“Thanks for returning our call, Mrs. Merchant. Yesterday, Ryan let out an ear-piercing scream after slamming her books on the floor. This behavior is unacceptable…she was only asked to present her show and tell item in class. She will surely lose recess for the next three days. Hopefully, Ryan will simply obey the next… Continue reading →

Building confidence is something that starts at a young age. Now that I have had the opportunity to “live a little,” I wanted to write a letter to myself in elementary school.  I was a shy and quiet kid, but I always had supportive parents, extended family and teachers along the way to guide me. … Continue reading →

“You got a C?…are you kidding me!  I didn’t know you were struggling in this class!”   Parents, too often, you find yourselves in this position—my child is struggling and I didn’t even know it. You may have studied your child’s progress on the school website, cancelled plans for extensive homework assignments, even called in… Continue reading →

Our confidence rises when we achieve success in something.  However, success is not always easy to measure.  An effective approach for building confidence is by developing challenging goals that are easier to measure.  For example, a goal could be to learn a particular skill.  This can further be broken into segments with measurable outcomes, i.e.… Continue reading →

Live long enough and you will understand that the entire life is full of making decisions.  Those decisions are often followed by actions which directly impact the outcomes we seek.  Therefore, achieving desired outcomes depends on making good decisions which require critical thinking skills.   Critical thinking is a valuable skill that anyone can improve… Continue reading →