Tag Archives: tutoring

New Tutor Consortium

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Tutoring Duluth is joining a new group of area tutors.  This new cohort is a group of like-minded tutors meeting the needs of students on an individual bases. Most important, for us as tutors, this will help us help our students, but we will also be able to support each other and grow as tutors.  In addition to the reading and writing support I offer, one of the cohort tutor’s does high school and college level support for students in math and science and another is a professional writer.  These tutors will be able to support students in preparation for the ACT/SAT as well as day-to-day academia.  We are scattered around the Duluth-Superior area and the Arrowhead region making it easier for families to find conveniently located services.  Look for the new website….

TwinPortsTutoring.org …..coming soon.

I’m so excited to be part of this group.

From ncld.org — just in time for a new school year

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Back-to-School for Parents of Students With LD
Back to School Guide - Students LDThe start of the school year is a busy time for students, parents and teachers alike. This guide will help you better advocate for the needs of your child with LD so she isn’t lost in the shuffle. Learn how – and why – to become an effective advocate and ally for your child with LD. From understanding your child’s disability and special education law, to managing your emotions, to communicating effectively, this guide covers it!

What you’ll find inside

  • Tips for building and maintaining strong, positive relationships with your child’s teacher and others at school involved in her education.
  • Five essential skills that will help you advocate effectively for your child at school.
  • An overview of your child’s legal rights to assessment and assistance with a (possible) learning disability – and your right to participate in the process.
  • Suggestions for making the most of your parent-teacher conference before, during, and after the meeting.
  • A handy worksheet to help you prepare for successful meetings with key players at your child’s school.
  • Recommended resources to expand your knowledge on this topic.
icon_guidesDownload your Back-to-School for Parents of Students with LD (13 pages), print, and go! (Note: You’ll need the Adobe Reader/Acrobat Reader to download the file.)

This toolkit was made possible by a grant from Oak Foundation.

Background Noise when learning

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It’s time when students are returning to the classroom and the child that struggles with reading and learning have a difficult time learning with background noise.

More data supporting the range of perceptual difficulties in dyslexia.

In the figure below, researchers found that dyslexic subjects showed delayed responses to sounds (HP stands for Huggins Pitch, TN stands for pure tone)when played with background noise.This background noise can be a big obstacle to efficient classroom learning for dyslexic students. Larger classes sizes, murmurings and rustlings from fellow classmates, and a fuzziness about phonology or weak auditory working memory, can spell failure (or ADD misdiagnosis) for even very smart or determined dyslexic students. This study only looked at tone and Huggins (kind of spectral noise) sounds…a test of similar-sounding phonemes might be even more dramatic.

Many parents and teachers out there might say, “Aha!”. Students with background noise problems often show wide variability in their classroom success, that may be due to teaching style, class size, degree of noise, or seat placement. Be vigilant to the possibility, and help your student advocate for classroom speakers if needed.

Now is this education or neurobiology? Both of course! We do a disservice to children if we can’t find efficient ways to share information between researchers, educators, and parents.

Useful Apps for Students with Dysgraphia

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Dysgraphia is a learning disability that affects writing abilities. It can manifest itself as difficulties with spelling, poor handwriting and trouble putting thoughts on paper.

With Dragon Dictation 2.0, you can dictate text or email your friends, send notes and reminders to yourself … all using your voice.

Click here for more information

iTalk Recorder Premium is a smart, simple audio-recording device with options to select recording quality and to name the recording.

Click here for more information

iBook Creator:

Develop your own books with this amazing app!  Add videos, images and text.  The speech tool provided by the iPad also works with this app adding to its versatility.

iEarned that:
This is a productivity app used to motivate students by keeping track of their merits.

Idea Sketch:
Good for brainstorming new ideas, illustrating concepts making lists and outlines, planning presentation, creating organizational charts.  Lets you easily draw a diagram, mind map, concept map or flow chart and convert it to a text outline.

Tools 4 Students:
25 top quality graphic organizers.  Choose the best template and fill in your information right on your mobile device.

From http://wandaleannne.blogspot.com

Parent Workshop

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On Saturday July 28th, PASSED (Parents/People advocating for student success in Education) held it’s first workshop entitled, Helping the Struggling Student Succeed:What Parents Need To Know.

Those that attended heard tutors, parents, and professional speak about dyslexia, dysgraphia, ADD and the IEP/504 process.  Everyone that attended said they’d recommend the workshop to a friend.  Look for information about upcoming workshop here or on PASSED facebook page.

Looking forward to building a stronger community to assist parents as help their students succeed in their education.