The Learning Zone

How to Combat Procrastination

Details

Category: The Learning Zone

Posted on Tuesday, May 12, 2015

I have been working this year with Riverbend High School Senior Abigail Williams on her Commonwealth Governor’s School Culminating Project. The focus of this project is working through procrastination. I am going to present Abby’s research in a two blog series. This is part one of two.

How to Combat Procrastination

By Nina Parrish with tips and research by Abigail Williams

What is procrastination?

Procrastination is the delay of a task with the intention of eventual completion of that task.

Do you notice that your child has difficulty with procrastination?

Almost everyone is affected by procrastination at some point in their lives. In one study, 95 percent of students reported occasional procrastination while 50 percent reported regular and ongoing procrastination. Some students engage in active procrastination where they purposefully choose to delay an activity because they are motivated by the pressure that time limits create. Other students procrastinate because of personality traits such as perfectionism, low self-esteem, impulsivity or an aversion to the task.

How can procrastination be prevented?

Students can use time management, scheduling and goal-setting activities to decrease procrastination. Here’s how:

• Keep a daily schedule breaking up larger tasks like projects or papers into small 30-60 minute blocks of time.
   
• Complete a detailed weekly/monthly schedule that includes class schedule, homework assignments, activities, and family or social obligations.
   
• Have a regular time or amount of time allotted daily to complete homework, studying and assignments. Complete these assignments in a place that is free of distractions and with access to the necessary supplies.
   
• Stay motivated by focusing not only on the process, or the means of completion, but on the outcome, or result of the task being completed. Then reward yourself when you reach certain checkpoints while working. For example, with an essay for English, the process would be doing the research and creating the rough draft. As each step in this process is completed, the student might reward themselves with something they enjoy such as a snack, short break, watching videos on YouTube, etc. The overall goal would be the outcome that they hope to achieve such as getting an A on their essay.
   
• Remember that everyone procrastinates sometimes, but the key to avoiding procrastination is being proactive and managing stress. See more on managing stress in my next blog.

 -Nina Parrish, M.Ed.

Parrish Learning Zone, LLC  
@parrishlearning | www.parrishlearningzone.com | Like us on Facebook
(540) 999-8759

Riverbend High School’s We Are One Campaign

Details

Category: The Learning Zone

Posted on Saturday, April 11, 2015

Read on to learn about a campaign that local students at Riverbend High School in Spotsylvania have launched to promote inclusiveness and decrease bullying at their school.

This year, Burke Swanson, the Senior Class President at Riverbend High School in Spotsylvania County, decided to do something impactful.  He saw that division and a lack of inclusiveness had become a school-wide problem, and with the help of the other Senior Class representatives: Zach Sims, Jessica Bartlett, Sam Medlin, and Anderson Small, launched a school-wide campaign entitled, the We are One Campaign.  Burke explains, “We are One is stating that we are one community, and in that community we have diversity.”  He hopes that this will be the start of a movement against bullying and for inclusiveness at his school.

The Senior Class representatives made t-shirts to publicize the campaign to the rest of the school, and Burke gave a speech which outlined its goals to the student body.  “My hope is that the campaign will bring about respect of the differences that make each person a unique part of Riverbend. By first addressing division in the school, it would then allow the Riverbend students to tackle larger issues. The setup of the school is not going to change; however, what can change are the feelings experienced as each student approaches the end of their assigned hallway.”

“My community is not the only one that struggles with the epidemic that is bullying; stories and videos can be found strewn all across mass media of bullying cases and methods to stop it, but it is not just about fighting the act, it is also about fighting idea,”Burke explains.  With this campaign, the Senior Class representatives hope to dispel the notion that a student has to try to be someone they are not to become a part of the in-crowd or to feel like they fit in.  By taking a public stand against bullying and for an appreciation of the different but equally valuable gifts and talents that each student brings to the community, Riverbend’s Senior Class leaders hope that the work that they have done this year is one step towards the creation of a more inclusive environment for future Riverbend High School students.

-Nina Parrish, M.Ed.

Parrish Learning Zone, LLC  
@parrishlearning | www.parrishlearningzone.com | Like us on Facebook
(540) 999-8759

The Top 3 Things not to Say or Do to a Pregnant Person While they are Trying to do their Grocery Shopping

Details

Category: The Learning Zone

Posted on Tuesday, March 17, 2015

As some of you know, we are expecting a baby, our second, in April.  I am in the third trimester, a time where you become so constantly uncomfortable that it eventually motivates you to go through whatever pain is necessary to get the baby out!   As I am reaching the end of this pregnancy, I am reminded of exactly why I disliked this stage of pregnancy so much last time around.  Yes, you say, there are the good parts like feeling your baby kick and picking out all of those cute little tiny versions of big people clothes.  But then there are the bad parts too and nowhere is this more obvious than when making a trip to the grocery store.  

I spend most of my time teaching children through our tutoring business.  I also spent a good bit of time this year teaching manners to middle school students through etiquette classes offered at a nonprofit.  However, it has come to my attention recently that it is actually the people at the grocery store who really need an etiquette lesson.   So here it is, the list inspired by my most recent trip:

The Top 3 Things not to Say or Do to a Pregnant Person While they are Trying to do their Grocery Shopping or At Any other Time:

1. Tell them Horrifying Stories or Give Unsolicited Advice

Why do people feel the need to tell stories of how their labor went horrifically wrong or was unbearably painful?  I was just looking at tomatoes, why does that mean that I want to know that you went through 26 hours of labor with no pain medication because you asked for the epidural too late, that you had to have an emergency C-section and the baby almost didn’t make it because the cord was around its neck, or that you had a horrifying experience where your water broke in public?  The same goes for bragging stories of your all natural birth or nursing a child until they were three.  I just want to shop for my produce, and now I also have to worry that I am going to go into labor, that it will then be catastrophic, and I will mess up my child with pain medication.  I have done this before, but thanks a lot AGAIN for your advice and super helpful stories!

2. Touch Pregnant People That You Do Not Know Well

Why do people feel like it is okay to touch you when you are pregnant?  People of the public, it is ALWAYS weird when someone you don’t know or have just met touches your stomach.  And this is just the beginning; when your baby is born you can’t even go to the grocery store without some stranger trying to touch their hands or feet!  Why do people do this?  

By the way, it is also rude to stare.  Even if you do not reach out and touch me, I still see you.

3. Make Comments Such As:  Are you having twins?  Wow, you are huge! You’re really getting big (or any variation of these things, really.)

This was inspired by the lady at Walmart when I was pregnant with my first, who yelled across the parking lot, “Oh my gosh; you are huge!  Are you having twins?” And also by the checkout lady at my local grocery store who asked last week if I was having twins.   No, I am not having twins, stranger at the grocery store, my husband is 6’4’’ and I am 5’1’’.  I have only gained 15 pounds, but thanks for letting me know that you can see every one of them.  I appreciate that, and didn’t realize it enough when I couldn’t get my pants to fit, even with that stretchy elastic band thing this morning.  Not that it is any of your business because I DON’T KNOW YOU, but thanks a lot.  Here I was thinking that I was looking pretty good once I finally managed to find jeans that fit relatively not uncomfortably and cute shoes that actually still went on my feet, but thanks for that reality check.  Now not only can I feel miserable on the inside, I can also know that the world thinks that I look huge on the outside.

So, you know how normally, when you are in public or talking to someone, it would be rude to all of a sudden just tell them how fat they are or really to make any negative or ambiguous comment about their appearance?  Yeah, the same thing applies with pregnant people.  It also applies after the baby is born, when you ask rude questions like, “When is your baby due?” when you can clearly see that there is a baby right in their cart!

 By the way, I really appreciate all of the people who say things like, “you look fabulous,” “you are the cutest pregnant person I have ever seen”, or “look, all of the weight is in your tummy; it’s like you’ve got a basketball under your shirt.”  They may be lies, but they are good lies that keep you going when you spent all morning trying to find clothes that fit over your ginormous body.

Become a Savvy Studier

Details

Category: The Learning Zone

Posted on Friday, January 30, 2015

Several times a week I have a conversation that goes something like this:

Parent: My kid studies; I think; I see them studying. Then they take the test and they do poorly. It’s like they don’t retain what they have studied. They see the test, get nervous, and forget. Maybe they have test anxiety.

Test anxiety is a type of performance anxiety that has physical, behavioral and emotional symptoms. Children who are experiencing nausea, shortness of breath, fainting, headaches, extreme fear, and/or difficulty concentrating before or during tests could have test anxiety. However, most of us are experiencing something much more common. Passing anxiety is a normal emotion that all of us feel from time to time. In fact this stress may just be a sign that your student could use some help studying effectively.

Many students look at notes or the textbook the night before the test for a few hours and call this studying. Then they go into the test, maybe see something different than they are expecting, feel a bit nervous and forget what they looked at the night before. This is completely normal! In fact, there is a scientific reason for it. When you take in information by looking at it once, like in the scenario above, you store it in your short-term memory. Our short-term memories have limited capacities, (about seven pieces of information), and do not respond well under stress. For this reason, short-term memory is not very effective in testing situations. As soon as we feel the stress of the testing environment, we lose the information we have learned.

Instead, the goal of studying should be to get information into our long-term memory, as long-term memory is not impacted by stressful situations and has an unlimited capacity. Here’s how:

1. Timing- Start studying in advance of the test. In fact, start studying the first day you receive the material. After taking notes in class, come home, read over the notes and make notecards. Each day, try to study this new material for 15 minutes by quizzing yourself, doing an activity or game to practice recalling the concepts or doing something new with the material like making it into a diagram or watching a short video. Keep practicing until you get the next set of notes.
    
2. Variety- Study in many different ways, and do not always study terms or concepts in the same order. The more you do, the more you will remember. People in general remember about 90 percent of what they do and only 20 percent of what they hear. We tend to remember the first and last things that we have learned, so switch it up. Varying the order will help you remember more.
    
3. Stay Focused- Limit distractions by silencing cell phones and placing them out of sight. Then study with a goal in mind. Set a task to complete (learn 15 new terms), in a certain amount of time (30 minutes), and a way to know that you are finished (as indicated by a 90% or above on a practice quiz). Reward yourself with a break when you have met this goal.

-Nina Parrish, M.Ed.

Parrish Learning Zone, LLC  
@parrishlearning | www.parrishlearningzone.com | Like us on Facebook
(540) 999-8759

Marshmallows and the Management of Multiple Tasks

Details

Category: The Learning Zone

Posted on Thursday, January 08, 2015

In a now classic, 1972 study by Walter Mischel at Stanford, children ages 3-5 were given a marshmallow and told if they could resist eating the marshmallow for 15 minutes, while the teacher stepped out of the classroom, then they would get two marshmallows.  Follow-up studies showed that the children who were able to delay the gratification of eating the marshmallow for 15 minutes:  had higher SAT scores, attained higher levels of education, had lower body mass index scores, used risky drugs less frequently, and were better able to deal with interpersonal issues in order to maintain close relationships with others.  So what made it possible for some preschoolers to delay gratification, while others could not wait?  According to Mischel, what is needed for self-control in any situation is executive functioning.
 

Executive functioning skills allow us to plan, remember instructions, focus attention, and manage multiple tasks simultaneously.  The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University compares executive functioning to an air traffic control system at a busy airport.  An effective air traffic control system can safely manage many different arrivals and departures on multiple runways.  Just as a person with highly developed executive functioning skills can control impulses, stay focused, delay gratification, and set and achieve goals.  You may wonder, are certain children just born with these skills?  Children are not born with executive functioning skills, but all children are born with the potential to develop these skills.
 

Executive functioning skills are developed when children get what they need from caregivers and their environment.  Children are the most able to learn executive functioning skills between the ages of 2 and 7 and then again during adolescence and the teenage years.  Adults can do several things to help children develop these vital executive functioning skills:
 

1. Carefully Select a Preschool

For young children, choose a preschool that has a play-based or child-directed model allowing children to learn to solve their own problems.   Activities should foster creative play, social connection, exercise and physical activity, and teach children how to deal with stress.    Growth-promoting environments also provide children with opportunities to practice skills before they must perform them and eventually allow children the freedom to direct their own activities with decreased adult involvement.
 

2. Create a Consistent and Reliable Environment

For young children and teenagers routines and stable relationships with caring adults are important to being able to predict their environment, allowing them to feel empowered to make plans and decisions for themselves.
 

3. Teach Children to Wait, Persist, and Practice.

Prioritize teaching children patience.  Praise children when they wait or demonstrate patience instead of interrupting others or choosing immediate gratification.  When children do not demonstrate patience, teach them by modeling the appropriate behavior you would like to see in the situation.  When children do something over and over again, this practice helps them to improve persistence, concentration, and focus.
 

4. Model Appropriate Social Behavior.

As parents, we have to practicing demonstrating the behavior and level of self-control that we want our children to demonstrate.  For example, instead of yelling at them or others when we are frustrated or annoyed, try modeling the desirable behavior by saying something like, “I feel very frustrated when you do not listen to me when I ask you to stop.  I feel like yelling, but I am going to take a few minutes to calm down, and then we will discuss the consequences for not following directions.”  In addition, make sure to draw attention to your child and praise them when they exercise self-control and model the social behavior that you would like to see.
 

5. Choose Activities That Promote the Development of Executive Functioning

There are many play and storytelling activities that can be done with younger children to promote the development of executive functioning skills.  Older children should focus on developing what are traditionally referred to as study, goal-setting, and self-monitoring skills.  See the following link for age appropriate ideas for developing executive functioning skills:  http://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/tools_and_guides/enhancing_and_practicing_executive_function_skills_with_children/.

-Nina Parrish, M.Ed.

Parrish Learning Zone, LLC  
@parrishlearning | www.parrishlearningzone.com | Like us on Facebook
(540) 999-8759