Blog-Post Archives

Bringing School to Sleepaway Camp

August 3, 2012 Brad Hoffman

Working with students at a sleepaway camp was unlike any other experience I have had as an educator. At schools, the focus of the day is learning and academics. Students are focused on academic work and they are set in the routine of attending classes and learning. Students go home to their families at night and discuss what they have learned, complete homework, and get ready for the following day. One could say during the year students are in “school mode.”

At camp, students are far away from their families and are living in a “happy bubble” with their peers. At Camp Greylock, where My Learning Springboard’s tutoring program took place, students lived in bunks with other campers and were immersed in intense sports activities all day. Their focus there was being part of a team, exercising their bodies and winning games.

My Learning Springboard’s partnership with Camp Greylock allowed students to have a very special opportunity to work with hand-picked New York City educators one-on-one to exercise their brains once a week in preparation for the coming school year. Each week, we made the long trek from New York City–bringing books, paper, pencils and our expertise to a setting where it did not exist before. We, as educators, brought the school to camp.

The “learning lodge”, as it was nicknamed by the staff, became an oasis for students to exercise their minds after they had so intensely exercised their bodies. Students arrived for their allotted tutoring time fresh from the sports field–sweaty, sometimes even bloody, or still dripping wet after a dip in the lake. But once they reached the tranquility of the learning lodge they hunkered down to learn.

During a dedicated session each week, students worked rigorously on reading, writing, math and test prep skills. Regardless of whether students were reading a little or a lot at night during “flashlight time”, they were guaranteed individualized academic attention with their tutor on the weekend. This arrangement was not only extremely helpful for students, but it completely eliminated the need for parents to shuttle students to and from tutoring sessions or make time and space in their own homes for a tutor to arrive.

Learning can occur anywhere, and summer camp is no exception. My Learning Springboard’s program at Camp Greylock this summer gave students the opportunity for enrichment and support in an non-traditional learning environment.

By Joanna Brown, Reading Specialist

The Benefits of Summer Tutoring at Home or at Camp

July 22, 2012 Brad Hoffman

Summer tutoring can be a controversial topic. There are many people who believe students deserve a complete 7-10 week break over the summer because they work so hard during the year. There are just as many people who feel students don’t work hard enough, or at least should be working continuously for 12 months in order to remain competitive. A reasonable place to land is somewhere in the middle. For many of our students, summer is the one sustained time period for exercising their independence, their imagination, and their bodies. The boys we’re tutoring at camp, for example, play sports 7 days a week, all day long, and they couldn’t be happier! But even in this scenario, there are creative solutions to integrating tutoring in order to avoid the summer slide.

Students performing at or above grade level with access to a rigorous curriculum and quality instruction during the school year can excel in September with a manageable practice plan over the summer months. On the other hand, students performing below grade level have a critical need for summer academic practice that’s more intensive. As long as the action plan is thoughtful and individualized, summer vacation is a great opportunity to close academic gaps and even get ahead.

Whether we’re working with students at day camps, sleepaway camps, or in summer academic programs, there are lots of different ways to incorporate academic practice in meaningful ways. The American Camping Association launched a program in 2011 called Explore 30 Camp Reading Program. The goal of the program is to promote reading at camp on a daily basis for 30 minutes, either formally or informally. When camps adopt this practice, they put a value on reading that benefits EVERY camper and staff member. When a camper sees his or her counselor engaged in reading as a leisure activity, it sends a powerful message that reading is important and pleasurable. Beyond providing camp-wide independent reading time, camps also have the ability to offer book clubs as a free choice activity. There are many campers who would love this option, and book clubs support community building and social skills development. Another opportunity for camps is optimizing the evening read aloud experience in cabins. If counselor training included best practices for sharing read alouds and facilitating literary discourse, we would see bedtime used much more effectively as a meaningful and authentic learning opportunity.

For students at home in the summer or attending day camps, academic practice can be integrated into the schedule in lots of different ways. Private tutoring is certainly an option and may provide the necessary structure, but families can also support learning on their own through games, family reading time, cooking activities, and some straightforward skill practice online or in workbooks. Setting aside 15-20 minutes at least 3-4 times per week would have a positive impact and help students to return to school in the fall ready to tackle new instruction that builds from the previous grade levels. Students who are struggling likely need more specialized support that complements the school’s curriculum, and it may be advisable for families to work with a reading specialist or math specialist.

If your child has been taking it pretty easy in June and July, we recommend stepping it up for the remainder of the month and August. Much like playing an instrument, using a second language, or excelling in athletics, it takes practice and repetition to master academic skills. Those students who consistently practice perform better and more confidently in the classroom.

By Brad Hoffman, M.S.Ed.
Board Certified Educational Planner and Learning Specialist
My Learning Springboard

Do Schools Kill Creativity?

July 13, 2012 Brad Hoffman

Do Schools Kill Creativity? If So, What Can We Do About It?
By Melissa Taylor
Original Source: Parenting

Creativity expert, Sir Ken Robinson asserts that schools kill creativity. Just a few years in our educational system and kids say adios to their innate creative abilities — creativity defined as creating something original and useful.

Notice that creativity’s definition (creating something original and useful) is not limited to the arts; it includes all disciplines.

And, using that definition, you’ll understand exactly why we would want creativity in education. Because the alternative is not good — an education system who produces poor problem solvers who lack the ability to create anything of substance. Bill Gates agreed in his annual letter saying, “Innovation has been and will continue to be the key to improving the world.”

Remember my post on how to raise a creative child? The four essentials were down time, failure, play, and opportunities to invent and create. I hope you’ve included these in your home life already. Now can we include them in the school day?

By the way, as you can see from the above four elements, you can’t teach “creativity” as a special class like music or PE. Nor do you become creative by doing a so-called “creativity kit”.

In fact, to address creativity in schools you need a complete shift in both structural and procedural paradigms. Vanderbilt’s Steven Tepper, associate director of the Curb Center, says that to facilitate creativity you must have:

collaboration
diverse environment
interdisciplinary exchange
time and resources
acceptance and encouragement of failure

Interesting. Can you imagine a school environment where interdisciplinary studies replace isolated subjects? And a place where the wrong answer is celebrated?

What else needs to to change in schools?

more curiosity
more opportunities for divergent thinking (=generating unique solutions and seeing various possibilities)
less standardized testing
less linear thinking (=memorizing facts, follow instructions, and one right answer)

Change in education is what Ralph Fletcher compares to the walking trees of Florida that move an inch every 100 years in his book by the same name. In other words, it’s slooooooow. However, if we know that schools aren’t developing creative thinkers, and we know that kids need to be creative, and we know what learning conditions must be present (see above,) then we must insist on change, slow or not.

I say it’s time to get some trees walking.

What do you say?

Differentiated Tutoring at Camp

July 10, 2012 Brad Hoffman

In order to get camp tutoring “right,” we needed to be really thoughtful about the needs of each student and family. Because students are enrolled in many different types of schools across the country, expectations vary. For example, some schools have required summer reading or math work while others do not. It’s also important to find the right balance regarding expectations for work between sessions. The keys to a successful summer camp tutoring partnership are differentiation and adaptability. One size does not fit all so it’s critical to design unique solutions for unique learners.

Tutoring at camp provides important structure for students with summer academic goals. Even if campers don’t read independently or do math practice throughout the week, the structured one-on-one time with a teacher each week will definitely help to maintain and further develop skills. Students who practice between sessions will make faster progress during the summer, but an intensive private tutoring session on its own is much better than the alternative—doing nothing.

While we want all of our students to read independently at camp as a minimum expectation each day, we also understand that campers have a full day of activities with little quiet time. Planning sessions that are dependent on a student doing homework assignments in between is a serious challenge at a residential camp and requires a student to be intrinsically motivated, organized, and self-disciplined. These are certainly behaviors we want to encourage, but it’s important to remember that this may not happen successfully each week. It’s also true that not every family wants their child to work throughout the week, while others wish homework time was strictly enforced at camp. Finding this balance for each student and family is really important, and it also needs to be achieved within the structure and resources of each particular camp, which may require some compromises.

Despite these challenges, our team is AMAZED at how amenable our students are to tutoring at camp. They arrive smiling and work really hard during the session to practice whatever skills we’re targeting. Most are reading in between sessions and the homework has generally been completed when requested. We think camp provides a terrific opportunity for campers to manage this work independently and to be accountable to their tutor without a parent’s involvement. It is all about balancing relaxation and fun with enough academics to avoid the summer slide.

By Brad Hoffman, M.S.Ed.
Board Certified Educational Planner and Learning Specialist
My Learning Springboard

Kindergarten Redshirting

July 9, 2012 Brad Hoffman

Three journalists at 60 Minutes, all at different life stages, discuss their thoughts about kindergarten “redshirting” in the video segment below. Like it or not, “redshirting” is a rising trend and one that parents are very interested in strategizing for admissions. It’s a complicated topic and there are many factors to consider in each child’s case. Parents must also understand the various birthday cutoffs for kindergarten registration. These vary between public and private schools and also from state to state. In some states, such as New York, public school cutoffs are determined by each local district. This is an important consideration for families relocating.

When deciding if your child is ready to start kindergarten, GreatSchools.org encourages parents to consider these social, academic, and developmental factors:

Enthusiasm toward learning. Is he eager to explore and discover? Is he comfortable asking questions? Does he persist even when a task is difficult?
Language skills. Does she communicate her needs? Express her feelings appropriately?
Ability to listen. Can he follow simple instructions? Is he able to listen to an entire story without interrupting?
Desire to be independent. Does she separate from parents for the school day? Is she starting to take responsibility for her personal belongings? Can she follow simple two-step tasks? Can she use the bathroom by herself?
Ability to interact with children and adults. Is he able to share, compromise, take turns and problem-solve?
Strong fine-motor skills. Is she able to hold and use a pencil? Cut with scissors? Is she learning to write her name?
Basic letter and number awareness. Can he sing and recite the alphabet and recognize some letters? Can he count to 10 and identify numbers one to five?

Below is a segment from 60 Minutes Overtime about Deirdre’s kindergartner. What would you do?

Written by: Editorial Team, My Learning Springboard, Inc.

Bringing School to Sleepaway Camp

The Benefits of Summer Tutoring at Home or at Camp

Do Schools Kill Creativity?

Differentiated Tutoring at Camp

Kindergarten Redshirting

Company Overview

School Planning

Private Tutoring

Test Preparation