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TMTLaH is now hiring: Developer – API Integration

Seeking a developer for contract work to build an API integration between SumTotal LMS and MailChimp, to automate reports and push notifications. Accepting proposals for 4th quarter of the year. Proposals due September 10, 2014. Submit proposals to info@teachmetolearnathome.com with the subject “API Integration Proposal”.

For API keys, follow these links:

MailChimp: http://apidocs.mailchimp.com/

SumTotal: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/147cb0f6909eeedc?projector=1

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/147cb0f6909eeedc?projector=1

Parent Involvement in Education

Parent InvolvementWe know from decades of research that when parents are involved, learning soars! Opportunities for involvement vary, from spending time volunteering in the school to regular communication between the parent and teacher about the progress of their child. Outreach to parents is especially important for low achieving students. The issue is not what to do but WHAT WORKS!

Sixty-four percent of the differences in achievement, when comparing the highest to the lowest scoring schools in subjects like math and science, are due to variables in the parental involvement activity, according to statistics from the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. Like any skill, the more practice that occurs outside of lessons, the better a student will become. With students spending more time at home than at school, the hours outside the classroom are an essential time where parents should be encouraging and reinforcing concepts learned in the classroom.

After decades of research working with parents and teachers, Teach Me To Learn at Home® was created for that busy parent, guardian or care-giver and teacher. You know the parent, absolutely dedicated and interested in their child, but no time to come to an after school event. We make it easy and simple to use. One click from any internet connected device gets you straight to Teach Me To Learn at Home®. Available 24 hours a day on any computing device, parents can learn the “what” and “how” to teach their 2-5 year old child when logged into Teach Me To Learn at Home® anywhere and anytime. What a great benefit for that very busy Mom and Dad.

When parents and educators work together, children have limitless potential to achieve great things. Teach Me To Learn at Home® gives parents the skills to overcome these barriers at an early age to ensure reading success for their child. Our internet-delivered learning site empowers parents and families with the developmentally appropriate literacy activities to help their child develop their reading skills. 

 

To realize the benefits to parents with your own FREE trial of Teach Me To Learn at Home®. Click here to Get Started: http://learningportal.teachmetolearnathome.com/register/?token=BOOKS

Promoting Success Through Parental Involvement in Education

Parent InvolvementThe typical child spends more than a thousand hours at school each year interacting with teachers and other students. While each child is under the care and supervision of teachers and school administrators during this time, a child can only reach their full potential when parents are involved in their education both in school as well as at home. 

 

 

Creating a Home Learning Environment

64 percent of the differences in achievement, when comparing the highest to the lowest scoring schools in subjects like math and science, are due to variables in the home like parental involvement, according to statistics from the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. Like any skill, the more practice that occurs outside of lessons, the better a student will become. With students spending more time at home than at school, the hours outside the classroom are an essential time where parents should be encouraging and reinforcing concepts learned in the classroom.

 

Consider the potential for a student if you are their first teacher at home. When students have academic activities taught at home, as well as school, results rise higher than ever imagined. But where do the parents gain these skills? Teach Me To Learn at Home® serves as a guide to parents of children between the ages of 2-5, to teach parents how to become their childs first teacher. Through the instruction provided online 24 hours a day on any computing device including Smartphones, Teach Me To Learn at Home® serves as a comprehensive academic support system that a parent needs to act as their child’s first teacher at home.

 

Realize the benefits to parents with your own FREE trial of Teach Me To Learn at Home®. Click here to Get Started: http://learningportal.teachmetolearnathome.com/register/?token=BOOKS

As a Parent, How do I implement the Explicit Teacher Modeling strategy?

Ensure that your child has the prerequisite skills to perform the skill.

Parents Explicit Teacher ModelingBreak down the skill into logical and learnable parts (Ask yourself, “what do I do and what do I think as I perform the skill?”).

Provide a meaningful context for the skill (e.g. word or story problem suited to the age & interests of your students).

Provide visual, auditory, kinesthetic (movement), and tactile means for illustrating important aspects of the concept/skill (e.g. visually display word problem and equation, orally cue students by varying vocal intonations, point, circle, highlight computation signs or important information in story problems).

“Think aloud” as you perform each step of the skill (i.e. say aloud what you are thinking as you problem-solve).

Link each step of the problem solving process (e.g. restate what you did in the previous step, what you are going to do in the next step, and why the next step is important to the previous step).

Periodically check student understanding with questions, remodeling steps when there is confusion.

Maintain a lively pace while being conscious of student information processing difficulties (e.g. need additional time to process questions).

Model a concept/skill at least three times before beginning to scaffold your instruction.

 

How Does This Instructional Strategy Positively Impact Students Who Have Learning Problems?

 

Parent/Teacher as model makes the concept/skill clear and learnable.

High level of teacher support and direction enables student to make meaningful cognitive connections.

Provides students who have attention problems, processing problems, memory retrieval problems, & metacognitive difficulties an accessible “learning map”.

Links between subskills are directly made, making confusion and misunderstanding less likely.

Multi-sensory cueing provides students multiple modes to process and thereby learn information.

 

Realize the benefits to parents to become their child’s best  FIRST teacher at home with your own FREE trial of Teach Me To Learn at Home™ . Click here to Get Started: http://learningportal.teachmetolearnathome.com/register/?token=BOOKS

 

Resource: http://fcit.usf.edu/mathvids/strategies/em.html

 

Parent Involvement Truths: The evidence that parent involvement can make a significant difference in student achievement is beyond question.

PARENT INVOLVEMENT, SCHOOL PROGRAM, SCHOOL SYSTEMIf we can point to anything in education that is “evidence-based” it is that parent involvement boosts student achievement! Studies include:

• The landmark Coleman Report . It documented the impact of both families and schools on educational achievement and found that the impact of families was overwhelmingly more important than that of schools in explaining differences in school achievement. Coleman’s findings have been replicated again and again over the years in the U.S. and around the world.

• The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement study on the differences between the highest- and lowest-achieving schools in mathematics and science in 39 countries.

In the U.S., 64 percent of the differences in achievement from one school to another were attributable to “home” variables including “parental support for academic achievement” and “socioeconomic status.”

Similar results were found in all 39 countries.

• Research that finds that while socioeconomic status is important, the best predictors of student achievement are:

a.  A home environment that encourages learning.

b. Parents’ high expectations for achievement and future careers.

c.  Parents being involved in a child’s education.

• The landmark Westat study . It found that in schools where teachers reported high levels of “outreach” to the parents of low achieving students, reading and math test scores grew at a rate 40 percent higher than in schools where teachers reported low levels of outreach.

Only one other factor was as consistently linked to student achievement gains—professional development programs that were highly rated by teachers.

So, what were the magic ingredients that the Westat study called “outreach” to parents? It was defined simply as teachers:

1.  Meeting regularly with parents.

2.  Sending materials home to parents on ways to help their child at home.

3.  Telephoning parents, both routinely and when their child was having problems.

 

Parent involvement research goes on to say that:

• When fathers are involved, children do better in school.

• Student success is related to parent expectations and forcefulness in educational goal- setting.

 

The research findings on the critical role of parent involvement in no way diminish the importance of schools, great principals and teachers, or a rigorous curriculum. Of course those things are necessary—but they are not sufficient!

Let’s think of it using a health care analogy:

We would never accept a health care system where doctors and hospitals are expected to take total responsibility for a patient’s health—and be solely accountable for it no matter what the patient does or doesn’t do himself!

What the patient does to take care of himself at home is critical. And if the patient is a child, doctors (and society) expect parents to protect and maintain the child’s health through proper hygiene, exercise, food, clothing and shelter—and by carrying out the doctor’s treatment plans.

In education, research shows that the same kind of shared responsibility must also apply to educators, parents and students.

 

Realize the benefits for parents, guardians and care-givers to become their child’s best  FIRST teacher at home with your own FREE trial of Teach Me To Learn at Home™.  See for yourself what young parents are using right now to become better parents at home….Click here to Get Started: http://learningportal.teachmetolearnathome.com/register/?token=BOOKS

 

Resource: http://www.esc16.net/users/0020/docs/NineTruths.pdf