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PracTutor

• is an online Math and English learning and practice solution
• designed to help students in Grades 1 to 8
• master every concept of Common Core Curriculum

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• Customizes content for each student based on the student’s unique skills
• Provides infinite practice in Math
• Unique practice each time
• detailed Reading comprehension and Grammar practice

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• PracTutor connects students, teachers, parents and administrators on the same platform
• PracTutor helps teachers and parents identify student’s weak and strong areas and focus on those to reach their full potential

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How a Parent and Teacher Can Associate To Help the Child Manage Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder.

"Lack of Focus or Attention deficiency" is one of the biggest issues that most parents experience when it comes to learning problems. On the other hand, it also is the most commonly misdiagnosed issue.

An attention deficiency that might actually be an issue is Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

ADHD or (referred in the ICD-10 as similar to hyperkinetic disorder) is a disorder that is observed in children between age of 6 to 12.

ADHD is a common behavioral disorder that affects an estimated 8% to 10% of school-age children. Boys are about three times more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than girls are likely to be diagnosed with it.

Parenting has nothing to do with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder and it is very much manageable. In case your family doctor, or his pediatrician, or neurologists diagnose him for ADHD, you must help him/her manage it successfully. He will need medication along with behavior management.

Parent Teacher Alliance

The lack of focus can affect all aspects of life. It is a serious issue and must be deal with sincerity. As the child spends a good amount of time at school, it is advisable to talk to his teachers regarding his behavior. An amicable and regular communication can help both the parent as well as the teacher to benefit from each other’s observations and expertise. They can share their perspectives, expertise, as well as observations. Finally, the association of parent and teacher works best to benefit the child and help him manage his focus attentively.

What are the points that you should discuss with his teacher?

As a parent, in order to help your child, you should communicate to his teacher with serenity and openness. Parents often tend to either be shy or refuse to accept other’s opinion about their child.  

• To begin with preparing a “What to Look out for” list and enlisting the same for his teachers observation can be of good help.
• Ensure that you share information about other issues such as memory or language issues. ADHD often tends to mask other learning problems such as dyslexia.
• Make a conscious effort to find out areas of his interest. Mark the activity that he tends to involve in more and likes to remain engrossed. It is possible that in his present schedule or list of activities there is nothing that you find him being attentively involved with. You can choose a few different things to try differently. Some of these can be tried at home while some others activities can be practiced at school. 
• You will have to undertake the child monitor his own alertness span collectively.
• Persistently, help him increase his attention span in various innovative ways that he is comfortable with. Play games such as Musical chair (request to pay attention to music) or “Statue” (ash him to remain steady in sleeping position/ sitting position until you cast magic spell to and free him).
• Notice if he responds better when spoken to with eye contact or by holding hands (physical contact).
• Once you find what works and what does not work, make a progress plan for your child that should help him grow further and be competitive.

Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) can make the child very irritated. The lack of attention makes him lack the grip that is required to be successful. He can learn to manage ADHD successfully with medication and help. It shall take a bit of extra effort and adjustment but in the end, it is all very much worth it and together you can do it.

PracTutor 

12806 Townepark Way 

Louisville, KY 40243-2311 

http://www.practutor.com  

News Media Contact : press@practutor.com 

What can a parent do to help the child with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)?

Kids will be kids. They will play, make noise, and make a mess.

Is your child quite and aloof when alone? Does he tend to seek extra attention when others are around? Does he forget things he just did learn or revise? Is his handwriting a total mess?

If answer to more than one of the above questions is “YES”, your child might be subject to Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder. Seek opinion of her pediatrician or your general family physician. If the need be, the doctors will help diagnose the ADHD.

Here are a few common suggestions for parents to help child suffering from ADHD:

• Encourage discipline and draft a daily schedule: Try to design a daily pattern of workflow and follow the same. Make this schedule available for the child’s easy reference, for e.g. paste it on his closet. Ask him to go through it and thus, the child will be clearly aware of the different timeslots to study, play, meet friends, pursue his hobby, or finish the chores. If your child does participate in the scheduled tasks on his own, do appreciate him.

• Appreciate organized behavior: Encourage the child to put all things back at their own appropriate places after using them. Books should be placed back in schoolbags, toothpaste – brush and comb should go back at their own dedicated spaces, dishes should be put in sink, pen-pencils must be placed back in pen stand or pencil pouch, etc. 

• Eliminate the distractions: While doing the homework or while painting or doing the hobby activity eliminate all distractions. The distractions can be 

          Visual: Any moving object, TV, the view from the window, etc
          Auditory: Music, radio, parental conversation, etc

          Sensory: Smell of food, strong perfumes, too cold or too hot atmosphere, presence of someone else around, etc

          Make the child sit alone at a peaceful place with no distractions. Schedule the time. Make him aware that he is suppose to finish off the task in the allotted timeframe.

• Keep the interaction clear: Communicate in brief and clear words. Do not use long story buildup or explanations to remind the child of the task or responsibility. Have faith in his ability and display the same, precisely. 

• Do not confuse or over-stimulate the child: If you are not clear in your thought, pause and form it correctly and concisely in your mind before you communicate. Keep the number of choices limited. The more number of choices can move the child towards hyperactivity.  

• Remember he is special and still a kid: Yes, it takes a bit of an extra effort to manage a special child, yet he is just a child. He will not show progress overnight. Set goals or aims that are realistic as per his capability. 

• Engulf yourself with tons of patience: He is hyperactive and thus, you must engross yourself in a bit extra amount of patience. Keep yourself vented and charged enough to keep your calm when you deal with him. Never use harsh words or spanking out or cut off privileges out of frustration. This can turn off his entire effort and progress. Remain optimistic at all times.

• Sort a Hobby: Music has been found to be having a calming effect and so does painting. As each child is unique so is his talent. Help your child discover his passion and encourage him to indulge in it.

• Find out more about concentration tips and techniques and try to implement them.

• Do not be shy: Find support groups and take professional help as and when required. Schedule the medication and follow it religiously. Take help from friends and family as well.

• Keep in touch with the school authorities and teachers. With help of the teachers, you can sort things better. 

Above all, appreciate him and respect him. He is an individual like each one of us. Keep his moral up and help him build up his self-esteem. 

Talk to professional to find if he has any other disorder as Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) can mask other learning disorders too.

PracTutor 

12806 Townepark Way 

Louisville, KY 40243-2311 

http://www.practutor.com 

News Media Contact : press@practutor.com

How to enhance the student potential through online resources?

If we want each child to have the chance for sharing his full and equal part in citizenship and shaping his destiny himself, we can make it happen only through correct education. Of course, education is not limited to the knowledge gained at schools or colleges; still academic education has got high level of just significance in our society. It helps an individual in choosing a fulfilling job; shaping the society and enriching the inner life.

Almost everyone accepts the value of education and Governments of all the major countries treat education department in a respected approach. It gets all kind of support from funding to encouraging system reformations with changing needs. Still many challenges are being faced and lot many parents admit that educational cultivation of their child has become a challenging task for them.

According to a report [Problems Facing American Education, Focus on colleges, universities and schools Volume 2, number 2, 2008] prepared by Ashley Boyer and Burnette Wolf Hamil, PhD [Associate Professor at Mississippi State University] states that the following are the major challenges faced by the American education.

• Attrition Rate of Teachers
• Lack of Parental Involvement
• Reading Epidemic [Students don’t like or they don’t prefer to read at grade level]

Many intellectuals will consider that these challenges are not only limited to America. Many other countries face same or similar kind of issues that really need to be worked on. Highly qualified individuals and teams including educationists carry on continuous research work to sort such issues. Alternative education supplement options kind of products or services are also popular i.e. personal tuitions, online educational portals. Parents prefer to keep possible efforts so that their child can achieve desirable educational goals.
Our society is always in need of an additional system that develops interest for education among students. Sometimes; due to tender age, they don’t like to study more. What they need is personal care, special attention and structured practice. Structured Practice matters a lot because too much repetition leads to over confidence and loses of interest. Structured practice covers varieties of topics with easy explanations; questions – answers.
PracTutor was mainly launched as an initiative to help students, parents and teachers in handling such challenges and providing the best support during school days and holidays.  Attrition Rate of Teachers is something that is not in control of any individual or an organization. There are many factors affecting this issue. Apart from that, PracTutor is considered as an ideal solution by its users.
Following are the special features of Practutor:

• Structured Curriculum
• Personalize Learning
• Unlimited Math online practice
• Unlimited English online practice
• Unlimited Math and English offline practice
• Training Videos
• Detailed student analysis, Periodic progress report
• Game based environment
• 1-to-1 mentoring (Parents and Students)
• Platform to connect with teachers and school

As a result of quality focused approach, Practutor is one the fastest growing services in the USA that really makes difference in a career of a student. Parents, teachers and schools also can actively participate and monitor the performance of students. Please visit following links to explore more about the revolutionary concept and know how to utilize it for betterment.
http://www.practutor.com

Back to school – implementing common core

A lot has been said about Common Core Curriculum in the past 2-3 years.
How it helps the greater good -This article from NY times and NEA today-
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/22/opinion/blow-the-common-core-and-the-common-good.html?_r=0
http://neatoday.org/2013/05/10/six-ways-the-common-core-is-good-for-students/
how it is not worth it at all –this article from Washington post and Fox news- http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/eight-problems-with-common-core-standards/2012/08/21/821b300a-e4e7-11e1-8f62-58260e3940a0_blog.html
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/07/30/do-math-common-core-massive-risky-experiment-on-your-kids/
To Myths vs Facts - http://www.corestandards.org/resources/myths-vs-facts
What we know for fact is that

1. Common core is here to stay.
2. 45 states have adopted it and there was no federal say in it. 
3. It was all community driven – parents, teachers, community leaders, school administrators all worked on standards, pitched in and created them
4. It defines what is expected of each child of each state at each grade level

Now, when we keep debating if they are good or not, in my opinion we are arguing if our educators are any good or not. Not the government, the educators -Since these standards were created by them. And we can never be in a good shape if we question our educators and now show faith in them, so let’s support them and work on a path to ensure that the core standards are well implemented and help our kids and nation grow.
Now, coming to the second part – what needs to be done to implement core standards. So every educator including a company like ours has varied opinions on that. Let me present PracTutor’s opinion. We need to ensure 3 things while thinking of implementing any standard, any policy.

1. Is it going to be fun, easy and motivating for the kids (who actually will be doing all the work)
2. Is it going to be easy for the teachers to know what they need to do - across 45 states?
3. Is it going to be satisfactory for the parents who are apprehensive about all the changes?

So at PracTutor we did a lot of brainstorming bringing in educators, technologists, consultants, leaders, parents and of course kids. To ensure all the above 3 things are well implemented we did the following 3 things.

1. Made learning and practicing/testing fun with rewards, exciting environment
2. Made everything aligned to core standards with flexibility to make changes so the teachers are comfortable knowing what is expected of each standard and how can they bring in their creativity
3. Keep parents connected with students and teachers to know how the students are performing and what the teacher is implementing

This makes all 3 involved parties very content.
To ensure this works, we give it for FREE to most school districts/teachers so they are prepared when common core hits them.
This is our opinion, we may be wrong, but we are willing to do the hard work with the right people and ensure we make it right and I guess that is what the US education system needs right now.