The Middle School Student's Guide to Ruling the World!: Organizational skills and homework management for middle school students

The National Middle School Association featured Susan Mulcaire's article "Are Your Students Prepared for the Organizational Demands of Middle School?" in September's E-Connections newsletter. Read

The Palo Alto Daily News wrote about the Middle School Guide on November 5, 2007. Read

Here are some TIPS and LINKS to help you get started on the road to success in middle school.

Tip! It's Group Project time! Group projects can be a great middle school learning experience, but they can be difficult to manage. The key to a successful group project is communication. Group project members should exchange phone numbers and email addresses as soon as the project has been assigned. Hold a group meeting. (Hint: Use the Group Project Organizer you can find at "Fun Forms from the Guide.") Make sure that each project member clearly understands what his or her project task is, when and where it is due. Distribute tasks fairly. Decide on dates, times and locations for project meetings and note the dates in your planner! Good luck!

Tip! Start the new semester out the right way. Update your planner! Log on to your school's website. Check out the 2008 annual calendar. Note in your planner all of the dates and events that impact you like finals, breaks, bell schedule changes, rallies, team, sports or play tryouts, and holidays. After that, focus on your personal schedule. Note in your planner items that impact you over the next month, like sports practices, ortho appointments or birthdays. Write them in your planner! Have your planner, and a pen or pencil in hand the minute you walk into your classrooms and write down assignments and all other class schedule items that impact your time and management of your workload. Use abbreviations and separate entries with bullet points!

Tip! Did you know that in middle school, what you do and how you do it can be just as important as what you know? You may be the smartest kid in the class. You study hard. You ace tests and quizzes. But, maybe your're not quite as diligent when it comes to homework or other assignments. You've got a few missing or late assignments, and you forgot to make up that lab you missed. "It doesn't matter," you tell yourself, "My teacher knows how smart I am because of my awesome test and quiz scores!" Well, you may be in for a shock. When your final grade arrives in the mail, you stare in disbelief at the grade you received! What happened? You've just found out the hard way that in a grade averaging system, those seemingly minor missing and late assignments can wipe out all of your good efforts on tests and quizzes. Under grade averaging, those assignments, homework and labs all counted toward a percentage of your final grade. So, be smart! Know and understand your teacher's grade averaging schedule. Do all of your assignments, turn in your homework, and make up missed work. Remember, even the small stuff counts!

Tip! Good organization starts with your binder. Keep your papers, homework and handouts separated by class. Never file language arts papers or handouts with science stuff, or math papers in your biology section -- you get the idea. Keep important handouts in sheet protectors in your binder. The sheet protectors will keep them right where you can see them, and keep them from falling out of your binder and getting lost or trashed. Homework, permission slips, and papers that go from school to home and back, should be kept in a pocket folder in your binder. Always put your homework in your binder as soon as it's finished. Never leave it on your desk to put into your binder the next morning.

Tip! Go to The Middle School Student's Guide to Ruling the World! and get the rest of your workload organized!

Here are some excellent Homework Help websites:

Fact Monster Homework Center: www.factmonster.com/homework

Yahooligans!-School Bell: www.yahooligans.yahoo.com/school_bell/

Jishka Homework Help: www.jishka.com

Multnomah County Library Homework Center: www.multcolib.org/homework

Yahooliogans! Reference: www.yahooligans.yahoo.com/reference

Math

Dr. Math Middle School Archive: www.mathforum.org

Math.com - Homework Help: www.math.com

Check back every month for new organizational tips!

Webmath: www.webmath.com