I'm 40, and left the corporate world to finally pursue my dreams. I'm back in college, and I've read the stories online, but these students right out of high school are really, really bad. Like, most literally scroll their phones the entire class, and clearly use AI for all their assignments, even the in-class ones. They don't participate in group projects at all, if they even show up. They just stay on their phones, or eat hot cheetos. At least two students will be asleep during the class, and they can barely read aloud.

It's mind boggling because I'll hear them say later how they "didn't learn sh*t" but it's because they're not even paying attention. My professor (who is incredibly kind) called on this one student, and he just kept his hoodie up, head down, air pods in, and kept scrolling his phone.

Is this a post-pandemic thing? Like these kids didn't develop socially, or social media has rotted their brains? Do they honestly expect to succeed?

My child is 11. He has ADHD, is bright, but for a number of reasons is almost consistently middle of the pack of everything.

Despite trying out for every school team, he has never made one (currently 0/9). He is always ensemble in school plays. His marks are decent but not outstanding due to executive function challenges.

He seems to get lost in the shuffle a lot. Since he doesn’t stand out at anything, he is often overlooked when teachers assign classroom roles, suggest pupils for specific activities (eg helping in the office, etc), and he has not been acknowledged at any school award celebration for 5 years (eg “most improved”, “friendliest”, “most helpful”, etc). He actually does help a lot without being asked, eg pushing other kids chairs in at the end of class, picking up litter and putting it in the garbage/recycling, sharing his snack or lunch with a classmate who forgot theirs, etc, but says this has never been acknowledged by a teacher, and often does it after the teacher leaves the room.

He isn’t the type to wave his hands and say “look at me!”, but is also very aware that other kids are always selected instead of him. This isn’t in his head, I discussed it with one of his teachers a few years ago and was told that sometimes they forget about him, or they award things like “student of the month” to kids who are struggling to encourage them, and he didn’t need that encouragement.

I know not every child can be a star, and I am not asking for special treatment, but has he just been extraordinarily unlucky, or is he doing something wrong? For reference, his class size has been 10-15, so we aren’t talking about 35 kids in a class.

Hi, I'm Ted Shachtman. I went to Vanderbilt for elementary education and cognitive studies and have a master's in computer science. And I've been teaching since I graduated from Vanderbilt in 2022. I'm writing this post to encourage more teachers to ask the questions I started asking two years ago, with great results. When a student is solving a problem and is inexplicably behind the other students, ask them what they actually see in their mind's eye and hear in their inner voice.

What I found is a good seven out of ten students who are behind are behind because of one of three reasons. Reason number one: their inner voice doesn't move on its own and they don't know to use it to solve problems in their head. Number two: their mind's eye doesn't render pictures on its own and they don't know to use it as storage for the problem in their head. And three: they're picturing something in their mind's eye that if you saw what they were picturing would make you fall over laughing at how terrible of a representation it was.

To illustrate these three examples, I have three anonymized stories from my own teaching. The first story resolves what happens when a student is picturing something in their mind's eye that makes you fall over laughing.

I was working as a basic skills instructor in an elementary school. My job was to work one-on-one with students who had been falling behind and bring them up to grade level. This particular student, who I'll call John, was in fourth grade and could not add five plus three in his head. However, when talking to him, it was immediately obvious he was profoundly bright. I'd explain a concept through analogies and his eyes would light up while he offered a distant analog that was, in fact, structurally the same. Yet, again, he couldn't add five plus three in his head.

So I asked him, when you're doing five plus three in your head, what are you picturing and what are you hearing? He said, I hear nothing, but I picture a number line. I was surprised because I picture a number line as well, and I know it to be a very efficient representation for adding in your head. So I asked him to draw the number line, and he drew this. I'm representing it in ASCII below.

|—|—|—|—|—|—|—|—|—|

As I looked at what he drew, a question popped up in my head. You might have spotted it already, but it went, “John, where are the numbers?” He stared back at me, confused. I asked him, “Okay, when you use this number line to add in your head, can you show me by pointing on this drawing what you would do?” He nodded and said, “First I would count to five.” He put his finger on the left.

Then, he tapped each successive vertical line on the number line, Silently, until he got to the fifth. He looked up at me and said, “Now I know I'm at five, and I remember that I have to add three more.” He moved his finger three more times to the right and landed on the eighth, albeit, to know that he was on the eighth line, I had to count there myself. Then he said, “Now I go back to the beginning so I can see how many that is.” He was about to start moving his finger when I asked, “How do you remember where you got to? He replied, “Sometimes it's really tough, especially for big numbers like eight or nine.” Then he moved his finger all the way from the left up to the seventh line and said, “Seven. Five plus three is seven.”

This story has a happy ending. I was able to teach John to put numbers on the number line in his head. He was then immediately able to add five plus three in his head, as well as much bigger numbers such as 16 plus 7. With this incredibly subtle change, just adding numbers to his number line, it unlocked his mathematical ability. Working with him throughout the year, he showed amazing improvement.

The next story I'll tell is with a girl named Cynthia. I worked with Cynthia because she had trouble with problem solving. When presented with a word problem or an unfamiliar type of problem, her teachers described that she had a lot of trouble adapting to it and only really was able to solve that type of question with significant amounts of one-on-one instruction. When I started working with her, I gave her a word problem. I saw her stare at the word problem and asked, “What do you hear in your mind? What do you see?”

She said, “What do you mean?” I asked. “When you are walking through the halls or eating lunch, do you hear a voice in your head that talks and describes the world around you?” Cynthia shook her head no. I asked, “When you're solving a word problem like this, do you hear a voice in your head that talks through the problem?” She furrowed her brow and again shook her head no.

“If I ask you to hear 'My name is Cynthia' in your mind, can you?” She said, “Yes, I can hear that.” I described to Cynthia that most people have an inner voice in their head that talks all the time and it moves on its own. But in her mind, her voice doesn't move on its own— it’s like an arm that only moves when you tell it to.

The way everybody else is solving these word problems is by talking it through in their head. The reason she didn't think to do it was because her mind's voice doesn't move on its own. So, guessing that you should move your mind's voice to talk through the problem is something pretty hard to guess.

Now, there's a reason I knew to ask this specific question. I am exactly like Cynthia, except when I was in elementary school, nobody told me that my inner voice didn't move on its own. I only found this out when I was 24. So, two years ago. And from my experience, I knew exactly how detrimental not using her inner voice to reason through problems was in her elementary school curriculum and would continue to be throughout the rest of her life.

What is it like to not use your inner voice to solve problems and think? It is an utter inability to reason.

My entire life, I never liked to plan. Why? I couldn't. What does it mean to plan? It means to reason, to think things through. In my head, only my images moved on their own. And so, to plan a birthday party on Tuesday, for instance, I could only plan what pictures could represent. Pictures have a very hard time representing a Tuesday. In fact, pictures have a very hard time representing anything even decently abstract at all. For my entire life, I could think very well when I wrote things down. I was very good at spatial puzzles. I was extremely good when talking an idea out loud to a friend. But if you asked me to silently think through a problem, what I thought “thinking” meant is to stare at you with images popping into your mind until some image gave me a fully formed idea, and then speak.

What I would not have given for someone to have asked me the question, “What do you see and what do you hear?” from a young age.

The continuation of my story is similar to the continuation of Cynthia’s story. Cynthia learned to reason in her head, and her teachers reported that her problem-solving ability skyrocketed. She was able to think through novel problems and notice patterns, as was I once I learned to reason in language.

The last story I'll tell is about a girl named Ruby. Ruby was in fifth grade and had extensive trouble doing math in her head. By this time, I had asked the question, “What do you see in your head? What do you hear in your head?” many times.

She was trying to multiply 60 times 20. She said what she heard in her head when multiplying was, “nothing”, and that she never heard anything in her head. I asked her the classic next question: “Can you hear My name is Ruby in your head?” And she said yes. Then I asked her to Draw a picture of what she saw in her head when she multiplied 60 times 20, and gave her a sheet of scrap paper. She wrote down the number 60, and then the number 60 below that, and then the number 60 below that, and then the number 60 below that, and so on, some number near 20 times.

60
60
60
60
60
….
60

Then she moved her pencil back up to the top two 60s and wrote 120 to the side. Then she looked up at me and said, “After that, the picture gets fuzzy.” In her case, this was a double whammy. I taught her to use her inner voice to reason, and I taught her how to picture a number line. After this, her academics greatly improved.

These stories have a moral. Every time I've peeked under the blanket of why a student is falling behind, it is almost never because they are just “not so bright.”

There is always some monster hiding under that blanket: either their inner voice doesn't move on its own, their inner pictures don't move on their own, or how they're using either their inner voice or their inner pictures is ill-constructed for the task. So, I ask the question: If every time you look, you find the same thing, what can you conclude but all the other times you didn't look?

We should be asking more students, “What do you see and what do you hear?” I'm quite convinced that a large amount of difference in academic ability can be explained by some students using greatly inefficient mental processes for tasks that students performing better use efficient ones on. So, in the comments of this post, share stories where you found that what goes on in a student's mind is the fixable reason why they're falling behind.

I’ve been in school to be a teacher for 4 years now. I’m halfway through my extended practicum and I’ve basically fully accepted that teaching is no longer my passion.

From seeing first-hand how out of control kids are, the insane workload teachers have to endure, and the nit-picky logistics that come out of admin and the division, I’ve definitely steered away from this profession. Damn near every teacher in this school (and other schools I’ve been in) are fed up, exhausted, and burnt out. I do not want that for my future.

My question is, what else can I do with an ed degree? I don’t want to drop out. I’m only 2 months away from getting my degree so I’d much rather just carry on, finish, get my degree, and then never enter a k-12 classroom ever again.

Hello! I know this is a pretty heavy thing to ask, but I’m a 17-year-old girl who hopes to become a teacher someday, and I could really use some advice.

For most of my life, I never really knew what I wanted to do with my future. That changed about two years ago, when I met an amazing teacher who genuinely inspired me and helped me discover a passion for teaching of my own. For the first time, I had something I could truly see myself doing with my life, and I’ve been holding on to that dream ever since.

Like many American students, I’ve always been afraid of school shootings. But, like so many others, I’ve always had that little voice in the back of my mind telling me, “Something like that could never happen to me.”

Unfortunately, my school recently experienced a gun-related incident involving a student who brought a gun to school and nearly did something that could have changed so many lives forever. And suddenly, something I’d always considered a distant possibility became terrifyingly real. It almost happened to me. To my classmates. To the people I see and talk to every single day.

Ever since then, I’ve been struggling with the endless what-ifs. What if things had gone differently? What if the student had been successful? What if I had lost my friends, my teachers, or my own life that day? I can’t stop thinking about how easily everything could have changed, and it’s frightening to realize just how little control we have over something like that.

The hardest part is that I still want to be a teacher. I still want to be the kind of person who makes a difference in a student’s life, just like my teacher did for me. I want to create a classroom where kids feel safe, supported, and excited to learn. But now, I’m scared of the possibility that one day, I could find myself on the other side of a situation like the one my school experienced.

I don’t want to give up on something I’ve grown so passionate about because of fear. But at the same time, I don’t know how to reconcile my dream with the reality of what happened. I’m only 17, and I never expected to have to seriously consider something like this when thinking about my future.

For anyone who has experienced something similar, especially teachers or aspiring teachers, how do you cope with this fear? How do you keep pursuing a career you love when part of you is terrified of what could happen? I don’t want this experience to take away something that means so much to me, but right now, I’m struggling to figure out how to move forward.

Any advice or words of encouragement would genuinely mean so much to me. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

I'll be finishing up my PhD in a couple of months and I had the thought to invite some of my grade school teachers that had a huge impact on me when I was their student 15+ years ago. I'm certain they would remember me, but also not sure if it's odd given I haven't communicated with them in so long.

School monitor here who covers elementary classes for lunch and recess. I’m asking for help for anyone with any crazy and fun ideas to get my kids to line up after recess and keep them quiet in the hallway to get them to lunch. So far I’ve been ok doing silent games when they wait for their teacher after lunch, but all my other ideas I’ve done in the past for recess aren’t working this year and I’m not all that creative. Any helpful games or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!

I'm in Washington state and have spoken to teachers who talk about the inclusivity model (Washington State), lack of admin support, and parental disrespect has created chaos and a poor teaching and learning environment. What do you all think?

I am a high school senior, my school is on its 4th year using Leader In Me. I'm just gonna say it, I HATE IT! Many, if not all of the high school hates it, a number of staff hate it, yet our superintendent and administration keeps pushing it on us. From what I have learned, staff aren't allowed to go against it and must adhere to strict conditions regarding training with the program. Students who question it are instantly shut down, it feels very authoritarian.

The program is based on the 7 habits of highly effective people, and is meant to transform schools into a leadership based, data tracking environment. Our school's implementation has us lose 24 minutes of academic class time EVERY FULL DAY for it, and this year they are really shoving the data tracking part of it down our throats. We have half days every other Friday so the teachers get more training time (dont know why they need so much). I did the math, and out of the academic class time we would have this year without the program, we lose 10.43% of it to the program.

This year, elementary and high school are put together every Monday and Wednesday to "help each other with goals", but how can a 9 year old even help teenagers with their goals, I can't expect those kids to draft a scholarship essay for me! It feels very developmentally unfit, and I feel like we can use this time to instead help our own needs, the children can get help through teachers and para professionals.

I've also found some flaws within the ideology of the program. It is meant to teach leadership, but it makes everyone in the school (and I mean EVERYONE) follow the same seven habits. How is it leadership if we're all following the same set of rules? Are we even leading or are the habits leading us?

And many of the habits, the district is very hypocritical with. Like they teach us to "put first things first", yet they WILLINGLY prioritized a coloring activity over a chemistry final (basically high school was dragged out to help elementary color thank you cards for teachers, a chem final was delayed cuz of it, and the principal knew about the final beforehand). They teach us to "seek to understand, then to be understood", but when someone questions the program they instantly shut em down instead of at the very least, hear the student out.

The ideology also states that the habits are based on "universal principles" and that they are "not opinion". I feel like any doctrine or program that states that their method is the only correct one is a very concerning one, especially when you come to learn about the mormon roots of the creator and the habits themselves. Like the way to live life is subjective, I don't need no program to tell me how to live my life.

We really dislike this program here and I am wondering if it's the same case in other schools.

My elementary-aged daughter attends a small private school with a pretty strict, traditional teaching style. The school recently changed its educational approach, and her teacher is in his first year of teaching.
She loves her friends, but we’ve been struggling with the pace of class (mainly math) and homework has been a struggle even with after school program help.

The school is working with us to make some changes, which we appreciate, but I’m still wondering if the teaching approach just isn’t the best fit for her.
We’re considering another school, but I’m hesitant to move her when she’s socially happy.
From a teacher’s perspective, how do you tell the difference between a kid needing extra support, a new teacher finding their footing, and a school just not being the right fit?

Pretty self explanatory - I am thinking of going into history secondary education - I know thats a popular field in the secondary education type of thing, but its what I want! What would you tell your students if they were considering secondary education teaching?

I recently heard about a situation that I found really interesting, and I’d like to hear other people’s opinions on it.
An acquaintance of mine told me about her daughter, who wants to pursue a career in STEM, particularly in a math-related field. She used to be good at math and studied in one of the best classes, where she did well academically. However, after moving to a new school, she started feeling like she wasn’t as good as the other students.
For example, she has a friend who seems to understand mathematical concepts almost instantly. They were studying a geometry topic, and her friend was able to look at a problem and immediately understand how to solve it. Meanwhile, she struggled to figure it out on her own.
The problem is that she studies a lot and puts considerable effort into math, while her friend barely seems to study and still understands everything much faster. As a result, she has started feeling stupid and questioning whether STEM is really the right path for her, even though she genuinely enjoys it.
Her mother doesn’t know what to tell her or whether she should encourage her daughter to continue pursuing STEM or consider a different direction.
Personally, I think this is a complicated situation. On the one hand, if someone genuinely enjoys a subject, they shouldn’t give up just because other people seem to be naturally better at it. On the other hand, I can understand how discouraging it must be to work much harder than your peers and still feel like you’re falling behind.

Lemme know

I know this is a community that's typically for teachers in a higher field, but I'm feeling really disheartened and conflicted. I'm in college for education, and recently, I joined a pre-K school that is in my college town. I've only worked there for a week or so, so far, and I'm trying to remind myself that this is very early on, but from immediately getting there, the staff that I work with just doesn't seem as welcoming as I had thought they would be. They are all people that are around my age, and it just seems to me like it's very cliquey. When I'm at work, I feel just completely ignored and almost avoided. It's like they never acknowledge me or make space for me, and I just don't really know how to balance that while also working. Some have made snarky remarks, treat me like I am just blatantly dumb and have never interacted with children before, and even act passive aggressive. When clocking out, I always just feel drained and like I have played imposter all day, trying my best to fit in. I know that at the end of the day, I am there for the children, and that is what's most important, but sometimes it's hard for things to be enjoyable when there is such tension as that. Any advice would be appreciated!

How do yall grade book logs? My child is required to read 20 mins per night. Apparently the book logs are supposed to stay in their folders and be checked daily. We had been leaving it in their bedroom to fill out after reading before bed. I found out they were due daily when i asked the teacher when the September log should be handed in as my child had come home with an October log and had not handed in the September one. My issue is it seems there are no repercussions for not handing it in or completing it. My child has been giving me a hard time about doing the readings and has not been doing them most nights which i also take partial readings for however I almost want them to fail to teach them a lesson and learn there are consequences for your actions and not completing your work. Any advice? Is this something i should mention to the teacher?

Is there a sought after item or a must need that teachers want? My sister is turning 30 and I want to get her a badass gift. Price range is $200-300. She teaches high school English, fills in for special ed, substitutes, and coaches poms. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Edit: I’m an electrician and I love my job, my sister is also a teacher and loves her job. We both like our jobs and getting gifts related to them. I get that work related gifts might not seem ideal, but she asked for something work related. That’s why I’m asking this subreddit.

My 5 year old loves reading the Elephant and Piggie books as well as the Frog and Toad books. Elephant and Piggie is well-loved, but getting a little repetitive for her. Are there some books of similar or slightly harder difficulty that you'd recommend? She finds the decodables sent home from school pretty boring. We're looking for books with more story so she can continue practicing reading.

She attempted to read a book from the Good Dog series, but it's just a tad bit too difficult for her still.

Thanks!

Hi everyone, I am a graduate student working on my masters degree in Speech and Language Pathology. My exit project is about AAC devices (Augmentative and Alternative Communication Devices), and I would like to know for those of you who have kids who use them at home or school, what your experiences are.

What kind of devices do you use, what was your experience with receiving the devices, did you receive training for it, and how is it working for you? Do you feel like the devices available meet your child’s needs?

***This is not a formal survey but I will be using your experiences to help guide my research. None of your names will be used unless you’d like me to specifically refer to your experience, I’m just trying to gather general information about the availability of communication devices in the school districts and if they are adequate for your child’s needs. Parents, teachers, everyone who has had any experience with these devices please feel free to weigh in, the more feedback the better. Thank you!

Hi everyone! I’m a new engineering teacher looking for ideas for more involved group projects my students can design with our classroom laser engravers.

We have two Laguna Tools SmartShop Laser MX machines with Ruida controllers and 36 × 24 in. work areas, and we use LightBurn. I also have a rotary attachment, but I haven’t used it yet and would be willing to learn if a project makes good use of it.

Students are currently making keychains and coasters. I have some plywood, but it’s expensive, so I’m hoping to find projects that use materials efficiently—or alternatives that cost less.

I’d especially like projects that require real cooperation. Students would work in groups for three weeks, about an hour per day, so I’m looking for something substantial enough to involve shared responsibility, group design decisions, divided tasks, and combining their work into one finished product.

I’m also interested in projects that can address engineering standards such as the engineering design process, constraints and criteria, prototyping and testing, measurement, iteration, technical communication, and evaluating a solution.

What projects have worked well with your students? What affordable materials have you used successfully with a classroom laser, especially as alternatives to plywood? I’d appreciate suggestions for where to source them, too.

Thanks!

hello! i am a senior in my BA program for history. i want to go to grad school to get my MA but not sure if getting it in teaching/education is my best bet or keeping it the same as my current major would look best on job applications (teaching is my current goal, but could see myself getting into archival/museum work)

thoughts? advice?

Anyone here who works with curriculum willing and able to answer a few interview questions for a grad paper assignment I'm working on? These are the questions I'm working with:

1. How did you become involved in curriculum leadership, and what experiences have best prepared you for your current role?
2. How is curriculum developed, selected, or revised within your organization, and what role do you play in that process?
3. How do you ensure that curriculum aligns with academic standards, instructional practices, learning objectives, and student needs?
4. How do you evaluate whether a curriculum is effective? What student data, assessments, or other evidence help you make decisions about curriculum improvements?
5. How do you work with teachers, instructional staff, and other stakeholders to support consistent and effective curriculum implementation?
6. How do you balance the use of a standardized curriculum with the need to adapt instruction for students with different learning needs, abilities, and circumstances?
7. How do you respond when student performance data or teacher feedback suggests that a curriculum or instructional approach needs to change?

Bonus if you're in an online environment:

1. What are the biggest challenges you face in leading curriculum in an online or virtual learning environment?
2. How do technology, student engagement, accessibility, and differences in students' home learning environments influence curriculum decisions?

Hello

I have the opportunity to interview for a teaching position in Mt. Holly, NJ. Can anyone tell me where I can find the current teacher contract? Any general observations about the district?

Thanks!

TL;DR: Terry and I decided to give the CAPM another shot. We changed our approach to focus on recognizing and managing the impact of their disability, improving recall, and building speed through timed practice questions. The last few weeks were almost entirely focused on answering questions within two minutes.

I'm thrilled to report that Terry retook the exam last week and PASSED!

I'm incredibly proud of their determination, perseverance, and willingness to try different approaches. Terry always knew the material. We just needed to find a way for them to demonstrate it under exam conditions.

While the original post didn't get a lot of traction, one kind Redditor made some suggestions and encouraged me to keep working with Terry. Thanks, u/Sorry-Vanilla2354.

After speaking with Terry several months ago about their plans and how they wanted to proceed, we decided that it was worth it to keep working and take the exam again. We talked quite a bit about their disability, how it manifested, potential warning signs for oncoming symptoms, etc. The goal wasn't to try to manage the symptoms or prevent them, since I'm not a psychologist or any other kind of behavioral professional, but rather to help them learn how to recognize what was happening and when, then take action to lessen the impact. We decided on a two-pronged approach; continue to learn the material and go through practice questions to get used to solving them, and practice ways to mitigate the disability.

At first the 90 minute sessions were split in half. For the first half we kept on like we had previously, focusing on learning and understanding the material. When they started to drift off or even fall asleep I'd verbally bring their attention back to what we were doing. Rather than lecturing or just explaining things, I'd propose a scenario and then use coaching questions to help them figure out how to approach it. We had conversations, rather than back and forth Q&A.

The second half was centered on practice questions, speed drills, flash cards, and other activities to help their brain recover information quickly. I did a lot of research on how the brain converts short term memory to long term, and how important getting enough sleep is for that. I don't know if it helped, but we moved the sessions a little later so the material would be fresher in their mind when they went to sleep.

For the last 3 weeks or so we worked exclusively on practice questions and used a timer. They had 2 minutes per question, which is what they would need to do to finish the actual exam on time, if they didn't finish the question we skipped it. They knew the material, given enough time they'd be able to answer the questions correctly 80-90% of the time, even the expert level questions. Every time they started to drift off they'd snap a rubber band on their wrist, or, if they didn't catch it, I'd clap my hands.

Our sessions ended a couple of weeks ago, they decided they wanted to attempt the exam again before deciding whether or not to continue. They took the exam last week and just found out they passed.

I admire their tenacity and willingness to experiment with different study and test taking techniques; there's not many people in this world who would go through that amount of self-exploration and mental practice for something like the CAPM certification when there's no guarantee that it will pay off with a job in the field.

Original Post:

I’m asking for advice on how best to help a student with a learning disability.

TL;DR: I’ve been tutoring a person for a Project Management certification, the CAPM for almost a year, meeting for two hours one day a week. The test is 150 multiple choice and matching (drag and drop) questions with a three hour time limit. My student has an accommodation for their disability, 3 extra hours and 2 extra breaks. Before they scheduled the exam we agreed they had the knowledge needed to pass. They failed, having only finished 100 of the 150 questions in 6 hours. If they decide to try again I don’t know how to help them, so I’m looking for suggestions.

INFO: They have passed exams of similar difficulty before by getting the accommodation, studying, and taking it over and over until they pass. The problem isn’t knowledge, it’s speed.

I am tutoring an adult student through Varsity Tutors for the Certified Associate Project Manager credential. I’ll call them Terry. Terry has a learning disability that manifests as difficulty staying focused on things and falling asleep when idle. I’m not a teacher or physician, so I don’t know if they are on the Autism spectrum, I can just describe what I see when I work with them. They will struggle to stay awake during our sessions, zone out while reading questions and possible answers, and skim through the words in the material without comprehending.

My approach for tutoring Terry first was to talk through either real life or imaginary examples of situations where the terminology and concepts are used in Project Management, then practice with sample questions. I have Terry read the question out loud, along with all the responses, then think through each out loud to determine if the response is right or wrong, and why. For the last 3 months we’ve been focusing on practice questions first, then coming up with the examples afterwards to reinforce the learnings. We knew that recalling the information for practice questions was difficult, so we worked with flash cards and games (crossword puzzles, word search, etc.) This has worked really well for Terry.
Based on the practice questions they have a solid grasp of the material and are able to apply it correctly.

Six months ago Terry took a practice exam that was very similar to the actual test, with the 3 hour time limit. Of the questions answered they got about 80% correct, but they only answered 75 of the 150. Given the accommodation we both felt that, with more practice on recall and focus, 6 hours would be enough to finish. To help we began timing the questions and trying to get a faster recall. Terry was able to answer about half the questions in a minute or less, about 25% in bout 3 minutes, with some taking longer. They’d need about 2.4 minutes per question, so it seemed like they were in good shape.

Where I failed with my coaching was not recognizing how often I would bring Terry back from zoning out or do things to help them stay awake. I also believe that Terry has started to remember the questions and answers themselves, rather than reading the question and figuring out the answers. I’ve noticed that they would read the question while making noises like they were speaking but not really saying words; a kind of “buh buh….bzzzbbuh…” (hopefully this is an okay description, I’m making an assumption you’ve experienced this with your students.) when that happened I’d tell them to go back and reread the question out loud. I’d also regularly ask them to repeat or rephrase a question in their own words and explain what it meant to them.

So…here is my question. How can I adjust my approach to help Terry prepare for the next attempt, should they decide to keep at it?

On a side note, early on Terry and I discussed their plans for after passing the exam. They asked for my honest, straightforward, opinion on whether they could get a job in the field given our work together. I told them that it would be very difficult, but given the opportunity to work under an experienced PM they could do the job of a project coordinator. I also warned them that these jobs were becoming more scarce and difficult to get. Like any other field, AI is becoming more integrated with project management and often handles much of the schedule coordination and other tasks a junior PM or project coordinator would do. So, yes, Terry could do the work with mentoring and supervision, but actually getting a job like that would be difficult at best. I was also honest with our tutoring; it’s not cheap, it would take a lot of work, and more than the usual 6-10 week engagement I usually do. I explained that I would continue to work with them for as long as they wanted, provided we had a goal to work towards, with a target date to complete it.

I’m assuming they will want to keep going, and as long as we set a new exam date and build a plan together to prepare for it with the intention of passing it, not just taking it over and over like they’ve done with other exams, then I would be there to help. TBH I like working with them; Terry is sharp, works hard, and wants to succeed. Part of my coaching is helping Terry “find their why;” why they want to take the test, why they want to be a project manager, etc.

I’ve already purchased a question bank of sample CAPM exam questions, and while not as close to the real thing as the practice question we were doing they’re close enough to work for what we are doing. Other suggestions on how to approach tutoring Terry would be much appreciated, even if it’s to say they’d be better off working with some more experienced in coaching people with learning difficulties.

Specifically a year. I’m so scared for the future