U.S. teens spend more than eight hours a day on screens, and there’s growing concern over how social media and large amounts of screen time per day may be affecting their mental health. Now, a new study published by the American Psychological Association validates what some parents have experienced when their teenagers cut back: they seem to feel better about themselves. Perhaps you’ve seen this in your own kids when they return from summer camp…
The English Composition I course at New Jersey City University is designed to prepare students to meet the requirements of writing for university course work. The course learning objectives focus on the achievement of basic communicative skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Instead of completing a traditional essay or oral presentation as the signature assignment for the course, students were asked to build websites using skills honed over the course of the semester in…
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…
There are many fun activities for families to enjoy in the Boston area over April vacation. Check out our list of activities and events happening around Boston in April 2023. Have a great break! Family Concert: Music, Magic, and More When: Saturday 4/15/2023, 12:00 P.M. to 2:00 P.M. Where: Boston Symphony Hall Age: kids, teens, adults Cost: $20 Bring the whole family to Symphony Hall for this fun and engaging concert series, designed to encourage…
Goal writing is an important skill for students of all ages. Hear one teacher’s perspective on teaching goal-writing. On the first day of classes two years ago, I had students in my professional and technical writing course send me an email with their goals for the semester. I discovered they had no understanding of goals, expectations, or objectives. The next semester I explained that goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, positive, and have a time…
You try to fake it, but it limps out of your mouth, barely alive: “How was school?” You might use a slight variation like, “What’d you learn in school today?” but in a single sentence, all that is wrong with ‘school.’ First, the detachment–you literally have no idea what they’re learning or why. You leave that up to school because that’s what school’s for, right? Which means you know very little about what your children…
As a teacher watched a video of a classroom discussion she recorded, she kept noticing places where discussion would be on the verge of beginning, only to see it die almost immediately. The students were prepared, and they were often asking the types of questions teachers want them to ask–so why did the discussion keep faltering? She had to start looking at their pedagogy. What she discovered was that they didn’t know how to build…
With Indiana’s college-going rate at a historic low, Ivy Tech Community College is piloting a new program to keep students on campus by making sure they have 10 specific habits. The program — called Ivy Achieves – aims to ensure that once students go to college, they complete their degrees. Retention is top of mind for those in higher education, especially coming out of the pandemic, said Dean McCurdy, provost for Ivy Tech Community College.…
There’s no ironclad proof that sports build character. The results of a meta-analysis on the connection between athletics and character development make that clear: “Forty years of research, conducted by more than 20 researchers studying tens of thousands of athletes and non- athletes from youth, high schools, collegiate and Olympic levels, simply does not support the notion of sport as a character-building activity, particularly as it applies to sportsmanship behaviors and moral reasoning ability.” It’s…
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…
