Last year at the beginning of the school year I published an article that is similar to this one. The reason that there's similarity is because the secret to being successful in the math classroom doesn't change much from year-to-year. Pretty much every student wants to have success, and certainly every parent wants their child to have success.
We all start the year with enthusiasm, both teachers and students, but it's easy to lose focus of the things that help us to be successful. This article will detail a few of the things that you can do from day one to make sure that your year is as successful as it can possibly be.
One strategy that I strongly suggest is to try to get to know your teacher from day one. It may seem like that's something that you as a student should not have to make an effort to do, but keep in mind that in many situations a teacher has as many as 150 students throughout the day, and you’re just one. Although teachers almost inevitably want to get to know their students as quickly as they can, with the volume of students it can be difficult. What I am suggesting here is not something any more than, perhaps at the end of a class in the first week of school, go up and introduce yourself to your teacher. If at that time you feel like you have needs or concerns that you wish to express to the teacher briefly, do that. For example, if you have test anxiety, you might let the teacher know at that time. Just a little effort like this can make a big difference at the beginning of the school year. For me, as a classroom teacher, it was at least a couple of weeks and sometimes more like a month before I really knew with confidence all of my students' names, and felt like I had some knowledge of each one of them as an individual.
My next suggestion might seem overly obvious, but many students do not do it. Show up on day one completely prepared. See if a teacher has published any materials that are required for class. There might be a specific calculator or a certain kind of notebook or other items that your teacher may want you to have. Being completely prepared on day one can get you off to a great start. It also looks good to your teacher which cannot possibly hurt.
Next, I strongly suggest that you have a goal in mind. Going back to my first suggestion, this might be something that you even mention to the teacher, as he or she would certainly be impressed by the fact that you thought this through ahead of time. For example, you might set a goal that you will study one hour each day that you have class. This is just a personal opinion, but I believe it's better to set goals that are things that you can consider to be an action, than to set a goal for example as a grade. If you correctly identify the factors that lead to success, you'll maximize the grade that you would get in that class anyway.Not setting a certain letter grade as a goal, but instead expressing ahead of time the actions that you will take to find success in the classroom can minimize the amount of anxiety that you have every time you get a graded paper back with a slightly lower grade than you want. I will publish additional blog entries that will detail the types of goals that you can set to maximize your success in the classroom.
One factor that affects more high school students, in my opinion, than any other, is the fact that so many young adults are getting way too little sleep. We can't fool ourselves and pretend like this does not affect us. In reality getting too little sleep has a cumulative effect that dramatically decreases intellectual performance. The reasons why you might not get as much sleep as you like might be completely legitimate. You might be involved in sporting activities or other extracurricular activities. You might need to have a job working until late in the evening. I realize as a longtime high school teacher, and as a parent, these are real things and sometimes things that students cannot do much about. Being aware of the consequences of lack of sleep and lack of rest and not pretending like they don't exist might cause you to try to rearrange some things in your life so that you can get the sleep that you need. If I could pick one thing I think impacts negatively students’ performance more than any other, lack of sleep would be it.
These few little pieces of advice, might very well take care of any problems that might arise at the beginning of the school year. But a final piece of advice that I want to impart right now, is that the moment at which you feel like you are starting to struggle, is the time to reach out for help. Most high schools have an abundance of resources that are available to you at no cost. The high school which I last taught, for example, had a program through the National Honor Society for students to be able to get help before or after school . Further, your teacher will almost always be available to help you either in the mornings before school, or in the evenings after school.
Of course,, your teacher's time is a finite resource. Also, the reality is that resources like after school tutoring from high school students may not address all of the needs that you have. When you have exhausted all those freely available resources that are available to you, and you just don't seem to be making the headway that you need to make, then perhaps other avenues of assistance may be called for. Tutoring services come in a variety of different forms, and are available in most locations.
During the past school year, for example, I offered online tutoring resources, where I could address the needs of students all over the country. Being from Missouri, and having some connections still with teachers that were co-workers in the district I retired from, many of my students were from right here in this local area. But for my online students, it really made no difference whether I was working with the student here in Missouri, or in Florida, or in Michigan, or many of the other places where students that I worked with came from. Many of us, for good or for bad, are now very familiar with working online.
Working online can alleviate some logistical problems such as simply having to travel to a certain location for tutoring. It also creates flexibility where by if you have a tight schedule working online can often be much easier to find a suitable time to meet your needs. At least for my tutoring services, because I do not have to travel anywhere when I'm working online, I can charge less per hour for those services. Some students, or their parents are concerned at the beginning that working online may not be suitable for their son or daughter or for themselves. Really, the only way I can address this concern is by trying a session and seeing if it works for you. In all candor I had no students last year, who after one session felt like the online version of the tutoring did not work for them.
So get off to a good start at the beginning of the school year, and do all you can to be successful. If it turns out somewhere along the line that tutoring is something that you need, feel free to reach out through the Facebook page link below. This year, I may in certain circumstances be willing to do in-person tutoring for students in the Warren County, St.t Charles County, or Franklin County areas. So, if you have a need don't hesitate to reach out.
