Category Archives: Teacher Support

Pre-K teacher tax deductions (part 1)

Posted on by
2

apple and booksBelow is the first in a series of posts to provide tips on tax deductions for pre-kindergarten teachers from financial consultant, Steven Daar.

The New Year brings about a lot of exciting & promising things. Taxes are not included in that group. But they are going to have to be paid one way or the other and if you want to keep a little more of the money in your bank account as opposed to going to a video game preservation center in New York (one of 100 examples US Senator Tom Coburn points out in his report of unnecessary projects the federal government spends on), I have a few tax deductions available to pre-kindergarten teachers you can utilize to do just that.

The Deductions:

1) The first one is you can deduct any dues you pay for any professional organizations related to your career (the NAEYC or NAECTE for example as well as a teachers union).

2) If you pay out of pocket to obtain a license or certification, you may deduct those costs as well. In this case, I am referring to a first aid certification or CPR certification. So long as having this license or certification is necessary or better equips you to teach you class you may deduct the cost.

3) When traveling to any training session or conference that is related to your career, you can deduct your mileage as well as hotel expenses as well as 50% of your food expenses. If you pay for training or continuing education courses, those expenses are tax deductible as well.

4) A fun tax deduction (if such a thing exists) is that if you give birthday or holiday gifts to co-workers or other school employees, you may deduct up to $25 for each gift you give.

5) You may also deduct any charitable deductions that you make (that is true for anyone, not just for teachers). This includes donations you make to your school (whether it is a gift of new books to the school library or a monetary donation to help the school fund a project). Note: You may only take this deduction if you teach at a public school or a private school that is set up as a non-profit.

All of the above deductions are taken on Schedule A of your tax form. That means the deductions only count if you itemize your tax deductions rather than take the standard deduction.

Record Keeping:

To accurately be able to take these deductions, keep your receipts for job-related expenses. Have a specific folder, envelope, or file for these receipts. When it comes time to fill out your taxes, either bring the receipts to your accountant/tax preparer. Or if you prepare your own tax forms, use the receipts to add up the amount of money you spent on job-related expenses. Note that you may not include any expenses for which you were reimbursed by your employer.

Check back with us tomorrow as we learn about the “teacher expense deduction“.

Steven Daar is a graduate from the University of Illinois in Urbana – Champaign’s Business School with a degree in Finance. Steven Daar has put together many articles for teachers at his website teachersretirementhelp.com.

Financial expert just for preK teachers

Posted on by
Reply

SteveDaarProfileThis month, we are sharing a new feature on our blog, especially for prekindergarten teachers. With income tax season coming up, we have a unique opportunity to share some expert advice on the subject – geared towards early childhood teachers. Sharing his expertise with us this month is Steven Daar from Teachers Retirement Help.

Steven Daar is a graduate from the University of Illinois in Urbana – Champaign’s Business School with a degree in Finance. While taking a personal finance class his Junior year, he knew he wanted to spend his working life improving people’s finances and retirements.

Steve noticed many teachers were either receiving poor advice or no advice on their finances. Because of this (and because all of the many amazing teachers he had throughout his school years), he decided to learn everything he could about personal finance as it relates to teachers and help as many as he possibly could.

He has spent the past year and a half studying personal finance specifically for teachers. This includes many exciting hours studying the tax codes & the laws that govern teacher retirement plans and their potential tax deductions. He has also met or spoken with the top teacher-specific financial advisors across the country. These financial advisors were incredibly generous with their time, knowledge, & expertise. In addition to learning from these authorities face-to-face, Steven has read over 10,000 pages worth of books, studies, & articles by some of the world’s leading finance and investing experts.

Through these many hours of learning, Steve has put together many articles for teachers at his website teachersretirementhelp.com – in addition to the guest posts that we will be featuring on our blog this month. Check out Steve’s series of posts on tax tips for pre-kindergarten teachers!

Parenting advice for when a child has trouble coping

Posted on by
Reply

billcorbett_2We had a question from a parent for Bill Corbett (our blog Parenting Expert ). This parent has a child who is having difficulty coping with decision making. She worries so much that she will make the “wrong” choice – that she gets so upset and argues. Here is the original question:

“One of my 7 yr old daughters gives us a run for our money. She can be very moody and will throw a fit at times when she doesn’t get what she wants. She struggles making simple decisions (like which shirt to wear), and gets very worked up worrying that she is going to make the “wrong” choice. I’m always assuring her that there is no wrong choice and even limit her choices to just 2 things to make it less overwhelming. But when she is in one of her moods, there is no talking to her. And she also gets very “fresh” and argumentative with me about almost everything. When she gets that way, I generally walk away from her and tell her that I won’t listen to her when she is speaking to me that way and that I will only listen when she talks nicely and treats me with respect. Eventually she comes around, but this is practically an everyday occurrence. Bill – my other two kids are not like this at all, so I can’t really figure out how to deal with her. Her behavior really affects our entire family. If she is having a good day, the whole family has a good day. But when she is having a bad day.. watch out !! I’m considering taking her to a child psychologist or something since I feel she needs to be taught some coping skills in order to be able to better function in life. Any thoughts or strategies?”

Bill’s response:

Once again, let me mention the things you are already doing right: giving her a choice of two items to pick from and declaring the boundary that you don’t have to listen to her guff and walking away. Please keep in mind that you cannot control someone’s attitude or emotions, all you can influence is behavior through your own words and actions. Each child must learn “self-regulation”, which means learning how to calm and soothe the self. We can’t do it for them but we can help by remaining calm and not engaging in the emotion. I know this is easier said than done, but it is something you must do.

When high level energy (positive or negative emotion) from one person comes in contact with high level energy from another person, it escalates and increases. In other words, if we are angry and the next person we come in contact with matches our level of anger, both beings get angrier. But if the person we run into is calm and more peaceful, we are inclined to calm down to match their energy level. Again, this is easier said than done, but you are the adult and must model how to remain calm for the 7 year old to learn from. She may be expressing frustration with decision making and you must let her own that frustration and learn to deal with it.

It sounds like you are limiting her choices and not solving her problems for her… good job! Give her the space to be frustrated but you don’t have to be in her same space while she is like this. Go into a different room and lock the door if you have to. This will teach her that we must be responsible for the boundaries we set for others.

If her mood sets the mood for the rest of the family, the rest of the day, there is not much you can do. That’s the problem with families sometimes. Ask everyone else to remain calm and not get into any battles with her. If they do, it will energize her to repeat this behavior. And it is not a bad thing to seek out a good therapist. It is not out of the question that she may have some deeper issues that need to be resolved.

Thank you Bill for your advice. Do you have a tip or experience to share in relation to this question? We’d love to hear from you! You can also ask a question for Bill or any of our experts by using the blue form on the right!

Bill Corbett, the author of the book Love, Limits, & Lessons® and the founder and president of Cooperative Kids.

Parenting advice when kids are interrupting

Posted on by
1

billcorbett_2We had a question from a reader that I think most parents can relate to. Her children often talk over and interrupt each other in an effort to be heard. This dynamic can happen at home and at school, and there are a few approaches to dealing with the situation. We asked our blog Parenting Expert Bill Corbett to provide some advice. Here is the original question:

“Hi Bill. Please help !! I have 3 young kids (7 yr old twin girls and a 4 year old boy). All 3 are very outgoing, outspoken and loud. Everyone constantly talks over each other in an effort to be heard. How can we teach them to stop interrupting and to be respectful of others when they are speaking? I swear my kids totally tune out everyone else and just focus on asking their questions (they are all extremely inquisitive). We constantly remind them to take turns speaking and at dinner we’ve tried having a ball to pass around so that only the one holding the ball is speaking at that time. But nothing seems to work. Are my kids just that inconsiderate? Or are there other things we can try?”

Bill’s response:

First of all I commend you for trying one thing right; using the ball to provide the power to speak while the others listen. You’re on the right track but dinner time is probably not the best family event to use this type of training. I suggest you begin holding a special family meeting one a week or every other week to conduct this training. To start out, break each meeting into two parts, the first just for discussion as a family and then a fun activity. Because you have a 4 year old, this gives you the out to keep the meetings short because of the youngest child’s short attention span. Implement the talking item and go over the rules. The consequence for not following the rules is that the family meeting ends immediately. Be sure that this consequence is set up in advance and when someone not holding the ball talks, silently end the meeting immediately.

It is normal for children to feel competitive when they are all together, feeling afraid that they won’t be heard. You can help them learn to be more patient by implementing a new rule that when mommy is talking to someone else (in person or on the phone), you are going to behave differently. When the child approaches you to speak to you and you are on the phone or speaking to someone else, do three things immediately:

1. Touch the child in a loving way (rub their back, play with their hair, put them on your lap, pull them close, etc.),
2. DO NOT look at the child, and
3. DO NOT speak to the child.

Role play this new behavior often and be sure to reward the child for waiting by being really excited and loving after you’ve ended your conversation with the other person. Finally, make sure that the adults in the family are not modeling talking over others.

Great advice that I know I’ll try at home and at school! Do you have a tip or experience to share in relation to this question? We’d love to hear from you! You can also ask a question for Bill or any of our experts by using the blue form on the right!

Bill Corbett, the author of the book Love, Limits, & Lessons® and the founder and president of Cooperative Kids.

Introducing our Parenting Expert!

Posted on by
Reply

billcorbett_2When Tressa and I talked about starting a blog on our website, one of the main reasons we wanted to do this was to provide a way for parents and child care professionals to ask questions and receive ideas and support. One way that we planned to do this was by inviting professionals in the field of early childhood to become part of our “panel of experts”. Our experts will provide guest blog posts on specific topics, and help to answer questions that are submitted to us.

We are VERY excited to introduce our first expert, Bill Corbett, the author of the book Love, Limits, & Lessons® and the founder and president of Cooperative Kids. We met Bill when he was the keynote speaker at our Early Childhood EXPO in January 2011, which was attended by both parents and ECE professionals. Bill’s speaking style is down-to-earth, entertaining, and accessible. Since then, we have had the pleasure of seeing Bill at other early childhood events around Connecticut, and on his new cable TV show.

Bill is a member of the American Psychological Association (APA), the National Children’s Alliance (NCA), the North American Society of Adlerian Psychology (NASAP), and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). He is also on the Resource Advisory Board of Attachment Parenting International (API) and spent 12 years as a parent educator and training director with the International Network for Children and Families. As a professional speaker and writer, he has won numerous awards with Toastmasters International and his syndicated column on discipline and child behavior appears in local family publications in many states across the country.

The methodology of Bill Corbett’s teaching is inspired by the studies of child psychologists Rudolph Dreikurs and Alfred Adler and is centered on the approach that effective discipline first requires a solid understanding of why children act out the way they do. “Misbehavior is communication,” Dreikurs wrote in his book, “Children The Challenge”, and this communication must be interpreted in order to use discipline effectively. His theory and methods are based on firm AND respectful discipline and assists parents in raising up cooperative and responsible children.

We are honored to have Bill Corbett on our panel, and we look forward to his guest posts. As both a parent AND a preschool teacher, I am looking forward to what Bill has to share with us!

Do you have a question on child behavior? You can ask your questions by commenting below, or using the ‘Ask the expert’ submission form on the right-hand side of our blog!

What to do when toddler is biting

Posted on by
Reply

billcorbett_2We received another question from a reader for our Parenting Expert, Bill Corbett. This is an issue that many parents and caregivers deal with during the toddler years … BITING. What is the best way to handle this? Here is the original question:

Hi Bill, A close friend of mine is having some issues with her 2 year old biting. I am writing to you because this is not the first time someone has come to me with this issue; it seems somewhat common for this age group. As a director of a program, if my staff sees a child bite, we will take efforts to ensure that it does not happen again. We’ll also look for triggers of why the child bit such as: are they teething, are they limited by speech, are they tired etc. In most instances we are able to get a child past the biting stage within a few weeks. My friend, however, seems to be having a more serious case. Despite redirection and distraction, she continues to have issues with her child biting friends and caregivers. Any suggestions?

Bill’s response:

According to expert pediatricians I have spoken to, biting usually occurs when one of two conditions are met; the victim or a caregiver over react to the biting, or the child is overwhelmed emotionally and he or she reverts to primitive behaviors to attack. I suggest that you communicate with your friend that no one is over reacting after the bite takes place. Caregivers in charge should not yell, punish, or act out when the bite takes place. If they have to say anything, they can say, “Biting is NOT OK,” in as calm a voice as possible.

The victim should receive nurturing immediately and the play activity should then be ended. If possible, the biter should be removed from the play area and or at least from that playmate, and held lovingly by another caregiver. Parents and teachers normally get angry when they experience this occurrence, but they must realize that this is a normal stage for toddlers and some preschoolers. If the biting is a result of the child feeling overwhelmed emotionally, the caregiver should learn to recognized this state of the child and watch for triggers that ignites the biting.

All biting does end if the caregivers in charge handle the incidents appropriately. In his book TOUCHPOINTS (1992, Perseus Books), T. Berry Brazelton, M.D. says, “If you lose control, too, you will frighten her and reinforce the behavior.”

Many thanks to Bill Corbett for weighing in on this issue. Do you have a tip or experience to share in relation to this question? We’d love to hear from you! You can also ask a question for Bill or any of our experts by using the blue form on the right!

Bill Corbett, the author of the book Love, Limits, & Lessons® and the founder and president of Cooperative Kids.

Read “Llama Llama Red Pajama” and set a record

Posted on by
Reply

Llama Llama Red PajamaPreschools and elementary schools around the country can join in to help set a book reading record by participating in Jumpstart’s Read for the Record Campaign on October 6, 2011. The purpose of this event is to spread awareness of the importance of early childhood literacy.

The goal is to set a new World Record for the most people reading the same book on the same day. And, much to my delight, the book to read is “Llama Llama Red Pajama” by Anna Dewdney – one of my favorite books by a favorite author! (My daughter even has a mini-stuffed “little llama” to go with the book which we purchased from Scholastic!)

In addition, this year Jumpstart is also trying to set an all-new record for the largest digital reading experience by reading “Llama Llama Red Pajama” at wegivebooks.org (which is a great way for parents and teachers to still participate even if they do not own a copy of the book). For those classrooms that have SmartBoards, this is a great way to view the book.

It is very easy for parents, preschools and elementary schools to participate and help set the record. Many schools are reading the book over the loud speaker while teachers show the pages to their classes. If you want to plan an event – event materials and learning activities that teachers can use can be found at wegivebooks.org.

I also found some great todder/preschool activities that go with the story at these blogs:

Activities for Preschool Pajama Parties (Brighthub)

Red Pajama Matching Activity (Toddler Approved blog)

Red Pajama Quilt Math (Toddler Approved blog)

Red Pajama PJ Sorting (Toddler Approved blog)

Red Pajama Craft (Elle Belle’s Bows)

And here’s a TODAY SHOW clip about Jumpstart’s Read for the Record!!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Join parents and teachers and read “Llama Llama Red Pajama” outloud to your children on October 6th!

Have a favorite “Llama Llama” activity? Share it with us below!

Bringing the apple orchard to preschool

Posted on by
Reply

treeWhen planning a theme on apples, it is a good opportunity to teach about life cycles and plant growth. Depending on your location, a field trip to a local apple orchard is a wonderful hands-on experience for young children to see where fruit (apples) come from. However, when a field trip is not feasible, you can try to bring the apple orchard to your school! We were fortunate to have a local orchard come in to do an in-school demonstration, complete with a large supply of apples for taste testing!

One of our teachers, Brittany Florio also works at the orchard, and led the demonstration – and made large pictures of the life cycle of an apple (from seed to blossom to apple) to show the children.

In the photos below, Kim Shores from Johnny Appleseed Farm shows some of the tools used to take care of her farm and her apple barrel for collecting apples. Miss Brittany shows the photos of the apple life cycle, including an actual branch from the orchard. She also demonstrates how apples float in water!DSC08083.JPG.th

Kim also talked about the different types of apples that she brought (describing their color and what they taste like) – and then best of all … children got to taste 3 types of apples and then made an in-school graph of which kind was their favorite.

For some more Fall-related activities (with apples), check out:

Learning about apples and pumpkins in preschool
A “peeling” fun with apples (Little Illuminations)
Apple tree craft (Teach Preschool)

Going “green” in preschool

Posted on by
Reply

recycleI recently attending a local workshop in my state called Greening your Early Childhood Center. (Sponsored by the Connecticut Children’s Investment Partnership and the CCAC Accreditation Facilitation Project ). We learned about ways we can reduce energy and water use, create a healthy environment and save costs in our early childhood programs.

There have been great advances in “green design” for new buildings and facilities to save energy and implement the use renewable energy sources. However, I think it’s safe to say that most of us (early childhood teachers, directors and administrators alike) probably aren’t in a situation where we will be designing an early learning center from the ground up. Most of us are in existing homes and buildings, and funding is tight.

However, through this workshop, I did learn of some small things that all of us can do (in our homes and at our child care centers) to save energy, water and money. Our “greening” presenter was Mike Lindstrom, a nationally-recognized early childhood facilities architect. He explained that “green” design and practice means “designing things and doing things in such a way they have a positive impact or low impact on the world we live in“. For existing early childhood centers, even small changes to implement green practices can add up to big savings.

There are many facets to “green strategy” – so I’ll be breaking this out into categories over the next couple of weeks. For this post, I’ll share some ideas for how to make your “envelope”more energy efficient. (I learned a new term at this workshop … the “envelope” refers to your building’s roof, walls, windows and floor).

It’s worth the time to have your building undergo an energy audit (check with your local utility company to find out about energy efficiencies programs they may have, and if they do free energy audits). An audit will assess the efficiency of your heating, air conditioning, insulation and air-tightness of your building.

For teachers, there are things you can do in right in your classroom to help your room be as energy efficient as possible:

• Draft proofing: Using colorful draft guards near doors and windows can keep the classroom warm and comfortable in the cold months, reduce allergens and save energy/costs. Weather strip around windows that are drafty.

• Use window blinds/shades to help save energy: Close them to cool rooms in the warm months and open them to allow sun to warm the room in cooler months. Also look into exterior shutters for rooms that are consistently too warm due to intense sun exposure.

• Don’t block air grilles, heating vents or air returns: Look around your room to make sure no shelving, rugs or any other furniture is covering air/heating vents.

• Encourage teachers and children to dress for the weather: Sweaters in winter / shorts in the summer. Don’t over-heat or over-air condition the room.

This is just a start to some of the information I learned at this workshop … there is much more to share! This workshop gave us the impetus to start a new section of our website called The “Green” Room where will we share resources that programs can use to learn more about “going green”.

Have some “green” ideas of your own? Please leave a comment and share them with us!

Resources: “Greening Early Childhood Centers” Resource Guide (published by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation / CT Children’s Investment Partnership)

Displaying children’s names in preschool

Posted on by
Reply

children's namesWhen Tressa and I decided to start writing a blog as part of our website, one of the main reasons for wanting to do this was to be able to provide information and support to early educators and parents and start discussions. We LOVE to receive questions from visitors to our website and blog! We received the following early literacy question from a preschool teacher:

“I teach 3’s in a half day church program. Handwriting Without Tears recommends that you teach children to write their name in uppercase letters first and then before K teach them in upper and lowercase. Do you agree with this and if you do, should I post their names in their cubbies in only uppercase? I understand HWT’s reasoning that uppercase letters are easier to learn since they all start at the top. Thank you for your help.”

This is a great question!! It has been our experience that Kindergarten teachers prefer their children to know how to write their names with upper and lowercase letters upon entrance. As preschool teachers, we have found that teaching children to write their name in all uppercase letters, and then attempting to re-teach using upper and lowercase can cause a great deal of confusion. We have always found it easier and beneficial to teach children the upper and lowercase method from the start.

Cubby tags, names on artwork, print around the classroom, etc. should also follow this method so the child can visually recognize their name in the environment. We also provide parents with information on how to reinforce handwriting at home, including proper pencil grip and construction of letters to ensure a child is receiving consistent instruction.

That is our experience. But I wanted more opinions on this – so I asked our early literacy expert, Colleen Brunetti to add her input on this discussion as well.

Here’s what Colleen says:

I was curious if there was a “best practices” or researched based answer to the question “What’s the best method for handwriting instruction? Upper or lowercase first, or both together?”. After some research, I’ve concluded the answer is … there isn’t an answer! It seems to be largely based on program and/or personal preference.

My personal opinion is that when you are creating a print-rich environment, such as you are helping to do by labeling the cubbies, you should model the correct form with the first letter being uppercase. I really believe in modeling all language in a “real world” way like this – after all, what you model is what kids will be most tuned in to and learn from!

Handwriting Without Tears is a great program for teaching letter formation but, aside from writing their names, you’re primarily focusing on letters in isolation at this point, somewhat different from seeing printed words as a whole in the real world. I see no problem with sticking to the curriculum you’ve chosen for actual instruction and also modeling proper word formation around the room. Outside of the classroom they’ll be seeing that mix of upper and lowercase in lots of places too!

Thanks for your input, Colleen!!

Lastly, I decided to also turn to a resource that I learned about this summer in researching more opinions on this topic. I participated a Book Study Blog party of the book “Literacy Beginnings” (Fountas & Pinnell). This book is a wonderful resource for early educators who want to learn more about the emerging literacy learning of young children.

Chapter 20 of this book was all about NAMES! A great quote starts off the chapter of this book …“The most powerful and effective way for children to begin learning the complex process of learning about letters is by writing their own names.” — Carol Lyons

WOW! That just adds more weight to this question, doesn’t it? According to the authors Pinnell and Fountas, “Once children learn that their names are words and that they are made with the same letters in the same order each time, they begin to understand the concept of a word.” (p 194).

Deborah Stewart (Teach Preschool) reviewed Chapter 20 as part of the book study. All of the photos displayed in this chapter and in Deborah’s post showcase wonderful literacy activities that display children’s names using upper AND lowercase letters – supporting this approach to displaying children’s names in the classroom. I encourage you to read Deborah’s full post onChapter 20 – NAMES.

I’d love more input on this topic!

How do YOU teach children to write their names in preschool? How do YOU display children’s names throughout the classroom?