Posts

A Scaffold Approach to Brain-Based Learning - A Guest Blog by Dr. Susan Tierno, Ed.D

Image
The Covid 10 Pandemic has shined a light on our education system. In this article Dr. Tierno discusses a scaffold approach to Brain-Based Learning.  In her second edition of  Andamio!  She offers a plethora of research and methods to improve the success rate of Hispanic students in our schools. Over the years as an educator, the researcher has studied much about the brain and its machinations. The study of the brain as it relates to thinking and learning is one of the established axioms in working with children, parents, and teachers, especially for Hispanic ELL communities. The brain is at the core of experience, teaching, learning and language. Why is it then that parents do not dialogue and construct conversations with their children? What follows are a few ideas shared with diverse parents in the  e ngagement training model, all of whom indicated in the research studies that the time constraints of a busy life keeps parents from connecting and communicating with ...
Image
 A very interesting and action provoking read by Michael Greger, M.D.  I am already having great success lowering my cholesterol, LDL and weight.   How Not To DIE

MEMORIAL DAY, Heroes On The Hilltop

Image
kln2119 @ Flickr   Memorial Day honors the Americans  Who’ve died for us. When they were called to do their duty  They didn’t look to see who was going to go with them. They didn’t wait to see if people would say  It was a good war or a bad war. They stood up, and said: “I’ll go.” Some of them didn’t come back.   Some lie in graves around the world whose whereabouts,  Only God knows. David Gould @ Pexels As political as all conflicts are,  The deaths of these men and women  Lift them far above such mere considerations. They’re up on that hilltop there,  Where the sunbeams are shining on them. We owe these brothers and sisters of ours  An understanding. Of their bravery.   And you can’t talk about bravery  Without talking about fear. May I tell you my story?    I was a captain in the infantry.   I commanded a rifle company  In the...
Image
MICHELLE She was a stunning woman. Sure, I fell for her, hard. We got married and we sailed our life through a sea of bliss. One year she gave me a picture of her, taken when she was 3. A lovely picture, intriguing. The thing's had me by the throat ever since.   I hung it in my office. I’d look at it and smile at her right heel, raised just so. I loved that. But I wondered, whose arm was that? And the guy holding the blanket, with the crazy tie…the Bogart in me had to know. But mostly? I was curious about the book she was reading. Whatever it was, it must have been a big deal. THE ORIGINAL Years passed. One Christmas Eve I was looking for wrapping paper, I opened a box, and…what’s this? A Christmas card from 1947. It had a green bow and a little calendar booklet for the coming year, 1948. It was, unmistakably,  the original photo.   I headed downstairs. She’d told me once that her grandparents, Bernice and Mike, spent summers after the war running the gift sh...

MY WIFE HAS DEMENTIA. Now what?

Image
Pixabay What Do I Do? My wife and I heard that diagnosis six years ago. It was the worst news of her life. And mine. So, here's what I know: your immediate future will illuminate for you, and her, what kind of husband you are. I’m not a doctor or therapist of any kind. But I’ve trod this path and maybe I can provide you some helpful insight. Here goes... One day in 2013, my wife was her usual, lovely self. The next day she was in the ICU, being asked every hour if she knew what year it was. A week later we were home. There was lots of hope for rehab and how “this diagnosis affects everyone differently.”  The fact is, your future will be what it’ll be. You won’t know how it’ll turn out until it’s all over. For now, the only thing you’ll have is your conviction that you’re going to help her deal with it, no matter what .  Mauricio Graiko @ Shutterstock “I Do?” You don’t have that conviction? Then these next words are especially for you.  Pardon my bluntn...