Advancement Via Individual Determination

2 recommendations and reviews from 2 people

• Referral from December 28, 2014
  

  Lisa J. asked:

  Hi All, I hope that everyone is having a wonderful holiday season! I'm wondering if anyone knows of a great tutor for my 8th grade son. I'm looking for someone who can help my son with study skills, organization, test prep and homework. he is a great kid but, a little low in self esteem around studying and test prep.... and we are like oil and water when it comes to mom trying to help. i'm looking for someone to work with him twice a week. thanks so much, in advance, for any help and suggestions. I hope everyone has a Happy New Year!

  

  Courtney K. replied:

  AVID is a national program with a really good training program for teachers- check out http://www.avid.org . Traditionally, for a school to really support the program, lots of teachers get trained in the methodology and support it in their classes, but then one teacher has an elective class that students apply for. It includes tutors coming in twice a week to work with small groups of kids, not on just low-level homework questions, but in promoting the discussion of higher-level student-generated questions related to what they are learning about in their classes- stuff like "What would happen if our moon disappeared?" It also includes a lot of support and time for organization and how to take notes. AVID stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination and I have definitely seen that the INDIVIDUAL part makes such a difference- if the kid WANTS to succeed (sometimes after being shown a good reason to want to succeed- grades aren't enough for lots of kids… We would also do college campus visits and research different colleges, even in 7 th grade). It's an awesome program. Sadly, when budget cuts hit schools it is often one of the first programs to go because it is so expensive to license. I miss my AVID kiddos!

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• Referral from December 28, 2013
  

  Mark A. asked:

  What are your favorite charities to support based in the USA? Any local or not widely known charities to recommend? Looking to support a charity that may not have the name recognition (and thus, funding) of a national charity. Post links to them for us to check out. Thanks.

  

  Nicholas W. replied:

  A tough subject... especially with this topic being brought up in the recent election (of which more than a few charities were more than a little self-serving or, otherwise, niche market). I think charities for education would be your cup of tea, so I'd recommend AVID (www.avid.org) or Communities in Schools (www.communitiesinschools.org).

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