March Proctored Tests!

Join us for our next proctored test event! These tests are a fantastic opportunity for students to take a practice test in a real test environment. New students can take a diagnostic pre-test, and students currently working on a test prep program with us can take their mid- or post-teset.

Register Online Now!

pre-registration is required.

Hinsdale

Sat. March 24^th

Winnetka

Sat. March 31st

All the tests that we tutor  are available. It's an especially good time of year for:

* ACT

* SAT

* SAT Subject Tests

Contact Lauren at 312-260-7945 ex. 112 with any questions.

Dreaming of Summer...

We know it’s cold outside…

but we’re already thinking about summer!

As you’re planning for summer camps, activities, and vacations, save a little time for skill building! In just a few weeks, we can help students catch up on last year’s skills or get ahead for next year. We have a variety of in-home tutoring available!

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Does your child need help
with reading or writing? Try:

Comprehension through Composition.

Endlessly adaptable and one of our most popular programs among students, “comp comp” helps students of all ages refine their reading and writing skills. We’ll help students learn to think critically, respond to text meaningfully, and read actively.

Depending on your child’s grade, we’ll work on skills such as:

• Note-taking
• Annotation
• Writing complete paragraphs
• Organization and structure
• Writing responses to literature
• Synthesizing information from different texts

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Is your child behind in Math?
Take a look at Math Bridges!

In a busy classroom, few students master every skill that is taught. If the gaps in a student’s math knowledge include skills that are building blocks for future math, those small gaps can become big problems. With a summer math bridge, we address these issues by taking a dual focus approach.

Here’s how it works:

• A diagnostic test pinpoints strengths and weaknesses.
• We create a customized tutoring plan focusing on the gaps in current math knowledge.
• We simultaneously work on both those gaps and on previewing content for the coming school year.

Summer is the perfect time to patch up holes in knowledge without the added pressure of the school year!

How is Tutoring Like Coaching?

We were inspired by a recent article in The New Yorker, in which Atul Gawande, a surgeon, decides to improve his performance in the operating room. He enlists the help of a colleague to observe him during surgery and act as a coach. I asked some of our tutors: How is tutoring like coaching? 


I feel like tutoring is a combination of coaching and teaching. When you're tutoring a student, you begin by teaching content: you either teach the student a new concept, or review something they might have already covered at school. 

Then coaching comes in. You will give the student problems they struggle with, but as the coach you have to sit back and allow them to struggle so they can learn the concept. Think about athletic coaches, like Andy Roddick's tennis coach. Do you think when Andy is at practice and struggles or makes a mistake, his coach jumps in and shows him how to do it? No. He might verbally give him tips, but he never jumps in, takes the racket, and shows him exactly how to do it. 

Tutoring is the same. We need to give students a chance before we jump in and help. They need to learn independence and build confidence because when they sit down to take a test and struggle with a problem, we won't be there to jump in and help them. They need to show confidence in themselves and their knowledge so they can tackle the challenging problems they come across.

-Lauren F.

After a tutoring session, I want my student to feel like they learned something new, useful and relevant. I want them to feel energized and excited about what they learned. If they get frustrated, I want them to know that if they keep working at it, they WILL eventually "get" it and succeed. I don't want to give the student all the answers or be their crutch. I want to teach them strategies and ways to approach their work that will ultimately help them be successful when I'm not there. 

Similarly, as a coach, you want to give your players the strategies, practice and skills to be strong players. You want your players to love the game, but you also don't want them to give up when things get tough. You know you can't play a game for a player - you need to teach them how to successfully play the game on their own.

-Alyssa D.

A coach is a fundamental to the success of a sports team. They help organize the team, encourage and motivate the players, and create systems and strategies to help them succeed. An academic tutor is very similar. Instead of helping with a sport, a tutor helps students succeed in school. An outside person providing students with strategies, encouragement, and organization when necessary can really help them succeed! When you think about sports coaches, there isn't a question in your mind about how much they help. Why would it be any different for academics? 

-Marianne C.

Paying for College

A Wall Street Journal article, The College-Aid Shuffle by Jessica Silver-Greenberg, was recommended to us by our friends at Barrington Wealth Management. For those families who are going to be thinking about paying for college in the coming years, take a look:

It is the height of financial-aid season, that time of year when families scramble to grab grants, scholarships and loans to offset the rising cost of a college education. Many will find themselves in a classic quagmire: They are considered too wealthy to qualify for help, but not wealthy enough to pay full freight.

Fortunately, there are a number of strategies that can help maximize the amount of financial aid families receive. 

Keep reading... 

Process vs. Outcome: A Technique for Managing Anxiety

Standardized tests. Job Interviews. Auditions. What do these situations have in common? Despite your best efforts and all the preparation that you do, you can't control the result. This can cause a great deal of anxiety. You might be an excellent candidate for a given job - but the hiring manager will decide to hire the candidate who was in his college fraternity. Though you can't control the outcome, what you can control is your approach to and attitude about these situations. You can create your own personal, measurable goals which will make the experiences valuable and productive - regardless of whether you get the job, the part, or a 36 on your ACT.

Let's look closer at the example of an ACT student. Rather than fixating on the score she ultimately receives, the student can instead focus on what she can control. She can say to herself, "Okay. I'm going to focus on using my elimination strategy, on percent and proportion word problems, and on not getting distracted during the reading section." These are measurable, achievable goals the student can set for herself, and most importantly, can hold herself accountable for achieving. 

Rather than focusing on an unpredictable outcome, it's empowering to focus on your own personal goals instead. This will allow you to be introspective and evaluate your own performance. You'll be able to develop your own standards and values by which to measure yourself. That way, no matter what happens, it will be a positive learning experience. 

Seeking Academy Students!

The Nurturing Wisdom Academy is opening in just seven months!  

We could not be more excited! Our goal right now is to spread the word. Do you know any potential students, anyone else who might know a potential student, or anyone who might be interested in our mission? This includes parents, counselors or teachers at a school, a parent's group, or even potential teachers.  

Contact Amanda at 312-260-7945 ex. 5 with ideas or for more info! Help us spread the word to potential students - our plans are moving forward beautifully - all we need now are students to help!

Tutor Spotlight: Brandon Glover

Carol Dweck’s book Mindset lays out some interesting ideas about the way we perceive success and failure. She says that we can have either a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. In a fixed mindset, when we fail at something, it means that we ourselves are failures. Clearly this idea is not conducive to learning and performing at a high level. In a growth mindset, however, failure is simply an opportunity to learn, grow, and be better in the future.

I’m tutoring a 9^th grader right now in executive functioning, incorporating Dweck’s Mindset principles. Since beginning work on the Mindset curriculum, my student has made great strides in preparing for tests, advocating for himself and asking for help from teachers and other students. He now knows that when he succeeds, he should celebrate his success and move on to the next challenge. When he fails, he knows now to dissociate himself from the failure so that he may objectively examine his mistakes and correct them in the future. After all, did Michael Jordan make every shot he took? Of course not! He had to fail in order to learn from his mistakes and correct them. 

Basketball has been a really great access point for my student to absorb the Mindset principles. He loves basketball, and his favorite team is the North Carolina Tar Heels. I asked if he thought he could get there, and though he replied yes, I could sense some doubt on his part. We then proceeded to draw a sort of goal tree. At the top of the tree was the goal of making the team at North Carolina. We then drew branches to show what he would need to do to get there: which skills and sub-skills he would have to develop both academically and athletically. Completing that exercise helped him break down a larger goal into more manageable tasks. It’s no longer a matter of being good enough to make the team – it’s about working as hard as possible to achieve a goal.

The Mindset curriculum is an excellent tool for students because it shows them that what they do wrong does not define them. They can change their opinions and propel themselves forward in school and in life if they equip themselves with the proper mindset.