The Best Investment You Can Make For Your Teen
By Dr. Cam, Family Success Coach
Your teenager’s most fundamental need is to feel loved by YOU. When your child feels unconditionally loved by you he is better equipped to handle the bumpy road of adolescence.
You’re probably thinking, “Of course I love my teen. She knows that!” But you may be surprised. Your teen needs constant, consistent affirmation of your love. More importantly, your positive interactions with your teen must outweigh the negative.
Think of it like a bank account that takes relational currency.
Relational currency is an act or statement that expresses love, care, or concern for another person. Every time you show your teen affection, it’s like making a deposit into his account. The more deposits you make, the more he'll feel connected and supported by you, even during difficult times.
On the other side of the coin, every negative interaction is a withdrawal.
If you withdraw more than you deposit, you deplete your teen’s account, leaving your teen feeling abandoned and unloved. Instead of expressing that to you, she may misbehave, act out at school, have a tantrum, or rebel. This turns opportunities for connection into power struggles, which leave everyone angry and discouraged. That leads to even more negative interaction.
The goal is to keep your teen’s emotional account as full as possible. That way, when the inevitable clash arises, your teen has enough relational currency to cover it.
When you keep your teen’s emotional bank account full, you're able to form a stronger connection between the two of you. A strong connection leads to better communication, deeper understanding, and will drastically improve your relationship with your teen.
The more you invest new, the more your teen will prosper later.
Cameron (Dr. Cam) Caswell, PhD, the “teen translator,” is an adolescent psychologist, family success coach, host of the Parenting Teens with Dr. Cam podcast and Parenting Teens Power Hour, and is the author of Power Phrases for Parents: Teen Edition. For over a decade, she has been helping parents build strong, positive relationships with their teens through improved communication, connection, and understanding using her PRIME Parenting Method. Dr. Cam is the mom of a teen too, so she not only talks the talk, she walks the walk!
Visit Dr. Cam’s website: www.askdrcam.com
Thank you for your insightful guest blog, Dr. Cam. Don't forget to join Wendy Weinberger, President and COO of Illuminos Academic Coaching & Tutoring, as she speaks with Dr.Cam on the Parenting Teens with Dr. Cam podcast. Tune in via Facebook Live (on Dr. Cam's Facebook page) at 9:30am EST on Tuesday, August 3. Then, join Illuminos and Staying Ahead of the Game on Monday, August 9, at 12pm EST for Dr. Cam discussing "3 Secrets to Communicating with Your Teen." Register for this free "Less Stress" Parenting discussion by clicking here.
Importance of Executive Function Skills
Written By: Isabelle Saunders
There’s no debate that school is a world-class juggling act: you’ve got extracurriculars, homework, your social life, studying- it can be a lot to handle. The older you get, the more important it is to develop executive functioning skills. Executive functioning is, quite simply, the skill instrumental in academic success. It’s been boiled down by educators to seven attainable attributes:
Adaptable thinking: ie, flexibility. As challenging as it may be, you have to keep trooping when you encounter a problem. Adapt to problems- find a way around them and exercise your problem-solving muscles. It’s an asset to accept the fact that what you think won’t always be right, and you have to be open to new ideas and ways of accomplishing things.
Planning: Foresight is nothing short of necessity. Whether it’s mapping out a busy week or setting up your after-school routine, planning cuts your to-do list into bite-sized pieces that you can visualize and accomplish. Planning out a project before you do it gives you a template do that you go into it with rhyme and reason instead of blindly hacking away at it.
Self-Monitoring: Introspection and self-evaluation! Only you know what your personal best is, and only you can make sure you’re giving it. Self-monitoring is to grasp what you’re doing wrong and have the agency to pivot to another strategy. It’s to realize how you’re doing on the task at hand, and to know how to improve.
Self-Control: To keep a firm grip on your emotions and behavior is crucial in any social setting. You have to be okay with receiving constructive criticism, and to keep trekking when something undesirable happens. A good way to maintain self-control is not to take school feedback to heart: what a teacher thinks about your essay is not a reflection on what they think of your character. And besides, you are fully capable of taking that criticism in stride and improving.
Working Memory: Sherlock Holmes always referred to his memory as a mind palace. Think of all this acquired knowledge like that: you’re storing away information to bring out and out to use later. Some of us have better memories than others, and that’s okay. If you’re someone with a naturally poor memory and nothing seems to help, no matter how closely you pay attention, there are ways to work with that. A few possibilities are to take detailed notes, try using mnemonic devices for memory, and use flashcards for a deeper form of concept association.
Time Management: This one’s for the chronic procrastinators. Time is a force that should be filled wisely. To get anything done, you have to be time-aware enough to do it. Be it in the classroom or at home, time won’t stop for you to complete your work.
Organization: For some of us, organization comes naturally. For others, it’s a learning process. Keeping your binders, desk, locker, and other school supplies neat and organized is the key to enhanced concentration and lowered stress levels. Is that last week’s math homework, Tuesday’s notes, or the drawing you made during lunch? No one wants to navigate their way through a storm of mixed papers- the front pocket in your binder is best used for current work only.
An anagram to remember these concepts is:
Adaptable thinking
Introspection
Retain information
Planning
Organization
Self-control
Time management
Responsibility and self-advocacy are not traits that sprout overnight. Like every other skill, they have to develop and be put into practice. The attributes covered, of course, don’t just apply to school: they’re necessary for a well-rounded and capable person.
COVID 19 and Summer School
Written By: Isabelle Saunders
By now, it’s a known fact that distance learning is not nearly as effective as being in a classroom. For students constrained to homebound learning through the 2020-21 school year in addition to the last quarter of last year, this has been a frustrating season fraught with unorthodox challenges. The majority of students feel that they haven’t learned much at all, and have lost over a year of information. How, comes the question, will they catch up for next year?
Rising necessity of summer school
In response, there has been a mass exodus to summer school. Though it’s currently too early to tell how many people will sign up this year, smaller-scale examples indicate the sheer volume of students who feel they have a shaky understanding of concepts learned from home. Montgomery, Alabama, for instance, has an average count of 2,500 for summer school in past years. This year, over 12,000 of their school system’s 28,000 students signed up. With public schools opening up for in-person learning, these students can finally get face-to-face education for the first time since March 2020. It may take some getting used to after so long at home, but students are elated to be back to normal.
New Improvements
And like most things this year, summer school is not going to be normal. This time, however, that means in a good way- across the country, the school system has given teachers hefty raises for all the hard work they’re going to have to put in this summer. The most recent federal relief package has also funneled several billion dollars into summer school programs. With these new fortifications, educators agree that summer school 2021 will be better and more intensive than past years by a wide margin in order to meet the significant needs of the student body.
Meeting Need
Though policies vary from state to state, many are prioritizing the needs of students who were hit the hardest. This includes disadvantaged, disabled, and ESL children. Some school districts have opted for mandatory summer school for those who have fallen behind. With the recent relief package, many districts are able to provide meals and transportation for their students. Though educators are not so naive as to think that better quality summer education will patch every learning gap acquired over distance learning or before it, they are optimistic that it will at least give students a much better understanding and send them into next year with a foundation.
In the past, summer school has been stigmatized as a thing of doom to students, something many would never willingly do. Now, however, many students are making the mature decision themselves to catch up as much as possible. Teachers plan to meet students where they are, and take a more personalized approach depending on each child’s unique needs. Since they themselves battled the frustrations of online learning, they empathize with their struggling students. This year’s summer school, it seems, will be a thing to behold.
Is summer school a good option for your child?
If you’re thinking about signing your child up for summer school, you should first evaluate how they performed over distance learning. If their grades and understanding dropped a worrying amount, summer school is a great, free option to mend the rips as much as possible before next year. Consult your child on the matter as well- for those who haven’t been in a classroom for over a year, it may be in their best interest to be socialized over the summer. This poses an edifying opportunity to meet new people, reconnect with school friends, and get a feel for being back in a solid school setting.
For more information, check out the link below:
https://apnews.com/article/us-news-coronavirus-pandemic-education-health-a0416b3d43e08f49879b0f0e93010113
Importance of Self Awareness
Written By: Isabelle Saunders
It’s easy to pick out someone’s characteristics when you’re watching them through your own eyes. You know your friend is a natural leader, or a pessimist, or can’t take anything seriously, and so on. But it’s harder to tell when it’s YOU. For some reason, it just proves more difficult to categorize our strengths, weaknesses, values, etc., because they’re the only ones we're used to having.
This is what makes self-awareness a challenge. Self awareness, to put it simply, is knowing yourself- being conscious of your own thoughts, feelings, strengths, and limitations. It’s an asset in communicating with others and pinpointing how you think. Clearly, it’s a pretty important attribute to have in a school setting, but it’s also invaluable for life in general.
“To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom.”
-Socrates
The importance of self-awareness
Here’s a scenario: you’re in a lecture-style class, meaning the teacher is primarily talking. No matter how hard you try, you can’t seem to make the information stick. That “the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell” goes in one ear and right out the other. That’s because you’re not an auditory learner- you can’t easily retain information just by hearing it said. This is one of many possible examples that goes to show why academic self-awareness is necessary. If you don’t know these things about yourself, you’ll wonder what’s wrong when you have trouble in a setting outside of your strengths. With self-awareness in your inventory, you’ll be able to set yourself up for success by utilizing your unique skill set in a problem. You’ll be able to pick out where you want to see improvements, empowering you to meet your goals and grow as a student and individual. Self-awareness isn’t just something students need. It’s a universal human necessity.
So...how?
Gaining self-awareness is about listening to yourself. Let yourself think coherently, and pay attention to the tone of your inner voice.
Pay attention to others. Other people see you, just like you see them. When with your peers, try to analyze their unique personalities. It will help to familiarize you with the concept of every person as having distinct habits and complexities.
Personality tests. Yes, really. Tests such as the enneagram and MBTI are a treasure trove of personal insight. The questions will help you analyze yourself as a complex person. They put into words your social-emotional makeup, and warn you of limitations you possibly haven’t yet taken mind of.
MBTI: https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test
Enneagram:
Be receptive to constructive criticism
When someone offers you (well-meaning) constructive criticism, don’t just dismiss it. Try to see where they’re coming from, use it to better understand yourself and your weaknesses, and step towards growth.
Benefits
Social: A huge part of school is communicating with other people. This goes on to benefit things such as job interviews and presentations as well. When you are knowledgeable of yourself as a person, you have some insight as to how you come off to others. Maybe what you intended to be strong leadership can be seen as bossy. In any case, you’ll become more aware of how others interact with you, and you can use this sensitivity and empathy to strengthen your relationships with your peers.
Academic: As aforementioned, you’ll know how you best learn, and how you tend to manage work. If you know you tend to procrastinate, you can work to combat it. If you know you tend to bite off more extra-curriculars than you can chew, you can find a way to regulate it.
Personal: It’s so important to understand your emotions. It’s essential to your emotional maturity that you learn not to repress what you feel, but to be able to grasp and analyze it. You can master what you’re good at, work on what you struggle with, and understand your limits.
Check out the sites below for more information!
https://nickwignall.com/self-awareness/
Understanding An ADHD Student
Written By: Isabelle Saunders
School is a primarily concentration-based institution: if you don’t pay attention, you’re likely to get lost quickly. Though many students are able to retain information taught to them in the standard class-lecture form, children with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) will often have a much more challenging time with this. They have difficulty paying attention and sitting still, which are integral aspects of the typical classroom. Educators, if your ADHD students are wrestling with an inability to focus or track in class, it’s important that you do everything you can to make sure they’re not left behind. If you yourself don’t have ADHD, however, it may be a bit hard to know where to start.
What helps an ADHD student may vary depending on the child, so it’s important to get in touch with them and/or their parents about what best works for them. However, these are some universally helpful ways to work with the symptoms of ADHD.
Understanding
The first step to teaching your ADHD student is understanding how their brain works. Know that their possible lack of concentration in class or tendency to forget assignments is not a simple disinclination- it’s not from lack of trying. Their mind is just wired a bit differently, and they’re still able and eager to retain information, but maybe in a way at odds with your method of teaching.
Approaches
Movement: A symptom of ADHD is the need to be moving. If you allow them time to shake out the pins and needles, they’re likely to be better able to focus their attention on the subject at hand. Recess, of course, is the most obvious way to accommodate this, but after a certain age, recess is no longer included in most school schedules. In addition to or instead of recess, consider allotting time (say, a 5-minute break) for your students to move around and stretch. Try planning kinesthetic lessons that channel movement into learning and memory. Another idea is to let your ADHD students stand during lessons, if they so desire. If your class’ desks are arranged in rows, it’s easy to let them stand in the back.
While fidget toys, such as fidget cubes, have been labeled by many teachers as merely distracting to the user, they actually help with ADHD. Little movements, such as knee-bouncing or pencil-tapping, are a way to channel the extra energy into one motion. By permitting objects such as fidget cubes, you are giving your students a way to keep their hands moving in a way that’s quiet and not distracting to anyone.
Organization: ADHD students may have trouble keeping track of many assignments at once, so organization is vital. Most classes have a binder where all notes and assignments are kept, so check in with your student to make sure their binder is kept neat and it’s easy to find their work. They’ll need dividers to separate old homework, notes, quizzes, etc. Apart from the binders, try suggesting a separate folder for to-be-completed homework. This is a good space for more immediate objectives, and they won’t have as many binders from different subjects to remember to take home. It’s also a good idea for them to keep an academic planner where they can write down assignments and due dates as soon as you say them.
We all learn differently, and those with ADHD are no exception. Remember to give your ADHD students positive reinforcement when they’re doing well: sitting through lessons takes a lot of effort and energy on their part, and hearing that you notice the work they’re putting in will be a huge encouragement. Be patient, and know that you’re not trying to combat the symptoms of ADHD; you’re working off of them. They don’t take away a student’s ability to learn- they merely make them learn in different ways.
To learn more, check out the links below:
https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/school-success.html
College Readiness and Academic Self-Advocacy
Written By: Laura Lorenzen, MSW and Andrea Malkin Brenner, PhD
Anticipating the transition from high school to college can feel overwhelming for parents and teens, and especially so for teens with executive functioning challenges. Simply possessing strong academic competence is not enough to thrive in college. Students need strong academic self-advocacy skills in order to successfully navigate this life-changing transition.
For parents, approaching the shift from high school to college as a gradual process of moving your child from dependence to independence -- and beginning this process well before the transition to college -- can make this change far less daunting..
Understanding the differences between high school parenting and college parenting
You may be communicating closely with your child’s high school, discussing everything from the accommodations your child needs to their grades and even their homework assignments. Colleges, however, are prohibited by law from providing parents with any information regarding student accommodations, grades, or academic progress.
While students who have a diagnosed disability such as ADHD, a learning disability, or autism, are able to obtain accommodations in college, parents are not part of this process. Your child is viewed as an autonomous adult by the college and will need to independently ask for help, seek campus resources, and request learning accommodations.
Parents whose children have executive functioning challenges often provide support in other ways. You may currently help your child stay on top of homework assignments, manage time, and plan out when and how long-term assignments will be completed -- or work closely with your child’s teacher to do so. In college, that type of support can be provided by academic support staff or through the campus tutoring center, but your child will need to seek it out.
Steps you can take now to prepare your child for the transition to college
It’s never too early (or too late) to start preparing your child for this transition. There are a number of essential skills your child will need and that you can help them learn.
Ensure your child understands and can talk about their learning needs and the accommodations they will require to succeed in college.
Openly include your child in discussions about their needs and ask for their perspective on what tools help them learn.
Ensure your child can identify and seek out sources of information and help. Many teens are not familiar or comfortable independently asking for help; this is a critical skill that takes time and practice to master. Help your child practice this skill now, so that they are comfortable self-advocating later.
Build your child’s capacity to independently problem-solve and make sound decisions. Ask how they would solve a problem that arises, and help them think through the pros and cons of their solution.
Before they enter the college setting, allow your child to try and fail, as long as no lasting harm would occur from that failure. This will give your child crucial practice and an opportunity to safely learn from their mistakes.
Though it might be tempting to jump in to iron out difficulties your child is having, they’ll learn more and be better prepared for the future if instead they are guided and supported to find answers and solve problems on their own. Helping your child take charge of their academics doesn’t mean they have to do it alone. With the right self-advocacy skills, your child will be able to request accommodations in college, find needed campus resources, and comfortably ask for help -- the critical skills they will need to thrive on their own.
For more information about this topic, join us for our upcoming webinar:
College Readiness: Your Neurodiverse Teen and Academic Self-Advocacy
Tuesday, April 13, 7:00-8:00.
Register Here: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMqdeyvqjssGNEdv66j5gqqLZFlYCpCldon
Andrea Malkin Brenner, PhD, co-author of How to College: What to Know Before You Go (and When You’re There), is a college transitions educator and a former college professor and first-year administrator. Laura Lorenzen, MSW, founder of District Special Education Partners, provides parent coaching and IEP advocacy services. Her next parent class on “Supporting Your Disorganized Child” launches in late April.
How to Reduce Online School Anxiety
Written by: Isabelle Saunders
Kids in school have gotten used to something of an academic bicycle. They’re connected: if they fall, the bicycle comes down with them. They’re given tangible attention and help to right themselves. With the rise of virtual learning, however, has emerged the academic motorboat. Students feel that if they fall, the boat will speed right along without them. The more distant, impersonal nature makes it all too easy to lose track of everything, and for assignments to build up without students even realizing it. This being said, online school anxiety is real and prominent. So, as a parent, how should you help your child stay firmly on the motorboat? And, since they’re bound to slip up at some point, how can you help them back on?
Help them keep their life structured
One of the biggest things behind virtual learning burnout is the lack of structure that a day without school has brought. A loose day off is nice in moderation, but when it’s every single day, you lose your productivity.
Remind your child to get dressed in normal clothes, even if they won’t be going anywhere (this actually works wonders for mental health!).
If possible, help them designate their own workspace (a desk, a table, a spot in their room, etc) and keep it clean, organized, and visually appealing.
Make sure they’re eating- if their school is doing all-day zoom classes, it can be easy for them to forget. By keeping up a regular, healthy diet, they will feel so much better and ready to seize the day.
To the best of your ability, plan the day. If they’re suffering from boredom, have them do activities that they’re able to. For locations more lenient with COVID-19 regulations, this will be far more. If your area is stricter, do your best to add fun and structure to their day at home! Check Pinterest for projects, teach them to cook, get them into reading, start a garden. Anything that makes them happy and passes the time will perk them up considerably. Try not to let them feel like they’re rotting!
If you’re a visual type, draw out a schedule. Have time allotted for homework. Suggest that they install an organizational reminders app on their phone to keep up with their assignments, or look into helping them make a schedule board.
Reach out to teachers
If possible, get in touch with their teachers and ask for a written-out assignments list. Treat it like a checklist. Most schools have websites where you can check your child’s grades at any time, and your child can use this to make sure they’re on track. If your child’s school doesn’t have a website like this, ask teachers directly about grades.
These tips are most helpful for keeping your child on the boat, but what happens when they fall off?
Be easygoing and understanding
Your child is under a fair amount of stress, and even as you go about helping them, it’s important that you stay relaxed. If you get onto them, you’re adding excess pressure that will do the opposite of what you’re intending. Remind them to take regular breaks.
Reduce distractions
If your child needs to make up work they’ve forgotten about, remove things that will slow them down. If you have other children, try not to let them come up to your child and distract them. Don’t have the TV up loud around them or try to talk to them about other things that aren’t immediately important. Music while doing schoolwork, if not actively distracting, is okay. It helps stimulate the brain and make work more enjoyable.
Help your child stay social
Friends can help your child through so many rough times, especially academically. Suggest to your child that they FaceTime a friend for a study session. Let them joke around and talk when they’re done. This relieves anxiety and can help them learn more effectively with the ease of talking to a friend.
Above all, remember to be empathetic. Let them know you’re there for them- no one wants to feel alone.
For more information, check out the links below.
https://xqsuperschool.org/rethinktogether/parent-remote-learning-tips-resources/
https://education.jhu.edu/2020/04/8tipsforfocus/
How to Encourage Curiosity
Written by: Isabelle Saunders
Through all of history, one crucial characteristic has pushed humanity to wonder, try, and discover. Curiosity is what fuels a student’s enthusiasm to learn and grow, and a mind sparked with curiosity will always consume information more actively and receptively than one without.
Why is curiosity important?
Joylessly taking in information that doesn’t interest you will never be as effective as really wanting to learn. Therefore, it’s essential that children both retain their innate curiosity and have it instilled in them by educators and parents. Subjects students are fascinated with are far more likely to stick with them, and curiosity ensures that you guide a child through learning rather than dragging them.
Kindling curiosity in a child
Teachers
Always be open to and encourage questions. This is important. Questions are a manifestation of curiosity!
Include student involvement in lessons. Challenge yourself not to speak at your students through your whole class. Get them involved so that they’re able to be active in their education and pursuit of knowledge. A good idea is open discussion, or a harkness discussion- act as a mediator, asking only leading topical questions, and let the students address one another instead of you.
When teaching a subject, try to focus on “why?” Not just how things work, but why they work that way.
It doesn’t all have to be strictly factual. While solid facts are integral to most subjects, a great way to make your students listen more actively is to make these subjects personal. Ask them how they’d feel in a historical figure’s shoes, or what feelings a piece of art or music instills in them. When you create a connection between the students and the subject, you unlock a whole new level of understanding. This is a perfect way to harness curiosity and channel it into their grasp of the topic at hand.
Parents
Let your own enthusiasm show. This also applies to teachers- your joy of learning will reflect in your child and make it easier for them to get excited, too.
Just like teachers, reward and encourage the asking of questions. Answer those innocent, workings of the world questions to the best of your ability.
You can get in on the questions too. Ask them their opinions on things, or hypothetical imaginary questions. This is something younger kids especially love, but children of all ages enjoy talking about things such as, “if you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?” Creativity goes hand-in-hand with curiosity, and these types of thought experiments will encourage them to speak out on their thoughts and interests.
Encourage your child to read! If they’re unable to read, you can always read to/with them. This is so important for building and indulging curiosity. It will prompt questions and discussions, and stimulate their imagination. If, due to Covid-19 restrictions, you are unable to access a library, try a digital one.
Follow their interests. From a young age, most children show fascination with certain things, like art or animals. Encourage them to talk and ask about these things. Take the kid who loves pretty rocks out to any rocky patch to look for them. Cater to what they’re curious about.
Curiosity is a beautiful and inquisitive force inherent not only to humans, but all living things. It’s of utmost importance that it’s not crushed early in a child, and that they walk through life with their eyes open and wondering.
“I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity.”
-Eleanor Roosevelt
For more information, check out the sites below!
https://www.zerotothree.org/resources/224-tips-on-nurturing-your-child-s-curiosity
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/8-pathways-curiosity-hungry-mind-marilyn-price-mitchell
Parent-Teacher Communication
Written by: Isabelle Saunders
During the school week, a child will spend an equal amount of their day at school and at home. This leads, in many ways, to a dual tutelage of the child, a partnership of upbringing between teachers and parents. How important, then, is proper cooperation between these key figures in a child’s life?
Teachers and parents each have their own domain: consecutively, school and home/outside of school. It is essential to a flourishing academic life that the gap between the two domains is bridged in a healthy and productive way. During this season of long-distance learning, this bridge is more important than ever before.
This begs the question: how?
How parents can reach out
While parents may find themselves scratching their heads when asked by their child for help with homework, they’re still able to play an active role in their education.
Schedule a parent-teacher conference for a proactive method of head-on conversation. Ask teachers how you can get involved, be it helping your child get more sleep to improve attentiveness or quizzing them before tests. If a student is struggling, they are also encouraged to attend to provide personal input and talk through what would work best for them.
Talk to your child. Ask them what would edify them, taking into consideration their unique method of learning and working. Their points will give you a foundation on which to build your discussion with their teacher.
Help your child’s teacher set goals for them. It’s helpful for a student to have something concrete and attainable that they can work towards.
Engage multiple teachers. For students who have a different teacher for each subject, it’s a good idea to have them discuss how best to instruct your child. Say, for example, your child loves art class, but is less enthusiastic about math. Those two teachers will likely see different behavior and levels of engagement from your child, and the math teacher could discuss with the art teacher which techniques to use to best assist your child. Teachers learn from each other, just like parents.
How teachers can reach out
Don’t be afraid to contact a parent just for the sake of good news. Any parent loves to hear that their child is an asset to class discussions, or really gave it their all on a recent project. Sharing a student’s progress with their parents is an easy way to boost their confidence.
Regular feedback: when trying to help a student through a difficult patch in their studies, it’s crucial to update their parents. Tell them how they can meet their child where they are, and how they can help at home.
Talk to school administrators about hosting school events. Fun, easygoing activities at school can help foster positive relationships between staff and guardians. To adhere to social distancing rules, try hosting events over video conferencing or in the form of a drive-in.
Utilize multiple methods of contact. Communication isn’t a glove perfectly shaped to fit one way. Apart from face-to-face meetings, consider practices such as handwritten notes, emails, and phone calls.
Ask about a child’s personal interests. If you’re a math teacher who can’t seem to get through to a child, and their parents say they’re artistic, consider using visual or artistic teaching methods with that child as a form of personalization. A tailor-made education will always be more helpful than a “one size fits all” education.
Benefits
No child wants to see school as a tempest they have to weather, struggling to keep their head above the water. Especially in the wake of distance learning, many students feel that they’re in danger of being plowed over due to the subsequent lack of direct contact and all it entails. By exercising the strategies detailed above, educators and parents can work together to help students feel more engaged in their own academic life. In the end, the student doesn’t just memorize a bare concept of subjects they’ll forget after a test; they can fully grasp and understand the subject, further growing a well-rounded and truly useful education.
For more information on parent-teacher relationships, check out the links below:
https://www.readingrockets.org/article/building-parent-teacher-relationships
https://www.pbisrewards.com/blog/improving-parent-teacher-communication/
Creating a Productive Study Space
Written by: Coach Alison Lake
The perfect work space for homework and studying is not one-size-fits-all. Everyone works differently, but having an organized space is a universal way to ensure productivity and good use of time.
Choose Your Space
When identifying the best study space for you, keep in mind comfort, lighting, household activity, available furniture, temperature, etc. Ideally, the most productive work space is free of distractions and not in a high-traffic area in the home. If it's in the student's bedroom, work should be done on a desk or table, not on the bed. The most efficient and effective setup is separate from other activities that might be going on in the house, and has enough space for all the items you need.
Remove Clutter
Within the study space and, if possible, within eyesight, remove any items that aren't needed for assignments. Visually, a simple setup makes it easier to focus on the task at hand and not become distracted. It might not be possible to remove all unrelated items from the line of vision, but if the workspace only has the items you need, staying organized will become second-nature. Keep the area clean and dispose of any trash daily. An organized, pleasing area helps keep the brain uncluttered as well.
Keep Materials Close By
It's important to keep all necessary materials very handy so they can be easily grabbed from an arm's length. These may include a planner, binders, folders, pens and pencils, calculator, notebook paper, laptop, timer, and any other items needed to study and complete homework on that day. Having to hunt around for items each day can be disruptive and time-consuming. Studying will be much more efficient if everything you need is close by.
Ensure Comfort
The most productive study space should be ergonomically sound, with a comfortable, supportive chair, and a table or desk that's at the right height for the student. While a bed is comfortable, it's not supportive enough for study and encourages bad posture and distraction.
Also consider neck position at the desk or table. Hunching over a laptop or book for long periods can lead to neck and shoulder pain. Prop up a monitor or laptop on a couple books if you have a separate keyboard or don't need to type when watching a video, for example. And consider using a textbook stand so the book is positioned directly in the line of sight.
Adjust the room lighting so it's bright enough to protect your eyes but not so bright that it causes a headache, and draw the blinds if needed to keep out direct sunlight.
Reduce Distractions
It may be impossible to remove all distractions, but try to set up a permanent workspace that's not right in the middle of nightly dinner, sibling playtime, or the TV area. Try to avoid places in the house where family members and pets will be walking by frequently. Keep smartphones and other smart devices out of eyesight or turn off unnecessary notifications. Wear noise-canceling headphones if needed.
Make Adjustments
Above all, don't hesitate to make slight changes to the study environment if something isn't working quite right. Move somewhere else, rearrange belongings, or try a different chair to find the right setup for you.