Basic skills training…yes!
March 15th, 2010
The Workbook as textbook for basic skills course
Recently I learned that Mendocino College is offering a course titled Test Anxiety and Test Taking Skills. The course description reads: “The mental, emotional, and physical aspects of test anxiety. General life stressors, school related stressors and techniques for eliminating or reducing anxiety. Studying for a test and test-taking strategies will be emphasized.”
A course with this title and purpose was so intriguing to me that….
I contacted the instructor, Debra Tannenbaum, and she and I had a most lively conversation. Turns out that this course is under the “basic skills” initiative: to give students the foundational tools they need to succeed. Ms. Tannenbaum, a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, inherited the course and the text from a former instructor. She discovered the text was out-of-print. A self-described “internet person,” Ms Tannenbaum went web-hunting and was led to my book, which she ordered. She liked what she read and it became the text for the class! I’ve written to the class to send me their questions and stories about test taking and test anxiety. I am very honored by Ms. Tannenbaum’s choice. And I am very happy that colleges are providing the real skills that students need to succeed– not only on tests but in life.
