By Doug Schlesser

One of my favorite parts of SuperCamp is our discussion that leads up to the Ownership key talk. The Campers come into our Main Room to a message displayed on a flip chart that says, “Whatever you are doing, saying – even wearing – at any given moment is sending a message to the people in the world around you about who you are.”

This idea is one that I think about a lot. The messages that we send are very important as individuals, and as Facilitators at SuperCamp, we live in a fishbowl.

When I came across a study linked on the LA Times’ blog Booster Shots that ties social networks to grade point average, I was reminded of it again.

The study, which reconstructed the social networks of 158 students at Maine-Endwell High School in Endwell, New York (a sample of 92% of the junior class), produced an interesting result.

Not 24 hours before reading this article I had a very similar conversation with a student of my own who was being heavily distracted by a friend in class. I asked him to do his best to stay on task and help bring his friend up to his own level of achievement, instead of the other way around.

Sure enough, this study concluded that students who were surrounded by friends with higher GPAs at the start of the year increased their own GPA during the year. Of course, the opposite was also true. Surround yourself with students who aren’t as high achieving and you’re likely to mimic them as well.

It seems to me that one of the most difficult conversations to have with a student is about the messages that they send. In fact, we may find that the messages adults interpret as negative are the messages that teenagers actually want to send.

At SuperCamp, where our methods and intentions live in a vacuum, a conversation like the one above can go smoothly and easily re-direct a behavior. In a school, however, it is much more difficult to consistently send positive messages. SuperCamp does a lot to offer support to our graduates to help transition this behavior and others we learn at SuperCamp into daily life.

But here’s the kicker – when it comes down to it, on paper the end result of a high school career is a grade point average. It is the first indicator, a number assigned that is theoretically representative of a student’s intelligence and level of success.

A student may ask us, “Who cares about my GPA?” And  the answer is simple: colleges, universities, trade schools, parents, future employers, etc.

It’s a hard concept to grasp for anyone that our actions in one space can affect the perception of us in another arena seemingly unrelated at the moment.

The job of stressing the fact to our SuperCamp students that their GPA sends a message about themselves, and supporting them daily in an effort to shape that message, is a difficult one. For me, it starts as a SuperCamp Facilitator. I happen to be lucky enough to continue that as a teacher during the rest of the school year.

Visit www.SuperCamp.com or call 1-800-228-5327 NOW to speak with an Enrollment Counselor and learn how to increase their grades, confidence and motivation.

About the Author:
Doug Schlesser is a graduate of Illinois State University. He has been a Quantum Learning Network SuperCamp Facilitator since 2011. During the school year, he is a High School English Teacher in Thornton, Illinois.

About SuperCamp:
SuperCamp offers academic and personal enrichment program summer camps for teens, including specifically designed summer programs for high school students, middle school students, and college students respectively. These educational summer camps provide ideal college prep skills and help instill positive values for life based on The 8 Keys of Excellence by Bobbi DePorter. SuperCamp’s academic summer programs for teens help students increase their grades, confidence and motivation.

The post Your GPA Sends a Message — Academic Summer Camps Can Help appeared first on SuperCamp.

By Doug Schlesser

The first month of the school year has always been a struggle for me. While entering my third full year in the classroom, after my second summer as a SuperCamp Facilitator, I decided to focus much more on creating a classroom community, and less on jumping straight into content.

SuperCamp is the same way. We spend an entire day of our ten-day camp establishing the expectations for the other nine. We start day 1 at full speed and don’t pull back until Graduation. Our schools must do the same thing.

While at SuperCamp we create our atmosphere with high energy and Whoa Claps, it’s a bit different in classroom. The QLN terms the classroom community as Home Court Advantage (HCA).

When we think of HCA as equal parts safety, security, and belonging, it isn’t hard to imagine that our classrooms may be our students’ only home court. Increasingly, we live in communities, whether rural, urban or suburban, where pressure is placed on children that not in line with their true place in life.

So, knowing this, how do we create this sense of a Home Court Advantage almost immediately?

I can only think of one clear answer: Being open and honest with our students from day one creates an environment that includes all three aspects of Home Court Advantage.

Honesty? Many of our more jaded colleagues have turned honesty into sarcasm, and truth into hard truth.

Let me offer a personal example: At the beginning of this school year I sat down with my class and had a serious discussion about what school life had been like for them over the past ten years. After the initial silence, the room became a beehive of activity.

Quickly, we reached a conclusion: School hasn’t been that much fun.

Of course, this wasn’t new to anyone involved. And to leave it there would have been the easy part. A simple, “Yes, but this year will be different” is not enough. Asking students what they would do to make this class unlike previous classes was an adventure.

With each outlandish suggestion (Daily Nap Time was the best), they were met with an honest answer. Will that work? Maybe yes, maybe no. Would that really make you a better student or me a better teacher? The key was to make them think through their suggestions. We’d all love some Oreos to start third hour, but is that really going to help us master our grammar skills in order to communicate better?

By that time we were already learning, and learning something that doesn’t fall into the Common Core: This class can work effectively. This class can be respectful from both sides of the desk.

With this activity, those students who had volunteered were shown that even if their ideas was a bit silly, it was safe to express it. The discussion was focused on this secure classroom and not the whole school. At the end of it, we all had a set of guidelines that would help us to be(long) in those four walls for the next 180 days.

Visit www.SuperCamp.com or call 1-800-285-3276 NOW to speak with an enrollment counselor and learn how to help your child increase their grades, confidence and motivation.

About the Author:
Doug Schlesser is a graduate of Illinois State University. He has been a Quantum Learning Network SuperCamp Facilitator since 2011 and will be at our Loyola Chicago location this summer. During the school year, he is a High School English Teacher in Thornton, Illinois.

About SuperCamp:
SuperCamp offers academic and personal enrichment program summer camps for teens, including specifically designed summer programs for high school students, middle school students, and college students respectively. These educational summer camps provide ideal college prep skills and help instill positive values for life based on The 8 Keys of Excellence by Bobbi DePorter. SuperCamp’s academic summer programs for teens help students increase their grades, confidence and motivation.

The post Home Court Advantage: College Prep Strategy to Start Now appeared first on SuperCamp.

By Daniel Shedd

Myriad research has shown that a positive relationship between student and teacher massively improves the quality of the student’s education and school experience. In fact, some studies have shown that connecting with our teachers, even on the most casual level, can have a bigger influence on our success in school (and later in life) than connecting with our families. So, when we form positive relationships with our teachers, we’re making the game of school easier to win.

At SuperCamp, we talk about the system for connecting with our teachers called SLANT.

The S and L stand for Sit up and Lean forward. They’re about sending a nonverbal message to our teachers that we are tuned in and paying attention.

The A is for Ask questions. Though asking questions can sometimes be in our learning zone, we can shed a little bit of Fimage and ask clarifying questions, to make sure we understand what we’re learning.

Next, the N stands for Nod yo’ head! Nodding our head reinforces the message to our teacher that we are paying attention and that we understand what they are saying.

Finally, the T stands for Talk to yo’ teacher. Talking with our teacher doesn’t necessarily mean adding them on Facebook, liking all their posts, and inviting them to your birthday party. It can be as simple as a “good morning” or a “how was your weekend?” Teachers are people too!

We know building a positive relationship with our teacher can have a huge impact on our learning, and SLANT is a simple system specialized in doing just that. At SuperCamp, the leading academic summer camp, you will learn this and other key interpersonal skills, along with exceptional academic study techniques to increase your success in school and throughout your life.

Visit www.SuperCamp.com or call 1-800-285-3276 NOW to speak with an Enrollment Counselor and learn how to increase grades, confidence and motivation.

About the Author:
Daniel Shedd earned his Bachelor’s Degree from Texas Christian University. He loved being a SuperCamp Camper and Team Leader.  Dan has been a Facilitator since 2011 and will be a Facilitator at Brown University during summer 2013. He is also pursuing his Master’s Degree in Education.

About SuperCamp:
SuperCamp offers academic and personal enrichment program summer camps for teens, including specifically designed summer programs for high school students, middle school students, and college students respectively. These educational summer camps provide ideal college prep skills and help instill positive values for life based on The 8 Keys of Excellence by Bobbi DePorter. SuperCamp’s academic summer programs for teens help students increase their grades, confidence and motivation.

The post Positive Student-Teacher Relationships Taught at Academic Summer Camp appeared first on SuperCamp.

By Daniel Shedd

The recent movie Warm Bodies is a zombified tale of teenage romance. Early on in the movie, the male antagonist gives us a voice-over introduction to his world. He notes the degradation of language (“This is my best friend. Sometimes we grunt at each other.”) and, at one point, laments for the time before the zombie apocalypse began.

He wishes he could live in that time again, when everyone could express themselves and talk to each other. As he describes it, a dream-like vision appears around him, showing perfectly healthy human beings all chatting on their cell phones, listening to music from their cell phones, or typing furiously on their cell phones and other gadgets. The world before the zombie apocalypse wasn’t too far from the world after.

At SuperCamp, we talk a lot about the key This Is It. It’s our first key of the day and we remind ourselves for all ten days about stepping outside of our comfort zones and living in the moment. Many of us have habits that prevent us from really living in the moment each day. Most of us are permanently “plugged in.” We’re constantly checking Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or Google+ or
Tumblr or Reddit or our text messages or our Snapchats or our Words With Friends games or our Draw Something games or a million other things…

The list is endless! We’re multitasking all the time! Unfortunately, brain research has reinforced the idea that multitasking is, ultimately, counterproductive. Think of our focus as a television. We can switch channels pretty quickly, but we can’t ever have two channels on at the same time. Similarly, our focus can only stay on a single task at any one time. So when we try to switch very quickly between our phone, laptop, television, homework, and driving, we end up missing a lot of important details.

So my challenge to all of us is this: simply start noticing how often we check our phones or Facebook or any of the other things we do to distract us from living the This Is It principle. Once we start noticing how often we do it, we can start to put those distractions aside and truly be in the moment. Besides, have you ever noticed how slowly someone who’s trying to walk and use their phone at the same time often walks really slowly? They sort of shuffle around, bumping into things…almost like zombies…

Visit www.SuperCamp.com or call 1-800-285-3276 NOW to speak with an enrollment counselor and learn how to help your child increase their grades, confidence and motivation.

About the Author:
Daniel Shedd earned his Bachelor’s Degree from Texas Christian University. He loved being a SuperCamp Camper and Team Leader.  Dan has been a Facilitator since 2011 and will be a Facilitator at Brown University during summer 2013. He is also pursuing his Master’s Degree in Education.

About SuperCamp:
SuperCamp offers academic and personal enrichment program summer camps for teens, including specifically designed summer programs for high school students, middle school students, and college students respectively. These educational summer camps provide ideal college prep skills and help instill positive values for life based on The 8 Keys of Excellence by Bobbi DePorter. SuperCamp’s academic summer programs for teens help students increase their grades, confidence and motivation.

The post This Is It – More Than Just a Summer Academic Enrichment Program appeared first on SuperCamp.

By Chase Mielke

A newlywed couple is sitting in a room, about to have an argument. You are in another room, watching them through a one-way mirror.

You’ve been asked to predict, within just a few minutes, the likelihood of this couple getting a divorce. That’s a big prediction to make, my friend. So, what do you look for? The intensity of their death stares? Their potential to be cast on Real Housewives? If only there were a specific measure you could tally to help your predictions . . .

There is! It’s called the Losada Ratio, and it has been found in flourishing companies, couples, and even resilient individuals. And, it centers around one key more than any other: Speak with Good Purpose.

First, let’s see the Losada Ratio in action. Marcial Losada, who gets a sweet, fancy term named after him, studied sixty business teams, watching their every interaction on video. He then tracked these same teams for the year and identified the high and low performing teams based on how much they profited, how good their evaluations were, and how satisfied customers were.

Losada found something great: The highest performing fifteen teams had something in common. They each had a high ratio of positive to negative interactions with one another. High performing teams showed encouragement, support, and appreciation.

Low performing teams showed more cynicism, disapproval, and sarcasm. The results were so clear, in fact, that Losada was able to identify a benchmark ratio of three positives for every one negative (actually 2.9 to 1, but rounding up is what the cool kids do). This ratio of three-to-one is known as the Losada Line, the minimum ratio for a high-performing team. And, it has been found in more than just business.

Let’s return to your divorce predictions. Want to make an accurate prediction? Track a couple’s Losada Ratio. John Gottman is known as a relationship guru. Why? Because after watching just a few minutes of a couple’s interaction he can predict with 90% accuracy the likelihood of their getting a divorce. One of the keys to his prediction success is the Losada Ratio – the amount of positive interactions couples share compared to negatives. Positive couples last. Negative couples don’t.

We have something phenomenal here: We can accurately predict the success of a group or couple by literally counting their ratio of positive to negative interactions. There is a science behind Speaking with Good Purpose. Mounds of research confirm that people do well in a 3:1 environment of positivity. They flourish in 6:1 environments.

Our words can influence the success of business. Our words can change relationships. Our words can change lives. We can put science behind our words and the value of Speak with Good Purpose. So, let’s improve the world’s ratio, one positive word at a time.

SuperCamp teaches curriculum based on the 8 Keys of Excellence, as well as other academic study skills, personal enrichment techniques and more.

Visit www.SuperCamp.com or call 1-800-285-3276 NOW to speak with an Enrollment Counselor and learn how to increase grades, confidence and motivation.

About the Author:
Chase Mielke graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor’s in English Education and Communications from Western Michigan University. He was born and currently resides in Michigan where he teaches high school Language Arts and Interpersonal Communication at Plainwell Community Schools. Presently, he is working on his Master’s in Curriculum and Instruction. Aside from teaching, he loves coaching soccer, fitness and writing/performing music. He has worked with QLN since 2008.

About SuperCamp:
SuperCamp offers academic and personal enrichment summer camps for teens, including specifically designed summer programs for high school students, middle school students, and college students. These educational summer camps provide ideal college prep skills and help instill positive values for life based on The 8 Keys of Excellence by Bobbi DePorter. SuperCamp’s academic summer programs for teens help students increase their grades, confidence and motivation.

The post Speak With Good Purpose – Just One Principle from Summer Academic Enrichment Program appeared first on SuperCamp.

By Daniel Shedd

We know mind-mapping is a fantastic note-taking tool that our brains love. Invented by Tony Buzan, this tool uses pictures and colors to help our brains remember and recall information more readily.

We start in the middle with a picture or image of the topic. Then, in about the 2 o’clock position, we draw the first branch from thick to thin and fill it in, all in the same color. On top of the branch, in all capital letters, write the name of the first sub-topic. Somewhere near the branch, we draw a small image or symbol that reminds us of the sub-topic. Then, coming off the tip of the branch, like a tree, we draw sub-branches that have important details and definitions relating to the sub-topic, adding symbols for each new small branch.

After we complete the first branch, we grab a different color pen for a new branch. Then we start a second main branch coming from the center at about the 4 o’clock position for the next sub-topic. Repeating this process for each sub-topic, we make sure to add symbols and images that we relate to each branch.

Finally, once we’re all finished drawing, we hold up our mind map and do the seven-second swoosh, moving our finger over each sub-topic and sub-branch as we say the words aloud, getting all three learning channels involved.

For the less-artistically-inclined, now there’s a great new way to create and use mind maps! Mr. Buzan and his company have released an app for tablets, smartphones, and web browsers called iMindMap. This app lets you create and save mind maps! This software speeds up the process of mind-mapping and makes it much easier to create and save our brain-friendly notes. Your brain will love it and might even send you a thank-you note.

We teach this and other excellent college prep study techniques and during our summer academic enrichment camps, called SuperCamp.

Visit www.SuperCamp.com or call 1-800-285-3276 NOW to speak with an Enrollment Counselor and learn how to increase their grades, confidence and motivation.

About the Author:
Daniel Shedd earned his Bachelor’s Degree from Texas Christian University. He loved being a SuperCamp Camper and Team Leader.  Dan has been a Facilitator since 2011 and will be a Facilitator at Brown University during summer 2013. He is also pursuing his Master’s Degree in Education.

About SuperCamp:
SuperCamp offers academic and personal enrichment program summer camps for teens, including specifically designed summer programs for high school students, middle school students, and college students respectively. These educational summer camps provide ideal college prep skills and help instill positive values for life based on The 8 Keys of Excellence by Bobbi DePorter. SuperCamp’s academic summer programs for teens help students increase their grades, confidence and motivation.

The post Mind-mapping Makes College Prep Fun appeared first on SuperCamp.

By Daniel Shedd

Brains love breaks! A recent Carnegie Mellon study found that taking breaks improves a brain’s decision-making capacity.  Scientists watched the brain patterns of people while they took in information about cars and other topics. Then the subjects worked on an unrelated, distracting number game for a few minutes, after which they were asked to make decisions based on what they’d learned before the short break.

The researchers saw that important parts of the brain related to decision-making (visual, prefrontal cortices) stayed active even during the break. Their brains were actively, though subconsciously, processing and sorting data even while their focus stayed on the distraction activity. Consequently, the subjects who played the number game between getting the information and applying it made better decisions than those who did not take a break.

In other words, while we’re giving our conscious mind a break from all the things we’re learning, our subconscious continues to process information. So, next time you’re working on homework, you can use short breaks and your brain’s ability to process subconsciously to make your life easier! Be sure to take a ten-minute break every hour or so to give your brain time to process and rest. While you focus on conquering a video game or enjoying a great sandwich, perhaps your subconscious will solve the problem for you!

At SuperCamp, we take frequent breaks throughout the day so that our brains can rest and process the information we’ve been gaining all day. We journal in the evenings for the same reason – so that our brains can process and reprocess all the experiences and concepts of the day. SuperCamp is an educational summer camp where we learn dozens of college prep study techniques just like this one to make learning a much more natural, engaging and enjoyable experience. You will also gain leadership, interpersonal and communication skills during this fun summer enrichment program.

Visit www.SuperCamp.com or call 1-800-228-5327 NOW to speak with an Enrollment Counselor and learn how to increase grades, confidence and motivation.

About the Author:
Daniel Shedd loved being a SuperCamp camper and Team Leader and has served as a Facilitator for many years.

About SuperCamp:
SuperCamp offers academic and personal enrichment program summer camps for teens, including specifically designed summer programs for high school students, middle school students, and college students respectively. These educational summer camps provide ideal college prep skills and help instill positive values for life based on The 8 Keys of Excellence by Bobbi DePorter. SuperCamp’s academic summer programs for teens help students increase their grades, confidence and motivation.

The post Brain Breaks Strategy Taught at Academic Enrichment Summer Program appeared first on SuperCamp.

By Daniel Shedd

If there’s one thing we know as a society, it’s that the best breakfast foods are also desserts. I’m looking at you, crepes. If there’s a second thing we know, it’s that confidence in yourself can and does contribute to higher levels of success in nearly everything you do. This is especially true for students. SuperCamp Facilitators, Team Leaders, and office staff all work together to instill confidence in every camper we encounter.

The SuperCamp curriculum is built upon a foundation of confidence through competence. In each activity, piece, and course room, campers experience some measure of success. For example, in Quantum Reading, campers often see huge gains in their reading speed and comprehension with just a few hours of practice. They see themselves being successful at a task that seemed daunting only a short time before. Students quickly realize that they are capable of success and begin to gain confidence in other tasks. With each new activity introduced at SuperCamp, students display a new competence and build confidence. By Day Ten at SuperCamp, many have experienced a transformation in their academics and life skills.

Outdoor Adventure Day is the pinnacle of this confidence-through-competence concept.  The entire day is spent creating, accomplishing, and surpassing goals. In both high and low events, campers overcome physical, mental, and emotional challenges. They learn to trust their own skills and strength, as well as their teammates around them.

Some events require a camper to literally lean on a partner high in the air, in addition to trusting the physical support via ropes of their teammates. Meanwhile, another event challenges the camper to climb a pole and overcome the physical challenge of the climb while facing the mental and emotional challenge of leaving an obstacle behind and trusting their support to catch them.

On the low events, campers are confronted with problem-solving and teamwork challenges with which they will experience success. Their accomplishments on Outdoor Adventure Day help show campers that they are capable of achieving whatever they set out to do. This again builds confidence, which we carry into the rest of SuperCamp and back home.

We know that confidence contributes to success in school, home, and work. At SuperCamp we provide a safe space where campers can practice new techniques that build and sustain competence in a variety of aspects of life. Through that competence, confidence is created, and students find themselves with higher self-esteem, better grades, and better relationships. This academic summer camp provides the perfect combination of academic study techniques and personal enrichment to help any student during their formative teen years and provide effective college prep.

Visit www.SuperCamp.com or call 800-228-5327 NOW to speak with an Enrollment Counselor and learn how to increase grades, confidence and motivation.

About the Author:
Daniel Shedd loved being a SuperCamp camper and Team Leader and has served as a Facilitator for many years.

About SuperCamp:
SuperCamp offers academic and personal enrichment programs for teens, including specifically designed summer programs for high school students, middle school students, and college students. These educational summer camps provide ideal college prep skills and help instill positive values for life based on The 8 Keys of Excellence by Bobbi DePorter. SuperCamp’s academic summer programs for teens help students increase their grades, confidence and motivation.

The post SuperCamp Teaches Confidence Through Competence appeared first on SuperCamp.