Deeper Patterns

Would you believe that some of the age-old beliefs about studying are actually not the best advice? Have you heard that finding a designated quiet, study space is the best way to study? Many educators and scientists would disagree! In fact, studying the same material in different locations can actually improve retention. One theory is that studying in different locations helps the brain create connections between the material and different surroundings. This gives the material a stronger anchor in the mind.

Mixed practice is also another tool to increase learning. Rather than studying the same type of problems or focusing only on spelling words, mixing up topics can actually help students learn the material better. For example, mixing reading comprehension with spelling words is a great way to try this technique.

Parents, teachers, and students alike are often afraid to make material too difficult, or they are worried about the students if the material is hard for them. While it is important to teach to a student’s comprehension level, it is also important to note that the student is apt to learn better when it is not easy for them. The “desirable difficulty” effect is the idea that the harder something is to remember, the harder it is to forget later. So, even forgetting is okay occasionally if you take the time to remember!

We hope you find these tips useful! Let us know how they work for you! For more information about this topic, see the New York Times article “Forget What You Know About Good Study Habits”.

For many years, parents on the East and West Coasts have tried to prepare their children for the SAT.  The entrance test that could prevent your child from getting into that prestigious college is changing. It may be time to start preparing them for a different test!

According to the College Board, the ACT is growing in popularity, and had 2000 more test-takers in 2012 than the SAT. This is the first time the ACT beat out the SAT for most test-takers. Parents and students need to know which test to take in order to meet college requirements.

Additionally, students taking the SAT have lower reading and critical writing scores. In an increasingly competitive admission environment, students must be more prepared than ever. Read more about these entrance exams at http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/09/24/college-board-reports-national-sat-scores-down-act-now-more-popular/ .

The school year has begun for many students and many are just getting started with their new classes and schedules while some are already in the swing of things. Many students find that beginning the year is simple enough but maintaining focus throughout the first semester can sometimes be difficult. Academics Plus, Inc. offers these tips on how to do well all year round!

• Keep a calendar. Calendars help us organize all aspects of our lives and while some students who are in elementary school many not feel the need for a calendar, providing them with one, if possible will help them begin to use one regularly. Some older schools may find that an agenda with all relevant dates is provided to them free of charge by their school. At any rate, you can provide a calendar for your child by either going to a shop and buying a cheap yearly calendar or printing one off your home computer. Some students may find that getting a calendar with their favourite T.V. show on it may provide an incentive for it’s use. Using a calendar regularly will help your child maintain a good schedule and keep good habits.
• Teamwork. Sometimes we need a little encouragement from peers or teachers to maintain our schedules. Become your child’s team player in helping them keep their assignments and in turn let them help you to do things that you might forget. Or, pair your child with a friend in their classroom or pair yourself with their parent and use each other to help you remember to keep on top of assignments.
• Reminders. Reminders are incredibly useful. While your calendar is one form of a reminder, having separate reminders for specific tasks or issues can help you remember even better. You can use post-it notes or even timers on your computer to help you remember the most important dates and assignments.
• Incentives. Providing incentives for yourself or for your child can help you maintain stamina throughout the semester. Set your incentives up in periods that will let your child know how far they are to the next big break or the next semester. If they set their sites on the next incentive as a goal, rather than the end of the semester, they are less likely to disheartened.
• Breaks. That’s right. Make sure to schedule some time in for some fun and breaks for both you and your student now and then, if you can manage. Having downtime from your regularly scheduled activities is an important part of maintaining stamina throughout the academic year. Running on full steam will have your student running short.

We hope you’ve got the semester off to a good start and are ready to power through it, full speed ahead! Good luck!

Every Friday, Academics Plus, Inc. chooses five educational links or family oriented resources from the Internet that may be useful for parents and students. We hope you find these links entertaining, fun, and educational. Send in your own ThinkLinks for us to feature every Friday.

KidsClick – KidsClick is a simple and easy to use website that allows younger children to search the internet for a variety of terms and resources safely. You can search based on category or search specifically for digital media such as images, videos, and sound. You can also search based on the Dewey Decimal System. If you’re looking for a safe search engine for younger audience, give KidsClick a try.

ZipGuides – ZipGuides allows students to search for animals in their own backyards using their zip codes. If you would like to organize your own nature walk, scavenger hunt, or an educational hunt, use ZipGuide to find animals locally. You can search by zip code, by poisonous species, endangered species, or identify mammal tracks. If you’re looking for a handy guide for local animals, give ZipGuide a try.

Sophia – Sophia is a free social network for teachers and students. It is focused solely on education described as a mashup of Wikipedia, YouTube, and Facebook. Search for subjects you want to learn, rate subjects, and join courses. Sophia is for Learners, Educators, and Parents. Use it for study groups, help others, or homework help. Parents can re-learn what they’ve forgotten and keep up with their children. If you’re looking for an educational social network, try Sophia.

Teachnology – Useful for teachers as well as parents who educate their children at home, Teachnology includes a wide variety of resources such as worksheets, lesson plans, rubrics, and more for teachers. Look up what you need based on subject or category or become a member in order to get more out of the site. If you’re looking for a huge resource for teacher resources, try Teachnology!

Spelling City – Spelling City is designed to help students with vocabulary. Just enter your vocabulary words and give yourself a spelling test, a vocabulary test, make flash cards, or more. Some features are only available for premium users, but others are available for most. If you’re looking for a website that helps with vocabulary, give Spelling City a try!

Reader Question – As always, we want to know what your ThinkLinks are? Have a computer program, web application, website, or any online resource that’s helped you as a student or your family? Send it to us here, on Twitter (@aplusdrb), or on Facebook!

Kids World Fun has a list of eight classic books brought to you online. From old french fairy tales to Wizard of Oz, use their online reader to flip through and read each of the books. Ideal for younger children or anyone who is fond of looking through old books, the Kids World Fun website is easy to use and their online reader makes reading the books simple. You can also download each of the books in .pdf format. If you’re looking for a few old classics, give the Kids World Fun website a try!

Reader Question: Do you have a free ebook or a reading website you’re dying to share with us? Comment below, or send us a reply on Facebook or Twitter! We’d love to hear from you.

The Nobel Peace Prize website includes a variety of games for students of all ages, including “Immune Responses”.

The game includes 10 “levels” or slides that demonstrate a variety of immune responses that help educate students on subjects ranging from blood types to allergies. The game is simple to navigate, includes interactive graphics, and is easy for students to learn from. If you’re looking for a fun game about the immune system, give “Immune Responses” a try.

Reader Question: Did you try this game? What difficulty level would you give it? Do you have any other game suggestions?

Every Friday, Academics Plus, Inc. chooses five educational links or family oriented resources from the Internet that may be useful for parents and students. We hope you find these links entertaining, fun, and educational. Send in your own ThinkLinks for us to feature every Friday.

Infomine – Infomine is a search engine specifically for scholarly research. Whether you’re looking for E-Journals, articles about Social Sciences or Economics, Infomine is a good resource for students looking for a reliable Internet search engine for their essays and papers. Infomine is run by the University of California and although it is designed for university level students, high school students may still find it useful. If you’re looking for a quality search engine for your student’s essay, give Infomine a try!

Tikatok – Tikatok is a fantastic website that allows younger students create their own book simply and easily. Their book creation software is browser based, so it involves no installations or downloading, and it is easy for younger students to operate. Create a book based on a Story Spark, or have your student come up with their own ideas. Once your student has completed the book, you can choose to purchase a copy of it in paper or hard back form! If you’d like to get your child interested in reading by creating their own book, Tikatok may be just for you!

Cozi – Cozi is an organizer made for busy families. It includes a to-do list, a grocery list, mobile calendars available on almost any device as well as a family journal you can keep and admire. Recommended and honored by a variety of parent and teacher choice awards, Cozi is a free application available to any family. If you’re looking for a way to manage your family and need a complete organizational solution, try Cozi!

webcast.berkeley – Brought to you by the University of California, Berkeley, webcast.berkeley is a valuable source for current students and lifelong learners. Search based on department or view all courses to see video lectures via YouTube or download the lectures if you’d like! Contributions from alumni and donators help maintain the website and ensure that free video lectures are available to any student of any age. If you’re looking for a source of unlimited information about a variety of subjects, give webcast.Berkeley a try!

Clipmarks – Sometimes while browsing the web, you can come across a video or an image that is incredibly useful. Bookmarks can become tedious to manage and organize, and they don’t allow you to see what the bookmark is, until you click on it. Clipmarks is the solution. Save pages, videos, text, anything you find on the web to your clipmark account for later. This can be incredibly useful to students who may find useful websites for their essays or homework. Teachers could also use clipmarks to bookmark educational websites, videos, and anything else they may find useful. If you’re looking for a new way to bookmark, give Clipmarks a try!

Reader Question – As always, we want to know what your ThinkLinks are? Have a computer program, web application, website, or any online resource that’s helped you as a student or your family? Send it to us here, on Twitter (@aplusdrb), or on Facebook!

Even if you don’t have a Kindle, you can find a Kindle app for almost any mobile or computing device that you use. The app allows you to take advantage of the Kindle store which has a variety of free ebooks available for no cost at all. Literally thousands of books are available for free. Most Kindle apps also allow users to highlight and save “clippings” from the book, which is ideal for students who need to read classics and take notes for essays. If your reading list is lacking, look no further than Amazon’s list of free Kindle ebooks!

Reader Question: Do you have a free ebook or a reading website you’re dying to share with us? Comment below, or send us a reply on Facebook or Twitter! We’d love to hear from you.

• Keep a calendar. Calendars help us organize all aspects of our lives and while some students who are in elementary school many not feel the need for a calendar, providing them with one, if possible will help them begin to use one regularly. Some older schools may find that an agenda with all relevant dates is provided to them free of charge by their school. At any rate, you can provide a calendar for your child by either going to a shop and buying a cheap yearly calendar or printing one off your home computer. Some students may find that getting a calendar with their favourite T.V. show on it may provide an incentive for it’s use. Using a calendar regularly will help your child maintain a good schedule and keep good habits.
• Teamwork. Sometimes we need a little encouragement from peers or teachers to maintain our schedules. Become your child’s team player in helping them keep their assignments and in turn let them help you to do things that you might forget. Or, pair your child with a friend in their classroom or pair yourself with their parent and use each other to help you remember to keep on top of assignments.
• Reminders. Reminders are incredibly useful. While your calendar is one form of a reminder, having separate reminders for specific tasks or issues can help you remember even better. You can use post-it notes or even timers on your computer to help you remember the most important dates and assignments.
• Incentives. Providing incentives for yourself or for your child can help you maintain stamina throughout the semester. Set your incentives up in periods that will let your child know how far they are to the next big break or the next semester. If they set their sites on the next incentive as a goal, rather than the end of the semester, they are less likely to disheartened.
• Breaks. That’s right. Make sure to schedule some time in for some fun and breaks for both you and your student now and then, if you can manage. Having downtime from your regularly scheduled activities is an important part of maintaining stamina throughout the academic year. Running on full steam will have your student running short.

We hope you’ve got the semester off to a good start and are ready to power through it, full speed ahead! Good luck!

Reader Question – Were these tips helpful? How does your child keep the momentum throughout the semester? Let us know here or on Twitter or Facebook!

Every Friday, Academics Plus, Inc. chooses five educational links or family oriented resources from the Internet that may be useful for parents and students. We hope you find these links entertaining, fun, and educational. Send in your own ThinkLinks for us to feature every Friday.

Documentary Dish – Documentary Dish is a fantastic website that contains links to a wide variety of documentaries available online through video sites like Hulu or YouTube. You can browse by subject, get the documentaries on iTunes, or use the Search bar to search for anything you’d like. If you’re looking for a new documentary to watch but can’t decide, give Documentary Dish a try!

Who Am I? – Brought to you by The Price of Freedom website, the Who Am I? game allows students to select a mystery character from American history and use clues to find the identity of the mystery character. The game is simple to navigate and highly interactive, giving students the chance to learn about American history in a unique and fun environment. If you’re looking for a little history game for students in middle and high school, give Who Am I? a try!

Conjugemos – Connjugemos is a great language learning website for young students that provides online workbooks in Spanish, French, German, Latin, Portuguese, and Italian. As a student you can sign up for free, but you can also consider asking your teacher or school to establish an account. Use flash cards, activities, and exercises created by language teachers! If you’re looking for an online resource for aiding your student in learning a new language, Conjugemos is for you!

Idiom Dictionary – Idiom Dictionary is a nifty website that explains English idioms. From “adding insult to injury” to “if the shoe fits, wear it”, Idiom Dictionary provides explanations on some of the most common English idioms. If you have a student who’s just learning idioms or if you want a better explanation of some of the more common idioms we use every day, give Idiom Dictionary a try!

The Blobz Guide to Electric Circuits – The Blobz Guide to Electric Circuits is a great interactive website that explains conductivity and electricity for elementary and middle school students. The website is highly interactive and allows 1-5 students to play a variety of games based on information that they learn. If you’re looking for a good website that explains electricity in a simple way to a large number of students, give The Blobz Guide a try!

Reader Question – As always, we want to know what your ThinkLinks are? Have a computer program, web application, website, or any online resource that’s helped you as a student or your family? Send it to us here, on Twitter (@aplusdrb), or on Facebook!