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In this edition, we want to remind you about the really important, exciting events coming up this month, next month and next year - please sign up and spread the word! We also have a report on our most recent Speaker Series event with Tuck Geerds. Last month we announced the launch of PEN President Dewey Rosetti's column, Parent Exchange. This is now a fully functioning blog where Dewey posts her articles and stories, and really wants you to share your experiences and reflections too! Please visit and leave a comment. Our Annual Fund Appeal of 2008 is in progress and we need your help! The SAFE Voices book, Read This When You Can, is now in print and on sale, and we have another excerpt included here! We are also proud to feature a report from the Teachers' Education Network on their first event, and a review of their speaker Pat Wolfe's book. Enjoy! | |||||||
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We have three important events coming up in our Speaker Series: Saturday, November 8, Paul Grossman, Civil Rights Attorney, will explain how to prepare for the fact that There Are No IEPs in College. This event will be held at the Star Academy in San Rafael. Parents and professionals working with public and private high school students are urged to attend this important presentation, so please spread the word to anyone who might be interested! A flyer to print & distribute can be downloaded here (PDF). Our first evening Speaker Series event will take place on Monday November 17 at 7pm, at Convent of the Sacred Heart. Nationally renowned psychologist and author Robert Brooks, Ph.D., who provided the keynote address at PEN's 2007 Conference, will talk about Raising Self-Disciplined and Confident Kids. Join us as Dr. Brooks helps parents explore various disciplinary styles and outlines positive strategies that will encourage children and teens to become more responsible, respectful and confident. He will leave us with a clear plan for preparing our children to become independent adults. Flyer here (PDF). Our December 12 Speaker Series features Dr. Virginia Bassi speaking on The Social and Emotional Challenges for LD Teens: How to Assist Them on the Journey. Learn how to help your high school student navigate the challenges of high school so they can be successful, and help them become self-advocates in high school and throughout their lives. ANNUAL CONFERENCE - REGISTER NOW! PEN' Annual Conference 2009, The LD Revolution: Shifting the Conversation will take place on Saturday, April 25 at AT&T Park Giants Stadium. This is a conference by students, for students (parents and educators are invited too!), featuring student panels and student-centered workshops. Jonathan Mooney and David Flink, co-founders of Project Eye-to-Eye will facilitate and speak throughout the day. Attendance is FREE for kids and $50 for adults.
On Friday, October 17 at 9am, Tuck Geerds, M.A., Educational Consultant, formerly with the Charles Armstrong School, offered Help for Those Homework Hassles, focusing especially on elementary and middle school students, at the Exploratorium. Tuck explained the specific reasons behind homework difficulties which can include problems with reading, writing, spelling, memory or organization skills, and explained strategies to deal with all of them, including management of time, space and materials, and the use of timers, motivators and contracts. You can download the handout here, and view a slideshow of the event on our website.
PEN Members and Friends, in these difficult times your help has never been more needed. Our Annual Fund appeal is in progress, and to meet our target of $45,000 we are asking that everyone give whatever they can afford to ensure the continuation of our essential work. $6,000 has been received so far, and we need to reach our target by the end of this year. Please consider the community we have managed to build these last years, the learning experiences we have all shared, and our huge accomplishments, such as the recent publication of the SAFE Voices book, and give what you can. Donations may be:
Thank you for your generosity! 
We have another excerpt for you to read online this month: SAFE member Trevor Gunn's "Living in a Different World" (PDF). Last month we linked to Dash Seerley Gowland's "Dash's Advice to Help Students, Parents and Teachers" (PDF). And if you missed it first time, check out a review of the book (PDF) from the September newsletter. Then go buy it! Christina's Story from the Parent Exchange blog by PEN President Dewey Rosetti My older daughter “flunked” the first year of pre-school and had to repeat it. She was apparently barely participating in the day to day activities, paying little attention to instructions, unable to do puzzles, and not clear on how to engage others in play. She also couldn’t tie her shoes, kick the ball or skip. Her art work was sparse and unrepresentative of anything but a blob. But she was a totally normal three year old who did not stand out among her peers as having any problems. When we were told by the head of her preschool that she was years behind the other kids, and that she probably would not be ready for kindergarten until age 8, we were flabbergasted. We had no idea what to do next for her, so we did nothing and allowed her to start school in the same “grade” again the next year with kids who were a year younger and new to the school. The school head told us not to worry about how she would feel about repeating, because at three, she would probably not even notice. This advice turned out to be untrue, and in the fall of the next year, we got a call from the school telling us of their concern about Christina and her unwillingness to participate in the school activities. She had become an “automaton” and was just going through the motions of school, and mostly sitting in the sandbox by herself not talking and staring ahead. Read more & leave a comment...  TEN's Inaugural Event by Mitch Bostian, TEN co-founder It’s a Monday night, and three adults face an engaged, attentive audience. The adults stand side by side, arms spread wide, fingers almost touching. One shakes a bit, and a burst of energy seems to flow through her fingers, jumping into the fingers of the person next to her, who subsequently transfers the same burst to the person standing next to him. A new fitness philosophy? Some religious ceremony? No – just teachers demonstrating the way that neurons, dendrites, axons, and synapses function in the human brain. TEN has arrived! On Monday, October 6, 130 Bay Area teachers attended a three-hour presentation by reknowned educator, author, and speaker Pat Wolfe, connecting brain research and effective classroom teaching. The event, which took place at Our Lady of Mercy School in Daly City, was free to all (thanks to PEN’s support) and drew a diverse audience of educators from public, parochial, and independent schools, from all over the Bay Area.
Survey responses received after the event reflected uniformly positive experiences. One survey respondent commented, “It's very rare when you walk away from a Monday night seminar feeling rejuvenated by the speaker and the information you've received.” Those sentiments were consistently echoed by attendees, and, unsurprisingly, registration is already picking up for the next TEN event, a presentation by educator and neuroscientist Judy Willis on Friday, January 23.
The full calendar of TEN events can be downloaded here (PDF).
Brain Matters: Translating Research into Classroom Practice
“Saying that we do not need to understand the brain to be able to teach it, is like saying that a physician need not understand the body in order to treat it.” –Pat Wolfe. Pat Wolfe’s book, Brain Matters: Translating Research into Classroom Practice is an essential handbook for educators and parents looking for a guided tour of the brain—both its structure and how it translates sensory input into information storage. She provides the crucial short course in the first two sections of the book on the biology and function of the brain as well as the latest research findings regarding sensory, working and long-term memory. She takes the time to address ‘neuromyths’ such as the rigid right/left brain divide, the majority of the brain being ‘un-used’ most of the time, and the belief that the brain is able to ‘multitask.’ Pat provides strategies in the third section of the book for parents and educators interested in the application of the neuroscience findings. She carefully matches instructional strategies with how the brain learns best. The book concludes with a toolkit of brain-compatible learning strategies that can be used by both adults and children. Most importantly, Pat Wolfe provides readers with the essential understandings about the brain and how it learns so that parents and educators can make more informed decisions about how to best support kids in the learning process.
PEN e-Newsletter November 2008 |
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The SAFE Voices book, Read This When You Can, is now 
