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Showing posts with the label Planning Long-term Assignments

100 Powerful Learning Specialist and Educational Therapy Materials

This week I wanted to tell you about my online store, Good Sensory Learning. I’m Dr. Erica Warren, and I established this site so I could share all the materials that I have created over the last 20+ years as a learning specialist and educational therapist. When I first began my private practice, Learning to Learn, I had great difficulty finding fun and multisensory materials for my students that were effective and engaging. So back in 2005, I made it my mission to design and distribute high-end, remedial products as well as memorable, motivating lessons that bring delight to learning. If you would like to try a free sampling of my activities , CLICK HERE . How Are the Products Organized at Good Sensory Learning? You can download my Free Printable Catalog or you can browse the site using the grey “search all products” bar in the top right of any page with keywords such as dyslexia, working memory, and executive functioning. What’s more, drop down menus in the red banner allow you t...
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8 Successful Ways to Help Students Complete Homework

After a long day of school, many kids are cognitively spent and they have little patience and energy to pull out their assignment pad and slog through more academic work.  Often, what should take little time, drags out into hours and hours and families are often desperate for manageable solutions. What Can We Do to Make Homework a Manageable Task? Stop calling it homework!  Just the name can trigger pouty moods and cantankerous behaviors.  Find another word to use such as assignments or activities.  Use a timer to help some students stay on track.  I usually set the timer for both completing assignments and taking breaks.  If students have a competitive nature, you can also use a timer to see how fast they can complete a few problems, and then see if they can beat their time.  This often creates a motivating game that can help them to maintain attention on the task at hand. Create a structured routine.  Make an afternoon and early eveni...
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12 Executive Functioning Strategies for Student Success

Gearing up for the fall, teachers and parents often scour for strategies that can help learners maximize their learning potential, complete assignments on time, and manage their workload. Although, executive functioning is a no brainer for many, planning, time management and organization can be troublesome and bewildering for others. In fact, I work with many bright and capable students that have the intellect, test taking capabilities and desire to acquire top marks, yet missing assignments, lost materials, avoidant behavior and messy backpacks wreck their GPA. Each academic year offers students a fresh start, so providing them the needed resources and support is key!  Students that struggle with executive functioning are often categorized as lazy, unmotivated, and careless. These misnomers couldn't be farther from the truth. Rather, executive functioning skills are not fully developed in the brain until one reaches his or her early twenties, and expecting students to indepen...
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13 Amazing Reasons Students Should Use Google Keep

Helping students find the best method for recording assignments and organizing their packed schedules can be a game changing strategy that can boost grades and confidence. Over the years, I have tested out many apps as well as printed and digital calendars.  Most recently, I have been evaluating Google Keep, and I’m really excited about this option that communicates across platforms. What is Google Keep? Google Keep is a web-based application that allows you to create, access and share notes, lists, and reminders on many devices.  In addition, it offers many cool features such as images, voice notes, drawings, reminders, color coding and more!  It’s an attractive interface that resembles customizable sticky notes. It also easily integrates with Google's other applications! keep.google.com On What Devices Can I Access Google Keep? Here is a list of devices that can use Google Keep. Below you will find live links to download pages: Google Keep on Mobile G...
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Preparing for Finals - Powerful and Easy Strategies for Success

Many students wait until the last minute to prepare for finals, and they experience anxiety when bombarded with an overwhelming workload. When panic sets in, the amygdala triggers a fight, flight or freeze response, and the stress hormone cortisol is released. Unfortunately, cortisol has a negative impact on learning, and it leads to memory loss and problems with recall. As you can see, preparing for finals in a timely and organized manner can help students manage their tasks, enhance memory, and avoid the negative consequences of triggering the reptilian part of the brain. When Should Students Begin to Prepare for Finals? I encourage my students to create a study schedule about four weeks before finals. This gives them plenty of time to organize materials, schedule needed appointments with teachers, and fully prepare for exams. I also find that this process offers them a manageable approach that avoids unneeded stress and anxiety. What is the Process? Write out a li...
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Creating the Ultimate Student Planner - Executive Functioning Success

Why is it that more and more students are struggling with the process of recording, completing, and turning in homework assignments? It used to be that every teacher had a similar process. They: Wrote assignments on the blackboard. Asked students to record this information into their planner. Collected the student’s daily assignments. Now that teachers use varying degrees of technology, it seems like each teacher has different expectations as well as different procedures. As a result, those students with weak executive functioning skills, often struggle with the homework process. Without a consistent, structured routine, planning, time management, and organization can fall by the wayside. Sadly, many of these students are often mislabeled as careless, lazy and unmotivated and they may struggle to get the grades that they deserve. Is it the Student's Fault when they Fail to Turn in Assignments? It’s easy to see that it is not a student’s fault if they are paraly...
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Back to School: Establishing a Routine, Planning, and Managing Time

Having a great school year is largely determined by a student’s ability to plan out their day, manage their time, and stick to a routine. In other words, they need to have well-developed executive functioning skills. Executive functioning, or what I like to call the Grand Central Station of the brain, is the complex cognitive process of managing a crowd of sensory input and output and applying meaning, all while maintaining one’s “train” of thought. Although many teachers and parents can not fathom how apparently simple tasks such as using an agenda or turning in an assignment can be difficult, the truth of the matter is, the part of the brain that manages executive functioning, is not fully developed until individuals reach their early 20's.  14 Common Signs of Executive Functioning Weaknesses   1.   Losing materials. 2.   Forgetting to turn in assignments. 3.   Leaving things to the last minute. 4.   Underestimating th...
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