You really can do something about procrastination.
If you think you “work best under pressure,” or if you think that “getting it done in the last minute” are good strategies, we beg you to think again. By definition, procrastination is any delay that causes harm. Last-minute work almost always could have been better with planning and earlier start.
These strategies will help: Continue reading
Why are we teaching kids to use 1970s technology?Ever hear of Day Timer? Yes, the personal agenda book still exists, but only for a few old school types. Except in schools, where the kids are supposed to use agenda books, and it’s all their damned fault if they don’t.
Seriously. At the A+ Club, we hear from teachers all the time that Johnny “just needs to do what all the other students do and write down the assignments in his agenda book.”
If it were up to me, every kid would have exchange email and Outlook working seamlessly on their computers, tablets, and phones, and everything they need to do would be posted there automatically. Continue reading
Procrastinators are motivated by deadlines.Clarity and purpose, hard to find and easy to dismiss, now assemble at the last minute. Focus arrives, hard work ensues, and the job gets done.
That urgency at the last minute invigorates and inspires procrastinators. It’s almost exhilarating — and it is, because you’re getting the same brain-chemical reactions from “procrastinator’s panic” as you do from getting startled. Scientists call it ” CRF,” and it is a brain drug that is released at the panic of a deadline.
So what’s the problem? Well… every procrastinator knows it: you should have gotten that feeling of urgency a little sooner. Sometimes “last minute” means by the deadline. All too often, it’s after the deadline passed and turned into a “drop dead deadline.” But you got it done, so what’s the problem? Continue reading
Report cards are a contentious subject in any household,but a bad report card is something that parents (and kids) need to handle with tact and grace, as hard as that may sometimes be.
Avoid the common missteps like immediately yelling at or punishing your child for a bad report card. Instead, come up with a productive reaction which will have the best long term outcome. The A+ Club from School4Schools.com LLC is a comprehensive online tutoring service that takes a holistic approach to test preparation, remedial tutoring, and process oriented educational engagement. Continue reading
Bribery?Maybe, but flattery will work better. Seriously.
The highest and most effective form of teacher flattery is asking a teacher for help. The next highest is actually doing your work. You meet teacher expectations, you get an A. Easy enough.
Well, let’s start from there, anyway. So what do teachers really want? And how can the student figure that out? Continue reading
Everyone procrastinates, but there is a distinct lack of understanding… when the procrastinator is a struggling high school student. Maybe it is a generational stereotype, but there is very little sympathy towards students who are unable to manage their time properly. When kids struggle in school, they are often accused of procrastination. The fact is, procrastination is a prevalent symptom of human nature.
The A+ Club from School4Schools.comn LLC is an online tutoring and academic support and remedial tool for education that recognizes the damage of such categorizations. Our professional and experienced educators do more than help with individual assignments, they also teach young students how to advocate for themselves and use the system that labels them “procrastinators” to their advantage. Continue reading
Is online tutoring & digital learning really going to work?Fluff or substance? Revolution or fad? Where is online tutoring and digital learning going to take us?
When I was in K-12 school in the 1970s, mostly, education was being turned over. The students had no idea, as it was just happening to us. But what is education today was largely defined by the research, theories, experiments, and, mostly, fads of that period. Continue reading
Heh, students, here’s a little inside information you should know: teachers are people, too. Shocking, I know. But true.
When my daughter was in my school, I’d bring her along to the watering hole we teachers escaped to on Fridays. She’d sit at a nearby table and enjoy bar food and a soda. After a few weeks she started inviting friends from school to sit with her, which seemed fine — until I learned that what she was doing was bringing her friends to listen to us do what teachers do on a Friday: complain about our students. “Oh my God,” my daughter told me, “I didn’t realize that teachers have a life!”
Yep, and like you, they complain a lot. Make that all the time.
Your teachers are actually more than a toaster that spits out lectures, homework, and grades. If they were machines, we’d could sure use better engineers. Actually, thank God they’re not all the same model.
Instead, we’ve got a different personality, a different mood, and a different perspective in every classroom. Some we like, some we don’t, some are good, some not so much. All of them, however, set our grades, so we’d better be careful about who we’re blaming for what. We hear it all the time, “That teacher is soooo boring!” You know the routine, and you also know you can’t change classes just because you don’t like the teacher.
You can blame the teacher all day long, but it’s still up to you to do the work, figure out what the teacher wants, and do well on the tests. The best students can do all that and still hate the teacher. Annoying, yes, but a lot more productive than to do poorly because you don’t like the teacher.
But we can do a few simple, little things, meanwhile.
If the purpose of the teacher is to give you a grade, and your not getting the grade you want, then, truly, it’s up to you and not the teacher. So what can you do?
A first step is to get the teacher on your side. You do it with simple, easy salesmanship. Your teacher is your education provider, and your job is to get the highest grade possible out of each teacher. If what you’re doing is not working out, then let’s figure out a couple easy strategies to get that teacher on your side:
These are simple human interactions. The best salesperson doesn’t care who or what the client is, and just focuses on the sale. Your sale is your grade. Focus on it. Worry about it, not your teacher. Your best sales tool is communication. You will get out of your relationship with your teacher exactly what you put into it. The more you become a partner to the classroom, the more likely your teacher will perceive you as a partner to him or herself personally. Then you got ’em.
As with any relationship, honesty, kindness, and care will work with these fellow human beings we call teachers. Ultimately, teachers have a job to do, and it will guide their decisions and grades more than anything else. But if you can perceive them as individuals who are trying to do their best, but who have flaws and ticks and their own ways of being and doing things, maybe you will open up a new opportunity for yourself.
Think of how you are with those teachers you like and respect, and how beneficial that relationship can be for you. Then, maybe you can do that with the rest of them, and get similar, positive results.
– Michael
The A+ Club from School4Schools.com LLC, based in Arlington, VA, is dedicated to helping students across the U.S.A. meet their goals and find the academic success the want and deserve. Contact us here or call now to (703) 271-5334 to see how we can help.
Despite developments in cognitive psychology and education reform,most students are still educated in a system that has remained largely unchanged over the last decade. That’s not to say the system doesn’t work; many kids find success and joy in traditional learning, but countless other intelligent students find it difficult to succeed. Most kids don’t hate learning, but many dislike school. They can’t fathom why they feel intelligent and capable yet continually fail to come up with the grades to reflect that.
Young students struggling with traditional schooling should be taught to set goals and engage with the system in a way that works for them. That’s where School4Schools.com LLC & The A+ Club comes in. The online tutoring service differs from traditional education and tutoring. This service doesn’t compartmentalize learning and focus exclusively on problem areas, but rather the experienced educators teach self-advocacy, processes, awareness, and accountability for those with whom executive function does not come naturally.
The A+ Club is run by experienced educators, college students, and teachers. They help young learners realign their perception of teachers and the system so that they can use the inalterable process to their benefit. While not everyone in The A+ Club will achieve academic success, they are guaranteed to increase academic awareness through informational interchange, goal setting, honesty, feedback, and a comprehensive reflective process. The online Homework Tracker™ is a list and calendar based system with direct oversight from The A+ Club, designed for students who lack natural executive function skills. Kids and teachers can upload assignments, track progress, set goals, and stay in touch with in-school teachers.
The perspective of The A+ Club’s tutors is different than that of a parent or in-school teacher; kids will have honest conversations during weekly 30 minute check-ins. The A+ Club will help kids to appreciate the fact that they are required to do things they don’t want to do or that they feel don’t have any relevance. Young students need to understand that they can’t change that, but they can alter their perspective and learn to see teachers as a tool to help them get the grades needed to achieve their goals. This is the self-advocacy characteristic of School4Schools.com LLC & The A+ Club.
Let The A+ Club teach your kids to say it, track it, and get it done. Call (703) 271-5334 to set up convenient, flexible, and unique online tutoring, which will help your student find their success.![MP900438620[1]](http://school4schools.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/MP9004386201.jpg)
You know the routine:“Do you have any homework?” : “No.”
“Really? Nothing?” : “Already did it.”
“But you have a math test tomorrow?” : “Oh, yeah. The other kids weren’t ready, so the teacher put it off for next week.”
When the discussions over homework and grades become two-way traffic on a one-way street, the one complaining and badgering, the other deferring and dodging, it’s no longer a functional, working relationship. And all we’ve got left is anger. Continue reading
