Foul Ball...and Other Stuff

Hello everyone!  I know that it has been awhile since I last posted, but my family and I were on a camping trip.  One of the things that we did was go to a minor league baseball game.  It was one of the highlights of the trip.  We had great seats behind home plate, but then the sun moved and it got HOT!  So we moved to some bleacher seats right behind the visiting team's relief pitchers. 

It was Dog Day at the game, and everything was quite casual.  My youngest was climbing up and down the steps and on one of is trips, he noticed the players.  There is not a shy bone in that child's body, so he started talking to the players.  You can imagine my husband and my surprise when one of the guys rolled him a baseball!

My oldest was happy for his brother, but jealous too.  My husband told him we would try to catch a foul ball.  No other balls came our way, and Luke was pretty sad.  As we were leaving, I heard this rolling sound and the man walking in front of us turned around and asked if either of the boys wanted the foul ball that just rolled in front of him!  We thanked him profusely and both boys have a new treasure!!

 Today, the real world smacked me because I had a professional development conference.  The presenter was Shannon Samulski from Michigan.  She has developed what she calls Intervention Kits for math, reading, and writing. 

There were several points that she made that really resonated with me.  The first was reaching the child's instructional match.  She had us read a passage with many made up words so we could see how struggling students feel when being asked to read something on their frustration level.  She said that we spend way more time then we think teaching above their instructional level. 

A second tip that she talked about was the necessity of repetition.  A child with an IQ of 120 needs to practice 25 times.  IQ of 100, 35 times.  An IQ of 80?  55 times!  We talked a lot about how with pacing guides, and mandated curriculum, it is really difficult to get enough repetitions for our struggling students.  She gave us a LOT to think about.

If you would like to check out her ideas, this is her website:

http://www.strategicinterventionsolutions.org/

 

 

She also has a blog:

http://interventionsonthego.blogspot.com/

She offers freebies on both!!

I have a couple of questions for you:

1.  Have you ever heard Shannon's presentations?
2.  Have you worked in a school where she has coached the teachers?
3.  Have you used her intervention kits?

Happy Monday!