Here at Raising Lifelong Learners, we are very much concerned with promoting the social and emotional needs of gifted and twice exceptional children. Research shows that resiliency, adaptability, accepting rejection, and “bouncing back” from failure are some of the critical skills necessary for having a successful life. They are also vital skills for being a successful entrepreneur!
Today, Colleen speaks with Brian Weisfeld, girls’ entrepreneurship advocate and author of The Start Up Squad, about how encouraging an entrepreneurial mindset can be a key component to helping all kids, boys included, to develop these important life skills, follow their passions, and reach their full potential even beyond kids starting their own businesses.
Links and Resources from Today’s Show:
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School management software, curriculum consulting, special education services. A charter school in Texas is looking for a school management platform; a major Maryland district has put out an RFP for wraparound services to support special needs students; and the city of Philadelphia is looking for a curriculum consultant focused on environmental science.
Recent Solicitations
Active/upcoming solicitations for goods/services
Arrow Academy Charter School, Texas
Focus: School management software Students: 1,000 Deadline:Dec. 10, 2020 The plan: This charter school, which operates on four campuses in Bryan, Texas, is looking for a software system that includes a student information system, a business information system, and a human resources management system. The district is also interested in other functions, including website content management, and a parent communication platform. Questions should be submitted to Bradley Green at Bradley.green@arrowacademy.org.
Montgomery County School District, Md.
Focus: Wraparound services/special needs students Students: 161,000 Deadline: Dec. 16, 2020 The plan: This major suburban school district is looking for wraparound educational services for students with special needs if a public or private school cannot be found to serve them. The support provided to students through the program can be academic, social or behavioral. Depending on the student’s needs, these services can include direct educational services, tutoring, counseling, medical care, transportation, transitional services, and other services. Questions should be directed to angela_s_mcintosh-davis@mcpsmd.org.
City of Philadelp3h2ia
Focus: Curriculum consulting Students: Deadline: Dec. 23, 2020 The plan: The city of Philadelphia is looking for a consultant to align standards and embed environmental science standards in middle school curriculum for grades 6-8. The consultant is asked to facilitate curriculum design, development, and implementation for an introduction to environmental science unit for 9th grade and guide the strategic plan for expanding and implementing watershed curriculum in the elementary grades. The consultant must be proficient in curriculum planning, design, decision-making, writing and editing. Questions can be directed to Karen Young, at karen.young@phila.gov.
EdWeek Market Brief was assisted in gathering this information by BidNet, which uses proprietary technology to track buying at all levels of government across the United States and deliver tailored information to clients; and by GovWin from Deltek, which provides enterprise, mid-market, and small business customers with a comprehensive set of federal, state, local, and education government contracting market intelligence and leads.
For more information on BidNet’s services, visit www.bidnet.com, or call 1-800-677-1997. For more information about GovWin from Deltek, visit www.deltek.com/govwin, or call (888) 994-6788.
Individual RFPs and awards summarized in EdWeek Market Brief can change, so readers are encouraged to contact BidNet and GovWin from Deltek or the buyer directly.
Whether it is the weather or illness or unusual circumstances that keeps us close to home, there will be times when our kiddos will be stuck in the house. And while we don’t think it’s best for parents to be the source of “24 hour a day entertainment,” every family can use some help finding […]
One of my big fears about homeschooling this year is that we will all be unmotivated and still in our pajamas at noon. While that might work for some families, we simply don’t function well without some structure (as the last five months can attest to). I am not a morning person, so getting up and going in the mornings is a challenge for me. Thankfully, my kids are more “morning people” than I am so the hardest part this year might be getting myself motivated! Nevertheless, I created these morning checklist printables for each child. They will be set out every evening and must be manually checked off before we start school at 8:30 or they will not be allowed to have any screen time once their school work is complete.
I can’t tell you how many checklists similar to this one I have printed over the years. I am not naive enough to pretend this will be the answer to all our morning issues. BUT I do think this will help everyone know what is expected of them prior to starting the school day and the manual crossing off will hopefully add a little more incentive to actually completing each task!
There are three different style options. Just print the one you like best! I put them each inside a dry erase pocket purchased at the Dollar Spot at Target.
I shared in Instagram stories recently about our decision to homeschool this year. This is our first year to ever homeschool! My children have attended our local public school since kindergarten and we have always felt confident in this decision. This year, however, we made the decision to homeschool in light of the pandemic and all of the uncertainty it brings. When I shared on Instagram about our decision, I received many messages asking for curriculum resources. Because of this, I have compiled all of the curriculum I will be using at this point in time. Depending on how this all works for each of my children, we may adjust as necessary during the school year.
We have three children in the following grades: 1st, 5th, and 7th. Needless to say, I am much more confident in teaching my first grader than I am my 5th or 7th graders (although she tends to be the most strong-willed). 🤪 But I am confident that strong curriculum choices will help me with both of my boys.
The first thing I did when thinking about curriculum was print off the state standards for each subject in the grade level of each of my kids (yes, that is A LOT of paper). I am glad to have these printed off so that I can reference them throughout the year and try to align our curriculum decisions with the state standards (especially if my kids choose to return to public school next year).
I spent an extensive amount of time researching curriculum. I really wanted an all-in-one curriculum (My Father’s World, Sonlight, Gather Round) to make life simpler for me, but because of the ages of my kids this just didn’t work for us. I also want some subjects to be taught simultaneously with all children. At this point, we will be attempting to do Science and History together with all three children, scaffolded up and down for the academic ability of each child. My older kids will go more in-depth, obviously, but we will all be learning the same topic at the same time.
Also, I think it’s important to note that NONE of this curriculum is sponsored. I have purchased everything with my own money. Obviously, I do not know how well this will work for our family YET but I am excited to get started!
This is a curriculum I used as a first grade teacher. I was required to attend a week-long training prior to implementing in my classroom. Unfortunately, the teacher manuals for this program cannot be purchased without attending the training. If I would not have gone this route, I would be using All About Reading (which I might still use for the second semester).
Reading Comprehension: I am utilizing the book Reading with Meaningby Debbie Miller (you can find the 2nd edition here) along with Reading Strategies that Work that includes some fun printables to use. But we will primarily be focused on reading strong literature together. Neither of these are intended to be a “curriculum” in and of themselves but since I have experience teaching this subject, I feel confident implementing them. If you are new to homeschooling or teaching, All About Reading, along with reading quality literature would be your best all-around Language Arts curriculum for first grade. Make sure that whatever curriculum you choose, it incorporates elements of the Big 5 skills it takes to teach reading: Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Comprehension, Fluency, and Vocabulary!
Handwriting:. Handwriting without Tears (I have an old teacher’s guide that is helpful for teaching the names like “Frog Jump”, “Magic C”, etc. but it isn’t necessarily required to have the manual).
Due to some MAJOR shipping delays (after over a MONTH I still had not received my Singapore Math shipment) and also a bit more research, I decided to switch my 5th grader to Beast Academy* for math instruction. I purchased the entire curriculum myself but the links above are affiliate links for the program.
Because Beast Academy is more focused on problem solving and conceptual understanding of math concepts than rote memorization of math facts, we are also doing Multiplication Facts that Stick by Kate Snow for a few minutes each day as he still hasn’t memorized them all quite yet. 😳
Literature: Novel Unit Studies: I’m going to choose one book to read each quarter and purchase a literature unit from Teachers Pay Teachers for each book.
Update: So far we have read Walk Two Moons and are getting ready to read Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World.
Handwriting: Handwriting without Tears Cursive Book (kids in our district were supposed to learn cursive in third grade but his third grade teacher didn’t get around to teaching it). 😕
Literature: Novel Unit Studies: I’m going to choose one book to read each quarter and purchase a literature unit from Teachers Pay Teachers for each book.
Update: So far we have read Walk Two Moons and are getting ready to read Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World.
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