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Weekly posts on educational topics, how-to-teach tips, parenting advice, kids health and more. Subscribe to the newsletter (on the left or below on mobile) for education blog updates by School is Easy Tutoring.

How iPhone’s Screen Time Feature Can Help Kids Find More Study Time

School is Easy Tutoring December 6, 2018

iPhone’s Screen Time Feature Can Help Kids

Students put a lot of time into studying, but not all study time is created equal.

On one hand, you can study by spending focused, uninterrupted blocks of time on reading, thinking, taking notes, and working through practice problems. On the other hand, you can spend that same amount of time, but be constantly interrupted by chat notifications, checking Instagram and Facebook, and playing Fortnight “for just a few minutes.” [Read more…]

5 Ways Students Can Beat the Monday Blues

dev-sie9 November 5, 2018

Parents and students alike frequently have a tough time dragging their exhausted bodies out of bed on a Monday morning. Feeling fresh, awake and rejuvenated for the upcoming school week is vital to a student’s success. We hope to help them achieve this by offering these 5 tips on beating the Monday Blues. [Read more…]

Pre-Reading: A Simple Technique to Help Students Learn More Effectively

School is Easy Tutoring October 18, 2018

The idea of getting ahead in their classes might sound impossible to students. As much as they might realize that part of the reason they are struggling is because they are constantly reacting (rather than pro-acting), they often don’t feel like they have time to get ahead. Instead of listening to lectures with sense of familiarity and engagement, students end up frantically taking notes.

To help your kids learn how to be in a primed “ready state” in class, try this preview technique to get a jump-start on their next textbook chapter. The goal is to get the student to actively preview the material so that when they sit down for a lecture, they’ve already got an idea of the big picture of the chapter, making the lecture more valuable (and making notes they take more useful). The best part? This exercise only takes 30-60 minutes. [Read more…]

3 Key strategies for supporting kids’ academic language skills

Susan Cumberland October 27, 2017

If your child is learning another language, it usually takes time for them to go from participating in simple conversations to utilizing academic language in a meaningful way. However, providing extra support for language is not only helpful for English language learners and other second language learners. All learners can benefit from purposeful language activities. Here are 3 significant language teaching strategies to use in the classroom or at home: [Read more…]

What is the theory of multiple intelligences and why is it important when teaching?

Susan Cumberland October 20, 2017

In the past, we’ve written about the different types of learning styles. That is one theory which posits we should be teaching based on how our students like to learn, or how they learn best.

But there is another theory that, while sounding similar, is not. It brings about another opinion on how we should view our human ‘smart-ness.’ It says we should be viewing many forms of aptitude as ‘intelligent’ and thus, teach by recognizing a person’s core strengths. We’ll unpack that in a bit. [Read more…]

Benefits and methods of interdisciplinary learning for kids

Susan Cumberland October 6, 2017

Whether you are a parent, a tutor, or a classroom teacher, you have most likely wondered at some point or another how to give your kids a fun, exciting project that furthers their learning at the same time. A theory floating around in the education world known as ‘interdisciplinary learning’ can be a great way to engage your kids in a meaningful way. Keep reading to decode this educational buzzword and see what it actually looks like in reality.

What is interdisciplinary learning?

Myra Strober explains this term by thinking about a meal: if you have peas on a plate, this can be likened to a discipline of learning. If you add carrots onto the plate, you now have two disciplines, which can be labeled ‘multidisciplinary.’ But ‘interdisciplinary’ in this analogy would be if you then mixed the peas and carrots together to make a salad. Rather than being isolated, these two ‘disciplines’ have been integrated together to make something new. Through this lens, we can view interdisciplinary learning as an approach that integrates multiple disciplines to solve a problem.

Why is interdisciplinary learning important?

Real-world problems are interdisciplinary

Think about any big problem in the world. Chances are, the entire problem is not ‘I need to solve this specific type of math equation.’ Rather, a problem could potentially be related to poverty, sustainability, or transporting goods to a remote community (perhaps even all three). These types of problems require many different disciplines to come together in order to form a solution.

Interdisciplinary learning gets kids to focus on learning life skills

Interdisciplinary learning focuses learning on life skills such as critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, innovation, and problem-solving. This leads to what Carleton College calls “significant learning.” It can be very valuable, since the skills acquired are found in various subjects or streams of study, and are designed to get students to apply what they’ve learned in new contexts.

How to approach an interdisciplinary learning project

Know your students and pick a topic, or set of topics, that intrigue them.
Choose a big question to get your kids thinking critically, and with the view to solving a problem. They should have to bring in skills and knowledge from various subjects and experiences to solve this problem.
Have your kids develop essential questions – what do they wonder about this topic? How can THEY form their own project to be able to understand this problem better? (Check out prodigy game for plenty of examples on this)
Design your project. According to the Galileo Network, students must know 3 things: why are we doing this? What should I know before we begin to tackle this problem? What is the one big thing I should know at the end of this? Everything in between is open for innovation and creativity, but these three main points should be planned for before the project starts.

The internet is full of great ideas for interdisciplinary projects, so definitely check out Google or Pinterest for inspiration. Here is an example from High Tech High to get you going, and another from Amy Singh (which is great to view if you are working with an individual learner). Enjoy exploring different problems with your kids and see where their creativity takes them!

Interdisciplinary projects are versatile enough to apply in almost any teaching setting

Whether you are looking for an interdisciplinary project to do with your kids over the holidays, searching for a way to engage your tutoring group, or trying to plan a unit for your class at school, using an interdisciplinary approach is highly beneficial. Since they are designed to be based on real-life problems, they can fit in with any age group, given the project matches their current contexts.