Valuable Lessons in Learning

This article found in the New York TImes, October 7, 2014 show how a detailed exploration of the brain can review exactly how we learn and how we can maximize that potential.  Tara Parker-Pope explains how study sessions and cramming does not leave the brain much energy for learning.

So, as a parent, making your child study at one place in the house may not be the best way to actually learn all the material.  When a child is young I do feel they should be doing their homework in a location near an adult for supervision and quick help.

Below is the list Benedict Carey and science reporter for the New York Times wrote about in his book "How We Learn:  The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens".

Study sessions seem logical where we focus and study for a long period of time but in reality are not the best use of time as the brain is using  a lot of effort to maintain concentration.

1.  Change your environment. Move to different parts of the house. Try studying in a coffee house.  Use the library and change locations through out.  The new locations create new associations in your brain and can actually make it easier to recall information later.   The quote is for all those who feel somewhat ADD at times.  "The brain wants variation.  It wants to move, it wants to take periodic breaks." said Mr. Carey.

2. Talk about it.  When you cram material in your head all at once, you aren't telling the brain it is really important to remember all of it.  So read you notes out loud.  Type them and say the words out loud.  This is giving the brain two ways for information to be retained.  Writing flashcards and testing yourself is another great method of helping you remember facts.

3.  Spacing out the time learning the new materials.  Only looking at material once might help for a quick test but you have to review very hard to remember it for the final.  But if you review the material one or two days after learning or first studying it, it is a signal to the brain that you really want to learn it.

If your test is one week away study in two sessions at least one or two days apart.  It would mean study on Monday, review on Thursday to take the test on Friday.  If the test is a month away begin studying in one week segments. (For a hard class in college, I took notes every day.  Then I went home and highlighted what I thought was really important.  I talked out loud about what the graphs meant.  I reviewed after each class session.  By the end of the class, I did not need to study for the final because I remembered everything.  I always review each test that was returned to me and made sure I knew all the correct answers.)

4. Another important aspect to studying is sleep.  Who would have thought of that?  There are two sleep scycles.  "The first half of the sleep  cycle helps with retaining facts; the second half is important for math skills.  So a student with a foreign language test should go to bed early to get the most retention from sleep, and then review in the mroning.  For math students, the second half of the sleep cycle is most important -- better to review before going to bed and the sleep in to let the brain process the information."

So as parents, think about this article and how you can help your child study better for test and to really learn the material.

Read This as Slowly as You Can

This article from the Wall Street Journal on September 10, 2014 written by Jeanne Whalen states we need to slow down and read.  She finds people were reading fewer books.  Reading habits have changed with constant dings for new emails, and facebook posts.  These interruptions interfer with our comprehension.

Slow readers state:

* it improves abilty to concentrate

* it reduces stress

* It deepens our ability to think

* it improves our listening skills

* it helps us empathize better

"A study published last year in Science showed reading literary fiction helps people understand others' mental states and beliefs"

There is also proof that books with interactive options such as links and sounds and video result in lower comprehension levels.  What?  Experts state that real books are the best and underlining or writing notes while you read improves your comprehension levels. 

So think about reading in front of you children: showing them a good example.  Share items that you find in your books.  Writing down interesting words. (This helps their vocabulary grow as well as shows another example of how to learn words.) Share interesting passages with them.  If the story takes place in an interesting city or country, show where it is on a map or globe.

When children see a parent reading, they might want to imitate it and then you have grown a slow reader.

How Students With Autism Are Graduating Into Jobs

This article was found in the Wall Street Journal and was written by Carolyn T. Geer.  I forgot to include the date it was published but you can reach the author at reports@wjs.com if you have any more questions or want more details.

She starts that schools teach students what they don't know.  But she feels the focus for students with autism is to focus on what they can do.

Usually only 10% of children with autism find jobs.  This is a very sad statistic.  When I work with special needs students I hear them say they want to be a doctor.  I know they can't be that specific occupation but I think about what they can do in a medical environment.  Perhaps they can file, transport files, move lab samples around...  They can do something in a field that interests them.

In Virginia, a school took a control group of high school seniors  with autism and they received their education per their IEP.  But the other group spent the year 'in an intensive custom-designed study and job-training program at a suburban hospital."

The beginning and end of each day the hospital group men in on-site classrooms where they learn practical  skills like:

*how to get to work and get back home

*how to get around the hospital

*how to ask for help 

*how to use feedback from supervisors and co workers.

These students went through three internships.  After graduation 87% landed hospital jobs such as pharmacy assistant and teacher's aide.

Only 6% of the control group found jobs. 

At the hospital training they discovered what jobs worked for certain students.  One students loved restocking isolation carts.  He liked repetitive tasks that required intense focus and attention to details.

A company in Denmark found people with autism are hired and trained to work as software testers, programmers, etc. Specialisterne launched a goal of creating 100,000 jobs in the US for people with autism and similar disorders.  They stated they have to teach those working with those with autism need to 'say what you mean and mean what you say, as those with autism have trouble interpreting sarcasm and body language.

So there is hope.  The IEP transition program may need to be modified to help students with autism transfer what they are good at to a job in the real world.

Is E-Reading - story time or screen time?

In an article in the New York Times on Oct 12, 2014, Douglas Quenqua reflects on this statement.  Pediatricans have been promoting parents to read to their toddlers.  They do not recommend any screen tie for children less that two years old.  So what is a parent to do, when there are great interacive stories on the 'tablet' for their child?  Is it reading or is it the 'dreaded screen' time?

The first point is there is not enought data to determine if this is a problem or not.  But researchers say there is more interaction if the parent and child are reading together.  They turn pages together, they talk about  the pictures.  Researchers say that more time is spent on the devise than on the 'storeis' parents and children are reading.

Some studies were done that said children who used electronic books had a lower reading comprehension level that children who were reading with their parents.  Some electronic books  have buttons to press and songs to play so it can take away of the 'learning language' with the parent time.

Researchers say being talked to versus being talked at engages the brain differently.

So electronic books may be here to stay but they can't compete with the feeling of picking up your own book, turning the pages and making languge come to life.  A tablet is just an electronic devise and there is not the same thrill as opening a book.

Botton line- a little screen time may be ok, so don't sweat it if you want to skype or facetime a grandparent.

Signing off - the California Grandma to two grandsons who live in PA 

Dyslexia and How Your Child Can Succeed in School.

This article was found in the UT San Diego on October 7, 2014.  Written by Erinn Hutkin.

Dyslexia is a very common learning problem affecting  about 1 in 5 children at school.  Dyslexia really means there is a problem with reading.  Usually students have poor reading abilities and poor decoding skills.  Children in the classroom know something is wrong and become frustrated with school.  There is no cure but there are work arounds.

Dyslexia has a genetic connection so if parents had a hard time reading, or grandparents had  a hard time learning to read, have your child tested.  Dyslexia is not just reversing letters.  Usually students just have a hard time learning sounds.  Sometimes that can tell you the sound a letter makes but can't blend it together to make a word.

The best way to help is a multi-sensory approach for reading.  Small groups or one to one learning is best.  Certain extras at school are helpful such as "preferential seating, extra time on tests, audio books, spell checkers or note takers".  Your child might need extra help with emotional support and also support in an area where they can succeed and feel great about themselves.

Minecraft

Do you know what Minecraft is?  In the article, In Hit Games, Tech Giants See More Than Fun", by Nick Wingfield in the New York Times  dated Sept 11, 2014, Microsoft is trying to buy it for over $2 billion. I like this quote, 'Parents like Minecraft because it can be a creative outlet for their children.  Teachers like the game because it can bring lessons to life".

Minecraft was created in Sweden and is one of the top paid apps on the iPhone.  There have been almost 54 million copies sold.  Minecraft is a computer game where you build things with 'Lego' blocks. "Minecraft soaks up lots of time, as players can spend months building estates and entire countries,.."

Joel Levin a teachers liked it so much he uses as a teaching tool in his second grade technology class. He has set up a company to see 'custom-made versions of Minecraft to classrooms for educational purposes.

This game purpose is creation versus other games of destruction.  I have even signed up for a class on Minecraft so I can help students read.  I want them to build something based on a story that they write.  Of course it would involve writing a script.  The characters would have to be developed...

But again there is a trade off.  Is this technology really any better that many sets of legos in the basement where you and your child can build together?  Things to think about.

By the way, check out you tube and enter, "Minecraft" There are many videos to watch, I don't even know what are good ones.  But my students know.

Are you a Low-Tech Parent?

When my boys were small our TV broke and we did not replace it.  I don't remember missing it either.  We had just moved from Burlington, VT to San Jose, CA.  My boys were too busy playing outside, swimming at the neighborhood pool, or playing street hockey.

But my in-laws came to visit and could not believe we did not have a TV.  So they bought us one.  Well, one thing led to another and we had a Nintendo game player.  Then a play station or what ever was popular.  I was having war about homework versus on the 'TV'.  So I packed up the Nintendo and play station and put them in the attic.  They were allowed out during summer vacation and if I felt like it at Christmas break and spring break.  And I thought this was hard.

Today, parents have to monitor use of ipads, ipods, mobile phones, computers, tv's, ... So I was reading the New York Times and found an article, "Steve Jobs Was a Low-Tech Parent" written by Nick Biltonn.  I love the quote, '"So, your kids must love the iPad?" I asked Mr. Steve Jobs.. "They haven't used it, he toldme. "we limit how much technology our kids use at home."'

Wow, many CTO, venture capitalists, techies say, "they strictly limit their children's screen time, often banning all gadgets on school nights,.."

So I am just wondering what kind of technology rules you have it your house.  Is technology helping or hurting your child's completion of homework?

Lazy High School Student

Are you the parent of a child who is unmotivated to learn?  You are not alone.  There seem to be two types of students.  There are those who are signing up for more and more honor classes and school activities.  Then there are those teenagers who have time for ' television, video games, social media and friends, but not for school.

In this article by Adam Price, "The Underchallenged 'Lazy Teenager'", published in the Wall Street Journal on 8/12/2014, a psychologist, list some ideas to help parents.

1.  "Stop telling him how smart he is"  Does your child have trophies for sports for just showing up?  A high IQ is not really anything without the drive to work hard.  So appreciate your child and celebrate when they work hard.

2. "Stop doing the dishes for him."  Your child needs to participate with the household chores.  Your child is never too busy to take out the garbage or clean their room.  I also had my children learn to do their own wash.  This eliminated me having to decide what was dirty or clean around their room.  If they did not do their wash, they worry dirty soccer clothes to practice.  This was their choice.

3. "Don't let him off easy" Rules are rules and everyone must follow them or face the consequences.  This is so much easier to learn as a child versus as an adult.  It is hard to set limits and deal out consequences so it is best to discuss this in detail before starting a rule.  Today of course parents have given their teenagers cell phones which can show where they are at all times.  One of the easiest rules if you don't wake up in time to take the bus to school you must walk or take public buses to school.  Do not write an excuse.  Let your child see the consequence of not being ready in time.  I usually called the office and told them to help me with a great consequence at school.   My son always forgot to do his homework.  So I had the middle school teachers page him after school every day to go to the office when he did not have his homework.  Soon he did it.  He did not like going to the office to do his homework and not going home with his friends.

4. "Don't make him shine for you"  Enjoy your child for who he or she is.  They are becoming an adult and learn about them.  Going to the perfect college, being accepted at the most colleges, etc. are jus things to brag about to make the parent feel good.  Don't put pressure on your child.  If they don't want to go to college ask their plans for their life.  Share what things costs.  Car, instance, gas, maintenance, new tires -- if you give them a car you should share the expenses involved with this.  If you child is happy just to get into the local community college help them enjoy the experience.

There is no real cure for a lack of motivation to succeed at high school.  Maybe your child is just a late bloomer and needs to go through life the hard way.  Make sure they understand the consequences of not having good grades.  They will not get into college easily.  They may have to go to junior college or maybe trade school.  I found working helps students become motivated.  Go around with your teenager and pick up job applications.  Talk about eating minimum wage and paying taxes.  Perhaps life will be their motivator.

Found this comic and had to add it.

Making Math Education Even Worse

This is the title of an article in the Wall Street Journal on August 6, 2014 written by Marina Ratner.  She tells the story as a grandmother of a boy starting 6th grade in Berkeley, CA.

California has been know for having some of the highest math standards in the nation.  But now a lead writer of mathematics standard, Jason Zimba States, "the new standards wouldn't prepare students for colleges to which 'most parents aspire' to send their children."

Now there is a fear, because in the upper math classes have lower expectations for students with the new common core.  Now students might not have the skills to succeed in college math classes.

Two things I have experienced with the new common core.

1.  If your child has trouble reading, they will now to poorly in math as well.  The new common core has many more word problems.  Math use to be an universal language.  Students without an English background could still succeed in school in math.  Now with so many word problems the universal language of math is gone.

2.  If your child hates busy work, they will not do well in the the new common core math.  They must draw visual representations about what the math means.  They draw, draw, and draw.  "Simple concepts are made artificially intricate and complex with the pretense of being deeper--while the actual content taught was primitive."

So as parents, you might want to purchase textbooks such as Algebra one and Two, Geometry, Trigonometry, and Calculus.  Think about which college you would like your child to attend.  Check out the math courses they will need to get a degree.  Hire a tutor to help them learn the math that public schools will no longer be teaching.

Math in the New Common Core - Help!

The second grade student I was working with was doing well in math but he had trouble reading.  Now he is no longer at grade level in math.  Why, he can't read the problems.  Yes the new common core wants students to be able to read.  But now students who have trouble reading are feeling more of a failure because they can't do math either.

The New York Times article, "Math Under Common Core Has Even Parents Stumbling" by Motoko Rich, states that parents are finding math too difficult to do.  So now students don't just do the formula to arrive at the answer.  They must draw and explain their logic about how to solve the problem.

Math used to be like a foreign language.  A student just needed to learn the symbols and the formulas and they could be successful even if reading was difficult for them.  With the transition to common core happening so quickly, there are not textbooks available, so many teachers are just using workbook pages.

"The new methods (for math) are particularly challenging for student with learning disabilities, or those who struggle orally or with writing."  Much of the work is now busy work with students drawing 42 dots to solve the problem...

When I was involved with the common core with the county of Santa Clara, I noticed that special education students might never pass so of the area they were to master each year.  So I wondered what will happen to them.  Do they deserve to flunk classes?

I think each child will have to take a pretest to determine which skills they learned and remembered over the summer.  Then at the end of the year, the teacher can administer a post test and see how each child has improved over the year.  This will be a true test to show how much the teacher helped each student learn over the year.  Having every student take a 4th grade test at the end of the year doesn't show how the teacher helped a particular student learn 2nd grade and 3 grade material.  They may not have mastered 4th grade material but they did learn two years worth of material.

Parents will have to be in touch with their child's teacher and learn the math to help their child success during this transition to the "Common Core".

Schools in San Diego Unified

I love teaching but I am finding students are falling through the cracks in the local schools.  Teachers have so many students.  It is hard for them to meet the needs of each student.  Especially when a student is in middle school that don't want to seem dumb in front of classmates.

As a parent, you should be able to review all your child's homework and see where they are misunderstanding.  Fourth grade is the year to have the best math teacher as that is when fractions are taught.  When a student is weak in fractions it can hurt them in every math class after that.

Finding a tutor to help with certain math concepts is a good idea.  It does not mean your student needs a tutor forever.  When your student is in high level math classes you need to have them attend all study sessions with their teacher and possibly find them a tutor if you can't help them with their homework.

I also have had a student who has trouble reading.  He was denied an IEP because he is smart.  But today, the common core questions, even math, all involve reading.  So even though you are smart if you can't read you end up being below basic.  So if your child is having trouble with reading, you might want to hire a tutor to help them with phonics and whole language learning.  Also fight for additional testing or another IEP.

Remember in your child's classroom there could be 5 or more students that are still learning English. There can be students whose parents work two or more jobs just to survive in this economy and have no time to help their child learn.  There can be students with autism and other special needs in their classroom.  More and more is being expected by teachers from the administration.  Many teachers are overwhelmed.  Your teacher isn't a bad teacher but could just have a large class where she/he can not meet the needs of every student.

Google Helps with Autism Research

Parents - I hope you will participate in the Autism Speaks Genome-mapping program.  Google plans to put the information in the cloud so more researchers can have access to this information.

This gene study was done on heart disease and was found helpful.  So far all the research has shown is that there isn't just one form of autism.

So when researchers come to your house, please participate.  This particular research is  called AUT1OK and will be available to all researchers to sign the standard research agreement.

There is also a similar program going on withe Alzheimer's research where five universities have sequenced 580 genomes.

This takes so much storage space so going to the cloud with Google should help everyone.

From
Genes in the Cloud: Google Steps Into Autism Research by Shirley S. Wang, Wall Street Journal, June 10, 2014

And the parents cried, "Help!"

I try to be low key about tutoring.  If you do a good job, your students grow and no longer need you as a tutor.  I try to be happy about that but it means I should be recruiting new students.

Then the grades come in after a period of no tutoring and I am called back to service.  One mother called with a SOS.  The teacher won't even help her with her homework.  So I put on my algebra 1 hat and went through two homework assignments. 

The teacher had a great trick for simplifying equations but the student had trouble remembering how to do it.  So I did the low tech method.  What two numbers multiplied together can give you the answer.  After that we figured out what the middle number needed to be so we could get the positive and negative signs with the correct variable.  After we found one in either the bottom of the equation or the top of the equations, I reminded the student, "I bet the book has one of these equations on the top so we can cancel it out."  We try it and meet with success.  I did check all the odd problems answers in the back of the book and we were correct. 

We were so happy and were sharing with the mom about how great we did and we observed her blank stare, as she was not understanding the job of algebra.  I guess that is why I am trying to tutor.  I want to make life easier for parents so they can enjoy their children and leave the painful, tense experience of 'trying to learn' with someone else.

2n2 - 5n -3   divided by 4n + 5    equals  n - 3   
4n2 - 12n -7                   2n-7                   4n + 5

I could not figure out to make the number to the second power using this blog.  :)

Screen TIme Study FInds Education Drop-Off

This article is from the New York Times January 24, 2014 written by Motoko RIck

Basically, parents do you know what games your child is playing on the computer and the educational benefits from them ?  I find parents using technology to keep their child quiet sometimes.

This survey found less that 1/2 of the time a children ages 2 to 10 is "not" educational material but watch mostly entertaining videos on electronic devices.

It is easy to say "oh my child is playing educational games" so it is fine.  But think how many hours your child is on-line for and what is he or she giving up to do that.  Children click on a new game and if it does not provide 'fun' they move to something else.

More hours in from of electronics means fewer hours connecting with human beings, playing with neighborhood kids, playing sports.  Perhaps there are more times to snack while being engaged with your electronic friend.

Michael Thornton, a second grade teacher, has parents asking for for referrals for education apps, like Geared and Glass Tower for teach math and spacial recognition skills, and 'Chicktionary', for vocabulary.

The real question today is to determine what your children and playing to to notice the educational value of the game.  Try to limit over all time hooked up to an electronic devise including television.  I have observed children viewing the television and they can't make conversation.  They just are stuck viewing and can hardly move.

It is important to check in with what they are learning.  Have them teach you how to play so you can interact more.

If kids are being entertained all the time how will they find the classroom when they are sent off to school?

I welcome your comments and observations.

Take Your Child to Art Museums

I have always taken my children to art museums in addition to most any kind of museum.  It has always been thought that arts increase thinking skills but there was never any real proof.

I read an article in The New York Times on Nov. 24. 2013 by Brian Kisida called, "Art Makes You Smart".  A study was done in Arkansas where students were able to visit museums by lottery.  This museum was set up by the daughter of Sam Walton and is 50,000 square feet and has an endowment of over $800 million.  Over 11,000 students and 500 teachers participated in this study.  The benefits were higher for minority, low income, and rural students.

"Visiting an art museum exposes students to a diversity of ideas that challenge them with different perspectives on the human condition.  Expanding access to art.. should be a central part of any school's curriculum."

Here in California, where the budget is tight and classrooms are overflowing, museum trips are sparse.  So as a parent, take your child to museums and explore together.  This beats watching a TV show together.

Google Learning in Museums to start finding resources that will work for you.
http://www.mylearning.org

http://www.imls.gov/about/learning_labs.aspx

Help Your Child Play With Math

I found this article from the New York Times, 11/14/2013 "With Apps, Children Can Play the Game of Math by Kit Eaton.  Somehow, children like to play games.  Children like to play games on the computer and they like to play on tablets.  How many parents allow their children to use their tablet or phone when having dinner, waiting for appointments, or driving in the car?  I still would prefer parents to limit this time because interacting with real human beings should be more important.  But I do agree sometimes it is nice to not be around children screaming.

But parents should look for apps that can help your child learn.  In this article she recommends "Dragonbox Algebra 5+"  It is $6.00 but she feels it is worth the money.  If you do use it please let me know what you think.

Next she recommends "Yodeloh Math Mountain".  This is more of an introductory math program.  many newspapers recommend it.  The link shows many positive reviews.

The third app she recommends is "Madagascar Math Ops".
".  There is a free version to try it out but both of these last two programs cost around $3.00 each.  This use the "Madagascar" cartoon as a carrot to involve your child. Short movies are the reward.

Finally a traditional math app she recommends is "Mathboard"  I have to admit this one does not look exciting.  With all the wonderful graphics available, I would not be excited to play a game that looks like a chalkboard.

I am using MobyMax.  This can be used on the computer or tablets but it is geared more for the teacher to give to her students.  The reward after working on worksheets which the text can be given in audio for the child who has trouble reading, is time available to play their games.

Bottom line use parents should use learning apps when something electronic is needed to keep your child interested, focused and not out of control.