Year

Shannon Carter was in the private school system through the sixth grade. In 1983, when Shannon was 13 years old she entered the seventh grade at Timmonsville School. During her seventh grade year she performed poorly and she was tested twice for a potential learning disability. The tests reveal that she had some difficulties yet they were not severe enough to conclude that Shannon difficulties could be classified as a learning disability. Instead, according to wrightslaw.com “the school…

Across the world, Jews will celebrate the holiday of Purim this year from the eve of March 11 through March 12 with much fanfare and excitement. Families will go from door to door sporting costumes while delivering candy and other foods, and sit down to a lavish meal with friends and relatives later in the day to celebrate the holiday. But far beyond the food and costumes, Purim has a much deeper purpose to it, a lesson applicable to each and every one of our lives. Purim, one of the most…

Getting Better Grades. This year, I haven't had the best grades, failing almost every class until now, I realized that if I don't get my stuff together that I might get held back. And the thought of that made me want to work and get all my homework in and do the best I can on all graded work. In the beginning of the year I goofed off A LOT. And doing that put me into a hole I couldn't dig myself out of, and at that point I wasn’t really worried, so in study hall and at home I would say “I…

beaten up for reading was replaced by the fear of flunking out of college. His lack of reading when he was younger made it difficult for him to do academic reading (24). He finally came to appreciate literature by reading the critics in his college years. That is what the moment that encapsulates him as a reader and a teacher. For me, my race didn’t drive be to pretend like I didn’t like learning, it drove me to do the very best I could at an early age. I don’t think that race should hold you…

normally associated with a basal reading program” (75–76). Initially SSR termed for a school-wide daily reading time for students in which reading material was not monitored nor were students evaluated on their reading. SSR first was proposed over forty years ago by Lyman C. Hunt, Jr. of the University of Vermont in the 1960s (Trelease 2001). Manning-Dowd (1985) reviewed research on SSR and concluded that SSR has a positive effect on reading comprehension and reading attitudes at all grade…

The beginning of Junior year, my second year after I was accepted to the Teaching Academy. We walked to Rio Vista Elementary school to become reading buddies. Preschool caught my eye because I’ve been told they were difficult because of their age and how small their attention span was. The first day we didn’t choose our buddies they decided who they wanted. I was chosen by this girl named Jasymine, she was shy and didn’t talk as much as her classmate did. The second week there was this boy who…

Back in middle school, I was a part of National Junior Honor Society (NJHS). We were the largest class to be inducted into NJHS. Being such a large class meant we would have to raise a lot of money if we expected to reach our goal. Our goal was to raise enough money for our trip to the Lead Conference at Washington, D.C. Only one NJHS chapter before us had raised enough money to go all the way to Washington, D.C. We were determined to reach that same goal, but things don't always go as planned.…

ome of my greatest memories were of my learning in school. At the end of my second grade year, I was in a school bus accident. When I got to the hospital they said a had a head concoction, and needed to stay for testing to see how bad it was. I went to school with the ability to learn like all the other student, but came home with a long path to relearning all my school functions. My struggle through learning has been a lifelong process, through multiple programs, lots of encouragement, and a…

Our reluctance as a school district to make substantial changes in our educational system leaves a lot to be desired. We uphold an outdated model of education that isn 't nearly as effective as it could be. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said that the K-12 system “largely still adheres to the century-old, industrial-age factory model of education.” Our middle school model is flawed at the core; adolescents are not engaged in the classroom and lack the social skills they need to thrive.…

S’niya, a fourth-grade student at Miramar Elementary School, was given four assessments from a Scholastic resource packet that helps to determine what level of reading a student is currently achieving. The Scholastic resource assessments allow a teacher to establish an idea of the student’s reading proficiency and also helps to conclude what sort of instructional plan would best suit the needs of each individual student. With the Clinical Educator’s discretion, S’niya was assigned to complete a…