MSI Press Blog

  Many thanks to Cindy McKinley Alder, co-author with Patti Trombly  of 365 Teacher Secrets for Parents and 10 Quick Homework Tips ,  for this guest post Preventing Summer Slide Cindy McKinley Alder     Summer Break is long and, often, when kids go back to school in the fall, they have lost a bit of learning.   This is called “Summer Slide”.   While the amount of time out of school is not likely to change, you can absolutely cut down the amount of learning loss over the summer months.   The key is to make things fun and authentic.   Handing out workbooks might be fun for some kids.   But if you think your kids would just roll their eyes and protest, try to find some real-life (and fun!) ways to get them practicing their skills.   For most kids, having some READING time every day during the summer is an excellent way to keep skills current over the months without school.   You can read to them if they are young or the...

  The Teaching and Learning Podcast Hosts write that: Educators are natural nurturers, but taking care of themselves often falls to the bottom of the list...if it even makes the list at all. In this conversation with self-care advocate Julie Gentile, we learn how educators can actually have more of themselves to give to their students when they stop to take care of themselves. MSI Press author, Julie Gentile, discusses this topic on their podcast .  Read more about Julie and her award-winning books HERE .

Communication No running, No jumping, No talking, No shoes – No shirt – No service.   Speaking in this style of negative phrasing is as common and ingrained as answering the telephone with “Hello.”   To the majority of society, the message is direct, concise, and typically easily understood.    Unfortunately, children with autism struggle with deciphering statements requesting the negation of an action. While it is not impossible for these children to learn some regularly used negative statements, it takes more effort and exposure to the exact phrasing to produce understanding. If we look carefully at the information provided by current researchers and practitioners of autism we could pinpoint some of the children’s receptive communication difficulties.   Autism causes deficits to varying degrees in the ability to understand verbal sounds and attach meaning to them.    Further, if the children do understand the individual spoken w...

Laura Dabbs works at the University of Alabama at Birmingham where she is pursuing her MA-TESOL degree.  Laura teaches Community English Classes at UAB and formerly taught ESL and GED classes in Georgia at Dalton State College.  Working at a diverse university as afforded her the opportunity to see first-hand how personality traits, learning styles and learning strategies play a role in a variety of educational and professional situations.  Laura and her family have enjoyed a multi-cultural household by hosting foreign exchange students from various locations around the world. Her book, co-authored with Betty Lou Leaver,  The Invisible Foreign Language Classroom: Bringing Hidden Dynamics to Light for Individual and Group Harmony and Success . explains why some classrooms become dysfunctional and suggests what to do about them. The Invisible Foreign Language Classroom was released in September 2019. A sequel for teacher education is planned for this year. R...

Exceptional teachers Cindy McKinley and Patti Trombly have put together a book that can help any parent through this extended period of sheltering in place during the current covid 19 pandemic. Packed with home activities for learning, readers can pick any number that appeal to them or fit their personal family circumstances. Here is one example: #203  Bug Off!  (Game for +, −, ×, ÷) Materials: a new fly swatter; flashcards, or note cards. 1. Hand your child the fly swatter and tell her she’s going to practice math. Already she’s interested and ready to enjoy this game to help improve basic math facts in addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division. 2. Place cards with the answers to math facts she is working on in school or struggling with, face up, spreading them fairly far apart. Then, simply ask a question such as, “What is 3x4?” and have her slap the fly swatter on the index card with the correct answer. Variations: • Use another fly swatter and...

What are the benefits to being a teacher? Long-time teacher and MSI Press author ( 365 Teacher Secrets for Parents ) knows! Recently, Cindy was requested to contribute to an article in Up Journey : " The Benefits of Being a Teacher, According to 9 Teachers ." The journalist writes: What are the advantages and benefits of the teaching profession? We asked experts to provide some great insights. MSI Press's Cindy was one of those experts. Yes!

Cindy McKinley, co-author of 365 Teacher Secrets for Parents , is posting a weekly set of activities for kids to keep their skills sharp over summer -- in a fun way. Her first post is above. To follow her over the summer on her Face Book page, click here. Visit Cindy's web page for all sorts of parenting help. More information is available on Cindy's book on her MSI Press book page. As with other MSI Press books, the book can be ordered at 25% discount, using code FF25 when checking out, for followers of this blog at the MSI Press webstore. And, a bonus -- an unrelated by heartwarming story by Cindy on The Real Us .