All Blog Posts (182)

I recently wrote an article titled Do Your Sons and Daughters Understand Your Work? Probably Not! which appears in the current edition of the Rhode Island Creative Magazine (RICM).

While the article is designed for the artist community, the concepts and the activities are relevant to parents, teachers and students transitioning to high school (as well as at other grade…

Having recently joined the Freshman Transition Network and introducing myself here, Scott suggested I elaborate on the ninth-grade Peer Advisory program I was fortunate enough to be a part of when I was still teaching:

Overview

Groups of 12-15 ninth graders would meet every Wednesday morning from 8:00am-8:33am…

I had another blog post published on the NASSP's Ignite Blog.  

This one - What's the Matter with Freshmen? Part 2 - is a sequel to an earlier…

I'm very excited to have an article on Freshman Transition published in the latest edition of the NASSP's Principal Leadership Magazine.  

To read the article, visit http://www.nassp.org/tabid/2043/default.aspx and then click on the link for The Ninth-Grade Challenge.  

You can also download a pdf version of the article by visiting …

Members of the FTN know that I strongly encourage teachers to use the story-centered ideas found in A Million Miles in a Thousand Years and Storyline by Donald Miller as a way to teach students to live lives of meaning and purpose.  My friend, Mike Petty, has recently written a blog post on his blog…

I had another blog post published on the NASSP's Ignite Blog.  Here is a link to that post:

http://nasspblogs.org/ignite/2013/02/01/whats-the-matter-with-freshmen-part-1/

I will be presenting on the topic of Freshman Transition at this month's NASSP Conference in Washington DC.

Dissertation on Ninth Grade Transition to High School

A STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF A SUMMER SCHOOL INTERVENTION PROGRAM ON NINTH GRADE TRANSITION TO HIGH SCHOOL

Dr. Hasan Abdulmalik

This is my Dissertation that is a quantitative research study of how an intervention program…

Hi,

My article Games to Illustrate Human Performance: Perfect for Your Class was published in the Connecticut Journal of Science Education, Volume 50, Issue 1, Fall - Winter 2012 - 2013, pages 2 4 to…

A year or so ago I had the opportunity to make a couple of trips to Portland, Oregon to work with the faculty and staff of David Douglas High School, Oregon's largest high school.  They wanted to build a Freshman Transition program.  Some of their faculty members had joined this site and had also read my book, The Ninth Grade Opportunity.  They decided that they wanted to build a transition program that utilized a…

I recently wrote a guest blog post for the NASSP's Ignite Blog.  Here is a link to that post:

http://nasspblogs.org/ignite/2013/01/02/why-do-freshman-academies-sometimes-fail/

I have yet to meet a teacher who doesn't say he or she loves his or her students.  What I have noticed, though, is that some do a better job than others at expressing that love.  Love is only as powerful as it is felt.

Last night I was talking with my daughter, Kaitlin, who has been home sick the past several days leading up to Christmas break. I told her that her German 5 teacher, Frau Fowler, had sent home a quiz that I could proctor over break.  I mentioned that I had told Frau…

Gathering dissertation materials...any feedback on books, articles, data, etc....for Freshman Academies, 9th grade transitioning programs that anyone has to share will be greatly appreciated - Wendy !

Sometimes as a parent you're not paying attention and suddenly your child reaches a milestone that completely snuck up on you.  This happened to me just last week.

My 2nd child, Kelsey Grace, is a freshman at Salem High School, where I serve as an Assistant Principal.  Last week she came home and asked my wife and I if we would be willing to donate money to her freshman service project -…

Let's get something out of the way here at the start.  I, Scott Habeeb, am a proud parent.  My 4 children keep me in a state of constant amazement, and I don't mind occasionally letting people know about who they are and what they do.  This will be one of those occasions, as I plan to use this blog to boast with a purpose about my oldest child, Kaitlin Ashley.

I use the term "boast with a purpose" because the point of this post isn't really to let folks know how proud I am of Kaitlin…

In the last week I have now found two awesome Facebook posts worth sharing from FTN member, Kaitlin Nelson.  I'm going to have to follow Kaitlin's Facebook more closely from now on!

Read Kaitlin's experience with the power of the word YET.  This comes from an interaction she had recently with a student in her Math class in Portland, Oregon:

Student: "I can't do…

Freshman Transition Network member and 9th grade math teacher, Kaitlin Nelson, shared the following post on Facebook today.  I hope she doesn't mind me reproducing it here on the Freshman Transition Network, but I couldn't resist.  It's so simple yet reflects a profound understanding of young people.  (Actually, of people in general)

Want to get 9th…

There are several blog posts on this site related to using music in the classroom to inspire and motivate kids.  Each has included a list of specific songs that can be used. Here are links to the previous 3 posts:

Part 1, Part 2, …

With Labor Day behind us now, students and educators across the country are back to school and working hard. This time of year I find myself thinking about how THIS year will be THE year - the year when I finally get it right! I'm still waiting for THAT year to come, but in the meantime, I'm sure that self-reflection and a focus on continuous improvement are essential ingredients of my professional growth. And so I reflect once again.... How can I make THIS year THE…