As parents we want our children to succeed in all areas of their lives: academically, socially and emotionally. Most (hopefully all) parents want to raise smart, happy, healthy kids. But inevitably during the course of growing up, kids are going to hit some bumps in the road. When one of those bumps is in school, it may be time to call for outside help in the form of a tutor.
How do you decide if your child needs a tutor?
Engage the Brain has identified four occurrences when parents may want to consider hiring a tutor:
- Slipping Grades – One bad test grade does not signal a failing child. Look at your child’s grades over the course of 9 weeks. Is there a pattern of poor grades? Is your child struggling to keep up?
- Change in parents’ schedule – Do you have the time to devote to assisting your child with their academic struggles? If both parents work full time jobs, it may prove too much to balance all the requirements running the household and provide academic support?
- Parents’ lack of content knowledge – As children enter middle and high school, subjects simply become more difficult. Add in all the Common Core teaching principles and even elementary school subjects can be confusing! Assess your own subject knowledge before attempting to help your child tackle honors Algebra.
- Child with a learning disability – If you have a child with a diagnosed learning disability, you are better to hire a professional whom specializes in teaching children with learning differences. Dyslexia, processing issues or even ADHD each requires special techniques and instructional strategies to help a child achieve success in the classroom.
If after careful assessment you decide your child needs a tutor, you want to begin talking with your child’s teacher. Ask for specific areas your child needs help with. Share this information with the tutor. With your permission, a tutor can speak directly with the teacher and perhaps receive even more information to help your child.
Besides addressing a struggling subject, tutoring has many other benefits.
- 1 on 1 instruction – Instruction in classrooms can go fast and with 20 or more students in the room, teachers can struggle to provide 1 on 1 instruction to each student. Tutors work with one a student at a time and devote all their expertise to your child.
- Avoid the parent-child homework battle – Every parent that has ever tried to help their child with their homework has experienced the same volcanic reaction: MRS.JONES DOESN’T TEACH IT THAT WAY!!! screams your innocent angel of a 4th grader. It may be worth the cost of a tutor to not have to experience these meltdowns.
- Immediate feedback – All educators agree that immediate feedback is critical in the learning process. Again, this is not a knock on teachers, they are extremely busy, but a child can take a test and not receive the grade for several days or longer. With a tutor you child receives immediate feedback while working on a concept.
- Opportunity to become a better learner – Great tutors provide a child with tools to use in the classroom to achieve success. Study strategies and techniques can be taught simultaneously while working on specific subject concepts. For example, your child will learn she needs to study for four nights for 30 minutes a night for a test rather than for two hours the night before a test. She can apply this study strategy to all her classes.
- Gives child permission to struggle – Children are painfully aware of how their peers perceive themselves. If a child thinks everyone in the classroom is aware they are having a hard time, it will affect their performance. Tutoring allows your child the opportunity to struggle with a concept in a safe environment. Within the safe environment your child can build his confidence back and become successful.
- Enrichment opportunities – Tutoring does not have to be just for struggling learners. All children benefit from studying topics of interest to them. Schools and teachers are under more pressure than ever to prepare students to pass high stakes tests. Opportunities to study subjects of real interest to students in depth often times is not available. A tutor can work with your child to create an individualized enrichment plan that can integrate all the core subjects – reading, writing, math, history, etc. and provide a rich learning opportunity for your child.
Wrapping it Up
Determining whether your child needs a tutor can be a daunting task. Start by honestly assessing your own schedule and skill set. Next, speak with your child’s teacher to ask for specific suggestions for help with the struggling subject(s). Hiring a tutor has many positive benefits that go beyond just raising a subject grade.
Contact Engage the Brain to learn more about our professional tutors and our independent learning programs that meet individual needs.
Much has written about the Summer Brain Drain or summer learning loss. Just Google “Summer Brain Drain” and pages of useful, semi-useful and many useless articles appear.
Engage the Brain is going to separate the men from the boys. The wheat from the chafe. The junior college from the Ivy League. The franchise learning centers from Engage the Brain. Yes, we went there.
Summer Brain drain is real.
It is well researched that the average student loses two to three months of learning over the summer. The loss is more pronounced in minority and low-income families.
Why so much loss?
It can be summed up in the old saying, “If you don’t use it, you lose it.” Most children do not read enough over the summer. And very few children do any type of math computation or problem solving. Hence the learning loss. Short of sending your child to summer school or to an expensive academic camp, what can a parent do to help their child maintain the academic skills they learned during the past school year?
Here are two key antidotes to the Summer Brain Drain:
- Establish an atmosphere that learning is a life-long process. Help your child understand that learning can take place EVEN when school is out.
- Schedule time each day for your child to relax and read or play a learning game. The time can be as short as 15 minutes or as long as an hour. Tweak the time depending on the age and attention span of your child.
Let’s look at some activities you can do with your child to help foster a sense that learning can take place anywhere at any time.
Plan a vacation
Whether it is a one-day “Staycation” or a plane flight to a far off destination, planning a vacation involves lots of academic skills. Children can research where they would like to go (reading), determine how much it will cost to attend certain attractions (math), and figure out how to get to said attractions (geography).
Pen pal with a relative or friend
Writing for a purpose is at the crux of communication. Encourage your child to write to Grandma or Grandpa or another distant relative and to start a dialogue between the two. My daughter corresponded with my father (her Poppop) for years through letter writing. Every couple of letters that arrived at our home contained money! Writing involves rereading what has been written; a sneaky way to get in more reading practice.
Social Learning
How can I put this so that I don’t insult anyone? Many teachers have a similar complaint about today’s students… They simply don’t SHUT UP. Was that too blunt?
A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post on the importance of teaching kids soft skills. A great way to practice soft skills would be to visit a museum in your area. Participate in a guided tour, if one is offered. Your child must listen and will be given opportunities to ask the guide questions. If there are other kids along on the tour, encourage your child to chat with them. Developing social skills is critical for long-term success in life. Summer is a wonderful time focus on this.
Wrapping it up
Summer provides more opportunities for meaningful conversations to take place with your child. Help him understand learning is a life long process by including him in decision making about his summer activities. Structure the day so that there is a consistent down time during which he can read or work on an educational computer game. Your child does not have to fall victim to the Summer Brain Drain. Just employ a few of these antidotes so you child arrives in class this fall charged and ready to learn.
David Karch (Learning Specialist with Engage the Brain)
It’s the first week of May and that means it is Teacher Appreciation Week. And IMHO (in my humble opinion) teachers should be appreciated more than ever.
High stakes standardized tests. Teacher evaluations tied to those high stakes tests. School grades based on the tests. Most teachers put and keep a smile on their face and continue to inspire, challenge and teach each and every student in their classroom despite all the outside pressures.
The good news is that those pesky high stakes tests are now over for this year and everyone in your child’s school can take a deep, collective, cleansing breath. In through the nose… Out through the mouth.
Are you relaxed? Yes, keep reading. No, repeat deep cleansing breath then keep reading.
Have you thought about what to get your child’s teacher for Teacher Appreciation Week? If not, Engage the Brain has you covered. We have scoured the Internet and curated some of the best ideas and suggestions. These easy teacher appreciation git ideas are put into two categories: Ideas for the Classroom and Ideas for the Teacher.
Photo courtesy of signupgenius.com
Money and time is always a consideration. The suggestions in each category have a range of costs and preparation time. Pick accordingly.
FYI (For your information) these are NOT Pinterest ideas. These suggestions are for the mere mortal parents who want to do something to acknowledge their child’s teacher, not turn this week into an homage to Martha Stewart. If you are THAT parent, you don’t need our help!
Ideas for The Classroom
Publix Gift Card
It is well documented that teachers spend several hundred dollars of their own money each school year on supplies for the classroom. Purchasing snacks for students who forget theirs or treats for celebrations make up a good chunk of the money. A Publix gift card will allow the teacher to restock their “classroom pantry.”
Whiteboard Markers/Erasers
Even with Smartboards and other technology entering the classroom, teachers and students still use the whiteboard and markers. In fact, some teachers give each student an individual whiteboard the size of a clipboard to use during class. Each student needs markers. Unfortunately the markers wear out and are expensive to replace. Target sells a pack of 4 markers for about $5.00.
Hand Sanitizer and Kleenex
There is never enough Kleenex and hand sanitizer for a classroom. When cold season starts going around and through the students, these two supplies seem to constantly run out.
Books for classroom library
Most elementary school classrooms and some middle school classrooms have a classroom library. Purchasing a book or several books to be placed in the library is always a welcome gift for the teacher. Not sure which books to get? Ask your child what books he would like to read and purchase those.
Ideas for the Teacher
Spa Day/Massage
Most teachers are on their feet all day walking the classroom. One moment they are scowling at the two boys in the back of the class who are not paying attention and the next reteaching how to divide fractions to a student in the front row. A massage would be a welcome treat to regenerate a teacher’s spirit and tired body.
Provide lunch
School lunch schedules are short and hectic. After dropping the students off at the cafeteria for lunch, many teachers go make copies or prepare and set up the classroom for the afternoon lessons. Often lunch is forgone for an unhealthy, quick snack. Treat your child’s teacher to a lunch from a favorite, local restaurant.
Ornaments/Coffee mugs
As a former classroom teacher, and someone who is married to a classroom teacher, I can say first hand coffee mugs and Christmas ornaments are treasured gifts. Each time a coffee mug is used, it brings back memories of the student and class from that year. At Christmas time when we decorate the tree, we each have a section of the tree where we hang our student ornaments.
Handwritten Thank you notes
If you want to make a classroom teacher misty, write a heartfelt thank you note. Acknowledge all the hard work the teacher has done this year to help your child succeed. Hallmark may hire the best writers to convey messages, but a simple thank you written in your own words sends a powerful message that you appreciate the teacher’s effort with your child.
Wrapping it up
Teachers are the unsung heroes among us. They tend to be over worked and under paid. The first week of May is Teacher Appreciation Week and this provides the perfect opportunity to thank your child’s teacher. You can purchase something for the classroom or provide something special for the teacher. Whether you splurge and purchase a full day spa treatment or write a short thank you note, it truly is the thought that counts.
David Karch (Learning Specialist with Engage the Brain)
In the past 10 to 20 years, “Big Data” has entered the K-12 education practice field in a loud and demanding way. Accountability through high stakes test scores, teacher evaluations and school ratings is at the core of Big Data. Improve the numbers and our schools and children will succeed, goes the thinking.
“Numbers don’t lie,” goes the saying. But one can look at any number of different studies and the cited statics and conclude that test scores are going up, test scores are going down and or the sky is falling.
One thing most reasonable people agree on is wanting our children to graduate high school college and or career ready. To that end the focus has been understandably on the “Hard Skills” – Reading, writing and math.
But employers and colleges are still complaining that students or employees – our children – are still not ready.
Enter the “Soft Skills.” Soft skills are defined as EQ or Emotional Intelligence Quotient. These skills include: social graces, communication abilities, language skills, personal habits, cognitive or emotional empathy and leadership traits.
The National Career Service polled a sample of employers across different industries and asked what skills they want in their future workforce.
Here is what companies’ desire:
Communication skills, the ability to make a decision, showing commitment, time management skills, leadership skills, problem solving skills, being a team player, and the ability to work under pressure.
How many of these skills are measured on the high stakes tests our kids are currently taking?
The good news is that soft skills are teachable. The National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability (NCWD) is a wonderful website with great information for parents. The site spells out the different soft skills and suggestions for working on them with your child.
Here are a few highlights
Communication skills –
Record your child playing a video game with a friend. Review the video and discuss voice level and tone.
Have your child interact with adult guests in your home. Your child can take the beverage orders, which requires listening and remembering.
Help your child build his vocabulary with The Word of the Day exercise on an online dictionary.
Interpersonal Skills
Play games as a family. Board games are a great way for a parent to model appropriate social skills, especially when there is winning and losing involved.
Encourage your child to participate in school activities such as the debate team, act in the school play or join a sports team.
Volunteer as a family at a local charity. Your child will learn how to interact with people from different backgrounds than their own.
Wrapping it up
The soft skills can be viewed as the glue that keeps a person together. Once your child masters her reading, writing and arithmetic, Big Data would have you believe she is ready to succeed. A simple conversation with employers tells us that is not true. The soft skills of determination, resiliency and flexibility are critical for success in life, but these do not get measured on the high stakes tests.
Engage the Brain encourages parents to work on improving their children’s soft skills to complement the hard skills. With consistent practice you can raise your child’s EQ score and help her become completely college and or career ready.
David Karch (Learning Specialist with Engage the Brain)
It’s 8:15 p.m. on a Tuesday evening. Your high school son is sitting at the kitchen table. Swear words are getting louder as are the dramatic sighs and shuffling of the papers on the table.
You go through your parental decision making process … Do I say something about the inappropriate words flying out of his mouth…? Then you notice the algebra textbook in front of him and that he looks like he is about to have a nervous breakdown.
You quickly assess your own math skills. You notice it’s now 8:40 p.m. and say to yourself, “Blank it. I don’t know that blank either.” His blank is on his own.”
There is a lot of research coming out about the connection between a parents’ view of math and their ability to do it and the achievement levels of their kids. You can read about it here and here. In other words, kids who struggle with math likely have parents that struggled with math.
And it’s not just a genetic thing. It’s parents’ musings in front of the kids about their struggles with math that children hear and believe they too will struggle with the subject.
As a Learning Specialist with Engage the Brain, I find myself having to monitor my own conversations when I work with students on high school level math. Math was not my strong subject, but I am trying hard to reframe my thinking and attitude toward the subject.
I now attempt to frame math as a challenge. I might say to a reluctant math student, “Okay. We know two things and we need to find the third piece of information. How can we organize our information to help us determine the missing number?”
But what happens when me and my positive math-attitude get stuck and I still cannot find the answer?
I turn to technology. And so can you!
The answer, and an explanation, is just an app away. The saying, “There’s an app for that” even applies to Algebra and higher-level math.
Engage the Brain researched math apps that go beyond practicing skills and playing games. While there is a time and place for those, the following math apps actually solve an algebra problem for you. And show you how to do!
Math Apps
Photomath Camera Calculator Free
The words ‘brilliant’ and ‘genius’ get thrown around too often, but the adjectives apply for this app. You simply point your phone’s camera at the problem in the textbook, take a picture, and the app solves the problem. And it provides a step-by-step explanation of how to solve the problem.
FX Algebra Solver Free
This apps works like a search engine. You type in a math problem and it calculates the answer. It shows step-by-step instructions on how to solve it. It can explain pre-algebra, algebra and algebra 2 level problems.
Mathway Math Problem Solver Free with in app purchases available
Mathway takes solving those pesky math problems a step further. On the dashboard you select the math class your child is enrolled in: pre algebra, algebra, geometry, etc. Next, there is a selection of math problem templates from which to choose. For example, if the problem looks like this: y = ½ x + 4 select the template that looks similar. Just plug in the numbers, and the problem is solved!
Bonus app
Have you bought your child a graphing calculator? Were you as floored as I was when you saw the price? Unfortunately that is one of the prices of being a parent with a child in high school. But as they say on late night television…
Wait! There is more…
A math app that is a graphing calculator
Now your child can download a free graphing calculator right to his smartphone. It performs all the same functions as the expensive ones including: square root, cubed root, unit conversion, and even constants for scientific calculations such as the speed of light and the strength of gravity. Impressive stuff!
Wrapping it up
Parents can unwittingly affect their child’s performance in higher-level math classes by proclaiming their struggles with the subject when they were in school. The research is clear that children need to hear positive reinforcement and that their math destiny is not sealed by their mom or dad’s inadequacies with the subject.
When those inevitable math struggles come up during homework, now you can offer your child a tool to help in the form of a math app. By taking a picture of a math problem or entering it into a search bar, the app does all the heavy lifting by calculating the answer AND showing the steps to solve it. Turn yourself from a negative math ninny into a problem solving 21st Century parent by downloading one of these math apps.
David Karch (Learning Specialist with Engage the Brain)
Teens by definition are know-it-alls. Any parent that currently has a teen or has endured a teen knows exactly what I’m talking about.
You say, “Left” she says, “Right.” You say, “Up” he says, “I wasn’t listening.”
So when summer rolls around, and that lovable, contrarian know-it-all is around the house all day, many parents are ready to drive their teen to the nearest McDonalds and drop them off for work.
But is this a good idea? Should your teen get a summer job?
Research by the Pew Research Center shows the decline of teens working during the summer. In the 1970’s and 1980’s most teens could be expected to work part-time for at least a portion of the summer. During the summer of 2014, less than 20% of 16 and 17 year olds held a summer job.
Pew researchers offer the following possible explanations for the decline: fewer low-skill, entry-level jobs than in decades past; more schools restarting before Labor Day; more students enrolled in high school or college over the summer; more teens doing unpaid community service work as part of their graduation requirements or to burnish their college applications; and more students taking unpaid internships, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics does not consider being employed.
Serving ice cream is a typical teen summer job.
All these statistics are well and good, but what about your teen? Parents need to sit with their child and honestly discuss whether he is ready for the responsibility of working at a job. If the answer is yes, the discussion needs to progress to the type of job your teen could do. Parents need to focus on the logistics of getting their child to the location. Does he have access to a car? Public transportation? A bicycle?
In a perfect world, a teen would take a job in a field of possible career interest. If she is interested in animals, take a job with a vet. If she is interested in teaching, work with children as a summer camp counselor.
But more realistically, your child does not know what she wants to do 10 years from now. And even if she does, often times these jobs are not available; at least not for pay.
So let’s focus on the benefits of your teen electing to work this summer at any job such as a retail worker, an ice cream scooper or a lifeguard.
Benefits
Time management skills
Your teen will be responsible for showing up at a specific time and completing his share of the job. He will also need to manage his time outside of work with friends and other summer activities.
Transferrable skills
Even scooping ice cream, a worker can learn valuable job skills. Your teen must get along with his co-workers and the boss. In a retail setting there will be grumpy customers that need to “handled” diplomatically.
Money management skills
We wrote a blog post about Teaching money management skills to kids. A teen working a job and receiving a paycheck must now make choices about his spending. Does he really want that new video game?
Networking
As most adults come to realize, networking is a critical tool to success in the business world. One is never too young to begin learning the art and science of networking. Your teen can place this job on her resume and being comfortable calling the boss and asking for a recommendation is a life skill that will benefit her for years.
Less likely to get in trouble
Let’s face it… Teens with too much time and not enough to do WILL find trouble. Channeling all the know-it-all information and energy into a constructive use of time will benefit everyone in the family.
Wrapping it up
Going to work for the first time is a big step in a teen’s life. Discuss the demands and responsibilities of a part-time job with your child before he applies. Consider the logistics of travel. If your teen is ready to step up and work in the real world, there are many life skill-building benefits to be reaped. Summer jobs for teens may be on the decline, but taking one may launch your child into a successful adult life.
David Karch (Learning Specialist with Engage the Brain)
It’s hard to believe we are in the fourth quarter of the school year. That means less than 9 weeks of school left till summer.
Have you started planning your child’s summer schedule yet? Summer camps fill up quickly. And the best tutors and learning specialists’ schedules fill up fast.
If you are considering academic support for your child, now is the time to act to secure a time slot for your child.
Not sure if your child needs academic support this summer? There are three general reasons why a parent should pursue summering tutoring:
1. To maintain the academic skills taught this past school year. The Summer Brain Drain is a researched based fact and students can lose three months of learning or more over the summer.
2. To remediate the academic skills taught this past school year. If your child struggled to stay on grade level or your child’s teacher suggested tutoring over the summer, this is an indication your child would benefit from intervention over the summer.
3. To enrich the academic skills learned this past school year. If you feel your child was not challenged or she simply loves to learn, working with a learning specialist over the summer is a fantastic way to support your child’s motivation and curiosity.
Mary-Elizabeth Langston is a Learning Specialist with Engage the Brain. She explains why summer is the perfect time for tutoring.
“Summer is also an especially good time for your child to receive meaningful intervention! I often see the greatest gains and leaps in learning from students during this time. We’re truly able to focus on specific intervention and free up mental energy to make connections without needing to keep up with homework, projects, or curriculum. This helps launch students confidently into the next school year and prevents regression. With intervention, we always go as fast as we can, but as slow as we must and this is especially true in the summer. I highly recommend continuing services during the summer for all my lovely students; they’ve all seen so many successes this year and I want to see every student confident and ready for the 2016-2017 school year ahead!”
image courtesy of student tutor
Still not convinced summer tutoring is a good idea for your child? Here are three more reasons:
1. 1 on 1 instruction is the best method. Schools do an admirable job working with students who need extra help. But that help almost exclusively is delivered in small group settings.
2. Flexible schedule. Learning specialists’ schedules are open during the summer allowing you as a parent to pick a time that is convenient for your schedule. You can work around camps and your kid’s other summer obligations.
3. Maintain a routine. It’s okay to relax over the summer, but allowing your child to sink into “no-routine” day after day can promote problem behavior and a much more difficult transition back to school in the fall.
Wrapping it up
The fourth quarter of the school year is the time to set up your child’s summer plans. A balance of down time, fun, and academic activity is ideal. Take inventory of your child’s academic needs – maintenance, remediation, or enrichment – then follow through and schedule summer tutoring sessions in a 1 on 1 setting with a learning specialist.
David Karch (Learning Specialist with Engage the Brain)
Okay mom and dad, today is your lucky day. I’m going to offer you $100 in cash if you can do a back handspring.
Right here. Right now.
Did you do it?
Of course not. Why not? Because unless you are a former gymnast who still dabbles in flips and tumbles in your spare time, you probably cannot do a back handspring. Not without breaking your neck. And that is NOT worth a $100!
So what’s your point, you ask? (No, I cannot do a back handspring either). The point is that you may be asking your child to do something he simply is not capable of doing.
Some parents look at their child as an unmotivated blob of a marionette connected to a PlayStation controller in one hand and a cell phone in the other. When it comes time for homework, your child acts as if he has been asked to solve the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle. Excuses start pouring out and procrastination kicks into high gear.
You lament to yourself, “Geez, my child is so unmotivated.”
Maybe. Maybe not.
Could you do a back handspring? If you could not, does that mean you are unmotivated? Of course not.
Some children’s lack of perceived motivation is actually masquerading as a lack of Executive Functions skills i.e. the ability to plan, start and complete an assignment. Children with learning disabilities and attention deficit disorder are at a greater risk for Executive Functions issues. Dr. Deborah Stipek is the Dean of the Stanford University School of Education. She says kids will be self-motivated to learn when they:
- Feel competent about something
- Have some choice and control over their learning
- Believe that intelligence isn’t fixed at birth
- Feel loved and respected by their parents
Let’s look at each one:
Feeling confident about something comes from practice. Some children need direct instruction about how and when to do their homework. Help your child establish a homework routine by assigning a distraction-free location in the home and a time your child should be at the location.
Help your child gain control of the homework by establishing what order to complete the assignments. Estimate how long each assignment will take. Encourage her to start with an easy assignment to get going. Work on the most difficult subject next. Then finish with easier subject.
Getting your child to believe that intelligence isn’t fixed at birth is clearly a challenge. If he is struggling with schoolwork, he may have a poor self-image. But with your help, or by hiring a Learning Specialist, your child can learn the skills necessary to complete the classwork on a daily basis.
Feeling loved and respected by their parents ought to be the easiest one, right? But think back to your most recent interactions with your child during homework time. Has there been a lot of nagging and histrionics? You may feel your child has put you in a position where all you can do is nag and plead. Take a deep breath and try to implement the 5 to 1 rule: For every negative comment you give your child, make five positive ones. If you are struggling with finding positive things to say, mention small accomplishments. “I’m glad you got up when your alarm went off.” “Your guitar practice sounds great.”
Wrapping it up
Motivating a child who appears unmotivated can seem like a daunting challenge. Before declaring your child a lazy, no-good stick-in-the-mud, ask yourself whether your child has the proper Executive Functioning tools to be successful. Research shows that motivation increases with every successful encounter with a task. By providing your child with direct instruction on how to organize, manage and complete her schoolwork, you will help your child gain much needed confidence. And motivation.
To learn more about Executive Functioning skills and motivational strategies, contact a Learning Specialist at Engage the Brain.
Many parents and students view the 4th quarter of the school year as a winding down process. In fact, many parents don’t even schedule a spring parent conference.
This is a mistake.
Take the opportunity to meet with your child’s teacher and learn about all the wisdom that he or she has gleaned about your child during the school year.
Spring parent conferences are different than fall ones. During fall conferences, the focus is typically on you, the parent, sharing with the teacher as much as you know about your child both as a student and as a person. This helps the teacher understand your child’s needs and what strategies have been successful in the past.
The spring conference presents a chance for the parent to understand what the teacher has learned about your child. After all, the teacher has now spent the last 8 months interacting with your kid on a daily basis.
Engage the Brain spoke with an Orange County Public Schools 4th grade teacher and asked why she thought spring conferences were important.
“Teachers get a different glimpse of their students from what parents see. Teachers sometimes see different strengths and weaknesses from what parents see at home, which can result in identification of possible concerns OR reassurances for parents who are worried. Children are typically at their most vulnerable at home (whatever that may look like for each child) because that is where they feel most comfortable. Just as adults may have a slightly different/more polished work persona than home persona, so too do many children.”
She added: “For best and most prepared teacher responses, pose one or two questions ahead of time (by sending an email, for example) to let the teacher know your expectations for the conference. Also, please be mindful of spring standardized testing dates; these tests often have far greater implications for teachers than students and can be a significant source of stress, no matter how well the teacher is managing it. Don’t add to that stress; contact a teacher after testing, or request a conference after testing.”
Parents of children with IEP’s or 504 Plans can use this opportunity to speak with your child’s teacher without a full child study team in attendance. Good questions to ask the teacher are:
What interventions have worked best with my child?
Did any interventions not work?
How can I help my child start the next school year strong?
Can you recommend some resources or games my child would benefit from using over the summer?
One final piece of advice from the O.C.P.S. teacher: Don’t request a specific teacher for the next school year. Teachers may not end up back in the grade they taught the previous year.
Wrapping it up
Even if you child has had a great school year, take the opportunity to schedule a spring parent teacher conference. It is a wonderful time to learn more about how your child is progressing academically, socially and emotionally, all equally important. Spring conferences provide the chance to compare what the teacher sees at school versus what you see at home AND the occasion to start addressing any troubling discrepancies.
What are you waiting for? Prepare a few questions and schedule the conference!
David Karch (Learning Specialist with Engage the Brain)
It’s spring break! Congratulations, parents. You are about three quarters of the way through the school year. You and your family deserve a little down time.
What are your plans for the week off? Take a trip to the beach? Catch up on chores around the house? Perhaps go to the theme parks?
Whatever activities you plan for the family, you can still sneak in a little learning. The trick is disguising the learning. Here is an example:
Our scene opens in your kitchen…
Your son invites his two buddies to play mini golf and you are the only cool parent willing to put up with three middle school boys for a few hours in public.
You: How much does it cost to play?
Son replies in painful 12-year old agony: How should I know?
You: Is the Tahiti Island (all mini golf course names have tropical references) open during the week?
Son (same painful agony in voice): How should I know?
You (holding hands behind your back to avoid contact to son’s person): How can we find out?
Son: You can Google it.
You: No, YOU can Google it.
Son: Okay.
End of scene
Congratulations! You have just encouraged your child to use technology for a productive reason. Your son will be reading, calculating the costs of the golf, and learning about the hours of operation of a business. Looking at a website can be as challenging as some reading passages that your child is encountering in school.
Once you learn how to sneak in the learning, most any activity can be camouflaged as a fun outing but still yield some educational benefit. Engage the Brain has selected some popular spring break activities AND demonstrated how to sprinkle in a little sneaky learning.
Spring Break Activities
Bowling
Bowling equals math. Even though most modern bowling alleys have automated scoring systems, it is still fun to keep your own score. Plus, each frame is based on ten pins. Your child will constantly be calculating how many more pins she needs to knock down to equal ten, all while chasing that illusive spare. Questions to sneak in while bowling can include: How far away from 100 are you? How far ahead of your sister are you? Will you and your sister’s combined score beat mine? (I actually stink at bowling but thought it was a good question to include).
Scenic Boat Tour
Packing up the family and heading out on a scenic boat tour on one of your regions’ lakes is a great way to sneak in some science and geography. Here in Florida, we are fortunate to have airboat rides that are like taking a spin around a NASCAR track on water. Before heading out on a boat tour, research what animals and vegetation you may see. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has a great website. Give your kids a pad of paper and allow them to create a chart to track the animals they see. If your kids need a little encouragement, make it a contest. For example, whichever family member spots the most alligators would win a small prize. If you live in Michigan, that would be quite a contest! Or you can just make it Wolverines.
Bring the Kids to work
Depending on your occupation, and your child’s age, sex, mood, and her friends’ spring break schedules, bringing your child to work may be a good rainy day activity. Recent research has shown that children who have more general knowledge do better in school, and do particularly better in science, than those students with less general knowledge. One way to build that knowledge is through constant exposure to new material. No matter your occupation – just think if you were an airboat driver – there are plenty of learning opportunities available. Discuss how your job functions within the company as a whole, how your company functions within your industry and how your company functions in the broad economy. Taking your child out to lunch or ice cream never hurts either.
Visit your Lego Store
Legos are still an amazing toy that packs tons of learning into all that colored plastic. Legos develop fine motor skills, creative planning, engineering and persistence. During the break, take your child to your local Lego Store. On March 19 and March 26 the stores are holding a special Lego Club Meeting event. It is a great opportunity for your child to meet other Lego enthusiasts and build a fun project. Click the link for more details.
Family picnic
Planning a family picnic can be as much fun as actually going on a family picnic. First, you need to motivate your child by asking him his favorite picnic snacks. After he rattles off five or six disgusting, unhealthy options (that secretly sound delicious), reach a compromise by suggesting a few healthy alternatives. Prepare the foods with your child. Cooking is filled with learning: Reading the recipes, using the measuring cups and spoons and following directions. Finally, you must decide where to go on your picnic. Encourage your child to research parks and other outdoor areas in your town. Do you see that? That is your child running to the computer to read for a purpose.
Wrapping it up
Spring Break is a great time to reconnect with the family and participate in some fun activities. But just because the kids are off of school does not mean the learning must stop. On the contrary, by using subterfuge and creativity, just about any family fun outing can be tweaked to include some educational benefit. By encouraging your child to read for a purpose, apply math concepts in real-world applications and answer a few well-camouflaged questions, your spring break can be fun, relaxing and rewarding.
David Karch (Learning Specialist with Engage the Brain)