St. Louis Learning Center

Tip of the Week

Tue, 15 May 2012 10:45:32 -0500

Find out what your entire final exam schedule is so that you’ll know how many finals you will have on each day. Make a schedule for yourself indicating when you will study for each test.

Happy learning!

Local schools help students improve ACT scores

Tue, 15 May 2012 10:42:06 -0500

St. Dominic High School officials give credit to their students for working hard and showing commitment to achieving higher test scores. School officials also give credit to their partnership with St. Louis Learning for students receiving scores up to three points higher on the ACT. The positive results and feedback from parents, students and school officials has led other schools to seek our help.

Next school year, we will continue to offer our individual and small group test preparation courses in addition to working with a few area high schools. We are excited about expanding our reach to help more students achieve higher test results. As always, our focus will be on individual accomplishments.

If you would like more information about our test preparation courses, please contact us at (636) 536-6240 or chesterfield@stlouislearning.com.

Tip of the Week

Tue, 08 May 2012 17:14:03 -0500

Center your attention on your students strengths! Give praise for all gains not just good grades.

Happy learning!

Curiosity

Tue, 08 May 2012 10:32:11 -0500

Never lose it, if you have it. Gain and cultivate it, if you don’t.

For students of any age, curiosity is at the heart of learning. If you find yourself asking a lot of questions during class, when you read, or just out and about; if you have an insatiable appetite for reading about things you just wanted to learn about that weren’t on your assigned reading list; you are a curious person.

I think we all are born with wanting to know Why? or How? or What?; but perhaps certain people whittled down your desire to understand the world around you. Perhaps some of your teachers forced you to only memorize with rote learning. Now, I’m not saying that memorization is bad. It certainly is a part of learning and is good. However, the driving force to learning is curiosity.

How do you cultivate or grow it? I would say put yourself in the midst of other curious people. Granted they can be intimidating and sometimes annoying, but these students want to learn. They want to find out what makes something do what it does. Maybe you can’t find a group of them, so then find a person. Become their friend. Another thing that could help is reading about people who had/have this trait (i.e. Steve Jobs, Einstein, etc.). I know that I just put Jobs on the same line as Einstein; maybe that isn’t fair, but they both were great. And they both were extremely curious.

If you want to build a foundation to excel in school; if you want to continue learning beyond school; if you want to find the heart of learning ask questions. Be curious. Learn.

Happy learning.

ACT Crash Course

Tue, 01 May 2012 15:21:11 -0500

ACT Crash Course with St. Louis Learning

The June ACT is quickly approaching! Is your student needing a higher score?

St. Louis Learning is offering 15 hours of prep the week before the test! Come join us June 4th - June 8th from 12 to 3 to learn specific testing strategies for the English, Math, Reading and Science portions of the ACT.

Cost for the course is $265, which includes a practice book of 10 full practice tests. Call us today to save your spot!

Contact Robin: (636) 536-6240 // chesterfield@stlouislearning.com // www.stlouislearning.com

Tip of the Week:

Tue, 01 May 2012 07:58:16 -0500

Depending on what courses you are taking, some important exams are coming up. Try to divide your study time up into more manageable chunks. Study for twenty minutes per day for the next couple of weeks, instead of three hours a night for the last few nights before the exam.

Happy learning!

Don't Be Afraid of Smarter Kids

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 08:54:58 -0500

It’s tempting to shy away from peers who are more capable than you. They are the ones that get better grades, have all of the right answers, and even write funnier stories in your composition classes. These kids should be your friends, or at least you can be around them. One of my favorite teachers said, “If you want to get smarter, surround yourself with people smarter than you.”

You may be afraid of being around students who can show you up or make you feel insecure, but you need to get over that if you want to succeed in school (and in life, for that matter). People like Rockefeller and Lincoln had people who were smarter and certainly had better credentials than they on their boards or teams.

Remember, it’s ok to not be the smartest person in the room. Having a great work ethic, character, and the ability to ask for help can make all the difference in your academic and life career.

Happy learning!

Interesting Post Giving Tips on Studying

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:05:12 -0500

Studying can be a daunting task that is required from every student, unless you are the one who has a photographic memory and a genius level IQ. The fact of the matter is that learning is hard work and is often a lonely enterprise. Certainly it can be fun. Engaging new ideas, a great novel, and unlocking a formula can be exhilarating. Nonetheless, it requires discipline and a work ethic to plow through those not so exciting times. Sometimes you just need to sit there and read, memorize, and comprehend.

Here is a page that gives some advice on studying that may be of some help.

Happy learning!

St. Louis Learning Center

Tip of the Week

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 20:25:20 -0500

Are you struggling in any of your subjects? Talk with your classroom teacher and discuss strategies that might be helpful.

Charter School Closing in St. Louis City

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 07:59:45 -0500

All six Imagine Charter Schools are being being closed. The decision was made by the Missouri Board of Education. They will provide two job fairs for these teachers and staff, and some of the teachers will most likely be hired by other local schools. However many of the Imagine staff are concerned that there are not enough positions to take them all. My question is what will all of the students and families do?

Here are links to KSDK and a press release from Imagine’s website:

http://www.ksdk.com/news/article/316681/3/Hundreds-of-St-Louis-teachers-face-unemployment

http://www.imagineschools.com/2012/04/statement-of-imagine-schools-on-missouri-state-board-of-education-decision/

A Few Students from Wash U Changing Education System through Technology

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 09:15:22 -0500

I just read this interesting blog post from Forbes about a relatively new company who built a website that helps teachers and students. The system allows teachers to share content with other students and other teachers. Teachers can also host discussions, add media, and show assignments. This tool leverages the power of social media, technology, and content sharing. Recently they’ve been able to raise 6MM in new funding. This is education taking one step forward into the technology age.

To read post click here.

Tip of the Week

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 17:38:13 -0500

Try to do your homework earlier in the day. If you wait until just before bedtime you will feel rushed and your brain will be tired after thinking all day!

Do Students Really Have Different Learning Styles?

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 14:53:33 -0500

Do Students Really Have Different Learning Styles?:

Very interesting little article about learning styles. We at St. Louis Learning Center are always looking for new ways to educate students.

infoneer-pulse:

Learning styles—the notion that each student has a particular mode by which he or she learns best, whether it’s visual, auditory or some other sense—is enormously popular. It’s also been thoroughly debunked.

The scientific research on learning styles is “so weak and unconvincing,” concluded a group of distinguished psychologists in a 2008 review, that it is not possible “to justify incorporating learning-styles assessments into general educational practice.” A 2010 article was even more blunt: “There is no credible evidence that learning styles exist,” wrote University of Virginia cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham and co-author Cedar Riener. While students do have preferences about how they learn, the evidence shows they absorb information just as well whether or not they encounter it in their preferred mode.

» via MindShift

Interesting… devalyne: A middle school teacher I know...

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 14:50:43 -0500

Interesting…

devalyne:

A middle school teacher I know has found a creative way to engage the students with the worlds largest “Jeopardy” quiz board using student lockers. After a long week of testing, the students could enjoy a change of pace with a lively game in a different environment. Check out all the topics! Great job!

Creativity in Teaching

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 11:21:44 -0500

The other day I was sitting down with some friends and chatting, and they told me that they randomly discovered that their child’s teacher knows me. She teaches in St. Louis and has been their kid’s favorite teacher. I told them that I definitely know the teacher, and that we went through K-12 together. After we had a couple of “That’s crazy” and “What a small world”, I asked them, “Why is that teacher their daughter’s favorite teacher?”

They started telling me about how she’s able to keep the class in order, and how well she’s able to hold the students attention. Then I asked, “How does she do it?” They started to tell me that she’s so creative and has been able to gain their respect and attention through out of the box exercises during their time together. She never loses her composure and always speaks very clearly to the students.

I wish I could give you more information to all of you readers about this teachers techniques, but I don’t have that information. Perhaps I need to do an interview. However, I write this to remind you educators, parents, and students that school, learning, and the classroom can still be a place of growth. There are teachers who are constantly learning and innovating, and they are taking what they are learning and applying them to their classrooms and students for their betterment.

Art and Education

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 10:46:54 -0500

Just read an interesting article on this subject:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cafe-mcmullen/arts-education_b_1400142.html?show_comment_id=147787150#comment_147787150

It is true that decision makers for the educational system are cutting arts programs. Of course we can understand the reality of budgetary contraints, however at what cost? Researchers are finding that people who have an interdisciplinary background are better at innovating than those who are in single-subject learning environments (click her for a research piece on this).

Now, I’m not saying that every child should be a painter, dancer, or poet. However, providing an educational system that exposes them to such things is important, perhaps even essential. One of the great things about our country is that we are innovators. What will happen if we reduce that amount of art, the very essence of creativity, that are children get to experience?

Lessons from Abroad: One Laptop per Child initiative does not impact student performance

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 17:37:28 -0500

Lessons from Abroad: One Laptop per Child initiative does not impact student performance:

Education needs to be personal. This critical to true learning. It takes teachers and tutors taking the time to understand a student in order to teach them. Here is an interesting post about leaning too heavily on technology in order to educate.

lessonsfromabroad:

One Laptop per Child, the American-based charity that distributes laptops to children in developing countries, failed to raise test scores in Peru, reports ZDnet.

According to an evaluation by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), students in Peru who had received the laptops did not do…

Tip of the Week

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 11:19:19 -0500

We are going to start providing tips every week.

We know that ACT is coming up. Here’s a tip that will help on the day of the exam. Good luck everyone!

TIP:

When taking the ACT remember to relax, eat a good breakfast, drink some water, bring a watch and a calculator!

Measuring Learning?

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 12:44:00 -0500

I just read an interesting post on measuring learning.

Here is a link to the post: How Do You Measure Learning?

How do you measure learning? We have standardized tests that can only determine the future of a student. However, there are some debates on their ability to provide accurate readings of how much a student knows and understands.

We in St. Louis love our families and want to provide the best for our kids. We want them to flourish, so that their futures will be bright. Yet, students struggle. St. Louis Learning understands.

We provide help to students who want to achieve and improve their learning skills. Standardized tests may not be the ultimate measure of learning, but it is a measure for schools. We at St. Louis Learning provide personal tutoring to improve a students score.

Interesting post regarding standardized...

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 08:30:23 -0500

Interesting post regarding standardized tests.

teachersworldwide:

The number of standardized tests students have to take is about to increase, but the according to a national survey from Scholastic and the Gates Foundation, the nation’s teachers overwhelmingly don’t see the high-stakes exams as essential.

The survey asked more than 10,000 educators about their classrooms, schools, and how student and teacher performances should be measured. A huge majority of teachers believe in measuring student achievement, but they believe it should be measured with a variety of assessments, not just standardized tests. (via Only 7 Percent of Teachers Believe in Standardized Tests - Education - GOOD)