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"Historically, disorders of executive functioning were thought to be a direct result of some form of mild brain disorder. From this perspective, activities, strategies, and training in executive skills had limited utility, minimizing the impact of classroom interventions. Over the past two decades, many studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have demonstrated structural brain changes associated with training skills such as working memory, reading, and attention.\nMany other studies have demonstrated the plasticity of the brain, indicating that direct training of executive skills can create new neural pathways and greater efficiencies in brain functioning. Neuroscientists such as Judy Willis, MD have designed specific brain-based classroom strategies to improve executive functions. These classroom strategies could be applied by teachers who are attuned to the needs of students with weak executive-functioning skills.\nOur focus at LearningWorks for Kids is to look for engaging technologies to improve executive-functioning skills in and out of the classroom. However, many kids will need more than access to appropriate technologies to address executive dysfunctions.\nFor many kids with weak executive skills, the most constructive approach is when teachers play the role of the “frontal lobes” of the brain and help them to use executive skills in a step-by-step fashion. This perspective views interventions as supporting and supplementing a child’s executive-functioning skills, focusing on prompting external behaviors from a child rather than waiting for the development of brain-based capacities. Once a child (with support) has begun to apply executive skills, teachers can begin to teach skills to be used independently.\nOur team at Learningworks for Kids has identified four core approaches to improving a child’s executive functioning skills that can be used by parents and teachers:\nStep 1. Accommodations – Reduce expectations for the appropriate use of executive skills.\nStep 2. Support – Use external prompts, reminders, and direct help in applying executive skills.\nStep 3. Practice – Include activities and exercises that use executive skills.\nStep 4. Mastery – Apply independent use and application of effective executive skills.\nThese approaches are not mutually exclusive and have a great deal of overlap. As we progress from accommodations to support to practice to mastery, we increase the child’s level of independence as well as the ability to generalize the environments in which to use the executive-functioning skills.\nSpecifications of our approach to help classroom teachers include:\nAccommodations – Accommodations involve adjusting expectations for a child’s display and utilization of executive skills. For example, a child who displays slow processing speed or has difficulty in the executive skills of time management and sustained attention might be given a reduction in homework or an extended amount of time to complete a classroom test. An accommodation does not directly attempt to improve a child’s executive skill but instead recognizes a child’s limitation in this area. This is often a first step in assisting a child to feel more confident. In general, additional interventions are highly recommended.\nSupport – This strategy involves providing a child with some type of external assistance that leads to the display of an executive skill. Support is often referred to as scaffolding, where a type of structure is built around the child that assists him/her in effectively using an executive skill. A metaphor for support is the use of training wheels on a bicycle. Training wheels are raised by degrees over the course of time so that the child gradually acquires more and more skills in the balancing required in bike riding. Home- and school-based examples could include helping a child get started on a homework assignment or providing him/her with initial steps for beginning to clean his/her room.\nPractice – This involves repeated rehearsal of an executive skill. Many practice opportunities require ongoing support and prior teaching/modeling of the skills. The focus in practice is inclusion of the same activity time and time again. For example, the regular repetition of organizing one’s backpack or using a classroom agenda to keep organized is likely to be helpful in a child’s organization and planning skills. Components of repeating and sustaining in practice could include making the task interesting; providing salient rewards; and giving visual reminders, recognition, and verbal praise.\nMastery – Mastery involves teaching and enabling a child to use an executive skill which he/she is then encouraged to apply across various situations. An important component of mastery is the capacity to generalize the use of an executive skill to a number of other situations. The mastery of executive skills often requires the intervention of a teacher, parent, coach, or peer tutor to assist the child in learning the skill, thinking about its use, and applying it in appropriate situations. Children master new executive skills when they “own them,” having been given sufficient instruction in their use and the motivation and awareness of how to use them. A successful strategy for teaching the application of new executive skills to younger children is to allow new privileges as a result of the skill and to provide recognition from parents, peers, and teachers for appropriate use of the skill. This is considered to be the most sophisticated strategy for improving executive skills and typically comes after accommodations, support, and practice strategies.\nFeatured image: Flickr user Arielle Calderon"

"Time and time again, research has proven how detrimental a purely academic-based approach to a classroom can be. Such a narrow focus on the many aspects of a child’s life can result in not properly addressing or recognizing issues that can appear in the other aspects of his or her life. In order to have well-rounded students a classroom, students should be given well-rounded curriculum, not only through teachers, but through their communities and families.\nWhile not everyone would know an exact definition of executive functioning skills, most would right away recognize someone who lacked these skills. They can be in every circle of relationships, from family to peers, and when a person doesn't have developed executive functioning skills, they stick out.\nSimply put, “executive functioning skills” is a wide term for self-management. These skills consist of self-regulation and mental control. They assist in goal-setting and goal-reaching an are incredibly useful in a school setting and work setting. Many have these skills to a moderate degree, yet not everyone has taken the necessary steps to hone and train these skills in a way that will significantly increase their learning potential and capacity for success.\nThe following is a list of basic executive functioning skills:\nOld school? Formative assessment on paper. Although that can be easy to have your kids do a quiz on paper, who wants to lug a bunch of paper quizzes and grade them all? I'm all for assessing students, not for grading hundreds of answers after school! Let's look at how to work smarter, not harder, when giving formative assessments to your students!\nDitch grading, get immediate results and see who understands which standards you are teaching with one of these three formative Assessment tools: Nearpod, Quizlet and Plickers.\nLessons on Brain Based Learning\nThe concept of brain-based learning might seem to some an paradox. Certainly teachers do their utmost best to teach and mold a child’s brain in the best way possible. In order for a student to learn, brains must be engaged and process the information presented. However, brain-based learning takes a different approach.\nIn general retrospect, methods of Western education have not changed for several decades, arguably longer. While new theories and practices occasionally appear every few years that might change a few aspects, a lecture-based classroom setting environment has been the status quo for several hundred years. Brain-based learning argues that this can be changed if teachers were to instruct based on the understanding of the science of learning itself, rather than relying on traditional methods. Children learn differently during the various stages of their life, and if teachers were to fully grasp and take advantage of this, learning could accelerate immensely.\nThe Glossary of Education Reform states:\n“A great deal of the scientific research and academic dialogue related to brain-based learning has been focused on neuroplasticity—the concept that neural connections in the brain change, remap, and reorganize themselves when people learn new concepts, have new experiences, or practice certain skills over time.”\nLearning new concepts essentially changes the way a child might think or how he or she might view other subjects.\nOne of the most famous quotes in regards to education comes from German-born theoretical physicist, Albert Einstein, when he said: “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”\nLynn is a full time teacher, founder and chief academic officer at academic success. Learn more about Lynn here in her Linked In Profile"

"The early childhood development learning degrees are the most essential for handling the family perfectly. Human beings always search for learning new ideas, expressions, experiences, information, techniques and related data to present or to formed him / herself in the family, the society even all over the world. For this, we acquire knowledge. The powerful knowledge in the world provides the ability and skill to face the coming problem and shows the path to fit the all walk of the children ages.\nChildren should be conscious about his / her studies, behavior, family and social activities. For this, parents are the main source to give them proper advices, suggestions, teaching etc.\nTo present particularly above helpful logical based strong keys in the child's mind, there, of course, requires special training. Now-a-days this training course can be performed through the internet, online from related educational learning institutions around the world very cheaply and easily.\nIt is rememberable that well behave relating to a child’s parents, grandparents, other members of the family, friends, neighbors, relatives is very extremely demanded. It is also a learning point in the field of non-academic as well as a family based education phase. The change mentally in learning or achieving academic and social learning, there needs to stress in the unofficial learning atmosphere which can impact into the child's mind permanently.\nThe early childhood development Course program completing by the guardians online from home as well as online base distance education can give the real fruitful effect.Keep reading\nTouch in reading more"

"A lot is being written about holistic development these days. With NEP 2020 being discussed in media even a layman is familiar with the word.But after innumerable interactions with parents at various forums and in various cities we have unfortunately understood that people haven’t got the real gist of it. Real gist ,in the sense, “Why holistic development is important”.\nImagine you have called few of your friends for dinner at your place. You put your entire energy into the planning and making of the main course. You forgot about the snacks to be served .You hadn’t planned how to engage the kids who were invited. So, there was utter chaos when all the guests came. Even though the main course was extraordinarily good what will be your feeling after the guests left. Will you be happy or angry at yourself for not having planned the entire dinner well.Holistic development of a child is also similar.\nPaying attention to development of just academic aspect will seriously hamper the social development,motor development,aesthetic development of the child.\nThese skills do develop automatically,say for example,the child will learn to run automatically,there is no need to teach him but for a child to reach to his full potential of running he has to be given extra training.Holistic development is just that…For a child to reach his full potential he should be given some extra training.\nAlso ,imagine you have fell down and hurt yourself .You are writhing in pain.In that condition you are told to write an article about something.Will you be able to do it properly.Unless you provide a conducive environment of the child to learn,explore and imbibe he won’t be able to gain any knowledge.\nHolistic development is the social, emotional, physical, mental, and intellectual growth of a person. Taking a holistic approach to education means focusing on all aspects of a child’s growth, not just their academic advancements. Most importantly, it’s about establishing the child’s overall wellbeing. Without well being a child won’t be able to learn properly.\nTo effectively practice holistic development a parent should be aware about the age appropriate milestones. You can read our blog on milestones here for reference.\nHolistic development includes\n- Socio-emotional skills\n- Motor skills which includes both gross motor and fine motor skills\n- Literacy skills which includes communication skills too.\n- Cognitive skills\n- Sensory skill\nIt involves the development of a child’s emotional wellbeing, identity, independence, cooperation and interaction skills.\nIT IS THE BASIS OF ALL OTHER LEARNING BECAUSE ONCE CHILDREN HAVE CONFIDENCE, THEY FEEL EMPOWERED TO LEARN ANYTHING.\nPromoting social-emotional development:-\n- Children like to mimic their parents . So be a role model for them\n- Establish warm and caring relationships with children .\n- Help children understand all the different emotions. Also make them understand that all emotions are acceptable, including negative feelings.\n- Encourage children’s participation by giving them small responsibilities like putting their toy back after playing .\n- Offer encouragement and reinforcement for appropriate behaviors.\nFine motor skill\nFine motor skills are those skills which involve the use of small muscles of fingers,toes and feet.These muscles control the dexterity of hands and fingers.Hand –eyecoordination, gripping and cutting are a few of them.\nFINE MOTOR SKILL BUILDS THE FOUNDATION FOR WRITING AND DRAWING\nPromoting fine motor skills:-\n- Provide a wide range of drawing supplies like crayons, water colours, markers etc.\n- Beading and stringing activities\n- Cutting practice using child-safe scissors\n- Toys like puzzles, blocks and play dough\n- Sticker activities.\nYou can buy our Fine motor kit 1 & 2 here\nGross motor skill\nGross motor skills involve the use of large muscles and body parts, like the arms and legs. Running, jumping, balancing and dancing are some examples of gross motor skills in action.\nGROSS MOTOR SKILL IS USUALLY THE FIRST SKILL THAT STARTS DEVELOPING IN CHILDREN.\nPromoting Gross motor skills:-\n- Play music and encourage children to dance, clap, stomp their feet and play percussions on their bodies.\n- Provide ample outdoor play time.\nCognitive skills refers to a child’s ability to pay attention, think,memorise and learn new things.\nCOGNITIVE SKILL DEALS WITH NUMBERS,COUNTING,SHAPES,SIZE,ESTIMATION,TIME,MONEY,SORTING,GROUPING\nPromoting Cognitive skills:-\n- Play board games which require memorising and strategising.\n- Memorising rhymes\n- Asking open ended questions\n- Play card games and puzzles.\n- Give approximation and estimation exercises\n- Playing sorting of shapes,colours ,sizes etc\nAesthetic sense refers to a set of values relating to appreciation of nature & beauty\nAESTHETIC SENSE DEVELOPS EARLIER AND EASIER IN KIDS WHO HAVE AESTHETICALLY PROFICIENT PARENTS.\nPromoting Aesthetic Sense:-\n- Drawing and Painting activities\n- Take children for nature walk\n- Take children to aesthetically rich environment like museum or exhibitions\n- Ask children to express their experiences through songs\n- Teach children to play instruments\n- Creating new things using clay\n- Craft activities\nSensory skill refers to the skill of using the senses to explore the world around them. They do this by touching, tasting, smelling, seeing, moving and hearing.\nSENSORY SKILL IMPROVES MOTOR SKILLS AND ENHANCES THE OVERALL COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN.\nPromoting Sensory Skill:-\n- Speak to children about different textures.\n- Take children for sensory walk.\n- Playing with different toys like building blocks,coloured rice,pipe cleaners\n- Clay play\n- Messy eating\n- Creating a sensory bin\n- Creating home- made musical instrument\n- Baking together\n- Making your own small garden\n- Playing with sand bin\n- Water play\n- Pom pom sorting\nSensory play can seem to be a little messy but it is the starting point for a lot of new learning .\nLiteracy skill refers to the skills needed for reading and writing.They include awareness of sounds of language,print awareness,vocabulary,spelling and Reading comprehension.\nLITERACY SKILLS IMPROVE AUTOMATICALLY WHEN ALL THE ABOVE MENTIONED SKILLS DEVELOPE IN CHILDREN\nPromoting Literacy Skill:-\n- Make reading a habit, For that read books to children\n- Create a print rich environment at home by setting reading nooks at home\n- Learn alphabets through play like making alphabets using clay\n- Singing rhymes\n- Simon says activity to increase vocabulary\n- Let library visits be a part of your life\n- Pretend play\n- Visual discrimination activities like spot the differences\n- Story telling\nLiteracy skills if developed well in childhood ,it can take the child a long way in his educational journey.\nHolistic development is the base for quality education. If this concept is practiced well at home and school real and authentic learning will happen. Just a small change in our approaches can go a long way in providing quality education to children."

"Children need to play\nChildren develop healthy bodies, minds, social and emotional capacities, thinking and learning abilities as they play.\nPlay is natural, meaningful and motivating and necessary for children's mental health and wellbeing.\nQuestions we have about play―it's benefits and what we can do\n- How do children learn through play?\n- How can educators and families support children's play?\n- Does play really help children feel good about themselves?\n- Is there anywhere else I can go for further information?\nShare your thoughts about the importance of play on the Shared Thinking blog."

"Charter for Play\nChildren play best when their senses are directly engaged with nature and the elements.......and wheir own ways\nCharter for Children's Play\nChildren play best:\nWHEN adults are watchful, but not instructive,\nwhen safe ground lends courage to their discoveries and adventures\nWHEN their trust in life is whole,\nwhen they welcome the unknown, and are fearless\nWHEN their games are free from adult agendas and\nwhen their transformations require no end product\nWHEN their senses are directly engaged\nwith nature and the elements\nWHEN they are free to become gatherers, makers,\nand world creators in their own time and in their own ways\nWHEN they can play with others and make relationships\nWHEN they can play alone, be solitary and private\nwith others and in their own imaginings\nWHEN they can reveal themselves, their joys, sufferings\nand concerns without fear or ridicule,\nand when mystery and imagination are not denied by fact.\nChildren need to play - it is an important part of the world that helps to develop the imagination, communication and understanding.\nOur curriculum emphasizes the importance of play, we encourage the children to choose their own activities and support them in that choice by playing with them but not dominating their play, by responding to their interests and life circumstances and by observing them.\n'The source of good lies in play'"

"Why children needs the ZOO theatre?\nZoo theater suits children well because it focuses on the development of child’s creative abilities and skills. The emphasis is made on imagination and freedom of expression through action. The game itself allows to create a personal fantasy world and doesn’t ask to follow the instruction. Consequently, the pieces of a building kit are simple and clear in form, without over-detailed realism. Components of the environment make the picture of the toy world complete. This building kit aims to interest kids with the opportunity to express their originality.\nHow children respond to your product?\nUnfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to test Zoo theater with actual kids playing, since it has been made only as a prototype so far. However, a few adults, that had a chance to inspect it, were really resembling children while playing it and had very positive reaction to it.\nSuitable design for kids – what does that mean for you?\nDesign for the children should be coherent and not over-complicated, invoking the desire to play and allowing a freedom of creativity. Interesting fundamental idea is also important.\nIn my opinion, design, such as mentioned above, helps to enhance various abilities of a child: creativity, communication, physical activity. Design should be simple and not too serious.\nI don’t think that education is the main goal of design as such, but with its help one can create comfortable conditions for kids and initiate directions for development and that is already important. It seems to me that education is a task for adults and design can serve as an effective mean.\nGet in touch with Denis Borisov via E-mail:"

"By Jeanne W. Lepper\nWhat children should primarily gain from nursery school is an opportunity to play and socialize with a group of their peers under the guidance of trained teachers who can maximize the children's growth experiences in an emotionally supportive atmosphere. Paying for a child to participate in a group experience is money well spent for parents of preschoolers. The kinds of socialization skills children learn in a professionally designed educational setting, combined with the love and devotion of their parents, contribute to a lifelong security and sense of self-confidence. These skills include knowing how to resolve conflicts in verbal, rather than physical, ways and how to approach another child in a positive, altruistic manner. Children learn a great deal from modeling what adults say and do. Parents may hear phrases their children have learned from their teachers at school such as \"No, I'm not finished.\" \"I need a turn.\" \"I'm waiting for a turn.\" \"It's your turn now.\" Shy children who have the benefit of sensitive, observant teachers are helped to develop relationships with other children and to gradually become independent.\nPlay, the other major aspect of the child's experience at nursery school, is truly the child's work. Children are naturally motivated to experiment, to investigate, to learn as they \"play.\" When the teachers properly set the stage, the children are intellectually engaged in the activities provided. As they participate in a variety of creative activities in art, music and movement, children gain confidence in their own abilities and have an opportunity to practice their developing skills. Many activities can and should be provided at home as well, particularly water play and easel painting, which many children never seem to have enough time with. Although few children learn to read during their preschool years, what they can do and should learn are a variety of pre-reading skills and a love of language, poetry and books.\nProblem-solving skills are also important for young children to learn. They are learned in a variety of ways, including experimenting with water in a dramatic play corner, working with puzzles, observing natural phenomena in the science corner and in the garden. Unit blocks are probably the most important play equipment ever designed specifically for young children. All blocks are multiples, or fractions of the basic unit, and as children build with them, they internalize the mathematical concepts inherent in these materials.\nChildren need an opportunity to work through and to enhance their developing concept-formation abilities. Many nursery school activities provide a basis for this, including dramatic play, most often recognized in the doll or housekeeping center where children can dress up and assume different roles. A dollhouse with furniture and figures in miniature is very important as part of this process as well. This type of play allows children an opportunity to work through fears and worries, and to symbolically conquer these emotional hurdles. In addition, in terms of cognitive development, children are able to clarify misconceptions and refine their thinking and knowledge. For example, they may figure out what a firefighter does and what relationships exist among different members of the family.\nIn summary, children gain a sense of autonomy—a confidence in their own abilities—and a sense of freedom in nursery school. Children gain a feeling of security, of trusting their environment and the adults in it. The nursery school day provides a routine, an anchor that children need, which then allows them to experiment with the flexibility built into the program. As part of their nursery school experience, children learn to separate from their parents for short periods of time, and to enjoy it! Parents enjoy it too! Having a few hours to oneself and knowing that one's child is having an opportunity to be with other children is a wonderful feeling. This marks the beginning of a new stage in the relationship between parent and child, in which the parent is no longer the only person responsible for the child's care and education. Parents can also form friendships and share resources with other families. From the program, they learn the importance of having easel painting, unit blocks, dollhouses (for both boys and girls), and all sorts of easily-found materials for creative activities with their children at home. Finally, what children and their families gain from nursery school is a sense of self-esteem from being in an environment which is designed to meet their needs and where the staff admire and respect the beauty of children as they are developing in these early years."

"Free, self-initiated play is the child's own way of learning about self and world. An infant who drops a rattle out of the crib discovers gravity. But the baby also learns that he or she can hold something and let it go. Likewise, no one teaches infants to babble. Yet in so doing babies create all of the sounds they will need to speak the language of their parents. In the dramatic play of preschoolers they learn who are the leaders and who are the followers, who are outgoing and bossy and who are shy and retiring. When school age children play board games like checkers and Monopoly they learn to read their opponents' body language and speech intonations. And when children make up their own games, they learn mutual respect; to follow the rules that others make and to see others follow the rules that they themselves devise.\nPlay, therefore, is neither a luxury nor a waste of time. Through play children create new learning experiences that they would not have encountered otherwise. In addition, because self-initiated play is creative, it nourishes curiosity, imagination and innovation. These traits are very much like muscles: if you don't use them, you lose them. So play is both an important mode of learning and a way of nourishing out-of-the box thinking. Children will find ways to play because they have to: it is a basic mode of adaptation. I am always amused at Christmas time, for example, to see my grandchildren have more fun with the boxes the toys came in than with the toys themselves. If large, the boxes become forts to hide in; if small, they become building blocks. Yet all too many of today's toys are of the \"watch me\" variety and all too many of children's games are adult-organized with little opportunity for young people to make up their own rules of the game.\nIn today's hurried and hurrying society, we still need to recognize the value and importance of self-initiated play. When we limit children's opportunities and time to engage in play of their own devising, we are also putting limits on their healthy intellectual, social and emotional growth and development.\nDavid Elkind, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University. He is the author of The Power of Play: Learning What Comes Naturally (Da Capo Lifelong Books). He lives on Cape Cod."

"Learning in freedom: Experiences about Children’s Active Education between game, music and nature\n“Help me do it alone.” On this principle are based the methods of active education that the child does not have to be spectator of the learning process but protagonist.\nThrough experience, space exploration, building and destroying, relationship with others, the little one will have the opportunity to become a free man and with his own critical thinking.\nIn fact, Maria Montessori, the founder of modern pedagogy and Active Education in Italy, supports the importance of educating the child to independence and autonomy. This does not mean leaving him free to do whatever he wants, but to help him do his experiences, discover and acquire knowledge and skills.\nThe activity of the child thus becomes the central point of the educational process, as well as the environment and educational materials are of crucial importance.\nHere are some principles inspired by an Active child’s Education:\nThe educator must observe and never intervene\nThe task of parents and educators is to help them accomplish their own achievements as they learn to walk, run, and wash. “The master must minimize his intervention. It must be like a guardian angel, who watches for the child not to be disturbed in his free activity. (M. Montessori “Educating Freedom”)\nEducational environments must be child-friendly\nThe school environment must be welcoming and familiar. Inside all the furniture and objects (chairs, tables, sinks …) must be modeled and used according to the needs of the small. It is important that spaces are open so that children can move easily and autonomously, but also interact with the outside environment.\nEducate children with the right teaching materials\nThe teaching materials should be simple even if specially studied, such as objects to be assembled, ribbons, cards that can promote the intellectual development of the child and encourage self-correction of the error.\nEducational materials must also educate the senses, develop motor skills, logical-mathematical, linguistic and musical skills.\nGame is the baby’s work\nThe game plays an important role in helping children to be active, to learn to make choices, and to increase their mastery of their actions. As children grow, they have to experience a wide range of disciplines (art, music, language, science, mathematics, social relationships); Each of these matters is important for the development of a complex and integrated brain.\nThe toys must be simple, usable in autonomy, so very safe too. Through these, children learn to know themselves, others, and the world around them.\nActive education prefers individual and free games to collective ones though supervised by the educator. The child must be free to do so while respecting the order of things and be able to collaborate with others by following the method of mutual teaching.\nThe child must be in contact with nature\nIt is important to make the child in contact with nature as much as possible, because the feeling of nature grows with attendance and exercise. A child left in the midst of nature pulls out muscle energies higher than what parents think.\nChildren should approach music to preschool age\nAccording to Maria Montessori, music promotes autonomy in the small, the spirit of collaboration and participation, respect for each other, freedom. This is because it has the ability to open up the heart and make it more sensitive and human.\nCompared to the language that tends to create walls between people, music unites all men into a single large community and must therefore remain a good accessible for everyone."

"When You Home Educate, what does Freedom Mean?\nWhen I ask ‘What is the best thing about home education?’ during interviews for the Home Ed Voices podcast home ed parents often answer ‘the freedom’.\nBut what does freedom mean when you have taken on the direct responsibility of your children’s education?\nFreedom of Time:\nWhen you home educate, you don’t have to leave the house early to get your children to school. You can still choose to get up and do things early in the morning if you want, but that is a choice, not a requirement. This means that you can choose to start your day at a slower pace, or alternatively it means that you can fit in non-school things into that early morning time, such as exercise or work, or personal projects.\nOf course not having to get up means that your children are more likely to get the sleep they need, especially as teenagers.\nBut on the flip side, not having to be somewhere at a certain time means that there is pressure on you to start the day yourself. Home ed children don’t run on bells, they are more likely to run on routines and encouragement from you. Which means the buck stops with you. This will become a running theme.\nFreedom to set your own routines\nHome educating means that you are free to set up your week in a way that makes sense for your family. For some families this might mean using weekends specifically for learning, so that you can keep some of the week free to spend time with a parent who works irregular hours. For others it might mean using necessary car trips as opportunities for learning, through discussion, or audiobooks.\nMost home educators have to balance opportunities outside of the house with space to learn, play and rest within the home. We also have to work at balancing time to learn both inside and outside of the house with the domestic tasks that need to be done to keep a household running.\nFreedom to set your own goals\nHome education freedom mean that you don’t have to follow the national curriculum unless you choose to. You don’t have to use specific curriculum or any curriculum at all if you don’t want to. You don’t have to do homework that someone else has set.\nHowever this means that you have to decide what your priorities are, advancing strengths and putting time into thoroughly supporting weaknesses. It means you are taking responsibility for what you are going to put in front of your children, and how you are going to support their specific needs.\nIf something isn’t working you have the freedom to change it. But you are the one who has to go find the alternative. The buck stops with you.\nHome ed freedom is ‘freedom from’ and ‘freedom to’, but freedom always comes hand in hand with responsibility.\nFreedom always comes hand in hand with responsibility.\nI think that when we talk about how convenient it is to travel in term time, or how nice it is to not have to do the school run, it hides the fact that we have taken on this massive responsibility.\nMany of us are reading blogs and books, and listening to podcasts, filling our social media with other home edders and homeschoolers, going to groups and conferences. We are spending our free time trying to work how to do this job – and it is a job, a career, a vocation – to the best of our ability. We are on the look out for the next thing – the next activity, or book, or event or concept to add into our home ed lives.\nAt its worst, it’s the fear of missing out, of keeping up with the Jones’s, coupled to the fear that we will are getting it wrong*. At it’s best it’s looking for something new and enriching we can adding into already busy lives.\n(*Everyone worries at some point that they’re getting it wrong.)\nWhen we talk about freedom, we mean that we have taken on this responsibility and we see where the advantages lie. But let’s not hide that it takes real sacrifice to do what we do – we sacrifice careers and money, free time and alone time to home educate our children. Statistically we sacrifice being seen as equals to our breadwinner partner (if we have one), and, because we are at home, take on the lion’s share of the domestic work, alongside mentoring and educating our children. We are often misunderstood and unsupported by our families, and questioned in the street. (My best example of this was my being quizzed on my children’s opportunities for ‘socialization’ while having my blood pressure taken. I asked for it to be taken a second time.)\nMost of us choose to do this, and want our families to live this lifestyle, and we know it is a massive responsibility because we live it. We talk about the freedoms because that it the visible part of the iceberg. The rest is more complicated, feels more private, and is there under the water.\nFreedom always goes hand in hand with responsibility. And talking about the responsibility is hard."

"Are children free to do whatever they want?\nFirst, “freedom” in the Montessori environment needs to be explained. Freedom is a goal, not a starting point. Freedom comes with knowledge. Once children have received an initial lesson on a material or understand the limits set within their environment, they are free to move about the classroom at will, to talk to other children, to work with any equipment appropriately whenever or as long as they want or to ask to be introduced to something new. This freedom of choice is not total freedom. Children learn that to enjoy freedom they need to respect the rights of others to enjoy similar freedom.\nHow long will it take for my child to speak Spanish fluently?\nLearning a language is a process. Within the first five to seven weeks, most children begin to repeat parts of songs and appropriately use repeated phrases. By the end of eight to ten months, most children begin to spontaneously use the second language. Language comes in two steps. First, the child will begin to understand. Then, speaking begins.\nWhat are other advantages of learning another language?\nChildren who learn a second language develop another capacity in the brain. This is true just like developing an artistic capacity. Not only do they learn the second language, but they learn how to “be” in another language. They absorb the culture and expressions belonging to that language. Children become more tolerable and accepting of others as well. They realize there are other ways to communicate and it makes sense. Finally, it is said that children also achieve a higher sense of concentration and listening skills. To understand what is going on around them takes an extra effort to concentrate and hear how the words are formed and to catch a familiar word.\nWhat are the main differences between Montessori and traditional education?\nMontessori emphasizes learning through all the senses, in other words, learning by doing. Montessori education emphasizes “learning how to learn” which means it is more important for children to learn how to process, discover, understand, and make choices on their own rather than merely learning to repeat information that has been presented and follow the lead of the teacher. Montessori classrooms are composed of children in three-year age groupings to allow for the flexibility of children to learn at their own pace and for spontaneous opportunities for older children to assist the younger ones.\nWhat is Montessori?\nMontessori comes from the name of the first Italian woman to become a physician Dr. Maria Montessori, in the early 1900’s. Through her observations and work with children, she developed her educational methods based on the development of children’s learning processes. She observed children have a natural desire to learn for themselves and, thus, she designed a “prepared environment” in which children could freely choose from developmentally appropriate activities and work at their own pace.\nWhat is the best way for children to learn a second language?\nChildren will learn a second, or even third language more quickly and fluently when they find themselves in a total immersion environment as early in life as possible. Language in an immersion environment is acquired naturally by making an association of what is seen and experienced to what is heard. The children develop the ability and willingness to tolerate ambiguity and to search for meaning.\nWhat is the ideal age for children to begin a Montessori program?\nChildren should start a Montessori program between two and a half and three and a half years of age, or earlier. Around two and a half, a child enters a new phase of development. Children entering at a later age have passed many “sensitive periods” and have foregone stages of opportunities to fully benefit from the developmental activities that build upon each other.\nWhat is the Montessori concept of discipline?\nThe goal is to achieve “inner discipline”, or control which the child develops over his or her own behavior. To achieve inner discipline, children need to understand what is acceptable and what is not. Children are redirected to an acceptable activity or are given a choice. The teachers also give the children tools necessary to work out their own problems. For example, children need to learn the proper vocabulary and expressions needed to communicate dissatisfaction with another or to apologize. Children also need to learn what alternatives are acceptable to modify their own behavior or make a situation acceptable to all in the community.\nWhat is the teacher’s role in a Montessori classroom?\nThe Montessori teacher is specially trained to assume the roles of guide, observer, and maintainer of the environment. She carefully prepares the environment by including stimulating materials and opportunities for the children to teach themselves and eliminates all obstacles. She presents an initial lesson to introduce the child to a particular activity or material and then allows the child to experience it on his own and repeat the activities. She also is constantly observing to assist the children when necessary, redirect them appropriately and determine the individual and group needs.\nWhen is the best time for a person to learn a second language?\nThe sensitive period for language begins at birth. Any language at this age is acquired naturally. The earlier a child is exposed to another language the better chances the child will acquire a “useable fluency”. The period for learning a language begins to close around eight to ten years of age. By age nine, children begin to lose the ability to produce a foreign language without an accent.\nWhy is it so important to keep my five year old in Montessori?\nThe Kindergarten year in Montessori is a critical component of the three-year cycle. During the third year, all the earlier experiences are internalized and reinforced. All the activities and skills come together this last year and are completely understood. The five year old often helps the younger children with their work, becoming a “teacher”, reinforcing his own skills, and gaining an incredible sense of self-confidence.\nWhy is the Montessori classroom an ideal environment to learn a second language?\nMontessori environments are full of concrete materials and activities needed to help make the associations of language to object and actions. As teachers are speaking, they need to use more concrete cues such as showing pictures or acting out motions to help the children make the connection. With the mixed-age group, the older children take on the role of interpreter for the younger and newer students. The older children also stimulate the younger ones to use this other way to communicate."

"The traditional learning model says to children, “Do what you’re told when you’re told to do it.” Then after twelve years, the expectation is that children will become successful, independent adults. That doesn’t make sense. Independence, like every other aspect of adult life, is learned little by little in growing increments, with each learning milestone supporting the successful development of the next.\nIn a Montessori preschool, children learn how to be self-directed. They choose the activities that most appeal to them and they are free to explore these activities at their own pace. Sometimes they make mistakes, but that is the beauty of independence. Children have the ability to learn in a relatively risk-free environment and to grow from their mistakes. As a result, this freedom and sense of responsibility helps children feel supported and empowers them to become creative and independent adults."

"Learn More About Montessori\nIs Montessori for all children?\nWe think so! Here at Montessori Children's House of Sycamore and DeKalb, we focus on children who are between the ages of 3-6. However, tThe Montessori approach has been used successfully with children from infancy through high school, and from all socioeconomic levels, representing those in regular classes as well as gifted, emotionally disturbed, and physically handicapped. Because of its individualized nature, it is even suited to public education, where children of many backgrounds are grouped together. It is also appropriate for classes in which the student/teacher ratio is high because children learn at an early age to work independently.\nIs my child free to do what he/she chooses in the classroom?\nIn our classroom, all of the children are free to move about at will, to talk to other children, to work with any materilas whose purpose they understand, or to ask the teacher to introduce new materials. The children learn that they must allow others this same freedom and that the utmost care of our materials is important for everyone in the class.\nWhat does the teacher do?\nThe teacher works with individual children, introduces materials, and gives guidance where needed. In addition, one of the teacher's most important tasks is careful observation of each child in order to determine his/her needs and to gain the knowledge she needs in preparing our environment to aid each child's growth. The teacher is constantly alert to the interests and abilities of her students and activiely seeks to help each one learn, grow, and accomplish their goals.\nWhat will Montessori do for my child?\nWe have several goals for our Montessori students, including self-discipline, self-knowledge, and independence. In addition, we want to encourage an enthusiasm for learning, an organized approach to problem solving, and academic skills.\nWhat happens when children go from a Montessori class to a traditional class?\nIn our experience, most Montessori children adjust readily to new classroom situations. In all likelihood this is because they have developed self-discipline and independence in the Montessori environment. We've heard reports that many teachers love their Montessori kids, because the children are often caring and kind, in addition to being able to concentrate and focus on the job at hand.\nWhy is it so important for my child to experience the kindergarten year at a Montessori school?\nIn the Montessori environment, the children are presented with endless opportunities to develop all of their senses and motor skills with the aid of self-correcting materials in a prepared setting. During the third year a child can not only work with these materials in more depth, thus gaining more insights from them, but, using this base, can move more deeply into the academic areas. In addition, having learned from older children, shared with peers and helped younger children, the students now have the opportunity to assume leadership within the classroom. And, once the child has established critical learning habits -- concentration, self-discipline, a sense of order, persistence in completing a task, creative self-expression and a love for learning, (invaluable preparations for life) -- these behaviors are reinforced in a supportive, exciting environment. All preparations for later academic work and for social and emotional development, which have been so carefully nurtured in the three and four-year-old child, are reinforced in the kindergarten year.\nWill a child have enough experience in working in groups in a Montessori school to later become a successful group member in a traditional school?\nFor sure! If you visit our Montessori school, you'll see that considerable socializing and grouping takes place naturally in the environment (and you'll observe that the children behave in a socially responsible and orderly manner). The Montessori approach eliminates many of the discipline problems found in more conventional environments. There are a few well-chosen ground rules which are consistently reinforced. The children learn to help one another and to care for one another, as well as taking care of their environment, indoors and out. Children are also free to talk and move around, are treated with respect, and are not controlled by fear or punishment. We believe that the ambiance of our Montessori classroom allows for more meaningful talking and social interactions than a traditional environment, which in turn allows the young child to be well prepared to act as a cooperative and skilled group member.\nAre Montessori schools religious in nature?\nOurs is not, but some Montessori schools, just like other schools, operate under the auspices of a church, synagogue, or diocese."

"Freedom and the Montessori Classroom\n“To give a child liberty is not to abandon him to himself.\"\nMontessori classrooms often receive two types of criticism. The first is that our students have too much freedom – “they do whatever they like!” – and the second is that they are not free at all: “all these poor children do is work!” Well, both can be true, our students often want to work. But we do have a very specific notion of freedom.\nTo us, freedom doesn’t mean chaos or doing whatever we please, anytime (what Dr. Montessori called “being a slave to one’s own impulses”). Rather, it means being able to set a goal and reach it, whether that goal is “I will learn Spanish and live in Madrid”, or “I will work with the pink tower material next.”\nTo be free to reach our goals, we need the capacity to weigh our options, the ability to make a choice and go through with it. In other words, freedom requires knowledge of our environment, the necessary skills, and the self-control to follow through. It is in the child’s nature to work hard to gain all three. As educators, we just need to give the opportunity.\nOur toddlers have the freedom to wash laundry, because they can do it without flooding the classroom; our four-year olds have the freedom to practice hammering nails or using sharp knives because follow safety precautions. Our Elementary students have the freedom to put together their weekly work plans because they accept that they have to include necessary tasks as well as their favourites. As we grow in knowledge, skills and self-control, our freedom naturally grows too: gradually but inexorably.\n“To let the child do as he likes, when he has not yet developed any powers of control, is to betray the idea of freedom.”\nWe don’t want our students to be quiet during their classroom work because they are not free to raise their voice. We want them to have the knowledge, the understanding, and the self-control to choose to speak in a low voice so as to be polite and not disturb their friends. We want children to learn that freedom isn’t the absence of rules and boundaries – there is no such thing, we are always tied by laws and rules. But freedom means willingly following rules that we accept and appreciate, and having the space to live a happy and productive life within them.\nBy Michaela Tučková / Toddler Teacher"

"Montessori once told the story that a woman visited her school and, without understanding Montessori principles, said to a child, “So, this is a place where you do what you like, is it not?” The child answered, “No, but we like what we do!” The child wasn’t running wild in the environment, as many people envision is true at Montessori schools. Rather, she was given an environment so rich with appropriate learning activities and gentle guidance that she enjoyed her education.\nIn many modern educational settings, children are expected to be obedient as a response to an external motivation. They are asked to “listen to the teacher,” “do what you’re told,” or “follow directions.” The aim is to “curb the will of the child, to substitute for it the will of the adult and to demand obedience from him.” (The Absorbent Mind, p. 216). In the Montessori learning environment, the child’s obedience develops from the inside. In The Absorbent Mind, Maria Montessori writes about obedience as a natural unfolding within the child. She observed and wrote about the three stages of obedience (p. 216-225):\n1. A subconscious stage of internal disorder where it is impossible to obey—the child does not have the understanding of what is required or the inner ability to translate it into action. Montessori says the child is psychically deaf. He may perform perfectly, but it is not within conscious control and therefore not repeatable.\n2. The child would like to obey and he can—sometimes. You often see a child succeeding once and then he’s incapable of repeating the obedience. He seems now to understand, but doesn’t always succeed. He knows not the joy of obeying.\n3. Enthusiastic love of obeying. In the environment where we allow freedom and truly understand the relationship between freedom and discipline, we find the marvelous fruits of freedom. Among these are:\n- Individuality—“Montessori liberty,” says E.M. Standing, “is, par excellence, guardian of this individuality” that leads to freedom of thought and action\n- Discipline—self-discipline, to be exact\n- Powerful spontaneous concentration, the outer aspect of inner development\n- True, willing obedience to social norms and both the inner and the outer teacher\n- Independent, graceful, social living\nMontessori magnificently created an environment in which “children choose their own work spontaneously and, repeating this exercise of choice, develop a consciousness of their actions” (The Absorbent Mind, p. 217)."

"Regarding the purpose of the 3rd Density lesson, to determine one's orientation, either Service-to-Self or Service-to-Other. This may seem like a choice, rather than a lesson, but this is in fact the first lesson an entity learns. Without making this choice, or learning this lesson, the entity cannot proceed on the path of knowledge and growth. Why is this so?\nStep into the early grades of school, and watch what happens when the teacher steps out of the room for a moment. Chaos. Just so, 3rd Density entities find that they spend all their time in petty squabbles. Higher education proceeds only when one of several situations are in place. The rules can become unduly rigid, where any pupil looking up or speaking is beaten. This is the solution that the Service-to-Self impose on those of this orientation. Another solution is to separate the students, so that those intent on learning, rather than wresting control from the teacher, are set aside. This is the solution that the Transformation takes, where the Service-to-Others, as intent on learning rather than gaining control, are separated from those not content until they attain total control over others."

"Teacher and Principal Evaluation Policy\nThe state should require instructional effectiveness to be the determinative criterion of any teacher evaluation. The bar for this goal was raised in 2017.\nImpact of Student Growth: Oklahoma does not require measures of student growth in its teacher evaluation system. In 2016, state law removed the mandated value-added measures (VAM) from teacher evaluation systems and made quantitative evaluation tools optional for districts.\nState's Role in Evaluation System: Oklahoma requires that all teachers are evaluated using the Oklahoma Teacher and Leader Effectiveness Evaluation System (TLE).\nHB 2957 (2016)\nRequire instructional effectiveness to be a determinative criterion of any teacher evaluation.\nOklahoma should require that objective measures of student growth be included in a teacher's evaluation rating, and that such measures play a profound role in a teacher's overall evaluation rating. Specifically, a teacher should not be able to earn an overall rating of effective if he or she is less-than-effective at increasing student growth.\nOklahoma asserted that its evaluation system must include review and discussion of student test scores in observation conversation/feedback. This discussion will potentially target student performance for an educator's professional growth goal.\n7A: Measures of Student Growth\nMany factors should be considered in formally evaluating a teacher; however, nothing is more important than effectiveness in the classroom. Value-added models are an important tool for measuring student achievement and school effectiveness. These models have the ability to measure individual students' learning gains, controlling for students' previous knowledge and background characteristics. While some research suggests value-added models are subject to bias and statistical limitations, rich data and strong controls can eliminate error and bias. In the area of teacher quality, examining student growth offers a fairer and potentially more meaningful way to evaluate a teacher's effectiveness than other methods schools use.\nUnfortunately, districts have used many evaluation instruments, including some mandated by states, which are structured so that teachers can earn a satisfactory rating without any evidence that they are sufficiently advancing student learning in the classroom. Teacher evaluation instruments should include factors that combine both human judgment and objective measures of student learning."

"Teacher and Principal Evaluation Policy\nThe state should require instructional effectiveness to be the determinative criterion of any teacher evaluation. The bar for this goal was raised in 2017.\nImpact of Student Growth: Idaho requires that teacher evaluation ratings be based in part on measurable student growth. The state no longer articulates a specific percentage but does require that \"at least a majority of the evaluation rating must be based on professional practice.\"\nIdaho does not explicitly require that teachers meet student growth goals or be rated at least effective for the student growth portion of their evaluation to earn an overall rating of effective.\nState's Role in Evaluation System: Idaho districts develop evaluation systems based on criteria set forth by the state.\nRequire instructional effectiveness to be a determinative criterion of any teacher evaluation.\nAlthough Idaho requires that objective evidence of student growth be included in a teacher's evaluation rating, it does not play a profound role in a teacher's overall evaluation rating. Idaho should ensure that a teacher is not able to earn an overall rating of effective if he or she is rated less-than-effective at increasing student growth.\nIdaho was helpful in providing NCTQ with the facts necessary for this analysis.\n7A: Measures of Student Growth\nMany factors should be considered in formally evaluating a teacher; however, nothing is more important than effectiveness in the classroom. Value-added models are an important tool for measuring student achievement and school effectiveness. These models have the ability to measure individual students' learning gains, controlling for students' previous knowledge and background characteristics. While some research suggests value-added models are subject to bias and statistical limitations, rich data and strong controls can eliminate error and bias. In the area of teacher quality, examining student growth offers a fairer and potentially more meaningful way to evaluate a teacher's effectiveness than other methods schools use.\nUnfortunately, districts have used many evaluation instruments, including some mandated by states, which are structured so that teachers can earn a satisfactory rating without any evidence that they are sufficiently advancing student learning in the classroom. Teacher evaluation instruments should include factors that combine both human judgment and objective measures of student learning."

"Retaining Effective Teachers Policy\nThe state should require professional development to be based on needs identified through teacher evaluations.\nNew legislation in Idaho requires that state-approved evaluation systems include the method through which results of evaluations will be communicated to teachers and also procedures for providing remediation when remediation \"is determined to be an appropriate course of action.\"\nImplementation Guidelines for Evaluation Framework http://www.sde.idaho.gov/site/teacherEval/implementationGuidelines.htm\nRequire that evaluation systems provide teachers with feedback about their performance.\nAlthough Idaho requires that results of evaluations are communicated with teachers, this only ensures that teachers will receive their ratings, not necessarily feedback on their performance. Idaho should specify that teachers should receive specific feedback on identified strengths and areas that need improvement.\nEnsure that professional development is aligned with findings from teachers' evaluations.\nProfessional development that is not informed by evaluation results may be of little value to teachers' professional growth and aim of increasing their effectiveness in the classroom. Idaho should ensure that districts utilize teacher evaluation results in determining professional development needs and activities.\nIdaho recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis."

"If professional development is truly to meet the needs of teachers, it should be self-directed.\nAccording to Hyslop-Margison and Sears:\nTeachers cannot be expected to prepare autonomous, reflective and politically engaged citizens unless they possess the professional autonomy and political freedom to act as role models for their students. Professional autonomy for teachers is not merely a fundamental requirement of quality education, but for creating students who become engaged and politically active democratic citizens.\nHyslop-Margison, E.J., & Sears, A.M. (2010). Enhancing teacher performance:\nThe role of professional autonomy. Interchange, 41(1), 1–15.\nTeachers are in the best position to judge the direction for their professional growth, and therefore need to exercise their professional autonomy when it comes to choosing professional development."

"Approaches to language autonomy in language learning\nAutonomy in language learning\nThe main idea behind learner autonomy is that learners should be able to take charge of their own learning. Being dependent on the teacher wouldn’t help the learning process. Students should be encouraged to construct knowledge from direct experience through hypothesizing, experimenting, acquiring, transforming and transferring learning. Ideal autonomous learners are people who:\n- are willing to take risks,\n- have insights into their learning styles and strategies,\n- and are willing to revise and reject hypotheses."

"Since school-level autonomy seems to be so important for effective school organization and performance, how is it that some schools have autonomy, but most do not?\nTo aid us in figuring out how America's schools might be given more autonomy, we investigated why some schools already enjoy it. Much as we concluded when thinking about how schools could be led to organize effectively, we decided that school autonomy was probably not a virtue that would come to schools just because researchers or reformers thought it was a good idea. Rather, it seemed that autonomy stood a better chance of being increased if the forces that reduced it were understood and then attacked. Thus, we examined a number of factors that we suspected would influence the degree of autonomy that a school would experience. The results support two generalizations, one about public schools, the other about private.\nPublic schools are given relatively high levels of autonomy only under very special conditions. All things being equal, public schools will fall at least two quartiles below private schools in autonomy from external control. To enjoy the kind of autonomy that the private school receives on average, the public school must exist in the most favorable of circumstances. To be permitted to control its own destiny, the public school must be located outside of a large city in a suburban school system. Its students must be making significant gains in achievement, and its parents must be in close contact with the school. In other words, when the public school is performing well, is being monitored by parents, and is not part of a large administrative system, it will be given relatively great control over its policies, programs, and personnel.\nUnfortunately – and predictably – the public schools that now enjoy autonomy are not the ones that are most in need of improvement. And the inner city public schools that most desperately require improvement are the ones that have so little of the autonomy they arguably need. It may even be that urban public schools are caught in a vicious cycle of deteriorating performance, increasing control, and eroding organizational effectiveness. Under political pressure to do something about city schools that are failing, school boards, superintendents, and administrators tend to take the only actions that they can. They offer schools more money, if it is available, but then crack-down on underachievement with tougher rules and regulations governing how teachers must teach and what students must \"learn.\" But crackdowns are seldom carried out deftly. And any intervention that responds clumsily to the real needs of teachers and students may undermine school organization rather than build it up.\nPrivate schools, even in urban systems with high percentages of poor students, generally do not face these troubling pressures. Private schools, almost regardless of their circumstances, tend to be free from excessive central controls by administrators, boards, and unions. The main reason appears to be market competition. In a process much the reverse of the one in public schools, where political pressure leads to an increase in central control, competitive pressures lead to an increase in autonomy in private schools. To stay in business private schools must satisfy parents, and satisfy them more than the public schools or alternative private schools. Private schools are therefore forced to organize themselves in ways that above all else respond to the demands of parents. One thing this clearly means is that private schools must vest a lot of control over vital school decisions – about personnel and curriculum, for example – at the school level where the wishes of parents can be more clearly perceived and accommodated. Strong external control is incompatible with the imperative that private schools either satisfy parents or lose them to other schools. In contrast, strong central control fits public schools very nicely. Public schools need not satisfy parents first; indeed they must ensure that parents are not satisfied at the expense of other legitimate groups such as unions, administrators, and various special interests. Policymaking is therefore taken out of the public schools themselves where parents would have a political edge.\nBecause public schools are ruled by politics, and private schools by markets, public schools may be at a decided disadvantage in developing effective organizations and promoting student achievement. Private schools, without the benefit of any reform at all, are encouraged by competitive forces to operate autonomously and to organize effectively. And indeed, the private schools in our study have more of the attributes of organizational effectiveness than public schools, regardless of the quality of their students. Public schools, however, are usually not granted the autonomy that they need to organize effectively – political forces discourage this – and must therefore be periodically reformed from the outside."

"Keys to Learner Autonomy\nNowadays students have extensive opportunities to access information through technology, and manage their own learning in a variety of ways. Students are no longer passive consumers of content and knowledge; they actively create, share, publish, and are able to design their own learning and professional experiences. Learner autonomy is vital for students to deal with the real-world contexts, challenges and opportunities of their time.\nThis workshop has been designed to help teachers with some strategies that will help them set autonomous learning experiences inside and outside the classroom. We will also gain insight on how to develop long-life learning skills and behaviors that can be in alignment with their interests, goals and passions.\nFree with PRO Membership\nCertificate On Completion\nCount Towards CPD Hours"

"What Teachers Say and Do to Support Students' Autonomy During a Learning Activity\nJohnmarshall Reeve, Hyungshim Jang Feb 2006 Journal of Educational Psychology v. 98, n. 1, p. 209\nThis research paper presents the results of an educational experiment to measure the effects of different instructional behaviors. The experiment investigated a controlling style of teaching compared to an autonomy supportive style, and found that the supportive style resulted in increased student interest, enjoyment, engagement and performance. Autonomy-supportive teacher behavior can be effective in fostering intrinsic motivation in students. The paper provides useful background information on the topics of motivation, intentionality and autonomy, and also gives examples of controlling vs. supportive teacher behaviors."

"On Teacher Autonomy\n\"It is ... advisable that the teacher should understand, and even be able to criticize, the general principles upon which the whole educational system is formed and administered. He is not like a private soldier in an army, expected merely to obey, or like a cog in a wheel, expected merely to respond and transmit external energy; he must be an intelligent medium of action.\" -- John Dewey\nHowever, autonomy is poorly understood by many teachers who advocate for it and also by the administrators who are suspicious of it. The reason for this is that autonomy is really different from being left alone.\nSure, the first step to developing autonomy is freedom from. Freedom from arbitrary constrictions. Freedom from micromanaging. Freedom from forces and interests that are obviously mis-educational. Administrators have a basic duty to protect teachers from these things so that they can explore and create.\nUnfortunately, most conceptions of teaching autonomy stop there, but of course that sort of autonomy for teachers is not enough. Autonomy is more than freedom from constraint. Autonomy is positive freedom -- it is the freedom to act with purpose. Teacher autonomy (like individual autonomy) only finds its full expression within a purposeful community, and it is fuller yet when teachers are able out of their own practice (alongside students) create that purpose and feel responsible for the school community.\nWhat then, is the role of the school administrator? As clear as I can figure it is to identify the ways in which the community is not yet autonomous or lacking purpose -- and also the teachers as individuals who have not yet found the full expression of their autonomous practice (or who have lost it somewhere along the way.) The administrator cannot ex nihilo create this purpose or autonomy, but must instead, through modeling, encouragement, listening, and communicating help teachers into autonomous community, actively and boldly clearing the path for it, and sometimes perhaps tracing the first steps.\nIf students are to learn to be free, active, bold, joyful, and creative, they must have in front of them on a regular basis adults who possess these qualities. Schooling is difficult work, and many adults lack the stamina or resilience to do this work and manifest these qualities. The best schools quickly identify the impediments to teachers being their full, best selves for their students, and eliminate them without pity."

"CHILD CENTERED EDUCATION\nAll children have the right to education that helps to grow and develops to the fullest.\nMeaning of child centered education\nChild centered education seeks to provide natural flow of activities and revolt against subject- centered education. The child allow to enjoy complete freedom of action , that he/she should not interfere with the freedom of others.\nImportant characteristics of child centered education\nchild should be allowed to learn from the nature.\nThe present life of the child should form the basis of education.\n• Educational activities should be in accordance with the nature of the child , it’s interests and potentials.\n• Natural interests of the child like play and curiosity to know , should form the basis of education.\n• There is no room for bookish knowledge and verbal information.\n• Children should not be treated as miniature adults.\n• The individuality of the child should be respected.\nPromoting child centered education\nThe following points need to be considered for promoting child-centered education\n2. Self – activities\n3. Process of spontaneous development\n4. Development of interests and needs\n5. Experience- based education\nFreedom is to be granted to the child to explore and discover things freedom is to be granted to the child to explore and than getting secondhand information through books.\nIt laid great stress on development of the child and child’s activity should stem from his/ her own interests.\nProcess of spontaneous development\nThe child’s freedom and individuality find expression spontaneously in the lap of nature.\nDevelopment of interests and needs\nEducation of the child depends on its interests and needs . The physical, social, moral, intellectual and spiritual development is the main objective of the child- centered education.\nExperience- based education\nThe child to learn through self – experience which makes learning permanent.\nThe child centered education serving as simulators of motivation for learning and development of the individuality of the child and its ability to think independently."

"The prepared environment of the Montessori classroom includes six basic components: freedom, structure and order, reality and nature, beauty and atmosphere, the Montessori materials, and the development of community life.\nThe element of freedom in a Montessori classroom is essential. Freedom does not mean a lack of structure. A child is given freedom within certain guidelines. These established guidelines ensure the child’s development of his own independence, will, and inner discipline; thus establishing freedom. Well prepared activities that a child may choose on his own with opportunities for constructive work is one way in which freedom is established. Helping a child to develop a clear understanding of good and evil allows the child freedom within social situations to choose whom he would like to work with and to solve conflicts with his peers. It is important to note that only the destructive acts of a child are to be limited. “Discipline must come through liberty…If discipline is founded upon liberty, the discipline itself must necessarily be active” (Montessori Method, Montessori, p. 86). Freedom allows movement by the child within an indoor environment as well as an outdoor environment if at all possible. A teacher’s role in establishing freedom is to protect the child’s ability to choose. Lessons should be brief so as not to interrupt the work cycle. Teacher directed competitions, rewards, and punishments will interfere with a child’s freedom and so are not a part of a Montessori classroom. As Dr. Montessori stated, “Such prizes and punishments are…instruments of slavery for the spirit…The prize and punishment are incentives toward unnatural or forced effort, and therefore we certainly cannot speak of the natural development of the child in connection with them” (Montessori Method, Montessori, p. 21)."

"“When the child is given freedom to move about in a world of objects, he is naturally inclined to perform the tasks necessary for his development entirely on his own.” M.Montessori “Education and Peace”\nNo one can be completely free while they are dependent. Manifestations of the desire for independence can be observed early in a child’s life. Freedom and independence are intertwined – independence is essential for freedom. The teacher’s task is to remove obstacles on the way to independence.\nThe identity of the child can only be formed in the process of his “work“. In the Montessori classroom, at first, the child gains freedom as an individual, and then it grows into the ability to be a part of the community. This freedom comes from within and manifests as self-control. It is important to emphasize that the child commits positive behavior and positive actions not due to external reinforcement and rewards. The child gains inner satisfaction from performing positive actions due to his nature. The child does not need external validation of his actions from others as he is able to form a personal judgment of his actions. It means external rewards or punishment are not necessary.\nElements of freedom in the Montessori classroom.\n“Without freedom it is impossible for personality to develop fully.Freedom is the key to the entire process, and the first step comes when the individual is capable of acting without help from others and becomes aware of himself as an autonomous being.” M. Montessori Education and Peace\n1. Freedom of choice. Allowing children to have freedom of choice is a demonstration of respect for the child’s development. Desire to have the freedom to choose is driven by:\n– will to gain experience\n– the teacher who connects the child to the environment and material.\n– gaining more knowledge\nThe child is eager to try to experiment with everything in the classroom. The fact that the child makes his own choice of work is very significant since it is his DECISION. It is not easy to make a decision, it requires inner motivation and inner work.\n2. Freedom to “work”. As it was mentioned before, personality forms through the process of work. A prepared environment offers a wide range of specific activities that promote freedom of work. Work is a foundation of freedom because work requires the child to follow certain rules and directions. Freedom does not mean the child can do what they please. Freedom is understanding rules and limits for actions. (For example, putting work back on the shelf after completing it gives freedom to choose the next activity). Allowing a child to do whatever he likes before he gains self-control destroys the idea of freedom.\n3 Freedom of time.\nThere is no timetable for lessons in the Montessori classroom. The child is allowed to work with material as long as he wants to and at his own pace. Often child likes to do the same activity over and over again. It allows him to build deeper concentration in the process of continuous repetition. In addition, it encourages him to develop a stronger character, since he has more time to keep trying until he works it out. It also helps to for the ability to overcome challenges.\n4. Freedom of movement.\nEvery work with the material in the classroom involves movement. The child is not forced to sit and listen. He is free to observe, then to work independently. In addition, a child is able to move freely without disturbing others’ work.\n5. Freedom to eat and drink.\nThe Montessori classroom always has a place where the child can have a snack or a drink at any time he wishes.\n6. Freedom of communication and interaction.\nThe children are free to work together upon mutual agreement if it does not destruct others’ work.\n7. Freedom to help each other.\nElements of discipline in the Montessori classroom.\n1. There is only one type of each material in the classroom (there is only one Pink Tower or Red Rod activity).\nIt has great benefits:\n– the work becomes special\n– it develops patience since a child has to wait for his turn\n– it develops respect for others\n2. The child has to return work back where he found it after completing working with it as an expression of respect for the other children.\nWork is not considered finished until the material is put back in its original place.\n3. Every material has a purpose and meaning.\nThe child is welcome to experiment with material as long as it fits its purpose. For example, the child can create various shapes using the Red Rods, but should not use those as a pretend gun. Sometimes teacher allows certain child’s experiments unless those experiments can hurt other children or the environment. Then it has to be immediately stopped.\nMaria Montessori believed that misbehavior originates from a child’s environment, circumstances and surroundings:\n…defects in character, disappear of themselves…One does not need to threaten or cajole, but only to ‘normalizing the conditions under which the child lives.” (Maria Montessori, Discovery of the Child)\nIn the Montessori environment behavior management is done in the form of redirecting and gluing.\nYou can read more about it here: Gluing and Redirecting Behavior in the Montessori Classroom\n“With careful observations, “earnest words”, spontaneous work, commitment to the Montessori philosophy and principles, the Montessori teacher is able to successfully redirect and refocus student behavior…\nGluing is when the teacher keeps a child close to her before inviting the child to find an appropriate work.\nIt gives the child time to refocus and observe others working in the Montessori classroom. It is a way to re-center and calm themselves so that they may work effectively in the classroom.”"

"|In Montessori theory, freedom and self-discipline are two sides of the same coin. The person who is self-disciplined is able to be responsible in their actions. The person who is free to act must be self-disciplined in order to use that freedom responsibly. The long-term goal in regards to freedom is a self-disciplined adult who can function independently, while at the same time being a responsible member of a group. |\nThe degree of freedom a child can handle and the child’s self-discipline build up together in the four planes of development. Many different aspects of the environment – the Guide’s actions, the social setting of the class, and the freedom allowed by the adult for the child to engage in purposeful activity within that environment and social setting – should work together to support the strengthening of the child’s will which, in turn, enables the child to act in a responsible manner.\nThe ability to make an appropriate choice for oneself is an essential ingredient in acting responsibly. It is an ability that must be built up over time. Children need to be allowed to exercise choice frequently during the day – every day – in order to build this skill. No one can be truly responsible if one is the prisoner of one’s whims. Choice is not superficial curiosity. Choice is a skill that needs knowledge of the possible choices along with self-discipline and the opportunity to act independently, so appropriate, responsible choices may be made.\nIn the Montessori environment, knowledge of the possible choices comes from presentations by the Guide and observation of the activities of the other children in the environment. The ability to choose comes from repeated experiences of being able to choose. The child is helped by having limited choice at first. As the child’s ability to choose increases, the number of choices available also increases through presentations of new materials and activities by the Guide. Totally free choice is a point of arrival. It is built up through progressive degrees of freedom that are related to the child’s increasing strength of will that enables the child to act responsibly.\nFreedom to choose allows children to reveal themselves. They reveal their interests and their needs. This enables adults who observe to gain information that will help them serve the children’s needs for development because they will have an idea of what lessons to give next, what kinds of experiences to provide, and how much freedom the child can be given.\nThe ability to choose, along with the freedom to choose, the development of the will, the development of self-discipline, independence and responsibility, and the wish to act responsibly as a member of one’s social community, are all tied together. Montessori, when properly implemented, constitutes a total package of situations and experiences that interact to support the normal development of the individual child within a social context. Many of the conditions that provide for freedom and enable responsibility to develop in First Plane children are also appropriate for children in the Second Plane.\nAt whatever age children enter a Montessori environment, they should be free to choose any material or exercise once it has been demonstrated to them. There is, however, limitation to their freedom. They are free to use the materials in a way that will fulfill the purpose of the materials for the child’s development and in a way that will not damage the materials. For example, the red rods help Primary children see a regular increase in one dimension. Pretending to use the longest rod as a horse on which to ride does not help children learn about regular increase in dimension and it puts the rod in danger of being damaged; therefore, this use of the material is not allowed.\nThere is another limitation to freedom. One is free to behave in a way that respects the rights of others and protects others from disturbance or harm. The question is how does one help children develop enough self-control to allow them this degree of freedom and independence? There are many means to help this development in a Montessori environment:\nTHE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT AND THE MATERIALS\nThe physical environment of a Montessori class needs to be a calm, aesthetically inviting environment. It should contain materials appropriate to the developmental needs of the children and it should be furnished with child-sized furniture that is light in weight so the children can be independent in their use of the furniture.\nThe amount of materials in this environment and their arrangement is of the utmost importance. The optimum amount to have is the amount that can be arranged in a sequential, orderly fashion that will contribute to the development of order in the children’s minds. When this is the case, it is possible for the children to make choices. The consequence of having too many materials is that the children will be overwhelmed and, therefore, will have difficulty making choices. In addition, they will have a difficult time concentrating on the things they do choose. If, on the other hand, there are too few materials, there will not be enough choices for the children and they will be bored. Boredom contributes to a breakdown in behavior.\nThe optimum amount of materials contributes to successful, independent functioning in the environment, it helps children build mental order (The condition of your surroundings reflects the condition of your mind.) and it helps them strengthen their wills through the practice of frequent choice making. Dr. Montessori said, “Conscious will is a power which develops with use and activity.” (Montessori,\nThe Absorbent Mind, 1969, p. 254)\nThe physical environment is set up, as much as possible, for the independent functioning of the children. Besides being furnished with furniture in an appropriate size for the age of the children, the materials are available in such a way that the child can easily obtain the materials they need for the choices they have made. In the Toddler and Primary environments, color coding and/or grouping the materials necessary for an exercise on a tray makes it as easy as possible for children to get their materials without being dependent upon an adult. The adult does arrange the environment so this independence is possible.\nThis amount of pre-arrangement is not necessary for the Elementary child. While the adult still arranges the materials in a logical manner — everything for experiments in one area of the room, the math materials in another — the child must gather the necessary materials for a given activity.\nIn general, most of the materials in the Toddler and Primary environments are designed for individual use and there is only one of each of those kinds of materials. If a child has been presented a particular material and it is on the shelf, the child is free to choose it. However, if someone else is using it, the child must wait until it has been returned to the shelf before taking it. This helps children practice patience, which, in turn, aids the development of self-control/will that is essential if children are going to exercise responsibility.\nWhile children still have to wait until materials have been returned to the shelf in an Elementary environment, many of the materials are designed to be used by two or more children together. It is the natural tendency of children of this age to work together in groups and it is important that they exercise their logical minds by discussing the work at hand.\nTHE WORK CYCLE – TIME FOR DEVELOPMENT\nDr. Montessori found that children had natural, internal time cycles. The Montessori movement has come to refer to this as the ‘work cycle’. These are three hours in duration. Environments, where complete work cycles are available on a daily basis, support children’s development of skills, knowledge, and self-discipline because they give the children the time necessary for this development to occur.\nTHE PSYCHOLOGICAL/EMOTIONAL ENVIRONMENT\nThe psychological/emotional ambiance of any home or classroom environment must protect children from corrections, belittling, rewards and punishments, unnecessary help, and physical or psychological harm. In the First Plane, children are developing their self-image. While inappropriate behavior must be stopped, the correction of little mistakes in well-intentioned activities leaves a little scar on the psyche that says, “Incompetent.” The build up of these little scars over time undermines the child’s feelings of competence. It is for this reason that a “control of error” is built into many of the Montessori materials. In this way, mistakes can be a private matter. Children can develop positive feelings towards the revelations provided by the ‘control of error’ because those revelations help the child to eventually have success with the materials.\nThe point of helping children develop feelings of competence is that they will then more eagerly choose to work and to accept new challenges. As said before, the act of making choices — whether it is the initial choice of work or the choices one makes in response to the revelations of the control of error — strengthens the will. The stronger the will, the more the child is able to make appropriate choices, that is, the more the child is able to act in a responsible manner.\nExternal rewards are, at best, irrelevant in a Montessori environment. At worst, they are harmful. Montessori materials and activities are designed to fulfill the developmental needs of children. Being able to work with those materials and engage in those activities gives children internal rewards – the feeling of satisfaction that come when an internal need for development is met. It is natural for children to wish to experience this internal satisfaction again and again and so they continue to choose those materials and activities that bring about this desired feeling.\nGiving children external rewards, whether objects, food, or approval, trains them to work for something external, rather than for the satisfaction of their internal needs. The children lose their ability to act independently and take on a “puppet” quality, almost as if someone is pulling their strings to get the desired outcome. The satisfaction of internal needs is one of the ingredients in helping children travel along the path to self-discipline, independence and responsibility. External rewards divert children from that path.\nThanks to these exercises, a wonderful integration takes place in the soul, as a result of which the child becomes calm, radiantly happy, busy, forgetful of himself and, in consequence, indifferent to prizes or material rewards. (Montessori, The Absorbent Mind, 1969, p. 263-4)\nUnnecessary help is also harmful to the children’s development of feelings of competence. If, at home, a parent continues to dress and undress their child when the child is quite capable of doing it, the message is that “you are to remain incompetent, don’t grow up”. The child’s self-image suffers. If the adult rushes to clean up a child’s spill when the child is capable of doing it, the message is that “you are incompetent”, and, in the child’s mind, the work now belongs to the adult and not to them.\nWith this multi-faceted approach, the Montessori classroom is designed to support the development of the will over time. Guidance from the Montessori materials and the Montessori-trained Guide provide the pathway for the strengthening of a child’s ability to use freedom responsibly, even at a very young age, which sets them up for a more successful future."

"Jerry Kirkpatrick's new book, Montessori, Dewey, and Capitalism: Educational Theory for a Free Market in Education, presents a provocative synthesis of the educational philosophies of Maria Montessori and John Dewey, with the economic philosophies of Ayn Rand and Ludwig Von Mises. At the center of Kirkpatrick's thesis is the belief that public education be subject to a free market model. Kirkpatrick holds that students would thrive in an educational system free from all forms of coercion; something he believes can only be accomplished in a free market educational system that is not bound by government intervention. He borrows from Ayn Rand in arguing that only the individual matters and that all forms of imposed authority, including compulsory, state-run education, need to be abolished.\nProject Muse URL\nAttick, Dennis and Boyles, Deron\n\"Book Review of Jerry Kirkpatrick's Montessori, Dewey, and Capitalism,\"\nEducation and Culture: Vol. 26\n, Article 8.\nAvailable at: http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/eandc/vol26/iss1/art8"

"Wednesday, October 6, 2010\nComic-book making instead of calculus?\nStudents direct their education at Manhattan Free School\nThat is what people FEAR Montessori education to be: comic-book making instead of calculus.\nIt is not.\nE.M. Standing collaborated with Dr. Montessori on the book Maria Montessori: Her Life and Work. The chapter about elementary education includes this section:\nFreedom of Choice Must Still Be Based on Knowledge…Some of the new educationists—says Montessori-- in a reaction against the old system of forcing children to learn by rote a tangled skein of uninteresting facts, go to the opposite extreme, and advocate giving the child “freedom to learn what he likes but without any previous preparation of interest….This is a plan for building without a basis, akin to the political methods that today offer freedom of speech and a vote, without education—granting the right to express thought where there are no thoughts to express, and no power of thinking! What is required for the child, as for society, is help towards the building up of mental faculties, interest being of necessity the first to be enlisted, so that there may be natural growth in freedom.”\nHere, as always, the child’s liberty consists in being free to choose from a basis of real knowledge, and not out of mere curiosity. He is free to take up which of the “radial lines of research” appeals to him, but not to choose “anything he likes” in vacuo. It must be based on a real center of interest, and therefore motivated by what Montessori calls “intellectual love.”\nMontessori was a revolutionary thinker. And she pointed to the middle path: FREEDOM...within limits."

"Liberty is one of those globalised products that all of mankind has accepted whole heartedly. Today, the idea of liberty or freedom has been treated like a commodity that every individual wishes to ‘own’. Liberty is in its very essence a priceless commodity, albeit one which hasn’t been made available to all of mankind in the strictest sense. In fact what has been made available to the most of mankind under the pressures of nationalism is “restricted liberty”.\nOur liberty and freedom is subject to regulation on a regular basis. The degree of violation may vary from person to person and even depends upon who the figure or figures of authority under question are. Violators of our liberty could be the state, our parents, our relatives, the society, our friends, our teachers etc.\nThroughout their lives, humans have to face various restraints; some of these are forced upon them whereas some have been voluntarily accepted by them. Restraints on freedom are omnipresent in both private and public domains. A child has to meet various deadlines imposed on her by her parents. She could be burdened with homework from school which acts as a deterrent factor to the pursuit of her interests, thereby preventing her from doing what she wishes to out of fear of the consequences should she fail to live up the expectations of both her school authorities and her parents. After a certain age, it is often noticed that while choosing her career path a young adult might not be allowed to do what she strongly wishes to, and instead has to pursue what her parents’ wish for her. The parents have in this case unwittingly erected barriers to the child’s liberty in her personal life. But in this case arguments contesting the child’s inability to decipher what is the best for him can be made, thereby necessitating interference by parents. Unintentionally, but this interference usually takes the form of forced restrictions, hindering the child’s overall development. At the same time it acts as a barrier in the child’s overall development and prevents him from thinking freely in fear of the consequences that he might have to face.\nTo understand when liberty has been violated, however, one needs to understand the difference between choice and imposition. Freedom of choice and an environment conducive to make such choices freely is what is required to live with liberty and dignity. Many constitutions enshrine the values and rights of freedom that it grants its citizens, but what mankind needs to realize is that freedom is more of a universal birthright more than something the state has the authority to grant. The duty of the state is to construct an environment conducive for us to enjoy the liberty that we are born with.\nFreedom and liberty is something that one is born with and not something that should be forwarded to us by our government. By virtue of being humans, every human has a right to pursue his or her interests. Sadly governments over the ages have made the minds of common men slavish, and have succeeded in making them believe that freedom and liberty are favours that can only be given to them by their rulers. Mankind thus came up with evil concepts like that of slavery and bonded labour. It was only after independence movements and the influential writings of various scholars did the idea of liberty spread. But freedom they say is restricted in order to control the evil in man. With fear of punishment man doesn’t freely explore the evil rationale in him but does it not act as a deterrent to the enjoyment of freedom too? Do restraints always lead to a positive result? Any restraint overly implemented has its set of drastic side effects. For instance if a child is overly restricted from playing he/she tends to indulges in rebellious activities simple to try and break free; activities which may not always be healthy. But acceptance and understanding the need of these restrictions by the child would act as catalyst in his development.\nOn a more global platform, has this intrinsic liberty been enjoyed by all? If one were to look at the case of people in Afghanistan who live under the terror of the Taliban regime or even look at the citizens of North Korea, lack of free movement, freedom to express their own views and continuous ruthless treatment of the people is a norm in these countries. Words like liberty and freedom are utopian concepts to these people.\nScholars tend to associate democracy with liberty. A democratic country has been associated with the land of the free where people have the choice and the right to pursue happiness. But one can only truly attain liberty when one leads an individualistic life. People tend to confuse individualism with selfishness. But individualism is the ability of man to take moral decisions for himself freely and work to his/her full potential for the betterment of a collective.\nLiberty is a gift that needs to be protected by us individuals in order to lead a life of dignity. Some individuals might have to work harder in order to shield this value as compared to the rest who enjoy the benefit of a more conducive environment that allows them to enjoy this value to a greater extent.\n-Contributed by Urvi Lahoti\nPicture Credits: travelandleisure.com"

"When I think about what it means to be free, I come to the conclusion that I am as free as my choice of experiences and to the extent that I can choose to change my circumstances. In other words, independent choice and agency are freedom, and freedom is a matter of degree. I think this is a useful definition because it’s inclusive: it encompasses the negative liberty concept of “freedom from coercion,” since being credibly threatened reduces my effective options, while accounting for limits to freedom that are not coercive, which are systemic and environmental.\nBut seeing as it’s a matter of degree, could I determine how free I am? How would I measure it? Is there a unit of freedom, “libertons” maybe? Does anyone study this sort of thing? Are there scientific papers on levels of freedom? It turns out there are, and that unfortunately for me, those who seriously study freedom have a more specific approach. They extend the concept of negative liberties to its ultimate economic, political, and social conclusions, with an emphasis on the role of the government. Political scientists William P. Ruger and Jason Sorens at the Mercatus Center, a libertarian think tank, define freedom strictly by how little the government obliges one to do. They’ve taken this standard and applied it to public policy with enough fine-grained precision to rank the fifty states according to how free they are, in their study “Embargoed: Freedom in the 50 States.”\nThe study’s commitment to defining freedom by the lack of government intervention is actually fairly extreme even from a libertarian standpoint. It seems as if the authors are so intent on denying any other circumstantial limit to freedom that they discard analysis of the one function of government most libertarians will recognize: protection of person and property.\nWe would also argue that freedom, properly understood, can be threatened as much by the weakness of the state as by overbearing state intervention. Individuals are less free the more they have reason to fear private assaults and depredations, and a useful government punishes private aggression vigorously. However, we focus on threats to individual liberty originating in the state. Therefore, we do not code the effectiveness of state governments in punishing rights violations. -Embargoed, Page 6\nEven personal coercion, the use of force or intimidation by one person against another, is not a part of their measurement of freedom unless the aggressor is an agent of the government. While studying government interference in freedom is a valid and interesting pursuit, to rhetorically define government non-interference, and that alone, as “freedom” is actually a deeply problematic standard. On the one hand, it makes sense that, for example, laws banning marijuana or which make it illegal to videotape the police are restrictions on one’s choice of actions, and potentially very severe ones. On the other hand, taxation is a vital part of their understanding of freedom: lower taxes mean more freedom. Again, on the surface, it makes sense that the less money someone has, the more limited are their options. I would never argue that economic circumstances do not constrain agency. But most libertarians are able to make a sort of intellectual “devil’s bargain” here, accepting so much taxation to support an institution with a monopoly on the legitimate use of force, which is limited in action to protecting that monopoly. Here there is an implicit recognition that non-legal circumstances constrain freedom: in the authors’ words, “individuals are less free” if they live in fear of violence from other individuals. But this is not actually a part of their measurements, and so freedom from taxation has an asymptotic maximum, no taxes at all, which would be the most free in this respect regardless of one’s personal safety in such a society.\nWith this complete exclusion of circumstances beyond impositions by the government from their measurement of tyranny, the authors are able to discount any argument that the state is an enabler of freedom by providing positive liberties. This is “compulsory welfare,” presumably as much an imposition on freedom as “compulsory upkeep of public security.” From these premises, what conclusions do we reach about the nature of freedom?\nThe authors’ extremely legalistic negative liberty perspective is most appealing when it deals with what libertarians tend to categorize as “social freedom,” called “paternalism” in the study, as a counterpart to “economic freedom.” Laws against the recreational use of drugs, restricting the right to obtain marriage contract, and controlling the ownership and operation of firearms have a direct and constraining affect on the scope of choices many people can make. In theory, libertarians value these freedoms and economic freedoms equally, and the study’s scoring system (graphed on page 65) equally divides weighting between “paternalism” and the economic considerations of “fiscal policy” (taxing and spending) and “regulatory policy.” On closer inspection, though, an interesting pattern emerges.\nConsider that one of the greatest regulatory concerns is “labor regulation.” (Health insurance regulation is tied in importance.) This generally involves policies which “raise the cost of doing business” such as minimum wages, workers’ compensation, and ease of unionization. Right-to-work laws, we are informed, protect “employers and employees” from the predation of a closed union shop (page 7). Many of the other regulatory concerns resolve to costs or restrictions imposed on business, and the “licensing” issue is especially interesting: it represents “guild-style rent-seeking aimed at fleecing the consumer by artificially limiting the supply of services.” It’s worth noting that businesses, through employment, are major “consumers” of skilled “services.” (Page 8.)\nOn the “fiscal policy” side, taxation, the eternal enemy of profit, makes up a quarter of the economic policy concerns, an eighth of the study’s total. The other side of this coin, also weighing in at a quarter of economic freedom metrics, is spending. The authors favor local-level spending over state-level spending. Ostensibly, this is because the actions of local governments are more representative of community needs than distant mandates from the state capitol. An unfortunate side effect is that poor municipalities and counties will have a harder time maintaining infrastructure and services than wealthy localities. A more positive way of looking at this, one I suspect the authors would prefer, is that prosperous citizens will not have as much of their wealth seized and redistributed to benefit the poor. Each of these considerations have a larger share of the total freedom score than any other issue; that is, none of the other governmental impositions on freedom are as important as either taxation or government spending.\nThere’s also something odd about the “paternalism” scores. Campaign finance regulation is listed as an affront to personal liberties, specifically free speech. The authors seem to have an inkling of who actually benefits from unrestricted campaign finance, “suspecting” that donors with deep pockets “are often lobbying for an agenda that restricts freedom in some way.” For this reason, restrictions on corporate and union donors are not considered as important as those on personal or grass-roots lobbying. On the other hand, another reason for this diminished importance is that “corporations may even prefer restrictions on what they can give to candidates so that politicians cannot shake them down for more funds.” Public financing of elections is also considered a hindrance to liberty. (Page 12.) The largest area of concern on the paternalism side is education. State regulations in this category “probably exist to serve the interests of school administrators and teachers’ unions rather than for any more highminded purpose,” the authors note. An important part of assessing a state’s infringement on educational freedom is its policies on private education: whether citizens can receive a tax credits for sending their children to private schools, or whether private school teachers must be licensed or teach according to a mandated curriculum. (Pages 14-15.)\nThe pattern emerging here is that the authors seem to be primarily concerned with the “economic freedom” side of things. This fits with my suspicions about the actual priorities of the libertarian movement, that when economic liberty and social liberty are at odds, the latter gets thrown under the bus, which accounts for why libertarians are more comfortable aligning or allying with the Republican party than the Democratic party. There are additional examples attesting to how libertarians often have a propertarian emphasis which obscures non-economic limits to liberty: they valorize late 19th century, which may have been a freer time for businessmen, but not for women or people of color. Another indication is the scorecards the authors provide. There is one list of rankings for state by “paternalism,” but three for economic freedom: separate fiscal and regulatory scores, and a list of combined economic scores. One of the theoretically “equal” sides of liberty is given much more finely-scaled analysis than the other. It’s important to note, too, that much of the concern over economic freedom is focused on policies which restrict businesses and employers.1\nSo, what are the results of all this? Who’s living free, who toils in tyranny? States in the overall top five include South Dakota, Indiana, Idaho and Missouri, while the bottom five include New York, New Jersey California, and Massachusetts. On economic freedom, beacons of liberty include both Dakotas, Idaho, Oklahoma, and Alabama, while oppressive regimes include (again) New York, New Jersey, California, and Massachusetts. If you notice something counterintuitive about this, you’re not alone. The authors themselves note the oddity that unfree states “…make up a substantial portion of the total American population.” (Page 15.) For some reason, Americans seem to prefer living in relatively despotic regimes. Even a writer at Reason “Free Minds and Free Markets” Magazine doesn’t buy it, and provides a plausible explanation. In critiquing a similar study (of economic freedom) with similar results, Nick Gillespie writes that economic freedom may be “just another word for nothing left to do.”\nThe simple fact is that many people–arguably most people, if population patterns are any indication–are ready, willing, and able to pay a steep premium to live in more densely populated places where things inevitably cost more money and take more time, where there are more regulations, higher taxes, bigger annoyances, you name it.\nIt’s useful to think of any given area as making a deal with people who might live there: We’ll throw off this much employment opportunity, this many diversions, this much action, at a given price –a figure that includes not only money but all the sorts of petty tyrannies that zoning and planning boards routinely generate.\nRuger and Sorens respond to this idea on page 23 of “Embargoed” by, essentially, arguing that Alabama may someday be the new New York. They support this with an observation that internal migration generally flows from unfree states to freer states and (by way of quoting another writer) that the cultural and social Meccas of today were once backwater cities, pining for the “dynamic freedom” once offered by cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York in the 19th century, which “led to their rise.” In addition to possessing the same blind spots with regard to freedom in this conception of a 19th century Golden Age (rather than a Gilded Age) noted above, the authors have a strange understanding of how and why cities form and grow. Chicago and Los Angeles were once backwaters because they were once frontier towns, and the major factor in their growth was the pattern of western expansion and settlement. The “economic freedom” they offered was that of an unsettled wilderness. Exploitation of natural resources and land for cultivation were their main draws. New York has a similar story stretching back to colonial history, but it’s worth noting that it didn’t overtake Philadelphia as America’s premier city until a massive and ambitious public works project, the Eerie Canal, opened up the agricultural production of the Midwest to distribution at New York’s ports. The growth of New York City was aided and abetted by big government spending. It’s also not clear that even if, say, Sioux Falls were to overtake Los Angeles, it wouldn’t eventually have to institute similar policies. “Unfree” policies may actually accrete around densely populated areas for a reason.\nNew York actually provides a good example of what is really going on in this conception of freedom, and why it seems very odd and out of touch. On page 15 the authors write:\nNew York is the least free by a considerable margin. This will surprise few residents of the Empire state.\nAll I can say to this is that as a person who lived in New York for most of his life, this absolutely does surprise me. I wouldn’t consider myself more free living in South Dakota, in any case.2 There are problems with New York, of course. If someone simply wanted to argue that it’s a prohibitively expensive place to live, I could not and would not offer any argument. But there’s a big difference, it seems to me, between economic pragmatism, on the one hand, and the authors’ concept of economic “freedom” on the other. Even greater is the difference between this concept of freedom and what I perceive to be the actual, living experience of being free. On the one hand, I can’t afford to live in New York without a very good job, a constraint on my choices, but on the other, I’d very much like to live and work in New York City and consider it to provide good employment, social, cultural, and entertainment opportunities. Even when I was working in the city, though, I wasn’t able able to maintain the lifestyle I wanted within driving distance inside the state. I didn’t pack up my bags for the liberated land of Alabama, though. I just rented an apartment in New Jersey, a comparatively less expensive state even if it is nearly as much of a tyranny.3\nAn article on the blog “newgeography” written by Fred Siegel looks at New York’s issues from the perspective of economic pragmatism: the author’s concerns are practical matters which people really have to consider when deciding where to live, such as employment opportunity and quality, cost of living, taxes, etc. He doesn’t elevate these concerns to the lofty heights of ideals like freedom, instead using realistic analysis to answer the question, why has New York led the country in out-migration? His summary of reasons is revealing:\n…a new Marist poll released last week suggests that the rate is likely to increase: 36 percent of New Yorkers under 30 are planning to leave over the next five years. Why are all these people fleeing?\nFor one thing, according to a recent survey in Chief Executive, New York State has the second-worst business climate in the country. (Only California ranks lower.) People go where the jobs are, so when a state repels businesses, it repels residents, too. It’s also telling that in the Marist poll, 62 percent of New Yorkers planning to leave cited economic factors—including cost of living (30 percent), taxes (19 percent), and the job environment (10 percent)—as the primary reason.\nNotice that while he leads with a focus on employment opportunity, this makes up a small part of the actual reasons for leaving his sources cite: despite conceptually tying employment concerns to “economic factors,” the “job environment” is a minor factor. The most important factor seems to be cost of living. Gillespie has an interesting take on this:\nFewer tax and regulatory hassles and, most important, a tremendously lower cost of living are, in the end, probably not that important to people… Living in [a small Texas town] in particular taught me that the cost of living is far less important than the demand for living.\nBy the most basic of economic axioms, demand for something increases its price. The cost of living in New York may not reflect artificial legal impositions on the economy so much as popular demand for its various advantages. There is an embedded argument for the spirit of my conception of liberty here: what people seem to value is a choice in meaningful options for how to spend their time. They will prefer to live in places that support a breadth of options. Ruger and Sorens even note that in terms of migration, “…the positive effect of personal freedom is actually more than twice as large as that of economic freedom.” (Page 18.) The freedoms, even in terms of strictly government-focused negative liberty, that matter to people are those that affect their variety of options and experiences in life, whether this is their freedom to marry, their control over their reproduction,4 their ability to indulge in recreational vices, etc. Business regulation and taxes are secondary concerns. People don’t generally demand that the government stay out of their financial lives anywhere near as much as they demand that their lives are rich in diverse activities and freedom to change their circumstances. It doesn’t take much thinking to realize that prosperous and populous places with a strong public infrastructure and social safety net provide these, whatever they may take in taxation. So who, exactly, does economic freedom matter to?\nPerhaps looking at the article in Chief Executive Siegel cites would be instructive. If nothing else, I trust businessmen to approach public policy with a pragmatic eye towards profit rather than an idealistic search for moral values. Like “Embargoed,” it offers a ranking of states (here, according to the surveyed opinions of CEOs), and there are familiar losers: New York, New Jersey, and California are in the bottom five. Interestingly, though, their first place winner, Texas, has a modest 15th place in the Mercatus study’s economic freedom rankings. Could it be that economic freedom doesn’t even matter to CEOs?\nRuger and Sorens praise Texas for its low taxes and spending, generally loose labor regulation, lack of obligation on employers to contribute to worker’s comp funds, and deregulation. These align with the chief concerns of the CEOs surveyed: taxation, regulation, and employment flexibility. Issues such as health insurance regulation and eminent domain, which hurt Texas’ ranking in “Embargoed,” don’t appear on the CEOs’ radars. In fact, one area where they two rankings butt heads is over education: the CEOs seem to prize quality education and the article chides Texas for its poor policy in this regard, while the Mercatus study praises Texas for its lack of educational regulation. In general, though, the biggest factors in “economic freedom” correspond with the desires of businessmen.5 While the CEOs are generally as practical as I expected, describing their concerns in terms of what is good for business, there is an area in which they take on an idealistic tone.\nOne of the key tasks of this analysis is to untangle the relationship between the conception of the universal ideal of freedom expressed in “Embargoed,” the policies it represents, and the actual concerns of most people. The authors use a universal moral ideal, liberty, to describe policies that seem to be special interests by tying the needs and desires of businessmen to the lofty goal of freedom. The CEOs, too, express their concerns in a universal tone, tying their interests to those of ordinary people. They are much more frank and mercenary in their manner of expressing it, however. Consider this complaint about environmental regulation:\nThen there is [California’s] carbon emission law (AB 32), which the Small Business Roundtable and PRI say will cost half a million in foregone jobs in 2011 and up to 1.3 million jobs by 2020. What’s more, it is by no means certain the law will reduce carbon emissions since it only applies to California.\nIt’s not clear how much of a practical concern it is to CEOs how many jobs will be aborted by this policy, since they would be the ones making more conservative hiring decisions in reaction to the constraints this policy places on them. One surveyed businessman is very open about the implications here:\nWe need some political backbone to control spending, address out-of-control debts, and use common sense on environmental and other governmental regulations. Quit demonizing businesses. Who do they think provide real jobs?\nIn other words, give us the policies we want or we’re taking your jobs and going to Texas. Employment, the source of most peoples’ livelihood, is a bargaining chip. Businessmen want more control over it, as evidenced by praise for the destruction of collective bargaining rights, reduction in public employment, and a desire for “labor market flexibility.” In return, ordinary people get to work for them. As one CEO puts it,\nMake sure your tax scheme does not drive business to another state. Have a regulatory environment and regulators that encourage good business—not one that punishes businesses for minor infractions. Good employment laws help too. Let companies decide what benefits and terms will attract and keep the quality of employee they need. Rules that make it hard, if not impossible, to separate from a non-productive employee make companies fearful to hire or locate in a state.\nIn each case, the price of employment is greater control over it by employers. The economic freedom of hiring and firing thus resolves to a concentration of power in the hands of employers. The benefit to ordinary people is not so much freedom as economic survival, with a high degree of dependency. There is nothing idealistic about these concerns; they are expressed in very practical terms, although they correspond to an important part of “economic freedom.” Where the Chief Executive article becomes idealistic is in its discussion of regulations. In each of these quotes, businessmen don’t seem openly against regulation, per se. They simply want regulation to be “fair,” to not be punitive, to display common sense. They are somewhat short on details as to what, exactly, this means. This is cause for suspicion, and it’s borne out by a careful look at the criticism of California’s new emissions standards. The article’s author expresses skepticism that it will be of any use in reducing emissions since it only applies to California. Putting aside the objection that reducing emissions in one of the most populous and most car-dependent states may have significant effects on pollution, it’s clear that the author doesn’t really mean it. The concern over effectiveness is a ploy for audience sympathy, and to see that you only have to realize what a good argument it makes for expanding this job-killing regulation to all states.\nThe triumph of vague idealism over detailed pragmatism in regulation is most obvious when the article discusses another California environmental regulation:\nSacramento seems to take perverse delight in job-killing legislation, of which the pair of bills known as California’s “Green Chemistry Initiative” that former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law in September 2008 serve as an example. The regulations mandated that “manufacturers seek safer alternatives to toxic chemicals in their products, and create tough governmental responses for lack of compliance.” When the 92-page final set of commands was issued, the “green community” demanded a rewrite with even tougher requirements.\nLook at the word choice here: “mandated,” “commands,” “demanded.” This is the language of economic freedom! Instead of freely choosing business practices, entrepreneurs are forced to obey the dictates of the state. Lost in the shuffle here is any discussion of whether the Green Chemistry Initiative is actually a good idea. Are “safer alternatives to toxic chemicals in their products” bad things? Is this a front for frivolous interference? At no point does the article assess the fairness or sensibility of these laws, only the burden they represent. Business must be free from state coercion in the choice of chemicals they choose to use, or be reduced to serfdom.\nIf living in fear of violence reduces peoples’ freedom, how does uncertainty about the products they consume affect their liberty? Or anxiety about their future prosperity when their livelihood is entirely dependent on the whims of their employer and they lack any recourse in a confrontation? It’s clear at this point that economic freedom deserves no such lofty term. What it signifies is not the universal moral ideal of liberty, but policy that empowers business interests. If the apparent popularity of economically “unfree” states and the double emphasis ordinary people tend to place on non-economic liberty weren’t enough to demonstrate this, the CEOs’ frank discussion of labor laws and regulations should make the case very plain. Economic freedom doesn’t appeal to most people because it doesn’t actually benefit most people. Employers reap the greatest rewards of this kind of liberty. Employees (i.e., most people) gain the fringe benefit of continued subsistence.\nIt’s interesting to take a second look at Texas, darling of the CEOs, in the context of Siegel’s article on New York’s lack of opportunity. It’s clear that New York is losing residents and Texas is gaining them. We could attribute this to the “Texas Miracle” of job creation, fueled perhaps by an abundance of “economic freedom.” But Siegel complains that the opportunities in New York City are limited to menial and low-paying jobs with poor advancement prospects. The providence behind the Texas Miracle, meanwhile, is “race to the bottom” policies that result in poor working conditions and low-wage jobs. Siegel makes the case crystal clear when he writes that “people go where the jobs are.” All other lines of evidence indicate the people would like to go where the action is, where there is variety and culture and the personal freedom to explore a wide range of choices and experiences. But of course, if businessmen would prefer a “freer” state with fewer such options, then many people will have few practical options but to follow. Economic freedom is the freedom to follow your paymaster, even if he takes you away from vibrant and exciting places. Economic freedom is, for most people, no freedom at all. In fact, it’s just just the opposite: a reduction in choice and a destruction of independent agency. It gets the government off your boss’s back so he can climb onto yours.\nUpdate: Salon has posted an article on the most recent release of this study, which shows that not much has changed in the past two years.\n1. I want to note that this economic emphasis not part of any hidden agenda on the authors’ part, so far as I can tell. They seem genuinely interested in analyzing “personal” or “social” freedom. In their notes on methodology, they point out that most studies of this kind only discuss economic freedom. Still, there seems to be an unconscious emphasis on economic liberties. As to the party-line divides, the study discusses the correlation between freedom scores and political parties, finding that left-liberal or Democratic party strongholds, contrary to the “economic authoritarian, social libertarian” stereotype, score poorly on personal freedoms compared to right-conservative or Republican party states in certain metrics. Of course, one should take into account that in the authors’ opinion freedom is limited by, for example, regulation of alcohol and tobacco, a restriction on both consumers and producers, licensing and standards requirements for home-schooling and private education, arguably a benefit to the ultimate liberty of children by ensuring a standard of quality in education even outside the school system, and gun-control laws, which has interesting implications given their dismissal of the state’s role in providing security as a function of freedom. In general, then, social freedom corresponds closely with Republican party platform planks, thus aligning their ideal of personal freedom more closely with the party favoring their ideal of economic freedom. The areas where the authors do not investigate social or personal freedom are just as revealing of this bias (see note 4).\n2. Anecdotally, I’ve noticed that people with a conservative or libertarian political bent living in other states often have very strange ideas about New York which seem to be a projection of their own concerns more than anything actual New Yorkers care about. I was once involved in a Facebook discussion about New York’s laws restricting the sale and ownership of knives. As far as I could tell, I was the only participant who had actually lived in New York. The others seemed to find New York’s knife laws to be an oppressive imposition, at one point citing “Embargoed” to highlight the state’s lack of freedom, and one person even suggested that New Yorkers need to overthrow their government oppressors, by force if necessary. I can’t think of many political issues most actual New Yorkers care less about than whether they can buy certain kinds of knives, and this includes conservatives in New York.\n3. The study’s evaluation of New Jersey is another good example of the variance between the importance of “economic freedom,” the lived experience of being free, and how out-of-touch these rankings feel as a result. The authors offer the Garden State this liberatory advice: “Cut state funding to local school districts and use the savings to cut income, property, and cigarette taxes.” All of a sudden, there are a host of questions about the authors’ priorities. Perhaps children in poor towns, which can’t afford to provide quality schools with local funding alone, will make up for their lack of opportunity due to stunted education by being able to buy a pack of Camels on the cheap? It all balances out in the end. On the plus side, their recommendations for “asset forfeiture,” requiring a higher burden of proof and redirecting funds from law enforcement, adroitly recognizes a true bane of liberty in New Jersey: the revenue-focused highway robbery of its traffic courts system.\n4. Interestingly, while the authors collected data on abortion rights, they did not incorporate them into their index. They cite the moral ambiguity of the issue, and on similar grounds they exclude analysis of the death penalty. Reproductive freedom probably ranks very highly in the concerns of the “left-liberals” they describe as not being as socially libertine as commonly thought. This is another area where the authors’ evaluation of personal liberty seems suspiciously compatible with right-conservative and Republican party concerns. Rather than actively courting this interest, the aim here is (seemingly) to avoid offending a conservative audience by not taking a stand even on issues where an “intrusion by the state” focus seems to have a very clear implication. Which party or political tendency would be most offended by decrying government restrictions on access to abortion, or the death penalty as an unacceptable exercise of power by the state? How many libertarians actually believe life begins at conception, or that it’s a good thing for the state to use deadly force more frequently? On the other hand, they are very clear about supporting gay marriage and marijuana legalization, so it’s possible that this represents a sincere difference of opinion between the authors. It’s also just as possible that there is no even theoretical way to construe legal restrictions on gay marriage or recreational drug use as consistent with a libertarian perspective, “tying their hands,” in a sense.\n5. In fairness, the Chief Executive article also takes into account factors which “Embargoed” does not, which will necessarily skew the results."

"In my last post I talked about the different ideas or abstractions we each hold related to the ideas of “freedom” and “discipline,” and how these directly affect our interactions with children and our view of education and/or parenting. In this post I want to elaborate a bit further on what the Montessori idea of freedom is, then briefly touch on how it’s related to discipline; in my next post, I’ll place the emphasis on the Montessori idea of discipline and how its foundation is freedom.\nLet me start by stating emphatically what the Montessori idea of freedom is not: freedom is not simply letting any child at any time do whatever he or she wants.\nI’m going to quote at length here Maria Montessori herself, because she says it so much better than I could. Then I’ll try to explain it a bit and provide some examples.\n“Freedom is understood [by most institutions] in a very elementary fashion, as an immediate release from oppressive bonds; as a cessation of corrections and of submission to authority. This conception is plainly negative, that is to say, it means only the elimination of coercion. From this comes, often enough, a very simply ‘reaction’: a disorderly pouring out of impulses no longer controlled because they were previously controlled by the adult’s will. ‘To let the child do as he likes,’ when he has not yet developed any powers of control, is to betray the idea of freedom.\nThe result is children who are disorderly because order had been arbitrarily imposed upon them, children lazy because previously forced to work, children disobedient because their obedience had been enforced.\nReal freedom, instead, is a consequence of development; it is the development of latent guides, aided by education. Development is active. It is the construction of the personality, reached by effort and one’s own experiences; it is the long road, which every child must travel to attain maturity.” – The Absorbent Mind, pg 185\nIn other words, real freedom is not simply being able to do whatever one wants at any given moment, whether that be throwing a tantrum or murdering someone without consequences. Real freedom is being master of one’s self, understanding the balance between acting on one’s good impulses yet also being able to inhibit them at the appropriate time or for the good of others. It is possessing one’s self, being self-aware and self-controlled, not because you are being imposed upon from without, but because you have truly come to understand what is good for you and what will aid your development, and you have the self-mastery to be able to choose and act upon those things.\nTo put it another way: freedom is the ability to see, know, love, and choose the good.\nAnd this kind of freedom is HIGHLY ordered and HIGHLY structured and HIGHLY disciplined. Remember the images of different ideas of “freedom” I put in my last post: freedom of the girl at the party, of the kids making a mess in the living room…. well, the image of freedom that fits the Montessori ideal would be this one:\nThis bee is free – free actually, to do what he wants, and freely doing it. What he wants is to do what bees do, which is a highly structured and disciplined process! The process of a bee pollinating a flower is complex and intricate, but this structure and “discipline”, if you will, does not get in the way of the bee’s happiness. It is the bee’s happiness; the bee is free to be itself.\nIf you saw a bee that was flying all over the place, from flower to flower or plant to plant, never stopping long, looking rather sporadic, you wouldn’t think “Now THAT is a truly free bee!” You would think, “Geez, something is wrong with that bee… I wonder if it is sick? I wonder if something is wrong with the plants that is making it act that way?”\nMaria Montessori believed it was the same with children. A child who was mean, or selfish, or lacked self-control, or was wild, was not a free child. This was a deviated child, a child who had encountered some kind of obstacle in the path of his normal development. She observed that children who were allowed to grow in accord with the natural laws of their development were in fact calm, ordered, peaceful, and able to concentrate for long, long periods of time. She called these “normalized” children – children who had developed normally. In fact, she called this the “true child” and claimed that we had so many prejudices and misconstrued ideas about children because most of our experiences of children were experiences of deviated children.\nSo in order for a child to become “normalized,” that is, on the normal path to development, we have to understand exactly what IS the normal developmental path for a child and create an environment that fulfills these natural needs of the child. This is the other meaning of “freedom” – freedom for the child to develop according to the natural laws behind his development. Otherwise, the child encounters obstacles to his development that lead to all sorts of deviated behaviors… to go back to the example of the bee, most of our schools (and sometimes even our parenting) are the equivalent of locking the bee up in a mason jar during the most important developmental stages of its life. Then, if we were to finally let it out – it would act crazy, because it would have never had the opportunity to develop into what it was supposed to be. This is exactly like the child that we pin to a desk for the first 18 years of its life, forcing him to do exactly what he’s told by the adult and punishing him for any signs of rebellion, then release into the world and expect to be a productive and disciplined member of society. It’s just not going to happen.\nOK, so in the Children’s House (the name of the classroom for children ages 2.5-6), there are certain development laws that we must follow in order to create an environment in which the child can be free to develop normally and therefore, create self-discipline (details on that later):\n- Freedom to choose their own work\n- In the Montessori classroom, every child is free to choose their own work or activity, with only a few limits: 1) They can only choose a work they have been shown how to do (so it’s up to the teacher to guide the child to works that are developmentally appropriate for that child), and 2) They must use the work in the way it is meant to be used.\n- So in other words, a three year old who has very little self-control or self-discipline may only be allowed to choose from two works, each of which have very few steps involved, whereas a 5 year old child who has already developed a lot of virtues of self-control and responsibility could have the entire classroom open to her. As the three year old develops more capacity for self-control and self-discipline, his options expand.\n- Either way – in the case of the 3 year old with only 2 options available or the 5 year old with every option available – it is still the child’s choice. The teacher never forces the child to do a specific work.\n- The child can also choose not to work, and as long as he or she is not being disruptive or destructive, this is fine.\n- Freedom to move\n- Young children have to MOVE – this is how they learn, how they experience their environment, how they develop self-control and fine and gross motor skills.\n- In the Montessori classroom the children are free to move about the room, choose which location to work, whether at a table or on a rug on the ground.\n- Also all of the works involve movement – however, this is not RANDOM movement, it is PURPOSEFUL movement, so while the children are fully living their developmentally appropriate need to move, they are doing so in a way that calls them to build unity between their mind and their body; they’re not running around with no control, instead they are pouring water and trying not to spill even a drop, or they are carrying a tray with multiple objects on it and trying to ensure that not a single one moves, or they are working with a math manipulative that involves walking from one side of the room to the other multiple times while holding a certain abstraction in their memory…. all of the movement in the Montessori classroom invites the children to develop coordination, self-control, self-awareness, and fine motor skills.\n- Freedom to speak and express themselves\n- Whereas in many school classrooms the children are only given specific times of the day when they can talk (recess or Center Time, for example), in the Montessori classroom they are allowed to talk throughout the day.\n- The limits are those that are demanded by mutual respect for others: talking must be done in a quiet voice so as not to distract or disrupt others who are working; when someone else is speaking, we are listening; and all of our language must be appropriate, respectful, and kind.\n- Freedom to work, uninterrupted, for as long as needed\n- In a Montessori classroom we place a high value on what is called the “Uninterrupted Work Cycle” – this refers to a 3 hour period of uninterrupted work.\n- This does NOT mean that each child must be working for 3 hours straight!\n- What it means is that for 3 hours, there are no scheduled extra-curricular activities, no forced transitions, nothing that would cause the adult to hurry the child along.\n- In many schools kids get 15 minutes at a time to complete work before moving on to the next thing (whether that be another subject, another class, another activity, or whatever). Or think about home life, how often we are rushing our children along so we can get out the door in the morning or “hurry up and eat” or whatever! The adult pace is VASTLY different than the child’s pace.\n- In the Montessori classroom every morning is protected for 3 hours – during that 3 hours the children are free to choose their own work and work on it for as long as they need to. I have seen children pick a work and stick with it for an hour, hour and a half until they complete it and feel like they have explored it as much as they need to. This is the time when the children are really building their concentration, self-awareness, and connection with reality.\nAlright I know this is getting really long so I’ll end it here. In my next post I’ll talk more about how self-discipline in developed in this context, but hopefully you can already see how the freedom in the Montessori classroom is very different than a free-for-all, even though the children are indeed truly free and not imposed upon from without. I can speak from experience how truly marvelous it is to see very young, previously “wild” children spontaneously and happily become calm, ordered, peaceful, and sweet when they are allowed the freedom to be themselves – to be their true selves, their selves that long for the dignity of real work, real responsibility, and free choice.\n“Free choice is one of the highest of all the mental processes. Only the child deeply aware of his need for practice and for the development of his spiritual life can really be said to choose freely. It is not possible to speak of free choice when all kind of external stimuli attract a child at the same time and, having no will power, he responds to every call, passing restlessly from one thing to another. This is one of the most important distinctions that the teacher must be able to make. The child who cannot yet obey an interior guide is not that free being who sets out to follow the long and narrow path toward perfection. He is still a slave to superficial sensations which leave him at the mercy of his environment. His spirit bounces back and force like a ball. Manhood is born within him when his soul becomes aware of itself, when he sets himself a task, finds his way and chooses.” The Absorbent Mind, pg 246"

"Get up and move: 5 alive!\nIn this research project, we addressed if incorporating physical movements with preschoolers will help increase their ability to retain concepts learned in preschool such as letter, sound and number recognition. Movement plays an important role in the brain. Exercise shows many benefits for the brain to help maintain clearer thought, improve memory, and increase activity in the brain, especially the areas involved in memory, attention, and language. The following research includes an eight week study of the implementation of movement breaks with one preschool class, while using another class as a control group. During the two weeks of baseline data, data was collected from every student in both groups on their letter recognition with both upper and lower case, letter sound identification, and number recognition for numbers 0-10. The group that implemented movement breaks had three-five minute scheduled times to stop for movement. Data was collected and compared between the two groups to find differences in their academic performance. The study found that the movement group had a greater increase in their letters, sounds, and number recognition than the control group.\nSagdalen, Vanessa R., \"Get up and move: 5 alive!\" (2012). School of Education Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations. 2475."

"Stomp and Play provides a music and movement program for preschool age children which allows a child to experience invigorating auditory, visual, language, and motor activities which fosters early childhood brain development. The children will have an opportunity to participate in singing, playing, talking, exploring objects, and physical space which are just some of the ways to stimulate brain development. The language portion of the brain is enhanced greatly by interaction with others due to the fact the brain can connect words with objects and experiences. Movement gets the brain going and music will boost learning.\nTo bring a positive and engaging music and movement experience vital to the foundation of the development of the whole child in an early childhood setting.\nProvide quality developmental appropriate music and movement activities that will enhance and foster the development of a young child. By offering a hands on approach each child will develop a positive outlook toward school, a better appreciation of the world around them, and acquire a love for learning through music and movement.\nBenefits For Children\n• Increases school readiness\n• Promotes better social/motor skill development\n• Helps build developing muscles, bones, and joints faster\n• Healthy life style skills\n• Healthy for brain development\n• Challenges high level thinking skills\n• Enhances the ability to process musical sounds and patterns"

"Finger plays are a great way to develop baby’s fine motor skills, to boost his mood and stir him up, or vice versa, to soothe the fidget. The article “Finger Plays for Early Language Development” is posted on our blog to help mums organize these useful plays.\nMovements of the fingers and the hands of a child have special, developmental effects. The influence of manual (hand) influences on the human’s brain development has been known since the 2nd century B.C. In China experts assure that games involving hand movements promote the harmonious state of the body and mind, support brain systems in excellent condition. In China exercises when hands manipulate stone and metal balls are popular. In Japan exercises for hands using walnuts are widely used.\nSimple hand movements help to remove stress not only from the very hands but from the lips as well, and relieve mental fatigue. They are able to improve pronunciation of sounds and develop a child’s speech accordingly.\nWhy are finger plays so useful for babies? Studies of scientists have proved that each finger has a “representation” in the cerebral cortex of the brain. This explains the fact that the correct formation and development of a wrist, and especially fingers, are very important for the language development and for the whole development of a baby. Babies start mastering language only when the movements of their fingers become precise a bit. In other words, little baby’s hands “lay a foundation” for language development. Scientists note that there is every reason to consider a hand as the organ of speech – a kind of the articulatory apparatus. The development of finger fine movements promotes the appearance of articulation of syllables. Due to the development of fingers, a projection of “schemes of the human body” is formed in the brain, and verbal reactions directly dependent on the trained fingers.\nFinger plays are not only entertaining and funny for both children and adults, they also have a huge developmental potential.\n• Coordination of movements is being improved.\n• Fine motor skills and deftness of hands are being developed.\n• Development of memory and attention.\n• Very powerful for language development!\nMoreover, finger plays help a child’s brain develop relationship between the left and right hemispheres, and synchronize their work. The stronger the relationships are between the two hemispheres, the more there are nerve impulses in the brain, the more their speed and the more active process of thinking, the more capable and attentive your baby will be. Therefore, if you strive for your baby to be able to talk well, to be a deft person and to be able to learn, you should train his fingers and hands from birth.\nWhat rules should be followed, when organizing finger plays for babies? Finger plays for babies have some distinctive features. If older children tend to imitate and copy adults’ movements on their own, so the smallest ones need to be taught and interested.\nWhat does the concept “finger plays” mean?\nFinger plays for children are not just targeted lessons but also daily activities for them. For example, the daily lacing and knotting are a great stimulation for little fingers. With the right approach, fingers of the school-age children should already be perfectly deft and independent.\nTypes of finger plays\n• Plays based on the reaction speed development. These can be claps, touches, and various hand movements which should be exactly repeated by a child. Such finger plays as “Give me Five”, “Where are Baby’s Fingers?” can be appropriate.\n• Plays based on the fairy-tale plots.\n• Plays-gymnastics. These finger plays are a kind of exercises and are usually played after long lessons with the child.\nYou can not only use each type separately but also combine them to achieve the best effect.\nWhen playing finger plays with the baby under one year old, you should follow the recommendations.\nTo achieve maximum effect, lessons with a baby from the first months of life should be comprehensive. Each lesson should involve the games for stretching, relaxation and closing fingers for baby’s hands to develop harmoniously. Start and end a play with hand massage. Within the first months of life babies cannot make the movements on their own, so adults should help. To hemispheres develop equally, both hands must be involved in playing and the exercises should be done correctly.\nPraise your baby for every even the smallest achievement; it is the obligatory condition for successful lessons.\nIt is necessary to start training baby’s fingers from an early age, since the baby’s motility in the early period of life is the first and the only aspect of his development available to observe objectively. Fine motor development promotes the fine development of a child.\nRemember that your baby’s nervous system is not stable yet, so the games especially developmental ones, should last no longer than 10-20 minutes. Otherwise, the baby will quickly get tired and capricious.\nThe following exercises are recommended to do at an early age:\n• Pull baby’s fingers slightly, as if you want to pull them out. The movements should be very slight and delicate.\n• Perform clockwise and counterclockwise circular movements of each finger separately.\nIt is also great to use mini-training equipment such as fluffy latex balloons (they are sold in pet shops).\nUp to 3 months put small balls with a diameter of 3-4 cm into your baby’s palms. When he falls asleep, holding these balls, his hands keep the correct form.\nIn 4-5 months large balls are used. Massage is changed as well: holding baby’s arms in your hands, it is necessary to fix the ball between his hands and twist.\nIn 5-6 months to strengthen the palm muscles the exercise “Combing” is good to do. Put your baby’s hands alternately up and gently move them along the head forward and backward. While doing this exercise, muscles of shoulder girdle, hands and fingers work. At the same age you should start massaging baby’s hands, each finger and each phalanx. Knead them daily for 2-3 minutes.\nIf your baby’s hands are mostly in fists, insert your pointing fingers into the baby’s palms. It will be a great training. Your baby will reflexively compress his hands, and you will be able to slightly lift him up. In length of time this exercise will help your little one to learn to grab and let go, and as it is well known, grasping reflex is directly connected with the emotional development. It is better to start massage with the strokes, perform the alternate bending and unbending. After a few lessons your baby will be able to perform these movements on his own. Once the baby is about 10 months old, you can start developing his hands and fingers by movements.\nIn 6-7 months, besides previous exercises, start rolling a walnut along the baby’s palm (circular movements) for 3-4 minutes. You baby can already master such finger play as “Fee Fi Fo Fum” for example. Finger plays for babies of this age can be played by sorting large and smaller items, rolling balls and beads of various diameters.\nIn 8-10 months start doing intensive exercises involving as more fingers as possible. Such finger plays as “Here we go”, “Five Fingers”, “Merry Mice”, etc. train well the movements of fingers.\nAt an early age, when a baby has not yet learned to talk, he can imitate the sounds of characters from finger plays, thus developing his articulatory apparatus (“ribbit- ribbit,” “squeak-squeak”), or show actions with facial expressions and gestures (“bear walks, swaying”, “bunny hops” etc.).\nAt this age it is recommended to use peeping toys during the exercises. Give your baby a peeping toy. While you are saying a rhyme, your baby should press tight and slightly a peeping toy in his hand.\nIn 10-12 months encourage your baby to disassemble and assemble a pyramid, number and size of rings don’t matter. Teach your baby at this age to hold a spoon, a cup, a pencil. Show him how to draw scribbles.\nChildren’s plasticine is a great way to stimulate early language development, fine motor skills and logical thinking of a child.\nBy the age of eighteen months old infants should be taught to lace shoes and button clothes on their own. And young babies can train these skills with the help of pieces of cloth where buttons of different size are sewn, and special lacing toys. And these will be great finger plays for children.\nAlso drawing with pencils and collecting lego will be great finger plays. Moreover, all children at the age of 2 years old just love the mosaic, which is an ideal toy for the fine motor skills development. And 3 year old children already can manipulate scissors and plasticine, creating fairy-tale characters or picturesque applications. At older ages children can start beading and knitting.\nWhat kind of games can be played outdoors? Of course, games with the sand. Even the adults know that while moving sand on the beach, emotional stress is being relieved, and it is possible to relax. It is also useful for the baby to sort the stones and put them in a bucket.\nIt should be noted that finger plays are a unique opportunity for children to be happy, and to create good relations between the restless babies and their parents.\nFinger plays and rhymes\nLearning the texts with finger exercises stimulates the language development and emotional expressiveness. Finger plays when combined with learning texts are one of the best ways to stimulate not only language development, but also attention, spatial thinking, reaction speed, and imagination.\nFinger plays make it easier for a baby to remember the poetic texts and to make his language the most expressive.\nA rhyme is a means of soothing a young child. Finger plays should be learned step-by-step.\nIf there are characters or concepts unknown for the baby in a finger play, you should first acquaint him with them using toys or pictures beforehand. Firstly you should choose the finger plays the plot of which allow you to “run” with your fingers along the baby’s back or a hand, stroke or tickle him.\nThen you should demonstrate the upcoming game to your baby. Secondly show him the game manipulating his fingers already. Now both you and your baby can perform the movements of the play at the same time, and you say the text. After some time your baby should perform the movement on his own and you only say the text. But if the little one suddenly needs help, you should immediately help him. After some more time your baby will not only independently perform movements of the play, but also say the rhyme, and your task will be to suggest and help your baby.\nFor a play to be successful you should play with very expressive facial expressions; for your baby to understand the information easier, you should pause in the appropriate places, and comment the movements with the correct intonation.\nAt first it is better to play two or three games, and once they are mastered, play the new ones.\nIn conclusion it should be noted that it depends on you whether your baby will like the play. Therefore, if your baby is very young, you should be gentle and calm and your touches should be soft. And if your child is older than four or five years old, expressive facial expressions and interesting speech are very important, so working with this age group, it is better to learn the poems by heart."

"Movement helps to boost children’s learning – it is a theory called “Embodied Cognition” where the link between the brain and the body can help children to gain a deeper understanding of the material they are learning. In “How Acting Out in School Boosts Learning“, the article cited a study that shows how gesturing can help children retain the knowledge that they have learned.\nFor example, when faced with a problem such as “6+ 4 + 3 = ___ + 4,” many children interpret the equals sign to mean, “add up all the numbers,” and they put 17 in the blank space. What is the best way to teach children the “equalizer” strategy (i.e., make one side equal to the other side)? The researchers taught some children to say, “to solve this problem, I need to make one side equal to the other side.” Other children were taught to use the left hand to sweep under the left-hand side of the equation and the right hand to sweep under the right-hand side of the equation, that is, equalizing in gesture. A third group was taught both the verbal and the gestural equalizer strategies. On a long-term test of strategy use, the children taught to use a gesture (alone or in combination with the verbal statement) retained the strategy better than did the children taught only the verbal statement. – Scientific American\nGesturing Helps Children Retain What They Learn\nIf gesturing can help children retain what they’ve learned more easily, I wonder what the implications of signing and Sign Language would be? Could this gesturing explain why infants that learn to sign have more rapid development of language skills compared to children that do not sign – because signing reinforces their learning of language? And if signing (or gesturing with our hands) is good for learning, could there also be benefits for teaching older children how to sign?\nPreviously, the purpose for teaching infants to sign was so that they could communicate their needs and wants with us while they are still learning how to speak. Once they are capable of speaking, the urgency to learn Sign is no longer there. However, if gesturing can help children learn, then perhaps it would be beneficial to continue teaching children to sign even after they’re past the toddler stage? Food for thought…\nLearning to Sign with Signing Time\nThe program I used to teach G1 to sign when he was a baby was Signing Time. With their catchy tunes and video lessons, it was easy to learn how to sign regular everyday words. Now Signing Time has released a free online dictionary of signs that you can refer to to learn how to sign simple, everyday words. They are adding more signs to the dictionary regularly, and if there is a specific word you want to learn how to sign, you can write in to ask them how to sign it."

"As you’ve probably already experienced, teaching the concept of time to your students can have them shedding a few tears and you pulling a few hairs out. Many of them struggle with telling the difference between the hour and minute hand as well as how each works. Helping them understand the dual representation of numerals around the clock, such as the 1 being either 5 minutes after or 1 o’clock, can have you throwing in the towel as well. Even getting them to embrace the importance of knowing how to tell time on an analog clock can be a challenge as one student recently commented, “I don’t need to tell time on a clock like that. All I need to do is look at a clock with numbers”. With the various frustrations which come with teaching time, here are a couple of ways to avoid commonly made mistakes.\nNot Utilizing Concrete to Provide an Anchoring Experience\nThink for a moment about the following: “What is time?” Can you explain what you just said to your 6 year olds and have them fully understand time based on your elegant explanation? Unlike understanding shapes, colors, or naming animals, the concept of time is very abstract. Because of this, providing your students with several experiences which create mental schemas is a must. Such schemas help students retain and recall concepts more effectively. For example, as opposed to telling how long a minute is, have them experience running in place for a minute. As opposed to showing them how the minute hand works, have them create their own clock with a minute hand. Let them use unifix cubes to create groups of five up to 60 to develop an understanding of the five minute intervals of the clock.\nTelling Time is Teaching Time\nOne of the most frequent mistakes I see teachers make with time is only teaching them the how to tell time without even understanding the concept of time. That is, they teach them how to tell time on an analog clock before helping them grasp things like the duration of time. Here are a few tips to help them develop a better understanding of the concept of time:\n- Have them brainstorm an event they think will last for one second, write it down, and revisit after learning about time.\n- Have them close their eyes and then raise their hand when they think one minute has elapsed.\n- Have them first predict the number of times an activity can be repeated within a one minute interval and then actually do the activity. Sample activities could be having them write the number of times they could write their name, touch their toes, snap their fingers, etc.\n- Give them strategies to approximate one second time intervals (e.g. one-one thousand, one-Mississippi).\n- Before teaching the skill of telling time, first help develop their understanding of time by engaging in a few similar activities as the ones above.\nCommon Phrases which May Lead to Misconceptions\nWhen they raise their hands to ask you for help, do you sometimes say, “Give me a second”, or “Wait a minute”? We unwittingly use phrases in everyday language which inadvertently may further confuse them about the duration of standard units of time. Avoiding use of such phrases may aid in their understanding of time.\nConcurrently Teaching Minute and Hour\nA third mistake made by teachers when teaching time is simultaneously teaching how to read the hour and minute hand. You may have experienced that this is a perfect recipe for organized confusion. A more effective way to get them to learn how to tell time is to start with clocks which have only an hour hand. When working with the one-handed hour clocks, engage them in quick activities in which they can show and tell the exact hour, a little before the hour, and a little after the hour. Engage them in similar activities with the minute hand before combining the two.\nFractional Portions Before Fractions\nHow might you teach your students to tell the time if the hour hand is between 2 and 3 and the minute hand points to the 9 or the 3? You may teach them to say 2:45, a quarter till three, 2:15, or perhaps a quarter after two. A third mistake teachers make is to teach fractional portions of the clock before, ahem, their students have a true understanding of fractions. Using fractional portions (e.g. quarter till, quarter after) often leads to further confusion and does little to enhance student understanding.\nIn short, the concept of time is abstract and providing multiple concrete activities when learning about it is a must to deepen their understanding. Activities in which they explore the duration of time help build the foundation for learning how to tell time. Teaching them how to tell time with the hour hand before teaching the minute hand as well as avoiding teaching fractional portions before they understand fractions may lessen the chance of misconceptions and misunderstandings occurring."

"3D puzzles are complicated types in all puzzle games. Therefore, this also requires us to improve children’s spatial imagination ability. After all, having this ability is very useful for the development of future children. This 3D puzzle uses the shape of a globe. Therefore, our children need to use these small wooden blocks to make a complete globe. However, we must understand that this is not an easy task because cultivating spatial imagination ability is a relatively abstract process. So we need to make progress in the process of fighting.\nWhen a person recalls things, spatial imagination will project important information about the events in his mind. For example, the environment, the key person, the time of the event, and the surrounding sounds. Then, these things are like watching an N-speed movie in your head. Suppose a child’s spatial imagination is relatively poor. Then, it will be more difficult for children to learn about spatial graphics because they cannot acquire space imagination all at once. Therefore, it is necessary to develop this ability of children successfully. Then, long-term, patient, and careful training and training are needed for children.\nChildren need to calm down while playing puzzles. So let them focus on one thing. In other words, the children’s patience and concentration are cultivated in the process of playing the globe. Moreover, the child has to assemble the picture pieces into a picture, which requires the child to observe each puzzle piece. In the process of playing jigsaw puzzles, children constantly improve their ability to observe and analyze things.\nSecondly, jigsaw toys can effectively exercise children’s logical thinking ability. When children play with jigsaw puzzles, they can use their brains, observe, and try. After all, these series of actions start from the child’s logical thinking ability. Therefore, jigsaw toys are perfect for the development of children’s thinking and logical ability."

"Allow children to touch everything\nTry to say “yes” instead of “no”. See what will happen! We believe that the result will be beyond your imagination. Children are able to manage themselves if they are not suppressed. In fact, children who are always directed by adults are more prone to irrational behavior, escape or rebellion.\nThe intellect of a child guides the motion of his/her hands, creating information-exchanging cycles: the hands reports to the brain while the brain directs the movement of the hands accordingly, so that the hands can gather more information to report to the brain. This is a continuous learning and development process. Turns out that when we adhere to the natural development of the children, the hands and the brain operate as a whole and the result is amazing.\nEvery idea related to the intellectual mind is first transmitted to the hands. Children then develop deeper rational recognition. When the children turn 12, they have already developed a formula to resolve problems. For children, the process of reaching a solution is as important as the solution itself.\nThat’s why we concern about the development of hands into a delicate tool with higher flexibility and accuracy. We would like their hands to be intellectual instruments like “the hands of surgeons”. Since this development is thought-oriented instead of mechanical actions, we should encourage children to touch. Moreover, when the hands cooperate with the brain, this allows deeper recognition and encourages further learning interest. Therefore, hands are learning tools.\nIf you do not allow the children to touch things, you are denying them the opportunity to learn. Hence, under safe circumstances, please let the children to their hands more.\nHelp children to understand “time”\nTime is an abstract idea for children. Invisible and intangible, time is very difficult to understand. If we use Montessori’s approach to objectify the situation, time become much easier to understand. The sun is the most objective teller of time. If children know how to observe the sun, they can understand the concept of “day and night”. Since linking human’s activities with the position of the sun can assist children to grasp a basic concept of time, we must teach children about the sun before we move on to clock."

"Self Discipline For Kids\nHave Fun, Create Life Long Habits And Unite The Family\nWhat is self-discipline? Self-discipline has been defined as the ability to make yourself do what you know you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not! A disciplined person knows what has to be done and does it. They don’t put it off until later or allow themselves to be easily taken off track. And, most importantly they prioritise and focus on being self-disciplined with activities that move them toward their goals and highest values.\nWhen teaching children self-discipline it is important to have fun and keep in mind that the idea is to establish routines that are followed for the entire week without deviation or distraction. And it is even more powerful when we as parents lead the way and be great role models of leading a disciplined life.\nWe want our children to pick up after themselves, to clean their rooms without being told, to study and do their homework on their own, and to be responsible for their extra curricular programs as well. We demand a whole lot from them! What do we demand of ourselves? What is most important for us to do in our day to ensure we lead a fulfilling life each and every day? Did we do those things today?\nTaking the time to grow these life skills in our children is a great start. Having the courage to put our lives as parents under the microscope to review our level of self discipline is a powerful next step. Growing these life skills as a family, taking the time to talk about it and check in with each other unites families and transforms lives. Sharing these skills with our extended family, friends and associates grows a greater community for us all to enjoy together.\nThere are two kinds of discipline; Parent discipline- We constantly tell our children what they need to do! And Self-discipline- They take care of certain things without reminders from us! Sometimes just understanding this simple concept can point them in the right direction!\nList all of their responsibilities that have to do with, school, home, extra curricular, and leisure time. Have a discussion about all their responsibilities in those areas and share with them what your responsibilities are so they can learn more about how you apply self-discipline to your life. You’ll be amazed how much can be learned by them as children and you as parents. Then, with their input, teach them how to prioritise. In other words make sure they know that homework and studying are more important than chores. Remember the self-disciplined person does the more important goal-oriented activity first.\nWhen your child understands what’s important by the goals you’ve set it will be easy to establish a comfortable routine for everyone to follow. Your routine should include all the activities on your list. The more regimented you child becomes and the more you and him plan time for every responsibility in order of importance the more discipline he will have. Just remember to stick to a fun routine so it becomes habit and therefore causes your child to want to be self-disciplined. And most importantly be sure to plan time for some family adventures and allow yourself to connect with your children."

"Many students would benefit from a little more self-kindness and self-compassion. The ways in which you approach studying can add greatly to its inherent challenges and difficulties.\nSelect the headings below and consider which, if any, apply to you.\n3 strategies for building self-kindness\nInstead, bring your focus to what you are doing now, and to how skilfully you are approaching it.\nConsider whether your attitude and approach to studying is helping you to achieve what you wish for academically, without damaging your mental or physical health, relationships with others or your happiness.\nBe active in searching out the fun and interest in what you are studying.\nPause for thought\n- How does your approach to study add to pressures you are under?\n- How could you be kinder to yourself in the way you think about or approach study?\n- Do you ever drive yourself to achieve, to the extent that you lack compassion for what your mind or body really need? If so, how does that lack of self-kindness manifest itself?\nRecord your observations and reflect upon them. What do they tell you about yourself and your approach to study?"

"20 Excellent Ideas For Your Essay On Self-Discipline\nWriting an essay on self-discipline should be easy enough if you have the basic idea and definition of self-discipline. There are many different aspects of self-discipline that you can explore while writing your first piece. However, if you don’t have the time to do deep research and you fail miserably at brainstorming with every attempt here are some topic suggestions that are all worthy a look. You can either write on any of these topics (because these are largely untouched by university students) or you can make a topic of your own by drawing inspiration from these. Let’s take a look.\n- Self-discipline outperforms intelligence quotient in forecasting academic excellence in adolescents\n- Essay of self-discipline and nature: Evidence collected from outer city children\n- Self-discipline works as an advantage for girl children: Gender issues in grades, self-discipline, and academic achievements\n- Developing positive attitude and self-discipline in black school children\n- Quality networking time in primary classrooms: How to enhance self-discipline and positive relations within class\n- Teaching school children self-discipline at school or at home: New directions for teachers and parents for building self-discipline, self-esteem, self-control, and self-reliance.\n- School self-discipline in the kids studying in United States: Preventive, corrective, and developmental aspects\n- Self‐discipline strategies that improve self‐control and self-confidence in adolescents: Benefits of psychological contrasting\n- Character Development and self-discipline: How to encourage self-discipline in babies and two-year olds\n- Violence, modernity and self-discipline: going beyond the civilization process\n- Self-discipline or self-consciousness determine subjective memory of elderly adults: a study\n- Environments for excellence: Academies that promote self-discipline\n- Rethinking student self-discipline: feasible alternatives that mentors can take into consideration\n- Is Self-Discipline overrated? Analysing the theory and practice of self-control\n- Personality traits as well as eating pattern in obese people: is there poor self-discipline in overeating?\n- Self-Discipline in lawyers: Is it all in theory?\n- Does Self-Discipline affect learning process at high school level?\n- Building self-discipline for promoting learning: students' strategies for circumventing the demands of the school\n- Work centrality, work alienation and self-discipline: drawing a line\n- How to create a living curriculum for teaching pupils to be self-disciplined?\nYou can also think about asking your mentor and your mates for more suggestions. Chances are there that they would be having a laundry list of topic suggestions. Alternatively, you can go online to find more topic suggestions. These days, getting topics on any subject is quite easy online."

"Head's Blog - Self-Discipline: What Is It All About?Posted on: 13/10/2017\nI have used this phrase several times this half term with the students as we reflect on some of the standard etiquettes and behaviour expectations that we have at school. These include many simple things: lining up without talking, walking between classes calmly and with a sense of purpose, coming down the stairs in Upper School sensibly and quietly, entering the assembly hall without chatting and with a sense of occasion, crossing the road between Lower and Upper School with a sense of awareness, controlling the impulse to shout out in class, avoiding interrupting others’ conversations and taking turns in the playground when playing games. These are basic expectations, which I am sure you also hope that your children can fulfil consistently, but it is these simple requirements which, on occasion, can pose some children the greatest challenge.\nSo perhaps we should all ask ourselves: what is self-discipline? How can we help our pupils and how can parents help their children to develop self-discipline? To me, self-discipline is not a character trait, but more of a learned practice. I believe it is crucial that we all help young children to keep learning and that we give them ample opportunity to develop their self-discipline. We should model self-discipline, provide scaffolding and support and give children ample opportunities for practice, just as we do in any other area of learning.\nMany recent studies by psychologists have shown that there is a correlation between self-discipline and academic success. In a study carried out by Duckwork and Seligman it was found that self-discipline was more important than IQ in predicting every outcome.\nAs parents and teachers, there are a few basics that can help us to help the children:\n- provide structure (have good routines)\n- be clear about what it is you want the children to achieve\n- if they are not displaying the behaviours you desire, describe the changes which may be required\n- implement appropriate consequences\n- praise good behaviour\n- be a good role model and model your own self-discipline!\nWe understand that it may take some children longer than others to learn how to be more self-disciplined and at St. Helen’s College we pride ourselves on focussing on the soft skills such as resilience, perseverance and self-discipline. Our pupils, in general, show wonderful self-awareness and a willingness to develop themselves personally for the benefit of themselves and their whole community. For any of our pupils to be successful in this, of course, it is crucial that home and school are working together to the same end. I also ask those pupils who do display super self-discipline to help those who are finding it more difficult to support the process for their peers to develop their behaviour.\nOver the half term break I encourage you to observe your child. Are they demonstrating that they are developing their ‘self-discipline? Do they understand what it means? Are they becoming self-aware? Please do take time to talk about ‘self-discipline’ with your children. It is very different from having ‘discipline’ at home or at school – we want our children to develop appropriate behaviour because they understand why, because it makes sense to them and because they can see the advantages of having good self-discipline.\nI wish you all a lovely half term and I will endeavour to practise my self-discipline as I will be reminding all the staff to be self-disciplined too; to make sure that we all do switch off from work, rest, have family time to enable us to recharge for the next very busy half term, leading up to one of my favourite times of the year!"

"Helping your elementary school student with homework can be tedious. It requires a lot of patience and tact. But it isn’t always easy to do this. Sure, you want your children to be successful. You may be tempted to do homework on their behalf, but that is not advisable. Such involvement in your child’s homework can backfire in the future. A thesis writer would recommend letting kids do their homework as it is a way to help them understand their classwork. Let them figure out the work with some support. That means they are allowed to make mistakes as they go. Also, kids will learn to be more self-sufficient, develop time management, and problem-solving skills.\n- Have A Homework Routine\nHelp the child to get their assignments done without a fight and try to maintain the routine. Think about what the child does better when it comes to academics. That can be done after school, but be sure to give the child some time to rest first. For kids that spend time in afterschool programs or with sitters, decide how much homework they will complete during this period.\n- Give The Child Space\nDo not hover around during homework time. Give the child some space to finish up the homework. You can occupy yourself with making dinner, working on some proposals, and so on. However, you need to be accessible during this time. That encourages the child to be more independent and solve difficult problems.\n- Enforce Good Study Habits\nHaving good study habits and completing homework are two different things. However, they complement each other in some ways. Study habits help the child to understand how to take notes, review class material, and stay organized while preparing for a long-term exam or project.\nTo enforce these good study habits, there are a lot of suggestions to try. In particular, they include:\n- Talking to your children about how such skills come in handy in the real world. These study habits help set up the child for success both academically and professionally.\n- Lead by example. If you want your child to behave in a certain way, you need to show it by your own example. You do not need to read a textbook to do this. Simply go about your work and let him see you in action. Do your taxes, show the child your monthly budget, work on professional projects, and read more books.\n- Be present and available. That is a form of support for your child. Help them out by being around when they need to practice, use flashcards to make it fun, and listen to them. Don’t shut them out.\n- Talk to the class teacher. For a child to succeed academically, both parents and teachers have a role to play. Communication between these parties is essential. Parents may not realize that children have issues at school unless the teacher informs them. Speaking with the child’s teacher from time to time bridges this gap. The teacher can also provide information that will help you when it comes to assisting with homework."

"The self-worth of a student is one of the most crucial factors to success. It can only be achieved through the right environment. In this article, we are going to discuss 7 habits for successful students.\nParents and educators have the biggest influence on student growth and development. By encouraging students to value themselves, they will be better equipped to face any challenges they may come across.\nThe 7 habits for successful students are based on this core value. In addition to encouraging self-worth, students must be mentally healthy and physically fit.\n7 Successful Student Habits\nMost people think that poor grades are the result of not being organized, or not having any special tutoring. But in reality, they are a result of minor habits.\nHabits play a vital role in our lives and are largely responsible for the results that we get from our endeavors. These habits determine everything from wealth, to intelligence, to being well-mannered or arrogant.\nHere are 7 habits for successful students that will help you succeed in school and beyond!\n1. Setting Goals\nAchieving your goal isn’t an easy task. But you must commit to accomplishing it. Students who achieve their goals are more likely to succeed than those who lack clear direction.\nTo achieve your goal, write down specific and realistic objectives that relate to your strengths and abilities. Then, set a time frame for achieving it. Without a timeframe, your efforts will be wasted and you’ll achieve nothing.\nHaving a goal helps you stay focused on your college success. If you don’t have a goal, you might get distracted by the various tasks. Setting goals makes them manageable.\nWithout goals, students often don’t know what to do with their assignments or what they’re supposed to achieve. Setting goals also helps them measure their progress. While many students aim to be perfect, setting goals allows you to reset your goals when you’ve made mistakes.\nThe list of 7 habits for successful students, can never be complete without mentioning the planning ahead of time. Set a weekly schedule, and stick to it. Make sure to review your courses every week. It’s a great habit to develop for success in college. If you plan ahead and work on it, you’ll be more likely to achieve your goal.\nIt will give you a boost in your grades and help you feel more confident about your abilities. The goal-setting process can help you develop more critical thinking skills, and even improve your problem-solving abilities.\n2. Taking Notes\nAs a student, taking notes is an important part of your education. It will not only help you complete your assignments, but it will also help you remember important concepts.\nWhen you’re taking notes, be sure to revisit them frequently. Reviewing your notes can help you retain important information and do a target study. You can also use your notes as a reference when you have a question or need clarification.\nSuccessful students also come to class organized. They have different notebooks for each class, and they always carry extra supplies in their backpacks.\nThese students also take care to clean up their school bags occasionally, so they don’t collect crumpled assignments and notes. They also clean their lockers and have them organized. This is one of the 7 habits for successful students. It is also important to keep your locker clean and easy to access.\nTaking notes can be as simple or as complex as you make it. Some students prefer to write down all of their notes on paper, while others prefer to type them. Either way, it’s important to write down as much information as possible.\nThere are various types of note-taking methods, but the most common and straightforward is outlines. Whether you want to write down everything in handwriting, type it up, or transcribe it digitally – it’s up to you.\nThe more difficult assignments require the most mental energy, so start with them. You’ll be glad you did. If you don’t feel confident in your knowledge, you can ask for help whenever you need it. Smart students also do not hesitate to ask for help when they need it.\nThis way, they can focus their study sessions more effectively, making them more efficient. They also make friends with other students and are willing to answer questions about tricky concepts.\n3. Having a Positive Attitude\nHaving a positive attitude is the key to success. Disorganized students tend to throw away their work and keep crumpled assignments in their backpacks.\nEnsure that your school bag is kept neat and organized at all times. Also, remember to clean your school locker on a regular basis. It’s not a bad habit to develop, but if you’re not sure how to do it, consider hiring someone to help.\nIt’s not a matter of trying harder or putting in more effort. The habits of successful students can help you achieve academic goals.\nStudents who develop positive habits tend to have a more optimistic attitude and do better academically.\nAlthough success is often an abstract concept, it is also attainable when you’re motivated by a positive outlook. Positive habits are not necessarily linked to learning facts or academic performance.\nHaving a positive attitude is one of Stephen Covey’s seven habits for successful students. Whether your child is in elementary school or a college setting, positive attitudes are essential.\nBy cultivating your child’s self-worth, he or she will be better equipped to face challenges and overcome obstacles. As a mentor, you can help them cultivate these habits.\n4. Seeking help\nStudents who seek help are more likely to solve problems on their own. This not only shows teachers that you’re a serious student, but it also helps you build relationships with faculty members and other students.\nAsking questions can also increase your knowledge base. You can also seek help from other students to broaden your knowledge base. These habits will increase your chances of being successful.\nSo, how can you become one of these successful students?\nIt’s a known fact that most successful students have a clear understanding of their goals. They take responsibility for their actions and set goals for themselves. They understand that they need to put in a lot of hard work to achieve those goals.\nIn fact, they go above and beyond what is expected of them. Successful students also actively fashion their futures while in college. They know what they want to be in the future and start preparing for it now.\nThey know that their future is dependent on them and are willing to work hard to achieve it.\n5. Stays Organized\nBeing organized is a key habit of successful students. Whether it’s for homework, studying, or organizing your locker, successful students keep their material neat and organized.\nThey bring separate notebooks for each subject, and always keep extra supplies in their backpacks. Many disorganized students are notorious for keeping crumpled assignments in their backpacks.\nStudents should periodically clean their school bags to ensure they’re organized and ready to go when class starts.\nStudents often spend 17 hours a week studying and preparing for class. They must complete homework, read the material, and study for tests. On top of all of this, they must attend extracurricular activities and manage their families.\nOrganization skills will help students stay on top of schoolwork and balance a social life. By developing good organization habits [book], students can enjoy their college experience to the fullest. Once they’ve mastered the basics, they’ll be able to take the leap to college-level success.\nWhile there’s no one right way to study, many students find success by adhering to certain habits. Good habits will not only help them succeed in school but will benefit them throughout their lives.\nThe key to success is staying organized, which involves managing multiple workspaces, keeping records in order, and labeling everything clearly.\nStudents should develop good habits [book] so that they can become more productive and efficient. Once they have found a habit that works best for them, they can use it to improve their overall productivity.\n6. Lives Healthfully\nHigh school students are notorious for their unhealthy lifestyles. Lack of sleep, irregular schedules, and late nights can lead to poor eating habits, unhealthy substance use, and injuries.\nThese habits can negatively affect a student’s academic performance and mood. Living healthfully, however, will not only increase your lifespan but also improve your brain health and memory. It will also make studying easier and keep you from feeling tired during class.\nWhile it may be difficult to live healthfully while in college, it’s possible to maintain a balanced diet and physical activity while in school.\nMaking time for exercise and proper sleep is essential to a healthy lifestyle. It’s also important to set aside time each day to focus on your mental health.\nAchieving a healthy balance is the key to feeling your best. Here are a few tips to help you achieve a well-balanced diet and lifestyle as a student.\nDeveloping a healthy lifestyle starts early. When you develop healthy habits early, they’ll help you maintain them into adulthood. And, as they say, “the journey begins with the first step.”\nMake sure your learning institution has adequate resources for physical exercise and healthy food. You’ll thank yourself in the long run. Consider these suggestions for achieving the healthiest lifestyle as a student. You’ll never regret it!\n7. Avoid Procrastination\nProcrastination is a common problem among students. It can be very difficult to avoid, but it is important to try to overcome it. There are a few things that you can do to try to avoid procrastination.\nFirst, make sure that you have a clear understanding of what the task is that you need to complete. If you are not sure what is expected of you, it will be much harder to avoid procrastinating. Make sure that you have a plan for how you are going to complete the task. This will help to keep you focused and on track.\nSecond, set a deadline for yourself. If you do not have a specific deadline, it will be very easy to put off the task until later. Having a deadline will help to keep you motivated and on track.\nThird, make sure that you have a specific goal in mind. It is important to know what you want to achieve from the task. If you do not have a clear goal, it will be very easy to get sidetracked and procrastinate. Make sure that you have a realistic goal that you can achieve.\nFinally, make sure that you have a support system in place. It is important to have someone that you can rely on when you are feeling overwhelmed or stressed. This person can help to keep you on track and motivated.\nProcrastination is a common problem, but it is possible to overcome it. By following these tips, you can increase your chances of success.\nTo conclude, if you want to be a successful student and achieve great things in your academic career, make sure to follow the seven habits listed in this article.\nDo your best to develop good study habits, stay organized and on top of your workload, and take care of your physical and mental health.\nAdditionally, always be willing to learn and improve, set goals for yourself, and stay positive and motivated. If you can do all of these things, you’ll be well on your way to achieving success in your studies."

"Getting involved in your child’s education is both a great way to bond and help foster their success. If you’ve been feeling a little out of the loop, consider one of these strategies as a means for jumping back in and helping your children reach their educational goals.\nStart at Home\nBeing involved in your child’s education starts at home, with parents giving their children structure and routines. Establishing a routine that schedules time for homework, reading, discussion and sleeping allows your whole family to get in the habit of making learning a priority. Be as consistent as possible in maintaining that structure.\nCheck Your Attitude\nIt is important to make sure that everyone have a good and positive attitude about school and learning. When your children struggle, it’s easy to become discouraged, and that may be reflected in your attitude. Enthusiasm for learning is contagious, and parents who model a positive attitude will see results.\nDiscover His Learning Style\nDon’t just help kids with homework or go to their activities, but find out if they are really understanding and learning what they are being taught. Each child learns differently. A straight-across-the-board curriculum is going to leave some kids not understanding what they are learning. So as a parent, take the time to find out if they are really learning and if not, find out their learning style (auditory, visual, or kinesthetic) and find ways to help them really LEARN. http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/article/parent-child/quiz-whats-your-childs-learning-style\nMany public schools require 20 minutes of daily reading. One of the greatest favors you can do for your child is to enforce this rule. If you want to go a step beyond that, enforce it for yourself, too. You can implement a family reading time, or just make sure you set a good example and read in front of your children.\nAt the beginning of the school year figure out what the best way to communicate with your child’s teacher, whether it be email, phone calls or written correspondence. Many teachers will send home weekly newsletters and periodic notes to parents. Try to be proactive in making sure you are aware of things happening in the classroom, around the school and what is going on district wide by looking for those papers. Kids can’t always be counted on to pass the information along, so it’s important to remember to check their backpacks for information. Also many teachers have a class website that parents can visit, which helps them stay current on what their children are studying. Some school districts, like the EVSC, offer online grade book systems that you can access, which displays your child’s grade on each assignment and alerts you to any missing assignments. These resources are invaluable for keeping parents in the loop.\nUsing Time Wisely\nTake advantage of any time you have with your children to do a little school work. For example, talk about school during dinnertime. It’s a simple habit that shows your child that you’re interested and can help you understand what they are learning. You can also use time spent in the car to review spelling words, math facts, or have your children read aloud to you. Families are busy, and using downtime affectively is a great way to support your child’s learning without giving up all of your free time.\nGo to School\nJust being a presence at your child’s school can be a great way to communicate that his or her education is important. First, you can eat lunch with your child, which will also be a great chance to meet their friends. Also, whether your child is active in extracurriculars or not, attending sporting events or other activities at your child’s school is a great way to demonstrate interest and become more involved. Volunteering is one of the simplest ways of getting involved. Join the PTA. There’s not a better way to know what’s going on inside the school than that. Attend and volunteer at school fundraisers. Finally don’t forget about the traditional parent/teacher conferences where details about your child’s school work would be discussed."

"Getting involved in your child’s education is both a great way to bond and help foster their success. If you’ve been feeling a little out of the loop, consider one of these strategies as a means for jumping back in and helping your children reach their educational goals.\nStart at Home\nBeing involved in your child’s education starts at home, with parents giving their children structure and routines. Establishing a routine that schedules time for homework, reading, discussion and sleeping allows your whole family to get in the habit of making learning a priority. Be as consistent as possible in maintaining that structure.\nCheck Your Attitude\nIt is important to make sure that everyone have a good and positive attitude about school and learning. When your children struggle, it’s easy to become discouraged, and that may be reflected in your attitude. Enthusiasm for learning is contagious, and parents who model a positive attitude will see results.\nDiscover His Learning Style\nDon’t just help kids with homework or go to their activities, but find out if they are really understanding and learning what they are being taught. Each child learns differently. A straight-across-the-board curriculum is going to leave some kids not understanding what they are learning. So as a parent, take the time to find out if they are really learning and if not, find out their learning style (auditory, visual, or kinesthetic) and find ways to help them really LEARN. http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/article/parent-child/quiz-whats-your-childs-learning-style\nMany public schools require 20 minutes of daily reading. One of the greatest favors you can do for your child is to enforce this rule. If you want to go a step beyond that, enforce it for yourself, too. You can implement a family reading time, or just make sure you set a good example and read in front of your children.\nAt the beginning of the school year figure out what the best way to communicate with your child’s teacher, whether it be email, phone calls or written correspondence. Many teachers will send home weekly newsletters and periodic notes to parents. Try to be proactive in making sure you are aware of things happening in the classroom, around the school and what is going on district wide by looking for those papers. Kids can’t always be counted on to pass the information along, so it’s important to remember to check their backpacks for information. Also many teachers have a class website that parents can visit, which helps them stay current on what their children are studying. Some school districts, like the EVSC, offer online grade book systems that you can access, which displays your child’s grade on each assignment and alerts you to any missing assignments. These resources are invaluable for keeping parents in the loop.\nUsing Time Wisely\nTake advantage of any time you have with your children to do a little school work. For example, talk about school during dinnertime. It’s a simple habit that shows your child that you’re interested and can help you understand what they are learning. You can also use time spent in the car to review spelling words, math facts, or have your children read aloud to you. Families are busy, and using downtime affectively is a great way to support your child’s learning without giving up all of your free time.\nGo to School\nJust being a presence at your child’s school can be a great way to communicate that his or her education is important. First, you can eat lunch with your child, which will also be a great chance to meet their friends. Also, whether your child is active in extracurriculars or not, attending sporting events or other activities at your child’s school is a great way to demonstrate interest and become more involved. Volunteering is one of the simplest ways of getting involved. Join the PTA. There’s not a better way to know what’s going on inside the school than that. Attend and volunteer at school fundraisers. Finally don’t forget about the traditional parent/teacher conferences where details about your child’s school work would be discussed."

"|Tutorial: Memory And Memory Problems\nWHAT IS MEMORY?\nMemory is one of the central components of human cognition, including the ability to take in information, process it, store it, and subsequently retrieve it when necessary. Thus the core processes of memory are encoding, storage, and retrieval:\nEncoding: Processing information, organizing it, and marking it for storage\nStorage: Holding information over time in what is ideally an organized storage system\nRetrieval: Calling stored information to consciousness\nFollowing TBI, both encoding and retrieval can be significantly impaired. However, storage (i.e., keeping information in storage after it has been effectively processed) is often relatively spared. Therefore, if information can be effectively processed and encoded, it is more likely to be retained, even though it may be difficult to retrieve.\n|Video Illustration of Types of Retrieval.\nMemory Processes and Systems\nAuthorities on memory typically explain human memory by drawing a variety of distinctions among different types or aspects of memory. Understanding many of these distinctions is important for staff and family members working with students with memory and learning impairments.\nVoluntary and involuntary memory: Encoding: Encoding of information for storage in long-term memory can be either involuntary (incidental, implicit) or voluntary (effortful, deliberate, strategic).\n- Involuntary encoding occurs when the goal of the activity is something other than memory or learning, and memory occurs as a bi-product. For example, a young student may remember the names of geometric figures not by trying to memorize them, but rather because he was involved in an art project in which it was important to process the names of the geometric figures in order to complete the project. Young children tend to be good at involuntary or implicit encoding and weak at voluntary or effortful encoding.\n- Voluntary or effortful encoding occurs when the goal of the task is to learn or remember (i.e., trying to learn or remember). The procedures used to achieve success in effortful encoding tasks are memory strategies (e.g., mentally rehearsing, organizing, or elaborating). Young children as well as individuals with frontal lobe injury tend to be weak at effortful or strategic memory/learning tasks. In fact, their ability to learn and remember may be reduced when they are told to “try to remember”. Learning may be less effective under these circumstances because the child does not have or does not know how to use the strategies that would need to be used when “trying to learn or remember”.\n- Voluntary and involuntary memory: Retrieval: Retrieval can also be involuntary (often referred to as implicit retrieval) or voluntary (effortful, deliberate, strategic).\n- Involuntary or implicit retrieval occurs when stored information is brought to consciousness with no effort to retrieve the information and often with no awareness that the information was stored. The information may be retrieved automatically when a cue triggers it.\n- Voluntary, effortful, or strategic retrieval occurs when there is an attempt to retrieve the information, that is trying to remember. Young children (e.g., preschoolers) rarely benefit from the instruction to “try to remember” because they do not use memory strategies for this purpose. The same is true of developmentally young children and many children with frontal lobe injury. Voluntary retrieval is impaired by damage to the frontal lobes, common after TBI. Involuntary or implicit retrieval may be relatively intact even in the presence of damage to the frontal lobes and to the hippocampus (one of the primary brain structures for human memory and part of the limbic system located in the medial temporal lobes of the brain). See Tutorial on Retrieval and Retrieval Problems.\nRetrospective and prospective memory: Retrospective memory is memory for past events. Prospective memory is memory for events in the future (e.g., remembering appointments; remembering to do an assignment). Both types of memory can be impaired by TBI, with prospective memory negatively affected by frontal lobe injury.\nVerbal and nonverbal memory: Verbal memory is memory for language events or events encoded in language. Nonverbal memory is memory for events not encoded in language. Verbal memory tends to be impaired by damage to language centers of the brain, typically in the left hemisphere. Nonverbal memory may be relatively impaired by damage to the right hemisphere.\nSensory modality-specific memory: Memory can also be related to each of the senses (vision, hearing, touch, smell, and taste), with specific memory stores affected by damage to that sensory system.\nIn addition to these memory processes, memory can be understood by distinguishing a variety of memory systems in the brain:\nSensory, short-term, and long-term storage systems: In the past, it was common to distinguish three types of memory based on length of time the memory was stored.\n- Sensory store refers to the very brief time that a sensation remains available to sensory consciousness.\n- Short-term store refers to the period of time, from seconds to a few minutes, that information remains in consciousness, depending on efforts (e.g., mental rehearsal) to keep it in consciousness. Short-term storage is said to be limited in capacity (e.g., 7 plus or minus 2 units of information at one time in normal older children and adults).\n- Long term store refers to the extended possibly indefinite storage of information in the knowledge base. Capacity of long-term storage is unlimited. Authorities often maintain that short-term storage is physiologically an electrochemical process whereas long-term storage requires protein synthesis for maintenance of information over extended periods of time.\nWorking memory and the knowledge base: In recent years, the concept of short-term memory has largely been replaced by that of working memory. Working memory refers not just to a holding space (like short-term memory), but rather to the processes used to hold information in consciousness and actively attend to it, filter out that which is irrelevant, and create associations that ultimately assist in transferring information from consciousness to the knowledge base. Therefore, there is conceptual overlap between definitions of working memory, attention, and organization. Working memory enables people to keep one or more thoughts active and possibly to relate the thoughts or create associations. Thus there is a large amount of cognitive activity included within the definition of working memory. Similarly, there is a large amount of brain tissue devoted to working memory tasks, notably dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, both left and right hemispheres. The left hemisphere is associated with manipulation of verbal information and the right hemisphere with visual-spatial information.\nThe term “knowledge base” refers to what was once called long-term storage. Widespread areas of cortex (more posterior than anterior) may be connected in neural networks to support stored memories of people, things, events, or series of events.\nDeclarative and procedural memory: Declarative memory (i.e., remembering or knowing that such and such is the case) is memory for facts of greater or lesser generality (e.g., I remember that George Washington was the first president of the USA; I remember that e=mc2). In contrast, procedural memory (i.e., remembering or knowing how to do something) is memory for procedures that can either be physical acts (like getting dressed or riding a bike) or habits/routines (like preparing toast and eggs for breakfast). After brain injury, declarative memory can be significantly impaired, while procedural memory remains relatively intact. Procedural memory may be relatively intact both in the sense of preserved procedures/routines from before the injury, but also the learning of new procedures, motor acts, or habits. Procedural memory, especially the motor aspects, is said to rely heavily on the basal ganglia and cerebellum. Declarative and explicit memory systems appear to rely heavily on the hippocampus which is vulnerable in TBI because of hypoxic brain injury (reduction of the supply of oxygen to brain tissue).\nExplicit and implicit memory: With respect to storage of information, explicit memory refers to memories that are stored along with some awareness that the memory is stored. Implicit memories are stored without an associated awareness that there is such a memory. The explicit/implicit distinction can also be used to refer to encoding rather than storage (explicit = deliberate, voluntary encoding; implicit = involuntary encoding). Finally, the distinction can also be used to refer to retrieval (explicit = deliberate, effortful retrieval; implicit = retrieval with no deliberate attempt to retrieve).\nAfter TBI, explicit memory is often impaired while implicit memory may be relatively spared. This is one of the important reasons for using errorless teaching/learning procedures (see below; see Tutorial on Errorless Learning). Implicit memory may be relatively spared because it appears not to be as dependent as explicit memory on the vulnerable hippocampus and prefrontal structures. Emotionally charged implicit memories may rely on the activity of the amygdala, while implicit procedural memories rely on the basal ganglia and cerebellum.\nEpisodic and semantic memory: The knowledge base can be divided into episodic and semantic memories (a subdivision of declarative memory). Episodic memories are those that have a time and place reference in the individual’s life (e.g., I remember that I lost my wallet at a hotel in Stockholm several years ago). Semantic memories include knowledge of things, events, and concepts that are not tied to my autobiography (e.g., I know that the North won the Civil War).\nRemote and recent memory: In the context of brain injury, the term remote memory usually refers to memories from before the injury. Recent memory refers to memories acquired recently and after the injury. Retrograde amnesia is an impairment of remote memory, that is, difficulty remembering events from before the injury. Anterograde amnesia is an impairment of recent memory, that is, difficulty remembering day-to-day events that have occurred since the injury. After TBI, it is possible to have excellent memory for events from before the injury, but relatively impaired ability to lay down new memories (anterograde amnesia). This is because existing knowledge is largely stored in posterior regions of the brain, relatively safe in TBI. New learning relies on the hippocampus and frontal lobe structures, which are vulnerable in TBI.\nMeta-memory: Meta-memory refers to knowledge of ones memory functioning, knowledge of memory strategies, and possibly a disposition to use the strategies when trying to encode new information or retrieve information from storage. Thus there is a static aspect to meta-memory (e.g., I know that my declarative memory is weak and that I need to use strategies like elaboration if I hope to remember effectively) and also a dynamic aspect (e.g., I actually use the strategies in an effective manner). Meta-memory is impaired by frontal lobe injury. (See Tutorials on Self-Awareness; Cognitive and Learning Strategies.)\nMemory and other cognitive processes: (See Tutorial on Cognition.) It is clear that aspects of memory interact with other components of cognition. For example, if a student does not attend effectively to an assignment, it is unlikely that the information will be remembered. Similarly, if the student fails to make connections as new information is presented (i.e., organize, elaborate), then memory for that information will be weak. Furthermore, if a student is not aware of memory problems or is a poor problem solver, then strategic learning and memory will be negatively affected. Many more examples of inter-relationships among cognitive components could be added to this list.\nWHAT MEMORY PROBLEMS ARE ASSOCIATED WITH TBI?\nIn the paragraphs above, several comments are made about the areas of the brain associated with specific types of memory. The vulnerable areas of the brain in TBI most closely associated with memory problems are the frontal lobes and the hippocampus. In addition, widespread microscopic damage throughout the brain can degrade storage systems and “retrieval routes”, making retrieval of information more difficult. The frontal lobes are vulnerable because of their position in relation to bony prominences within the skull. The hippocampus is vulnerable to secondary hypoxic injury (reduction in the supply of oxygen), common after severe injuries.\nWith these types of brain damage, the following memory challenges and profiles are commonly observed in children with TBI.\nImpaired encoding and retrieval: Both encoding and retrieval are commonly impaired after TBI. Encoding for many types of memory is affected by damage to the hippocampus and surrounding structures in the medial temporal lobes. Voluntary or strategic encoding (i.e., trying to encode) is affected by damage to the vulnerable frontal lobes. Retrieval (including word retrieval) can be affected by damage to retrieval routes throughout the brain. Thus retrieval problems are associated with many kinds and locations of brain damage as well as normal aging. Voluntary or strategic retrieval (i.e., trying to retrieve) is affected by damage to the vulnerable frontal lobes.\nSuperior involuntary/incidental memory over voluntary/strategic memory: With damage to the frontal lobes, strategic thinking and behavior in general can be impaired. Therefore both voluntary/strategic encoding (e.g., trying to encode information effectively by rehearsing it, elaborating it, creating organizing systems, and the like) and voluntary/strategic retrieval (e.g., trying to retrieve information by using associations, mnemonic strategies, and the like) can be impaired. Despite these impairments, the student may be able to encode and retrieve information if teachers and parents provide effective organization/elaboration at the time of encoding and effective retrieval cues at the time of retrieval. That is, the student no longer has to rely on the parts of the brain involved in strategic effort. This is important for teachers and parents to remember. When students have impaired strategic processing, it can make memory problems worse by asking the student to try to remember information (encode or retrieve).\nSuperior implicit over explicit memory: Students with apparently severe memory impairments after TBI may nevertheless encode, store, and retrieve information and skills implicitly. These are students who may have extreme difficulty answering questions like, “What did you have for breakfast?” or “What did you learn yesterday in History class?” If the information was salient at the time of encoding and if effective retrieval cues are given by adults, the student may remember the information or skill even though he did not know he knew it and cannot remember learning it. When students have this memory profile, teachers should use errorless teaching/learning procedures (See below; See Tutorial on Errorless Learning).\nSuperior remote memory over new learning: The cognitive profiles of many students with TBI are confusing because they remember information and skills acquired before the injury despite great difficulty acquiring new information and skills after the injury. For this reason, they may score at reasonably high levels on academic tests despite significant learning difficulties. Decisions about services and supports for these students should not be made on the basis of their test scores, but rather on their ability to learn after the injury.\nSuperior procedural over declarative memory: It is common for students with TBI to have difficulty learning/remembering facts and other academic information despite relatively strong ability to acquire new motor skills and other procedures, routines, or habits.\nInterference in memory/learning from other cognitive deficits: Deficits in other cognitive areas like attention, organization, problem solving, and reasoning have an inevitable negative effect on memory and learning. Similarly problems in executive functioning have a negative effect on strategic learning and memory.\nInterference in memory/learning from emotional impairments: Anxiety has a negative effect on memory and learning. Students who are anxious tend not to use strategies at the time of encoding or retrieving information. Similarly students who are depressed tend not to pay attention effectively or use strategies for encoding or retrieving information.\nWHAT ARE THE MAIN THEMES IN INTERVENTION AND SUPPORT?\nUnderstanding the Problem\nAs always, the first task for teachers and parents is to correctly understand the problem. The wide variety of types and aspects of memory listed above indicate that there are many kinds of memory problems. Different problems are typically associated with different interventions or supports. For example, both encoding problems (i.e., inefficiency in putting the information into storage) and retrieval problems (i.e., difficulty taking the information out of storage when needed) manifest themselves in retrieval problems. But approaches to intervention differ. Therefore, the problem-solving/hypothesis-testing assessment procedures offered on this web site are useful in identifying the underlying problem before proceeding with intervention and support plans. Alternatively, review of a neuropsychological evaluation will shed light on the type of memory problems experienced by the student.\nRemediation of Memory Problems with Memory Exercises\nMemory exercises to improve memory: Some educators and therapists have students with memory problems practice remembering with the goal of improving their underlying memory functioning. For example, they might have the student repeat back numbers in sequence or repeat lists of unrelated words. Or they might have the student hold instructions in mind for increasing periods of time and then act on the instruction. It has been shown that adults and children with memory problems can improve on such training tasks, but the improvement does not transfer to everyday functional memory tasks. Therefore there is no justification for using memory exercises of this sort in therapy or special education. Therefore, what remains are environmental compensations (including special teaching procedures) and memory strategies as the intervention procedures for students with memory problems.\nMemory and Existing Knowledge\nIn the area of memory and learning, the rich get richer; that is, the more one knows within a domain of knowledge, the easier it is to process, comprehend, encode, store, and subsequently retrieve/use new information in that domain. For example, even very weak students may be passionate and knowledgeable about something, like football or a video game. In that case, attending to and taking in the details of a game may be easy for that person and learning new information or rules may occur with a single learning trial, despite failure to learn new information after scores of learning trials in school. The same holds true at higher levels. An expert in a profession may scan a journal article in her field, quickly filter important from unimportant details, comprehend the critical information, and readily retrieve it at a later date. A novice student in the same field may require hours to comprehend and learn what the specialist comprehends and learns in a few minutes.\nTherefore, ongoing accumulation of new knowledge must be seen as an important component of “memory rehabilitation” or “cognitive rehabilitation”.\nEnvironmental Compensations or Task Modifications\nWhat is most important for teachers and parents to know about memory?? The following principles of memory are true for most people, including students with TBI. These principles should be used in designing learning and memory tasks for these students.\nMemory interacts with other cognitive functions: For example, the better one attends to incoming information, the better it will be encoded and later retrieved. The more effectively one organizes information, the better it will be encoded (elaborated), stored, and later retrieved. The more one engages in learning as a problem-solving activity, the more effectively one will encode, store, and retrieve information. Conversely, the better one remembers and the more one knows, the easier it will be to attend, organize, and problem solve. Therefore, teachers and parents should try to ensure attention during learning tasks, offer the student ways to elaborate or organize the information, and make learning and memory a problem-solving activity (e.g., “What do you think you could do in your head to hold onto this information?”).\nMemory interacts with emotion: Information that is emotionally salient tends to be remembered better than information that is not emotionally salient. Conversely, the more one remembers/knows about a domain, the greater the likelihood that emotional salience may be triggered by new information. Therefore, teachers and parents should seek ways to make new information emotionally salient; they should connect new information with something that the student already knows and is important to her.\nMeaningfulness enhances memory: If students find a piece of information or a procedure meaningful, interesting, and/or important, they are more likely to encode it in an elaborative manner (i.e., with meaningful connections), store it effectively, and retrieve it when relevant. Meaningfulness can be created artificially (e.g., “You better remember this because it will be on the test!”) or naturally (e.g., “Let me try to explain why this is really important for you in relation to ....”). Teachers and parents should try to ensure that students understand that it is important to attend to, think about, and remember the new information.\nHowever, with students who are anxious about their ability to learn, teachers should be cautious in their emphasis on the importance of learning. The additional anxiety that this emphasis creates is likely to interfere with learning. Furthermore, for students with significant strategic learning problems, it may not be helpful to highlight the importance of remembering.\nOrganization/elaboration enhances memory: The better elaborated/organized information is at the time of encoding, the more effectively it is stored (i.e., multiple neural connections) and the easier it will be to retrieve (i.e., many retrieval routes). Elaborative encoding facilitates all three stages of memory: encoding (making connections when first taking the information in), storage (storing information in more than one place with multiple neural connections), retrieval (increasing the number of retrieval routes in the brain to the stored information). Developmentally young people or those with executive system impairment may need this organization created by others in ways that make sense to the students (i.e., give the students meaningful connections among the pieces of information presented). Cognitively more mature students are capable of creating their own elaboration and organization which may be more effective organization than that imposed by a teacher. Teachers and parents should encourage this elaboration/organization process. (See Tutorial on Organization.)\nRepetition enhances memory: For most people, including students with brain injury, repetition enhances memory and is essential for learning. Repetition includes multiple learning trials when the information or skill is first presented. It also includes regular review and cumulative review of the information or skills. Repetition and review cannot be over-emphasized in teaching students with memory impairment after TBI.\nThe value of repetition assumes that the student is actually paying attention during the repetition, which may not be the case if “drill” is boring. Therefore, teachers should seek ways to make repetition or practice interesting. For some students, taping of class materials for repeat review at a later point in time may enhance repetition of novel information. For many students, well designed computer programs offer adequate practice while also making the practice interesting. Therefore, interesting educational software should be explored.\nThe repetition principle has led many to advocate “covert rehearsal” (i.e., repeating to oneself) as a useful memory strategy. This may be true for simple memorization tasks. However, simple rehearsal may actually interfere with functional memory if it detracts from the processes that go into understanding the information. However important repetition is, it should be combined with organization/elaboration and meaningfulness in designing learning/memory tasks. (See Tutorial on Instructional Routines.) Furthermore, in more advanced learning environments (for example, listening to lectures in high school), mental rehearsal of the teacher’s words may block the processing of what the teacher is continuing to say, thereby interfering with learning. In such situations, taping of class content and replaying it at a later date may be most beneficial\nExternal memory aids can compensate for memory problems: External aids (e.g., posted reminders, written lists, memory books, electronic storage systems, buddy systems for reminders) are the most commonly used and most effective intervention for adults and adolescents with memory impairment. External aids are also important for younger children, with the type of aid varying with the developmental level of the student. Young students might use posted reminders (words, symbols, or pictures) or buddy systems as components of their compensation for memory problems. In addition, parents and teachers should make sure that there is a tight association between types of objects and the places where they should be kept and can be found.\nOlder and more mature students may develop a habit of making lists when necessary and using a memory book (or at least an assignment book) or hand-held electronic organizer in which to record information that would otherwise be forgotten. When these systems are developed, maintained, and cued by somebody other than the student, they can be considered a component of environmental compensations.\nIn general, the simpler the external aid, the more likely it is to be used. For example, electronic storage systems may be extremely powerful, but despite their potential power, they may not be used because they are too complex. In addition, aesthetics matter to students, especially adolescents. For example, an adolescent male may tolerate a small reminder and schedule book that can fit in his pocket, but not a large notebook that he may consider stigmatizing. Furthermore, memory/schedule/assignment books need to be well organized or they may prove too frustrating to use. The student with TBI may need to rely on an adults to keep the book organized and current.\nErrorless learning is important for students with severe memory impairment: As discussed above in the section on explicit and implicit memory, many students with TBI have severe explicit memory impairments; when asked to retrieve information from their recent life or recent lessons, they may say that they remember nothing, not even the fact that they had a lesson. Nevertheless these same students may encode, store, and potentially retrieve information implicitly. That is, an experience they have may leave memory traces that they are not aware of, but that may yet come to consciousness in the future when properly cued. Furthermore, these students may learn routines effectively if properly taught, including academic routines like arithmetic operations and reading decoding.\nThe key to teaching for these students is to ensure that their learning is errorless, that is they do not make errors as they learn new information or skills. Teachers and parents must ensure that sufficient supports are in place so that the student’s responses are correct. At the outset, this may mean that the student simply listens to the teacher give the response; subsequently the student can respond along with the teacher; then respond with ample cues. The teacher should systematically pull back the cues only when confident that the student can respond correctly.\nThe opposite of errorless learning is “trial and error” learning, which might be most efficient for students who are generally accurate in their responses and who remember their mistakes and try to avoid making the same mistake twice. In fact, for students with reasonably good memory, trial and error learning may be preferable, particularly when understanding of complex material is the goal. However, when students with severe memory impairment make a mistake, the emotionality that is often associated with mistakes can easily make the mistake memorable, that is “drive it into the memory bank”. Later the student will have forgotten the teaching episode, but the mistake still remains in memory and may easily be elicited by future cues. Unfortunately, the student does not remember that it is a mistake. Thus errors for students with severe memory impairment can be very insidious in their effects on future performance; for this reason, teaching should be as errorless as possible.\nThe optimistic message is that students with severe memory impairment can nevertheless learn new information, skills, and routines, if properly taught. However, the learning that these students acquire tends to be superficial, lacking in depth of understanding, and dependent on specific cues for retrieval.\nErrorless learning procedures should also be considered for students with significant anxiety associated with learning. For reasonably confident students, a little anxiety can heighten attention and retentiveness; therefore it may facilitate learning. However, serious anxiety can substantially interfere with acquisition and retention of information. Some students with TBI are anxious because they are perplexed about what they can do and what they can’t do after the injury. Others are anxious because of large amounts of unexpected failure after the injury. Still others are anxious because of changes in brain function. In any of these cases, teaching/learning routines designed to minimize errors are important to reducing anxiety and enhancing overall performance.\nFinally, errorless learning procedures are also important for students who are discouraged or frankly depressed about their overall abilities after the injury. Because of all the losses they may have experienced (e.g., loss of abilities, loss of activities, loss of friends), many students with TBI experience depression at some stage of their recovery in reaction to the changes in their lives. In these cases, teachers should work hard to ensure as much success as possible. Errorless learning procedures are one tool to achieve this goal.\nMemory/Learning Strategies That Can Be Used by the Student as Compensation for Memory Impairments\nContext sensitivity in teaching the use of memory strategies: If memory strategies are to be taught to the student, whether external memory aids or internal strategies, they should be taught within the context of everyday home and academic routines to avoid the likelihood that strategies taught in isolated settings will not transfer to functional settings and activities. Transfer of new skills or procedures from a training context to a real-world context should never be assumed and rarely occurs without considerable effort.\nExternal memory aids: External aids were discussed above as part of environmental compensation. In some cases, the student can be taught to take responsibility for managing and using the external aids. For students with ongoing memory impairment, it is critical to develop a habit of using external aids. This is often a life-long need.\nInternal (mental) memory strategies for encoding: Students who are aware of their memory impairment and sufficiently mature to actively compensate for their memory problems may be taught to use the following strategies to encode information more effectively. Internal memory strategies have not been shown to be particularly effective in memory rehabilitation. One reason is that people with memory impairment often forget to use the strategies that they have been taught. They also might have limited “space” in working memory; therefore it is hard to think about strategies and the task at hand at the same time. Furthermore, most of the studies have been conducted with adults who rarely have to learn or memorize large amounts of new information. However, in an academic setting, it is worth encouraging students to do at least some of the following at the time of encoding to enhance their memory:\n- Tell myself, “pay attention; focus”;\n- Highlight the information that seems most important;\n- Organize the information into natural groups;\n- Create association links to information that I already know;\n- Generate my own examples;\n- Think about how I might apply this information;\n- Repeat the information;\n- Summarize and review;\n- Take notes;\n- Speak the information out loud; tell or explain it to some other person;\n- Create visual images of the new information;\n- Create diagrams or flow charts of the information;\n- Test myself on the information;\n- Take in reasonably small amounts of information at a time\nInternal (mental) memory strategies for retrieval: Books on how to improve memory often advocate the use of mnemonic strategies to increase the likelihood of retrieving information. Mnemonics have limited usefulness in memorizing discrete information for tests, but should never replace understanding the information as the ultimate goal of learning. Because mnemonic strategies are often associated with superficial understanding of the material, they may even interfere with deeper understanding. For example, students can memorize the colors in the color spectrum with the first-letter mnemonic “Roy G Biv” (i.e., red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet) without understanding any of the physical properties of the colors. If students overuse mnemonics, they can spend too much time on generating and learning the mnemonics and too little time on real understanding of the material.\nWith these important qualifications as background, what follows are mnemonic strategies sometimes used to facilitate memorization:\nRhymes: Example, \"Id is the kid!\" for part of Freud’s personality theory\nAcronyms: Example: Roy G Biv for the colors in the spectrum\nVisual Images: Associating information with striking visual images sometimes facilitates retrieval.\nMethod of Loci: Items to be remembered are placed in a series of location that can then be mentally reviewed at the time of retrieval.\nCatch phrases: Each word in the catch phrase begins with the first letter of a different key word.\nIn addition, retrieval practice (for example, practicing taking an exam) helps many students. Mentally retracing the steps taken at the time of encoding or imaginatively placing oneself where the event/learning took place might jog memories. For many people, simply relaxing and turning off the effort to remember may assist retrieval.\nWritten by Mark Ylvisaker, Ph.D. with the assistance of Mary Hibbard, Ph.D. and Timothy Feeney, Ph.D."

"During my yearly clinical course, where many of the participating children have learning problems in mathematics (for example, specific learning disabilities, dyscalculia, dyslexia, etc.), the question of the role of working memory and executive function in mathematics learning kept coming up from teachers and parents.\nThe terms working memory and executive function are seen as important components in human development and learning and are implicated in many learning problems. Working memory is at work not just in formal learning. Working memory is one of our most crucial cognitive capabilities, essential for countless daily tasks like following directions, making connections, and remembering information momentarily, complex reasoning, or staying focused on a project. In other words, it is the complex system of mental mechanisms responsible for the integration, manipulation, and temporary storage of information that is relevant and important to an individual’s focus of attention at the moment at the task at hand.\nUnderstanding the importance of working memory can provide great hope to people who suffer from working memory deficits, including those with attention problems (ADD or ADHD), learning disabilities, or injury to the brain. Children with attention problems often have working memory deficits; however, in some cases, poor working memory may be the cause of certain second order attention problems. Deficits in working memory can affect an individual’s ability to focus attention, control impulses and solve problems. Someone with a working memory deficit or limitation can have difficulty attaining proficiency in mathematics, particularly problem solving as working memory load is a major factor in determining task difficulty. They may lose focus frequently when reading and solving a mathematics problem. While the connections between working memory deficits and mathematics performance seem clear, it is not certain whether these deficits cause attention deficits behaviors.\nExecutive functions and working memory differ between low achieving and typically achieving children not only in acquiring reading skills but also in mathematics achievement. The working memory and its functioning are heavily taxed in academic subjects such as reading and computational mathematics. Researchers have found strong involvement of working memory and executive function in mathematics learning and difficulties. For example, an increasing number of studies show executive functions as predictor of individual differences in mathematical abilities. Deficits in different components of executive function can be seen as precursors to math learning disabilities in children. Number concept, numbersense, and numeracy, implicated in dyscalculia and learning these concepts, are highly dependent on working memory and executive functioning. Similarly, math anxiety suppresses the working memory and executive functioning interfering normal calculations.\nNumbersense is an intuitive understanding of numbers, their magnitude and inter-relationships. The cognitive mechanism that helps strengthen numbersense is working memory. Furthermore, when the predictive value of working memory ability is compared to preparatory mathematical abilities, there is a definite relationship between them. Performance on working memory tasks predicts math learning abilities and disabilities, even over and above the predictive value of preparatory mathematical abilities. Strong and efficient use of working memory has been linked to higher academic success, including mathematics.\nThere are many reasons children may fail to learn or experience difficulty in learning arithmetic—number concept, numbersense, and numeracy. And these arithmetic difficulties, in turn, contribute to difficulties in learning other mathematics concepts and procedures. Apart from environmental factors such as poor instruction (teaching ineffective and inefficient strategies), lack of skill experience and reinforcement/practice, poor expectations, other examples for difficulty in learning include anxiety about mathematics, lack of experience and poor motivation, reading difficulties, neuropsychological deficits and damage, and cognitive delay and deficits. Arithmetical learning difficulties can be associated with cognitive deficits.\nThe cognitive deficits have a long list; however, they are exemplified by poor memory—short-term, long-term and/or working memory, lack of flexibility of thought (centeredness), lower levels of abstract thinking, visual perceptual deficits, and inefficient language development.\nOne component of cognitive ability is the size and working of working memory. More working memory space and flexible and effective usage by individuals mean greater potential for academic success, including mathematics.\nWorking memory functioning improves throughout childhood, adolescence, and adulthood and can be strengthened through intensive practice and training. George Miller was the first psychologist to attempt to quantitatively measure the working memory’s capacity. Miller coined the term ‘magical seven’– the idea that working memory could hold seven plus or minus two items. These items can be digits, letters, words, phonemes, bits, or small groups.\nWe can fool this limitation by chunking the information. Chunking is grouping and organizing discrete pieces of information into smaller groups/clusters. Through chunking, we organize and collect information and relate ideas. By chunking related pieces of information we can fit more into our working memory. Our ability to chunk together different kinds of information allows us to carry out a complex practical task without being overwhelmed.\nWe can easily overfill our working memory. When we do, we induce cognitive overload. Students who struggle with chunking new information become overloaded and cannot fit more information in their working memory, not without discarding something else. Cognitive overload can create misconceptions and muddy previously clear concepts.\nDefinition of Working Memory\nWorking memory (WM) refers to the capacity to store information for short periods of time when engaging in cognitively demanding activities. Whereas the short-term memory is like a relay station—the information is constantly coming and going, WM plays a more influential role in learning and academic performance, including mathematics. This is because mathematics tasks involve multiple steps with intermediate solutions, and children need to remember those intermediate solutions as they proceed through the tasks.\nOne of the areas affected by poor working memory is attention. But what we rate as inattention has nothing to do with actual attention. Actual attention is hard to assess (you have to control for motivation, competence, reward, relevance, etc.). We generally settle for sustained engagement as an alternative and call it attention. The prevalent thinking is that if you didn’t keep going, you probably lost attention, which is usually untrue. Most kids stop trying because the task is difficult (they do not understand it and do not have the skills for it), it has no intrinsic or extrinsic value (it is boring or unrewarding for them), or they do not see the purpose or connection of it with anything they know (the teaching was not engaging). It usually has nothing to do with attention even though many parents and teachers consider boredom and switching from one task to another as a sign of inattention. The question is: Did they just drift away or were they looking for something more fun and interesting? In other words, is their attention poor or is their tolerance for boredom and frustration poor?\nMost current research explores the dependence of mental calculation on working memory and how the limited-capacity system of working memory affects keeping track of temporary information during ongoing processing of mental calculations. Empirical studies tend to support the view that it is the limited capacity of the working memory that is responsible for inattention.\nNot all models and pedagogy in use when planning activities in schools pay enough attention to the role of working memory in learning arithmetic. In this post, we explore answers to questions such as:\n- How is working memory related to learning arithmetic, therefore, mathematics?\n- How does working memory support numeracy, particularly, calculations?\n- What can we do to help children with poor working memory?\n- What teaching/intervention strategies and models can enhance and support working memory for all children?\nComponents of Working Memory\nIn the late 19th century, the American psychologist William James first proposed the distinction between a “primary” memory with a limited capacity and a long-term memory. British psychologists Baddeley and Hitch added a third element—working memory, to the learning cycle consisting of short-term and long-term memories. They postulated working memory as a temporary storage of information between the short- and long-term memories.\nThis model has three components: a central executive component, a phonological loop, and a visuo-spatial sketchpad. The phonological and visual components are referred to as ‘slave’ systems given that they hold specialized information for short periods of time. Working memory, thus, is a multifaceted function that captures visual, spatial, kinesthetic, and auditory information, directs attention to it, and coordinates processes to deal with its components, nature, and functioning. Much of the research in the cognitive psychology of working memory has been influenced by this multi-component model of working memory. It is time to bring it to the classroom and tutorials.\nThe central executive component has five capacities: to (1) coordinate and monitor input from the two slave systems, (2) shift attention, (3) focus on one stimulus, inhibit and/or enhance it, (4) hold and manipulate information from short- and long-term memories, and (5) update information.\nThe phonological loop is further divided into two sub-processes: a phonological input store and an articulatory rehearsal process. The articulatory rehearsal process refreshes verbal input. It focuses on the auditory and linguistic input.\nThe visuo-spatial sketchpad is devoted to visuo-spatial input. It pays attention to color, shape, texture, size, patterns, etc. The phonological loop is devoted to processing verbal speech input and is part of the rehearsal process for visual input as well.\nWorking memory is the ability to maintain and manipulate information temporarily. Despite its limited capacity, with effective materials and efficient strategies, an individual is able to perform complex cognitive tasks. It is the core of high-level cognitive activities and an essential component in the processes of learning, comprehending, reasoning, problem solving and intelligent functioning.\nWhereas the short-term memory is a unitary storage and a passive place, the working memory is a multi-modal, multi-component, and multi-function place where temporary storage takes place before the information is intentionally transferred to long-term memory – if it is not transferred, it escapes. It is an active system that provides the basis for complex cognitive abilities. In working memory, we consciously process selective information; therefore, working memory is linked to attention control.\nIn the working memory we store small amounts of information in order to use that information to complete a task at hand—e.g., create a new conceptual schema and learn or form a new idea. In the working memory we bring information from the long-term memory and mix it with the incoming information from the short-term memory to comprehend, to learn, to solve problems, complete tasks, manipulate and see relationships, and make connections.\nShort-term memory is a relay station—information enters involuntarily and leaves. Either involuntarily or voluntarily information is transferred to either long-term memory or working memory. It goes to long-term memory when (a) it connects to some related information that overlaps with it, (b) we connect it with what we already have in store, (c) it has novelty, or, (d) it is emotionally charged.\nThe information from the short-term memory goes to the working memory when we consciously begin to work on it—(a) mix it with information from long-tem memory, (b) reorganize or represent it to construct new information, and (c) rehearse it.\nConstruction of Concepts\nThe comprehension of incoming information takes place in the working memory. We classify it, represent it, organize/reorganize it; we transform it into a word(s), a graphic, a conceptual schema, a strategy, or a procedure and then by understanding it and rehearsing it send it to the long-term memory. The process of construction, in the working memory, can be self-initiated by reflection either on a recent event or in the past. It may also be instigated by concrete or visual models, words, diagrams, metaphors, similes, analogies, or some information that can be accessed from the long-term memory. For example, a child is asked:\nWhat is 6 + 8?\nSituation 1: Answer: 14. The problem 8 + 6 (presented orally or symbolically) invokes the response instantly, if the child has mastered it before (it already resides in the long-term memory). If the answer is affirmed, the memory traces: 8 + 6 = 14 is strengthened.\nSituation 2: 6 + 8? Child manipulates the information: I take 4 from 8 and give it to 6 and then I have 10 and 4. That is equal to 14. This is happening in the working memory. He has made connections and the working memory and long-term memory both are strengthened.\nSituation 3: Oh 6 + 8 = 8 + 6. I take 2 from 6 and give it to 8 and then I have 10 and 4. That is equal to 14. This is again happening in the working memory. He has made connections and the working memory and long-term memory both are strengthened.\nSituation 4: 6 + 8. I think of 6 as 8 and I know 8 and 8 is 16 then I take 2 away from 16 and I have 16 – 2 = 14. This is happening in the working memory. He has made connections and the working memory and long-term memory both are strengthened.\nSituation 5: 6 + 8. I take 1 from 8 and I have 7 and 7. That is 14. So 6 + 8 = 14. This is happening in the working memory. He has made connections and the working memory and long-term memory both are strengthened.\nSituation 6: 6 + 8. I can find the answer in several ways. I have found it before and now I know it right away. This is where we want to ultimately arrive in learning: understanding, fluency, and applicability.\nTeaching students effective and efficient strategies using effective instructional models makes lower demands on their working memory; it also facilitates recalling information from the long-term memory, holding the information, and manipulating it in the working memory. In the process they improve their working memory.\nNotice all the components of the working memory system are being called upon and strengthened.\nSituation 7: When the child does not know the fact, the responses are: (a) repeats the question, once or several times. Let me see: 6 + 8? A child with a poor strategy and/or poor teaching (adding is counting up) counts 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 either in his head or on his fingers. Let me see I have counted 8 or not? And he verifies by counting. Notice, he needs to maintain 16 numbers (1-7, 2-8, 3-9, 4-10, 5-11, 6-12, 7-13, 8-14) simultaneously in his head (working memory) and that is difficult. In this process none of the components of the working memory system are used and strengthened. The activity will not leave the trace of the final result in the memory, and the same process will be repeated next time the same problem is presented.\nIneffective strategies place a higher demand on the working-memory and create frustration that further diminishes the functioning of the working memory. When facts are not mastered using effective strategies, situations 1 to 6 do not happen.\nWhen effective strategies are learned, one can extend them to develop and strengthen mental math—an activity that is dependent on a strong working memory. For example, when one tries to find the sum: 58 + 17, the child may think of the following operations in his mind. 58 + 2 is 60 by taking 2 from 17 so 2 less than 17 is 15, so I add 15 to 60 and I get 75, so 58 + 17 is 75. All of this is taking place in the working memory. However, to come to this level of mental calculation, efficient concrete materials and pictorial representations help. Here the child had experience in using Cuisenaire rods (58 = 5 orange rods and the brown rod—the 8-rod and 17 = 1 orange rod and the black rod—7-rod.). Similarly, using the Empty Number Line (ENL), one can create images in the working memory and, therefore, develop mental math—holding numerical information in the working memory and manipulate it.\nThe color and size of the Cuisenaire rods engage the slave systems—articulatory loop (as we read the rods as numbers), articulatory rehearsal (the presence of the rods keeps the information alive in the memory), and visuo-spatial memory (the size and color of the rods). Even children with poor working or short-memories are able to achieve more. In the process they improve their working memory and create and leave a residue of the experience in the long-term memory. When concrete models are supported by efficient and elegant representations, the images are further strengthened. For example, one can go easily from Cuisenaire rods to Empty Number line.\nCuisenaire rods, Visual Cluster cards, and Empty Number Line help children to acquire mental math competence.\nRecognition and Comprehension\nMany studies have examined the relationships between working memory and word recognition. The same system is involved in the recognition of visual clusters and large numbers (place value)—essential elements for the development of numeracy. However, a problem like the one mentioned above also involves comprehending and understanding that system and manipulating the numbers using strategies. Good readers allocate more working memory resources to text comprehension than to word recognition when compared to poor readers. Good readers produce more integrative inferences than poor readers, who are constrained by their working memory processing capacities when building mental models of texts. Similarly, low achieving students, because of poor strategies (addition is counting up and subtraction is counting down) and ineffective instructional models (counting objects, number line, and lack of patterns and color) face heavier loads on their working memories. They allocate more working memory space for deriving arithmetic facts by counting, and little space in working memory is left for seeing patterns, relations, and making connections. As a result, they miss developing understanding, fluency, and mental math and have difficulty in applying their knowledge and skills to problem solving.\nWorking memory, effective strategies, efficient models, and residues in the long-term memory interact with and influence each other throughout the learning process.\nWe use the working memory as the sketchpad and working place for thinking—as the brain’s conductor. It allows us to hold onto information, for a short time, and then to work with and manipulate that information. So for example, when we speak or do mental calculations, the working memory brings the words, arithmetic facts, concepts, and relevant procedure that we know together and connects them into a coherent sentence or outcome—a calculated answer.\nThe phonological loop is specialized for the storage and rehearsal of speech-based verbal information (notice the language used in the six situations of 6 + 8 above) whereas the sketch-pad is specialized for holding visual and spatial material (the equation formed by the Cuisenaire rods, graphic organizers, Empty Number lines, Invicta Balance, Algebra Tiles, etc.). They constantly interact with each other.\nMost of the time, the working memory is the connecting link between the short- and long-term memories and plays a crucial role in sending information to the long-term memory. What goes in the long-term memory is dependent on what is being worked on in the working memory. One can greatly enhance the capacity, the nature, and functioning of the long-term memory by improving the working memory system. For example, when we want to calculate the product 222×3, we bring the relevant information from the long-term memory, such as 222 = 200 + 20 + 2 (understanding of place value), 2×3 = 6, 20×3=60, 200×3=600 (the facts and the distributive property of multiplication over addition) to the working memory and then mixing this information, we get 232×3 = (200 + 30 + 2)×3 = 200×3 + 20×3 + 2×3 = 600 + 60 + 6 = 666.\nDifferent types of information are brought from the long-term memory to the working memory—from specific to general (recognizing 5 as a prime number) and from general to specific (which rule of exponents to apply in evaluating a3×a4). Children compute with mathematics facts—such as those required in timed tests—by recalling them from the long-term to working memory and using them in computations/procedures in paper-pencil situations or mental math.\nFormation of Memories\nIn living and learning, we rely on two types of long-term memories: explicit and implicit memories. Explicit memory is the “conscious” memory for specific facts and events, as opposed to “subconscious” implicit memory. Remembering a fact (8 + 6 = 14) or concept one relies on explicit memory (multiplication means repeated addition, groups of, an array, or the area of a specific rectangle). Remembering how to add (8 + 6 = 8 + 2 + 4 = 10 + 4 = 14), in general, relies on implicit memory. Similarly, remembering the concept of multiplication as repeated addition relies on implicit memory whereas the ability to remember that 7 × 8 is 56 or am × an = am+n relies on explicit memory.\nThe concrete models and particular learning activities are the means for students to create conceptual schemas, associated visual representations, verbal discussions (development of language containers, and words and instructions for language rehearsals), and cues (mnemonic devices). These processes help us remember the information later. They are responsible for the formation of explicit memories. However, activities such as projects, explorations, experimentation, and problem solving situations are helpful in forming implicit memories. Proficiency in mathematics calls for both. Implicit memories build understanding and comprehension and context for a particular concept and explicit memories help in developing fluency, skills, and procedural competence. The integration of the two types of memories helps us in the applications and problem solving processes.\nComponents and Related Tasks\nDifferent components of the working memory have specialized roles in learning arithmetic. For example, the phonological loop appears to be involved in arriving at facts by using a variety of strategies: (a) counting: when a child tries to find 8 + 6 by counting up and says: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 and at the same time keeps track of the addend 6 as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6; (b) decomposition/recomposition: (i) when the child says: 8 + 2 is 10 and then 4 more is 14; (ii) when he says: 6 + 4 is 10 and 4 more is 14; (iii) using properties of mathematical entities in holding information involved in complex calculations: to find the answer for 23 × 7 mentally, the child first thinks of 23 as 20 + 3, calculates 20 × 7 and thinks 2 × 7 = 14 so 20 × 7 = 140 and 3 ×7 = 21, and 140 + 21 = 161, so 23 × 7 = 161 (also known as distributive property of multiplication over addition); and verbal rehearsal of the problem to keep it current: to find 23 × 7, the child keeps repeating the problem or the components of the problem. The actions in (b) rely heavily on visual/spatial working memory.\nChildren with poor arithmetic have normal phonological working memory but have impaired spatial working memory and some aspects of executive processing. Compared to ability-matched controls, they are impaired only on one task designed to assess executive processes for holding and manipulating information in the long-term memory. These deficits in executive and spatial aspects of working memory seem to be important factors in poor arithmetical attainment.\nThe visuo-spatial sketch pad appears to be involved in operations involving multi-digit problems where visual and spatial knowledge of column positioning is required, relationships between positions of digits in multi-digit numbers, and location and position of objects in visual clusters. For example, mentally locating numbers on the Empty Number Line as in when we find the difference 91 – 59, one thinks of 59 on the number line and then takes a jump of 1 to reach 60 and then a jump of 31 to reach 91, arriving at the answer of 91 – 59 = 32, and spatial representations of individual numbers. All of these actions take place in the working memory’s visual-spatial sketch-pad.\nThe role of the central executive is noted in many situations in learning and mastering arithmetic language, concepts, operations, and procedures. The central executive processor is responsible for identifying, initiating and directing processing, symbol and word recognition, comprehension and understanding, and retrieval of relevant information from the long-term memory. For example, all the decisions in estimating and computing the answer for 23 ´ 7 mentally are executive functions of the central processor and are being processed in the working memory. To estimate, the student first thinks of 23 as about 20 and 7 as either 5 or 10. And converts the problem mentally as 20 ×10. Then he thinks 20 × 1 = 20, so 20 × 10 = 200, or he thinks of 20 × 7. This is possible, of course, if he knows the concept: What happens when you multiply a number by 10, place value, and the table of 2. Of course, there are other routes. However, a child who thinks of 23 is made up of 2 and 3 will never be able to estimate the answer. This is an interplay between executive function in the working memory and the information being brought from the long-term memory. To compute 23 × 7, the child first thinks 23 as 20 + 3, therefore, 23 ×7 is thought as (20 + 3) × 7, and then to calculate 20 ×7 he thinks 2 ×7 = 14 so 20 × 7 = 140 and 3 × 7 = 21, and 140 + 21 = 161, so 23 × 7 = 161. All of these decisions involve the central executive. When a student has mastered the operation of multi-digit multiplication with understanding, he can apply the procedure mentally. That will again take place in working memory with help from long-term memory.\nAppropriate and precise language, effective concrete and pictorial models, and efficient strategies are important not only for learning quality content but also for improving student learning capacity, including the working memory.\n(Part Two: How to Enhance Working Memory for Mathematics Learning)"

"Hover to see how factors connect to Working Memory. Then click connected factors to explore strategies related to multiple factors.\nWorking Memory, a component of executive functioning, allows a person to temporarily hold and manipulate information to apply in other processes. With our Working Memory, we recall and apply the knowledge stored in our Short- and Long-term Memories to help understand what we are learning. Working Memory is likely required for retaining information during math problem solving, in particular with more novel or complex problem types. When Working Memory is overtaxed, a math student can appear to have a poor attention span and be easily distracted because they struggle recalling and using information.\nWhile the executive functions Inhibition and Working Memory are very much related processes and show similar developmental trajectories in childhood, they become more distinct processes during adolescence. The rapid development of the brain during adolescence leads to improvements in Working Memory capacity and efficiency.\nWorking Memory can also be called updating as it involves working with and updating information in memory. One influential model of Working Memory lays out four components, each considered to have a limited capacity. These separate components are responsible for maintaining verbal Working Memory, visual and spatial Working Memory, and for integrating information from these components that serves as a link between Long-term Memory and Working Memory. In addition, there is an executive control system which directs activities within these systems, including shifting and focusing attention between them.\nCognitive load is another important element of Working Memory and refers to the amount of mental effort being expended by Working Memory during different tasks. Cognitive Load Theory proposes that instruction can be designed in a way to reduce cognitive load. It also differentiates between different types of cognitive load:\nTeachers support language development by using and providing vocabulary and syntax that is appropriately leveled (e.g., using simple sentences when introducing complex concepts).\nContent that is provided in clear, short chunks can support students' Working Memory.\nAs students solve problems in a group, they learn new strategies and practice communicating their mathematical thinking.\nStudents activate more cognitive processes by exploring and representing their understandings in visual form.\nThinking of and about patterns encourages learners to look for and understand the rules and relationships that are critical components of mathematical reasoning.\nTeaching students to recognize the structures of algebraic representations helps them transfer solution methods from familiar to unfamiliar problems.\nDiscussing strategies for solving mathematics problems after initially letting students attempt to problem solve on their own helps them understand how to organize their Algebraic Thinking and intentionally tackle problems.\nAnalyzing incorrect worked examples is especially beneficial for helping students develop a conceptual understanding of mathematical processes.\nWhen students explain their thinking process aloud with guidance in response to questions or prompts, they recognize the strategies they use and solidify their understanding.\nThe flipped classroom has two parts: cooperative group activities in class and digitally-based individual instruction out of class.\nAs students walk through stations working in small groups, the social and physical nature of the learning supports deeper understanding.\nAdding motions to complement learning activates more cognitive processes for recall and understanding.\nIn guided inquiry, teachers help students use their own language for constructing knowledge by active listening and questioning.\nLearning about students' cultures and connecting them to instructional practices helps all students feel like valued members of the community.\nAs students work with and process information by discussing, organizing, and sharing it together, they deepen their understanding.\nMath centers with math games, manipulatives, and activities support learner interests and promote the development of more complex math skills and social interactions.\nRhyming, alliteration, and other sound devices reinforce math skills development by activating the mental processes that promote memory.\nWhen students have meaningful discussions about math and use math vocabulary, they develop the thinking, questioning, and explanation skills needed to master mathematical concepts.\nThrough short but regular mindfulness activities, students develop their awareness and ability to focus.\nShort breaks that include mindfulness quiet the brain to allow for improved thinking and emotional regulation.\nMnemonic devices help students remember mathematical concepts and steps of math and classroom processes.\nMultiple tables and chairs on wheels allow for setting up the classroom to support the desired learning outcomes of each activity.\nBy talking through their thinking at each step of a process, teachers can model what learning looks like.\nTeachers sharing math-to-self, math-to-math, and math-to-world connections models this schema building.\nBrain breaks that include movement allow learners to refresh their thinking and focus on learning new information.\nInstruction in multiple formats allows students to activate different cognitive skills to understand and remember the steps they are to take in their math work.\nMultiple display spaces help develop oral language skills as well as Social Awareness & Relationship Skills by allowing groups to share information easily as they work.\nVisualizing how ideas fit together helps students construct meaning and strengthens recall.\nProviding physical and virtual representations of numbers and math concepts helps activate mental processes.\nVisual representations help students understand what a number represents as well as recognize relationships between numbers.\nMultiple writing surfaces promote collaboration by allowing groups to share information easily as they work.\nConnecting information to music and dance moves enhances Short-term and Long-term Memory by drawing on auditory processes and the cognitive benefits of physical activity.\nMaintaining consistent classroom routines and schedules ensures that students are able to trust and predict what will happen next.\nDecreasing extra audio input provides a focused learning environment.\nWhen teachers connect math to the students' world, students see how math is relevant and applicable to their daily lives.\nStudents deepen their understanding and gain confidence in their learning when they explain to and receive feedback from others.\nWhen students engage in a dialogue with themselves, they are able to orient, organize, and focus their thinking.\nSentence frames or stems can serve as language support to enrich students' participation in academic discussions.\nTransforming written text into audio activates different parts of the brain to support learning.\nStudents deepen their math understanding as they use and hear others use specific math language in informal ways.\nProviding visuals to introduce, support, or review instruction activates more cognitive processes to support learning.\nVisual supports, like text magnification, colored overlays, and guided reading strip, help students focus and properly track as they read.\nWait time, or think time, of three or more seconds after posing a question increases how many students volunteer and the length and accuracy of their responses.\nA word wall helps build the Math Communication and vocabulary skills that are necessary for problem solving.\nAnalyzing and discussing solved problems helps students develop a deeper understanding of abstract mathematical processes.\nAre 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"Have you ever left a coffee cup on the roof of your car as you speed off down the road? Have you ever searched frantically for your sunglasses only to find them on your head – or forgotten where you parked your car?\nThese slip-ups are all lapses in your working memory, the function that allows us to keep information in mind for brief periods of time.\nWorking memory is crucial in the daily lives of people of all ages. Below are descriptions of working memory’s role in three essential areas: academics, professional life, and social life.\nWorking Memory & Professional Life\nWorking memory is especially important in the office. Essential for staying focused, remembering important information, and keeping appointments. It’s also what allows us to focus under pressure and function while distractions are present.\nImagine you are giving an important presentation in front of a room full of people. You have prepared extensively and it shows as you confidently walk through your key points. All eyes are trained on you and you begin to sense that they are getting it; the presentation will be a success. Suddenly, your mind goes blank. You fumble over words while desperately attempting to get back on track. You can feel your momentum escaping the room like air from a punctured tire. Your embarrassment makes it even more difficult to recover.\nMany professionals know this scenario all too well. A limited working memory capacity can be the cause of such moments and can affect a person’s professional success by causing them to avoid pressure situations.\nA strong working memory empowers a professional to perform well under pressure, remain organized and prioritize activities. Professionals with strong working memory capacities are efficient with their time and well equipped to multi-task.\nWorking Memory & Academics\nStudents use working memory all the time. It is especially crucial for math, reading comprehension, complex problem solving, and test taking. Imagine you are in a classroom full of students taking a simple multiple choice test. You carefully read each question and then view a handful of potential answers, selecting the one that best answers the question.\nBut what happens when your working memory fails and you forget the question by the time you read the answer choices?\nFor many students, this is a familiar scenario. Even students who are exceptionally intelligent may experience difficulties in school due to a limited working memory capacity.\nAt the same time, a strong working memory allows a student to focus intently during tests and recall essential information. Students with healthy working memory capacities are especially well equipped for important academic subjects such as math and reading comprehension because they can retain information and prioritize the steps to solving problems.\nWorking Memory & Social Life\nWe use working memory in social situations and in our relationships. Listening and being attentive to the needs and concerns of others requires the use of working memory. Imagine you’ve just met someone at a party. You chat pleasantly for several minutes finding you have much in common. As the conversation comes to a close, you both express the desire to meet again in the near future. Warmly shaking hands you say, “It was great meeting you—.” Your mind is blank as you try to recall your new friend’s name.\nPeople with working memory problems often experience difficulty in their social interactions and relationships due to their inability to focus and remember important events and engagements. Sadly, these lapses can be misinterpreted as indifference or disinterest.\nA healthy working memory enables a person to remember important facts, such as names and dates, to be an attentive listener, and to be aware of the emotional and physical needs of those around them."

"Long before e-learning, there had indeed been a relationship between the success of a student in the class and their executive functioning skills.\nThese executive functioning skills are process skills like the ability to initiate task, planning ability, prioritization ability and working memory, that allow students successfully complete tasks.\nIn this article, however, we will be discussing working memory and the ways teachers can bolster this executive functioning skill for effective learning.\nUnderstanding working memory\nWorking memory is a student’s ability to temporarily retain and use information as they are usually tasked with daily demands such as information prioritization and carrying out different instructions.\nFor a fact, students that have strong working memory usually perform well in the classroom while students with weak working memory have more difficulties in class.\nThe good thing is that teachers can help students with weak working memory to strengthen this executive functioning skill.\nHow can Teachers improve the working memory of their students?\nSimplify your language\nJust like you plan out the content and materials for teaching, planning your language ensures that students can easily grasp what you are teaching.\nYour instructions should be short, specific, and recurring because students with weak working memories are limited by their inability to absorb large amounts of information.\nWho says students find routines boring? Think again!\nOn the contrary, routines lessen the stress students have to go through while learning new things and free up their working memory for other information.\nThe more they are exposed to certain concepts over a period of time, the more those concepts are engrained in their memories.\nCues help students figure out what is expected of them by their teachers. Using cues helps students organize their thinking.\nWhen you want a student to answer questions with a few points, indicate that they use bullets while detailed answers can be indicated with lines.\nThis way, students can focus on organizing their thinking instead of using their working memory to hold on to the direction of the task.\nTransitioning into new activities can be a stressful process for some students.\nThis stress can negatively impact the executive functioning skills of students especially their ability to use their working memory.\nSmoothly transitioning into new activities can decrease stress and improve students’ working memory.\nYou could play music or a little game to help students loosen up before delving into the activity of the day.\nHelping students improve their working memory makes your work as a teacher easier because students won’t have to take longer periods understanding concepts and the process of recalling what they have learnt won’t be as tedious as it was when they had weak working memory.\nDon’t miss important articles during the week. Subscribe to edbuild daily digest for updates"

"Working memory is a system that can store a small amount of information briefly, keeping that information quickly accessible and available for transformation by rules and strategies, while updating it frequently. Jonides, Lacey, and Nee (2005)\nWorking Memory is like the mailroom for the learning process. It is the place where you store information. Working memory sends you the information you need for what you are working on at the moment. According to CogMed, the number of items the average person can hold in working memory is 5-9. You can keep that information active for about 20 seconds. For students with working memory challenges, the capacity is even less. Students with weak working memory have difficulty reading, solving math problems, and following instructions. Many of these students may need either an MTSS plan or an IEP. According to The Opportunity Myth, providing consistent opportunities to work on grade-appropriate assignments correlates to better academic outcomes. Therefore, grade level goals with appropriate supports are essential for students in the MTSS process or special education. Here are 4 steps to teach on grade-level to students with memory challenges.\n4 Steps to Teach Students with Memory Challenges on Grade Level\nStep 1: Teach them to ABSORB by “downloading” the right files.\nWorking memory downloads the “files” that are needed to absorb the expectations. For example in a reading goal, the files needed might be the “decoding file”, the “context clue file” and the “text annotation file”. Reminding students to “download” these files is one way to get them started on the right foot. You might say something like: To absorb the information in the text today, remember to:\n- Highlight words you don’t know (text annotation file)\n- Use your spelling rules to read them (decoding file)\n- Use clues near the unknown word to figure out what the word says and means. (context clue file)\nRemind the student every time about the “files” they need to absorb information. Ask them to repeat which “files” they need for which tasks until they can verbalize them independently. Remind them of the “files” they need for a particular task so they can TRANSFER the skill to other learning experiences. For students with more significant challenges, provide actual files in the form of handouts or other materials that remind them of these strategies.\nStep 2: Teach them to RELATE through consistent content.\nAsking these students to hold a new concept and remember a related concept adds load to working memory. Use the same materials in intervention and specially designed instruction as is being taught in the general curriculum. Then, adjust the instruction using multisensory strategies with lots of opportunities to respond. The student has already formed a memory with this content and is not distracted by yet another passage, more details, and more new words. Instead of teaching foundational skills in isolation, pair foundational/computational goals with relevant reading comprehension, and higher-order math goals.\nThen use the content in the reading passage or in the math problem to teach the foundational/computational skill.\nWhen students repeatedly practice an activity or access a memory, they make connections. When we don’t provide ample opportunity with the same grade-level content or activity to mastery, we are actually interrupting or disconnecting the classroom concept. No wonder the gaps get wider! It may sound counterintuitive, but denying students with weak working memory access to higher-order thinking just because their storage capacity is low denies them the complex literary and math knowledge and skills that will help them make the connections they need to progress in the general curriculum.\nStep 3: Teach them to APPLY with Updates and Refreshing.\nThese students forget the steps in multi-step tasks. When you call on them they forget the question. It is very challenging for them to maintain attention and focus. They are not lazy. They just can’t hold the information so they lose their place. Think about how it feels when you are working on an intensive task on your laptop. Before you remember to save, your system crashes, and poof! It’s gone. You try to refresh your page. You look back into your history. Sometimes you just have to work hard to recollect and start again. Students with weak working memory “lose their work” all the time.\nOne important note: Productive struggle is key to learning. Resist the urge to rescue by remembering for them. Instead, these students need goals that teach them to use tools and strategies that help them remember independently and generalize in other learning environments.\nStep 4: Teach them to SUCCEED in expressing understanding\nFrequent failures of children with low memory to meet the working memory demands of classroom activities may be at least one cause of the poor academic progress that is typical for them. In order to reach expected attainment targets, the child must succeed in many different structured learning activities designed to build up gradually across time the body of knowledge and skills that they need in areas of the curriculum such as literacy and mathematics. If the children frequently fail in individual learning situations simply because they cannot store and manipulate information in working memory, their progress in acquiring complex knowledge and skills in areas such as literacy and mathematics will be slow and difficult. -Weiss, Lawrence G.. WISC-V Assessment and Interpretation.\nWhen students with memory challenges experience success, confidence increases. Unfortunately, teachers don’t usually think about teaching students how to succeed. Success breeds success. The best predictor of how a student will perform on a task today is how successful she was yesterday. This is especially true for students with weak working memory.\nHow to Teach Students with Memory Challenges: Which Goals?\nLastly, here are some ideas for MTSS and IEP goals for students with memory challenges. Remember, just because a student does not qualify for specially designed instruction does not mean that weak memory is not impacting their learning. The impact is just not severe enough to warrant special education.\nReading Goals for Weak Working Memory:\n- recalling letter to sound correspondences\n- reading fluently due to weak decoding\n- retrieving sight words\n- remembering key details\n- connecting prior knowledge to form inferences\n- retelling information\n- recollecting information about people, events, and ideas.\n- recalling the meaning of academic vocabulary\nMath Goals for Weak Working Memory:\n- solving multistep problems\n- using mental math\n- following procedural steps\n- recalling math facts\nWriting Goals for Weak Working Memory\n- recalling and sticking to the writing prompt\n- staying on track\n- organizing ideas\n- remembering and applying structure\nSEL and Behavior Goals for Weak Working Memory\n- maintaining attention and concentration\n- completing tasks\n- using strategies\n- following directions\nIn summary, having specific strategies for students with weak working memory can change how they can learn. You will be surprised to see quick results."

"You ask your child to wait while you finish a phone call before they tell you something important—by the time you finish, they have forgotten what they wanted to say.\nIf you recognise your child in these scenarios, they may need extra support to build up their working memory.\nWorking memory is where your child stores the information needed to complete a task. Their working memory capacity will increase as they get older. There is a wide variation in working memory capacity between individual students. Forward and backward digit recall is 2 measures used to measure Working Memory capacity.\nIt is used for controlling attention…...resisting distraction…..complex thinking….. organisation...... problem-solving…..remembering tasks.\nStudent progress in reading and maths is closely related to their working memory capacities.\nStudents with limited working memory may display one or more of the following characteristics in a classroom…..\nHow will you see teachers supporting these students in the classroom?\nTeachers making sure they are not speaking too rapidly or too softly\nTeachers keeping instructions to one or two steps\nUsing external aids like lists, wall charts, posters, personalised spelling cards, computer software\nA visual reminder of a task supports students\nVisual reminders help students remember where they are supposed to be\nVisual timetables help students keep on track\nRestructuring tasks to make them simpler and shorter.\nIncrease waiting time to answer a question and/or explain their thinking.\nGetting students to explain what they are doing helps embed information\nSetting more group work so a task can be broken up and shared.\nWorking in groups helps share the memory load\nSetting simple goals alongside students.\nExamples and models of desired end result for students to see.\nModels Examples give students a visual reminder as to what they are expected to do\nRepeating instructions in different ways, ask students to repeat back.\nSome rote learning- many successful interventions involve repeated practice.\nHaving students teaching others- having them explain how to do something.\nStudents teaching students creates deeper meaning which in turn supports memory\nMaking tasks multisensory- processing information in as many ways as possible will help with working memory and long-term memory. Writing, saying them out loud, listening and doing.\nHow you can help your child at home?\nHelp your child create chants, rhymes, and raps to remember spelling rules and basic math facts like multiplication tables. Rhythm makes information memorable.\nPractice an activity to engrave it in memory. Instead of expecting your child to remember what they’ve been told to do, do a run-through.\nProvide reminders to keep your child organised and ready to learn. Post a checklist by the front door to remind them of which day to bring swimming gear for example.\nGive your child a list of items (animals, say) and ask them to repeat it backwards. Start with three items and add more as they improve. Help them think of strategies for managing longer lists. Does visualising each item make it easier for them?\nAsk your child to count two different types of items at one time. Eg, as you drive, have them keep track of the number of red and green cars they see.\nLet them play on memory games & apps like Jungle Memory- a computer programme has been specifically designed for children to improve their memory.\nHave your child teach you eg explain a game they have been doing at school\nThere are lots of matching games that can help your child work on visual memory. You can also do things like give your child a magazine page and ask him to circle all instances of the word the or the letter a in one minute. You can also turn license plates into a game. Take turns reciting the letters and numbers on a license plate and then saying them backwards, too.\nSimple card games like Uno, Last Card and Go Fish can improve working memory in two ways. Your child has to keep the rules of the game in mind and also has to remember what cards they have and which ones other people have played.\nKeywords: Working Memory, capacity, instructions, restructuring tasks, visual aids, reminders, explaining, multi-sensory"

"Working memory capacity is the aspect of thought responsible for simultaneous storage and processing of information. It allows us to juggle mental tasks, focus on what’s most important and act in the moment. A high working memory capacity has been shown to be closely related to high IQ and academic performance.There's the germ of another study in the details.\nThose who had scored highest for working memory capacity were significantly more accurate in solving the math problems but did poorly at determining how much time had elapsed. They typically exceeded the allotted duration – or lost track of time.All those Strict Parents who told their kids \"If you spent half the time working the problem that you do fussing about the work\" might have had a point. And it boils down to scarcity and opportunity costs.\nParticipants with lower scores for working memory capacity were less accurate on the math problems but better at keeping track of the time.\n“Generally it would have been thought that individuals with high working memory would perform better at both tasks – the mathematical problems and keeping track of time,” [psychology doctoral student James] Woehrle says. “But our results suggest an interesting tradeoff, which we had hypothesized.The research also suggests that multitasking is counterproductive, akin to shifting focus from the math problems to the clock to the problems...\n“We showed that an individual’s ability to control his or her attention affects how he or she perceives the passage of time,” he adds. “Since the math problems were clearly identified as the primary task, the findings appear to support other research suggesting that individuals with higher working memory capacity have better attention control.”\nThe researchers believe the experiment results would be even more pronounced with more difficult and time-consuming tasks and that people who possess high working memory capacity are likely to experience the time-flies phenomenon more often.\n“The punch line is it gives people with a high working memory an excuse for being late,” Woehrle laughs."

"Working memory is like a neural memo-pad. People with higher working memory capacity can hold more items in mind whilst solving a concurrent problem or performing a distracting task. There’s been some excitement lately about the possibility that working memory can be improved through training, with knock-on benefits for IQ and academic attainment. A new study suggests such training should come with a footnote: “Improving your working memory could affect your perception of time“.\nJames Woehrle and Joseph Magliano divided 99 students into two groups according to whether they had high or low working memory capacity. Next, the students solved subtraction problems in their heads. They were told the maths was their primary task but an extra challenge was to solve the problems for a certain duration, as judged by their own internal sense of time: either two minutes or four minutes.\nThe intriguing finding is that time went faster for the students with higher working memory capacity. When tasked with doing the maths for four minutes, they tended to work for longer, estimating that the time was up later than the low working memory participants.\nWhat was going on? Why should having more working memory speed up the passage of time? Woehrle and Magliano said the finding was consistent with a popular account of time estimation, which posits that pulses are released by an internal pacemaker and accumulate in a counter. More pulses in the counter suggests more time has passed. Crucially, this process is gated by attention. When we pay attention to time, each pulse makes it into the counter and the passage of time feels slower. By contrast, if our attention is focused elsewhere, fewer pulses make it into the counter, as if less time has passed than really has (i.e. giving the subjective feeling of time having flown).\nAccording to Woehrle and Magliano’s Working Memory Capacity Hypothesis – the students in the current study with more working memory were able to allocate their attention almost entirely on the primary maths task. This benefited their maths performance but meant they were less vigilant of pulses accumulating in their internal clock. By contrast, the low working memory students couldn’t help but allocate some attention to the secondary time-keeping task, making them more aware of the passage of time. As a consequence the low working memory students’ time perception was actually more accurate but their maths performance suffered. The researchers said this evidence could have “profound implications in academic situations … low working memory students may ‘think’ too much about how much time they put into their school work.”\nThe new findings complement previous research showing that greater working memory capacity is associated with more accurate time perception, when time perception is the primary task. In this case, having more working memory allows for greater vigilance of the internal pacemaker and counter. Indeed, in the current study, the time perception of the higher working memory group was superior in a control condition in which they only had to estimate the passage of time.\nWoehrle, J., and Magliano, J. (2012). Time flies faster if a person has a high working-memory capacity. Acta Psychologica, 139 (2), 314-319 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2011.12.006"

"How can we create optimal learning conditions?\nWe know from our own experience that not all days are alike. On some days we feel energetic, determined, and able to concentrate, while on others we are tired, worried, and unable to think straight. This is true of children as well. Fluctuations in their state of mind affect learning, and understanding where these fluctuations come from can help us create optimal learning conditions.\nLearning requires the ability to simultaneously store and process information, which is determined by a child’s working memory. This ability is essential for logical reasoning, complex problem solving, text comprehension, and mental calculations.\n“Working memory performance is not consistent; like energy levels and mood, it fluctuates from day to day and even from moment to moment.”\nIf you want to solve an equation with brackets, you need to keep intermediate results in your memory in order to find the solution. If you want to understand a complex sentence, you need to create a mental model that captures the various pieces of information contained in that sentence. If you want to solve a complex problem, you need to identify and store intermediate goals. Working memory is required for all of these tasks.\nHowever, working memory performance is not consistent; like energy levels and mood, it fluctuates from day to day and even from moment to moment. One of my main research goals is to gain a better understanding of what causes these fluctuations.\nIf we can learn more about the circumstances that lead to better working memory performance, we can leverage this knowledge to improve learning outcomes. Using smartphones and an app programmed by our group (Florian Schmiedek’s lab), we assess working memory multiple times per day in children’s daily lives. This allows us to identify not only the fluctuations that take place, but also the situations that are associated with better working memory performance.\n“If we can learn more about the circumstances that lead to better working memory performance, we can leverage this knowledge to improve learning outcomes.”\nThese smartphone-based assessments have shown that sleep, disturbance, and mood play an important role in working memory performance. Performance is worse when children (1) have slept poorly the night before, (2) feel distracted while working on tasks, and (3) are in a worse mood.\nThese studies also show that children differ in the extent to which their working memory performance is associated with such situations. For example, the effect of a bad mood on working memory performance is markedly stronger for some children than others. One group of children may show better performance when they are particularly active and interested, while those factors may be unrelated to the performance of other children. Moreover, some children’s working memory performance seems to be largely unaffected by their mood.\nWhat are the implications of these findings? Most importantly, they suggest that when designing interventions to boost working memory performance, there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution. The circumstances that have the greatest impact on working memory performance appear to differ from child to child.\n“The circumstances that have the greatest impact on working memory performance appear to differ from child to child.”\nThe good news is that this opens up a variety of exciting opportunities for future applications. If we want to create optimal learning conditions, we must recognize that these conditions will likely differ between children. Accordingly, we need to (a) determine which children are most likely to profit from which situations and (b) tailor those situations to each child’s needs. While this is clearly a more challenging task than delivering the same interventions to all children, it is much more likely to do justice to the complexity of children’s experiences and preferences.\nIn the future, ambulatory assessment procedures that enable us to examine the ebb and flow of mood and cognitive performance in children’s everyday lives will play a prominent role in assessing individual children’s needs as well as in delivering personalized interventions."

"Short-Term Memory Problems in Children\nMemory is a type of ability that allows you to store information you have encountered in the form of memories. Memories are the result of a complex process involving the brain. The cerebral cortex and the hippocampus in the brain help process memories and the information they contain, and the cerebral cortex stores the data, explains KidsHealth 1. However, memory does not always function perfectly, which is why forgetting things sometimes is normal.\nSignificance of Short-Term Memory\nWhen children have continuing memory problems, the situation can interfere with areas of their life that rely on remembering information. For instance, learning at home and school requires children to pay attention to information so they can recall it later. Short-term memory is responsible for storing information you need to remember in the near future, which can range from seconds to hours. Examples of information held in short-term memory include a telephone message you must pass on to someone else later, a passage you just finished reading and what your teacher said in class earlier in the day.\nTypes of Problems\nShort-term memory problems in children involve their ability to pay sufficient attention to information and their ability to encode information in short-term memory properly, notes the Center for Development and Learning. Encoding information in short-term memory means transferring data to short-term memory for future recall, and it depends on your ability to first pay adequate attention to the information. An inability to attend to and encode information effectively can make a child's daily life and educational experiences difficult and frustrating.\nImpaired Memory Features\nChildren with short-term memory problems often have difficulty remembering things that happened in the last day, states the Center for Development and Learning. When affected children do attempt to pay attention to events as they occur, they may be unable to sustain their concentration long enough to pay attention continuously throughout the event, which can cause them to only understand obvious information that requires no more than minimal mental effort. The results of such tuning in and tuning out may include chunks of missing knowledge, an inability to associate new information with related information encountered in the past and an unwillingness to pursue activities that demand prolonged mental attention, such as homework.\nImproving Short-Term Memory\nAdults can teach children with short-term memory problems strategies designed to improve their concentration and ability to retain information in short-term memory. Common methods include reading actively by taking notes and highlighting important words, and repeating new information and explaining what it means after you encounter it the first time. Children who have short-term memory problems may also remember information more efficiently if they receive a handout with a summary of lectures beforehand, or if their parents or teachers prime their memory by briefly discussing what new tasks involve before the tasks begin.\nLong-Term Memory Consequences\nFailing to address short-term memory problems can lead to problems with long-term memory, which children depend on to store information accumulated over longer periods of time. For example, long-term memory holds the information students need to answer questions on tests and to perform routine tasks over and over again with ease. If children cannot pay adequate attention to new information and transfer it to short-term memory properly, their long-term memory may not be able to store or retrieve it properly, either, because it only has access to the faulty version in short-term memory.\n- child's mini chalkboard - apple image by samantha grandy from Fotolia.com"

"Memory is a type of ability that allows you to store information you have encountered in the form of memories. Memories are the result of a complex process involving the brain. The cerebral cortex and the hippocampus in the brain help process memories and the information they contain, and the cerebral cortex stores the data, explains KidsHealth. However, memory does not always function perfectly, which is why forgetting things sometimes is normal.\nSignificance of Short-Term Memory\nWhen children have continuing memory problems, the situation can interfere with areas of their life that rely on remembering information. For instance, learning at home and school requires children to pay attention to information so they can recall it later. Short-term memory is responsible for storing information you need to remember in the near future, which can range from seconds to hours. Examples of information held in short-term memory include a telephone message you must pass on to someone else later, a passage you just finished reading and what your teacher said in class earlier in the day.\nTypes of Problems\nShort-term memory problems in children involve their ability to pay sufficient attention to information and their ability to encode information in short-term memory properly, notes the Center for Development and Learning. Encoding information in short-term memory means transferring data to short-term memory for future recall, and it depends on your ability to first pay adequate attention to the information. An inability to attend to and encode information effectively can make a child's daily life and educational experiences difficult and frustrating.\nImpaired Memory Features\nChildren with short-term memory problems often have difficulty remembering things that happened in the last day, states the Center for Development and Learning. When affected children do attempt to pay attention to events as they occur, they may be unable to sustain their concentration long enough to pay attention continuously throughout the event, which can cause them to only understand obvious information that requires no more than minimal mental effort. The results of such tuning in and tuning out may include chunks of missing knowledge, an inability to associate new information with related information encountered in the past and an unwillingness to pursue activities that demand prolonged mental attention, such as homework.\nImproving Short-Term Memory\nAdults can teach children with short-term memory problems strategies designed to improve their concentration and ability to retain information in short-term memory. Common methods include reading actively by taking notes and highlighting important words, and repeating new information and explaining what it means after you encounter it the first time. Children who have short-term memory problems may also remember information more efficiently if they receive a handout with a summary of lectures beforehand, or if their parents or teachers prime their memory by briefly discussing what new tasks involve before the tasks begin.\nLong-Term Memory Consequences\nFailing to address short-term memory problems can lead to problems with long-term memory, which children depend on to store information accumulated over longer periods of time. For example, long-term memory holds the information students need to answer questions on tests and to perform routine tasks over and over again with ease. If children cannot pay adequate attention to new information and transfer it to short-term memory properly, their long-term memory may not be able to store or retrieve it properly, either, because it only has access to the faulty version in short-term memory."

"|Elaborative Interrogation. Prompting children to answer ‘why’ questions can facilitate learning.||Ask Questions. The teacher’s questions can help children practise new information and connect new material to their prior learning.||Check for Understanding. Checking for understanding at each point can help children learn material with fewer errors.|\n|Cognitive Load. We can only process so much new information at a time. We have a limited working memory that can be overwhelmed...||Daily Review. Daily review is an important component of instruction as it can strengthen previous learning and lead to fluent recall.||Pair Words With Graphics. Words and pictures are better than words alone...|\n|Independent Practice. Provide for extensive and successful independent practice both in and outside of the classroom.||Provide Models. Children need cognitive support such as modelling and the teacher thinking aloud as he/she demonstrates to help them learn to solve problems or perform tasks.|| Provide Scaffolds for Difficult Tasks. Provide the children with temporary supports and scaffolds to assist them when they learn difficult tasks.\n|Present Material in Small Steps. Our working memory, where we process information, is small and can only handle a few bits of information at once. Therefore, do not overwhelm children by presenting too much new material at once.||Retrieval Practice. Focus on getting information out rather than just always in. Through the act of retrieval our memory is strengthened and forgetting is less likely to occur.||Alternating Solved and Unsolved Problems. Teachers often spend part of a lesson demonstrating how to solve a problem and then have the children solve similar problems for the remainder...|\n|Beliefs About Intelligence. Beliefs about intelligence are important predictors of children’s behaviour in school. children are more motivated if they believe that their intelligence and ability can be improved through hard work and effort.||You Need to Know Facts to Solve Problems. We have a working memory (the limited system where we consciously process new information) and a long-term memory (the storage system that holds the vast majority of our knowledge).||What Children Already Know Affects Their Learning. Children come to classrooms with knowledge based on their everyday experiences, intuitions, and what they have been previously taught.|\n|Effective Feedback is Essential to Acquiring New Knowledge and Skills. We have a working memory (the limited system where we consciously process new information) and a long-term memory (the storage system that holds the vast majority of our knowledge).|"

"How to Help Children Set and Achieve Goals\nAs parents and caregivers, we all have goals for the kids in our care — from building healthy habits like daily exercise to hitting big milestones like a state championship. The most meaningful goals, however, are the ones children set for themselves. Setting and working toward goals helps build important skills like resourcefulness, problem solving and autonomy. Parents’ enthusiasm to encourage kids toward their goals can sometimes go awry, and caregivers may use negative, counterproductive or even damaging strategies in a quest for achievement. Here’s how caregivers can help children nurture the skills they need to set and reach goals.\nToddlers and preschoolers may be ready to begin working toward goals with the help of adults in their lives — think small, achievable milestones in keeping with tots’ physical and emotional capabilities. Tasks like learning to get dressed in the morning or make the bed are within the grasp of many 4-year-olds, while more complex skills like tying their own shoes might be years away. Caregivers often use rewards to help young children reach goals, which can be effective when rewards are used properly, says licensed therapist and accredited Positive Parenting Program coach Lakisha Harris of Harris Counseling and Coaching in Charlotte.\n“Rewards are effective when a child is aware of what is expected, advised what the reward will be in advance, as well as the consequence for not achieving the goal.”\nDon’t confuse bribes for rewards, warns Harris. By offering a short-term reward for compliance, bribes teach children that they only need to perform when they get something in return.\nSchool-age kids have lots of opportunities to set goals — from mastering a 10-speed bike to earning a top score in math. Building internal motivation and persistence required to reach goals, however, doesn’t happen overnight. Encourage growth by helping children break goals into smaller, more manageable tasks, Harris says. After each smaller goal is met, ask children how they feel about their achievement (“Do you feel proud of yourself?”) to build inner motivation and self-esteem.\nVisualization is another powerful tool to help kids work toward goals, says Anita Lesko, registered nurse, author and national expert on neuroplasticity. To use visualization at home, help kids settle into a quiet space without electronic distractions. After breaking a goal down into smaller steps, ask kids to visualize themselves achieving each smaller goal, along with the final, larger goal. Ask kids how they’ll feel when they reach their final goal. Drawing, painting, or creating a collage of themselves achieving their goal enhances the exercise and serves as a lasting visual cue.\nHelp, Don’t Hover\nAs kids grow into teenagers, goals get bigger and stakes get higher. Objectives like getting into college, landing an internship or earning a scholarship are indeed significant. Achieving these goals can have a lasting impact on a teen’s transition to adulthood. Experts say the weighty goals of adolescence are ones teens should mostly navigate on their own with parents serving as a guide instead of steering the course themselves. Parents can encourage skill building by asking teens to develop a work plan for large goals like SAT prep or college admissions with required parental check-ins along the way, Harris says.\n“By giving teens the opportunity to develop their own plan, parents are comforted knowing they have check-in times for accountability. It is also very helpful for parents to talk with their teen about challenges, and some possible solutions for resolving each ahead of time.”\nGuiding teens toward their goals without pushing paves the way for teens to feel a sense of achievement once those goals are met, which for parents, is the best reward of all.\nMalia Jacobson is an award-winning health and family journalist."

"Task management is an essential skill that every student needs to master. With the increasing demands of academic life, it's easy for students to get overwhelmed by the number of tasks they need to complete. However, with proper task management skills, students can stay organized and on top of their work. In this blog, we'll explore why task management is crucial for students and how they can develop this skill.\nWhen students have a lot of work to do, it's easy to feel overwhelmed and stressed out. Task management helps to break down the workload into manageable chunks, reducing stress and anxiety.\nBy managing their tasks effectively, students can increase their productivity and get more work done in less time.\nTask management teaches students how to prioritize their work and use their time effectively. This skill is essential not only for academic success but also for success in life.\nWith proper task management, students can focus on one task at a time, reducing distractions and improving their concentration.\nThe first step in effective task management is creating a to-do list. This list should include all the tasks that need to be completed, along with their deadlines.\nOnce students have created their to-do list, they need to prioritize their tasks based on their importance and deadlines. This will help them to focus on the most critical tasks first.\nThere are several task management tools available that can help students stay organized and on top of their work. Some popular options include Trello, Asana, and Todoist.\nLarge tasks can be overwhelming, so it's essential to break them down into smaller, more manageable chunks. This makes it easier to stay focused and motivated.\nTaking breaks is essential for maintaining focus and productivity. Students should schedule regular breaks throughout the day to rest and recharge.\nIt's essential to review progress regularly to ensure that tasks are being completed on time. This also provides an opportunity to make any necessary adjustments to the task list.\nTask management is a vital skill for students to master. It helps to reduce stress and anxiety, increases productivity, improves time management, and enhances focus. By creating a to-do list, prioritizing tasks, using a task management tool, breaking tasks into smaller chunks, scheduling breaks, and reviewing progress regularly, students can develop effective task management skills. With these skills, students can stay organized and on top of their work, leading to academic success and a more fulfilling life."

"Homework has become a staple part of school systems. It gives students the chance to consolidate what they have learned in class by practising it independently. But as well as improving learning, research also suggests that homework can help students develop one of life’s most important skills: self-regulation.\nSelf-regulation is students’ ability to monitor and manage their behaviours, thoughts, and emotions as they try to progress toward their goals. It is key for developing independent learners who take charge of their own learning.\nSo, what makes homework so good for developing self-regulation skills?\nTime management and planning\nIf students want to complete their homework in time to meet the deadline their teacher set, they need to plan ahead, make sure their plan is feasible, and then stick to it. This allows them to consistently practise and hone their time management skills.\nResearch has shown that students often struggle with this and can underestimate how long it will take to complete a task (this is known as the “Planning Fallacy”). Therefore, having the opportunity to allocate their time accordingly gives them a more accurate base for guessing how to do so again in the future.\nPersisting with difficult tasks\nHomework tasks can be challenging. Students need the persistence to complete them independently.\nA key to students developing persistence is to believe that they can accomplish the task to fuel their motivation. Fortunately, research has shown that homework activities can help develop self-belief in students of all ages. Some students may need assistance with getting started on their homework independently, but when they are on a roll, they could see some improvements in their self-belief and ability to persist through difficult tasks – making future homework easier to get through.\nAvoiding getting distracted is key to get any task done – especially homework. The growing use of phones among students makes this skill even more essential.\nResearch suggests that reducing distractions during homework is related to overall achievement and shows that high-achieving students are more prone to have this skill than their low-achieving peers.\nSo, what can students do to stay on task while completing homework? Some easy strategies include:\nOrganising their environment\nA focused environment is essential for students to concentrate on their homework, but it’s not just about getting rid of distractions. It’s also about surrounding themselves with only the tools that they will need or that will help them and making sure that their environment allows them to complete their homework efficiently.\nAgain, this gives students the opportunity to practise organising their working environment, which is an important self-regulatory skill that can help them complete tasks more productively.\nOvercoming unwanted emotions\nSelf-control of emotions is another self-regulatory skill that helps students to manage their behaviour. It can be a little bit more difficult for students to manage their emotions as research has concluded that the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain largely responsible for this, does not fully develop until age 25.\nDoing homework allows students to practise overcoming their frustrations in the face of challenges. A key to this is to develop their mindset, to believe that with effort, curiosity and a good outlook on setbacks, they can achieve the task at hand.\nReflecting on what they have learned\nFinally, homework can help students develop self-reflection, which is a metacognitive skill as well as a self-regulation skill.\nEssentially, this means that students are aware of which learning strategies are working for them and what they can do to elevate their learning. For example, they can ask themselves reflective questions throughout the homework task to monitor their progress and see how they can improve their thinking processes.\nFor example, research has shown that reflecting on learning during homework helped increase the academic achievement of 9–10-year-olds after only 5 weeks of training.\nSelf-regulation skills are necessary for students in both their educational and personal lives. Homework is a low-cost and effective way to develop these skills for students across all age groups.\nThis is not to say that other extra-curricular activities such as sport, dance, music or drama can’t also help nurture these skills. However, evidence suggests that homework is certainly one vehicle for students to practice and enhance their self-regulatory behaviours.\nBe First to Comment"

"When young students become overloaded with sensory information or their anxiety levels escalate significantly, they are unlikely to be able to exert any internal control over their impulses or to respond to prompts and cues from adults.\nTeaching students to self regulate and manage their responses in challenging and taxing situations starts with supporting them to take a break before they become overwhelmed.\nThe advantages of teaching students to take a break at school include:\n- supporting students to maintain control of their emotions\n- allowing for more opportunities for a positive resolution to incidents and issues for everyone\n- supporting students to sustain social interactions for longer periods as they know they can take a break when needed\n- supporting students to develop greater confidence in their ability to problem solve and cope with consequences\n- minimising controlling or repetitive behaviours that generally escalate in times of stress."

"Time management skills are essential to the successful completion of short and long-term projects in school. Understanding how time works and being able to use that knowledge when working is referred to as tempo control. Tempo control serves three roles for students:\n- Tempo control helps students think about, select, and work at an appropriate pace to complete a task.\n- Tempo control allows students to synchronize academic skills and neurodevelopmental functions so that they work in coordination with each other. For example, writing requires a student to hold ideas in his/her mind while writing sentences with correct grammar and spelling.\n- Tempo control helps students to have an appreciation of time, and how strategies and actions occur in a step-wise manner, rather than all at once.\nHere are some strategies for enhancing a student’s tempo control.\n- Have students think about how much time they will need in order to do a task well, and how to budget their time accordingly. For example, have students first estimate the amount of time needed to successfully complete a task, then compare their estimate with the actual time available, and finally, select appropriate strategies to complete the task (or “buy” more time).\n- Allow students to be the time manager for the class in charge of monitoring both the progress of work and the time remaining for each task.\n- Promote the even use of effort and pacing. For example, to reduce the likelihood of students rushing through a task, require students to: plan for so many minutes, work for so many minutes, and review for so many minutes.\n- Stage tasks (break them into smaller steps) to enable students to complete discrete steps, assigning each step (or group of steps) to a particular time period. Teach students how to stage tasks themselves, for example providing them with a blank time line, flow chart, or task web that they will fill in with steps in the task.\n- Prioritize tasks or steps within a task so that students devote time to the most important aspects.\n- Promote self-monitoring by students by having them check their progress and their pacing at certain times during a task.\n- Time management skills may be improved by having students create their own schedules for the week, day, etc. Have students create schedules that include both schoolwork and other activities."

"In simple terms, self regulation is the ability to control one’s body and self. Many students struggle to self regulate in their daily lives. For example, students may spend too much time playing video games, and not enough time on their school work because they have a hard time controlling their impulses. As parents and mentors, we help our students develop self-regulation skills in several ways.\nCreate routines and encourage students to stick to them. Routines will help students form habits, which eventually become second nature to students. Initially, students may need frequent reminders about when to complete their routines. Over time, they form habits and become more independent. Additionally, students will require less frequent reminders of how and when to accomplish these tasks, and they will be able to hold themselves accountable with less external intervention.\nGive students space to develop these skills on their own. Just as it is important to stay active in reminding students of their routines, tasks, and behaviors, it’s also important to give them the space to build these routines on their own. By having students plan out their day independently and communicate that plan with you, you can hold them accountable while giving them the opportunity to take more responsibility in the process.\nHave students take time to reflect on their progress and habits. Encourage students to reflect on what’s going well for them, what they want to improve, and what actions they will take to work on their self-regulation. Having a discussion about progress gives students a greater sense of ownership in the process of developing these skills. This may look like reflecting on the week each Friday and making goals for the upcoming week based on students’ reflection.\nSet clear expectations for your student. Many students who struggle with self-regulation benefit from having clear expectations set for them. Ambiguity around expectations can cause many students anxiety and confusion about what they need to do. Discuss expectations with students. Students may also benefit from time-based expectation guidelines, such as having homework finished by a certain time each night or completing daily chores by a certain time. This creates an environment where the student knows what to expect, and they can have the freedom to execute those tasks on their own while being held accountable.\nPositively reinforce students. It’s important to acknowledge the areas in which students are succeeding and congratulate them on those successes. Positive reinforcement can help students identify beneficial actions they are taking. This will help students feel encouraged to continue these positive habits and extend them to other areas of their lives as well. Perhaps a student completed their morning routine and got to class on time every day this week. Congratulate them on this success, and ask them why they feel they were successful. When students understand what makes them successful, they can incorporate that mindset into other parts of their routines."

"Students with learning difficulties often have trouble at school because they don’t have effective strategies for working through challenges.\nThese students can benefit from help to take charge of their own learning, monitor their behaviour and progress and make adjustments along the way.\n1. Setting Goals\nWhen done in the right way, goal setting gives students power over their own learning and opportunities to look at their own behaviour and identify ways they can improve. Setting goals helps students identify what they need to do, lets them see how they are progressing, and motivates them to act productively.\nThe goals students set for themselves should be specific and challenging, but not too hard. The student should be able to reach their goal quickly so they can feel good and move on to the next goal. As every student is different, every students goals will be different. One student might identify that they don’t get their homework done because they aren’t managing their time, so might decide to cut out a recreational activity to achieve the goal of getting their homework done before dinnertime. Another student might identify that he struggles with homework because he forgets to bring the homework instructions home, so he might realise he needs to bring his notes home so he can reach his goal of completing his homework each day.\nSelf-monitoring involves a student asking himself whether he has engaged in a specific, desired behaviour. A student might ask himself, Am I using my time in the right way to complete my homework by dinnertime? Or, Did I put all of my assignments in my backpack to take home? Students may also self-monitor for behaviours like paying attention, staying on task, and meeting performance expectations such as completing all homework problems or spelling 8 of 10 spelling words correctly.\nThis is part of normal development for many younger children and can be effective at any age when used to self-monitor and direct learning behaviour. For example, a student who is having trouble understanding a challenging text might think, I need to look up the definitions of these unfamiliar words and read this page again.\nStudents can use self-talk to remind themselves to focus their attention, to take positive steps when faced with difficulties, and to reinforce positive behaviours. Teachers and parents can model effective self-talk, but should allow each student to create and use her own statements. Taking some time to write out some useful statements before starting a new project or beginning a homework assignment can enable students get themselves out of a tight spot.\nSelf-reinforcement occurs when a student chooses a motivating reward and then awards it to himself when he achieves a milestone. Self-reinforcement can be short or long term and can relate back to goals that have been set. The student who has identified time-management as an issue, for example, might decide, I can go to the movies on Sunday because I finished all of my homework before dinnertime every night this week.\nSelf-reinforcement can also work well in the classroom. Teachers and students can select rewards together and teachers can let students know how to earn them. Once a student has met the criteria for a reward, she can award it to herself – say, by selecting a sticker for her journal after completing the day’s writing assignment and getting her teacher’s approval.\nAbout Sonic Learning\nHi, we’re Sonic Learning – a small group of Australian health and education professionals working to bring you the very best research-backed learning programs available.\n- Book a free phone consultation with one of our learning specialists\nFree screening assessment\nNot sure which program is right for you? Complete a free 5 minute questionnaire to help identify areas for improvement."

"Parents and their kids can engage in big battles when it comes to homework completion, causing parents to wonder what strategies to use to get their kids to finish the assigned schoolwork. Both parties can become frustrated and angry, and things can get out of hand rather quickly. There is a simple strategic plan that can reduce the hostile environment that might ensue.\nTime Limit for Homework\nSet a time limit for various assignments. Limit the amount of time they spend on each assigned. Have kids work on the hardest subject first while their mind is fresher. Direct them to work on it for 15-20 minutes; then move on to the next subject. Continue with this time limit until each subject of homework has been studied. Time limit can also be used to break up study time with small breaks.\nEnvironment Should be Friendly\nWhere kids study makes a difference. Some kids need a quiet atmosphere to concentrate on their work; while others need background noise to help them concentrate. The area should provide adequate lighting and comfortable seating. Disruptions should be removed. Family chaos can be an obstacle to a homework friendly environment. A favorable environment will help kids be more efficient in home work completion.\nRewards can Provide Incentive\nUsing rewards is controversial. Many people believe rewards are simply bribing kids to do something. However, when rewards are used correctly, they do no bribe kids; they teach them how to earn something. Rewards do not have to be monetary in nature. Praise, positive feedback or special privileges are good ways of rewarding kids for making a positive choice. Using rewards correctly teach kids positive consequences for compliant behavior. The most effective rewards are natural consequences.\nFor example, completing homework can equate to better grades which in turn can lead to college admission. Kids in general perform better with instant gratification rather than delayed gratification. Rewarding homework completion can use both elements.\nRewards must be tied to something that will motivate the kids. It is important for parents to be consistent and expectations of the kids to be clear. If kids do not meet the expectations, the reward should not be given.\nMake Homework Fun\nMaking homework fun is often overlooked; yet, it is easy to accomplish. For example, if kids have a special interest in something such as sports; relate the homework to that interest. Kids often know statistics of their favorite sports hero so that can be used to help them study math.\nHelp them enjoy reading by using different voices for different characters or asking them to discuss a short story about something that is of interest to them. Have them read an article in their favorite magazine; or write a story about their favorite television or movie character.\nWhen parents use their creativity to help homework more enjoyable for their kids it also gives them the opportunity to spend time with their kids. It can help strengthen a relationship. Understanding how their kids learn most efficiently will aid in coming up with creative learning idea. For example, most kids learn best through visual means so making homework as visually interesting as possible can be beneficial.\nSet a Routine for Homework\nThe final strategy for parents to ensure homework completion from their kids is setting a routine. Most kids perform better when they have a routine. This may entail setting a specific time and location for working on school work. It is important to keep to the routine as much as possible. Inevitably events will happen that interfere with a kid’s homework routine. Whenever possible, this should be kept to a minimum and alternative plans should be made immediately.Credit: Photo by: Anthony Kelly, Source: flickr\nSimplicity is the Key to a Homework Completion Plan\nThe most important element in any strategy is to be patient and to be consistent. The strategies outlined in this article spell out a simple word that will help parents remember this plan. It is a simple word to remember:\n- (T)ime limit\n- (E)nvironment friendly\n- (M)ake it fun\n- (S)et a routine\nCome to T.E.R.M.S with homework. This strategy can help reduce family stress and can help parents build a healthier relationship with their kids.\nThe copyright of the article Strategies to Get Kids to Complete Their Homework is owned by Cheryl Weldon, MA, LMFT and permission to republish in print or online must be granted by the author in writing."

"— Something you can measure, accomplish, or achieve. A goal is your ambition.\nJanuary is when we make resolutions and set goals, which is why we will be discussing them in class this month. Goal setting is a mind-set. If you want to reach a goal, picture it in your mind and write down the steps for reaching your goal. You can use your goal setting as a challenge or set your sights on something and make it happen.\nGoal setting in martial arts can be learning the next form, earning the next belt, working hard towards earning a black belt, or even going beyond that and becoming an instructor.\nIf you have more than one child, don’t assume that just because it worked for one child, it will work for another child; each child will most likely have a very different approach to attaining goals. Some may be more determined to reach goals that are identified, while others will appear to not show any effort at all. Be patient, provide guidance, and give encouragement to each child in the manner in which they are most receptive.\n• Help your children set goals, not only for martial arts, but for other important areas in their lives. Find ways to motivate them to achieve their goals.\n• Help them get back on track if they stray from the path. Show them they don’t have to feel bad if they slip up once in a while, as long as they move forward again.\n• Set up a calendar or chart for them to watch their progression using stars, stickers, or checks to mark\n• Celebrate their progress along the way.\n• Helping your children achieve their goals should be one of your goals."

"At this level, your child will be introduced to the importance of setting and meeting their goals, working with others and self-motivation. There will also be a strong focus on honesty, respect for self and others, and taking responsibility for their actions. The physical emphasis is on strong and clean techniques that will lay the foundation for their future as a Martial Artist.\nChildren work through a traditional martial arts system that teaches techniques from Karate, Kung-Fu, Judo and wrestling.\nPhysical activity is essential to the wellbeing of every child. Lion’s Way teaches the martial arts in a fun, positive environment that will keep a child on the path to a healthy, active lifestyle.\nLion’s Way teaches traditional martial arts values for today’s children. Having respect for themselves, for others and their surroundings. With these values, we lay the foundation for their future.\nLion’s Way stresses the importance of a positive attitude in overcoming any obstacles. With our traditional disciplines, your child will gain the focus and determination to conquer all challenges."

"Plan, Set Goals, Battle and Conquer.\nIs very important to set goals for ourselves and working to conquer them the confidence you gain when you achieve motivates and inspire you to achieve any goals you set for yourself.\nLearning to set goals in life can be a tremendous advantage because goal setting is crucial to success in all aspects of life. For instance, for students to excel in school they must set goals. They must come up with clear tasks and the timelines for completing them. The same principle applies to work and everything else in life. Martial arts help people learn to set goals by teaching their minds to visualize and execute tasks within specific times.\nMartial Arts Enable People Visualize Goals\nMartial art is a goal-oriented sport based on hierarchy. This means that in most martial arts like Karate, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and Kung Fu students receive colored belts as they rise through the ranks. In each stage, student learn new skills and overcome a number of challenges. A student must achieve all the goals in every stage before proceeding to another. Martial arts accustom students to understand their goals and the measures they need to take to achieve them.\nHelp Students Understand the Goal Setting Process\nMartial arts enable students to appreciate and trust the goal setting process. Most physically demanding activities like martial arts require discipline and perseverance to master. This teaches students a valuable lesson; success is not all about moving from one point to another. Martial arts expose students to basic routines first before moving to complex ones, making students understand that success is a journey not a destination.\nHelps Children Appreciate Their Ability\nMartial arts enable children to understand their abilities and limitations. Most people including many adults still don’t understand their abilities. Through martial arts, children come to realize that what they can accomplish mentally, they can also accomplish physically. This helps children to learn to set realistic goals that match their abilities at a young age. It helps children succeed later in life as well because they’ll only be pursuing realistic goals.\nMartial Arts Teaches Children the Value of Hard Work\nHard work is a key ingredient of success in all areas of life. There is no substitute for hard work. A child may possess an extraordinary talent, but without hard work, the child can never achieve his/her dreams. Martial arts teach children the value of hard work because accomplishing anything in martial arts require hard work and planning. Children learn that they should never give up on their goals even if it feels like hard work. This lesson is valuable to children today and later in the future.\nHelps Overcome the Fear of Failure\nThe fear of failure is one of the things that hold people back and prevent them from pursuing their goal. Most people are afraid of leaving their comfort zone. Martial arts teach how to control fear and execute tasks confidently.\nAt Soca Brazilian Jiu Jitsu San Diego you will experience the positive impact which that journey can bring to your life."

"We all have dreams in life, and most realize that in order to achieve those dreams, we must set goals, a road map, and a time frame to get them. This reality isn’t just true for grown-ups; it’s true for children as well. The dictionary defines a goal as an “observable and measurable end result with one or more objectives to be achieved within a fixed time frame.” It is a known fact that children with specific goals to achieve fare much better in life than their direction-less counterparts. Setting goals for children allows them to think, plan, and take action in order to earn a positive change or reward. They will understand the importance of patience, hard work, and experience the pure satisfaction of seeing the fruits of their labor. Since children are basically beginners in this area, the focus should lie on the process rather than the result.\nValues of goal-setting\nSetting goals for your children helps them focus on the task at hand. Since children can be easily distracted, it is necessary to set small goals for them that are achievable. The intention here is to keep them focused. Motivation is also important in goal setting and children will lose interest in their goals if it not relevant to them. Motivation in the form of small rewards can be great when it comes to getting your child to achieve his or her goals, but the focus must be on completing the task and not just the reward. Fixing goals for your children in multiple areas allows them to explore their strengths and interests, and simultaneously trains them to be well rounded individuals.\nSetting goals for your children allows them to develop self-confidence. Every time your children achieve a set goal, it gives them the reassuring knowledge and trust that they are capable of doing things. It gives them a sense of control and boosts their self-esteem.\nGoal-setting with karate\nAllowing your children to participate in goal-oriented activities is an excellent way to teach them the importance and value of the so-called “master skill of success.” Like most martial arts, karate is built on the idea of self-improvement through practice. It is an activity that is centered on the idea of goal-setting, and requires high levels of discipline to learn. There are various stages through which to progress when learning karate (proficiency in certain moves or skill sets, symbolized by advancing rank and belt color). The requirements will teach your child to be patient and focused, a noble and possible goal for young people and adults as well."

"We all have dreams in life, and most realize that in order to achieve those dreams, we must set goals, a road map, and a time frame to get them. This reality isn’t just true for grown-ups; it’s true for children as well. The dictionary defines a goal as an “observable and measurable end result with one or more objectives to be achieved within a fixed time frame.” It is a known fact that children with specific goals to achieve fare much better in life than their direction-less counterparts. Setting goals for children allows them to think, plan, and take action in order to earn a positive change or reward. They will understand the importance of patience, hard work, and experience the pure satisfaction of seeing the fruits of their labor. Since children are basically beginners in this area, the focus should lie on the process rather than the result.\nValues of goal-setting\nSetting goals for your children helps them focus on the task at hand. Since children can be easily distracted, it is necessary to set small goals for them that are achievable. The intention here is to keep them focused. Motivation is also important in goal setting and children will lose interest in their goals if it not relevant to them. Motivation in the form of small rewards can be great when it comes to getting your child to achieve his or her goals, but the focus must be on completing the task and not just the reward. Fixing goals for your children in multiple areas allows them to explore their strengths and interests, and simultaneously trains them to be well rounded individuals.\nSetting goals for your children allows them to develop self-confidence. Every time your children achieve a set goal, it gives them the reassuring knowledge and trust that they are capable of doing things. It gives them a sense of control and boosts their self-esteem.\nGoal-setting with karate\nAllowing your children to participate in goal-oriented activities is an excellent way to teach them the importance and value of the so-called “master skill of success.” Like most martial arts, karate is built on the idea of self-improvement through practice. It is an activity that is centered on the idea of goal-setting, and requires high levels of discipline to learn. There are various stages through which to progress when learning karate (proficiency in certain moves or skill sets, symbolized by advancing rank and belt color). The requirements will teach your child to be patient and focused, a noble and possible goal for young people and adults as well."

"Supporting School Success\nEvery child’s needs are different, but by supporting academic success at home, you’ll be helping your child succeed in school—and life! Consider these tips.\n- Instill good study habits,\n- Instill a love for reading,\n- Instill a commitment to learning.\n- Start at Home: School success starts at home. Create a homework center, a specific area in the house (such as an office desk or the kitchen table) where your child can do homework each evening. Make sure that it’s stocked with enough supplies, such as pencils, erasers, paper, a folder or two, and a calculator.\n- Do: Sit with your kids when they’re doing homework. If you have work you need to do for your job, bills to pay, or some other project, do it while your child is doing her homework, and let her know that even adults have homework. Model what it takes for school success by staying focused and not leaving until you’ve accomplished what you set out to do.\n- Encourage Critical Thinking: Help your child with his homework, but make sure that you’re not doing it for him. Your role is to help him succeed in school by asking questions, giving examples, and assisting him in learning concepts, not giving him the answers. Critical thinking skills are crucial for doing well in school at every age.\n- Stay Involved: Work with high school counselors, teachers that know your child well, and your teenager to create an academic schedule from ninth to twelfth grade that challenges her and deepens her school success skills. Do: Keep your teenager growing (without boring or placing too much pressure on her) so that she gradually masters skills that will be useful for doing well in school and beyond. After each semester, talk with your teen and make necessary adjustments to the schedule to make sure that it is still appropriate.\n[Related Article: Reach Out! Tips for Building a Strong, Positive Parent-Teacher Relationship]\n- Interests are Important: Encourage your kids to find books that excite them. Don’t overlook graphic novels, comic books, magazines, or other types of reading that may not interest you, but interests them. The point is to keep them reading, which promotes school success. Talk to them about what they’re reading on their own and in class, and ask which books they like and what they’re learning.\n- Remember intelligence is not fixed: Effort and persistence when facing challenges are important characteristics of a successful student. Tell your child, “smart is not what you are; smart is what you work to become.”\n- Start saving for college: There are many ways to make college affordable. Even the smallest savings can add up if set aside regularly over a long period of time.\n- Complete a FAFSA (financial aid) form to get an estimate of the financial aid your child might receive. Each year more than $236 billion in financial aid is available to help students and their families pay for college, yet millions of students leave this money on the table because they do not complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). To help students navigate this complicated form, the Capital One Foundation has partnered with the Center for New York City Affairs, a policy institute based at The New School, to develop the FAFSA: The How-to Guide for High School Students (and the Adults Who Help Them). Get it here.\n[Related Article: Four Reality Checks for Sending Your Child to College]\n[Related Article: Tips for Teaching Money Management]\n1. A Parent’s Guide to College and Career Readiness, University of Minnesota College Readiness Consortium, 2013.\n2. Developmental Assets: A Profile of Your Youth (Minneapolis, MN: Search Institute, 2005), 2003 weighted aggregate dataset, unpublished report.\n- Green Living\n- Health and Nutrition\n- Kids and Money\n- Peer Pressure\n- Mind, Body, Spirit\n- School Success\n- Sports and Fitness\n- When Bad Things Happen\n- Work-Life Balance"

"At Manchester Health Academy the completion of homework is an important part of Academy life and provides your child with gaining several skills each time they complete work at home. These skills are essential throughout your child’s life.\nResponsibility. When students assume responsibility for their homework and complete it on time they are learning to be accountable for their actions.\nTime management. Students that complete their homework on time learn the benefits of being organised. They also learn to plan their time well to ensure the work is completed to a deadline.\nPerseverance. Homework teaches students how to deal with adversity. They will become confident in asking for help when they are unsure and once completed take pride in finishing homework regardless of difficulties or problems they faced.\nSelf-esteem. Completing homework in a timely manner will help your child develop trust and self-confidence. The inspiration to work harder on the next project occurs when students feel good about their accomplishments.\nPlease visit our Policies page for the current Homework and Independent Learning Policy."

"Your child is gaining several simple skills each time she sits down to do work at home. All four will help her as she matures.\nResponsibility. — The homework assignment is your child’s responsibility (not yours). When students assume responsibility for their homework and complete an assignment, it is only then that they learn to be accountable for their actions.\nTime management. — Students complete their assignments or projects on time when they are organized. Turning the project in on time has it advantages because points are not deducted and your child won’t suffer consequences.\nPerseverance. – Homework teaches kids how to deal with adversity. Your child can take pride in finishing an assignment regardless of difficulties or problems.\nSelf-esteem. — Completing homework in a timely manner will help your child develop trust and self-confidence. The inspiration to work harder on the next project occurs when kids feel good about their accomplishments.\n9 How-to-Study Tips\nParents are team members on the homework front. You can create a positive atmosphere for your child by following these nine simple tips.\n• Organization is a must. Get your child organized by developing a schedule for homework assignments, projects, and tests. Post all homework assignments and projects on a wall calendar (or the refrigerator, as I did) for easy viewing. Share your email address with teachers in order to stay up-to-date on important assignments, special projects, and tests. Check your school’s website regularly for homework updates. Also frequently check your child’s backpack for handouts and messages from the school.\n• When your child does homework, you do homework. Show your child that the skills he is learning now are related to things you do later on as an adult. If your child is reading, you read too; if your child is doing math, balance your checkbook. In other words, work together in harmony and demonstrate as a parent how these new skills relate to adult duties and responsibilities.\n• When your child asks for help, provide guidance, not answers. Giving answers means your child will not learn the material. Too much help teaches your child that when the going gets rough, someone will do the work for him or her. As parents, we always strive to teach honesty, integrity, and good character.\n• When the teacher asks that you play a role in homework, do it. Cooperate with the teacher because it shows your child that the school and home are working jointly as a team, and follow the directions given by the teacher. Speak positively about your child’s school and never ever criticize the teacher or principal in front of the child.\n• If homework is meant to be done by your child alone, stay away. Too much parent involvement can prevent homework from having some positive effects. Homework is a great way for kids to develop independent, lifelong learning skills.\n• Stay informed. Talk with your child’s teacher weekly. Make sure you know the purpose of homework and what your child’s class rules are. Additionally, a parent-teacher conference is an excellent time for important people in a student’s life to talk about how that student is doing in school, including conduct, grades, tests, and homework assignments. It’s an excellent opportunity for you to ask questions about the class or your child’s progress.\n• Watch your child for signs of failure and frustration. Let your child take a short break if he is having trouble keeping his mind on an assignment, and provide plenty of positive reinforcements daily. Also, encourage your child when a task has been completed wrongly. While reprimanding him may be your first response, think carefully before acting. You’ll likely get better results if you provide love and support as you firmly, yet gently correct the issue.\n• Reward progress in homework. If your child has been working hard or is successful in completing work, celebrate that success with a special event. Enjoy a pizza together, a walk, or a movie to reinforce positive effort.\n• Pledge to spend quality time with your child. Yes, as parents we’re faced with financial challenges, underemployment, busy schedules, and other issues that can threaten family time. However, regardless of what you face, remember to spend some quality time with your children each day and ensure that proper “home-learning” takes place.\n— Glenda Faye Pryor-Johnson is a retired Memphis City Schools counselor.\nLooking for other homework stories? Read these:\nKids Should Not Have Homework: 5 Arguments To Support Your Point\nHomework has been a part of students’ lives for so long that the idea of not doing it can seem incredible, surreal, or even impossible. But if you stop to think about it, the truth is that homework is not necessary. Do you have trouble believing that? Well, here are a few great arguments that will definitely convince you.\nWithout further ado, here are the top five best arguments that will definitely convince any naysayers that homework is not something that should be done by kids.\n- Kids already have seven hours of school. You start school at eight and go home at three. That’s a full day of school. Most adults work similar lengths of time at work and come home exhausted. Yet they can’t understand when their kids have trouble focusing at the end of a full day of learning. And that brings us to our next point.\n- It’s counterintuitive to make children spend too many hours studying. If an adult has attention problems, that’s nothing compared to a kid. Children are still growing, their brains aren’t yet fully developed, and it’s crucial that they get a lot of exercise and free time. Something that they could do in thirty minutes if fully rested and energized will drag on for four hours if they’re restless and can’t focus because they left seven hours of school to directly jump into three hours of homework.\n- Getting sun and exercise is crucial for your health. If you’re cooped up in school during the day, then have to do your homework when you get home, you’ll develop poor health. A much better solution would be to do all the learning you need to do in one place, in a short amount of time. When you stop school, that’s the time for you to play and go outside and get exercise.\n- Seven hours of school should be enough to learn anything. Sure, let’s say that you have recess and lunch--there’s still a good five hours where you’re studying. If you can’t learn what you need in that time, there’s a problem. Rather than giving you lots of homework after school to compensate, schools should look at how they can rework teaching systems in class to make the most of the time you have in school.\n- Having a social and family life is important. In short, you should have a balanced life. Many adults get angry if their work life spills over into their personal life. They like to go out after work and spend time with friends. But children should get the same respect. School is a time for learning, and it takes up much of the day. After school is the time for pursuing your own hobbies and personal pastimes."

"Goal setting is a common practice among adults and professionals who want to further their personal success. But what exactly does goal-setting entail in the classroom environment?\nIf you’re a teacher who has had this question, you’re not alone. Here’s why goal-setting is so important — and how teachers can practice strong goal-setting skills with their students.\nBenefits of Goal Setting\nBy teaching students to set goals in the classroom, you’ll help them reap the benefits of goal-setting as adults. Goal-setting is also an important way that students can learn to uncover and satisfy their passions in life.\nGoal-setting gives students short-term vision and long-term motivation, creator of the New Teacher Resource Center, Dorit Sasson adds. With clearly defined goals on what they want to achieve — and learning how to turn those goals into reality — students can take pride in achieving their vision. Another benefit of goal-setting is that it helps de-emphasize the importance of grades and place importance on developing tangible life skills.\nMiddle school principal Sanée Bell, Ed.D., says that grades measure compliance, but don’t do much to demonstrate student growth. Goal setting helps students understand what it means to work hard and improve at a particular skill. It assists in cultivating a growth mindset.\nHaving a growth mindset means believing that you can do anything you set your mind to, teacher and school principal Rita Platt explains. People with a growth mindset have mastered the art of self-management, and they achieve massive, influential action because they truly believe that they can.\nIn fact, a study by postdoctoral researcher Patricia Chen found that students who are involved in their own learning achieve better overall results. In particular, college students who assessed their study techniques used resources more effectively while studying for an exam and outperformed their peers.\nA lesser realized benefit of focusing on student growth in this area is that it can positively impact schools overall. Specifically, it can make schools and school districts more effective at assessing their own performance. Student-level projections allow schools to assess success in context, John Gatta, Ph.D., CEO at leadership and analytics consulting firm, ECRA Group, writes.\nThis means that schools can look at how students are improving over time in relation to the district’s unique geographic and economic obstacles — rather than comparing themselves to national proficiency standards.\nHelping Students Set Milestones\nBefore your students can set personal goals for themselves, they’ll need to engage in reflection. Literacy consultant Patty McGee explains that proper reflection allows students to ask questions about what they want to achieve and which areas they’d like to improve in.\nMcGee says that these questions might include queries such as:\n- What did you learn about yourself in the last unit?\n- What was your favorite mistake you made — and what did you learn from it?\n- What are some strengths you noticed about yourself?\n- What are some weaknesses you’ve realized about yourself?\n- Did you receive any important feedback from your teachers or peers?\nOnce you’ve allowed proper reflection time, you can introduce the idea of goal-setting to your students. It’s a good idea to set goals as a group first, as this can reduce anxiety and help students gradually warm up to the idea.\nOne of the best ways to implement the goal-setting methodology in the classroom is to share the idea of SMART goals, teacher Genia Connell points out. SMART goals stand for intentions that are: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Rewarding and have a set completion Time. In addition to making goals clear, the SMART approach gives them meaning and helps students feel more invested in them.\nStephanie Van Horn of the blog Third Grade Thoughts explains that she first introduced the idea of SMART goals in a group lesson that allowed students to explore the idea together. Then, she provided each student with a sticky note where they could write down what they want to achieve in a week, and the milestone for reaching that goal.\nCombining individual milestones with group lessons can also help students feel more supported and inspired for achieving their goal. Catherine Reed at Brown Bag Teacher says she sets group goals for helping students practice individual reading at home. Each student is asked to spend at least 4 nights a week reading at home — an act which gets signed off on by a parent or parent volunteer.\nThen, each student takes turn coloring a star on the smart board (one star for every hour read) in front of the class. Every student who colors a star gets cheered, creating a positive and supportive environment. Reed also leaves time for discussion once the session has ended. During this reflection time, the class talks about why they didn’t reach their goal (or celebrate the fact that they did) to continue the motivation.\nPersonal Best Goals\nOne effective method for goal setting is the personal best approach. This strategy is when a student aims to do better than their previous best achievements, according to psychologist Dr. Jasmine Green and Professor Andrew Martin.\nThese goals differ from ordinary goals because a student sets a specific goal, rather than a general one, and raise the bar on themselves. They are competitively self-referenced, which means the students compete with themselves rather than others, the authors explain.\nIf you’re wondering what personal best goal setting looks like in the classroom, Professor Andrew Martin co-authored a report with a few examples. These include things like showing better computational and processing work in a mathematical assessment. Or, it could mean outperforming one’s effort in a particular subject area (like a longer, more detailed book report that cites more examples than a previous one).\nHelping students set personal best goals addresses things they’re worried about (such as underperforming in math) and can reduce anxiety. Teachers should also take time to work with students to ensure that their personal best goals are realistic. If goals are not achievable, they’ll cause more stress for students. Personal development expert Sid Savara suggests setting just one goal at a time. Once that goal is achieved, the next can be added to the list.\nTeachers might leverage this philosophy by having students first write a number of long-term and short term goals before choosing just one short term goal from the list to tackle for the week.\nAoife McLoughlin, director of studies in ATC Language Schools, agrees that it is essential for students to set their own realistic goals if they want to be successful. She suggests having students create a learning log, where they can easily keep track of what has been accomplished (and what needs to be tackled) in a given week.\nA learning log is a grid or table with the days of the week outlined. In a language class, for example, the log for Monday might say something like “review past tense” and the log for Tuesday could read “jobs and occupational vocabulary.”\nOther Goal-Setting Ideas\nFor tech-savvy teachers who want to instill the power of goal-setting through personal devices, there are a number of apps and tools designed to support this need. Sharon Hooper at EmergingEdTech lists seven apps tailored to setting and achieving goals in a healthy, productive way. Some are focused on creating step-by-step lists, while others make it easy to set little reminders to achieve progress points along the way.\nThinking about the functionality you’d like to have available can guide you to choose the right app for your classroom.\nTeacher Angela Watson reviews one tool in particular that helps with both goal-setting and reflection. Sown to Grow helps students set their own goals, track their performance and reflect on the strategies they’ve used (and which new ones they want to try). Designed to give students full ownership of their own learning and intention setting, this tool can also provides teachers with insight into where students need extra help and where they’d like to improve — thus increasing the effectiveness of lesson plans."

"Why Goal Setting Is Important for Students\nRemembering the exciting and young days of being a student,goal setting was THE practice that helped me get both short-term results and long-term benefits.\nEvery student should set goals for themselves because:\n· Goal Setting connects students’ personal ambition with school work\n· Goal Setting improves students’ self-management abilities\n· Goal Setting boosts students’ self-confidence\nEmpowering students to set their own goals can lead to a life of actualized potential and fulfillment. And the sooner they start this journey, the more advantages they will have.\n1. Goal setting connects students’ personal ambition with school work\nThere is an interesting phenomenon happening now in the education system. Students hate schools but they love education.\nContrary to the popular myth, millennials spend more time reading compared to other generations, averaging about 2 books per year. That means that students, the younger generation, do value the importance of knowledge.\nUnfortunately, the education system fails to enable students to be more proactive in learning with the old model of the carrot and stick: high reward, high punishment.\nAs students are getting more and more stressed out, they need more entertainment to balance out their anxiety: video games, television, Netflix… instead of pursuing their personal projects or building the study habits like we expect them to be doing.\nWhat students need is a personal vision and a sense of active involvement in their education.\nAs students set their own goals, they launch themselves into the future with an optimistic mindset. They define for themselves a reason why they should be studying, instead of being told a million times by their parents and teachers.\nThat personal, long-term goals can serve as the motivation anchor to help them grind through the tough subjects, tests, and essays, giving them a larger perspective focus on building themselves, making use of their time instead of wasting all of it on fleeting entertainment.\nFor teachers, understanding your student’s personal goals leads to a more reasonable expectation for each individual, hence removes the unnecessary stress exerted on them.\nIt makes sense for Josh to try and excel at chemistry because he wants to become a doctor, but Jonah’s average score doesn’t mean he should be doubling down on chemistry as he’s passionate about art and wants to become a movie director one day.\nStudents’ sense of accountability can be trained early in life as they are empowered to take matters into their own hands.\nIf they have long-term, ambitious goals for themselves, they understand that teachers, parents, and friends aren’t responsible for getting them closer to those goals. Only through taking action and overcoming obstacles, instead of complaining about their circumstances, can they reach their desired destination.\nIn 1979, Harvard MBA conducted a fascinating study on the effects of goal setting, in which they surveyed the habits of goal setting in the about-to-graduate students. Through which:\n- 84% of the entire class had set no goals at all\n- 13% of the class had set written goals but had no concrete plans\n- 3% of the class had set written goals and concrete plans\n10 years later, the result was astonishing: the 13% were making twice as much money than the 84% on average. While the 3% were bringing in 10 times the income compared to the rest of the 97% of the class, on average.\nOnce a student connects their own personal ambition with an action plan, they are more likely to be successful, at least in terms of earning a decent income.\nThrough goal-setting, teachers encourage students to set goals and commit to taking action. We can serve as a guiding figure for their personal journeys, instead of implementing a cookie-cutter path to everyone.\nTools and Resources\n- Teaching the SMARTER goal-setting model: helping the students set goals that are clear, specific and can turn into an action plan.\n- Teaching the students journaling for self-reflection: helping students to refine their set of values, dig deeper to understand themselves and improve their self-awareness on their strengths and weaknesses.\nREAD MORE: Why Goal Setting Is So Hard\n2. Goal Setting improves students’ self-management abilities\nAs students are still young, naïve and inexperienced, they don’t know how to manage themselves: what to focus on, how to manage their time, how to build good habits.\nGoal setting is a meta-skill that contains three sub-skills for self-management: prioritization, time management, and progress tracking.\nThese fundamental skills will not only serve to improve academic performance but also help students excel outside of schools.\nAs students strive to reach a big goal, the upcoming challenges will purify and cultivate their abilities to execute a plan. As the goals become more complex and difficult, students become more capable and efficient.\nPrioritization, as we practice when evaluating which goals to aim for, will enable them to focus better and realize what is important and avoid wasting time on what is not.\nTime management, as we practice when devising strategies and planning for milestones, will keep students more productive and less stressed. They will find out for themselves what working styles best suit them and start getting better at doing the actual work.\nProgress tracking, as we do along the way towards our goal, will ensure students that they are building the right habits, taking the correct actions. These are the breeding grounds for good study habits that will transform into good work ethics later in their life.\nTools and Resources\nFor prioritization – the 80/20 Rule (or the Pareto Principle), showing that 20% of the work that we do brings in 80% of the result. Teaching students to identify the 20% of work that will bring the most benefit and set goals based on that.\nFor time-management – the Pomodoro Technique (working in 25 minutes with 5 minutes breaks) this has been endorsed by many productivity enthusiasts and high performers as the technique keeps them highly engaged with their work and beat procrastination.\nFor progress tracking – there are so many useful tools that can help with progress tracking at our disposal. To-doist or Things are great apps for storing and tracking progress in the form of to-do lists, and Habitify is a great app to build and track habits, which happens to have a special discount for student.\n3. Goal Setting boosts students’ self-confidence\nAs educators, one of our greatest challenges is to instill confidence in the hearts of our students.\nThere are students that waste so much of their talents, because they didn't confidently believe that they are capable of making an impact and living a good life.\nI believe that empowering students to set their own goals is a fundamental solution to let them see the depth of their potential.\nGive a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.\nLooking back to my years in school, honestly, I forgot most of what the teachers had taught me during the lectures. But, I would never forget how they made me feel when they encouraged me to strive and develop my interest in writing, or when they encouraged me to aim for a better university after high school.\nThe teachers I admire and grateful for the most are the ones that had put effort in guiding me to see myself for my potential, instead of my shortcomings.\nGoal-setting, from my experience, has helped tremendously in raising a student’s confidence in his ability to do better in life. Through the small, little tasks, students gain more trust in his ability to do better, and he sets a bigger goal, and a bigger goal, on and on and on.\nSingaporean entrepreneur, Adam Khoo’s half biographic I Am Gifted, So Are You demonstrated the power of goal-setting in improving a student life.\nAfter attending an NLP course named Superteen when he was 13, he remarkably changed from an unmotivated, “under-achiever” student to attending the best university in Singapore, running a business and publishing a best-selling book while still in university.\nHe credited that 5-day course was the pivotal moment of his life. No one has ever taught Adam how to set big goals. No one has even considered Adam to be capable of achieving that much.\nAdam’s story and exceptional transformation may be the exception to the rules. But it showed how much of a positive change goal setting is capable of.\nThe seed for self-mastery comes from the belief that we can change for the better, and that seed can be planted by a teacher who believes in a student more than the student believes in himself.\nSEE ALSO: 5 Goals that Set Students for Success\nGoal setting is an invaluable skill for students as they serve as not only the tools to solve immediate, short-term problems, but also a seed to foster a student’s confidence to go after his lifetime ambition.\nAs a student or a teacher, do you find goal-setting to have a positive impact on your life? Comment below and share it with the Habitify community."

"One of the most important things one can do as a parent is encouraging your children to develop consistent studying habits and skills from an early age. If you set up a study space for that child, she or he can feel comfortable and positive about their schoolwork, thus, developing a lifelong love of learning. Children are not the same as some have good studying habits while others hate studying. As a parent, it is advisable to take positive steps that will help your children to develop better studying habits and skills. Do not forget that discipline is paramount and should not be overlooked when contemplating on the steps to follow for your children’s study skills. The joy of learning will definitely make a child motivated and thus do their best.\nHow to Make a Child Study Independently\nStart While The Children Are Still Young\nThe best time to show your children how to manage their time is as soon as they start any form of schooling. You can show them the importance of studies as a priority over other things as games and television. Ensure that they get into the habit of finishing their schoolwork before engaging in any other activity.\nStick To A Regularity Or Routine\nYou should create a routine every day in which the children will know the time they are supposed to do their homework. The average attention span of a child is 45 minutes, so, you can engage them in such a duration instead of forcing them to study and do all the homework at once. Make sure you make a consistent time and routine for homework like telling the child it is time for homework. As a supportive parent, you can do it together each day to make it fun and motivate them to do it on their own.\nMaking Studying Fun For Your Child\nHomework and study should not be gloomy as this is the recipe for the child disliking them – they should be fun. You may ask the child about the activities they have been doing in school all day and if there are assignments to revise. This follows up can be done on a daily basis. When discussing this, it is vital to show interest and eagerness and not tension and anxiety. Parents and institutions can give gifts that are related to studies in order to motivate children to pursue their learning goals. They can consider items such as an exciting study table, good stationery, art items, and dictionary or a table clock. Allowing a child to act as the teacher and you as the student can also be fun in doing homework. The child can read the questions as you listen attentively and they can also write the answers thereby completing the homework.\nProvide A Studying Space\nIt is worthwhile for a parent to engage with their children and work what they need in their study space. This is a good strategy to ensure that children bring out the best in their studies. You can make sure that the study space should not be in an area that distract them such as television area or near the laundry or where there is a lot of household activity. A room designated for homework and study should be quiet and spacious so that children can work without being disrupted. You should consider for smart design choices to make it a welcome retreat for young scholars and may be the favorite room in the house.\nEncouraging your child can be rewarding by bringing positive results on their studying habits and their overall performance. But many parents are obsessed on praising the children on the grades they get rather than monitoring the progress and improvement of their studies. This makes children feel they must do whatever it takes to get the best grade. They may find themselves turning to you for help or even resort to cheating. For instance, currently, students are turning to the internet to find help with their homework studies. Although most of online essay and homework help websites are genuine and only intend to improve the knowledge of students, lazy learners buy essays in order to score high grades and cheat their parents.\nTherefore, instead of raising children based on their results, you should embrace for their effort to get their grade. When we reward our children for the action they take rather than the results they achieve, they are more likely to repeat it again and it will make them have faith in themselves.\nCreate Room For Adjustments\nIf the method you consider the best does not work, it is wise to try other methods. Studying in shorter periods rather than a long one might be easier. You can also give the kid some time to relax after school instead of doing homework immediately. While the child is relaxing, you can advise them to take some water or stretch their legs. But the rule, however, should be that if there is work to do, they should learn to finish at a particular timeframe.As we try to make our children love studying and homework, parents and teachers should avoid developing a nagging attitude and be yelling as they hinder the desired outcome.Related Baby Guides"

"It’s the end of another school day and I’m dreading an epic battle of wills over homework is brewing. Does this scenario sound familiar. Study time can be a point of stress for a lot of families. But with a little planning, we can settle into a routine that will set them up for success. Here are five study tips for kids.\nSet Up An After School Routine\nI used to wonder why my son was so resistant to doing his homework. One day we were talking and he mentioned that he was tired after school. It was like a light bulb went off in my head. I started allowing him an hour to do something that he wanted to do before settling back in to study and do homework.\nSo my first tip is to set up a routine with your kids that they can follow regularly. Here’s a list of things your routine may include:\n- Having a healthy snack to help restore energy.\n- Changing clothes or freshening up. Some kids are involved in sports or wear school uniforms and find getting into comfortable clothes sets the stage for study success.\n- Doing something fun releases endorphins and is a stress reliever. Kids can enjoy sports, play outside for a few minutes, even watch funny videos online.\n- Studying and doing homework.\n- Giving parents the paperwork they need to see.\nSet Up A Time\nThe beauty of routines is that they help us build habits. When it comes to studying developing good habits helps students succeed. Habits are in turn things we don’t think about much. It’s not a mental struggle once a routine is in place. So figuring out when doing homework will take place at home reduces resistance.\nWork out both a start and an end time for studying and doing homework. This is important because taking too long to get homework done is demotivating while having a set amount of time encourages focus. Talk to your kids and their teachers about a reasonable amount of time for homework and studying. If you find kids are taking longer than expected, it could be a sign that additional support is needed. If you find kids are losing focus during their session, consider adding a short break.\nDepending on your families schedule and whether kids participate in extracurricular activities, find the best time for you and be consistent. As kids get older allow them to have input. Some do better with getting study time out of the way right away and some do better getting to work after a break.\nSet Up A Place\nHaving a designated place for doing homework is important because when we are at the designated place it makes it easier to concentrate as we tie the location to the task. As kids get older most can do their homework more independently. So they may not need or want to be in the same room with you or with other family members. Consider allowing them to do homework in a more private location if they are able to focus and get the job done. Also, make sure the space has adequate lighting.\n- A study desk set up in their room or study area is an option.\n- Some families prefer the kitchen or dining room table\n- Another choice is the living room with a lap desk or on a coffee table. Flat surfaces are better for some activities.\nOne of the largest obstacles to study time for kids is having all the needed materials at hand. No matter where you’ve chosen to study, have supplies close at hand so that there’s no unnecessary stopping to get pencils, for example. There are neat and discreet ways to hide school supplies in plain sight if homework is done in common areas.\nAlso providing them with a notebook or planner to write down assignments and when they are due is essential and a good skill for kids to master as they progress in their school career. There’s a planner for all personality types and organizational styles. Help your kids find what works for them.\nHere’s another challenge for parents as kids get more independent, we may not see every homework assignment or be able to check to see that it’s done and done correctly. But we can ask our kids about their assignments and about whether they are written down. We can ask our kids about what’s working well for them and about the challenges they are facing and problem solve together.\nMy son was not writing down his homework assignments. When asked why he responded that he felt rushed so I suggested he take a picture with his phone of the assignment board and write it later. The same process can be followed for other challenges.\nTo get the biggest bang for our study time buck, it’s important to eliminate distractions, those things that compete for our kid’s attention while they are doing homework. Here’s what we’ve done:\nTurn off the television – ours is turned off until everyone is done with homework.\nSet up rules for the computer and other screens – We have a no screen rule once study time begins. A screen can be used for an assignment but non-screen homework is done first and a headset is worn if used in a common area where others are doing homework.\nCreate ground rules for courtesy – we turn off the television and wear headsets if our screens will make noise as a courtesy to anyone studying who needs quiet.\nOk, we’ve set up an after-school routine, set up a time and place for studying, gotten organized and gotten rid of common distractions. We should pat ourselves on the back and give our kids high fives because they’ve set themselves up to get the most out of their homework time.\nIs there something that you’ve tried that works well for your family’s study time? In what ways have you seen your kids become more independent with their school and homework? I’d love to hear about it."

"Tips To Make Your Child Like Reading\nReading is one of the most useful activities anyone could ever do, and raising your child to be a good reader is wonderful for him. In this article we will give you some tips to make your child like reading.\n1- Start reading for him at a very early age:\nRead for your child at bedtime, but not only that. You can make reading one of the mutual activities that you do at any time throughout the day. Cuddle your child while you are reading for him, he’ll love how it connects both of you together and will wait for it every day.\n2- Visit the library together:\nGo with your child to the library, and see whether he’ll like it each time you go or not. If he likes it, then make sure you go to it regularly and pick a book together.\n3- Don’t try to teach him how to read at a young age:\nChildren learn to read on their own before they go to school. And the goal of reading together is to make him like it, and to let him hear your voice and how its tone changes with events, and to see the pictures with their bright colors in the book. So forcing him to learn how to read will make him hate the whole process, instead, concentrate on making it funny and beautiful each time you read together.\n4- Keep reading for him, even after he learns it:\nDon’t stop reading for your child even if he learns to read. Most of the times, he won’t be able to understand what he reads, so reading together will give him the chance of asking you, and you’ll have very nice conversations because of that. And it is always good to make reading one of your special activities together.\nWe wish your child will be the best reader ever.\nRead More: Tips To Teach Your Kids How To Be Organized"

"You can never start reading to your kids too soon! The early years are critical for developing a lifelong love of reading. Don’t just leave the reading lessons up to the teacher at school and be sure you get involved. Feel free to try out some of these simple tips to help your kids build a strong relationship with reading.\n1. Be a role model – Your kids need to see that you read regularly and they will soon want to follow suit. Not only do your kids look up to you but they are also learning from your daily habits. Make it a regular activity to read in front of your kids and emphasize its importance.\n2. Don’t get ahead – Most likely your kids are not going to enjoy any difficult content and keep in mind that preschool isn’t high school and elementary school is not college. Keep the subjects simple and playful at first, you want your kids to love story time and thoroughly enjoy it.\n3. Keep Reading – It is super important to start reading when your kids are babies and to continue with regular reading activities throughout their childhood, even if they seem like a better reader than you!\n4. Stay Involved – As a parent, you should know what happens at school and in your child’s classroom. Get involved with their assignments and support them when they need help, but don’t let them trick you into doing their work for them!\n5. Give Praise – Parents need to show how much they appreciate the hard work and dedication their kids have put in. Let your kids know if they are a rockstar, and remember to praise specifically, they will know if it is not sincere!\n6. Allow & Encourage Mistakes – As adults, we know that our mistakes are some of the best learning opportunities. Allowing your kids to work through their problems themselves will boost their self-esteem and help establish all sorts of wonderful connections in their brain, making them better problem solvers later in life."

"However, children are often burdened with unnecessary expectations, which in turn can cause a general aversion to school and subsequently to learning. That’s why, what you need to do to encourage your child to love reading and consistently complete their school responsibilities;\n1. Start reading together\nAs with many things, the best thing you can do when it comes to reading is to set a good example for your child. Start studying together, making sure he knows you’ll be there if he needs anything. Help him when he asks for it or gets stuck somewhere in class. Be patient and kind to his doubts and questions.\n2. Emphasize meaningful learning rather than grades.\nAlthough good grades are part of the school system, if a child is having difficulty getting them, it is advisable to turn his attention to his studies. Ask about daily activities in class and what he has learned at school. Don’t strive for higher grades and try to understand things from his point of view.. It is important to approach reading responsibly and positively as any negativity can make one give up.\n4. Discuss the day’s lessons together.\nBy talking about the lessons he attended at school, the child unconsciously learns to be more attentive in class. Ask about his favorite subject, favorite book and favorite teacher.\n5. Follow a schedule\nWhatever is done systematically and followed with reverence always has a positive result, and the same applies to schooling. Create a schedule together and follow it every day.\n6. Create a suitable reading environment\nMake sure there are no distractions such as loud noises, TV and/or another sibling playing, etc. near where the child is sitting to study. Children’s attention is easily distracted in any case, so It is better to remove everything unnecessary from the place where he reads.\n7. Reading for fun\nParents often make the mistake of viewing reading as a threat or punishment. However, reading and studying time can actually be fun. if both parties have a positive attitude towards this.\n8. Follow your child’s learning style.\nIt is very important to understand what kind of learner your child is, i.e. whether he is an auditory, visual or kinesthetic type. This way, you can tailor the reading program to suit your child’s preferences and skills.\n9. Set goals together\nIt is helpful to set goals that you can achieve with hard work and dedication. You can set short, medium and long-term learning goals for your child to keep them motivated and track their progress.\n10. Listen to his opinion and don’t preach.\nIt is important to listen to and respect your child’s opinions, even if at times you feel they are wrong. Allow your child to express their opinion on various topics, it helps build his confidence. Ask him to justify his point of view with arguments. Also, avoid lectures on good and evil. Too many verbal attacks can eventually lead to a loss of interest in reading. Give clear and unambiguous instructions rather than scolding, manipulating or threatening.\n11. Help him learn from failures and recognize his achievements.\nFailure is a part of life, not the end of the world. Even if your child gets low grades, do not argue with him or compare him with friends or peers. Perhaps he is already feeling bad. Try to encourage him and explain that it is okay to make mistakes and learn from them.\nOn the other hand, we all value good communication, and children need it too. It is very important to recognize and appreciate even the smallest achievements of your child. This not only makes him happy, but also gives him extra motivation to do well.\nSource: Lady Like\nI am Ted Washington and I work in The News Dept. I specialize in researching, writing, and editing news articles for a wide variety of topics. My articles are published on various online portals including The News Dept. In my role as an author, I strive to bring readers engaging stories that capture their attention and make them think about the current events at hand."

"3 Ways to Solve Your Child’s Procrastination Problem\nProcrastination: It isn’t just for adults. In fact, it’s a defense mechanism against stress and anxiety that often develops in childhood. Procrastination is not a character trait that parents would want their kids to develop. However, turning a blind eye to the symptoms of a budding procrastinator is very easy to do. Here’s how you can stop procrastination in its tracks before it gets the best of your son or daughter.\nRecognize the True Reasons for Procrastination\nJohnny decides not to take out the trash because it’s “too cold.” Annie skips her math homework because she figures she’ll get the answers wrong anyway. It’s easy to shrug off both Johnny and Annie as “lazy kids,” but there’s more to their stories than that.\nAnnie has trouble with algebra and is sure that she’s going to fail her homework. By skipping the assignment, she can blame her “F” on procrastination rather than an intellectual shortcoming. Annie isn’t lazy either, she’s safeguarding her ego from the pain of personal failure.\nProcrastination always boils down to self-preservation. The procrastinator doesn’t want to feel stupid, bored, or distressed. Putting off unpleasant tasks is not a symptom of laziness. It’s a symptom of being human.\nEstablish Accountability to Prevent Procrastination\nAccountability is a big word and a big concept, especially for little people, but it can help immensely with procrastination. Kids need to understand that they’re responsible for certain things, and they need to feel rewarded when they act accordingly.\nHere are three concrete ways that you can help your child remember the chores/tasks for which he or she is accountable:\n- Post a list or chore cart on the refrigerator.\n- Create and co-sign a written contract.\n- Use anti-procrastination apps, a reminder app, or Beat Procrastination — a behavior modification app.\nEstablish a Reward System\nSome well-meaning behaviorists will tell you that painful punishment is a vital part of “unlearning” a bad habit. With developing children, however, it’s can be more important to reward success than to punish failure.\nRewarding success need not be a costly or grandiose effort on your part. In fact, extrinsic rewards like money, candy, and gifts tend to reduce a child’s motivation. Here are three excellent ways to intrinsically reward a child through verbal commendation:\n- “Wow! You must feel really good about yourself for getting that math homework done.”\n- “I am proud of you for remembering to take out the trash without being asked.”\n- “You make me feel so happy when you complete the tasks on your accountability list!”\nAs a parent, you are also your child’s life coach. You don’t want to see your son or daughter suffer a lifetime of procrastination catastrophes, so you do everything you can to enhance their personal development. Try these tips and have open conversations about why your child might be procrastinating to help him or her learn to avoid this bad habit as an adult.\nIf your child truly dislikes school and always avoids doing homework, it may be time for a new school. Visit K12.com to see if online learning might be right for your family."

"The anatomy of a procrastinator\n- Get 'er done! -\nName: Polly Procrastinator\nScientific name: Putitoff tilllaterous\nTraits: Procrastinators are experts at putting things off.\nMany are creative thinkers who throw themselves into projects once they get\nstarted. But for a variety of reasons, getting started can be difficult. Often\nlacking organizational skills, procrastinators may feel overwhelmed by large,\nmultistep tasks. Unsure where to begin, and sometimes secretly afraid of\nfailure, they avoid homework and studying until deadlines are nipping at their\nheels. They then work themselves into a dither trying to finish on time.\nBehaviors: Dormant periods of texting, doodling, staring at\nthe ceiling, counting stripes on a notebook — anything but completing\nschool assignments — followed by bursts of frenzied activity.\nNatural enemies: Bad habits are the most serious threat to\nthe procrastinator’s future success. Contrary to popular belief,\nprocrastinating tendencies are not unalterable personality traits. With proper\nguidance, a positive metamorphosis can take place.\nRita Emmett, author of The Procrastinating Child: A Handbook\nfor Adults to Help Children Stop Putting Things Off, understands\nprocrastinators. She grew up playing chicken with deadlines, which led to a lot\nof missed assignments and unnecessary stress.\n“Procrastination was one of my biggest obstacles throughout\nmy childhood and early adult life,” says Emmett. “I know many parents already\nfeel stretched like a rubber band, but if they can work with their kids on\nbreaking that habit at an early age, it will be well worth the effort.\nTaming a procrastinator: The reasons for avoiding schoolwork\ncan vary greatly and may indicate a deeper problem. However, after ruling out\nspecial needs such as learning disabilities and hearing impairment, Emmett says\nparents can reform most young procrastinators by following these steps:\n• Teach kids to break down tasks into manageable parts. To\nhelp them overcome the dreaded stack of homework, encourage them to take it one\nassignment and one step at a time.\n• Set a timer (start with 10 or 20 minutes) and insist the\nchild ignore everything else and focus on the task until it is completed or the\ntime expires. Supervise this time, and limit breaks and distractions.\n• Offer a reward for completing tasks on time. For instance,\nplace a sticker on a calendar when homework is finished in a timely manner.\nAfter a certain number of stickers are accumulated, celebrate with a special\nouting or treat.\nScripture to consider: “Look at an ant. Watch it closely;\nlet it teach you a thing or two. Nobody has to tell it what to do. All summer\nit stores up food; at harvest it stockpiles provisions” (Proverbs 6:6-8, The\nConclusion: With proper guidance, procrastinators can become\nresponsible students who successfully manage their time — and accomplish\nmore than they ever thought possible.\n“When they break the procrastinating habit it’s not only\ngoing to help them in school, but in their careers and relationships and in\nbeing their best for God,” Emmett says.\nResearcher: Christina Quick"

"Procrastination may be as much a part of our humanness as eating and sleeping, but adolescent kids seem especially vulnerable.\nIn The Procrastinating Child: A Handbook for Adults to Help Children Stop Putting Things Off, author Rita Emmett explains that the bad habit is sometimes because we feel overwhelmed, become distracted or feel helpless.\nSometimes the feeling is a result of perfectionism — as it goes hand-in-hand with procrastination. If your child is fearful of failing an exam or a particular task, such anxiety may cause her to stall. She may feel stuck and unable to become mentally mobilized. The bad habit may continue into adulthood, jeopardizing future successes.\nA consistent fear of failure can lead to a pattern of indecisive behavior author Neil Fiore notes as a warning sign in The Now Habit. He also identifies low self-esteem and lack of assertiveness as red flags for procrastinating behavior.\nHere are five tips to help your child — and you stop procrastinating.\n1. Trick your brain\nThere is hope. To combat the tendency to put things off, Fiore suggests transforming the thought “I don’t want to” into “I wonder what will come?”\nSounds simple, but the attitude adjustment is powerful. In a sense, that subtle shift tricks the brain into a more productive mode.\n2. Get comfy with mistakes\nHelp your child understand how perfectionism stops him from greater productivity. Kids need to learn it is OK to make mistakes.\nExplain that “not perfect” is altogether different than “fail.” Plus, a certain comfort level with failure is necessary.\n3. Think smaller chunks\nEmmett recommends helping children break overwhelming tasks into smaller chunks. If your child has an upcoming Civil War test and simply cannot get the gears in motion, help her get organized.\nLook at the task of test preparation as a series of baby steps. Help her make a short list for a plan of attack, such as: reread two chapters of the text Monday, study notes Tuesday and Wednesday, and cover vocabulary on Thursday. These time-management strategies can go a long way in thwarting procrastination.\n4. Set expectations for homework completion\nParents can influence their child’s productivity by setting firm rules at home, offering rewards and making lists. Do not put off making these rules. The basic rule of “no TV until your homework is done” is an obvious place to begin to curb the procrastination.\nScreen time may be suspended or offered as rewards for successful time management.\n5. Remove the STING from feeling overwhelmed\nHere’s a great strategy from Emmett’s book:\n- Select one task you’ve been putting off.\n- Time yourself and take one hour to accomplish the task.\n- Ignore everything around you, such as the phone and other tasks.\n- No breaks. One hour is realistic for an 8- to 12-year-old student, but reduce the time if your child is younger or has a tough time focusing for that long.\n- Give yourself a reward once the task is complete.\nThis post was originally published in 2015 and is updated regularly."

"Diane L. Michalak, Guidance\n►Responsible Students Set Goals for Themselves:\nGoals help children focus on what's important and what's not. When children are goal-orientated, they are more likely to say \"no\" to irresponsible behaviors because they are saying \"yes\" to their vision of the future.Middle school children can set goals for school work, getting along with others, sports, musical interests, leisure activities or anything else they want to improve.\n►Parents Can Teach Goal Setting:\nTake these steps to help your child set goals and achieve them! At the beginning of the week, help your child identify one goal. It might be turning in a book report on time. It may be getting 85 percent correct on a math test. Have your child write the goals on a piece of paper and post it on the refrigerator or bulletin board. Talk about how to accomplish the goal. Help your child break the goal down into smaller steps. For example, \"You could read two chapters every day. Then you can sped a day writing your report and another day revising it\".\nAs the week progresses, ask how things are going. If problems come up, talk about possible solutions, If your child falls behind in reading, for example, a 10 minutes extension of bedtime might help her catch up. At the end of the week, help your child evaluate how well he/she did. Did he/she achieve his/her goals? Why or why not?? Most importantly, praise your child for trying. Then set new goals for the next week."

"Let’s get SMART\nWhat is a ‘goal’? There are many different ways that organizations define goals, and in those differences, problems can arise. Having a consistent definition of a ‘goal’ is an important part of goal setting as it will lead to consistency across your entire organization.\nSMART is a common framework for defining goals. A SMART goal is:\nSpecific – Target a specific task, area or metric for improvement.\nMeasurable – Includes a clear quantifiable measurement of success.\nAssignable – Includes who will own the goals.\nRealistic – The goal should not be impossible.\nTime-specific – There should be a clear deadline or timeline.\nLet’s look at an example! If your marketing team needs to improve the number of leads they generate to help increase sales, there are two ways they could define their goal:\nBad Goal: Increase leads by 500%.\nSMART Goal: Increase the number of completed demo request forms by 60% before December 1st, 2016.\nThe Bad Goal, true to its name, is very vague. It’s unclear how “leads” would be measured, when the goal would be achieved and a 500% increase is unrealistic in a reasonable time frame. The SMART Goal is very specific and measurable (referring to demo request forms), realistic and time-specific (due on a date). Note that both goals are assignable to the marketing team, but with the SMART Goal anyone can verify if the goal is achieved whereas the Bad Goal might be open to interpretation.\nEven SMART goals can be open to interpretation. What is “Realistic”? The CEO might think a 500% increase is realistic because other companies are able to achieve it, whereas the team might think a 60% increase is realistic considering the limited time. This is where goal setting becomes an art form instead of a science and leadership must ensure that goals are aggressive but not impossible.\nThe good news is that goal setting becomes easier the more you do it, and the more you do it the better you will get at determining the difference between impossible and aggressive.\nQuote of the Day: “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry"

"Presentation on theme: \"SMART Goals For Professional Learning Communities Strategic Measureable Attainable Relevant Time Bound.\"— Presentation transcript:\nSMART Goals For Professional Learning Communities Strategic Measureable Attainable Relevant Time Bound\n“Success isn't a result of spontaneous combustion. You must “Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you “If you don't know where you are going, you will probably take your eyes off your goal. ” Henry Ford end up somewhere else. ” Lawrence J. Peter set yourself on fire. ” Arnold H. Glasow Goals, Goals, Goals Why Do We Set Goals? (Fill in the blanks)\nWriting SMART Goals Strategic and Specific Measureable Attainable Results Oriented and Relevant Time Bound\nStrategic and Specific Describe the goal in precise terms. What are you going to do? Who is the goal for? How are you going to do it? When will the goal be reached?\nA specific goal has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a general goal. A general goal is, “I will read more.“ But a specific goal would say, “I will read for 30 minutes each day for the next year.\"\nStrategic and Specific Non-Example: Students will do better in math. Example: All __th grade students will score level 4 or higher in math on the 2010 FCAT.\nMeasureable If it can't be expressed in figures, it is not science; it is Use specific criteria for measuring progress toward the goal. How many? How much? opinion.\nMeasureable Non-Example: All _ th grade students will do better in math. Example: All __th grade students will score level 4 or higher in math on the 2010 FCAT.\nAttainable Goals should be set high (rigor) but Unattained goals do not indicate within reach. failure.\nTo determine if your goal is attainable, ask questions such as: Do we truly believe that it can be accomplished? What are the resources that we need in order to accomplish this goal? Creating Attainable Goals\nAttainable Non-Example: All __th grade students will score level 5 in math on the 2010 FCAT. Example: 80% of ____th grade students will score 4 or higher in math on the 2010 FCAT.\nResults-Oriented Relevant, and Rigorous Does The Goal Make A Difference? Are My Students Being Challenged? Am I Being Challenged?\nResults-Oriented Relevant, and Rigorous Non Example: 50% of the students will increase the amount of time spent reading at home. Example: All students will score level 4 on the 2010 FCAT Spring reading assessment. Where’s The Rigor? “Results” are student achievement focused and not on parent or teacher behavior.\nTime Bound / Timely When? What is the time frame? Next month, the month after? By grade 6? The goal is to be grounded within a time frame. With no time frame tied to it, there is no sense of urgency.\nTime Bound / Timely Non Example: Students will increase their reading scores by..? Example: 80% of ____th grade students will score 4 on the 2010 Spring FCAT Reading Assessment.\nIs This a SMART Goal? Sixth grade students will meet or exceed the state average in reading as measured by the Spring FCAT. YES it is!\nIs This a SMART Goal? 75% of the fourth grade students will meet proficiency levels on the next reading Formative Assessment. No, it is not. Where is the rigor? Expect More\nIs This a SMART Goal? 80% of our 8 th grade students will complete their homework which will raise their Achievement Levels to meet or exceed state averages. No, it is not. It is tied to their homework.\nWhat Is Wrong With These Goals? 1. All the students will improve their reading by doing more homework % of our students will achieve level 2 on the FCAT % of 11 th grade students will achieve level 2 in science. 4. Most of the students in our classes will learn what ‘Main Idea’ means.\n20 Increase the percentage of students scoring at or above level 3 in Reading by 10%. Our Reality: 61% of our currently-enrolled 10 th grade students scored an achievement level of three or higher on FCAT Reading last year. Source: ODMS report DEM0050 Subtests of least growth include: Main Idea -12% and Comparisons -7%. Source: ODMS report CAR0010 Students will be identified who need assistance in the two subtests. Source: ODMS report CAR0025 Entire teamEnd of August List of students who will be assigned to one of the two groups. All high schools will improve their school performance by at least one letter grade. Each day, students will be grouped and instructed for 25 minutes in the subtest of greatest need. Develop common formative assessments. Seacrest SchoolReading GladiatorsJeanne Winston Marge Blankston, Adam Markey, Paul Croft, Sheila Stone 2009/2010 District Goals for Osceola County Public Schools Click HereClick Here Common formative assessments will be administered every two weeks. Number of students demonstrating proficiency in the subtests of instruction based on assessment results. 2009/2010 Osceola County Public Schools Improvement Plans Click HereClick Here Our Goal: Increase the percentage of students scoring proficient in the two subtest categories to 80%. Entire Team\nSMART Goals Strategic and Specific Measureable Attainable Results Oriented and Rigorous Time Bound\nContact Information Art Tweedie PLC District Coach The Office Of Research, Evaluation & Accountability 817 Bill Beck Boulevard Kissimmee, FL Internal x66159"

"We have all been there, putting our pen to paper to ensure we achieve our goals. We attach the deadline we want those goals to be accomplished by. Sometimes we succeed, and other times we don’t.\nGoal-setting is important for kids too. It helps kids learn to live responsibly and lead a more focused life. By accomplishing their goals, kids increase their level of self-awareness. Goal-setting also raises motivation and provides direction.\nHow Do We Teach Goal-Setting to Kids?\nWe can use the SMART goal approach introduced by George T. Doran in the 1980s to help kids to achieve success. SMART is an acronym for the five practical steps of reaching one’s goal:\nSPECIFIC: Teach kids always to be exact about their intent. For instance, “I want to get an A in mathematics” is a specific goal. “I will try to get an A or B in mathematics” is not a specific goal.\nMEASURABLE: Goals are quantifiable. We need to teach kids to measure their specific goals. To measure the achievement of their goals, we teach kids to answer the following questions:\n– How long will I need to study to achieve an A?\n– How many times do I need to get a particular score on my practice tests?\nTeach kids to attach figures or percentages to measure their goals. For instance, “I will study for 3 hours daily” is measurable. “I will get 80% or more on my practice tests” is a quantifiable goal.\nACHIEVABLE: Let us teach kids to set achievable goals. Goals should be challenging, but not beyond reach. For example, scoring 80% in all subjects is achievable. Scoring 100% in all subjects is possible, but unlikely.\nRELEVANT: Is the child motivated to achieve this goal? A goal is relevant when it is realistic. For instance, if a child scores a C in mathematics for three consecutive terms, it is not practical to set a goal for an A in the next term. A realistic goal would be a B.\nTIME-TARGETED: Teach the child to set a time to achieve their goals. For instance, “I will study for 3 hours daily from today to a week before my exam to score 80% in mathematics” is a time-targeted goal. Without a target date, there won’t be a sense of urgency to achieve the goal.\nBelow are further activities that can make goal-setting for kids more effective:\nCreate a bucket list: To teach kids goal-setting, have them create a yearly bucket list. This is a list of accomplishments, experiences, or achievements that the child may have within a particular time. At the end of that time, divide the bucket list into two. One of the buckets should contain SMART goals that have been achieved. The other should hold those that weren’t met. Take some time with your child, and together examine why those goals were not achieved.\nDraw a wheel of fortune: Help the child draw a wheel and segment it. Tell the child to attach their SMART goals for Family, Friends, School, etc., on each segment. Remember to fill the wheel with the achieved goals.\nMake a vision board: A vision board is a great way to help your child visualize their goals.\nPlay Three Stars and a Wish: Three Stars and a Wish is a fun way to get kids thinking about their goals. This is done by asking the child to come up with three “Stars,” or things they already do well, and make a wish of one thing they need.\nAsk fun questions: When we ask children about what they would like to accomplish, it makes them think and share their thoughts with us. This is a standard component of the goal-setting process. You might make suggestions to the child, but let them do most of the sharing.\nLet the child share their interest with you: Older kids can learn a lot about themselves by paying attention to their interests. Once they see their interests charted out, they can create a goal out of them.\nHave you been creating goals for yourself? Have you been achieving them? Showing your goals to your kids and telling them that you have completed this and that will inspire them to achieve their goals.\nDo you have other great ways that you teach kids to achieve their goals? Let’s talk in the comment section."

"Setting Goals with Your Child\nChildren have different emotions about returning to school each year. Some children are excited, some are anxious, and some may be a little scared.\nSetting personal goals with your child can help them to think about what they want to achieve, motivate them, build confidence, and help to foster independence both inside and outside the classroom.\nThe back-to-school period is the perfect time of year to start setting smart goals with your child. There are different types of goals you can set with them.\nIt is important to remember that your child’s teacher will have goals and expectations for the entire class that include learning and behavior expectations. You too can set different types of goals with your child, both for the longer term and short term.\n1. First, begin goal setting by brainstorming with your child to define their big or longer-term personal goals.\nYou can start by asking them what they would like to achieve or what challenges they would like to overcome. Help your child understand the purpose of goal setting. They are likely to stick to it if they understand “the why” behind it. It is important to make sure the goals are specific so children are clear about what the goals are, and measurable so children can track their progress. Here are some examples.\n- Make it to school on time every day\n- Talk less in class\n- Become a better reader\n- Get a starting position on a sports team\n- Get an A in math this year\n- Try new things\n- Contribute to class discussions\n- Learn to play an instrument\n2. Once you and your child have defined their personal goals, refine them to make sure they are realistic.\nBreak the big ones into smaller more manageable parts and plan for how to achieve them. Some types of goals may need more than one step, so break them down into smaller steps.\nRemember, different goals take different amounts of time to achieve so establish reasonable timelines.\nIn this case, working backwards from the time they need to be at school and figuring out what time they need to wake up will help your child develop organizational skills.\nIf your child wants to improve in math, for example, practicing math skills for 15 minutes each day may be helpful.\nUsing an online resource like Buzzmath can help them practice the skills they need to master in order to achieve that goal. Buzzmath activities contain skills at different levels that can build the foundation they need to succeed in math.\n3. Finally, once you have a set plan with your child, make sure to write it down or use some other creative, fun way to record it.\nFor example, you can post the plan on the refrigerator or somewhere your child will encounter it every day. You can also set a weekly or monthly reminder to check the progress.\nRe-evaluating and achieving goals\nIf working toward their personal goals do not go as planned, help your child determine how to stay on track so that they can achieve their goal. Don’t forget that it is important to offer encouragement and help them to understand that goals can be flexible. You can also revisit and readjust the goals that you have set with your child as needed.\nYou can help your child determine what went well, what didn’t work, what obstacles they faced and how they might do it differently. This will keep them motivated and not only help them understand why they didn’t achieve their goal, but help them the next time around.\nAnother important thing is to remember to celebrate with your child and congratulate them whenever a goal, or even a small step towards it, has been achieved!\nWe hope you enjoyed this article. If you did, please don’t hesitate to share it with your friends, colleagues and family so that they too can read it and learn more about setting goals with their children.\nAnd if you’d like to continue your reading, we got you! Here are some of our latest articles that you might enjoy. Discover them today!\nIf you haven’t subscribed yet to the amazing world of Buzzmath, do so today and enjoy all the great things the platform has to offer you and your child. Subscribe today and join the big Buzzmath family!"

"Goal setting is an extremely important skill for people of all ages, whether goals relate to academics, careers, or personal life! Forbes Magazine explains that setting goals helps children make noticeable differences in behavior (for the better), focus on productive tasks, be motivated, track their progress, and achieve self-mastery. It is important that children feel good about themselves and their accomplishments; setting goals and actively working toward them is a great first step! Keep reading for some great tips for New Year’s resolutions for kids!\nA Guide to New Year’s Resolutions for Kids\nGoals can be short-term or long-term, easy or difficult. According to PositivePsychology.com, it is important to set goals that are challenging enough that children can grow and feel a sense of accomplishment. However, they should not be too challenging that they cannot be attained. So, where is the happy medium?\nOne of the most promising ways to ensure that the goals kids set are attainable is to follow the SMART goal model:\n- S stands for Specific. Goals should be clear and detailed so that there is no room for loopholes. For example, imagine a child’s goal is to make it across the monkey bars. The child should clarify, which monkey bars he or she wants to cross, as the monkey bars at one park may be much longer than another.\n- M stands for Measurable. When setting goals, it is important that the outcome can be measured so that students are able to track their progress and know when the goal has been completed. For example, if a student’s goal is to raise his or her overall grade in math class, that goal can be considered achieved when the student reaches a 90-average.\n- A stands for Attainable. As mentioned before, children must make sure that the goals they set are able to be achieved. For example, if a student is close to failing a class, setting the goal to get an A may not be possible and could lead to feelings of failure.\n- R stands for Relevant. If students are going to spend all this time and effort working toward their goals, they had better be applicable to their lives! An example of an irrelevant goal would be to beat the boss-level of a videogame if the student wants to get a good grade on a test the next day.\n- T stands for Time-bound. Setting a timeline to achieve goals is extremely important because it keeps students focused and motivated. Just as students prioritize assignments with upcoming due dates, children are likely to put forth the effort to achieve their goals when they are meant to be completed by a certain day or time. For example, if a child’s goal is to earn an A on a test at the end of the week, he or she will realize that studying over the next few days (instead of the night before) is a good plan – isn’t it strange how kids still haven’t figured that one out?\nSticking to Goals\nBehavioral changes and goal achievement do not happen overnight. Especially for long-term goals, these adjustments require persistence and focus. Luckily, there are several strategies that are sure to keep your child on track to achieving success:\n- Write them down and keep them visible: When students write their goals down on paper, they are essentially signing a mental contract that this goal is something they really want to do. Once written down, children are encouraged to hang the paper with the goal written on it somewhere that it can be seen often, such as on the refrigerator or in their rooms. That way, there is no chance that they can forget about their goals over time! Check out the goal sheet we gave our students at A Grade Ahead.\n- Tell other people about your goals: Sharing aspirations with others is a fantastic way to remain accountable for them. When children’s parents, friends, and teachers ask kids about their progress towards set goals, there is a much higher chance that those goals will be achieved!\n- Devote a little bit of time each day: Children will not want to work towards their goals if they think it will require an excessive time commitment and effort. Splitting up the task into 15-30 minutes a day can ensure that large goals don’t seem too daunting.\n- Stay positive: Goals are meant to challenge children and help them grow into better versions of themselves! That being said, it’s important that they can envision themselves achieving their goals and look forward to the results of their efforts.\nAt our academies, we asked our students to write down some New Year’s Resolutions of their own. A lot of these goals related to grades, friends, and personal interests. What are your child’s goals for the New Year, and how does he or she plan to stick with them? Do you have any tips for New Year’s resolutions for kids?\nAuthor: Morgan L., Writer and Teacher at A Grade Ahead\nGet Notified When New Articles Post\nSign up to receive one email per week from A Grade Ahead full of parenting tips and helpful articles. Enter your information on the right-hand side of our Blog page and we will add you to our list of subscribers. We also welcome your feedback and comments on our posts!"

"Books & Music\nFood & Wine\nHealth & Fitness\nHobbies & Crafts\nHome & Garden\nNews & Politics\nReligion & Spirituality\nTravel & Culture\nTV & Movies\nMaking a Change in Behavior\nProcrastination is a very powerful. It can make or break a dream. Children with learning disabilities often have trouble getting started with certain things in life because motivation is not present. The effects of procrastination can decrease with simple changes to daily routines.\nThe first thing to do is to understand why it is so hard to move past a thought or desire and actually produce progress. Planning is always good in order to put things in prospective. Once planning is done, then we need to move to the next step. This is where action actually takes place to meet the goal. We put so much time into planning step by step. Many people have spent hours and hours of planning, but fail to actually take the next step in order to reach the goal.\nMotivation is the key idea that can knock procrastination out of the scenario. Motivation is the true reason for taking that brilliant plan to the next level. Our feelings can make or break a plan. We have to look at what drives us to accomplish some things, but fall behind on others. Motivation is directly tied to our emotions. How do you feel? Happy feelings often produce positive results. Sad or negative feelings often result in procrastination.\nSchool in particular should be a positive experience for children. This is often not the case for children with learning disabilities because of lack of knowledge on the part of others. All children learn differently. It does not matter whether the child is enrolled in a gifted program or receiving special education services for a learning disability. Every child has the ability to learn. When keeping this small fact in mind, we can put procrastination and motivation into perspective.\nAs successes are acknowledged, motivation increases. When we experience repeated failures, our desire to continue to try as hard seems to decrease. Our brain seems to be wired that way. We cannot control the way we feel. A totally unmotivated person can become a very active learner with a little acknowledgement. A simple acknowledgement of progress can make a world of difference.\nMost children, as well as adults love rewards for accomplishing a goal or making progress toward a goal. When planning to accomplish a goal, make a list of things to do. This will make it easier to stay on track and move closer to the end result. Reward the small things. I always say treat yourself or treat others.\nThe sole purpose of becoming motivated is to complete a task. Conquer procrastination with motivation. You cannot change things that are beyond your control. You can control your own outcome. Understand that you will have certain feelings.\nLife happens and it does have a major effect on our effectiveness. Stay positive and turn things around for the better. Look at the glass as being half full instead of half empty. It is all about your perception. Think positive, be happy, and stay motivated.\nArticle By Celestine A. Gatley\nCelestine Gatley´s Designed Transformation Blog\n| Related Articles | Editor's Picks Articles | Top Ten Articles | Previous Features | Site Map\nContent copyright © 2015 by Celestine A. Gatley. All rights reserved.\nThis content was written by Celestine A. Gatley. If you wish to use this content in any manner, you need written permission. Contact Celestine A. Gatley for details.\nWebsite copyright © 2016 Minerva WebWorks LLC. All rights reserved."

"- What are the 3 types of goals?\n- How can I make my baby smart and intelligent?\n- When should a child know their ABC’s?\n- What is the role of the parent infant relationship in early development?\n- What is your goal in the childcare?\n- What are the three R’s in relationships in infant and toddler education?\n- How do you promote physical development in infants and toddlers?\n- What are the 5 stages of child development?\n- Why are the first 3 years important to a child’s development?\n- What are the goals of relationship based care for infants and toddlers?\n- What are smart goals in childcare?\n- When should kids count to 10?\n- How would you settle a distressed child?\n- What are some goals for toddlers?\n- What is one of the most important activities essential to the development of infants and toddlers?\n- What are the 5 smart goals?\n- How do you build a strong relationship with infants and toddlers?\n- What are the three areas of infant development?\n- What is important for infants and toddlers to learn?\n- What age should a child count to 5?\n- How do I know if my toddler is gifted?\nWhat are the 3 types of goals?\nThere are three types of goals- process, performance, and outcome goals.\nProcess goals are specific actions or ‘processes’ of performing..\nHow can I make my baby smart and intelligent?\nHow can you raise a smart baby?Take care of yourself during pregnancy. Your baby’s brain development starts while they are still in the womb. … Address your baby’s needs. … Play together. … Encourage good sleep. … Provide nutritious options. … Read together. … Talk to your child. … Provide developmentally appropriate toys.More items…•Aug 28, 2020\nWhen should a child know their ABC’s?\nBy age 2: Kids start recognizing some letters and can sing or say aloud the “ABC” song. By age 3: Kids may recognize about half the letters in the alphabet and start to connect letters to their sounds. (Like s makes the /s/ sound.) By age 4: Kids often know all the letters of the alphabet and their correct order.\nWhat is the role of the parent infant relationship in early development?\nParent-infant interactions also help to develop other skills in children, for example, when parents talk, sing and read books with their children, it supports early language development.\nWhat is your goal in the childcare?\nGoal 1: To strive to be the best infant teachers we can be. Goal 2: To ensure the safety of all of our children during all routines and activities and to be alert and attentive at all times. … Goal 3: To provide a safe, healthy, and attractive environment for the children.\nWhat are the three R’s in relationships in infant and toddler education?\nIndividuals working with infants and toddlers are teachers! … This article suggests that teachers of very young children need physical stamina, a sense of humor, and knowledge of the 3 R’s (Respect, Response, and Relationship) of high-quality infant and toddler care and education.\nHow do you promote physical development in infants and toddlers?\nEncourage the increasing coordination of physical movements as the infant reaches, grabs, and transfers things from one hand to the other. Allow the infant to explore freely on a clean, safe floor. Encourage creeping and crawling. Support the infant in an upright position to encourage balance and strength development.\nWhat are the 5 stages of child development?\nThe 5 stages of child developmentCognitive Development.Social and Emotional Development.Speech and Language Development.Fine Motor Skill Development.Gross Motor Skill Development.Jan 28, 2020\nWhy are the first 3 years important to a child’s development?\nRecent research confirms that the first five years are particularly important for the development of the child’s brain, and the first three years are the most critical in shaping the child’s brain architecture. … They have a direct impact on how children develop learning skills as well as social and emotional abilities.\nWhat are the goals of relationship based care for infants and toddlers?\nIn essence, relationship-based care practices build trust, comfort, security, and represent a partnership in the care of the child. These practices can positively impact the child’s cognitive, language, and social-emotional development (McMullen & Dixon, 2009).\nWhat are smart goals in childcare?\nSMART Goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely.\nWhen should kids count to 10?\nBetween the ages of two and four, children’s ability to understand the actual concept of numbers and counting improves dramatically. Most children are counting up to ten, or even beyond, by age four. Skips in counting (1, 2, 3, 6…), however, are not uncommon even through kindergarten.\nHow would you settle a distressed child?\nDealing with children’s distressInvite the child to explore their feelings.Encourage the child to express their emotions.Help the child understand the situation that triggered the feelings.Support the child to improve the situation.Jan 7, 2021\nWhat are some goals for toddlers?\nGoals for Younger ChildrenVisually follows object or person.Locate object or person that disappear.Use simple actions on toys (banging, shaking)Activate cause and effect toys.Imitate actions.Imitate sounds or words.Solve simple problems.Use objects or toys in a pretend way.More items…•Mar 16, 2021\nWhat is one of the most important activities essential to the development of infants and toddlers?\nAs infants and toddlers grow, their determination to master movement, balance, and fine- and gross-motor skills remains strong. Rolling and crawling occur as infants develop skills in using large-muscle groups. Grasping and picking up objects with fingers are signs of small-muscle skill growth.\nWhat are the 5 smart goals?\nBy making sure the goals you set are aligned with the five SMART criteria (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound), you have an anchor on which to base all of your focus and decision-making.\nHow do you build a strong relationship with infants and toddlers?\nTips on Helping Your Child Build RelationshipsAllow for Unstructured, Uninterrupted Time With Your Child Each Day.Let Your Child Know You’re Interested in His Activities.Encourage Children to Express Their Feelings in Age-Appropriate Ways.Respect Your Child’s Feelings.Play Games that Explore Feelings.More items…•Feb 21, 2010\nWhat are the three areas of infant development?\nWhile every baby is different and will grow at his or her own pace, during the first year your baby will change dramatically in five areas of development: physical, cognitive, emotional and social, language, and sensory and motor skills.\nWhat is important for infants and toddlers to learn?\n1. Routines give infants and toddlers a sense of security and stability. Routines help infants and toddlers feel safe and secure in their environment. Young children gain an understanding of everyday events and procedures and learn what is expected of them as routines make their environment more predictable.\nWhat age should a child count to 5?\nBetween 3 and 4 years of age, she’ll also be more adept at counting small sets of objects — “two oranges, four straws” and so on. Most children are not able to identify numerals or write them, though, until they’re 4 or 5.\nHow do I know if my toddler is gifted?\nWith that said, there are some notable signs of a gifted child: Your curious cutie is hitting speech milestones early, has a large vocabulary for her age, and is a quick learner who remembers most of what she sees and hears. But don’t run out to have your tot tested just yet."

"- What are the 3 types of goals?\n- What is family goals and standard?\n- How do you discipline a child?\n- What kind of activities does your child enjoy?\n- How many hours do families spend together?\n- How does family time affect child development?\n- What are 3 goals you have for your child?\n- Why is good parenting so important?\n- What are some good family goals?\n- How do you spend quality time with your child?\n- What are the 5 smart goals?\nWhat are the 3 types of goals?\nThere are three types of goals- process, performance, and outcome goals.Process goals are specific actions or ‘processes’ of performing.\nFor example, aiming to study for 2 hours after dinner every day .\nPerformance goals are based on personal standard.\nOutcome goals are based on winning..\nWhat is family goals and standard?\n1. Family Well-Being and Safety Children and youth are supported by parents and are safe. … Standard: An family development assessment process across domains identifies family strengths and needs, promotes goal setting, decisions by the family members, and measures outcomes of functioning for the entire family. 2.\nHow do you discipline a child?\n10 Healthy Discipline Strategies That WorkShow and tell. Teach children right from wrong with calm words and actions. … Set limits. … Give consequences. … Hear them out. … Give them your attention. … Catch them being good. … Know when not to respond. … Be prepared for trouble.More items…•\nWhat kind of activities does your child enjoy?\nsing or dance to music; imitate you (sweep, make pretend food, wash dishes, rock the doll) paint with water on sidewalk (bucket/sponge or brush), play with cups/lids in water. ride tricycles, slide, swing, climb jungle gyms, play ball. play hide and seek, Simon says, and London bridge.\nHow many hours do families spend together?\nThe study of 4,000 parents and children, to be published tomorrow, reveals that one in eight families admit to spending no more than two hours together each week. Three out of 10 parents and children say they spend between two and four hours together.\nHow does family time affect child development?\nHowever, the most common way children learn is by observation of everyday life. A child’s learning and socialization are most influenced by their family since the family is the child’s primary social group. Child development happens physically, emotionally, socially, and intellectually during this time.\nWhat are 3 goals you have for your child?\nGoals for Children and ParentsInteract and get along socially with peers.Develop strong, good self-concepts, which will hold well into elementary school years.Be happy with school ideas and new friends.Develop self-control.Become aware of other’s feelings.Cope with stressful situations.Develop physical skills.More items…\nWhy is good parenting so important?\nPromotes the child’s mental, linguistic and emotional development. Helps the child exhibit optimistic and confident social behaviours. Healthy parent involvement and intervention in the child’s day-to-day life lay the foundation for better social and academic skills.\nWhat are some good family goals?\nBelow are typical family goals:To provide financial resources to achieve each member’s personal goals.To maintain good health for all family members.To maintain a home of which you are all proud.To have a son or daughter join the family business.To enjoy leisure time as a family.More items…\nHow do you spend quality time with your child?\n10 Ways to Spend Quality Time with Your ChildPlay a Game. Gathering with your family around the kitchen table with popcorn and a game is timeless. … Do Chores Together. Create an upbeat playlist and enjoy a kitchen dance party as you and your child get some chores finished. … Get Crafty. … Go for a Walk. … Cook Together. … Free Play. … Go on a Scavenger Hunt. … Pretend Play.More items…•\nWhat are the 5 smart goals?\nThe “SMART” acronym stands for “specific,” “measurable,” “attainable,” “relevant,” and “time-bound.” Each SMART goal you create should have these five characteristics to ensure the goal can be reached and benefits the employee."

"With the start of a new term comes reflection and goal setting for both teachers and students.\nThis week’s post offers suggestions to help your students set achievable goals for the term.\n5 Tips to Goal Set with Students\n1. Hold an individual conference with each student.\nIndividual conferences are a great tool for discussing how they progressed on the goals that they set the previous term and why they think that they were or were not successful. Often students need assistance in determining if they achieved their goal or not.\n2. Ask students to set 2 goals for improvement this term and provide written feedback on how you could assist the student in achieving these.\nThis might be on a goal setting sheet, blog, google form, post it etc. You might also like to set categories for students to set goals under for example: achievement, behaviours, effort.\nI often ask my students how I can help them and they never seem to have any\nsuggestions for me. The old adage of you don’t know what you don’t know applies here. Feedback in this tip is essential.\n3. Get your students to think SMART.\nOften students set goals for themselves without any notion of how they might achieve them. Ensure that students set goals with the SMART framework in mind. You may even get them to list the strategies that will enlist to ensure they achieve them.\n4. Plan times to check in on student progress.\nA term can be a long time for a student. Plan time to check in with a student about their progress towards their goal. This also helps students who have forgotten or gotten a little slack in working towards their goal to refocus.\n5. Share students goals with parents.\nRemember that we are not in this alone. Parents are just as invested in their childs success at school as much as we are and often more.\nLetting a parent know their students goals in your class can add an additional layer of follow up and also helps maintain that relationship that you began building at the beginning of the year.\nUsing a mail merge like the one here can be a great way to easily share your students goals with their parents and even with themselves.\nHow do you help your students set goals for the term? Please share in the comments below or on our facebook page."

"It’s that time of year again! Everyone has just made resolutions for the New Year.\nAccording to Dr. John C. Norcross at the University of Scranton, each year ~ 40 – 50% of us make New Year’s resolutions, yet most of us don’t follow through with them. In 1989, Dr. Norcross showed that “77% of people who made resolutions kept their initial resolutions for one week, 55% for one month, and 40% for six months.”\nWhile a 40% New Year’s resolution success rate after six months may seem low, Dr. Norcross published an additional study in 2002 showing otherwise. The 2002 study compared ‘resolvers’, individuals who made New Year’s resolutions versus ‘non-resolvers’, those who did not make New Year’s resolutions, but were interested in changing a problem later in the year. He found that after six months, 46% of ‘resolvers’ were continuously successful in their goal(s) compared to 4% of ‘non-resolvers’. The mere act of setting intentional goals, aids in being successful at changing problems or habits.\nDo you want to be in that 46% of ‘resolvers’ that succeeds in 2016? If so, keep these five tips in mind as you approach your goals:\n- Start small! Kevin Doherty, a Kaiser Permanente Colorado Behavioral Health Counselor says, “Make your resolutions small, realistic, and obtainable.” Making small goals allows us to change our habits and slowly implement new behaviors. You can’t change everything in one night!\n- Change one behavior at a time. The American Psychological Association states that “Unhealthy behaviors develop over the course of time, therefore replacing unhealthy behaviors with healthy ones also requires time.” People often fail at New Year’s resolutions because they have high expectations and try to change too many behaviors at one time.\n- According to Dr. Norcross, “no one resolution is more difficult to keep than any other.” What really matters is how attainable your goal is. Remember to be realistic when setting new goals for yourself.\n- Make sure your goals are measurable. Norcross states, “We say, if you can’t measure it, it’s not a very good resolution because vague goals beget vague resolutions.” Think about making S.M.A.R.T. (Specific Measurable Achievable Relevant and Time-bound) goals in 2016!\n- Set up your life to minimize temptations. According to a study led by Dr. Wilhelm Hofmann at the University of Chicago, the people that succeed are those that practice self-control and don’t surround themselves with temptations.\nImplementing these tips towards your New Year’s resolutions just might get you a spot in the 46% of effective resolvers. For more details on how psychology can help you stick to your resolutions, check out this recent podcast featuring The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.\nHere’s to a successful and productive 2016!\nAbout the Author\n|Amanda Shaver is a Ph.D. student at the University of Georgia. She enjoys dancing, crafting, and playing with her dog Mr. Peabody. High on her list of accomplishments is eating a whole block of cheddar cheese in one sitting without negative consequences. You can email her at Amanda.firstname.lastname@example.org or follow her on Twitter @AOShaver."