One of my concerns when I have thought about all of you trying to learn from home is that there are MANY of you who already struggle with getting work done effectively at home. I can't even begin to count the number of students who use their options/ prep and lunch times to finish up work or try to hurry and get everything done because they don't want to have to worry about trying to complete the assignments at home. For others, you get caught in the cycle of "I'll do it later" always thinking that some other moment in time will be when you feel motivated to complete your work. This typically looks like you thinking, "I don't want to work on this during my lunch so I'll just do this tonight when I get home" and then you get home and think, "I don't want to work on this now, I'll do it in the morning before school" followed the next morning with "ugh, I don't have time to get this done now, I'll do it during lunch/ prep." And the cycle continues. The reality is there is no better time. But, even if I say that and even if you KNOW that, it still is a pattern of behavior that is hard to break.
There are definite advantages/ disadvantages of learning from home. You get to sleep in later. (Something many of you desperately want to do.) You get to create your own environment that meets your learning needs. And you are in an environment that typically feels safe and supported. But, all of those advantages can also back-fire and work against you. It is easy for teenagers to sleep half the day away. The environment where you might do your work may also be the same place where you typically sit to play video games. And a place where you feel relaxed, doesn't always elicit enough push to focus and get work accomplished.
So, if you realize already that keeping up with learning remotely is going to be hard for you, what can you do? I have lots of suggestions for you to consider...
- Come up with a plan. What is going to be reasonable for YOU? In addition to completing your school work, what are the other expectations for you with your family? Are you expected to help with your little brother/ sister? Are multiple people in your family sharing the same computer? All of those are key reasons that you need to have a plan. If you start with a plan then you can always modify it and adjust, but if you have no plan and no "to do list" items for the day, it is going to be really easy to reach the end of the day without accomplishing anything.
- On social media you have likely seen "experts" spelling out ideal daily schedules for kids and teens. While some students will absolutely want and need every minute to be spelled out for them, many of you will feel it is too strict and abandon it without ever really trying to actually follow the schedule. So, come up with a loose enough schedule that works for you. I know that for many of you when you sit down to do school work, 80% of the time ends up being doing something else - searching for the right music to listen to, checking social media, watching a YouTube video, getting distracted by a video game, responding to a text, taking a FaceTime call, trying to refocus on what you were supposed to be doing, and, at best, 20% of your time is actually on doing the work. I have seen many students find success by blocking out 3 times of 30 minutes where they fully and intensely work. Switch the phone to Do Not Disturb, turn it off, give it to a parent, set it in another room, etc. - anything so you don't absent-mindedly grab it and get caught in your old patterns. Set an alarm for 30 minutes and during those 30 minutes go full out on your work. Apply yourself, read, write, calculate, whatever is expected and do it intentionally for 30 minutes. And then stop. Be done. Go back to doing the things you wanted to do... the things that typically distract you. By working intensely for 30 minutes you are getting work accomplished, but it isn't so long that you will feel as if you are missing out on other activities which are definitely more fun than doing work. And then, two other times in the day, repeat this schedule and time block. A lot of students can do this successfully if you wake up, give yourself time to do your normal morning routine, and then when you have finished that and caught up on all that there is to know about your friends for the moment, do 30 minutes of work before you eat (probably lunch since you most likely slept in). Do 30 more minutes after lunch some time, and 30 minutes after dinner if you like to spread it out. As you start to implement this routine, you may need to adjust the schedule to your needs. Are your friends more active and wanting to talk more later in the day? If so, maybe get the 3rd work session in earlier so that you can have that time to relax and enjoy without school work hanging over your head. YOU get to set the plan, so you get to adjust it to make it work, but try this idea for 4-5 days and see if it works for you.
- Be realistic with yourself. You are going to need time to transition. If you think about life as normal... you would wake up, get ready, go to school, and then do school work. Chances are there were lots of mornings when you would wake up and think, "I don't want to go to school," but then you would get up, get ready, go to school and by the time you were at school you had made that transition and you were ready to learn. You don't have those same signals and cues, but you can try to create some transition signals to help shift your mind and body into thinking it is time to do school work. If you notice that you get stuck, DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT! It means you need a change to help you transition. Stretch, do jumping jacks, take three big deep breaths, go pet your dog or cat, or (if you have a laptop or Chromebook) move your work space somewhere different like the kitchen table.
- You are going to need to figure out a plan for how you will set up some accountability. At school, you normally are handing in assignments face to face with your teachers and that inherently creates it's own internal reward system. But we don't have that now... and it is hard to replicate that same feeling when submitting assignments electronically. So try to figure out who you could have as an accountability partner... who can you be truly open and honest with that will help you stay focused and get work done? It might be someone else at your house, but most of all it needs to be someone you will be honest with because you can be sitting at your computer in your room for hours and your parents can come in to check on you and no one will know that you were actually sitting there playing Minecraft for hours instead of doing your work. (Again, that goes back to fully work for shorter time periods and then allow yourself the freedom and flexibility to do those things you want to do.) So, maybe it will be one of your parents or siblings, or perhaps it is one of your friends who also wants to get some work done, but knowing that you will have to report back on your progress and how you did at following through on your plan and any pitfalls you ran into is valuable and can help keep you on track.
There is no question that this is going to be a BIG adjustment to how you learn and interact with your teachers - just like you are also having to adjust to being at home and away from your friends. So experiment and try some new strategies and approaches. If it works - keep doing it. If it bombs - abandon that idea and try something else. Most of all though, please apply yourself and get some school work done! I believe in you! I know you can do this. Let me know if you need more help.
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