The Fastest (or Slowest) Three Weeks in a School Year!

         With the Thanksgiving Holiday now officially over and the next holiday break not too far in our future, now is the BEST time to be focused on grades and school work. Even when I taught at the high school, I always thought the time between the two holiday breaks is the most important time for a student’s educational year outside the month of May. At the high school, it is almost the end of the a long semester and a chance to move each grade up just a notch before the all-important semester exams. With our middle school doing trimesters, it isn’t the end of a grading period, but it is right smack in the middle and that is just as important. And with winter sports in full swing and the excitement of the upcoming break and holiday, middle school students don’t always focus so well during this time period. This is why these 3+ weeks are so important. Grades are just starting to come in for the trimester and good grades over this time period can really set them up for a good 2016. By the time we hit the holiday break, our trimester is basically half over and it is much easier to have our hard work show positive results in the first half of the trimester than in the second half of the trimester.  So, while I know times are busy and hectic and there is a lot going on not only in the lives of our students, but in the lives of their families as well, please take some time each day to discuss the school day and keep the focus on your child’s education. 

Did you know?? We now have more “days off” than “days of school” left before January 4^th.  Want to know the math? We have 17 days left of school in 2015, but if you count weekends and our entire Winter Break, we have 18 days of break. So….just another reason to work hard every day….your child gets plenty of time to rest and relax in the upcoming month!

Other tips to keep your child focused during this time.....

*Have a routine. Pick a time and place each night to do homework or simply check to make sure homework is done. Be a part of this process. Don't just send your child to their room for an hour, make homework an activity that you are involved with and help where you can. If your child says they have "no homework", have a discussion about their day and look up their grades together on Infinite Campus to review how they have done.

*Use "Growth Mindset" vocabulary with your child. Your child will be hearing about Growth Mindsets during Advisory this month and learning that failure and mistakes are okay, the goal is to learn from these. Don't praise your child on their outcomes, but on their process. Say things like "I like how hard you worked on your homework!" or "Keep practicing, keep trying. Effort is the key." or "Our goal is to do better than the last assignment....not perfection." Growth Mindsets and the language of growth mindsets have been proven to keep students motivated, on-task, and wanting to do more and to keep trying on their work.

*Small and frequent rewards. Find some little things you can do with your child, for your child, or possibly even get for your child for little rewards along the way. This could be extra technology time, game activities, their favorite snack or dinner, or even some items from the dollar bin at Target or the dollar store. Doesn't have to be much, but little fun things to reward their focus and hard work. Make learning and focus fun!

*Calendar/Chart. I am not a big fan of "Countdown Charts", but these can work and can keep your child motivated. It might help them keep track of their busy schedule both at school and outside of school. Middle School students like routine and like to know what is coming next, so a calendar or chart can really help.

*Be supportive. Even if you don't do any of the things listed above, being supportive is so important. Your child thrives on positive energy and feedback. While the holidays can bring stress, this stress gets easily transferred onto your child if they sense that you are stressed. It is what makes middle school so interesting....students feed off of the emotions of others. Your child feeds off of your emotion, so stay calm and be supportive and you will be amazed at how this can change the attitude of your child.

  Good luck and let me know if I can be of any help in this process. Have a great December!!

Want to Foster Creativity in Your Child? Watch This 2-Minute Video!

   I had to share this video. It is a great video for teachers, but also works for parents too. It is a very simple experiment or task to show how a simple change in wording and design can make a child really use their imagination and creativity. As I think about how I parent this summer and teach next fall, I plan to keep this video in mind.

20 Tips for a Positive 2013

As my 8th graders finish reading Jon Gordon's "The Energy Bus" (a book the new AD at Nebraska University gave to his 300 employees on his first day on the job this week), Jon Gordon updated his Top 20 Tips for a Positive New Year. I am sharing these little by little on our Counseling Facebook page, but if you can't wait to read all 20, here they are. Plus I have linked Jon Gordon's blog at the bottom of this page because he has great positive information all the time on his blog. I highly recommend many of his books as well with my favorites being The Energy Bus and Soup. Happy 2013 everyone!

Jon Gordon's 20 Tips blog post click here!

Jon Gordon's blog homepage click here!

1. Stay Positive. You can listen to the cynics and doubters and believe that success is impossible or you can trust that with faith and an optimistic attitude all things are possible.

2. Take a morning walk of gratitude. I call it a “Thank You Walk.” It will create a fertile mind ready for success.

3. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid with a maxed out charge card.

4. Zoom Focus. Each day when you wake up in the morning ask: “What are the three most important things I need to do today that will help me create the success I desire?” Then tune out all the distractions and focus on these actions.

5. Instead of being disappointed about where you are, think optimistically about where you are going. {Tweet This}

6. Remember that adversity is not a dead-end but a detour to a better outcome. {Tweet This}

7. Don’t chase success. Instead decide to make a difference and success will find you. {Tweet This}

8. Get more sleep. You can’t replace sleep with a double latte.

9. Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip, energy vampires, issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.

10. Mentor someone and be mentored by someone.

11. Live with the 3 E’s. Energy, Enthusiasm, Empathy.

12. Remember there’s no substitute for hard work.

13. Believe that everything happens for a reason and expect good things to come out of challenging experiences.

14. Implement the No Complaining Rule. Remember that complaining is like vomiting. Afterwards you feel better but everyone around you feels sick.

15. Read more books than you did in 2012. I happen to know of a few good ones. : )

16. Don’t seek happiness. Instead decide to live with passion and purpose and happiness will find you. www.Seed11.com

17. Focus on “Get to” vs “Have to.” Each day focus on what you get to do, not what you have to do. Life is a gift not an obligation.

18. Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements:
I am thankful for __________.
Today I accomplished____________.

19. Smile and laugh more. They are natural anti-depressants.

20. Enjoy the ride. You only have one ride through life so make the most of it and enjoy it.

-Jon

Link to 6-10 Great Tips on How to Help Your Child Work Towards Student Success at Home

Still catching up on my blog reading at home and I ran across some great tips on how parents can help their children become more successful in school while they are working at home. As a parent of school-age children now myself, I even learned from these tips. I love following Cool Cat Teacher's blog and learned that she has another blog site for parenting tips, so I will include that link as well. The only problem I had with these tips is that I found the blog post for tips 1-3 and the post for tips 4-6, but I couldn't find the blog post for tips 7-10. I am guessing it is still coming in the next week or so. Either way, please click on all of the links below and read some great advice and tips on how we can all help our "students/children" at home.

**Edit: Tips 7 and 8 have now been posted and can be found by clicking the 3rd link**

Tips for Success at Home 1-3

Tips for Success at Home 4-6

Vicki Davis's Parenting Blog on Tuesdays at "The Balancing Act" blogspot (also on Lifetime TV daily)

**I skimmed some other blogs on this site and some look really, really good. If you like "self-help" blogs and books, this site has tons of free blogs written by every day people who have knowledge in all sorts of areas like family, parenting, empowerment, self-help, motivation, etc. If you have some extra time, skim a few of these and see what you think**

Khan Academy Can Help With Homework

I have mentioned this to many educators and I know some of our teachers have used this website before, but I thought it might be good to provide parents with the link and information in case they wanted to use it or wanted their kids to use it. So....what is "it"?

"It" is the Khan Academy website where a teacher records very simple forms of teaching on thousands of topics. Everything from adding single digit numbers to advanced calculus is on this site with more getting added all the time. It began as a way for the creator of the site to teach a relative who lived far away and he posted his lessons online through Youtube. Then, he realized that other people were viewing his videos and learning too. It has exploded from there to be a free online "teacher" of countless basic school subject lessons. The company is a non-profit company and the videos are watched in classrooms, homes, and villages across the world. So, how could you use it? Need to help your child on their math homework but lost on what they are doing? Search the topic in the Khan Academy and re-learn the problem on your own time and impress your child by teaching them how to do it!! Or, watch the video with your child and learn together! I have attached the website to click on below, but I also put a video so you can learn just exactly what the Khan Academy is. Please visit and use this amazing site!

Khan Academy

Watch this short 3 minute video to learn more and prepare to be amazed!