If any of you saw a five foot by five foot square with the familiar “Hut” logo on it on the sidewalks of Redondo Beach, it’s because Study Hut was a sponsor at the Chalk It Up! fundraiser this past Saturday! Chalk It Up! is a non-profit organization that raises funds for public school art programs. Since most California schools don’t have the capital to host programs in the arts—including music, painting, sculpture, ceramics, and more—Chalk It Up! takes it upon themselves to do so. The recent fundraiser involved bands from two school, vendors galore, and a generally awesome energy and passion for the arts. It featured some absolutely phenomenal student art, as well as the works of local artists. Our very own Study Hut tutors—Justin, MJ, and Rob—provided the artistic talent that went into decorating our square.
Study Hut recognizes the arts as a fundamental component of a complete education. While at the fundraiser, our tutors spoke with students and parents from the Redondo school district about how the one-on-one tutoring at Study Hut can benefit all fields of study. Make sure to stop by to check out what Study Hut has to offer!
AP tests are right around the corner! Exams kick off bright and early on the morning of May 2nd. Most AP teachers have practice AP exams scheduled, either during class time or on weekends, but it’s crucial at this point that you master the layout of the tests. Each test has a dramatically different format, so be sure to research those which you’re taking on the College Board website. How much time do you have? How many questions? How long should essays be? These questions can all be answered online or in an AP review book, which will also provide hints for test day.
The most important thing to keep in mind before embarking on a four-hour-long AP journey is to not become overwhelmed. Yes, it is easy to get swallowed up by calculus equations or to drown in AP euro’s sea of knowledge. But if you take the material section by section, you certainly will be able to rise to the challenge. Break down the material you’re learning into manageable chunks so that you can learn specific topics that have been difficult for you. Flip through your textbook and jot down the concepts with which you have struggled most throughout the school year. Focus on learning those concepts, and all that you’ve learned during the year will fill in the gaps. Your tutors at Study Hut are all well informed regarding both layout and content of the AP tests, so take advantage of them as an important resource for studying. If need be, go to your teacher with questions. Don’t be worried about asking for help! You’ll be surprised how many people are willing to support you.
The good news: after AP exams, classes tend to wind down and become much more relaxed. All your studying right now will pay off if you’re able to get college credit, pass out of entry-level classes, or even just have a head start on future material. Take the next few weeks seriously, and you will reap the benefits. Your focus and hard work now will pay off.
This week at the Study Hut we are welcoming back sun kissed students from their various spring break trips and activities. I’ve been hearing a lot of “I didn’t think about school at all over the break, it was so nice! It’s hard getting back into school mode.” It is definitely difficult to focus on school when you‘re day dreaming about your epic break. With summer right around the corner, it’s important to remember that you can keep your mind active while hanging out at the beach or road tripping to your favorite camp site. Luckily your tutors at Study Hut in Redondo Beach have some pretty sweet ideas.
After interviewing a few of the other tutors, one of the top ideas to keep your brain working over the summer is to read! While many students have summer reading lists, don’t forget to indulge in your favorite book…even if it is Twilight. Reading is a perfect summer activity while you’re lounging by the pool or tanning at the beach. Another great thing to do is to keep practicing the language you’re taking at school. Do you have a hard time remembering how to speak Spanish or conjugate irregular verbs when you return to school in the Fall? Most of your friends are taking the same language, so hablan en Espanol occasionally. Next time you go to LBJ’s, order in Spanish or if you are at Crème de la Crepe practice your French accent while ordering breakfast. Speaking another language is cool and will definitely help you in the future, so keep it up over your break.
Lastly, take advantage of the gigantic city of Los Angeles, only a few miles from the South Bay, and check out some museums. LACMA, the Getty and the Skirball are just a few that can get you started. If you think of museums as boring destinations for school field trips, then you are missing out! Cool photo exhibits, costume displays from your favorite movies and other interesting parts of the world’s pop culture at your fingertips. We think you should take advantage of it while keeping that mind of yours nice and fresh (especially on Tuesdays, when most museums are free!) Your tutors are always here to help you retain all of the calculus, chemistry and Catcher in the Rye you learn in school, but we also want you to stay sharp while you’re away from the Hut. So while you’re enjoying your time off from school, try to keep these tips in mind so getting back into “school mode,” won’t seem so bad when you return in the fall.
Writing competency is a vital step towards academic success in middle school, high school, and higher education. The establishment of a comfort level with regard to essay writing is fundamental. Many students moving from middle to high school become overwhelmed when assigned their first paper. Most are even more flabbergasted when they arrive at college and are required to write term papers.
At Study Hut, our tutors work with your students to build an outline—a formula, of sorts—for a paper which we think can be applied to writing universally. This formula starts with and builds upon a thesis statement, which declares the general purpose of the essay. Thesis statement writing is too frequently overlooked in compulsory English or writing education, so many students don’t know where to begin or how to address a topic or prompt. By teaching them the simple skill of jotting down their first meaningful statement of purpose, we hope to provide students with a foundation upon which they can do nothing but grow and learn.
Well-roundedness—it seems like a harmless enough idea on paper, but the drive to become a “well-rounded” student is pushing today’s students to the limit.
Grades alone are no longer enough, so our kids are spreading themselves thin trying to be the combination of athlete, artist, musician and scholar that will catch a college’s attention. This is in addition to coping with being a teenager, which comes with its own slurry of issues.
Films like, “Race to Nowhere”, are bringing to light a problem that many parents and educators have been aware of for a while—our students have too many academic and extra-curricular responsibilities and not enough time for themselves. They spend so much time trying to be what colleges want that many don’t figure out what their own passions are, which leaves them vastly, and ironically, unprepared for college and the real world.
The Study Hut tutors, many not too far from our own high school experiences, understand the pressures that our students deal with inside and outside of the classroom. We know that our work is more than teaching academics and study skills. We take advantage of our positions as role models to help guide healthy emotional and social development, so when our students do decide where they want to go, they are able to get there.
Education reform is a hot topic in politics and our communities. With documentaries like Waiting for Superman and powerful people taking a stance in education, people are starting to realize that things need to change. Successful schools have proven that outstanding teachers, extra time spent on education and high expectations for all students are key to academic achievement. At Study Hut, our tutors put these educational goals into action have seen exceptional results in our students.
Why is it so important to have high expectations for students? High expectations show students that we believe that they are capable of achieving their full potential. This turns into motivation for students to prove to us and to themselves that they can do well in school. I often hear fellow tutors saying “you are going to do an awesome job on your test tomorrow!” Students leave knowing their tutors expect them to perform well. When students at Study Hut are as excited to come in and tell us about an A on a test as much as we are, we know we are doing our job.
Excellent tutors at the Hut also add to students’ academic success. Students come to us because they need clarity, review and a fresh approach to teaching. If it takes a funny song to remember Spanish Vocabulary, we’ll make one up and sing it with our students. If history isn’t making sense, we will relate it to something relevant in a student’s life to show them the importance of a historical event. Thinking outside the box and connecting with students is a common method we share with schools in our community. The South Bay School Districts all have a mission to “strive for academic excellence by forming partnerships with the community.” Study Hut enjoys working with schools and students to be part of this partnership in promoting confidence and academic success in our schools.
Today’s students are expected to have a much more comprehensive understanding of their subject matter, especially in mathematics and science.
It’s not enough to know what the components of DNA are anymore. High school Biology students are expected to how the different building blocks fit together and why. For a lot of students, the sheer volume of information flying at them daily is more than overwhelming.
Study Hut helps students navigate these murky waters by providing the kind of thorough and interactive support that allows students to take control of their own learning.
“Give a man fish, and you’ll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you’ll feed him for a lifetime.” ~ Chinese Proverb
More than just providing what students need from day to day, our tutors teach their students both the skills to be self-sufficient and the confidence essential to managing those unavoidable high-stress situations.
We also help them develop study techniques that take advantage of their already sizeable knowledge base and learning strengths.
You like comic books? Let’s connect your vocabulary words to Marvel characters.
You like the ocean? Let’s relate that back to what you’re learning in Chemistry.
Ariella is your typical studious teen. She’s got eclectic music taste and her own hip sense of fashion. She’s a sophomore at Mira Costa High School and she’s currently acing quiz after quiz and test after test in her Algebra II class. Of course, nothing about this is unusual for a student that’s been receiving tutoring from Study Hut for any lengthy amount of time. However, in order to fully appreciate Ariella’s story, we need to go back.
Her story starts all the way back in November of Two Thousand and Ten. Gas was under four dollars per gallon and the young women of Manhattan Beach had found the anthem they’d been waiting for in “California Girls.” It was at this time that I started tutoring Ariella. If you’re thinking that November of 2010 wasn’t that long ago, you’re right. Just four months ago, Ariella was in over her head with imaginary numbers and complex conjugates. She was struggling to keep her head above water and her highest grades would be sung in the key of D.
When a new student starts at Study Hut, all hands are on deck. As tutors we serve as medics on the front line of battle just trying to get the rapid grade hemorrhage under control. For Ariella, this meant we needed to diagnose her issues with Algebra, assess her study habits, and quickly sum up every important math concept up until that point, before we could make further progress. Just a few short weeks after our reoccurring sessions started, Ariella got a C on a math test. Here’s a direct quote from my tutor notes at the time:
“On her last math test, she got a C. This is great, considering she got mostly Ds and Fs before.”
Normally, we aim much higher than Cs at Study Hut. However, this C was a point of celebration for Ariella and I. It marked the turnaround in her math career. The hemorrhage had stopped. Now we could really focus on marching forward; attacking difficult concepts before they became an issue. Ariella stepped up to the challenge.
Cut all the way back to modern day, just three short months since that C, and Ariella just scored a 19 out of 20 on her last quiz and a 47 out of 50 on her last math test. After a series of incremental victories, we’re now celebrating scores that represent an A average in her math class.
I cannot stress enough how great of a turnaround this student has made. Ariella went from feeling like math just “isn’t [her] thing,” to being an expert in the same material. She can condense and expand the most complex of logarithmic equations. She can simplify a radical and solve rational functions without breaking a sweat. She has become the latest example of the time-tested Hut tradition:
Show up and we’ll get you from awful to average. Put in the work and we’ll get you from average to A. Just ask Ariella.
