You’re already familiar with support options like subject tutoring and therapy. But did you know that there’s another service that can support your student both academically and emotionally?
Academic coaching involves working with students to improve essential executive functions and life skills vital to long-term success, such as organization, time management, project planning, and effective studying.
At Signet, we also aim to increase students’ motivation, confidence, and self-advocacy, helping them establish goals that are meaningful to them and co-creating a plan for achieving their version of success.
What exactly academic coaching entails is often a bit of a mystery to parents and students, so we curated some of our top resources to help you better understand this versatile and valuable service.
About Academic Coaching
What is academic coaching? Is academic coaching essentially tutoring or therapy? Who benefits from academic coaching? Can’t students and parents just do this work at home?
These are all perfectly valid questions about academic coaching. We’re happy to break down what academic coaching is (and isn’t), who it can (and can’t) help, and how it differs from other systems of one-on-one support.
- All About Academic Coaching
- How Holistic Learning Makes You Happier
- Fostering Independence in Kids, Teens, and Young Adults
- The Skills You Need for High School Success
- Does My Student Need a Life Coach?
- Is My Student Ready for Academic Coaching?
Executive Functions
Executive functions—the set of cognitive processes that help people get things done—are so critical to academic success that improving them is a primary focus of Signet’s academic coaching services.
Academic coaching can help students with executive functions challenges to improve their time management, reduce distractions to enhance focus, organize papers and due dates, overcome procrastination, build memory skills, and so much more.
- What Are Executive Function Skills?
- What Are Executive Functions? Q&A with an Expert
- How to Improve Executive Functioning Skills
- How Academic Coaching Improves Executive Function Skills
- How Healthy Executive Functions Set Students Up for Success
- Executive Functioning: Boosting Your Core Life Skills
- Support for Executive Function Disorder
- Interview with a Neuropsychologist: Should My Child Take a Neuropsych Test?
- Testing Accommodations, Part 1
Strategic Organization
The ability to be organized is a vital part of academic success—right up there with getting good grades. With such demanding schedules and pressures to perform well, students simply cannot afford to be anything less than well-organized.
And here’s a little secret for you. . . anyone can learn to be organized. That’s right. Students all have different tendencies when it comes to organization, but the fact is that organization is a 100% trainable skill. Anyone can improve their organization with the right tools, helpful resources like academic coaches, and consistent practice.
- A Student’s Guide to Strategic Organization
- Excellent Organization in High School
- Organizational Skills for Ninth Grade
- Want to Be a Strong Student? Build a Strong Routine
- 5 Essential Study Skills, Resources, & Tips
- How to Help Your High School Student Manage Their Time
- What Is the Pomodoro Technique?
How to Stay Balanced
There’s a significant overlap between academic struggles and emotional struggles in high school. Even high-performing students who appear to be doing just fine on paper often pay the price in other ways that aren’t immediately apparent.
When students face mental health challenges like stress, anxiety, and depression, they need proven tools, resources, and avenues for support to help them ride the waves and swim ashore.
- Does Your Teen Have an Academic Issue or a Mental Health Issue?
- An Intro to Mental Health in High School
- Do You Need a Tutor, Coach, or Therapist?
- 4 Simple Routines to Support Your Student
- 10 Tips for Student Well-Being
- Is Perfectionism Getting in Your Way?
- The Happy B Student
- Do You Have Test Anxiety?
- Text Anxiety Management Tips for the Finals Season
- How Often Should You Take Breaks When Studying?
- The Benefits of Taking Breaks
- Make Mindfulness Your Superpower
- Your Brain’s Secret Weapon
- Reflecting on the School Year
Reading Skills
Many students struggle to manage their extensive high school reading loads, trying to find the time in their busy schedules to read up to hundreds of pages every week. They’ve never faced this kind of time management problem before, and they don’t know how to move forward confidently and efficiently.
Fortunately, there are different ways to approach reading and helpful strategies students can implement to track what they read.
How to Succeed in STEM Classes
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) learning is uniquely challenging because it is more objective, cumulative, and application-focused than other types of learning.
Struggling students may feel rushed and overwhelmed trying to take notes, spend ample time memorizing facts and information, and let their perfectionism get in the way of effective learning. Often, they need more than a subject tutor to help them get on track.
- Five Tips to Becoming a Better STEM Student
- Learning STEM: How to Succeed in Science and Math Classes
- Study Tips for Calc
Signet’s Approach to Academic Coaching
Signet’s unique approach to academic coaching comprises three proven steps designed to give students the tools and support they need to achieve their version of success:
- Discover
Beginning with a highly personalized and in-depth discovery session, the coach works to understand why a student is seeking academic coaching, learns about their specific academic challenges, creates a picture of what the student wants to gain from coaching, and gets parental feedback as needed.
- Plan
The student and their coach co-develop a practical and forward-thinking plan to improve the student’s process and outcomes. Through a series of one-on-one coaching sessions, students formulate clear academic goals, work toward their goals, and reflect on what’s been working and what needs to improve.
- Work
The coach helps the student implement changes so that they seamlessly build habits for long-term success. During the process, the coach observes without judgment, assesses progress on an ongoing basis, and suggests adjustments as needed.
Schedule a free consultation to learn more about Signet’s academic coaching services!
