| What’s Working Now | Why
Create this Site | Site Goals | How the Site is Funded |
Privacy |
For My Homework Inc. is the name
of the Canadian Not-for-Profit company that is creating www.ForMySchoolStuff.com,
a site that gives teens in Grades 7 – 12/13 (aged 12 –
19) free help with various school-related matters.
What’s up and working now?
(Click here for a complete overview and details about each section)
Grade 10 Math
– the most complete free resource for this grade online
The Grade
10 Math section offers free, illustrated lessons and tutorials
on all topics related to curriculum, written in a way
that is easy-to-understand… according to the dozens of
teens who took part in the creation of these pages.
There are also sample questions, worksheets, step-by step videos
and all the background info you might need from previous.
Grade 9 Math
Academic
Course: 50% complete.
Transfer
from Applied to Academic Course: Although the course
material is still being created, all of the content needed for
this course can be found by using referring to both the material
in the Grade
9 Math section site and in Units 1 and 2 of Grade
10 Math.
Math
Encyclopedia
This giant math glossary includes 1,120 definitions (the majority
of which are mini tutorials), +30 movies, and +1,700 images
(and they say a picture is worth a thousand words!) on most
topics used in math from Grade 6 to 12 and beyond.
Grade 10 Careers
The Grade 10 Careers section contains…
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Articles on finding a job,
creating a résumé, acing an interview and
doing well on the job. |
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Easy-to-use résumé creation
and job search and management tools(with hundreds of part-time
jobs listed) |
Volunteering
The Volunteering
section contains helpful articles as well as a list of positions
suitable for high school students.
There are also ways that teens can earn some of their volunteer
hours online – from home – on this site. |
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Why
create this site? A few reasons. Quite a few
The answer of most interest to teens |
This all started when our own kids started struggling
with Grade 10 Math. There were no good on-line resources that
didn’t cost a small fortune or start a flurry of pop-ups.
Private tutors were inconvenient and expensive.
As we started talking to teens (as the project grew, we ended
up getting feedback from nearly 2,000 students) we found:
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The textbooks don’t always
include a good explanation – so if students get
behind, it’s hard to catch up… and then it
becomes really hard to figure out what’s going on
without some extra help. |
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No site follows the textbooks being using
in school. |
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Many of the math sites are too easy (they
don’t give you what you really need to figure things
out from home) or too hard. |
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The Wikipedia explanations are often too
advanced. |
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Sites might provide questions and answers,
but it is almost impossible to find a site that shows
you how to get the answer (i.e. step-by-step in a way
that is easy to follow). |
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| So… we created this site, got teens and
teachers to volunteer their time and are now adding to it as
we go. |
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| The answer of most interest
to parents |
When we found that there were no good homework
help sites tied to curriculum, we started talking to teens,
we also started talking to parents, teachers and other educators.
What we found:
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Nearly 65% of parents want
to help their kids with homework (yes, even in the higher
grades), but don’t always understand the math and
science questions… and there were no online sites
designed to help parents, too. |
| This
site helps teens understand the lesson – and parents
understand the overall concept. |
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In some parts of the country, drop out
rates are over 30%! One of the main school-related reasons
that kids cite for giving up: They get behind in math
in grade 10 math… and then fail what is a mandatory
subject until they reach Grade 12. |
We figured that if teens
could be given help in all their subjects that we could
help to increase literacy and graduation rates and help
position the next generation to find gainful, fulfilling
employment that meshes with the needs of industry and
commerce.
We started with Grade 10 because that is the most problematic.
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Teens also told us they find it hard to
figure out how to complete their required volunteer hours,
create a résumé, find part-time work and
prepare for a job interview – subjects that are
covered (with different degrees of thoroughness) in most
Grade 10 Careers courses. There was no site dedicated
to helping teens with all this.
Now
there is. |
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| The primary goal of the site: |
| To help teens to do better in school –
with less aggrofor
parents and teens – and stay in school longer. In other
words, the intent is to decrease drop out rates and increase
student successes in many facets of their lives. |
| Aggro:
short for aggravation, heartache and general pain
in the back side. |
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| The secondary goal: |
To improve self esteem in teens through encouraging
healthy habits and future success. Also if students do better
in school, there is an expectation that we can help to a)
reduce bullying and, b) reduce teen street violence and other
teen-related problems.
The main site components, most of which are available to all
teens free-of-charge, address key matters related to high
school and their education that teens have told us are of
concern and/or interest to them. Based on feedback from thousands
of teens, parents, educators and leaders of teen programs,
the overall site will include:
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Step-by-step homework help
that reflects students’ grade and language abilities.
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Tutoring – On-line one-on-one help
for teens. |
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On-line tutorials – Interactive self-study
tools and live, teacher-led on-line classes. |
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Career aptitude tests and details about
specific careers along with career-specific self assessment
tools. |
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University info – Details about colleges,
universities and other post-secondary school programs
throughout North America, including admission requirements
and an interactive school comparison tool. |
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Volunteering – A way for teens to
locate suitable placements near their home or school (in
some provinces and states, students are required to complete
a certain number of hours in order to graduate, or be
eligible for certain scholarships and grant programs). |
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Working – In this section teens can
search and apply for jobs in their area and obtain information
on workplace trends that will be useful for teens trying
to assess future market needs for careers they are considering. |
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Teen issues – Information on topics
of interest to teens; some of which also relate to the
high school health curriculum. |
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| If you’d like to learn more, we’d
encourage you to take the ForMySchoolStuff.com tour. |
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| How is the site being funded?
|
| We would like to express our appreciation
to the Ontario Trillium Foundation for helping to make
the Grade 10 Math step-by-step homework help section possible.
The rest of the site has been funded by a few private
individuals. |
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As you can see, we need more help. Lots more. There is no
advertising revenue on this site because there are no annoying
pop-ups or banner advertising on the site.
There will eventually be modest additional charges for one-on-one
tutoring (this is in addition to the FREE homework help) and
commissions from 3rd party “cool” credit courses…
but we have to complete the site before these funds can help
support the site.
In the meantime we need your support to give our teens these
much needed resources. This is essential so that we can provide
students with help over the long-term, without being dependent
on long-term government or corporate funding, or site advertising.
There is an immediate need for outside funding to complete
this site. Private and corporate donations are being sought
(and we would welcome yours, too!) for the non-profit portion
of the site. Please to visit our donations
page to contribute. Even $10 or $20 will help make a difference.
Sponsors for the non-profit sections, and outside investors
willing to contribute larger sums on the tutorial development
side, who would like a very interesting return on their investment,
should contact JM Clark at 416-424-6644 (e-mail: donations@ForMySchoolStuff.com)
to learn more about how you can help.
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| Important Note: Full access to the supplementary
educational tools (i.e. on-line tutorials, language courses,
etc.) will always be granted, free of charge, to aboriginal
people, teens at risk, and teens whose parents are facing financial
hardship. |
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