Happy New Year

"We will open the book. It's pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called opportunity and it's first chapter is New Year's Day."

Edith Lovejoy Pierce

AD/HD National Awareness Day

14th September 2009

Whether your ADDer child or spouse is super bright, of average IQ or one who is intellectually challenged, their AD/HD is a gift.

Find out what makes them special and love them unconditionally.
Stop looking for the bad - Catch'em Doing Good
Educate yourself and those around you.

Explore all the options for treatment.
Lobby your medical aidsRemember - optimally medicated AD/HD children are less likely to self medicate with drugs and alcohol and nicotine later in life.

Courtesy of Ladd News Sept 2009

Website for Remedial and Special Education Educators

Please go and have a look at http://www.remspeced.co.za/index.htm They have fantastic articles and information relevant to educators and parents of remedial and special education children.

New Maths Handbook and Studyguide

For those of us that have been exposed to the fantastic Afrikaans as well as English Handbook and Study Guides put together by Beryl Lutrin and Marcelle Pincus, you will be delighted to know that two more books are being added to their range:

The Grade 11 Maths Handbook and Study Guide AND

The Grade 12 Maths Handbook and Study Guide

These books are written by Kevin Smith and will be available in September from our website http://www.teacherresources.co.za/

Resources for Primary School Teachers

It's holidays at last and we hope that you get some well deserved rest.
Thank you to the many people that sent e-mails and comments regarding the article on dyscalculia. It was great to get such positive feedback.
This week I have included another website that offers free lesson worksheets and ideas for primary school children. There are far too many to tell you about so click on the link below and check it out for yourself or add it to your favourites list.
http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/index.htm
Don't forget to let me know if you have any great websites or articles that would be of benefit to teachers.

Maths Disorder - DYSCALCULIA

I have just recently been made aware of this disorder and when I have spoken to other teachers many of them had not heard of it, so I thought that it would be great to write about it on my blog.
Dyscalculia is generally very similar to Dyslexia, but for numbers. People with Dyscalculia generally have great difficulty with the most basic aspects of numbers and arithmatic. Dyscalculia is often due to visual-spatial difficulties ( making sense of what the eye sees) and language processing difficulties ( making sense of what the ear hears).
They mix up mathematical symbols and similar looking digits are muddled: 6,9,3,8. They have difficulty planning problems and experience difficulty with complex thinking.
There are many other symtoms but not all of them may be displayed when considering if a child has Dyscalculia.
(From article by Eden Pringle-Remedial Teacher's Association)
To find out more about this disorder, go to the following links:
http://www.dyscalculia.org/calc.html
http://www.learninginfo.org/dyscalculia-symptoms.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyscalculia

Fun Brain Maths - Area

http://www.funbrain.com/poly/index.html is a fun site to visit for children that require exercises on finding the area of basic shapes. The exercises are graded and consist of many blocks that complete a puzzle. This is aimed at the young primary school learner.