smartworks-education-blog

Starting the New School Year Right

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 02:20:30 +0100

The new year is underway and your high school age student can do a few things differently to make all the difference down the track:
1. Fill in the school diary with Term Weeks. In NSW, 2011 Term weeks are all 10 weeks. Your school may have something a little different so check it out and label each view page T1W1, T1W2 etc..

2. For each assignment or assessment, make a note not only of its due date, but key dates to do activity on that
assignment or assessment task. You do not want to begin an assignment the evening before it is due.

3. Stock and clean out the area where you will study. Your ability to stay on task will be helped by having a tidy, useful place to work.

4. Print multiple copies of your timetable and have them readily accessible (The fridge, inside your diary, your desk) Pack your bag with only what is needed the night before. Rushing in the morning only makes you anxious.

5. Knock over the hardest homework tasks early in the afternoon while your brain is fresh.

6. Manage your "online" presence so that it does not chew all your useful time. Being readily available to others is not good for your own learning. You can't do an assignment justice if you are an avid gamer or texter so limit yourself to key 'downtime' breaks for your own good, and that of your friends!!!

The Reluctant Reader: Some Suggestions for Parents

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 01:40:25 +0100

Is Reading a Drag?
A reason why reading is perceived as "boring" may be more to the issue that children find either the texts attempted too hard or unappealing or both. I have a few suggestions below, many you would do naturally as part of your daily dialogue and relationship withyour child, so pick one or more idea you might not do and tweak it a little. From an educators perspective it is pretty straight forward because of our school like expectations, a student can expect to get 'drilled' here and thus be more receptive because of the learning rich environment but this would not be the case at home so you need to sneak through the back door, so to speak, and surprise your child with anecdotal literacy activities that surreptitiously develop a stronger literacy base without all the angst that follows when working within a family context.
     Aim For Success
Firstly, we want to expose a young reader to texts gauged for success. There also needs be a purpose to this and text reading time set aside with minimal distraction. This can be hard when you spread yourself thin with other family members so an "understanding other" would be deal to share the load either on task with the child or covering for you while you attend this very important task. Also, the text itself needs to be enjoyable and the child needs to be part of the selection process to secure enthusiasm for the venture. Shared reading can be achieved in many ways, eg; time with a parent, cooking a meal from scratch with a recipe, reading a news article, constructing a craft from a plan, writing a letter to a relative or friend and either mailing or emailing it. Basically, anything with a practical application will help to view reading in a new light, or is a fun parent/ child time. From this a parent then needs to catch and reward the child when you evidence him/her engaging in reading on their own without pressures to perform.
      What do we mean by Comprehension
There is a difference acknowledged between the literal and inferential interpretation of texts and you need to be aware. The literal is basic comprehension, i.e. what can be found from within a text. The inferential level is more interpretive, more hidden meaning behind texts, eg; what is suggested by... why do you think that a character did this..;and further, What is the authors intent for the text as a whole? In short, what is inferred but not directly stated? This is also more higher order thinking requiring greater depth of a text, as well as more developed analytical skills. Some skills can be taught, some are behavioral, others form with cognitive growth so it is difficult to pinpoint exactly when these skills develop. It is important to expose them to her. Their is research by Bloom (Google "Bloom's taxonomy") which breaks this down further but from a family viewpoint, this should suffice.
   ...Try Another Way
So what can else can a parent do? Make it a point to have a shared reading time that has more to do with having a fun time, (You read to child, and child reads to you. let him/her pick out books from a library visit, make it a fortnightly ritual if possible. Talk about their readings, it adds value to the types of conversations you engage in, and finally reward your child in other aspects of their life with literature based rewards; (subscriptions to magazines, reading games like trivial persuit, kids scrabble, gift voucher to book shop, money jar used spend at a book shop etc.)

At the end of the day, our goal for all children is for them to view reading, and literacy as a whole in a positive light, and engage in it as freely as possible in order to make them more independent, critical thinkers. From a teachers perspective, we can gauge childrens levels in a more formal environment using formal reading/ response activities to give them the apprpriate boost they need. Outside of this, further immersion within a print culture and a user friendly, print-enriched and literacy-rewarded environment will go a long way to changing some of the negativity students may harbor in regard to reading and literacy based activities in general.

End ofTerm Nears.

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 02:00:52 +0100

Congratulations to students for the fantastic effort put in this term. It is always uplifting when we see growth in our students both intellectually and in confidence. Remember to build on your successes by reflecting on the positive changes you hve made and pushing the boundaries to make room for success down the track.

For parents it is time to consider whether to use our service for next term. Invoices will be distributed next week. As always there is an advantage for our prepay clients so please confirm placements ASAP to enable others a placement if required.
Thanks

John

Web Creation

Fri, 28 May 2010 11:27:42 +0100

Working through the myriad of link options one can take when constructing an effective online presence it would be reasonable to take the view that the procedure can be fairly quick process for the initiated or , for the new web creator, both daunting and hugely hugely time consuming. Finally I am coming out the other side so am feeling confident!

Blogging My Way in a sea of Change Web101

Sun, 23 May 2010 05:11:23 +0100

this is my First Blog. Here I will store my understanding in order to develop a clearer web presence which is both useful for clients and functional for sSmartworks