The human memory is a muscle, and with practice and exercise it can grow and strengthen, just like any other body muscle! Here are some quick tips and tricks to help boost your memory and take your critical thinking skills a step further.
GUEST POST, HANNAH ROSS: Executive Functioning Skills: Using Games to Strengthen the CEO of Your Brain
Photo by Michal Parzuchowski on Unsplash.
Remember Hannah Ross? We interviewed her recently to talk about her work in educational therapy, executive functioning skills, and how we can best cope with the disruptions brought to you by Covid-19. She’s graciously shared some of her insights on using gamification to strengthen your executive functioning skills - “the CEO of your brain,” as she calls it - games like Jenga, Monopoly, and even Clue can incentivize and engage all of us to a higher learning ability. Don’t have these games at home? Create your own, or even just find a recipe you want to make.
Executive functioning weaknesses can show up in a lot of different ways. It could be the student whose backpack or binder is stuffed full of paper, but they can’t find the assignment that needs to be turned in. It could be the student who can’t seem to turn a paper in on time and always finishes work at the very last minute. It could also be the student who doesn’t know how to organize the content they learn in class to be successful on projects or tests. Generally speaking, a lack of executive functioning skills (particularly when it comes to academics) will appear as struggles with time and planning, material organization or a general lack of content understanding.
There are several causes of weak executive functioning skills. Executive functioning skills are mainly controlled by the prefrontal cortex of the brain. Individuals with traumatic brain injuries or conditions affecting this area of the brain may struggle with these skills. In addition, it is fairly common for students with other learning differences such as ADHD, Dyslexia, slow processing speed and more to exhibit weaker EF skills. Finally, executive functioning skills develop over time as students mature with age. These skills develop earlier in some students and later in others due to a mix of that child’s unique strengths and weaknesses, as well as the executive functioning skills (or lack of EF skills ) that they observe in their parents and siblings.
My biggest goal in my educational therapy practice is to make learning fun and engaging for students who generally struggle in the classroom so I LOVE the concept of gamification. Particularly for younger kids, I use a lot of games that practice core executive functioning skills. Games make EF skills more fun and memorable for students. For example, the game Jenga can teach the skills of self-regulation and emotional control. The game Monopoly can teach organization, prioritization, and planning ahead. While games are great, they can’t replace explicitly teaching students executive functioning skills and strategies, like how to use a planner or how to break projects into smaller chunks. Regardless, games can be a fun way to practice some executive functioning basics in a different context. These are ten of my favorite games to use in strengthening skills in different areas of executive functioning:
Working Memory & Sustained Attention
Distraction
Players practice recall skills by taking turns drawing cards and remembering a string of numbers while being interrupted by silly questions.
Simon
In this classic electronic game, players have to remember a sequence of colored lights and tones. Try to beat your best score or play against your friends!
Cartoon It!
Memorize a goofy cartoon picture, then draw it from memory! This game not only strengthens memory and drawing skills, but provides an opportunity to discuss strategies that aid in memorization.
Planning, Organization, & Problem-Solving
Rush Hour
Plan how to move cars strategically to get out of the traffic jam. Easy set-up with levels for players of all ages.
Clue
Find out who did it! Players use strategic planning to ask questions and organize information as they race to be the first one to solve the crime.
Cat Crimes
A kinesthetic logic puzzle with four different challenge levels. Players use sequential reasoning, logic, and organizational skills to find the cat who committed the crime. An added bonus is strengthening reading comprehension skills!
Settlers of Catan
Build and develop settlements as you trade resources and earn victory points. This challenging game requires a great amount of strategic planning and logical thinking. Great for middle school age and above.
Flexible Thinking
Set
In this fast-moving, family game of visual perception, players create “sets” of three cards where each feature is the same or different. This game builds logical thinking as well as visual-spatial reasoning skills.
Swish
Players compete to find the most “swish” matches where each ball fits into a hoop, strengthening spatial awareness and requiring players to look at shapes and patterns in different ways.
Impulse Control
Jenga
This classic game requires turn-taking and patience as players work collaboratively to make the tallest tower. Add some academic skills to this game by writing math facts or sight words on the individual wooden pieces.
One of the easiest ways to practice executive functioning skills around the house is creating check-lists and schedules. For example, to practice remembering important tasks and organizing time, a student could create a checklist of everything they need to do in the morning to get ready for school or create a schedule for their day, including activities they have to complete and things they want to go for fun. Schedules and checklists are great reminders to keep around the house and use to help students get into an organized routine. For more buy-in, have your children create and decorate their own schedules and lists.
Another fun and simple executive functioning activity is cooking. Have your child choose a recipe they would like to prepare and write a list of supplies they already have vs. supplies they need to purchase. Then have your child plan out when to make the recipe, what kitchen resources they will need to use, and how to clean up. This requires a lot of planning, organization of supplies, and goal-directed persistence. Plus you get a tasty snack!
Finally, another great activity for the home is having your child create their own game, either board game or outside game. The steps required to do this (finding supplies, writing directions, testing the game, and more) require the executive functioning skills of planning, organization, task initiation, and more. Any activity that requires multiple steps, planning backwards to meet a goal, and an open-ended response is a great way to practice EF skills in the comfort of your home.
Executive functioning skills develop over time with practice. Many students have not been explicitly taught the skills of organizing work, time, or materials efficiently. The best thing parents can do is model the skills they want their children to learn. For example, for a student learning to schedule their time, a parent might talk through how they set up a family calendar for the weekend. For a student who is constantly forgetting things, a parent might help the child set up reminders on their phone for various tasks. For a student with a constantly messy room, a parent might show the child how to use different labeled organizers for various items. Often, children and adolescents need to learn a concrete strategy to be successful. After modeling for your child the skill you want them to practice, give them time to master it and praise them for their efforts. EF skills don’t develop overnight, but with patience and practice they can improve!
If you think your child needs support developing EF skills, you can always reach out to an educational therapist or executive functioning coach.
How To Win At Studying For Finals
Finals are here once again and this time around I’m sure finals will look very different for everyone considering the crazy circumstances we’re all facing right now.
(Spoiler alert: We’ve compiled useful practice tests for you, complete with answers, from real math and science final exams from high schools all over the country. Scroll to the bottom for downloads)
Some teachers have decided to make finals cumulative and test on everything you’ve covered all year, some teachers are just giving you one last test that’s weighted like a final, and others have decided you don’t need the added stress of finals in your life right now, so they’re skipping finals this semester.
If even some of your teachers are in that last camp, we are all seriously jealous of you!
Regardless of the challenge you’re up against as you do your best to push on through to your sweet, sweet SUMMER VACATION, the formula for doing well on your finals is the same as always.
Step 1. Know your enemy.
You’ll want to know when your finals are and what they will be covering so that you can plan accordingly. You’ll also want to check your current grades to date so that way you can make informed decisions about how you want to structure your studying efforts.
If you’re like some of my students you’ll be most interested in doing the math to see what score you’d need on your final to either keep your current grade or move yourself up one letter grade. And sometimes what you’ll find is that a wide range of things could happen on the final and you’ll still end up with the same grade. For scenarios like the one I just mentioned, I would not place a high priority on studying for a class where your performance on the final is unlikely to impact your final grade in a significant way.
Step 2. Be Strategic. Make a plan!
Ok now that you know what you’re up against on the day of your final it’s time to make a plan, which really translates to scheduling out all the time you need to study for each of your exams and what you want to focus on in that time.
If you don’t necessarily know how to prioritize your studying because you’re not sure how long everything will take, I recommend creating a list of the classes you’ll need to study for the chapters or topics you’ll need to study for within those subjects and putting them into a productivity matrix and then calendar out the week, setting aside as much of your time as possible to study in larger blocks of time. I would also recommend creating subject-specific study blocks in your calendar as you get closer to each of your finals, about 2-3 days from your final in a particular class.
If you want to dive deeper into how you can prepare an even more sophisticated study plan check out this video.
Step 3. Study Smarter, Not Harder.
The key here is not to just study for the sake of studying. You want to be studying exactly what will be on the test and there is no better way to do that than reviewing your previous exams and reviewing what concepts and information your teacher thought was important enough to test you on earlier in the semester. You can bet they are going to ask similar questions on the final.
Since math and science are subjects that don’t ever really change from year to year, - and we knew you’d both need and appreciate the ability to study for your math and science finals - I’ve compiled the best finals exam study materials I could find online just for you.
Click the link below to access practice tests, complete with answers, from real math and science final exams from high schools all over the country.
Looking Back To Get Ahead
Let me be completely honest with you. none of my weeks EVER go as planned.
And I’m ok with that.
As I’m sure you already know there is LITERALLY ALWAYS SOMETHING that comes up to derail our plans of accomplishing all that we’ve set out to do for the week.
Getting 100% of what we planned accomplished is just not realistic. We’re human. We make mistakes. We forget. We over extend ourselves. We underestimate how long things will take. And that’s ok.
It’s all part of the process of learning, and, as we learn, week by week we get better at rising to the challenge of meeting the goals we set for ourselves.
But before any next-level learning can happen we have to take the time to think about our actions and how we feel about the way we are approaching getting the things we want out of life.
Which is why I recommend keeping a weekly review journal. It’s a super simple practice with a massive upside and it takes almost no time at all.
Without going into some long-winded speech about how journaling can improve your intellect, mental health, and physical health, I’ll say this. Keeping a weekly journal allows you to check in how you envisioned your life going and acknowledge how it’s actually going, and then take the time to think about what you feel like changing.
Here’s how you can get started with your own journaling practice today:
Step 1. Pick a day for your weekly review.
Ideally you’ll want to pick a day towards the end of the week.
Set aside at least 10 to 20 minutes to review what’s happened during the past week so that you can think about how things have played out and if there’s anything you want to celebrate, remember, or change.
Step 2. Decide how you want to keep your journal.
I recommend using either a Google Doc or the Day One app. I use the Day One app because I like the idea of having a specific app for journaling, and I like that it allows you to password protect your journal so you have some privacy.
For all you old school folks, I’m sure you can find a pen and paper lying around somewhere and that will work fine, too.
Step 3. Answer these four questions on a weekly basis:
What was the highlight of my week?
What am I most proud of this week?
How do I feel the week went this week?
What do I want to improve upon next week?
You can, of course, modify or add to these questions. The important thing is that you find a way to reflect on your past and decide what you want from the future.
Step 4. Stick to it!
The key here is consistency. If you can consistently take the time to observe and reflect what’s going on in your life from week to week you’ll learn a great deal about what motivates you, what areas of your life you want to change, and how you can make better decisions on what to spend your time and energy on.
Pro Tip: You can also use this process to realign your plans for the next week and break out your productivity matrix and start calendaring your upcoming week while you are in this reflective mindset.
As always, if you need an online tutor for just about anything - including getting organized and being productive with your time - let us know!
DID YOU MISS THE PREVIOUS PARTS OF OUR PRODUCTIVITY SERIES? YOU CAN STILL READ THEM!
Have you noticed the pandemic? It’s distracting.
How to become your own productivity superhero.
Interview with an Expert: Hilary Bilbrey, Inspired Living Coach
Hilary Bilbrey and her husband Jeff recently moved to California where they are the parents of Breck, a just-about-graduated high school senior headed to CSU in the Fall (“a natural leader, he can talk his way out of anything!”), Jake, a high school junior (“He’s my techie and a problem solver, he can critically think his way out of anything!”), and Faith, a high school freshman (“She’s a dancer and honors student, and just embodies the spirit of our family so much!”).
They’ve had a ton of adventures as a family, lived and worked in multiple countries overseas, overcome tragic accidents and scary illnesses, and Hilary, through it all, has continued to transform those experiences into teachable moments that affirm her life motto: “live inspired.”
What’s your education/career background?
My background is primarily as a high school English teacher.
I graduated from the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire and was lucky enough to get my Master’s at Cambridge University in England, where I learned how to teach English through drama. It was remarkable: we literally had workshops taught by the Royal Shakespeare Company! I lived in England, Spain, and Poland and went on to teach middle and high school in international schools before my husband and I moved to Colorado. Once we had our children, we moved back to Wisconsin where I subbed and worked here and there.
When I was getting ready to have our second child, I had some health challenges and doctors thought I might not even survive. The stress caused an early pregnancy - the baby was in NICU for a week, and we had just come home for a bit when our oldest, Breck, had a bad burn accident. We nearly lost him the first night and it set our family in turmoil.
The only way I know how to make sense of chaos is education and through finding the teachable moments. I had to reclaim who I was from an identity standpoint. Especially as women, we usually identify through our roles - mother, spouse, friend, daughter etc. - and when something happens that disrupts the role, it throws off our equilibrium and sense of identity. For example, a lot of “empty nest syndrome” is because as mothers, our picture has changed, and it’s changed the exterior view of our roles. What do we do with ourselves?!
So I did two things. I started researching more about identity and who we are and became certified as a Virtues Project facilitator. In that process, you identify your core virtues, which are different than values. Values are the way you practice virtues, but virtues are the universal truth, the core of who we are, which are found in every religion and culture. That helped me feel seen for the first time at a heart level and it started me on this process of understanding: if I know who I am at core, then no matter what or changes happen, I am anchored by my integrity.
I started using that to work with kids and teens who are leaders in their respective groups but their groups may not necessarily be leaders, if that makes sense. They have the ability to sway the group in a positive or negative way. I created a program called Trademark U which teaches kids to identify that in themselves and sets purposeful tasks to help them change their community in schools, cement their identity and leadership skills, and give realistic ways to gain earned Confidence through meaningful change.
The last 15 years I’ve worked with individuals - teens and adults - to help them through the transformative process in helping us live our best lives.
Would you call yourself a life coach?
People call me a life or leadership coach or life strategist. I help you move forward, align your life with who you are, process things in your life, and live with integrity.
What are you primarily focusing on now?
Right now, I’m working with executive women - many of whom are looking for guidance on switching careers - on an initiative called Ready, Set, Pivot. I’m also starting my first leadership book. I’ve written children’s books, but this is my my first “adult” book. In addition to Ready, Set, Pivot, I’m also doing family coaching - working with teens and parents and helping them find a shared vision. We work on creating shared family boundaries and a family identity and keeping parents consistent with what they ask of their kids and show their kids, developing trust as they go through relationship exchanges. I’ve been doing a lot of workshops, including “Read Inspired” once a month. I’m prepping for that next week, this month’s read is Untamed by Glennon Doyle. Then, I have the Decided Heart YouTube channel and tons of other projects going on!
If you had to describe yourself in a sentence how would you do it?
I want to bring out the best in people; my motto is to live inspired, and help others do the same.
How do you want others to describe you?
Your brand is not just who you say you are, but what’s reflected back. My #1 core virtue is integrity - I feel like I have to be able to stand behind what I say, follow through, and honor commitment to people and to myself. I believe in being vulnerable and authentic and joyful. Joyfulness is peace and contentment in knowing who you are and shining a light to others. My #1 thing that I love to hear from people is that they see that authenticity reflected.
How has Covid-19 affected your work?
The uncertainty is a huge thing with my clients right now. Depression is when you’re concerned and worried about the past and anxiety is concern and worry about the future. I’m dealing with a lot of anxiety.
People get focused on a goal but the reality right now is, what is your goal? Three months from now, tomorrow? You can’t focus on a goal so much as a process and habits that will build you up and get you there. That’s where the importance of Atomic Habits becomes so important. The structure of habits is the number one thing you have control over right now. What is making you anxious, and what do you have control over? Then let’s create a process for navigating how we react to these feelings.
How do you even start the process by overcoming anxiety?
Well the first thing I often have people do is to free write: go, write down everything that’s making you crazy. Then draw a circle and inside of it, write what you control. Outside of it, write what you can’t control. What you can’t control, you have to let go of it. Then for the inside circle, you can start to create action plans.
How do you even start to help develop structure?
Honestly, the very first thing is to NOT HIT THE SNOOZE BUTTON. Make a decision about what time you’ll get up and stick to it. When you start your day breaking a promise to yourself, that’s how you continue your day. I don’t care what time you set it for, but when that alarm goes off, your feet hit the floor. Think through the follow-up process beforehand.
That’s even harder these days when you don’t have the same job or class to get to...
You have to have a reason to get out of bed, but you have to create that reason. These are your non-negotiables. When you start committing to that first step, you can start habit stacking, and the process develops.
What have you learned from your life coaching/strategizing role that has informed your parenting?
Your kids’ experience has to be about who they are, not about who you want them to be, or who you were. And growth happens at different times for different people. Who is your kid? It’s hard to take your ego out of it, though. But if you’re controlling them like that, you’re taking them out of their story and they won’t believe they’re worthy, that they can do it. When you rescue them every time you’re communicating that you don’t believe they have what it takes to make it.
How do you balance parenting and life coaching?
When family values and boundaries are set, that helps balance. I try to push the limits a little with some of it, but there are a few non-negotiables, like safety. The companioning process is where you do negotiating and learn what they’re ready for and what they’re not.
It’s always hardest to take the emotion out, but you have to blend detachment with compassion. I’m teaching parents how to companion their kids - instead of solving and fixing things, to walk alongside them and help kids be the hero of their own story. At some point your authority turns into a guide or mentor role, and it’s a fun place to be, to watch your kids take virtues/gifts and really use them as a way to make their mark on the world. Sometimes as a parent you just have to stop listening to the outside world and go deep, and that’s when you’ll know.
Do you have suggestions for how parents can start building confidence in their kids?
Give your kid situations where they earn pride and confidence in doing something: chores, getting grades, running miles. Let them do the hard things and know they can do them. Let them do the easy things too! Earned confidence is real confidence.
Stay Productive During a Socially-Distanced Summer with Academic Enrichment Programs from InGenius Prep
Have your summer camps been cancelled?
Addams Family Values, 1993
The semester’s almost over, summer camps are dropping like flies, and you're probably looking for ways to keep your students engaged while we’re still all socially distancing. Thankfully, our friends at InGenius Prep are getting creative with their summer enrichment program to help students continue to stay busy and engaged while building their candidacy as college applicants. It’s like online academic summer camp, and they’ve got some pretty impressive teachers and mentors lined up.
Choose from one-on-one academic mentorship and team academic mentorship, and from fields of study like Business and Economics, Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Law, History, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Computer Science, Literature, Film, Entrepreneurship, and more.
Mentors include professors, associate professors, lecturers, post-doctoral fellows, and Ph.D. candidates who teach courses at their respective universities and who have designed unique research projects and courses for InGenius Prep students. Your student will have guidance and one-on-one help needed to produce tangible research outcomes with experts in their fields of interest.
These are unique ways to expand students’ knowledge, add impressive skills to their college prep work, and strengthen their college applications. Contact InGenius Prep for more information and make the most of your summer at home!
How To “Be In The Moment” and GTD Using Your Calendar!
I’m certain you have already heard all about the importance of “being in the moment.”
But what does that mean exactly?
And what on earth does that have to do with organizing your calendar?
Let me start by saying this. Learning how to “be in the moment” is pretty much the key to unlocking enjoyment and success in everything: from taking the time to truly listen to your best friend, to skiing a double black diamond, to driving a car, to acing your final exam.
Being in the moment simply means you are 100% present, sensing all that is going on internally and externally, and deciding what to do from one moment to the next without the distractions of things outside of the task or activity you’ve set your mind to.
Piece of cake, right?! Not exactly. The reality is most of us are either a) absurdly busy or b) easily distracted.
That’s why it’s essential to use a calendar to plan ahead and carve out the time we need so that we can focus our attention on what is immediately in front of us.
Look, I get it... What I’m saying is literally nothing new! But let me walk you through a couple of the steps I’ve learned from David Allen to help other students solve this age-old problem of how to manage their time, Get Things Done (GTD) using a calendar, and develop a mind like water.
Step 1. Schedule the essentials.
The reality is most of us have far less free time for work or play than we imagine. Without visualizing everything that has to happen on a daily basis just to make it through the week, we often fail to realize this.
Scheduling time for things like meals, gym workouts, class, and hanging out with friends and family is essential. There is no way to make it through the day without doing any one of these things so putting these things on your calendar helps you see that all that “mythical” free time you thought you had just doesn’t exist.
Step 2. Don’t put anything on your calendar that doesn’t absolutely have to be completed by a specific date or time.
Your calendar should be reserved for scheduling things that absolutely have to get done on a particular day. Your calendar is not your to-do list! If you start scheduling all of your to-do’s in your calendar you’re essentially wasting time on unnecessary organization.
Also, if you try scheduling “every minute of the day” for the sake of productivity, you can fall into a pattern of beating yourself up over not finishing your tasks on time according to the calendar you’ve set for yourself. When this happens enough times, you give up on using a calendar all together and that, my friend, is a dark place to be.
Step 3. Schedule big blocks of time for general purposes.
By now you’ve filled your calendar with everything you simply cannot avoid doing, so in theory your calendar has some gaps of “free time.” Well, now it’s time to decide what you want to do with that time and add that to your calendar, too.
Ex: you might decide that setting aside two hours from 7-9 pm are perfect for studying or working on homework. Add that to your calendar with the title: “Studying” or “HW.”
You want to add these generalized blocks of time to your calendar so that day by day, moment by moment, you can work through all that you need to do in a systematic way.
I would recommend using the productivity matrix we worked on setting up in our last post to focus on prioritizing your most important projects within these big blocks of unstructured time.
Step 4. Pick a digital calendar for calendaring the days, weeks, and months ahead.
I really like Google calendar and Apple calendar for scheduling my day. To create digital reminders for small tasks I keep forgetting about, I like to use either Apple’s default reminders app or BZ Reminder.
Here’s a list of the best calendaring apps out there if you’d like more options: The 9 Best Calendar Apps to Stay Organized in 2020.
If you’ve hung in there and made it through all the steps above, I have to say I’m impressed.
This practice of calendaring your week is something you’ll want to repeat on weekly basis along with a weekly review, a highly valuable practice I’ll be covering next week.
As always, if you need an online tutor for just about anything - including getting organized and being productive with your time - let us know!
DID YOU MISS THE PREVIOUS PARTS OF OUR PRODUCTIVITY SERIES? YOU CAN STILL READ THEM!
How to become your own productivity superhero.
Interview with an Expert: Hannah Ross, Educational Therapist
Tell us about your educational therapy practice and what you do.
My team of ed therapists and I work with students in my Santa Monica office, as well as in homes throughout the Los Angeles area. I work with students ages preschool through high school with a variety of learning challenges. My ultimate goal in my work is to make learning more engaging and accessible for my students and provide them with the tools and strategies they need to become successful, independent learners for the rest of their lives!
What inspired you to start your educational therapy practice?
I graduated from Pepperdine University with my teaching credential and immediately began teaching 3rd grade at an independent school in Pasadena. I loved the excitement and community of working as a teacher, yet in the full classroom environment I began to notice students who were not receiving the academic support they needed to be successful. I observed students who lacked skills in specific academic areas, couldn’t focus on work in the classroom setting, or simply lacked confidence in their ability as learners. While I tried my best to meet the unique needs of each student, I realized that many of these students would benefit from more targeted, one-on-one instruction. This led me to further my own education in the field of Educational Therapy and start a private practice.
What exactly is educational therapy?
Educational therapy is the practice of providing individualized instruction to students with learning differences, including but not limited to dyslexia, dyscalculia, ADHD, ASD, executive functioning deficits, and auditory and visual processing issues. Educational therapists have specialized training in administering assessments, developing intervention plans, and implementing learning strategies and remediation for individuals with specific learning challenges. Check out AET https://www.aetonline.org/ for more information!
My ultimate goal is to make learning more engaging and accessible for my students and provide them with the tools and strategies they need to become successful, independent learners for the rest of their lives!
Why is educational therapy important?
Educational therapy is important because its ultimate goal is to create independent, self-sufficient students who enjoy learning and see themselves as life-long learners. Educational therapists help students understand how to learn in the best way for their specific learning profiles, which can hopefully lead to greater self-confidence and positivity throughout their lives. Educational therapists also help make the school systems, both public and private, easier to navigate for many families. An essential role of an educational therapist is to collaborate with parents, teachers, and other professionals working with the student to ensure all members of the team are working towards the same goals to best support the student’s progress.
What kinds of students do you work with?
I work with all different types of students, of all ages and abilities, which is one reason my job is so fun! I provide remedial instruction for students with specific learning disabilities like Dyslexia, executive functioning support for students with ADHD, and much more. Every session is tailored to my student’s age, interests, and the style in which I know that they learn best!
Educational therapy is important because its ultimate goal is to create independent, self-sufficient students who enjoy learning and see themselves as life-long learners.
What is your specialization?
While I work with a diverse range of students with a wide variety of challenges, one of my absolute favorite areas to work is early reading remediation. As an avid reader myself, I love helping books come alive to students, especially those who are not able to learn to read in a traditional classroom environment. I am trained in the Orton-Gillingham approach to reading instruction so I teach reading skills and phonics patterns in a very explicit and systematic manner, while incorporating lots of games and multisensory activities to make the learning more engaging and memorable!
Has your practice changed or altered since Covid-19?
My practice has become entirely virtual with the onset of Covid-19. At first it was challenging to transfer the process of educational therapy online, but I feel I have learned so much in the process and I am very proud of how my students have adapted. We now work towards the same learning goals, but online, which is actually even better for some students. Along with the regular support I provide in sessions, online sessions also offer tremendous opportunities to practice following directions, collaborating, and problem-solving, which is so beneficial for all learners.
Online sessions offer tremendous opportunities to practice following directions, collaborating, and problem-solving, which is so beneficial for all learners.
What are executive functioning skills and why are they important?
Executive functioning skills are vital to every part of daily life for children and adults. I once heard executive functioning skills described as the “CEO of the brain,” which is a metaphor I absolutely love. Executive functioning skills help us set goals, plan, and get things done efficiently. There are eight specific executive functioning skills: Emotional Control, Inhibition, Working Memory, Task Initiation, Planning & Prioritization, Flexible Thinking, Organization, and Metacognition or Self-Reflection. These skills are needed throughout the day for students, but are rarely explicitly taught. Each of us have areas of executive functioning strengths and weaknesses. For example, I am great at planning and scheduling ahead, but struggle with remembering certain things, like where I left my phone or keys. Like many students, I have compensatory strategies I use to help with my challenges. Particularly students with severe executive functioning weaknesses benefit from support from an educational therapist developing executive functioning skills and ways to compensate for their areas of weakness.
Is a lack of EF a disability?
A lack of executive functioning skills, or executive dysfunction, is not a specific disorder or diagnosis in the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), but it is a skill deficit that can have a profound impact on a student’s life, both in and out of the classroom. Oftentimes, but not always, individuals who are diagnosed with ADHD also struggle with executive functioning skills. Students with other learning diagnoses or none at all can also struggle with executive skills weakness.
Most of the time there is a deeper reason behind why students struggle, whether or not they have diagnosed learning differences.
What do you see as the biggest need for students and/or educators today?
In my opinion, the biggest need for educators today is to change the lens through which they view their students. When a student can’t remember the sound of “e” or forgets to turn in their work for the tenth time, it is easy to think they aren’t paying attention or aren’t trying their best. Most of the time there is a deeper reason behind why students struggle though, whether or not they have diagnosed learning differences. All students can benefit greatly from having a teacher who is able to recognize their individual needs and provide accommodations that help that student stay successful and engaged in the learning process.
What inspires you?
I am inspired by my students, many of whom work exceedingly hard in the classroom everyday, and then work more with me! I love seeing students push through a challenging problem or apply a strategy they have learned to something new!
Learn more about the work Hannah Ross does or contact her for a consultation.
An Interview with a College-Bound Junior from SAMOHI: Josh Teichman
How old are you now?
I’m a junior at Santa Monica High School, almost a senior.
Where are you from?
I was born in Santa Monica, and I’ve been here all my life. I attended an alternative public school called SMASH from K-8th grades, which had a big impact on me.
How was your experience at SMASH?
It’s a very small school, only 250 kids or so. It has a really interesting model - you don’t really get typical grades as you’d think of them, instead, you’d have an evaluation at the end of the year. The school was so small the teachers could write a full page on each student and you they did that year and how they got to know you. You get to build a relationship with your teacher along with the rest of the kids - I grew up with the same circle of 30 kids or so for nine years. When we reached 8th grade we had this existential time thinking of how the next year we wouldn't all be together anymore.
What impact did SMASH have on your high school life?
SMASH was more about exploring what you like to learn and less about whether you got a 90%. The way I think about school now is a very goal-oriented mindset. The goal is measured in numbers rather than how much fun I am having while I learn, or how much I want to learn.
I’m taking rigorous classes, and I usually surround myself with people who share that similar goal, but I feel a disconnect in a way. I do strive to get high scores but I feel like everyone around me is more stressed about numbers, etc. I miss not being surrounded by that stress.
What classes are you taking right now?
Engineering
Honors Calculus
AP English 11
AP US History
FIlm
AP Environmental Science
What is your most challenging class, and what have you learned about facing challenges through this class?
Engineering. It started out fun - it’s Project Lead the Way, a national engineering program that I actually did in SMASH for years which helped me automatically get into the program at SaMo. When I started off freshman year we were doing 3D modeling, and it was fun and interesting. When you have to figure anything out you’d go step by step.
It’s the hardest class this year. When we got into the principles of engineering, the AP physics teacher was too advanced for us. She should be building spaceships or something. I’d never had a problem with math ever in my life before this.
But what I came to realize is that it’s not the end of the world if you get a B on a test. Also, even if I studied so long for a test, it doesn't matter. Before, I would have this mentality of time = if I study more, I’ll get a good score. But no matter how much I studied it didn’t happen.
It put things in perspective because I realized maybe there are some things I just have to put off for now and focus on other parts of my life that need development.
So I still studied, but instead of just grinding every day, I actually took some time off started playing piano and reading nonfiction - basically stuff that would allow my mind to not feel like it’s wasting time. I knew these would bring me joy in the long run, kind of like a mimicking school for my mind.
I think engineering taught me balance. If I hadn’t hit that threshold of what I couldn’t do, I wouldn't have learned it’s good to have balance. It’s still trial and error every day. Sometimes you just need to take a step back and balance out your brain. Junior year is way harder than sophomore year, but I’ve been able to get more work done because instead of being stressed constantly, I don’t have all my eggs in one basket now. So I’m not worried constantly about stressing about failing school and then failing life.
I think engineering taught me balance. If I hadn’t hit that threshold of what I couldn’t do, I wouldn't have learned it’s good to have balance.
What subject are you crushing right now?
AP environmental science. I think it’s an extremely important thing to learn and should be a mandatory subject for all high schoolers. I don’t want to get into too much or a rant, but that’s kind of our future. I also just really like how it explains how everything that happens is one small thing causing another bigger thing which then causes four larger things. I like that about environmental science: the cause and effects you’d never expect to happen. It’s a scavenger hunt to see what would cause something to happen.
Where do you see yourself 2 years from now?
I’d like to be in a four-year college by that point. I’m aiming for UCLA or UC Berkeley, but I’m also looking at college opportunities in Germany, even though I don’t speak a word of German. My older cousin’s been in Germany for years studying finance/economics and seeing how much he’s changed and learned just being in another country... you’re just learning every day: hearing new sounds, seeing new things... I think it’d be super cool to change it up and see what it’s like to learn in a different part of the world.
What do you see yourself studying in two years?
Engineering, as of now. There are a lot of different options. Computer, electrical, mechanical and so many things. I know that if I commit to that I won’t be stuck. Also, if I do apply to a school for engineering, I have the four years in high school under my belt I can show. In Germany, the technical schools are so low cost, I could practically attend the Harvard of engineering schools for almost free.
I naturally am also interested in psychology and therapy - my mom has a masters in psychology - and my friends are always teasing me about how I try to diagnose whatever is happening. It might just be the way that I think but it’s definitely something I’m interested in.
How else do your friends describe you?
Spontaneous yet level-headed when we need to be serious. That I don’t lose my temper. Funny.
What is something your friends come to you for advice?
I have a semi-small but very tight-knit group of friends. We get into fights constantly. We’ve known each other for so long we know every part of each other that makes us mad. I’m usually the one they call to kind of mediate and ease out the situation. I’m sort of a Dr. Phil type.
How do you want others to describe you?
I want people to see me as smart and able to convey ideas without being based on the way I sound. I’ve had a speech impediment my whole life, and when you meet someone that’s the first impression you give. A lot of the time I can’t even say my name when I meet someone.
Because of that, I often pick words that are easier to say but don’t capture the full meaning of what I’m meaning to say. Sometimes people don't even know I stutter because I'm hiding it by choosing weird or simple words that don't make sense. I don’t want people to see the words I’m using as an indicator that I don’t know what I want to say. Because I do know, and that is the part that is annoying. I just can’t always say it in the way I want to.
What are your hobbies right now?
Well I’ve picked up some more now that we’re in the whole lockdown. I’ve been reading, studying a lot for AP exams. I play video games - currently, Uncharted 4 - those types of games really inspire me to be an engineer - like, how do they even do that?! I’m trying to pick up yoga again; I took it sophomore year for a year and I miss the way that I felt during that, more hyper and energized.
What gets you excited / gives all the feels?
I like thinking about stuff. I find myself just thinking about how things work and also more philosophical things, like how there’s so much happening in one moment but then in another part of the world there is nothing happening. I’m always thinking about things like: how is there so much chaos in one moment and then somewhere else it’s stillness? These thoughts usually happen when I’m working super hard on something, focusing on a completely different thing. It feels weird - the vastness of everything. How so many other things that can be focused on at one time and that’s how everything was built. How was all this built, how different, individual people focused on one part. How someone could figure out how to build a chandelier.
What is an accomplishment or area of work that you are most proud of?
I wrote an anthology sophomore year because I had an English teacher that was like Robin Williams’ character in Dead Poets Society. He made us write this 60-80 page anthology on one subject we had to pick and examine and write about for over five months. I guess it would be equivalent to a thesis. Mine was about “fear,” and I had to do original art, poems, expository essays, reflections, film reviews, interviews. It’s the most daunting thing I’ve done in my life. When it was done we had to print it out as a book and turn it in. He was hyping us all year for it and I almost hated him but I did it and I felt very accomplished. It’s a time capsule for my sophomore year. When I’m 40 I’ll know exactly the way I was thinking at this point in time.
What do you want from any of the education you are seeking?
I just don’t want to waste it on stupid things, like focusing on the wrong stuff. I want my school to allow me to figure myself out, which is more or less that is what adult life will be like.
It’s also important to go to a school in a place I like - I could never go to the middle of nowhere. I’d rather be enjoying it around me as I’m studying, looking around me. That’s partly why I want to go to school in Germany. I spent a lot of my high school in a room, studying. College is more of an opportunity to be somewhere I’ve never been.
Do you have any mentors that you look up to?
My dad has been in a weekly men’s group for over 20 years. They help and support each other. Recently they had the idea of starting that same team but for kids my age. So every month, on Zoom, about 16 kids and dads meet. I see a lot of them as mentors per se, in becoming the best person I can be. They emphasize always telling the truth and being up front.
There’s not really another place in your life that you can talk to a bunch of people that you relate to and feel safe with what you’re saying. It’s let me know that there is always a space I can go to and always feel safe. I’ve brought the others into it and it’s definitely helped us.
Should I Take My 2020 AP Exams?
The unequivocal answer to this question is yes. 100 x yes = right answer!
I just had to make sure that we got that point across before we tell you why you need to take yet another standardized test and how best to prepare for the 2020 online version of the AP exams.
(Spoiler alert: we’ve prepared a set of practice guides on how to prepare for every available 2020 AP subject test. You can download all of our practice guides at the bottom of this post).
So, why should I be taking the AP 2020 Exams?
Recently, the College Board cancelled its April ACT and June SAT, leaving the future of these tests in limbo. The College Board’s online AP tests remain the only guaranteed opportunities for high-achieving students to demonstrate their college readiness.
At this point, it’s also difficult to say how students’ grades will factor into college admissions counselors' decisions, considering how many school districts are rethinking how to issue grades during this trying time.
As discussed in the New York Times, some districts have moved to a pass / incomplete grading system, given students the option to opt out of receiving letter grades, or, in the case of Seattle Public Schools, every high school student will receive either an A or an incomplete for the spring semester.
In short, students from the class of 2021 will have fewer officially recognized ways to show colleges that they’ve mastered the skills necessary for admission to highly selective colleges. Thus, the AP exams are opportunities you need to be taking advantage of.
So, how should students be preparing for the online AP Exams?
Step 1. Become familiar with the new testing format for your specific exam.
Each of the exams has been significantly shortened to around 40-45 minutes and they do not include multiple choice sections. Those are the two big pieces of information in addition to the fact that each exam will be administered online across the nation at the same time - regardless of time zone - with measures in place to prevent cheating.
You can look up the AP exam schedule and course-specific exam changes here.
Step 2. Realize this year’s AP exams present a unique opportunity.
The exams have been radically shortened and now cover less content than would have been on the full version of the test. This means that if you haven’t yet started studying intensely, there’s still hope you can earn a passing score... if you start now.
Step 3. Acknowledge the unique challenge of this year’s exams.
There will be no multiple-choice section, so students will need to practice their ability to formulate answers to free-response questions (FRQs).
FRQs can be a struggle to master. It’s daunting to: a) first correctly interpret the question then, b) fully answer each part of the problem within the given time constraints.
Finding the resources to practice and study for these types of questions is challenging, and getting useful feedback on how to improve your answers is also difficult without a highly knowledgeable instructor to grade your responses.
Step 4. Make a study plan and begin practicing answering practice test questions similar to the questions you will see on the 2020 AP Exam.
Review the AP test structure and the specific question types for the test you will be taking.
Gather appropriate practice materials and set a study plan leading up to the day of the test.
Practice answering these questions in the format of the test under timed conditions and in a manner that aligns with your chosen test-taking style for each subject.
How can PCH Tutors help in all of this?
We’ve implemented new online tutoring methods that are industry-leading and truly interactive for STEM subjects, which have been historically challenging to tutor online.
Our staff is full of experienced tutors with expert knowledge on AP subjects and how to format free-response answers correctly.
Our goal right now is to help students review the content of the AP tests for which they are preparing and master formulas for structuring their solutions to free-response questions so that they can use their time efficiently and earn the highest score possible on their exam. That is why we’ve prepared all of these study materials just for you.
As always, if you need an online tutor for your upcoming AP exams let us know!