BlogaMental Educational Blog

By Lori Skurka on 1/4/2013 4:35 PM

EleMental Learning, the leading provider of private tutoring services in Chicagoland, is pleased to announce the addition of six new tutors in Illinois. Each of these tutors in Chicagoland are actual state-certified teachers with real classroom experience.  A hallmark of EleMental Learning's Chicago tutoring service is that all of our tutors are actual trained educators. Please read further to learn more about these new tutors' great backgrounds and qualifications!

 

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By Lori Skurka on 1/4/2013 11:58 AM

We're nearing the end of the kids' two week Holiday Break. The kids have been fully inundated with new iPads, iPods, Androids, PCs, video games, and other e-devices that probably have some educational and future occupational benefit but which also tend to turn the kids into zombies in the near term.  If I had a dollar for each time one of my kids absent-mindedly said "just a minute..." when I instructed them to turn one of those items off...

The good news is that we've taken advantage of several of the mini-camps offered through the local YMCA to keep the kids active during the break.  Our kids focused primarily on swimming, but there were also opportunities for the kids to sample basketball, ballet and other forms off dance (Zumba is a current favorite), and other sports and activities.  It may be a little late now, but I highly recommend that parents take advantages of programs like this -- at the YMCA, through their local park district, or other local organizations [just check out your local paper's upcoming activity calendar!] -- to keep the kids active and engaged in something other than electronic nonsense during these breaks from school. 

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By Lori Skurka on 11/13/2012 3:42 PM

Today EleMental Learning, New York's premier provider of private tutoring services, is pleased to announce the addition of five new tutors to our New York state tutoring crew. Each of these five new tutors in New York are actual state-certified teachers with real classroom experience.  A hallmark of EleMental Learning's New York state tutoring service is that all of our tutors are actual trained educators. Please read further to learn more about these new tutors' great backgrounds and qualifications!

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By Lori Skurka on 10/28/2012 3:46 PM

The internet is awash with purported purveyors of online tutoring.  Some are legitimate, well staffed services dedicated to the provision of professional distance tutoring.  Others can be as clunky as someone with a Twitter handle and a Paypal account offering to guide your kid through the next test, project, term paper, or standardized exam for an arbitrary fixed fee.  The technologies utilized are quite varied as well.   While most adults of a certain age have accepted the legitimacy of online commerce, distance learning, and e-tailing, online tutoring resides at the nexus of all three of these web 2.0 applications.  It beckons the questions:  when choosing an online tutor, how do you choose among the myriad choices, what are you hoping to achieve, and how will you measure success?

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By Lori Skurka on 9/11/2012 8:46 PM

BlogaMental, the tutoring blog of EleMental Learning, has been on extended sabbatical.  During this time we've been out learning the ropes of internet marketing, social media, and cross-marketing every which way till Tuesday.  It took a while to get through our thick skulls, but eventually we realized that the place we wanted to blog and muse was RIGHT HERE under our own roof!  So we're back.  Discuss amongst yourselves. Rinse.  Repeat.

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By Lori Skurka on 11/25/2009 4:52 AM

As I typed the title of this post I stopped to wonder how many of today's adolescents would have resisted the urge to put the preposition at the end of the phrase -- i.e. 'A Lot To Be Thankful For'.   I continue to worry about the texting and video-gaming culture America's future leaders are growing up in.  No, actually, the culture in which they are growing up!

Anyway, we've made it through mid-term conferences and at this point most parents have a pretty good feeling for where their kids are stacking up in the classroom.  Even if you've learned that your child has a bit of an uphill climb in order to achieve classroom standards, he or she still has something for which to be thankful.  That of course is you--a parent who is spending time on this site in a search to find what is best for the child's progress.  You taking the time to read this means that you care more about what's best for your kids than the average Joe.

Two of my three children are school age, and their conferences generally went...

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By Lori Skurka on 9/9/2009 10:01 PM

Article Citation: "To Address Behavior Issues, Preschools Turn to Therapy", Wall Street Journal, 9/9/09, written by Sue Shellenbarger.

Link to original article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052970204348804574400612690410766.html#mod=todays_us_nonsub_pj

Interesting overview of the controversial new push, now offered in 29 different states, to embed mental health workers directly into preschool classrooms.  These professionals work directly with students needing extra therapy or counseling to address behavioral issues at an early age in order to help them integrate better and improve their emotional well being.

Without addressing the funding issue, which we understand to be a fluid and changing situation under new governmental directives, this seems like a wise approach from an educator's standpoint.  Providing hands-on mental health counseling directly in the preschool...

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By Lori Skurka on 7/2/2009 1:59 AM

Attention parents, tutors, students, teachers, administrators, and anyone else passionate about educating the youth of our nation!

We've got one simple question to ask you:  What's Buggin' Ya?

If there's one constant in today's crazy world, it's change.  What is the educational controversy du jour in your household, your school district, your state, and in the national headlines?  What's got steam shooting out of your ears?

Let's hear from you.  Topics that get a lot of spirited debate may be used as fodder for future EleMental Learning editorials.  Or we may just sit back and watch sparks fly.  We'll see what happens! 

By Lori Skurka on 3/14/2009 10:22 PM

Although the Obama administration has allocated billions of dollars to the broad category of "Education" in its first (and only?) bailout program, and in its subsequent fiscal budget proposal, it is short-sighted to think that a precision effort at remedying the educational ills in America is underway.  We think that is simply not the case.  Open issues that scream for attention:

Teacher pay:  Merit pay versus the tenure system.  Merit pay seems to be gaining some traction, but two issues cloud the picture:  (1) what is the criteria for judging "merit"?  (2) How can the Obama administration advance a concrete plan for merit pay when doing so will run directly afoul of the NEA and his other supporters in the educational establishment?  These are clearly treacherous waters.  The Administration will find it very hard to build consensus here. Reform of No Child Left Behind: The NCLB plan is oft-derided as being flawed in methodology, unfair in the inclusion of certain student categories in the test...

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By Lori Skurka on 1/1/2009 1:01 AM

What Are The "Best" Schools In Your Area?

By Lori Skurka on 1/1/2009 12:22 PM

Just for kicks we took a look at the list of "best" schools in the areas served by EleMental Learning.  Many of the names which showed up on the lists are the usual suspects.  However many of the schools which showed up on the lists were unexpected, and many schools we assumed would show up on the lists actually did not.

This led us to look a little bit more at the methodology and biases inherent in the way these schools attract pupils.  Clearly,...

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