Over the past 6 years that I have been teaching, I have come across many students that take daily medication for ADHD. This article discusses a study that was done on whether or not to medicate students with ADHD. I found this article extremely interesting. Anyone that had debated over whether or not to medicate a child diagnosed with ADHD fights this battle. I have many personal experiences with students that have been medicated and also with those that are not. I have seen both sides of the issue and personally feel that every case is different. I have seen kids that are on medication that probably could function very well with behavior therapy rather than being medicated, and I have seen some that could not function at all without medication. The article also states that some kids with ADHD could benefit from tutoring. One thing that is for certain, a student that is diagnosed with ADHD and is not at all medicated, needs to constantly be reminded of the task at hand. As the student stated in the article, it is so easy for these students to be distracted. With one-on-one tutoring, the distractions are limited and a student with ADHD can easily be reminded of the task at hand if they start to drift off. It is difficult for students with ADHD to maintain the focus necessary in the classroom to obtain all the information needed to do well. They will get bits and pieces. A tutor can help fill in the gaps so that the student is able to succeed. It seems that a lot of the time, a student with ADHD struggles because they are not able to get all the information in the classroom rather than "not being smart enough to get it." Whatever the case may be, this article is a great one to read as you consider whether or not to medicate your child with ADHD, and also provides alternatives for students that are not medicated.

Does Facebook affect a student's performance? I can't say that I am surprised by the findings in the study done by the students in this article. Although a very useful tool for many things, just like anything done in excess, Facebook can be detrimental to a students success. I can see it in the classroom everyday. The number of students that are completing homework assignments on a regular basis is dwindling. I think of homework as one of those necessary evils. With math, a certain amount of repitition is needed to make sure that the understanding of the concept is where it needs to be. There is such a thing as overkill, but students need to have an opportunity to work through math problems without step by step guidance. Those that complete assignments typically do better than those that do not. Is Facebook the only reason that performance decreases? I would say no. I think that there are so many things for students to be doing these days that there is not enough time in the day to do everything. I think the bigger issue here is time management. Are students learning to manage their time wisely? Time management is a billion dollar industry between day planners, electronic devices to help manage time, not to mention all the people that are on the lecture circuit making money teaching people how to manage their time. If a student is able to learn time management as part of their high school education, I feel that they will be positioned to be more successful not only in college, but throughout their life.

Creative Tutors can help. We can incorporate time management ideas into the tutoring plan that we develop for your child. We have tutors that will work with your child to develop a system that works for them. We believe that each child is different and will work with you and your child to develop a personalized tutoring plan that will help your child grow by leaps and bounds. Since it is customized to fit your child's needs, anything that needs to be addressed can be fit into the tutoring schedule.

I am once again reminded of just how precious each day is. I can't believe that the person I saw pitching last night at Angel Stadium is now one of the 3 people dead in this tragic accident that occurred this morning. It is a chilling reminder of our mortality and that at any instant it can end. So young with so much promise, dead at 22. A victim of a hit and run. Maybe it is some cruel justice that when these things happen the person that made the mistake is the one that lives and has to deal with the fact that they took 3 peoples lives just by simply running a red light. As a sports fan, I marvel at how talented professional athletes are, but am often reminded that despite the talent that they posses, they are still human.

It seems daily that we are hearing of more and more school districts laying off teachers. In a time when people are talking about major education reform, how in the world can we be getting rid of young teachers. In almost every major school district in the country, they have been talking about the drastic amounts of teachers that will be needed in the next 10 years. One teaching agency states that over 2 million teachers will be needed over the next 10 years. Where are these teachers going to come from?

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This is a very interesting commentary regarding education reform. Being an educator, I am always interested in what people have to say about education reform. It seems there is always a flavor of the month when it comes to what could be done to try and improve the quality of the education in the US. It seems that all that anyone can agree on is that there is room for improvement. There is always room for improvement and depending on who you ask, the solution is as wide ranging as the problems.

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