Cool Tool for the End of School

Can words paint a thousand pictures?

With the school year ending, creating a word-cloud for your child at wordle.net can help you express the personal growth you’ve seen in them this year and affirm his/her efforts. Best of all—it’s free!

I created a word-cloud for each member of my family earlier this year. Everyone loved comparing the words I had selected for each individual family member. In fact, several are still displayed on family member’s desks!

Instructions for creating a personal word-cloud:

1. Type a list of the qualities and accomplishments your child has developed this year. The list can be as long as you wish. Include your child’s name.
2. Separate individual words with commas and place a tilde character ~ between words that go together. (For example: packing~your~own~lunch)
3. Duplicate any words or phrases that you want to appear larger. (The more times they appear in your list, the larger they will be in the word cloud.)
4. Now paste the whole list into the “create” box at www.wordle.net and select “go.” You have created a beautiful word cloud for your child that can be rearranged, colored, and printed.

Maureen Gets Sent Home From School!

Optimistic Outcomes Wins 2009 Teachers’ Choice Award for the Family

Optimistic Outcomes won the coveted award after receiving top marks from a panel of judges. Teachers’ Choice is the only award that requires every judge to be both a teacher and a parent.

This is a prestigious honor for educational products that enhance learning at home. Optimistic Outcomes will be featured in the April 2009 edition of Learning Magazine® which reaches over 150,000 PreK-Grade 6 teachers.

Parental involvement is the key to having a positive outcome for children. We are honored that teachers recommend our product and send us home to help their students’ families.

Duly Noted

Hi Maureen!
Our third grader is starting to do longer projects that require reading several books and taking notes. The teacher explained the difference between jotting down notes and copying text (plagiarism). This seems hard for him to grasp. any tips on how to help him take notes? It seems like a fundamental skill he's going to need throughout school.
Thanks,
Notable Mom

Dear Notable Mom,

You are absolutely correct. Note-taking is a complex concept to grasp. It is asking kids to do several tasks simultaneously. They need to:

• Read (or listen) to information
• Process that information
• Plan how they want to use the information
• Decide what is important to record
• Rewrite the important information
• Do so in their own words—in legible penmanship
• Keep track of all of their sources to create a bibliography

What adults often see as "fundamental" skills, in reality took each of us years to master. We do this little-by-little, building on previously mastered skills.

There are many different ways to take notes. The “best” way is the method that works for your child. Many middle schools, high schools, and universities use the Cornell Note Taking System. How can you help your child build note-taking skills so that he will be ready? Here are three ideas you can use from a very early age:

Web Master
Word webs are one type of graphic organizer that provide powerful help for students. Webs help the student visually pre-organize his thoughts and ideas around a central topic before writing. There are many types of graphic organizers including sequence charts, time lines, story maps, webs, and Venn diagrams. (Many printable graphic organizers and note taking sheets are provided on the Optimistic Outcomes® CD-ROM)

Column Notes
If your child needs to take notes in class, teach him to make three columns on a piece of paper labeled “Main Points” “Supporting Points” “Questions and Thoughts.” By writing his notes in the appropriate columns, they are already organized into three categories for studying. (Printable note taking sheets are provided on the Optimistic Outcomes® CD-ROM)

TV Time
It is fun to practice taking notes together as you watch a favorite television show. Try several different methods, and ask him which he thought worked best. This will help your child realize that it is his responsibility to determine what works for him.

Teaching To The Tests

Tests Are Tools; Not Accurate Predictors of Future Success

Spring is in the air. It must be test-taking season! Children all over America are preparing for a wave of high-stakes testing in schools. This is an important time to pause and remember that exams are just one indicator of how a child is learning and remembering information. Tests are simply a “snapshot in time” of how a child performs on a given day. While tests are an important tool, they are not an accurate predictor of future success.

Three Testing Tips

1. Before discussing upcoming tests with your child, take a moment to analyze your own feelings. Often parents are more nervous about a test than their children! If you are nervous, the best thing you can do is relax. Children are experts at picking-up on a parent’s emotions.
2. Here is a quick reminder if you find that your child is excessively nervous about test day. Reinforce to your child that he will not know the answer to every question, and that is okay. Remind your child that you will always love him and believe in him regardless of any test score.
3. Self-talk can be a self-fulfilling prophesy. Teach your child to be aware of what she is thinking to herself before tests. Show her how to repeat positive messages to herself. Thoughts such as, “I have studied and will do my best” are positive and not overstated.

Worry Can Decrease One’s IQ and Ability to Perform

I recently attended a fascinating lecture by Dr. Ned Hallowell regarding his book Worry: Hope and Help for a Common Problem. (It was an excellent presentation, and if you have an opportunity to see Dr. Hallowell in person, I would highly recommend going.) Dr. Hallowell cited studies that show our society worries more today than a decade ago. He also explained how worry that develops into fear and/or shame can actually decrease one’s IQ and ability to perform.

Along that same train-of-thought, I've included an interesting article (below) regarding the “mental static” cause by test anxiety:

Helping Children Overcome Test Anxiety
(excerpt from American School Counselors website)

"Test anxiety is almost universal. In fact, it is unusual to find a student who doesn’t approach a big test without a high level of anxiety. Test anxiety can cause a host of problems in students, such as upset stomach, headache, loss of focus, fear, irritability, anger and even depression. New research is helping to better define how emotional stress and anxiety affect learning and academic performance.

Stressful emotions can inhibit a student’s ability to absorb, retain and recall information. Anxiety creates a kind of "noise" or "mental static" in the brain that blocks our ability to retrieve what’s stored in memory and also greatly impairs our ability to comprehend and reason…" Read More

Do your children get stressed about tests in school? How do you help them cope?

"Optimistic Outcomes: What Every Parent Wants and Every Child Needs" includes 49 test-taking strategies that can improve your child's testing skills for a lifetime. For more information, go to Optimistic Outcomes.

Here's Looking at You

Fascinating new eye-contact study challenges conventional wisdom.

Brand-new research shows that some students actually process information better if they look away from the teacher. This is particularly important because we often equate a child who is not looking at a teacher, as a child who is not listening. It is good to encourage your child to watch the teacher as they give instruction, but it is also okay for them to look away while they are processing or formulating an answer.

Even in light of this great study, I want to encourage you to remind your children that eye contact is still important in our culture. More than anything it shows respect, so we would all be wise to help our kids understand that. This study refers to ADHD, but the point is valid for all types of learners. I have included part of the article and a link below.

My daughter's second grade teacher actually admitted to me (during parent teacher conferences) that she was frustrated that she couldn't "catch" my daughter not listening. She was very irritated that my daughter's gaze would wander; but every time she questioned her, my daughter could repeat back everything she had said.

Have any of you had an experience regarding eye-contact that you would like to share?

Looking For Attention

Source: Medical News Today

Children with ADHD need to look away from faces longer so that they can think. While it may seem that they are not paying attention, these children may find it easier to concentrate by averting their gaze. This is the finding of research by Dr Gwyneth Doherty-Sneddon of the University of Stirling, presented on Wednesday 29 August 2007 at the British Psychological Society's Developmental Section Annual Conference being held at the University of Plymouth. When we think we often look away from the face of the person we are talking to. Dr Doherty-Sneddon has carried out many studies looking at how gaze aversion actually helps children to think...

[click link for full article]

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/81242.php

British Psychological Society

Good Morning?

Good Morning?
By Maureen McKay

How are mornings going at your house? Do you sip on coffee and read the newspaper while your kids get themselves ready for school and out the door with time to spare?

My mornings were downright awful until I realized that kids really do need more cues to get daily things done­­. I came up with technique that makes mornings much less stressful—for less than the cost of a large latte!

Over several mornings, jot down all of the steps your kids should do to get ready for school every day. After you have the list, arrange it in a logical order (example: brush teeth after eating breakfast). Bullet each morning step with a permanent marker on a small dry-erase board that has an attached dry-erase marker. (Make sure the dry erase board is not a glass coated "no stain" type. You want the permanent marker to stick.)

Hang this morning checklist in a central location—I use the inside of a kitchen cupboard door so it is out of sight the rest of the day. Explain to your kids that adults use lists all the time to remember things—like at the grocery store. Lists are a great tool for anyone. Show them the morning checklist and explain that every day, they will check off each step as they complete it with the dry erase marker. (Then you can wipe the check marks off and reuse the same list each day.)

Stick to it. Sometimes it takes months for this to become an effortless routine. Whenever you need to get things moving in the morning, take a deep breath and physically look at the list with your child and coach them on what to do next—without emotion.

My daughter has been getting herself up and ready for school (on time/without drama) since fourth grade with this method. Believe me, that is a miracle! Now she does everything on her own. My friends have children my daughter's age who still haven’t acquired this life skill. They ask my daughter how she does it.

Light at the End of the School Year Tunnel

Alice Cooper’s song “School’s Out” keeps playing in my head! Today is my daughter’s last day of seventh grade. She made it through her first year of junior high. Summer is coming just in time—she needs a break.

A few years ago during a particularly rough school year, we talked about how things were going. I was surprised to find out my daughter believed adults had to be good at everything to have a successful life. I’m glad we talked about it because she was very discouraged and thought life would be a continuation of her struggles in class.

School Gets Us Ready For Life

But Life Is Not Just Like School

To graduate from high school, we need knowledge in a variety of subjects. After that, we are able to pursue a career that peaks our individual interests. That’s why it is important for your child to begin noticing his or her interests and gifts at a young age. In the working world, many adults collaborate with other people who have different gifts, expertise, and interests. Successful adults are not good at everything!

My interests changed the day I became a Mom. For me, that has opened up a whole new career. Visit my site at www.optimisticoutcomes.com to see where my interests have taken me.

I’d love to hear your stories:

How do you role model using your personal interests and talents as an adult? How do your children think they will use their own gifts and interests as adults?