Category — Site Contributors

“Study skills are boring!”  That is what most students tell me when I first meet them. 

Boring!?  These are skills that can help them get better grades and spend less time on homework…how can they be boring?

Honestly, there is a good explanation for the bad rap that study skills have developed over the years because a lot of boring things are labeled as “study skills.”  Learning how to use guide words in a dictionary…a necessary skill, but boring!  SQ3R…a reading strategy with many merits, but leaves me asking, “Who wants to take the time to do all five steps?”  Boring!  Identifying the main idea and supporting details on endless worksheets? Another
important skill, but still boring.

There is a broader and more important role study skills should be playing in the lives of our middle and high school students, especially in our current Information Age, when we must prepare students for many careers and jobs that do not even exist yet. [Read more →]

I recently had an experience (in fact, I’m still floundering my way through it) that made me feel exactly the way I did when I was in fourth grade, learning long division.

Many students are now learning “new math” and are hopefully finding long division a bit more logical than I did as a 9 year-old.  Back then, however, we just learned a series of “random” steps that seemed meaningless to me.  I was horribly confused and totally overwhelmed.  I felt stupid and felt like the end of my world was directly in front of me because I was NEVER going to “get it!” Gallons of tears were shed over my math book that year!

Fast forward a few decades and here I am…tackling a new project that is, for me, almost as overwhelming.  Actually, it is just as overwhelming.  The only difference is that I am now putting myself through the torture instead of having the torture “forced” upon me. [Read more →]

I recently received an email from a parent who is desperately frustrated over the struggles her middle-school son is facing.  He has been diagnosed with ADHD and bi-polar disorder.  School and everyday life, she says, is a real struggle; he looses everything and forgets everything.  Like every other student I have met with these same characteristics, he also happens to be brilliant.

But, his mother says, “All I hear is, “I’m stupid! Over and over again…” 

Maybe he is.

There are several formal definitions of the word, “stupid,” according to Dictionary.com.    In my world, however, “stupid” is the word I use to describe someone who has talents, gifts, and skills, but is choosing not to use them.  Let me tell you, I know a lot of stupid people!

But, you don’t have to be one of them.  This struggling young man doesn’t have to be, either.  [Read more →]

Well we set off to find the perfect pumpkins this past weekend as it finally felt a little more like fall.  We headed off into Warren County to the place we stumbled upon last year for a return visit.  I can’t for the life of me even remember the name of the farm, but it was a great place with some animals, a big corn maze and a modest pumpkin patch.  They had cider and hayrides - but most of all a beautiful setting.  Unfortunately, as we arrived at the driveway we saw that the busy thriving farm we went to last year was closed up shut, not a soul to be seen.  At that point, with the dog in the car and two kids who were ready to get some pumpkins we had to go to plan B.  [Read more →]

As a classroom teacher, I used to hear excuses from a few students every morning about why they did not have their homework.  Most of them had to do with extra-curricular commitments: “I couldn’t do my homework last night because I had a baseball game.”  Or, “I had to go to my brother’s basketball game.”  Some of the excuses were due to family obligations: “We had to take my grandma out for her birthday last night.”  The best excuse I ever heard… “I couldn’t  do my homework because I had to go with my mom to get her nails done.” 

Many teachers would agree that the number one reason students fail classes is due to missing homework.  Creating excuses for homework lowers your grades and encourages a very bad habit for your future. [Read more →]