Study Tips

How to Organize A Planner for School

Maintaining a planner for school can help you complete all of your assignments on time. Once you’ve chosen the type of planner you want, create sections for each subject and fill in all the information you already have. Each day you can look at what’s on the agenda and add any new information. Things like color-coding your planner and making sure to add all types of obligations will also help you stay on top of…

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5 Essential Study Tips for Back to School

Back to school time is here, and some students may struggle with the transition from summer to school. Here are our 5 top study tips that can make all the difference. 1. Make the time. If you’ve already got a full plate, finding room for study time is going to be a challenge. But in order to get the most out of school, you’re going to have to take the time to reinforce what you…

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Sound Influences Our Ability to Learn in These 3 Ways

Of the five senses, the ability to sense sound is undervalued and under-appreciated, and yet inextricably tied to our understanding of the world. Our culture is very much visually oriented, but just as visual objects have elements of size, texture, and color, so, too, does sound. Though sound is invisible, it consists of so much information: pitch, timing, rhythm, timbre and phrase, says neuroscientist Nina Kraus. Kraus’s new book, “Of Sound Mind: How Our Brain…

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Students with Dyspraxia Benefit from These 10 Rules

Teaching a child with dyspraxia can be a frustrating experience due to the wide range of symptoms they may present. However, while dyspraxia is a neurological condition that commonly causes movement and coordination issues, it does not affect intelligence. Children with dyspraxia are perfectly capable of learning alongside their peers, they may just need some extra attention and support from time to time. Awareness is the first step and can make all of the difference…

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Executive Function Disorders: What They Are and How to Manage Them

The first time you hear that your 7-year-old is weak in “executive functions,” it sounds like a joke. No kidding—that’s why they’re a first grader, not a CEO. But executive functions are the essential self-regulating skills that we all use every day to accomplish just about everything. They help us plan, organize, make decisions, shift between situations or thoughts, control our emotions and impulsivity, and learn from past mistakes. Kids rely on their executive functions…

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Dyscalculia: 5 Strategies for Supporting Students

Many students struggle with math and math anxiety, but for those with dyscalculia, math classes and tests present seemingly insurmountable obstacles that can affect academic success and lower self-esteem. People with the math-related learning disability dyscalculia have a deficit in the brain’s ability to process number-related information. They may have trouble with math operations, memorizing multiplication tables and understanding math concepts. In a broader sense, they have difficulties with sequencing information, budgeting time and keeping…

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7 Tools and Tips That Help English Language Learners

Heather Bradley is an ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) teacher in Silver Spring, Maryland, where she teaches adult ESOL students. When the English language proficiency assessment her program uses moved online several years ago, many of its corresponding course materials also went virtual, making her program’s transition to distance learning less difficult materials-wise. Yet towards the end of their first semester of virtual learning, Bradley began encouraging her students to write their notes…

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6 Focus Strategies That Really Work

Getting and staying focused can be a challenge in the best of times, but with everything going on in the world right now, trying to focus can often feel downright impossible. Testament to this focus challenge is the growing self-help industry bursting with books, blogs, videos and TED Talks on the topic. There’s even a site called Caveday where the focus-challenged gather together on Zoom — computer cameras switched on for accountability, all other technology put…

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13 Effective Study Strategies That Help Students Learn

Students are expected to learn how to study, schedule their time, and complete sizable assignments without procrastinating, yet study strategies often aren’t taught explicitly in school. With the increased self-sufficiency necessitated by virtual education, educators and parents can help students learn and manage their goals more effectively by directly teaching study skills. Daniel Willingham, a psychologist at the University of Virginia, studies the application of cognitive psychology in education. Here are his best tips for…

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10 Ways to Use Color-Coding in the Classroom

Color-coding strategies are fun, but they also wield a deeper value–colors can have a positive impact on memory and attention. Using color-coding is a great way to provide scaffolding for students who need it and engage those who don’t. As a bonus, it can be applied to every aspect of ELA! READING 1. Want students to analyze a text? Ask them to read with color. This color-coding strategy helps them to delineate between a main…

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