At the halfway mark in the semester or changeover in quarter, students are receiving their first progress reports. For some, grades may fall below expectations, sparking concerns about academic performance. Before hiring tutors to remediate a perceived lack of understanding, I’d recommend reflecting and analyzing the course to more effectively pinpoint the issue and determine…
COVID fatigue: borne of that daily reminder of our own mortality and the mortality of those we care about, of the suffering of illness, the suffering of trying to stave off illness only to fail. We’re a global society trying to out-think, out-science a sequence of RNA which is out-mutating our collective human intellect. In…
As millions of students (and their parents) discovered the potential of learning from home during the COVID-induced dispersion of entire schools into an educational diaspora, some lessons learned will endure. As we recall students and teachers onto campuses, attempting to reconnect school communities, an opportunity for real innovation in education dawns, though not without struggle.…
As the number of diagnosed COVID cases plateaus and more Americans are vaccinated, more K-12 administrators are reconvening classes in person, while educators who had already implemented a hybrid schedule during the past few months are now returning to full five day a week, everyone together on campuses. Yet returning to classrooms may be more…
In Zoom School, some parents are redefining “Parent Participation”, or from their kids’ perspective, finding new ways to be embarrassing. 😂 To learn more how experts at Creative Marbles Consultancy, help families resolve complex educational and college admissions concerns, especially during the COVID-induced disruption of education, read more at creativemarbles.com
Many students are dismayed, their hopes for a return to a long-established normal this fall, dashed, as school administrators continued suspending or severely curtailing in-person classes, as well as most clubs and sports through at least the end of 2020, due to the on-going COVID-related health risks. Continued distance learning has disrupted the coming of…
In the 2020-21 school year, students, teachers and parents are not learning in pre-COVID ways. Kids commute from bed to desk, parents are deputized teachers, and teachers are now broadcast news anchors without the production team. Educators are seemingly rewriting the rules on how to learn, yet trying to rely on the old rules at…
“If I could bubble wrap them, I’d do that,” said Pavanish Nirula, of San Jose, whose 15-year-old daughter will be starting 11th grade this fall, while his 17-year-old son goes off to college. EdSource June 29, 2020 In conversations I’ve had with parents of late regarding the upcoming school year, they have echoed Mr. Nirula’s…
As K-12 school administrators debate different options about how to re-open school campus doors to students and teachers in the fall, they are deferring to doctors and public health officials for guidance. So, families must decide, based on the most accurate information regarding the coronavirus outbreak they can acquire, what degree of risk they are…
Yesterday, Thursday, May 21, the University of California (UC) Board of Regents unanimously voted to eliminate the SAT and ACT as a requirement for all first year applicants by 2025. Over the next five years, the UC will phase in the elimination of the SAT and ACT scores from consideration in first year admissions. For…
What I’m calling, “The Great Distance Learning Experiment of 2020” has commenced for nearly all of the 57 million K-12 students in the United States. In such an experimental phase, the continuity of instruction is muddled, and students, teachers and educators find themselves in uncharted waters. The old rules, like attendance policies, don’t apply, at…
The above letter is a response from Han Mi Yoon-Wu, Director of Undergraduate Admissions for the University of California Office of the President, after I emailed both UC President Janet Napolitano and the UC Board of Regents to request a response to my recent Open Letter to the University of California. I’m sharing Ms. Yoon-Wu’s…
Skip to 00:40 An inspirational message that one never tires in hearing.
Our parents are our first teachers and often are our primary teachers. As such, the responsibilities of parents are great to be “guides on the side”, not “the sage on the stage”. Then, our children blossom into the extraordinary beings they are. In an essay for People magazine, Michelle Obama shared the following lesson she…
On Monday, March 16, The College Board canceled the March 28 Makeup Test, the test all the March 14 canceled test takers were counting on, as well as the May 2 SAT test date. Additionally, the April 4th ACT was canceled. With the cancelations, tens of thousands of students’ test taking strategies for college admissions…
