StudySkills.com by SOAR Study Skills

For the last few months, my son has been drowning in homework! He’s in second-grade. As you may know, he has dyslexia and ADHD. But, his “disabilities” are not the problem. As a matter of fact, our targeted interventions and his hard work have put him very close to “grade-level.” He hates writing (the process of forming letters, not composition). Otherwise, he’s progressing nicely.

Nonetheless, he’s drowning in homework.

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As school budgets are rapidly shrinking, administrators have to carefully consider how to allocate their budget; they need to get the most “bang for their buck.” Managing a school budget is an art form involving hundreds of decisions and balancing dozens of demands.

“HOW CAN WE MAKE THE GREATEST IMPACT?”

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I’m from the Detroit area and our local economy, like many others, has been hit hard lately. People from the Motor City are working hard to re-innovate themselves and the community. It’s an energizing time to be a part of this town (especially now that our baseball team has just clinched the American League Central Division Title). We are always looking for a reason to celebrate something! (more…)

Twenty-five years before Ray Kroc opened his first McDonald’s store, he was a struggling “paper cup” salesman in Chicago. It was 1930; the country was in the midst of the prohibition era and soda fountains were rapidly expanding as an alternative to bars. Walgreen’s was leading the way, opening new stores and soda fountains at a feverish pace. (more…)

I know that many schools across the country have been in session for a few weeks now, but I just sent my kids off to school for the “first day” today. It’s hard to believe that fall is “unofficially” here! To kick off the new school year, I have a couple of resources for you and a special announcement for SOAR:

1. THE COST OF NOT TEACHING STUDY SKILLS: A couple of weeks ago, I sent an email that received more response than anything I’ve ever written! It was about the cost of NOT teaching study skills and was so popular that I created a video to go along with it. If you enjoyed the email –or if you didn’t have time to read it- you can see it here: (more…)

Have you seen the following statistics?

30% = number of students dropping out of high school in the US.
40% = number of college students who have to take at least one remedial course in college.
50% = number of college students who never complete a degree.
66% = number of high school honor students who fall behind in college. (more…)

We are heading in to the time of year that students of all ages have reports, presentations, and other big projects to do. So, I am sharing a nifty, on-line tool that is a great for helping students map out a plan for these big projects. It is a calendar creator that will allow you to print a customizable date range of up to 12 weeks…all on one page. It’s free and available here: (more…)

Parents and teachers get frustrated when students don’t put forth the extra effort to organize themselves and study.

Are they lazy?

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**How DO We Make Learning More Relevant?**

One way to bridge this gap is to illustrate the connections between what our students are learning and how that information will help them in “the real world.” As you explain these connections, stories will emerge and students love stories! Watch the body language of students change as you begin to describe a personal experience you have had or something interesting that happened to someone else. They lean in, quiet down, and focus! Stories evoke emotions, emotions bring relevance, and relevance fosters *motivation!* (more…)

In a previous article, I discussed the #1, most fundamental learning strategy of making connections and described a strategy for learning vocabulary words. It is very simple, yet such a powerful strategy, I decided to make a video of it.

Take a look: (more…)