5 Things Teachers Wish Parents Knew

When I was teaching, it always amazed me to see the way in which my student’s behavior changed when their parents were around. The presence of parents has a profound influence on the way students behave and teachers have a unique insight into the way students act around their peers and how they perform academically. When parents and teachers work together, they can really lean a lot about their students. Parents can learn about things that influence their student’s behavior and academic performance while teachers can get invaluable insights into their student’s personalities from the people who know them best. Here are some things that will help parents and teachers to work as a team.

Let’s talk

Teachers love the opportunity to connect with parents. When you are able to talk about your students in a constructive and supportive manner, everyone benefits. Keeping each other up to date on new developments will help you both to adjust behavior and will help you to deal with situations better. Teachers appreciate your support more than anything. If you don’t have time for teacher/parent meetings, use email to keep in touch.

Get involved

Always show interest in what your student is doing at school. Even if you don’t understand trigonometry, showing interest and offering support is a great start. If your students need help you can’t give them, consider getting an in-home tutor. Discuss projects that your student is involved in and chat about social situations and sports. Showing an interest and staying involved helps your student to feel important.

Be organized

This is a great lesson for your students to learn and keeping your child organized will really help your teachers. Returning tests and notes sent home for signatures, making sure that your student has school supplies, ensuring that deadlines for assignments are met and checking that your students have sports uniforms will save your teachers a bunch of time and effort.

Get reading

Instilling a love of literature is an invaluable gift. Your student will have to read their way through school and college. When you instill a love of reading, you make that process easier for you and your teachers. When your students read, they learn all sorts of general knowledge facts, they learn good grammar and they learn to express themselves in writing; a fact that any teacher who has to grade papers will appreciate.

We’re on your side

Shifting the blame for poor academic performances to the teacher is every student’s natural reaction. While not all teachers are created equal, give yours the benefit of the doubt. Speak with her about your child’s academic performance and work together to find a solution. It’s best to speak with the teacher in question first. Only if you can’t find a solution to academic issues should you then meet with an administrator or with the principal.

A little appreciation goes a long way

Teachers work really hard and rarely get the appreciation they deserve. If your teacher is doing a good job, let her know. You will help to motivate her to keep giving 110%.

Choosing the Right Tutoring Program will Ensure Success

It’s back to school now for millions of students and vicariously for their parents. And as they hit the books, virtually all have the same goal: raise grades and test scores substantially to get into a good college and have a chance in an increasingly competitive job market. But the bad news is that many students are falling short of their academic goals.

“Low or failing grades produce shame, frustration, helplessness, hopelessness and peer group rejection,” says Larrie Reynolds, Superintendent of Mount Olive Township Public Schools. “This allows the student to convince even themselves that their lacking success in school is actually a personal lifestyle choice, rather than an inevitable fate.”

The good news is that through an effective tutoring program, students can overcome the academic and resultant social difficulties.

There are many causes of poor academic performance, but it almost always leads to negative consequences for the confidence of the student. “They may be upset with parental pressure, have no strong drive, lack confidence, have learning problems or face other apparent barriers. So to simply start ‘tutoring’ them so often backfires, turning out to be an exercise in futility,” says Frank Milner, president of Tutor Doctor, a global network of academic coaching companies.

“That’s why our academic coaches begin with what our process refers to as a personal discovery. Our people find out what is in the student’s heart and mind before we begin to deal with English, mathematics or history. If we know that there is something working against the learning process, we can address it quickly and effectively,” says Milner.

As an example, we look at a sophomore in High School and a competitive swimmer who failed most of his classes during his freshman year. Family stress reached a boiling point and his parents reached out to a tutor for help. Sophomore year, the student went through the personal discovery process and was seen by an academic coach for both English and Math. The student proceeded to get A’s and B’s and his parents couldn’t be happier.

The personal discovery looks for five key issues that can be blocking the student’s academic success:

• Working parents have little time to help students with academics.
• Students that “struggle in silence.” These students are too embarrassed to reach out for help at school.
• Too many extra-mural activities impede the student’s ability to perform academically.
• Gaps in educational fundamentals.  These gaps need to be filled in while working on current studies.
• Situations where moving is involved. Moving from state to state, elementary to middle school, middle school to high school, public to private and vice-versa.

“We know that by conducting the personal discovery first and also by filling in gaps in the student’s knowledge before trying to go to the next level, “says James Zazeski of Tutor Doctor, ” our system proves that it is highly effective in accelerating the trajectory of learning.”

“Dakota has only been with her academic coach for two months and already her test scores in grammar, science and history have gone from D’s and F’s to high A’s,” says  Tracy Healey, a Tutor Doctor client. “Your careful selection in matching the right tutor to the student was spot on. Dakota’s confidence level is through the roof and she now feels that she is very capable of achieving great success as a student. As a parent, I’m thrilled!”

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What's your Student's Learning Style?

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Albert Einstein
Students process and absorb information in different ways. Some students like to see the big picture first and then learn the details and skills of each step while others can’t imagine what the big picture will be until they have learned each little step along the way.

Some students find diagrams and infographics helpful in learning information while others like to listen to the teacher’s lesson to get their facts and figures. Others like to build, measure, mix and experiment when they are learning. Knowing what your student’s learning style is will make it easier for you to present information in a format that they can relate to.

Visual learners
Visual learners like their information presented in an interesting visual format so videos, pictures, charts, illustrations, mind maps, and online presentations are a great way for them to learn. Presenting information this way makes it easier for them to see how things relate to each other. Visual learners should create their own mind maps and graphics when they are studying as this will help them to remember the information and see.

Auditory learners
These students are good listeners. They like teachers and tutors who explain, talk and read aloud. These students learn understand through a more traditional teaching method. When they are learning, auditory learners can benefit from reading aloud or listening to taped lectures and online podcasts.

Tactile learners
These students like to learn through action. They are great with experiments, measuring, observations, field trips, building models and other physically-oriented tasks. Activity is the way to get them to remember information or learn new skills.

Most teachers present information in a number of different formats to accommodate the learning style of all of their students. If your student is having trouble with a subject, ask their teacher or tutor to help you ascertain their learning style and then present the information in a way that they will absorb best. The internet is a great resource tool for finding the information you need to share in a format that suits your student. There is a video, infographic and experiment you can try for just about everything.

If you are curious about your student’s learning style, take a quick online test with sites such as ID Pride or VARK. Tutors and teachers are also great at understanding learning styles and they will be able to not only help your student to understand their learning style, but to convert information into a format that they understand best.

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