Compassionate Tutoring

It takes at least 3 weeks of consistent practice to develop a new habit. So, encouraging those GOOD HABITS for the 1st month of school is ideal. Focus on two major habits that you would most like to become automatic after that first month, and consider rewarding those behaviors when done without excessive reminders. Here are some ideas: Organize all papers before starting HW Checking the daily HW online and pulling out what is needed Writing down work not completed by the end... of the night Keeping track of grades with a twice weekly check online Consistent and ideal place for HW Consistent planned time for HW each night Healthy breakfast Pack backpack with all completed assignments at night Organize clothes / shoes in the evening See more

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS - Back in the day, you HAD to write down all your assignments during school and cross them off that night. Most adults reading this will be all in on having their kiddos do the same. Daily assignments are now universally posted online, and most students want to rely on that exclusively. Then, they just wait until grades are posted in the online gradebook for any make-up work. This can very easily lead to wishful thinking, and then overload. I suggest a compromise... In the "homework folder" (talked about in the organization post), put a piece of paper for assignments that are NOT done by the end of each night. This list could include forgotten materials, running out of time, questions to ask, long term projects, and upcoming assessments. Give it a try this year and let me know how it goes!

ORGANIZATION - For elementary students, it's helpful to just use the system the main teacher sets up, and to organize a set study space at home with easy access to materials / references. The study space should be strategically located - either where you can monitor and easily help as needed OR quiet and away from major distractions. Bonus points for both criteria. For secondary students, I usually start with one or two binders (am and pm) with a folder for each subject and l...oose leaf paper between folders for notes and classwork. I love getting one of the rulers that clips into the binder and opens to be a 3 hole punch. Spiral notebooks with folders can also work quite well for the more organized student. A pencil case that has 3 holes for putting in the binder lessens the chance of coming to class without anything to write with, and is a good place to stash a calculator. If you are using two binders, two pencil cases usually works a lot better than one loose one. I also always recommend a single homework folder for all papers that need to go back and forth from school. The left side of this folder is for homework to be done that night and any flyers / permission slips that need to be given to a parent. On the right side of the homework folder, I put the homework and other papers that are ready to be turned in. This makes it so much easier and faster to find the most important papers. Some more general thoughts - There are no universal systems to organize school papers. It matters quite a bit the age and traits of your child. It is almost guaranteed that the transition to middle school (or switching classes) will be quite challenging. A set daily time to organize any loose papers will ease this transition. And, even if you're lucky enough to get issued a laptop for school, it is remarkable how many papers still get produced in all types of schools.

CALCULATORS - For scientific calculators (all classes below Pre-Calc), I have recently upgraded mine to the Casio fx-115 after quite a bit of research. It has pretty type (it looks like the problems in the math book), you can see what you typed in and the answer at the same time, and has the scrolling feature for going back even farther. The only downside is that the documentation is not well organized, and no good quick reference sheet. Fortunately and best of all - it make...s the easy things easy (like basic operations and fractions) and makes many hard things possible (like the quadratic formula and integrals in calculus). I would choose this over a teacher recommended calculator unless your child is technology adverse. For graphing calculators (Statistics, Pre-Calc, and above), I would strongly recommend using exactly what the teacher recommends (graphing calculator and apps) Plus, many schools loan a graphing calculator for the whole year so no expensive purchase is necessary. I'm saying this because there are quite a lot of steps, modes, and options. It helps tremendously to follow the exact steps taught by the teacher instead of having to modify for your calculator or software. If you read this far, I so hope this helps!

For secondary students, those class schedules can be very hard to read!!! These forms allow you to transfer the information to something your young adult can actually use. Print one of the options OR "Save as" so that you can edit it. https://docs.google.com//1aNAbMWmALpcrm4hz8ttA9ebOqR/edit