Newsletter December 2010

December 14, 2010
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We strive to bring you the most helpful and up to date information every month, and this month's newsletter is no exception.
You can scroll down through the articles below, or you can click on a headline you like to go directly to that article.

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This Month's Headlines:

Failure… The Key to Success?
Exercises for Hands-On Learners
Homework Helpers—A New Kind of Tutor
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Failure… The Key to Success?

While it may sound counterintuitive, failure is an important stepping-stone in the learning process. We often encourage young children through their failures—taking their first steps, learning to ride a bike. But, when our children enter school, they can start to get the message that mistakes are inherently bad. Answers are either right or wrong, and there’s little encouragement for taking risks and failing to get them right.

However, failure is one of the ways we learn to cope with what life hands us. A fear of failure can lead to a student who is afraid to do anything on his or her own, a recipe for complacency and conformity. A recent article from the California’s Teacher’s Association, “Teaching Students to Bounce Back,” explained that while children are facing more stress than ever, their coping skills are sorely lacking.

Experts believe that the importance placed on test scores and grade performance has pushed students to view anything less than perfection as failure, leading some students to give up entirely. But, we can remind our students that mistakes are a crucial part of the learning process, and a dose of reality for entering the working world after school. As parents, you can foster the kind of discovery that creates strong, confident individuals by remembering that students will make mistakes. Here are a few classes where mistakes should be expected:

Science
Science is perhaps the subject where mistakes have the largest value—many important scientific discoveries have resulted from thinkers who refuse to remain within the box. Experiments that don’t go as planned may be discouraging at first, but students should be encouraged and reminded to take a closer look at their findings. While they may be unexpected, chances are they are valuable lessons and discoveries just beneath the surface.

Math
It’s true that math has a more black and white approach to right or wrong answers. But the encouragement can be all in the way you respond to student’s mistakes. Instead of saying that an answer is wrong, ask your student to explain how he or she arrived at that answer. By examining how an answer was found, the student can see where a mistake was made, and feel encouraged to keep pushing forward in the future.

English
Writing is about spelling and proper sentence structure, but it’s also about finding your own voice. Many of our most renowned and celebrated writers faced rejection along their paths to accomplishment. Writing is as much about individual experiences and reflections as it is about being grammatically correct. Students should be rewarded for taking creative chances in their writing, even if it takes a while to hone their style.

Practical Arts – Home Economics, Woodshop, etc.
Anyone who has experimented in the kitchen knows that recipes don’t always start out delicious, but get better with time and experience. The same follows for hands-on fields like woodworking or computer sciences. Learning persistence and not to give up in the face of failure is an added benefit from these kinds of classes. Praise the things your child makes, even if they aren’t perfect.

Creative Arts – Art, Dance, Music, etc.
The fine arts are an area where creativity arguably takes shape the most. Subjects like these allow students to really express themselves as individuals, a task which should be encouraged and celebrated. In these areas, grades are often given for enthusiasm and persistence over perfection and it can be a relief for students to do something for pleasure rather than getting a perfect grade on a test.

Schools and parents need to remember to be forgiving. Allow your child to navigate life and school on their own. Your guidance is important, but if you try to protect them too much from failure and disappointment, you undermine their ability to bounce back, learn important lessons and most of all, to keep trying in the face of adversity.

Source: Donaldson, Cindy. “Failure is Underrated: 5 Subjects Where Mistakes Are a Must.” education.com.

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Exercises for Hands-On Learners

Some children learn best with a hands-on approach. They may be the child who has a hard time sitting still, or who enjoy taking things apart to see how they’re made. These type of learners may have a hard time with the rigid, often passive approach taught in school, but you can take liberties at home to help them learn in a more tangible way.

Here are some ideas to try with younger children who prefer to learn in an active manner:

Spelling and Reading
Get creative with letters you can feel. “Write” out letters on your child’s hand while they have their eyes closed and ask them to guess what letter you’re drawing. Take turns letting them “write” on your palm or back. Or work with actual letters—blocks, play dough, clay or even paper letters. Start with letters and work your way up to building words and phrases.

Grab magazines and have your child start circling or highlighting letters with certain sounds they are struggling with. The act of discovery makes it feel more fun and hands-on than just reading from a worksheet or textbook.

Math
Create patterns with objects like Legos or colored blocks. Start with simple patterns of alternating colors, and then move on to more complicated groups like sets of two or doubles then triples. You can also practice subtraction and addition using the blocks or Legos. This helps children “visualize” the math problems in addition to satisfying their need for hands-on learning.

Have fun with dice. Take turns rolling them and translating it into math problems. For example, if your child rolls a five and a four, have them write out the numbers for addition and tell you what they equal. When they get advanced, you can start working with subtraction and negative numbers.

Work with coins for a better grasp of math. Put coins in a bag and let your child guess what they are without looking. Once they’ve had fun guessing, ask them to do simple math problems with them—“if I have 10 pennies and I add 5 dimes, how much money do I have?”

Show your child that learning doesn’t have to just come from a book while sitting at a desk. With a little creativity you can make learning more fun and understandable for your hands-on learner.

Source: McCarthy, Connie. “Help Your ‘Hands-On’ Learner with Reading and Math Skills.” schoolfamily.com.

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Homework Helpers—A New Kind of Tutor

The New York Times recently reported on a growing new trend that’s a bit different from the typical tutor session—a homework helper.

Slightly different from a traditional tutor, homework helpers are not necessarily for those students who are struggling with geometry, but rather those who need some extra direction in staying focused. An owner of a local tutoring service in New York explains that homework helpers address a new category of academic assistance—helping students who are capable of completing the work but need someone to make sure it gets done in a consistent and timely manner. Typically for families where both parents are busy with careers, homework helpers are becoming more popular.

The trend has caused a rift with educators. Some argue that homework helpers prevent students from learning self-motivation they need later in life. This can be true of any help—if you provide too much assistance, it can become a crutch rather than a simple show of support and encouragement. Parents who support the new concept say that it allows them to continue to work full-time while enjoying the few hours they have with their children before bedtime without dealing with the usual homework arguments.

Homework helpers can assist with things like helping students keep track of assignments, creating systems for organization, or simply keeping students focused who have a tendency to let their minds wander while completing assignments, such as those students who have attention deficit disorder. Furthermore, organizational problems can quickly lead to academic problems, particularly if students aren’t completing the proper assignments or keeping track of due dates.

Homework helpers can also play the role of tutor where necessary, should students arrive upon questions while completing assignments. While homework helpers are a relatively new area, many tutoring companies report an increase in demand over the past few years. However, a good, comprehensive tutor can combine the role of homework helper, tutor, and organizational coach into one complete package.

A+ Home Tutors strives to give students this comprehensive blend between instructor, tutor, academic coach, and mentor. That way, our tutors can give students exactly what they need at any given moment.

Many students can benefit from the added guidance of a tutor or homework helper—not just those who are failing or are behind in classes. Still, many experts argue that “outsourcing” too much of the homework and school-related supervision can undermine the importance of academics parents can impress upon their own children. It’s important and recommended that parents stay involved and supportive of their child’s academic success in a way that teaches good habits leading to self-motivated, directed students.

Source: Maslin Nir, Sarah. “Like a Monitor More Than a Tutor.” nytimes.com.

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