What is academic coaching?

You have found our blog and you enjoy the posts, but seems like many of you are still wondering what exactly we do.  Here it is folks!

As academic coaches, our goal is to equip your son or daughter with the skills necessary to become an exemplary student.  We work primarily with bright, capable students in grades 4-12 who lack the structure, self-discipline and organization to excel academically.  We use research-based strategies that empower your child to successfully take control of his or her own learning. 

How does it work?

Each child, each school, and each teacher are different.  Changes do not happen over night and any lasting change requires a strong partnership between student, parent, teachers, and the academic coach.  Coaching sessions usually occur weekly and in some cases we may suggest two sessions per week to start.  Once substantial progress is made, students may be weaned down to one or two sessions per month or discharged entirely.

What do the sessions look like?

The intake session is an hour long and includes both the student and parent(s).  We ask that parents please come prepared with your intake forms filled out, as well as copies of your student’s last four report cards (one full academic year).  If you do not have the last four report cards, you can obtain them by calling your school’s office.  Most schools require at least 24 hours notice to pick up documents.  Once we have discussed the goals of our work together, both student and parent will sign commitment statements which will be reviewed on a weekly basis.  Parent(s) will also sign a release of information so that we may communicate with your student’s teachers, school counselor, or other school staff. Each coaching session is an hour long.  The first 45 minutes of the session are the student and coach only.  The parent(s) joins the session for the last 15 minutes to review progress and update the commitment statements if necessary.

How long will my student need coaching?
Some students will pick up on the skills and strategies quickly and show remarkable progress.  Other students will resist them and complain about them until they start to see improvements.  Being accountable to the academic coach and not just the parent(s), helps prevent these students from simply choosing not to use the strategies, making excuses as why to they don’t work or are too hard, or refusing to even try them.  There is no easy answer as to how long your student will need coaching.

Who are we?

Lauren Field and Felicia Neumann are professional school counselors with over 25 years of combined experience working in public schools.  Lauren completed her bachelor’s degree at the University of Michigan and obtained her master’s degree in counseling at Oakland University.  Felicia obtained her bachelor’s degree in education at the University of Michigan and her master’s in guidance and counseling at Eastern Michigan University.  

If you are interested in learning more about Square 1 or would like to set up your intake session, please email info@sqre1.com. 

"I did it at school..."

Does your child ever answer your inquiry about tonight's homework by saying "I did it at school"?  It sounds reasonable that a teacher may have given students time to work on that night's homework at the end of the class and that being the smarty-pants he is, your kid actually finished it.  So let's say that actually is the case, he did finish it at school.  What happens to that assignment between today's class period and tomorrow's class period is often a mystery to many parents.  Your child tells you he did the work.  You want to believe him.  But then it shows up as missing in the online gradebook.  What can a parent do to prevent this from happening?  We suggest the "show me rule."  If he did it at school, it should be in the folder designated for homework to be turned in. (If your child does not have a folder designated for this, that is a whole other issue and will be dealt with in another post.)  If he can't show you the work, chances are he either didn't really do it or he has already lost it and won't be able to find it tomorrow when it's time to turn it in either.  We suggest making him redo the assignment.  If he really did do it, he will be more careful about where he stores it, thus improving his organizational skills.  If he didn't do it, he won't tell you that he did because he knows you'll make him do it anyway if he can't show it to you.  The "show me rule" is a tried and tested winner, we promise.  Try it and let us know how your child reacted!