Get to Know Candice Love!

As I have mention in previous posts, a young woman named Candice Love has come to nearly every meeting, teaching the students about Essay Etiquette and prepping them for their future college essays. After last weeks meeting, I briefly interviewed Candice concerning her interests, hobbies and life goals.

Candice is 19 years old and entering her sophomore year at Washington University in St. Louis. She attended a boarding school, Phillips Exeter Academy, from 9th-12th grade. Although she attended high school in New Hampshire, she was born in St. Louis, Missouri and attended elementary school in North County. During her senior year, she worked as an intern for the United States Senate in Washington D. C.

Candice is currently majoring in English and hopes to become a teacher in an urban setting. She also has a strong interest in politics and is a proud libertarian; she is a writer for Washington University's political magazine. Fun fact: Candice is a fanatic Cardinals fan!

Ms. Love has been an essential member of this program and words cannot express how grateful we are to have her!

Week 4 of Summer Seminar!

July 16th, we had our fourth meeting. Summer Seminar is slowly becoming more rigorous each week! Last meeting, I asked the students to complete a small worksheet about the extracurricular activities they participated in during the 9th and 10th grade. This week, I presented a small power-point pertaining to college resumes. Also, Candice Love came back to discuss, what she called, 'Essay Etiquette.' Participants learned about basic essay format and specific Microsoft Word configurations.

Previously, on July 2nd, Candice had the students write a half-page essay to use as a diagnostic exam. During her free time, she read and corrected these writings. She planned to come back this week with a new prompt based off of their original papers, however, there were too many technical problems at North Tech. We switched rooms 3 times, and due to construction, the network connection for all of the computers was dysfunctional. I had also planned to help them utilize their worksheets to build their college resumes. Unfortunately, this also required computers and was not able to be completed. This weeks meeting, while productive, was very difficult and we were not able to accomplish all of our goals. Next week, we will have a guest speaker and catch up with writing!

Also, Candice Love will be highlighted this weekend! She has been so helpful with the program and I look forward to more of her lessons!

Up-And-Coming Feature!

From this point on, I will showcase a student every week! Summer Seminar requires a lot of time commitment, in and outside of the weekly meetings. Students displaying dedication and care through attending meetings, completing assignments and showing enthusiasm will be highlighted. Also, I will not only elaborate on their accomplishments in the program; I will interview them and get their picture!

The first person featured will be posted soon.

Third Meeting, Hello Ms. Irving!

July 9th, our guest speaker, Ms. Jennifer Irving of BJC School Outreach, spoke to us about careers in health-care and ways to explore our interests in the medical field. She explained that, while the internet is a great source of information, shadowing and volunteering can offer hands on experiences you cannot receive in front of a screen. After explaining some of the well paid, lesser known careers in heath services, she discussed resources available to students through BJC Health Care. She provided us with volunteer forms, brochures and her contact information. Students now have the opportunity to not only shadow physicians, but any career in health care! The visits can range from following a doctor in an ER to witnessing a surgery. We are so excited!

Second Meeting, the Writing Begins.

July 2nd was our second meeting! More students attended and participated than the first meeting. A friend of mine, Candice Love, came to discuss the importance of writing. She attends Washington University in Saint Louis and is majoring in English. After her presentation concerning the different styles of writing, she had the students choose one of three prompts and write a half page paragraph. She is currently using this as a diagnostic essay to determine how to best aid the development of their writing skills!

Next week is the moment we've all been waiting for: Jennifer Irving will be attending Summer Seminar! Mrs. Irving works with BJC School Outreach and will discuss shadowing opportunities. 

First Meeting!

Summer Seminar (S.S.),  is a program designed to enhance a students knowledge in the area of college readiness.  Participants will learn how to study more effectively and learn strategies to raise their grade point average(GPA). They will also gain and explore opportunities through hands on career shadowing and strive in the area of service.  We will frequently invite guest speakers who discuss their passions, college experiences, work life and more. 

Today  was my first meeting with the North Tech Health Sciences students. We discussed what a grade point average is, means and how it determines one's college options. As many students did not know their current GPA, we were able to use a scale to find it manually.  I also presented a power-point pertaining to ACT prep. We discussed opportunities for students to shadow physicians. Lastly, we briefly touched on the importance of volunteer work. We will have a speaker come for the next meeting and will continue to make great progress!

In-Class Note taking

There are many different ways to take notes in class, yet there are few effective ways to retain important information. There are three important key factors for in-class note taking: pro-activeness, organization, and review.

Being pro-active is key to EVERYTHING done in school.  Whether it's getting help or getting an extension, the earlier the better. That being said, working ahead is never a bad thing. Working ahead can help you in so many ways! It can 1. keep you more engaged in class (because you already know what will happen next) 2. allow you to get the extra help you need and 3. leave you with less stress. Number 3 is HUGE. Everyone has had a night where they have way too much homework, they start feeling stress and panic and can eventually fall behind. This can so easily be avoided. It takes extra time in the moment, but in the long run, you'll be happy you read and prepared for class ahead of time.

Organization while taking notes in class is mandatory. Everyone is different, but if you are struggling with taking notes in class, you should utilize the Cornell note taking system. When reading, make sure to mark up the text, highlighting key points and phrases, not big blocks of text. Also, when taking notes in class, writing down exactly what the teacher says is not effective at all; be sure to listen deeply and engage during class. If the teacher says something more than once, it's important. Highlight it, star it, put a box around it--make sure you identify that the topic as something to look out for. These topics are the key topics to quiz yourself on for the next quiz/test or even incorporate into your next essay.

Lastly, if you don't review over the notes taken in class, you're your own worse enemy! It only takes 20 minutes to sit down and take the information given to you in class and read it over. Connect the notes given to the actual textbook, and even do outside research to keep yourself engaged and interested. Write down the information onto color-coded flashcards and arrange them by topic (country, time/era, etc).


With these 3 tools in mind, in-class note taking will be a breeze!