Courtenay Whalen is a master at teaching students how to organize themselves. She's been teaching middle school for 16 years, and she is an AVID trainer and teacher. AVID is a program that teaches executive functioning and organizational skills (among other things) to students headed to college. She wrote a series of guest blog posts about how to help your middle schoolers get organized for back to school. Honestly, though, these tips will help students at ALL levels create and maintain an organizational system to maximize their success!
This is just the tip of the iceburg of her knowledge. Read more about her on our tutor bio page HERE.
This week she'll be sharing her top 5 organizational tips for Middle School Students. If you or your child is in high school and HASN'T nailed these, this is the place to start. Without futher ado, here's tip 2:
2. Use a planner
Middle school is a time when students are learning to operate independently, with less teacher and parent support. One useful tool for keeping yourself on track is to use a daily planner or agenda; it can be traditional paper or digital, and you may need to experiment to figure out which one works best for you. The key is to use it in every class, every day. When a teacher has homework to assign, they’ll usually announce it or post it on the board during class. The moment you hear or see an assignment, write it down in your planner. Pro Tip: When you DON’T have homework for a class, write down “None”. By making sure that each class has something under its name, you can be sure that you’ve kept track of everything.