January 13th, 2015
This week West Torrance High School will be having two finals week cram sessions at the library. Friday will be in the evening from 3PM to 6PM. Saturday will be in the morning from 9AM to 12PM. Study Hut tutors from the Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach locations come to the study sessions to help students in large groups as well as individually.
The library is split up into different sections where students can get help in the specific subject that they are studying for. This helps them focus because they do not become distracted by their friends who are trying to learn different subjects at the same time. Once a study feels like they can move on to a different subject, they can move on to the different area of the library and fully concentrate on the new material. Sessions like these are also helpful because then students can work with other students in their class. Many times, students are unable to find a convenient time and location to work together with their peers. These West High study sessions resolve that issue. Students are also able to work through problems together and go over any difficult concepts on the study guide together until a tutor becomes available. This makes their study time more efficient and effective. Many students often have the same question, so the tutor can answer all of them at once. Alternatively, the students can help each other and figure out the problem together. Whether you plan on attending one or both sessions, these study sessions will be highly beneficial to any student.
Tags: finals, south bay, torrance, Tutoring, West Torrance High
Posted in study skills, Tutors, West Torrance |
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December 16th, 2014
The Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District participated in the international “Hour of Code” event this month. The program is made to give students a brief introduction to computer science and specifically learning how to code in different computer languages. The field of computer science is growing exponentially and offering more and more jobs for people with skills in coding, programming, and front-end development. Both the staff and students of the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District were invited to attend the event and learn more about code.
Computer Science classes are offered at both Palos Verdes Peninsula and Palos Verdes High School. These classes are offered at the AP level. Throughout the class students learn about different algorithms. Students also go through designing a program to fit their objectives, and then subsequently testing and debugging the program that they have designed. After that they learn about the different kinds of data class structures ranging from strings and classes to lists. Then the class will learn about searching and sorting through the code and algorithms, as well as different options that can be performed. The entire class is usually taught in the Java programming language, which is considered to be one of the more difficult programming languages.
Sometimes it can be difficult to find information on computer science online, and then it can be very dry and very complex. Luckily, if your student needs one-on-one AP Computer Science tutoring, we offer it at our Study Hut location in the Redondo Beach Rivera.
Tags: AP CompSci, Computer science, computer science tutoring, one-on-one tutoring
Posted in Palos Verdes, Palos Verdes High School, Peninsula, Redondo Beach, South Bay, Tutors |
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September 24th, 2014
Study Hut tutors have the opportunity to work with the Academics Via Individual Determination (AVID) program at different high schools. One of these schools is Peninsula High School in Palos Verdes. During her freshman year, a student named Cindy was among one of the students I got to regularly help last school year. Now as a sophomore, Cindy comes in to Study Hut for tutoring and it seems fair to say that she is both enjoying it and benefitting from it. While waiting for her ride after one of her sessions, Cindy decided to hang around. Since I did not have a student at the time, I invited Cindy to sit at my table until her ride came (more like she invited herself to come sit). We chatted about her AVID class, school functions, friends, and life in general. Although the conversation only lasted about five minutes, it was one of those small events that happened to make my day that much better. It was a great feeling knowing that she was comfortable enough to talk to me like a friend and I was able to provide her with advice as a mentor. On behalf of the Study Hut tutors, we strive to provide an environment that balances serious styles and laid-back styles in order to allow students to succeed inside the classroom and beyond. This is just one example of the bonds that the tutors and students experience at Study Hut – I am sure there have been and will be plenty more.
Tags: academics via individual determination, AVID, Avid class, hut, Hut tutor, Hut tutors, mentor, Peninsula High School, school functions, study Hut, succeed, tutor, Tutors
Posted in 9-12, AVID, extracurricular activities, General, high school, local tutoring, Peninsula, Positive Vibes, Redondo Beach, Self esteem, South Bay, Tutors |
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July 9th, 2014
Imagine if each year you allowed three consecutive months to pass without ever considering diet or exercise; the result would be low energy, an underperforming immune system, and many other undesirable consequences. Just like any other part of the human body, the brain requires regular attention and maintenance to perform to its potential. Students often struggle to get back into the swing of academics after a long summer break, as their brains have been stagnant for weeks on end. Here at Study Hut Tutoring, we make sure to keep our students sharp through the summer time, allowing an easier entrance into the new school year and helping them to start strong and maintain that impressive GPA throughout the course of the academic year.
Summer tutoring offers many benefits to students. For some, summer tutoring serves as a valuable time to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the previous school year, and to clear up and solidify conceptual understanding that they will need to progress to more advanced courses. For others, summer tutoring serves as an opportunity to learn new material before being exposed to it in the classroom, giving them more confidence and an easier route to an “A”. And still for others, we help with writing enrichment, summer reading requirements, and preparation for the Fall SAT and ACT.
Of course, we at Study Hut Tutoring also appreciate the value of leisure time. Our founders, Rob and Sean, along with our tutors have been making the most of this summer by spending plenty of time on and in the ocean, be it to surf, spearfish, or boat across the channel to Catalina Island. We will be seeing off our managerial staff on an annual leadership trip at the end of July, and look forward to building an even stronger team to help our students through the remainder of the summer and next school year.
If you would like more information regarding our summer tutoring services, or you would like to sign up your son or daughter for summer help to prepare for the upcoming school year, please feel welcome to contact us at info@studyhut.com. Enjoy your summer!
Tags: A, academic, academics, ACT, benefit, benefits, brain, brains, Catalina Island, classroom, confidence, consequence, consequences, daughter, diet, energy, excercise, Founders, GPA, immune system, info@studyhut.com, July, leisure time, managerial staff, opportunity, prep, preparation, requirement, requirements, Rob, SAT, school, school year, Sean, Spearfish, strength, strong team, struggle, Study Hut Tutoring, Summer, summer time, Summer Tutoring, summer tutoring service, Surf, tutor, Tutoring, tutoring service, Tutors, underperforming, weakness, writing enrichment
Posted in General, General Articles, Hut One Domination, Learning, life skills, local tutoring, Self esteem, South Bay, study skills, Success Stories, summer programs, Summer Tutoring, Teaching, Tutor Tips, Tutors, writing |
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June 17th, 2014
Summer Tutoring for Elementary Students
Summer tutoring at the Study Hut is a great idea for any elementary aged student. Many people assume that tutoring is only for struggling students who need remediation. While tutoring is great for these students and will help them get back on their feet grade-wise, tutoring is also beneficial for students who are doing great in class, especially over the summer. The summer vacation is three months long, a very long time to have to remember everything you learned last year. And most teachers like to jump right in when class starts, as they have enough material to cover in a year without including weeks of review. The new Common Core standards emphasize coherence in mathematics, so students need to be prepared to build on the previous year’s learning. Here is the link for more info:
http://www.corestandards.org/other-resources/key-shifts-in-mathematics/
So, how do you make sure you are ready for these new standards? Practice! Tutoring is the perfect way to keep your brain active over the summer. Just like you have to work out to keep your muscles in shape, you have to keep your brain working to keep it in “school shape”. Tutoring will keep your study skills sharp and have you ready to go as soon as class starts. No more wasting the first week of school trying to switch your brain back into “school mode.” Was there a subject last year you kind of learned, but were never clear on? Maybe something that is going to make another appearance this year? (Long division? Fractions?) Tutoring will clear that up without the added stress of homework and other subjects and tests. Confidence is a key to success in school, and confidence comes from practice. With a little bit of tutoring in the off months, the next year will be a breeze.
Tags: Common core, elementary, elementary school, elementary students, learn, mathematic, mathematics, practice, remediation, standards, struggling, Summer, Summer Tutoring, teacher, teachers, Tutoring
Posted in General, General Articles, Testing, Tutor Tips, Tutors, Uncategorized |
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May 29th, 2014
1. During the school day, teachers’ attention is spread among many students. A tutor can create a targeted plan for your child’s specific needs.
2. Today, kids have increased access to technology, busy parents, and have extremely busy schedules, all of which can potentially distract them from their studies. Time with a tutor gives them the time to focus only on homework or studying.
3. Tutors have the time to explain a concept in several different ways, instead of having to move class along at a certain pace.
4. Tutoring can also teach study skills, which can then be applied to what’s going on in school.
5. Even for students who are doing well in school, tutoring can provide a competitive edge to do even better.
6. Summer tutoring can prepare students for upcoming difficult subjects, such as algebra, or reinforce what was already learned that year so September isn’t spent playing catch-up.
7. For high school students, individual or small group tutoring can be essential for APs and SAT subject tests.
8. For younger kids, tutoring can help boost standardized test scores.
9. A tutor can be a useful sounding board for an upcoming project, paper, or exam, and can help prevent the stress and frustration of leaving an assignment for the night before.
10. Whether it’s third grade math, high school chemistry, or middle school history, tutors have expertise in their subject and can make it more engaging and maybe even fun.
Tags: algebra, ap, assignment, attention, busy, chem, child, child's, competitive, create, days, difficult subjects, exam, expertise, high school, high school chemistry, history, individual, math, middle school, middle school history, money, paper, project, SAT, schedule, schedules, school, School days, September, severo, skill, skills, standardized, stress, Study, subject, teach, teacher, teachers, technology, third grade, third grade math, tutor, Tutoring
Posted in General, General Articles, Learning, life skills, local tutoring, Manhattan Beach, math, SAT, Teaching, Tutor Tips, Tutors |
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May 22nd, 2014
Today I got to work with one of my students, Eric, on his ninth grade biology homework assignment covering natural selection and evolution. He has a quiz coming up so his homework reviewed the sections in the book. While working through the problems, Eric and I had a great discussion about each of his answers. We came up with lots of examples for the different terms he had to know. The example that stuck most with Eric was how the finches that flew to the Galapagos Islands represented the founder effect of genetic drift. By geographically isolating a small population of a species, the genetic variation is limited causing the species to change and adapt to the new environment. He enjoyed thinking up other situations in which the founder effect could be applied.
The one topic that confused Eric was the Hardy-Weinberg principle for genetic equilibrium. This is a tough concept to understand because it theoretical and complex. First off, we had to memorize the conditions that are necessary for this equilibrium to take place: very large population, random mating, no natural selection, no immigration/emigration, and no mutation. We talked about why those criteria are necessary for keeping the allele frequencies constant and that helped him remember each of those restrictions. After establishing the basis for the Hardy-Weinberg principle, we went over how to calculate allele and genotype frequencies. This uses two different equations and can be confusing at first. After showing him how to use the equations to solve for the frequencies, I gave him some practice problems. After a rough start, he did really well by getting the last three questions right.
After a quick review at the end of the session, Eric was much more confident about the material that was on his quiz. We got a lot done during the session and he improved a lot!
Tags: Biology, environment, evolution, founder effect, genetic drift, Genetic Equilibrium, genetic variation, grade, Hardy-Weinberg Principle, material, natural selection, new environment, problem, problems, quiz, species, topic, variation
Posted in Biology, General, General Articles, study skills, Success Stories, Testing, Tutor Tips, Tutors |
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April 1st, 2014
The Rigors of PV Curriculum from a USC Alum
As a former student at Palos Verdes High School ( www.pvhigh.com ), I have found that the Study Hut curriculum for PVHS Math, Biology, Chemistry, Spanish, and English are perfect for the PV High curriculum. The PV school district’s expectations for Math classes, ranging from Geometry to Calculus, are very high and the homework and study workloads show this. At Study Hut ( www.studyhut.com ), I give one-on-one tutoring to help students understand and manage their challenging Algebra, Algebra 2, and Geometry workloads. Adding to this, most students are required to take Biology and Chemistry. From my experience as a Natural Science major at USC ( www.usc.edu ), I can personally attest to the very high level and challenging requirements that Palos Verdes high school students face.
At Study Hut, I help students in understanding the difficult materials, as well as in preparing for their tests (whether they be finals, AP, SATs, or SAT 2). Spanish 1 and Spanish 2 are also requirements for PVHS students and during my time at PV High, I remember that many students also take Spanish 3 and Spanish 4. These classes can be especially problematic for students who have never taken Spanish before or are not used to the verbal and written demands of the classes. At Study Hut, I really enjoy helping students improve their Spanish vocabulary, as well as their grammar and pronunciation. With all of these subjects, it really works to my benefit that I have taken the classes that I tutor at PV High (a lot of times with the same teachers), so I have a good understanding of the expectations and style of work that PVHS requires for a good grade. Adding to this, the atmosphere and tutoring style encouraged at Study Hut meshes well with Palos Verdes High School students and generates very positive results.
Tags: algebra, algebra 2, Biology, Calculus, Chemistry, curriculum, english, expectations, geometry, good grade, grammar, helping students, improve, math, math classes, Natural Science, positive results, pronunciation, PV, PV High Curriculum, Rigors, Spanish, Spanish 3, Spanish 4, Spanish vocabulary, study Hut, USC Alum
Posted in General, General Articles, Geometry, Palos Verdes, Palos Verdes High School, Tutors |
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March 27th, 2014
I’ve been tutoring Kelsey from Redondo Union High School (http://www.redondounion.org/) for about three weeks now. After briefly talking about Kelsey’s day, we discuss how she thinks she did on her most recent quizzes or tests, what assignments she needs to work on in that moment in time, and how we can prepare for her upcoming quizzes or tests. Kelsey mainly comes into Study Hut to get tutoring for Chemistry and Algebra 2. My goal is to help Kelsey overcome her struggles in these two subjects by accommodating her with tutorials that will help her retain information efficiently, develop excellent study habits for any of her future assessments, as well as motivate her to be the best student she could be.
The first day I worked with her we completed her review packet for her upcoming Chemistry test. At the time, Kelsey was learning about specific heat capacity and how to find the missing variable, whether it was the amount of heat gained or lost, specific heat, or final or initial temperature. Kelsey came into Study Hut confused about the basics of this particular subtopic in Chemistry, so I went over the fundamentals by breaking down every significant piece of information she had to know.
The second day I worked with Kelsey, we reviewed for the Algebra 2 test she took last week. Kelsey was being tested on her knowledge of conics, including parabolas, hyberbolas, circles, and ellipses. Kelsey was confused about the difference between each of the conics, how to go about finding the different types of points for each type of graph, how to formulate an equation when given specific points on the graph, and lastly, how to graph each type of conic. I went over the details of each graph and provided her with simply strategies on how to memorize the specifics of each graph.
Tags: algebra 2, assignments, Chemistry, goal, memorize, motivate, prepare, quizzes, Redondo Union High School, specifics of each graph, strategies, Study, study habits, study Hut, test, tests, tutorials
Posted in General, General Articles, Tutor Tips, Tutors, Uncategorized |
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March 19th, 2014
“A perfect tutoring session is a thing of beauty. There’s no formula for recreating it every time, but it happens more and more often at Study Hut these days. Tutors and tutees are in mid-season form by this time in the year – the early-semester inertia long past and the end-of-semester burnout still months away. We’ve settled into the school year, developing our own rhythms and rapports with all our Study Hut students. It’s perfect tutoring season.
No two perfect sessions look exactly the same; there are too many contributing factors to consider. Some students are panicked, struggling to finish cramming for that test they kept putting off; some students are relaxed, looking forward to another weekly session with the same tutor they’ve been working with for the past 6 months; some are on their way to SAT tutoring, dreaming of the day they will strut their stuff at college, applying all their Hut study skills to everything from Bio 101 to Shakespearean sonnets to intramural softball. Some are terrified at the mere mention of numbers, others are enthralled by the simple joys of deriving or integrating. Still others are history sponges, seeking to soak in as many dates and elections and revolutions as possible, baffled by some of their peers’ classic refrain: “Why do we have learn this? It already happened.”
This variety is what makes working at Study Hut so engaging. It is a constant process: evaluating a student’s interests and needs, weaknesses and strengths, passions and quirks. Only by getting to know each student – asking them about their day, their favorite color, and their life’s goals – can we craft these elusive perfect sessions.
As we begin to understand our tutees, we get better at tailoring our sessions to their own specific needs and goals. This is the constant process of creating perfect sessions. We may not achieve perfection every time (and some students may make it more difficult than others), but even when we fail we do pretty good job at making learning happen.”
Hope this is useable and feel free to make any changes you want!
Tags: contributing factors, factors, goals, inertia, interests, intramural softball, job, life goals, perfect, school, school year, Shakespearean, strength, strengths, study Hut, tutees, tutor, Tutoring, tutoring session, Tutors, weakness, weaknesses
Posted in life skills, local tutoring, Manhattan Beach, Tutor Tips, Tutors, Uncategorized |
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