Some of these things I'm still working on learning, but I can clearly see how important they are. And I'm going to try to tackle them in my senior year and try to get better at doing them. As a quick side note - some of the information below might only make sense for homeschoolers, but I'm sure that any public or private schoolers can gather something from it. :) Without further ado... Here's the first tip!
1. Don't stress out
This is definitely the most important thing to do when you feel overwhelmed or you're having trouble with school. Or with anything for that matter. I would go through really strange mood swings and I'd often be freaking out about how much school work I had, and how I wasn't going to get it all done, and how I might not get a good grade or whatever.
Don't ever let that stress control you. Especially as a Christian, my schoolwork doesn't really matter in the long term. Obviously, I want to do my best and try as hard as I can, but you need to be careful not to start worshiping your school or your grades. This worship is often displayed by stressing out. I learned to pray, refocus, and tackle things one at a time.
2. Be organized
You have no clue how important this is - even to avoid stress. If you have everything organized neatly, it will motivate you to do your school. A few times this year I even whipped out the washi tape and spent a few minutes "prettying up" one of my notebooks or using it to make bookmarks that I'd attached to an important page.
I discovered that keeping everything I needed for one subject in one spot also made me more likely to do that subject. It's funny, but even the added effort of getting up from my desk to grab the calculator and the other math book would make me put off that subject, which is rarely a good idea. XD
3. Work hard
While you don't want to idolize your school work, you should still put effort into learning things. Focus when you're listening to your math videos (ahem... No clue who might not have done this a few times...), and actually take good notes when you're reading your science or listening to a lecture.
Not only does working hard make you learn things - one of the main reasons we have school - but it also pays off in the end when you're taking that test and realize you spaced out during your lecture and can't remember the answer to the question. (Also have no clue who did that...)
4. Know when/where to work hard
While you should strive to learn and work hard in all of your classes, it's also wise to realize when you need to work hard and when you can just scrape by and still get a good grade. This is an especially important skill to have if you're stressed out - then you know which subjects you can cut back on without lowering your grades.
For example, I took a writing class this past school year and it was incredibly easy for me. Writing is definitely a strong point of mine, and the teacher was not a hard grader at all. But in my college spoken communications class, I really needed to work hard at it because speeches are a lot harder for me to just pull off naturally like writing is - plus, it was a college class. So I could put less effort into writing and still get a really good grade (99.8% or something), but at the same time, I needed to put a lot more effort in to get a good grade in spoken communications (90%).
5. Take breaks
My last tip sorta ties back into my first tip - don't stress out. Even if you feel like you have a bunch of school - or even if you actually do - taking breaks is still incredibly important. Take a walk, go pet your dog, or read a chapter of a book you're really enjoying. You don't even need to take a break from school, just a break from the subject you're working on. If you're feeling stressed about your math, take a break and practice the piano or work on a subject you enjoy.
Taking breaks can make you so much less stressed. It's sorta weird. But you need to work through the initial fear of taking that break. You might think that taking a break will actually make you more behind on your school, but it's often just the opposite. Coming back with a refreshed mind and/or body will make you much more efficient in your school work. Trust me, I learned that the hard way. XD
---
Whelp! That's it for this post. I hope this was helpful - either you learned something or were reminded of something you'd already learned. I'm going to post a short July recap tomorrow, and then I'll be back next week with another post!
~ Anna
Hmm... Focusing when listening to math videos and taking good notes when reading science or listening to a lecture. That was exactly my problem in my junior year. Another thing that's really interesting is the fact that I posted about my junior year on my blog today also.
ReplyDelete