Michael Geisen, the 2008 National Teacher of the Year, has shown thousands of students how to achieve lasting success. And now, he can give your own student the same vital skills that will carry him or her through high school, college, and well into the challenges of adult life. Packed with advice, tips, tricks, and resources, this course has the power to transform your student's education.
In this introductory episode, students learn what intelligence is, how it reveals itself in multiple ways (including visual, spatial, interpersonal, and logical intelligence), and several characteristics that all great students share.
Students explore three keys to success in the classroom: preparing, participating, and taking good notes. How can they make preparing for class quick and simple? How can they participate in class without looking "dorky"? What are the best ways to take notes while still paying attention to what's going on in class?
Professor Geisen focuses on the techniques of effective group work. Students discover how to structure their group to use everyone's strengths; how to avoid the dangers of insensitivity by communicating with tact; and how to reach a consensus using a variety of methods, including dot voting and weighted voting.
By navigating their busy lives more effectively, students can free up more time and space for true learning-and things they really like to do. First, students will bust the myth that multitasking actually works. Then, they'll develop strategies for planning and prioritizing activities. Finally, they'll learn some secrets to keeping themselves-and their work-organized.
Here, Professor Geisen gives students tips for creating the perfect study environment, offers them study techniques that fit with their unique learning style, and demonstrates ways to take truly effective notes.
Students take a closer look at play, risk, trust, and other mind-sets needed for creative thinking, as well as practical techniques for brainstorming, using a different viewpoint, and changing their environment.
Students turn to the second half of thinking: critical thinking, where they decide what to do with all their ideas. They explore how to evaluate evidence, recognize bias, distance themselves from emotions, use logic and reasoning, and much more.
The ability to research effectively is a huge factor in students' success. Professor Geisen guides them through the process of pre-searching, searching, evaluating, and organizing. They'll also get tips for working with the wide range of sources available to the 21st-century student.
Whatever kind of learning style students have, all it takes to strengthen and improve their writing is following a series of guidelines and techniques. They'll discover the secrets to choosing powerful words, building effective paragraphs, organizing entire essays, spending the right amount of time drafting and editing their work, and more.
Develop an opening hook that takes advantage of a startling image or fact. Organize your speech or presentation the way you would organize a research paper. Make sure to use visual aids sparingly but effectively. These are just three of the many strategies students will find here for delivering dynamic presentations.
