Bloom’s Taxonomy Applied

By Dr. Jane BluesteinJune 16, 2022June 17, 2022 Assessment and Testing, Educators, Learning, Parents analysis, analyzing, applying knowledge, comprehension, creating, evaluating information, knowledge, learning, levels of thinking, synthesis, understanding Leave a comment

Still important for curriculum design and assessment Call me old school. I have a bit of a sentimental attachment to Bloom’s taxonomy, some of the earliest content I encountered in my teacher-education classes back in the early, early 1970s. It made sense to me and helped inform my attempts at assessing my kids’ understanding of…

Basic Brain Gym Exercises

By Dr. Jane BluesteinJune 14, 2022 ADD/ADHD, Behavior Management, Body and Brain, Differentiating Instruction, Learning, Learning styles, Life Management, Non-traditional learners, Parents, Special Needs, Teaching brain gym, making connections, movement and learning, neural communication, wake up your brain Leave a comment

4 simple activities to wake up the brain These are the four core Brain Gym exercises, also referred to as PACE exercises (Positive, Active, Clear, Energetic). I have described these exercises as they were taught to me. There are dozens of videos and PDFs with these and other Brain Gym exercises available since I first…

Book: The Beginning Teacher’s Survival Guide

By Dr. Jane BluesteinAugust 13, 2021April 27, 2023 Assessment and Testing, Avoiding burnout, Avoiding power struggles, Beginning Teachers, Behavior Management, Behavior Management, Body and Brain, Books, Building responsibility, Classroom management, Creating community, Cultural Changes, Culture and Community, Discipline, Educators, Emotionally safe schools, Feedback and encouragement, Health and Safety, Homework, Increasing Positivity, Intervening negative behavior, Leadership, Learning, Learning styles, Life Management, Mentorship, Modeling positive behavior, Motivating cooperation, Non-traditional learners, Parent-Teacher relationships, Problem solving, Professional growth, Recognition and reinforcement, Relationships, Rules and Boundaries, School climate, Schools in Society, Self-care and Inspiration, Social and Emotional Growth, Special Needs, Taking care of yourself, Teacher Appreciation, Teacher retention, Teaching, Teaching, Tolerance and Respect, Win-win authority avoiding power struggles, beginning teachers, boundaries, challenges for new teachers, creating community, difficult students, discipline, emotional safety, emotionally safe classroom, learning differences, parent-teacher relationships, positive consequences, professional development feedback, professional growth, professional identity, school culture, self-care, student behavior, student self-management, teacher retention, teaching

Win-Win Strategies for Success by Dr. Jane Bluestein At the start or your career or at the end of your rope… Get your teaching career off to a winning start—or recharge your passion for your work! The new & revised edition of Dr. Jane Bluestein’s pivotal guide for your teaching career! A great gift for new…

Presentation: Motivating the Unmotivated

By Dr. Jane BluesteinJune 25, 2016June 1, 2022 Avoiding power struggles, Building responsibility, Classroom management, Counselors, Creating community, Differentiating Instruction, Educators, Emotionally safe schools, Feedback and encouragement, Increasing Positivity, Learning styles, Motivating cooperation, Motivating your kids, Non-traditional learners, Parents, Recognition and reinforcement, School climate, Social and Emotional Growth, Win-win authority classroom climate, consequences, difficult students, effective instruction, motivating students, reduce indifference, student engagement, student success, unmotivated students Leave a comment

Getting past defenses, disinterest, and disengagement Presentation by Dr. Jane Bluestein Of all the challenges teachers face, the one mentioned most consistently over the years has been, “How do I engage kids who aren’t motivated and just don’t care?” Few things are more frustrated that having your planning and enthusiasm met with groans, shrugs, or eye…

Increasing Success for ALL Students

By Dr. Jane BluesteinMay 1, 2016April 30, 2022 ADD/ADHD, Body and Brain, Differentiating Instruction, Educators, Learning, Learning styles, Non-traditional learners, Parents, Special Needs Leave a comment

Strategies for changing or maintaining the students’ level of alertness and attentiveness There will be times when your students are starting to drift off or glaze over but you need their attention for a few more minutes before the bell rings. Or they come in all wound up and you need them to settle down…

Fear, Stress, and Learning

By Dr. Jane BluesteinApril 19, 2016April 30, 2022 Body and Brain, Counselors, Educators, Emotionally safe schools, Parents, School climate, Teaching anxiety and learning, brain-compatible learning, classroom climate, cortisol, downshifting, emotion and cognition, emotion and retention, emotional safety, fear and cognitive functioning, fear and learning, fight or flight, learning and survival, learning and the brain, stress and learning, stress and memory, stress and student behavior, stress hormones, survival vs. learning Leave a comment

Obstacles to the learning process Excerpt from “Learning and the Brain,” chapter 4 of Creating Emotionally Safe Schools by Dr. Jane Bluestein © 2001, Health Communications, Inc., Deerfield Beach, FL. This excerpt was extracted from the manuscript for this book and may be slightly different from the actual printed copy. The entire bibliography of Creating Emotionally Safe Schools is available on…

Presentation: The Perfection Deception

By Dr. Jane BluesteinJune 28, 2015May 2, 2022 Counselors, Creativity and independence, Cultural Changes, Educators, General Interest, Gratitude and inspiration, Health and Safety, Overcoming obstacles, Parents, Perfectionism, Presentation, Presentation for educators, Presentation for parents, Presentation- general interest, Relationships, Self-care and Inspiration, Taking care of yourself abandonment, attachment, authenticity, compensation, culture, emotional safety, health, healthy striving for excellence, image, inner critic, media, mental health, overcommitment, perfectionism, physical health, relationships, self-acceptance, self-care, suicide Leave a comment

Why trying to be perfect is sabotaging our relationships, making us sick, and holding our happiness hostage Presentation by Dr. Jane Bluestein Perfectionism may sound like a good thing, but it’s entirely different from the more realistic and achievable healthy pursuit of excellence. Working diligently toward improvement, learning, and growth is also far less destructive (and…

Playing Well With Others

By Dr. Jane BluesteinJune 14, 2014May 2, 2022 Creativity and independence, Feedback and encouragement, Feedback and encouragement, Learning styles, Mentorship, Non-traditional learners creativity, friendship skills, independence, learning preferences, learning styles, non-traditional learners, play well with others, SEL, social and emotional learning, social skills, student social skills, working alone Leave a comment

Not all it’s cracked up to be When I was in second grade, I got a minus next to “plays well with others.” In my family, this was a terrible thing, worse even than getting a bad grade in the content areas. (This also wasn’t allowed, but somehow getting a “B”—the equivalent of failure in…

Homework Rating Scale

By Chick Moorman and Thomas HallerNovember 2, 2013May 20, 2022 Counselors, Educators, Homework, Parents Leave a comment

A self-assessment for educators* By Chick Moorman and Thomas Haller *Note to Parents: Use this assessment to rate the value of your children’s homework assignments. The drive to assign more and more homework to children at younger ages is in full force in many schools. The desire to increase achievement and raise the test scores has…

Is Homework a Headache at Your House?

By Dr. Jane BluesteinNovember 2, 2013May 3, 2022 Counselors, Educators, Homework, Parents, Teaching 1 Comment

At what point is the load too heavy? Note: This post comes from my October 2013 newsletter. The reaction was so strong, I thought I’d add it to the site. While I was back east earlier this month, I got to visit with my sister, Janice Patton,* and my niece Morgan, a freshman in a…