education

#ShakesTag the Online Game of Shakespeare

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Well today is the day of the week that most people practice religion of one type or another. For some people it’s the church, others football, and to others, reading is religion. Stepping into a slightly tighter niche than that, Shakespeare. And some of these people who love the Bard, get together on Sunday for a friendly game of #ShakesTag.#ShakesTag

What is #ShakesTag, you may ask? Well, it’s a game created by two ladies: Dr. Wells and Lara Schiffbauer. But every week they play to some type of theme, post together a short Shakespeare tweet, related to said theme, then tag it with #ShakesTag. And off goes the game!

It’s surprising, how many people are playing, and it’s fun to get tagged by someone, because it means you’re “in the gang”.

But teachers, this is where I think you can engage your kids in learning some of Shakespeare’s famous lines with your class. Or, more importantly, that is language means more than just words written on a piece of paper. During one of your classroom sessions, start a #ShakesTag game with your kids on Twitter. See how many references to “love” or insults, or humor, or some other term that would surprise and engage your kids.

Let me know how it goes. And if you have any stories of teaching kids with Shakespeare, I would love to hear and share them. Let me know!

-brendan

#shakestag rules

#ShakesTag the Online Game of Shakespeare was originally published on Shakespeare for Kids Books

autism and stimming

Stimming on Stimming

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As a parent of a kid with challenges the word “stimming” is like a dagger in the heart.  I’m going to take the gloves off and tell you if you are working with a “professional” (yes, I purposely put that word in quotes, because sometimes you just wonder where they actually got that degree from) and they use the word “stimming” then get a new professional. Because they clearly don’t know what is driving child to do what they are doing. I am not joking here, although the irony of the title of this article doesn’t escape me.  It seems that if some therapists don’t know what’s driving a kid to do what they do, then they drop this word like it’s no issue, it’s almost as if they are stimming on the word “stimming” itself.

If your therapist even mentions the word “stimming” to you, the parent, or even the more politically correct version, “perseverate”, lose them!  They clearly don’t know how to work through and manage your kid’s challenges. Using those words are just a cop out for not knowing what to do!  I know it is easy for me to sit here on a keyboard and say “just drop your therapist”.  But, in reality, you should really start looking for one more appropriate for your child’s needs.

I learned this recently from working with a speech therapist, when my kid kept talking about a certain subject.  I was getting frustrated and clearly lost.  She brought up the word to teach me on how and we should not use it.  Then I watched her simply sit back, watch my kid for a short while, then go in and start talking with him.  What was amazing, is she just dove into what he was talking about, and started expanding in several different ways around the subject, until he stopped talking about it.  Essentially, he has this itch to learn more about this word or subject, but didn’t quite know how to ask that or explain what he was thinking.  She taught us a new way to approach it and all this “stimming” went away after a few months.  She hit it right on the head, and it was her wisdom that knew what to look for.  I am so grateful to work with her and, more importantly, to have her constantly educate us on the “why”, so we know what to do in the future.

Learn more ways to work with your child on their challenges at: KidConnectionZ.com