Steve Said:

Teaching 1st graders?

We Answered:

adjectives-

teacher models 'My name is jolly Jennifer - my name is happy henry'........ Each child introduces him/herself with an adjective to desrcibe him/herself......kids love it.....encourage them to help each other out.....

word problems - 'Ask three before me'........
little startegy to save teacher pulling her hair out - children firstly look around the room, can they figure out the word problem from looking around the classroom environment - have they completed an excerise berfore which may help them solve the problem - and finally ask a friend......
lowers teacher stress!

reading comprehensions - draw a storyboard to show what happened in the article/piece - tell a friend about the article - fill in who? what? when? where? how?

best of luck!

Marcia Said:

I am at my wits end.. need some advice, please. ?

We Answered:

It's not unusual for boys, even clever boys, to get overwhelmed easily with writing. I'd be insisting they do some reading each day. Phonics lessons if they need them, otherwise whatever books they want to read. Try and encourage them to borrow different types of books. It sounds like you need to go right back and sort of start over, so you can gently guide them towards enjoying and appreciating the value of books. To test comprehension, start off doing some narration. Not for every book, not for a long story or section from your history book, just a short amount to train them into thinking that way, and not to overwhelm them. Two good sentences is more beneficial than half an hour of mumbling and tears. This might help: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/narration…
Keep it at oral narration for a while, and once they have the hang of it, start asking them to draw a picture to illustrate what you've read and perhaps to caption it with a sentence. It's good to do this with their history or science or something like that, so it seems less like English and more like something else. Illustrating and captioning interesting things in a nature notebook may help, since they're outside investigating instead of sitting at a table in the kitchen. If they draw and write into a scrapbook, they will have a copy showing their progress through the material; and you'll be able to use it to see how their writing is progressing.
Kids' abilities can be all over the place. 4th grade level in maths doesn't mean they are capable of working at the same level in English. Just take it slowly. It doesn't matter if they get the hang of it now or next year, as long as progress is made. The trick is to make sure they are really comfortable with what they are doing before you increase the difficulty. Much less intimidating then. They are still pretty little, after all. :)

Christine Said:

Would you be offended if you had a Vocational Rehabilitation counselor who said this to you?

We Answered:

This goofy b*tch is worthless.

First, it is not her place to tell you that you have to lose weight when half of the American Population is overweight. I think she have some nerve to even tell you this nonsense. Hiring someone all because that person is sexually attractive is illegal and it can be viewed as a form of sexual harassment.

Second, she should be emphasizing you strengths not your weaknesses. I was never in the military but they don't even do that. I say this for a fact because after I took the ASVAP Testing and my test scores came back we spend over an hour discussing my strong points, NOT my weaknesses. This b*tch just has it in her head that the disabled should take jobs that involve cleaning up after the normal people of society which is bullsh*t. I have a disability and refuse to take jobs that involves scrubbing some sh*tty, nasty *ss toilet. I'm better than that.

Third, as far as "inappropriate behavior" is concerned that is a load of horsesh*t. As long as you are up front with the employer and you stress your strong points to them and not your weakness or your disability, even if it means doing a PowerPoint Presentation demonstrating your strengths, they can't discriminate against you because of your disability. If she was any can of a counselor what-so-ever she would know that.

You need to stand up to this irritating b*tch even if it means having her fired because it is apparent that she does not want to help you at all.

Marion Said:

I could use some advise to help my children concentrate in class?

We Answered:

don't be hard on yourself...

first, request a meeting with the teachers- ask her to describe the distractibility, etc. Then schedule appointments with the pediatrician- have them evaluated medically (some of what you are describing COULD be ADHD...I don't like how quickly people jump to that, but you should definitely look into it)

Between the 2 you should find good resolutions for your children...stay in touch with the teachers and as silly as it sounds- really make sure the kids are eating right and getting a good amount of sleep (and trust me, I know "quality time" is hard to come by....develop a small routine with each child- 10 mins at bedtime- "What was the best part or your day? worst part?" and then share your answers too- this is something my son and I do every night)