Christopher Thurber is an award-winning writer and thought leader who has dedicated his professional life to improving how adults care for kids and to enhancing the experience of

adventurous young people who are spending time away from home. A graduate of Harvard and UCLA, Dr. Thurber has served as a psychologist and instructor at Phillips Exeter Academy since 1999.

An entrepreneur from a young age, Dr. Thurber founded Prep4School.com and Prep4Camp.com to teach young people how to prevent intense homesickness and make joyful, successful transitions to boarding school and summer camp. One of his first Prep4 videos won a Telly Award for best Non-Broadcast Instructional Video.

His best-selling family resource, The Summer Camp Handbook, was recently translated into

Mandarin to help launch the youth camping movement in China. And his most recent book, The Unlikely Art of Parental Pressure, was described by The Atlantic as “a tour de force” and “the rare parenting book that respects both parents and children.”

Schools, camps, and forward-thinking organizations on five continents have invited Dr. Thurber to deliver keynotes, contribute articles, and lead workshops for all audiences. He and his wife, Simonida, are the proud parents of two boys (Danilo, b. 2002, and Sava, b. 2004). You can learn more about Chris and access premium content on DrChrisThurber.com.

I am also excited to incorporate mindfulness into our event. Marie Nagode, my colleague at Dedham Country Day School, will lead us in a mindful meditation break during the lunch break. Marie teaches yoga and mindfulness to youth and adults beautifully. I always feel better after spending time with Marie. I welcome you to learn how wonderful Marie is! Marie will be presenting at AISNE’s Health and Wellness Conference in May, and we are so lucky to have her work with NEALS.

There are also opportunities to network and relax. We will even be raffling off books (thank you Dr. Thurber and Susan Cole Ross for the books)! I hope you can join us for all or part of our conference.

I am proud that NEALS has been able to deliver such high-quality programming to its members over the past two years. If you are not a member, I welcome you to join us. NEALS welcomes learning specialists, special educators, and other allied professionals. Whether in person or online, NEALS continues to live up to its mission:

Promoting professional development for learning specialists

Creating community through collaboration, support, and advocacy

I hope to see you online Thursday evening and Friday!

Regards,

Laura Foody

NEALS President

Unconditional Positive Regard in High School

Fri, 21 Jan 2022 12:30:08 GMT

By: Chris Ouellette

NEALS VP, Director of Academic Skills Center Miss Hall's

When I was growing up, I knew that my family was special. It wasn’t that we were perfect, far from it actually. My mother and I would fight incessantly, usually over the same thing, and it wore down our more sensible parts. No matter the fight, no matter how much we were hurting, there was always love. Nothing could make you forget it, nothing that happened ever moved that dial even slightly. This is the typical memory sparked when I share with my colleagues about unconditional positive regard, and it always leads to strong discussions.

I really enjoy discussions looking at unconditional love, best for family, versus unconditional positive regard, best for human interaction in general. Occasionally I have a counselor friend talk about unconditional positive regard in psychology, put forth by Carl Rogers within his client-centered therapy model. That model, found under the larger umbrella of humanistic psychology, has driven my educational work for years. It makes total sense to me, you put the whole person first instead of focusing solely on the dysfunction. Using the psychology lens, the therapist would accept and support their client regardless of the client’s actions. Using the teaching lens, the teacher would accept and support their student regardless of the student’s actions.

Over the last 20 years of my career in education, I have regularly had colleagues come up to me and ask me how I do it. Sometimes this is after seeing me working through a really difficult time with a student, and other times it is when they are having a challenging time with a student who I happen to work well with. After we talk about the situation, I usually ask how they are feeling about the student’s actions. When frustration or disappointment is expressed, my next question is almost always “did you show that to your student?”. If the answer is yes, my next follow-up question is “Why?”.

It isn’t that I don’t believe that a student needs to know when they have made a less-than-stellar choice, they absolutely need to hear that feedback to grow from their mistakes. To me it is about setting the tone of the student-to-teacher relationship. If I show frustration or disappointment to a student because of their actions, I am signaling to that student that they need to meet certain parameters to continue the benefits of our relationship. Even if I know a student is lying directly to me, I choose not to call the student out at that moment. Instead, my choice is to wonder why the student felt the need to lie, and then to approach it later when the student may be less wound up. Oftentimes that student is lying to you because of a stressor, so choosing to call out the lie in the moment will almost certainly trigger the fight or flight response. Waiting even a day allows for the student to be more open to learning from the mistake.

While unconditional positive regard truly enhances my relationships with students, it can have unintended consequences with colleagues. With me, unconditional positive regard has led to a “this too shall pass” mantra. That mantra can make it seem like you are not taking a colleague’s concern seriously enough, because you are too “chill”. It is important to mitigate that potential challenge so that you are supporting your colleagues as well as the students.

Having this conversation earlier in the year with another teacher, my colleague referred to me as a “gelatinous love machine, always chill and things will be ok”. I laughed at first, but definitely reflected on the comment for a couple of days. In the end, while I don’t believe I will adopt the moniker of “GLM”, I do know that I will continue signaling to the students that I regard them unconditionally.

I will leave you today with the wise words of the group Common Market, "Cause to me, "MC" means mentor the child"

Cheers,

Chris

Deja Vu All Over Again

Fri, 17 Dec 2021 15:38:26 GMT

By Laura Foody, NEALS President

I am having a moment of Deja Vu. Last winter, I was hunkered down for the holiday break with my immediate family. We did not travel because we wanted to stay safe and did not want to risk the health of our loved ones. Then vaccines came, and the infection rates went down, and the weather warmed up, and things looked good in June. Ah, those were the good old days….

Now we face the Delta and Omicron variants, and infection rates are rising once again. We will see some extended family this holiday season, but we are trying to keep things low-key so that all can be healthy and safe. Winter is looking unsure once again.

The members of the Board at NEALS are aware that burnout rates of faculty and staff at schools are on the rise. We are working diligently to figure out how to best support our members so that NEALS events can be refreshing, stimulating, and safe. We also want to make sure the physical and mental health of our members and colleagues are bolstered rather than knocked down during these unsure times.

Due to the uncertainty of rising infection rates and viral variants, the NEALS Board has decided that the annual conference will once again be held online. As much as we want to be in person and see our beloved members, we want to make sure that all are healthy and safe. So, we will meet online in April for our conference day. We will be communicating ideas about how to get the most out of our online conference (have a viewing party at school or offsite?) so that we can once again use this event as an opportunity to refresh ourselves and move into a spring that we hope will have decreased infection and hospitalization rates.

Be on the lookout for event announcements for 2022. We will be hosting online talks about accommodations in January and February. And, we are working on bringing an online conference in April that will help us safely connect with one another. Please reach out to info@nealsonlone.com if you have any suggestions and/or ideas for conference speakers and topics. And feel free to reach out if you would like to help plan this event. We want to hear from you!

I wish you all a well-deserved school break and a happy and healthy New Year.

Regards,

Laura

Mind the Gap

Fri, 12 Nov 2021 15:00:06 GMT

By April Pendergast, Learning Specialist at Kent School

Last year, the COVID messaging from all powers that be seemed to uniformly pump the brakes. “Be gentle on them.” “We are all struggling, go easy.” These phrases appeared ubiquitous in our private-school landscape of “rigor” and “challenge.” We dealt with rolling closures and quarantines, hyflex half-Zoom technological mayhem, and general mass hysteria. No one, to a person, in public or private schools, admin, faculty, or staff, felt like they were doing anything remotely close to the job they signed up for, and none of us felt good at what had for years become a profession that brought us joy and meaning.

Still, it was comforting to have something to do day after day. We had a reason to shower and dress (at least from the waist-up), students and a subject to dance around however remotely, and something to listen to other than hospital overflows and supply chain woes. In a way, I loved having more time with my family, even if it meant juggling four Zooms at once all while fixing lunch. I also loved the challenge of learning something new, knowing that the more tools I had in my toolbelt the better an educator I would be, regardless of where (or when) we came out of this. I wasn’t certain we would ever go “back to normal” or anything that looked like the profession I’d grown to love.

I had underestimated, therefore, how thrilling it would be to step back in the classroom this fall able to do some of the hands-on learning I used to implement as a rule. We could do think-pair-shares! We could do flexible grouping! We could work together on posters! We could lend each other pencils and not stare at a screen the whole block! What joy!

At the end of the second week back, as tentative and nervous questions from colleagues floated in, I was reminded of something I’d warned my fellow teachers-in-arms the week before we welcomed students back to campus: “The messaging this year is ‘back to normal,’ but these kids are going to be coming to us from a wider array of backgrounds than ever before. I get the feeling this year is going to be much harder than we anticipate.”

Sure enough, in my first classes, I asked how many students had spent most of the past year either fully or partly remote, and 75% of the students raised their hands. In the first weeks, advisors let me know of students who took their classes remotely while taking care of their younger siblings as their parents worked. Others hadn’t seen their family in a full year and a half for fear of getting stranded in their home country and not being able to make it back to the States. If meeting the needs of a diverse student body has always been a challenge, the coming year was bound to stretch us even further.

But again, my Pollyanna outlook on this challenge got a little excited. Maybe this is it, this is the time. This is the moment of opportunity for real change, where we as Learning Specialists might be less an addendum to the curriculum and more embedded in an effective and meaningful rigorous academic experience. Maybe we can help bridge the gap between what students carry into the classroom in their metaphorical backpacks (a family with substance abuse issues, crushing anxiety, or an undiagnosed slight auditory processing disorder) and the high standards we know they can achieve. I’ve spent the past few years making inroads into personal relationships with individuals on the faculty as a supportive friend; my job, when it gets down to it, is not only to provide strategies and supports to help students navigate the curricular challenges put before them, but also to help faculty and students understand each other so that each can avoid causing the other frustration.

I am extremely lucky to be surrounded by admin, faculty, and staff who are all inner Keatings; they all embody true citizenship and care for their fellows and students. They are all also doing amazing things in the classroom that, in the hustle and grind of our busy schedules, can too often go unsung. I’m making it my mission this year to help faculty celebrate each other and remind each other we are a community of educators, all learning from one another and pushing toward the common good. I’ll bang the drum. Here’s the oar. Let’s row!

Assessment: 4 Challenges for Your Year!

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 15:17:13 GMT

Happy September to you! Each year I find myself surprised at how fast we get to this point in the summer. Every educator I spoke with was looking forward to a mega-recharge this summer as most of us had been going steadily since March 2020 (summer 2020 found the need for intense Covid planning). I am hoping that your recharge process happened, and your energy is re-focusing towards your students!

I wanted to start by giving a shout-out to Dave Conley and Dr. Chris Thurber for their Summer Seminar Series workshop with the Status Café on 8/18!

“In the well crafted 90 minute workshop that David and Christopher presented, I came away having participated in a dynamic conversation and had activities to use in my classroom that provide examples and active engagement. Thank you NEALS for inviting educators into this experience and for continuing to create opportunities for us to grow as humans and educators!”

~Jennifer Pytleski, Performing Arts Chair and Theatre Director at Darrow School in New Lebanon, NY.

We are diving back into a year with an inkling of a more typical school year in terms of schedule. While it is important to continue with pandemic support, other items on school agendas will start to come back into focus. Two of the items on Miss Hall’s agenda are looking at the way we use meetings, and more importantly, really examining our assessment policies. In the 2008 Edutopia article titled Why is Assessment Important?, they connect the questions of “Are we teaching what we think we’re teaching” and “Are students learning what they are supposed to be learning”. While this article and interview are a worthwhile read, I can’t help but get stuck on the phrase “supposed to be learning”. Joe Feldman, author of 2018’s Grading for Equity (which I highly recommend checking out), encourages us to rethink our “inherited” grading strategies which he has found “perpetuate disparities that have been going on for years by race, income, education, background, language” (Harvard EdCast, 2019).

It would be difficult to say that assessment is not valuable. Assessment allows us to see what students know, allows us to help prescribe for the students’ futures, and allows us to get a sense of whether we are teaching effectively or not. Assessment will not be going away during my lifetime, nor should it. The more important questions that we need to wrestle with are “Why do we assess?” and “How do we assess?” our students. The most poignant question I have given my colleagues to navigate is “should you give a student a summative assessment when you know that the student isn’t ready?”. The most common reason when someone answers yes, is that my colleague has mapped out their curriculum, and that when they get to the end of the lesson, the students need to take an assessment to demonstrate (read: prove) what they have learned. My response is invariably some iteration of “that seems to indicate that you feel all students learn at the same pace”. No educator has ever responded to that question with “of course all students learn at the same pace!”. All of this leads into my hopes for my colleagues, both near and far. Here are my challenges for your assessment strategies this year.

1.Use Formative Assessments

This is the bread and butter of how an educator knows where their students are at. Frequent, low-stakes, and informal assessments are the best way to get a sense of your students’ knowledge. Entry and exit slips give you a real time sense of where they are at. Check the oil using a dipstick, try having the student write a letter to a friend about a concept. Try having informal interviews with your students, casual conversations can help identify any misconceptions that they may have.

2. Do it Differently

Please allow students to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding using different mediums. If you like to give traditional tests on paper, try to think about a student giving their answers orally or having them write their answers on the board. If a student needs to write an essay, couldn’t they also deliver that work in presentation format? Try changing the setting in which you give your students an assessment, can you go outside or to a different part of the building?

3. Post-test Conferences

Try to have a post-test conference with a student if you are unsure of an answer that they have given. The first thought tends to be: grade the question as is, giving partial credit for an answer. I would actually encourage you to meet with the student before the grade is assigned so that the student can clear up any confusion in their answer.

4. Allow for Retakes

I really encourage you to allow for retakes of an assessment whenever it is possible. Using the growth mindset “not yet” allows us to support students arriving at the material at their own pace. I can’t honestly remember the last time I missed the mark on something for my boss where they didn’t ask me to redo it, so why can’t we view our students in the same light?

Boom! There are four challenges that I believe will help us get closer to getting this thing called assessment correct! Where do you see the most opportunity in these challenges? How many can you act on?

Thanks for listening,

Cheers,

Chris

We Survived! Now What?!

Sat, 19 Jun 2021 16:10:11 GMT

By Melissa Rubin, Principal at The Student First

Normally, at around this time each year, I get excited about potential professional development opportunities - and I enjoy sharing them with you all. I love taking advantage of the “downtime” that summer provides to further develop my skills so that I can find new ways to better support my students. Usually I jump at the chance to do webinars, or even week-long conferences, especially if the setting is nice (like the Cape or VT). The key word here though is “usually”. And we can all agree that this year has been anything but.

The month of May is always a big push - the students are tired, we’re tired and there is a lot of work to get done before the end of the school year. But this May? Good gosh! All I kept saying was “the struggle is REAL”. And it was!!!

So, as I think about how I want to spend the next couple of months, the idea of PD is not at the forefront of my mind. I feel conflicted though because I don’t want to lose out on this opportunity of time to learn. As a compromise, here is how I am going to approach the next few weeks…

First and foremost, it’s time for some self-care. A social worker once shared a great philosophy that I need to internalize more - “self-care is not selfish”. I need to allow myself to recover and replenish my own energy so that I can be ready to help the kids come September. In keeping with this, I will be participating in NEALS’ Wellness Workshop on June 29th, entitled Self-Care for You.

Finally, I am behind on my YA reading. Usually (there’s that word again), I can get through a few books that my students are assigned during the school year… that definitely did not happen this year. So, why not take advantage of this time to catch up on reading?! I love doing it, I can do it anywhere (especially in the sun!), and it would benefit my students as I could then better help them with reading comprehension, and even analytical writing if I’ve actually read the text. So, I am going to read this summer! A lot! Given that I work with a number of middle and high school students these days - all of them reluctant readers, I’m going to focus on finding appealing titles for them, and making sure they read and understand them.

I started this week, and I’ve already read 3! And it was so much fun! I’ve been behind on my graphic novels so I wanted to address this gap in knowledge first. I was finally able to read Class Act, by Jerry Craft, the sequel to New Kid, and loved it - maybe even more than New Kid. The way Craft addresses microaggressions, colorism, and socio-economic differences in a private middle school setting is truly genius. Everyone - young and old - should read both these books and talk about them. As a side note, one of my AP lang students was asked to compare New Kid to Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me - what an awesome assignment! It’s amazing how two, seemingly disparate books can address the same themes - and talking about which style is most effective, was a great conversation.

I also read Terri Libenson’s first two books, Invisible Emmie and Positively Izzy. Again, I really enjoyed them - in large part because of the quirky and realistic characters Libenson develops. I can imagine a number of my students relating to these characters. Great for middle school girls in particular.

Now I need to transition to rereading The Handmaid’s Tale (a summer reading assignment for a few of my students). I’m curious now that I’ve caught up on the Hulu series whether my perspective/reading of the book will change.

I wonder, what are you planning this summer? Any books high on your priority list to read? Any interest in getting together to talk about books?

I Wish (the 2020-2021 version)

Wed, 31 Mar 2021 16:18:30 GMT

As we near the final stretch of the 2020-2021 school year, I have begun to look back at the notes from my 1-1 sessions with students. I try to write down the questions they pose about education, because oftentimes this anecdotal evidence turns into great data or lends itself well to professional development. I spent some time thinking about the best way to present this information, and I came to the conclusion that a student Wishlist would work perfectly for our institution.

I Wish (for 2020-2021)

”I wish that my teacher knew how hard my other class was”

No matter the size of your student class load, it is important for us to realize that some classes still present more challenging work (content, # of assignments, tough late policies). Before we feel that a student didn’t do anything because they didn’t do our assignment, check in to see what work they may have had for their other course/s.

Potential Discussions: Late policies, extensions without scaffolding, shifts in necessary structure from 9th-12th

”I wish that my teacher would explain concepts further in class”

Flipping the classroom to support both independent discovery and virtual learning is a solid idea. There are also some students who do benefit from an auxiliary teacher explanation, as a video can’t answer their questions completely as they come up. This can lead to extra frustration and confusion in the classroom. If we are presenting a challenging concept with a flipped classroom approach, we should think about also having a small in-class lesson to support those learners who need a little more than the video, while still allowing for students who understand the concept to shine as well.

Potential Discussion: Scaffolding independent learning opportunities

”I wish that my teacher was available when I was doing my homework”

I am just putting this one here because I think it is important to think about. I personally feel that it is unreasonable to ask a teacher to be on from 8:00a-11p. That being said, some of us have students learning virtually in different time zones. If late night is not an option for us, we need to set extra time slots during the day for students to ask questions...Remember: Some students need to set concrete appointments with us instead of just having an open block of time available.

Potential Discussion: Use of time

”I wish my teacher would be clear with what they want”

We have many students who are developing their abstract thinking abilities in order to fully engage with the amazing material we are presenting to them. Many of our students, in particular younger students, often benefit from concrete expectations. If we want students to produce a specific number of items/problems/facts for full credit, we should ask for exactly what we want.

Potential Discussions: Scaffolding shifts from 9th-12th

”I wish my teacher would give us examples of assignments”

At MHS, we made a very clear decision to push our students from the Spring (connection over content) last year to our current school year where content has increased. I imagine that this year has brought so many new and innovative assignments for students. When we provide examples, solid student work should always be our go-to. Is the assignment we are delivering brand new? Excellent! High-five for innovation! This also means that we now need to complete the assignment to provide an example (or find a colleague to help).

With the significantly reduced amount of time students have to get adjusted, providing sample work can be an easy way to counteract that reduced time.

Potential Discussions: Supports in the classroom

Thanks for listening to the wishes of some of our students. What have your students been wishing for this year? Check out the NEALS Discussion Board to give your input!

*Check Out the Events page on the website and make sure you mark the dates for our:

Annual Conference Deconstructed in April

Cheers,

Chris

President's Message March 2021

Wed, 17 Mar 2021 18:35:20 GMT

Dear NEALS Members and Supporters,

I am spending some of my Spring Break time reflecting upon this past year and how much our world has changed. I have adapted so much of my life to stay safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. My desire to adapt my practices as a learning specialist (even beyond the current global crisis) so that I can better serve my students and colleagues has become an unwavering commitment. NEALS has been and will continue to be a great resource to help me adapt and improve my work.

Adapting and Adjusting our Practices is the theme of this year’s annual conference. With this in mind, our first adaptation has been to deconstruct our annual conference into smaller virtual events throughout the month of April. Our month of learning will kick off with a session led by Dr. David Stein, a neuropsychologist who has adapted his assessments so that they are contactless but still in person. We will also hear from Dr. Leslie Laud about incorporating Self Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) into our work with students. NEALS Board Members are also planning some social hours and discussions. Keep an eye on our Events page for upcoming programming.

NEALS’s mission is:

Promoting professional development for learning specialists

Creating community through collaboration, support, and advocacy

We are striving to live up to our mission even during these challenging times. I want to thank all of you for your continued support of NEALS. We would not be able to continue our programming without our members and supporters!

I wish you all a joyful and healthy Spring!

Regards,

Laura

February in Schools: Don't Make any Major Decisions & Don't cut Your Hair

Fri, 26 Feb 2021 18:22:42 GMT

Dear NEALS members,

My, how we miss seeing each other in person! But we are so looking forward to seeing you this April for our month-long NEALS Conference (Deconstructed) on Zoom. We are excited to have neuropsychologist Dr. David Stein as keynote speaker. With a presentation on “Contact Free Testing” of students, he will kick off our professional development theme of adapting and adjusting our practices on Wednesday afternoon, April 7th.

Please join the discussion online with your suggestions for topics for April’s month of sessions and for our successful Summer Seminar Series. Be sure to “subscribe” to receive email updates as fellow members weigh in.

Starting February, 2021 with gratitude: we are so grateful for what NEALS does for teachers of students with learning challenges. Without our learning specialists, well-equipped with excellent professional development, students with learning disabilities would struggle even more with the recent shifts to online learning. For this and more, we are particularly grateful to the NEALS Board as they juggle new responsibilities at work and envision new horizons for our precious and prescient organization. Laura steers us soundly at the helm, Chris creates new connections for us as Vice President, Melissa organizes us all and our documentation as Secretary, and Bethany manages our financial responsibilities as Treasurer. They and our other directors are eager to expand the Board; so please reach out if you’re interested in serving on the Board with us. It’s a joy-filled service whether planning our programs, supporting our members with services and communications, or ensuring the sustainability of this valuable organization.

Personally, I have been bowled over by your support of the Cole Fund for Educational Equity, providing NEALS memberships and benefits to underserved and undervalued schools. This fund means so much to me and to the NEALS Board. On behalf of our most vulnerable students, the Cole Fund brings voices to the table that we need to hear, while it shares our extraordinary network and resources with teachers and schools that would otherwise have no access. We have been overwhelmed by the generosity of like-minded individuals offering Cole Fund donations in excess of $20,000. We have surpassed our initial goal of including teachers from one school with finite resources and hope to reach out to a second school as the endowment grows.

Finally, I am so grateful to Eden Dunckel and those of you who have read Sliding Home: Two Teachers Head for the Mountains to Teach Our Kids for a Yearor contacted me with your kind words about my family’s adventure in learning. I hope it has been a source of support and inspiration for teachers and families schooling kids at home.

Sincerely yours,

Suz

Susan Cole Ross, past president (2011-2020)

The Elephant and the Rider

Sat, 30 Jan 2021 20:53:50 GMT

By April Pendergast, Learning Specialist at Kent School

Greetings, all. As I write this, I’m staring ahead at re-entry into school life from the holidays. The complexities of day-to-day activities have compounded this year, and even as the vaccine rolls out among our compatriots, it’s difficult to see a road ahead that leads back to “life as we knew it.” It’s hard to handle, and I’m in my 40s. I have compassion for the student population also dealing with this Brave New World.

It’s natural in times like these to seek comfort, and comfort usually connotes falling into old, familiar routines: family dinners, snuggly PJs and fluffy slippers, a warm cup of herbal tea in front of a glowing fire at night. But what happens when those familiar routines are not “good for us?” What if we have heart disease and the family dinners are full of cream sauces, carbs, and red meats? What if that cup of herbal tea turns into a cup of wine and the fire to a TV aglow with anxiety-producing images deep into the night?

As learning specialists, we work with a population of students whose comfortable routines, by and large, do not serve them. We all know how difficult it is in a “normal” year to help students change these routines, and with the extra pressures of this global emergency, the rungs on the ladder to success for these students may seem even further apart (or caked in slippery mud and about to break). Is lasting behavioral change possible during this time? After all, we know we need to attend to Maslow before we attend to Bloom.

I would argue that holding my place as an instrument of behavioral change for students is essential during this time, and that doing so may help attend to both the student’s SEL and academic needs; holding the process of identifying steps in the student’s behavioral chain and ways they can mitigate triggers and actions to manipulate consequences is in fact acknowledging Maslow’s levels of needs *so that* they can begin to work with Bloom’s levels of engagement and understanding.

Helpful in putting the necessity of working with students to develop healthier academic habits and routines as they emerge from the pandemic is the metaphor of the “elephant” and the “rider,” introduced by University of Virginia professor Jonathan Haidt and popularized by Dan Heath in Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard. Research in psychology and neurodiversity shows that the problems faced by our less successful students are, by and large, not a result of a deficit of knowledge, but a deficit of behavior (“I know what to do, I just can’t do it”). Enter the idea of the “elephant:” our limbic system or “id” reacting emotionally to fight/fly/freeze in response to stimuli, and our “rider:” our vastly smaller frontal lobe attempting to steer and regulate the giant elephant on the path to goals set for us by ourselves or others.

The elephant, the “doer,” is stronger; it follows a set of entrenched familiar routines seeking comfort and affirmation (even when these routines are unhelpful or unhealthy, their very familiarity is what provides comfort and affirmation). This can frustrate the rider, the “knower” (and those trying to aid the rider by setting well-meaning, if ineffective, goals) if the rider’s relationship with the elephant is acrimonious. Attempting to force the elephant through “willpower” alone doesn’t respect the elephant’s strengths and needs, and it will ultimately undermine our ability to reach the goal. In this way, the elephant educationally represents Maslow’s levels and the the rider represents Bloom’s; in order for the rider to get to where he needs to go, the elephant must be well-cared-for.

Thus, of course, effective change is slow and incremental. We teachers might not see the outcome of this slow and effective change in the year we row through academic life with the student, and in an atmosphere of assessment and outcomes, a pressured rider may rush a reluctant elephant… and one can only imagine where that leads. More importantly, effective change is compassionate. An effective rider knows their elephant well and sees where the elephant might scare on the path ahead; they coax the elephant around these challenges by setting an alternate course. My Catholic mother-in-law calls this strategy “avoiding occasions of sin.” For my students, I would call this avoiding triggers and practicing alternate actions.

Because we also know that effective behavioral change happens at the point of performance, and a learning specialist’s schedule is typically bounded by the structure of the school and/or boarding day, an effective specialist can utilize their time with the student-rider not only to set goals, but to analyze their behavior chain and troubleshoot the path to the goal in a way that is respectful and compassionate to their elephant. Availability for checking in at the point of performance may or may not be possible, but setting aside time at the beginning of each meeting for post-mortem analysis might begin to set a habit of mind for this type of metacognitive awareness. I am lucky to work with incredibly supportive and dedicated colleagues in the Academic Resource Center and English Department at Kent School, and I am looking forward to testing this protocol in the coming months.

If it’s helpful, please feel free to use this visual in your practice. Peace and prosperity to you all.

1 The connection here is opaque but valid and a subject for another blog post.

2 Research shows that teacher attitude, the belief that the student can learn, is the most salient factor in determining student success, but again that’s a subject for another blog post.

The Mystery of Time (Management)

Mon, 30 Nov 2020 22:32:09 GMT

By Chris Ouellette

Director of the Academic Skills Center at Miss Hall’s School

Have you ever learned a mnemonic that you don’t think will ever leave your mind? I will tell you what mine is, 30 days hath September, April, June, and November... I find it a bit ironic that today’s offering on time management lands on the final day of November in 2020. As I found myself preparing to lead a workshop for my faculty on supporting the development of time management skills in their students, I laughed out loud at my own sense of time (or lack thereof) throughout this pandemic. Initially, working from home last spring was an amazing break (in an awful time) from the grind of everyday boarding school life. As we entered our first term this year in the virtual world, I started to find that days and weeks began to blur in my memory. When we began our second term in person; it was easier to find my anchor, easier to separate each day and experience. Not only did this help me be better for my students, I was also able to attain much better productivity. If this was occurring this easily for me (and I would imagine some of you), then how much more impactful is this for our students? So, with the surging pandemic in mind, and my school’s return to a virtual environment, the development of time management skills becomes even more necessary.

When you put your hand on a hot stove, a second can feel like an hour. When you put your hand on a loved one seldom seen, an hour can feel like a second. While this quote can be explored slightly differently through the eloquent words of LL Cool J in the 1999 film Deep Blue Sea, the idea that time is relative is necessary. How we perceive time (how much we have, how long something takes) will impact our level of success with time management.

The One-Minute Challenge

is a fun and quick way to see just how differently we all perceive time. The premise is simple: have your students or colleagues sit down when they feel one minute has passed. Have each member of your group stand up in front of their chair and close their eyes. Instruct them to sit down when they feel one minute has passed (open your eyes, remain quiet). Set your timer for 1:30 and say “go”. Throughout my time running this activity, I have only had two humans sit down at exactly one minute. Even those who think they can count to 60 often find that they miss the mark. Now apply this to what you are doing! What happens when you think something will take you 30 minutes and you only set aside 30 minutes? What happens when you feel like you are going to take a 10 minute break and then you look over at the clock and one hour has gone by? The more accurately you can perceive time, the better you are able to manage your own time.

$86,400

is a great way to look at our priorities a little more deeply. Another simple premise here: each of you have $86,400, you must spend it all in one day, you cannot bank/invest it, and if you don’t spend it, you lose it. Watching people decide what to spend their money on is quite amusing. I want to shout out my ~30 fresh-humans the other day as everyone chose to donate large sums of money or pay their families’ bills (we can talk about how far $86,400 goes another time). The fun part comes when you start talking about the real point of this activity. You have 86,400 seconds in each day. What you choose to spend your time on is vital to your success. If you don’t use your time well, you don’t get it back. It is important to help your group to start to think about their priorities, and remember to tell them that rest is an important thing to spend time on.

Races to the Aces

helps us to look more deeply at our schedule. Yet another simple premise: each human turns over their deck of cards and races to find the four aces. Build up this competition so that humans really want to win. What they won’t know ahead of time is that some decks are shuffled randomly, while other decks have the aces strategically placed close to the bottom. “That’s not fair!” “They cheated!” “That’s BS Ouellette!” You should be smiling as you ask them to think of each deck of cards as their schedules. If your schedule is organized and ready to go, then you win the race (or at least have a better chance at winning).

If we can help our students develop; a clearer perception of time, the ability to prioritize, and the ability to create a schedule to follow, then we will help them become better at managing their time. It would be foolish to not reinforce that each area discussed will take much practice, and even the most organized human has moments where time management is a losing battle. We need to regularly help our students reflect on and track how long assignments take to complete, strengthening their perception of time. We also need to help our students prioritize (you may have noticed that some students need help seeing that one less assignment can be more rewarding than finishing the next level, episode, or chapter) their work and restorative activities so that they can find a better life balance. Lastly, while some humans can seemingly fly by the seat of their pants, I promise that it becomes exhausting! We need to work with our students so that they can eventually build schedules for themselves that are both structured and flexible, so that they don’t become overwhelming.

In the interest of my own time management, I will leave you with a quote from J Cole, “they say time is money, but really it’s not. If we ever go broke, time is all we got.” Let’s keep working to help our students make the best of the time they have got!

Cheers,

Chris

Creating Professional Development (on a budget affected by Covid)

Thu, 29 Oct 2020 17:18:20 GMT

By Chris Ouellette

Director of the Academic Skills Center at Miss Hall’s School

Happy final Tuesday in October to you all! I hope that you have been able to find that groove you were looking for! As we enter our Covid inspired Term 2, we are starting to ideate on professional development. What are our needs? How much is in our budget? Can we safely bring in an outside guest to deliver a PD offering?

As we entered this past summer, it was clear that the majority of us would be working through the summer in order to build the best programmatic offering during this wonky time. One of the pieces of our summer work centered on offering PD to our colleagues. Several of us were given a pretty straightforward task: Create effective offerings that would help our teaching colleagues prepare for the year while also allowing for asynchronous attendance. Our ultimate result:

Miss Hall’s PD Summer Seminar Series

Our premise was simple: our school is filled with experienced teachers who had participated in PD courses outside of MHS or had expertise in certain areas. If we could tap into these humans, not only would we empower their voices, we could also provide our PD program at a significantly reduced cost to the school. We were able to target three areas of focus; Technology, Assessment, and Curriculum. Once we targeted areas to focus in on, we began to tap people who could potentially lead one hour webinars for our colleagues. All together we offered nine structured webinars and also offered up three practice and play sessions over a two week time period. I am really proud of my colleagues for their offerings:

-Zoom: Reconceiving Zoom as a learning and collaboration space

-Wayfinding: “No you don’t need to create 2 lessons for each class”

-Student Agency + Classroom Culture

-Powerschool 102

-Maximizing Learning Outcomes w/ 5 week terms!?!

-Creating Videos with Loom: “Enhancing student learning”

-Assessment: “Through the eyes of our PD courses”

I also had the honor of presenting two offerings to my colleagues

-Assessment: Using Formative assessment to guide student learning “And you can still give summative assessments”

-Student Support: Supporting different learning needs in the hybrid model

After we had presented the webinars, all recordings were uploaded to our faculty resource page on our Powerschool LMS. This allowed for easy curation of all of the offerings for colleagues to peruse at will.

So what have I learned? Here’s my top five:

Asynchronous for the Win!

Adults really enjoy having the ability to attend something asynchronously on their own time during the summer. While we had many in-person attendees, the timing required flexibility that was achieved through the asynchronous opportunity.

Expertise in your Halls!

There are so many diverse minds and experiences amongst your faculty. Work hard to find out where they have expertise, and tap into it! Almost everyone we spoke with was excited to help out!

Reimagine Summer PD

Most of us are used to one-two weeks of full day meetings and professional development right before school starts. This does not have to be the case, and our colleagues really appreciated dropping to 3 days of all school PD with the addition of our seminar series.

Provide ease of Access

We added in timestamps so that asynchronous viewers would not have to listen to every moment. This allowed for a choose-your-own-adventure style of PD. A little fun goes a long way!

It won’t be Perfect

We learned so much upon reflection that will help us implement this style of PD in a more efficient and effective way in the future. We ran into speedbumps, they required mea culpas, and we now know how to make it better. Be humble and listen to the feedback that comes in.

Thanks for sharing your time with me, I will leave you with a quote from the late science-fiction author Robert Heinlein, “When one teaches, two learn”.

Cheers,

Chris

We are Nearer to Spring than We Were in September....

Tue, 29 Sep 2020 20:34:20 GMT

By Chris Ouellette

Director of the Academic Skills Center at Miss Hall’s School

Hello there you wonderful humans! Happy end of September to you all! Most of us are bringing the 1st month of classes or more to a close. Whether you have had students back in person since day one, or you are just now slowly starting to see students return to campus, please know how important your work has been to the school communities we serve. We are providing virtual sessions at all times of the day to accommodate time zone changes for our students. I have not spoken with a Learning Specialist this year who hasn’t seen 1-1 sessions from 7:00am EST to 10:00pm EST. One thing is clear, this shift to a hybrid style of learning and teaching has brought a whirlwind of mixed results.

Some of the students who work with us regularly are thriving with reduced course loads or reduced length of their school days. The shift to virtual calendars has helped our students who are the most organizationally challenged. On the other hand, some of our Rockstar students are finding that the increased amount of independent work expected is proving to be quite taxing to plan for. Our students already face difficulties with long term project planning during regularly scheduled programming, and now we are seeing that struggle amplified across students both in and outside of our learning support systems. There is a silver lining to the challenges with independent work being highlighted now; our schools can place a larger focus on building these skills throughout a student’s program. If we can increase support designed to strengthen these skills in all of our students now, they will be better prepared for the world post high-school, whatever that may bring them!

I know that I am not the only Learning Specialist out there who is exhausted already. Since the school year always brings less personal time, I have found myself in need of work/life separation even more so this year. One thing that has got me through is a steady supply of music. I wanted to share my most recent playlist with you all:

LoFi Hip Hop (chill, melodic, Jazz/Hip-hop instrumentals, multitude of varieties here, check out “Beats to relax/study to” or “Brazil songs”)
”Sing About It” The Wood Brothers (also shared in my last post)
”When Doves Cry” Prince
”Invisible Seas” Panacea
”Just Thinkin” Slightly Stoopid ft Chali 2na
”RITMO” Black Eyed Peas, J Balvin
”Own Light (what hearts are for)” Brother Ali
“Danger Zone” Kenny Loggins
DJ 9thWonder has been running the “Fass-Auntie Lounge” on Instagram and has been spinning records live
“River Takes the Town” The Wood Brothers
“Pressure Drop” Toots & The Maytals

If music doesn’t get you through, allow me to share one of my favorite motivational quotes from the movie Finding Nemo: “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming” -Dory the fish. So, as you enter the month of October, if you find yourself drifting at sea, please reach out to someone at NEALS so we can throw you that much needed life-preserver.

Cheers,

Chris

Title inspired by: “I heard a bird sing in the dark of December. A magical thing. And sweet to remember. We are nearer to Spring than we were in September. I heard a bird sing in the dark of December.” -Oliver Herford

NEALS President's Update August 2020

Thu, 13 Aug 2020 23:14:50 GMT

Deal NEALS Members and Supporters,

My intention in this letter was to introduce myself and talk about all the great plans that NEALS has in store for the 2020-21 school year, but life has other plans right now. As we near the beginning of the school year, my head is spinning with ideas about how to best support my students whether we are in-person (masked and 6 feet apart), or remote and meeting via Zoom, or a combination of the two. These are strange times! I just started teaching at Dedham Country Day School last year; I was warmly welcomed and became an active part of the community. This year’s changes to schedule and program delivery make me feel like I am starting a new job all over again.

In my personal life, I am getting ready to send my son to college for his Freshman year. As of now, he will be on campus and attending classes in a hybrid model. My daughter is a rising high school Junior and will be attending school in person two days a week and the remainder of her school time will be a combination of asynchronous and synchronous online learning. I mourn for their lost experiences in this pandemic, but I celebrate their resilience and “can do” attitude. After all, this is the new normal.

The new normal means that we need to shift our thinking quickly- and be prepared to change how we teach in a moment’s notice. I am reviewing all of my curriculum and materials and trying to figure out if handouts would be better presented in a Google Doc format or as a Slide presentation. I am seeking videos and other online tools that can reinforce concepts. I am also trying to figure out how to better reach the students who crumbled last March and were incapacitated with reading ansynchornous class instructions let alone actually trying to complete the assignment. I keep thinking back to presentations on executive functions presented at prior NEALS conferences and realizing that my students and I are all in the same boat; anxiety and stress are trying to turn off our thinking brains and yet we are frequently trying to “do school” like we normally do. All of our old tricks and strategies need to be reviewed and analyzed to figure out if they will work in the new normal. This is hard work!

The new normal has also led to some silver linings on some very dark clouds- NEALS has begun to use technology to help us better connect. We are now hosting member meetings online and they have been great! As much as I love our annual conferences, I have enjoyed connecting online with so many of you during these past months. And there is a bonus of no commute or hotel needed to get to these meetings! NEALS will continue to deliver online programming this year and I hope to “see” you at our future online offerings. Our next event on August 19th addresses best practices in “the new normal” and I know I am looking forward to hearing from others about what new tips and tricks I can incorporate into my teaching this year.

The mission statement of NEALS is:

Promoting professional development for learning specialists
Creating community through collaboration, support, and advocacy

I am proud of the work NEALS has done during the pandemic to ensure that learning specialists feel supported. We will continue to provide professional development and community building events this year, just in a new way. I hope you will join us on this “new normal” adventure.

Warmly,

Laura

NEALS President's Update Late July 2020

Mon, 27 Jul 2020 02:28:52 GMT

Summer Seminar with Dr. Robert Brooks, July 22, 2020

by Susan Cole Ross

Laura Foody makes stepping down from the presidency relatively easy. Though I have loved serving in this role for the past nine years, I know NEALS is in more than capable hands. Laura shares the vision of our predecessors of what NEALS is and can become for teachers and students. She exudes the energy, creativity, intelligence, and dexterity to make our vision into a reality especially at this time, because she has such a vast capacity for maximizing the potential of our interactive website. Already, Laura has expanded member usage and networking enormously, streamlined our processes, and energized NEALS. In so doing, she has only begun to improve the academic lives of ten thousand vulnerable students each year. I hope you will join me in sprinkling Laura with congratulations as she becomes the sixth President of NEALS.

Today we are thankful to so many of you for your donations to the Cole Fund for Educational Equity. In one month we have raised enough in gifts and pledges to ensure that henceforth the teachers from one under-resourced city school will be joining us and adding their voices as members of NEALS. If you’d like to help us endow memberships for another school, please write the The Cole Fund in the comment box when you donate to NEALS (https://nealsonline.org/Donate). We also thank the Wilson Language Program (https://www.wilsonlanguage.com) for their generous sponsorship of the summer seminar series. And we are so grateful to Educators Ally (https://educatorsally.com), for their highly personalized approach in helping learning specialists and schools find each other, and for sponsoring our intimate and illuminating seminar with Dr. Robert Brooks (https://www.drrobertbrooks.com) on July 22nd.

The Board was so pleased to introduce Bob to our membership. Teaching at Harvard Medical School and previously serving as Director of the Department of Psychology at McLean Hospital, Bob is the authority on student psychology and the calm voice in a storm. We never needed him more. Among his many awards and distinctions, Bob received “Hall of Fame” awards from both CH.A.D.D. (Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Disorders) and the Connecticut Association for Children with Learning Disabilities for his work with children and adolescents with special needs; the Distinguished Leadership Award from Learning Disabilities Worldwide in recognition of his contributions and commitment to the field of learning disabilities, and the Outstanding Educator Award for Mental Health Education from the New England Educational Institute, Pittsfield, MA. He most recently received the 2018 Mental Health Humanitarian Award from William James College, Newton, MA, for his work as a clinician, educator, and author. I attribute my own son’s success as a Porsche race car fabricator in part to inspiration received from Bob at an early NEALS conference - to help my son find his “islands of competence in a sea of inadequacy.” It was gratifying to witness another generation of learning specialists energized and inspired by our friend Bob Brooks.

During his talk, Bob addressed the value of positive mindsets, resiliency, and a charismatic adult in the lives of students, as well as how to make students feel welcome to address their need for belonging. In research he conducted, adults shared the importance of having teachers who smiled and said hello using their names at the beginning of each school day when they were students. He shared studies and resources from Gabriele Oettingen, from Edward Deci’s model of intrinsic motivation, and from so much other fascinating and compelling research, such as how the way in which teacher’s greeted students at the door increased student engagement by 20% and decreased disruptive behavior by 9%. In many specific ways, Bob addressed students’ need for self-determination and how to discover and use their islands of competence to make them feel more dignified, as one principal put it.

During the question and answer period one member wrote, “His work is SO MUCH at the foundation of my work… This is a great discussion!” Meanwhile, Dr. Brooks provided a more personal discussion of empowering students to own their education, emphasizing the importance of self-determination, project-based learning, and a sense of belonging. In doing so, he offered suggestions for how to help anxious students return to school. Furthermore, he addressed how to stimulate intrinsic motivation in our students versus tuning out and avoidance, and the power of personal persistent feedback versus the power of grades, and for this coming year especially, the importance of connection over content. In response to the seminar one member wrote, “Dr. Brooks and NEALS organizers, thank you so much for setting up this amazing presentation. I got many ideas to bring back to my school community.” On behalf of the Board, I want to thank Dr. Brooks as well for such a rich and productive presentation and an enriching opportunity for NEALS members to share.

It is indeed an honor to relinquish the role of President on such a high note. It is hard to put into words how grateful I am to our Board, who have served NEALS diligently and intelligently and become dear friends in the process. In particular, I want to thank Melissa Rubin who has taken every phone call, text, and Google doc and made our work so much better for the learning specialists we serve. We share a joy in that service that will provide a positive impact on myriads of students long after we are gone.

Slides from Dr. Brooks's presentation are available on the Resources page for a limited time.

The video of the seminar with Dr. Brooks is available to NEALS members on the Member Resources Page.

NEALS Blog July 2020

Wed, 01 Jul 2020 15:00:00 GMT

July Update by Susan Cole Ross

We were so pleased to have Murielle St Paul join us to kick off the Summer Seminar Series on June 23rd.

A bit more about Murielle: During her decades of service as an independent school STEM teacher, learning specialist, and dean, Murielle has conducted qualitative and quantitative research on “Students of Color in Independent Schools,” along with “Students of Color with Learning Differences in Independent Schools.”

For the seminar, Murielle offered NEALS members her characteristically thoughtful and inventively inclusive perspective. Jump starting our discussion, she shared one student’s experience with learning support at an independent school. Her case study, questions for our breakout sessions discussions, and resulting recommendations will soon be available on our members’ resources page: https://nealsonline.org/NEALS-Member-Resources

Following the presentation and discussion one member wrote:

Thank you for running today’s Zoom! I think there were some great conversations and comments.

Members will have a chance to reconnect and to discuss these and other issues further on Wednesday, July 8 at 4:00 PM when we will meet for a relaxed social hour.

Our seminar closed with the joy of honoring Liz Radday with the 2020 Barbara Kenefick Award for Service.

Liz has always made NEALS look good. A Fulbright scholar with her EdD in Teaching, Learning and Curriculum from UPenn, Liz is no slouch. She has raised the bar over her eight years of service, improving our knowledge base, fine-tuning and expressing our policies with an eye to legalities and future needs, and always cleaning up my writing with good humor. Being dyslexic, I especially appreciate her affectionate teases about my malaprops and misspellings. I can well imagine how she makes every student feel appreciated in all of their quirkiness and intelligence.

Liz’s gifts to NEALS have been many. She served on the 2016 strategic planning committee, attending every meeting and workshop, and there were many. Liz edited the members’ survey to ensure that NEALS’ plans and policies grew directly out of member desires and expectations. Liz wrote our quite extensive and critical bylaws that will serve to guide and sustain NEALS for generations. In 2016 and 2020, Liz has overseen a comprehensive re-organization of NEALS’ board of directors not once, but twice.

She did all this while raising two thoughtful and exuberant girls, serving as Director of Learning Support at Marvelwood School for 10 years, and then becoming a leading innovator in educational programming as Research and Support Specialist for Skills21 at EdAdvance...

and raising the mother of seeing-eye dogs!

The Board of Directors is delighted and so honored to present NEALS’ 2020 Barbara Kenefick award for service to our Liz Radday.

We are grateful to Wilson Language Systems and Educators Ally Placement Agency for sponsoring our summer seminars. Our next in the series which will be on July 22 at 1:00 PM. Dr. Robert Brooks will speak to us about Nurturing Resilience, Positive Mindsets, and Islands of Competence. As ever, our summer series is free to members (though you must preregister) so please encourage your colleagues, especially school counselors, to join NEALS.

Have a peaceful and safe summer!

NEALS Blog June 2020

Tue, 09 Jun 2020 22:59:56 GMT

NEALS Summer Seminar Series

by Melissa Rubin, Principal at The Student First

Congrats to everyone! For better or worse, we survived the school year. That feels good to say - more so this year than any others. But I have to say, I’ve always loved June. Aside from being my birth month, June has always represented potential for me, especially in regards to professional development (PD). We now have more time to dedicate to reading, listening and participating in conferences and webinars which will help us support our students even better in the new academic year. With this in mind, I wanted to highlight some exciting events NEALS will be offering in the next few weeks, as well as some other PD opportunities.

As a kickoff to NEALS’ virtual summer seminar series, Murielle St Paul, Associate Director of Academic Support at Milton Academy, and NEALS’ outgoing President, Susan Cole Ross, are planning a Zoom presentation and discussion for Wednesday, June 24 @ 1:00 PM to discuss learning specialists’ role in supporting students from non traditional backgrounds at our schools. This conversation is overdue, and we are honored to have Murielle’s wisdom and ongoing research on the topic. Further information will be on our discussion board, and we welcome your questions to target our discussion to your students’ needs. Email us at nelearningspecialists@gmail.com.

Last week, Susan Cole Ross, NEALS’ President-elect, Laura Foody, and I had the pleasure of talking with Dr. Robert Brooks. As you may remember, pre-COVID 19, Dr. Brooks was slotted as our keynote speaker for NEALS’ Annual Conference. Since we weren’t able to gather to hear him, Dr. Brooks has graciously agreed to join a Zoom conference call on Wednesday, July 22nd @ 1pm, for a discussion about resilience, positive mindsets, and building off of students’ strengths, or as he terms them, “islands of competence.” In preparation for the discussion, Dr. Brooks has provided the following resources to serve as a foundation:

I encourage you to review them, and PLEASE submit any questions or topics you would like Dr. Brooks to address to nelearningspecialists@gmail.com. We will give him your questions ahead of time to ensure that the meeting is rich and targeted for those attending.

On Wednesday August 19th at 1:00 PM, we plan to discuss Best Practices in “The New Normal”. These conversations will be held as a whole group, as well as in departmental breakout sessions and/or elementary/middle/secondary school breakout sessions. Of course, we remain open to suggestions for specific topics and speakers, so please let us know (nelearningspecialists@gmail.com)!

Other organizations are offering PD events as well. Architects for Learning (AFL) is continuing to offer their free “Virtual Teacher’s Lounge” at least once each week. Here is the link to sign up for the Teacher's Lounge: http://www.architectsforlearning.com/teachers-lounge/. Topics have ranged from “supporting sentence-level writing in online instruction” to reading comprehension. June 12th, the topic will be “Deep Dive into Executive Functions” (https://zoom.us/j/504645880 meeting ID 504-645-880 if you are logging in with the app). Each week, AFL sends an email to registered users indicating the next week’s time and topic. I highly recommend attending these Zoom calls as they are informative but informal.

The Southern Association of Independent Schools (SAIS) is hosting a summer virtual conference (SAIS Summer Virtual Conference Info) at the end of the month as well. Key topics include “addressing learning loss” and “building hybrid courses”.

The Landmark College Institute for Research and Training, in conjunction with the Learning Disabilities Association, is offering a course, “Student Engagement, Self-Regulation and Motivation” (course info) beginning the end of June. It will “examine a range of strategies and systems to support, actualize, and sustain engagement in diverse learners.”

These are the “big hitters” for me. However, if you learn of any others, please share with us on our Discussion Board! Also, if you do end up “attending” a conference, a webinar, or any other PD event, please share your takeaways. We would love to post the information on our site so other NEALS members can benefit as well.

Finally, please understand that, as enthusiastic I am about these PD opportunities, I’m realistic too. We need some downtime. We need to take advantage of this time to recover and rejuvenate as I have a feeling we have a long road ahead. Self care is not selfish! I just wanted to share some options we have to help us get ready :)

Reminder:

Join GoodReads and check out NEALS’ list there of suggested reading. We have included books related to anxiety, executive functioning, and assessment thus far.

NEALS Blog April 2020

Tue, 07 Apr 2020 14:03:44 GMT

Commitment Through Uncertainty

by Chris Ouellette of Miss Halls School

When I signed up for this blog post a few short weeks ago, my intention was to write about onboarding a brand new member to your team and school (Hannah is pretty awesome, I am sure you will hear about/from her soon). Similar to many of you, as the reports started to come in and the emails/meetings started to increase, I realized that we were in a very different time. We have been given a call to move to distance learning in an attempt to stop the spread of a contagious disease, and have been asked as educators and students to do something that we may have never done before. Schools are still working out action plans, so no matter the point you are at, there is work to be done. We can only predict that this change will last for some time. While we can think about our students, their needs and potential struggles/successes, until we get rolling, we just won’t know. I have to admit that I do not have control over much currently, but one of the things that I can control is to think about what I can commit to during these times. I am fortunate to work at a school that has set forth the following commitments for distance learning and the end of the semester:

We remain dedicated to our mission and to helping students develop our core competencies of Vision, Voice, Interpersonal Efficacy, and Gumption.
We commit to prioritizing engagement and connection over content.
We commit to creating clear and reasonable goals and expectations for the final eight weeks of class; these goals and expectations are not and cannot be the same as they would be for face-to-face learning.
We commit to asking ourselves and our departmental colleagues “What is really important for this class in this curriculum?” We will distill our coursework down to these most essential concepts and skills.
We understand that distance learning cannot replicate the time of face-to-face interaction and homework time. We will commit to a maximum estimated number of work minutes per week, keeping in mind the grade level of the students and in agreement with our colleagues in all academic departments.
We commit to assess student learning in creative and equitable ways; especially in the context of distance learning, when students' home lives differ greatly, we need to rethink traditional, graded content-based tests and quizzes.
We understand that learning styles differ, and some students will have more difficulty than others learning in a distance model. We commit to modifying our expectations to best accommodate and support these, and all, students.
We commit to ensuring that asynchronous learning is a possibility/option for every lesson and assessment. We understand that not all students can be expected to be present for live instruction.
We commit to communicating clearly with individual students about their progress in the interest of supporting students equitably. If a grade falls below a midterm grade, we commit to bringing in a student’s personal team and making this as successful of an experience as possible.

Whether you borrow from these, or you have your own entirely unique set of commitments, one thing is clear to me: setting these commitments, as an individual or as an entire institution will drive the educational experience of our students going forward. There are two things we should all be able to commit to; 1) We can commit to being there for our students, and 2) We can commit to being there for our colleagues. If we all commit to those two simple tenets, I believe we can find the strength to get through these challenging and uncertain times.

Here’s a song that has helped me stay positive: “Sing About It”- The Wood Brothers

Thanks for your time and energy, make sure to take care of yourselves in this time as well!

Cheers,

Chris

NEALS Conference Update

Tue, 10 Mar 2020 01:44:44 GMT

Dear Members,

NEALS is committed to supporting and protecting our teachers and their students and schools. Therefore, the NEALS Board has decided to postpone our April conference until the fall. We are grateful to Dr. Brooks and New Hampton School for joining us in this precautionary decision and helping us to plan the conference for the fall.

With a reported 30% transmission rate, doubling every seven days, and affecting all of our regions, the likelihood of spreading the Covid-19 virus at a conference is concerning, especially given how many attendees may be traveling in March.

We apologize for any inconvenience or disappointment caused by this decision, but the Board believes it is in the best interest of our members. If you need to cancel your hotel reservation, please call the hotel at 603-286-3400.

Sincerely,

Board of Directors, Northeast Association of Learning Specialists ~ nealsonline.org

NEALS Blog February 2020

Mon, 17 Feb 2020 23:46:32 GMT

Beyond Skill Building

by Vaunie Graulty, Miss Hall’s School (retired learning specialist)

As learning specialists, we offer students the chance to develop skills and strategies that will lead them to academic success. In our sessions, we teach our students to structure their time by using planners. We teach note taking and study techniques. We teach tools for becoming better readers. We teach active listening and participation. The list goes on and on. But that isn’t all we do, not by a long shot! Skilled learning specialists are also shaping the personal growth of their students. And when they succeed, we celebrate with them.

Some students, and even their teachers, may see us merely as homework helpers, but I bet you, like me, hope and expect that our work goes much deeper and its impact is much longer term. We don’t do for our students; we guide them to do for themselves. “Give a fish, and a person will be hungry tomorrow; teach him to catch a fish they’ll be richer all their life.” Give a rod not a fish. Put the student in charge of their learning.

Besides test scores, how can we measure impact? Try asking the student! It’s been amazing to me how much a quiet student has to say on paper. I am a big believer in “powerful questions.” These can be used in two ways: 1. To coach students to self-reflect and ultimately self-coach. 2. To evaluate their own growth: cognitive, personal and academic.

I was first introduced to “powerful questions” by Jodi Sleeper Triplett when I took her course on AD/HD coaching. Over the years, however, I’ve discovered her techniques work for every student regardless of whether they have AD/HD.

The student begins each session with a self-reflection. It will take time for students to believe in themselves enough to answer questions positively, but they WILL, with time and practice. They will also become self-starters, comfortable with the opening routine. Try asking students to WRITE their answers; for some this is easier. Self-reflecting in a Learning Journal develops voice, strengthens self-awareness and builds confidence.

What is your plan for today?
What are your personal strengths? How do they show up at school and outside of school?

Which of your traits will help you to do this task* really well? (*paper, study prep, presentation etc.)
A “gremlin” stands in the way of progress or forward movement. He is an obstacle that impedes success. We all have gremlins. What are yours?
Sometimes we feed our gremlins by encouraging them with negative self-talk or inaction. Talk about how you do that.
What is the smallest step you can take to get started with your assignment?
What have you accomplished this week that has made you feel really good?
What are you concerned about regarding school?
Talk about a situation in which you experienced disappointment or failure and explain what you learned from it.
What do you know about your learning style? What kind of study techniques work for you? What does not work? Have you ever had any testing or psycho-educational evaluation? What did you learn about yourself from that?
If you could wave a magic wand and make a change in your student self, what would it be?
What motivates you? Talk about both internal and external motivators.
What acknowledgement would you like to give yourself today?
Teachers want you to do well; they are really in a partnership with you. What are your responsibilities as a student? Theirs as a teacher? How do you contribute to the relationship?
How are you your own best friend?

In my experience, students like to look back through their journals now and then. By the end of the school year, they are proud of how much they write, and they learn from re-reading their entries. Students finish the year better able to talk with their teachers about how they learn. They can partner with the teacher. Students also discover the power of talking themselves through a challenge by asking energizing and affirming questions like the ones above. Self- coaching is the goal. Of course, this is a life skill!

NEALS News February 2020

Wed, 12 Feb 2020 23:50:06 GMT

Dear Members,

Did you know that you can have Discussion Board postings emailed to you (so you don't have to login just to check the board)? To get postings emailed to you, please do the following:

Click on Resources on the right hand side of the menu bar:

Click on NEALS Discussion to get to the Discussion Board.

Then click on Subscribe to Forum:

That's it! And I hope everyone starts using this resource to communicate and support other members. These steps also work for subscribing to our Job Postings Board.

I'm looking forward to seeing you at the Conference in April. Remember to register!!!!!

Warmest Regards,

Laura Foody

Vice President

President's Letter January 2020

(Past member) — Fri, 31 Jan 2020 22:17:55 GMT

Happy Third Decade, NEALS! January 30, 2020

We are pleased by your continued involvement in NEALS, thanks to our Board members who collaborate so well to make so many services available to over 130 members and, by extension, to over 7000 students with learning difficulties. We enjoy greater camaraderie and networking thanks to their voluntary efforts. With newly improved communications, website, and governance, NEALS has taken great strides forward in our mission of promoting professional development for learning specialists creating community through collaboration, support, and advocacy!

We are so grateful to Jen McMahon and New Hampton School for hosting our 21st annual conference this spring! We look forward to speaking with Dr. Robert Brooks on April 6th. Ever a good friend to NEALS, his intimate knowledge of processing issues, mindsets, motivation, and resilience is sure to enhance our services and the language we use in advocating for struggling students.

Kudos and thanks are due to Janet Davis of Clarkson Davis who, with decades of nonprofit management and consulting experience throughout the United States, has donated her time and expertise to help our Board build and improve an effective, sustainable organizational plan and programs on the front lines of change in services to students with disabilities.

With her expert guidance and building on last year’s momentous efforts, the Board has worked this year:

To reorganize our Board governance to increase our reach, depth of services, and sustainability
To keep you involved and informed via our interactive website, newsletters, and member’s forum,
To keep our services free to members by seeking new nonprofit funding sources
To enhance members’ benefits, privacy, and security, and
To maintain our integrity as a Gold Star Level nonprofit on Guidestar.

From the day when you sign up for NEALS, you receive 12 months of continuous access to members’ invitations, newsletters, and access to our password protected resources and discussion group on NEALS’ website. The invaluable archives of two decades of resources and discussions remain fully available to current members from the website as well. Please consult with your fellow learning specialists now by visiting your discussion forum (Sign in using your password - or sign up for a new one, click on Discussion, and enjoy rich discussions available to your email inbox.)

Sincerely,

Susan

NEALS Blog December 2019

Tue, 03 Dec 2019 23:46:27 GMT

Investigating Fee-Free Academic Support

by Chris Ouelette

Director of Academic Skills Center

Miss Hall's School

Welcome back to another installment of the NEALS blog. As I sit here on our return day from the November vacation, I return to a puzzle that has perplexed me since I began working in boarding schools: How can a school be inclusive of all students’ needs if the institution charges an extra fee for entrance into the academic support program?

As I began to dive into the research on this paradigm, I found Academic Support fees ranging from $1,100 to $9,995 per year. Some schools allowed financial aid to fund Academic Support while others did not. Some schools made entrance into the program mandatory for admittance, while others relied on voluntary entry into the program based on team conversations with families. Schools also employed many different models for the academic support provided. Making sense of this data, my brain yearned to yell: “JUST GET RID OF THE FEES!!!” What I have found, is that the solution can’t be to simply eliminate the fee; there is so much ground work to lay first. As I find myself at an institution that both wants to/and can eliminate the fee for academic support, I wanted to share with you where we are with the process.

The thing that makes this an achievable goal is having a Leadership Team that is all in on the desire to be as inclusive as we can be for the students. With that key piece secured before I arrived at my current institution, I finally felt like I could see the beginnings of my professional desire: a fee-free academic support program. The first step that I could tackle as we moved from year one to year two was reducing the number of service levels offered from four to two. This was done in order to make scheduling of students more uniform, allowing for more equity of resources among students. It is important to note that the notion of equity in academic support is subjective; obviously some students need more support than others. The results have been positive thus far, support times have become more uniform, and we have been able to deliver services in a ratio of 1:1. The second step this year was to increase the connection between the three learning centers on campus. Connecting with the Math Center and Writing Lab at the start of the year helped to strengthen the links between the three centers on campus. While we have only been able to actualize two steps this year, I wanted to share the next steps in this journey.

Eliminating a fee-for-service model requires the alignment of multiple moving pieces; moving away from a deficit-based language, collaboration and support of teachers, and eventual curricular redefinition:

-Academic support programs are often thought of as a place for struggling learners to access the support they need. This can give the impression that only struggling learners need help, which feeds into the ideas of smartness/normalcy that need to go away. Allison Isbell, Co-Principal at Elizabeth Irwin High School, reminds us that “great learners ask great questions, great learners come here, and great students ask for help”. Changing our shared language is essential to supporting a fee-free program.

-One of the best parts of shifting programmatic focus is reminding classroom teachers of all the supports that they can provide in their classrooms. It is important to help shift the mindset that only the academic support staff can address executive function weakness, as all teachers can help students improve in those areas. While there will always be students who benefit from sustained work with a learning specialist, classroom teachers are more than capable of providing support in organization of notes, and subject specific study habits. Oftentimes, the classroom teacher is better able to provide more narrowed study habit support as they know what material will be on their test. Empowering teachers to provide such resources in the classroom allows the learning support staff more time to provide specialized scaffolding for students.

-Curricular redefinition is where we get to think of all the things that we would like to be able to do if we weren’t in direct support from 8:30-4:30 every day. Can your learning specialists provide support to a whole class? Can they run workshops for classrooms? Will your learning specialists provide professional development for the teaching faculty? Do you provide opportunities for students across the whole day (academic and study hall)? Is it possible that you reach every student in your school?

I need to acknowledge that some schools just can’t move this way yet, almost always for financial reasons (as the institution relies on the income from the program). This does not mean that you should give up on this dream. I would encourage you to continue to revisit the idea with your leadership team. Push the idea of inclusivity for all our learners. While you will run into the same frustrations that I did when I started selling this idea, odds are, you will eventually succeed as our world evolves.

Thanks for gifting me your time and thoughts, I am always honored to receive them. As always, I will sign off with one of the quotes from our Hip-Hop Quote of the Day board:

“Living life is a choice. Making a difference in someone else’s isn’t.” ~Kid Cudi

Cheers,

Chris

couelette@nealsonine.org

NEALS News December 2019

Tue, 03 Dec 2019 23:43:15 GMT

NEALS News

December 2019

Save the Date!!!

Our annual conference will be on Monday, April 6th, 2020. Be on the lookout for details in January.

Regional Meetings Update

Regional Meetings for Maine and Western Massachusetts are happening this month. Please log in to www.nealsonline.org to view events and to rsvp.

Would you like to host a regional get together (hosts get to help choose dates, times, and locations)? Please contact us at info@nealsonline.org if you are interested or would like to learn more. It would be wonderful to have more frequent get togethers so that we can better connect with each other!

Giving Tuesday

NEALS plays a very important role in promoting the professional development and support of learning specialists in the Northeast. In order to enhance our services without increasing membership fees, we have been seeking grants. Part of the grant review process is to show potential benefactors that our membership is committed to NEALS.

As the calendar year comes to a close, please consider donating to NEALS. Your donation of any amount will help us in our vision to be the premier professional development resource empowering learning specialists in supporting all learners. Your participation in the fund drive will help us secure grant funds that will benefit the services we provide to our members.

Thank you for your support!

Donate

NEALS Blog September 2019

(Past member) — Mon, 16 Sep 2019 13:00:00 GMT

What I Need, What I Want, and What I Should do This Year

by Bill Flynn

Director of the Academic Guidance Center

Hebron Academy

Each year our students come back positive, energized, nervous, ambitious, uncomfortable, and each and every other stirring emotion a teenager can have when they start a new year. For the students enrolled in our Hebron Academy Academic Guidance Center, the beginning of the year is the most opportune time to engage students in a conversation about how they can create a productive and successful year. This is why our department focuses much of our attention on goal setting and planning to begin the year. What separates the beginning of the year goal setting from other goal setting activities we do throughout the year is that much of our initial goal setting is based on how the student (and in our case the staff as well) can dictate the year, and not on what the previous year has dictated.

The very first activity we do with our students is to help them see the upcoming year in three categories. We want to know what each student needs to do this year; what they want to do this year; and what they should do this year. These are three important optics through which each student needs to see himself or herself in order to be impactful throughout the school year. Each category pertains to a significant point of view, and all three should share equal value in the student’s overall academic development and success.

The first category is the “Needs” category. This category focuses strictly on the external forces that push on the student. By this we mean forces such as classroom and teacher expectations, as well as other important elements in a student’s life, such as parents, health and wellness support, athletic coaches, and college counseling, to name a few. All of these elements have needs and demands and how a student responds to them are important for the student’s success. Students need to think about what others need them to do to be successful. Because this is usually laid out by others, what goes in this column tends to be very concrete and ridgid.

The second category is our “Wants” column. This category that focuses on the internal expectations a student has for themselves and are most related to how they want their year to go. This includes academics, but it also tends to include social expectations, athletic, health and wellness, self confidence, and personal benchmarks they want to achieve during the school year. It is important to give voice, life, and planning to what students feel is important. This category allows them the opportunity to see that their vision of the upcoming year does not always need to follow how others see it unfolding.

The final category, the “Should” column, is the most teachable column and is also the most difficult for students to build a clear idea of what they can be with through self management, positive self talk, and better academic awareness. For this category, we ask students to think about how they performed when they were at their best in the classroom, as well as how they could have been more engaged when they were not at their best. This discussion with their academic coach can be insightful, and it allows the student to be open and honest about what they know about themselves, which helps our academic coaches to really build a clear idea of what kind of student they were before the year started and how our students can make themselves aware of what little things they can do to become a better student.

Each category: the Needs, the Wants, and the Shoulds is looked at as equal in all areas of our goal setting process. Each category has overlap with the others and gives the student a clear idea of what they can accomplish this year. More importantly, to our academic coaches, it creates a foundation for the work we will do with our students throughout the year. We keep these goals and refer to them throughout the year as they tend to be broad and far reaching. As part of the curriculum in our program, we repeat this process of Needs, Wants, and Shoulds at the beginning of each week to give our students a plan moving forward in order to stay on track throughout the term. We make sure the initial goals are regularly interwoven into these activities so that the student maintains a level of consistency and focus throughout the year. This is an essential part of our program, and we have had a lot of positive feedback from our students doing this activity week to week in setting the table for their short term success.

The last stage of our activity is to let our students project out their year and identify three moments where they will “triumph”. These moments can come from anywhere in their lives such as an athletic achievement, academic achievement, or a social/emotional triumph they are going to have. It has always been fascinating to see what students come up with during this discussion. For our seniors, it could be getting into college, graduating, etc. These are special and we have made a point of celebrating them with our students. For others, we have seen more personal moments that are just as meaningful, such as calling home when they get an “A” on a geometry test, making a basket in a varsity basketball game, hugging a parent at graduation, and picking themselves up when something goes wrong. For myself and the other academic coaches in our department, this part of the process is inspiring because this reveals how complex and resilient the students we work with are and how lucky we are to work with them. It is not always easy, but when we have an opportunity to celebrate with our students, it gives us as much joy and satisfaction as it gives our students and it helps us all keep moving forward in a positive frame of mind.

For a blank template of Hebron Academy Academic Guidance Center Needs, Wants, Should activity, CLICK HERE

NEALS News August 2019

Thu, 22 Aug 2019 16:01:12 GMT

Dear Learning Specialists and Supporters,

I hope your summer was restful and rejuvenating, and that you are as eager as I am to reconnect with the teachers and students who need your skilled support so much.

You would be so pleased with the 2019-20 NEALS Board of Directors and with their dynamic, passionate, and enthusiastic commitment to our work at the Board Retreat this past July! I would like to share their goals and excitement with a brief update in this letter.

Janet Clarkson Davis, a devoted friend and supporter of NEALS, worked with the Board on the following important topics: Board responsibilities, structure and organization, fundraising and philanthropy. Janet drew from her vast experience consulting for, among others, non profit addiction recovery and literacy organizations and led us through a “what if” discussion, encouraging Board members to envision the best future for NEALS, one that will be responsive to members as well as financially and organizationally secure.

After the retreat, one Board member put our joy and excitement into words:

“The retreat was really successful from my POV. Janet is amaaaazing! I am, as always, grateful and excited to be part of NEALS...the new Board structure sounds great... Some big topics and questions! Well done!”

We are very excited about the direction NEALS is taking as we work through minor growing pains and implement our goals and strategies. NEALS is experiencing a strategic increase in members and services, bringing our organization to a new level of professionalism and sustainability. This was evidenced at NEALS’ 20th anniversary celebration and conference this spring.

As a member, please carefully read over the 190724 minutes posted in the Board minutes folder and our new NEALS organizational chart. We hope you will see where you might join in our efforts to promote professional development for learning specialists creating community through collaboration, support, and advocacy.

1) Please let us know how you might serve NEALS’ members (finding speakers, adding to NEALS’ Resources page or Good Reads account, etc.) and reach out to a Board member with your thoughts.

2) Please attend your fall regional meeting and share your latest quandaries and collective expertise. For example, Eastern Mass will have a regional meeting on Friday November 8th in the morning at Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall School. Thank you Ashley Balaconis for organizing!

Your intelligence, interest, and commitment to NEALS is so appreciated by us all!

Yours,

Susan

Susan Cole Ross

President, Northeast Association of Learning Specialists ~ nealsonline.org

Celebrating 20 years of learning specialists creating community through collaboration, support, and advocacy

June 2019 News

(Past member) — Sat, 01 Jun 2019 19:45:54 GMT

NEALS celebrated their 20th anniversary with a wonderful two-day conference and gala at the Westford Regency Inn and Conference Center in Westford, MA on April 3-5th. Over 100 guests, including independent school learning specialists, psychologists, therapists, educational consultants, and scholars, attended throughout the two days and the feedback on the event has been extremely positive.

The event kicked off Wednesday night with a board meeting and dinner with invited guests. Attendees were the first to try the NEALS signature teal green cocktails and ensured that every folder was stuffed, name badge was made, and vendor booth was set up before the conference festivities began on Thursday morning.

Thursday was a jam-packed day that started with an uplifting and motivating speech by NEALS President Susan Cole Ross. Suz reminded us of NEALS’ humble roots that started when a small band of learning specialists, led by the legendary Dr. Barbara Kenefick, gathered at Hotchkiss for the first time twenty years ago. She noted, “The evolution of NEALS reflects the growing recognition that smart, capable and successful people can have learning disabilities, and that underrepresented students benefit tremendously from individualized teaching by a learning specialist, and the world reaps the rewards.” Board of Directors Treasurer and Secretary, Melissa Rubin and Elizabeth Radday, honored the work Susan has done as President of NEALS since 2011 with the Barbara Kenefick Service Award. They noted that Susan was the fearless leader and driving force behind the recently completed five-year strategic plan and the lead organizer of the 20th anniversary conference and gala.

Dr. George McCloskey took the stage and gave the first keynote, entitled “Improving Executive Capacities at Multiple Levels.” Dr. McCloskey shared tips and tools for working with students with executive function weaknesses. His afternoon breakout session followed up his morning presentation with in-depth case studies of students with whom he has worked. Also on Thursday afternoon, Sharon Plante offered a break out session on “Technol-O.G.: Enhancing Structural Literacy Instruction with Educational Technology.” Everyone enjoyed a much-needed brain break Thursday afternoon with camaraderie, yoga, a walk, a swim, or just a rest before the gala later that evening.

The 20th Anniversary Gala celebration kicked off with an entertaining and delicious cocktail hour with live entertainment from bassist Bruce Gertz and pianist Phil Wilson, an internationally renowned jazz performer who has dyslexia. On behalf of the Board, Susan Ross honored founding member Joanne Hayhurst with the Founders’ Award and shared more of the history of the founding of NEALS and its 20 years hence (history available on the NEALS website.) NEALS also debuted its original film Reservation with You, which Ross notes was “created as an entertaining, poignant, and lasting gift in return for all the sacrifices learning specialists make for students in need.” Colleagues had opportunities to mingle with friends, old and new, make new professional connections, and share their passion for teaching students with learning differences.

Friday was another busy day with a keynote from Nanci Shepardson and afternoon break-out sessions. Shepherdson spoke brilliantly about “Assistive Technology: What the Research Says About Which Technologies Support Skill Acquisition.” Her engaging talk also allowed time for attendees to test out different assistive technology platforms and apps. In the afternoon Sharon Plante, Noel Foy, and Melissa Garner offered sessions on Technology for Executive Functions, Tips and Tools for Managing Anxiety, and Learning Disabilities versus Literacy Deficits, respectively.

The entire conference was an uplifting celebration of the work of learning specialists as well as an engaging two-days of professional learning opportunities. The expertise of the speakers as well as others in the room results in an event that will ultimately impact over 8,000 students whom NEALS members serve in their classrooms and practices.

2019 Conference Press Release

(Past member) — Fri, 05 Apr 2019 19:55:59 GMT

NorthEast Association of Learning Specialists (NEALS) Celebrates with 20th Anniversary Members’ Conference

Rye, NH - The NorthEast Association of Learning Specialists (NEALS), the premier professional development organization for learning specialists, held its 20th Anniversary Members’ Conference and Celebration April 3-5, 2019 at the Westford Regency Inn and Conference Center in Westford, MA. The two-day conference, exclusive to members and invited guests, was significant for NEALS as its membership celebrates remarkable growth and twenty years of service to students with learning disabilities. The conference included a ticketed dinner and gala on Thursday evening to honor NEALS mentors and a new generation of learning specialists, educators who tirelessly help students with learning challenges and disabilities to realize their full potential.

Of note, keynote speakers Dr. George McCloskey and Nanci Shepardson presented at the conference on Improving Executive Capacities at Multiple Levels and Assistive Technology: What the Research Says About Which Technologies Support Skill Acquisition, respectively. Sharon Plante also spoke both days about the latest technologies available to students with learning disabilities. Phil Wilson, internationally renowned jazz performer who has dyslexia, performed Thursday evening at the gala dinner. NEALS also debuted its original film Reservation with You, which president Susan Cole Ross notes was “created as an entertaining, poignant, and lasting gift in return for all the sacrifices learning specialists make for students in need.” Ross remarks that the conference attracted over one hundred academic support professionals, including psychologists, therapists, educational consultants, and scholars, whose collaboration at the conference stands to impact thousands of students in independent schools.

20th Anniversary Welcome

(Past member) — Sat, 16 Mar 2019 19:57:32 GMT

Welcome to NEALS’ 20th Anniversary Celebration!

Foremost, we celebrate you, our members, because you are the greatest value offered by NEALS. With our online discussions, at our regional meetings, and at this conference you bring your wisdom, your creativity, and your support to hundreds of fellow learning specialists. That support in turn brings innovative professionalism, refreshed teaching, and cutting edge services to thousands of students with learning challenges: a sustainable gift to the world.

To such lofty goals, please make the most of this year’s two day opportunity to enjoy camaraderie, networking, learning, retreat activities, and great food! We are so excited to hear from our keynote speakers, Dr. George McCloskey and Nanci Shepardson, on some of our most compelling issues in their talks on Improving Executive Capacities at Multiple Levels and Assistive Technology: What the Research Says About Which Technologies Support Skill Acquisition, respectively. In addition, Sharon Plante has so generously offered to speak to us on both days, as she has on our online discussions, about the latest technologies available to make our students as literate, creatively effective and educationally included as possible.

Be sure to join us Thursday evening, with Phil Wilson, internationally renowned jazz performer, who also has dyslexia, in celebrating our milestone and the work that you do every day. We will be debuting Reservation with You, a special film we have created, that I am sure you will receive as a poignant and lasting gift in return for all the sacrifices you make for students in need.

I recently spoke with Rick Lavoie, author of the groundbreaking film How Difficult Can This Be? and book The Motivation Breakthrough, who congratulates us on NEALS’ 20th, noting how remarkable it has been for our nonprofit to thrive over the last 20 years. NEALS has survived the recession, grown at a time when so many nonprofits have crumbled, and added value to your members each year. We’re excited about the 20th, but most excited about the added value that NEALS has come to offer. We are eager for your ideas to expand the benefits of membership further. We hope that NEALS’ 30th celebration will look back with pride at how far we’ve come from here!

Congratulations!

Susan

Know Your Student

Mon, 25 Feb 2019 01:33:23 GMT

By Chris Ouellette

We have found that there is one support tool that is necessary to have before you implement any other tool or resource with a student. The first tool we are sharing with you is yourself and the ability to really know your student.

There I was, fresh out of my degree program, with all of the latest programs and resources to support students diagnosed with learning disabilities. I was assigned Student Y who could benefit greatly from what I learned in my degree program. I was scheduled with the student for second block of the day. This was it, the moment had come, I even had on my favorite shirt. The student came into my space, took one look at me, screamed and ran out refusing to meet. I peeked my head out of the room in time to see other heads staring down at me quizzically. I asked myself “how could this go so wrong when we have all of this training?!?” As it turned out, if I had done some initial digging, I would have discovered that Student Y had a prominent aversion to the color yellow. I bet you can guess what color my favorite shirt was.

While this is an extreme example, I am positive that I would have worn a different color shirt had I been privy to that piece of prior knowledge about the student. The number of hats that we wear; teacher; coach; advisor; counselor; dorm parent; etc., allows us to develop deep and meaningful connections with our students. These connections are what allow us to serve our students to the best of our abilities. These relationships allow us to praise students during their great moments; and allow us to really lean in to the discomfort with our students during their difficult times. More importantly, it is these relationships that help our students lean into the vulnerability needed to receive specialized support for a learning disability. Knowing your student works well on the individual level, but how about within the overall climate of the school?

When referring to school climate, Dr. Bill Preble of New England College said, “students just can’t learn when their pants are on fire,” meaning that in order to provide optimal learning conditions, we need to help students feel safe in the environment. Preble and Taylor (2009) state “When teachers or principals perceive their schools to be safe and respectful places, they may be blind to problems going on right under their noses.” Battling those blind spots becomes much easier when the faculty and staff at the school really know their students. This is where learning specialists play a critical role as we are often the only adults sitting down with a student one on one every week. If each student has at least one adult that truly knows them, the odds are increased that these students will share both the good and the bad. When students are sharing with us, when we truly have a pulse on the school, we are better able to create the positive school climates that our students need to thrive in education.

We are fortunate to be able to continue fostering the relationships with the students that we know well already. My challenge to you is to get to know some students that you don’t know well already. How you might ask? You could throw up an extra high-five in the hallway, or invite in the whole group of students who drop by your office with your student. It makes such a difference to a child, away from home when a learning specialist goes to an extra home game, or congratulates them on their recently won award, whether you are close to them or not. Thank you, because no matter how you choose to get to know your students, you are helping to provide a learning environment where they can thrive.

That’s it for today, and I will leave you with the wise words of the Blue Scholars, “in each mind resides a potential so potent”.

Cheers,

Chris

Five Ways Finland Gets Vocational and Technical Education Right

Sat, 19 Nov 2016 01:35:44 GMT

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/global_learning/2016/11/five_ways_finland_gets_vocational_and_technical_education_right_lessons_for_the_united_states.html

Elizabeth Radday, our NEALS Board Member, wrote this blog entry for Education Week