Homework Help Today – A Tutoring Blog for Students and Tutors Where Students and Tutors can help each other out!

I’m sure that you have been in this situation before: you’re doing some last minute studying for midterms, finals, or APs and you’re in your studying zone – music on, brain juices flowing – when your parents break down the door and tell you to “turn off that racket!” (One of the most popular adult phrases, along with “get better grades!”) Well, you were studying just fine until they came in and now you probably won’t get anything else done because they totally ruined your flow. Let me give you some advice – don’t turn it down.

Music is great for creating the perfect study atmosphere. Research has shown that music can help to create a more positive mood and that studying while happy or satisfied can help you retain more information. Sounds like a one-two punch of awesome, right? It is, but you need to find the right balance.

First things first, don’t listen to any genre of music that you don’t already like. For example, if you like classic rock, Hannah Montana probably isn’t for you. While I would recommend listening to something soft, it’s completely your choice. The purpose of listening to music while studying isn’t to distract you, but to create a buffer between you/your work and outside distractions.

Some will say that baroque classical music, or even more specifically, Mozart, is best for studying. There are some valid points to this argument: you won’t get distracted singing along with the melodies! But if classical music really bums you out, then don’t bother. It’ll just make your homework seem more tedious and unbearable. Just try to pick music that will keep you awake, alert, energetic, and focused. Not music that will have you dancing around, all thoughts of your homework thrown away while you jam out.

My preferred genre of music for studying is “lounge.” While generally frowned upon by music fanatics, lounge music provides the right combination of atmospheric melodies and hypnotizing beats to get me in the “zone.” This genre includes groups such as Quantic, Thievery Corporation, Klement Julienne, and Moby.

While I can’t tell you specifically what type of music to listen to while you’re studying, I can tell you that it is of the utmost importance that you not be changing songs constantly. If you have a massive music collection, go ahead and make a playlist but if you don’t have a huge collection (or even if you do), I would recommend using Pandora Radio. On Pandora .com, you can set “seeds” for a station and customize it to your liking. It will play continuously with related music so that you can get your study on.

So the next time your parents tell you to turn down the music, feel free to hit them with some study-related research, crank up the tunes, and get better grades. Your favorite music can get you into the right frame of mind to learn and remember the most. I wish you the best of luck in studying, and for more study-related tips, check out our effective study skills website SchoolDestroyer.com

Posted under Education, Parents and Children, Testing

Teachade just announced today that they’ve partnered with NEA Member Benefits (NEA MB) to provide you with information for your life in, as well as out of, the classroom. Open to all TeachAde members, these Groups, blogs and special resources will help you with Professional Development, Money Management, Health and Wellness and more.

TeachAde currently offers four TeachAde/NEA MB Groups:

21st Century Skills
Do you have a focused 21st Century Skills curriculum? Is it vital for students to learn these skills in school? Our online community of teaching professionals debate whether schools should teach 21st century skills or stick to a core curriculum.

Budgeting Your Money
Recently we’ve all learned the importance of tracking where our money goes. Discover ways your peers have succeeded in budgeting their money. Coming soon … our exclusive Blog with NEA MB’s Certified Financial Advisor with regular updates on ways to save more of your hard-earned money.

Elementary Online Resources
Calling all elementary school teachers! Join this Group to share lessons and activities, as well as tips and tricks to get the most from your students.

National Board Certification
This community group is dedicated to helping teachers decide whether or not to pursue their National Board Certification, with resources on the merits of Certification as well as everything you need to know before you start the process.

Posted under Education, News, Teaching

This article addresses a question I am often asked by students and their parents.  The answer (“both”) is simple, but deceptively so.  Underlining the answer are several layers of complication that must be considered on a case basis.

Each SAT or ACT taken by a student costs her roughly $50 and half of a day of her life — a small price when compared to the potential benefits of admission into college.  Now, consider this: one of the best ways to prepare for taking the SAT (or ACT) is, well, taking the SAT (or ACT).  So, take both — as often as one can stand the effort and expense.  But that could mean taking twelve tests a year!  Surely that is too much.  So what else should one consider?

Consider the history and purpose of each test.  The SATs were created in the 1920s by and for several elite eastern colleges (i.e., the Ivy League) to supplement high school grades in the colleges’ evaluation of prospective candidates for admission.  The tests have changed over the years, but the basic testing philosophy has not.  The tests are designed primarily to measure the skills a student needs for success in college.  Despite some controversy (regarding diversity fairness and “trick” questions), the tests correlate well with students’ success as freshmen in college. Today the SATs are taken nationwide, but are most popular among colleges (and their prospective students) located in states on or near the coasts.

The ACTs were created in the late 1950s by and for midwestern colleges unhappy with some aspects of the SATs.  The ACTs are designed primarily to measure what a student has learned in high school.  They also correlate with student success in college, but less so than the SATs (according to some experts).  Today the ACTs are taken nationwide, but are most popular among colleges (and their prospective students) located in the broad middle of the country.  Many students feel more comfortable with the ACT (thinking they did better on it than on the SAT), but they are often surprised to find that their percentile rankings on the ACT are no better than those achieved on the SAT.

Nearly all college admissions officers accept either test.  I help prepare students for either or both.  If time and money are not major concerns, I say “go for both.”  If there is a limit, either test will do.  Personally, I lean toward the SAT because of its emphasis on the skills needed for success at the college level.  Getting into a college is only the beginning.  A student must be prepared to succeed in the college learning environment – which is vastly different from that in high school.

In high school, the teacher covers the material in class.  If she is conscientious, she will then assign reading and exercises.  A student, even one weak in critical reading and problem solving, should then be able to do the assignment because the material was covered in class.  In college, the professor does not cover the material.  The student is expected to come to class having already done the necessary reading and exercises.  The professor then “uncovers some of the material” and conducts a seminar with the (informed) students.

In high school a student is tested often.  Most high school quizzes and tests do not emphasize writing or the solving of problems a student has not seen before.  Most college courses test only three times: a midterm exam, a final, and a term paper.  Depending on the course, each test will demand writing, problem solving, or both.

The skills required of college students are precisely the ones tested by the SAT.  Preparing for the SAT thus helps a student develop the skills needed not only to get into college, but to stay there.  So, for most students, my answer is to take both the ACT and the SAT, but to concentrate primarily on the SAT.

About the Author: Captain Karl K. is a retired engineer, college lecturer and admissions officer, and high school teacher.  He is an active and highly successful tutor in a wide variety of subjects including ACT and SAT preparation, English grammar, reading, and writing, mathematics from geometry to calculus, and science (especially physics and chemistry).  He and his wife live in Atlantic Beach, Florida (near Jacksonville).

Posted under Education, Testing, Tutoring

The NEA’s Member Benefits Corporation (NEA MB) has announced a new partnership with TeachAde that will provide the NEA’s 3.2 million members access to the nation’s leading online collaborative community designed by educators for educators.

TeachAde will be integrated into the newly revamped NEA MB Web site to help members connect with each other, share best practices, and access invaluable resources with a click of the mouse. The collaboration is part of the Web site’s intentional focus on the most important subjects to members: Money, Everyday Living, Health and Wellness, Professional Resources and Travel and Leisure.

“Our goal is to partner with the best programs and services to engage and support our members,” said Mark Stevens, vice president of Professional & Web Solutions, NEA Member Benefits. “Partnering with TeachAde will help educators connect with one another on a personal and immediate level about important topical issues such as National Board Certification, 21st-century skills and curriculum and instruction. TeachAde provides our members with a means to easily share their expertise, resources and tools with colleagues across the county.”

TeachAde, which currently has over 17,000 educator participants, enables educators to collaborate within grades and subjects and across schools, districts and states. For example, through TeachAde, the best math teacher in California is able to connect with and help a new math teacher in central Ohio. Once a teacher specifies their subject/grade, TeachAde’s robust database regularly sends useful and customized teacher-created resources directly to the educator. The NEA MB-TeachAde partnership provides NEA members access to a vast database of proven resources overnight and will ensure courses remain rigorous and engaging.

“As a special education teacher, I have found TeachAde to be an invaluable support tool, allowing me to reach out to other teachers in my school district as well as communicating with my students’ parents to keep them updated on their child’s progress,” said Donna Meyerhoeffer, special education teacher at Staunton River High School in Moneta, VA.

“Because each feature was designed and tested by educators, TeachAde’s interface is easy to use and intuitive,” said Michael Pearce, founding partner of TeachAde. “Collaborating with NEA MB allows us to go further to reach greater numbers of educators, which will increase the services to existing and future TeachAde members and demonstrates our commitment to improving teaching and learning.”

NEA members can access TeachAde through the new NEA MB Web site.

Posted under Education, News, Teaching, Website Review

NEW: Click here for the complete Obama Education Speech Transcript

President Barack Obama will deliver a speech about education to students tomorrow. Broadcasting live from noon onwards, Obama’s plan to speak to the students has already stirred up quite a controversy among both schools and parents. Some are calling it a valuable classroom lesson while others fear that the president may be using this as an opportunity for propaganda.

In order to quell this tide of controversy, the White House has announced it will release the transcript of the Obama school speech text on its website (http://www.whitehouse.gov) today to allow teachers and parents a chance to review it.  The hope is to allow them time to decide for themselves if it is suitable for their classes or children to listen to the Education Speech.

Posted under Education, News, Teaching

A while ago TutorMatch registered to support National Environmental Education (EE) Week, and the date for EE Week to begin is now rapidly approaching!  From April 12-18, 2009 the National Environmental Education Foundation will host EE Week, which is the largest organized environmental education event in the United States. EE Week promotes understanding and protection of the natural world by creating a full week of environmentally-themed lessons and activities in K-12 classrooms, nature centers, zoos, museums, and aquariums.

So what is Environmental Education Week?

The goal of Environmental Education Week is to increase the number of environmental education hours that K-12th grade students receive in both formal and non-formal educational settings.  In 2008, over 1,850 schools and non-formal educational institutions across the country organized Environmental Education Week events.  Collectively these organizations served millions of students with environmentally-themed lessons and activities that positively impacted the environment and encouraged environmental stewardship among young people.

TutorMatch is proud to be a sponsor and partner of EE Week.  Why not help us out?  There’s a number of ways you can take action during EE Week:

Join with NEEF, EPA and other teens to do your part for climate change and children’s health.

Do you know a teacher who stands out among the rest? Someone who takes their passion for the environment and brings it into the classroom, inspiring students to learn and engage in environmental issues? Consider nominating the outstanding teacher for a Richard C. Bartlett Award. 

Be part of the nation’s largest single day for improving and enhancing the public lands we enjoy through our National Public Lands Day home page.

Posted under News, Teaching

States are making little or no progress in providing affordable college opportunities or improving college completion rates for their residents, says a report released today by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. The findings come as states face massive budget shortfalls that threaten higher-education funding, and the U.S. continues to lag behind other advanced nations on measures of higher-education performance.

According to the report, the rising cost of college, even before the recession, threatens to put higher education out of reach for most Americans.  Published college tuition and fees increased 439% from 1982 to 2007 (adjusted for inflation) while median family income rose 147%. Student borrowing has more than doubled in the last 10 years, and students from lower-income families (on average) get smaller grants from the colleges they attend than students from more affluent families.

The report, Measuring Up 2008, is one of the few to compare net college costs — that is, a year’s tuition, fees, room and board, minus financial aid — against median family income. Those findings are stark. Last year, the net cost at a four-year public university amounted to 28 percent of the median family income, while a four-year private university cost 76 percent of the median family income.

“This study reveals that higher education is becoming a roadblock, not a gateway, to success for low-income and middle-class students,” says Gov. James B. Hunt Jr., chair of the National Center For Public Policy And Higher Education board of directors and former four-term governor of North Carolina. “States must confront these roadblocks to ensure that the United States can remain competitive with other industrialized nations that have made expansion of opportunity and affordable higher education national priorities.”

Posted under News, Parents and Children

Math Anxiety is a term coined by psychologists and refers to the fear of math that gets instilled in students at a very young age. This holds true for students that are public, private or homeschooled. For most of these students, this fear only increases with time and age and they dread math as they move to highschool and college level avoiding the subject as much as possible.

Nationwide statistics shows that math scores have been dropping year after year for all grade levels. Students of this tech savvy generation start to fear math as early as the beginning of middle school level. Being the world leader in science, technology and innovation, this country cannot afford to have its next generation so detached from math. It seems as if unlike other countries such as China and India, the society here as a whole is not laying enough emphasis on the importance of math. Students that perform well in school are considered geeky and “uncool”, adding to the already mounting isolation from math as a subject of choice.

A recent article in the NY Times outlines results of most difficult math competitions for young people, including the American and International Mathematical Olympiads for high school students, and the Putnam Mathematical Competition for college undergraduates. The results show that American students that excel in these competitions are immigrants from other countries. People in countries like India and China still consider math to be imperative for growth, both academically and professionally. It’s no wonder that teachers from India are now teaching students here in the U.S. online. More and more online math tutoring companies are hiring tutors in India to teach U.S. students online. Providing low cost one-on-one tutoring services serves the dual purpose of effectiveness and affordability.

Parents, teachers and educators all around should start emphasizing the importance of math in real life and make learning math easy and fun by providing individual attention whenever possible.

About our Guest Blogger and Author:
Aish Agrawal is a math tutor in Boston, MA on Tutormatch.com.  He also works with http://www.clickandclimb.com which provides live online math tutoring to students in grades 3-12. For the latest information about online math tutoring and to solve the problem of the day visit http://blogs.clickandclimb.com

Posted under Math Tutoring, Tutoring

Be careful to take the right courses during the undergraduate years.  Of course this is easier said than done, as it is a rare undergraduate who really knows their future career plans when they arrive in college.  From the get-go you need to be focusing on getting good grades.  The odd, less than stellar performance won’t wreck your plans for attending graduate school the way it can play havoc with strategies for medical school.  Nonetheless it is better not to go there if you can avoid it.

Early hands on research experiences are, nowadays, absolutely necessary.  If you begin to develop such an interest, offer to work in a research lab for a few hours a week during the academic year and full time during the post freshman and post sophomore summers as well.  At first you will probably just be doing busy work.  Don’t fret, you will be able to talk with other lab members and you can begin to find out what research is all about.  You may have to volunteer in order to get your foot in the door, but if you are reliable and do a good job, you may be able to negotiate a modest wage for your work.  The main goal though is not the income….it is the experience which you definitely need for your graduate school application.  As your plans mature and if graduate school is a serious option, then you will need to increase the amount of research exposure at a later stage in your undergraduate career (see below).

What about later in your university career?  Assuming that late in the sophomore year or at the beginning of the junior year you will likely begin to crystallize your plans for a major and for possible career paths.  If you are seriously beginning to think about graduate school in the biosciences, then this is the time to focus your plans.

You should try to take as many upper level courses in your major area as it is possible in your junior and senior years.  Admissions committees look for a broad repertoire of course exposures. Graduate level courses will be less of a challenge if your background is that much broader.  If you are a Biology major, definitely take biochemistry, cell biology, genetics, microbiology, physiology and any other upper level courses that you can fit in your schedule.  Do not take these courses just for the sake of taking courses but really delve into the material, and at this point some decent grades won’t come amiss.  If you are a chemistry or physics major who is thinking of going for a career in biomedical research, then plan on taking some upper level biology courses in your junior and senior years.  Students who have majored in chemistry or physics and have also had Biochemistry are highly sought after these days. 

About our Guest Blogger and Author:
Dr. Felicity U. is the Director of the Felicity Motivational Group in Nashville, Tennessee, who offers their professional english, math and science tutoring services on TutorMatch.com.

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Posted under Graduate School

Choosing a tutor for a second language, be it German, French or Spanish, is not a decision that should be taken lightly. Whether the reason for learning the language is a trip abroad or simply personal growth, proper enunciation, vocabulary and meaning are crucial in the development of the language. For this reason it is important to choose a native speaker of the language or a person that has been extensively trained in the language, preferably in a post-secondary institution.

 
The benefits to hiring a native speaker of the language are the influence that culture will have in the teachings. This tutor has more than likely been exposed to cultural occurrences like food, songs, and beliefs that can enrich the tutoring environment. This information, along with the natural ability to teach dialect and proper pronunciation of the words, combined with the natural phrases used in everyday conversation, are the reasons that many choose to enlist a native speaker of the second language in which they are trying to learn.

Contrary to these thoughts, there are many benefits to choosing a professional tutor that has been educated in the second language to teach the student. Technical aspects of the language will be covered with concise curriculums, and the lessons will come with the expertise of teaching techniques that are shown to these tutors through the course of their education.
 
Using a post-secondary educated tutor will ensure that the basics of the language, the foundation, will be taught before the knowledge is expanded upon and grown into phrases. This technique for learning languages is most effective for those looking to grasp the concept of the language from the bottom up. Although it may take longer to speak as a native, the teachings will remain in the mind solidified as knowledge.

Find an online tutor to teach you a langauge over the internet:

• Online German Tutors
• Online French Tutors
• Online Spanish Tutors

To make the choice, consider the following aspects:

• What are the reasons that the tutor is being hired?
• How long does the student have to learn the language?
• What does the student expect to learn in this time period?

It may be quicker to learn the essentials from a native speaker of the language, rather than to begin with the foundation.
 
Regardless of the choices, speak with the tutor in the initial meeting to discuss the plan of action, curriculum and objectives of the tutoring sessions. Creating a plan of action and practice are two of the essential counterparts to learning a second language.

Posted under Language Tutors, Tutoring