How to Stay Motivated & Succeed in School

With the high-stakes game of school and the high pressure, it’s sometimes difficult to know the best parenting strategies that can promote learning. Success in a school setting isn’t all about report cards. Your child needs to learn how to learn, keep the information, have independent thinking, ask questions and increase the sense of competence. Here, you will get the best information to keep your enthusiasm and momentum throughout the school year.

Key values

There is plenty to think about every school year, but the following tips will keep you focused on the vital things for school success.

The DOs

• Enhance self-advocacy in kids.
• Promote healthy sleeping habits.
• Aim on the process and not the product.
• Have long-term goals.
• Love the child you have and not the one you wish to have.

The DONTs

• Worship grades
• Overschedule
• Encourage helplessness
• Love kids according to performance
• Compare kids

Value the process more than the product

Young kids get driven naturally to explore and learn. They are at their best stage to start their quest to gain mastery and understand the world around them. You need to talk about your failures and success stories with the kids. It will show them that you were also invested in the learning process. You need to keep the report cards off social media and the refrigerator. Despite the type of report card a child gets, social media only fuels parental competition. It raises pressure on kids and teaches them that your love is contingent on their report card data.

Value goals than grades

Set goals at the individual and family level. Do this at the start of the year or month, or season. Keep this discussion low pressure and light. The process shouldn’t be about getting better grades but supporting learning. Before setting new goals, assess how every family member performed on the previous goals. Review the goals every month or semester and know why you didn’t achieve what you planned. If you succeed, then celebrate yourself.

Keep a long-term perspective

Parenting and education are long-haul endeavors, and improvements will not happen every day. Think about where your kid should be in the next one or five years in terms of growth and competence. When something goes wrong in your life, talk about it. Maintain your focus on doing better next time and have long-term perspectives. In case of any mess at your job, create a discussion to target the improvement and the long-term progress in that area.

Assist children to develop effective good routines

It’s easy for children to stick to a plan they made themselves. Instead, kids should be part of the strategy-making process for efficiency in operations. Help the kids to make the systems they made to operate, keeping in mind their deadlines. Learn more about help service providers and avoid low-quality ones. Your role here should be like that of training wheels on a bike. When kids familiarize themselves with the systems and strategies, raise the wheels until they no longer need them.

Promote good study habits

Don’t depend on the myth of multitasking in kids. Instead, switch off the TV and music to increase the productivity and concentration of children.

Ask the kids how they wish their homework routine to look like. Then, assist them in creating a vision.

Limit the use of phones when doing homework

Phones are distractors when in a room where kids are doing homework. Let your children see you are working in a distraction-free environment that boosts focus. Work on your projects the way you would want your kids to work on their projects.

Incorporate technology

Have plans on how you will use technology in the family. Think about the data, minutes, or context. When you need your family homework and dinners to be technology-free, agree on the best time with the family in advance. Sign a technology contract that you can use as a reference if any family member violates it.

Conclusion

You can use many models to help your children succeed in school. Before using any of the model, ensure you understand how the kid’s brain works. Then, you will be in a better position to drive them to success.

Excellent Tips for Online Classes Success

The sudden shift to online studying overwhelms students’ academic success in today’s world. Studying from home comes with challenges, but it becomes bearable for students with proper guidelines.

Setting up for Success from the Start

• Establishing a proper learning environment: For students to be productive, they should not be working from slouched positions. For example, you cannot stream a movie and study simultaneously. So, as a student, you should choose an environment that is distant from distractions. Set up a workplace that is not overly comfortable.
• Making A Schedule: Students experience high-stress levels when working on more than one course. To avoid this stress, you can allocate time to specific classes and assignments. When you have a schedule, you will avoid procrastinating or overloading with work. A proper schedule will put you in a system similar to the in-person classes. As a result, you find adequate time to complete your assignments.
• Interacting virtually with your peers: During these times, organizing study groups in the library or physical meet-ups is not possible. However, you can use Microsoft Teams and GroupMe platforms to form virtual meetings. The key here is maintaining a sense of community and collaboration.
• Use of ‘Chucking’ Strategy: As you know, chunk refers to a large amount of something. In this case, chunking means breaking large tasks into small portions. An example is reducing your screen time from maybe 4 hours to less using a particular pattern. Another way is by working on a specific task, then taking a break. You can walk, get some snacks, or go for a run during the break. You become re-energized when you come back for the next task. Finally, always reward yourself after completing a task.

Finding Ways of Staying Motivated

After creating a particular routine and having a way to maintain productivity, you might lose motivation making it difficult to complete other tasks. When online studies, you feel isolated from your colleagues and the teacher or lecturer. The distance may cause a lack of motivation. You should know the source of low motivation, then use these strategies to go about it.

• Increasing interest in Studying: Most students may find it tedious to work when doing assignments or tasks. The majority will postpone the work but finding an immediate solution is the best way to head about it. Find a way in which you can make the task engaging. Employ your imagination and creativity to help you complete the work.
• Personalizing the work: Lack of motivation comes about when you do not connect to the task at hand. What can you do? Take an instance and think of the significance of the task to your future. Then, try making the task match your interest to be easier to complete.
  When you glance at the importance of the study, your brain will tune to doing the task so that you can achieve the end goal.
• Imagining the path of mastering the subject: When taking this approach, you need to know the goals you set to achieve in the end. Take an instance and look at the credit you will achieve from completing the task; the better grade you achieve at the end. Finally, imagine the job you want to get at the end of the study. The urge itself will be a motivation that will always keep you on your toes.

Having Positive Mind Frame

• Self-problem Solving: Always remember that when you go through every module properly and follow the instructions, you will answer questions. So, it would help if you worked on adjusting to the online platform. Try working on issues you face-first before seeking the help of your teachers. Then, use Google search to research and find ways to solve your problems.
• Focusing on Self-Care: Working on your computer is tiresome at times; therefore, you need to find time to rest. In your schedule, find time for breaks to help you recover from learning.
• Being Compassionate for others: One thing you should know is that you are not the only one going through this transition. Everyone is new to the platform, so you should try assisting those who do not know how to set up their video chat. Be patient with the slow learners as they will catch up.

Adjusting to online study takes some time, but you will enjoy it once you go in with full gear. Take the program seriously as if it was the traditional in-class session. Follow these tips, and you can never go wrong.

5 Practical Tips on How to Excel in School

It can be hard to excel in your school despite your educational level. You can do things to promote your academic performance in your educational journey. These things to boost your performance are: 

• Enhancing healthy study habits
• Keeping time and supplies organized. 

Take care of yourself to be at your best and possess all the energy you need. Here are tips to enable you to excel in school.

Participate actively in school activities

1. You need to take notes while listening or reading

Taking notes will help you to remember what you read or hear. It also helps your brains to absorb information and stay active adequately. When your teacher permits you to take notes while talking in class, write all the key points in the text. You can note the questions that you have about the subject you read. 

Typing notes can be easier and quicker. Writing notes by hand will help you absorb and remember the information better. You should know that doodling while taking notes will improve your focus and aid you in remembering what you hear. 

2. Ask questions in areas you don’t understand

Your teacher must help you to learn and understand every concept. Don’t be shy to ask questions in any hard area for you. Asking questions will help you learn the materials better and show your teacher that you have an interest in learning. 

If fear raising your hand to ask questions in a class, try and approach your teacher after class or send them an email. If you are a college student, your instructor will have some hours in the office where you can go to ask questions and discuss the material with the tutor one on one. 

3. Do all your homework assignments

You can get swamped and lose track of all the homework you need to do. Ensure you complete your reading and stay on top to hand in any work needed in time. If you fail to do all your homework, you will not learn much, and your grades will also reduce. 

4. Keep good attendance

Always be in class without failure. Even for the non-mandatory lessons, showing up means you will learn a lot, and you won’t miss any vital information. If the prevailing situation doesn’t allow you to attend a class, reach out to a classmate or a teacher to get what you missed for you to review it. Some people will be willing to share their notes with you.

At times your class attendance counts on your final grade. Therefore, if you must miss any class, your teacher should know you won’t make it to the class that day. Permitting you will make the teacher arrange to help you get what you missed that day. 

5. Be part of the extracurricular activities

Sign up for sports teams, school clubs, or student committees. Activities in these categories are fun and enriching. They provide a good way to help you know your fellow students and teachers. They are also helpful to appear on your job applications. 

Studies reveal that students who participate in extracurricular activities have better attendance, score higher grades, and continue with education than other students.

Conclusion

Excelling in school isn’t an easy task. You need to play smart and hard to achieve good grades marks to be on the safer side. If you don’t attend your classes well, your final grade gets affected. You will miss many opportunities that will be hard for you to excel. Don’t be afraid to ask questions in class or use the tutor to help you in areas you don’t understand well.