Students are often reluctant to seek academic help from their instructors, despite the fact that many of them could benefit from the help. Teachers are being encouraged to develop supportive relationships with students, and most are willing to do so. In the case of students seeking help, what we need is clear information about those teacher characteristics that motivate students to ask. Here are the top ten reasons students don’t ask for help, according to…
The challenge of college can be an eye opening experience for even the brightest student, but many high schoolers are finding they don’t know basic college skills like how to manage time or prepare for a test. These are skills they missed while attending high school during the pandemic while taking classes virtually for more than a year, rarely having homework, and most tests being open book. These struggles can hit college students hard in…
College isn’t for everyone, many argue. But what is the alternative? An old idea is to train kids in a trade in high school via shop class. However, high school trade programs have had a deservedly bad reputation as a “dumping ground” for low-income students, providing a subpar education and failing to prepare young adults for the modern world. These classes are also bound up with a shameful racial history. When schools were forced to…
“Things are better this year, right?” I am asked again and again. The short answer, from this high school administrator, is yes and no, depending on which aspect we choose to focus on. On the surface, things are mostly back to normal. We’re not in masks or tracking COVID cases or on a hybrid learning schedule. We’re having assemblies, sporting events, band concerts, and school dances. Hallway shenanigans are back. We had a senior prank…
Many students fail to understand the value of math, and some grow to hate it. 15-year veteran math teacher, Sarah Strong, and her high school student, Gigi Butterfield, strove o discover the root of this problem by addressing concerns about negativity around teaching and learning math and why kids hate math (at least some of them). Digging into the feelings math evoked in hundreds of middle and high school students—that math is unnecessary, oppressive, and…
It may be a misconception regarding personality traits that the more verbal, outgoing classroom extroverts maintain superior classroom or academic ability. While introverts are not at a cognitive deficit when compared to extroverts, the personality type may pose obstacles for instructors who value regular classroom engagement. Here are five brief ways that instructors may be able to better support the personalities and enhance engagement of student introverts in the classroom setting. 1. Build in peer-support…
When students get to middle and high school without strong reading skills, the results can be devastating. In response to a recent survey about reading struggles, dozens of parents and educators described secondary students who refuse to read out loud for fear of being teased, who can’t understand math word problems or science vocabulary, and gradually give up on school altogether. They worried such students face poor job prospects and bleak futures, not to mention…
The relationship between parent and child is central to building children’s self-motivation and stress tolerance, and how parents respond to kids when they are emotionally distressed can strengthen or strain that relationship. After the release of his bestselling book “The Self-Driven Child,” clinical neuropsychologist William Stixrud got a request: make it even easier for parents to apply the research in the book to motivate teens. So Stixrud and his co-author Ned Johnson wrote “What Do…
It’s almost tax day, and while tax time can be a trying experience for adults, it can also be a prime learning opportunity for students to understand how taxes work and why we pay them. By taking an approach to teaching taxes that is enjoyable and stress free, when kids grow up to manage their own taxes, they won’t carry negative preconceptions they may have been inadvertently taught by their parents. Many high school students…
High school graduation rates dipped in at least 20 states after the first full school year disrupted by the pandemic, suggesting the coronavirus may have ended nearly two decades of nationwide progress toward getting more students diplomas. The drops came despite at least some states and educators loosening standards to help struggling students. The results, according to data obtained from 26 states and analyzed by Chalkbeat, are the latest concerning trend in American education, which…
