Each summer teens make vast improvements at Quantum-U, where we teach learning and life skills that help teens know themselves, like themselves, and learn better. During many years of running these summer college prep programs we have learned lots and lots about teens and their problems—and how adults can help them through those sometimes rough years. Here are some of the most important and easily utilized things we've found . . .
1. A great communication tool for building relationships with teens is, Tell me more. If you get one of those dead-end responses to a question like How was your day, try Tell me more.
2. When teens have been hurt by something someone said or did to them, try asking them How do you feel? Tell them that how we feel and think about ourselves is a CHOICE. We can’t control what happens to us but we can control how we react to it. Then ask How do you CHOOSE to feel?
3. To help teens build self-esteem, acknowledge every effort. When your teens make an effort and complete something, stop for the high-five before urging them on to the next task.
4. When you see FEAR (False Expectations Appearing Real) in your teens, acknowledge it and show that you understand. Then ask What’s the worst that could happen? and What’s the best?
5. Excelling in school starts with an I CAN attitude. A fast way to I CAN and I WILL is when students discover how they learn best and apply the appropriate strategies for their learning style to their school work. People learn differently—some of us are better visual learners, some are auditory, and some are kinesthetic learners. How do you learn best?
6. Physiology affects learning. Our mind, body, and emotions are all connected—change one, you change them all. Remind your teens to walk tall into every class (even the most dreaded), sit tall at their desks, and look and listen. Soon they will be able to remind themselves with Adjust your physiology!
7. If your teens are struggling with low motivation, help them find their passions—and the accompanying motivation—by asking them, What would you do—today, tomorrow, or in the future—if you knew you couldn’t fail?
8. If your teens are hitting the inevitable “bumps” on their road to success, remind them that Failure Leads to Success! with the suggestion, forgive yourself, learn from your “failure,” recommit, and keep moving toward your goal!
9. Help your teens to understand that they need to take ownership of their dreams—no blaming, no excuses, no justifying, no giving up. If it’s to be, it’s up to me!
10. Remind your teens that Speak with Good Purpose applies to what they say to themselves as well as what they say to others. They can use this to correct those voices in their heads that tell them negative things about themselves.
Some of these tips—such as learning styles, Failure Leads to Success, and Speak with Good Purpose—relate to topics that are part of our core beliefs, and I'll go into them in more depth in later blogs. These ten tips are really an overview of the subjects covered in a recently published book about teens from SuperCamp president, Bobbi DePorter entitled The 7 Biggest Teen Problems—and How to Turn Them Into Strengths. A free eBook version of this book is available at www.SuperCamp.com.
Quantum-U will be held at Colorado College this year. SuperCamp, the summer program for younger teens and children, will be held at eight U.S. college campuses, from Stanford University in the west to Cornell in the east. Other locations include, Pitzer College (one of The Claremont Colleges in the Los Angeles area), Cal State San Marcos in north San Diego County, Colorado College in Colorado Springs, the University of Washington in Seattle, Wake Forest University and Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.
SuperCamp offers four grade-specific programs: the 10-day Junior Forum for students entering grades 6-8 in the fall, the 10-day Senior Forum teen summer camps for students entering grades 9-12, the 7-day Youth Forum for kids entering grades 4-5 and Quantum U for incoming college students. The dynamic learning environment is designed to maximize long-term retention of the information provided.
More information on SuperCamp is available at the website, by calling 800-285-3276 or emailing info@supercamp.com / info@quantum-u.com.
