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I think @a-shooting-jade made some really good points. There's something else I want to add. I have never played the piano but I did take guitar lessons from three teachers with different teaching styles that did and didn't work for me.

My 6th Grade Teacher :

Taught us simple guitar tab.

After that, gave us a new song every class and we all got to playing right away.

We were never tested or judged for our playing. We did not have to master a song before moving on to the next. It was fun and it was exciting and I started practicing at home on my own and looking up guitar tab online to try.

My Next Guitar Teacher:

I took a break from it and years later started taking lessons from an instructor outside of school.

He had a really good ear. He could turn any song I brought to him to guitar tab for me.

He could see I was passionate but he also knew I NEVER PRACTICED. Some kids just do not have the space or time to practice at home. Either because they're busy or because parents / family or even neighbours will get annoyed and tell them to stop.

At first, we would stay on one song forever. I would understand what I needed to do and how to do it I just wouldn't be able to do it fast enough because I couldn't practice enough to develop the muscle memory I needed to "master" a song. It was frustrating. I would make a lot of minor mistakes or even if he thought I was doing well I would get frustrated because it would sound slower / not the same on an acoustic guitar.

So we just started moving on. Every week I could bring him new music, we'd get a little sidetracked watching movie trailers we were both interested in, and I'd get to learn a little bit of a bunch of songs I loved. It was fun. I looked forward to seeing him and experimenting with guitar. I haven't touched a guitar in years but I still have the sheet music so I can jump back in someday where I left off.

My Last Guitar Teacher

Eventually that teacher stopped teaching after he had a kid and I was moved to another teacher at the studio.

I quit very shortly after.

This teacher would ask me if I practiced at the start of every lesson knowing I hadn't (because every week I said no). It was humiliating.

He didn't have the same ear as the other teacher so there was no more fun guitar tabs. Just one song similar to my interests that I needed to master before moving on.

I didn't look forward to any lessons with him. He didn't criticize me or anything but he was a very stern guy and we didn't talk about anything other than the lesson and I always got the impression I wasn't meeting his expectations.

I lost interest in guitar entirely.

Shame and ADHD

Those of us with ADHD are very interest based learners yes but it's also very very easy for us to feel overwhelmed or judged especially if we keep falling short of others (or even our own) expectations. And if we're consistently feeling like we're not making progress or not doing well or aren't getting to the stuff we want to get to then even something we were previously interested in becomes a chore that we dread. And if we start to dread it, then sitting through an hour lesson can feel like physical torture.

Thoughts on Your Student:

My best guess is if this student is getting to the point of kicking the piano, they're either very overwhelmed and overstimulated with all of the new information and trying to get the hang of it or they're very bored and under stimulated and just want to get to the interesting stuff so bad that anything else feels like doing homework for hours on end. It will take some observation, and experimentation with lessons to figure out which. Might even vary from lesson to lesson.

Either way I think getting them excited about the process of playing the piano will help them far more than making sure they master what they're doing. Excitement will fuel them to do and try more and play and experiment with little bits they'll pick up lots more that way than staying stuck on the same thing forever.

A Final Note: For most people, music is a hobby, not a career path

My sister took piano while I took guitar lessons. She told me about how she was learning scales and children's songs. I always thought that sounded so dull and boring. She doesn't have ADHD and she enjoyed it but still quit before I quit guitar because she wasn't getting anything out of it. Very few people want to learn an instrument to master it and be the best at it. Many parents want that. They want their kids to have this amazing skill. But most kids want to learn an instrument because it looks and sounds fun. And that's what hobbies should be. Fun.

I need help from piano teachers!

So I've read many posts about teaching kids with adhd, tried many different approaches and methods. And these methods work most of the time, and I try to be creative with my lessons. I have flashcards, had specific balloons for practicing hand/arm movements, there are rhythm exercises, "treasure hunting" for notes, singing together, breaking down tasks to very small steps, etc. There's always positive reinforcement, I have different types of stamps/stickers as rewards after completing a challenge. I always keep in mind that every student is different and they learn at a different pace. And usually my neurodivergent students like my lessons, and manage to improve their skills and they love music.

However, with one student, nothing seems to work. Breaking down learning pieces to smaller, easier segments didn't work because it bores them, but focusing on more things at once doesn't work either. Giving positive feedback doesn't seem to have any effect. The parents asked me to be more strict because only that works, but that stopped working too after like two lessons. If they're bored they start hitting and kicking the piano, and I don't know what to do.

So... Does anyone have an idea on what to do? 🥺 I would be incredibly grateful.

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the new year is fast approaching and although I initially wanted to write my new year’s resolution, I decided that they weren’t going to be effective at all. However, I did find out that there are other ways to make 2018 as fruitful as possible. Here are some things you can try!

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The thing that sucks most about hyperfocusing, is that even though I know in the end I will be able to push through and get it all done the night before, I don’t want to have to do that. I still spend hours upon hours trying to get things done progressively and end up with nothing and its so heartbreaking and a waste of time 

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‘eat the frog' method

Hi all, it’s werelivingarts. I just stumbled across this method called ‘eat the frog’, which means you get the most difficult or important task out of your way first. I actually have been using this method for a long time, hope this post gives you a new way of managing your time and productivity! 😜

“If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.” – Mark Twain 

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I found this quote in an old journal of mine and I thought it would make a great monday motivation fuel for you. Until next time, good luck with life. OUM. https://www.instagram.com/p/CE2FNOHh4kK/?igshid=19bkrs09sd87a

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That moment when you just had a great lunch, your tummy is full and happy and you feel like napping….BUT….you can’t really afford it, you still have a lot of things to do!!

Don’t worry I got you ;)

Until next time, good luck with life.

Oum.

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I feel that in the studyblr community nobody actively talks about the study environment some of us have, so shoutout to those students that:

• live with their parents (not everyone goes to college/uni where they have dorms, and even then, not everyone can afford it)

• have to deal with parents/family members constantly arguing in the background

• work / have to worry heavily about just getting by (paying rent, groceries, medication)

• need loud music to study and drown outside noises

• can not “study prettily” at coffee shops

• take care of other family members, and thus have to be ready to drop whaterever they are doing to assist them at any time

• can not concentrate or get “in the zone” no matter what they do

• do not have a personal computer/tablet

• do not have a room of their own

• are neurodivergent and the advice of most study masterpost/tips is not applicable.

You are valid, you are seen, you are not alone. If nobody has told you already: if you are trying the best you can then the best you can is good enough.

sincerely, a student who needed to hear this.

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when it comes to writing with the goal of finishing: set systems, not goals. don’t burn yourself out trying to hit a self imposed deadline without a solid, regular system in place for achieving it. it is not worth it to burn out over something that’s supposed to be fun.

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I'm so tired of the notion of "good" and "bad" students

Every time I struggle, I worry about looking like a "bad" student

Forgetting assignments

Being distracted in class (missing instructions or course material)

Falling behind

Etc.

Like. What purpose does the concept of a "bad" student serve? Like, "yeah, screw the 'bad' students. If you can't process everything I say in the next hour, you don't deserve my help.*" And ... Ironically... Those students probably need help the most?

*like the teachers who're like "I will Not repeat myself

This is probably incoherent but like... I'm just tired of feeling guilty and embarrassed because I missed an assignment or something.

Bewareeee the Bad Studentssssss. Goddd forbiddd you everr struggle in school, or it will just keep adding up each year as your performance relative to your peer group just gets worse. 👻🎃

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This Is How You Actually Take Notes In College, Bitches

it’s occurred to me that nobody fuckin knows how to take notes in classes and most advice about it is bad. What the fuck are “key words?”

So anyway here’s how I’ve gotten a’s in all my classes in college so far

I’m not gonna bother too much with telling you to take notes in class. Everyone knows that shit. But most people’s note taking skills suck ass and there are two main types of sucking ass I have observed

The first is the one where your notes look like a list of key terms and words. Sometimes they are underlined or there are dashes that connect them to other words. So if your prof was talking about Henry VIII you’d write down something like

Henry VIII

Church of England—divorce

DON’T DO THAT. Those words are gonna show up on the test, sure, but writing them down isn’t gonna help you with the test. What the fuck does any of that mean? High school is shit and your “key words” can’t help you now.

Here’s the other type of bad note taking:

It was necessary for Henry VIII to have a male heir who could succeed him, but his wife was unable to conceive a son. The Catholic Church

I stopped writing there because your professor moved on to something else. But, tbh, even if you can write fast enough to keep up with the content of the lectures (and you can’t for the entire lecture) it’s not helpful to have a solid wall of Everything That Was Covered In The Lecture, in grammatically correct complete sentences. Are you gonna read that shit again? No!

And honestly most people have like, sentences here and there that look important instead of the whole lecture. Which is also bad.

So what’s the not shitty way to take notes? It comes down to these principles:

Shorthand

Show Relationships of Things

These kind of go together

I cannot emphasize enough that you don’t need to write sentences like a normal person. Shorthand everything, and I don’t mean some fucked up studying shorthand you just came up with like “AmR” for American Revolution, I mean like...fuckin text/memespeak. Don’t write complete sentences, completely abandon formality. Abbreviate anything you would in a text message, you know what it means.

HOWEVER: You Must Show How Things Are Related To Things

To understand broad concepts you gotta understand how the things in them are related to other things.

That’s why writing down “Henry VIII” and “Church of England” isn’t gonna help you, because you’re not learning that there is a Church of England.

Did Henry VIII burn the Church of England? Cheat on his wife with it? Who knows? Definitely not you.

This is why you have to connect stuff like

Catholic Church says no divorce

Henry VIII—starts Church of England

But ya know you can make that more memorable AND more clearly show how one thing caused the other

Henry VIII: divorce >:)

Catholic Church: no

Henry VIII: fuk u *church of england*

I’m completely dead serious about this, this kind of slang is very good at indicating exactly how things relate to things in zero time and you know exactly what it means and you’ll remember it

But furthermore

You have to come up with shorthand to quickly indicate how things are related. Say you write down the definitions of two terms for like, opposing theories on government in class. That’s great but you’re leaving it to yourself to work out the opposing part later from what you write, and your brain’s a flaky bitch.

Like part of what you’re doing it giving yourself help with HOW to study your notes later.

So like. Do something like write a jagged line in between the definitions, indicating conflict. Write “OTOH” or “HOWEVER” in between in big fuckin letters. Writing down “Catholic Church” and what that is and “Church of England” and what that is, is fine. But like, if the main theme is the contrast between the two, “Catholic Church HOWEVER Church of England” immediately tells you the basicest basics. It’s like a tiny outline, telling you what to expect. Sure, you can figure it out reading your notes but I’m telling you how to write skimmable notes that you can glean stuff from even when you’re half spaced out and shit, okay?

Same thing for like, dates and sequences and cause-and-effect and stuff. Even if you’ve got the dates down...be sure to put arrows or something so even at a glance you’ve got basically what’s going on.

Also i know it feels like wasting paper but DONT scrunch all your notes together into small space on the paper. That lil dialogue between Henry and the Church of England is spread out over 3 lines which means if you have ADHD like me you can actually fuckin read it. Turn things into bullet lists. Indent things with little arrows to show things leading to things. If there’s a clear move to a new topic, new page. If you’re actually filling up the paper all the way that shits hard to read and it’s even harder to pick out the Big Important Stuff.

Last word of advice: If you end up like writing down two things and can’t tell what they’re for or how they’re related to each other...ASK QUESTIONS. Like “I’m sorry can you explain how the Church of England is related to the Catholic Church? I didn’t quite catch that.” If talking in class makes you feel like you might be percieved badly, you can frame it like a Nerd Question “So, what kind of relationship would you say the Church of England and the Catholic Church had?” or just play it off like you didn’t hear it like “I’m sorry, what was that last thing you said about the Church of England and the Catholic Church?”

Or just make a mark on your notes to remind yourself that you need more info and to go to your prof’s office to ask questions. I would really not be nervous about that, professors normally really like it when students show that they really want to succeed in the class and that they care. Unless they’re like, a complete dickhead, in which case, fuck what they think, right? You’re gonna ask questions and it’s their problem because you’re essentially paying them for your presence in the class.

So...yeah.

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Some expression notes ! 💖 | Instagram

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i just said the same thing on twitter but please please please consider standing up for remote learning options even if everything does somehow go back to normal. so many physically disabled people drop out of school/college because of inaccessibilty. we have been asking for an option like this for so long and keeping it would change the lives of sooooo many people. we have an opportunity to start reforming the educational system to be more accessible to disabled and poor people and i really dont want to lose remote options because ableds are too lazy to keep hosting video calls.

this is okay to reblog but physically abled ppl be quiet!

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Cryptids in French

la cryptozoologie- cryptozoology

un cryptide- cryptid

une trace de pied- foot print

le témoinage oculaire- eyewitness testimony

un spécimen- specimen 

la preuve- proof

le doute- doubt

le monstre du Loch Ness- loch ness monster

le bigfoot- bigfoot

le yéti- yeti

la chupacabra- chupacabra

le kraken- kraken

le serpent de mer- sea serpent

l’homme-papillon- Mothman

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info dumping and rambling about your interests is not annoying or boring !!! passion and excitement is incredibly endearing. those who told you otherwise did majorly wrong by you

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My Areas of Study

I have a lot of things that I want to study and learn and maybe it’s too ambitious to do these all at once but hey I gotta start somewhere. I’m going to be making more solid, planned out goals later but these are the subjects I’m currently focusing on. So if you’re learning any of these or plan to let me know! We can share resources and learn together!

ADHD.

Animation: 2D Animation, 3D Animation and Motion Graphics.

Illustration: Inking Techniques, Shapes and Structure, Anatomy, Classical Lighting, Perspective, Rendering, Composition, Sequential Art, Lettering, and Colour Theory.

English Literature: I was almost an English major and didn’t take that path but I still would like to dive into that world.

Creative Writing: Dialogue, Plot Structure, Character Voice, Prose, Showing vs. Telling, Scene Construction, and Conflict.

Language: Japanese, French, and German now. Later Ukrainian, Russian, Korean, Spanish, Polish, Greek, Italian, Latin, and more.

Cooking/Baking: I want to dive back into the theory I started learning in high school.

History: World History, Art History.

Death and Death Positivity.

Mythology, Folklore, Fairy Tales, and Religion.

Basic Math and Science (Primarily Biology): Refreshing the basics I had difficulty retaining.

Coding: HTML, and CSS for sure.

I’ve probably forgotten some.

Jack of all trades, master of none. Though oftentimes better than master of one.

What are you learning rn? Or what would you like to learn?

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I am starting the #learningguild where we can post HELPFUL studyblr posts and share our progress in a way that actually inspires and is useful to others. A place that isn’t dominated by aesthetic posts that aren’t helpful to anyone. A place for all kinds of learning: math, science, literature, language, music, art, writing, and everything in between.