A Message from McElrath:

My goal this year is to actually finish reading one of the many books I’ve ordered about education...don’t judge me...I’ve had a lot going on :) The book I am reading now caught my attention because it talks about something that I am passionate about - relationships. As the ELITE in special education, we focus on two things: Relationships + Practices. The Restorative Practices Handbook is a goldmine of relationship and practices mindset changers. The title of the introduction is “New Thinking, New Practice, New Result.” Oftentimes, we get in a rut with our thinking and how we respond to those students that really challenge us. I know this has been true for myself. I’ve found though that if I take a minute to change how I think about the student, it changes the whole dynamic for the kid and myself. The book calls this “separating the deed from the doer.” You see, just like we get in a rut about how we respond to the student, the student also gets in a rut with how they respond to us. And that’s where we come in because it’s “our job to teach them and to help them change.” I’ll keep you posted on any other golden nuggets I come across as I finish this book!

Discussions with Dr. Holley:

Dyslexia...what is it exactly?

Dyslexia is the most common learning disability; it is universal across ethnic groups & socioeconomic groups and across gender. Dyslexia does not go away. The brain is usually a well-connected organ; dyslexia is a disconnection in neurological functioning. Dyslexia is a clinical diagnosis. Dyslexia is not seeing letters and words backwards, it begins with a weakness, but every weakness has a strength that counteracts it. Orthographic processing is related to visual processing of symbols associated with reading. It most often relates to the student's ability to do sight-reading. This has a significant impact on a person's ability to comprehend language at more complex levels. It seems to involve more than phonological processing.