Friday, July 26, 2013

The Next Always



Title: The Next Always
Author: Nora Roberts
Series: Inn of Boonsboro (Book 1)
Genre: Romance





Nora Roberts has always been one of my favorites. Her latest series centers around a family of 3 men and their mom who are renovating a historical building into a bed and breakfast. The first of the three men, Beckett has had a crush on Clare since he was in his early teens. She has gotten married, moved away, had 3 sons and then returned a widow. 

A nice and fluffy read. Lately I feel like I've been reading less plain, contemporary romance novels and this was a nice change. My favorite was Lizzy the ghost!

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

The Boys and Girls Learn Differently: An Action Guide for Teachers



Title: The Boys and Girls Learn Differently: Action Guide for Teachers
Author: Michael Gurian
Series: None
Genre: Non-Fiction




I've been doing some professional development over the summer. A few things that stuck out for me from this book:
- Males see better in a brighter light
- When testosterone is high, boys do better in math. 
- Boys need louder voices than females
- Boys learn better when they start with the general concept and then apply it
- Boys do better with abstract thinking, not necessarily manipulatives

There are a bunch of ideas that are listed that we already implement in my school.
- Rites of Passage
- Uniforms
- Ratio of 1:20 - ours is actually lower
- Team teaching and mentoring

A few ideas that I thought about bringing to the table next year as mentioned in the book:
- Stress Balls
- Buddy Rooms - Send a student to a safe place to work it out. Use another teacher who they are close with.
- BIST Model - While it's a little extreme for us, there are elements that I liked. including the Recovery Room, a THINK sheet and checking out with a teacher.