Ed. D.
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Articles by Ed. D.
Discipline Without Fear
Proponents for corporeal punishment (spanking, paddling, kneeling on grits or rice, etc.) often claim that it taught them obedience and respect for elders when they were young. If it was good enough for them, they think, it’s good enough for their kids. In fact, studies have shown that about 50% of U.S. families do use physical punishment. But just because half of families use it doesn’t make it a useful or effective tool for managing children’s behavior.
The Importance of Distraction-Free Parenting
Parents today are generally aware of why it is a problem to let their kids constantly be on phones, computers and TVs. They know it impacts kids’ sleep, that it is a factor in childhood obesity, that it is associated with delayed language development in babies and delayed social skills development in children and teens. They know that too much time of screens is a predictor of academic problems and social anxiety and that it is linked to attention, emotional and conduct problems.
Wayward Golf Shots a Danger to Spectators at Major Golf Tournaments
We have heard about and seen people attending major golf tournaments hit and injured by wayward shots. The injuries have varied, many followed by news that the spectator will be fine and in many cases the famous professional golfer who hit the errant shot provided the injured person with the ball that hit them or another memento for the inconvenience of being hit.
Should I Write to Ask the Therapist?
The team at Psych Central’s Ask the Therapist is part of a stream of history that started almost 300 years ago. The first recorded advice column was in 1690! For centuries, people have looked to sometimes anonymous “experts” for advice about love and romance, family relationships, social and work problems, and internal distress. Over time, the format has been much the same: People write in their questions and the advisors advise.
Ramirez: Why kindergarten through 12th-grade educational testing matters (column)
Over the past few years, the nation has been experiencing "testing fatigue" in kindergarten through 12th-grade education, and it's been acutely felt in the state of Colorado. There have been many challenges around standardized testing. First, the tests have been in a near constant state of flux — from CSAP to TCAP to PARCC to CMAS.
For Vontae Davis, Quitting Was His Decision Alone to Make
The news has hit every media outlet world-wide and everyone – especially NFL players past and present – has expressed opinions about Vontae Davis quitting in the middle of an NFL professional football game. I have listened to many speak regarding the matter and the vast majority have said what Vontae did was disgraceful and he did nothing but let his team and the Buffalo Bills organization down in the manner in which he decided to hang it up for good.
Here are tips to keep your kids engaged at school
Miami-Dade children have returned to school. Now that the initial excitement and anticipation over getting back into the classroom has largely waned, it’s a great time for parents to set the tone at home for the year ahead to keep kids enthusiastic about learning. And that means being involved. Zafreen Jaffery, Ed.D., a research and evaluation analyst for The Children’s Trust.
6 steps to help your district systematically personalize education
For the past decade, personalization has been a hot topic in education. You may have wondered if it’s a real and attainable goal for your school system or if it’s some holy grail that many seek but few achieve. Community Consolidated School District 93 (CCSD93) in Illinois has been working to shift our instructional delivery system to a more personalized approach since the 2012-13 school year.
9 common leadership missteps to avoid
The role of school administrator is evolving from a building manager into an instructional leader. This shift is not easy, and all leaders strive to be the best they can. Being a school leader isn’t easy and you are not going to make the right call all the time. However, you can learn to avoid common missteps. There are countless articles about being a good school leader, but we also need to learn how to recognize and avoid missteps.
Crashing the copter: Three strategies to stop hovering
With the school year starting again, it’s tempting to do everything possible to ensure our kids are getting started on the right foot. But new research suggests there is such a thing as doing too much–and that what kids need most is help managing and understanding their emotions–not more of a push into academics.
7 Tips to Take Charge of Your Time - and Your Life
“I know I should get to the gym every day but I don’t have time.” “I’d love to read to my kids every night but I don’t have time.” “I’d really like to get together with friends but I don’t have time.” “I know I should volunteer more but I just can’t fit it in.” “I’d work on the hobby I love but I don’t have time.” Time. Time. Time. It’s such a common lament. I hear it every day — from my clients, from my friends, from my adult kids, from myself.
Summer brought many improvements to local schools
Welcome to the 2018-19 school year. We are looking forward to greeting students back to school on Sept. 4.Our staff members have been working hard to prepare by attending workshops and training sessions to sharpen their knowledge and skills to ensure the best possible learning experiences for all children.
Eagle County Schools superintendent: When saying goodbye also means saying hello (column)
A bright new school year is upon us. For some, the journey has already started. Last week, we said goodbye to Sophia, our 18-year-old daughter. She's off to Colorado State University. During the preparations for her departure, my mind wandered back to when she started kindergarten. Her mom and I were both extremely proud and excited for her new adventure, but we were worried at the same time. As she said her goodbyes to us this past Thursday, the same questions I had 13 years ago resurfaced.
How to Make a Soul Mate Relationship
It’s a sweet idea, isn’t it? — The idea that there is someone out there who is a perfect match; who understands you completely, totally accepts you for who you are, is emotionally stable and sexually exciting, and with whom communication is so easy and natural that you never have conflict. Yeah. It’s a sweet idea. It’s also an idea that causes unrealistic expectations and disappointment in love. Believing it sends people on a search that is bound to fail.
Remembering Aretha Franklin’s 2016 Thanksgiving NFL National Anthem
By now I’m sure that the news of the passing of the legendary music icon Aretha Franklin has spread worldwide. With her passing we are left with the wonderful music and many songs that she sang in performing for music lovers all over the world. Aretha Franklin had a voice that was powerful, ranging and comparable to no one. She was truly one of a kind.
Ramirez: Follow your heart, and you will find the perfect Eagle County school for your family (column)
When it comes to selecting the best school for your children, you, the parents of Eagle County, have so many amazing choices. Our district has dynamic, public, charter and private schools; each offers a personal and unique educational experience for children. That means parents face tough decisions. Selecting the right school for families depends on many factors, but the bottom line is that you should select the school(s) where you feel your children will thrive, feel safe and be happy.
Storytelling time
It’s storytelling time againBut I hate to inform you, unfortunately there’s no story to tell.The pit is empty; well the only pit that is empty is the pit of my stomach. The ink well has run dry, well there are no more ink wells to run dry, since I do not use pen and ink to write but tap my fingers on the keys of the computer keyboard; letters and words magically appear on the screen in front of me.
Help Your Teen Transition to High School
This is the time of year when parenting publications are full of articles about how to transition kids to preschool or kindergarten. But for high school? Not so much. Yet the transition to high school is just as dramatic and anxiety provoking as when kids enter school for the first time. Their bodies are bigger, but they may be just as anxious and uncertain. For one thing, they are often going from being the oldest members of a school community to being the youngest.
Happiness, Learning, and Parenting: What’s the Story?
When we argue over whether parenting makes people happy or not, and whether it’s an enriching experience, it really depends on where we live—especially if we live in the United States. While parenting is a major industry in this country, with hundreds of parenting titles coming out per year, that’s not to say that parents on the whole are feeling satisfied or fulfilled—or able easily to learn from the experience.
Learn Strategies for Success With Group Mentoring
Effective relationships and learning are the mainstays of organizational success. Organizations that find meaningful ways for their employees to connect are more likely to realize greater productivity, enhanced career growth and overall improvement in employee performance. Group mentoring connects employees and advances learning within your organization. Group mentoring affords an organization the opportunity to extend its mentoring efforts and reach more people in a time-efficient manner.
Get the most out of LinkedIn
Until recently my professional social media presence was exclusively on Twitter (@matthewxjoseph). That was until I had a conversation with a successful and reputable professional—Rita Oates—who told me I was missing out by not being on LinkedIn. I knew of the site but had never joined. When I started to investigate, I realized LinkedIn is the top online site for professional, social, and career networking; it has millions of members in more than 200 countries.
Eagle County Schools superintendent: Eagle County residents love to give back (column)
Since the beginning of July, I have attended three community events, each of which has warmed my heart. On Tuesday, July 10, I attended the Walking Mountains Science Center's A Taste of Nature annual event. I had the opportunity to meet many wonderful people who not only have a passion for science and our environment, but who also hold a belief that supporting young environmental stewards is key to our natural resources preservation efforts.
Get Ready for Kindergarten Now
Imagine this scenario: Your partner tells you that you are going to a new place where you will have fun and meet new friends. Sounds good, right? The day comes and you are taken to a building you’ve never seen before and escorted to a room bustling with activity. You are introduced to the person in charge and told you can go be with the others. Then your partner disappears. You don’t know anyone there. You don’t know what is expected of you, and you don’t understand the activities and routines.
Twitter Investigations
By now fans of Major League Baseball (MLB) and those that simply follow the game have heard all about the young Twitter antics of Josh Hader, pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers. I’m not here to rehash what he did and said on Twitter account as a teenager. But, there is a serious lack of serious investigative work on the part of Major League Baseball and the Milwaukee Brewers.
Edtech expands to the stadium
Video scoreboards have long been an important feature of professional and college stadiums and other sports facilities. Now high schools are eyeing these boards as a way to pique interest in athletic programs, make games more exciting, and provide learning opportunities to students.
A "Graduation Speech" for Recent College Grads
It’s a fascinating ritual. Every college graduation ceremony includes a speech by someone important who says something inspiring. The intent is to send young people out into the world on a wave of congratulation, optimism for their future and exhortations to get out there and do good in the world. I’m guessing you don’t remember a word of it — which is perfectly normal.
Vacation Romance: Are You Really Ready for a Summer Fling?
“Summer lovin’ had me a blast. Summer lovin’ happened so fastâ€?. — lyrics from “Summer Nightsâ€? in Grease. It’s a delicious fantasy, isn’t it? — falling in love while on vacation or on the summer job at the beach. Movies like Grease and Dirty Dancing make it seem so perfect, so possible, so without consequences so, I don’t know, so, so steamy and dreamy. When people think about having a “summer romanceâ€?, they are usually thinking about a fling, not a serious relationship.
4 Tips for Aging Well
My grandfather was a true Yankee farmer. Taciturn and dignified, he rarely said a paragraph when a few words would do. Once, when I was in my mid-twenties and totally clueless about what it means to be dealing with old age, I found him sitting at the kitchen table translating poetry from German to English. Then in his late 70s, it had been over 50 years since he took basic German at the agricultural college he attended. I didn’t have any idea he knew even one German phrase.
Bake cookies. Head to the library. Ways to keep your child's brain sharp during the summer
School may be over, but that doesn’t mean learning should stop. In fact, keeping your child’s brain engaged during the summer months is critical, not only to the health of their rapidly developing brains, but also to their ability to use them. If you’re a parent you’ve probably heard of the “summer slide” (or “summer brain drain”), but are you familiar with the research behind it?
Calling all leaders: Hope is not a strategy
Hope is critical to greatness but not the strategy to achieve it. Hope is not wishful thinking—as in “I hope I win the lottery.” It is the core for developing pathways and thinking tactics (strategic planning). Hope is the belief that things can get better and is the foundation upon which motivation is built. As leaders, we need hopes and dreams and to encourage them for our staff, but we control how to turn hope into action and greatness. How can we do that?
Understanding and Managing Children's Misbehavior
Let’s start with the most basic of basics: Children are dependent on us adults. They need our attention. Their survival depends on it. Adult concern and attention are required if they are to have shelter, food, safety and, yes, comfort. Wanting our attention is not a problem. Pulling for our attention is a child’s survival mechanism. Most children, at least most of the time, find positive ways to seek out the attention they need. As infants, they have the advantage of being cute.
Have we missed it? | Ledger Independent – Maysville Online
Over the last several weeks you have heard a number of different perspectives (individuals, family members, law enforcement, treating providers, coroners, etc.) about the impact of the opioid crisis. These stories are difficult to listen to and in many instances gut wrenching. You might ask how we got to this point. Why have we allowed drugs to control our society and the individuals in it? Is it enough to just listen and not take action?
How to Be a SuperDad
Fathering a child is easy. A night of passion and you’re done. But being a real dad, a hero to your kids and a “manly man” to yourself, requires stepping up. Being around isn’t enough. Showing up for an occasional event isn’t enough. Weekend visitations can be enough, but only if you are interested and hands-on. Even love is not enough, if it isn’t expressed and shown regularly. To be a dad, a real dad, not just a sire, requires effort — day-in and day-out effort.
Lost in Translation
Patriotism as defined by Webster is love or devotion for one’s country. Can you love something and still be critical of it? What about devotion? Devotion as defined by Webster is the fact of being ardently dedicated and loyal. Is everything you own American made? Do you follow or believe in everything in the constitution? I know it is not possible. It is unrealistic but that is devotion defined right? This is not a measuring stick for being patriotic.
The Antidote to Father Absence from the Home
“First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the couple with the baby carriage.” — That was a school yard chant when I was in elementary school — usually used to tease a couple of kids caught holding hands. That was in the 50s, in some ways a much more innocent time. These days, the love-marriage-parenting progression has been blown apart. Babies happen before marriage, to cohabiting couples, and to women who are not emotionally connected to the father.
How family brain patterns contribute to anxiety
Many studies have been recently published about the ways childhood anxiety can be impacted by parenting. Many times, this impact isn’t even seen in obvious ways, but in the parents’ subtle messages sent through the way they model their relationship to challenges, or discuss how they are managing fears. But recent research is showing there is actually a genetic link in the ways the brain responds during an “attack” of extreme shyness for anxious people.
Have we missed the bull’s eye? | Ledger Independent – Maysville Online
Over the last several weeks you have heard a number of different perspectives (individuals, family members, law enforcement, treating providers, coroners, etc.) about the impact of the opioid crisis. These stories are difficult to listen to and in many instances gut wrenching. You might ask how we got to this point. Why have we allowed drugs to control our society and the individuals in it? Is it enough to just listen and not take action?
Educational Technology: A Disruptive Force or Just Another Disruption?
We know that technology use can vary greatly from classroom to classroom and school to school. Some teachers seamlessly integrate technology into their daily instruction. Others only use technology to take attendance and post grades. Educational technology can be a disruptive force in how students learn or just another disruption in the classroom. How is it perceived in your building?
Here's how we made data usable for our teachers
In today’s digital classroom, teachers have access to more data than ever. With a few clicks, we can view detailed reports on student test scores, formative assessments, progress reports from self-paced software, attendance, and so much more. At times, the amount of data can feel overwhelming, especially when each data point only exists as an isolated channel, unrelated to the next.
Parenthood and creativity: Steps to jumpstart the process
In the face of discussions about “helicopter parenting” and three-am wakeup calls, it’s easy to forget that there is another side of the coin: how parenthood actually can promote creativity. That topic is the subject of a recent Atlantic article by Erika Haysaki, and something I’ve seen anecdotally among friends and colleagues as well. When there are enough resources to sustain us, it’s possible to have parenthood be not a negative to the creative process, but actually a positive.
Elementary Social Entrepreneurship: A Perfect STEAM Lesson
I am completing a social entrepreneurship unit with my gifted students, grades 2nd through 5th. It was one of my favorite units . . . ever, and from their reactions, I believe it was one of theirs, too. I call it a perfect STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) unit. The first part of this post explains some of the rationale for this project, and the second part describes the unit, itself.
Connecticut should invest more in community colleges, not less
Community colleges emerged in the early part of the 20th Century and flourished at exponential rates in the aftermath of World War II, Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, and alongside the promise of the “Great Society.” During the late 1960’s and 1970s this movement saw community colleges opening at a rate of one college per week across the United States resulting in what are now over 1,450 institutions.
Assessing Maker Education Projects
Institutionalized education has given assessment a bad reputation; often leaves a sour taste in the mouths of many teachers, students, and laypeople. This is primarily due to the testing movement, the push towards using student assessment in the form of tests as a measure of student, teacher, principal, and school accountability. Educators should be clear about why they include assessment in their instruction; be strategic and intentional in its use.
Caught Between Fear of Success and Fear of Failure
It’s Paul’s first visit to my office. He seems mystified as well as distressed. “I got a great job right after graduation last year,� he says. “My supervisor says I’m doing great. So he just put me on a harder project. I haven’t been able to sleep for days. I’m distracted and irritable and generally a nervous wreck. I can’t decide if I’m afraid of success or afraid of failure but I’m definitely freaking out.
Here’s what you missed at BPLC18, the Blended & Personalized Learning Conference
Earlier this month, the Highlander Institute, the Christensen Institute, and the Learning Accelerator held a three-day event called the 2018 Blended & Personalized Learning Conference. Attendee...
7 Myths about Parenting that Can Make You Miserable
If anyone tells you their parents were perfect in every way, they are either terribly mistaken, lying, or their parents were angels in disguise. No parent is perfect. I’m not. You are not. The parents of our various cultural heroes weren’t either. Sometimes even the experts on parenting make a mess of things with their own kids. Being imperfect comes with the job — especially if you are brand new at it. The first time you have a child of any age, you and your child are both figuring it out.
How to lead with influence instead of authority
Clearly, leadership potential exists within each of us. That potential can be triggered by outside events, or it can be learned by exploring ourselves from within. In this article, we will focus on the latter approach. Once you learn the superpower of gig economy leadership, you will be able to build the confidence it takes to take the lead and influence … and leap tall buildings in a single bound. They say that leaders are born, not made.
How I became an active learner at ASCD "Empower18"
As ASCD Empower 18 kicked off in Boston on Friday, March 23 I knew the four days were going to be "wicked awesome"-I mean, come on!-it's Boston. But somehow, the event toped even my highest expecta...
Video Games and Social Emotional Learning
A lot of talk, press, and focus in this era of learning is on common core standards and 21st century skills and literacies. What is often neglected is the importance of building social emotional skills within the classroom. The challenge of raising knowledgeable, responsible, and caring children is recognized by nearly everyone.
Periscope: Teeing off for a short ethics lesson
By: Ted Streuli for The Journal Record I was playing with two boys from the neighborhood. I knew them from church and as we got older we’d all been in Cub Scouts and a few other groups. When we’d finished our nine holes, my friends proposed stepping over to the fifth tee and replaying the last five holes. I objected because I didn’t have another 50 cents to play another round, and they made clear that the whole point of teeing off on No. 5 was to play a little more without paying any more. Read more
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