Episode 2: Nov 3, 2005

• Highlighted book: Conscious Classroom Management: Unlocking the Secrets of Great Teaching by Rick Smith. Order at www.consciousteaching.com
• Website of the week for new special education teachers: www.interventioncentral.org This is a really, really great website to discover a wealth of effective instructional strategies in both academic and social/behavioral areas. A huge number of practical resources are available that can be downloaded for free.!!

  As a bonus, a couple of excellent resources available at Intervention Central have also been downloaded to our site. Teaching Alternative Behaviors Schoolwide: A Resource Guide to Prevent Discipline Problems developed by the Los Angeles County Office of Education is a 200 page manual published this year to assist teachers and other school personnel implement effective interventions with students with significant learning and behavior problems. The second resource is School-Wide Strategies for Managing Off-Task and Inattentive Behavior, a fact sheet identifying 17 effective strategies to deal with common problem behavior.

• Research to Practice Tip: Catch 'Em Being Good !

  The article, "I Said That?" How to Improve Your Instructional Behavior in Just 5 Minutes Per Day Through Data-Based Self-Evaluation,(C.L.Keller & M. L. Duffy, Teaching Exceptional Children, Vol. 37, No. 4, 2005, pp. 36-39) is available for review. Click Here for the PDF File

• Legal Issues in Special Education
  The Rowley decision was the first case involving the "new" (25 years ago) special education law to reach the United States Supreme Court. Then Associate Justice William Rehnquist wrote the majority decision for the Court. This decision still stands as the Gold Standard in special education law by defining what an appropriate education means. Click Here for the PDF File
• Factoid of the Week: Grade Retention
  The tensions created by the increased emphasis on accountability and student performance has led to increased calls for an end to "social promotion". However,did you know that it's been estimated that 2.4 million students are retained each school year at a cost of over 14 billion dollars per year? What's more important to know is that grade retention is not effective. . . it may even be harmful to those students who are retained. Read the research summary published by the National Association of School Psychologists.

Enjoy.