In This Issue

Here's what's in your March "Brain Boosters for Your Kids" Newsletter:"

Reminder: Don't forget to white list your newsletter
Note from the Learning Doctor: Check out the Brain Boosters Blog
Workshops and TeleChat Schedule: Brain Gym BasicsTeleChat, March 11
                                                    Brain Gym 101, May 22-24 in NJ
Feature Article: "Ritalin, Test Scores, and Cheating" 
Blog update:  What's new at the Brain Boosters for Your Kids Blog
Brain Quiz:  Be the first to get it right. Win a prize!
Just for Teachers:  Shall We Dance?
Resources You Can Use:  "Movement-based Learning
Brain Gym Tip: Improving Listening Focus
How to Get a FREE Brain Gym Balance: It's my gift to you. 

Important Reminders

Note from The Learning Doctor

   Hi:

Well, it's nearly the second week of March. And, as you can see from the picture of me in my fake fur hat, we've still got snow! In fact, I drove home from Denver Last night in a blizzard. Now I like snow. I like winter. But enough's enough. Time for spring.

Despite the snow, I've been working away at Brain Boosters since
the last issue of the newsletter. The big news: The Brain Boosters
Blog is back up. (A blog is just a website that you update everyday.
Surely I'm kidding! How about update as often as possible

So I've added a new section to the newsletter just for the "Brain Boosters for Your Kids" Blog. If you're not a regular reader of my blog (and I hope you are), you can check the newsletter for the latest posts since the last newsletter. Hope that will entice you to hop over to the blog. Sometimes it's parent focused. Other times the focus is teaching. Sometimes it's just my opinion on the latest news and research in education--like what I think about "Rent-a-toy." While you're at the Blog, be sure to leave a comment.

Now, most of the time I'm a "glass is half-full" kinda gal, basically an optimist. But every once in awhile something comes along that's so distressing, I'm wondering if the glass has any water in it at all. And the feature article this time focuses on just such a topic: High school and college kids using ADHD drugs (often obtained illegally), internet and electronic gadgets to increase test scores. It's a cheating epidemic.

MaryJo

P. S.  Don't forget to let me know what you like about your "Brain Boosters for Your Kids" newsletter.
What else you'd like to see. What do you like? e-mail me at mjw@mjwagner.com. 

Workshop and TeleChat Schedule

                                         Brain Gym Basics TeleChats

Brain Gym Basics starts March 11, four 90-minute sessions. Teachers, sign up at
Brain Gym Basics TeleChat for Teachers. Parents, sign up at Brain Gym Basics TeleChats for Parents.
                   
Managing ADHD starts April 1, four 60-minute sessions. The sign-up for this one isn't up yet but I'll let you know the minute it is. If you're interested, you can email me at mjw@mjwagner.com and I'll hold a place for you. Enrollment is limited. 
 

 Brain Gym Classes

We're only doing one full Brain Gym class in Colorado this summer so mark your calendars now.  

Brain Gym 101, Colorado Springs, Colorado: June 17-19, 2008  Plan your Brain
Gym vacation now. Fly into Denver or Colorado Springs. Discover Brain Gym and then
hang out for a couple days. Ride the cog railway to the top of Pikes Peak, explore the
stunning Garden of the Gods.  Sign up for this and get more information at                 www.BrainGymClasses.com.

Or take a Brain Gym class FREE. For more information, go to http://www.braingymclasses.com/FreeBrainGym.htm  Set up a class in North Dakota, Arkansas or any one of the lower 48 and we'll come to you. You don't have to come to Colorado although we'd love to have you.  Of course, you can set up a FREE class in Colorado too.

Other Classes

Attention Brain Gym Instructors and Consultants and
anyone who has a holistic or alternative practice:

Marketing your Holistic Business, May 28-29 in Brooklyn, New York. Includes Switched-on Selling, focused just for you. Brain Gym folks, you can get re-licensing credit for SOS.
 

Feature Article

I'm not putting up a picture of kids taking Ritalin, or Kids cheating on papers and exams, or schools ignoring this behavior. You'll just have to imagine what this looks like!

Summary: Want to get an A? Terrified you might only get a B+? Now it's easy. You can cheat like never before and probably not get caught. You can take an ADHD drug that you bought from a friend. It's an epidemic, and schools seem to be doing little about it. Luckily we've got solutions to this problem.

Note: 3rd grade teachers and kindergarten parents, please read the article. The solution to the problem starts at the youngest levels.

Cheating on tests isn't exactly new. Nor is drinking a pot of coffee in order to stay up all night to cram for a test. When I was in high school, I took an easily available over-the-counter drug called NoDoz. My memory of NoDoz is being so wired that I not only stayed up all night, I couldn't settle down and study. So it didn't help much.

But now we've got new variables. The stakes are higher (or it seems like they're higher), stronger and more dangerous drugs like Adderall and Ritalin are easily available, and the internet makes it easy to plagiarize, to buy a term paper online.

What's worse, the attitude has changed. Everybody does it. You don't get in trouble if you're caught and unlikely you'll get caught. It's how you get ahead in life.

And, of course, the electronic gadgets. Take your cell phone to class and text message your friend with the answer to the math problem. Or program your electronic calculator with the answers to the test.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that 75 percent of all high school students admit to cheating. That statistic jumps to 90 percent if you include copying somebody else's homework or book report. (I highly recommend reading this article for both problem and solutions.)

The reasons for cheating, the definitions and rationalizations are even more distressing than the statistics:

• It's o.k. to cheat if it's not your major because you don't ever need to remember that information.
  It's not o.k. to cheat when it's your major.

• The homework load plus the "required" number of outside activities means it's impossible to finish my homework without cheating. My teacher makes me cheat.+

• My Mom went around to a bunch of doctors until she found one who agreed with her that I had ADHD since I didn't focus enough and the doc was willing to prescribe Ritalin. (It's called "diagnosis shopping.") Or I got Adderall from a doc at the college health center. Or I bought ADHD drugs from my friend. (There's considerable discussion about whether taking ADHD drugs, prescribed or obtained illegally, is cheating. That's another issue. Another article.)

• If I don't cheat, there's no way I'll get into a good college. I'll be stuck going to some dumb state school.

• I'll be thrown off the varsity football team if I don't get good grades. And I don't have time to study enough to get good grades on my own. I have to be at practice.

• Buying a paper off the internet isn't cheating as long as you read it before you turn it in.
  
  So if this is news to you, as it was to me, you can pick yourself up off the floor now. And let's look at some solutions. Start tackling cheating on two fronts.

First and the most obvious: We need to be direct with discussions about honesty, integrity, and moral values. Model these qualities at school and at home. Just say "no" to cheating. And we need to explain exactly what cheating is so there's no question that buying a paper off the internet equals cheating.

Let's start establishing boundaries: "I'm the teacher." "I'm the parent." "I'm your school." "Therefore, it is my right and responsibility to tell you what's right and wrong. And it's my right and responsibility to expect that you will follow my rules. If you do not, there will be consequences."

Starts with that very first homework assignment a first grader brings home. "It's your homework. You must do it. I will help you, but I won't do it for you. If you don't do it, then your teacher will mark down that you didn't do it, and you'll get a lower grade on your report card. If I do your homework, that's cheating. At our house we don't cheat."

Setting boundaries doesn't stifle creativity or exploration. And setting boundaries doesn't mean establishing hundreds of rules.

It's only four rules but they're crucial.

 1. Cheat and you will be expelled from school. Students, teachers, and parents sign the contract.
    (which discourages parents from suing.)

 2. Cheat and you will flunk this class. No make up. No second chance. Students, teachers, and
     parents sign the contract.

 3. No drugs unless legitimately prescribed by a doctor. (See the newsletter archives, Feb. 2007, for
     the dangers of ADHD stimulant drugs. Caught selling or buying drugs, including ADHD stimulant drugs,
     the police will be called.

 4. I, as your parent, accept the rules of your school. I will not tolerate cheating. If you are expelled
     from school or flunk a class for cheating, I will not come to your defense. If the police are called, I will
     not lie for you. I love you, and you will suffer the consequences of your behavior.

At the same time, we need to make it more difficult to cheat.

For starters, less homework! No busywork homework. Kids in Finland score higher than U.S. kids in math and science and have considerably less homework. (See the Brain Boosters Blog post for March 3 and March 5 on Finnish schools. And the Brain Boosters newsletter archives for January 2007 on homework)

Give more creative assignments and tests. Better for students and harder to cheat on. Essay questions instead of multiple choice. Assignments that require a student's personal involvement, experience, and local resources for social studies, for example.

Encourage collaboration, explain how to do it, and establish guidelines. Now working with each other on homework is a learning experience, not a cheating episode. Good for math and science.

Cut back on schedules: several hours of homework a night, plus sports practice after school and an additional extracurricular activity every evening is TOO much for a high school senior. An hour of homework a night and three extra curricular activities a week is too much for a first grader.

NO cell phones, PDAs, MP3 players, electronic calculators with database functions in class, much less during tests.

Maybe this cheating epidemic isn't as grim as it seems. We've got solutions. And they're not difficult.


© MaryJo Wagner, 2008

MaryJo Wagner, Ph.D.
The Learning Doctor
"Helping You Help Kids Learn"
mjw@mjwagner.com
www.BrainGymClasses.com
www.brain-based-learning.com

Sign up today for the Brain Boosters for Your Kids newsletter to help your children learn easily and without struggle.  At home and in the classroom/

                                                             *   *   *

You're always welcome to duplicate this article, distribute it to parents and pass it around to teachers.

Got a school or PTA newsletter or e-zine? Your own parent, teacher, or learning Web site? A community publication? You can reprint this article. Just print the whole article with my name under the title and my contact information at the bottom. When the report is published, please send me a copy or the url to find it on the Web.                           

Brain Boosters for Your Kids Blog Update

Have kids start at the top of their ears and "unroll" the outer edge of both ears simultaneously. They're stimulating the nerve endings in the ears. And sure enough they'll hear just a bit better. So will you since you're doing "Thinking Caps" with the kids.

Want to "test" Thinking Caps. Turn your head to the left and listen. Now to the right and listen. Do Thinking Caps. Now repeat the listening exercise and compare.

Learn some Brain Gym with this free audio and handouts

Discover all 26 Brain Gym movements and lots more with the Brain Gym Basics TeleChat. Includes 100-page workbook.

Teachers, sign up today and get information about the Brain Gym Basics TeleChatsforTeachers

Parents, sign up today and get information about the Brain Gym Basics TeleChatsforParents.

I love the TeleChat for folks who just can't get to an in-person class or just have an hour or two in the evening once a week. And for folks who want a quick review. But nothing beats Brain Gym 101 with three full days of learning and discovering.

Looking for the "big" class?  Brain Gym 101 takes place in Colorado Springs, June 17-19, 2008. Sign up and get more information at www.braingymclasses.com

Teachers, you can get salary upgrade and recertification credit from the University of Colorado-Denver for both the TeleChat and Brain Gym 101.

How to Get a Free Brain Gym Balance