Year: 2019

Teachers Who Pick on Kids or Play Favorites!

Students are a captive audience in a school classroom. They have no way of protecting themselves from emotional outbursts from a teacher. When a teacher decides to embarrass a student, all of the students in that classroom are affected.

A student experienced a very uncomfortable situation this morning as one of her teachers embarrassed, criticized and belittled other students in her class. She felt most uncomfortable. She had to expend her energy dealing with the emotions she was experiencing instead of being able to concentrate on the subject matter. This happened in a high school Advanced Placement class. Why?

Students in this class are bright or they would not have qualified for the class. In my opinion, the teacher should have had conferences with the individual students. This type of interaction is a form of bullying. No teacher should be allowed to do this. No student should have to experience this.

If your student is having this type of problem, the first thing is to talk with the teacher and second to contact the administration. Your student is entitled to be in a safe environment in a school classroom. The teacher should not ride over the safety rites of students by being a bully.

Question? Contact Beth Silver. Email:bethcarolsilver@gmail.com. Phone 310-720-0390.

Views on Extra Credit

Students look for extra credit work from their teachers. Teachers vary in their view of extra credit.

Some teachers look at extra credit as a burden to be assigned and graded. These teachers feel that students should do the required work and do it well. They have constructed a curriculum that they feel will give students everything and all information necessary to become competent learners in their classes.

Other teachers use extra credit to broaden the scope of their curriculum. Some feel that the extra credit gives students a boost and will help improve grades. Others feel it builds good relationships with students. The teachers who use extra credit do not see it as a burden and are happy to correct it, give credit and hep students achieve well.

Questions? Contact Beth Silver. Email:bethcarolsilver@gmail.com. Phone: 310-720-0390. Beth’s website: http://www.educationsage.net

Organize, Organizing, Organization and Organized

One of the best skills for anyone of any age is to be organized. It is extremely important for a student to have all their materials organized in a way that makes them easily accessible.

Help your student with the organization of the work area at home. Make sure paper, pens, pencils, erasers and binders are in good working order. I often have students come with a very battered binder. Their statements are usually the same – I can make it last a few more weeks. In those few more weeks, assignments can be lost and irreplaceable hand outs and worksheets can be lost. A binder in good working order is necessary. Check your student’s backpack!

Using an agenda or planner is another vital skill. Your student should enter homework, planned learning work and all activities. The planner should be one that includes everything that is happening in a student’s life. Knowing when events might interfere with homework and learning is important so a student can plan how to get all of it done.

Families have been using family calendar apps on their phones. This is another very valuable tool. This way, everyone in the family knows what is happening. It helps parents plan transportation for their students.

Questions? Contact Beth Silver. Email: bethcarolsilver@gmail.com. Phone 310-720-0390.

Courses and Time Commitments

In high school, college, and graduate school students need to take a realistic look at the time commitments that are required for courses.

At the high school level regular courses require from 30-60 minutes of daily homework and learning. Honors courses require from 60-90 minutes of daily homework and learning. AP courses require 90-120 minutes of daily homework and learning. The times may fluctuate, but the course requirements are still expected to be met. Honors courses move at a faster pace than do regular courses. AP courses move at an even faster pace. The AP courses are equivalent to college level courses taught at the high school level.

At the college and graduate school level it is best to plan 2 hours for every credit hour to complete the homework and learning. So if a course is worth 4 credits, then the student can expect to do 8 hours of work outside of class. So someone who is taking 16 credit hours can expect to do 32 hours of work outside of class. 16 plus 32 equals 48 hours. Place that into a calendar and see how it feels!

Questions? Contact Beth Silver. Email:bethcarolsilver@gmail.com. Phone: 310-720-0390.

Learning – What the Teacher Does not Assign!

Teachers announce when tests will be given. They tell their students to study. What they do not give are daily assignments for learning the information, vocabulary and concepts.

It is up to each student to manage his/her learning. Students should write a learning assignment for themselves in addition to doing homework assignments. Learn does not mean simply look over. It means that the student must put information into memory so it can easily be retrieved on a test. Students need to learn the information so well that they can teach it to somebody else using their own words.

Learning as a unit is being taught, helps the student be more ready for a test than any other activity possible. Break down the vocabulary- divide it into a few for each day. Break down the concepts – divide them into a few for each day.

Reviewing class notes on a daily basis is one activity that can be done to get true learning to take place. This also helps students to know if their notes are complete and if they make sense.

Questions? Contact Beth Silver. Email:bethcarolsilver@gmail.com. Phone: 310-720-0390.