<p>I’d like your thoughts, experience and expertise yet again, if you don’t mind.</p>
<p>We’re in the process of selecting a high school for my 13-year old son. He’s a bright kid (who has not cured cancer or brought peace to the middle east) whose grades are always a bit lower than they should be because he tends to not be the most organized person in the world. He always does very well on tests, but will, more often than I would like, do his homework, take it to school and fail to remove it from his backpack – earning a zero and bringing down his class grade. He doesn’t have an LD and in classes where the teachers are more laid back, he is always one of the top students. Oh, he also has wretched handwriting and messy notes. </p>
<p>One of the schools we’re looking at is a private school that uses SmartBoards and Ipads. All kids take their notes on the Ipad and do their homework on there as well. I believe that teachers lecture from PowerPoint presentations, although it’s not clear to me whether the actual PowerPoint is provided to the students. The homework has to be submitted electronically by 10 pm on the night assigned or the student gets detention. This is a totally different way than he has ever done school work. To my untrained self, it sounds like this would solve a lot of his problems because he wouldn’t need the extra step of actually handing in the homework, and his disgusting handwriting wouldn’t be a liability.</p>
<p>Am I missing anything? Does anyone have any similar experiences? Any teachers who have professional info?</p>
<p>I don’t know enough about the use of Ipads in high school (does anyone?) to comment on that, but the 10pm homework deadline sounds like a nightmare!</p>
<p>Does your son tend to procrastinate? As a 52 year-old procrastinator I had a physical reaction when I read the 10 pm deadline (and it was not a positive one).</p>
<p>how does your son like to learn? Does he like using electronics?
To me, it would depend on how the ipad and smart boards are used. There is a way to make them interactive with the students so they are actually part of the presentation, rather than just using the smart board as a glorified (expensive) overhead projector. </p>
<p>I would recommend that you ask to do a observation day at the school in classes your son would like and see how they are used. There may also be a way for him to do a shadow day, and see how they work. </p>
<p>You can also look for a school that offers an AVID program. It can be quite helpful for students that are lacking in organization.</p>
<p>I am just a student, but I was faced with the exact same problem. At my old high school, computers/iPads/any electronics were not allowed in class. I had very messy notes, and I was extremely disorganized. When I transferred to a private school, my parents bought me an iPad for me to be a bit more organized. The school does not require students to take notes and do work on computers, but it was an immense help. Now I take all of my notes on my iPad, I write all of my papers, and almost all of my other homework on it as well. I also have my complete weekly schedule on it. I feel like it was a great investment for my parents, and a few amazing apps to invest in are iStudiez Pro, Pages, and Evernote.</p>
<p>Unless the school gives out assignments several days before they are due, that 10 p.m. deadline would be impossible for anyone with significant ECs – whether it’s sports, music, drama, a job, or anything else.</p>
<p>I second what Marian said. If your son is going to be in a marching band (which was an absolute requirement for anyone who wanted to take symphonic band as a class at D’s school), he will have very little time for homework on game nights.</p>
<p>Sounds like he’s related to my 14yo HS freshman! What are his excuses for not turning work in? Does he not care or does he forget? Detention may or may not be an interesting stick to get him to do his work. </p>
<p>Have you had him tested for ADHD-I? After years of finally fighting the school system that he had it, we stopped pushing him in 7th grade to get homework done, Once a few Fs & Ds appeared on the report card due to missing reports or projects, the teachers agreed he had it and we started medication. The ability to concentrate and focus was apparent overnight.</p>
<p>Our college freshman has always had similar problems, even the bad handwriting, and is a terrible procrastinator as well. H and I don’t believe in medicating kids, so we’ve had to just deal with it. All the tech sound fine, maybe, but there is no magic bullet. </p>
<p>Some of the things that helped S: Every day after school he and I had the “daily rundown” where he described what they did in each class and what homework there was. Color coded folders and notebooks for the different courses. A separate “fire folder” (red) which was specifically for things which had to be dealt with on any particular day - progress reports for me to sign and him to turn back in, homeworks to be turned in, etc.</p>
<p>How do you take notes on an iPad? Typing? Is zooserson a good typist? I can’t imagine having to type during a lecture.</p>
<p>I am a sceptic on injecting and mandating technology as a solution to classroom performance problems. Does your S use a PC now? For what? How well? Poorly taken notes on an iPad will simply be legible poor notes. Lapses in organization don’t go away automagically with electronics. These challenges your S is having can be addressed without changing schools. Problems/limits in ciricculum, poor facilities, disruptive students, saftey, incompetant teachers may require changing schools.</p>
<p>I would talk with parents and students at the private school and definitely sit in on some classes. Several years of tuition plus iPads, etc, is a major investment above & beyond your son’s education. A quick read of the program as you describe it suggests to me their process and procedures, such as enforcement of assignment deadlines, is a bigger contributor; electronics is simply a mechanism. Also use of Smart boards and Powerpoint - a facilitator (class materials on line 24x7), assuming the faculty is adept at it’s use. If the technology is not being used effectively, it’s just expensive eye candy.</p>
In his mind, once it’s completed, he’s done his part and it’s out of his mind!</p>
<p>He hates marching band with a raging passion, so he won’t be doing that, but he will have other ensembles.</p>
<p>I think the deal with the 10 pm deadline isn’t necessarily that they have to do the homework in a short timeframe, because major things have more time, but that it has to be in before they come to school so the handing in process doesn’t take up class time.</p>
<p>Strangely enough, he is an excellent typist. One of his elementary school teachers had a group of about four boys with handwriting issues and made them sit in during recess for a while to learn to type. That has served him extremely well.</p>
<p>Herewego2,excellent points and much to think about. Thank you!</p>
<p>We have a little conflict with regard to note taking. NOt sure what the answer is, but my son doesn’t need notes because it’s not how he learns. The taking of notes actually impedes his learning. If he were able to listen and read the textbook later, he always does better. It’s the fact of graded notebooks that trips him up. I don’t know how to fix that.</p>
<p>* I believe that teachers lecture from PowerPoint presentations, although it’s not clear to me whether the actual PowerPoint is provided to the students. *</p>
<p>Can someone explain what AVID is? And what is something similar in college?</p>
<p>Also, Sylvan, how is your college freshman transitioning to college without you helping each day when he returns home? </p>
<p>I have a Senior in HS, very smart, somewhat disorganized but getting better each year, ADHD-I with minimum medication. He is getting accepted to some great schools that fit his stats, some are even giving him merit aid, but I want to explore the services at each college that he can use if he recognized that his organization is spiraling out-of-control during the semester. He likely won’t commit to a school until April, so we have some time to really dig deeper during the accepted student days, I just want to learn more what each school offers in terms of support.</p>
<p>I personally would not go for this. While people are blown away by powerpoint, ipads etc., at the end of the day, they are just accessories. As a previous poster said, poor notes are poor notes, whether typed or not. Also, ineffective teachers are ineffective whether they are reading from a book or reading from powerpoint; most people who use powerpoint don’t actually use it well – they literally read off the screen, which he could do for himself. He may have a problem turning in his work, but he needs to learn to deal with that rather than going through 4 yrs with a 10 pm deadline because otherwise he’ll have issues in college/at work. While he may not need notes now at age 13, he may need them in HS classes, esp. AP classes; if classes are moving fast enough, he may not be able to hear and memorize everything, even if he could in middle school, and those classes may cover material in addition to what’s in a textbook. Sure he could get through HS this way, but what happens in college if/when he runs into old school professors who don’t allow such crutches or make you walk your paper up to the front of the lecture hall? Or in the workplace, where you can’t always say ‘sorry I can only function with an ipad, I can’t take notes on paper.’ If there are problems to be fixed, it’s better to fix them in HS, where the cost of failure is pretty low.</p>
<p>Avid is a program in the schools to give support for teens re: college readiness.
Often students involved are low income/minority. ( at least in our area)</p>
<p>Hi thanks … I went to two of the colleges that my son has been accepted (one target, and one a high target) and they both seem to offer tutoring programs in 1st and 2nd year classes, math, and college level writing. Both also offer additional support in time management and planning, and the language used on the website suggests it is free and there as students request help. The AVID may be overkill for my son, but the concept is certainly good for kids that need a good system to get through middle and high school in preparation for college. I’m trying to get my son from getting mostly A’s and B’s (with a few C’s on quizzes or tests or zeroes in homework when his organization gets out of control) to mostly A’s with a few B’s with less stress for him. As long as I know the college offers the support for the taking, I can relax knowing that it would be up to my son to reach for help when he needs it.</p>