Endeavor Now | MATH EDUCATION IMPROVEMENT

What comes up for you when you hear the word “test”? I’ll never make it. I’m going to fail. I need to go to the nurse. These are typical responses we hear from students.

Over the years, young people develop certain attitudes about school. Their attitudes are made up not just of the actual experiences but also of everything they’ve thought about these experiences. Events they might have perceived as being unpleasant, like tests, get reinforced as negatives because they fall into the habit of thinking of them in negative terms.

The human brain listens to what it’s being told and forms itself accordingly. Every time we relive an unpleasant experience or think a negative thought, we’re strengthening the neural connections that lead to the “tests¨Care¨Cawful” conclusion. But what if a teen decides to replace that connection with a different one? One that says, “Tests are cool. I’m totally into them. I love the challenge.”

When teens are exploring their attitudes about school, we tell them whenever somebody says the word “test” they can yell, “C’mon! Gimme that test!” It’s fun - and it also changes the way they think about tests. By transforming their attitudes from “oh no, not a test” to “bring it on!” they’re rewiring their brains to welcome academic challenges instead of fearing them. Instead of being the passive victims of tests, they own the whole testing experience!

One time a school superintendent was visiting one of our programs. She was talking to one of the facilitators and casually mentioned the word “test” in conversation. She jumped when a dozen campers standing nearby shouted in unison, “Gimme that test!”

The Ownership key is where we come from when we talk academics. It’s easy for young people to slip into a passive role: “The teacher teaches; I just sit here and absorb.” By the time they hit their teen years, a lot of kids have switched to autopilot in school. The stuff they’re learning is inert because they’re barely interacting with it.

But something exciting happens when people reclaim ownership of their education. They rediscover the fun and challenge of learning. They become the captains of their own experience instead of being benchwarmers. Now they can direct where their education goes - and how far.

Taking ownership of their education means no more excuses, never playing the blame game again: “She made me do it.” “He’s not a good teacher.” “My study partner’s not good at math.” “This school’s lame.” Ownership is about taking 100% responsibility for everything that we do and where we are in life. Period.

When young people take back the responsibility for their academic performance, their energy levels automatically go up. You can see pride of ownership in a person’s eyes and read it in their posture. Just taking ownership gets them more engaged, more enthusiastic, more awake and more alert.

Program grad David Evans told us how the Ownership key helped him revive a sagging GPA: “I totally got how I could take command and harness my capabilities. The following school year I was sitting next to my friend in honors chemistry. We used to sit in class and we would spend most of the time cracking jokes and making fun of the teacher. I suddenly realized that my old behaviors wouldn’t fit into my new beliefs. I wanted to pay attention in class. I told my friend, and it really caught him off guard, but that didn’t stop me. From that moment on, there was no looking back for me.”

One of the signs campers read on our walls says, “I Am Responsible for What I Create.” Once they realize they’re in charge, they’re on their way to greatness. When they couple ownership with a can-do attitude and some nuts-and-bolts learning skills, they’re an unstoppable express train to success!

by Jim Hartley

Do you have a desire to move to Mexico but are just not sure what to do for schooling your children? The questions keep coming to you . . . . Is the schooling any good? Does anybody speak English? How much does it cost? How do we find out what schools are available to us? What do they do in the school? Will my kids fit in? Is Mexico even safe for the kids? I know the questions because my husband and I had them all too! We are Canadians who have lived in Mexico with our son and daughter for seven years now. We spent one year in Puerto Vallarta and the rest in Playa del Carmen. Our kids are now 15 and 17; they started their Mexican experience in Grades 3 and 6 and this year our daughter graduates! I will endeavor to give you the best of my knowledge on the subject of educating your kids in Mexico. It has certainly proved to be an interesting experience for our family. First, if you put your children in the school system here, I recommend a bilingual private school that you will pay for. How much will you pay? We will break it down: Every year you pay an inscription fee which will vary between $4,500 pesos and $7,000 per child (approximately $450 - $700 USD). Then you pay the monthly school fee ($300 - $550 USD/month). You will also pay for their uniforms, books and miscellaneous school supplies. To enroll your children for the very first time, they must take an entrance exam which is a cost of approximately $30 USD. Every time you change schools they must take a new entrance exam with the new school. Parents are often told that their children should be placed a year behind their current grade level. We decided it was important to keep our children at their current grade level and it worked out fine. It is up to the parent to refuse this if you deem it unnecessary. Kids enter school at different ages here so it seems a 2 or sometimes 3 year spread between students in any given grade is not unusual. If your children are at as high school level, sometimes the school has a mandatory anti-doping test that you will need to pay for. It seems to upset many parents but personally I have no problem with this. If any kids have chosen this path, I think it is best they are identified and hopefully helped. It is something a parent could miss; let’s face it, hormonal teenage mood swings alone are confusing. Children in primary grades are usually taught for half a day in Spanish and half a day in English. When they get to the high school level they will get some subjects in English and some in Spanish. Be advised that often the teachers teaching in Spanish do not know English. This can be a huge challenge when our kids do not yet know much Spanish. In Puerto Vallarta they pulled our kids out of their Spanish classes and gave them Spanish tutoring at that time. I have not yet heard of a school willing or able to do that in Playa del Carmen. My suggestion is that you work with the school to help make this happen even if you hire a tutor to come in. Discuss a plan before you enroll them and make sure it is acceptable to you all. To speed the process our first year in Mexico, we also hired a tutor who came to our house 3 evenings a week. Often kids can also get by with a classmate who is bilingual. Our kids have played translator many times. The private schools in Mexico provide a good, basic level of education. You may however choose to supplement the level of English grammar, reading and writing they receive as the English is not always at the grade level of their Canadian or US counterparts (I believe this is due to the fact that English is the second language here). Let’s face it though; school is really only a part of a child’s education. We as parents fill in the gaps and the experience of living in Mexico will be the further education. By choosing to live in Mexico, I feel our children’s education has become broader and more expansive. They have not only been immersed in a second language but a new culture and new community as well. That experience is something you just cannot get in book learning. What else? The schools tend to be well maintained as that is where part of the tuition goes. The teachers are usually well educated but usually not paid well. Often the schools have their own pool and swim classes are a part of any given day. Is Mexico safe? Come for a visit and get a feel for yourself. I have not once felt unsafe in our Mexican community. The schools by the way, usually have a fence or wall around the grounds with specific rules for entering and exiting as well as a guard posted at the entrance to monitor the activity of all comings and goings. How do you find the schools in any given area of Mexico? That is a very good question. They do have computer classes for the kids, but do not appear to have learned the value of the internet for marketing their schools as of yet. My suggestion would be to try and find a contact in the area that you are interested in and find out from them. Of course Playa Maya News already has all the options listed for this area! There is always the option of homeschooling and its different derivatives. Please be aware that homeschooling is not recognized in Mexico so if you later decide to put your children in a traditional school here you may have a challenge. A way around this is to have access to some form of official certification for their grade level. Also some Canadian and US schools have a long distance learning program where you can mail or email assignments back and forth. Another option could be to try an internet schooling program. If you are thinking of enrolling your children in a Mexican school, check with any schools that interest you in advance so that you know the documentation to bring. Usually you will need their birth certificate, passport, certified grades and grade levels completed, a note of good conduct from their last principal, and their vaccination documents. This will be a lot of change for you and your children, so here are my recommendations to hopefully help facilitate the adjustment. Plan as much family time as possible, eat dinner together if possible, try to keep similar routines or create new ones, keep the lines of communication open, ask them about their day, listen a lot, let them keep in contact with old friends as much as possible, hire a Spanish tutor if needed, encourage them to invite new friends over and offer lots of hugs. It took our children a full year to adjust. If I had not been determined that this move was for the best for all of us - we would currently be living back in Canada never having made it that first year. Now our children feel more at home here than in Canada and in fact our daughter has chosen to go to University right here in Mexico. Enjoy the Adventure!

by Suzanne Marie Bandick

In the majority of homeschool families, one parent stays at home to teach the children. This can make saving money on your children’s curriculum without sacrificing the quality of their education of the uppermost importance. Homeschooling can be an expensive adventure but it doesn’t have to be. If one does their research and is willing to take some time to plan and put together a curriculum it can be very cheap compared to purchasing a “packaged” curriculum. Putting together and eclectic curriculum in this manner can also benefit your child as each child has their own unique learning style. You may find when you purchase a ready made curriculum that the language arts works well with your child and the math does not.

Where To Start?

The first question a parent usually has when deciding to put a curriculum together on their own is “What should my child be learning for their particular age?” World Book’s Typical Course of Study  Also, try visiting the website for the education department in your state. This can be another great resource. They usually list the state standards in detail. A visit to the library should also yield books on the subject of what your child should know at a particular age.

Where Do I Get The Lesson Plans?

The second question is usually. Where do I get all the curriculum or lesson plans cheap or free? There are many places to get textbooks and lesson plans cheap or even free.

The Internet

One of the best sources for this endeavor is the Internet. Start with a search for “used textbooks” or “used curriculum” and you will find many sites where other homeschool families list the books they no longer use for sale. Another great resource is Ebay and other auction sites like them. Next, try a search for “free lesson plans” and you will find that there are literally thousands of them available. When you’re focusing on a particular subject simply refine your search to include the subject you are interested in. Don’t forget about unit studies. There are several sites that sell unit studies for relatively cheap and some that offer them for free.

The Library

Obviously, it would be a little difficult to find textbooks at the library that one could keep all year long. But, the library is a great source for reference books when you’re studying a particular subject and don’t forget about all the classic novels your child will read throughout the years.

A Little Help From My Friends

Some of your most important resources can be family and friends. Do you know someone else that is homeschooling? Would they be willing to sell or lend you books they no longer use? Encyclopedias, reference books and classic novels your local library doesn’t carry can make great gifts for your children or family.

Support Groups

Local homeschool support groups are great for many reasons and they sometimes have a book swap program.

Other Places

How about your local school district? They sometimes sell textbooks they are no longer using.

Putting It All Together

By now your head should be spinning with all the possibilities. I know your itching to get started but remember, focus and a plan are the keys to doing this successfully. You can become overwhelmed very easily with all the great resources out there.

Make sure there’s ink in your printer and start with a plan. Decide what your child should learn for that particular year. Start with one subject at a time when you do this plan. Write it all down and develop a plan of study.  Once you are satisfied with your plan of study, search the Internet for lesson plans and curriculum, work on one subject at a time. Remember, you don’t necessarily have to plan an entire year before the school year starts. You can plan a few months at a time and work on the rest as the school year continues. This can be a preferred method as plans tend to change throughout the year.

The most important thing to remember is that homeschooling should be a fun and rewarding experience for you and your children. So most of all, relax and have fun!

by Kimberly Treptow

As a parent who has chosen homeschooling as the best educational option for your child, online curriculum resources can be an important component of your children’s education. If you have an Internet connection and consistent access to a computer, there are many online tools that will help you provide your child with the skills they need. An online homeschool curriculum can work to supplement your own individualized curriculum, and can also provide a complete learning solution for a variety of subjects. While homeschooling can sometimes feel like a lonely endeavor, online homeschooling resources provide plenty of ways to feel connected.

In order to work with these resources effectively, you should have a clear role in mind for using online curriculum resources. If they are a secondary tool, it’s a great place to find reading materials, individual activities, or worksheets which can be downloaded directly from a website. Often, a variety of sample materials will be available, which gives you the opportunity to review the material first. If you like the material, you will then have the ability to place an additional order.

However, online homeschooling curriculum has evolved and can be a much more sophisticated tool than just providing worksheets. Your child can attend an online school, plug into specific courses, and complete learning modules and activities at their own pace. This option can be a better choice if you would like to spend less time planning their lessons, or if you have specific learning outcomes that may be easier met by a more structured curriculum, such as higher level math skills, or practicing a foreign language.

Before purchasing a curriculum, it’s a good idea to spend sometime looking at homeschool curriculum reviews. You can find many review sites online, and in addition to finding reviews on particular programs you are already interested in, you will also find up-to-date reviews on a variety on new programs as well. You will also find helpful tips and techniques from other parents. If you do a search online for ‘homeschool curriculum review,’ you are sure to find plenty of choices available.

Online homeschool curriculum programs can play a an important primary or a secondary role in your children’s education. The internet is a vast learning resource, and it shouldn’t be neglected as a valuable tool for homeschooling. With its ease of use, and adaptability, there is room for online
resources in any educational plan.

by Amy Wells

While the idea of home schooling has some very strong points in its favor, it is not an endeavor to be entered into lightly. Home schooling will require a total commitment from the teaching parent, who will have to be personally present for all the experiments, reports, and lessons each day; prepare the week’s lessons; take the kids on relevant field trips; and even supervise recess. Home schooling offers no teacher’s lounge to which one can escape for some adult conversation and sympathetic ears.

What To Expect Most state home schooling statutes require that a parent spend at least four and one-half hours a day home schooling; while not all of that will be in actual teaching, it does require that you be present in case your children have difficulty with a lesson. So you’ll have to find a way to work in some alone time, and time for your spouse or partner if there is one present in your home.

While home schooling will certainly not cost a great deal of money, it can mean the difference between being a one-income, and two-income family. And home schooling means that even when you and you kids are not in the home classroom, you’ll have to be making the effort to see to their social development. You’ll need to take the initiative in scheduling group activities like scouting, church groups, or after-school play dates with other kids. On the other hand, because you are home schooling, you’ll have much more control on the kinds of activities to which your children are exposed.

Will Home Schooling Work For Your Child? The person whose cooperation is absolutely essential if you are to succeed at home schooling is, of course, your child. If your child has been having a difficult time academically or socially in a public school, you job may be much easier. If, on the other hand, you are pulling him or her out of a situation which you see as unhealthy, but which was your child’s entire world, you may have a struggle on your hands. But you can always promise that you will only try home schooling for a year. If it simply doesn’t work, return your child to public school.

There’s no great mystery to teaching, and especially to teaching your kids: you’ve been doing it since they were born. If you are literate, you can home school; and if you are in need of guidance as to the best techniques, there are numerous home schooling manuals and teacher lesson plans to help you. If you can’t teach math because you never understood math, get a certified math tutor to step in.

The luxury of having one-on-one attention when they are learning, coupled with a realistic social schedule of enjoyable activities, will give your children the best educational experience they are ever likely to have, and all from the comfort of home!

by Wade Robins

Day after days and years after years articles on how to reduce fat are churned out in print and on the internet and people even if they have other urgent things to do will for sure if not read will at least once scan the article. The attribute of staying slim is synonymous to beauty, fertility and youthfulness. There is one thing common in these articles they tell you to eat what all, say diet rich in greens and color, low in fat and enriched with vitamins. This is alright absolutely but still no results are rolled out and the reader is disappointed.

The answer to weight reduction is very simple arithmetic and biology. You can have a beautiful body only when you burn all those extra calories that when not utilized keeps accumulating as fat under the skin. You can have all those greens but until you take up activities to melt them down, your weight reduction programme is deemed to face failure.

Every human being is programmed differently and is predisposed to his capability to have preferences, intake, digestion and excretion of foods. It is actually killing to restrict calories by eating less for many of us. An alternate path is to keep an eye on the burning those sugars. The culprits to weight gain are sugar and insulin. The byproduct of the digestion process is the sugar which further instigates the production of insulin from the pancreas. Sugar is the biofuel that our body utilizes to energize the body to carry on various activities ranging from doing physical work to emotional and mental tolls. Sugar is also the food to the brain in addition to various other organs of the body. But extra sugar floating in the blood stream is taken under custody of the insulin and is geared into conversion to fat tucked under the skin. In severe cases it starts surrounding the organs to an extent that obesity is also the culprit behind diabetes because the insulin is unable to cross the fat barrier.

Furthermore the rate of secretion of insulin also has a paramount impact on the tendency to put on weight. People who show upshots of insulin levels in the bloodstream following a small consumption of sugar show higher fat accumulation around the waist contributing to the characteristic apple figure. People showing lesser secretion of insulin following meals show pear-like figure with fats accumulating around the hip region. The weight reduction program for the two varies considerably. People with apple figures will do well if they trim down their sugar/carbohydrate intake or consume foods that contribute to low glycemic foods in their endeavor to reduce weight. They must therefore avoid foods high on starch as pastas, potatoes, candy or cookies. For the pear shaped ones with lower insulin secretion, care on both high fat as well as high glycemic index foods has to be focused. Their foods should be rich in low fat and low sugar/starch diet. The wild card lies in how much calories are being burnt. You can eat the right food to your hearts content but be equally be vigilant on burning them hard.

A research study on this aspect has revealed interesting figures. Apples ones when on low glycemic diet lost 6 kg and when on low fat diet lost 2.3 kg. The pears lost 4.5 kg on both equivocally. So it helps both types to stick to diet which is rich on complex carbohydrates as whole grain cereals, brown rice, oats, green veggies, fruits enriched with dietary fiber that take time to digest. To complement your weight reduction program it helps if you also keep protein intake good and flush out toxins with lots of water. Regular intake of water and frequent urination keeps the fluid-electrolyte balance in the body at the right while keeping it revised and renewed.

Studies have also pointed the twin edged weapon of a lot of physical activity and a good night sleep of at least 8 hours works to kill the demon of obesity. It helps if the reason of obesity is well known of. If the obesity is not concurrent to high triglyceride and fat level in the blood stream the indication may be pointing towards other causes. It has been deciphered off late of instances of infection with virus as harmless as common cold, flu or conjunctivitis of the category AD-36, SMAM-1 to be triggering the conversion of normal cells in the body into fatty calls and cushioning them in the adipose tissue of the skin.

by Rosy Vohra

In the year 2000–even before terrorism hit so close to home for Americans on 9/11, and before the United States went to war with Iraq–an interesting study appeared in the American Psychological Association’s Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. In her report social psychologist Jean Twenge observed that anxiety levels in American children had increased dramatically since the first effective scale for measuring childhood anxiety was published in 1956. The increases were so large and linear, Twenge explained, that by the 1980s normal children scored higher on the anxiety scale than did children in the 1950s who were psychiatric patients. The culprits? According to Twenge, disconnected relationships and looming environmental threats were the underlying factors. In particular she notes that “changes in the divorce rate, the birth rate, and the crime rate are all highly correlated with children’s anxiety.” In contrast, she discovered that “surprisingly, economic indices had very little independent effect on anxiety. Apparently, children are less concerned with whether their family has enough money than whether it is threatened by violence or dissolution.” If modern young Americans are indeed feeling the strain, they are certainly not alone in the world. According to a March 2008 article in the online Independent, Britain may actually be the “unhappiest place on earth” for children. Education editor Richard Garner notes the “welter of evidence highlighting the fragile states of mind of many of the country’s seven million primary and secondary school pupils,” while reporting that British teachers had called for an independent Royal Commission to discover the reasons behind the widespread anxiety and unhappiness among the nation’s children. The concern expressed by Britain’s Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) stems from the fact that the United Nations Children’s Fund actually ranks British schoolchildren the unhappiest in the West, focusing on Britain’s lack of social cohesion as the culprit. But British teachers have their own speculations to offer regarding the factors at fault. Among the stressors suggested by the ATL were not only social dysfunction and family breakdown, but also peer pressure and heavy academic pressure. Could this argument have some merit? Could all of these factors underlying childhood anxiety on both sides of the Atlantic be intertwined? Is it possible that Western society places too much emphasis on academic success and too little on the importance of cohesive family relationships? Britain’s ATL hints that in their opinion this is, in fact, the case. Citing stringent government homework standards as the last straw on the backs of children, some teachers say that their own pressure to teach to standardized tests while increasing homework has resulted in reduced family and play time for children rather than improved academic scores. While it is unlikely that increased academic pressure is the only problem–or even the main problem behind increased childhood anxiety–the ATL may actually be on to something in juxtaposing academic priorities to family ones. Of course, few would argue that family time is unimportant. But without an equally firm emphasis on homework and scholastic achievement, how are academically lagging nations to maintain economic strength in a world that is increasingly dependent on technology? Isn’t Japan’s technological success due to the slavish study habits of its school children? Isn’t there a strong, proven connection between increased homework and good grades? Wouldn’t America and Britain be better off sacrificing a little family time for the greater national good? These are important questions which are not impossible to explore, since the effect of homework on academic achievement has, in fact, been surveyed from a global perspective fairly recently. In May of 2005, two education researchers from Pennsylvania State University–David P. Baker and Gerald K. LeTendre–coauthored a book titled National Differences, Global Similarities: World Culture and the Future of Schooling. Analyzing data collected from schools across more than 41 nations, the researchers came to a conclusion that might surprise many parents and educators: more homework does not necessarily translate to higher academic achievement. Japan, the Czech Republic and Denmark were noted to have the highest academically scoring students while typically giving little or no homework. On the other hand, Baker noted that countries with very low scores in academic achievement: Thailand, Greece and Iran, typically were being assigned heavy homework loads. “The United States is among the most homework-intensive countries in the world for seventh- and eighth-grade math classes,” commented LeTendre. “U.S. math teachers on average assigned more than two hours of mathematics homework per week in 1994-95. Contrary to our expectations, one of the lowest levels was recorded in Japan–about one hour a week. These figures challenge previous stereotypes about the lackadaisical American teenager and his diligent peer in Japan.” LeTendre and Baker point out that it is these stereotypes, hyped by American media, that are actually responsible for prompting many U.S. schools to increase homework assignments during the 1980s. “At the same time,” say the researchers, “ironically, Japanese educators were attempting to reduce the amount of homework given to their students and allow them more leisure from the rigors of schooling. Neither the American nor the Japanese educational reform of the 1980s seems to have affected general achievement levels in either country.” If homework is not a reliable predictor of academic success, then–what is? Perhaps it’s not surprising that the most important factors for promoting academic success are also important in addressing other causes of childhood anxiety. And the most outstanding of these factors is the quality of the relationships within the family itself. Fragmented families are more likely to experience scarcities of time, money and other resources that are important to academic success. In addition, children in fragmented families feel the effects of higher stress levels. While they can be strongly affected by the relationship dysfunction between parents even before a relationship dissolves, children are also strongly affected by the subsequent loss of a parent from the household, as well as the loss of the family unit as they have known it. In her 2005 study of the effects of divorce on mental health, the University of Alberta’s Lisa Strohschein found that children of divorced parents exhibited high levels of anxiety throughout every stage of the divorce. Further she says, “the loss of a parent from the household is accompanied by an additional increase in child anxiety/depression that operates independently of pre-existing differences between children of divorce and children in intact households.” As might be expected, she found similar levels of child anxiety when the divorce occurred in a dysfunctional family. Considering the epidemics of family dysfunction and divorce in Western nations, perhaps it’s no wonder teachers and researchers are identifying increased anxiety, behavioral problems and poor academic performance among children in the classroom. Raising testing standards and increasing homework doesn’t seem to be fixing the problem. Could it be that the most important work to be done in the home has to do with learning how to relate appropriately within the family? It’s difficult to imagine an improvement in the function of society as a whole without an improvement in human relationships on the most fundamental level first.

Gina Stepp