From Cleared to Cleared

This may be obvious to you already, but apparently I keep forgetting it and when I remember to do it my life is just so much easier.

Before you spread out all the papers and books from your backpack or notebook, make sure the desk is clear.

That way when you're done (or think you are) with everything you need to do, as you gather it all back up and organize it for the next day, it's harder to forget something.

You know, from cleared (surface) to cleared.

First, pile it all up

This is getting harder and harder to do, now that I have a multi-section backpack AND a 3-ring binder AND all these pockets AND a car.

Before I get started on my homework, the first thing I have to do is chase down all the various pieces of paper from that day:  folded, crumpled, misfiled, loose at the bottom of the backpack.

Pile it all up in one place, and sort it all out:  to do tonight, to do another time (tip: put the due date at the upper right corner), stay at home, file with the class section of the notebook for use at school, etc.

If I don't, once or twice a week I miss a deadline, or panic and rush to finish an assignment I forgot because I didn't find the paper until I was doing the laundry, or looking for something else, etc. Not a good feeling.

The alternative, of course, is to carefully organize these papers as I proceed through the day. Not going to happen.

Khan Academy

Check it out. Do it now - or immediately after you finish reading this post, anyway.

This really smart guy who lives on the west coast wanted to help his nieces and nephews on the east coast with their homework, so he started recording these really simple video sessions explaining math and science concepts. Here's the magic:  it's just his voice explaining while you see the formula or whatever being worked out.

These are incredibly helpful, and they are more and more useful as I progress through high school.

I read that some schools in California were switching the lesson plans around, assigning for homework the Khan Academy videos to introduce and explain new concepts, then using class time to work on what would have been the homework problems.

This is important. Go check it out here

Turn me in!

Ok, that's not actually what the label says, but that's the message my brain gets when I see it.

Ever do the homework and forget to turn it in? Who hasn't? But this is crazy after you've done the work, to get a zero or a late grade just because you couldn't get your act together to hand the thing in when you were supposed to.

But who can blame us, really. Our parents have no clue how rushed and crowded our days are, and how huge and loud the classes are, and how crazy it is to change classes every 45 minutes and race off the the next one across campus before the 5 minute tardy bell. (I read about how in Japan the teachers move, and the students stay in one place as a team. Cool.)

So this works for me:  at the front of my 3-ring binder I use for all my classes. there's a black plastic page with a pocket, and on the pocket is a label that says, "TURN IN TODAY" and I start every day with my assignments in that packet, in the order of my classes. At the end of the day I should see an empty black page if I've turned everything in.

Of course, this means I have to put all the pages in that one place every night.

Which means I have to do all the assignments.

BUT if I do them this way I at least get credit for doing them.

See? Better.

Mo' Mophie

One of the best things I ever got was a Mophie case for my iPhone. It's a really protective case but more important it has its own charge - you charge the iPhone, you charge the Mophie. You can choose for your phone to be lighter or have longer battery life, but for under $100 it can double your time.

Go here to see the Mophie

Chapter outlines

I've discovered that formatting really does matter. Sort of like grammar.

You know all those big headlines separating sections of the chapters in your textbooks? Probably best to include them, then indent stuff under all those other smaller headlines.

If you really want to do it up right, use some color and maybe some underlining. They're kind of like signposts that help you see what's related and what's not. It helps me study later, and has been great for open-notes tests where I have to find something quickly.

And if you do it right, you won't have to open the textbook again except maybe to read the chapter summary.

I'm OK with that.

Divide and conquer

Here's where my past posts intersect.

How do you know what needs doing when you discover that by some miracle you have no homework due tomorrow?

That big calendar on the wall where you have been adding all the due dates for assignments, projects and research papers, along with tests and every possible deadline or scheduled anything.

It's how you know that even with two weeks to work on a project, you only have this Sunday afternoon to work on it. You can see how jammed up you are just by looking.

If you're smart, you've been scheduling in the fun stuff too, just to make sure it doesn't get lost in all the work.

Then, if you're lucky, one day you will look at the calendar and see that you really do have nothing to do today but hang out.

It could happen.