Educational Support: Shaping My Future

I am young enough to recall specific pivotal moments in life that influenced personal choices along my professional path. Yet, I am old enough to reflect on how those moments served as a springboard during my journey. 

Formal education was rocky for me in the beginning. School was not easy. I, like many children who have trouble learning, deflected by misbehaving.  I remember being labeled by teachers and other adults; my self-esteem shrank.  I vividly remember the pain these labels caused.

Fortunately, a fourth grade teacher saw past the superficial and encouraged me.  At first, I applied myself simply because I wanted to please her.  Oh, how I yearned for more positive reinforcement. I became attentive in school and soon found I no longer had a desire to misbehave.   My grades improved, and I passed to the next grade instead of being held back as others had predicted. Eventually, I embraced my mother's love of reading. I viewed books as an escape from reality. I read everything - whether age-appropriate or not - to my mother's chagrin. My mother encouraged reading by purchasing books and newsletters within her limited budget. When I was of age, I registered for a library card at local library. The more I read, the more curious I became about the world and what it had to offer.  I would - and continue to - get lost in books.  

I also received encouragement from my grandmother to do well in school.  Due to her limited 2nd grade education, she could not offer assistance with homework, but she offered support. My grandmother purchased school supplies and attended every school award ceremony. This was no small feat because my grandmother had serious health issues; it took Herculean effort for her to be present.  Later in life, I understood the value of my grandmother's support and encouragement, the value of seeing her in the audience as I accepted an academic award.  Believe me when I say this: I scanned the audience until I found her beautiful face!  Even then, I knew that disappointing her was not an option. She made sure that I had an opportunity to have what she was denied. I was motivated to strive toward her expectations.

Yet another teacher took an interest in me and went beyond the call of duty by exposing me to museums, art galleries and higher education. She would often spend Saturdays with me at Cambridge Commons and Harvard Square "teaching" in a way that many classrooms preclude.  Because of her, I experienced the classroom of life outside of my neighborhood school. This stoked the flames that had arisen from reading.  

Due to the encouragement, exposure to unfamiliar experiences, and educational support received, I developed the self-confidence needed to overcome (what I believe was) an undiagnosed learning disability. Educational support was vital to propping me up so that I could achieve successes and persevere in the face of failures. We know that failures are part of life, but students have to experience success. A record of success is the foundation which fosters the wherewithal to power through obstacles, to once again relish the sweet taste of success. 

Without educational support, my life could have been very different. For these reasons, I am so thankful for a structured educational services provider like Jackson Education Support. This firm provides the  encouragement, exposure, and academic support needed to build self-esteem and promote success among students and citizens. 

Don't let your child's natural-born flame to learn be extinguished. Contact Jackson Education Support to foster your child's life-long love of learning.

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A very special thanks goes to
guest blogger, Mrs. Pamala Feehan.
Pamala is a wife, mother, grandmother, and entrepreneur.
She has experiences as an instructor and director in academia.

The Top 3 Reasons I Teach

The reasons I teach are numerous. I could write at length on this topic, because the skill set required to effectively support learners is a lifetime work in progress. We adopt student characteristics to promote independence. Then, evaluate and re-evaluate the effectiveness of instructional strategies toward this end.

Supporting clients is a mutually beneficial endeavor. Implementing lessons that meet a variety of learning needs requires educators to abandon comfort zones; through growth we learn to effectively support this in others.

Personal and professional growth are mere strokes of serendipity. My top three reasons to teach involve helping learners leverage challenges, effecting generational change, and supporting creative freedom.

Leverage learning challenges
Whether education professionals, government officials, or parents, someone is expected to accept blame when students fail to meet learning objectives. When test scores are low, are teachers to blame? When homework is missing or incomplete, are parents to blame? When environments are unsafe, are administrators to blame? When students lack resources, is government to blame? We all bear some responsibility in each of these instances. Collective effort prepares students for success.

I teach because learners are not to blame. The learning process is influenced by environment. We assimilate behaviors and beliefs - good or bad, right or wrong - from peers and role models. Students often have little control of this process. Even adults have limited physical control. Many lack knowledge of pedagogy and androgogy, which help us understand education and learning (there is a difference). Through educational support services, clients gain deeper insight into effective learning strategies and master ways to leverage challenges.

Level the playing field
Adult education impacts youth education. Young people are often limited in the types of learning opportunities to which they're exposed. Proliteracy reports, "Children of parents with low literacy skills have a 72% chance of being at the lowest reading levels themselves." We know that literacy skill impacts math and science performance as well. As a consequence, children of illiterate and moderately literate adults are at risk of experiencing greater academic challenges. With each generation, legislation and societal advancements require the bar be raised in education. Ill-prepared, students are expected to meet more challenging learning standards at younger ages.

I teach because obtaining an education levels the playing field across socio-economic sectors. Systemic inequities experienced by those having low socio-economic status result in low grades and behavior issues. Students repeat grades levels as a result; some lose hope and drop out of school altogether. This downward spiral continues generation after generation. Helping learners leverage strengths to resist low expectations permanently transforms families.

Liberate minds
Practically from birth, children are trained to abandon their instincts. We know that the best experiences happen outside the box; yet, children are expected to hoe a designated row (and do nothing else). If they talk, they're punished. If they laugh too loud, they're ridiculed. If they question the status quo, they're marginalized.

I teach because confident students feel liberated to follow their passions. Supporting this process of self-discovery is our best chance for improving life as we know it. An insightful article in Harvard Business Review makes this point simply. Teresa Amabile acknowledges creativity is viewed as "unmanageable" and shunned by short-sighted leaders (and parents). Her notion of "managing for creativity" brilliantly communicates my approach to teaching. The objective is that learners feel encouraged in this way.

Essentially, teaching to the whole child is ideal. I want students to be college- and career-ready. The most successful individuals and organizations embrace creativity, so I aim to liberate minds. I want students to feel empowered to change their circumstances regardless of perceived limitations. Many need to view the playing field as level to pursue success (a conviction that's different for each person); they must feel their efforts are valued and valuable. Sustaining the wherewithal to overcome obstacles is made easier when students learn to leverage challenges independently.

Learn more about my education firm, Jackson Education Support, and schedule a consult to improve academic performance and increase confidence. Specialty areas include literacy, math, and science. Currently, popular services are private tutoring and writing assistance. Jackson Education Support options help learners of all ages move into more challenging environments.

Plan For a Successful Year

This time of year, New Year's resolutions are a common topic of conversation. Many resolve to make better decisions. Commonly, resolutions involve establishing healthier lifestyles, finishing a few good books, spending more (or less) time with family and friends, completing an education or training program, or saving for the future. As we learn, we should do things differently... right? This cross-cultural colloquialism rings true to education approaches and, more importantly, to learning. Who can argue with Dr. Angelou?

Today's post is intended to encourage and inspire readers to reclaim your time in 2016.  Emphasis is on identifying and resolving ineffective parental engagement, instructional, and learning strategies by taking a closer look at your success plan.

Generally, successful people have schedules. These tools make the best use of time and prioritize chaos. With my parents and kids (not my biological parents and kids, but my clients) I've experienced a common phenomenon: though many have adopted some sort of schedule to balance curriculars, extracurriculars, and family time... schedule disruptions are a challenge. I struggle with this as well!

In light of Murphy's Law - if anything can go wrong, it will - keeping lists of tasks, events, meetings, people, and research topics is essential. Getting organized helps us respond to scheduling challenges more effectively; they work hand-in-hand.  Setting a schedule and adopting an organization structure help families recover from the emergencies and tempting opportunities that hijack our lives.

Organization that works: Schedule time to review your schedule and growing lists of tasks, events, etc. During the process, consider questions like these...

1. Is this event scheduled next quarter or next year?
2. What's keeping me from connecting with Mr. X?
3. How can I adjust to make progress on research topics?

Plan: First, update the schedule of events after reaching out to schools, teachers, parent organizations, social and athletic club sponsors, or educational service organizations. You may have missed that too-good-to-miss event, but nothing's stopping you from making next year's program.

Connect: Start making calls and drafting emails. Plan these activities outside of peak times when people are more likely to respond or make themselves available. For instance, it's best to connect with classroom teachers during the 2nd and 6th weeks of a 9-week period; they are more likely to have student data that you can leverage before it's too late in the term. Waiting until the week before midterms and final exams to access information on your child's performance has one primary challenge: teachers are more stressed. This isn't an infallible solution, but it's a good way to build a partnership. If you've tried these and experienced little success, show up. Consider other avenues leading to the same result. The take-home point here is to avoid derailment by remaining persistent and taking action early on.

Research: This is the first task to lose rank in the list of priorities. Parents forgo researching summer programs only to learn that enrollment for the-program-of-the-summer has a waiting list by the middle of Spring semester. Educators who forgo researching professional development opportunities early on become frustrated as deadlines pass and waiting lists grow. It's easy, in our fast-paced society, to favor immediate gratification over investing time and effort into researching effective and expedient ways to accomplish goals. To avoid this trap, schedule time to review your schedule... Yes, schedule time to review your schedule. Maintaining electronic schedules makes for easy implementation of these suggestions, because you have an editable record of what you've done, notes on how things went, and plans for the future. Use this data to make better decisions.

Jackson Education Support helps learners and families tweak organization structures and schedules related to improving academic performance, increasing confidence, and moving into more challenging environments. Personalized learning plans are developed to get clients on track - and revised to keep them on track - toward achieving short- and long-term goals. Learning plans involve varying degrees of parental involvement based on client need and family dynamic.

If you'd like to work with an educational support professional to make better decisions this year, schedule a free consult here.