#i am also using my whiteboard calendar to track things

[feeshies]

Okay since I did pretty well during my first year, I feel like I can share my law school Study Hacks

(May also be applicable to non-law school studying)

Disclaimer: these are tips from someone who is okay with being average-to-decent in law school. The jobs I want aren't the ones where you have to get straight A's your first year. If you're looking to get into BigLaw, I can't help you. Also I didn't really study in undergrad (I only enrolled in classes where I could write a final paper instead of taking an exam), so a lot of these tips I had to learn on the fly. If you have a technique, stick with that. Also (x2) I have ADHD, so I had to come up with a technique which worked with that.

I'm mostly making this post because before law school, I fell down a lot of study-influencer rabbit holes, and I found myself feeling self-conscious that I couldn't get my study habits to look that neat and "aesthetic."

Part 1: Setup

Step 0: Get a big whiteboard.

This is the first thing I bought when I moved into my apartment and it's my favorite possession. Listen, planners are nice. I used planners all throughout undergrad. But that's just because I didn't have the space for a big whiteboard. The big whiteboard is not just where I put my assignments, but it's also where I plan out my week (we'll get to that)

Step 0.2: Get a smaller calendar whiteboard.

I have a smaller whiteboard that functions as a calendar. I don't put due dates on this (unless it's a major due date or some kind of school event). Not really relevant to studying, only to show that I separate big due dates from my everyday study tracking. Trying to cram everything into a normal calendar can make it easy to overlook important stuff.

Step 1: Before the semester starts, color code all of your classes.

The colors can be completely arbitrary (I just used the colors that came up on OneNote).

For my first semester, it was:

Contracts: Blue

Torts: Orange

Civil Procedure: Black or White

Legal Writing I: Green

After the first semester was established, I was able to use this color association for similar classes during the second semester:

Property: Blue

Criminal Law: Orange

Legislation: Black or White

Legal Writing II: Green

These are the colors I would always associate with these classes. On my giant whiteboard, I would use different colored markers to indicate which class I was writing about (versus having to go "contracts: pages 12-50" or whatever. I could just write "12-50" with blue marker)

I already erased my whiteboard for the semester (another reason to do this: it's incredibly satisfying), but here's a recreation:

I have my reading assignments for each week organized by class (+ the due dates.) Then in red, I write down the number of pages I'll have to read in each segment. Whenever something's done, cross it off.

This is my weekly calendar where I divide up when I'll be reading and how much (plus other stuff I have going on that week). I also divide the reading evenly. If I have two days to read 28 pages, I'm doing 14 pages one day, and the other 14 the other.

This is because 1. If the assigned reading has a natural shorter and longer part, I'm going to do the shorter one first and put off the longer one because I am lazy and I don't care about sabotaging future me. If it's even, I can hold myself accountable. And 2. stopping abruptly can make it easier for you to get back in that same headspace when you continue reading. It's the same mentality behind that writing tip that stopping mid-sentence can help prevent writer's block, because your brain is good at filling in gaps. It's much less daunting than starting at a fresh topic.

Other things of note:

I transcribe the notes I take in class when I get home. I try to do this as soon as possible so I don't forget anything (jotting down specific examples or anecdotes raised by your professor can help you memorize the material more). I take my notes by hand (in a notebook color-coordinated with the class), and then I use OneNote so they're in a more legible place.

I also try to update my outlines every week. This was something I didn't learn until late first semester but I wish I knew earlier. You don't want to be scrambling to make your outlines the week before exams. I'll go more into outlining later.

I also don't do anything school-related on Sundays. Mainly because that's my cleaning day, but I also need a break. Try to set a hard boundary with yourself.

I'll go into more detail about my exact studying and outlining strategies in another post (plus exam stuff), but this was just about the setup and it's already too long.

TL;DR: color-coordinate your classes, get a big whiteboard, studying doesn't have to be pretty if it works

[theautisticdoctor]

Entry #017

Planning and organisation

Living with autism can bring unique when it comes to planning and organization. For many on the ASD spectrum the structure is not just there to help, it's rather essential to us being able to function. Planning and organizing for me seems like it comes as a second nature to others, but for me it can be a true monster task. Not surprisingly, our brains process information differently, and this can make executive functioning, which is our ability to manage time, tasks, and decision-making, particularly tricky.

It is so difficult due to multiple factors, for example I suffer from sensory overload, executive dysfunction, hyper-attention to detail, memory issues and rigidity. Sensory overload makes it very difficult for me to focus on tasks when the environment is overwhelming, this can be the internal or the external environment. I need certain conditions to be able to focus or I will have trouble focusing or will be extremely quickly exhausted. Having hyperattention to detail can be a strength, it can also mean getting caught up in minor details and losing sight of the bigger picture. I can get caught up for hours fixing the borders of a document to one pixel, making it look perfect. Even though I get told that others won’t even notice it, I do, and it will get all my attention and give me anxiety if I don’t fix it. Keeping track of multiple tasks and deadlines can be difficult, I can think and ruminate about a certain task, but completely forget about another one. Even though I have nothing wrong with my memory, it’s partly because of the hyperattention to detail and knowing what is important and what is not. Knowing what is important and what isn’t, is part of the executive dysfunction.

Executive dysfunction is also managing time and tasks / goals, initiating and persevering tasks, flexibility in planning and multitasking. I have huge problems with time management, I honestly cannot estimate how long a task might take, because they most of the time are overestimated and on some tasks they are completely underestimated. Prioritising plans is also not my strong suit, I am keen to do the least important tasks first. Plus I am quite bad at initiating tasks and when I’m overwhelmed I have zero perseverance. Adjusting plans when something unexpected happens can throw me completely off, on a bad day it can throw me right into a breakdown.

I have developed certain strategies to manage my planning and organisation dysfunction. I’m not going to advertise that it fixes everything, because it’s always a work in progress kind of process and it’s different for everybody. But it all starts with self compassion, beating myself up for something my brain is just not wired to do isn’t going to help anyone. It’s okay if you are no planning guru. It’s okay if you can’t stick to your plan for a full week. Perfection isn't the goal here, you can’t live a perfect life and life is beautiful because of its imperfections. Celebrate the small successes. Because it’s amazing you pulled those small successes off. Applications are not my thing, I get overwhelmed by notifications and will be completely blindsided, they just don’t work for me. Maybe they do for you, then that’s great, but if you don’t see any progress or improvement after app #5, you can say it’s not for me and that’s okay. New apps that advertise with “get our premium subscription because we..”, I’d advise don’t and safe yourself from the disappointment. For me visual aids are a game-changer. Things like a whiteboard planner, wall-calendars, and bureau to-do lists can provide a visual representation of what needs to be done and when. They stay in your visual periphery and you will be reminded of it every time you walk by. Extra tools like color-coded schedules and charts can break tasks down tasks into smaller, more digestible pieces. Because breaking tasks into smaller steps can make them feel more achievable. Instead of writing "Clean the house," try breaking it down into "Vacuum the living room," "Dust the shelves," etc. This not only makes tasks seem less overwhelming but also gives a sense of accomplishment as each step is completed. Be aware that you don’t break them up too small, because then you might get overwhelmed by the task again. Also, you’re allowed to change your planning after you’ve started it, it’s not a fixed schedule.

Additionally, it could help to figure out what your natural routine is, because having a consistent routine can reduce anxiety and create a sense of order. Establishing daily habits can make the process of planning and organizing less daunting, reduce the cognitive load of decision-making and free up mental space for other tasks. Although, again, don’t put too much pressure on yourself here, it’s okay if you deviate from your routine. I’m also using timers to allocate specific periods for tasks can help with time management and help me remember specific tasks. It’s just a simple alarm that I also use to wake up, like a little nudge to remind me to cook dinner or start my bedtime routine. I also use The Pomodoro Technique, which involves working for a set period. Most of the time I use the formula 25 minutes work + 5 min rest and for each additional 5 minutes I take a minute longer rest and then taking a short break, this boosts my productivity. After four cycles I take a half hour break, or when I deviated from the 25 + 5 rest, I take the total work + rest as a break (so after four cycles of 35 + 7, I get 42 min rest).

Another thing that is really helpful, but I’m extremely bad at asking for is the support of others. It could be in the form of creating accountability, body doubling, literally helping with the task at hand, helping with creating order or helping with creating a planning. Figure out what your needs are, how you can find support from others, from who and dare to ask for help, support or advice. Most people are willing to help you. Also, connecting with others who understand can be incredibly supportive. Whether it's through support groups, online forums, or friends and family, sharing experiences and tips can provide both practical advice and emotional encouragement.

Remember, it's about finding what works best for you and taking it one step at a time. Everyone’s journey is different. What works for one person might not work for another, and that's okay. Patience and understanding, both from ourselves and those around us, are vital. It's important to celebrate the small victories and all progress, no matter how minor they may seem.

[phdmama]

Congrats to you, @thehoneybeet! That's so great, and I always think the more ideas the better!! So yeah, 100% cosign, get those accommodations!

For me, it was really tough to finally acknowledge that my ADHD is, in fact, a disability, but once I started to integrate that, it helped me to 1) offer myself some grace when things are hard and 2) realize there was no way for me to just power through it, and I'd never ever expect anyone else to do that!

So, this will be a bunch of rambling about things I think about and things that work for me - hopefully there will be some helpful things!

For general life:

Self-care on the fundamentals. Getting enough sleep (earlier), taking my meds, eating well, exercising, taking down time (this can be hard in grad school because there always something else to be doing haha so I think it's important to actually put it on the calendar, so you know you have permission to be just hanging out or relaxing or whatever). Connecting with people who love you. Connecting with people who are there to support you - therapist, coaching, tutoring, whatever might help.

I think it's useful to get a good sense of where your particular struggles manifest. For me, initiation and time management are really big struggles. Once I'm on task, I can usually keep going (hyper focus haha) - but switching is really tough. I'm one of those "I have to do something at 2 so I can't do anything until then). So here are things I do.

I rely heavily on schedules and alarms. I put everything in my google calendar and I put alerts on all of them - as many as I think I might need. I also really need the visual, so until I went back to work, I wrote the week's schedule on a whiteboard on my fridge, but now with me working, my whole family life got more complicated so we now have a spreadsheet we fill out every Sunday with who needs to be driven where and who gets which car, as well as planning out dinners for the week. I make a grocery list based on that plan and we've been sticking to it pretty well. (I literally print it out and color code it).

Timers are super helpful for me when I have a set amount of time for one thing. I am working on training myself to just respond to it. Like, I might have 10 minutes in the morning to read, so I'll set the timer, which lets me relax and just read, trusting the external scaffold. I also do this in meetings and stuff at work, so I know I won't lose track of the time.

It's important for me to build habits. My work badge and parking pass always go in the outer pocket of my backpack, so I haven't lost it (so far). Keys always go in my little purse that goes either in my backpack or hangs on the bannister. I know I tend to be careless and like, my brain is always ahead of my body so I lose stuff, misplace stuff, so building in structures for where stuff goes really does help (shoes always go in the shoe rack, that sort of thing). I've used the Tile in that past and now I use find my... more than I wish I had to, but it helps! I lay out workout clothes so I can get on the treadmill first thing in the morning (the only time I really have for it).

It was really helpful for me to figure out where I get derailed and be realistic about what I can and can't do. Like when I was driving my kids to school every day, I realized that I get really thrown off when I have to leave the house and come back, so working on ways to reduce the time I spent noodling around before getting to what I need to be doing was helpful. I really want to to be writing and I'm trying to figure out when my brain isn't too tired and when I have time. It's a work in progress for sure.

For graduate school. I think so much of this is the same. Knowing what you need for productive working conditions. Do you need music? No music? Do you have a dedicated work space? Do you need one? When I was in phd school, I literally wrote 85% of my dissertation at a Starbucks, somehow it worked for me. I've gotten much better about being able to work at home, but I never used to be able to. I also think this organizational stuff is so good. I think putting everything in your calendar, or using a paper calendar, or whatever might work for you is necessary. I put deadlines in, and I also put the along the way deadlines - when is the paper due? What are the parts of it that I need to do along the way? Setting those deadlines and figuring out how to carve up your time. Are you someone who does better with setting a time (like 2 hours on this project) or a task (write the intro and start the lit review etc). Like, I would print out blank monthly calendars for the semester, and then put all my deadlines on them and post it on my wall so I could be checking in every week, and look ahead to things like those weeks where you have a paper and an exam and a project. So knowing where I'd have to get stuff done early (which is... not my forte).

For me, as well, medication has been a really crucial tool. I take Wellbutrin (for depression and the ADHD), guanfacine (which I take for Long Covid but happily is an ADHD med) and I have a prn stimulant which really does help. I don't take it every day, but when I really need to focus, it definitely helps.

A thing I've had to work really hard on is the cognitive flexibility of assessing as I go and adjusting. My brain can be really rigid, and realizing that things might work sometimes and might stop so I need to pay attention. And back to that whole, offering yourself some grace.

I really do recommend checking out what your campus has for both academic supports but also counseling. I spent years working in college counseling centers and let me tell you, I'd be DELIGHTED to have a grad student come in at the beginning of the semester to work on all of this stuff proactively! That's what they're there for!

Okay that's probably WAAAAY more than you wanted! I am so happy to be a support if you need one as well, feel free to message me if I can help in anyway!

Ok. How do you manage to write/work/have a PhD with ADHD? I'm about to go back to grad school and fully in the struggle. Truly, any tips appreciated!

Oh pal! I wish I had a better answer for you which is that I wasn’t working full time when I was writing a lot - I was either working part-time or in school! So now that I’m working full-time, I’m trying to figure out how to write something more than a vignette!

That being said, I have lots of strategies for managing a busy life with ADHD, so if those would be helpful, let me know!

Also congratulations on grad school!! What a huge accomplishment!! ❤️

[thegingeralien]

Thought I might share my “doing homework with adhd” tips in case the might help even just one person (because that would make me feel happy).

Who am I to be giving you advice? Good point! I am still terrible at studying and I’m 26 and at University for the millionth time. But I have studied A LOT in my 22 years of schooling with varying degrees of success.

I see a lot of people, especially teenagers or first year university/college students, with ADHD asking for tips on how to study. But if you do a google search most of the websites and advice that comes up can be extremely ableist. So I hope I can help someone!

TIPS TO HELP YOU STUDY WHEN YOU HAVE AN ADHD GREMLIN BRAIN!:

1. Chewing gum!

- This might come across as a weird one, but it has actually really helped me. I use it as a form of stimming to help keep me focused and concentrating. Other forms of stimming can potentially end up being more of a distraction when you actually need to be reading or writing - but they can help if you just need to be listening. Try not to get a bubble gum or fun flavoured one though - as they can end up making your mouth feel dry, lose flavour quickly, and just give your brain way too many sensory things to become distracted with.

2. Buying colour coded stationary!

- New stationary can make me really excited to start studying, but that excitement never lasts long and the act of buying stationary can sometimes become it’s own hobby. That’s not what we are going for here. I really recommend, especially if you are a visual learner like me, to buy colour coded stationary. This means removable page markers, different coloured post it notes, highlighters, sometimes even pens. This way if your mind jumps from one topic to the other, it doesn’t matter. Go with the flow. Forcing your ADHD gremlin brain to focus can be extremely counter intuitive. So pick a colour for each topic, and stick to that system to find organisation among your own chaos!

3. Buy a really cheap, boring year diary with hardly any writing inside.

- Not sure if your school/university has their own diary but they can be perfect for what I am on about. Generally you can find them for really cheap, soft cover, no writing or designs within the dates. Just dates, days, weeks and lines where you can write your homework. This helped me a lot in High School. I wish I had kept doing it in University, but I am good with giving advice, and not so much with taking it. I used to decorate the outside of it however I wanted. Some years I would redecorate the same diary every semester. In the public holidays or holiday days I would colour those lines in with different highlighters to make it look like a rainbow. But every assignment due date, homework, draft, rewrite, form I had to bring back, library book due date, school activity days, ANYTHING to do with school I would write in there with reminds and check lists. Important due dates would be highlighted, general homework and daily to do lists t(o help me not leave my assignments to the last minute) would have a tick box beside them (because ticking tick boxes is free dopamine). Try to not put birthdays or fun things in it. This is a small way to stay on track so it helps you actually stay on track with the big things when you’re home.

4. Big whiteboards stuck on the wall where you can’t avoid it.

- This is not something I had in school, but I so wish I did. I have been using this recently to keep on top of house work (as maintaining your own house is tiring) and my small business or other things I really can’t avoid. If I physically write it down (not just in my phone) it psychologically does help you commit it to memory. Again, physically putting a line through a task you just completed is a hecking great rush of dopamine. But the biggest reason I love my white board, I can’t ignore it. It is stuck to the wall and is never out of sight, out of mind. I can’t put my phone or diary down and then refuse to look at it until I’m past the due date. Again, I’m not a perfect person, there are days where I don’t do anything I have written on the white board. But the great thing is, I don’t have to continuously feel like I failure, as I can wipe it all off the next morning or week and start fresh. I also put important things I have to remember that I’m doing during the week so I don’t forget them.

5. Icky Medication.

- I know not everyone wants to be on medication, and I understand. I am not forcing you to. No matter what your opinions are, you lovely gremlin who is still reading this post, regarding medication, you are valid and I respect you. My personal experience with medication has not been the best. I have been misdiagnosed for a severe chunk of my academic life which has seen me trying to focus and maintain school work under some even worse states then I am unmedicated! However, since receiving my diagnosis and finding the right ADHD medication for me, I have the ability to get so much work done without having to unnecessarily struggle. It’s unfortunately not magic, it will not turn me into a robot that makes me do work and turn out incredible, noble peace prize winning assignments (as much as I wish that were possible). I still have the ability to be a lump, doom scrolling through tumblr, forgetting to eat, and ignoring responsibilities. But it really helps me when I sit down and start that thing that isn’t fun. Yesterday it helped me hyperfocus on cleaning my office which was a terrifying room to be in. So it’s pretty close to magic in my opinion!

6. Accessing Disability Support at your place of learning.

- Not all of you taking the time to read this will have either a) an offical diagnosis or b) a good disability support available to you wherever you are completing your studies. And that is okay. This dot point just won’t be for you right now. But keep it in mind for a time when it might apply to you, as it’s something I never thought I would need, but will never take for granted ever again.

- If you have an offical diagnosis and Disability Support, make an appointment with the disability support adviser. DO IT NOW! Get your psychiatrist to write a diagnosis letter outlining that you have <enter superpower that makes you hilarious here> and that you are receiving <enter x,y,z treatment here> and that you would benefit from receiving <enter what you have always wished you had on the days you can’t make your ADHD gremlin brain do the thing here>. Now these benefits can be, but not limit to: automatic extensions on ALL assignments, extra time on exams, extra breaks to walk around while taking exams, special consideration when marking assignments, my university allows me to take exams in a separate room with only the other students in my subject who also have disability support (occasionally I have taken an exam alone with only a tutor present) so I don’t get distracted, permission to take fidget items into class or exam (I have the option to wear headphones, as long as I can display that they are not connected to anything). Maybe you can come up with some great ones for you with your disability advisor or your psychiatrist.

- The disability advisor will often go through your course outline with you at the start of each semester or year. This is annoying and a great time for disassociating, but can be useful in hindsight because you are made aware of everything that will come up during your class so you are not surprised. Because lets be honest, it is unlikely you are going to look at the course calendar too often.

- Side Note: I make an appointment every semester with my disability support officer for my area of study to make sure I have my special considerations for the year. Now I may go through the whole year without ever using my considerations. However, the fact that I know they are there takes an insane amount of pressure off of myself. If I’m having an insanely screwy loony tune mental health moment, I can email my coordinator my disability plan and say I need an extension due to personal reasons, and WHOOP, there it izzzzz.

7. Dedicated one thing or a few things that have nothing to do with food/alcohol/other substances to reward yourself with for doing the thing!

- This may not work for everyone. It doesn’t always work for me. I used to reward myself with food, but that only reinforced my stimming with overeating and my already bad relationship with food. And I feel as though that would be the same with any other substance that can be linked with addiction. (Addiction is a tough word, cause what aren’t I addicted to, I have ADHD, but hopefully you get what I mean!).

-Now, boring try and not choose this aside, lets think of somethings that work really well as rewards!

- My partner likes to come give me a kiss and a hug when ever they have written and reread a paragraph, you might buy a book when you get a really good mark, you might want to go make a cup of tea and watch an episode of your hyperfixation after studying for <enter a good period of time here>, you might allow yourself to partake in an activity you usually do while procrastinating (but at least this time you know you aren’t putting something off), talk to someone who you know will tell you they are proud of you as they understand the mental struggle you go through to concentrate (if you can’t think of anyone, it is 110% okay if that person are the amazing people on tumblr or the adhd tumblr chats. We will freaking pop a bottle of champagne for you cause we get it!).

- Try and make what ever you choose be something in a different room or away from your working space. Getting out can really calm you down.

8. Don’t be afraid to ask for assistance.

- This is true for anything, but I don’t mean just asking your teacher to give you extra help understanding the task and marking rubric. Many people online, tutors, librarians at your school, past or present students offer assistance rereading and making small edits (they won’t make it magical unfortunately) to your assignments. If you are like me and once you have written or completed the dreaded thing, you can not imagine or force your gremlin brain reread or edit the thing. So it can help to just delegate this to someone else, who hasn’t read it before, so they won’t disassociate or skim read it. They will often notice things you never would have even if you were neurotypical as that is just what happens when you have been working on something for so long.

9. Repetitive music.

- It generally helps if this has no lyrics. Lo-fi is amazing. Classical is alright too if it works for you, but both my partner and I agree that it can really assist you to keep up pace and focus when the beat is a high and repetitive (almost meditative) tempo.

10. Limit your screen space.

- This is a tip completely from my partner @dr-adhd who also has ADHD, is an avid PC gamer and is consistently in a battle with their gremlin brain to focus on completing their PhD. They have discovered that it really helps them to limit their screen space - simply put, work on one screen only. They have done more work more easily when they have their one screen on their laptop to focus on. Whereas their office has multiple screens so they could be playing runescape, watching YouTube, listening to lo-fi and doing work - which never worked (shocking right hahaha).

11. At the risk of sounding like a Mum... Put your phone and other electronics other than the assignment necessary one, away.

- I am a Mum, but to a fluffy puppy dog, so I hate to sound like my Mum when I was in high school, but she was right. Mobiles are the single easiest and biggest distraction in ADHD history. I often, even at coffee shops, have to turn my phone over so that I am not consistently looking at it every time the screen lights up to say the pizza place has sent me a coupon, or a carpet place that has been having a sale since I was born is... still having a sale, or a friend from school wants you to watch this TikTok. Even though you might not want to ignore your friends, because people pleasing, difficulting making/keeping friends and RSD are hecking real things, but they can all wait. Trust me, none of them are urgent. That TikTok will still be funny in an hour or two. And I’m probably completely right when I say that whomever just messaged you, never replies as quickly as you want them too. So I doubt they are going to think twice if you are MIA to finish your thing.

My partner or I might add to this later, but at the moment I already know that I probably wouldn’t read this wall of words if I was the one reading it, so if you are still with me, THANK YOU and I really hope I might have helped you. Sorry for the mound of words, but maybe you can reblog, screen shot, or save this and read a dot point at a time or refer to it when you need. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, I promise what ever it is, I’ve asked the same thing once in my life or something MUCH stupider.

[butts-bouncing-on-the-beltway]

My new whiteboard calendar (you can get these bitches shockingly cheap, I only paid like $15 which is like half of what I expected to pay even if it's still a lot for me right now) arrived and I'm trying to decide where in my room to hang it for optimal use.

I saw this really cool idea of using color coded dots to mark self care tasks on a white board calendar in order to track how often they're actually happening, which would be super helpful for me since I am uhhhhhhhh very bad at the concept of the passage of time and frequently can't remember how long it's been since I (for example) ate. Or showered. Or did my physio exercises. Or saw the sun.

So it seems helpful to track these things without having to exert a lot of in-the-moment effort. Just snag the right color marker and draw a lil dot on the day and move on.

I figure I can also use it for more involved tracking as I find it helpful, like marking certain health symptoms or allergen exposures or other stuff like that. But I want "lots of colorful dots on my calendar" to light up my brain like a christmas tree every time I see it, so I may not include anything that would "mix the signals" so to speak. I have a pack of 9 colors coming in soon, but for now I have 5 colors to work with. I figure if I come up with more than 9 tasks to track, I can do dual-colored dots for the extra ones, or maybe the same colors but in different shapes like stars or hearts.

So "what should my self care tasks be" is my next question. I'm thinking (non-exhaustively):

Took the dogs out

Ate a meal other than dinner

Refilled my water bottle

Did a round of physio exercises/yoga/pilates

Ran a training session with the dogs

Spent 15 minutes cleaning or tidying something

Took my medicine

Listened to music for at least 30min

Brushed my teeth

I figure I can pretty easily manage 9x3 tasks to document on this thing between circles, stars, and hearts to mark them. So I figure the circles should each be done at least once a day (bare minimum tasks needed for me to do well mentally/physically that day. I think hearts should be things that need to happen at least once a week, and stars should be "this is some absolutely extra shit that is GREAT when it happens but that's usually once in a blue moon". That way I know at a glance how many critical, maintenance, and progress oriented self care tasks have happened in a day/week/month.

So for hearts I'm thinking:

Took a bath

Took the dogs to the park

Refilled my med pack

Washed a load of laundry

Take out all trash bags and reline the bins

Took the dogs on a full circuit walk

Take out one bag of recycling

Closed out all of my notes for the workday

Charged my headphones

For the stars I'm thinking:

Deep cleaned one room of the house

Changed the bed linens

Date night with wifey

Got a massage/joint manipulation session from someone

Put away clean clothes

Deep Pressure therapy with headphones

Empty one doom box

Wash and organize dog toys

Public access training with Lil Lady

Even just looking at this list makes me feel overwhelmed by the idea of doing these tasks regularly which tells me I am not doing them anywhere near often enough, so this will be interesting.

The good news of course is that since it's a whiteboard I can change my list whenever I want lmao

[bellesnotes]

how to start being productive (failing 101 - part 2)

Hello everyone! I’m back! I have been really focusing on my studies and didn’t have time for Tumblr, but it feels good to be back.

If you have read my last post, you probably got here looking for answers on how to keep going after a big setback. If you haven’t, let me link you to it and I’ll see you later when you’ve had read it. 

So, you’ve failed an exam. Maybe you’ve failed a couple of them. Maybe you’re failing a class. It’s not the end of the world. Compose yourself, remind yourself of your worthiness, and let’s dive into productiveness with a possitive approach.

Change your mindset: whether you have failed this specific subject on your first semester and are now entering the second, or you need to take an exam to try and save a class - start with the right mindset. Remind yourself that you are NOT your mistakes, your past is your past (and, therefore, your past self who has failed is not you anymore). You have been given a chance of starting again and redeeming yourself, don’t blow it off by doubting yourself or loosing your confidence. You are capable of great things. You did not come this far only to come this far.

Start fresh: if you are entering a new semester and your failed exam is behind you, start anew. Buy new supplies, take your old notes that are laying in sight - judging your past mistakes - away and stack them in a drawer (or throw them away if you won’t need them in the future). If you have new classes, start them with a positive mindset: you will not only think that you can pass them, you actually will!

Track everything down: whether you are more into planners, good ‘ol post-it notes, whiteboards or just phone apps - it is important that you keep track of everything. I, myself, use a combination of methods - I have this app on my phone where I track everything as soon as I get told (assignments and homework, essentially), while I also like to print (or make) a couple of calendars to track exams and asignments down so I will be able to see it on a month’s glance. I found tracking everything down helps you be mindful of everything you have to do so you can get more productive, which immediately leads me to the next point.

Start early: if you are a serial procastinator, this will take more work - but you will get there! As soon as you are informed of your tasks (and you have tracked them down somewhere, so you can see how much time you actually have on your hands) start doing something. You can start on the task (if you find it easy or really dislike it, so you can totally forget about it afterwards), you can plan what you’re going to do or you can divide it into segments so you’ll have enough time to do it (i.e.: if your asignment is due in a week, you can divide the total work in 5/6 days and save the last one for revision).

Don’t be afraid to ask for help: this is a point I, personally, have struggled a lot with throughout my entire school years. Sometimes we are mocked for asking when we’re kids, or we see it happen to other people and it is common for us to associate having doubts and trouble understading certain topics with being dumb and that is NOT the case. We are in school to learn and in college I have found professors find it very helpful if you ask them questions, they appreciate them as it gives them feedback. So if you’re struggling, don’t be afraid to ask, whether you’re confident enough to ask infront of the class or prefer to email teachers of talk to them privately in their office hours.

As a bonus, I am adding a quote that I like to think of to become my most productive self: “Failure is a bruise, not a tattoo” - Jon Sinclaire.

Thank you so much for reading! As always, if you have any doubts do not hesitate to contact me - whether you need help with one of these steps, advice of how to tackle a certain subject or need to talk about school stress (a gal has been through ALL of it). I will keep on uploading posts that I hope are helpful for all of you. 

[karenninaaa]

Iron Dad Bingo #1

AN: wheew! glad to finally cross out something after staring on that bingo card for days! i love this au so much so i took the liberty to play with this idea. also i love tony stark interacting with kids! there would probably be a lot of plot holes and inconsistencies but whatever.

Unbeta-ed Chapter.

enjoy!

Summary: In which, instead of Mr. Harrington, Mr. Stark was the head of the Decathlon team at Midtown Tech. 

(alternate events of Spider-Man Homecoming and Tony never recruited Spider-Man for Civil war. Though CW still happened (lets just fit everything within the timeline :D)) 

For Irondad Bingo:  Au: Teacher and Student

--

Chalk and Rebel

Peter could feel Mr. Stark’s piercing gaze at him. The science teacher and the head of the school’s Academic Decathlon Team remained quiet when Peter had broken out the news to his teacher that he couldn’t go to Washington for the Decathlon competition. He was sitting adjacent to Peter and arms crossed on his chest.

“Can’t you take one weekend off?” Finally, Mr. Stark asked sitting up straight. This time, he settled his one elbow on the desk. “It’s nationals. We’ve been preparing for this for weeks.”

“I-I’m sorry. I really can’t, Oscorp internship is really strict and-”

“If you were interning for Stark Industries, things like this wouldn’t be a problem.” Mr. Stark said shaking his head.

“W-wait, what’s happening?” Cindy, one of their decathlon teammates, asked. She was sitting behind the desk on the stage.

“Parker is not going to Washington because apparently, the internship was more important to him,” Flash said who was sitting at the far behind with his feet propped on a chair. He was holding their reviewer booklet.

“Flash,” Mr. Stark called in warning not bothering to look at him.

“You can’t really go, Pete?” Abraham asked who was sitting next to Cindy.

“Really? Right before the Nationals?” Liz was standing behind a podium. Dismay was evident in her voice.

“He already quit the marching band and robotics club.” Michelle piped in from the corner of the stage. All heads turned in her direction.

“I’m not obsessed with him, just very observant.” Michelle defended.

“Flash, you’re in for Peter.” Liz glanced back at Flash.

“Oh, I don’t know, I have to check my calendar first. I’ve got a hot date with Black Widow coming up.” Flash answered looking down at his booklet.

Abraham rang his doorbell. “That is false, right Mr. Stark?”

“I’m not quite sure about that, I haven’t seen Widow in a while and why did I tell you about abusing of the bell?” Mr. Stark said then turned to Peter. He relented. “Fine, you may not go but it would be such a shame that you wouldn’t be with us. This kind of competition just happened once in a while you know.”

Peter’s eyes wandered on the stage where his best friend sat. Ned Leeds was looking back at him. Ned was the only one who knew the real reason why Peter couldn’t go to the competition.

Three days ago, Spider-Man discovered a group of robbers stealing in a bank one night. They were using weirdly looking and enhanced weapons. Unfortunately, they got away after Spider-Man chose to save Mr. Delmar’s bodega that had been hit by the said tech. However, they might have gotten away but a piece of tech fell out from that weapon. Ned was holding that tech for safekeeping since his best friend was the only person who knew his gig as Spider-Man. And now, Peter was going to use the weekend to track down those robbers. The whole Oscorp internship was obviously a lie because he quit the internship months ago when he had gotten so busy being Spider-Man.

Peter felt bad for lying to Mr. Stark. After all, Mr. Stark was the coolest teacher he ever had. He remembered freezing in his seat when Mr. Stark casually strolled into the classroom and introduced himself as their new science teacher. He remembered feeling giddy, because the person he had been idolizing his entire life, was standing in front of him and whom he could now see every day.

--

“Can’t you just ask Mr. Stark about the glowy thing? Maybe he can help you out or something?” Ned whispered to Peter as they walked through the hallway full of students milling around.

“I just couldn’t bother him with that,” Peter glanced at Ned. “He’s probably so busy being a teacher, Iron Man, and an Avenger.”

“It’s just that, he’s always feet away from you most of the time. He’s got a lot of resources. You could probably ask him for tips about this whole superhero-ing.”

“But, I got you,” Peter smiled at him. “My guy in the chair?”

“Oh stop that,” Ned waved his hand at him in dismissal, though he was visibly pleased with the title.

“See you later okay? Same time?” Peter said.

“Fine and bring some chips on your way to my house later,” Ned replied.

“You got it.”

--

In all honesty, Peter had a lot of questions.Often times, he would find himself faltering on his way out of the classroom as everybody had dispersed out and he was the only one remaining standing next to the desk. There was one time when Tony Stark was erasing the writings on the whiteboard and Peter was dumbly standing there. He should be leaving but the things that he wanted to ask Mr. Stark left him rooted to his spot, things that he didn’t know how to voice out loud. Tony turned around and paused when he saw Peter was still there.

“Mr. Parker.” Tony put down the eraser on the table. “Is there something wrong? Or do you have questions about our earlier lesson?”

How do you deal with bad guys and still looked cooler?

Where are you getting that huge amount of courage when facing life-threatening situations? Cause I still get scared most of the time.

How do you deal with failure when things had gone wrong in a mission? Have you ever failed? Cause you looked like someone who did things in perfection.

How to be a great superhero like you?

“N-nothing, Mr. Stark, t-the lesson was great, I learned a lot today.”

“Well, that was the goal.” Tony sat on the edge of the table crossing his arms. “And because of that, I expect you to be ready for our quiz tomorrow, yeah?”

“Yes, Mr. Stark.”

Tony nodded. Peter was about to walk away when he paused once again. Instead of asking the questions that had been swimming in his head, he asked a different one.

“Mr. Stark?”

“Hmm?”

“Why did you suddenly become a teacher?”

“I need a change of pace.” That was all his teacher had said. He glanced at the window. Rays of sunlight were seeping through the window making Tony’s brown eyes appeared to be lighter. For one second, Peter could see his teacher’s tired and worn out eyes. There seemed to be more wrinkles on the side of his eyes. He looked sad and resigned. Another question popped in Peter’s head, a question that would probably stay unanswered.

--

“I told you they’re gonna come back!” Spider-Man was swinging through the buildings chasing a gray truck zigzagging on the street.

“Yep, but the cops are moving too slow. Your bad guys are quick and smart. Are you closing in on them?” He heard Ned answered through the Bluetooth earpiece under his mask. His phone was on the pocket of his red hoodie, his improvised costume. Well, not everyone was as reach as Tony Stark to make cool superhero outfit. Meanwhile, Ned had a walkie-talkie that was intercepting the signals of other walkie-talkies used by the cops. That was how they were able to get some news from NYPD.

“I am!” Another web shot out from his webshooter. It hit the wall of a building nearby. Spider-Man made a great swing like a pendulum and landed on the rooftop. He ran and used his web to leap off another building. “And I would never let them get away. They were our only shot on knowing the source of their weapons.”

Spider-Man had been chasing the same robbers who were using enhanced weapons. They successfully robbed another bank. They immediately fled before Spider-Man could even reach the scene. When he was sure that no one got harmed on the scene, he switched to plan B and the chase was on.

As Ned had predicted, the robbers lost the cops. Spider-Man continued to tail them until they reached an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of the borough. The truck went into the warehouse as he quietly sneaked in by crawling on the wall. The robbers, seven in total, climbed down the car whooping in joy because of their successful heist.

Spider-Man crawled in closer to them but not close enough that he would be noticed.

“This is awesome!” Robber no.1 guffawed. “I can’t believe those idiot cops fell for our bait.”

“But of course,” Robber no. 2 piped in. “This wouldn’t be possible without our babies.” He patted affectionately the weapon he was holding. It looked like a shotgun but bulkier and instead of bullets, it was shooting off a laser beam that could cut through almost anything. Spider-Man had witnessed how it worked earlier.

Another roar of laughter echoed among them.

“Hey, have you heard that boss is going to Maryland for another heist?” Robber no.3 said to Robber no.4.

“Is that at Crain Highway? I’ve heard some of them talking about it.” Robber no. 4 said. “It would be fun if we could join that heist. It is going to be one of our biggest heists so far!”

“Maryland huh?” Spider-Man mused as he crouched on the steel frame of the ceiling looking down at the robbers.

“That was too far,” Ned said.

“But not too far from Washington,” Peter supplied.

“I think I know what you’re thinking,” Ned replied.

“Yep, we can’t let these bad guys pulled off another heist,” Peter said. “But first off, let’s web these people up.”

And so Spider-Man leaped in action.

Soon, patrol cars surrounded the warehouse. The cops had found the robbers webbed up in different areas of the warehouse. Another cop had found a letter from Spider-Man webbed on the wall, letting them know that they were the robbers from the earlier heist.

--

Peter jogged towards the bus that was parked on the school grounds. Their bus wasn’t your ordinary yellow school bus. It was a private air-conditioned bus owned by Tony Stark. Once Tony had a full look of the bus they’re going to use for their future out of town decathlon competitions, it only took three seconds for him to decide to replace the school’s old and cranky bus with a luxury one, with built-in speakers and fully automated system run by Tony’s very own AI, Friday. His decathlon teammates were lounging next to the bus with their luggage.

Tony Stark climbed down the bus clapping his hands and calling the attention of the students. “Alright guys, it’s time-”

“Hey, it’s Peter!” Abraham cut in and pointed at Peter. Everyone looked in his direction

Tony Stark turned and saw Peter approaching them. He smiled at the teen.

“I-I was hoping I could rejoin to the team. . .” Peter said.

Flash walked up to him. “No way! You can’t just quit on us and strolled up and be welcome back.”

“Actually, he can,” Tony butted in. He patted Peter’s shoulder. “Welcome back, Pete and Flash you’re back on being the first alternate. Come on guys, let’s all get into the bus.”

When they reached their destination, the group walked through the lobby of the hotel where they would stay for the night.

“Wow, this place is huge!” Charles marveled looking around.

“Kids, stick together,” Tony instructed as he talked to the facilitators of the event sitting behind the desk.

Soon, Tony gave them their keys to their designated room. Ned and Peter were roommates and retreated to their room. Later that night, Peter suited up. He wore another hood and jeans to hide his suit.

“Just ring me up if something happens,” Ned said who was sitting on the bed. “Be careful.”

Peter nodded. “Yeah, I’ll do my best to be back before the competition starts.” Then he headed out of the room. “Keep the glowy thing safe. That would be our evidence.”

Ned nodded picking up the purple glowing stone on the table.

Peter closed the door behind. He sneaked through the quiet and dimly lit hallway. He made another turn around the corner. “Shit!” He cursed under his breath. He backtracked immediately and hid behind the wall.

Peter slowly poked his head from his hiding spot. Tony Stark was walking towards his direction. Thankfully, Tony hadn’t seen Peter yet since he was looking down on the phone on his hand. Peter leaned back on the wall and took a deep breath. He looked at the railing on his left. He took a few steps back. Then he ran straight to the railing and jumped off. Web shot out and stuck on the railing. Gravity took over. Peter twisted around and swung towards the floor below. He safely landed on the ground.

Meanwhile, Tony Stark paused and looked up. He blinked on the empty hallway.

--

Peter hitched a ride on a car carrier truck towards his destination. At first, he thought that he had gotten lost along the way. He reached his destination and jumped off the truck a while back and was walking along the darkened road. He stopped at a gas station and crawled towards the roof of an abandoned bodega.

Peter looked around and muttered. “Is this really the place or the Google maps is wrong?”

It was then that three trucks came lined up together. Suddenly out of the sky, something with huge wings came down. Thanks to Peter’s enhanced senses, despite the darkness of the area, he easily figured out that it was a human with mechanical wings harnessed to him.

“Oh, that’s the boss!” Peter straightened up, more alert.

Big Bird anchored himself to the truck that was on the rear. He dropped down and disappeared inside the truck leaving his wings strapped to the roof of it. Peter swung towards the truck to investigate.

He also dropped on the roof and looked closely. The roof had gotten a rectangular hole thanks to the small stones placed on 4 corners.

“Woah cool, this looked like some kind of a matter phase shifter!” Peter said in quiet awe.

When the masked man emerged from the hole, he dropped the bag on the roof to retrieve the stones. That was Peter’s opportunity to web up the bag pulling it towards him.

“Hey, Big bird this doesn’t belong to you!” Spider-Man quipped.

Big bird turned to him with green glowing eyes. He growled at Spider-Man.

“Oh, god,” Spider-Man said, a bit startled by his eyes.

Big bird attached himself to his wings, retracting his strap anchors. He flew towards Spider-Man. Spider-Man ducked down and stepped back. He shot Big Bird with his web but the latter dodged it. He charged at Spider-Man again, taking the bag from him with his feet claws. There was a tug-of-war between them as no one wanted to let go of the bag. Then, Big Bird kicked the bag and letting it go. Spider-Man toppled backward and into the hole. He fell with a thud inside the truck. He immediately stood up and was about to jump off the hole again but ended up banging his head unto the concrete metal roof.

Spider-Man blacked out.

--

Ned Leeds was already dressed and pacing back and forth in his room. It was already morning and Peter was not yet back. He tried calling him but Peter wasn’t answering the phone. He was worried about Peter’s status and also about what alibi he was going to tell the team, especially to Mr. Stark about why Peter was missing.

“Ned? Peter?” Liz knocked on their door. “Come on guys, we’re gonna be late!”

“Y-yeah! Coming,” Ned stuttered. He quickly grabbed his bag and the glowy thing on the bed and headed out.

--

Peter woke up with a dull pain on his head. He guessed that he had a mild concussion from hitting his head earlier.

“Ugh, my head?” He groaned and observed his surroundings. He was surrounded by metal cages containing junk techs. “Wait, where am I?” The gears on his brain started to turn. “Wait, they must have hijacked the truck and had taken it to their evil lair.”

“I must find a way out of this one.” He briefly stared on the wall ahead. He squared his shoulder and ran straight to the wall. With his superhuman strength, the wall broke. Spider-Man rolled on the ground. He stood up in a fighting stance.

Spider-Man blinked. The place didn’t look like an evil lair. It looked like a huge storage warehouse with rows and stacks of huge container boxes in it.

“W-where am I?” He turned around to get some clue as to where he was. He paused. On the wall, there was a huge DODC-VO5 written.

“DODC?” He muttered. Then it dawned on him. “Oh come on, you’ve got to be kidding me. Am I in a Department of Damage Control facility now?”

--

Tony Stark gathered his student in the backstage. Any second from now, his students would be called to be on stage and the competition would start.

“So, guys,” Tony said to them. “No pressure, alright? Just enjoy the competition.”

“Hey, Mr. Stark,” Abraham said. “If we win this one, pizza is on you, yeah?”

“Sure,” Tony said without missing a beat. “We’re gonna have a celebration party if you win.”

That seemed to boost up the team’s morale as they cheered upon hearing the news. He looked at everyone and noticed something.

“Ned,” He called a certain teen. The teen was hiding behind Charles and was quiet the whole time.

“Y-yeah, Mr. Stark?” Ned answered peeking from Charles’ back.

“Where is Peter Parker? You two are roommates.” Tony asked.

All the team’s attention was now on Ned who was fidgeting with his yellow coat.

“I-I don’t know, Mr. Stark. . .” Ned answered.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Tony frowned.

“He sneaked out last night, said that he was going to study in the business center and he didn’t come back.”

“And you’re just telling me this now?!”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Stark. . .”

“The next team that will participate in this year’s Decathlon competition is from Midtown School of Science and Technology!” They could hear the emcee speaking from the stage.

The team was quiet and seemingly didn’t know what to do about their teammate’s sudden absence.

“Flash, you’re up on Peter’s place.” Tony finally decided.

Flash punched the air in delight.

“Come on guys, Go on stage.” Tony forced an encouraging smile on them. “Go kick some butts!”

He continued to smile at them as the team disappeared on the stage. That was when Tony’s smile slipped off. Peter Parker was many things. He was hella smart for his age that sometimes, Tony couldn’t help but to remember his youth when he was Peter’s age. He was aware that the kid had potentials, potentials that could take him anywhere he wanted. Yet, it was the same potentials that were giving Tony Stark an incoming headache.

--

Peter’s first thought when he reached the 246th sequence trial on overriding the time lock of the storage vault was, he wouldn’t make it to the Decathlon competition. He still didn’t know how he would explain it to Mr. Stark and not get into any trouble. He tried calling Ned earlier but a secured facility like this; he should have known that the signals would be jammed. Though, getting in trouble with his teacher was for later problems to brood over, when there was an even bigger problem before him. He just couldn’t wait for the vault to open up later or for who knows how long, so he took it in his own hands to find a solution.

Somehow, he managed to find a way to navigate through the wirings of the time lock. He used his scientific calculator and wired it to the circuit to control the system. He needed some sort of password to open up the vault so far, he was on 246th combination of the code and probably counting.

“Right, here’s 247th trial. . .” He punched in the codes on the calculator.

To his surprise, the door slid up and opened.

“Oh my god! It worked!”

--

The Midtown tech team cheered as they exited the auditorium hall. They won the national, thanks to their group effort, especially to Michelle Jones who gave the answer on the Sudden Death Round. The group was taking pictures when Ned checked the phone that was given back to him after the competition. There were 5 missed calls from Peter. Then his phone rang. Peter was calling.

“Peter!” Ned hissed walking away from the group. Unknown to him, Tony Stark was looking at him.

“Where were you?” Ned continued when he reached an empty and short hallway. “You completely missed the decathlon, we won! We’re still here at the building.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry, I got locked up at the Damage Control facility-”

“What?”

“Yeah, long story, I’m just gonna tell you afterward. I’m on my way back there. How’s the glowy thing?

“It’s safe, it’s in my pocket-”

“Hey,” A voice came from behind Ned.

Ned turned around putting down his phone. There were two unknown guys standing before him. They were tall and bulkier and had a menacing look on their faces. And when Ned looked down, he could see a gun peeking out underneath the jacket of one of them. Though, Ned was sure that both were armed. How did they get in despite the security, he didn’t know.

“Ned?” Peter was still on the line. Ned dropped the phone on the ground.

“Where’s the gem?” The guy with long hair and cap asked stepping forward.

“W-what gem?” Ned stepped back.

Long hair dude raised a small rectangular machine. There was a red and blue light on it and it was beeping. “This thing is reading high energy signatures from you. You have the gem.”

It must be the glowy thing, they were after. Ned thought. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Ned continued to step back.

“Alright, you die or you’re gonna give us the gem.” The other man, the bald man, fished out his gun and pointed it at Ned.

Ned was frozen in his spot in fear.

“Hey!”

Suddenly, there was a deafening shockwave that momentarily paralyzed the two men, even Ned. Then there was a blinding light. Ned got yanked away by someone, away from the men.

When Ned returned to his senses, he looked up and saw Tony Stark was dragging him away.

“M-Mr. Stark!”

“Who are they and why they were after you?”

Before Ned could answer, gunshots echoed. Tony and Ned ducked down. People around them started to scream in panic and ran away.

“Shit.” Tony pushed Ned into the corner, into the safety. “Stay there!”

Tony stood up and tapped his chest twice. Blue light glowed in his chest as the detachable arc reactor underneath his shirt activated. Nanites seeped through the fabric and spread around his body. His nanite mask covered his face, eyes glowing blue.

“Fuck, that was Iron Man!”

“Hell yes, that was me.” Tony flew towards them, his hand repulsor aimed at them. However, to his surprise, the bad guy whipped up his weapon and shot off a purple laser beam. Tony raised both his arms shooting off a similar laser beam. Two laser beams collided. When the energy of collision was too much, it exploded throwing both parties away. Though, Iron Man immediately regained his stance. There was thick smoke everywhere. The fire alarm was blaring. His students were still there and could be in danger. A lot of civilians could get hurt

So Iron Man flew straight to the smoke, using the smoke as a cover. He knocked down the weapon from the bad guy’s hand. Then he grabbed hold of the two of them and went straight to the nearby window. The glass shattered as Iron Man flew out of the window. He dropped the bad men unto the lawn and aimed his repulsor at them again. The two men remained laying on the ground as Iron Man hovered over them.

“So, why you guys are after a kid?”

Friday was doing a facial scan on them but none of them were on FBI’s wanted list, which confused Tony even more.

They remained quiet even though, fright was evident on their faces.

“Oh, so we’re playing bad cop and good cop here? I don’t have all day.” Iron Man fired his repulsor above their heads.

“W-we’re after the gem! The kid has it!” The bald man replied hastily, shaking in fear. “Please don’t kill us!”

“What gem? What is it for?” Iron Man asked.

Before Iron Man could get anything from them, there was an explosion from the building where they had come from. Iron Man glanced back at the building. There was smoke coming out of it and a huge chunk of wall was starting to collapse from the third floor. There were civilians down below right where the wall could drop and crash them.

“Fri, what the hell happened there?”

“An exposed Chitauri core has detonated,” Friday said. “A section of the wall was about to fall off.”

“I’m not done with you.” That was all Iron Man said as he flew away from them and towards the building.

--

As Spider-Man reached the building where his teammates were, all he could think was, his best friend was in danger, because of the glowy thing he entrusted him with. He webbed up his backpack somewhere as he ran towards the auditorium hall. They must somewhere near there. He used the Fire Exit staircase to reach his destination. He was on the second round of stairs when he heard a gunshot.

He froze. Then he started to imagine the worst. He swung his way up faster.

The Fire Exit door burst opened. People ran for the stairs against Spider-Man’s direction. Spider-Man fought his way against the tide. Then there was a sound of an explosion.

“Excuse me, coming through!” Spider-Man shouted dodging people left and right.

But then when he reached the floor, Smoke was everywhere and Iron-Man zipped past him holding two men towards the window and out of it.

“Holy shit, what the-!” Spider-Man was flabbergasted.

“Spider-Man!”

He turned to see Ned running to him.

“Ned! Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine!” Ned answered which was to Peter’s relief. Then Ned fished out the glowy thing from the pocket of his coat. The glowy thing was brighter. Ned continued hastily. “There were two guys who were after this. I don’t know, they were able to track this thing. Then Tony Stark came and saved me.”

“I know,” Peter said. “I’m sorry, you almost got in danger because of that and because of me. Give me that.”

“It’s alright.” Ned gave him the stone. “Wait, is just me or the glowy thing was hotter than usual?”

Peter accepted the stone and Ned was right. It felt like the stone was burning in his hand. His glove was started to blacken. Ned looked at Peter in panic. It mirrored Peter’s expression.

“Get back!” Spider-Man shouted. “All of you get back!”

“W-what are you going to do?” Ned asked stepping back. Some of the people listened to Spider-Man as well and some were even more confused as to what was really happening.

Spider-Man turned around. He threw the stone to the wall next to the shattered window and webbed it up. He coated it with a lot of webs until it looked like a white cocoon.

“This better works,” Spider-Man muttered.

Soon, the cocoon glowed purple. Spider-Man stared at it and so were the civilians and authorities who were on the scene. As if all of them were anticipating on what was going to happen next.

Then, there was a blinding purple light that they all had to cover their eyes. Afterward, there was another sound of an explosion. People screamed.

The light was gone. And when Spider-Man looked up there were cracks on the wall, quickly spreading out like a web. Moments later a huge chunk of the wall started to fall off outwards. Spider-Man webbed up the wall. With all his might, he pulled it in. He couldn’t let it fall back when there were civilians down below.

He pulled harder, his feet sliding on the floor. Suddenly, the chunk of wall moved inward easily without even Spider-Man’s effort.

“What?” Spider-Man let go of the web as the wall fell on the ground with a thud.

Iron-Man was floating right outside the hole. Everyone cheered.

--

Tony Stark had enough as he watched the news of the earlier incident in Washington on the holographic screen in his lab at Avengers Compound. Fortunately, no one had gotten hurt from the incident. Thanks to Iron Man and Spider-Man’s immediate rescue. The news believed that it was rogue shooters who just wanted to wreak havoc in the place. Their faces were now on the wanted list and the authorities were searching for them.

Then he gazed at another holographic screen where the feats of Spider-Man showed. He should have talked to that young vigilante sooner. He should have come to Peter Parker before he got himself killed in one of his adventures.

He knew for a while that Peter Parker was the one under the mask. After all, he was keeping tabs on people with potentials who could be trained as an Avenger.

Peter Parker was the reason why Tony Stark chose Midtown Tech to teach, so he could keep an eye on him and see for himself what the kid was like when he wasn’t playing hero.

Well, what he had discovered about him exceeded all his expectations.

Peter Parker was the kind of kid who refused to pick up a fight with his bullies. Instead, he avoided it when he could have easily won the fight because of his abilities. He was this bright spirited boy who could easily be awed by simple things. There were so much wonder and curiosity dancing in his eyes and who was so eager to know more about the world. He was this kind of kid who would not hesitate to step forward and help when no one would and could. There were just so many things ahead of him and Tony could see all of that.

That was probably why he hesitated to recruit him for Avengers.

There was a future waiting for him and Tony didn’t want to steal it from the kid. So he remained quiet and watched from the distance instead.

But he couldn’t watch now when he discovered, thanks to Ned’s phone he hacked down earlier when the kid was on stage competing, that the kid was actively chasing criminals that used junks from Chitauri’s as weapons. Peter had disappeared last night to do another chase. Tony was also aware of Peter’s lie about Oscorp’s internship, but he initially didn’t know why the kid couldn’t join. And for whatever reason, he came back and Tony learned the reason why later on.

Tony reached for his mug of black coffee on the table and sipped. He was about to put it down when a hand reached for his mug instead.

He looked up to see Pepper smiling down at him.

“Hey, hon.” Tony smiled back.

“You’re watching him again,” Pepper noted as she sat on the armrest of the chair Tony was sitting on. She sipped on the mug and blanched at the bitter taste of it. His fiancée was the type who put lots of cream on her coffee.

“I swear, that kid is gonna kill himself sooner or later.” Tony leaned back on the chair. Pepper leaned on him as she put her arm on the top of the backrest of the chair. She crossed her legs resting the mug on it.

“I told you, you should mentor him so he would know how not to kill himself with his little adventures,” Pepper said.

Tony looked up. “Do you think I’d be a good mentor?”

“You are a teacher now at his school, do you really need to ask me that?” She raised an eyebrow at him.

“That was different,” Tony argued.

“Oh, how different?”

“Being a teacher was easier because you’ll gonna spout things that came from a book but mentoring someone to be a hero? I don’t think I have the right qualifications for that. You knew I screwed up far more many times that I could actually count on this superhero business.”

“Oh, Tony,” Pepper put down the mug on the table and wrapped her arm around his shoulder. Tony leaned into her as he rested his head on her stomach.

“Yes, you screwed up a lot of times but you are also the type of hero that always fights for what was right and doing your damn best to protect this vulnerable place. And I think that was the most important thing of all. So get your ass up and just mentor the kid, the kid needs someone who could guide him, that job will suit you.”

Tony closed his eyes and smiled. “Yes, ma’am.”

With that Pepper stood up. “I’ll just be in my office.” Then she paused when she had noticed the papers and notes laid haphazardly on the table. “What are those?”

“That, my love, is my lesson plan for next week and test papers that I haven’t checked yet. But first off, I have to be somewhere.” He stood up.

Soon, Iron Man flew into the night sky.

Iron Man set his course to Peter’s apartment. He wasn’t even nearing his destination when Tony saw something he truly didn’t expect nor imagine happening.

Tony didn’t expect to see Peter Parker on the way, falling from the sky, a hundred feet to the ground and falling at a speed that could totally kill him on impact without something that would slow down his descent.

There was a screeching sound from the sky. Tony looked at the source of the sound. His night vision scan could see a man with mechanical wings. Tony had a lot of questions as usual, like how the kid had gotten himself in the air and been thrown down by a mechanical devil out of nowhere. But questions could wait; he had a spiderling to save first. After all, spiders couldn’t fly.

Tony dived down towards Peter’s direction increasing his thrusters. As he neared him, he could hear Peter screaming.

Iron Man zoomed in and grabbed Peter before he could hit the lagoon. The mechanic teacher made a loop in the sky before changing his flight course towards the Avengers Compound instead.

--

“So, uh, you knew the whole time that I was Spider-Man?” Peter asked in a small voice as he played with his mask. He was sitting on the couch of Tony’s lab.

Tony was looking down at him with arms crossed on his chest. “You know that wasn’t the issue right now, you could have gotten died! What-why are you even up in the air?!” He threw his hands in the air.

The kid, again, was a lot of things and one of them was giving Tony a consistent migraine, vertigo, aneurysm and all other kinds of headache. The mentoring wasn’t even starting and Tony’s hair was starting to turn gray quickly.

“The guy with wings threw me down. I was chasing bad guys then he swooped in and dropped me on a hundred feet.” Peter explained.

Tony took a deep breath. “That’s it! I am going to mentor you if you’re so sure about this career path and please remove that onesies, you’re going to have a new suit.”

And all Peter could say was, “W-what?”

Tony rolled his eyes and turned around. “Friday, unlock 16-A.”

At the far end of the lab, the wall shifted and slid open. A big glass transparent cylinder emerged. Inside the cylinder was a new Spider-Man suit. Tony walked to the cylinder. He glanced at Peter who remained frozen in his seat with wide eyes staring at the suit.

“Your new suit.” Tony knocked on the cylinder for emphasis.

Peter finally stood up as he walked in a daze towards the cylinder, still staring at it.

“T-that’s mine?” Peter asked stopping in front of the cylinder.

“I just said that,”

“Thank you, Mr. Stark!”

What surprised Tony, even more, was when Peter hugged him. He froze on the spot while the kid squeezed the oxygen out of him.

“This is so cool!” Peter exclaimed pulling away. “I have a new suit and Mr. Stark is going to mentor me! You’re not just going to be my science teacher. This is the best moment of my life! I have an awesome mentor and dope suit. Oh my god!”

And with that, Tony had a fleeting thought that maybe mentoring this kid wasn’t going to be that bad after all.

[hidding-in-shadows]

Resbang 2019: hot for the teacher (chapter three)

ffn link ao3 link

She’s sitting at her desk, crying, because of folders. Folders. She put the wrong labels on the wrong colors. Yellow folders are for reading and blue are for writing, but she flipped them and they’re labeled wrong. She is a blubbering mess over stupid folders.

That’s how Soul found her in their classroom; at her desk with the folders piled in front of her, a yellow one in one hand and a blue in the other. He has two coffees and his hair is disheveled, eyes sunken in, but he is ultimately startled because, first, she’s there way earlier than him, and second, she’s crying over folders.

“I brought you coffee,” he says, trying to break her out of it, but that just makes her drop the folders and cry more.

“I-I put the wr-wrong labels,” she says between sobs, “on-on the wr-wrong colors! Now we ha-have to change the-the whole theme and-and move re-reading to blue and wr-writing to yellow and-and that makes no sense!”

“Maka,” he sits down at her desk and pushes the folders away from her and onto the floor, “they’re just folders. We can relabel them.”

“But that’s more time! I haven’t even planned out this week, or homework, or jobs for them or even made all the name tags for their desks! Plus, the library is still a mess, almost nothing that needs to be laminated is ready, and we have Open House tomorrow, as well as the first day of school --,”

“There’s two of us, we can share the load,” he cuts her off and pushes one of the coffees toward her. “Let me tell you about my first year because it was crazy and unorganized, but I got through it. On the first day, I got the kids to lunch almost twenty minutes late, totally forgot to bring them to specials, and mixed up my bus riders with car riders.”

“We need to make a chart for that,” Maka sniffs as she wraps her hands around the coffee cup, “a How I Get Home chart.”

“Stop thinking about what we need to do for a moment,” he gives her the look and she swallows tightly. “Another thing that happened, almost lost a kid. She thought she was suppose to walk home but it turned out that a family friend was coming to walk with her. The girl ended up walking all the way home on her own, couldn’t get in the house, and went to the neighbors. The parents called the police because they didn’t know where she was.”

“Well that’s not your fault,” Maka looks at her coffee, “Isn’t the front office supposed to tell you all the details?”

“It doesn’t matter, what matters is that you understand your first year of teaching is going to be the most disorganized, hot mess in all of your teaching years. But every year is kinda like that too, in one way or another. Plus, you have me on your side. I’ve been teaching for seven years now so I have a general idea of what is going on. I’m not an expert, but we will definitely get through this year.” 

Maka closes her eyes and takes a long sip at the coffee. It’s a little more bitter than she’s used to, but the caffeine helps her clear her mind. She took a deep breath before she opens her eyes again and nods to Soul.

“Okay, we’ve got this, I got this.”

“You got this,” he smirks and she couldn’t help but notice the way the corner of his eyes crinkle slightly. She felt herself flush when she realizes she’s looking at her partner’s little details and curses herself internally. This is her co-worker, her co-teacher, and that is definitely not allowed if they are working together all year.

“I’ll start printing new labels for the folders,” Soul leans back in the chair, sipping on his own coffee, “and you can put them on as I print them. Double hands, quicker work. Then, you can get started on K through M in the library and I’ll do N through P. Whatever isn’t labeled or looks out of level, we’ll make a pile and deal with later.”

“Deal,” she sighs, relaxing instantly, “how are you so good at sorting out all the shit we have to do.”

“Seven years,” he gives her a wink as he stands up and Maka feels herself flush. “Let me just go get the rest of the stuff from my car and we can start up.”

As he leaves, Maka groans to herself, slumping into the back of her chair and sipping gingerly at the coffee. She’s doomed.

--

She’s sitting on the carpet, thumbing through a basket of books to make sure all of the level L books are in it when the adjacent door opens. Medusa leans on the door frame. Soul isn’t in the room. He went on a vending machine run for the two of them. (Soda, chocolate and Cheez-it’s had become her diet as of late.) Maka says this all aloud and realizes that Medusa hasn’t even met the man.

“A co-teacher?” she asks, flipping blonde hair over her shoulder, “Oh, I forgot about that. What is she like?”

“He. His name is Soul,” Maka stays on the ground, trying not to grit her teeth together, “he’s Wes’s brother.”

“Oh, him? I heard he was fired from Brooks. Weird, I didn’t think we could hire terminated teachers for the school year.”

“Maybe not everything is as you hear,” Maka whips her head around, “isn’t that something a teacher should know by now?”

Medusa purses her lips and looks around the room.

“Seems like you still have a lot to do.”

“Just a little more organizing, we should be ready for tomorrow just fine.”

“I’m just sitting back and typing up my lessons for the month.”

“About that,” Maka stands up, wincing at how tense her legs are, “are we sharing plans? Blake said it was usual for units to share the workload, like I do one subject, you do one, and Soul does another.”

“I don’t share my lessons,” Medusa rolls her eyes, “if you can’t write your own lessons, you shouldn’t be teaching.”

“I mean, I can write my own lessons but I just thought --,”

“They only had Dr. Pepper,” Soul walks through the classroom door, sodas in hand and bags of M&M’s stuffed in his pockets. He is startled to see the adjacent door open but cracks a tense smile. “You must be Ms. Gorgon. Soul Evans.”

“You were at Brooks, right?” She tilts her head with a twinkle in her eyes.

“Yes, but I’m here now,” Soul shifts his weight and Maka feels the tension between the two slowly begin to form. 

“Is that from choice, or something else?”

“It has nothing to do with you, so I don’t think it’s your business.”

Maka holds back a noise as her eyes widen at his response. Medusa send daggers to him.

“Well, I like to know who I am working with. I know Maka here has her first year ahead of her and got in because of Blake--,”

“I did not get in--,”

“But from my understanding, Wes didn’t mention his brother would be joining us this school year. So, choice or …,”

“We have a classroom to set up,” a muscle ticks in his jaw as he clenches it, “excuse us. We have twenty-six kids to prepare for.”

He all but pushes her through the doorway as he pushes the adjacent door closed with his foot, slamming it. There is a slight chuckle from the other side and Maka feels herself fume. She watches as Soul’s shoulders roll and he turns away from the door, a snarl on his face.

“She’s pleasant,” he grumbles as he makes his way toward where Maka is. She shrugs and took the soda from him, cracking it open. 

“She’s also my mentor,” Maka sighs, sinking back down to the floor, “and our teammate so we have to at least try to get along.”

“She’s like a bunch of other experienced teachers I’ve met,” Soul sat next to Maka and pulls over a basket of books he’s working on, “entitled, sandoff-ish, and bitchy.”

Maka snorts as she sipped her soda, fingers playing with a spare thread from the rug they sat on. They sit in silence, sipping on their drinks and looking around the room, taking in how their classroom was. 

They had made some slight adjustments, changed out all of the bright, yellow butcher paper against Maka’s wishes, and color coordinated the boards to subjects. Math was orange, science was green, writing was blue, and reading was yellow. The boarders stayed, though, bright and rainbow. 

Each board had been labeled with cursive letters that Maka made herself. Soul put up learning boards for each subject as well, explaining to Maka how they tracked the progress across a standard easily and could be switched out. It was a much better option than writing out the standard per day. 

One section of the whiteboard had been dedicated to the students, a calendar and a list of jobs with each kid’s name clipped to a job. A chart had been made for how students got home, a birthday poster with each student’s name written carefully in each month. And, lastly, a section for the quote of the week. Soul and Maka had decided that they would start each week with a quote, allowing students to write it down and respond to it within a journal. Whoever had the best response would take the quote home on a decorated paper. The first quote was already written, something Soul had picked and said was important to keep in mind no matter your age.

Mistakes are proof that you are trying.

“I know it’s none of my business,” Maka breaks the silence, “and you basically told Medusa to fuck off when she asked, but ... did you leave Brook by choice?”

He’s quiet for a moment, the only sound in the room the A/C clicking off. He taps a finger against the can before bringing it to his lips to take another sip.

“It was strongly suggested,” he looks down at the rug, “I was leaving the school and saw one of the kids get kicked out of their car and left behind. So I pulled up to him and gave him a ride home. I made sure another teacher was on the phone while I did it to be safe. But, the parents weren’t happy and threatened to sue the school because of it. Endangerment of a minor, but they were the ones who kicked their kid out. So, to settle it, I left and they got a free pass. Pissed me off so I still called CPI on them but ... ,”

“Strongly suggested …,” Maka mumbles, looking to the carpet. “That’s crazy. You did the right thing.”

“Like I said when I first met you, this district sucks.” 

--

A voice comes over the intercom at about six pm and it makes both of them jump. Maka was going to each desk, ensuring every student had the correct folders with the correct names and some basic supplies. Soul was typing away furiously, getting in the lesson plans for reading and writing. Medusa was no help, so they split it up themselves.

“For those on campus,” Dr. Mortimor’s voice bellows, “staff meeting in the media center. We have a surprise!”

“It better be alcohol,” Soul mutters as he closes his laptop. Maka makes a noise in agreement and the two drag themselves to the media center. The smell of pizza hits them when the door opens. “Well, not as good, but still great.”

“You guys made it!” Blake shouts from across the room, holding a slice of pizza in the air. A tall woman stands next to him, one Maka has not met yet, and she blushes furiously at the man’s outburst.

“What’s a P.E. coach doing here so late,” Soul jokes as the two joined him. 

“Tsubaki’s class was officially assigned to me for P.E. so we were going over some of her student’s files,” Blake took a bite of the slice, “she’s got the unit of students with EBD.”

“She has the unit of students with EBD,” Soul groans. 

“Maka Alabrn,” she holds her hand out, “and this is Soul Evans. We’re co-teachers for third grade.”

“Blake’s told me about you. Mostly Maka, but now that you’re here, Soul, he has even more to talk about.”

“Geez,” Soul rubs the back of his neck, “I don’t know if that is a compliment or an insult.”

“Both,” Maka and Tsubaki answer seriously.

“Rude,” Blake stretches his arms, pizza gone. “And I am going to head out. Just wanted to grab a slice before ditching.”

“More like a box,” Liz snorts, joining the group with a plate, “he was the first one in and the first one to leave. The Doc is doing something nice by getting us this. You know, for our hard work. It’s not some 5.99 buffet.”

“It’s a tradition of mine to get at least ten hours of sleep the night before the first day of school,” Blake rolls his shoulders and cracks a smile, “I’ll see you all tomorrow. Good luck, Maks!”

He leaves with a bounce in his step and Maka can’t help but smile. Blake never has a bad moment, he was always prepared when worse came to worse. But, she did feel a few eyes on her as she watched him leave. Did people really think like Medusa, wondering if Maka only got in because of her friendship with the man? Why else would these eyes linger on her as he left?

“Are you guys, like, a thing?” Liz sips at a cup of off brand soda, one eyebrow raised in question. 

Oh, Maka thought, that’s why.

“No, no,” she flushes more which was not good for her defence, “We’ve been friends for a while now, almost five years. I was a freshman when he was an ending junior at our college, so he thought it would be cool to try and take me ‘as a follower’, which, in reality, we just ended up working on assignments together a lot.”

“Hmm,” Liz sips her drink again and this time her eyes flicker to Tsubaki, the quieter woman, who is looking at the ground with quite an interest. “Well, I guess that answers that question.”

“I should head out too,” Soul breaks the silence that’s beginning to build, “I’ll finish up the plans for tomorrow. Don’t push yourself too much, let’s me up at about seven here. Want to make sure you get a good night’s rest before the first day.”

“And, if it’s successful, or not, we all go out for drinks after, so you have that to look forward to,” Liz winks at the two before leaving with a slight wave and joining a different group of teachers. 

“It is getting late, and I live about half and hour away,” Maka checks her watch, “I just need to get some stuff from the classroom.”

“See you later, Tsubaki. Nice meeting you,” Soul smiles to the woman, a genuine one, and the two co-teachers leave. 

Maka realizes then, that in just a little less than a week, she already knew the difference between his smiles. There’s a tense one he wore whenever he was around a teacher he didn’t particularly care for, but had to be nice to. Then, the gentle one, when he was trying to calm her down from whatever cliff she was jumping off because of one thing or another. A smirk, for when he was in a particularly snarky mood. And, his genuine smile, the one he wore the least in public, and made the sides of his eyes crinkle. 

“This is us,” Soul breaks Maka from her thoughts, once again, and held the door open. She gives him one of her genuine smiles, which she wore more often than him, and went inside. There’s still a few piles around the room, but the anxious feeling she usually had in her stomach and chest was gone. Nothing she could do about the piles now, that was a problem for tomorrow, even if the thought made her sweat a little. 

“I’m exhausted,” Maka sighs as she collects her papers and folders from her desk, “maybe I’ll start a tradition like Blake’s.”

“Yeah,” Soul chuckles from across the room, collecting his own things as well. “Doesn’t sound like a bad idea.”

Maka hums in acknowledgement and then grunts as she swings her bag onto her shoulder. She turns toward her co and smiles once more.

“I don’t think I have actually thanked you properly,” she moves toward him and he just chuckles at her words again, “No, I meant it Soul. I know we’re co-teacher’s, and we need to do things together, but you didn’t have to deal with so much of my crap.”

“I just know what I felt like as a first year,” he turns toward her, his own bag across his shoulder, “Excited, anxious, but mostly doubtful of my own skills. I remember what it was like to want someone so bad who I could vent to or turn to. So, I just wanted to make sure you know I can be that person for you."

"Thanks Soul," She smiles at his words and feels her face flush. They stand there for a moment longer, eyes lingering, before Soul clears his throat. 

"See you tomorrow," he says once they reach the parking lot. Maka smiles and nods before climbing in her car. It takes her another moment before she can start her car and tells herself that the light, fluttering feeling in her chest was first day jitters. 

[jbpaulsrud]

Field Experience: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Mrs. Geiger is a first-grade teacher at Broadway Elementary School in Venice, California. Her classroom, room 37, is just outside the basketball courts in the middle of the lot. It is 7:45 am, her students are being dropped off in the courtyard where they have recess. Around 8:10 am, the children line up, she walks in 22 of her 24 students, stands at the classroom entrance and greets each one with a “Good Morning” as her students make their way to their desks. There are 13 girls and 11 boys in Mrs. Geiger’s class. More than half her class, 62%, is of Asian descent, 20% are Caucasian, 8% Hispanic and *8% African American. They are all enrolled in the Mandarin Immersion Program which spends half the day learning lessons in English and the other half in Mandarin.

The arrangement of the students’ desks are in small clusters of 5 that face each other. Stations and colors identify them. There are “About Me’s” written by the students hanging on the sidewall and starred assignments completed by the students on the opposite wall. In front of the whiteboard is a large, rectangle area rug that has rows of different colored squares; this is where “Community Circle” happens each morning.  

From 8:15 – 8:30, the students are provided with breakfast by the school. They are invited to partake if they desire. During this time, students can work on assignments from the previous days. The students then make their way to the area rug and sit in a colored square. From 8:30 – 8:40, the class goes over their “Daily Routine.” They sing a song, go over the days of the week, the date and revise the calendar. Mrs. Geiger tells the class the schedule for the day (what subjects they will be learning and when) and then the whole class recited the “Rules of the classroom”: pay attention, raise your hand, be polite, sit nicely, follow directions.

I was able to interview Mrs. Geiger a little before school and during the kids’ recess.

1.    How important it is for students to have their basic needs met to be successful in school? Why do you think so?

Students needs must be met for them to be successful in school. It is imperative! It can become very challenging to perform day to day tasks and responsibilities when there is an apparent lack of needs being met. It can create an overall distraction to learning.

2.    Which needs are most important to have satisfied so students can thrive in school?  Why?

I would say building self-esteem and safety. It is crucial to create a learning environment where students feel safe around us [their teachers] and peers. If a student does not feel safe and secure, then we are not fulfilling our role as educators.

3.    Who is responsible for ensuring that students have their needs met?  Why do you think so?

There are many people. Parents, educators, administration, we all have a part of the responsibility of helping students and meeting their needs. It takes a village, careful collaboration and consideration when thinking about how to best support a child’s overall well-being.

4.    What is one thing a teacher might do for a student who has physiological or safety needs?  Why would this be useful?

Something a teacher might do is establish a community circle that targets a student’s specific areas of need. A teacher helps students navigate ways to support their needs through specific coping mechanisms, strategies, and help students build on social and emotional components.

5.    Ensuring Safety needs are met and making sure students are ready to learn involves classroom management.  What are three things you do to manage your classroom?  

Classroom management is crucial. One thing I do is provide clear and concise rules and expectations for my students. When students follow the rules and exhibit positive behaviors, I use continuous praise. However, I also layout clear consequences when rules disregarded.

Another strategy I use is fluid transitions. The expectations are consistent and clear directions are given of what students are to do when switching activities or tasks. Students must understand what is required of them so they can follow procedures effectively.

I also model appropriate behavior and use role-play techniques to help students navigate the rules of the classroom. We practice the skills needed to be strong students and listeners.

6.    Do these fit for students who have a Behavior Intervention Plan? How do you assess progress? What do you do for students from a different culture?

The methods I use do fit students with behavioral plans because their needs are clearly stated as part of the process. The needs provide teachers and students with accommodations to support student responsibilities for learning.

To assess progress, I use formal and informal measures; Anecdotal records to record pertinent information about the students and formal assessments to track and monitor their progress throughout the year.

We have many school-wide activities that promote cultural inclusion. For example, students partake in performances that represent certain cultures through music and dance. We also promote inclusion in the classroom that ties along with the idea of respecting others’ beliefs and values albeit different from your own.

7.    When you know that a student has a specific need that most of the other students do not have, what do you do to address that need?  

I use available resources like cumulative files to help uncover some background of the student. This information helps to find out more about the child’s family life, school history, and things like that. It is an excellent way to discover what might be affecting that specific need not being met. I sometimes also conduct a student success team meeting or SSPT (Student Support and Progress Team) to figure out ways to support the students in the classroom setting. [SSPT] is a meeting with parents, the teachers, and administration to strategize the best way to help the student. The last thing I may do is refer them to Share and Care, which is an outside service, to receive additional small group support through guided lessons.

Mrs. Geiger’s general regard for her classroom and students is apparent through her teaching methods and ways she utilizes Universal Design for Learning. She is starting with the child’s physiological needs by offering breakfast so that every student can start their day correctly with energy and full tummies. Safety was not only discussed with Mrs. Geiger but exhibited as she reiterated the rules to create a learning environment for each of her students to feel respected and safe. Not once did she raise her voice or break her calm and collected demeanor with the children. She praised students for following instructions and remembering the rules throughout the morning. Showing she cares, helping build her students’ self-esteem and being able to see her hard work with students self-regulating through their self-actualization (Slavin, 2015, p. 250).

Mrs. Geiger’s prefaced the observation of her class by advising her current class is her “dream class.” She has worked in many different districts around the US: Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, California. As well as private and charter schools, but found that trial and error of her teaching methods, with the support of administration and the district, can create a learning environment not only conducive for the students but teachers as well. With her students’ needs met, there is a mutual respect in the classroom. There is trust and growth in each of her students, and Mrs. Geiger makes it her responsibility to keep this consistent throughout the school year. Watching her lead by example, showing the students, not just telling them, and being transparent with directions and expectations gives the students all the tools to make good choices. Knowing that there are several programs to assisting in meeting the needs of every student is encouraging, as every student will have the same opportunities and access to learn. These are the qualities I want to carry into my classroom.

References:

Interview was recorded, but while quick notes were taken

Slavin, R. (2015). Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice, 12 ed., Chapter 10: Motivating Students to Learn, Pearson.

Powell, S. (2019). Your Introduction to Education: Explorations in Teaching, 4th ed., Chapter 2: Student Similarities and Differences, Pearson.

[themotivatedstudent]

this a post (complete with links, pictures and other tips) dedicated to all of you struggling through what seems to be a hell they call high school. i get it. i struggled through it, all my friends endured it and you’re probably in the same boat of wanting to throw yourself down each flight of stairs that presents itself. but please don’t do that! i’m here to help, friend!! this is a comprehensive list of all the things i learned from my time in high school. i hope this helps at least one person out there! as always, if you guys have any questions, my ask box is open :)

before we get into it: this is a link to my study routine because some people have been asking for it and don’t have a section in this post to put it under so i’m just going to leave it here.

self-care advice:

okay so, i’m going to be completely upfront with you. high school is hard. it’s especially hard if you want to do well. i can honestly say that senior year took its toll in more ways than one when i didn’t take care of myself or pay attention to my body’s needs. so here are some self-care tips to keep you happy & healthy.

1. eat a lot & stay hydrated

when you’re trying to finish a 2000 word essay, or pretty much all but shoving toothpicks in your eyes to stay up studying for an exam the next day, food is your best friend. food helps your brain work better and you’ll find that your concentration levels increase when you study on a filled stomach. there are lots of brain foods out there like dark chocolate, nuts, vegetable sticks etc. but don’t forget to reward yourself with a food of your choice after you feel like you’ve done a lot of work. couple all of this with lots of water to keep you feeling refreshed.

2. pamper yourself

i am completely aware of the fact that high school students don’t have the time to go to a spa or sauna every other weekend. however, you deserve a nice long bath or a good face scrub every now and then. other things you can indulge in:

sheet masks

body lotion (especially the nice smelling ones)

scented candles

hand cream

nail polish

eye masks

a good facial cleanser

serums

bath bombs

and the list goes on. trust me, being physically relaxed plays a big part in how your brain performs. if you feel a bit gross, take a shower before you start studying. it’s little things like that that’ll make a massive difference.

3. sleep

everyone says it, i know. but it’s so important. if you don’t get sleep the night before because you were cramming for tomorrow morning’s exam, go home and take a nap in the afternoon. get some shuteye in one form or another. pls. 

4. believe in yourself

it sounds so weird, and it’s usually not included in posts like these but in my opinion it’s one of, if not the most, important factor in high school success. think about it. if you’re spending those years of your life doubting whether your answer is correct, whether your science report is as good as the next person’s or whether your friends truly like you, you’re using up a lot of energy that could be used for things that’ll actually benefit you in the long run. that’s why my blog is titled “breathe” - because that’s exactly what you have to do, and sometimes that’s the only thing you can do in order to keep going. chin up. you’re going to be okay. you’re doing great. i believe in you. and you should believe in you too. 

organisational tips:

1. plan everything

i’m telling you now, get some kind of planning system. whether you want to use a bullet journal, a planner, a diary, an app, a computer program or your grandma’s paper napkins, seriously just pick something. when you have seven different classes and you have assessment for each, i highly doubt you’re going to remember every task that goes along with them. so, just take my word for it and plan plan plan.

here’s a link to how i used my planner back in high school. 

i also recommend a whiteboard monthly calendar so you can keep track of all of the important dates you need to remember.

2. post-its

i love love love post-its. i honestly can’t stop myself from buying them - especially the cute animal ones. post-its saved my butt when keeping my books organised and easy to navigate. you can use them to separate different semesters, chapters, lectures, topics etc. i also use post-its to mark any questions, sections or subjects that i’m unsure of so that i can ask my teacher about it the next day. i then write down the answer or explanation on a separate sticky note and stick it next to the question so i can refer back to it when studying for exams.

+ look at all the different kinds of cute post-its you can get!

so you can obviously get all your standard, basic post-its.

buuutttttttt, you can also get all of these fun ones too! they make studying a lot easier and a lot more fun, trust me. 

3. figure out a system that works for you

so in high school, i liked having notebooks for each class and having an accordion folder to hold all my papers. that worked perfectly fine for me but there may be other methods that work better for you. i suggest, especially if you’re just about to start or just started high school, that you experiment with different organisational systems to find which one suits you best.

i’ve got a page dedicated to my favourite supplies and how i use them. i hope you can get some inspiration from it in some way. 

motivational tips:

1. quotes

go on google, tumblr, facebook, instagram, weheartit or whatever tickles your fancy and search up some quotes that inspire you. it sounds really corny, but i’m telling you that it works. i had three quotes above my desk and they always used to motivate me when all i could think about was crashing into the comfort of my blankets. i would pick quotes and write/draw them out myself so i could add my own spin on them. i used:

“make hermione proud”

“effort only fully releases its rewards to those who refuse to quit”

“you have galaxies in your head, don’t let anyone tell you you cannot shine”

ta-da!

2. studyblr

this community! it’s the best motivation in my opinion. whenever i was in a procrastination slump, i would scroll through the studyblr tag or scroll through studyblr blogs and before i knew it i’d be ready to study for another hour. it’s honestly one of the most helpful resources, and if it’s available to you then i definitely recommend that you use it!

3. music

get yourself a study playlist. it’s amazing what music can do for your mood. add a mix of songs that will get you pumped to blitz through that 5-star difficulty chemistry question and songs that will help you concentrate when you need to find the right word for that english essay. studying when it’s dead quiet is weirdly deafening to me and i can’t concentrate if there isn’t some sort of background noise. just add whatever helps you - whether it be panic!, classical or in my case, kpop hehe

i have a playlist suggestion on my blog if you want to try listening to some new songs. :)

that’s all, folks!

in all honesty, high school isn’t going to be a walk in the park if you want to succeed. it takes dedication, a lot of persistence and a consistent work ethic. you need to know what you’re aiming for, and you need to want it just as much, if not more, than the person who wants the same thing. my high school experience was stressful and anxiety inducing, but i can honestly say that the rewards on the flip side are very much worth it. you’ve got this. you’ll do a lot more than survive. you will succeed. 

you can do it! i believe in you! 

stay motivated x

[mental-health-advice]

Hi! I was wondering if you could help me. I can't seem to focus on anything and I'm so forgetful it's embarrassing. I usually have 2 or 3 things in front of me to do because I can't seem to focus on just one thing so it helps that I can switch from one thing to another and back again. I even did it while writing this... Idk what's wrong with me, I can't focus in class and homework/assignments that hours longer than they should. Idk what to do or where to look for help. Anything helps thank!

Hello! Thank you for sending this in, and I’m sorry for the delay in response. I completely understand how you may be feeling, and it is very frustrating when we cannot concentrate or remember things. I really hope I can help with sharing some of my techniques.

Our concentration can often jump to places for a number of reasons, and it causes us to leave things unfinished or have to spend a lot more time on something than we should. I personally take hours on assignments, when it should take no more than one. I end up sitting down, determined to complete it but instead finding myself distracted and letting my mind focus on something else, instead of the task I am currently doing. I am still working on this, and I have gotten better with some techniques I have been carrying out;

The first thing I did was to create a weekly planner. I made it on my whiteboard, and separated it into 8 columns (one for every day of the week, and an extra one for notes). I was able to then plan when I was going to do what, even if it was something small like post a letter or work an hour on some work. I found it really rewarding when I could rub a task off after completing it, and finding the day blank where I had finished my tasks and had time to relax. This doesn’t necessarily have to be used if you worry about forgetting things, and I believe you can use it to help focus your time into one task and focus on finishing it. Do you feel this could help, or you could give it a try? Is there anything about this you would change?

The second thing I have begun to do is create reminders on my phone for important things. I am able to give it a date it must be done by and, using this with the weekly calendar, I can work out when I need to work on it to get it done in time. This contributes to focusing on one task at a time and not forgetting it, however the environment you are in also takes part in how we work and focus. Here are some tips I have learnt:

Sitting in a room you perhaps don’t usually sit in

Make sure your chair is comfortable

Make sure it is not too hot, or too cold

Sit next to a plant, or have a plant on your desk

Leave your phone in another room, along with any other device you do not need

Divide the task up until little pieces; eg. 5 minutes working, 5 minutes break and so on

Reward yourself when you complete a task!

Have a glass of water by your side

I believe all of these contribute to our focus, especially the room we are in and the distractions we have. Sometimes, people work best with music. I personally don’t work well with music, as I often find myself singing along or listening to the lyrics and ending up losing track of what I am doing.

If you are struggling with school work, there should always be someone at your school who will be available to talk to regarding this. There may be an after school or lunch club where you can go along specifically to work on your assignments, all while a teacher is present for help. Do you feel this may be something to consider?

The final tip I would encourage you to do is dedicate some time, perhaps each day or week, to relax and breathe. Whether we are busy or not, it is always healthy and okay to take a few hours out of an evening to perhaps have a hot bath or have a nice meal. Allowing ourselves this time can help a lot when coming to times where we need to focus, as our stress levels can be reduced.

I really hope these tips might help you, and that you are able to mix it up a little to find what environment you work best in. You are more than welcome however to come back to us with anymore questions, or simply another opinion on this via ask or live chat. You can do this, I believe in you! One day at a time.

Sleeping

Mindfulness

All the best,

Rosie

[katlearnsthings]

Midterm Survival Party!

It’s official. Midterms are OVER and that means we’ve passed the halfway mark. This is usually the part of the semester I feel like I’m drowning by but I’m actually doing pretty well so far! Nevertheless I made sure to block off time to comb through my syllabi’s carefully again to update my planner of any changes to assignments, exams, or projects, as well as add in a few new appointments. I was kept company by an epic ABBA playlist and my new candle from Fly Paper! This one is called “Book Lover” which I felt was entirely appropriate. I also wanted to walk you through what I use to stay organized.

I’ll be the first to admit I’m a weird Studyblr. Not only am I not-so-subtly Harry Potter themed but I also do other things differently than other blogs might. Personally I see this as a bonus. I am all about beauty and perfection, believe me- but I know myself and what I am capable of handwriting-wise. This is why I type 90% of my notes in google docs and only take handwritten notes in some classes and usually over readings only. The reason why is if my handwriting is messy the perfectionist in me can’t stop obsessing over that and I can’t focus on my words. I know there’s a lot of controversy over laptop notes vs handwritten ones but for me it’s faster and I can even add in photos of my professor’s diagrams and other whiteboard write ups in later as a photo.

Secondly, I keep multiple “planners” instead of a mullet journal. No shade to anyone who bullet journals, I actually think it looks really cool and pretty, but again the bad handwriting kinda inhibits my abilities there. Instead I use google calendar on my phone and laptop to keep track of my assignments, group projects, exams, work schedule, and personal appointments. It’s all color coded and fabulous and easy to tell what’s happening next and where. Another planner I use is more traditional, a good old fashioned paper planner. This year’s edition is from Mead and I’m quite liking it. I always go through and fill out the monthly calendar parts first, then I go in as needed and write all the things I need to remember down in it in between classes.

The last “planner” I use is less traditional and more of a to-do list really which is why I’m giving it its own bullet point all the way over here. It’s a free extension (although you can pay for premium should you desire to) on google chrome called Momentum. It gives you breathtakingly beautiful nature stills complete with inspirational quotes that you can save to your personal library for later reflection.  It works as a to-do list where you can keep track of all the things you need to get done today and the best part is even if you close the window, once you’ve written down a goal momentum saves your lists so you don’t have to worry about losing them. It works on IOS, Mac, and Android OS (really anything you can run google chrome on) and is ESSENTIAL to me getting anything done. I don’t know about you but I open my google chrome more than my planner, especially when I’m procrastinating from finishing my homework and looking up sims 4 cheats to try later when I get home.

As far as paper storage goes I am a big fan of simplicity in case you haven’t noticed. One or two folders will usually do it for me, I try to designate some order within them where each class sticks to a side of the folder to discourage intermingling. This is where I stash all my syllabi, in class handouts, handed back graded homework, and also where I’ll stick any papers I need to turn in later to avoid getting them wrinkled on my commute to class. I liked this one from Meijer because of the quote which says: “If it doesn’t challenge you it doesn’t change you”. I wanted that to be my model for the school year so this was the obvious pick. It’s also three hole punched in case I ever need to throw it in a binder (which I hate but we’ll get to that another time) and has pretty sturdy pockets which also contributed to why I chose this one.

[alexxxjo]

goal setting

I wanted to share some stuff with everybody that has helped me on goal setting. Feel free to implement some or none of this into our next phase of training or your life. I find that consistently reevaluating my goals/aims/directions keeps me motivated and focused.Some of my strategies/thoughts on goal setting: 

--- Create goals with deadlines so you can check in and then reflect at the end. I set goals before the start of each month because a monthly calendar is easy for me to stick to and remember. Then when I am setting goals for the next month I reflect on how well I did with prior month’s goals. I also set month goals that require more frequent deadlines/check-ins (i.e., this month I will count macros every day or this month I will spend 45 minutes stretching every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday – I tend to reflect on those more frequently as yes completed or no did not complete today, why? Can I adjust my life so I can complete it tomorrow etc.).

--- Write down your goals and put them somewhere where you can to look at them every day. Re-read them every day. I write mine on a whiteboard in my bedroom or sometimes on my bathroom mirror. Sometimes, I set a daily phone reminder. For example, right now I have a reminder that pings me at 10am and 2pm M-F that says: “Friendly reminder to check in that you’re not holding tension in your body. Drop your shoulders. Unclench your hands. Take a deep breath. Much better.”  I am working on relaxing while at work.  Sometimes I don’t use phone reminders because I am easily overwhelmed by too many pings and maybe that month I am working on removing distractions/removing notifications from life.

--- Be specific. How will you implement the goal? For example, if my month goal is to be able to link 8 C2B - what do I need to do each week to get there? Here I might write: my goal is 8 C2B and I will do that by spending 20 minutes 2 times per week on shoulder mobility and 20 minutes 2 times per week on C2B strength and skill practice.

--- Set goals for different realms of your life where you want to improve, innovate, grow. I have 3 realms I set goals in: (1) lifestyle/wellness, (2) gym, and (3) work.

Lifestyle/wellness examples:

§ Mental health (reflect on 3 things grateful for in your day at the end of each day; meditation goals (duration, frequency, location, styles, focuses); journaling; yoga)

§ Nutrition (meal prep goals; rules; new experiments; cut something out add something in; hydration)

§ Sleep (go to bed by X time every night; no caffeine after 10 am; average 8 hours this month; try X new thing to help sleep)

§ Educational (finish X book; find new author/thinker/inspirational person and read/listen to etc. their shit)

§ Challenge attitudes/behaviors (I will do this thing that I dislike this many times this month or per week or per day this month) (examples for me personally: This month I will ask X people every week about Y thing in life; I will let people finish sentences and not interrupt them with my assumption of what they are about to say)

Gym examples:

§ Obvious ones: mastering new skills, lifting X weight, sign up for X competition/race/event; injury rehab; mobility

§ Less obvious ones: pick a warm up/cool down that you want to do every time you’re at the gym (slow easy row, turkish get ups, glute bridges, hip mobility); narrow in on a fine detail of skill (keep toes pointed in X movement every rep that do this month, notice your breathing every single time you do X movement this month)

Work examples: complete this project, work with this person, seek this kind of new project.

*** Note, you can combine my realms or create your own. A goal that I see as “gym” might be “wellness” for someone else. You might have different areas of your world you want to improve in (maybe family/social/emotional). These categories just work for me 

--- Set goals for different durations: Like I said, I write out goals before the first of every month for the next month. Also on Jan 1 I always set big year-long goals. In the past I have drawn out 1, 5, and 10 year long term goals too. Maybe pair your goals with other cycles – training schedule, work calendars, etc.

--- Be audacious. Set big goals even for “short term” one month goals. If only setting goals that you’re on-track to reach you might miss out knowing if more is possible. Butttttt not always. I like to set goals of all sizes/achievability. Not all goals that are unrealistic. If I set all my goals too big I sometimes lose motivation and lose interest in consistently goal setting.

This is a lot of info and might not all make sense so ask me any questions you have or if you want help breaking down a goal and implementing it, I’d love to help.

[organizingconceptsanddesign-blog]

Monthly Archives: June 2017

Even Professional Organizers Need Help Getting Organized Sometimes

Posted on

June 19, 2017

I was talking to a good friend of mine last week and told her that I was going to spend time over the weekend organizing my garage.  She was surprised that my garage wasn’t already organized.   I explained that EVERYONE hits a brick wall at some point in their life or in some place in their life when it comes to organizing.   For me (and my husband), it’s the garage.

Because our home is relatively small, we use our garage for storage.  After we take the time to organize the garage which is usually about once a year, we try our best to keep it that way.   Unfortunately, as time goes on, things slowly but surely get out of hand.  So, while not the perfect scenario, especially for someone as organized as I am, sometimes things just can’t be perfectly organized.   Perfection is hard to maintain so, as I tell all of my clients, getting organized isn’t about perfection.  Getting organized is about:

1.  Being able to find things when you need them (quickly)

2.  Getting rid of things you don’t need (regularly)

3.  Making sure that things are accessible (especially the items you need frequently)

4.  Making sure that things are where they make sense. For example, plates should be in the kitchen. You’re probably thinking… duh, where else would I put plates. Well, you’d be surprised at the crazy places where I find things when organizing for other people.

5.   Having a place for everything that you want to keep.   If it (whatever “it” is) doesn’t have a place it is considered clutter.  If you don’t have room perhaps its time to get rid of something else to make room.

BTW,  true to my organizing principles, everything does have a place (even in the garage), it’s just that sometimes things don’t find their way back to that place when it comes to the garage.

One more thing… because I have to share my space with my husband, it helps to get him involved in the process.  Neither of us enjoy spending a day organizing the garage when we can be doing something else (or nothing else as the case may be).  So, if he’s involved in the process, he’s more inclined to TRY to maintain the space, at least for awhile.

So, my point is that things don’t have to be perfect to be organized.  They just have to work for you and whoever else lives with you.

If you or your loved ones need help getting things organized or better organized and don’t know where to start, give us a call. WE’D LOVE TO HELP!

It’s Back to School Time

Posted on

June 10, 2017

Back to School is a time for meeting new challenges and taking on new responsibilities.            

The following 7 Tips will help you get organized & help you stay organized throughout the school year.

THE IMPORTANCE OF ROUTINES

Create a morning schedule and practice it at least once before the start of school.

Try setting up a schedule in the morning that will help you stay organized. A sample schedule might be: Wake up and shower at 6:45, get dressed at 7:00, eat breakfast at 7:15, pack your lunch at 7:25, do your hair and makeup at 7:35 and leave at 7:50. b. Make sure you allow extra time in case something goes wrong (ex: you wake up late) c. Follow the same routine every day.

Mornings in most households are busy. To leave yourself enough time make these part of your routine:

Set out your clothes to save time the night before

Also set out any sports equipment for the next day’s extra-curricular activites

Pack your backpack the night before.

In addition to homework, also place lunch money, papers that need to be signed, gym clothes, etc. along with the bag.

TIME MANAGEMENT

If we had more hours in the day, we’d just fill them up with more things to do so USE YOUR TIME WISELY This is a point in your life when time management skills really become important We are soooo busy and have so much to do and remember that anything we can DUMP on paper gets it out of our heads and on to paper where you can see it and be reminded. Writing things down will help you remember so when transferring over to do’s you’re less likely to forget. Prioritize your list so the important things get done. Whatever doesn’t get done today can be done another time. Just make sure it’s written down so you don’t forget. You can take on more personal responsibility by getting yourself out of bed at a certain time every day by setting your own alarm—without any help from parents. You might also explore using your cell phone as a time management tool. If you have difficulty waking up with an alarm clock, try putting it on the other end of your room so you have to get out of bed to shut it off.

CALENDAR/PLANNER:

Choose a daily planner with large weekly format over two pages.

Tape a copy of class schedule to the first page and place copy of schedule on inside of locker.

Be sure your full name and grade level are listed in your agenda.

Use it EVERY DAY and make sure it has enough room for assignments, to do’s and note!

Make sure it is kept in the same location at all times so you know where to find it. I keep mine with my keys.

Do not underestimate the value of keeping an accurate planner

Don’t’ forget to calendar homework assignments, exams, quizzes and project deadlines in your agenda as soon as you get them.

Write the assignment on the day that it is due!

Look ahead in your agenda to see what assignments are coming up.

If it is a big project, then break it down into parts and make your own due dates for each part.

Give yourself PLENTY of time to complete assignments because middle school work is new and different.

Write in reminders one and two weeks before something is due.

Even when you do not have an assignment, write: “NO HOMEWORK.” Once writing in the planner becomes habitual, the student will have few, if any, excuses for not completing an assignment.

Have a special place for your agenda and carry it to every class and bring it home every day.

At the end of every day, read your agenda before you leave the locker area or during your last class to be sure what you need to take home to study or complete homework.

Another way to keep track of assignments is through a monthly calendar hung up at home.

There are some assignments, such as science projects, that will be assigned further ahead of time.

Break down the project into smaller projects that can be done along with the nightly homework, rather than a day or two.

Of course, you can always use the calendar on your phone, computer, tablet.

Make sure there’s a place for your “to do’s.

Make sure there’s a place for your appointments (sports, music lessons)

Make sure there’s a place to schedule your projects, quiz’s, tests

ORGANIZATION:

Everything will be MUCH EASIER if you are organized.

Don’t rely on your parents or teachers to keep you organized.

Organization should be important both at home and at school.

Organization is a skill that will help you not only in school but also in every aspect of your life.

If you establish an organized routine, you will lay the foundation for academic success.

There are many different ways to organize anything.

Everyone organizes in his or her own way.

You have to decide which way of organizing is easiest and best for YOU!

*NOTE: Some people like files, some people like piles: some people like things out so they can see them; some people like things put away. III. The following are some tips and ideas that may help you decide how to BETTER organize your items for school.

    9.  At home, you should have a special place for all of your belongings, not just schoolwork. (Maybe it’s your desk or, it can be a shelf in your closet)

   10.  Always keep things in the same place so you know where to look for them and where to store them. For example, put your backpack by the door where you will see it on your way out.

   11.  To keep your space clutter free, put away your things when you finish using them.

12.  You can place books and folders in your backpack and secure them in a corner or on a shelf.

13.  A special container for supplies such as pens, pencils, markers and scissors will also be helpful

LOCKERS

Practice before you need to use it!

Try it out several times to make sure the key works or that you remember the combination. b. Keep the combination written down somewhere where you can find it (ie, your wallet, purse, backpack) and not where anyone else would know what it is. The locker combination should be written down at home as well.

Having a clean, organized locker is really important as well.

Purchase extra shelves and locker organizers. The shelves will give you more space for books.

Keep a magnetic pencil holder and a whiteboard on your locker door.

The magnetic pencil holder is for spare pens, pencils, highlighters, erasers, and supplies.

The whiteboard is where you will write your assignments, classes, and memos on.

How well you keep your locker arranged and decorated is up to you.

The ultimate goal is to be organized so that you will know where your things are and where to put things away.

Look over your list/agenda at your locker each day before leaving school to make sure that you bring home the correct books and notebooks.

One big pitfall of being disorganized at school is forgetting a book at school.

Getting in the habit of going over the assignment list at your locker will create a positive habit of always having the materials to do assignments.

Don’t give out your locker combination.

Keep your cell phone in your locker. HOWEVER, never leave it on because if it goes off, and a teacher happens to walk by, it can be confiscated or misconstrued by the authorities.

Anything you don’t need at school, take home immediately

BINDERS

It is a good idea to get your binders organized from the start of the school year.

It’s always nice to start off on the right foot!

Make sure everything has a place and stays in it! Math papers don’t belong in your English notebook.

There are several different options and you should choose the one that you like best:

You can have separate binders for each class and choose a different color or pattern for each subject.\

Purchase dividers for each binder and label a section for class work, homework, notes and other sections as needed.

The binder should include at least one two-pocket folder to keep handouts and other items that the student will have to remove from the binder.

For important handouts such as a syllabus, use sheet protectors to preserve these items.

Or, you can: Color-code notebooks and/or book covers by subject area.

Keep the color-coding for the subjects the same every year.

It is easier to remember which subject is which color, and it saves money and the environment because you might be able to reuse items.

Get covers that are diverse in design or color so that you eliminate grabbing the wrong book or folder by mistake.

Have a special folder or place for homework and for notes to your parents. Carry this folder to all classes and home every day.

You can also use an expanding folder with 6 or more dividers in it to keep your homework or anything important in each section according to your class.

Have a separate project folder to keep all your project information and papers together in one place

Keep binders and folders organized.

Take your folders home periodically and clean them out.

Keep papers in their corresponding notebook at all times. It will make things so much easier. You won’t have to be worried on the way home about which binder something is in

Many schools or teachers will require you to have a binder for their class and even schedule “notebook checks” where they make sure that you have all your papers in the right places in your binder

Keep your books and binders for the same class together so that they are easy to grab. .

HOMEWORK

Always do your homework Set a designated time to do all of your homework

Limit distractions for concentration purposes until study time is over (Close the door, turn off the tv, cell phone)

Prioritize your assignments

One thing to keep in mind is to work on tomorrow first!

Some assignments are given a day or two before they are due. But, be sure if time allows, that they do everything on the first night assigned. For instance, if on Monday, one assignment is given in math that is due Tuesday and a short composition in English due Wednesday, have them do both. Because, on Tuesday, they could get several more assignments due Wednesday- Monday was a light day, and there would have been time. If you wait another day, you face the possibility of being inundated with more work!

Do your most difficult homework assignment first so you can get the hard stuff out of the way.

Designate a study space, preferably a clean and well lit area

If you have sports or other extra-curricular activities that might conflict with your homework schedule, plan accordingly

Keep completed homework assignments in the inside front pocket of the binder for that subject so you will always know where to find it.

When you’re done with your homework, place it in your backpack in an area by the door

You don’t want to lose homework and possibly suffer a lower grade because you can’t find work to submit to your teachers

Always be prepared.

Have extra sharpened pencils on hand as well as a water bottle.

Keep phone numbers of two people in each class so you can call them to get information about homework assignments.

Visit your teachers’ websites to check homework assignments.

Bottom line is if you’re organized, it will make your life much easier!

[swordarkeereon]

Planning All the Things

I have a confession to make. I’m a bit of a planning junkie. I’m not always as meticulous with my planning as I should be, but when I am, I’m far more productive. I started to get back into my meticulous planning habit this past September when I discovered my life felt like it was sliding off the rails with so many to-dos. 

I had to move my “coven whiteboard” to a spreadsheet because it grew way beyond this…

Where my planning really shines, aside from my obsession with business and project spreadsheets, is in my day-to-day paper journals, and in 2019 I’m going to work harder to make planning fun again!  I know, that sounds like a silly campaign slogan, but let’s face it – planning can be boring.

Oftentimes we start with these stark journals, and if you’re creative about it, you use colored pens, highlighters, stickers, and decorative tape to liven it up.  Of course looking pretty isn’t the only reason to do this. Color coding can help you figure out what needs to be done at a glance and what can be put off. Stickers can be very personal and functional to help you track goals or habits.  All this decoration can boost your morale and motivation, as well as make you happy (instead of anxious) when you see your planner.

Before you add anything, planners can look like a boring way to plan.

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” ― Benjamin Franklin

I view planning as an imperative way to prepare for my week. When I don’t prepare, I tend to slack off more and not stay focused on my goals. When I follow the plan I end up with more free time! Probably because I pick and choose what is important to me and prioritize what absolutely needs to get done, and what doesn’t. 

So why not just use an electronic to-do list and your phone calendar? While those tools certainly have their place, there’s something about writing out the schedule longhand that helps me stay grounded. It’s more solidifying that way, and I find I keep to the schedule better. It’s a mental thing.

A glimpse into my crazy schedule.

What kind of planner to get? 

There are so many different types of planners available these days. I saw some neat ones at Office Depot earlier this week for $20. November is the time to get them. But for the planner junkies out there – there’s the Happy Planner (often sold at craft stores, like Hobby Lobby), the Erin Condren planner, the Panda Planner, the Passion Planner, the Get To Work planner, and the list goes on and on. Some planners are built for scheduling, others for goal reaching. Hell, they even have planners just for moms.  Finding the right planner can take some time.  The Get To Work and Erin Condren planners are pretty neat with all the features they offer, but they’re pricey.

The two-page spread for each day of the Panda Planner. I often found myself using one page for 2-3 days so I didn’t feel like I was wasting paper.

The Panda Planner has a two-page spread per day, which I found was overkill for me and made me anxious. The Passion Planner was the one that worked for me best by giving me a weekly overview and not making me feel overwhelmed. I also like the price of it. But it took me a few years of back and forth before I finally made that choice, and even then, I’ve seriously considered splurging for an Erin Condren planner. However, they are dated only, and the one I want is $88 with shipping. Passion Planner runs me about half that at $44 with shipping.

My New 2019 Passion Planner

I use the Passion Planner for my life and my writing. However, for publishing, I use Corinne O’Flynn’s Author Productivity Publishing Planner from authorproductivity.com. That’s a good place to track everything from new releases, sales, word-counts, events, newsletter swaps, advertising campaigns, launches, publishing due dates, and series planning because it goes so much deeper than a regular planner. Plus, I don’t want my Daemonolatry, day job, and day-to-day life stuff on my publishing schedule. It may be overkill because I do put important publishing stuff in my regular planner, but only because that’s the planner I carry with me everywhere. The publishing planner stays right there on my desk along with the desk pad calendar (for everything non-publishing).

The 2018 Publishing Planner from authorproductivity.com 

My Planning Tips

You’ll notice a lot of my planning is rather parochial and a mish-mash of hurried notes on the go. That’s because I fell out of the habit of giving myself an hour of planning time every Sunday. Shame on me!  That Sunday hour of planning time is crucial to keeping yourself both productive and sane. This coming year, I vow to make the planning more like a meditative, creative exercise in time management. 

Something you should all know is that it’s a proven fact that the most successful people are planners. They produce at a higher rate because they plan, and they prioritize. They are constantly reviewing their plans.

My advice to those of you new to planning is to experiment and have fun with it. Just like most things, finding your planning comfort zone is a matter of trial and error. However, if you do nothing else, schedule that 1 hour on Sunday night (or your equivalent start day to your work week) to plan your upcoming week. Make it a habit and stick with it. It’s amazing how quickly a schedule can get derailed when you miss a planning session.

Some of my planner stickers, tape, and pens. Yes, I bought this stuff specifically for planning.

So, what kind of planner are you?

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SEO Maturity: Evaluating Client Capabilities

Clients are not always educated about SEO. That lack of understanding could lead to roadblocks and postpone the job you are attempting to achieve, but knowing that your customer's degree of SEO maturity will provide help. In the current Whiteboard Fridaywe welcome that the fantastic Heather Physioc to expound upon the maturity versions she is developed to assist you diagnose your customer's search maturity and eliminate blockers to your achievement.

Video Transcription What up, Moz lovers? My name is Heather Physioc. I am Director of the Discoverability Group in VML. We're in Kansas City. International advertising agency headquartered directly in the center of the map.

Now we are going to discuss how to diagnose the maturity of your SEO client. I really don't mean psychological maturity. I mean adulthood when it comes to SEO abilities, their capacity to perform the job, in addition to their organizational program adulthood. Currently a great deal of instances when a customer signs a contract with us, we make the assumption that they are knowledgeable, they are motivated, they are purchased in to perform the search function.

We proceed dumping these recommendations in their lap, and we are trucking full speed forward. But we're surprised when we begin hitting on blockers and the job does not go live. I studied over 140 of our coworkers in the research business, and they reported conducting into blockers, such as low prioritization and buy for the job, restricted technical resources for programmers or budgeting for copywriters, very low advocacy, higher turnover, and numerous different items that stand in the way.

I didn't only ask about the issues. I inquired about the answers, and among those tools that came from this was the capability to diagnose the customer's maturity. Therefore a maturity model is meant to evaluate a company's capacity to evolve into a clinic. The purpose, the objective of this is to know where they stand now, where they would like to go, and also the measures it is going to have to arrive. For more info click SEO Agency Malaysia

The SEO Capabilities matrix

Harmful At the low end of this scale, a customer could possibly be engaging in spammy, obsolete, or damaging SEO clinics which are doing more damage than good.

Tactical From that point, they might be strategic. They are doing some super fundamental SEO, believe name tags and meta description tags, but nothing surpasses is occurring here, and it is not too tactical or adapting to brand objectives.

Strategic From that point, the newest moves to the tactical stage. They are beginning to align the job to targets. They are beginning to be a bit more search informed. They are becoming past the titles and metas, plus they are more comprehensive with all the job. While great things is happening here, it is not too complex, and it tends to be quite siloed in the other areas.

Practice From that point, the company might move to a clinic. Search is beginning to turn into a method of life . They are getting more sophisticated in their job. They are beginning to join the dots between these different stations. They are using data in more economical ways to induce their search plan.

Culture Then out there, perhaps they are at a degree of civilization for their SEO abilities. Therefore search here is beginning to be part of the advertising DNA. They are integrating across clinics. They are doing cutting edge. They are analyzing and innovating and enhancing their SEO execution, plus they're on the lookout for the upcoming big thing. However, these groups understand they have to evolve as the business evolves. We do not only take a look at their entire SEO program and find out where the customer goes about the map.

✓ Data-driven We really break it down into some bits. To begin with, data-driven. Is your company using analytics and information and mixing it together with different resources even to create very wise marketing decisions?

✓ SEO for articles Next is satisfied. Are you currently doing any SEO for articles in any way? Are you currently implementing a few SEO fundamentals, but just during and following publication? Or are you currently using search data to really induce their editorial calendar along with other information inputs, like societal listening or internet analytics?

✓ Mobility From that point, freedom. Do they don't have any mobile experience in any way, or do they have a totally responsive and technically cellular friendly website, but they are not investing any more in that cellphone optimization? Or are they a totally mobile-first mindset? Are they always iterating and improving usability, speed, and content for their mobile users?

✓ Technical ability Beyond this, we can take a look at just how technically educated they are. Can they have a great deal of broken material, or are they at the top of tracking and keeping their specialized wellbeing and availability?

✓ On-page/off-page SEO

Then some normal SEO best practices . Are they restricted or innovative in search-engine SEO, off-page SEO?

✓ Integrating across stations Are they incorporating across stations rather than needing hunt reside in a silo?

✓ Adopting new technologies Are you currently embracing new technologies when it comes to hunt? Some customers have an extremely large desire for this, however they pursue after the glistening object.

Others have a higher desire and a higher tolerance for risk, and they are making hard decisions about which new technologies to invest in when it comes to their own search program. You might also need to personalize this maturity model and also include items like neighborhood search or global hunt or e-commerce. However, this is a superb place to get started. So this does an excellent job of picking which jobs to start with to get a customer, but it does not really reach the center of why our job is not getting executed.

The Organizational Search Maturity matrix

I developed another maturity version, also this one is much more conventional and you see it over other businesses too. However, this one concentrates on the research program within the business. Here is actually the squishy organizational material.

✓ People That is individuals. Can they have the required talent within the business or within their own scope? Which may not only mean SEOs. Which means are that they scoping suitably for development and content requirements?

✓ Process What about procedure? Are they using a specified and always improving procedure for the addition of search? I do not mean incremental best practices for executing a name tag. This is not directions or a tutorial. This is a procedure for including natural search specialists at the ideal moments in the ideal projects.

✓ Planning What about going? A good deal of times we find that customers do hunt quite reactively and after the actuality. We wish to achieve a stage with a business where it is preplanned, it is proactively contained, and it is always adapting to brand, organization, or effort objectives.

✓ Knowledge Next is understanding. We are aware this sector is complex. There are a whole lot of moving pieces. We wish to learn how knowledgeable is your company about hunt. That does not necessarily mean the way to do SEO, however, maybe the significance or the effect or the results of it. How dedicated are they learning through studying or parties or trainings? In the minimum, the company they are hiring to perform search should be exceedingly educated about it.

✓ Capacity Afterward capacity. Can they possess the prioritization inside the business? Are they budgeting suitably? Can they have the tools and the way and the capability to have the job done?

Initial As soon as we've assessed a customer against those standards, we can locate them in a first phase where the app is quite new, they are not performing any search in all...

Repeatable . . .to repeatable, meaning they are beginning to incorporate it, however, it is not super cohesive however. They are not enforcing the procedure. They do not have super committed tools just yet.

Defined Up into specified, where they really are documenting their procedure. It is continuing to iterate and enhance. They are getting more educated. They are devoting more funds. They are prioritizing it even better.

Managed We can proceed up in to handled, where that is continuing to enhance even further...

Optimized . . .and into optimized. So again, this is where search applications are a part of their business's DNA. It is always contained. They're constantly improving their procedure. They're maintaining or even raising the talent they have committed to the job. They are likely it better and brighter than ever before, plus they have sufficient capability to maintain iterating and developing in their search app.

With that, the measures to finish this procedure and find out where your customer falls on both of those maturity versions, I need to be clear isn't a one time exercise. This isn't a scenario where you are only punching numbers into a spreadsheet as well as the bureau is grading the customer and our task is completed. This must be a dialogue.

We will need to invite stakeholders at various levels, either on the customer side and on the service side, or in case you're in-house, only multiple levels within the business, and we ought to request opinions from several views to paint a more precise picture of where the customer stands now and agree about the measures that we will need to take to proceed. When you perform these adulthood examinations, this is not enough.

That is step 1. This is not a end point. We will need to use this as a springboard to get a dialogue to discover their pain issues or the barriers they encounter, within their own organization, that will save you from getting that job done. We have to have frank and honest discussions about the things we will need to clear from how to do our very best work. Having said that, I trust you could try out this.