Before finalizing summer plans, there is one very important fact that families need to keep in mind . It is this: the brain never goes on vacation.

Kids may be off for the summer, but the brain doesn’t have an off switch—it’s always on. In fact, kids never stop learning—even during sleep, when the brain is processing and storing information that was learned throughout the day.

That’s why, cognitively speaking, it doesn’t make sense for kids to take a complete break from learning over the summer.

Studies have shown that student’s learning momentum suffers major setbacks over summer break. By abandoning school learning routines, the brain loses many of the neural connections that were built during the school year.  That’s bad news for students.

It means that when back to school time rolls around again, they are at a disadvantage: the brain is no longer functioning with the capacity that it had when school let out.

In and of itself, this is not a major problem, after all, students will be able to re-build these neural connections.  The problem is that it can take up to six weeks to rebuild lost neural connections and to regain lost academic momentum.

Rather than diving into learning from the first day of classes, students are now tasked with recalling those lessons that they learned last year. They’re catching up. They’re reviewing.

This is where problems begin. They’re not learning new material and getting a jump on this year’s curriculum. This is when students fall behind.

That’s because students who maintained their academic momentum over the summer are ready to learn new material from day one. They have a head start. They preserved their cognitive functioning and are—from the first day of class—learning new concepts. They’re getting ahead.

That’s why summer learning is so important. Not only does it maintain cognitive functioning, it can also help students to make academic gains.

It help students prevent summer learning losses. It helps them get ahead. It gives them an edge.

Summer learning just makes sense.

What comes next? That’s the million-dollar question

Many teens ask themselves this question everyday.

We study hard in hopes that we’ll get a promising and well-paying job that we’ll enjoy.

But will we? What will really happen when we get out of school?

Even if we get straight As does that promise us a well-paying and enjoyable career? I think that it should.

But the reality is even if you get a PhD, you aren’t guaranteed success, or even happiness. You get a piece a piece of paper saying that you have successfully glided through high school and university.

However, my opinion is that even if you have a PhD or a Masters degree and still don’t know where to go, that piece of paper might become something you will look back on later in your life as one of the biggest things that you’ve ever accomplished.

So, even if you are a well-educated person stuck in a rough place, that doesn’t mean that you have accomplished nothing in your life.

You have accomplished something that most people only dream of.

About me: I go to South Secondary School in London, ON and I have two younger siblings. I have always been a movie guy. Whenever my friends call or text me to go for a walk or to meet up at the school my only response is “Nope. Movie or bust!” Needless to say I usually get my way! But movies aren’t the only thing I enjoy. In the summer I love to bike with my friends down to the Thames River and ride along the trails. The sights and the entire ride are always beautiful. I know, right? How often do you come across a teenage guy who uses the word beautiful when not talking about that hottie across the hall? But there’s more weirdness than that! I also like to bake and listen to old music. OMG! You’ve just entered the Twilight Zone! Anyway, hopefully you’ll enjoy my new posts! Remember to leave feedback and comments at the bottom! – Dylan.

As the school year begins to wind down, exam pressure begins to build.

So, what’s the one thing that students need to know in order to study successfully and beat exam stress?

Well, there are more than a few study strategies that help students study smart, not hard. It’s also important that students give themselves plenty of time to study so that they don’t end up cramming, which rarely works for remembering material long-term.

But if there is one thing—one secret—to effective studying it’s this: turning on the brain before hitting the books. Active learning. No, it’s not a buzzword—it’s a proven technique that gives students an edge.

Without it, students are just moving their eyes over the page, and that’s a very ineffective way to study—it takes longer, and gets less results.

So, how do students engage their brain while studying?

In order to properly engage the brain during studying, students need to be continually asking themselves questions before, during, and after study time:

BEFORE STUDYING:

• What am I about to learn?
• What do I already know about this subject?

DURING STUDYING:

• How does this information fit into a bigger picture?
• Do I understand what I have just read?
• Can I paraphrase it?
• Are there any key words that I need to write down? Why are these words key?

AFTER STUDYING:

• What do I remember from what I studied?
• What materials do I need to go over again?
• Is there another way that I can think about the material?
• Can I see the material in a way that I didn’t see it before?

These questions help students to “turn on their brain.” By “turning on the brain” during study time, students:

1. Maximize their ability to remember material
2. Study less
3. Achieve greater exam success

Every year we participate in several events to raise money for juvenile diabetes research. For Oxford Learning Barrhaven, this was their 3rd annual Celebrity Server Night at Boston Pizza!

For more information on juvenile diabetes, please visit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Canada website. Please see our charity page for more information on how Oxford Learning is working with our communities.

Learning the days of the week may seem like a simple exercise in memorization.

Tuesday comes before Wednesday, which comes before Thursday, etc.

And in many ways, it is. But it is also one of the first lessons that children learn about time management and the idea of sequence: this comes before that. Y has to happen before X can occur.

Even more importantly, the days of the weeks are an early introduction to higher-level concepts such as placement, structure, and order.

The days of the week are also a major player is establishing a reliable routine—a critical part of childhood development for children and parents alike.

As soon as children learn to ask “why?” the question “when?” is sure to follow.

Children are naturally curious—they ask a lot questions! Which is a good thing, because that’s how they learn.

While children have an endless amount of curiosity, they don’t always have endless supply of patience, as this week’s post from Secret Agent Josephine shows.

Hey, Mom and Dad! Let me figure it out for myself.

Parents can sometimes be controlling of their children’s life. Kids need to learn independence to succeed.

I know that it may be hard to let go and allow your children to see the world for what it truly is on their own, without your guidance and support.

But it is so much better for us to if we learn, on our own, how to apply what you have taught us to the real world. If you don’t let us become independent, we won’t learn to apply these skills and we’ll be unable to think for ourselves.

Where would we be then?

Every time that we have a problem, or are stuck in a tricky situation, we will be coming to you for help and let’s face it—kids deal with a lot of problems.

The more that I can find a solution for my own problems, the more successful that I will be.

About me: I go to South Secondary School in London, ON and I have two younger siblings. I have always been a movie guy. Whenever my friends call or text me to go for a walk or to meet up at the school my only response is “Nope. Movie or bust!” Needless to say I usually get my way! But movies aren’t the only thing I enjoy. In the summer I love to bike with my friends down to the Thames River and ride along the trails. The sights and the entire ride are always beautiful. I know, right? How often do you come across a teenage guy who uses the word beautiful when not talking about that hottie across the hall? But there’s more weirdness than that! I also like to bake and listen to old music. OMG! You’ve just entered the Twilight Zone! Anyway, hopefully you’ll enjoy my new posts! Remember to leave feedback and comments at the bottom! – Dylan.

School is almost done for the year. Over the course of the year, students have been taught a lot of information in the classroom—all of it very important knowledge that can, and will, become the academic foundation that they will build future careers upon.

But what if the most important lessons that students learn over the school year—the ones that will help them in their future careers the most—are being learned during recess?

Recess, it turns out, is more than just a time for kids to burn off their excess energy so that they don’t drive the teacher nuts; it’s a chance for kids to learn social lessons that are as important in an office/corporate/networking setting as any amount of education.

Here are Oxford Learning’s 12 Career Lessons Learned During Recess:

1. Not everything goes your way all of the time, and nobody likes a pouter.
2. Tell people what you think, but remember to be tactful.
3. Don’t be so caught up in playing marbles that you don’t notice that the touch football game is getting closer and closer.
4. Challenge gender stereotypes.
5. Test your limits.
6. Apologize right away.
7. Don’t do anything that would horrify your mom.
8. Reach out to the shy kid.
9. When in a race, give it all that you’ve got.
10. Do a silly victory dance, especially when other people are watching, but don’t be cocky.
11. Help someone up.
12. Don’t make people wait for you.

So, when your kids tell you that their favourite school subject is recess, there’s no need to worry. After all, they may be learning more at recess than you ever thought.

Printable PDF Version: What’s Good on the Playground Is Good in the Boardroom

The process of developing literacy skills is fairly well known. First we learn sounds, then letters, then how the letters and sounds make words…and along the way we learn what it all means and how to make sense of our written language.

Literacy skills are very important in school (and in life): the stronger that students’ reading comprehension skills are, the greater their chances of achieving academic success.

By contrast, the process of becoming math literate is less well known, which is unfortunate, because it’s equally important to students’ success.

So, what does math literacy even mean?

Three Oxford Learning Franchisees—John Storm from Oxford Learning St. Catharines, Angela Marseglia from Oxford Learning Beaches and Oxford Learning Danforth, and Danielle LaPointe of Oxford Learning Kingston and Kingston East share their thoughts on the subject:

What is Math Literacy?

• Math literacy (also known as numeracy) means having the ability to problem-solve, reason and analyze information.
• Math literacy is the second key step for all students, beyond language literacy.
• It is the ability to use numbers to help solve real-world problems.
• It is also the ability to understand the “language” of math (for example “sum” means an answer to addition, “difference” means the answer to a subtraction question).
• Math literacy helps helps students to decipher what a question is actually asking by understanding the terminology.

When do students become math literate?

• A student is not math literate until he/she knows the fundamentals of adding, subtracting, multiplication, and division.
• If a student has not mastered fractions by the end of Grade 5, there is a high chance that she/he will struggle into high school and beyond.
• Numeracy is made up of many concepts, and it takes years to be able to understand and use these concepts effectively.
• Moreover, the student brain cannot comprehend certain abstract concepts of logic and reason that are needed for mastery until the adolescent years.
• Some high school students are graduating not even mastering the basic skills such as multiplication and division.
• If students are weak in the basic concepts, the chances of them becoming strong in the more complex concepts is very slim.
• When students are fluent with basic operations, it frees their brains to problem solve, reason, and analyze more effectively.

What are the common challenges to developing math literacy?

• Students typically struggle with pattern recognition and the ability to transfer skills are.
• Math requires abstract thinking and sometimes that is a difficult transition for students to make.
• Students also find it a challenge to interpret word problems—figuring out exactly what the problem is asking them to do, and the steps that they need to complete to find the answer.

When can a student consider him or herself math literate?

• Students can consider themselves math literate when they can confidently and effectively use math concepts, and can recognize how to transfer their skills to help them solve problems.

Any tips for improving math literacy skills?

• It’s never too late to build math skills or review the basic concepts. The better the basic concepts—adding, subtracting, division, multiplication and fractions—are understood, the easier that math becomes.
• The earlier that students repair their math skill gaps, the greater the chance that they can become math literate.
• Students need to stop thinking of math as something that they will only use in the classroom.
• Math is everywhere and it IS used in everyday life from cooking, to fitness, home décor, landscaping, nursing, driving, even art. What is computer science? Math. What is creativity? Math.
• Often, a lack of confidence and/or motivation gets in the way of students achieving math literacy.
• It is very important for students to have positive experiences with math from an early age with many opportunities to achieve success. Feeling capable and competent goes a long way toward achieving math literacy.
• Some students don’t see the value of becoming math literate, asking “When am I ever going to use this?” If students are shown real-world examples of how math is used in our daily lives, this can help to motivate them to make the effort needed to become math literate.

The kids at our Chesapeake Oxford Learning have raised $1,800 so far for the Relay For Life! We’ll be participating in the relay on May 7th, 2010.

Well done!