education & tech

Some studies relate sleepiness in the classroom due to obesity.But a recent analysis by Dr. Helene Emsellem, a sleep researcher with George Washington University in Washington,says it's all due to shorter hours of sleep in our teens.

What some parents and students do not realize, the expert explains, is that certainly during the day, they're gathering information. "But they're really not learning it till they sleep on it", said Emsellem.

This explains why most high school students are chronically tired. As for now, a typical high school senior sleeps an average of seven hours, when what a student needs is 9 1/4 hours sleep.

Next time you see a student falling asleep in your class, don't blame them. Blame their home. Parents are responsible to ensure their sons go to sleep on time. No caffeine for them and less light at the time to sleep. Short naps lasting 20-30 minutes work as well, during the school week.

But do not postpone sleep time to the weekend. A teenager typical habit on the weekend creates even more chaos in their sleep-wake cycle:

"Even if you catch up by sleeping in late on your weekend mornings,...by doing so, it makes it harder for you to fall asleep by 10 or 10:30 on Sunday night. And you start all over again, sleep restricted."

As parent you can verify now, why your teen wakes up tired, grouchy, irritable. He/she simply is so exhausted!

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Successful students aren't born that way. But they achieve their success by applying effective students habits.

So, if you have a kid or student who is able to breeze through school with a bit of an effort, don't get discouraged. Work with the young person to develop each of these study habits, and you'll see their grades go up and their ability to learn and assimilate information improve.

1. Don't cram all studying into one session
If you want your child/student to become a successful one, he needs to learn to be consistent in his studies and to have regular, yet shorter, study periods.

2. Set a schedule of study
Students who study sporadically and whimsically typically do not perform as well as students who have a set study schedule.

3. Study at the same time
It's important a student plans the time when he is going to study but they also need to create a consistent daily routine. Your child/student will be more mentally and emotionally prepared when he studies at the same time each day and each week. The process will become part of his life.

4. Study time should have a specific goal
Studying without direction is counterproductive. Every time a student starts studying, set a study session goal that supports his academic goal. (i.e. Memorize the Pythagorean Theorem in order to ace the exercises on the upcoming Math test).

5. Do not procrastinate
Once a study session is schedule, resist the temptation to accept procrastination. Very common and easy when a child has other things to do, lacks of interest or the assignment is hard. Successful students DO NOT procrastinate. It also leads to rushing, and rushing is the number one cause of errors.

6. Prepare the most difficult subject first
Since most effort and mental energy is consumed with the most difficult subject, he should start with it first. Starting with the most difficult work will greatly improve the effectiveness of his study sessions and his academic performance.

7. Have notes and review them alongside your child
Your child must first have notes, if needed go over these notes with him. If not, review your child notes thoroughly to make sure he knows how to complete the new assignment correctly.

8. Find a place where student won't be disturbed
Do no tolerate multitasking. If a student gets disturbed, he 1) loose his train of thought and 2) he gets distracted. Before your student or child starts studying try to find a place without any gadgets and a location where he does not get disturbed.

9. Learn how to manage groups and implement it effectively
Students who get good grades are familiar with study groups and they perform effectively. But groups need to be structured and participants must come prepared. If not, it'll be a waste of time. Working in groups, though, enables a student to 1) get help from a better prepared classmate, 2) complete assignments quickly, and 3)help other students and himself to better internalize the subject matter.

10. Review schoolwork over the weekend
Review notes, class materials and homework over the weekend. This way your student will be better prepared to continue learning new material at the beginning of each week, which in time, build upon previous coursework and knowledge acquired previously.

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A study lead by Louis Deslauriers, a post-doctoral researcher at UBC's Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative (CWSEI) has found that "interactive teaching methods significantly improved attendance and doubled both engagement and learning in a large physics class."

The study is mentioned by the Education Research Report.

"Students from the experimental class uniformly scored nearly twice as well in a test designed to determine their grasp of complex physics concepts (average score 74 per cent vs. 41 per cent, with random guessing producing a score of 23 per cent. Attendance in the interactive class also increased by 20 per cent during the experiment."

The source also quotes the study published this Friday 13, 2011 in Science:

"There is overwhelming evidence how much teaching pedagogy based on cognitive psychology and education research can improve science education," says co-author Carl Wieman (Associate Director for Science of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy). "This study further shows that we can achieve individual attention without individual interaction, and that even in a large class, the positive effects of a tutor or apprenticeship model can be achieved by using evidence-based teaching methods."

Two classes of an undergraduate physics course with approximately 270 students each were taught by highly-rated, professors with decades of experience.

"In addition to the objective measurements of engagement, attendance and test scores, we also surveyed students and found that these teaching methods generated a lot of excitement in class – which makes for a great learning environment," declared Deslauriers, lead author of the study.

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I certainly concur about the NY Post reporters, Norm Scott blogs. He says that too many reports coming from the NYT are being indexed by Gotham Schools. Too biased?

Teachers, as well as parents, and all people involved in pursue of a better education in America, should start evaluating the reports of the reporters covering stories they were involved in. Way to go, Scott!

Given the nature of the attack on teachers I suggest you check the work of the journalists reporting on education. How many events are so poorly covered, often with misinformation and certainly misinterpretation?

If you live in New York, this is a blog Norm Scott suggest you must be following: Untamed Teacher.

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Despite the fact that we now have leaders speaking about the benefits of using the technology in the classroom, the gap between technology and education persists. More involvement is needed. One swallow does not make a summer!

Education is a large category which includes a good deal of topics. That's why today I picked only the school. In a environment where time is money and those who don't keep up are left behind, technology is up to date. But is this happening at school?

There is a different story. There is a real dichotomy, writes Suzanne Korf of The Gazette from Montreal, Canada:

Take your average teenager and picture his home environment. He most likely has a computer with high-speed Internet and loads of gigabytes, and probably does his homework while downloading movies and answering text messages on his cellphone, with his favorite tunes blaring away on his iPod.

Now picture his school environment.

It hasn't changed all that much since we were in school. Aside from the same old buildings now even more in need of a makeover, in the average classroom, teachers still lecture in the front of the class, writing notes on a blackboard and using static textbooks as materials. Sure, there may be a computer and perhaps even a SMART Board in the classroom, but kids must feel like they are in a time warp. Some of the rules are archaic, too.

For example, cellphones are banned on school property, even during lunch and recess. hey are taken away if hey accidentally fall out of a pocket if a child so much as looks at it to check the time.

Perhaps these detested phones could be embraced as a resource. With most teenagers having phones with Internet access, in a classroom of 30 kids I would bet that this would make the equivalent of 15 personal computers in the class. Kids could pair up to look up information, share and discuss it.

At work, we often refer to our BlackBerry during a meeting to see if an update is available or to share information. Why shouldn't our schools reflect that?

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