“How much time do you have in the afternoon and evenings to complete work,” I asked Chris. He was struggling in most of his classes and I was trying to figure out why. “Oh, lots of time. I don’t really do anything after I get …
It’s Friday afternoon and you get an email from the parent portal. Your child has a low grade in English. Ugh. So you open the portal to check all her grades. And lose your dang mind. To get her back on track, you’re now checking …
Working with my tutoring student Lyssa was a practice in patience. For me. I gave her a folder to keep all her tutoring handouts and notes. I think I saw it every once in a while, holding papers for her school classes. Sometimes I would …
You need to get work down. That book read for Lit class, chemistry homework, or studying for your Spanish exam. But everything seems to work against you, pulling your focus. You can’t seem to get any work done. What’s wrong? I live this every single …
As we happily say good-bye to 2020 and hello to 2021, I want to return to some of my top posts from 2020. While I still focused on study skills, organization, and parenting teens, obviously the events of this year affected my content. Some of …
2020 has been a dumpster fire of a year – there is no other way to describe it. Our routines were turned upside down, schools closed, businesses went out of business, cities burned in protest, and above all, the pandemic raged across the planet. I …
“Do you think a 5-year old would like this toy? Or maybe this one instead?” I was chaperoning a trip to Target with dozens of teenagers. Homerooms had spent weeks raising money and now the kids were spending the money on Christmas gifts for needy …
“Ms. P, Merry Christmas! These cookies are for you!” My 8th-grade student then spent 5 minutes describing the weekend he spent with his mom, baking all their family favorites. He clearly loved the tradition and spending time with his mom. Remembering his excitement made those …
In my favorite Christmas movie of all time, Clark Griswold wants nothing more than an “old-fashioned family Christmas.” Though he and his wife try their best to make the perfect holiday, it quickly goes off the rails and shenanigans ensue. Now that I have kids, …
We all know that 2020 is a year for the history books. One of the groups that have seen the biggest change in how they work is teachers. Like overnight. We owe our teachers big this holiday. Luckily, I have some awesome gifts for remote …