Anxiety is a feeling of fear.  Anxiety is a common response to ambiguity; when we don’t know what’s happening or we don’t know how to respond.  Anxiety is nature’s way of helping us deal with difficult situations. This can be beneficial as it can invigorate us for an exam and it can prevent us from doing dangerous things.  Anxiety can assist us to maintain focus in a critical situation.  But when anxiety becomes excessive it can be debilitating. There is intense dread.

Some examples of anxiety in children and adolescents are separation anxiety, social anxiety and generalized anxiety. Students experiencing social anxiety become overwhelmed or extremely self conscious in social situations. This anxiety may be disabling. They have a chronic fear that others are judging them and they may struggle to make and keep friends.

Students with separation anxiety become easily distressed when separating from their parents. They may worry about being lost or kidnapped or that something might happen to their parents. These students may fear going to school or camp and may avoid play dates and sleepovers.

Students with generalized anxiety also experience excessive worry.  They cannot reduce or eliminate their anxiety even if they realize it is out of proportion or irrational. These students are riddled with self-doubt. They are often paralyzed by thoughts that they will be unable to meet others’ expectations. These students require constant approval and reassurance from teachers and parents.

Students with anxiety exhibit many symptoms including: stomach ailments, sleep disturbances, difficulty concentrating, startling easily and sweating or trembling around others. Given this, these students avoid many situations, allowing the anxiety to interfere with friendships, family, and with school.

Students experiencing anxiety struggle with vulnerability. Their thoughts include, “since I had anxiety once, it will happen again.”  Typically an escalation in the irrationality of their thoughts occurs; “my anxiety is likely to increase and then I’ll be crazy and lose control”. Students may have ideas of helplessness; “I cannot cope because of this anxiety, so I’ll soon be completely helpless.” Inherent in these beliefs are; “I’m helpless, I’m flawed, and I’m incompetent.”

Most anxieties in youth are normal and temporary. As their emotions are developing, it can be challenging to differentiate between what is a normal fear verses what is atypical. There are opportunities for parents, teachers, and others to guide students in mild distress.  Helping students to identify their feelings is a first step. Introducing students to stress reducing techniques is beneficial as mind and body practices reduce stress while promoting health. Meditation, yoga, and deep breathing are used to increase calmness and relaxation as well as to enhance well-being and are all examples of interventions that can be initiated and practiced at home, at school, and even in the car.

However, if you continue to be concerned about a student, it is important to have the student evaluated by a professional. This evaluation will include an assessment to determine the kinds and severity of symptoms and the extent of interference with peer relationships, familial relationships, and with school functioning.

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Contact Jane Ross at Tri-Well Private Practice 

The idea that students have particular “learning styles”—visual, auditory, kinesthetic, etc. — is a popular and persistent one despite the lack of scientific evidence to support it. (For a great summary of the research, see this blog post by UVA cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham.)

The apparent weakness of learning styles theory does not mean, however, that students don’t differ from one another. They clearly do. But let’s focus on differences that have empirical support. Scott Barry Kaufman points out one such set of differences in one of his recent columns on theScientific American website—that is, differences in working memory.

As Scott explains, “Working memory involves the ability to maintain and manipulate information in one’s mind while ignoring irrelevant distractions and intruding thoughts. Working memory skills are essential for everyday intellectual functioning.” And learners vary in the capacity of their working memory, a fact that teachers can take into account:

“In an educational setting, helping students overcome working memory burdens can be particularly helpful. Over the past decade John Sweller and colleagues have designed instructional techniques that relieve working memory burdens on students and increase learning and interest. Drawing on both the expertise and working memory literatures, they match the complexity of learning situations to the learner, attempting to reduce unnecessary working memory loads that may interfere with reasoning and learning, and optimize cognitive processes most relevant to learning.

Cognitive Load Theory can be particularly useful for students with working memory deficits who are otherwise extremely intelligent and competent as it allows them to more easily demonstrate their brilliance.” (Read more here.)

For learners with such working memory deficits (and for all of us when we’re learning something new or difficult), reducing cognitive load can lead to big improvements in performance. We can do so by breaking concepts and problems into smaller steps, weeding out extraneous information, presenting information in multiple modalities (e.g.,  supplementing written text with pictures or aural information), and simply slowing the pace of learning so that we don’t become overwhelmed.

To quote Dan Willingham: “People do learn differently, but I think it is very important to say exactly how they learn differently, and focus our attention on those differences that really matter.” What are some other evidence-based distinctions we can make among learners?

Read Annie Murphy Paul’s blog and weekly newsletter, The Brilliant Report.

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I was asked to write this blog piece about teaching tolerance, but I want to start by changing some vocabulary. Teaching tolerance promotes that idea that you just need to put up with something you don’t particularly value or enjoy (brussel sprouts, regular exercise, etc), but you don’t have to like it. If, instead, you teach, promote, and encourage understanding and acceptance, you can challenge a student to understand another perspective and find value in diversity – not just tolerate the presence of difference.

Teaching people to understand and value things or people that are different is a difficult conversation at any age. Starting each school year with clear expectations and standards for acceptable behavior and language enables you to have a positive, constructive conversation – rather than just respond to the inevitable issues with a predictable list of consequences. Establishing a Gay/Straight Alliance (GSA) shows students and staff that the community wants to recognize and support lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) teens, staff, and family members, and can provide crucial support to students and staff alike. However, the goal of a GSA should be for the community to monitor itself, not for one committee to be in charge of deciding who or what is appropriate. A GSA can inform the efforts of teachers and parents working to help students see their peers as individuals, each bringing a unique set of values, beliefs, and behaviors to school right alongside their binders and sports equipment.

The Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) provides a wealth of information and resources, as well as hosting yearly events to raise awareness and foster acceptance on any campus. Starting the year with Ally Day (check it out here)
clearly sends the message that you don’t have to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender to care about gay rights, and that anyone can be an Ally. Turning the pledge into a poster, or handing out stickers or bracelets to indicate your support is a great way to make your campus into a welcoming environment. Fostering this environment isn’t easy, and requires patience and vigilance on the part of students and staff alike, but starting with acceptance can make all the difference.

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Although it is almost 16 years ago, I can still remember the feeling I had entering my first public school teaching job.  I was hired to teach four sections of 9^th grade Civics classes and one section of an 11^th grade honors US history class.  Mainstream regular ed and honors classes with a mix of students, some of which were on IEP’s.  This had been my goal at the time…to take my six years of Landmark experience and a graduate degree and attempt to effectively reach a wide audience of students while at the same time continue my work with students with language-based learning disabilities (LBLD’s) in a mainstream public school setting. Approaching a class of 28 students, six of whom were on IEP’s (picture a Landmark class with an additional 22 students) made me immediately realize the importance of structuring my approach to make sure my students’ skills and organization were up to par.  Content would absolutely have its place, but as a vehicle for critical thinking and most importantly, skill development.  Somewhat because of my inexperience in this setting, I began to fall back on some of the strategies I had learned in my six previous years at Landmark.  I will admit that I first used these strategies to buy myself some time as I began to get to know my students and gain a handle on the needs of my classes.  I had assumed during those first three weeks that I would move on from some of my tried and true Landmark strategies into a different realm of pedagogy more suited to a mainstream public school environment.

What I found out very quickly is that the strategies I had used during my time at Landmark were not just Landmark strategies…they were effective teaching and learning strategies for all student skill levels. As a teacher, the act of doing things such as putting an agenda on the board every day, using multi-modals as opposed to strict lecture, structuring writing through templates and outlines, giving credit for participation and organization, emphasizing test review as much as the test itself, teaching note taking as opposed to only dispensing “important” information, taking time to check on and reward notebook organization and break down specific tasks were strategies that benefited all of my students, not just the students with learning differences.

It remains my belief as an educator that when you assist in helping students acquire and learn the necessary skills with which they can access content knowledge on their own while also rewarding the attributes they bring such as cooperation and self-advocacy, you are providing them with a greater gift…the gift of control.  The ability to see themselves as a partner in the learning process engaged in the development of their own skills and not just an empty vessel waiting to be filled with knowledge.  In the end that doesn’t just represent Landmark teaching – it represents effective teaching, and worthwhile learning.

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One of the first things a parent discovers as we begin the journey to learn about dyslexia and to find resources for our children is that there are two distinct worlds. The first is that of the learning disability (LD) community — dyslexia conferences, LD workshops, webinars, and research-based discussions. We read the books, the research papers, and the educational reports. We begin to understand the brain-based science that shows proper intervention can re-wire a struggling reader’s brain to more effectively activate its language centers. This is the world that brings us hope and offers our children solutions.

Unfortunately, often times our children are educated in a very different world, that of public schools. It is here where we encounter many roadblocks and have to maneuver around many obstacles. Often times we have to work with intervention teams that do not understand dyslexia and therefore leave our children to languish in inappropriate interventions for years before referrals to special education were made.

It is time for public schools in the US to catch up with the current research. Good things are happening across the country in private schools and intervention clinics focused on students with learning disabilities. Research based interventions are in use, and educators are knowledgeable about what strategies work and what techniques are effective. Yet it is so sad that in spite of this research, children have to spend six hours of each day in a classroom that is not in tune to their needs. This is wasted time. This is precious time lost.

In the state of NJ, like-minded parents connected to form Decoding Dyslexia – NJ (DDNJ), a grassroots movement driven by families of dyslexic children. The mission is to raise dyslexia awareness, empower families with information and resources to support their children, and inform policy-makers about dyslexia, and the need to identify, remediate, and support students with dyslexia in New Jersey’s public school system.

This mission is one that has clearly resonated with parents across the country… the movement is growing at an astounding pace. At the beginning of the new year just a few states had parent led DD Movements. However, things have expanded and now 20 states are active!

Decoding Dyslexia members are connecting and collaborating with professionals, therapists, teachers, and policy-makers in their states. We aim to change the way things are done in schools by encouraging families to share their stories. Individual stories, when shared in unison, have power and Decoding Dyslexia is encouraging families to find their voices.

The time is ripe for families across the country to speak up about dyslexia. There is currently a bi-partisan Congressional Dyslexia Caucus in place in Washington DC. Congress will be looking to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in the near future and states are adapting to the new Common Core Content Standards. We need to ensure that discussions on improving literacy programs for dyslexics are included on all fronts. As parents we need to insist that this gap between research and practice is addressed!

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There has been a lot of talk in recent years about “brain-based” learning, and the role neuroscience plays in education. It makes sense to think this way because when we learn cells grow, connect, disconnect, or die. Learning is the process by which the brain rewires itself.

What then can neuroscience tell teachers and students about how to
make learning most effective? This turns out to be a very difficult question to answer. The brain is extraordinarily complex, and neuroscience is only beginning to touch upon questions that relate to what happens in the brain during classroom learning. But the fact that we don’t understand this hasn’t stopped many from promoting all kinds of myths about how the brain works, often to justify and support methods for teaching that are not really backed by research.

One of the most common myths about the brain in education has to do with the capabilities of its right and left sides. People talk all the time about being “left brained,” or “right brained,” and use this to explain why they can do some things, and not others. But, if neuroscience can tell us anything at all about learning, it is that the brain is almost fluid in its adaptability (a process called plasticity). The brain can grow cells to direct the burden for learning to whatever regions are able to accommodate the task. In an extreme case, where people with severe epilepsy have had half their brains removed, they are able to recover functions thought resident in the side of the brain no longer there.

Profs. Kurt Fischer, Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, and I developed a resource for teachers (funded by the Annenberg Foundation)that has videos about such ideas, including dyslexia. Visit “Neuroscience and the Brain,”www.learner.org/courses/neuroscience.

If you are interested in science and dyslexia, please visit www.LVL.SI.edu, where you can join our community, and voice your ideas.

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I am always taken aback when a student or colleague asks if I can teach them how to meditate their stress away using mindfulness meditation practices.  Immediately, I recall something my mentor once told me when I was involved in a relationship with a very difficult person.  He told me:  “Robert, when that person punches you, kicks you, spits on you, kisses you, calls you a dirty name, and runs you over with their car, and it does not bother you, then you are alright. Until then you are not.”  Of course, Father Dave was speaking allegorically, and the import of his words is only heightened by a story told by Dzonger Jamyang Khyentse, a Tibetan Monk.  

Khyentse asks us to consider the cinematographer who goes to the theater to watch a film.  Because of his knowledge, the cinematographer can tell which part of the film has been generated by a computer, where a line has been dubbed, or where the leading actor has been replaced by a stunt man.  Ultimately, this does not ruin the film for the cinematographer, who leaves the theater having enjoyed the picture.  The allegory of both stories and what lies at the heart of mindfulness practice is the question:  can we enjoy life no matter what is happening to us at that moment?

By learning to pay careful attention to our breath, we learn to pay attention to other things in our lives, like the impermanence of our feelings:  one minute you have a stomach ache and the next you are jonesing for a Big Mac.  Or that thought that everything is going to “hell” in a hand basket.  It is just a thought!  Besides, not even US Air has non-stops to “hell.”  Mindfulness practice teaches you to take whatever is happening in your life and use it to learn more about yourself.  The best time for me to practice mindfulness is early in the morning when I wake up.  Generally, at that time, I have a million thoughts running through my head.  To calm my mind, I will sit in a chair, take three deep breaths, and then begin my meditation by breathing in and then breathing out.  That counts as one cycle.  I then try to complete twenty one cycles.  If my mind wanders, I just bring it back to the breath and start over.  This simple practice will help calm your mind at the start of a new day.

To discover more about mindful practice, check out Jon Kabat-Zinn’s book: Full Catastrophe Living.

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Being “peaceful,” or at least making the effort to become peaceful, is often associated with the holidays. However, the arrival of the holidays this year (2012) was accompanied by horrific visions of school violence that conjured up other visions of violence in movie theaters, malls, and on our streets. For so many people, including me, these visions were not conducive to peaceful feelings. Rather, they created difficult questions and a sense of anxiety.

Such social violence, portrayed almost daily in the news, is painful and impossible to understand. This violence is by no means specific to schools, yet health and safety concerns at our schools are increasingly on all of our minds. One of the swirling questions for me during our holiday break was how do we learn to balance what we so often hear, see, feel, and fear with who we are, what we do to maintain safety and help create change, and how we communicate with each other as adults and with our students. How do we stay balanced as we move forward in a healthy way while still carrying the emotions of such terrible events?

Often, when there is too much chatter in my brain, I retreat to a good book, and, at this time, I found the title of Susan Cain’s book, Quiet to be promising. Writing about introverts and our society’s evolution toward the “Extrovert Ideal,” the author makes the following statement on page 21: “America had shifted from what influential cultural historian Warren Susman called a Culture of Character to a Culture of Personality – and opened up a Pandora’s Box of personal anxieties from which we would never quite recover.” This is a bold and sweeping statement, yet it resonated with me.

The phrase Culture of Character describes that which we work endlessly to achieve in our schools, often against other powerful cultural influences. School cultures strive to build and reinforce character in the community as a whole, and within each student and adult within the community. In this context, who we are, how we respond, what we learn, what actions we take when confronted with overwhelmingly bad news depends on our character and almost forces us to strengthen our culture.

From this perspective, I felt more balanced knowing that our work is really about continuing to build a Culture of Character within our schools and communities wherein how we behave makes all the difference. While we cannot control external events, we can control how we respond to them, and we can seize every opportunity within our community to teach, grow, refine, and communicate. Focusing on the dignity of each person, acting with respect, and honoring our emotions and responsibilities in difficult times, do not answer all of the questions, but they are the hopeful foundation for a more peaceful existence.

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Submitted by Brock and Fernette Eide, Authors of The Dyslexic Advantage

What does it really mean to be dyslexic? The most common definition states that dyslexia is a brain-based disorder that makes reading and spelling harder than expected given an individual’s intelligence and education.

We believe this definition is too narrow, and that it’s misleading in important ways. In our view, dyslexia—or a dyslexic processing style—is better viewed as a different pattern of brain organization that creates both challenges and important strengths.

Why does it matter how we define dyslexia? It matters because it affects how we think of dyslexic individuals, and how dyslexic individuals think of themselves. Let us show you what we mean.

When you hear the word dyslexia, what image pops into your mind? If you’re like most people you see a child sitting at a desk, head buried in hands, face clouded in frustration as he or she stares in hopeless bewilderment at a book. This image reflects the view that dyslexia is, at its core, a disability.

We believe this image is profoundly misleading. As we argue in our book The Dyslexic Advantage, there are many reasons to believe that ‘disability’ isn’t the core of what it means to be dyslexic. Instead, the learning challenges dyslexic individuals experience are really just secondary consequences of having a brain that’s been organized to reason and solve problems in a different way.

Our experience as clinicians has caused us to form a very different image of dyslexia. When we hear the word dyslexia we don’t think of disability. We think of all the amazing dyslexic individuals we’ve examined in our clinic and met through our work. What stands out in our minds isn’t just what they can’t do but also what they can—their creativity, innovation, perceptiveness, mindfulness, resourcefulness.

It’s essential that this broader view replace the older narrow one. To solve the many challenges facing dyslexic individuals we must first form a strong and cohesive dyslexic community that can work together for their collective good. However, at present the greatest barrier to forming such a community is the disability-centered view that dominates thinking about dyslexia. This incomplete and imbalanced view creates an image of dyslexia that no one would willingly own. As a result, when individuals are identified as dyslexic they too often experience shame or denial rather than self-understanding and acceptance. This leads them to hide their dyslexic identity and prevents them from forming communities.

To form the dyslexic community we need, we must first adopt a more balanced and accurate image of what it means to be dyslexic: an image that dyslexic individuals can proudly and willingly own and embrace, which accepts the challenges, understands and encourages the strengths, and recognizes the common routes to success that go along with being dyslexic. This dyslexic community will have all of the strength and ability it needs to achieve its goals once it comes to truly know, and understand, itself.

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Submitted by Reverend Bill Ferguson, Chaplain, Landmark School

Somehow over the years, in the midst of the “ME” generation, this idea of volunteering for other people and other causes has really taken off. One of the problems I have as the Director of Community service at Landmark is that if students don’t sign up fast enough, their slots are taken. Such is the demand. I was more than happy when we were completing 700 – 1,000 hours of community service per year about ten years ago, and then this past year we eclipsed the 4,000 hour mark. There is simply more of an awareness, an intentionality about volunteering. People are looking more for opportunities to be involved. Granted, the emphasis of colleges now for community service in the admissions process drives this somewhat, but is that so bad? Students who might not otherwise have had the experience of volunteering get some exposure at least.

O.K. so let’s talk about the impact of volunteering, or service learning as it is often times called. For students who get involved with community service, working several days a week at say a YMCA or local after school program, I often see a marked improvement in confidence and self esteem. Students begin to see their impact or the difference they make in someone’s life because they keep showing up day after day. They grow with a sense of connectedness. They mature into healthy young adults ergo good citizens. Then there is the impact on the community. In our early years as a school, many in the community had no idea who we were cloistered up on a hill, hidden behind so many trees. Now people in the community at places like Beverly Hospital, the local YMCA, the elderly and homeless shelters have come to know and appreciate our school and our students as a result of our involvement. So community service has become a win-win-win for us. It benefits our students’ personal growth while establishing our reputation in the community as a quality institution and most importantly it helps others.

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