Since the opening of our Manhattan Beach facility we have strived to deliver a location where your student can receive great one on one tutoring. The Study Hut has been through many expansions and changes throughout the years. We don’t believe in keeping the same environment as time changes, we believe in being creative, growing and changing our facility in the best interest of our students. Changes have been very prominent this fall season at the study hut. The addition of our new jungle room in the upper portion of our facility is brighter and has a colorful labyrinth atmosphere. As your student walks in to the main room of the Hut they are greeted by one of our friendly managers sitting on a lifeguard tower, ready to instruct where each student should go. If it hasn’t been obvious, here at the hut we strive to create a fun and creative environment in order for our students to feel at home and welcome. An active and creative environment aids in learning capabilities and will not only change the way your student views studying, but will help incorporate a fun quality to their everyday scholastic responsibilities. To top off two room changes, our lookout room is in progress in becoming the new “Captains Quarters”. The new pirate room will certainly transform our mediocre beige walls into a flashback in time on a ship. It’s due to these changes that the Study Hut has become a wonderful asset to any local or non local student in the Los Angeles Area. Thematic rooms, creative environments and a positive attitude among our recent college graduate tutors is what make the Hut a wonderful place to be a part of. We encourage all students to come in and see what all the fuss is about. We will always strive to make your homework and difficult subjects look like a piece of cake.
Don’t Wait ’til it’s too Late
August 18th, 2011It’s that time of year again, kids are getting ready for school. The back to school commercials are present during your favorite television shows, kids are counting down the days they have left in summer, and everyone is trying to squeeze that last minute vacation in. With all the hustle and bustle of getting ready for school, tutoring may be the last thing on a parent’s mind. What most fail to realize, is that it should be the first.
Each and every year at the Hut, without a fail, we see kids who come in after they have already received their first disappointing test grade. At this point, the student comes in and has already started digging themselves a hole. This automatically creates a negative self esteem that doesn’t set the right tone for the school year. We have found, time and time again, students and parents are happier getting their kid in here from the very start. Even starting them prior to that first day of school gets them back in the mindset. They have a chance to brush up on those skills that caused them trouble the previous year.
Our tutors are so equip with the curriculum for the Manhattan Beach School District that some of our students even have the chance look ahead and get a running start in their curriculum for the up and coming year. Even if kids do not get tutoring prior to the school year, that first week of school is an ample opportunity to get situated and come up with a game plan for the year. A good majority of our kids are in middle school and need help understanding how to prioritize their classes. A schedule with multiple teachers is a new concept. It is crucial to set up this plan in order to keep on task with each and every class. Starting at the beginning of the school year will allow for more time to study and less time figuring out how to balance multiple subjects with multiple classes. Bottom line, don’t wait for your kid to fail to start thinking about tutoring. The sooner the better.
Study Hut Tutoring on Campus at West and Redondo Union High
June 14th, 2011Last weekend Study Hut held its 2nd free tutoring seminar at West High and Redondo Union High School. For two hours after school last Friday, and for three hours on Saturday, Study Hut was on campus for free group tutoring coordinated with school administrators. Over one hundred students from West and over 50 from Redondo came to receive free tutoring with highly specialized tutors. The students were separated into group by school subjects, ranging the whole high school academic spectrum from geometry to U.S. History; where one to two Study Hut Tutors prepared them for the upcoming finals. Last time was such a success that teachers at West High rewarded students with extra credit for attending both days. The best part of the whole event was the great attitude of all the students who came. They were all eager to receive the help and get the most they could before the all important finals. We at The Hut would like to thank the helpful staff of both West High and RUHS, our great tutors for their effort, and the all students who came down to make this another great experience.
Sports and tutoring are Similar
June 14th, 2011When I’m not tutoring at Study Hut in Manhattan Beach, I like to volunteer my time as a baseball coach at Westchester Babe Ruth. I see a lot of similarities to coaching and tutoring. One of the most important aspects to both is being able to relate to players and students. I was never very receptive to the old, over the hill baseball coaches because it’s hard to relate to them. Besides baseball, there’s not too much we have in common and it’s very hard to build a rapport with them. I feel the same can be said with tutoring, because I’m not too far removed from high school its a lot easier for the other tutors and me to relate to the students. When you are in a comfortable environment, it just provides a solid learning experience. Another very interesting relationship is the amount of work both students and baseball players put into their respective fields. No one is born an All Star or brainiac, it takes a lot of effort and hard work. The best players on the field and the best students in the classroom share a common characteristic and that’s work ethic. The ones that put the extra effort in more often than not are the ones who excel in sports or school. One thing I try to stress to my students from Mira Costa and Manhattan Beach Middles School is that they should never sacrifice their schoolwork for sports. A few of my high school students think that just because they play sports they can just cruise through high school. This is most definitely not the case. If they have ambitions to play collegiate they first must have the grades to get in college, and they will also need strong study skills. Road games in college drag student athletes out of classes for days if not weeks. If they haven’t established strong study skills in high school, they are doomed in college. Luckily the student athletes have a resource like Study Hut at their finger tips, and can learn the skills to succeed in the classroom.
Study Hut: Then & Now
June 7th, 2011If pushed to describe the biggest change I have seen at the Study Hut from A year ago to today, I think I could some it up in one word: Organization. There is a fancy new scheduling system and absolutely no confusion when a student comes in; the managers know exactly where the students are going and when they are going to be here. Of course I may not be in the inner circle, but it certainly seems there are no mishaps or surprises, at least on the staff side of The Hut.
Of course this wouldn’t be any sort of claim if the Study Hut had many less students than it did before, but this couldn’t be farther from the case. The Hut is BOOMING right now, with more students and Tutors than ever before, and the space to accommodate all of them. I’ve tutored kids from Palos Verdes High, Peninsula High, West Torrance High, and know a few students from my alma mater, Chadwick High School. All in all there has been incredible expansion, and all without making any compromises and concessions, but rather with an impressive
The Study Hut is more streamlined than ever. The hitches that face many young enterprises are all but forgotten, with near seamless scheduling and communication between tutors, supervisors, students, and parents alike. Students are learning and excelling academically more than ever with one-on-one tutors who are more than qualified, with many, if not most, of my peers in graduate programs and experts in more than one field of study. To top it all off, the fun, energetic, friendly core of Study Hut that I grew to love a year ago is itself booming. The tutors love their students and the students their tutors. People are learning, and having fun doing it. Rather than pressure students with the threat of grades or financial success, students here focus on their academics because they are working with tutors whose opinions the students genuinely care about. I feel very grateful and proud to once again be associated with the Study Hut name!
Trick Questions: How the Manhattan Beach Study Hut Tutoring tutors reveal these secrets
May 12th, 2011On an exam, the last thing you want to see is a trick question. They’re insidious, deceitful, sneaky, and frankly below the belt. It’s simply unfair for a teacher to hit you with a slippery question and then slap a permanent demerit on your report card just because you didn’t think to suspect that your kindly old professor, benevolent font of all knowledge, was out to make you look like a fool.
Luckily for us here at Study Hut Tutoring in Manhattan Beach, you’re not being graded and we’re not your teachers. So I throw trick questions around like it’s my job, ’cause it sort of is. Let me explain.
In a standard classroom situation, teachers need to make sure that everyone is on roughly the same page. Concepts are still being introduced, and the most basic, standard forms of the subject matter are being pounded into your head. At first, there is little room for nuance or exceptions; the core ideas need to be learned by everyone, and the teacher doesn’t have the luxury of taking her students down interesting tangents.
However, the benefit of having your own Study Hut tutor in Manhattan Beach is that we work one on one with your kid; and can tailor our pace and content moment to moment based on how they’re doing. That means that the instant that I feel my student has really grasped the core idea and is starting to coast, you better be sure I’m going to throw them a curve ball to keep their minds active and open. Now, this does not mean that every second of the class is spent trying to fool and confuse them; that would be counterproductive. I use trick questions sparingly to mix up the pace and refocus their attention if they ever seem complacent.
This might mean asking them for the maximum value of an upward facing parabola when they’re used to me asking for the minimum (the answer’s infinity, not the y value of the vertex), or what tense of subjunctive will follow the phrase “No dudo que…” (which won’t take the subjunctive at all, as it indicates certainty). In any case, the student will be required to examine the full breadth of their knowledge, and not just the obvious pattern in front of their eyes.
So if you’re content with just learning the basics and coasting by, you have plenty of options. If, however, you want a tutor that won’t stop at a passing grade, that will help you not only understand but actually master the material, Study Hut is the place for you.
Bringing Down Goliath: The best way to Study Biology
May 2nd, 2011So you have a huge end-of-the-year comprehensive biology test coming up, and since you’ve been cramming every chapter test since the beginning of this year, you don’t remember anything. What do you do? Where do you even start? To begin, you should realize that for a huge subject such as biology, cramming all the details just isn’t going to work. There are way too many intricate details to be able to memorize each and every one from all the chapters. And before you think about cramming again for this final, consider this: most science majors require at least a year of biology in college, and a good chunk of the information is overlap from what you learned in high school. Therefore, the better a foundation you set for yourself now, the more it’s going to pay off not only now in high school, but in college, and maybe for the rest of your future as well.
To begin, break down biology into manageable chunks of information. Don’t just rush through reading every chapter and then realize you’ve already forgotten everything, but break it down by paragraphs and really try to visualize what’s going on. Carefully analyze the diagrams, draw your own pictures, watch (relevant) youtube videos, etc. There are lots of excellent visual resources online that can make understanding the material much easier, and they’re free! After visualizing the information, you’ll find it a lot easier to memorize, and then it’s just about reviewing the information consistently to reinforce what you’ve learn, while slowly adding more details to your knowledge.
Another great way to study biology is to review the information with your friends. Choose a topic, and popcorn each other to begin describing everything you know about the topic. Everyone always focuses on different aspects, and you’ll be able to take notes on what points you forgot to pay attention to.
Remember: there’s something in biology for everyone! Whether or not you love or hate science, biology plays a very relevant part to our everyday lives. Whether you want to learn the most effective way to work out, want to learn what to do to eat healthy and stay fit, or just how to prevent breakouts, biology will teach you the basics of how the human body works and allow you to make educated decisions to improve your health!
Scholar Quiz
April 27th, 2011“When am I ever going to use this?” That may just be the most common complaint vocalized by the students at Study Hut. And their concern isn’t entirely unjustified. It really does seem that a solid chunk of the material covered in high school may never again need to be used later in life. No one is going to ask you to regurgitate the quadratic formula any time soon, right? Maybe not—maybe so. Students at Palos Verdes High School are currently participating in a Brobdingnagian battle of brains (Brobdingnag is the land of the huge in Gulliver’s Travels, in case that’s a question). The annual Scholar Quiz kicked off last week and the competition has been heated. Some of the tutors from Study Hut and I had the opportunity to watch our tutees flaunt their knowledge of (seemingly random) topics from across the board, academic and otherwise. I watched as competitors embarked on missions of rapid thought, evaluating solutions to formulas, testing knowledge of geography, and requiring an appetite for up-to-date pop culture and news. As one of the official sponsors for PV’s (and Mira Costa’s) Scholar Quiz, Study Hut has been thrilled about the emphasis on knowledge of both the fundamentals and specifics of topics we teach every day. The final showdown is tomorrow—come out and support your favorite team! Peace out.
