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At the beginning of the summer, our team spent some time thinking through contingency plans and what back to school would look like for the 2020–2021 school year. Now that it’s the end of the summer, schools are sharing their reopening plans, and we have a better...
Numerous studies have now shown that the way millions of American children are taught to read is not actually making them fluent readers. It is, instead, leading to lifelong learning struggles and, in some cases, the need for special education services that would not...
As we get ready to go back to school this fall, knowing that many of our children will be studying at home again for a while, what have we learned since the spring that will help us succeed at distance learning? Over the summer, my family and I have played with...
“These headphones aren’t working,” nine-year-old Jeremiah Ryan said to his mom, Sheila. They fished around for another pair. Those were “broken” too, he said. And so were his brother’s ear buds and his sister’s headphones. After some back and forth, it became clear to...
Precilla Pena’s story started out like many stories in the special education world. Things seemed to go well for her daughter Ava throughout preschool and kindergarten. There were little things, here and there, she said, a turned letter, typical pre-literate...
It was a gorgeous, crisp, spring morning when I sat down on Jasmin Dean’s back porch to walk through the dyslexia simulator. I had my pen ready, my Experience Dyslexia packet printed and neatly stapled. Like Dean, I grew up as a teacher’s pet. The academic work was...
Discussing practical steps families can take now to up their emotional learning game and set themselves on a path to positive relationships, goal setting, and making responsible decisions. Emotions are running high and there’s no place to go. No, it’s not a horror...
School districts and charter schools are planning what it will be like to go back to school during a pandemic. This summer, Mindshift ED, a group of parent advocates, has started a petition to speak up about the choices parents want for safety and equity. I signed...
Growing up, Jasmin Dean remembers being a “teacher’s pet.” Her husband had been a teacher’s pet as well. They assumed that their bright, pleasing first born would be the same. The student who was “a delight to teach” and “the kind of student every teacher loves to...
With emotions running high for just about everyone, now is the necessary opportunity to really talk about how we all feel and help children and teens do the same, and realize why social emotional learning matters to our lives. Stressed, anxious, pressured, depressed....
I have to admit that I was shocked when Maribel Gardea said that she was pleased with San Antonio ISD’s special education services during the COVID-19 school closures. Gardea’s son has multiple medical complexities, and she has been an active, vocal advocate. She’s...
The strange school year of 2019–2020, overshadowed by COVID-19, is coming to an end, but families still don’t know what to expect when it’s time for 2020 back to school season in the fall. How do we spend summer break living with the uncertainty of not knowing what...