What we learn with pleasure we never forget. — Alfred Mercier

Dear Educator,

In SCORE, we call our moments of great learning our "Ah-ha" moments. We try to express them in one sentence or less.

I had an "Ah-ha" moment at a conference this weekend: When we ask people what they are feeling, we move them from their heart to their head: they have to think about it to answer. Most behavior is changed, however, when we help our students find their hearts.

Likewise, our best learning occurs when we work from our point of strength. Read this month's feature article on memory to learn how to allow our non-traditional students to creatively learn their content. Sorry, I can't tell you how I remembered the many terms for distinguishing angles when I was a student of geometry...but I used the techniques described in "Memory Revisited, Part 2." I must have learned it with pleasure because I can still laugh at the memory.

What have you learned with pleasure today? What has caused you to laugh? In one sentence or less, what is your "Ah-ha" of the moment?

If you don't know the answers, you're working too hard. Take a few minutes today to reflect, to smell the roses, and to enjoy a sunset. You'll be a better teacher if you do.

Sharon Marshall Lockett, Director
SCORE... For College and Career
sharon@score-ed.com

(To view Memory Revisited, Part 1 and other past newsletters, visit http://www.score-ed.com/news/newsletters.htm)

Spatial Memory Strategies.

The creative, imaginative, intuitive student who performs best with minimal structure and responds to games and rewards is often referred to as "right-brain dominant." Memory techniques that will appeal to these students are based on the following theories:

• It's easier to remember information if it's associated with something you already know. This is why we alphabetize and categorize information. When we remember where we filed it, we can retrieve it.
• It's easier to remember new information if you make an absurd association. The more absurd the association, the more likely memory will occur. We make an association absurd by giving animate characteristics to inanimate objects or by exaggerating proportions, as in "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids."
• More senses, more learning. The more of us we involve in the learning process, the more likely learning will occur. We can involve our sense of smell through visual imagery; we can involve our senses through singing, dancing, or drawing. When we involve our imaginations, the list is endless.

Right-brain dominant students don't have an ingrained sense of time. When these students spend five minutes trying to learn material, it feels to them like three hours. Setting a timer gives them a realistic idea of time spent studying and lets them know they devoted only 15 minutes to memory, not "all night long."

But, according to Caine and Caine, we have at least two systems for memory: rote memory and dynamic memory. Rote memory is learned by "drill and practice," as in last month's article. Dynamic memory is improved by visualizing, using our imaginations, and making associations.

With imagination, a student can find endless creative techniques for learning. One technique is called mnemonics. To memorize items in sequence, you create a rhyme word for the number on the list and then make an absurd association between the rhyme word and the item you want to remember. For example, your rhyme word for item number two might be shoe: "two-shoe." If number two on your list is bread, create an absurd visual image between shoe and bread.

Imagine going downtown in your beautiful new bread shoes. Your feet are inside lovely, good-smelling, just out of the oven to keep your toes warm, french bread shoes. They are decorated with poppy seed rolls on the front; and on the back, as a hook to help you hold on to them, are croissant handles. Imagine entering the store proud of your unique new shoes, but discovering the fad preceded you. The store is full of people wearing bread shoes identical to yours.

When you see number two, you rhyme it to "shoe," and you visualize your bread shoes. The more absurd the association, the easier it is to remember.

This is a great technique for the sciences or math where much of the content is sequential, i.e., learning the process of mitosis and all its phases, or learning the chemical sequence of photosynthesis, or learning the process for algebraic equations from word problems.

There is no end to what imagination and association can do for memory. The old acronym game of creating a word or a phrase out of the first letter of every word in a paragraph is an excellent technique. Singing a paragraph to a familiar tune also involves association. Some students might like to draw as a tool to enhance memory.

Dynamic memory can become a tool for reducing test anxiety. Mnemonic devices are used to access information when we freeze on a test; then we express them creatively. And yes, information can go into your long-term memory this way. Think of content as your long-term memory and the mnemonic device as the icon or file name you give it.

SCORE will be exhibiting at both the Beyond School Hours Conference in March and the Charter Schools Conference in April. Drop by our booth, mention this e-mail, and we'll give you $25 in SCORE-Bucks!

SCORE periodically offers centralized workshops...or SCORE can come to you!  If you have more than 10 staff members to train, fill in the information on our contact form and we will send you a Training Options flyer, personalized to your site.

Attend the Summer Institute: July 25–August 1, 2007

Get on the Fast Track to student success! Learn all of SCORE's effective strategies at once. Bring your family on a working vacation in Southern California, half way between the beaches and Disneyland. Register for all 6 days before June 1 for a 20% discount!

You receive 1) one each of all of SCORE's publications (worth $1,250), including the newly-revised Accelerating High-Risk Youth: A Leader's Guide, featured below; 2) six exciting, interactive days of in-service; 3) continental breakfast and lunch each day. Register now to receive our Early Bird Special Price.

SCORE 101: Adoption Workshop July 25–27, 2007

• Re-think the way you do business with a focus on “What Works” for reaching high-risk students.
• Discover SCORE’s proven strategies for creating systemic change.
• Develop a customized program to accelerate the achievement of high-risk youth.
• Receive curricular materials to assure successful implementation.
• Leave with an Action Plan tailored to your site.

SCORE has helped us to focus the many facets of our educational program to provide a more concerted effort toward higher student achievement.  Classroom teachers are enthusiastic!
I am glad I found another way to touch the life of a child and help them develop into a great individual.  All children can and will learn–no exceptions!
I can’t wait to go back to school and get started.  I’m leaving the workshop with a “do-able” plan and look forward to the upcoming technical assistance.

Use SCORE to plan your reform with your site restructuring team. We can come to you!

Tell us what you need at http://www.score-ed.com/contact.htm

Study Skills July 30–31, 2007:

You will gain skills and resources to:

• Increase student retention
• Improve reading speed and comprehension
• Identify learning preferences
• Enhance student interest level
• Help students listen and ask effective questions
• Teach effective memory techniques
• Improve test scores

I left thinking I had a wonderful few days.  I got home and realized it had been a life-changing experience!
It’s very exciting to think about the students using these ideas not only for better grades, but for life experiences.
SCORE is a tool I can and will use.  Thank you.
SCORE is great.  I already see a difference in my students.
Well done in a productive balance.

Train your entire faculty! We can come to you.

Tell us what you need at http://www.score-ed.com/contact.htm

Crisis, Grief, and Loss...and How to Help Your Students Through It: August 1, 2007

Grief is a fact of our students' lives (not to mention our own!).

When they are grieving, the way they learn changes. That means we need to reach them differently.

Attend this SCORE workshop to learn:

• How to read the subtle signs of a student in crisis
  (you already recognize their "not-so-subtle" messages!)
• What to do about it, both in and out of the classroom
  (you may gain validation and ammunition!)
• Where to go to find help
  (help for them is also help for you...your job will be so much easier!)
• How to change your teaching content and methodology to accommodate crises
  (and we teachers are always looking for a new strategy!)

Do you have a student in mind? They're invited! Listen to what students say:

I learned that grief will not go away, and when you go through depression do something.
I learned to be responsible and make good decisions.
This week I know not to take my anger out on someone else and not to argue so much.
I think you should go over this every year because it can help other people like it helped me.
I think that if it wasn’t for me, my friend would’ve joined his mother on the other side.
(Student participant one year after training)

We can come to you!

Tell us what you need at http://www.score-ed.com/contact.htm.

Score Class Teacher's Guide

You asked for it so we created it! Most of our great products are the result of your request.

The purpose of a SCORE class is to empower students to function at a level of content mastery in all their other classes. SCORE equips students with powerful study skills, academic support, guidance, intervention, and motivational programs. SCORE improves student behavior and attitude, accelerates student academic performance, and increases college and career eligibility rates, specially for high risk students.

The SCORE Class Teacher's Guide provides classroom lesson plans aligned with the standards. It helps teachers balance teaching study skills, drilling, and skill building with motivational activities.

This guide is available only to those who have completed the Adoption Workshop.

SCORE works! It received recognition by the United States Department of Education as a model program and is a member of the National Diffusion Network (NDN).

SCORE Celebrates 25 Years of Improving Student Achievement!

SCORE is a comprehensive systemic change program, validated for effectiveness by the United States Department of Education. SCORE provides in services, technical assistance, and field-tested materials, all proven to result in increased student achievement. To request specific information related to your site, visit: http://www.score-ed.com/contact.htm

• SCORE is not a "packaged program;" rather, school teams design a custom implementation that meets the SCORE success criteria and allows local ownership.
• SCORE is successful in helping language minority and Title I students achieve university eligibility by the time they graduate from high school.
• SCORE empowers students through a variety of strategies, enabling them to adapt learning to their strengths and their teacher's presentation style.
• SCORE's Study Skills curriculum is unequalled, and should be made available to all students. SCORE's primary focus is grades 6–10, but it has been adapted to meet the needs of both older and younger students.
• SCORE's Guidance Curriculum, available only through the SCORE 101 workshop, empowers schools to meet accreditation criteria and empowers students to take personal responsibility for their learning.

What do Others Say?

While school reform is a hot topic of conversation, many educators have not implemented practical programs that can help students live up to their full potential. I strongly recommend SCORE for your school. This is too good a program not to give it to everyone!

Maeva K. Hutter
Title 1 Coordinator
Willard Intermediate School

I can't say enough about how SCORE has positively impacted our Indian Education program. The SCORE program builds pride back into our students by helping them see good points, bring out their strengths, and talk about what they do well while they achieve success in school. Students have recently commented that they wish all their classes were taught like the SCORE class, "school wouldn't be boring." This is the most comprehensive model of student assistance that I have ever used. Yokoke, thank you to the SCORE staff for all of the support that we receive in helping our American Indian students realize their dreams.

Michael Folsom. M. S.
Counselor, Indian Education
Huntington Beach Union High School District

The SCORE staff, eager to support you in your quest to improve academic performance, is always as near as your mouse click, fax, or phone number:

Educational Innovations/SCORE
30100 Town Center Drive
Suite O, PMB 379
Laguna Niguel, CA 92677
http://www.score-ed.com

949-363-6764 Voice/Fax

sharon@score-ed.com