A teacher in New York was teaching her class about bullying and gave them the following exercise to perform. She had the children take out a piece of paper and told them to crumple it up, stomp on it, and really mess it up, but not to rip it. Then she had them unfold the paper, smooth it out, and look at how scarred and dirty it was. She then told them to tell it they were sorry. Now, even though they said they were sorry and tried to fix the paper, she pointed out all the scars they left behind and that those scars would never go away no matter how hard they tried to fix the paper. That is what happens when a person bullies another person - they may say they’re sorry, but the scars are there forever. The looks on the faces of the children in the classroom told her the message hit home. ~ Author Unkown (shared by Charlene Freed-Geimer)
Signed,
Lora the Study Coach
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
It's Thanksgiving!
Wow! It's hard to believe that we are already at this time of year, to me the time of year to give thanks for all the little things. This year, I encourage you to give thanks for your brain, your health, the food that gives you energy, the roof over your head, and for the clothes that keep you covered. Yes, there are many things that we are not thankful for or that we feel we are lacking, but think how life would be if you didn't have a brain that worked, if you were too ill to live a meaningful life, if you were literally starving to death, or if you had no clothing to cover up with.
Food, shelter, clothing, responsibility you can handle (not too much or too little), free time, and friends. If you have these, then you have it all and are lacking nothing.
Signed,
Lora the Study Coach
Food, shelter, clothing, responsibility you can handle (not too much or too little), free time, and friends. If you have these, then you have it all and are lacking nothing.
Signed,
Lora the Study Coach
Friday, October 14, 2011
But I Don't Want To!
Every day for the past few weeks, I've thought I have to write a new blog for the web page. Have I done it? No, not until this very moment. It just seemed like too much work to actually press the link on my toolbar. And then I'd have to log in and wait. Then I'd have to actually write something short. Wow, it could actually kill me!
Guess what. I'm not dieing. And you won't die either when you finally decide to do what must be done. It can be so hard to get going on something that you just aren't interested in, but all you have to do is force yourself to get started, and then you'll be done before you know it. Well, if you don't get it completely done, at least you'll have a good start on it.
With school work, it never pays to delay. (Hey, that's a great slogan!) Sure, you can copy from a friend, but come exam time, you'll wish you had just done the work yourself. And if you delay too long, all you have is a pile of work that is impossible to complete with any sort of quality. School work is just like exercising for some of us: we want to exercise, but it takes more effort to get started than it does to actually exercise.
Signed,
Lora the Study Coach
Guess what. I'm not dieing. And you won't die either when you finally decide to do what must be done. It can be so hard to get going on something that you just aren't interested in, but all you have to do is force yourself to get started, and then you'll be done before you know it. Well, if you don't get it completely done, at least you'll have a good start on it.
With school work, it never pays to delay. (Hey, that's a great slogan!) Sure, you can copy from a friend, but come exam time, you'll wish you had just done the work yourself. And if you delay too long, all you have is a pile of work that is impossible to complete with any sort of quality. School work is just like exercising for some of us: we want to exercise, but it takes more effort to get started than it does to actually exercise.
Signed,
Lora the Study Coach
Monday, September 19, 2011
Does Your Teacher Teach You Or Is All You Hear "Blah, Blah, Blah"?
Many teachers pride themselves on being subject-matter experts. I pride myself on being a student expert. I can look at a student’s face and determine if he “got it.” I can teach the same material in many different ways, as I look for the way that clicks with my student. That’s what teaching is all about.
Does your teacher know how to teach YOU? If not, take the time to let him know. It may be the most beneficial conversation you ever had!
Signed,
Lora the Study Coach
Does your teacher know how to teach YOU? If not, take the time to let him know. It may be the most beneficial conversation you ever had!
Signed,
Lora the Study Coach
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Get Ready. It's Coming!
Hello, disorganized classroom! I went to see my classroom today and spend time getting it ready for you, my students. Don't think that I'm the only teacher who did this. Many of my colleagues go in before it's time to get their and your rooms ready for the new year. I found so much disorganization that I didn't know where to start. Things were everywhere, which is typical due to all that goes on when we go home and the maintenance crew does its thing, kind of like when you sit down to do your homework-everything is everywhere.
Now that I and many of your teachers have spent time preparing for this school year, I want you to do the same. Now's the time to get your pens, pencils, erasers, calulator, paper, notebook, and folders ready, not to take to school but to set up your homework area at home. Gather all of these things and anything else you may need to do your work at home and put them in a box, bag, or container of some sort so when you have to do your homework everything's there, and all you have to do is grab the container and you're ready to go.
Homework is not the most fun thing ever, so why make it more difficult than it has to be? Some parents make you do your homework before you get to do what you really want to do. So why waste time and energy every day going around gathering everything you need just to get started? Maybe your parents want you to earn As and Bs. There's no way you can get that can be easy if you're constantly getting up to get this and get that. There's nothing like finally getting into it and then having to stop because you need something. Homework is already frustrating enough, so why add to it. Having everything ready when you sit down to work makes it all that much easier.
I hope that this year's homework is a bit more tolerable with this simple yet effective strategy. Here's to a great year!
Signed,
Lora the Study Coach
Now that I and many of your teachers have spent time preparing for this school year, I want you to do the same. Now's the time to get your pens, pencils, erasers, calulator, paper, notebook, and folders ready, not to take to school but to set up your homework area at home. Gather all of these things and anything else you may need to do your work at home and put them in a box, bag, or container of some sort so when you have to do your homework everything's there, and all you have to do is grab the container and you're ready to go.
Homework is not the most fun thing ever, so why make it more difficult than it has to be? Some parents make you do your homework before you get to do what you really want to do. So why waste time and energy every day going around gathering everything you need just to get started? Maybe your parents want you to earn As and Bs. There's no way you can get that can be easy if you're constantly getting up to get this and get that. There's nothing like finally getting into it and then having to stop because you need something. Homework is already frustrating enough, so why add to it. Having everything ready when you sit down to work makes it all that much easier.
I hope that this year's homework is a bit more tolerable with this simple yet effective strategy. Here's to a great year!
Signed,
Lora the Study Coach
Friday, July 8, 2011
Study Coach Group Offering
If you’re looking for something to do this summer, why not get a group of friends together and take a class with Lora the Study Coach? It’s a great way to master the Study Coach’s methods to learn virtually anything, and with a group a friends, it’s sure to be fun! In 90 minutes, you will learn 20+ ways to acquire and remember information that will help you pass exams and earn better grades in the classroom. It’s a great investment that will help you earn better grades for the rest of your academic career. Wouldn’t it be great to never struggle again with your schoolwork?! Maybe taking a study class in the summer is not your idea of a fun summer vacation, but it’s worth sharpening your skills before you have to use them.
Take this into consideration: Two lumberjacks were chopping down trees in a forest (Hopefully they were planting trees to replace what they were cutting down.). By lunchtime, their axes had begun to dull, so they discussed the situation and came up with two thoughts: 1. If they stopped to sharpen their axes, they would lose time getting their job done; 2. If they kept going not stopping to sharpen their axes, then no time would be lost and they could keep working. After some thought, one lumberjack decided that they were already losing too much time and decided to keep chopping. The other lumberjack decided that it was worth the time to sharpen his axe, so he stopped chopping and began sharpening. His colleague just shook his head as he felled yet another tree. It wasn’t long before the lumberjack who had sharpened his axe got back to work and began catching up to his colleague and soon passed him in the number of trees cut down. After a hard day of work, there was only one lumberjack who was still working—the one who refused to sharpen his axe.
Study skills are like an axe: the sharper they are, the faster the work gets done!
If you’re interested in mastering the Study Coach’s methods, get a group of friends together and set up your class. Classes are limited to 5 students to assure that each student is given appropriate time and practice with each study method. Call or write today: (956) 501-7724, Lora@LoratheStudyCoach.com. Cost per group is $200.
Signed,
Lora the Study Coach
Take this into consideration: Two lumberjacks were chopping down trees in a forest (Hopefully they were planting trees to replace what they were cutting down.). By lunchtime, their axes had begun to dull, so they discussed the situation and came up with two thoughts: 1. If they stopped to sharpen their axes, they would lose time getting their job done; 2. If they kept going not stopping to sharpen their axes, then no time would be lost and they could keep working. After some thought, one lumberjack decided that they were already losing too much time and decided to keep chopping. The other lumberjack decided that it was worth the time to sharpen his axe, so he stopped chopping and began sharpening. His colleague just shook his head as he felled yet another tree. It wasn’t long before the lumberjack who had sharpened his axe got back to work and began catching up to his colleague and soon passed him in the number of trees cut down. After a hard day of work, there was only one lumberjack who was still working—the one who refused to sharpen his axe.
Study skills are like an axe: the sharper they are, the faster the work gets done!
If you’re interested in mastering the Study Coach’s methods, get a group of friends together and set up your class. Classes are limited to 5 students to assure that each student is given appropriate time and practice with each study method. Call or write today: (956) 501-7724, Lora@LoratheStudyCoach.com. Cost per group is $200.
Signed,
Lora the Study Coach
Monday, June 20, 2011
Bedhead
Yeah! School’s out for summer! For us Texans, it’s been out for a good two weeks. Sorry to those of you who are still attending. Just remember that we all go to school for 36 weeks of class, and northern schools will have their time to brag in August when they are still on summer break and we are back in school. Enough of that.
Summer is here! Take the time to re-energize. I have found myself sleeping so much! I’m beginning to feel that I’m not worth the air I breathe. But then I remember the 36 weeks of perseverance and hard work that I’ve just completed and give myself a break. So, if you find your parents bugging you about sleeping too much, let them know that you’re body is re-energizing and gaining back its strength. However, don’t think that this is permission to sleep your life away. You do have to get out of bed at some point!
Signed,
Lora the Study Coach
Summer is here! Take the time to re-energize. I have found myself sleeping so much! I’m beginning to feel that I’m not worth the air I breathe. But then I remember the 36 weeks of perseverance and hard work that I’ve just completed and give myself a break. So, if you find your parents bugging you about sleeping too much, let them know that you’re body is re-energizing and gaining back its strength. However, don’t think that this is permission to sleep your life away. You do have to get out of bed at some point!
Signed,
Lora the Study Coach
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
You Can Do It!
I feel like The Little Engine That Could! This time of year is so draining for students and teachers. Everyone is ready to throw in the towel. But don’t! We are so close to the end. After 9 months, or 10 in Texas, it is so wrong to flub up when the end is in sight. This, in fact, may be the toughest time of the school year. Keep it up, kiddos! Be determined to end this year on a positive note. You can do it!
Signed,
Lora the Study Coach
Signed,
Lora the Study Coach
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Testing, Testing!
As I was monitoring one of my students during a state exam, he commented, “This is so boring!” Really? With a variety of interesting stories and articles to read and a chance to shine, how could the test be boring? What I think he really meant is that the test, the writings, weren’t stimulating him. I think he also meant that he was having trouble sitting so still in such a quiet room with no distractions. It is due to this “boringness” that he is likely to fail his exam, not because of his inability or lack of knowledge or skills.
Nothing that this student could have done a week before testing could have cured this boredom, just as someone who plans to run a marathon cannot ready himself for the endurance in a week. He needed to be working on the issue for months prior to the event. Strength is built up over time. From the beginning, or at least months prior to the state exams, every day in every class, my student should have been pushing himself, forcing himself, to do just a little bit more when he wanted to give up. It’s the little bit extra that we practice every day that makes a huge difference in the end.
Today my student sat very unhappy with his test in front of him. I can only imagine what he was thinking, the complaining he was doing in his head and the angst he was feeling as the test was before him—that test that would determine if he is promoted to high school or not. If only he had been a mental athlete, not a mental sideliner.
Signed,
Lora the Study Coach
Nothing that this student could have done a week before testing could have cured this boredom, just as someone who plans to run a marathon cannot ready himself for the endurance in a week. He needed to be working on the issue for months prior to the event. Strength is built up over time. From the beginning, or at least months prior to the state exams, every day in every class, my student should have been pushing himself, forcing himself, to do just a little bit more when he wanted to give up. It’s the little bit extra that we practice every day that makes a huge difference in the end.
Today my student sat very unhappy with his test in front of him. I can only imagine what he was thinking, the complaining he was doing in his head and the angst he was feeling as the test was before him—that test that would determine if he is promoted to high school or not. If only he had been a mental athlete, not a mental sideliner.
Signed,
Lora the Study Coach
Saturday, February 26, 2011
NABE 2011
NABE 2011 was a huge success! In February, at the National Association of Bilingual Education annual conference in New Orleans, teachers packed the room to hear about the learning strategies found in The Study Coach’s Easy Study Manual. Teachers from across the nation attended and left with valuable activities to teach their students.
It usually only takes the knowledge of a few strategies for a student’s grades to soar, but all of the strategies need to be taught so that each student can select a handful that works for him. Not all of the strategies work for all students because all students do not learn the same—some are auditory learners, some are visual learners; and some are tactile learners. The opposite is also true, that some do not learn through auditory, visual or tactile input. Most commonly, though, students learn through the stimulation of multiple senses, which is why the learning activities in The Study Coach’s Easy Study Manual are effective learning tools—they are multisensory!
Thank you to all of those who attended The Study Coach’s session at NABE 2011! I look forward to seeing you again at NABE 2012!
Signed,
Lora the Study Coach
It usually only takes the knowledge of a few strategies for a student’s grades to soar, but all of the strategies need to be taught so that each student can select a handful that works for him. Not all of the strategies work for all students because all students do not learn the same—some are auditory learners, some are visual learners; and some are tactile learners. The opposite is also true, that some do not learn through auditory, visual or tactile input. Most commonly, though, students learn through the stimulation of multiple senses, which is why the learning activities in The Study Coach’s Easy Study Manual are effective learning tools—they are multisensory!
Thank you to all of those who attended The Study Coach’s session at NABE 2011! I look forward to seeing you again at NABE 2012!
Signed,
Lora the Study Coach
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