In my opinion, the second quarter is the hardest of the year, for everyone involved: students, parents, and teachers. With so many breaks from school and other things to focus on; students, parents, and teachers need to work extra hard to make sure everyone is focused on the student’s success. Here are five tools that will help your child succeed this term. This is specifically written for my class, but the concepts will help in all classes.

1) Stay Focused. Especially with so many breaks and the Holidays to look forward to. School doesn’t have to be at the top of the list, but don’t let school work fall to the bottom.

2) Keep Study Routines. Homework will still be sent home, and reading will still be assigned. You may have to adjust when you take care of academic responsibilities, but you will stay have them. Schedules get crazy this time of year; make sure to plan ahead if you are going out of town or plan on missing school.

3) First quarter is over, learn from it. The first quarter of middle school is over, the best thing to do with it is learn from it. If you did well, great learn how you can improve; if you didn’t do well, learn from your mistakes and work on small changes for second quarter. If you continue to do the same things you have always done you will continue to get what you have always gotten…Someone famous. I don’t remember where I heard this…

4) Check Your Planner Daily. Check your planner daily, maybe even twice a day. Check before you go to bed and once before you got to school. Keep track of all of your work in your planner with due dates, notes, and questions you may have about certain assignments.

5) Ask Questions. You should know what is expected from each of your teachers as far as behavior, policies, procedures; if it is not clear, make sure you ask questions. While we are pretty good at telling whether student’s understand or not, sometimes we may miss some student’s  questions because questions aren’t asked.