All Posts in Category:Academic Resources
Khan Academy: SAT Prep & Academic Instructional Videos share
Stuck on math? Need help with Science? History confounding you? This website covers pretty much any topic except foreign language and writing your English essays. Khan Academy is a wonderful resource that provides Free SAT Prep (you can even link it to your College Boards account, to customize what you would benefit from working on) plus instructional videos on numerous academic topics.
I love the story behind this website. It all started when the founder, Salaman Khan, started to remotely tutor his cousin in math using online tools. Soon he discovered that the resources that he was putting online was helping a broader audience than just his family. Soon, Salaman Khan developed a vision of creating an online resource that could level the economic playing field by providing quality educational content no matter how rich or poor you are or whether you lived in an affluent or a poorer, remote area. He went on to develop a relationship with the College Boards, so now a student can link their PSAT or SAT scores to Khan and have access to tutorials and practice that is specific to their needs, without having to pay hundreds of dollars to a prep course.
Career/College Planning: O*Net Online share
A not-for-profit website that pulls together government data about the jobs in our country and people who are working in them so that you can surf around to learn things like what jobs in the United States. There’s a page where you can view lists of suggested careers that might be a good match with the skills that you have. Or, you can research details about specific careers that you are interested in. And, you don’t even have to know what you want to do! You can do a keyword search (ex. “legal assistant”), browse lists of careers within an industry (of course, “Health and Counseling” is my favorite!), or you can answer a bunch of questions and let the website make some suggestions about what you might enjoy.
Before you invest your money and time into education or training, wouldn’t it be nice to know details like:
- What kind of education or training with I need to get a job in this career?
- What can I expect to get paid in a job like this? (Keep in mind that these numbers are averages so some people make more and some make less. Part of this depends on how much experience you have, so if you are fresh out of school, expect to make less than average. Part of this depends on where you live. Expect to be paid more in areas that have a higher cost of living and less in more remote, less affluent areas.)
- Will it be difficult or easy to find a job in this profession? If it is a “growing” profession, that means that it is expected that there will be more jobs opening up, creating a higher need for people with this training. If the industry is “shrinking,” then it’s more likely that the job market is already flooded with people who have these skills and it will be tough to find a job.
This website can help you learn all of this and more.
The Work-Smart Academic Planner: Write It Down, Get It Done by Peg Dawson EdD & Richard Guare PhD share
A review of this is yet to come. I have ordered my copy… just learned that this planner exists! Amazon reports that it’s geared to kids in 6-12th grades. These authors have two other books that I recommend, Smart but Scattered & Smart But Scattered Teens. The authors’ do a great job of making things understandable in a way that doesn’t leave the reader feeling stupid. When you struggle with these skills, it can be easy to get down on yourself. These authors can do a great job of pulling you back up to feeling like you are smart and capable. So, this letter might be worth having.
* I don’t make any money from the books that I recommend. My reviews are solely based on wanting to let people know what’s out there and could be helpful to them.
Smart But Scattered by Peg Dawson, EdD & Richard Guare, PhD share
While I own this book, I have not had a chance to give it a read. It is geared towards parents of 4-13 year-old kids. You can check out my review of their companion book, Smart but Scattered Teens, which I suspect is pretty similar to this one. Additionally, in creating this review, I was excited to learn that they now have a Work-Smart Academic Planner that I will be reviewing as soon as I get my hands on a copy!
* I don’t make any money from the books that I recommend. My reviews are solely based on wanting to let people know what’s out there and could be helpful to them.
Smart But Scattered Teens by Richard Guare, PhD, Peg Dawson, EdD, and Colin Guare share
With a sense of humor and practicality, the authors of this book provide concrete, step-by-step ways to take a look at your teen’s (and yours!) strengths and weaknesses in terms of organization and planning. They then provide information about how people’s brains work and how having “executive functioning” challenges effects people’s day-to-day lives. They guide you through ways to improve these types skills with respect and compassion. The thing I like most about this book is that they emphasize that people with very smart brains can struggle with these skills. Geared to the 13 and up crowd, they also have companion books for younger kids (Smart but Scattered) as well as a new, Work-Smart Academic Planner that I’m excited to be checking out!
* I don’t make any money from the books that I recommend. My reviews are solely based on wanting to let people know what’s out there and could be helpful to them.