A great place to get studying done is the library. Yes, the idea might seem SO 1800’s but nowhere, not even the Internet, can provide you with the vast knowledge that a library can in such an accessible way.  This is especially true when you consider that most libraries offer Internet access PLUS their other resources. Some libraries even have their books digitally archived so that you can research them on the computer libraries, making it easier and faster for a student to find the perfect information for their test, speech, or essay. You can find more than enough information on your assignment most times even in your own school’s library. Have a spare? 5 minutes left on lunch? Go into your school’s library; it takes no time at all and your information is in the palm of your hand.

As mentioned, the Internet also is a great place for research–if the websites are legitimate. Remember, when using internet websites, always carefully cite or reference your information.

The internet is the world’s fastest evolving library; thousands of books, articles, newspapers, audio and video recordings are added each day. It is so much more of a tool than just downloading music, messaging friends and posting pictures.

Remember, though, what sources you should not use.  Wikipedia is not a good reference source, and many instructors will dock you point if you cite it in a paper. However, if you skim over it, you can find important dates, events, and people that do corroborate your information, and will give you a launching point for finding the information in other better-respected sources.

Need a few tips that can help you find good information, faster? First off, ask your teachers and librarians what they know about the topic and what it concerns, and if they could suggest several books. Another great idea I to interview someone who may know something about the topic you’re researching. A great place to go if you are doing a visual presentation is a museum; they have many interesting ways to show their information which can inspire ideas in the student allowing them to evolve the idea and create anew.

This world has information everywhere you look, be it a billboard, a sign in the bus stop, a commercial, television shows, newspapers, radio, and more. It’s there even if you’re not looking for information It is constantly being viewed. The brain can grow like a bicep; you just have to work it.

The absolute first thing that can dramatically make a difference in your life while at school is sleep. Sleep plays a critical factor in the brain’s development, helping it rest and be ready for a full day’s school workload. If the mind is relaxed and at ease, you can retain and recall information much than you could if you go to class with less than 8 hours sleep. Sleep-restricted individuals have a shorter attention span, impaired memory, and a longer reaction time. Sleep is vitalto your brain to thin through any problem or challenge.

Balancing your workload at college is by far the most important and vital step to being successful after you graduate. The bad thing is that the colleges themselves don’t make this easy. A large percentage of student bodies have commitments to their school other than just schoolwork. Universities and colleges have dozens of clubs, from sports clubs, to reading clubs, to movie clubs, debate clubs, even cooking clubs. With all of these clubs, it’s easy to be distracted from everyday schoolwork.How do you fight that?  Willpower—plain and simple. You have to set a schedule and stick to it. You must learn to always put schoolwork first. If clubs take more time than studying for your classes, then you have to make some adjustments. Balance is key.

Then there are the students who feel lost when they arrive at school because the independence is too much for them to bear. Suddenly, the realization of having to cook, clean, be on time, be responsible, do their laundry and homework all comes drowns them with worries. Some students dread even going into their rooms because they know the burden that are waiting for them there.

And for other students, the problem is simple homesickness. Some may have moved too far from home and some may just miss the love and support that they were always shrouded in, but it often becomes too cumbersome.

How do you beat this?  Again—willpower and balance.  You have to remember what’s most important.

The best way to be a great student in school is to work hard, put your studies first, be rested for your classes and find a way to be happy at school.

Works Cited

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/35985.php

What Did Teachers Tell Us?

Preparing Students for the Test

We asked the teachers what activities or approaches they would recommend to a new Grade 3 teacher who asked how to prepare for the test. Almost all (99%) of the teachers recommended teaching students strategies for answering multiple-choice and open-response questions. More than 95% endorsed teaching students how to understand the test instructions, having students work on sample questions, discussing examples of good responses to those questions, and helping students get used to working independently. About 85% recommended administering a mock test and teaching students how to handle feelings of anxiety about the test. Less than half of the teachers recommended talking with the students about whether the test was important.

We asked the teachers the reasons for their recommendations. Most teachers felt it was important to teach students how to answer multiple-choice and other types of test questions and how to work independently because these skill would be useful not just on this test, but in later grades. The teachers were more ambivalent about activities that were directly tied to the test, such as discussing sample questions or administering a mock test; they were especially wary of talking about the importance of the test.

Read the full study here >>>

Stop trying to teach your students to be controlled by a calendar and time schedule in a similar manner that is followed by most corporate executives. While, Students do need to be at certain places at certain times it is unproductive to lay out a calendar that schedules “school” every day. Any corporate executive will tell you that it is easy to fall behind in their schedules and they often feel overwhelmed, why train students to be the same way? Instead students should map out their assignments and study time into a to-do list.

Many times students are seen as having poor time management because they simply have no idea where to start with their assignments and day. A to-do list can help students manage their workload on a day-by-day basis. Instead of being confronted with an entire text book to read and feeling overwhelmed by the assignment, the to-do list can break the project down into manageable sections that need to be completed each day. Large projects can be overwhelming for many people but once you start to break down the project and plan what you need to work on each day, your students will soon begin to progress through their assignments and complete everything on time.

Study Tips for High School Students
Study Tips for College Students

A study group is a great alternative for those students who need a bit more motivation when it comes to studying.

First things first, you want to decide who you want in your study group. If you are lucky enough to have a good friend in this particular class, you have to be honest with yourself if you think studying with them will help or hinder your performance. If it’s the latter, but you still want them in your group, bring in different people that will compliment your studying style. Everyone studies in their own way, but once you become part of a group, you open yourself up to new ways of learning.

After you decide who will be a part of your study group, coordinate your schedules and decide how often and for how long you would like to meet. Too many days throughout the week can be a bit daunting for some, and too little really gets you nowhere, so a good goal for any group is to meet three to four days a week. This allows the people in the group to go over materials on their own, and bring any questions that arise to the group at the next meeting.

Also, don’t be afraid to restrict communication to the meetings; e-mails between group members with questions should be sent throughout the entire group so that everyone can start a dialogue on the subject being discussed. It can keep everyone’s brain going between study sessions.

Another big advantage to being a part of a study group is the amount of different notes that everyone has taken throughout the class. People take notes differently; they hear different things, different points stand out, and everyone in the group can compile these different notes for a well-rounded study sheet.

Your first meeting should include going over the key points in the subject that have been brought up in class. You all may have differing opinions on what you should be focusing on, so hitting these points early on and going through this list will help you concentrate your group a bit more as the test date comes closer.

A study group is also a great motivational tool for the student who may falter on their studying habits. Being a part of a group that depends on you for the ongoing flow of discussion and learning is a driving force to get you to those meetings. You wouldn’t want to let anyone down, including yourself.

In order to glean the essential information needed from your textbook it is important to follow a systematic process. This will help you retain more of what you read and make it easier to study for the next test.

Begin by reviewing the title and headers of the chapter you are reading. This is called Suveying. Surveying gives you an overview of what you are about to delve into. Surveying allows you to prepare an outline or flow of the materials you are about to cover in your reading. It allows your mind to organize and prepare for the subject matter.

In the next step of the process you will convert the chapter headings into questions. Ask yourself who, what, when, where, why or how. Write these questions down. This allows you to focus in on what you are reading and gives you purpose. When you find the answers during you reading, write them next to the questions on your paper and highlight them in the textbook.

As you are reading, make sure to note any additional subheadings on your paper along with the question these subheadings present. After you’ve finished reading the chapter, go back to your paper and make sure all of your written questions have been answered in a complete manner. Make sure there are no other questions that come to mind that need answering.

Finally, review the summary of the chapter and complete the questions at the end of the chapter. Use your notes to complete the answers and write down any questions you didn’t find in your own notes. Then you back through the chapter under the proper heading to locate these unanswered questions and write them on your paper along with the question.

Keeping a written question and answer format of your textbook reading will help you when you are involved in classroom discussion. It will allow you to probe your teacher for any answers that weren’t clear to you during you reading and will make studying for your test much easier.

Don’t forget to pay attention to any tables, charts, and photographs that are mentioned in the textbook. There is often additional information set aside in boxes on the pages that add to what is written in the body of the text. Take care to note or highlight this information as well.

More College Study Skills
More High School Study Skills

Pre-reading:

A little research – Research can be simple, like a keyword search that gives some information about the genre you are reading; the author; the time period in which the novel is set; or the subject matter of the book. These key words can generally be found on the back or inside cover of the book and will give the reader outside information to help understand the story. Research can also be more complex, like checking out a book from the library that has essays written about the novel.

Predict – Flip through the first section of the book and look for a short piece of dialogue or text. Predict what has happened. Revisit your thoughts when you get to that piece.

While reading:

New words – Keep a graph of the new words you encounter. This graph should include a box for the word, its definition, how it’s used in the book and the final box for your interpretation.

Visualize - Turn on the movie projector in your head. Take a minute during the action to visualize what is happening and what the characters look like.

Conflict – All novels have conflict. Make a graph that has the six main conflicts (character vs. character, society, technology, self, supernatural and nature) at the top with space underneath. Write the conflict at the top and then pictures or stick figures demonstrating what’s happening in the text. If you like to journal, write about it instead of drawing a picture.

Compare - Don’t be afraid to compare the characters with yourself. What would you do in that situation? How might the story have turned out differently had the main or secondary character been you?

Post-reading:

Gossip about it - Get a group together of other students who are reading the same book. By discussing the book you’ll get a deeper understanding of what happened and what there is to learn from it. Keep a list of questions you had while you read and bring them to the group. If the conversation stops, have a ‘gossip session’ discussing the characters; what’s wrong with them and what they should have done differently.

Reread – go through and reread any section or part of the novel that didn’t turn out as you expected. Check the text for something you may have missed that made the ending unclear or confusing.

The most important part of reading a novel is to enjoy the process and the story. Always look for who and what you like about a story and keep a great attitude!

Education is an investment in your self. A healthy approach to any academic endeavor is to first realize that anything worth your time is worth doing to the best of your ability. Your academic success is directly proportional to the effort you put into your work. Nobody can do it for you. Like any large-scale project, it is important to have clear goals and a plan.

Before you can create an effective study plan it is essential to understand what it is you are expected to learn. Some important things to think about are the amount of work required to prepare for an exam and the time frame you have to work in. What kind of test are you preparing for? There are generally two types of tests, the aptitude test (such as an ACT, SAT or LSAT) that measures your ability to learn, and the achievement test, which tests your knowledge of a subject. Regardless of the format it is important to know what will be expected on the test. In the case of aptitude testing there are study guides and practice tests available that give examples of skills that you will be expected to know and to be able to apply. For achievement tests a good place to start is with the course syllabus, which should outline the objectives of the class. It is equally important to understand your instructor’s teaching style. Some rely heavily on the text, or lecture or on-line supplements or any combination of source materials. The point is whatever materials your instructor places importance on should be viewed as valuable resources for your studying.

Once you know what you will be expected to know, you can begin to actively study. Successful learning is a long -term process, and it requires on-going attention. Time is crucial to smart studying. Often finding a consistent schedule for study time is a key to success. For aptitude testing it is recommended that you take a practice test to help identify your strengths and weakness and then create your plan accordingly based on the amount of time before the exam. For achievement tests use the course syllabus as a time line for course material. As you plan your study schedule take into consideration that you will want to be fed, rested and sober to function at your highest academic potential. Dedicate time for each individual academic responsibility based on the amount of effort you need to put in to stay on top of the workload. Then use that time for the subject at hand, resisting the urge to attend to other duties. Staying on task improves overall productivity.

Go here to read the rest:
100+ Resources for Teaching Without Textbooks

Taking Notes Lesson Plan

Not all stress management techniques are suitable for students because of the time involved. The following stress management techniques are not only some of the most common, but also are well suited to students:

Do not wait. If you know that you have an assignment due or an exam looming on the horizon, do not wait until the last minute to open your text. By starting early and focusing on small amounts each day, you will be prepared for the exam or have the assignment finished well before the due date. When you wait until the last minute, you increase your stress and anxiety, and your performance typically suffers.

Perform routine maintenance. Just as a car needs maintenance, like an oil change, your body needs its own version of routine maintenance. You need to eat regular, healthy meals and get plenty of rest. In addition, take personal time to take a walk, go out with friends, or do other activities that you enjoy. Taking care of you creates a more positive mood and better performance.

Exercise. Physical exercise is not only good for your body, but it also serves to relieve stress. Engaging in physical activities increases your circulation, clears your mind, and boosts your overall energy level. Exercise also decreases levels of stress hormones, like cortisol, helping you to feel more relaxed. Of course, there is also the benefit of having a physical release for negative emotions, like anger or hostility.

Use relaxation techniques. The use of relaxation techniques, like visualization, meditation, and breathing exercises, are stress relievers that can be practiced any time. You do not need special equipment or a great deal of space for these, making them a great tool while sitting in the classroom preparing to start an exam.

Get organized. One of the major factors in stress for students is lack of organization. Make a schedule that shows where you have to be and when, as well as when assignments are due and when exams are scheduled. Organize your study area so you can find books, notebooks, and pencils or pens quickly and easily. Simple organization will take care of missed deadlines and forgotten assignments, and it will prevent you from being stuck with starting assignments at the last minute.

While many people may not realize it, students are constantly under a great deal of stress, and often feel overwhelmed by the number of tasks they are expected to accomplish. Not only is stress harmful to your physical health, but it also causes poor performance and negative attitudes. Through simple stress management techniques, you can reduce stress, improve your overall performance and improve your mental and physical well-being.