When a student struggles, or even fails a school subject, the stress is felt for everyone in the family. Missing homework, a sports injury, trouble focusing, the flu during a crucial week…. All of these can result in low grades or even losing credit all together. The challenge is how… Read more
How often do you finish your day thinking “I finished all my work and now I just don’t have a thing to do!”? These days, it’s rare for even the most organized among us to fully complete that to-do list, so imagine how difficult it is for those with attention… Read more
Millenials in the workplace. Low self-esteem? Simon Sinek discusses 4 factors that contribute to “the Millenial problem” and asks us to focus on the patience needed to be happy and fulfilled. An adulting truth: no one has it figured out. The Millenial generation has it even harder! Typically, as we… Read more
Active Study Strategies – More than Just Reviewing Passive study is the #1 way most students study and also the #1 way to waste your time. “Mom, I STUDIED! I read the chapter and looked at my notes. I don’t know why I didn’t get an A.” Passive study is… Read more
Creating Readers One of the greatest skills a child can develop early, which will carry over throughout their educational careers, is the skill of being a strong reader. Since education truly does begin in the home, there are a number of steps parents can take to start their child on… Read more
TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). Watching TED talks with your family can be a great way to discuss and connect. There seems to be a TED talk for nearly every subject, but where to begin? … Read more
If you didn’t already know this, our brains learn faster and retain longer when we can connect new learning to things we already know. Endless lists of vocabulary words in English or Foreign Language class can feel overwhelming to students, but we DO have a solution! FASTEST Method (to prepare):… Read more
This past Sunday I found myself running a 5k in a purple tutu. Surrounded by 6,000 very happy people, I asked myself more than once what on earth had compelled me to get up at 5:45 a.m. on a weekend morning just to run 3 miles with complete strangers. It… Read more
(Written with Kirsten O’Malley, PLA Director) When it comes to school, everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. You might plow through two chapters of American History in a single sitting, but find that five single-variable algebra problems require the kind of suffering we normally associate with polar exploration. Everyone has… Read more
(Clive teaches Language Arts and History, Study Skills and Math through Geometry. He’s currently developing an Integrated 11th grade Language Arts/US History course at Pacific Learning Academy.) When we’re young, we do most of our learning in classrooms. This is doubly useful, because it can build a student’s social… Read more
