Sofia Project Programs The Hewlett Foundation helps people build measurably better lives. Our grantees are working to reduce poverty in the developing world, curb carbon emissions that lead to climate change, and improve education for students in California and elsewhere, among many other valuable goals. While the goals of the Foundation are about problems that we're trying to solve, our Foundation is organized in such a way that grants are made from particular programs. We've tried to provide sufficient information about each program's grantmaking to give the visitor a comprehensive understanding of what we fund and why. Here are the Foundation's five programs and their key goals: The Education Program makes grants to: The Environment Program makes grants to: The Global Development and Population Program makes grants to: The Performing Arts Program makes grants to organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area to: The Effective Philanthropy Group makes grants to:
Academic Resource Center | Note-Taking Skills Seth Clabough, ARC Director Hello and welcome to the Academic Resource Center. Our mission here at the ARC is to support continued academic growth and effective learning among all Sweet Briar students. We are not just a writing center — whether you want someone to work with you on structuring your study time, assist you with a current project, help you get comfortable with some of the innovative classroom technologies, or even mentor you through the demands of a rigorous academic schedule, the ARC can help. We offer peer tutoring in writing, reading, study skills, ePortfolio/Digication, and time and stress management. We look forward to working with you. All best, Dr. ARC Director Asst. Our Team Dr. Location The ARC is located on the "garden level" (ground, or lower level) of the chapel.
How to Study and Learn (Part One) All thinking occurs within, and across, disciplines and domains of knowledge and experience, yet few students learn how to think well within those domains. Despite having taken many classes, few are able to think biologically, chemically, geographically, sociologically, anthropologically, historically, artistically, ethically, or philosophically. Students study literature, but do not think in a literary way as a result. They study poetry, but do not think poetically. They do not know how to think like a reader when reading, nor how to think like a writer while writing, nor how to think like a listener while listening. To study well and learn any subject is to learn how to think with discipline within that subject. To become a skilled learner is to become a self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinker, who has given assent to rigorous standards of thought and mindful command of their use. Idea # 2: Become an active learner. Idea # 4: Become a questioner.
How to Study and Learn (Part Two) In part one of this article, we introduced some of the intellectual skills, abilities, and dispositions essential to the development of the educated person as articulated in our Miniature Guide for Students on How to Study and Learn. We provided eighteen ideas students need for becoming master students. In this article, we continue to highlight important ideas from the Thinker's Guide for Students on How to Study and Learn. How To Understand Ideas Ideas are to us like the air we breathe. Ideas, then, are our paths to both reality and self-delusion. To the uncritical mind, it is as if people in the world came to us with our labels for them inherent in who they are. If you want to develop as a learner, you must come to recognize the ideas through which you see and experience the world. Essential Idea: To understand our experience and the world itself, we must be able to think within alternative world-views. How To Control (& Not Be Controlled By) Ideas How to Learn Ideas From Textbooks
How to Study and Learn (Part Three) In the previous two articles we introduced some of the intellectual skills, abilities, and dispositions essential to the development of the educated person as articulated in our Thinker's Guide for Students on How to Study and Learn. All the ideas in this miniature guide are designed to help students think deeply through content and develop intellectually. In this article we focus on the analysis and evaluation of reasoning. To analyze thinking, we focus on its parts. In other words, we focus on the purpose of thinking, the questions the thinking is pursuing, the information being used, the assumptions and inferences being made, the concepts and point of view guiding the thinking, and its implications. To evaluate or assess thinking, we apply intellectual standards to the parts of thinking, standards such as clarity, accuracy, relevance, logic, precision, justifiability, significance, depth, and breadth. How To Figure Out the Logic of A Textbook The Logic of a Textbook Go to top
How to Study and Learn (Part Four) In the previous three articles we focused on ideas for helping students improve their studying and learning habits. All of the recommendations come from our Thinker's Guide to How to Study & Learn. This guide is designed to help students think deeply through content and begin to take their learning seriously. In this article, the final in its series, we focus on the importance of questioning in learning, providing suggestions to help students become active questioners. How To Understand The Role of Questions in Thinking & Learning Thinking is not driven by answers but by questions. So, instead of trying to store a lot of disconnected information in your mind, start asking questions about the content. Questions of relevance force you to discriminate what does and does not bear on a question. Continually remind yourself that learning begins only when questions are asked. Every discipline is best known by the questions it generates and the way it goes about settling those questions.
The Student Development Centre at Western Have you ever wondered why you have difficulty learning from a particular instructor, whereas another seems to explain things in just the right way? Did you ever question why the course that your friend said was so easy turned into a struggle for you? Do you notice that you and your roommate have different opinions on whether or not to have the radio on while you're studying? The reason behind some of these discrepancies may be differences in learning styles. What is a "learning style"? To put it simply, your learning style (or learning preference) is the way you tend to learn best. Expanding Your Learning Preferences There are 3 learning style preferences discussed here: The ideas are not meant to be the absolute best strategy for each student in all situations. Also from this web page: Confidentiality Information disclosed by students to SDC's Learning Skills Counsellors is confidential.
Learning Styles - Learning skills from MindTools Understanding Learning Preferences Identifying your preferred style of learning can make gaining new knowledge and skills easier. Have you ever tried to learn something fairly simple, yet failed to grasp the key ideas? Or tried to teach people and found that some were overwhelmed or confused by something quite basic? If so, you may have experienced a clash of learning styles: your learning preferences and those of your instructor or audience may not have been aligned. When this occurs, not only is it frustrating for everyone, the communication process breaks down and learning fails. Once you know your own natural learning preference, you can work on expanding the way you learn, so that you can learn in other ways, not just in your preferred style. And, by understanding learning styles, you can learn to create an environment in which everyone can learn from you, not just those who use your preferred style. The Index of Learning Styles™ You can see these in figure 1, below. Balance is key. Tip:
Successful Learning: Going Cycling with Learning Styles What is learning style? Please refer to the article, ‘Discover Your Learning Style’ (c.f. Successful Learning, Issue No. 8), for a nice introduction to this topic. Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory This theory, which borrows tenets from Jungian typology, classifies your learning preferences along two dimensions, approach and response, when faced with learning new information. Kolb sees learning as being a four-stage process: Approach Dimension Feeling: Being directly involved in a learning experience, vs. Each person has a preferred learning style, which is measured from the interaction between your preferred approach and response to learning tasks. Know thyself What is your predominant learning style? The alternative terms for each learning style are listed below: Knowing your own preferred learning style might help to explain why you face difficulties in learning certain subjects (but remember motivation and discipline play important roles too). Cycling, anyone? Well worth the ride
Typing Test - Learn2Type.com - learn to type online FREE typing tutor and typing tests, typing certification ALL the touch-typing tutors! Freeware, shareware, online, direct links to download. Amusing, yet multifunctional touch-typing tutor with support for several layouts: QWERTY (US, UK, ...), Dvorak, AZERTY etc. ONLY in Stamina besides the traditional finger positioning on the keyboard are you offered an ALTERNATIVE method (to reduce hand stress)! After having gone through the fire, water and the course, you will be able to swiftly type away long emails (spam), efficiently misbehave in chat rooms, ICQ and so on without ever looking at the keyboard. Intimate details: work with lessons and text (5 modes), a lesson editor, statistics, progress graphs, virtual keyboard (can be hidden), super MP3 sounds and music, a playlist, support for several users, user-friendly thought out interface, detailed help with a logic game, + a small elephant pile of pleasant tidbits. Are you writing memoirs, but feel you might run out of time? Home | Download 1.3 Mb
Typing Tutor Instructions This program helps you improving your typing skills by playing a simple game: characters are falling down the screen; you have to stop them before they reach the ground by pressing the corresponding key on the keyboard. You can use the the lesson plan window do select which keys you want to practice with (NB: changing the keys in the lesson plan changes the keyset of the next game, not the one, if any, that's already in progress). At the end of each "game" you can look at the Performance evaluation window to see how well you have done, and to receive advice on what to do next. History In 1991 a program with the same name (later changed to "Typing Arcade") was written by Jim Patterson and released as freeware for the NeXT platform. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do. Source Code The source code for Typing tutor can be freely downloaded here.