Vol. IV No.5 * July, August, September, 1999
(links were valid through December 1999)
In This Issue
In this issue we're focusing on taking positive steps to give our
children the best possible start in life, developing classroom and community support
networks that enhance learning, taking responsibility for solving problems and
changing what does not work.
What does a diagnosis of ADD or ADHD mean for a child and how do parents and
teachers help these students? A new area of the Building will contain information
and resources on this important topic as part of OSPI's Inclusion website. Enjoy the summer as
you plan ahead for the new school year -- and the new century.
View from the Observation Deck:
ADD/ADHD: Critical Questions
Dee Dickinson- Dee introduces the newest area of the Building, focused on children who
have been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder.
- Vision
of the Future
Jean Houston
- Dee also introduces a new addition to Window on the Future, an article by Jean
Houston about imagining and creating change.
A
Blueprint for Action III
NCEBC: National Council on Educating Black Children - This important document draws on "effective schools" research pioneered
by the late Dr. Ron Edmonds and on the concept that all children can learn.
If offers a concrete program of action items and implementation activities
that public school districts and communities can recommend to their stakeholders.
The report offers a collaborative means of solving problems and accelerating
achievement for all children, and Black children in particular.
Another handbook of interest to community-building efforts is reviewed
in Have You Seen...? below.
Kids Inventing to Learn
Ed Sobey- Author Ed Sobey and the folks at Kids Invent! believe that people,
especially kids, learn optimally when we transform them from students into
inventors, scientists, and artists. Once the transformation occurs, they take
responsibility for their learning and exhibit a passion that didn't exist
before the transformation. Kids Invent Toys is a summer program that
encourages and fosters creative thinking in children.
Overcoming
the Underdevelopment of Learning
Jan Visser- Jan Visser, developer of the Learning Development Institute and former Director
of the Learning Without Frontiers coordination unit (LWF) in UNESCO, discusses
the meaning of learning and proposes that we have an underdeveloped view of
learning that results in inadequate learning opportunities. He argues in favor
of a transdisciplinary, constructivist approach, reminding us that vital communities
are continually redefining themselves. From a report prepared for the Symposium
on Overcoming the Underdevelopment of Learning at the Annual Meeting of
the American Educational Research Association, Montreal, Canada, April, 1999.
The Brain Lab: Why Einstein's Brain?
Marian C. Diamond, Ph.D. - The excitement of discovery is infectious -- Marian Diamond describes how
she came to be interested in studying the ratio of glial cells to neurons
in Einstein's brain back in the early 1980s.
Here's more on the Internet about Einstein's Brain:
What
are the Determinants of Children's Academic Successes and Difficulties?
Marian C. Diamond, Ph.D. - How can parents and teachers provide conditions that will most effectively
promote growth and change in our children's brains? How can parents help a
child develop his or her full potential and set a pathway of lifelong learning?
In this article, Marian Diamond, neuroanatomist describes ways in which parents
and teachers should create a climate for enchanted minds to obtain information,
stimulate imagination, develop an atmosphere to enhance motivation and creativity
and experience the value of a work ethic.
Special Needs and Inclusive Schools: About ADD/ADHD and Behavior - This special section of inclusion of students with special needs focuses
on ADD/ADHD. Articles in this section explore issues and controversies surrounding
the diagnosis of attention deficit disorder and what professionals who work
with children currently think. Several articles offer alternative approaches
to helping children who are having difficulty in the classroom. A bibliography
contains books to help parents and teachers understand and work with health
professionals.
- Special Needs and Inclusive Schools: Current
Knowledge and Attitudes on the Subject of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder
Judith Bluestone
- An overview of current knowledge and professional opinion on the diagnosis
of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Article contains a link
to the complete National Institutes of Health report on a conference convened
to determine professional consensus on ADD and ADHD. You will also find
a variety of links to support organizations and online resources.
- Special
Needs and Inclusive Schools: Bibliography: ADD/ADHD and Behavior
- A list of books about ADD/ADHD, what the diagnosis means, alternatives
to drug therapies, controversy about the disorders, help for parents and
teachers who want to understand and work with health professionals.
- Special
Needs and Inclusive Schools: ADD: Does It Really Exist? Thomas Armstrong,
Ph.D.
Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D.
- Thomas Armstrong questions the rush to diagnosis of children as having
ADD and related disorders. He describes the tools used for assessment of
these children, the environments that bring out ADD-like behavior in children,
and cites evidence that shows many children diagnosed with the disorder
function normally when engaged in an activity. Additionally, there is a
great deal of controversy over studies that seemed to show differences in
brain function between ADD and non-ADD subjects. Armstrong asks us to consider
the consequences of attaching a psychiatric label to what may be a child's
essentially normal, though classroom-disrupting behavior. This article first
appeared in Phi Delta Kappan.
- Special
Needs and Inclusive Schools: ADD ADHD and Brain Gym:
Jon Pederson, M.A.
- Brain Gym is a family program that has helped students with ADD and ADHD.
The developers found that impressive results come when a family cooperates
in developing a healthy diet, learns to deal effectively with stress, has
fun together, nurtures each other.
- Special
Needs and Inclusive Schools: Sensory Integration, Attention and Learning:
Dana Nicholls OTR/L and Peggy Syvertson M.A
- A brief article about alternatives to drug therapy for attention and learning
problems. Because unorganized sensory input creates a traffic jam in our
brain making it difficult to pay attention and learn, the authors suggest
that sensory integration, the organization of tactile, proprioceptive, and
vestibular input, may be the answer for some people. The article contains
links to several Internet resources.
- Special
Needs and Inclusive Schools: ADD ADHD or Other Names for Malnutrition:
Samuel C. Zeiler M.S., C.N.
- A nutritionist looks at dietary trends in America and proposes that many
children eat diets lacking in nutrients essential to the proper growth and
development of the brain. In addition, coping with environmental stresses
can impair neurologic functioning. The article suggest simple starter steps
to take for your own children or for the students in your classroom.
- Stories that Teach: At Home With My Children:
Cheryl Null
- A parent describes what she has learned from watching the effects of the
environment on her two children and offers simple, practical tips that have
worked for her family. Through observation she identified environments and
food additives that changed her children's behavior and found that attention
to discomfort and distress in sensitive children makes a big difference
in their actions and reactions.
- (As of 12/23/2005, this article is no longer available
on our website. We were asked by the author to remove it.)
Center for Change in Transition Services
At every level, schools should be actively working with children and adolescents
with special needs on a plan to achieve meaningful career, post-secondary and
higher education goals. The Center for Change in Transition Services identifies
best practices, working with schools in Washington state. They have just added
information about new transition pilot programs, and we wll be following these
schools and districts as they implement their new programs. The Center focuses
on changing practices in the transition from school to adult life for students
with disabilities.
The Center collaborates with many partners, including The Office of the State
Superintendent of Public Instruction, The Washington State Department of Social
and Health Services, the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, and The University
of Washington.
Book Reviews in This Issue:
Review:
Another Perspective: Cultural and Social Pressures and ADD/ADHD: Real
Boys and Reviving Ophelia - A review of two books, Real Boys by William Pollack and Reviving
Ophelia by Mary Pipher. Both books describe cultural and social pressures
facing older children and adolescents which, when unrecognized by adults,
can lead to inappropriate behaviors and learning difficulties.
GIRAFFE OF THE MONTH
We asked the folks at The Giraffe Project
to let us share stories about some of the heroes they've discovered quietly
sticking their necks out to make the world a better place. This month The Giraffe
Project shares the story of Gloria Simoneaux
and Drawbridge .
In 1979 Gloria Simoneaux was, as she puts it, "just one person, carrying
my paints and paper into hospitals." Today she's the founder and director
of Drawbridge, an arts program that's feeding the spirits of over a thousand
homeless children.
New
on the Bulletin Board:
- Announcements: Courses Offered for Credit
in the Building
Environmental Action Projects: Children Can Make the Difference,
a year-long self-paced course offering 5 graduate level credits from
Seattle Pacific University. Join teachers who are using this curriculum
in schools all over the world.
- Announcements: Learning Space in the Kingdome
August 19, 1999
Whether you are a K-20 teacher, an administrator, a parent, or a student
of learning, this event will excite and motivate you. Awaiting inside
the Kingdome will be a rich program of presentations and workshops
of cutting-edge practices as well as displays and demos from software
vendors, booksellers, and businesses that focus on education. For
more information go to the Learning Space website: http://www.learningspace.org.
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New
in the Humor Lounge
- Higher Order Thinking Skills
- A cautionary tale about the perils of lifelong learning...don't
try this at home!
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Have
You Seen . . .
Links to announcements, interesting reading
and great resources.
|
-
Child Research Net Cybrary: Making Friends: An ecological perspective
on the breakdown in social relations of today's children
- New Horizons International Advisory Board member Noboru Kobayashi,
M.D. writes from Japan about children's friendships and their lives
within the micro-world of their families and their families' relationship
to the larger society. The ecology of childhood is changing, he writes,
and that should be of concern to us all. The article appears at Child Research Net, a nonprofit
organization in Japan that has designed its English site mainly for
academics, educators, professionals, policy-makers and youth to work
together to better understand Japanese culture and Japanese children.
- Guidebook:
Early Warning: Timely Response
- This guide presents a brief summary of the research on violence
prevention and intervention and crisis response in schools, written
for members of school communities, administrators, teachers, staff,
families, students, and community-based professionals. It presents
documentation on research into the efficacy of prevention and early
intervention efforts to reduce violence and other troubling behaviors
in schools, especially practices that can help school communities
recognize the warning signs early. The guide emphasises a whole-community
approach. Look also for a terrific collection of links to related
websites. The guide is available in many formats and online in its
entirety-- it was prepared by a number of nationally recognized organizations.
- Guidebook: Protecting
Students from Harassment and Hate Crime: A Guide for Schools
- One of the things missing in many schools' responses to the Columbine
incident is the recognition of the role of harassment in the alienation
of the students involved. This guideline lays the many steps involved
in creating a school climate that respects individual differences
and promotes appreciation of racial and cultural diversity
- NPR: Morning
Edition®
- NPR's Morning Edition® consistently runs top-quality
reports on school and educational issues. If you miss a show, or hear
half of it in the car on the way to work, NPR makes the audio available
online.
- Website: ASCD: Educational Leadership: Why Standardized
Tests Don't Measure Educational Quality W. James Popham
- Just in time for our annual Assessment Conference for 1999: The
Roads to Mastery K-12, Dr. W. James Popham explores standardized tests
and likens employing standardized achievement tests to ascertain educational
quality to measuring temperature with a tablespoon. Tablespoons have
a different measurement mission than indicating how hot or cold something
is. Standardized achievement tests have a different measurement mission
than indicating how good or bad a school is. The article focuses on
why standardized tests scores are invalid. It also offers solutions
for educators frustrated with standardized assessment. EL: March,
1999, focuses on Using Standards and Assessments
- Article:
Co-teaching: Are Two Heads Better Than One in an Inclusion Classroom?
- This Harvard Education Letter article reports on the growing
number of educators who are experimenting with cooperative teaching,
or the practice of pairing a special educator with a regular educator
in a single classroom to facilitate inclusive instruction. It works,
and formerly skeptical teachers now see true benefits to inclusive
schools.
- Article: Johnny Still
Can't Read?
- This article appears in an issue of the Harvard Education Letter
focused on reading research. Also of interest are other articles and
abstracts in the issue. The Harvard Education Letter consistently
delivers useful information for educators. To subscribe go to Orders/Subscriptions
online.
- Website: SAMI: Science and Math Initiatives: Teacher Help
- Thirteen K-12 teachers who have been using the Internet in the
classroom for several years are now available to assist teachers with
Internet-based science and math activities. These mentor teachers
will help you find resources on the Internet such as projects, activities,
lesson plans, etc. They are available to help plan a project, locate
penpals, help you with using just one computer in a classroom for
a project, etc. The mentor teachers are from different parts of the
United States so the service can provide both a national and a local
perspective. This free service is available to any teacher and is
being funded by the Annenberg/CPB
Math and Science Project.
- Website: Aeronautics
Learning Laboratory for Science Technology, and Research (ALLSTAR)
Network
- Teachers will find learning modules for middle, high school and
lower division college level students interested in learning math
and science through the study of aeronautics and space travel. Learning
modules are based on national science and math standards. Complex
site offers tools to upgrade computers to see video, etc. Developed
by NASA, and a consortium of public and business
partners.
- Interview: National Public Radio: Morning Edition Building New Schools
- Trish Anderson interviews Architect Stephen Bingler whose innovative
school environments are helping connect schools to communities. Go
to Less is More: Learning
Environments for the Next Century to read more about Bingler and
his work.
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