Strategies are unique tools that we use to increase our rate of success in almost everything we do. Well-developed strategies are necessary to win football games, get a pay raise at work, fix an argument with a friend, win a war, and remember new information learned in class.

 Learning strategies must be used in order for the brain to pick up new pieces of information and properly store them for future use. You are using learning strategies right now. Perhaps a teacher taught them to you, or you developed them yourself. Some of your learning strategies may work and some may not.

 Our goal at the C.G.U.H.S. Learning Center is to be your strategy counselors, advisors, and tutors so that you can learn by yourself. This is called self-regulated learning. Virtually all U. S. colleges and universities have Learning Centers to teach self-regulated learning strategies to their students. Good self-regulated learning strategies will make your four years in high school (and eventually, college or trade school!) much more successful—especially when it comes to passing the AIMS!

 C.G.U.H.S. is committed to providing all of our students with the most current practices supported by educational research. The Learning Center and is one example!

 A dozen ideas to help you succeed in school:

1. Sit in the front of the class! When you sit close to your teacher, you will feel more one-on-one contact. You will feel more awake and much more involved in the lecture.
2. ALWAYS, ALWAYS bring your notebook and other supplies to class! Be prepared! Be sure your notebook has a lot of lined paper! Sharpen your pencil! Carry a calculator!
3. Take GOOD notes each day and review them. If a teacher discusses something in class, it is probably important, so write it down in your notebook. You may see it on a test later.
4. New information MUST BE REPEATED in your brain before it is there to stay. Think of your favorite movie actress or actor. She has to reread her lines over and over until she knows them by heart. This is called automaticity. Learning ANYTHING new in life requires the same process! You can’t get around it! REVIEW your notes (10 to15 minutes per class) every single night before going to bed. This strategy will make it easier when test time comes.
5. Have you been sick? Missed a lot of classes and behind in your homework? Students who may have missed classes due to absences are likely to benefit from several sessions at the Center. We will help you get caught up.
6. If you speak Spanish or a Native American dialect, be sure that you can read it and write it as well as English. Many companies in the U.S. and around the world will pay big bucks to bilingual people who serve as translators for their company. Including the U.S. Government! Be BILINGUAL!
7. Do you suffer from test anxiety? Worry a lot? When you feel fear and anxiety coming over you, yell out “STOP!” Yelling one word releases chemicals within the brain, which reorganize thought patterns. Negative thoughts fade.
8. Your brain can temporarily overload. When you try to complete a difficult assignment, your brain has to work hard trying to connect the new information with similar stuff already in your head. Your brain needs you to temporarily stop so that it can literally reduce the number of neural connections

9. An intelligence strategy is the awareness of when you have a specific skill and when you do not and how to make that lame skill better. (Hint: The folks at the Learning Center LOVE to improve lame skills!)

10. STUDY GROUPS are HIGHLY effective and mirthful ways of learning. At the Learning Center, we will get you and two to four of your best pals organized into a dynamic study group!
11. DUMP ALL NEGATIVE SELF-STATEMENTS! No matter who has called you “dumb” or “stupid” in the past, it is not true! Sorry, but if you are currently a breathing human being, scientific research shows that you have an INTELLIGENT and BRILLIANT brain.
12. Review! Reread! Rewrite! Rehearse! The more you do, the more you will remember.

13. PLEASE ABUSE US AT THE LEARNING CENTER! WE ARE LEARNING Specialists AND WE CAN ASSIST YOU AS YOU PREPARE FOR THE AIMS, TerraNova, SAT, ACT, AND THE REMAINING 80+ YEARS OF YOUR LIFE.

 Goals of the Learning Center 

	To provide students with an awareness of the unlimited capacity and unlimited potential of their brain. (Yes, we mean YOUR brain!)
	To help students develop a more positive “academic self-image.”
	To evaluate and then enhance the efficiency of a student’s current learning strategy.
	To develop an awareness and acceptance that every student thinks and learns in a different way and at a different rate from another student. Who cares how fast or slow you go, as long as you keep on going! Ask Michael Jordan. His high school basketball coaches told him that he was not fast enough or good enough for the high school team! So did his college coaches. Funny, he sure kicks butt today in basketball! He made slow, but steady progress and never quit!

Here are questions you probably would like to ask, but are too polite to...

Student: So, LIKE when are you open for business?

Learning Center: The Learning Center will be available to students from 7:30 AM until 5:00 PM Monday through Friday.

Student: WOW! Something this good cannot be free. How much are your awesome services?

Learning Center: We admit that we are incredibly virtuous, noble, and really p.h.a.t., however, our humbleness (and job contract) does not allow us to charge. WE are FREE! You can always show us your really good grades; throw us a Mountain Dew or an apple fritter. That would be nice.

Student: That’s waaaaaay cool. You guys sound like a tight group of brainy old folks! What are your names again…in real life?

Mr. Marty Brodsky-- Mathematics/Science/English/Spanish
Mrs. Nancy Davidson--Mathematics/Science
Mrs. Cindy Ellis--English/Social Studies