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Making Halloween Educational for Kids

Combine education with fun and you have a winning combination! Here's a few ideas on getting creative with Halloween. Some of these might even make your kids scary smart!

source: https://www.kaplanco.com/blog/post/2014/10/02/Making-Halloween-Educational-for-Kids.aspx




How do you plan to celebrate Halloween in your classroom? Will you have a costume parade, throw a Halloween party, decorate pumpkins, or pass out lots of candy? These and other similar activities will only add to children’s excitement about the holiday, but Halloween-related activities aren’t usually the most educational of activities you can plan for students. In fact, some people may say that these types of activities are a waste of time and resources.

While you can argue that Halloween activities promote family engagement and community in the classroom, intentional teaching (consciously planning activities that have specific purposes) can help you silence the naysayers and make Halloween more educational for kids. Here are four ways you can create satisfying (and fun!) Halloween-related learning experiences for the children in your care:



1. Share Fun Facts - Did you know pumpkins are a fruit? They’re actually berries—yes, berries (we were shocked, too). Providing fun, interesting facts about pumpkins, bats, and other Halloween-related objects and animals can help make any Halloween activity educational for kids. Helpful Tip: Turn the fun facts you come up with into a trivia game that students can play during your Halloween party or while they’re decorating pumpkins.



2. Go Beyond Arts and Crafts - Take students to a local pumpkin patch and let them pick out their own pumpkin for decorating. This is a great opportunity for children to learn about how pumpkins are grown. If you don’t have the budget to go on a field trip, read Pumpkin Pumpkin with your class or ask a local pumpkin farmer to come talk to your class about the growing process. Helpful Tip: Before children decorate their pumpkin, have them record their observations about the pumpkin’s size, color, shape, and other features. You can use their data to create fun and relatable math charts and word problems.



3. Learn About Various Halloween Celebrations - Halloween has a long history and is celebrated in a

number of countries, which gives you a variety of opportunities to teach children about history and diversity. For example, you can discuss how Halloween began in Ireland or share how people in Mexico honor their deceased loved ones on Día de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead). Helpful Tip: Have children create and design a booklet about different Halloween traditions around the world. Make sure you ask them to include their own Halloween traditions.

4. Turn Your Halloween Party into a Halloween Math Party! - Have children estimate how many candy corns or roasted pumpkin seeds are in a jar. Pass out candy and ask students to count or sort their candy pieces. Older children can also use candy pieces to make fractions or practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Helpful Tip: Invite parents to come to your Halloween math party and/or take pictures of students solving math problems and enjoying their snacks. You can post the pictures you take on your classroom blog or send them to parents in an email or newsletter.

So what is your creative idea to keep the kiddos learning? Don't let all that candy turn their brains into mush. Leave us a comment with your best idea.

Athena Learning Center of College Station

Unaffordable Tutoring and How It Can Be Fixed

Tutoring and affordability is a subject that is very near and dear to our hearts here at Athena. We deal with it every day. We would love to see professional, quality tutoring available and affordable to every child who needs it. While our legislature has made some attempts to deal with the problem, they are often short sighted and lacking. What's worse, the children who some of these programs were designed to help the most are often ineligible due to technicalities that weren't very well thought out. This article deals with the subject very well. Look for more insights at the end.

source: http://www.teenink.com/opinion/social_issues_civics/article/793307/Unaffordable-Tutoring-and-How-It-Can-Be-Fixed/ 

Have you ever struggled in school? A common solution to that problem is to hire a tutor. However, a problem today is the lack of affordable tutoring for those in need of it. Providing more academic aid to students can help them get better grades and hopefully get into a better college.


The fee for a tutor can range from $10 for a high school student to $75 for a certified teacher per hour. This can be extremely expensive, especially if a student receives frequent tutoring. Students and parents in lower income areas may be unwilling to spend that extra money or be unable to afford it, but students who can afford it gain an advantage over others who cannot and have been shown to have significantly higher mean scores in both language arts and math standardized tests when compared to an untutored control group.


In 2012, over 50% of students in U.S. public schools were considered low income for the first time in

at least 50 years. A lack of affordable tutoring is an increasingly large issue that now affects the majority of public high school students and the gap between low-income and wealthier students is only increasing.


Students should be given as equal a chance as possible to do well in school, regardless of their economic situation and should be able to receive extra help if needed. Tutors can focus on a specific student’s needs, which is often hard to accomplish in large groups.

It was due to similar concerns that Congress passed its No Child Left Behind Act in 2001. The goal of the act is to provide federal funds to schools with poor students and “improve educational equity for students from lower income families”.


Although the act can also cover tutoring costs, less than 15% of eligible students are currently receiving it. Also, districts are only qualified if they attend Title I schools, which are school districts with at least 35% of students’ families categorized as low income. Students are qualified if they attend the district and receive a free or reduced-price lunch.


Much more can be done to raise awareness of these programs and further encourage students to seek tutoring, especially if the costs are covered under the act. Since the program already exists, people should be encouraged to us it. However, one issue with the No Child Left Behind Act is that it caused a rise in companies charging the maximum covered by the act of $2,000 per student for 50 hours for unqualified tutors. This problem can be solved by an increase in oversight and increased monitoring of the tutoring companies, which would save money being spent on overpriced, unqualified tutors.


While the No Child Left Behind Act does help many of those who need it, it only targets those in

relatively high-poverty areas. Those attending school districts that don’t meet the criteria or whose families are not considered low-income are not affected, even if they need it.


A solution to this problem is volunteer tutoring. Many high school and some college students are required to provide community service and many are members of community service organizations that are willing to help. Tutoring could also be beneficial to the elderly and retired - a study in 2009 indicates that tutoring can delay or reverse brain aging in the elderly. Another study found that tutoring led to measurable improvements in physical activity and mental health of the tutors over those who did not.


Organizations such as the Experience Corps, which tutors in 22 cities across the nation, are already working with the interested elderly. Tutors receive no income other than “an annual stipend of about $2,800 that helps cover transportation costs, school lunches and occasional treats for the kids”.

Programs like the Experience Corps should be more widely implemented and in more flexible groups so that a wider range of people can participate. Funding could come from donations and from states or the federal government. Funds are already being used for the No Child Left Behind Act and some could be used for volunteer programs, which could also reduce existing costs for other tutoring under the act.

What amazes me is that well intentioned programs like No Child Left Behind can have such overarching requirements like the child can only be in a Title 1 school. So basically, if you are a poor kid in a rich school, you are out of luck. I understand the thoughts behind it like richer schools should be able to supplement tutoring for poor students easier than poor schools, instead of having nicer football stadiums, or huge marching bands, or....I better just stop there. And don't get me started on blithely handing out ipads to every student thinking this will magically jump them into the 21st century. See an entire article we published about that here: http://athenabcs.blogspot.com/2015/10/why-ipads-and-chromebooks-wont-save.html  

So what do you think? What are some of the more pressing concerns we have when it comes to our poorer students? How can we help them best? Leave your comments below.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/athena-learning-center-of-college-station-college-station-3

Autumn Lesson Ideas

Nothing signals the onset of the fall season more than pumpkins and Halloween. Here's some great idea's to keep the kiddo's engaged and learning.

Source: http://www.athenalearningcenters.com/autumn-lesson-ideas/

Veteran teachers know that from now until after the holidays, it will be a little more challenging to keep the students engaged in what’s going on in the classroom. A good strategy is to incorporate some of the themes that are surrounding them once they leave the campus.

Here are some fun, yet challenging lesson ideas for incorporating autumn into each subject area’s curriculum.

Science: Now’s the time for photosynthesis

Fall is the biggest time of year for photosynthesis. After all, if it wasn’t for the change in the ability of plants to create energy, their leaves wouldn’t fall in the first place. When studying photosynthesis, you can make the lesson as complicated as you want depending on the grade level you’re trying to reach, including various experiments with healthy plants. Age-appropriate explanations for why leaves change color can be found at Science Made Simple.

Math: Get out the pumpkins!

Pumpkins are a natural ally to math teachers everywhere. They come in a variety of weights and sizes, or circumferences and radiuses for geography teachers. Smaller children love to carve them up and use the seeds for various arithmetical exercises, while the older kids can start working on more complicated tasks including building their own pumpkin-chucking machine for studying trajectory and laws of motion. They make the room smell nice, too.

Social Science: Track the foliage

This works particularly well as a teaming activity with a science teacher studying photosynthesis (see above). A good place to start is the national foliage map from the Weather Channel. Using various data found online, students can start piecing together what is happening with the foliage around the country. See if they can make some friends on Skype in a place where the colors are quite different from home, especially if you’re teaching in an area where the leaves don’t change. Advanced students can create their own foliage map based on temperature data and other factors.

English/Language Arts: It’s Poe time!

Frankly, the work of Edgar Allan Poe seems out of place in any other season. The imagery is a bit cold and dark, just like fall. Aside from reading his poetry or short stories, take some time to introduce the concept of gothic horror to the students and ask them to create their own stories in the same tradition. Sharing is also important. When students create any writing, it should be written to be read by more than just their teacher. Find some works from other authors with unreliable narration or suspense and run a comparison.

The Next Level

Have you had success with any other fall-themed lesson units? Educate us in the comments below.

If you thought this article brought up some valuable points, please share it among your social networks using the buttons.



And if you feel your child needs a little more help preparing for this rigorous new curriculum, please find out more about Athena’s tutoring services.

Why iPads And Chromebooks Won’t Save the Classroom

This is a really timely article for today's schools who think buying every child an iPad or laptop is going to help develop them into better learners. Too often in our society today the answer seems to be to throw more money at the problem....and boy do we! School spending is up and grades are down. The rally cry is we need more money and since the state won't give it to us it's their fault our schools are failing. What's the old saying about throwing good money after bad? Read on and let me know what you think in the comments.

THE FOUNDER OF KANO, A KID'S COMPUTER, SAYS DIY IS BETTER THAN OFF-THE-SHELF.

Alex Klein is the co-founder and CEO of Kano, which creates computer and coding kits for all ages, all over the world. His reporting and writing has appeared in Newsweek, the New Republic, New York Magazine, the Nation, the Times of London,BuzzFeed, and other publications.

Source: http://www.fastcodesign.com/3051347/why-ipads-and-chromebooks-wont-save-the-classroom

Three years ago, in a cold North London classroom, I asked some skeptical 3rd-graders three questions:

1. "Who here has seen the inside of a computer?" No hands went up.

2. "Who here can tell me how a computer works?" The room burst to life. "It thinks with electricity and sends waves to the Internet." "It uses a SIM card to make pictures." Excitement without understanding.

3. "Who here thinks they could make a computer?" Silence again.

Then came the prestige: "Well today, you’re going to build your own computer. You’ll fill its memory with new ideas. You’ll talk to the Internet with simple words. You’ll wire up a speaker. And you'll do it all without me saying a word."

We gave each student a prototype Kano computer kit to build and code: a box of open-source bits, and a simple storybook. In an hour, they’d built the hardware, hacked the desktop, and programmed Minecraft instead of just playing it. With code, they created their own games, songs, and shortcuts. They built virtual castles in one-click, instead of placing one block at a time. Making was the game.

Around the same time, a Los Angeles school district was asking its principals a different question: "If you could design the school of the future, what would it look like?"

The answer from most: Shiny screens! eLearning! Kids flinging polymonials like Angry Birds across magic tablets!

The district bought thousands of iPads from Apple for more than $100 million. The powerful, shiny, closed screens were used to deliver good content that would have cost a fraction of the price if printed black-and-white on A4 paper. What’s strange is that not a single child will ever see the inside of what their $100 million investment bought. (Now they’re trying to get a refund.)

I THINK IT’S TIME TO CHANGE HOW WE APPROACH TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM.

I think it’s time to change how we approach technology in the classroom. Computing is something you do, not just use, or buy. When we were kids, we learned biology by planting beans and hatching eggs. Today, we teach computing by handing out finished plants and full-grown chickens, then dare kids to work backwards to the ideas beneath.

After the iPads were returned, Los Angeles schools turned toChromebooks, the more affordable browser-only laptops, which run on open-source. But since these awesome web machines are designed as a direct funnel into Google, they won’t let you install native software, nor teach you much about what’s under the hood. Hacking the Chromebook is tough. Alphabet will pay you up to $2.71828 millionif you figure out how.

Why, in the age of computational creativity, when every school district,mayor, and R&B frontman wants to get your kids coding—creating with technology, not just consuming it—do we keep putting iPads and Chromebooks in students’ hands?

We still live in a world whose most popular operating system (Android) was written and shared freely by hobbyists and amateurs, in a solar system whose largest man-made satellite (the International Space Station) runs open-source code.

COMPUTING SHOULD BE ABOUT CREATION, AS WELL AS VOCATION.

Most agree that computing in class is a no-brainer. A window into the Internet is worth more than all the elementary school libraries in the world. But most kids have, or are soon to have, powerful networked devices in their pockets. So why double up when there are alternative ways to expand learning, outside of these closed devices, that can provide even more value, fuller preparation for the future? Computing should be about creation, as well as vocation, and to do so means intertwining open tools, tablets, and yes, even programming languages.

Some context on how closed, became simple, then became the default: In the '90s, we taught a generation how to use that decade’s versions of Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. Programming proper became the domain of "nerds," "savants," "geniuses." Now we insist you learn Javascript, or get left behind, and we teach it with devices whose warranty breaks if you run a "Hello World" script.



Today, we can do more. When USA Network hacker dramas are incorporating Raspberry Pi plot points, you know "making" is about to go mainstream. It’s time to drive that movement from the bottom-up, with classrooms that converge with makerspaces, and teachers that accept and enjoy that their students can and will surprise them with technology—not just with how well they use the pre-packaged features, but how quickly they break and remix them.

"The unwashed masses don't know the difference between eight and sixteen bits," quipped Maurice Goldman, a 1980s Apple ad guru, "much less between a mouse and a green screen." Today, kids and creatives want to know the difference. They can be inventors, not just users.

According to Cisco, there are over 8 billion devices connected to the Internet; according to IDC, less than 50 million computer programmers worldwide. This big gap throws us employment and inequality woes. So much of the modern world is made by so few, in closed labs and accelerators.

But there’s hope. At an early age, with screens all around, a young mind is well primed to start making—not just swiping. With Kano’s online world, a "kids GitHub," beginners in over 86 countries have created and shared thousands of digital creations on top of an open-source brain. In just over 9 months, with open, hackable hardware, a sense of play, and a simple story, that’s over 7.7 million lines of code. We introduce game mechanics and open playgrounds, and speak in a human voice. Then we let kids do the rest. In Sierra Leone, Kano has been turned into a radio station by a teenage hacker; in Oklahoma, a time-lapse camera to capture blooming flowers; in Kosovo, a solar automation station; in Minnesota, a game console (see Youtube video above).

Steve Jobs once called computing a "mind bicycle". Woz would have sold you a Mac in pieces, with a screwdriver. Today, we trust kids to swipe and tap for fun, but limit their creative screen-time. We’re turning code into a purely technical, pre-vocational skill, something for the Silicon Valley gurus. We present computing as something you only buy, but never do.

An iPad app that teaches Python is good—if your only goal is prepping for a programming job. A teacher, a story, and an open toolkit—say a Raspberry Pi, an Arduino, a Microbit—is better. They can make "making" into more than "something the factory does." We should show kids how technology connects with the arts, with history; how they can wield it to make a song, a game, a robot, a time-lapse camera, or a generative artwork. Even after school tutoring places in College Station are using more robotics classes and MindCraft type learning programs

As Dr Seymour Papert put it, computers in the class should not be "machines for processing children, but something the child himself will earn to manipulate, to extend, to apply to projects—thereby gaining mastery of the world."

Maybe it’s the fear of hacker stereotypes (the brogrammer in the basement, the boy getting shocked by a drive) that ushers so many sealed screens into students’ hands. Their one-size-fits-all simplicity works well for classrooms that don’t like surprises.

There’s a place for machines that "just work." In your left hand, you can hold a pre-made world—an iDevice to connect you to anyone you’ve ever met, to consume any form of media. But in your right hand, you should have a computer you make, an invention machine that asks a little bit more of your mind and soul—so you can do more than "just work."

The new generation, immersed in screens from birth, need the opportunity and inspiration to look under the hood. Our students need learning machines they can open up, build, code, and remix. As for our generation? We can start presenting technology as a medium for imagination—not just the shiny bribe that makes old-school learning seem temporarily fresh.

http://www.greatschools.org/texas/college-station/24800-Athena-Learning-Center-Of-College-Station/

WHAT TO LOOK FOR ON THE FIRST REPORT CARD

For a child it can be a terrifying experience or one of anticipation. If they are struggling in school, bringing home a bad report card can be full of dread. On the other hand, if our child is excelling in their studies, they can have the expectations of rewards and praise or maybe a trip to the ice cream shop or catching that movie they've been wanting to see. Are we putting too much pressure on our kids? Or should we be holding them to the highest standards possible? Read on for some helpful tips. Let us know your thoughts in the comments. 

source: http://www.athenalearningcenters.com/what-to-look-for-on-the-first-report-card

Overall, the first report card of a new school year is to be taken with a fairly large grain of salt.

For many schools and districts, we’re coming up on the end of the first grading period of the school year. Many students will come home with perfectly acceptable grades. Some will have their parents confused in one way or another. Here’s what to look for in that first report card.

Conduct

For the most part, don’t worry too much about actual grades (more about that later). What you might want to pay more attention to is conduct. Obviously, if conduct is bad, then learning suffers later.

If you are at all surprised about any conduct reports, reach out to the teacher immediately. Lots of things, including mindset, can change over the course of a summer. It’s better to get a handle on those changes now.

Grades

As said before, don’t pay as much attention to grades. It’s the first grading period. Summer brain drain, new surroundings, and new relationships can all make for a steep learning curve this early in the year. There are a few exceptions:

· For high school seniors, a lackluster report card now can signal the start of the “senior slide” and can have effects on the future that the student doesn’t understand. Their college of choice will still see these grades on their transcript, even if they’ve been admitted early.

· Bad grades for subjects in which the student normally excels are worth a conversation. In math, it might just be another steep learning curve (there is a big difference between geometry and calculus, for example). Some outside help from a learning center might be warranted. If it’s another subject, there might be something wrong that only the child or the teacher can uncover. These tend to be interpersonal or organizational issues that are easily solved if caught early.

· Slipping grades in the “easy” courses, like PE or electives, are also worth a conversation. There can be a lot of reasons for these as well, but they also count just as much on a GPA and deserve some attention.

· Obviously if any grades are really bad, some action on your part is needed.



Overall, the first report card of a new school year is to be taken with a fairly large grain of salt. Yes, there are potential warning signs of upcoming troubles. But for the most part, many students struggle with getting back into the routine of school.

Worried about your child's report card? Give us a call, we'd love to help....it's what we do!

Athena Learning Center of College Station

Tutoring and Learning Center for K-12th grade kids in math, reading, writing and science

3505 Longmire Drive
College Station Texas (TX) 77845
United States

(979) 314-9132
Hours: Mon-Fri 10am - 8pm