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Help Your Child Succeed
in School: Tips for Parents
Middle School can be a challenging
time for students and their parents. Love and support are two gifts
that parents can give their children that will help them succeed in school.
With this love and support, students feel better about themselves and bring
their confidence and “Can Do” attitude to school. Parents
can be confidence builders in these ways:
· Be generous with praise. Praise
and criticism are both important for students to hear. Make an effort
to give more praise than criticism and comment on what your student is doing
well. Then approach the negative in a positive way. For example: “Jose,
your English teacher says you are getting along great with your peers and
have a wonderful sense of humor. It also looks like more time is needed
on preparing for your weekly Studio assignment.” (HINT: Notice “but”
was not used; “but” can negate or diminish the positive)
· Encourage “personal best”.
Middle school students are often comparing themselves to others. Encourage
them to look at themselves and to strive for “individual bests”
based on what they have done and their potential. Freedom to learn from
mistakes is important in many aspects of life, including school. For
example: “Amanda, on your last Math homework, you had 5 of 10 correct,
let’s see if we can bring that up to 7 of 10 this week”.
· Make your priorities clear. Your
positive attitude toward school, teachers, counselors, attendance and involvement
in school is contagious and your student will catch it. For example,
dedicate 10 minutes each night to go through each class and review what your
student did.
· Help set goals. At the start
of each quarter, set 3 or 4 goals. Be specific and make rewards clear.
Keep written goals where they will be seen everyday. For example, one
goal on the refrigerator says: “Joe will attend the STOP tutoring program
after school everyday and will earn back the 2 hours of Super Nintendo at
the end of the quarter.”
Please call us if you have any questions or concerns!
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From Counselors/ Testing Coordinators STANDARDIZED TESTING IS A PART OF EDUCATION TODAY Generally, testing is to help identify student needs, assist in placement in classes and at higher levels; acceptance in school (i.e. UNR). Also, testing gives us a look at the effectiveness of a curriculum and students achievement within the curriculum. It is also a method to compare groups of students in the district, state and nation. How to help your students improve their testing results; Long term strategies; Demonstrate a positive attitude about your child's education and the people who help to provide that education. This can be done by what you say about their school, administrators, counselors and teachers as well as showing an ongoing interest about what they are learning. Help them to do quality work by expecting quality work in class and for homework. Discuss a thematic unit or major project with your child. Look at their tracker and ask questions about their work. We are all pressed for time in our lives, but most of this does not take a large amount of time and it helps your child a great deal. Assist your child in missing the least amount of school as possible. When school has to be missed, make sure they are making up the missed work as quickly as possible. Short-term strategies; Reduce anxieties about taking tests. Help them to understand the value and purpose of the test and how it will affect them. It should be pointed out that all standardized test are designed where some questions are easy and others difficult; students are not expected to know all the answers. Students should be prepared for the test by being organized for the days activities ahead of time, getting a good nights sleep and eating breakfast. Being rushed helps add to stress.
2007-08 TESTING DATES: Test
name Grade Dates Iowa
Test of Basic Skills 7th Jan. 29 - 31,
'08 National
Spanish Exam (online only) Mar. 1-April
10, Math
Formative Assessment lV 6-8 May. 19-23,
'08 CBE
Foreign Language 1-2 8th May. 5, '08 CBE
Algebra 1-2 8th June 2-4, '08
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