, Author at My Learning Springboard

Laura Togut

October 10, 2014

Laura Togut graduated from Harvard University in 2008 with a degree in Economics. She currently works as a freelance food photographer and food tourism entrepreneur. Laura is also a regular contributor to the popular food blog Serious Eats.

For Laura, photography is a perfect blend of art and science. Learning the science behind exposure, light, and color will infinitely improve anyone’s photography, whether shooting on film, a digital SLR, or the phone in your pocket. But artistry can be learned as well – projects focused on composition and style bring out the best in a photography student’s eye.

Laura is also well versed in digital coaching, offering support in the full Microsoft Office suite (Powerpoint, Word, Excel, ect.) as well a some Adobe software (Lightroom and Photoshop). Laura is also proficient in all Google based platforms, including, Google Drive, Google Calendar, and Gmail.

Previously, Laura spent five years working in financial services consulting. During this time she honed her skills as a data analysis wizard and Excel ninja.

Laura also has experience tutoring middle and high school mathematics.

She firmly believes that a few simple tips and tricks can make Excel an indispensable tool for anyone, and a deeper knowledge of Excel will give students hoping to work in banking and consulting a decisive edge over their peers.

Laura has tutored in New York City since 2009. She is excited to work with students on math, photography, Excel, and internship/job preparation with My Learning Springboard.

When not working, Laura enjoys inventing new ice cream flavors and practicing aerial acrobatics. She keeps her ever-growing list of restaurants on a pretty intense spreadsheet.

5 Music Activities to Connect to the Ear (and Brain and Hand)

October 10, 2014 Brad Hoffman

Impulse and Improvisation

Much of the language with which we discuss music composition has been passed down to us by Beethoven’s discussion of his own music. “Music,” said Beethoven, “is the wine which inspires one to new generative processes, and I am Bacchus who presses out this glorious wine for mankind and makes them spiritually drunken.” A lot of great music has been written by people who think of composition in this way, as a process of filtering the raw material of sound. But more often than not, composition involves just as much of the tools influencing the composer’s choice of sound as it does the sound influencing the composer’s choice of tools. To stick with Beethoven’s metaphor, a winemaker may choose a tank based on the grape, but may also choose a grape based on the type of tanks available to him or her. In music composition, the tank and the grapes affect one other in real time, constantly changing shape as the compositional process unfolds.

Beginning composers often feel most comfortable allowing the sounds in their heads to dictate the tools they choose, rather than the other way around. These 5 exercises instead encourage a composer to derive sound from a tool. The primary purpose of these activities is to get the student feeling more comfortable allowing tools to influence sound, on the way to developing a mental space in which sound and tools may influence one another freely. Because these activities stress system and reaction over impulse and improvisation, they may also be thought of as creative ways to catalyze and develop executive functioning. The functions which these exercises emphasize range from the more basic, such as organization and planning, to the more complex, such as working memory and flexibility. Next to each exercise is listed the executive function or functions it will most help to develop.

Play a Floor Plan (Organization, Planning)

Draw a basic floor plan of your living space. Choose a major key (e.g. G Major), and assign each room of the floor plan one of the six common chords in the key (I; ii; iii; IV; V; vi). If you have more than six rooms in your living space, then several adjacent rooms may share a chord. Track your motion from room to room throughout the day. Translate this motion from room-to-room into motion from chord-to-chord, and use this layout as a harmonic basis for a short piece. Only the harmony is fixed; everything else is a compositional decision. Keep in mind, when initially assigning the chords, which rooms you are in most frequently, and, consequently, which chords you want your piece to center around.

Adapt-a-melody (Flexibity)

Choose a simple melody (for example, a riff or chorus from a pop song). If you play piano, then you may accompany yourself. In your right hand, use only the notes from the melody, in the order in which they appear. Improvise freely with your left hand. By shifting style, accent, rhythm and harmony, improvise a piece that extends this melody as long as it can while remaining convincing. The activity may also be done with two people. In this case, one person should improvise freely while the other adapts the melody to the shifting accompaniment.

Fill In the Blank (Goal-Directed Persistence)

In a single piece of music you enjoy, pick at random two measures. One of these measures will serve as the beginning of your piece, and the other will serve as the end. The goal of this exercise is to find a convincing way (other than the way the original composer did) to link these two snippets of music together. Ideally, the piece should be no more than 10-20 measures in total. Each compositional decision should be made with the conscious goal of leading towards the end-point.

Working with Found Sounds and Objects (Working Memory, Abstract Thinking)

Choose a household object you’d like to try using as an instrument (e.g. pot or pan). Trying not to be influenced by this choice, pay attention throughout the day for a sound that you find striking. The activity will work at least as well, if not better, if the sound you choose does not seem to correspond to the object you chose (e.g. a bird call and a pan). Compose a short piece in which you attempt to capture something about your memory of the sound that struck you using the instrument you chose first. This activity is worth trying several times with different combinations of sound and instrument.

Composing with One Chord (Sustained Attention)

Sit at a piano and rearticulate one chord for an extended period of time. You may change the inversion, volume, range, rhythm and articulation of the chord, but not the chord itself. Attempt to focus on both the subtle shifts in your playing of this chord and the consistency of the chord’s sound. After doing this for some time, attempt to write a short piece with one chord or pitch that will keep a listener’s attention as much as possible. For an example of someone doing this exercise shockingly well, look up Scelsi’s “Four Pieces on One Note”.

By Chris Ruenes, Private Tutor

Project Based Learning as a Key to Student Motivation

October 3, 2014 Brad Hoffman

My experience as a college engineering professor for the past twenty years tells me that students who are motivated tend to perform better academically, graduate within six years of education, and to either pursue advanced degrees or transition into engineering jobs of their choosing. But how do students get motivated? Is motivation an innate skill or can it be attained? What makes a student motivated?

I am a strong advocate for project based learning. I believe that learning can only be authentic when one understands how and when knowledge attained can be applied to solve problems. I frequently give out projects in my freshman and junior classes and encourage students to think outside the box and apply what they have learned in the class to develop creative solutions. Project examples include renewable wave energy system and remotely operated vehicle designs. As I expected, students who worked on these projects appeared very enthusiastic and motivated. I was led to believe that student can become motivated when they see what they learn can be connected to reality. In other words, they see meaning in what they learn.

Five years ago, I found out motivation is not just about finding meaning in learning. I assigned a project on vegetable garden system design to my freshman students. They were to design a sustainable engineering solution based on renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar and rainwater, and that can be implemented on campus. I thought students would find this project highly relevant. In contrast, I was astonished to find out students were not motivated to work on this meaningful project! I was literally back to square one about what makes students motivated.

I came across an important psychology research finding about four years ago that led me to a solution. The research [1] suggests autonomy is an important driver for motivation. Autonomy is all about having choices. When students have choices to decide what they want, they tend to take ownership of their choices, and are willing to spend as much time as they can. Think about why someone would spend enormous time and money playing a sport like hockey (I can tell you from personal experience how expensive it is!). The simple answer is that is what they want to do. The converse is true: when students are told what to do every step of the way, they don’t feel like owning the problem because they think it is not theirs. This was so true for my garden design project example. Students didn’t choose that project, I did.

Nowadays, rather than assigning projects in class, I empower students to design their own projects. There are many challenges in this approach for both students and faculty. I have to balance autonomy with guidance and direction. Students experience, sometimes for the first time, making academic decisions. The rewards for both are well worth the effort. In addition to college students, I also mentor high school students for college preparation. Recently I mentored two high school students who wanted to have project experiences; one designed an underwater scooter, the other designed a wave energy system. They both achieved a great deal in terms of levels of confidence and problem solving skills, and more importantly got offers to their first-choice universities. Based on my experiences so far, I truly believe that educators should embrace the tools of autonomy and help our kids to reach their full potential.

[1] E. L. Deci, and R. M. Ryan. Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior, NewYork: Plenum, 1985.

By Edgar An, Private Tutor

Elizabeth Walters

October 1, 2014

A graduate of Smith College and Columbia University, Elizabeth Walters draws on years of experience as a writer, editor, certified teacher, writing consultant, and private tutor as she helps students succeed in reading, writing, and standardized tests. As a high scorer herself, with GRE marks in the 96th percentile for Verbal Reasoning and the 97th percentile for Analytical Writing, she knows how rewarding it can be to achieve one’s goals.

Elizabeth holds a BA in English language and literature from Smith and an MFA in creative nonfiction writing from Columbia, where she was awarded a prestigious fellowship to teach University Writing, Columbia’s first-year composition course. Her classes included sections specifically for international students and for students of non-traditional ages and backgrounds. After commencement, she has continued on at Columbia as a consultant in the university’s writing center, which serves both undergraduate and graduate students.

Before starting graduate school, Elizabeth spent several years teaching middle- and high-school English, reading, and standardized test preparation. She has worked with students on all skill levels, from remedial to on-level to honors students, and she has taught children with various exceptionalities, including ADD/ADHD, dyslexia, dysgraphia, giftedness, and emotional/behavioral disorders. She has tutored both public and private-school students. She loves individual tutoring because she enjoys being able to customize lessons to help specific learners succeed. Before becoming a teacher, Elizabeth was a copy editor and reporter at the Concord Monitor, an award-winning newspaper in New Hampshire. She continues to work as a journalist; among the publications that have featured her pieces are the Times-Picayune, the Village Voice and the website of the Washington Post. She brings to her writing instruction her experiences as an editor of thousands of articles and as a coach for thousands of academic essays. She has edited dissertation chapters for students at institutions such as MIT, Columbia, and Washington University in St. Louis, in subjects as varied as inorganic chemistry, law, and forensic anthropology. No matter what the topic or genre, she prizes readability and clarity in writing, and she helps her students develop those qualities in their pieces.

Elizabeth’s favorite pastimes are reading, writing, and editing. She enjoys finding a favorite coffeehouse in each neighborhood where she tutors. She also enjoys playing her violin, hearing live music, walking around the city, and exploring the geography and culture of New York.

Neer Asherie

September 30, 2014

Neer Asherie is a full time, tenured professor of physics and biology at Yeshiva University where he teaches Introductory Physics (algebra-based), General Physics (calculus-based), Waves and Optics, and Biophysics.

Throughout Neer’s academic career he has been an active teacher and tutor, with students ranging in age from 14 to 50. His research focuses on protein phase behavior and self-assembly. Currently, he is working with undergraduate students at Yeshiva University to investigate the role of chirality (lack of mirror symmetry) in protein crystallization.

Neer has an eclectic educational background, studying in private and public schools and in both the American and British systems. He received his BA and MA degrees in natural sciences (physical) from Cambridge University and a PhD in physics from MIT. He is fluent in five languages, including English, Italian, Spanish, French, and Hebrew.

In addition to his scientific publications, Neer has authored a novel and several short plays.