time management
Organize your time carefully and use your time to its fullest. While at school this would mean staying on task during classes as well as paying attention to the lessons, asking questions when you don’t understand so that you don’t have to redo lessons. It is faster to get it the first time with effort than to fail to understand the first two or three times. At home this might mean skipping some tv or game time if you are behind in your course work so you can get caught up. It is not advisable to have no time at all for stress relief but rather that devoting some free time to work can actually reduce stress by eliminating that thought of being behind or unable to catch up.
Make and track your own goals
You should always know what it is you want to accomplish on any given day and it should be part of a bigger plan. Sit down, either alone or with a teacher or peer, and look at your course. Figure out how much you need to complete each day (Edgenuity has a report to help with this) so that you know if you are doing what you need to or not when each class period has ended. This will help to motivate you and keep you on track! Share your goals with your teacher and he or she can help you achieve them.
interact with your teachers
You should be interacting on a consistent basis with your teachers. Ask for help. Tell them what you understand well and what you don’t understand. Tell them what pieces of the course pique your interest and what parts bore you. The more you communicate with your teachers the more able to help you they will become.
take effective notes
In each lesson, in each class, each day, you should be taking quality notes to help you organize, make sense of, remember, and use the information coming at you. Effective notes may look different in different subjects. Notes in a US History course for example, may include many names, dates, and brief notes about important events. Notes in a Mathematics course on the other hand, may include formulae, sketches, step by step instructions, and example problems. Tailor your notes to be the most effective possible for the courses you are doing and review them often! You’d be surprised at how much you can remember with just a little regular review (especially before a test)! Plus you can use your notes when taking quizzes!
use test reviews EFFICIENTLY
Unit tests and cumulative exams each have a review before them. Use this review as though it were the actual test. When it is over you will be able to see what you missed along with the correct answer for each so that you can figure out what you did wrong and correct your understanding before you take the actual test.
get enough food and rest
Learning happens at its best when the student is well rested and well fed. Hunger pangs and being sleepy can make learning almost impossible. Each person is a little different so there is no exact amount of food or sleep that is correct for everyone but pay attention to your body’s cues. If you feel tired during the day especially in the early afternoon or if you “need” 6 cups of coffee to make it through a school day, you are probably not getting enough sleep. Likewise, if you find yourself staring at the clock every day waiting for the lunch bell you are probably not eating enough for breakfast. We serve breakfast here at DBE so take advantage of that.
MAKE time to study
It is easy to get caught up in doing lesson after lesson, day after day, with no thought to looking back, all in the quest to make adequate daily progress. It is important however, that you force yourself to schedule some time to look back over your old notes, practice old skills, and generally review. This will serve you in the long run, as it will improve your performance dramatically on unit tests, cumulative exams, and state end of course tests. If you are unsure how to study ask a teacher!
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