Food for Thought

This may sound trite, but it’s true: eating the right foods can help you do better in school.

Here’s why. All the functions of the brain are biochemical processes with some electricity thrown into the mix. In a nutshell, brain cells communicate with each other and the rest of the body by releasing these wonderfully fashioned chemicals called neurotransmitters. The neurotransmitters trigger a frenetic exchange of electrical messages between cells, and voilà—brain function. It’s what enables you to think, analyze, solve problems, remember, and… the list goes on.

But none of this could happen without the right ammo—the nutrients in the food you eat.

Ever wondered why you have an easier time remembering things that happened when you were emotionally or intellectually stimulated, especially after a rewarding session from your SAT tutoring? It’s because your brain cells are best at building new connections when they are excited. And the delicious neurotransmitter that makes this happen, acetylcholine, can’t be produced without certain precursors. Try eating eggs, liver, soybeans, cabbage and wheat germ (to name a few), and you should have an easier time remembering those pesky formulas and definitions.

Two other key neurotransmitters are dopamine and serotonin. These make you feel happy and help you focus! Dopamine keeps you driven and motivated, and serotonin works to stabilize your mood. These forces combined can improve concentration and help you get through even the toughest assignments. To ensure a steady supply of these feel-good messengers, look to slow-release, protein-rich foods like meat and dairy products.

And while we’re on the topic of brain-powering foods, consider incorporating omega-3 fatty acids into your diet. These help build and maintain the fatty sheath that insulates the nerve fibers in your brain. Messages couldn’t flow freely between brain cells without it. So the more of these fats you get by eating fish (especially wild salmon) and nuts, the better and faster your brain will operate!

School Admissions Timeline – What To Do Next

School Placement Consultant Sandy Eiges of LA School Scout offers up some tips on how to stop the waiting and get proactive in March!
School Admissions Timeline – What To Do Next
People usually think of March as that “waiting” time of year in school admissions. But much as March can be an interim period between the dead of winter and the birth of new things in spring, where much can go on beneath the surface, so it is in the world of schools.
If you are waiting for answers from colleges, waiting to hear about financial aid packages, waiting to find out if you got into private schools, waiting to find out if your magnet points will get you into the school of your dreams (you won’t find out until April), or waiting to see if you got in off a waitlist for preschool, my sympathies – this is a tension-fraught time. Read on – for everyone wanting to know what you can do right now, there are lots of things to take care of in March. Here are some pointers:
1. For private school applicants, DK-12 – make sure that you’ve let your first choice private school know that you would, in fact, enroll your child were you to be offered a space. Do that now!
2. For public school – tour, tour, tour! Many, if not most, public schools offer an open house or Kindergarten orientation or tour. Check out your neighborhood public school, but feel free to take a look at other options. School tours are listed on my free tour calendar at www.LAschoolscout.com. Don’t count on getting into a private school, or your backup magnet or charter school – you need to have options. Go see what they might be.
3. For charter schools – many charter applications are due in March, and some schools are still offering tours. These applications cost nothing, and you can apply to as many charters as you like. This year, you can even apply to as many of the Palisades Charter Complex schools as you like – there’s no longer the restriction of applying to only one of those schools.
4. For magnet schools – some new magnets schools are, unbelievably, still taking magnet applications! Even if you’ve missed the boat on magnet deadlines, go to http://echoices.lausd.netto take another look at the magnet school options, and the list of new schools. Some of the new schools are still taking applications, and will be until fully enrolled. See below for the latest information on Mark Twain Middle School Global Language Magnet, in Venice.
5. For college – Spring break is a great time for high school sophomores and juniors to visit colleges and take campus tours. This way, come summer, a final list of schools to apply to can be created. Even if families can’t afford expensive east coast college trips, a California trip can easily and affordably be designed to include various UC and CSU campuses, along with private colleges such as Stanford, USC, Loyola Marymount, Occidental, etc. Need help putting together a plan? Check out college.
6. For preschool – make your list, check it twice, and start getting out on as many preschool tours as you can, as soon as you can. In many parts of town there are waiting lists for preschool, and, incredibly, there are even waitlists to get on a tour – no, this is not a myth perpetrated by school admissions consultants!
For those of you hoping that the whole preschool, elementary, middle, high school and college application process will just take care of itself – good luck with that! But for those of you trying to be proactive, March is a great time to start planning for September 2012 and 2013 admissions.
Sandy Eiges holds a Masters in Social Work, and has worked in and around education her entire professional career, including, most recently, as the charter school developer and interim principal of YouthBuild Charter School of California, a high school diploma and SAT tutoring program for out of school/out of work youth, located in Watts, East Los Angeles and El Monte. She has served on the compensatory education committee and local school leadership council for Mark Twain Middle School, in Venice/Mar Vista. Sandy founded L.A. School Scout LLC to provide families with comprehensive information on all of their educational choices, and help families make informed and thoughtful choices about the schools that will best suit their children. For the past five years Sandy has been an educational consultant for parents looking for preschool, elementary schools, middle and high schools, whether public, private or parochial.
You can contact Sandy directly at sandy@LAschoolscout.com; or by visiting her on her website at www.LAschoolscout.com.

The Future of Textbooks

The iPad is undoubtedly cool. And one of the coolest parts of the iPad is its potential to revolutionize textbooks, and they are especially useful when recording information from your private SAT tutor.

Inkling, a San Francisco-based software company, is leading this transformation and bringing textbooks into the digital age. Rather than simply loading textbooks onto an iPad as a PDF, Inkling is completely changing the way that students interact with their textbooks by integrating text, video, 3D images, and collaborative note taking all in one place: an ipad app.

Check out this quick video to see Inkling in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX4i9K6upqU

There are many positive impacts that digitizing textbooks will have on education and the world:

• Saving trees - no more huge books!
• Easy content updating by the publisher - no more need to buy version 7 because they made four minor changes to version 6
• Portability - it is so much easier to carry around ONE iPad than 5 textbooks

However, the most exciting part of the textbook transformation is that it is going to make learning COOL, ENGAGING and EXCITING. Instead of forcing students to turn back the clock 30 years by reading paper textbooks, Inkling and the iPad will allow students to learn in a modern and dynamic fashion that is consistent with level of technological interaction they are used to in their day-to-day lives. Kudos to Inkling and the iPad!

How to Avoid the Domino Effect

It’s all happened to us…that ONE bad thing that leads to a domino effect of negative events. Unfortunately, that ONE thing happened to me this morning. Determined to park in the closest spot at work, I disregarded the fact that only a Smart Car could appropriately fit into the tiny space. Needless to say, the piercing sound of a rusty, metal pole scrapping against the side of my grandma’s car was that ONE thing that made me decide today is a BAD day. It also led me to commit the common mistake of blaming my actions on something else…in this case, the massive Range Rover who took up all the space next to me.

As a student, the ONE bad thing that occurs might be missing a big test because you overslept or forgetting your 20 page essay. If you aren’t careful, these things can lead to a series of events that can result in more than just a bad day. Let’s take the classic case that we’ve all experienced: getting your essay back with red marks galore and a big fat “D”. In this example, and nearly any other you face in life, follow these steps to AVOID the domino effect:

1. Take a deep breath: Even if you do break down in tears, take the time to take a deep breath and calm yourself down. Try not to let your emotions lead you to actions that will cause more damage such as blurting out a choice word that lands you in detention.

2. Avoid the blame game: No matter how much easier it is to blame your teacher (ie “She didn’t explain the essay well enough” or “He just doesn’t like me”) avoid it at all costs. Realize that your teacher is on your side and use his/her comments as a tool to do better next time.

3. Take ownership: Rather than blame your teacher, ask them how you can improve the next time or possibly re-do the paper for a better grade. Even the “meanest” teacher appreciates effort, and you’d be surprised how it can affect your grade in a positive way.

4. Think BIG picture: In the end, one poor grade does not mean you’re a failure. What’s more important is to focus on the immediate steps you can take so that you don’t continue to fall in the same patterns.

5. Start out fresh: Try your best to not let your feelings carry to the next class period or the rest of your day. This could lead to earning more bad grades. Forgive yourself and remember that you can redeem yourself next time, and study harder with SAT tutoring and supplemental aid.

6. Create a POSITIVE effect: Regardless of what happened, it happened. In order to turn it into something positive, use it as a way to avoid it from happening again or better yet, create a POSITIVE domino effect. For example, although I wanted to fall into the “BAD day” attitude and blamed the Range Rover, I took the above steps and created a positive effect (hopefully) by writing this blog.

Note: If you look at each of these tips, you’ll realize that it’s all about your ATTITUDE and mentality!