Prepare for Success

It was so nice to be able to meet some of the freshmen students and parents today as well as to have a few minutes to reconnect with some of my seniors!  I have missed all of you and it made my day to see you.  I'm looking forward to another great day with sophomores and juniors tomorrow.

Over the next week as you wind down your summer and focus on your summer assignments, I'd also like to ask you to try to spend some time considering how you can put yourself in the best position possible to successful in the new school year.

The first step is to set your goals for the year.  What are you hoping to accomplish?  What do you need to do to reach these goals?  It is often easier to dream big and, quite honestly, most of you could achieve any goal that you set your mind to, but it will take dedication and commitment.

Many of you are also out searching for new school supplies.  As you buy your folders, binders, and notebooks I encourage you to think about what organization system tends to work best for you.  Are you a "stuffer" who just stuffs papers into whatever happens to be available?  If so, folders are probably best for you.  If you are the type of person who wants to be able to combine notes from class with notes that you take from the book, you might gravitate toward a binder with loose-leaf paper rather than a spiral notebook. Whatever system you select, make sure it is one that will work for you.

Preparing for success is probably most closely connected to having an organization system for tracking your assignments.  Perhaps you bought a planner at schedule pick up day today (or will tomorrow).  Maybe you are going to use an app on your phone (there are lots of options of useful apps out there.)  Or it is possible that you do something else creative such as using a dry erase marker on your binder each day.  It doesn't matter to me what type of an organization system you have selected, but it is essential that you pick something and commit yourself to using it!

This will be a great year!  I hope you are looking forward to getting started (even though it means that summer is over) and if you need help with setting reasonable goals or with organization, please don't hesitate to stop in and see me.