Monday Miyagi 083109
This week’s Monday Miyagi is compiled from the material I covered in last Friday’s Back 2 School Success Seminar. If you know of someone who would benefit from this material, please forward them the link to this blog post. If you would like me to present this School Success Seminar in person at your school this fall please contact me at (206) 528-3737. I am always happy to share my time and knowlege with local schools and non-profit groups as a free community service.
-Enjoy- Mr. Herrman
+ THE MOST IMPORTANT A +
Our goal is to help you get A’s on your report card — but the most important A is your Attitude! Your attitude is how hard you try. Major universities have found that the students who went on to be great didn’t have the best grades — they were the ones that out-tried everyone else. Your effort in most cases equals your excellence. The harder you try, the better you get. Good grades open up many opportunities to go to college and to get certain jobs. Once that door opens, your attitude determines how successful you will be.
+ CONCENTRATION- MASTER FOCUS +
Focus is another word for concentration. When you are able to concentrate better and focus on what a teacher is saying to you, your brain gets stronger and learns faster. How do you improve your focus and concentration? By looking to and listening to your teacher and keeping your body completely still. When you can do all 3 parts, you are a Focus Master. Next time you are learning something new, use the three levels of focus to learn faster and better.
Level 3 Focus Master: 1) Focus Your Body, 2) Focus Your Eyes, 3) Focus Your Mind
+ PHYSICAL FITNESS +
Exercising and Eating Healthfully: Statistics show that kids who exercise at least three times per week and eat healthfully feel less stressed, feel better about themselves, feel more ready to learn in school, maintain a healthy weight, build healthy bones and muscles, and sleep better at night. Families that do this together have an 85 percent higher rate of success.
+ 8 STEPS FOR HOMEWORK POWER +
Each day, you have a scheduled time for doing homework. Like your workouts, your goal is to expand your knowledge, learn new skills, and perfect what you have learned in the quickest amount of time possible. Here are great tips for improving your homework time:
- Plan your homework schedule – Set a time, start on time and concentrate on your homework 100 percent.
- Homework Area – Have a nice homework area with everything you need easily available.
- Plan your work – Put each subject and assignment in order and complete each task accordingly.
- Block distractions – Watch out for the TV, phone, or people distracting you. These distractions can make it harder to
- learn and make it take much longer to complete.
- Get Help – Put the homework you need help with on the side and continue working on something else until someone is available to help you.
- Check It – Go through each assignment to make sure it is complete and correct.
- Organize – Organize your finished homework neatly so it is ready to turn in the next day.
- Have a reward – When you finish early, have something fun planned as your reward.
+ TESTING SKILLS +
To excel at tests you will want to improve your Testing Skills. Here are some great suggestions:
- Study – Allow the appropriate amount of time you need to study and use your focus skills to learn the material as quickly and as well as possible. Eliminate any distractions that will interfere with your focus, like TV, music, people, games, texts, e-mails. Study efficiently!
- Repetition – Study the material multiple times until it becomes easy to remember the correct answers or techniques.
- Take a break – It is recommended to take a short 2–3 minute break every 20–30 minutes while studying.
- Pretend Test – Have someone ask you test questions, use flash cards, or perform techniques that you will be tested on. During your Pretend Test, you will find your mistakes so you can fix them.
- Master Your Mistakes – Write down the mistakes you make and put in extra practice time for them.
- Extra Help – Ask someone who is really good at what you’re testing on to watch you, help you, or critique you.
- Test Day – Make sure you have a good night’s rest and eat healthfully so your body has energy. Do a quick review of your material. If you get nervous, put aside your fears of testing and give it your best shot.
+ GET THE GRADE +
Everyone wants to get good grades, but many people struggle at it. Here are some great tips for helping you “Get the Grade”:
- Tell your parents and your teacher what grade you want to get and commit to working together.
- Find out why you are having challenges and write down what you need to improve on.
- Study in different ways: cue cards, notes, with friends, parents, pre-test, double read, etc.
- Ask friends who are getting the grades you want to help or study with you.
- Take good notes, highlight, underline, and write down important things that you can study.
- Get extra help from your teacher, parent, friend, or adult, or hire a tutor.
- Really listen in and focus during your class. Try sitting in the front and really concentrating.
- Try your best. This is the most important part. Learn the material; the grade will come next.
+ SELF DEFENSE +
Knowing how to protect yourself gives you self-confidence. When you combine self-confidence and self-defense, it removes fear from your life. It gives you the ability to accomplish things you didn’t think you could do.
+ THE CIRCLE OF SUCCESS +
It takes 3 kinds of people to help your children become super successful.
- The Child: He or she has to learn how to become successful and how to make the right choices.
- Supportive parents who help teach their kids how to make the right decisions, lead by example and are there to answer important questions.
- Positive coaches and role models. It’s difficult do it by yourself. Keep positive role models close by. Kids are heavily influenced by their role models and peers.