Why Use Interactive Notebooks

We all know that people learn in different ways. Some people learn better by watching others, some learn better by reading, and some learn by doing. No matter what way you learn you can use an interactive notebook.

Interactive notebooks are created by each person individually. They can be created in a number of different ways using a number of different techniques. You should create them based on your needs.

You can make an interactive notebook for information regarding maps, ads, history, timelines, and politics. When you create notebooks for these types of suggestions, you will learn so much. You design them in a way that will help you learn.

These pieces are perfect for projects, study guides, and reports. They can be created by children and adults. You are not limited to the subject matter or content either.

All you need to get started with your own interactive notebook is colored pencils, crayons, highlighters, pen or pencil, binder or notebook, paper, glue, scissors, and information on your subject.

If the information you gather is something you can cut apart, you will want to cut out the information that is important to what you are studying. If you can’t cut them out, you will want to make copies of the information. Once you have these pieces cut out, you will need to glue them to the right side of your notebook or paper. On the left side you will
take notes and add information that is important to what you read in the pieces
you glued.

You will want to write these in your own words and use pictures and other information that will help you remember what you read. Use charts, diagrams, graphics, and drawings that will remind you of what you read as well.

If you are creating your interactive notebook for a report or project, you may want to do your writing on notebook paper first so you can write it the way you want and make any necessary changes. Once you have it worded the way you want, you are ready to put it to print in your notebook.

These notebooks are also great for classroom projects. You can create them and share with the class or you can use them as a report based on the information provided by the teacher. These are also a great guide to use as study material for semester finals or tests.

If you use these in a classroom setting you will want to use information provided by the teacher on the right and then the students can add their own information on the left. The teacher can provide handouts, notes, and pictures. Students can take their own notes based on the information discussed in class. The students can research even further to come up with more information that can be included in the notebook.

Sometimes it’s hard to remember what you read, but using interactive notebooks will help you. You have the ability to create them in a way that makes sense to you and is in line with your learning style. They are fun to make and make learning easy.

For more great tips visit my site and download my free report at http://www.els4kids.com

source for pic is http://interactive-notebooks.wikispaces.com/ISN+Pictures

Learning Skills 101 - What is Working Memory?

essings,olleen

Working Memory and Attention

Learning Skills 101 - What is Working Memory? To Review: So far, we have been discussing what learning skills are and how they impact a student on a daily basis. If you recall, we stated that learning skills are the underlying mental skills formally known as attention, visual/auditory processing, memory, processing, word attack and auditory analysis. Most of our children experience these skills through reading, writing, spelling, paying attention, remembering, recalling and how quick we can respond to a request. Over the last few weeks, we have been discussing the three types of attention. Selective, Sustained and Divided Attention were seen as necessary cognitive skills for students. Without these cognitive skills as strengths, the student has great difficulty within the classroom and in his life. This week, we will learn about working memory. Working Memory works with attention to make it possible to process information that is given to us. For those with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), that are cognitive based symptoms, experience difficulty with all three types of attention which impacts the strength of their working memory. Why? Because attention and working memory go hand in hand. When attention is not held long enough to process information into working memory, the skill does not get worked thus presents weak. Parents of students with ADHD usually receive comments from teachers that their child gets distracted too easily and the student needs help with memory. The teachers will state that the student cannot remember information from one day or week to the next. Working memory is needed for math, reading, comprehension, test taking and follow directions. Students use their working memory when reading and trying to comprehend. When they take tests and read the questions, if their working memory is weak, by the time they read all the possible answers for a multiple choice question, they forget the question and have to reread it again. Students will be unable to follow directions that have multiple steps because they cannot store the information long enough to follow through. Weak memory skills prohibits successful learning. Weak attention prohibits successful learning. See the pattern yet? All of our learning skills are interconnected. If just one cognitive skill is weak, our ability to learn is negatively impacted. The good news is after a student works with the Enhanced Learning Skills System, they will have strengthened all of their cognitive skills. ADHD symptoms, that are cognitive based, disappear to the point the teachers and family take notice. Recognize that there is hope and a solution. Call today for more information on your choices! Call me at (908) 285-8352. For more information on the article you just read, you can email or visit my website.

How to Strengthen Attention Skills

Learning Skills 101
How to Strengthen Attention Skills

So far, we have been discussing what learning skills are and how they impact a student on a daily basis. If you recall, we stated that learning skills are the underlying mental skills formally known as attention, visual/auditory processing, memory, processing, word attack and auditory analysis. Most of our children experience these skills through reading, writing, spelling, paying attention, remembering, recalling and how quick we can respond to a request.

Over the last few weeks, we have been discussing the three types of attention and how they impact a student every day. Well, this week I will be giving you a few ideas on how you can strengthen your attention skills. The tips and strategies I discuss will help all three types of attention.

1. Simon Says - Try this free online version of Simon Says - the music one with the different buttons/tones. Remember this game?

2. Colored Shapes/Blocks - Have the child first practice just stating the "color" of the shapes. Next, have the child practice focus only on the type of shape not the color. Do this with many shapes in several rows.

3. Use metronome online to practice having your state answers to the above on every other beat (click on 120 bpm). yellow, "beat", blue, "beat", etc.

4. Play a game of concentration online and see how many matches your child can get on the first try.


If you have not already recognized this, the attention games strengthen other learning skills, too. This is a main factor in a student's ability to learn. If just one learning skill is off, then the rest will not be working at optimal level. The student will not be working up to their potential.


The good news is that attention is just one of many that you are able to strengthen due to the brain's ability to develop and grow. The Enhanced Learning Skills System was designed to strengthen learning skills required to learn and read easier and more efficiently. Call me today for an assessment and let's begin working together to help your child learn easier and more efficiently.

Next time, we will discuss another learning skill and that impacts everyday learning ability and how there is hope and a solution. Call today for more information on your choices! Colleen can be reached at (908) 285-8352.

Copyright © Enhanced Learning Skills for Kids 2008

For more information on the article you just read, you can email or visit my website.

What is Enhanced Learning Skills for Kids?

Welcome to my group everyone!

First ... here's the scoop on me and why I even have my own business in cognitive training.
I have over 20 years business experience within Corporate America. While in Corporate I was in charge of the entire East Coast relative to information processing. Specifically, I was in charge of Local Area Networks dealing with the processing of information internally and externally to our company. In this role, I held teleseminars, training classes and worked one-on-one with my colleagues, most sales folks. My boss told me I found my Niche! However, i thought my niche was going to be CEO so when he said you should be a teacher! I was a bit taken back. LOL Life went on and I got married and had my daughter, Shannon. When she was 11 months old, she was diagnosed with cancer (neuroblastoma) and a rare autoimmune disorder (Opsoclonus Myoclonus Syndrome). Statistics are like 1 in 100 million kids a year get OMS. The docs chuckled and told me it was like she won the lottery. I wasn't laughing. I was later to find out that the OMS was worse than the Cancer, no joke. The OMS caused her own antibodies to attack her brain. Her cerebellum and brain stem were impacted the most. Her immune system was basically shut down for 3 years to stop any further brain injury. I also had a son during all of this, too. His name is Sean. :-)

Years go by and I ended up leaving Corporate America. At this time, my daughter was now 8 y/o and still not learning in school. She was in a special education self-contained classroom within the public schools and classified with Traumatic Brain Injury. I decided to go back for my Master's degree. I had already started my Master's in Business Administration but given the circumstances of my life at this time, I switched and went into Special Education. I began shifting my life full-time into education and started teaching under a substitute license until I could student teach. During this time, I experienced general education and special education along with inclusive settings. I also decided my student teaching would be based in a private school for students with brain injuries. This meant behavioral issues along with cognitive challenges. I worked with students K - 12 and even those students who had extended high school so they were up to the age of 21. I graduated with top honors and received my license to teach elementary education and children with disabilities within the state of New Jersey.

I was tutoring with families along with substituting and getting frustrated because even thought I would find great research based programs to use with the children, the students weren't gaining independence on their own. They were doing this through workarounds and compensations. Which in the long run did not serve them well because they are not in control of their environments, especially when they look for employment. By chance, one of the parents on the OMS Forum that I help to moderate began talking about a learning center she took her high school son to during the summer. She kept talking about a program they were using and not really going into much detail, per se. About four months later, the same mom was bursting at the seams with all the improvements her son was displaying down to social skills and communication. I quickly requested the name of the specific programs used on her son as learning centers can use a variety of tools. After I found out the names of the programs, I then called up the creators of the programs and began researching the ins/outs of actual components, structure and of course, statistical outcomes with research to support the findings.

Next, I contacted a parent who used the program and was now using the program to help students in her community. I talked with this parent, now one of my closest colleagues, for over 6 months before I was convinced the programs can really provide results. The ultimately test, in my mind, was if my brain injured daughter could show success in any area (that was my hope at the beginning) at all, i was sold. So, off i went and invested a good chunk of change to become licensed, certified and able to "provide" these services to other students in my area.

As soon as I got home, I immediately began using these programs on both of my children. To give you an idea of what I was up against, my daughter who was 10 y/o at the time, had cognitive skills measuring at a 5 yr old level on all 6 skill sets. 5 y/o is lowest they measure so she could have been even lower. My son, on the other hand, was typical LD measuring adult (18 y/o) on several skills but low in one/two areas of skills. However, what happened next surprised all of us.

My son had more difficulty with the programs than my daughter. The programs helped uncover the underlying cause of my son's difficulties during school over the years. We always had the screaming fits for homework, the meltdowns with frustrations, the sensory processing symptoms, etc. Thanks to the programs, we identified that he was seeing double - seriously - and he did not know that no one sees double. He had no clue that letters were not supposed to jump off the page and so on. I called the creators of the program and said I could only get my son through partial pieces because of this issue. The creators stressed if we could get him close to a good portion the better. The reason: my son would have created new pathways that would allow for any intervention to make an impact in considerably less time than without the new pathways in the brain. So, we did what we could and then referred out to vision therapy. Guess what? It took my son only 6 sessions in-office to fix the double vision - no joke. So after the program portion and the vision therapy he began to pick up books and read which was fantastic!

My daughter on the other hand, kept to the programs and worked every day with me and let me tell you how choked up I was when Shannon could demonstrate memory skills. I'm sure there are moms out there that are so lost because their child cannot remember something from yesterday or last week. That was Shannon. She could not learn because on one hand, she had no foundational skills and on the other hand, what the teachers would give to her would be lost. If she learned 1+1=2 then even that afternoon she was clueless to 1+1=2. Well, you can imagine the waterworks when my daughter learned the 43 presidents (at that time 43) forwards and backwards! She still knows them today.

Shannon is my "extreme" example when I talk with parents. At the age of 8 she was unable to decode (read) let alone spell on her own. However, working with the program, she began to not only decode (read) but she started with fluency. This means she did not spend all her time sounding out each code (letter) but could sit back and read the words. I remember going to the movies with her and the screen flashed "Enjoy the Show" before the movie started. Well, Shannon sat there and said "E..N... Joy ... The ...SH... O ... W... " "Enjoy the Show!" Mommy I just read Enjoy the Show ... More tears .... of excitement. After that, when parents of children with special needs would talk with me, Shannon would interrupt and flat out tell them ... you should let my mom work with you ... because of the programs I can finally read. Nothing else helped me.

Shannon's progress is still ongoing because of her disability. We tried moving her into the intermediate public school but the anxiety from self-contained where the teachers prompt and make everything so nice and crystal clear for ya into a full inclusive setting was way too much. The schools do not have a great transition other than "all the kids go through this and she really needs to experience it" for an answer. We, unfortunately, just pulled her from school and began homeschooling her. It amazes me how my daughter has no clue what 2+3 equals yet the schools were moving along doing division and prepping for the standardized tests. Shannon just came out of 8 years of remission from OMS too. All her docs point to the stress from the 5th grade inclusion strategy as the cause. But I digress so lets save that for another topic. We still work Shannon through both programs and she keeps progressing. For example, we first put her through to a point last year. She finished with her skill sets around a 7 y/o level which is great consdering she was at a 5 y/o level. Then, before school started we assessed again and on her own she jumped to a 9 y/o level. You see, the programs help the student to train their brain go grow and develop on their own!

After seeing the positive impact on my own children and working many more students from my area through the programs, I am convinced without a doubt that these programs work and make a life changing difference. Today, I am beginning to spread awareness of these programs to make sure parents and teacher of students with special needs understand their is hope and a solution to your problems. If your child isn't doing as well as you expect and you can't figure out why, its most likely cognitive based. If your child gets easily frustrated with homework, beyond just not wanting to do it, its most likely cognitive based. If your child still can't read or was labeled dyslexic, its most likely cognitive based. Do NOT assume your child is lazy, stupid, dumb, unmotivated, a behavior problem or depressed because they are not learning in school. 80% of all learning problems are cognitive based according to U.S. Dept. of Education.

At ELSK we help parents from around the country and world - yes I've gotten contacted from parents in Europe, Canada and more - become aware of their options and help connect you with local providers in your area. So do not wait to get your child assessed today and begin to help correct the many problems that have been, up until now, compensated or worked around.

More notes to follow to discuss the programs, learning skills , research, studies to support the findings, how you can strengthen learnings skills on your own and much more or just visit http://els4kids.com for more information today. You can sign up for my weekly ezine, too!

Blessings,

Colleen
Recently Awarded Cambridge's Professional of the Year 2009 for Executives and Professionals.