 a little introduction for you. All right, thank you. All right, so next up on our lightning round sessions, we have Carla Enger. She is from the Robert Rowe Public Library District in Saranen, Illinois. Their population served is 5,000. Is that correct still? Yes, yes. Okay, and they have an SAT boot camp that she is going to talk to us about. All right, well, thank you very much for the opportunity again. About a year ago, I met with our high school principal and asked what services we could provide for our young adults. And he talked about SAT scores and how much he had hoped to raise scores and to encourage the students to study and prepare a little bit more. So we saw an opportunity here to set up an SAT prep that we lovingly call boot camp. It's two hours a week on a weeknight. And as you can see, we intend for it to be rigorous. We intend for students to work very hard during those two hours. So I'm gonna share some of the steps we've taken in case you might want to do it yourself. Timing is everything. We learned this to begin in October. Most SATs are March or April and October is a good time to start because school has already begun so kids are used to their schedule. It allows time for practicing math and reading skills extensively before the final month. So we spend all that time October through about the end of January, just working on skills. The last three to four weeks, that's where we take time to practice tests only. And that's where we are right now. Where are we? Carla, can you speak closer to your phone or a little louder? It's kind of quiet. Okay, thank you. So we are in, is that better? Absolutely, yes, thank you so much. Okay, thanks. We're in the process right now of taking time to practice tests. So they're really familiar with how the tests are set up. You know, it helps the nerves. As far as timing, we meet for two hours, no longer than that, because they're pretty much tired after two hours. But we do have a short break in the middle. And also timing, have a big party about halfway through. And that's what we did. We've had a pizza party, a celebration of the effort that they have expended so far. The skills that we cover is not just the math and the reading and the grammar, it's also how to be successful. Students need to figure out their own speed limit. Some kids work very quickly and then they go back and double check things that they missed. Others work at a really steady pace. So this gives them a chance to practice and see what their speed limit is. They learn techniques like narrowing choices. They can eliminate two answers often and that speeds up the process. If they know a math answer needs to be a negative number, then they can eliminate the positives. But those are things that they need to learn. They also learn not to spend too much time on one question. Pass it over, but just make sure that you leave a place for that scantron. So that's something else that we practice. They need to bring a watch to the test. And they actually have an advantage over kids who have not studied because they don't need to read the directions. They already know what they need to do. A letter of the day is, it's a great technique for test taking. If, say they run out of time and they have some answers that they have not had a chance to fill in some problems they haven't solved, then they choose one single letter. And we call it letter of the day. So if you're feeling like B today, then you circle in B on every single one that needs to be filled in before time is up because that the probability is you have a one out of four chance of getting it right. But if you mix it all up, it might be less than that. And also it's okay to guess. On the SAT you're not penalized for missing something. You have to go through it. So no matter what, it's a zero if you don't fill anything in. So that's something else we learn. As far as materials, you don't need a lot of stuff. At the beginning, I buy folders for them and they're expected to bring them to the boot camp. And I get the sillier ones the better. Sparkly, Pokemon, whatever, they absolutely love it. They're so cool as high schoolers, but they still like silly things like that. Just make sure you have pencils and erasers, whiteboards, erasers and expo markers, scratch paper. I have a basket where I keep previous week's work. So if they miss, they can take those things home with them and work on them. And they also like stickers. When they attend on the inside of their folder, there's a space where we put a sticker for every day that they've come. And that helps you keep track for prizes and things like that. And of course, you can't have anything with teens if you don't have snacks and beverages. Popcorn and Oreos are our favorites at this time. As far as the review materials we use, the one I like best that the students all get, purchase for this is Peterson's SAT prep guide. That one has excellent explanations and that's the one that we have found has worked the best. So I would recommend starting with that one if you're planning on doing an SAT prep. A second one is Princeton review. They're all available on Amazon. Kids can get them very easily. They can also go online. There are SAT practice tests available. Our kids and maybe yours do too. They have a Chromebook. All the students get a Chromebook. And they have a Khan Academy password that they can use to actually do practice tests online. The kids that I work with don't seem to like that as well. It's they rather have the pencil paper things that we do together than online. It's kind of interesting. YouTube, if we don't know how to do an indirect variation or parabola or something, we have no idea. I have a Promethean in the room. We can find a YouTube video for everything. So that takes the pressure off the librarian. You don't have to know it all. You can use YouTube for that. I keep high school math textbooks on hand in case we can't figure something out. We can look it up. And vocabulary flashcards. Vocabulary is really, really important on SATs. And a lot of kids tell me that that's where they're very weak. So it takes five minutes and you can purchase them. You can purchase an SAT flashcard set just for that grammar practice. And it'll help. It might mean one point on the test. So give it all you got. The boot camp has ground rules, of course. Phones are to be put on silent. And I have a special basket there that they have to shut them off and they have to put them in the basket. They can check their phones at the halfway point, but in an emergency, the parents can call the library. So they understand that the phone is not part of the process. Students are expected to bring their folders and also the calculator that they're gonna use on the test. They need to be very familiar with their calculator. Now, this is really important. Students are encouraged to ask questions when they don't understand something. Don't count on the first two or three weeks that they'll do this. They don't wanna look foolish in front of each other. You have to give them time to get accustomed to each other. But this is really important. Every student, even, we have kids from other high schools so they don't know each other. But as time goes on, they feel more and more comfortable working as a group. So that's very, very essential to this program. Each student has a whiteboard and a marker and they should be encouraged after they've taken a test or worked through some review problems and somebody didn't understand it. Someone in that group is going to be able to show how to get the answer on their individual whiteboard. And we call it for the good of the group because in boot camp terms, we leave no man or woman behind. Everybody needs to be comfortable with the solution before we move on. And then provide encouragement. Every week I give a prize for the students who, well, for the end, students who've attended the most evenings in a row or in total at the end of the boot camp, you can give prizes for that if you like. At the end of our two hour session, I play a game during the last five minutes and I just give away stuff and they love it. It doesn't make any difference what it is, they love it. I've given away donated teen titles, giant candy bars, weird coffee cups. We even did a rock painting exercise and I gave away the one that I made and they love it. They always anticipate that we're gonna have to have some contest at the end. I use silly things like rock, paper, scissors, war with cards, guess a number. If you don't know about Tensy Dice Game, that's really, really fun. You need to find that, Tensy Dice Game. And then we play something called the Revenge of the Sixth and that's a dice game that when I roll a six, if they're standing, they lose their whole score. They act like they hate it but they absolutely love it. So it's called Revenge of the Sixth. And then you need to be perfectly honest with them because they will see right through you if you are faking. If I don't know how to solve a math problem which is a lot or I can't answer a reading question, I miss it, then they are really, really great at helping me out. They can show me, they're very patient with me. So you can fake it till you make it. You don't have to have a math degree. You can rely on the students and on the materials that I told you about to get along. The thing is you can't just sit there and babysit. You need to be a part of the process. And finally, it's vital that students know this is not the only tool that they should use for preparing for the SAT. They should be spending time at home working on weak areas that they have. They're honest. They tell me they work. They go to school. So this is for a lot of students, this is the only practice they have. Last week we did the math no calculator and the calculator test. And I said, you've just done 50% of the work. You took the test, but now you need to go home and really look and see what you've missed. So it seems obvious, but they need to hear it again. And you also need to let them know that they can retake this test. It does not, it's nothing to retake. In fact, I recommend it. They'll say, well, it costs $75 to take the test again. And I said yes, but it could mean a $1,000 scholarship of some kind, so it's worth the extra time. Ask them for assistance on the next year's boot camp. They've got the experience. They can come in and help, and they really do like to do that. So again, that takes pressure off of you having to go back and try and relearn Algebra 2. Be sure to take a pre and a post survey so you can improve the boot camp for the next time. This year, we're doing something different. The pizza party at the end of the process, we're going to do the week after the test is done. They're taking it on March 9. So that following Wednesday, we're going to have a big celebration, because then they can talk about the experience. They can talk about what was helpful, what was not. How did you think you did? Oh, I really couldn't remember how to do this. They can share and debrief. And so I think that's really, really important. And the final thing is have fun getting to know them. They are quirky. They are fun, and it's a great process. I enjoy it very much. So I highly recommend that you try an SAT prep. And that is all I have to say for you. Awesome, great. Thank you so much, Carla. That's a great program. And I really like how you offer it outside your area as well. Yes, yes. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, all right. We are going to move on to the next question.