Home / Club Z! Tutoring / 14 TIPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL SCHOOL YEAR

14 TIPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL SCHOOL YEAR

By Joanne Foster, EdD

As the new school year unfolds, the time is ripe to consider some important tips about creativity, productivity, and well-being so as to inspire parents and kids.

Please see these tips for fortifying kids’ capacities now, and throughout the school year.

1. Creativity develops over time, with the right kinds of learning opportunities, challenges, and supports.

People are at their most creative when they’re doing what they love to do. Help children
harness that enjoyment by finding their own niches and experiential pleasures, and
support them in following their interests as they change over time.

2. Resourcefulness furthers intellectual growth, and can spark inquisitiveness, reflection, and
aspirations.

Even a little resourcefulness can be the difference between complacency and ingenuity. Resources abound in different contexts, and through various kinds of experiences at school, home, in the community, online, and elsewhere. When kids are resourceful, what starts out as curiosity often evolves into strengths or qualities that they can develop, feel happy about, and share with others.

3. Co-create a comfort zone.

Seek a time and place where others are available to offer reinforcement and encouragement, where momentum can build, and where moving forward is a positive occurrence. This positivity could arise from maximizing effort, setting and attaining reasonable goals, being spontaneous (or, conversely taking time), making mistakes but learning from them, and
stretching boundaries.

4. Help kids understand that creativity requires time and commitment, but it’s worth it.

Creativity derives from what is original, meaningful, and effortful. Creative expression is something people choose to nurture – it’s an active decision – and this sometimes requires courage, determination, and conviction. Encourage kids to ask questions, get answers, think things through, be inventive, stay open-minded, and exercise patience. Parents can also talk about how their own accomplishments come about from investing creative energy.

5. Figure out what’s motivating.

Maybe it’s challenge. Flexibility. Reassurance. Creative expression. Choice. Fun. Familiar routines. Incentives. Feelings of pride about personal progress. Or finding enjoyment in learning and achieving. The possibilities are endless, and they’ll differ from one person to the next. If something is personally relevant (that is, it connects meaningfully with the child’s life, interests, or vision for the future), that relevance can be very motivating.

6. Consistency and routines matter.

Children function best when there’s stability and guidance, and this is especially the case during challenge or times of transition. Sometimes behaviors or circumstances change or get “rocked,” and this can be hard for kids to manage. Help them get back into a pattern or routine so they feel at ease, and less pressured. They’ll be more inclined to move forward, and to use their productive energy.

Please see link below for full article:
creativitypost.com/education/14_tips_for_a_successful_school_year

Category: Club Z! Tutoring

RECENT POSTS

No matter how you look at it, college is an expensive proposition these days. Both public and private colleges and universities have had to raise fees and tuition as costs have increased. As a result, college student debt has skyrocketed and many students end up with loan payments years, sometimes even decades, after graduation. But with some careful planning and creative thinking, there are lots of other ways to help pay for college and avoid being stuck with big loan payments after graduation. One final but important step in the college application process is to include an application for financial aid.

As parents, and grandparents for that matter, we consider it to be a bit of a rite of passage to tell our children just how easy they have it compared to what we went through at their age. File this under the “when I was your age, I had to walk 2 miles to school each day, uphill both ways” category.

For any parent of a college-bound student, SAT and ACT test scores are no doubt at the center of most dinner table discussions. While no one will argue that test scores alone are the deciding factor in college admissions, and many colleges are moving toward a test-optional admissions policy, strong scores on the SAT and or ACT can definitely help a student’s chance of gaining admission to his/her college of choice.