middle school homework planner

middle school homework planner

The Importance of Using a Middle School Homework Planner

1. Introduction

As I have observed, the only students who actually use the homework planner are the students who consistently hand in their homework, and they all tend to do better than the ones who don’t. They also happen to be the students who actively elect to do at least one sport. Though it seems as though students only use these planners for the administration’s convenience, they at least find some sort of personal benefit in using them. The planners force students to follow and become used to a schedule. For many adolescents, scheduling is a foreign issue and simple priority setting often becomes a difficult part of their lives. Personal agendas help students bump up their grades, and they make learning more fun and painless by allowing for more free time. Students also must learn the importance of work persistence and delayed gratification. It’s based on work persistence that a student will earn a higher grade, and many try to stick to a simpler and less timely way in which to accomplish their immediate goals. They must resist against the constant temptations of other activities and types of work—either inside or outside of school—that can come in the way. By learning to set their priorities in a way where assignments are put first, students accidentally push themselves towards more responsibility-taking actions and efficient studying methods, rather than excusing their habitual use of the last-minute cramming tactic.

With a homework planner, students could easily keep track of school-wide test days like PSATs, ASVABS, and Regents exams, as these are all notable events, actions, and requirements that could change a student’s homework load overnight. The advantages that come with students utilizing their planners can only be monitored by the administration, staff, and most importantly, the parents of these children. The administrators can do so much to enforce the use of these assignment calendars. They can force students to show their homework and the first thing in the morning just as they do with planners. They also must go through them to make sure that nothing intrusive is contained therein.

A common problem among middle and high school students is the hesitation and frustration that comes with completing and turning in their homework. These are the years in which students need to learn how to practically use an assignment calendar or homework planner. Many students simply give up and fail to turn anything in past the first week of school because of the excessive work they have outside of school. Others don’t attempt to do their assignments because they procrastinate or are simply lazy—and they let other things get in the way. As we know, homework is the main way in which students flourish in their own learning, and it gives them the added preparation that they need for tests and quizzes. But they refuse to understand that because of this, they can’t keep excusing their incompletion’s.

2. Benefits of Using a Homework Planner

Even if a student completes several hours of homework a night, without a homework planner to tell them what to do, they may still have trouble remembering to bring the correct assignments back to school. In middle school, students are often given permission to leave their assignments at school and finish them during non-class hours. Other students find shortcuts and complete part of the assignment or start it before class. Regardless of these two scenarios, the student will need to remember to finish the assignment and hand it to the teacher. Other times, students are asked to bring back classroom materials for their class. It may depend if middle school teachers enforce a rule where students are given trouble if they do not have classroom supplies or homework at the beginning of class. There are not many students who can remember everything they need without a reminder.

Other than in class, a middle school student is given no reminders or chances to write down assignments or deadlines. It is important for students to realize that when they forget an assignment or test date, they cannot just look it up online or ask the teacher again. A homework planner is an easy way to avoid these types of problems. A homework planner helps to manage students’ time, giving them chances to prioritize one assignment over another. Many students spend a lot of time on an assignment that is not worth very much or is not due for a while. For example, they might spend several hours researching and writing an essay but ignore daily math homework that took them much less time to write. Students may underestimate the amount of time required to complete an assignment or study for a test. A student who does not have a homework planner is extremely unlikely to have a realistic sense of how much work they have put off. With a homework planner, students can keep track of their assignments and have a better understanding of how to budget their time. If a student has a realistic sense of what’s ahead of them, they will make better academic choices and commit more time to school work.

In middle school, students are expected to fend for themselves as they move from one classroom to another, taking on increasingly harder classes. Being organized is a very important skill; most middle school students are simply not organized. In public middle schools, students are given somewhere around five minutes between each class. A homework planner can help with organization, time management, and serve as a reminder of assignments that need to be done. Without a homework planner, middle school students are likely to forget, lose, or have trouble with assignments. Many students fit in some homework during these breaks between classes when they have a homework planner.

3. How to Effectively Use a Homework Planner

The power contained in the planner comes from entrenching the habits into a daily routine in order to better prepare our youngsters for high school and beyond, because self-discipline, setting specific goals, becoming organized, and establishing priorities are virtues which truly begin and will follow them throughout their lives and directly determine the type of life they will be able to expect to lead. The way to utilize an MS6 Minder as effectively as possible is for middle school students (with a parent guiding them for a while) to set aside an established place and time at home at which time homework is to be taken on with focus and determination with the intention of maintaining laser-like focus, paying attention to the task at hand at the exclusion of all others.

Nothing in life just automatically happens in its most proper sense, and the same is true for how to effectively use a homework planner. The most critical assignment—before going anywhere else—is to first compose a place setup that truly works. This is not a detail that just happens—it is instead something very deliberate. Careful, detailed thought and time needs to be spent initially putting this plan into place and setting up this system for oneself if our results are to be optimum. Power in use of the planner comes from the power that is apparent when getting results and by becoming organized and focusing on self-discipline when it’s time to focus on school work.

4. Tips for Staying Organized and Motivated

At the beginning of the academic year, the student needs to enrich their lives with the appearance of the teacher, the homework, the reading assignments, and even the extracurricular schedule. With the aid of a planner, any level of work is manageable. Especially if you introduce a system of color coding. Doing homework right after school. Plan a start time for homework. Not an end time. If your son or daughter is so inclined, you can also set up an in-between homework time when they take a break. After a long day, your student (and in all likelihood, you) is tired and hungry. The blocks can be lumped in classes on alternating days. For example, on Mondays, you can have A. Classes, and on Tuesdays, B. Classes. This forces your student to make progress every day on the heavy class days, while the following session lightens the load a bit. And if you can get your child to take on a productive activity that reinforces the material and builds executive skills, such as a musical instrument or martial arts, well, you’re ahead of the game.

Here are a few tips to help you stay organized and motivated in middle school. The first is to use a planner. Successfully planning ahead is the key that unlocks all the traps students face as they enter the hallways of middle school. Out go the teacher’s attention span, the student’s well-honed five-minutes-before-the-bell study skills, and the flexible, day-by-day agenda that high school seniors can often fall back on for a get-through-school strategy. The planner is that rare tool both students need and are likely to use.

5. Conclusion

Once you and your parents have the planner, work together to establish the environment in which the planner is to be used. By the end of the school year, if not before, you’ll be amazed at how not only your homework awareness has changed but also your grades. Now good grades are not the only indication of accomplishment, nor are they guaranteed to improve because of the student planner. However, good grades usually are the outcome for those students that take the time to focus, plan and work each assignment.

So now that you know why the different aspects of homework planning are important, is it time to rush right out and purchase your own copy of the Middle School Student Planner? Actually, you have some very good reasons to do so. You have your birthday, and you might ask for one as a birthday gift. You might consider purchasing your planner online since you can get a greater variety of cover designs and they even personalize them with your name. Either way, make sure you take part in the decision process. The procedure allows you to learn about the financial responsibilities and buy-in to the project. This way you’ll be more apt to use the planner if you’ve participated versus just being told that you will get one.