It amazes me how many students I talk to these days who admit to not reading regularly or skimming their assigned reading. It’s a lot!! The shame is that these same kids complain how many vocabulary words they need to know for the SAT’s, and how many flashcards they need to make. Making flashcards is a very effective way to increase your vocab, but it’s not the best. Simple regular reading is by far the most effective way for anyone to build their vocabulary.
Reading exposes us to many words we don’t commonly use in everyday life, many of which end up being used in the SAT’s. Sometimes we look up the definition of these new words, other times we are able to grasp the meaning on our own; either way we increase our vocabulary. Not only are we just exposed to new words while reading, we see get to see them in context. Personally, it’s much easier to remember what a word means by seeing used in a sentence, compared to memorizing dictionary definitions.
I tell every student I see to try and read at least 20 minutes a day. Whether it is the newest Harry Potter, sports magazine, newspaper, or internet article, the simple act of reading goes a long way in preparing for the SAT’s.
Young children are often overlooked when it comes to the tutoring industry. At the high school level, parents work hard to motivate and challenge their children academically. They pressure their child to work hard and get good grades at the hopes of the acceptance into a prestigious and well renowned school. Why not start at a young age?
Learning good study habits is imperative to the success of a student; not only in the school setting, but outside as well. Children need to learn study skills, reading skills, and good work ethic from the beginning. In the primary grades, students’ brains are developing at such a rapid rate that this time period proves to be the most crucial in a student’s life. By setting that foundation, the student will have a more transparent view of how to be an outstanding scholar. At study hut, we provide tutoring to all ages. In the younger grades, a student’s academics are primarily focused on literacy. We cater to children by assisting them with fluency, comprehension, and accuracy. The extra practice allows them to feel more confident and motivated in the classroom which produces overall better grades. Needless to say, extra tutoring for young students in the primary grades is extremely beneficial and should not be dismissed.
There are two types of “New Clients” at Study Hut Tutoring. There are the clients who call us when something has gone wrong, such as a bad test grade or some missing assignments they need help with. The other type of client is the proactive type; this client calls the Hut way in advance, getting times with a tutor well before a big test or Final exam.
These proactive clients often cite “getting an edge” as the reason for calling. Whether they hear about it from a friend at Parras Middle School, or a counselor at RUHS, people are picking up on the buzz, and they are calling Study Hut in Redondo Beach to get the best local tutors available. These clients often call and request a tutor by name, because that is the type of reputation that the Hut has.
Often, groups of friends sign up at the same time. If a PV High Volleyball player calls to inquire about pricing and availability, it does not surprise us at all when two of her fellow Sea Kings call for tutoring later that afternoon. We have quite a few PV and Redondo athletes, including players from the football, basketball, gold, cross country, track, and water polo teams (and more, too!).
I’m sure there are plenty of tutoring spots in Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach and countless more in the south bay but I’m in inclined to believe that few can measure up to The Study Hut in Manhattan Beach. Many parents struggle with where to send their children to get some help. They try to give their children a leg up so they maybe they won’t have to struggle as much in the future. The choices for giving a child an advantage can be mind boggling at times. There are so many places making claims about improving grades and how they will accomplish this amazing transformation in your child. They make promises of making them an “A” student over night. The truth is there is no magic formula. There is no making your child an overnight genius. Change comes with work and constant work to boot. The work is a communal project; it can’t come in a tutor session alone. Now, this is the place where the real separation comes into play. Other places say they will change the culture your child has developed but only care about what occurs in the tutoring session only. However the dedicated folks at the study hut aka the hut make sure to communicate with the parents on the work which is accomplished and needs to be accomplished on a nightly basis. They call home and let parents know their child still have 3 hours worth of work left and work to develop strategies to make sure this isn’t the norm. They make sure the culture created at the hut also becomes the culture the student sees at home. Because it takes a village to raise a child, no matter how big or small the village might be.
With the increasing amount of accessible technology and decreasing amount of human attention spans, people get bored easily. Nintendo DS’s, Kindles, and iPads are meant to serve people with an immediate means of pocket-size entertainment. But what some people forget is the simplicity of those things we use every day: our words. The challenge of a cross word puzzle is usually more intriguing than mindlessly staring at a solitaire screen and the reward of a completed puzzle is oh so blissful. This particular brand of brain teaser is not only great for killing time while waiting for your parents to pick you up from practice, but also conducive to a learning environment, such as the Study Hut. You see, crossword puzzles require a certain out-of-the-box mindset to be solved. This is helpful to students who are preparing to take standardized tests, such as the SAT or ACT. These standardized tests, at their core, are not about testing intelligence. Rather, they test students on whether they can adapt to a certain style of thinking and deductive reasoning in order to answer their specific questions.
For the crossword novice, the Los Angeles Times or USA Today crosswords are the best because they allow the user to see when they are correct or incorrect. Also, the Los Angles Times crossword puzzles start with their easiest puzzles on Monday and get progressively more difficult through Sunday. This is a great way to spend down time because it increases mental acuity and also builds a stronger vocabulary, another reason why it would improve standardized testing scores.
Here is an example from a Monday clue in the LA Times: “One quarter of M” (3 letters.)
For this clue, the puzzle draws upon your knowledge to recognize this as a math problem and to solve using Roman numerals. Since “M” is 1,000. One quarter of that is 250. C = 100 and L = 50. The correct answer is: CCL.
Here is an example from a Sunday clue in the LA Times: “It might have a nut at each end.” (5 letters.)
If you’ve done enough crosswords, you can figure out that they don’t mean the kind of nuts that you eat. Drawing on homonyms for nut, another type of nut might be the tool used with bolts. Since it is 1 more letter than bolt, the answer is “Ubolt.”
The mentality employed by crossword puzzles makes one think outside of the box, using verbal puns, pop culture knowledge, mathematics, history, and anything else we use our brains for. Being able to adapt to this thinking style is a sure way to keep your brain sharp, acute, and ever ready for the perfect riddle!
Yesterday was a busy Thursday. In fact, every school week there is a busy Thursday, whether you come to Study Hut Tutoring or not. With tests and quizzes, homework and projects, six classes of papers going in and out of the backpack everyday and all your friends jammed into one classroom, the task of managing a workload is impossible. Am I right? Let us take a quick look of how this impossible situation appears when our 8th grader Corey sits down for his tutoring hour. Corey is a very sharp student who is able to breeze through his pre-algebra assignments. He is very capable in other areas too. He is maintaining a strong grade in social studies, however, his grades dont reflect his intelligence.
So what is the matter? What do we do? How can we bump up these “C” grades up if Corey doesn’t need help with the actual subject matter? Lucky for Corey, the Study Hut knows exactly what to do. After speaking with his mom, I know she is frustrated with Corey’s sluggish performance around the house. So now Corey is at Study Hut, sitting down with me. The first thing I do is look at his daily planner. It is a bad sign when the whole thing is blank. The planner is the tool that fosters accountability, so if the planner is blank, Corey isn’t even accountable with himself, let alone with parents, teachers, and his tutor. The next step is manually going through the backpack. This is crucial to set the record straight and explain the reasoning and utility of behind using the daily planner.
After all, why do something if it doesn’t serve a greater purpose, save time, or help in the short term and in the long term. Young students are no different. You would never do a lot of things the right way if there was no direct or indirect benefit. After digging through every subject and organizing the folder, we see that there is a pile of old, completed work that can go into a folder and can be stashed away at home in the closet. The other pile was larger than I would like. This pile had a ton of incomplete work. Our plan from here on out at home everyday and at tutoring is as follows:
1)Write in the planner for every subject, during each class period, every week.
2) take notes each class period, everyday
3) make a list prior to tutoring of what we will be working on at Study Hut, and what will still have to be done at home.
4) Make one study tool (flashcards, outline, study guide, practice test) for each class each week.
5) show all of this to the tutor to remain accountable during bi-weekly tutoring sessions.
These simple tasks will, and have already started to, pull grades up, increase accountability, and lead to domination.
