Taking the Next Step in Learning with SOI

At SOI Systems, we provide you with practical ways to help your students succeed. SOI is a system of assessments and training materials that develop intellectual abilities and learning functions. We equip students with the necessary intellectual skills to learn subject matter, do analytical thinking, become more creative, and, most importantly, learn how to learn. GIFTED & TALENTED The robustness of the SOI tests helps incorporate students with gifts in areas not usually included in other assessments. figural, symbolic, evaluation, and creativity abilities are all evaluated to be considered along with students who are gifted in the traditional semantic abilities.…

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Certified Learning: Practice Makes Progress

“Would you choose to build a house on top of an unfinished foundation? Of course not. Why, then, do we rush students through education when they haven't always grasped the basics?” Mastery based learning is a concept we embrace at Shady Oak Learning. Sal Kahn, who created the now famous Kahn Academy, recently illustrated this in a Ted Talk. Kahn created a carefully structured series of educational videos offering complete curricula in math and, now, other  subjects. I get excited when I see well-known experts validate what we know to be true with our students in our school. SOI Certified…

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Seven Key Questions You Should Be Asking in Your Classroom

What makes a successful classroom? Or, more importantly, what makes successful students? Is it a good teacher? The most organized classroom? The most exciting lessons? While all of these things are important, we believe that the key to success is this: the student. Is this student ready to learn? How does the student learn best? What areas does the student struggle in? How quickly is the student progressing through the lessons? Does the student have any learning gaps? What can we do to help the student learn best? Why is this student falling behind? Do these things sound important to…

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Building a Real Student Support Team

YOUR SCHOOL CAN DEVELOP A VERY PROVEN WAY OF ADDRESSING RESPONSE TO INTERVENTION (RTI) THROUGH YOUR STUDENT SUPPORT TEAM AND HAVE STRATEGICALLY TAILORED INTERVENTIONS TO MEET INDIVIDUAL STUDENT NEEDS. What if you were able to... anticipate, identify, and intervene with ninety percent of your “at-risk” students in kindergarten or first grade help eliminate students’ self-esteem issues related to failure in school bypass reliance on the observations of overextended classroom teachers for most intervention referrals develop an individual and developmentally appropriate plan to effectively intervene with students by the first semester of kindergarten develop an efficient, systematic, easily documentable Student Support…

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The Power of SOI Certified Learning

​I first learned about SOI in 1988 when my son was floundering in third grade. After SOI testing at a center in Carrollton, he completed a few weeks of SOI summer camp and attended weekly sessions throughout his fourth grade year. Because of SOI, he became a successful honor student, finished college, found a career he loves, and does not live on my couch! ​In May 2002, I retired from public school teaching, but could only tolerate retirement for about four months. (How do you watch television without papers to grade?) I found a want-ad for a math coordinator at the same…

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Eliminating the Gap in Elementary Education

“In my opinion, the Certified Learning program is fantastic at filling in the gaps that kids have. This is my 20th year as an educator, and I have seen nothing that does it better.” – Jennifer Maldonado, Lubbock-Cooper North Elementary Many students enter their first year of school unprepared to learn. They are unable to sit still. They struggle to understand what the teacher says. They are expected to keep up with everyone else in the classroom. It is a tough place to be sometimes. At SOI Systems, our goal is students’ success in elementary education. We want them to…

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