MEK Review: Redefining Success in 2021

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MEK Review: Redefining Success in 2021

Redefining Success in 2021

Dear MEK families,

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecendented and widespread changes to the way we work, learn, and live.

It has changed the landscape of education and pushed us forward. But as we move forward, we continue to ask:

  • What do we need to leave in the past?
  • What do we need to gain from the future?

 
Read below to see just how we’re answering these questions and redefining what success means in 2021.

What we need to leave in the past

In March 2020, after 23 years of growth, MEK made the decision to leave the traditional classroom setting. Within in a mere 10 days, we transitioned to remote learning. In doing so, we asked ourselves:

 “How can we maintain the values that kept us going for the past 23 years on the online platform?”

We spent the last year developing and strategizing ways to maintain study routines and habits within the Zoom window. Always we pushed ourselves to figure out what more we could do, how we could make online learning better. 

As educators, we worked to find ways to fight student fatigue. We endeavored to push our students to become invested in their own learning.

Students were expected to be self-starters by organizing their own schedules, finishing assignments, and logging into different Zoom meeting rooms at scheduled times, all while never leaving their bedrooms.

This level of self-management went beyond what many called “computer fatigue.” Students were overwhelmed with their new responsibilities and expectations. They had never learned how to deal with such a situation. After all, we were all new to it.

What we need to gain from the future

Education prepares us to attempt to answer at least a few of ultimately countless questions.

But during the pandemic, our immediate future–our tomorrow, next week, next month–held unanswerable questions, and many of these questions still remain today.

Within these uncertain times, it was MEK’s experience, understanding of our students, and constant critical observation that allowed us to maintain our results.

Our constant discussion of what we could do better helped us create timely solution for students and parents during an unprecedented crisis.

Our observations and discussions all came to the same conclusion: when students are invested in their own success, they are active in leading their own learning. And they are able to achieve tremendous success. They develop their own routines and bring the school campus to them, even when the school campus is closed.

However, for students who are passive in their learning processes, the Zoom classroom is more demanding than any campus classroom.

The virtual classroom is nothing without active communication. Communication is what made results.

At this point, MEK has fully grasped what the post-pandemic classroom needs to look like. We know what it means to be a complete solution.

Redefining Success

In order for students to be invested in their own success, they need to know what it means. In the dictionary, success is defined as “the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.”

What is this aim or purpose?

At MEK, we redefine success for students, parents, and even teachers.

We start with short-term success: milestones. Mastering a topic or objective, achieving a high score on a practice test.

We move on to longer-term success: heuristic techniques. We help students build confidence, build their mindset, and identify key weaknesses to improve upon.

And finally, we aim for the key outcome of success: a top score on the SAT or ACT, college acceptances, and achieving career goals.

We redefine success so that what students learn is not just a sum of facts. Rather by the end of a course, their education is what they know, what they understand, and eventually, who they are.

Solutions to go beyond

As we announced earlier this week, we are launching a new learning management platform: Canvas.

Using Canvas, students will not only be able to identify their next milestone and indicator of success, but also have the tools to achieve that milestone, both inside and outside the classroom.

It will provide channels for active communication, as well as transparency for parents to track their child’s progress within the class.

Canvas will bring a new paradigm of student-led learning to MEK Review–a paradigm of clearly-defined indicators of success, active learning tools, and constant communication.

At this point, we redefine ourselves and our mission to fit along this new landscape of education.

We look forward to sharing this journey with you and your child.

Sincerely,

Ann Ahn
Head Academic Counselor

MEK Review: Redefining Success
SOLUTIONS TO GO BEYOND

Contact us here to register your child for our MEK Summer Courses today!

Ann Ahn

Ann Ahn is the backbone and the spirit of MEK Review. Families know her not just as an expert counselor that has helped their child succeed, but also as a friend. She works tirelessly with parents, students, and the MEK staff to make sure every child is individually cared for, progressing, and achieving their academic goals.

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