Executive Skills Newsletter
Mrs. Carey's Class
Welcome To Executive Skills!
Hello! I hope this newsletter finds you well and excited for a new school year. You may have noticed on your schedule (or your child's schedule) there is a class called social skills. I prefer to call this class Executive Skills. The focus of this class is to help students who have difficulty in the area of executive function skills. Now you maybe wondering, what are executive functions skills?
What are Executive Function Skills?
According to Dr. Peg Dawson, executive function is a, "...concept referring to the cognitive process required to plan and direct activities, including task initiation and follow through, working memory, sustained attention, performance monitoring, inhibition of impulses and goal directed persistence" (Dawson 2012).
How This Class Will Help
My goal in this class is help students create systems for organizing and learning. We will look at setting SMART goals and the action steps needed to meet these goals. We will focus on acquiring new strategies to help with the core content classes. It is my hope that students will be able to use these systems of organization and strategies throughout their life.
Materials
All students must have the following materials everyday in class:
1 1/2 in binder
dividers
pen/pencil
highlighter
AGENDA
1 1/2 in binder
dividers
pen/pencil
highlighter
AGENDA
Agendas
Please check your child's agendas weekly. You will see we have spent a great deal of time organizing and using our agendas to organize our school lives.
Homework
Most often the skills I am teaching can only be practiced by doing their homework in other classes. Therefore, every student is required to do a minimum of 1 hour of homework a night. I have explained if they do not have homework for a class, they should still be using one of the systems of organization (making vocabulary cards, pre-reading etc.) for their classes.
For example Johnny does not have a specific assignment in Biology class. This does not mean he does not have homework- Johnny should make vocab cards for the current chapter that can be used then nightly for review. In high school students must begin to do academic work on their own that will support their ability to learn the new content.
For example Johnny does not have a specific assignment in Biology class. This does not mean he does not have homework- Johnny should make vocab cards for the current chapter that can be used then nightly for review. In high school students must begin to do academic work on their own that will support their ability to learn the new content.
How To Reach Me
The best way is through email acarey2@bostonpublicschools.org or careyebhs@gmail.com.
I will be sending newsletters periodically with updates new systems to be on the lookout for and much more.
I will be sending newsletters periodically with updates new systems to be on the lookout for and much more.