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Susan Kruger Winter, M.Ed.
By now, you’ve heard me mention Ginelle, SOAR®’s Operations Manager. Ginelle is a certified teacher; she was actually my son’s (favorite) teacher. She is very kind and easily wins respect from her students. But, she holds everyone accountable. I believe she is one of the best teachers I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet and am…
Dozens of Problems… One Solution Ever have a set of horizontal blinds go all wonky… tilting sideways, individual slats facing every different direction? Yet, with one careful tug on a string, they all conform and neatly snap right back into place… Satisfying feeling, isn’t it? That’s what we do with learning, organization, and soft skills……
If reading has felt heavy in your home, this is your reframe. When your child or teen reads a word “wrong,” your first instinct is to correct it. That’s a loving instinct — and it’s also the moment when the most useful information a reading session can give you disappears. Because every reading “mistake” is…
“I am convinced that a ‘good’ teacher is a ‘self-abuser’ teacher!!” My grad-school professor said this in class one day. He was lamenting that his wife, a kindergarten teacher, had been on leave for two years to have their two children (they lived in Canada, with generous maternity leave). He specialized in reading development and…
Remember the children’s book, Ms. Nelson Is Missing? Ms. Nelson was not appreciated by her students until the stern Ms. Viola Swamp took her place for a while. Suddenly, students had a new appreciation for Ms. Nelson! I recently had a day that reminded me of Ms. Nelson and Ms. Viola Swamp. It involved conversations…
There is a universal rule that governs our lives behind the scenes. It works silently, only observed by those aware of its existence. The people who understand its power spend more of their time living happier lives. They use this principle to accomplish more in less time. We can see it at work in…
I was recently asked by a tutor using SOAR, how to help a student who has dysgraphia use a planner. (Dysgraphia is an extreme difficulty with writing.) It’s such an important question, I wanted to share my response with you. Q: Do you have any suggestions for my student who has dysgraphia and has difficulty writing in…
The following article was first published in 2021, during the thick of the pandemic. We wanted to share this article again because the learning value of digital media still remains true to this day! We are both educators, but you can stick a fork in us… we’re DONE! We’ve always said that we could never…
Research consistently confirms there are two critical ways to raise test scores on standardized tests: Build “cognitive flexibility” with metacognitive strategies.1 If students don’t have problem-solving strategies for learning content, well… they won’t learn it! Obviously. Teach the curriculum, not “to the test.” Teaching “to the test” –also known as “item teaching”– actually lowers test scores; it…
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