tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45008018937172479572024-03-13T19:53:16.118-07:00ClickademicsA place to share thoughts about education as I build Clickademics.comBradley Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04556577811649874411noreply@blogger.comBlogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4500801893717247957.post-60084197037758706892020-03-22T14:59:00.000-07:002020-03-22T14:58:59.897-07:00Tips for Remote Teaching<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our school just finished our first week of Distance Learning, but I feel like it was more like a month because so much has happened. The week began with a non-stop flurry of communication from students, parents, teachers, and administrators, and I felt like I was just treading water. By Friday, I felt like I had almost found a rhythm. Below are some of the strategies that I will be using next week, and I hope some are helpful to you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Simplify Communication</span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When we first launched our online teaching, everybody had questions and rightfully so. All aspects of school seemed brand new, and no one wanted to fall behind. As the EdTech Facilitator, I wanted to be responsive to the other teachers because I knew that they needed answers to their questions before they could move forward. In my zeal to be responsive, I found myself scattered and frazzled, often answering multiple questions at once, jumping among email, text, phone calls, video conferences, Google Classroom comments, and Twitter. It was too much. Next week I will</span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Encourage students to email their questions. It is convenient for them to leave comments in Google Classroom as they think of them, but it takes multiple clicks for me to open a comment, and there is usually only one comment in each place. I will be encouraging my students to ask questions by email, and I will let them know that I will only answer comments in Google Classroom if I happen to on that page. For instance, when I grade an assignment, I will answer any comments that the student left on that assignment.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Focus on one mode of communication per hour. Hopping around among devices drove me crazy. I can still be responsive if I answer within two or three hours. Next week I will prepare my activities for the day early in the morning. I will then answer emails for an hour with my phone put away. Once I am done, I will then check text messages. I will schedule all of my video conferences and phone calls in one block of time near the end of the work day. That way, I can gain some momentum and feel like I am making progress without being distracted by new incoming requests.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Create canned responses. Once three students asked similar questions, I would copy my answer and paste it in a text document on my desktop. That way, if any more students asked, I could copy and paste my response. If multiple teachers asked questions about an app or Google Classroom function, I made a quick screencast video that I could share with other teachers with the same question. Now the recipients feel like I gave a very detailed response, but it only took a couple of seconds.</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Make a Schedule</span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We all know that teaching can be all consuming; after all, we care about our students and we make often make our own work, which can be a time-hogging combination. Online teaching is even worse because we don't leave campus. Next week I will be sticking to a schedule that is similar to one I had when I was teaching on campus.</span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wake up at the same time every morning, get dressed for work, eat, Bible Study, clean the breakfast dishes, all of the tasks I would do if I were leaving for school. I want to have a set lunch time as well so that I am not snacking at my desk all day. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I do all of my work in one part of my house and all of my relaxing in a different part. For me, my dining room table is where I work, but I try not to bring work to the kitchen or in front of the television where I relax after work.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Try to leave your work space at the end of the work day. Similarly, save household chores for after work because it is too easy to get caught up doing laundry instead of working. Did anyone else clean their dorm room during finals week?</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Over-Communicate with Parents</span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After I earned my master's degree online, I noted how it was perfect for me but would be very troublesome for most pre-college students. Online learning favors the go-getters, the motivated students who look for the next day's work and ask questions. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last week, there was an unusual sense of peace that I had not felt in the classroom. After some thought, I realized that I had only interacted with the students with whom it is easy to interact. On our live, online class, only 2/3 of the students logged on, and only the engaged students contributed to the discussion. I received a lot of emails from students, but they were from the same twenty or thirty students who really care. In the classroom, I would have walked around the room and seen students off task, and I would have spent a great deal of my week talking with them and motivating them. In an online environment, the unmotivated students are invisible, and the positive reinforcement of the go-getters makes it very attractive to leave the unmotivated students invisible.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I imagine that my unmotivated students are enjoying the fact that a strict teacher is not looking over their shoulder, at least temporarily. I believe that these students open Google Classroom in the morning, but if they don't read the whole daily announcement (they would need to click on the "read more" message to see all of the day's work) and don't watch my whole daily announcement video, they could honestly tell their parents that they feel like they are done with their schoolwork without doing much. We need to communicate often with their parents and make it very clear where the students need to look for the work for each day. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Keep it Simple, but Try Something New Each Week</span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On one hand, we need to limit the number of online places where students need to go each day. At our school, every teacher needs to post the daily agenda and homework in the RenWeb/FACTS Lesson Plan, mostly for parents, and in a daily announcement on the Google Classroom Stream, mostly for students. If some teachers email the agenda, others post it in the Remind app, and others write it in Slack, students will be lost. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Similarly, teachers are overwhelmed by moving their classes online. They have to learn new platforms and rework their curriculum for this new style of teaching, usually just one day before they share it with students. I read on Twitter how many veteran teachers feel like they are first-year teachers all over again. Don't feel pressure to do too much each day. Everything I read states that we should decrease the amount of work and give grace on due dates since this is such a scary time for students, families, and teachers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the other hand, what a great opportunity to try new techniques. When teaching in the classroom, we often do not have time to try new apps or online tools. This is the perfect time to try flipping some lessons with EdPuzzle, have students comment on each other's work in FlipGrid, or share inter-active lessons on Nearpod, PearDeck, or a choose-your-own-adventure Google Form. The lesson might not work right, but at least you don't have a classroom full of kids to supervise while you fix it - you can just tell them you'll try again tomorrow.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Other Things I will Try Next Week</span></h4>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Take phone calls and answer emails outside in the sun and fresh air</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yoga videos</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Stand every 20 minutes</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Have a video chat with one life-affirming friend or relative every day</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don't check the news until the evening</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Give my family "do not disturb" times. I will tell my children that I am happy to help them at the top of the hour, but please don't interrupt my work at all times of the day. This is only possible because I have teenagers who can work independently.</span></li>
</ul>
</div>
Bradley Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04556577811649874411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4500801893717247957.post-76460847726246479842017-11-10T17:32:00.003-08:002017-11-10T17:32:43.074-08:00Why I Love My Flipped ClassroomTen reasons why it was worth the work:<br />
1. Free up class time<br />
2. More equitable homework<br />
3. Multiply myself<br />
4. No more absences<br />
5. Appeals toNetflix generation<br />
6. Stronger relationships<br />
7. Project-based learning<br />
8. Helps students focus<br />
9. More time efficient<br />
10. Better answers to classroom questionsBradley Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04556577811649874411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4500801893717247957.post-47715352676904775332014-01-17T12:14:00.001-08:002017-09-18T19:04:22.904-07:00Henry Kissinger on Writing, Rewriting, and Rewriting AgainI just heard my new favorite story about writing, perseverance, and the importance of high standards.<br />
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The following was said by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Lord" target="_blank">Ambassador Winston Lord</a>, who was ambassador to China and assistant Secretary of State, about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Kissinger" target="_blank">Henry Kissinger</a> in an <a href="http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews/episode-15/lord1.html" target="_blank">interview at George Washington University</a>.<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
Well, basically it was, I went in with a draft, and it was actually of a presidential foreign policy report. This is slightly apocryphal and not directly on your subject here, but I would go in with a draft of the speech. [Dr. Kissinger] called me in the next day and said, "Is this the best you can do?" I said, "Henry, I thought so, but I'll try again." So I go back in a few days, another draft. He called me in the next day and he said, "Are you sure this is the best you can do?" I said, "Well, I really thought so. I'll try one more time." Anyway, this went on eight times, eight drafts; each time he said, "Is this the best you can do?" So I went in there with a ninth draft, and when he called me in the next day and asked me that same question, I really got exasperated and I said, "Henry, I've beaten my brains out - this is the ninth draft. I know it's the best I can do: I can't possibly improve one more word." He then looked at me and said, "In that case, now I'll read it."</blockquote>
Classrooms around the country contain young people who are good students but mediocre writers because they believe that finishing the last paragraph means they are finished with their essays. I can relate because I believed this too until my sophomore year of college. These students do not understand the old teachers' quote that "Good writing is good rewriting." Completing the last paragraph is just the start. Effective communicators go through their writing over and over: tightening up arguments, checking punctuation, strengthening vocabulary. After the first draft, there is always a more brief, more elegant, more convincing way to write each sentence.<br />
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All of this takes time, commitment, grit, and a tough teacher (or parent or boss). Most students are lazy with their writing at first; they need someone to hold them to a high standard who won't accept their half-hearted work. I certainly needed a professor in college who sent me back to perfect my papers.<br />
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This is closely related to my teaching philosophy, which is the same as my parenting philosophy: have high expectations but provide lots of support. That is how writers - and children - succeed. It is also the reason why<a href="http://www.clickademics.com/" target="_blank"> Clickademics Essay Engine</a>, our essay writing tutorial, does not just stop at the concluding paragraph. Students are shown how to go through three rounds of editing to make their writing even better.<br />
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Mercifully, we don't send students through nine rounds of editing like the demanding Henry Kissinger.Bradley Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04556577811649874411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4500801893717247957.post-38227026635382922992013-12-02T13:08:00.003-08:002013-12-02T13:08:28.798-08:00Essay Engine is Now Even EasierBack in May, we made our basic <a href="http://clickademics.com/essay_engine/index.html" target="_blank">Essay Engine program</a> free for two reasons. First, we built it to help students write essays, and offering it for free makes it accessible to far more students. Secondly, we wanted more users so we could see how actual students use it on real essays.<br />
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Well, we have been happy to see so many writers using Essay Engine, but we noticed something: too <br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-16KYE_119eM/UpztDooHc1I/AAAAAAAAATQ/LJUYugqQXu8/s1600/New+Progress+Bar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="254" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-16KYE_119eM/UpztDooHc1I/AAAAAAAAATQ/LJUYugqQXu8/s320/New+Progress+Bar.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
many of our users were not finishing their essays. We asked a few about this, and the most common thing we heard was that the program was too long. Writers began their essays using our program, but they did not know how much further they had to go. And let's face it, when students start an essay, the only thing they really care about is finishing.<br />
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So we listened to our users, and made some improvements. First, we shortened our essay writing program. Because it was already efficient, there was not much we could remove. We tightened up some the written directions, edited a few of our instructional videos, and took out some early steps that explain <i>why</i> essay writing is important. After all, students don't care why they are writing, just what they need to write.<br />
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We also added a progress bar. It shows the writer how far she has come and how far she has to go. More importantly, the writer can click on the bar to see a pop-up overview of an expository essay. She can see which pieces she has completed and which she still has to do. This is also a nice reminder of the steps the student takes each time she writes an expository essay. Our goal has always been that students practice writing with Essay Engine so that they learn how to write on their own. Every student needs to write essays in class without help, either on an essay exam or a standardized test.<br />
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Please check our our new, more streamlined Essay Engine at <a href="http://clickademics.com/">Clickademics.com</a>. And don't forget to follow us on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Clickademics" target="_blank">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/Clickademics" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.Bradley Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04556577811649874411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4500801893717247957.post-2804204588359791432013-07-29T13:26:00.000-07:002013-07-29T13:26:04.830-07:00How to Say Yes Without Being a PushoverIt happens in every family. The child asks for something big - bigger than a t-shirt but smaller than a car - and the parent wants to say yes but also wants the child to earn it, to make a sacrifice for it. After all, the parent is afraid of the slippery slope: saying yes today will make the kid expect a yes next time too.<div>
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Here is a perfect solution that I learned from my in-laws. When your son or daughter asks for something big, ask them write a five paragraph essay before you say yes.</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CW-e-1fNvsw/UfbOguQ8oAI/AAAAAAAAAM4/gcMtTmXTe1A/s1600/essays.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CW-e-1fNvsw/UfbOguQ8oAI/AAAAAAAAAM4/gcMtTmXTe1A/s320/essays.jpg" width="320" /></a>Let's say your daughter wants to go to a concert. You would rather that she not go, but she seems desperate to join her friends and see the show. You want to make her happy, and you don't want to have an argument about it, but you also don't want her to expect immediate gratification every time she asks for something. So say yes, as long as she writes a persuasive essay with three strong reasons supported with facts. This will accomplish a few things:</div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>Your daughter has to earn this special privilege</li>
<li>She must think about why she wants to go, teaching her to consider her decisions carefully</li>
<li>You get a glimpse of how she feels about the decision</li>
<li>She becomes a better writer through practice</li>
<li>You get to say yes and be the good guy</li>
</ol>
<div>
If your daughter does not really want to go, she won't go to the trouble of writing the essay, and she will drop the subject without you having to crush her dream. If she really does want to attend the concert, she will write five compelling paragraphs to convince you to agree.</div>
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The best expository essays are persuasive essays, so if you ask your child to write first, you are asking him to support his argument with facts and logical reasons. This rarely happens with a verbal discussion which quickly descends into an emotional debate. Your child can convince you to agree in a cool, thoughtful way. In effect, you are making your child practice the art of convincing others to agree with him, a skill very useful in adult life. </div>
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This works for children of all ages. When my kids were in kindergarten, we had them list three reasons, just a couple words, why we should take them to the movies or get a cat. More recently, we took away video games because they were neglecting their chores. When they asked if they could have video games back, we had them write five paragraph essays listing reasons why they should. They even considered why we might say no and included a counter argument. The vocabulary and grammar were elementary school level, but the form was just like what I taught in my classroom. I spent time walking my kids through the essay writing process, but you of course can save time by having your kids use <a href="http://www.clickademics.com/" target="_blank">Clickademics Essay Engine</a> which walks the student through all of the steps of creating an organized essay.</div>
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If your child gives you an essay that is poorly written or based on weak arguments, send them back to the computer to improve it before you agree. You might even consider writing an essay of your own stating your concerns - the concert will be too loud, you will be out too late, there will be no supervision - and make your daughter find solutions to each of your worries.</div>
Bradley Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04556577811649874411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4500801893717247957.post-69752040319351448582013-03-07T11:38:00.003-08:002021-10-22T12:25:27.599-07:00In Defense of College<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">There is a lot written about the higher education
bubble and how something needs to be done before it bursts. What makes college
a bubble is the fear that the money that a student pays into tuition won't be
recouped in higher wages after graduation. If the student can't find a job for
which she is trained, then the tuition was a bad investment. Why pay $100,000
for college if the graduate will not make $100,000 more than another worker
with a high school degree? Add the finance charges of student loans, and the
problem is that much worse.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But what if the this whole argument is based on the
wrong premise? More on that in a moment.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The fact is, college is a very inefficient place to
get trained for a job. Yes, a degree from a top school is mandatory for certain
careers: medicine, academia, law, finance. If a student knows that he or she
wants to go into one of these fields, then that student should go to the best
school possible and focus on that career path. But for everyone else, their
college education has little to do with their actual job. How many people do
you know who have a job directly related to their major? Is four years of study
worth more than four years of experience?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">When people view college as their ticket to higher
salaries, they are bound to to be disappointed while the economy and job market
is still slow. There just aren't enough jobs for all of the people coming out
of school, so there will be too many new graduates piecing together part time
jobs or working jobs that don't require a college degree. These young
people, and their parents, are now wondering if college was even worth it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">If a student only wants to make a higher salary,
college is a lousy bargain. Here's a suggestion, those students should learn to
code. Take some classes in C++ and Ruby at the local community college, work
through tutorials online, build experience on some freelance jobs building
iPhone apps, and the chances of pulling down a six figure salary are
significantly better than if that same person earned a degree in French
literature from a private college. Or go to a trade school, be an apprentice,
and join a union. A trained welder makes a lot more than an anthropology major
who is still looking for work. Another idea <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/24/us-column-cohen-20under-idUSTRE77N4PC20110824" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0000e9;">I have read about</span></a> - take the money your family has
set aside for college and start a business. A entrepreneur can do a lot with
$50,000 and an idea.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">However, when students view their college education
as more than a résumé builder, then the tuition makes a lot more sense. The
tuition investment may not immediately help financially, but it will
pay off intellectually, socially, and emotionally. College is about exploring
ideas and discovering yourself. It is one of the few times in life when you can
take a class about art, psychology, philosophy, or calculus. It is a chance to
debate ideas late into the night, to join a robotics club, to meet people from
different places, to learn how to think critically. That is why it is great to
study French literature or pursue an anthropology major. Those students may not
have a career that involves French literature or anthropology, but they will
certainly have a career where they must think, write, and persuade others. And
don't discount the value of networking with other alumni later in life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Which brings me to a point that is not obvious to
recent graduates, most of them will have several careers in their lifetime. In
the 20th century, it was common for a young person to get a job in a GM plant
or a school district and stay there for their whole career. Today's workers
might have an average of seven careers <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704206804575468162805877990.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0000e9;">according to some sources</span></a>. It would prove short-sighted
for a young person to skip college in favor of going into a service job when
she may soon feel inspired to move to a professional career that requires a
college degree. Choosing to skip a university education can limit a person's
choices for the rest of their working life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Though I have many successful friends who never went to college, I know that some of them regret it. I think of my
one friend that feels embarrassed admitting that he never went to college, and
I compare him to my other friend who is proud to share that she is the first
person in her family to earn a degree. This idea is more important to everyone,
but it should be part of the decision.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">If at all possible, I believe students should
always choose college, not because it will get them a better job, but because
it will make them a more well-rounded person. It will open doors and give them
confidence for the rest of their life. I don't, however, know if it is worth
skipping a reasonably-priced state school in favor of a high-priced private
college. That is a topic for a different article.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And when it comes time to write your
application essays, don't forget to use <a href="http://www.clickademics.com/"><span style="color: #0000e9;">Clickademics Essay Engine</span></a>; it will
help you organize your thoughts and write a catchy introduction.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Bradley Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04556577811649874411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4500801893717247957.post-21980831086716605722013-01-30T13:39:00.001-08:002013-01-30T13:39:41.951-08:00Reading Textbooks: The Right Way, The Fast Way, The Wrong Way<br />
For many classes, everything you need to know for the class is in the textbook. The problem is that you need to read the textbook.<br />
<br />
If you want to do well in the class, and you are going to spend the time reading, you might as well do it right. Here are some ways to read textbooks:<br />
<br />
<b>The Right Way</b>: When you really need to learn the material, here is the best way that I have found to read and retain information from a textbook. It is my practical, faster version of the SQ3R method. Follow these steps:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Skim everything that is not a paragraph. The great thing about textbooks is that they put all of the important items where they are easy to read - boldfaced titles, italics, diagrams, picture captions, end of the chapter summaries. Read these quickly.</li>
<li>Ask yourself what is important. You are more likely to find the answer if you know what the question is, so ask yourself what the textbook author wants you to know based on the material you skimmed in step one.</li>
<li>Read the paragraphs and take notes - quickly. Now is the time to read the chapter in order, but keep a fast pace so that you don't get bogged down. Every two or three paragraphs, write down a line of notes. Review last month's newsletter for tips on note taking.</li>
<li>Use two column notes. In the left margin next to each line of note, write a title - two or three words that describe the content of the notes.</li>
<li>Review. Skim over the chapter headings, illustration captions, and end of chapter material just like you did at the beginning. Did you learn about all of the important things that the textbook highlighted?</li>
<li>Study. Fold your page of notes over so that the titles in the margin are showing. Test youself. Do you know the information that goes with each title?</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TG65PKiLiZw/UQmShwRT1bI/AAAAAAAAAHY/X4ekvYnUlrU/s1600/textbooks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TG65PKiLiZw/UQmShwRT1bI/AAAAAAAAAHY/X4ekvYnUlrU/s320/textbooks.jpg" width="249" /></a></div>
The best part about this method is that your brain is exposed to the content several times. Each time you skim, read, write down notes, look at your notes, or review, the information is cemented in your memory.<br />
<br />
<b>The Fast Way</b>: But what if you are too busy to read the correct way? Do the best with the time you have. You know how you skimmed the boldfaced titles, chapter headings, italicized phrases, illustration captions, and end of the chapter stuff in the instruction above? Since that has most of the important information, this is where you should go when you are pressed for time. Ten minutes of skimming will give you a lot more than reading the first two pages of the chapter.<br />
<br />
<b>The Wrong Way</b>: Do not read a textbook the way that you would read a novel. If you just sit down and start reading in order, it is not likely that you will remember as much. Furthermore, if you run out of time, you will stop reading where you are and get nothing out of the end of the chapter.<br />
<br />
Strangely, reading a textbook should be a lot like surfing the web - lots of skimming and looking at pictures, with close reading only where you need it. This is especially true if you are reading an electronic textbook on an iPad or other device.<br />
<br />
Speaking of devices, don't forget that our <a href="http://www.clickademics.com/">Essay Engine</a> shows you how to write great essays and works wonderfully on all internet-connected devices.Bradley Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04556577811649874411noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4500801893717247957.post-51815650273049578312013-01-17T10:23:00.001-08:002013-01-28T21:27:43.618-08:00Orange Tic Tacs: The Key to Better Exam Grades<br />
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">An old student of mine that is now in college posted on Facebook that she had a big exam to study for. I gave her my favorite study advice. Eat Orange Tic Tacs.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LhaOuTXAT5E/UPhA1cDE9JI/AAAAAAAAAG4/KjZttAcUg-E/s1600/orange_tic_tac.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LhaOuTXAT5E/UPhA1cDE9JI/AAAAAAAAAG4/KjZttAcUg-E/s1600/orange_tic_tac.jpg" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The trick is to eat the Tic Tacs while you study your notes and text book. It does not necessarily have to be <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0043GVDHQ/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=clickademics-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0043GVDHQ">Orange Tic Tacs</a>; it just has to be a candy or breath mint that you rarely eat. It also must have a strong scent. Then, don't eat that candy any other time. Finally, eat the candy while you take your exam. You will be shocked how well you remember the content and how well you do on the test. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Don't believe me? Think about this...What is your favorite smell? Take a moment and think about it. Now answer this - why is it your favorite smell? I have asked my students this question a few times, and none of them say that their favorite smell is the best because it is sweet or makes their nose feel good. They all tell stories of a happy time that is associated with the smell. The smell of the ocean that reminds the of a trip to the beach with their friends. The smell of their grandmother's chocolate cake that she makes on everyone's birthday. The smell of chalk that the student uses at gymnastic meets. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Smells are linked more directly with memory than any other sense. How many times have you caught a faint whiff of a scent that reminds you of a person or place that you have not thought of for years? It's almost like your nose remembers better than you do.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Why not harness that olfactory-mnemonic power to help you on a test? The trick is give your nose a smell during the test that will remind you of the good ol' days when you had your notes and textbook in front of you. It will increase your recall and make your test easier. I haven't heard how my old student did on her ram, but I bet she's happy with the results. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Of course, Tic Tacs won't help you if you have an essay instead of an exam. That's what our <a href="http://www.clickademics.com/">Essay Engine</a> is for, it will make essay writing a breeze. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Stay tuned for my next post on the <a href="http://teachademics.blogspot.com/">Teachademics</a> blog where I share with all of the teachers <a href="http://teachademics.blogspot.com/2013/01/why-orange-tic-tacs-really-improve.html">why the Tic Tac trick really works</a>. </span></div>
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Bradley Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04556577811649874411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4500801893717247957.post-40635424162282176372013-01-02T11:37:00.002-08:002013-01-02T11:38:15.473-08:00Make a New Year’s Resolution You Can Keep<br />
At some point in the school year, every student promises his/herself (or parents) that he/she will do better in school.<br />
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If getting better grades is one of your New Year’s resolutions, here are some tips on how to make that happen.<br />
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<b>Organize Your Notebook(s):</b> A leading cause of lower grades is lost papers. Fortunately, this is one of the easiest ones to fix. This January, clean out you notebook. Put old, graded, papers in a file or box. Don’t throw anything away until the end of the school year, but you don’t need to care it around every day. Put all notes in one section of your notebook. Put all papers that your teacher has given to you in a different section – if your teacher has taken the time to xerox something, it probably is worth keeping. Put all of your work in progress in a third section. I always recommend a different notebook for each core subject.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QqA54sZoZHU/UOSMWsEpTzI/AAAAAAAAAGc/QwfvzuxbX7E/s1600/books.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QqA54sZoZHU/UOSMWsEpTzI/AAAAAAAAAGc/QwfvzuxbX7E/s200/books.jpg" width="171" /></a></div>
<b>Read!</b> Keep your brain sharp. Keep it from turning to mush with too much time on social media or playing video games. Read a book for fun or even a few magazines – anything that is not on a screen. Reading book for half of an hour a day in a quite place will lengthen your attention span, improve your vocabulary, and increase your retention when you have to read boring school books when school resumes.<br />
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<b>Use a Homework Calendar:</b> An electronic organizer, a pocket spiral notepad, a My Little Pony wall calendar, it does not matter. When you start the new year, have a place where you write down every assignment, paper, and test. I even suggest that you cross out each item as you complete it.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4yEdopbGeng/UOSLe-1q-SI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/Li6GQA2KDO0/s1600/alpha.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="278" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4yEdopbGeng/UOSLe-1q-SI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/Li6GQA2KDO0/s320/alpha.png" title="Clickademics Essay Engine" width="320" /></a></div>
<b>Communicate with your Teacher: </b>Answer questions in class (even if you are wrong). Ask your teacher questions after class when you need a hand (try email if there is no time). Share an article you have seen that is related to a class topic. Teachers love when students are engaged, and they love to help. If a project or lesson is unclear, ask a question right away - it is easier and more effective than complaining about a low grade later.<br />
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<b>Try <a href="http://www.clickademics.com/">Clickademics Essay Engine</a>:</b> We built Essay Engine to help you write better, more organized essays in less time. In most classes, essays are a large grade, and nailing an essay will really boost your average.<br />
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<br />Bradley Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04556577811649874411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4500801893717247957.post-17710590828525041712012-12-11T12:36:00.001-08:002013-01-02T10:21:44.550-08:00What Parents Should Know About Teachers<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Ideally, parents and teachers are allies, teaming up to help
students succeed. However, things go wrong when there are hidden, often
unrealistic, expectations. As a parent and a teacher, I have glimpsed both
sides, and everyone’s expectations would be much more realistic if they knew a
little more about the other. This week, I am writing parallel posts, what
parents should know about teachers and <a href="http://teachademics.blogspot.com/2012/12/what-teachers-should-know-about-parents.html">what teachers should know about parents</a>.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>It’s because they are crazy busy</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6XC_Tn26Oes/UMeb3hO5giI/AAAAAAAAAFk/feCMjWJwwrg/s1600/busyteacher.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="174" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6XC_Tn26Oes/UMeb3hO5giI/AAAAAAAAAFk/feCMjWJwwrg/s320/busyteacher.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
The most important thing that parents should know about
teachers is that they are busy, like super freaky busy. The actual teaching is
a very small part of a teacher’s day, eclipsed by classroom discipline, record
keeping, lesson preparation, and grading. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Be your child’s advocate</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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If your child can’t see the board, doesn’t understand the
assignment, or still has last week’s homework in her backpack, it’s not because
the teacher doesn’t care, it is because he is crazy busy. The teacher wishes he
could give each student individual attention, but when he can’t, send an email.
Better yet, encourage your student to talk to the teacher before class.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Make manageable requests</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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If your child needs special attention, try to make it
something the teacher can do quickly, because the teacher is crazy busy.
Appropriate request: move the child to the front of the class, send home an
extra copy of the textbook, reply to an email asking about a low test grade.
Inappropriate request: give one-on-one tutoring after school every Monday, call
the parent with a behavior report every day, type up the notes from the board
since the child didn’t write them down.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>They don’t stop working at 3:00</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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Save the “Must be nice to only work half the day” jokes. I
would regularly plan lessons and grade until 10:00 most nights and grade
research papers for most of Spring Break. Like most teachers, I either had a
summer job, taught summer school, or took care of my own kids during summer, so
it’s not like I was lounging around for three months a year.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Don’t go to Hawaii during a school week</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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Because the teacher would have to write up a special set of
instructions and assignments just for your child and process all of the makeup
work late just for your child. And the teacher is crazy busy. And because
you’re spoiling your kid.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Doing your child’s homework is worse than you think</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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Teachers really do use homework to gauge the student’s
progress, and <a href="http://blog.clickademics.com/2012/11/helping-with-homework-have-highlighter.html">when the parent does the homework</a>, it really cheats the student.
The teacher believes that the student is ready to move on to more complex
concepts. When a student does not know how to do something, he needs
explanation either from the teacher or the parent, which is one of the reasons
I created my <a href="http://www.clickademics.com/">Essay Engine</a> program so that kids could get appropriate help
writing essays. But when the parent just writes the essay herself, that robs
the student of a learning experience and wastes the teacher’s time. I once had
a student turn in an essay that was full of words she did not know. The next
time I saw her mom, I told how great it was that her daughter was writing at a
9<sup>th</sup> grade level! It was all she could do not to mention her master’s
degree in French lit.<br />
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<b>Save your peppermint bark</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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Making a batch of your favorite homemade desert seems like a great holiday gift, but when 17 other families have the same idea, it's enough sugar to send a teacher into diabetic shock. The best gifts are either a
card with a heart-felt message inside or a Starbucks’ gift card. Don’t you
people know that caffeine greases the wheels of academia? Unless you are a
Tiger Mom; they give super good gifts because they don’t mess around.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Realize that teachers are happy to work hard for the kids</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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Just about every teacher I know went into education because
they have a heart for kids. Though they make mistakes, they honestly are doing
their best for the greatest number of students that they can. The veterans have
seen enough “D” students go on to run companies and seen enough class clowns go
on to be well-known public figures, so they know that every child has potential
to succeed. The teacher never “has it out” for your kid, unless you take your
kid to Hawaii during a school week. That will go in the secret file in the
principal’s office that gets attached to the kid’s college application.<o:p></o:p></div>
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</div>
<!--EndFragment-->Bradley Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04556577811649874411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4500801893717247957.post-48009748069014808092012-11-27T18:02:00.003-08:002012-11-27T18:02:53.424-08:00Helping with Homework? Have a Highlighter Handy<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It always happens when you are most busy trying to get dinner ready, getting some work done, or hustling the kids toward bed time. “I need help on my homework!” The worst part is that helping your kids with homework the right way takes a lot longer than you would like.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When I was teaching 8th grade, I had a lot of parents ask a lot of questions, but they almost never asked the most important question: how should parents help with homework? If they did ask, my short answer would be: help with a highlighter.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The worst thing a parent can do is just give the student the correct answer. First, it gives the student an easy way out without having to learn the lesson in the homework. Secondly, it leads the teacher to believe that the student has mastered the material when he or she has not. Lastly, it subtly gives the message that the parent does not believe the student can get the answer. But, it is a lot easier and faster for the parent.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The best thing a parent can do is show the student how to get the right answer. If the student doesn’t understand the concept, a few minutes of explanation can make all the difference. It may only take ten minutes, but rarely does a classroom teacher have ten minutes to devote to each student.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ix-PkEe0cGU/ULVwXBEaMEI/AAAAAAAAAE0/fVNQeGy38Bc/s1600/highlighters.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ix-PkEe0cGU/ULVwXBEaMEI/AAAAAAAAAE0/fVNQeGy38Bc/s320/highlighters.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Parents should also teach their children how to catch their own mistakes. When my students wrote essays, I asked their parents to “Help with a highlighter” because highlighters are good at marking a spot on the page but bad for writing corrections. Parents should mark where a mistake is, but let the student figure out what was incorrect and how to fix it. When my son has math homework, I always look it over afterward. If I find errors, I tell him how many mistakes there are and let him find them. I might add that it is on the bottom half of the page if the homework is long. By training students to catch and repair their own mistakes, parents prepare them for the times when they are not around. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This is especially helpful since kids need feedback as fast as possible. If a student knows there are spelling mistakes on tonight’s homework, he or she is motivated to make the corrections. If that same student gets a paper back a week later with spelling errors marked, it means nothing. This was a motivating factor when we were developing our <a href="http://www.clickademics.com/">Clickademics Essay Engine</a>. If we could teach a student to write an introductory paragraph as they were writing their essay, it would be meaningful to the student and, hopefully, stick in their long term memory. In most classrooms, students learn how to write an introductory paragraph a week before writing the essay or a week later when the teacher reviews the corrected essays in class. By then it is ancient history.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So helping your student with homework is pretty much like everything else about parenting, there is an easy way that pays off now, and there is a harder way that pays off later. Usually pays off longer, too.</span></div>
Bradley Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04556577811649874411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4500801893717247957.post-57700734332486753212012-11-14T11:39:00.000-08:002012-11-14T11:39:03.426-08:00Easiest Way to Do Better in School<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">After a decade and a half in the classroom, my best advice for students: ask questions.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Here is a little secret, teachers love engaged students. Many of us went into teaching to work with curious young people, to help them discover more about the world and themselves. Nothing spoils that quite like a group of distracted students, unless it is a group of zoned out zombie students. Just one student who is listening, thinking, and wanting to understand can make a teacher's whole day. With just a little effort, your child could be that student. A simple, "Why does it work like that?" Is all it takes.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Students should also ask questions to clear up confusion. Between the teacher's lesson, directions for assignments, and classroom management, there are a lot of instructions in an hour of class. No student can remember them all. A student should ask right away if he or she does not understand something, because if one student is confused, there are probably others in the room that have the same question. When I was teaching, I had students who would only ask questions after getting the wrong answer on an exam or scoring poorly on a project. By then, it was too late to help. If they had sent an email or stayed after class for 5 minutes, I could have cleared everything up. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Lastly, students should ask questions to show initiative. Teachers create assignments and project for the whole group, but not every student learns the same way. If a student has a clever idea, it never hurts to ask. If the student enjoys making movies, he could ask if he could make a documentary instead of writing an essay. Why not? The teacher may still want him to work on his writing skills, but it shows the teacher that the student is thinking ahead, and perhaps the teacher may create a film making project later in the year. I remember being in a college philosophy class that had one of my last final exams of the year. I asked the professor if I could skip the final and instead write a paper that showed that all of the major concepts that would be covered in the exam could be found in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The teacher loved the idea, I showed that I understood the concepts, and I got to fly home a day early.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Of course, the delivery of the question matters. The middle of class is fine if the student is confused by the lesson being taught at that moment, but most other questions are best before or after class or by email.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Here’s a couple questions for you. Have you checked out our <a href="http://www.clickademics.com/">Clickademics Essay Engine</a> yet? Have you <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fshar.es%2FGJKyn&t=Clickademics+Essay+Engine">told a friend</a> who needs help writing essays? Have you <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Clickademics">liked us on Facebook</a>?</span></div>
Bradley Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04556577811649874411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4500801893717247957.post-38575456413126204672012-11-01T14:01:00.002-07:002012-11-01T14:01:23.684-07:00Computers Should Be Like Art Supplies, Not Textbooks (or BYOD)<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Many schools are thinking about 1-to-1 programs where each student receives a tablet or laptop. The reasons for these programs are very compelling.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Teachers can assign exciting, high-tech projects, students can access all of the new content online, and parents and people in the community are impressed by the students carrying around fancy hardware.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In this sense, schools are treating devices like textbooks where each student receives one at the beginning of the year. I believe, however, that schools should think of devices like art supplies. No school would ever buy a full set of paints for every student in the school. Instead, they have many different types of art supplies available for students to use <i>depending on the project</i>. When students want to make a sculpture, the school provides clay. When the student is painting, there is paint available in class. If the student is asked to make a simple poster or a photography project, the student just uses colored pens or a camera that he or she already has at home. This is how devices should be in schools. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Schools should not be buying devices for all of their students for a few reasons:</span></div>
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<li><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Many students, especially at more affluent schools, already have a computing device at home. Giving the student a second one is redundant.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Schools will always buy the same device for all of the students, but they don’t all need the same one. Some students use prefer a tablet to a laptop, Windows to Mac, depending on their learning style and experience.</span></li>
<li><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Students may need different devices on different days. iPads are great for consuming media like educational videos and electronic textbooks. Laptops may be heavier, but they are necessary for content creation like writing a long paper or a using photographs. Editing a video is best done on a desktop computer.</span></li>
<li><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Most educational tasks - reading textbooks, writing notes, composing essays, watching videos, using educational apps - are web-based, so the device is just a window with internet access. Though many apps are device specific, written for iOS or Android, more and more will simply be web apps that are independent of the operating system. This is why we at <a href="http://www.clickademics.com/index.html">Clickademics</a> chose to make our <a href="http://www.clickademics.com/writing/index.html">Essay Engine</a> a web-app instead of a native iOS app.</span></li>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">If the school does not purchase devices for all of the students, it is difficult to expect every single student to be able to complete projects that require a computer or tablet. I would propose that the school help families for whom it would be a burden to purchase a device. Like a scholarship, the school to arrange discounts or provide free devices to the students that require it. The school should also have a number of tablets, laptops, and desktops available to students who have come to school without a device or require something different for the day’s lesson. One or two members of the IT staff should be available to troubleshoot and perform basic repairs. All of this would be significantly less expensive than buying an iPad for every student.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The most important thing is that the learning comes first, not the device. Teachers and administrators need to set learning goals first, then figure out the lessons and projects that will help the students master the learning. Only then should they think about devices necessary to reach those goals and complete those projects. Sometimes, paper and pencils are still the best devices for learning.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Lastly, remember that the life expectancy of computer devices is shrinking. Desktops used to be good for about 6 years, then laptops were good for about 4. Tablets and smart phones are usually used for two years. If a school invested in an iPad program, they would be left with out-dated hardware after a 3 or 4 years. Students would begin bringing their newer devices from home, and the school would soon become a campus where the students bring their own laptop or tablet from home, similar to what I have proposed here. Schools should save the initial expense and start a Bring Your Own Device program from the start.</span></div>
Bradley Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04556577811649874411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4500801893717247957.post-84089035098962675172012-10-25T11:55:00.000-07:002012-10-25T11:55:02.726-07:00Organization: Getting it Out of Your Brain and Into Your Notebook<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0px;">“I know I did that homework. I just can’t find it!” This was always the saddest part of my day when teaching - and yes, it did happen almost every day. A student spent all of the time to do the homework but left it at home, and I would have to deduct points. I always believed that the student had done the work, but school is about actions, not intensions. </span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Organization is one of the most important skills students can learn in school. We adults may not use chemistry, algebra, or parts of speech daily, but we all need to be organized. The earlier a student learns this, the happier he or she will be.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Being organized is not just about putting things in the right place. It is about getting things out of your head. I know people who are “pilers” - they have piles of paper on their desk, or in their school backpack, but they swear that they know where everything is. In fact, I could say that I am a reformed “piler.” But having to remember where things are takes a little bit of mind share, a little bit of short-term memory that can’t be used for other things. Without a system, you always have to be thinking about it. With a system, you don’t have to think about it until you need it. I first saw this idea of freeing up brain space in a great book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0142000280/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0142000280&linkCode=as2&tag=clickademics-20"><em>Getting Things Done</em> by David Allen</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=clickademics-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0142000280" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The other benefit, of course, is that it keeps students from losing late penalty points for forgotten homework and keeps adults from paying late penalties for forgotten bills. Again, it is one of the few skills we should learn in school that we will all use as adults.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Even though most of my life now is kept electronically on my computer or phone, I still believe that students should learn organization the old fashioned way, with paper. Schools may be using iPads and content management systems, but most classes still run on paper. Even our students who write their essays online using <a href="http://www.clickademics.com/">Clickademics Essay Engine</a> often print out their final draft and hand in their essay on paper. (We will soon have a way to email the essay directly to the teacher from our site. Save time and trees!) </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Here is my recommendation for students to get organized:</span></div>
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<li style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Keep an assignment book where you write down every assignment. Every teacher should be posting assignments online, but they are often on different pages which the students might forget to check. Taking five minutes to write down the assignment in a small notebook means that all of the week’s work is in one place. For each day, draw lines to create rows for each class. On the side, draw a column and check off when you have completed an assignment. I mean it. Checking it off means you don’t have to think about it anymore.</span></li>
<li style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Keep a 3 ring binder for each class. I know it mean more trips to the locker, but it keeps things simpler and your backpack lighter.</span></li>
<li style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Put 5 dividers in each binder. The labels may vary, but I recommend:</span></li>
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<li style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Current Work</b>: these are assignments and projects that you are working on now, including completed homework that needs to be turned in the next day.</span></li>
<li style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Articles</b>: any papers that your teacher wants you to read like newspaper articles or pages xeroxed from a book</span></li>
<li style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Notes</b>: any notes you take should go here</span></li>
<li style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Projects</b>: once you have completed a project or essay, move all of your instruction sheets and earlier drafts to this section</span></li>
<li style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>Graded Work</b>: anything returned to you with a grade should go here.</span></li>
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<li style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Keep all your papers. Do not throw anything away. This usually comes in handy at the end of the semester where you will need your notes to prepare for final exams. It is also helpful when the teacher is preparing class grades. If you see a mistake in your grade - no credit for something you turned in or a grade typed incorrectly - it is really easy to clear up when you still have that graded piece of work. It is difficult when you have to convince the teacher that you remember getting an “A” on the assignment. At the end of the semester, ask your teacher which papers you can take out of your notebook and put them in a draw until the end of the year when you can recycle the whole pile.</span></li>
<li style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Resist the urge to put papers in the pockets of the notebook. It defeats the purpose of the dividers.</span></li>
<li style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Organize your computer files the same way. If you are lucky enough to attend a forward-thinking school where work is submitted electronically, keep your documents just like you keep your papers. Create a folder for each class. Within each class folder, create a folder for Assignments, Notes, Projects and Essays, and Graded Work. If you upload work to Moodle/Blackboard/Haiku, be sure to keep a copy on your hard drive. Keep the files forever because hard drive space is cheap. Every document you create in your whole academic career takes up less space than a short video.</span></li>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">My wife and I learned how to keep a notebook in school, and we keep all of our business and household papers the same way. It is much easier to find important documents in a binder than in a file folder.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So free your mind and improve your grades by getting organized now. And don't make forgotten homework the saddest part of your day.</span></div>
Bradley Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04556577811649874411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4500801893717247957.post-84823728658305766862012-10-15T10:00:00.000-07:002012-12-06T22:00:38.427-08:00Clickademics Essay Engine™ Launching This Week<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Our goal for starting Clickademics was simple: we wanted to use technology to solve the problems that real teachers experience in real classrooms helping real students. Education technology is a waste if it doesn’t increase the students’ learning and decrease the teachers’ stress. </span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-j9fICEba6fw/UMGFVAlHcXI/AAAAAAAAAFU/tDLPyIhaaxE/s1600/d.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="151" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-j9fICEba6fw/UMGFVAlHcXI/AAAAAAAAAFU/tDLPyIhaaxE/s200/d.png" width="200" /></a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When I taught 8th grade English, teaching students to write essays was always my biggest challenge. Every student seemed to have a different question all at once, and it made wish I could clone myself 30 times so I could help each student individually. Could I create an online app that could do just that?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It was this classroom experience that lead us to build <a href="http://www.clickademics.com/writing/index.html">Clickademics Essay Engine™</a> which we are excited to launch this week. </span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HD_y3lzLy5o/UMGFSBM_BpI/AAAAAAAAAFM/CK0mfBUS5b8/s1600/c.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="188" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HD_y3lzLy5o/UMGFSBM_BpI/AAAAAAAAAFM/CK0mfBUS5b8/s200/c.png" width="200" /></a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We built Essay Engine™ for the students who have an essay due tomorrow but just don’t know where to start. Our online app breaks the writing process down into 20 manageable steps. Each step shows the student just what to do with video instruction and plenty of examples, all based on my experience teaching over 2,000 students to write expository essays. When the student has completed the last step, the program assembles all of the pieces the student has written into an organized essay. After we help the student edit, the student can export the essay as a Word document with a click of a button.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Originally, our intended audience for our Essay Engine™ was middle school students, but the more teachers and parents we talk to, the more we see that there are high school students and even some college students who could use more support when writing essays for school.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So give <a href="http://www.clickademics.com/writing/index.html">Essay Engine™</a> a try. We feel that it will provide real help to real students with real essays to write. </span></div>
Bradley Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04556577811649874411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4500801893717247957.post-34368377466032794062012-10-09T22:01:00.001-07:002012-10-09T22:38:21.297-07:00iPad: The Solution to and Cause of Students’ Problems<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This school year, schools around the country are purchasing iPads for students to use at home or in the classroom. And why not? Tablets are pretty and shiny and cost less than a budget laptop computer. Apple is pushing for textbooks to be sold electronically, and many schools use content management systems that allow students to receive and submit homework over the internet. iPads are great at delivering educational resources.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">You know what else iPads are great at? Instagram, Facebook, YouTube cat videos, and about a million highly addictive video games. The average fourteen-year-old doesn’t stand a chance.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I feel that giving tablets to every student is setting them up for failure. Students already have dwindling attention spans - most of their reading happens via text messages instead of books and most of their video viewing is thirty-second clips instead of feature films. We are asking students to use their tablet to read their textbooks, write their papers, and research for school with the temptation of distraction.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Sadly, there is no easy solution. iPads are the most popular tablet, but Apple’s closed system does not allow any app to run below the surface. Thus, it is impossible to lock students out of all but educational apps. In fact, the best solution would be an app that requires the student to complete all homework before unlocking the rest of the iPad’s functions, but that, again, would be prohibited by the App Store. (I recently read, however, that the new <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008GGCAVM/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B008GGCAVM&linkCode=as2&tag=clickademics-20">Amazon Kindle Fire</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=clickademics-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B008GGCAVM" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />has a function like this - genius.)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The only choice: don’t give tablets to students or teach them self-discipline. As anyone who has ever been on a diet knows, you can’t just take away the temptation. The real skill that students will learn in an iPad program is not mobile computing, it is the discipline to get your work done fast and early. Teachers and parents need to show students (over and over) that Plants vs. Zombies is much more satisfying when you don’t have two hours of homework hanging over your head. Students need to witness (daily) how surprisingly fast they can complete their homework when they focus completely for 30 minute blocks. They need to notice how much higher their grades are when they dedicate time for work and study without interruptions from social media. And given the number of adults I see playing with their phones in inappropriate places, it seems we could all learn a little self discipline with our devices</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I can’t complain too much, though. We designed Clickademics’ new <a href="http://www.clickademics.com/writing/index.html">Essay Engine</a> to help students write organized essay on a computer or - you guessed it - an iPad.</span></div>
Bradley Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04556577811649874411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4500801893717247957.post-79603161606633048152010-08-19T11:14:00.000-07:002010-08-19T11:14:25.123-07:00Pepsi Refresh GrantOur proposal for the Pepsi Refresh Grant is well underway. We want to create a series of video units covering organizing, writing, and editing essays, including research papers.<br />
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I think that this is a very worthwhile project based on the number of people that complain about their writing skills, both students and adults. I have helped hundreds of students write essays, and there are many steps that are universal to all of them. If we could get those on video, we could help a lot of students.<br />
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You can check out our proposal and a video on the Pepsi site: <a href="http://www.refresheverything.com/clickademics">http://www.refresheverything.com/clickademics</a><br />
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You can vote on the site or on the <a href="http://www.clickademics.com/">Clickademics site</a>. You can vote once per day, so please vote often.Bradley Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04556577811649874411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4500801893717247957.post-770649255981310022010-07-20T11:35:00.000-07:002010-07-20T11:35:06.103-07:00Why Pepsi could be the key to better Research PapersI recently found out about the <a href="http://www.refresheverything.com/clickademics/">Pepsi Refresh Grant</a>. It is a great idea; individuals and groups with ideas to improve the community can apply for grants ranging from $5,000 to $250,000. There are different categories of ideas including, of course, education. <br />
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I am working on an application for <a href="http://www.clickademics.com/">Clickademics</a>. I would love to use grant money to create a complete writing unit and make it free for everyone. I feel like a writing unit would be perfect for a couple of reasons. First of all, we can cover writing for secondary students in about 30 video lessons; far fewer than the videos it would take to cover all of math or science. Secondly, there are many math and science resources on the Internet, but there are not as many places for students to get writing help.<br />
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In the next week, I will hear if our application is approved. Then, the voting begins. Of course, I will be writing updates about our progress and asking everyone to vote. Because what student couldn't use some help with their writing?Bradley Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04556577811649874411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4500801893717247957.post-48832624785086907052010-04-24T11:10:00.000-07:002010-04-24T11:10:04.588-07:00How to Prepare for Final ExamsFinal Exams are the tough. They demand the most from students (mastery of a whole year's worth of material) when students are at their worst (just days away from summer vacation). Moreover, teachers often place too much importance on the final by making it worth a large portion of the student's grade. But most students procrastinate and only study a night or two. It's like the whole system sets you up for failure.<br />
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Here are some tips for doing your best on a final exam:<br />
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<ul><li>Start early. Many weeks before the exam, gather all of your materials. If your lecture notes are spread all over the place, gather them in one notebook. If you skipped some important reading earlier in the semester, skim over it now.</li>
<li>Investigate. Find out what is on the exam. Pay close attention whenever your teacher talks about the exam. Ask lots of questions, but avoid saying, "Is this going to be on the test?" Teachers are sick of that. Try asking, "I going to be studying this weekend, where should I start?" or "Should I spend more time reviewing my notes or the textbook?" Your teacher will be impressed that you are starting so early and will be happy to help.</li>
<li>Prepare. If you teacher gives you some study material, use it fully. Some teachers will give a list of terms you should know; write out a definition for each. Others might give a list of possible essay questions; make an outline for each question.</li>
<li>Study a little bit every day. The way to get information into your long term memory is to review over a long period of time. A half an hour a day for ten days is much better than five hours the night before the exam. It also is much less painful. Remember, sleeping after you study helps your recall (http://blog.clickademics.com/2010/03/cramming-for-exam-take-nap.html).</li>
<li>Remember my advice from an earlier post about making a legal cheat sheet. Think of all of the facts, names, dates, or equations that you need to remember for the test and write them on an index card. Carry that index card in your pocket for a few days, looking at it often. When you get to the exam, look at your index card one last time and throw it away. Now, when the teacher hand out the exam, turn it over and write down everything that was on your card. Everything that was on your index card is not on your exam, and you didn't break any rules to get there.</li>
</ul><div>Good luck, and relax. Feeling anxious in an exam is like kryptonite for your grade.</div>Bradley Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04556577811649874411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4500801893717247957.post-61533843276834401602010-03-16T13:17:00.001-07:002010-03-16T21:41:16.488-07:00This blog has moved<br /> This blog is now located at http://blog.clickademics.com/.<br /> You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click <a href='http://blog.clickademics.com/'>here</a>.<br /><br /> For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to<br /> http://blog.clickademics.com/feeds/posts/default.<br /> Bradley Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04556577811649874411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4500801893717247957.post-37849539595299762122010-03-16T12:53:00.000-07:002010-04-24T23:33:00.523-07:00Cramming for an Exam? Take a Nap!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;">Pulling an all-nighter. A cherished tradition of all college students and now many high schoolers. Especially during final exams when the amount of studying seems insurmountable, we tend to stay up well past midnight studying to get it all in. I can distinctly remember staying up for almost three days straight writing papers and studying for finals, living exclusively on Pop Tarts and Coca Cola.</span></span></span><br />
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But it turns out that what students should be doing is sleeping. Though many of us consider sleep a luxury, it is surprisingly important for memory retention. Sleep before studying and after studying gives your brain a chance to soak up the information fully.<br />
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I recently heard a piece on NPR (<a href="http://ww.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=124370114">Naps May Improve Performance Later in the Day</a>) explaining a sleep study that found that students remembered more when they took a nap than when they stayed away. They interviewed <a href="http://walkerlab.berkeley.edu/people.html">Dr. Matthew Walker</a> from UC Berkeley who said that the participants remember 10% less information when they did not nap.<br />
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He explained the difference saying that sleep gives the brain a chance to move information from the short term memory to the long term memory. If you have ever woken up with a solution to a problem that you did not have the night before, you have experienced this first hand.<br />
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So the next time you have too much to possibly study, sleep on it. You might remember more with a 90 minute nap than you would with 90 minutes of extra study.<br />
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Note: a couple weeks after posting this article, I read about another study that claims that napping long enough to dream made a noticeable difference in learning. http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/04/dreaming-during-a-nap-may-improve-memory-processing.ars<br />
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_1268765542004"></span><span id="goog_1268765542005"></span>Bradley Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04556577811649874411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4500801893717247957.post-61775239413101067332010-02-22T14:16:00.000-08:002010-02-22T14:24:30.726-08:00The 10 Things Your Teacher Hates About Your WritingYou need to understand something, teachers are an old-fashioned bunch. They love working with young people, but they want to make them into responsible old people. Most of them liked school and did well, and they think fondly of the good ol' days. <br />
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Students, on the other hand, like progress. They communicate in a different, and some might argue more efficient, way using new technologies, but students need to have a different, old-fashioned voice when writing for class.<br />
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Be sure to avoid the following:<br />
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<ol><li><b>Text Message Speak</b>. Using abbreviations, single letters (U, R, B), and symbols are great when texting quickly, but they drive your teacher crazy. When you are writing for class, you are not in a hurry, so write out all of the words. These abbreviations, though, are great for note-taking.</li>
<li><b>all lower case</b>. Since the ubiquity of email, it has become common to write in all lower case letters. Your teacher still wants you to capitalize proper nouns and the first letter of each sentence. Using ALL CAPS? Don't even get me started.</li>
<li><b>Run-On Sentences</b>. Students who do much of their communicating by telephone often speak in one long stream-of-consciousness-fire-hose of words, but this makes reading very difficult. Keep it to one thought per sentence. If you join two complete sentences, do it with a semicolon (;), a comma and a conjunction (, and), or a subordinating conjunction (because, since, after).</li>
<li><b>Incomplete Sentences</b>. Students who do much of their communicating by text message often write in short fragments. Ya know. Like this. Quick as possible. A sentence must be an independent clause - a group of words that contain a subject, a verb, and can stand on its own. Make sure that each of your sentences can be said aloud by itself and still make sense.</li>
<li><b>Homophones</b>. A homophone is a word that sounds the same as another word but is spelled differently. Mixing up homophones shows that someone receives more language through the ears (chatting, telephone, TV) than through the eyes (reading). After spell check catches the true spelling errors, it is up to you to catch the homophone errors. Be careful with their/there/they're, you're/your, it's/its, affect/effect, a lot/allot.</li>
<li><b>I vs. Me</b>. For the first person singular, <i>I</i> is a subject while <i>me</i> is an object. <i>I</i> do things. Things are done to <i>me</i> while I sit there and let them happen. The most egregious error is, "Me and my friends went to practice." If you split the two subjects into two sentences, it would be obvious that <i>me</i> should be changed to <i>I</i>. However, any pronoun that comes after a linking verb (is, am, are, was, were, be, being, been) must be the subject pronoun. "It is I." "The winner is she." "If I could only be he for just one day." It may sound strange, but that is because this rule is broken so often in common conversation. Most teachers will appreciate it done correctly, though.</li>
<li><b>Or Beginning Sentences With Conjunctions</b>. Just like glue, conjunctions join things, but you need to put them between two things that must be joined. Beginning a sentence with a conjunction is like putting glue on one side of a single piece of paper. </li>
<li><b>Sloppy Use of He, She, They</b>. In the bad old days, when one wanted to give an example using a hypothetical person, the writer used male pronouns. For example, "The student must bring <i>his</i> book to class." Most students today know that this is gender-biased language, but they use poor grammar when they use gender-neutral pronouns like, "The student must bring <i>their</i> book to class." The pronoun does not agree with the antecedent, the subject. The proper way is to make them both singular or both plural. "The students must bring their books to class." or "The student must bring his or her book to class."</li>
<li><b>Could Of, Would Of, Should Of</b>. <i>Could have</i> sounds like <i>could of</i> when it is spoken, but it does not make any sense.</li>
<li><b>! </b> Perhaps it is just my peeve, but save the exclamations points for the notes you pass to your friends. ("I think he likes you!!!!!!!) If you want to show that a sentence is important, use emphatically expressive language.</li>
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All of these suggestions apply to emails to your teacher as well as essays.Bradley Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04556577811649874411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4500801893717247957.post-73733935434247515842010-02-08T08:43:00.000-08:002010-02-08T08:43:00.204-08:00Teaching Teenagers to ReadYeah, yeah. I know you know how to read, but I'm not talking about the "Hooked on Phonics worked for me" kind of reading, I mean understanding what you read so that you don't have the "In one eye out the other" experience.<div><br /></div><div>If you have ever spent an hour reading a novel only to realize that you don't remember anything that you just read, follow these helpful (though potentially boring) steps to better reading comprehension.<br /><br /><ol><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sit at a table with good light.</span> Do not read in bed, the floor, a big comfy chair, bathtub; you will probably fall asleep.</li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Read in a quiet environment.</span> Turn off the music, tv, cell phone, and computer. Your brain can focus on 4-7 things at once, and reading takes up most of those. When you read, you need to focus your eyes on the words, decode the words, think of the meaning of the words you are reading right now, connect them with what you have already read, and (if you have brain power left over) predict what will come next. There is no room in your brain to also listen to music or listen for text messages.</li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Put the book flat on the table.</span> When you hold a book in your hands, it does not stay perfectly still. Often, the book moves slightly with respect to your eyes, and your eyes lose their place. That is why you sometimes read the same line twice, or you skip a line. This will make you confused, force you to find your place again, and get back in your rhythm, all of which ruins your reading comprehension.<br /></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Use a ruler.</span> To help keep your eyes on track even more, hold a ruler above the line you are reading. It prevent your eyes from straying as well as keeping your book flat. You should put the ruler above the line you are reading instead of below since it will push you down the page, preventing you from lagging behind. Besides, your peripheral vision is much better than you know, and your eyes are actually getting a preview of some of the important words coming up; you don't want to cover those words with the ruler.</li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Take notes.</span> Writing down notes boosts your retention because you have to read the words, think about what was most important, find a way to write that quickly, write it, and read the words you just wrote. Your brain has just interacted with the material five times instead of just once. If you own the book, write a few words summarizing the important events in the margins. If it is not your book, write a line of notes for every half a page.<br /></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Read fast.</span> Have you ever noticed that you can see a billboard out of the corner of your eye for a split second and know what it says? Your brain is so used to reading that it can soak up words a lot faster that you realize; that is why speed reading works. When you read slowly, your mind tends to drift, you have to hold information in your short-term memory longer, and you risk subvocalization (moving your lips when you read or sounding the words out in your head). Let yourself read faster than you think you can, and you will be surprised at how much you remember.</li></ol>When I would share these insights with my students, they'd always complain. They said that it is so boring, that it is uncomfortable, and that it takes too long to write notes. My reply? Then don't read. If you are not going to retain what you just read, then you might as well keep the book closed and go have fun. Instead of spending an hour reading without remembering anything, spend an hour an a half reading and taking notes correctly with great comprehension. Then you can be done with your work and really enjoy your music, tv, computer, etc.<br /></div>Bradley Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04556577811649874411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4500801893717247957.post-71056301256387504852010-02-01T12:10:00.000-08:002010-02-11T12:01:24.081-08:00The Unwritten Rules of SchoolSchool is a game, and the students who know it and play by the rules are the ones that do well.<div><br /></div><div>When I was a teacher, I certainly had my share of smart A students. However, I also had many surprises - students with average intelligence that earned really high grades and really smart students who failed the class. In fact, about a third of the students that failed my class were very intelligent. They were bored with school and did not see the benefits to doing homework. They often wrote papers that were interesting to them but did not fit the assignment.</div><div><br /></div><div>Conversely, I had students who earned very high grades because they knew how to play the school game. Here are some of the things that they knew but other students did not.</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-weight: bold;">1. Turn in Every Assignment:</span><span> Never, ever, skip anything ever. Forever. You need to understand the law of averages: if you earn a zero on an assignment and an A on the next two assignments, you still have a D in the class. Even if you had turned in a poor assignment that first time and earned a 50%, you would still have a C+ in the class. It will take a month of straight A's to recover from a zero, so turn in everything.<br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />2. Make the teacher like you.</span> Some students might bristle at "kissing up to the teacher," but good students know that many grades are subjective, so they show the teacher that they enjoy the class and are trying hard. Be polite, sit near the front, answer when the teacher questions the class, and ask questions after class. All of this shows that you are interested in doing well, and the teacher will want to help.</div><div style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></div><div><span style="font-weight: bold;">3. Turn in neat work.</span> If your homework and papers look professional, the teacher will think that you put in a lot of effort, even if you did not. He or she will look for the good parts (glass half full) instead of noticing the errors (glass half empty). If you earn a borderline grade on a subjective assignment, you might even get the higher grade. So type assignments when appropriate, handwrite neatly, rewrite the page if you have to, and put your name, title, and date on everything. It will only take a few extra minutes, but the results will add up.</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-weight: bold;">4. Take tests the smart way.</span> Obviously, you want to study for every test, but what do you do if you don't know the answer? First, don't panic - freaking out will only hurt you on the rest of the test. Second, on a multiple choice test, cross out the wrong answers to give your guess better odds. Third, come back to that question at the end because something later in the test could give you a clue to troublesome question.<br /><br />On an essay or short answer test, if you don't know the answer, write about something you do know about. If you can't remember specifics (the Gettysburg Address), just write about something general (effects of the Civil War, Lincoln's leadership) or something similar (King's "I Have a Dream Speech"). Any answer is better than nothing, and you just might get a little partial credit.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">5. Ask.</span> Ask for help before the test, ask what you should study for the test, ask for a makeup assignment, ask for extra credit. If you approach your teacher in a respectful way, there may be ways to gain points that you did not know about. It can't hurt to ask, as long as you don't badger her too much.<br /><br />Here is an offshoot of the "ask" strategy that is only helpful if you don't mind being annoying. After the first test of the year, make an appointment with your teacher to go over your test. Talk through every question you missed and ask him to explain the right answer. This can be helpful because 1) you might convince him to give you a couple of points here and there, 2) you will show him that you try hard and want to do well, and 3) it will take so much time that he will think twice about taking off points next time because he won't want to have another meeting. (taken from a book by <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307465357?ie=UTF8&tag=clickademics-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0307465357">Tim Ferris</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=clickademics-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0307465357" alt="" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" />).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">6. Don't Keep Doing What Doesn't Work:</span> Unfortunately, there are some students that work super hard. The good news is that their perseverance and work ethic will really pay off in the working world after school. In the mean time, these students might be studying the wrong way for their brains. A book on study skills like <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0865306079?ie=UTF8&tag=clickademics-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0865306079">Learning to Learn: Strengthening Study Skills and Brain Power</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=clickademics-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0865306079" alt="" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" /> might help. You could also try something like <a href="http://f9d16iraybxbq4ea42vi118ax6.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=BLOGFEB1" target="_top">Get the Best Grades with the Least Amount of Effort</a> which helps students learn faster or <a href="http://e794anyf83rjt01nwmikrfq-9f.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=BLOGFEB1" target="_top">Secrets that Smart Students Know</a>. Sometimes you just need to try a different way of studying.<br /></div>Bradley Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04556577811649874411noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4500801893717247957.post-8352218276251944842009-12-16T09:51:00.000-08:002009-12-16T10:35:29.577-08:00How Parents Can Use Clickademics.comOr...I didn't get Geometry when I took it twenty years ago. How I am I supposed to help my kid with her homework now?<div><br /></div><div>School is harder now than it was when I was a teenager. A number of people agree with me that we could not get into our colleges if we were high school students applying now. With more content, more demands, and more standardized tests, kids are given too much to do. To be successful, most kids need to learn at home as well as in school. That means they either need to do extra reading in the textbook (yeah, right), get a tutor (at $50-$100 an hour), or ask mom and dad for help.</div><div><br /></div><div>The problem is that most parents' academic mastery tops out around 10th grade - for Math it is often 8th grade. </div><div><br /></div><div>One of the reasons I started Clickademics.com was to help the parents. We are increasingly required to help our children with homework even though we have not seen the content in years. That means that most parents have to read the textbook before they can help with homework, which usually does not fit in their busy schedule. </div><div><br /></div><div>The pressure is even greater for families that homeschool. Many parents feel confident teaching their children in the early grades but worry when the subjects are more advanced. I wonder how many families homeschooled through elementary and middle school but enroll their children in high school for academics, even though the social and societal pressures in high school were one of the reasons they homeschooled in the first place.</div><div><br /></div><div>I wanted to create a place where parents could watch short lessons taught by great teachers with their students. After all, a parent should be nearby any time their child is watching something online. When the parents and students watch together, the parent can easily answer questions or check the homework when the student is finished. It is also nice for parents to be able to share some time with their kids and keep up with what they are doing in school.</div><div><br /></div><div>It reminds me of my years in the classroom teaching 8th grade English. When I covered grammar and punctuation, one or two parents each year would say, "My writing is terrible. I wish I could sit in one your class." Now they can.</div><div><br /></div><div>Try our most popular unit on Pre-Algebra for free. http://www.clickademics.com/g4/</div>Bradley Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04556577811649874411noreply@blogger.com0