Helpful Resources for the Classroom

  • ​This short list  is suggestive of the kind of resources that were available and helpful to me and to the children in my care. Finding appropriate resources is a teacher's  responsibility, often in collaboration with parents, in order to fully address children’s learning challenges.
  • http://lindamoodbell.com/     Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes is an effective program for children with dyslexia. The program is expensive. I worked with a support teacher who had taken this training at her own expense. A good use of school funds would  be to pay for such training for teachers or for learning specialists. 
  • http://www.braingym.org/      Brain Gym offers movement exercises for children to enhance learning and help with developmental delays.  Teachers can take workshops to learn the exercises and also view them through videos.  I took a workshop and also referred several students to a skilled Brain Gym practitioner with good results.
  • http://www.bal-a-vis-x.com    I missed Ball-a-visics and  learned about this excellent program from a teacher that I was mentoring who had many children with developmental challenges in her first grade class. This is an excellent program with at least 300 exercises that can be performed individually with students or with an entire class.  
  • http://www.mathsolutions.com     Math Solutions is the lifework of mathematics educator Marilyn Burns. Her website is a treasure trove of ideas, challenging lessons, and wisdom.  I thank Marilyn and her cohorts for offering me the tools to become a successful math teacher. 
  • https://www.khanacademy.org/    Kahn Academy is an online math program that provides good practice support for students who are behind in math.  I have recommended this program to students to do on their own over the summer or as an adjunct to class work and observed that it was very helpful. Again, parents have to be able to afford this extra expense 
  • http://www.anatbanielmethod.com/    For children with noticeable neurological delays, Anat Baniel Method may be heaven sent.  Her book inspired me and I was very impressed with results that I observed.
  • http://www.janehealy.com/ – for identifying, understanding and treating learning problems
  • http://youandyourchildshealth.org/  Dr. Susan Johnson is a medical doctor whose quest to help her developmentally challenged son led to a journey of discovery and assistance for parents. An excellent resource.
  • http://brainbalancecenters.com Dr. Melillo has established learning centers that help parents and teachers diagnose and treat attention and focus problems without drugs.
  • http://neufeldinstitute.org/    Offers courses and presentations for therapists, parents and teachers based on Dr. Neufeld's attachment based developmental approach to  making sense of children and deepening  relationships with them.
  • http://habitsofmind.org/institute-for-habits-of-mind/  established by Dr. Art Costa and Bena Kallick, directed by James Anderson,  with a mission to create a more thoughtful, cooperative, and compassionate generation of people able to resolve social, environmental, economic and political problems.
  • http://inquiryinstitute.com  established by Marilee Adams to promote more consciousness and choice by helping people identify whether they are using “judger mind” or “learner mind”. This is a tremendously helpful program that teaches explicitly what I taught implicitly. This approach can be adapted to children of any age and is a major support to any learning.process.
  • http://www.marionbrady.com/    Reality Based Learning offers lesson plans and foundational principles for project-based education.
  • http://dianeravitch.com/what-you-can-do?      How to opt out and join the movement against high stakes testing.
  • https://waldorfeducation.org/ General information about Waldorf education
  • http://rudolfsteinerpress.com/  Publishes books by Rudolf Steiner as well as many books about Waldorf education and anthroposophy.
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Kinzie and Nate in "Midsummer Night's Dream"

Recommended Books

  • Marilee Adams. Teaching That Changes Lives: 12 Mindset Tools For Igniting A Love of Learning, Barrett Koehler Publishers, San Francisco, CA, 2013.
  • Prof. Arthur L. Costa, Ed.D., Bena Kallich, PhD., Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind: 16 Essential Characteristics for Success. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2008.
  • Sura Hart and Victoria Kindle Hodson. The Compassionate Classroom: Relationship-Based Teaching and Learning. Puddle Dance Press, 2004.
  • Jane M. Healy, Ph.D.
    • Your Child's Growing Mind: A Practical Guide To Brain Development and Learning From Birth To Adolescence, Doubleday, 1994
    • Different Learners:  Identifying, Preventing and Treating Your Child's Learning Problems, Simon and Schuster, 2010.
    • Endangered Minds: Why Children Don't Think and What We Can Do About It, Touchstone, 1990.
  • John Holt, How Children Learn, Perseus Books, 1983.  This is the second edition of John Holt's 1964 best seller. 
  • Paul Mathews, Sing Me The Creation: A sourcebook for poets and teachers, and for all who wish to develop the life of the imagination, Hawthorn Press, UK, 1994. 
  • Gabor Matè, Scattered: How Attention Deficit Disorder Originates and What You Can Do About It, A Plume Book, Penguin, 2000.
  • Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Matè, Hold On To Your Kids, Ballantine Books, 2004, 2005
  • Kirsten Olson, Wounded by School: Recapturing the Joy in Learning and Standing Up to Old School Culture,  Teacher's College Press, 2009
  • Joseph Chilton Pearce, Magical Child, Dutton, 1977.
  • Ken Robinson, Ph.D. and Lour Aronica, Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Education, (Viking, 2015)
  • Marshall B. Rosenberg, Ph.D., Life-Enriching Education: Nonviolent Communication Helps Schools Improve Performance, Reduce Conflict, and Enhance Relationships, (Puddle Dancer Press, 2003).
  •  Nell Smyth, Drama at the Heart, Teaching Drama in Steiner-Waldorf Schools. (Floris Books, 2016).