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Showing posts with the label Boston

Is the teacher or the student mainly responsible for creating educational success?

Is it the responsibility of the teacher or the student to pave the road for success in the education environment? What happens in the physical education class of twenty students whereby seven have above average gross-motor skills, ten are right on, and three seem to fall behind? In a school setting with a forty-five minute class duration, the impetus is for the teacher to ā€˜runā€™ the class as best as possible, rather than teach to the lowest common denominator. ā€˜Stragglersā€™ can tend to ā€˜fall behind,ā€™ and soon enough class is over. This can repeat over and over again, week after week, semester after semester.  What happens to the three students after many classes is that they begin to develop a sense of failure which is confirmed by the teachers continued approach in orchestrating the class. Is the student at fault or is it the responsibility of the teacher to better integrate these three into the class? As a teacher of thirteen years and a father of three, I alwa...

Servant Leaders Operate Night and Day / Remembering 911 / #grief #firstresponders #America #community #911

It was a 'normal' day. Like a magnet, Manhattan called its workers, its movers and its shakers to its shores for another full day of business and hustle. I was in Boston getting ready to go for a run. Still in a dream-state, Victor, one of my housemates turned on the circa 1980's television in our run-down college apartment showing that an airplane had smashed into one of the World Trade Center towers. I had been to the bar at the top many times with my college friends, Windows of the World. We liked to go there overtime we made the trip to New York from Boston. I still remember the ambiance and music. I remember my conversations with my friends. We felt we were on top of the world. It was magical. I went for my run through Boston's streets off Commonwealth Avenue. Victor and I ran 3-4 miles. Upon our return, the guys and gals who we shared the house were glued to the television. Another plane hit. This was big. Smoke was billowing out. People were jumpin...

The Man with the Open Heart / #ElieWiesel #servantleader #Israel #RIP

"Human suffering anywhere, concerns men and women everywhere." Elie Wiesel When I turned eighteen years of age, I moved from Puerto Rico to Boston to attend college at Boston University. The feeling of being out on my own was liberating. All my experiences in Boston had become novel and a constant point of discovery, be it new people I met or new places I went to. Behind Commonwealth avenue, on 147 Bay State Road sat Elie Wiesel's Center for Judaic Studies. He was a university professor for B.U.'s religion and philosophy departments and well-known for being a champion of liberty and disadvantaged people. After having survived the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany during the second world war, he moved to Paris in 1945 upon his liberation by Allied troops. By 1954 he published what would be the first of nearly thirty books on the subject of being a brother's keeper to one's fellow man. In 1986, when Mr. Wiesel accepted the Nobel Peace prize f...

We ARE All Created Equal / #empathy #riseUp #IHaveADream #MovingForward #PoliticalScience #humanrights

Being a teacher requires equal measures of ā€˜know-how,ā€™ nurturing love and innovation, in order to stay relevant and effective in repeatedly producing successful educative outcomes. My graduate degree is in Special Education from Fairfield University and my bachelorā€™s is in Political Science from UMass-Boston affording me a special mix of insight for a Special Educator and Executive Function Skills Coach who works with children and adults with attentional deficits, behavioral concerns or identified as being on the autism spectrum. Does it give me somewhat of a special micro and macro lens at viewing and understanding my work? I believe so, though it does not mean I am always right. Just ask my ex-wife. Like the artists of old I have had three main families, or patrons for half a decade each of whom has been my base of financial support throughout my time in the U.S. northeast. A Muslim family, a Jewish family and a Christian family.. all with at least one child on the a...

#Confessions of a Private #SpecialEducator / CoachBill.US #ADD #executivefunction #autism

When you think of Special Education, do you think of a classroom? Do you think of kids with impairments? What do you think of? If you are a parent with a child in Special Education, do you think of those wonderful team meetings? Do you think about the passage of time and the lack of progress with your child? How about if you use to receive some kind of special education? Do you feel like you have untapped potential? Do you feel like your child can do much more? Are you frustrated? Are you angry? Are you near your 'wits end,' and don't see a good light at the end of the tunnel? What if I told you that there is at least one private Special Educator out there with a drive for performance? The performance of your child to go above and beyond. There is a private special educator in America that wears his heart on his sleeve for his students to see, and challenges them to new heights completely outside the zone of what parents think feasible or attainable. No other Special Educat...