Get Organized!!
Here are a few tips for students who would like to be more organized. Please feel free to contact your counselor (Mr. Gross or Mrs. Quinlan) if you would like to discuss this further.
Suggestions/Tips At School
1. Write Down Assignments! This may sound like a no brainer but most students who earn low grades do not write down their assignments. Some successful students use an daily assignment notebook. Some use their IPad - a remind app, Google calendar or they take a picture of the assignments that the teacher wrote down. I still recommend an assignment notebook. Here's some additional tips...
• Write each assignment under the date that it is assigned.
• Write down when it is due.
• Check off or cross out each assignment when it is completed.
• Write down dates of all tests and quizzes and write down study reminders.
2. Find a place to put your assignments. Some students use one big binder that has folders and section dividers for each class. Other students have a folder and notebook for each class - organized by color (Science is red, Math is blue, etc.). Still others use something like an accordion binder. Students who do not have a place to put their assignments end up just cramming the worksheet or whatever into their book. Sometimes work ends up on the bottom of their locker or falls out of the book.
3. Use Post-It/Sticky Notes as reminders - "Take Home" or "Read Chapter 4".
4. Take Things Home (and bring them back). If you use a backpack, hang it on the back hook of your locker with the zipper facing the door. Unzip your backpack so you can just put take home books/assignments right in your backpack after each class. That way at the end of the day you are not staring at your locker thinking..."Do we have Social Studies homework?" All of your homework will already be in your backpack.
5. Keep Your Locker in Order. The nice thing about middle school is that each student has his/her own locker. You decide how to decorate it and where to put everything. Successful students have some kind of locker organization system. Some have books/materials on the bottom left to right in the order of their classes. Some keep morning classes on the top shelf and afternoon classes on the bottom shelf. What will work for you? It is also a good idea to clean out your locker once a week - maybe every Friday during homebase. Some students basically bring their binders/folders into homebase and make three piles - keep, take home, throw out.
• Write each assignment under the date that it is assigned.
• Write down when it is due.
• Check off or cross out each assignment when it is completed.
• Write down dates of all tests and quizzes and write down study reminders.
2. Find a place to put your assignments. Some students use one big binder that has folders and section dividers for each class. Other students have a folder and notebook for each class - organized by color (Science is red, Math is blue, etc.). Still others use something like an accordion binder. Students who do not have a place to put their assignments end up just cramming the worksheet or whatever into their book. Sometimes work ends up on the bottom of their locker or falls out of the book.
3. Use Post-It/Sticky Notes as reminders - "Take Home" or "Read Chapter 4".
4. Take Things Home (and bring them back). If you use a backpack, hang it on the back hook of your locker with the zipper facing the door. Unzip your backpack so you can just put take home books/assignments right in your backpack after each class. That way at the end of the day you are not staring at your locker thinking..."Do we have Social Studies homework?" All of your homework will already be in your backpack.
5. Keep Your Locker in Order. The nice thing about middle school is that each student has his/her own locker. You decide how to decorate it and where to put everything. Successful students have some kind of locker organization system. Some have books/materials on the bottom left to right in the order of their classes. Some keep morning classes on the top shelf and afternoon classes on the bottom shelf. What will work for you? It is also a good idea to clean out your locker once a week - maybe every Friday during homebase. Some students basically bring their binders/folders into homebase and make three piles - keep, take home, throw out.
