Shared Writing

Today Mom and I will discuss Shared Writing: what it's benefits are and some of her favorite Shared Writing activities for the classroom. We also get the giggles.

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Kathy Cranewriting
Mathematics: An Interview with Tamara Shaw

Today's episode is a real treat! We have an interview with Tamara Shaw about mathematics education. Tamara is currently a special education teacher with Weber School District. She spent 5 years in between teaching assignments as a math coach and has also spent the past 8 years developing curriculum and teaching teachers about common core math, best practices in math instruction, and math pedagogy with the Utah State Office of Education.

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Kathy Cranemathematics
Homework

Today Mom and I discuss the controversial and heated topic of homework. Mom talks about how she developed homework that is purposeful and strategic in helping parents as their child's first, and most important, teacher.

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Kathy Cranehomework
Setting Up Learning Centers

In this episode, Mom discusses the method she uses for setting up fun and engaging learning centers (after trying every other method on Pinterest). Plus, we talk about how teaching should meet the needs of the whole child, no matter how you set up your day. You can see how her classroom has been set up for centers by watching the following video:

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Oral Language

Guess what? Mom just got new students, and they need help with oral language. So that's what we're discussing today! How do we support language acquisition and why is it so important? Also, what happens when you teach a Minecraft obsessed student about the moon?

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The Science Center

Today we're going to talk about the kindergarten science center. Kindergarten children love science. It's a great way to engage them in the classroom through their natural curiosity about the world around them. We'll talk about some of the science centers we've done and what we set out for the kids to explore. What's your favorite way to engage your students with science?

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Kathy CraneSTEMComment
Building Stamina

Young children need to build stamina in order to work on complex tasks such as writing, reading, and mathematics. Today we discuss how to build stamina, as well as the fact that my kids clearly don't have it.

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Early Math Concepts

Today Mom makes me do the talking as we discuss the very earliest concepts in mathematics that children need to develop in order to be successful in counting, logic, and number sense. We will discuss rote counting, one-to-one correspondence, conservation of number, cardinality, and hierarchal inclusion.

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Rhyming

Nursery rhymes are a very important tool for teaching the pre-reading skill of rhyming. Mom and I discuss how parents can use nursery rhymes, as well as the steps teachers can use to provide remediation for students who are having trouble rhyming.

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Phonological Awareness

Today we try out Podcasting. Join us as we discuss phonological awareness: it's history and it's components, and how an understanding of phonological awareness can help us teach reading more effectively and systematically. Also, Kathy speaks way too much pig latin.

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