As a concerned parent, you are probably aware of many ways to help your child succeed in school, from providing an appropriate space and time for them to do homework, to following their grades. One opportunity for involvement that you might not have thought of is classroom observation.
Although it may seem difficult to arrange to attend your child’s classes, the benefits can be immense. First, you should be aware that you have the right to observe any of your child’s public school classes whenever you want, and without notice. Simply go to the reception desk in the administration building and tell them you would like to observe your child’s class. Let the teacher know you’re a parent of one of the students, and that you would like to observe. Find a seat and settle in.
What should you look for when you observe a class? Ask yourself if the teacher uses a variety of instructional strategies; anticipates, checks for, and addresses common student misconceptions; gives students specific, timely feedback on their learning; explains content clearly and reinforces it in multiple ways; ensures participation of all the students; motivates students and encourages student effort; allocates instructional time to maximize student achievement; maintains clear expectations for academic and social behavior; and creates a positive environment for learning. If a teacher does all of the above, you should see a classroom full of engaged students.
I suggest you observe each of your child’s academic classes once during the third or fourth week of school. This gives the class time to settle into a routine and gives you an idea of what a typical class is like. If you haven’t already visited, make those arrangements as soon as possible.. You’ll get a feel for the teacher’s style and what he or she expects of your child.
Then, if your child experiences any trouble during the semester, you will be able to better discuss options for their success. If you child says he’s having trouble, say, understanding one particular teacher, you could go back and observer the class again, and make an appointment to speak with the teacher to discuss your child’s concerns privately, in a more informed manner. Any teacher worth their salt will welcome parental involvement, because they know it leads to student success.
Diane Trautman can be reached at StudyPros In-Home Tutoring, 661-296-9206, or www.studypros.com

Vast amounts of research have been released in recent years about how the brain develops. The findings suggest that from early infancy through early adulthood, we need to take a different approach to our children’s education.

New brain imaging technologies have shown that the brain goes through dramatic transformations in childhood and young adulthood. In particular, there are windows of opportunity during which the brain needs specific input to create the neural networks needed for efficient and effective functioning and future learning.

We enter the world with about 500 billion nerve cells in the brain, some of which are already sheathed in a fatty, waxy substance called myelin. Myelin insulates the neurons and enables messages to move efficiently in our neural pathways. For infants, that means enabling motor functions such as sucking, and then vision, hearing, language, emotions, and physical capabilities.

That sheathing process continues up into our mid-twenties when our frontal lobes become fully developed. The frontal lobes are responsible for organization, planning, risk assessment, reasoning, and impulse and emotional control, which explains why teenagers can be moody and impulsive. While their brains are under construction, adolescents rely heavily upon their brains’ emotional centers.

From early infancy, there is an overproduction of neural connections or pathways between the brain cells. At around age 10 for girls and 11 for boys, those neural pathways that are used remain intact and become strengthened. Those that are not used lose their myelin sheathing and are “pruned.”

Pruning is important. Maintaining too many pathways results in conditions such as autism. The optimal path is to provide the opportunities to develop healthy pathways while eliminating conditions that damage myelin and neural connections.

One important way to meet that need is through physical exercise. Physical exercise releases the brain chemical norepinephrine which speeds up transmission between neurons and decreases production of the stress hormone cortisol, which allows the hippocampus to absorb more information.

Among other changes, we needed to support structured physical exercise programs in our schools. We all need to get up and move around, especially kids who’ve been sitting in classes all day.

Diane Trautman can be reached at StudyPros In-Home Tutoring, 661-296-9206, or www.studypros.com

Commencement of puberty and the transition to junior high school is an exciting and turbulent time for children and parents. Adolescents begin to forge their identities often while parents are entering midlife reassessment. Next month, we’ll look at the shifting relationships between parents and teens in the march to independence. For now, let’s start with the developmental needs of teens and ways to start helping them navigate the path to healthy adulthood.

The two principal tasks of adolescence are development of the individual identity and the capacity for intimacy. Forming one’s identity begins in early adolescence, while the ability to sustain close relationships develops later. We’ll focus here on early teen years.

During early adolescence, children experience rapid physical and hormonal changes, develop new thinking abilities, and take on new responsibilities. They become very self-focused as they synthesize and integrate various aspects of personality they’ve developed from birth through their relationships with their peers, parents and others.

At roughly age 12, a teen begins to develop the capacity for abstract thinking wherein she can test different ideas based on logic and rationality and develop a hypothesis. This new cognitive ability allows the teen to engage in a more sophisticated level of problem-solving and planning both academically and personally. She begins to ask “Who am I?” “Where do I fit in?” “What will I become as an adult?”

We parents need to acknowledging the difficulty growth entails. And when we accept our own imperfections and continuing growth, we can stop being overly critical, demanding, and controlling and instead offer sensitivity, reassurance and love.

Through regular conversations, we can help our teens expand their problem-solving capabilities by talking about social problems, peer relationships and the events of the day. In these discussions, help your son explore his values, his sense of right and wrong, his expectations of himself and others. Help him develop empathy by listening to tales of his peers’ behavior and inviting him to consider the opinions and feelings of others.

Diane Trautman can be reached at StudyPros In-Home Tutoring, 661-296-9206, or www.studypros.com

From the ages of 12 to 15, teens learn to shift their affection and dependence away from parents and toward their peers, integrating sexuality into their feelings toward others, and forging a unique identity beyond the family.

The first step is de-idealization of the parents. Your child may increasingly point out your mistakes or ask you or other relatives questions about your past. Did you ever skip school, take recreational drugs, or engage in any other risky behaviors? Parents should honestly discuss the challenges of adolescence while withholding the worst of prior indiscretions. While reducing their parents to mere mortal stature, teens still need to see their parents as steady and reliable figures from which they can differentiate. Major disillusionment can be destructive.

At around age 14 or 15, teens will turn to their peer group as the primary vehicle for establishing their independence. They develop self-esteem, behavior, and appearance choices as they learn how to participate in interpersonal relationships with each sex. Teens will start to questions the rules, mores, and values of the parents as a means of determining whether or not to adopt them as their own. Your son may turn to other adults for guidance or emulate others against which he will measure himself. As your teen transitions through this period on the way to forming his adult character, you must maintain some authority, but allow others to have some influence in his life.

During this period, teens need us to remain in our role as parents. They need us to set limits and offer advice and understanding, not friendship. We will be in a better position to guide them if we don’t take their devaluation of us and our ideals personally. Remember, in this transition, teens need the freedom to evaluate our standards in order to make choices they can carry into adulthood.

Diane Trautman can be reached at StudyPros In-Home Tutoring, 661-296-9206, or www.studypros.com

How will you and your child approach the beginning of the new school year? With a sense of excitement or feelings of dread?

Children are deeply influenced by their parents’ attitudes and opinions, so it’s vitally important that parents help their children develop a positive attitude toward school and and a thirst for independent learning.

You can convey your enthusiasm for learning to your children in several ways:

• Help your daughter prepare for the first day of class by working with her to set up a good workspace at home, shop for the needed supplies, and establish a regular schedule for work, play, meals, and sleep.
• Read with younger children regularly, in shared reading as a family, and on your own in the presence of your children.
• Ask your son detailed questions about each day’s lessons. Who or what is the class studying? What questions were posed? What facts were most interesting? Why?
• Link information and reveal the relevance of what your children are learning by discussing current events. Engaging them in games and other activities such as those that require measurement, calculations, and written communications.
• Check in often and help as needed to make sure your child is on task with her homework. Encourage brief breaks for snacks and stretching to keep her refreshed and focused.
• Encourage physical exercise to increase energy and stamina, and rest periods to absorb and process information.
• Provide positive reinforcement by recognizing effort, offering words of encouragement, and giving praise for good grades.
• Make an effort to attend school functions and connect with the teacher. Join your PTA/PTO or site council.

Lingering anxiety stemming from prior struggles with the curriculum, with certain teachers, or bullies, may squelch learning. Pave the way for a academic experience by acknowledging your child’s fears. Then teach problem-solving skills by working consistently and constructively to eliminate the root cause or minimize its impact.

Education starts at home with parents who make it a priority.

Diane Trautman can be reached at StudyPros In-Home Tutoring, 661-296-9206, or www.studypros.com

Your child comes home with a report card showing a D in one class. Question: what do you as a parent do? You immediately start thinking: I’ll have to pull him out of all the extracurricular activities that he loves; he won’t get a-g credit for this class when applying to the UC system; do I need to start cracking the whip during his study time, or keeping him away from his “friends?”
Before you do any of these things, however, you need to ask another question: what does this “D” mean? What does this grade measure? What criteria did the teacher use to arrive at this grade? Effort? Participation? Homework? Attendance? Tests?
The state education code states, “Grades should be based on impartial, consistent observation of the quality of the student’s work and his or her mastery of course content and objectives as demonstrated through classroom participation, homework, and tests. The student’s behavior and effort shall be reported in separate evaluations, not in his or her academic grade.”
This means you should be able to eliminate behavior and effort from affecting his grade. But among participation, homework, and tests you won’t know where your child needs help unless you’ve received a detailed description from the teacher at the beginning of the course of the grading policy. You might think there is a consistent, school-wide grading policy, but accounting for components like missing assignments, late homework, or lack of participation is mostly up to the individual teacher, creating large differences in how your child is graded from class to class.
So getting back to our original question, what do you do? First talk with your child, and make sure he is communicating with the teacher. But if you are not clear on what the teacher’s grading policies are, you won’t be able to help your child effectively. So the next thing you should do is speak with the teacher directly and ask what went into that “D” and what you can do to help.
Beyond that, parents as a group need to speak up and ask principals to create and enforce uniform school-wide grading policies.
Diane Trautman can be reached at StudyPros In-Home Tutoring, 661-296-9206, or www.studypros.com

Has anyone at your child’s school discussed grade retention with you? If your son has significant difficulty making progress, fails to meet expected performance levels, or appears immature for his age, school personnel may recommend holding him back. It might seem logical that you give your child another year to catch up, but consider the existing research and ask a lot of questions.

While retention may be warranted, research throughout the past century suggests that grade retention is at best an ineffective strategy to improve academic performance or social adjustment. At worst, the outcomes are mostly negative: lower academic achievement than for their peers, diminished self-esteem and potential problem behavior, achievement gains that fade within two or three years, and the increased likelihood that the student will drop out.

What questions should you discuss with school personnel?
In what subject area(s) is he struggling?
What have you and his teachers done to help him develop the necessary skills? Has there been any intervention?
Which strategies have worked and which haven’t?
If your child repeats the grade, how would the instruction change to ensure a better outcome?
How much of an improvement can you realistically expect during the repeat year? Would it be sufficient to justify the possible negatives of retention?
How will your child feel about being retained and how will it affect her friendships?

Many experts, including the National Association of School Psychologists favor intervention over retention. As you consider the “promotion plus” approach, ask:
Have you worked with the teacher to identify accommodations to increase your daughter’s success? Have they been successful? Do others need to be identified?
Does your son receive extra support through one-on-one assistance or small group work?
If your son receives special education services, is the IEP current, and are the objectives tied to the standards? If not, will the IEP team revise them to focus on outcomes leading to promotion?
Could your child benefit from an after school homework club, one-on-one tutoring or counseling?

Children and their needs are complex, and we need to meet them where they are. Monitor your child’s progress and make sure she gets the support she needs.

Diane Trautman can be reached at StudyPros In-Home Tutoring, 661-296-9206, or www.studypros.com

With mounting pressure on students to learn complex concepts at earlier ages, parents with young children may feel compelled to accelerate learning with early education products or academic preschools, but before you run out and buy Baby Einstein DVDs or schedule an academic evaluation for your 18-month old, you might want to consider the potential effects and approach with caution.

There is much research indicating that the regular use of multimedia educational products may be counterproductive to cognitive development. This seems to be particularly true when young children are exposed to hours of television viewing, whether that exposure is to commercially prepared edutainment or developmentally inappropriate programming. Rather than enhancing intelligence, audiovisual learning programs may delay development by prematurely engaging brain cells otherwise needed for different developmental tasks. If not closely monitored, the constant overstimulation of a child may delay vocabulary and interfere with acquisition of social and attention skills.

In 2001 The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement about visual stimulation that stands today. Parents should “discourage television viewing for children younger than two years, and encourage more interactive activities that will promote proper brain development, such as talking, playing, singing, and reading together.”

That assessment is shared by many education experts who suggest that the best preschool programs provide meaningful play-based interactive programs with caring adults. Academic preschools, they argue, provide no long-term advantages, but instead make students more anxious. The drilling of reading and math at the expense of social skills at a young age may not translate into achievement in Kindergarten, and could put the child at a social disadvantage.

Those who develop and promote commercial educational products and programs often assert that children are like sponges who can easily absorb information through regular repetition, but even The Baby Einstein website, which removed claims of education advantage from its product descriptions in 2007 in response to legal action, now clearly recommends parental involvement and interaction in learning.

Diane Trautman can be reached at StudyPros In-Home Tutoring, 661-296-9206, or www.studypros.com

Is academic achievement best accomplished by demanding more of students at a younger age?

Not according to Dr. Regalena ‘Reggie’ Melrose, a licensed clinical psychologist and credentialed school psychologist. Dr. Melrose states that students are experiencing burnout because they are pushed into rigorous academic and technological learning, and organized play before they are developmentally prepared. Further, their lack of connection to the natural environment is affecting their ability to learn.

According to Dr. Melrose, advances in neuroscience have confirmed the education theories of Rudolf Steiner, founder of Waldorf Education. Waldorf schools focus on the whole student, emphasizing education that is commensurate with brain development and that supports equally the functions of the left and right brain.

The healthy development of the neocortex (thinking part of the brain) is contingent upon the healthy development of the limbic (feeling) brain which is built upon the healthy development of the primal (sensory) brain. Each step is important, and nurturing each as a child ages is crucial to the child’s holistic development.

The sensing and feeling parts of the brain control the right hemisphere and the thinking portion controls the left. Mr. Steiner believed that all three areas must be actively engaged for students to learn and become life-long learners. That is why Waldorf schools include time for physical education, art, music, and exploration of nature. Many of us remember a time when those studies were part of our daily school experience.

These days education has taken a decidedly left-brain turn: academic achievement and its measurements are the principle focus of effort, debate, and funding. The other elements that support academic learning and constitute a complete education have been relegated to the sidelines. Sidelined also are the students whose brilliances lie in non-academic endeavors.

The film “Waiting for Superman” has incited heated discussions over charter schools and teachers unions, but what is missing from the discussion of raising academic achievement is the idea of educating the whole child. Now is the time for parents and teachers to express their support for arts education and real physical education.

Diane Trautman can be reached at StudyPros In-Home Tutoring, 661-296-9206, or www.studypros.com

Parents are understandably exasperated when their children “bomb” on tests after getting good grades on homework and quizzes. Poor test grades may be the result of a failure to fully grasp the concepts. On the other hand, the student may be suffering from test anxiety; a condition the American School Counselor Association says is almost universal.

Negative emotions, such as frustration, fear, anxiety and anger cause disturbances in the rhythmic activity between the two branches of the autonomic nervous system which, in turn, disrupt our ability to comprehend, memorize, and retrieve information. Positive emotions increase the harmony in our brains, allowing us to think clearly.

The Association offers tips to help children manage their emotions and  develop the healthy physical habits to help students with studying and test-taking. I have condensed the basic ideas here. The full article and links to additional resources are available at  http://www.schoolcounselor.org

Tip 1: When you find yourself worrying about your ability to do well on a test, stop negative thoughts from embedding anxiety in your brain by visualizing the area around your heart and taking long, deep breaths in and out. With each breath, allow calmness to enter and tensions to leave.

Tip 2:  Much of the anxiety we feel is a result of negative “what-if” thoughts — projections that are often not reflected in the final outcome. Instead of “What if I can’t remember the formulas?” ask yourself “What if I remember everything I’ve been studying?”

Tip 3:  Think good thoughts about moments you’ve enjoyed with your friends, your mother, your dog. Hold those feelings in your heart and practice returning to them regularly.

Tip 4:  Prepare well in advance, then do something fun the night before and get a good night’s sleep (at least 8-10 hours). You’ll be calmer and more focused for the exam.

Tip 5:  Eat a healthy, hearty breakfast that includes protein and complex carbohydrates. Foods such as eggs and cheese, and whole grain cereals and breads support brain function and will sustain your energy and concentration for an extended period.

Diane Trautman can be reached at StudyPros In-Home Tutoring, 661-296-9206, or www.studypros.com