Free Back to School Guide for students - scheduling, budget, study habits and more

This Back to School Guide, is a free resource for helping students achieve greater success in school. The new guide offers tips for efficient scheduling, how to maintain a budget, creating good study habits and more using office productivity software.

The guide is available here for download: http://blog.wps.com/2016/09/26/pdf-back-to-school-guide/.


The guide includes these topics:
• Back-to-School Basics: Tracking Tools Can Help You Prepare for Fall
• Getting Back in the School Mindset
• Templates, Style Trends, and More
• Good Study Habits and Why They Help Students
• The Importance of Scheduling for Students
• Additional Resources for Students
• Helping Students Start Thinking Ahead to College
• Summer Assignments to Prepare for the Next Year Ahead


To download the full Back to School Guide, visit https://goo.gl/UO4rBr.


Other resources for students:

10 Great, Free Apps for Students for Notetaking and Class Planning

Successful Studying Tips and Resources for Students

Study Tips and Notetaking Resources

Resources on How to Study

Study Aids

Important Skills Students Need for the Future that we need to help them learn

10 Important Skills Students need for the Future

10 Technology Skills Every Student Needs for the Future

Evernote - notetaking, web clipping, and more, on any device

Comparison of some popular note taking apps

Getting Students and Teachers Organized - tips and resources - includes links and resources for electronic and paper planning






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Free booklets with high school and college success tips for students

Barcharts is a company that prints up those colorful laminated quick study booklets you see at the bookstore and even supermarket. I've purchased a few over the years (Physics, Computer, Accounting) and found them to be very useful. They have quick study booklets on almost any topic from Biology to Physics to History, Economics, Cooking, Computers and much more. Different titles come different sizes, including full size (8 1/2" x 11"), pocket size, poster and more. They average about $6 each.

They also offer some free quick study booklets on some topics that are very useful for educators and students. The ones that I always share with my students are: Keys to High School Success, Keys to College Success, and Surviving the College Ride. They all include very useful tips on studying, time management, how to get help, and much more. They are all available as FREE PDF file downloads.

There are also some fun free ones including Stupid Jokes, Umpire and Referee Signals, and Ramen Noodle Recipes.

Share this with your students.

5 Tips for Success - in school, business and in life

   

A couple of weeks ago, CPEP (CT Pre-Engineering Program) held it's annual competition day. CPEP is a pre-engineering program, held after school, that has students working on projects throughout the year and then they compete at the end of the year against the other schools. Projects include Roller Coasters, Maglev vehicles, boats, and more. Students design, build, and then modify their projects throughout the year. This is my third year doing it and every year we have won a few categories. This year we swept the Chess tournament and took 2nd in the Maglev vehicle. CPEP is a great program that teaches students teamwork, problem solving, and applications of math and science.

At CPEP day, we had a keynote speaker at the opening ceremony. It was Naveen Selvadurai, one of the founders of Foursquare (He is from Connecticut). In his keynote speech, he talked about his life, how he came to work on Foursqaure and gave some advice to the students on his tips to success. He had stated that he started Foursquare because he felt that the phone in his pocket could do more based on locations and where you were and what was near you.

Here are his 5 points (with my notes):

Be Curious - look at things and wonder why. Wonder if something can do more. Wonder if you can make something better or different. Ask why? Ask how?

Keep Learning - never stop learning. Be a life-long learner. Learn because you are curious. Learn because you want to better yourself. 

Don't Be Afraid to Fail - no one succeeds on the first try. For every great success, there are hundreds of failures. You learn from your failures and they help you succeed. We should encourage students this way in school also. 

Be Passionate - be passionate and excited about what you do, no matter what. Why do it if you aren't passionate or don't care. This goes for everything you do, from cleaning your room to doing your work.

Keep Good Company - be around people who share your values and beliefs. Be with people who are passionate, curious, and keep learning. Surround yourself with people who will help you succeed, not lead you to failure or troubles. 

These are great tips and advice and we should share them with our students and colleagues.

Reminders for students - do these things everyday.

These are some reminders/tasks that I give to my students each year. They are meant to show them that they have to be prepared physically and mentally for class and that there is "homework" even if I don't assign anything.

Do Now (everyday as you enter class)

Take out any assignments or homework.

Reflect on last class and prepare any questions for me.

Mentally prepare for class – get ready to learn.

Homework (this you do everyday)

Reflect on today’s class and what you learned.

How did you do in class today?

Could you do something better next class?

Do you have any questions on what we did in class?

Check the class website for notes, updates, information, and more.

Great Advice from Michael Jai White

Actor, and alumnus of our high school, Michael Jai White, visited us yesterday. He has found success as an actor and screen writer and wanted to share some words of advice for our students. Some of his appearances include "The Dark Knight", "Wonderland" and "Spawn."

He talked about not letting the streets make you angry or hard and how you have to work to be happy, not hardened. He told the students that they should work together, help others, and avoid violence.

Two comments he made are very powerful, poignant and relevant to our students. They are especially powerful because he came from the same neighborhood and school that our students do and with the same background.

"An education is the key to your happiness and success."

"When you combine street smarts with academic knowledge, you can not be stopped."

He repeatedly told them that violence is not the answer, that an education is the only way to achieve success, and that they should not be influenced by the violence in rap and the media. He told them that it was ok to feel rebelous against their parents and school, but that they much over come that, do well in school, and strive for success.

I wish every student in the cities of America could have heard his speech.