Study Tips for a Productive Second Semester
Concerns within and about our contemporary educational systems have been voiced for years. The United States has consistently ranked last amongst OECD countries tested on math gains and second-to-last on literacy gains.
And then Covid came. Schools shut down for months, thousands of districts adopted a pass/fail grading policy, and students and teachers had to adapt to teaching and learning in an entirely new medium. While nobody can argue that distance learning had its own slew of complications, it did provide a welcome disruption – a metaphorical kick in the rear to stagnating educational institutions.
As administrators and educators are continuing to navigate the ongoing health crisis, we too should learn from this disruption and pursue pedagogical renewal, both within the classroom and ourselves. Here are a few suggestions:
Rebuild motivation. For many of us, the pandemic became an excuse to avoid work. With online learning, students could easily slack off (since many teachers gave students until the end of the semester to turn work in) and even cheat on tests. Unfortunately, motivation is just like any other habit: it takes practice and effort to sustain. The first step is looking inwards to identify why it’s hard for you to stay motivated. After you’ve identified the root cause, it’s time to reframe that cause in order to open up options. Reframing often entails a critical examination of language and rephrasing: “there’s just no point in doing this assignment” becomes “while I may not see an immediate benefit to completing this assignment, I know that avoiding responsibilities will ultimately not help me achieve my goals.”
Learn to self-advocate. Not to sound like a broken record, but another lesson we’ve learned these past years is how can never fully be in control. It can often feel like outside forces (parents, teachers, an endlessly mutating virus, etc.) render us in an involuntary stasis. Self-advocacy pertains to charting a strategic course in spite of these feelings, in school as well as in life. A fundamental rule for self-advocacy in school is to communicate with your teachers ahead of time. Alert them to family news, sports games, extracurricular constraints, or even mental health issues. Explain yourself thoroughly, explore support systems at home and in school, and learn to accept “no” for an answer.
Build a healthy relationship with devices. Technology is ubiquitous. Online school required at least seven hours of screen time a day, usually more. (And TikTok might have “required” another seven hours.) Most of us are able to intellectually grasp the ways in which social media platforms exploit deep-seated human needs, but remain unable to resist them. Having a healthy relationship with technology looks different for everybody, but take some time to write up a formal plan for you and your devices, then build a routine around it. This routine doesn’t have to be complicated – it could be as simple as placing your phone in airplane mode from 10pm to 7am each night.
One takeaway here is to create new routines, new ways of being, and new relationships to others and yourself. Everything is changing – the only way to keep up is to change alongside it.
Many students benefit from building positive habits alongside a supportive mentor. Enlist the help of a trusted adult or an expert study skills coach to help you gain self-awareness, discover your unique sources of motivation, and set a clear plan for a successful semester.