Friday, November 1, 2013

Teen Brain Boot Camp by Steve McCrea

SAT Brain Booster Camp  (DRAFT COURSE DESCRIPTION)
The purpose of this course is to give you:
a)      A higher score on the SAT
b)      The skills to succeed while in college and later in life.  Some people calls these “life skills” and others call them “emotional intelligence”

SAT SKILLS
The higher score on the SAT is earned by focusing on the following three areas:
Essay --  you will be asked to write several essays.  This is not done during the course.  Some students claim that they lack the self-discipline to write while they are outside the class.  In that case, time during the course can be allocated for essay writing.
Math – numerous examples of SAT style questions will be presented.  The aim is to get you to respond quickly to a variety of skills.  There are approximately 95 types of math problem.   We aim to show you all of the types.  MajorTests.com is a good place to start.
Verbal – learn a lot of words.  You will be asked to start with words on “hot lists” and FreeVocabulary.com.    Spread the Words mobile app is especially recommended.
TYPICAL HOMEWORK:  Make sentences with words from FreeVocabulary.com
Find questions for the next day (going through the previous tests and using MajorTests.com)
Using the mobile apps.

SOCIAL SKILLS
In the Social Skills side of this course, the focus is on exposing you to the skills that have been shown to be useful.  The list is flexible and instructors can add materials that give additional tips.
Automatic Negative Thoughts (and how to eliminate them with ANTeaters).
12 ways to support your brain (Dr. Amen’s list)
Readings from Daniel Pink, Thomas Friedman, Malcolm Gladwell
Know Your Type personality quiz  http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp 

Computer Skills
How to build a free website
How to create digital portfolio
How to use projects
Build a resume (to give a list of skills)
The Personal Learning Plan (PLP)
Learn how to monetize your youtube account and website
Learn how to use the power of one click -- YourNetImpact.com  
Dr. Deming’s list of 14 Points  (to understand systems)

The course materials  include
Personal Learning Plan sheets (what are your goals?)
MajorTests.com for math problems and typical verbal problems, as well as essay questions.
FreeVocabulary.com for vocabulary words.
Mobile apps, including “Spread the Words”
Readings from Daniel Pink, Thomas Friedman, Malcolm Gladwell
Know Your Type personality quiz  http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp 
Readings from Dan Pink, Malcolm Gladwell, Thomas Friedman
Wikipedia articles, such as Deming’s 14 Points and  The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Habits_of_Highly_Effective_People
Tips for instructors
When you read through the “teacher talk” you will see that there are easy ways to introduce each of these topics.

How to put your work into a digital portfolio.
“I’m more than a letter in the alphabet.”
Monetize your youtube account.

How to benefit from these skills  (you can share what you learn by volunteering to share with the next group of students in this course).



 Learn more  (954) 646 8246