Career Path

Here's something fun that may just open your eyes up to a career direction. On the careerpath.com website, you can take a color test that determines your personality type and jobs that are 'up your path'.
You can click on the website here, or down in the 'Places to go'.
www.careerpath.com/career-tests/colorcareercounselor.aspx

Enjoy!

How to Help Your Child Succeed

As I posted earlier, I wanted to share a good article for parents with ADHD children. The cool thing is that, as I read the article, I could see how helpful this would be for ANY parent of ANY child. Slow down our instructions, limit choices, be consistent, eliminate distractions. These are basics in parenting and in teaching. Sometimes, with the world being as noisy as it is, we forget to simplify and clarify. Take a moment and see where you can better your child's world.

ADHD Tips from Teachers: How to Help Your Child Succeed

By Parenting.com

If your child has been diagnosed with ADHD, teacher attention -- and, even better, an IEP -- will help him do his best in the classroom. But you can also do your part to keep your child on track at home. We talked to Michael Belle-Isle, director of Special Education and Pupil Personnel Services for Amherst School District in Amherst, N.Y., to find out what his teachers recommended for supporting students when they're not in school.

Be Consistent
Establish a daily routine that kicks in as soon as your kid walks in the door. Snack, homework, dinnertime and bedtime should be as close to the same time each day as possible. This establishes a pattern and helps your kid stay focused on the task at hand.

Talk It Out With the Teacher
This is a biggie. Communication should be clear and frequent between you, your child and the teacher. Talk to your child's teacher often -- weekly, if not daily -- about what's going on in school and at home. When you have a task or directive for your kid, provide short, clear directions. Then have your child repeat what he heard back to you to ensure everything was understood.

Stay on Schedule
Post schedules around the house that outline what happens every day in the hours before and after school. They're as helpful to your child as your own schedule is to you and can keep you all on track.

Eliminate Distractions
Switching off the TV set at homework time is a no-brainer, but here's an important point: TV and video games should be off-limits for everyone when your child is hitting the books. Even if the sound is low or the video game is being played in another room, just knowing that someone's getting screen time can be very distracting to kids with ADHD.

Limit Screen Time
Of course, we all need time to unwind in front of the boob tube sometimes, but it's important to understand that for ADHD kids, TV and video games can really increase levels of distraction. Parents should be very active in limiting television time. Make it part of a positive reward system for when work is finished -- not before. (This might mean less TV time for everyone in the family, but that might not be a bad thing, either!)

Use the Folder System
Assignments have less of a chance of creeping up on your kid if you create special folders or baskets for their work and fill them right after school every day. Label one "do this" and another "done" to keep daily and weekly assignments organized.

Organize the Backpack
With that in mind, be there to help your kid empty and sort out his backpack when he get home. Between hats and gloves, gym clothes, library books and homework folders, bags can get crowded and disorganized quickly. Weed out unnecessary objects daily.

Enforce Bedtime
It's a vicious cycle: Your kid goes to bed later one night, then has a hard time concentrating the next day, then stays up later to get his work done because his focus is off. Don't let the cycle start by making sure she gets enough z's each and every night.

Stay Close
No one likes a helicopter parent -- or being called one -- but ditch the labels and recognize that your subtle supervision during homework time can really help your child. Frequent positive verbal cues like, "That assignment's really coming along!" or "I can't believe you've done that much work already!" both encourage and help your kid stay focused.

Use Charts and Checklists
But you don't have to be your child's only source of feedback. Simple visual reminders like charts and checklists can keep your kid focused on his schoolwork, even when he's at home. They allow your child to do some self-monitoring, letting him see how much he's accomplished and what still needs to be done.

Break It Down
If your child is feeling overwhelmed by something on the to-do list, help her break it down into smaller, more manageable steps. For example, don't just list "do science project" but rather "brainstorm flow chart for science project; choose and shop for supplies for science model." Smaller goals feel much more reachable, and checking things off the list is gratifying.

Limit Choices
For kids with ADHD, too many options can be overwhelming. If you tell them they can watch TV or play their PSP or call a friend or get dessert, then focus wavers from any one task -- even if it's a fun one. Instead, help your child stay on target by limiting the this-or-that decisions.

This story, written by Joanna Batt, originally appeared on Parenting.com.

Prospero Ano Nuevo

It's such a slippery slope for me when Thanksgiving comes around. After that major (and filling!) holiday come a few frantic weeks of finishing the semester, gearing up for Christmas and filling the month of December with 'busy-ness'. All of a sudden, it's January. Yikes!

January brings all kinds of things to mind for me: finalizing the FAFSA forms for seniors readying themselves for college, laying the groundwork for a second semester with new teaching formats, reminding parents that this nine-week period is one of the hardest in the school year, sending out transcripts for seniors to their chosen college...the list goes on. I'm going to address a few of these as reminders.

*FAFSA stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid. All current high school seniors and any returning college students need to fill out a FAFSA form after January 1st with your 2010 tax information. For most students, this means that your personal tax information and your parent's tax information are needed. When you receive your W-2 forms, you may start finalizing the forms. Some of you may have already started with the FAFSA4caster. The sooner you get your form in, the better your chances to get some of the federal aid out there. Many schools have a due date, so check with them to find out your final deadline for the FAFSA.

What is the importance of the FAFSA? If you want to further your education after high school, you will want all the financial help possible. In order to receive any scholarships, grants or loans, you need to fill out the form. Then, your college/university plugs into this site, as needed, for information. Remember, scholarships and grants do not need to be repaid. To get started, go to the Places to Go on this website and click on Federal Student Aid.

**Now that the second semester is starting, I want to remind seniors that colleges will be wanting their first semester transcripts. Please fill out a transcript request form, complete with address, and give it to me or to the office. We can't send out any transcripts without these forms.

***For some reason, perhaps due to the fact that this is the coldest, darkest nine-week period, or that it's the third in a line-up of four, or that it's after too much sugar-filled holiday action...this period of academics usually takes a dive grade-wise. Sometimes, it's quite hard to bring up one's grades after these winter months. For that reason, I want to encourage parents to do more physical activities with their children, to limit the students' time on electronics (computer, tv or cellphone), and to ensure that everyone gets proper sleep. Later, I will be posting an article about parents helping their ADHD students succeed better in school. Interestingly, the tips given are also excellent for ALL types of students. I would suggest that every parent read the tips and take them to heart.

To be continued...