study+skills

1. Have students review and share ideas that help them prepare for a test and answer test questions as best they can. What are some good test taking stratigies? What could you do the night before a test to get ready? What could you do the morning of the test? What are different ways to study? – reading, rewriting, drawing picture, talking about to other people (teaching your parents or siblings) Do you think that studying one way works for everyone?

2. On a sheet of paper, have students write down their typical weekday in increments of 30 minutes. Give them about 5 minutes to complete. Discuss the following questions. 1. How many hours do you sleep? 2. How many hours do you spend in school? 3. How much time to you have for fun? 4. How much time do you spend eating? 5. How much time is spent on homework?

Discuss what they could change to make the schedule better. Based on how much time they spend, what are their priorities? 3. Start off by asking students if they let their expectations influence their behavior. Our expectations can have a great influence on us. If we expect something good to happen, we look for good. If we expect to get good grades, we often will get good grades. Example – When I see someone coming down the hall that normally says hi to me, I might say hi first. If I see someone who I don’t normally say hi to, I might keep my head down. After the opening discussion, have students finish the following sentences: If I were doing well in school, I would expect my parents to… If I were not doing well in school, I would expect my parents to… If I were doing well in school, I would expect my friend to… If I were not doing well in school, I would expect my friend to… If I went out of my way to do things for people, I would expect them to… If I put other people down, I would expect them to… If I offered ideas in a class discussion, I would expect my teacher to … If I offered ideas in a class discussion, I would expect my classmates to…

4. 1. What difference will a high school education make in your life? 2. What subjects have you taken, or could take in high school that will help you prepare to choose a carreer? 3. Describe the habits of an effective student. 4.What are some activities in school in which you can participate? How do you get into them? 5.What are your goals for this year?

5. Discuss how failure can be turned into a positive experience. Have students generate experiences they might have as teenagers that might be negative. How can these bad experiences teach us lessons and be turned into positive experiences? The next time we have a bad experience, what could we do to turn it into a positive one?

6. Organization Skills Do you think organization skills, or a lack of skills could affect your grades? How so? What skills do you use to keep yourself organized? What is the first thing you would recommend to someone trying to get organized? Do you know adults that use Agenda’s, or daily planners? Why is organization so important in and out of school? If there such thing as organized chaos? Example: room is a mess but you know where everything is and under which pile of clothes if can be found. If it gets clean, you can’t find anything.