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Category: Homeschooling

father and daughter in a homeschool study space
How to Set Up a Homeschool Study Space

How to Set Up a Homeschool Study Space

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Setting up a homeschool or remote learning study space can and should be a really personal process.  What works well for some families may not be so great for others.  Some may have a separate room that can be dedicated to homeschooling while others may not.  Above all consider what really works for your family first.  Having a central location for organizing supplies, manipulatives, and projects can be extremely helpful because you save time that might be wasted hunting for…

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Teacher self-care
Making Teacher Self-Care a Priority

Making Teacher Self-Care a Priority

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Why Self-Care is Important I am slowly working my way through The Distance Learning Playbook by Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and John Hattie.  The first section of the book is on the fact that teacher need to practice consistent and intentional self-care.  In my opinion, this is just as important for homeschooling parents and parents of distance learners.  It’s super easy to get so busy working that you forget to rest, eat healthy meals, work out, and maintain social connections….

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Kindness
Why Kindness Really Matters Now

Why Kindness Really Matters Now

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.A few years ago, I heard in passing about the beautiful commencement address that the short story writer George Saunders had given at Syracuse University.  In this speech, he talks about the fact that the things he regrets most in his life are failures of kindness. It’s a little facile, maybe, and certainly hard to implement, but I’d say, as a goal in life, you could do worse than: Try to be kinder. If you have never read or heard…

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Gradual release model
The Gradual Release Model: I Do, We Do, You Do

The Gradual Release Model: I Do, We Do, You Do

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Mastery Teaching The gradual release model has been around in some form for a very long time.  When I first started teaching, we planned based on the Madeline’s Hunter’s method of effective instruction, known as mastery teaching. If I were going to pick a single book to give as a gift to a new teacher, it would be this book.  I still have my really ancient yellow copy from 1982, and it is still relevant today.  Teachers who structure a…

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distance learning
How Homeschooling and Distance Learning Are Different

How Homeschooling and Distance Learning Are Different

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With COVID-19 impacting pretty much all of society, school districts across the country are making some really serious decisions about distance learning and in-person instruction.    These decisions will ultimately affect the health of our children and families.  Parents in many places are choosing whether to send their kids back to school for in-person instruction or to choose remote learning.  I think we are all feeling the weight of these decisions. What is distance learning? Distance learning is basically instruction…

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