Great Resources for Internet Safety

The Internet opens new horizons for any student.  But its vastness is also its pitfall.  Children need guidance about how to analyze information they find on the Internet, how to determine for themselves whether information is valid or junk.  Supervise your child’s Internet activities.  For very young children, it’s better to only go to websites you have pre-approved.  Another guideline is to use the .com, .org, .net, and.edu codes.  For students, .org and .edu are probably the most reliable for research purposes because they represent non-profit institutions and educational sites.

 Just Think is a website devoted to media literacy for children.  It has helpful information about teaching kids to analyze the validity of information they see on line.  There is even a quiz to measure your media literacy.   http://www.justthink.org/

 Wired Kids, Inc has a great website with information for kids, tweens, teens, parents and educators.  It’s a colorful, fun to use site. http://www.wiredkids.org/wiredkids_org.html

Point Smart.  Click Save. is another great website for educators and parents to learn about Internet safety. 

 http://www.pointsmartclicksafe.org/ 

 

 

There is software available for parents to block specific websites or categories of websites from children.

Some links to such software are:

Sudden Link   ttp://www.suddenlink.com/netsafety/  http://www.suddenlink.com/netsafety/

Media Com  http://www.mediacomcc.com/home.html

Get wise Now  http://www.getnetwise.org/ 

 

Other Internet Safety and Privacy Resources

 

• FTC’s website for kids on privacy issues     http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/kidzprivacy/
• FBI’s guide for parents on Internet safety     http://www.fbi.gov/publications/pguide/pguide.htm

• i-safe makes curriculum material for parents and schools on Internet safety issues.     http://www.isafe.org/channels/?ch=ai

• i-safe and My Space have a series of videos that teach about safety and social networks     http://www.ikeepsafe.org/PRC/videotutorials/myspace/index.html
• Safe Teensprovides lots of information about Internet safety, privacy protection, social networks and blogging.     http://www.safeteens.com

 

 

 

 

Review of Trespassing, by Uzma Aslam Khan

Review of Trespassing, by Uzma Aslam Khan, Picador, 2003

Uzma Aslam Khan’s character driven tale of two young Pakistanis, Trespassing, lays out in sweaty detail the tension between the old adage “you can’t go home again” and the one that says you can take the Pakistani out of Pakistan, but you can’t take the Pakistan out of the Pakistani.

Through Daanish, a Pakistani studying in American, and Dia, the precocious daughter of a silk merchant, Khan explores the interplay between tradition and modernization, culture and prejudice.

Structurally, Khan’s book is told in alternating points of view.  This works well for the novel because the characters are intriguing enough that the reader doesn’t mind the same events being told over by several characters.  It also works well because the books ultimate destination isn’t where the reader might predict at the outset.  It becomes apparent only about halfway through the novel that Khan is weaving a complex web of disparate people and events that slowly rise toward the climax of the story.  The meaning of the title of the novel doesn’t become clear until you reach the center of the story web.

The picture of Pakistan painted by Khan is different than the stark and exotic desert landscapes of many recent books set in the Middle East.  The setting is overwhelmingly suburban, mostly taking place in a Daanish’s depressing middle-class house in a neighborhood plagued by a lack of dependable utilities like water and electricity.  With a few exceptions, the landscapes of this novel are of human nature.

Khan, raised in Karachi, Pakistan, succeeds in producing inner-dialogues of the important characters that ring true across cultural divides, while maintaining the texture of authentic Pakistani tradition.

Fixing Our Broken Schools

NASHVILLE, TN   Tennesseans are met almost every morning with newspaper stories reporting the array of symptoms caused by problems in our state educational system.  Nashville faces the possibility that the No Child Left Behind law will require our state Department of Education to take over local schools next year. 

Education woes affect every state, but Tennessee ranks low in many of the national educational indicators.  This morning, the editorial page of The Tennessean revealed that the average ACT score of Tennessee students is lower than the national average.  “According to the ACT board, only 18 percent of the 50,000 who took the test in 2008 were ready for college-level reading, math English and science.”  Ouch.

The paper’s editorial staff tells parents to consider the transition from high school to college as a “come-from-behind project.”  That sound you hear is my jaw plunking down on my hardwood floor. 

Two guest editorials exemplify the difficulty of defining and solving problems in education.  The first one argued that the problem is our curriculum standards—the stuff our kids are supposed to master—are too low.  The second, suggests that if kids don’t learn the necessary skills by third grade, remediation becomes progressively more difficult each year, becoming nearly impossible by the senior year.  To solve the problem of poor college readiness, this editorial argues that we have start thinking about a student’s readiness way back in kindergarten class.  I think this writer has a point, but when’s the last time you saw a politician take a twelve-year view on anything? 

So, according to these articles, we should either make school harder, or start focusing most of our resources on kindergarten, first, second, and third grade classrooms.  Could these two solutions be more different?

I’m not saying this is an easy problem to solve.  Even coming up with a definition of a “good education” is like trying to grasp mercury in your hand.  Ask ten people on the street, and they’ll give you ten different answers.  Ten different experts will disagree as well.  If we could agree on what makes a good education, could we agree on how to implement and measure said good education?  Probably not.

So, what do we do?  Throw up our hands and hope for the best?   No, we cannot do that.  Our responsibility to our children is too great.

To have excellent schools, we must first change the way we think about learning.  Learning doesn’t begin in preschool and it doesn’t end after high school graduation.  Learning begins the moment a baby is born, and doesn’t end until we take our dying breath.   We are always learning, even when we are old and, supposedly, wiser.

Our brains are made to learn.  With every sound you hear, or thing you see, or smell you detect, your brain is performing an elaborate dance that enables you, almost instantaneously, to detect, direct, process, and tell your body how to react.  When we learn something new, our brain takes the information in, cross-references it with everything you already know, and sends it to the appropriate filing cabinet. There are lots of scientific words that describe this process more elegantly, but the idea is simple.  Our brains are lean, mean, thinking machines.

Until we see learning a life-long process, we will continue to be frustrated by the challenges that face our schools.   Children are in school only part of their time, yet they learn all of the time.  It isn’t possible for schools to “do it all” and we cannot delegate total responsibility for our child’s education to schools. We need to determine what schools do best—things which benefit from standardization, for example.  But to raise well-rounded lifetime learners, parents have to be the go-to person for their child.  Parents should be able to focus on providing an individualized learning environment at home that rounds out their child’s schoolwork.

 

Extracurricular Activities, Part 2

When it comes to after school activities, it’s easy to overdo.  Too many extracurricular activities can strain the entire family.  It can hit school children especially hard.  Besides the logistics of coming and going, a student’s brain needs down time to processes new information.  Many parents need childcare after school and may feel pressure to fill up that time with enrichment activities.  But don’t feel guilty if your child isn’t in an enrichment activity every single afternoon.

Instead, consider focusing in on two or three favorite activities. Look for activities that give you a “big bang for the buck.”   Don’t think in terms of future professional soccer players, future step dancers, or concert cellists (though wouldn’t that be awesome!)  Instead, think in terms of growing a child who develops a healthy work ethic, one who understands the hard work that goes into real achievement, one who respects the wisdom of experience, and one who knows the value of passing that wisdom down.

The benefits of a good extracurricular activity are priceless.  One of the best benefits is the exposure to role models.  A teacher or coach who inspires respect –actually earns it—is a gift to the child, no matter what the activity.  When my son expressed an interest in skeet shooting, I was considerably less than thrilled.  But, after his first lesson I changed my mind.  He used great metaphors to teach the abstract skill of aiming, making it clear to my son what he had to do to hit that tiny skeet.  Being at a rifle range still seems weird to me, but watching people who work with passion is a tremendous opportunity and a pleasure. 

We’ve been fortunate with the people who have taught our son.  From these role models, my son has learned how to be honorable, how to work on a team, how to motivate and push himself, how to set goals and achieve them.  He has also learned a work ethic that goes beyond showing up for the job on time.  I hope my son will one day do work that he is passionate about.

In selecting activities for your child, look for an instructor who

·         Has some expertise in the activity or skill

·         Treats kids with respect and allows all kids to develop skills.

·         Is supportive, but sets and enforces high standards.

·         Can effectively communicate instruction to the child

·         Considers their skill as an art that is passed on to new students with honor.

Even if you’re not doing formal extracurricular activities there are lots of other ways to achieve the same results.  Think about your neighbors and friends who could be role models for your kids.  One of our neighbors manages an historic wood-block print shop.  He was kind enough to give us a tour of the shop and talk to my son about choosing work that you love.   And, don’t forget the proverbial “wisdom of the elders.”  My son and his granddad are like Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, running around building cardboard boats, setting up bee hives, and making a handmade bow. 

Older gentlemen at the bow-shooting range and skeet range are generous in initiating conversation with my son about ways to improve his skill.   My son always takes the advice respectfully, and even if he decides not to take the advice.  In a way, I think he considers himself an “apprentice” and greatly values each pearl of wisdom.

These kinds of lessons have staying power and apply to a whole life, not just one skill.  Like Walt Whitman’s “small poems,” lessons like these needn’t be whoppers.  Small lessons are just as valuable.  On my kitchen wall hangs a series of photographs.  The photos show my son, at age 4, in the process of dunking a cookie in a glass of milk.  What you don’t see in the photo is that my dad was sitting across the table from my son, instructing him in the art of cookie-dunking and recording it on film.  Even though my dad died a few years ago, whenever I want to see him, I can look at my son’s face in those photos.  Even coaching something as esoteric as cookie-dunking can serve as a lifelong lesson.          

Extracurricular Activities–Part I

Ever feel like your kid is the next teen superstar de jour and you are his chauffeur, personal assistant and agent all in one?  I’m talking about the entire universe of extracurricular activities.  You know what I’m talking about:  the car time spent shuttling back and forth, the checks written every month, the time researching and checking out programs and teachers and coaches.  For most families with school-aged children, this represents a significant chunk of time.  With such an investment, it must be doing some good, right?  Well, maybe.

Now that it’s the norm for families to be of the “two-careers” variety the role of the after-school activity has changed.  For elementary students especially, aftercare programs offered by schools are a necessity and to a certain extent, are babysitting.  Everybody knows this, but no one really likes to admit it aloud.  After all, we take parenting pride in exposing our kids to the latest and greatest enrichment activities.  If it’s at school and costs money,  it’s no wonder we expect more bang for our buck than a babysitter can deliver.  After care kids have a great opportunity to blow of some steam, stay productively busy, and get their homework done so they don’t have to do it at home.  But, there is a significant difference between after-care and a genuine enriching extracurricular activity.     

Your children understand that difference.  My son took a martial art class in an afterschool program at school when he was younger.  I thought he loved martial arts, but he never seemed excited about this class.  He complained about the large class size and the kids who needed to blow off steam after school and weren’t able to focus on training.  The regular and frequent belt promotions bothered him too, because he could see that earning a new belt didn’t really require much.  Of course, I assumed he just wasn’t interested in martial arts after all.  So, a few years later when he expressed interest in Aikido, I was skeptical.

Today, he spends about six hours per week at the dojo and trains with several instructors.  This is the serious kind of training he wanted but didn’t get in the after-care program.  He takes pride in what he is accomplishing both physically and mentally.  He respects his senior dojo-mates, and has earned their respect as well

This is what my son has gained from this after-school experience:

1.      Mastering an art takes serious focus and serious training.

2.      People who master an art and can teach it to others should be respected for their accomplishment.

3.      When you master an art, you have an obligation to help those in training.

4.      You never really become a master.  You can always improve.

5.      Mental focus is as important as the physical abilities.

6.      Striving for your personal best is sometimes more difficult than competing against others.

7.      Rewards come only after significant effort and training. 

Now, don’t get me wrong.  The martial-way of my son hasn’t been without its drawbacks.  He has become quite inscrutable.  For instance, when he had to sit in  with a class at our local school to take the state achievement tests one spring, one little boy asked him what kind of stuff he learns at home school.  My son told him he learns Japanese.  The kid wanted proof, so my son gave it to him–in Japanese.  “What does that mean?” asked the other kid.  “It means ‘Even monkeys fall from trees’ “answered my son.  I will reveal my liberal-white angst by telling you that I was mortified when my son told me this because the little boy he told this to was African-American.  I couldn’t imagine what that little boy’s mom or dad thought when they learned that some little white boy came to school and called him a “monkey.”   The inscrutible meaning of the comment is that even masters make mistakes and that no one is perfect.  I can only hope that the parents of little boy didn’t interpret my son’s inscrutable comment as a racial slur.

Still, the experience with aikido has been overwhelmingly positive, though not because aikido is so cool, or that my son is really good at it.  It’s because of the people who make up the dojo.  They are at one time artists, athletes, scholars, teachers, and role-models.  Learning from them is a true enriching experience.

As desirable as an enrichment activity is for your child, it is possible to overload a child with extracurricular activities.  I suggest narrowing these down to two at a time.

Stay tuned for more ideas for more ideas for making the most of your child’s extracurricular activities.

New Year Means Standardized Tests are Near

Before I’ve even mastered writing “2009” instead of “2008” I realize that spring will soon be upon us.  Who doesn’t long for spring once the seed catalogues start arriving?  But, for parents of school children, spring also means standardized tests to measure progress under “No School Left Behind” (NCLB) law.  However you may feel about NCLB and standardized tests, since public schools live and die by these test scores, we can’t ignore test stress.

No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has defined public education in recent years and remains a controversial method for improving schools by holding them accountable for ensuring that all children reach a specific proficiency level by 2014.  The NCLB is based on the “outcome-based education” model, which focuses on achieving a particular, specific outcome—a set of facts that each child should know and that can be measured.  NCLB requires all public school students to be “proficient” in reading, math, and science by the year 2014.  “Proficient” means performing at grade level.  Each state sets its own proficiency standards.   To find out what the proficiency standards are in your state, go to http://www.ed.gov/index.jhtml

Since a public school is judged successful or unsuccessful based on test results, there is incentive to focus on the specific information and skills that will be tested.  Other skills may be short-changed or not taught at all.  This is where parents can pick up the slack.

  

If your child seems to be spending a great deal of school time preparing for the test, take some time at home or during homework sessions to round out what they are learning.   If thinking skills are being short-changed in favor of memorization, you can supplement by posing questions or starting conversations that activate those skills.  

 

For example:

 

“I see you know all the part of a plant cell.  How is the plant cell different from an animal cell?  What features do they share?  Which features are unique to the plant cell?  What is the reason for the difference?”

 

“It can be kind of boring to memorize stuff, I know.  But, can you think of a reason why it’s important for a scientist to know all the parts of a plant cell, or all the organs in the body?  What jobs can you think of that would require knowing all the parts of a plant cell?”

 

“Wow, that’s great that you’ve learned the three branches of government.  What are three levels of government?  Does each level of government have three branches?  Why do you think our government was set up to have three branches?   What are some reasons that it’s important to know how our government works?   How could the opinions of guys like John Adams and Thomas Jefferson be relevant today when they lived such a long time ago when things were very different than now?  Why do you think the rules they set up long ago still work today?”

 

“Did you know that before the American Revolution, there was a Revolution in France?  People in France got tired of being told what to do by a king.  They wanted more of a say in how they were governed.  How is that like our Revolution?  Most countries were governed by a king or a queen before France’s and our revolutions.  The idea of democracy was way out there back then.  Why do you think people changed their ideas about how they wanted to be governed?” 

 

 

 

“You’re sure to come across words you don’t already know when you read.  What do you do when that happens?  Can you figure out what a word means by the other words in the sentence or paragraph?  That’s called ‘context’.  What happens if you break that word down to see if you know what some of the parts mean?”

 

My son is can’t escape standardized testing just because he’s homeschooled.  The school district in Nashville requires home school students to take the state test in fifth and seventh grades.  The fifth grade year I obsessed over the test–it felt like it involved a judgment of me rather than my son.   I suppose that’s what public school teachers feel too, and I completely understand the impact of test stress on what goes on in the classroom.  I signed up for an on-line test preparation service and set my son to work.  In fact, we didn’t do much else but test prep for about a month.  I figured at the very least, he would get practice in preparing for and taking tests like the SAT.  Despite my constant worry, my son sailed through the tests.  I don’t think, though, that his success was because of the tortuous test preparation.   The biggest contributor to his success was the logic activities we had been doing for two years.

 

Critical Thinking Books and Software publishes as series called Mind Benders by Anita Harnadek.  The series features logic problems of increasing difficulty.  The problems are fun and seemed like a puzzle game to my son.  Of course, he was too young for any formal logic–no “if X then Y” problems.  But working through the problems helped him develop a methodical way of solving problems that I clearly saw him apply to math, reading, science and social studies.  You get a really big bang for your buck with logic and analytical thinking practice! 

 

Suggestions for helping your child prepare for standardized tests:

 

1. Help him or her cope with the stress.  Encourage physical activity and healthy diet as ways of coping.  Put the test in context for your child.  A second grader doesn’t need to feel the same way about a standardized test as a high school senior studying for the SAT.

 

2. Act as overseer of the body of material your child is trying to master for the test.  Check your state’s standards so you can fill in gaps and put things in context.  By knowing the significance of what they are memorizing, your child can feel less like he is wasting his time than building his body of knowledge.  Encourage learning and thinking skills by asking questions designed to get your child to compare and contrast, prioritize, analyze, and assess.

 

3. Introduce your child to logic by using Mind Bender problems as early as kindergarten or first grade.  The reasoning skills they absorb benefit every subject they will study and build a solid base for more advanced-level thinking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

What Would John Adams Do?

In Nashville, where I live, we will vote on January 21 for or against a measure proposed by a city councilman to make English the “official” language of the city and require that all official city business be conducted in English. 

Nashville has attracted a number for foreign businesses over the past years, including Nissan, because we are a welcoming community.  Many people feel that the English Only initiative would damage the economic base of Nashville by decreasing the number of foreign businesses and visitors to our city.  Many people also feel it is a mean-spirited initiative that pushes back against  the perception that more immigrants – particularly hispanic immigrants – are coming to the U.S. than ever before and present a strain on the country’s resources.

Those who oppose the English Only initiative remind that constitutional rights in the United States apply to illegal immigrants, too.  Also, for years businesses have looked the other way and tacitly encouraged illegal immigrants to the U.S. in order to have enough workers.  It isn’t fair to now treat the people who have been here for years, raising families and working and paying payroll taxes (70% of illegal immigrants work “on the books”) as if they were criminals.  Cracking down on illegal immigrants also entails profiling, which most people understand can lead to casting too wide a net. 

The issue of immigration got a little swept away during the final days of the presidential campaign due to the economic issues that dominated conversation in the days leading up to the election.  But, the issue will come up again because both sides of the issue agree that federal immigration law needs reform.

How does this pertain to teaching your child to learn?  Well, aside from the obvious benefit of showing your child how to become involved in social issues and how to analyze information from interest groups on both sides of an issue, I encourage you to ask, “What would John Adams do?”

My son and I recently watched most of the three-disc mini-series on John Adams.  Though long, the series is a fabulous in-depth examination of the issues that the founding fathers grappled with as they drew away from England and started from scratch their own country, built on lofty though radical and untried ideals.

One thing my son and I noticed was that the two broad camps of founding fathers–federalists and anti-federalists–focused on elements that continue to need balancing today.  In a way, that is the true beauty of our democratic government.  The tension between the individual rights and the need for the government to make rules to maintain order isn’t one with a finite resolution.  Our government is set up in a way that allows the balancing act to persist–even if it gets kicked out of whack now and again.

So, what would John Adams think about our current immigration issues?  Or, for that matter, what would he have said about abortion, privacy rights, or gun control?  He was a passionate and opinionated man–there’s no doubt he would have vigorously taken one side or the other.  What would it be? 

Use current events – even ones that are controversial or difficult–to encourage your child to think about the nature of democracy.  Show them that some human ideals and values persist over time and place.  Let them discover that ideas aren’t stale just because they were first described ages ago.  Find opportunities to let your child feel the pride of being involved in a noble and brave process started over two hundred years ago that continues to survive despite wars, predjudices, poverty, and terrorism.

Poverty Harms Students’ Brains

Most people understand that an unhealthy lifestyle adversely affects their health.  If you eat lots of junk food and don’t exercise, you’ll probably gain weight and may have high blood pressure or high cholesterol.  That’s no big surprise.

But, it may be a surprise to learn that the brain is affected by lifestyle.  In a new study, cognitive psychologists at the University of California found that in comparison with the brain functions of wealthy children, the brain functions of some low-income elementary school children are so much lower that it resembles the loss of brain function caused by a stroke.

The brain functions that are affected by poverty include the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that controls higher-order thinking and problem solving skills. 

The new study adds to the evidence that malnutrition, stress, illiteracy and toxic environments harm a child’s ability to do well in school.  Just like a poor diet leads to poor health, the brain’s neural networks may not develop properly when a child is raised in poverty.  Low-income students do not develop the “executive functions” that allow them to plan, remember details, and pay attention in school.

Fortunately, studies have found that the deficiencies in brain function caused by low-income environment can be reversed.  Through lessons and games that focus on the executive function skills, the brain can develop those skills.

If your family is  low-income, ask your child’s teacher for activities that you can do with your child at home that will help them develop higher-level thinking skills.  Providing a healthy diet is important.   Sometimes healthy foods are pricier than other foods, but try making just one or two different choices to  feed your child’s brain some power food.   Foods with high omega-3 fatty acids, like salmon, walnuts, and kiwi are good for the brain.  Blueberries provide antioxidants, and spinach, orange juice, and yeast provide folic acid.  Diets heavy in trans fats and saturated fats may actually lower the brain’s learning capacity.  Buy as few processed food items as possible, and read the labels on cartons and cans of food.  For more information on the diet and the brain, go to www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080709161922.htm.  

Finally, sleep is important to developing brain functions.  If a child is stressed out over a long period of time, brain development is also affected.  Encourage good bedtime routines to help your child get the rest they need, and ask for help from your school or church if you think your child is suffering from long-term, constant stress.

Christmas is a time to focus on children.  As you focus on your own children, don’t forget about the children out there who are not as fortunate.  It’s important for those of us in the parenting and education arena to encourage the kind of focused intervention necessary for low-income students to develop the same cognitive skills as more privileged students. 

Please, volunteer with your communities literacy programs, volunteer at your child’s school, or become involved with programs that benefit poor families.  A small amount of your time might make a huge difference for a low-income child.

MINDING THEIR MANNERS

My son is a picky eater.  He likes his food salty.  While eating out with my in-laws, my son took a bite of pasta and decided that it wasn’t salty enough.  Instead of swallowing and chalking that first bite up to a seasoning exploratory bite, he stopped in mid-chew, grabbed the salt shaker, tipped his head back and poured salt into his mouth.  Then, he continued chewing and swallowed.

Most parents live in at least discomfort—if not fear—that their child will commit a manners faux pas.  We try, but somehow cannot cover all the possibilities that can pop up and require use of social antennae.  In Nashville, where we live, it’s popular to send kids to “Cotillion” which is a kind of crash finishing school experience.  The kids learn which fork to use, how to introduce themselves properly, and how to behave at a dance with members of the opposite sex.  My son could probably have used cotillion, but getting him in the door would have been impossible.

So, I turned to Emily Post.  Emily Post’s The Guide To Good Manners for Kids by Peggy Post and Cindy Post Senning, Ed.D. is a wonderful reference for parents to use to instill good manners in their children.  It is written for children to read on their own, but is even better read by the two of you together. Straight-forward, unfussy writing makes the content modern and approachable for any aged child.

The book begins by explaining why manners matter.  It goes on to explain some bread-and-butter manners basics like thank you notes, how to behave on a job, and how to greet someone.   The book even covers online manners and manners relating to new technology like cell phones and video games.

The Posts cover manners at home, school, and with friends as well as manners to use when in public places.  There is a section on responding sensitively when someone dies. 

You could hand the book to your child and ask them to read it on their own.  But, why not try going through the book section by section with my son.  We read the text together, one section at a time over a period of weeks.  After each reading, we went through one of the excellent examples from the book—a “what if” exercise requiring use of the manner point just discussed.  We then applied the principle to an example from our own life.  I gave my son a few scenarios asked him to practice responding in a mannerly way.

There’s nothing in the book that covers the acceptability of salting ones food directly in one’s mouth, but the principles of manners are there.  By understanding that good manners make getting along with others easier, make strange situations more comfortable, and make daily life easier, your child should be able to respond with manners in just about any social situation.

Learning Strategy

A learning strategy isn’t a studying skill.  Studying skills are great, but before a study skill can be of real benefit, you need to practice the art of learning by applying a four-part learning strategy.

If you dissected the process of learning something new, you’d see a process something like this:

• Take in information
• Process information
• Store and recall information
• Use Information

 

Those are the steps your brain goes through when you learn something new.  My four-part learning strategy focuses on those four steps.  I call the four parts: 

• focus
• armature
• hooks
• deliberate thinking

Focus concentrates on maximizing your receptiveness to new information.  Armature gives you a building structure to make sense of the new information.  Hooks help you store and recall information.  Deliberate thinking is what you do after you learn something new, creating unique and creative information.

Try an experiment.  Focus on how you focus.  Pay attention to what kinds of information have the most effect on you.  Is it what you hear, or what you read?  Do you need a quiet place to concentrate, or do noisy places work better?  Do you grasp things more quickly when you study alone, or with a group?  Do you need to restate what you’ve just learned in your own words or do you like to jump into action and use the new info?

Figure out what works best for you and use it to your advantage.   But, you don’t have to settle for just one “best” method for optimizing your focus because your brain is flexible enough that you can develop your ability to focus on other kinds of stimuli. 

Happy learning!