Dumpster or Backpack? You Decide.

Do you feel like this when you need something in your pack?

Mizz C. knows you're busy. So she’ll make it quick and easy: 

• Get a wastebasket and a recycling bin if you have one.

• Dump out everything from your backpack onto a desk or table.

• Put school books in one section of your backpack.

• Put your notebooks in another section. It's like keeping your peas separate from your mashed potatoes.

• Hunt down all loose pieces of paper. Pile 'em up. 

• Put like with like--math homework with math tests, science homework with science tests, and so on. Find a place in your room—a shelf, a cubby, a box. Put those old tests and homework papers away.* Use them as test tools later on. Hold the bonfire until the end of the school year when all your tests are over!

• Toss or recycle outdated papers, worn-out pens, markers,  pencils, peanut shells, and wrappers of things you ate or chewed in September.

• Add fresh writing tools and paper but not too much.

• Done! Now go find a skateboard.

*Someday when you fall in love with folders the way Mizz C. did many blog postings ago, you can stuff your old corrected quizzes and homework in those.

 

Decisions, Decisions, the Sequel: Do Hard or Easy Homework First?

            Which comes first? The chicken or the hard homework?

 

The chicken!!!!!!

Which comes next: hard or easy homework first?

The envelope, please. Hard homework first wins! Here's why:

• Hard homework is worth more than easy homework. A book report is worth a gazillion more points than a page of vocabulary homework.

• Hard homework takes more brain power than the easier work. Take it from Mizz C. Tackle the tough stuff when you have the most energy.

• Doing hard homework first helps prevent a dreaded middle school disease: procrastination. Pushing off hard homework is like inviting a slacker friend to come into your homework space and whisper: “Do it later.”

Do hard homework later when you’re tired, cranky, and out of steam? Mizz C. thinks not.

If you read Mizz C's posting on decision making, she was all about putting many decisions on auto pilot. Figure out: “When do I have the most energy for hard homework?” and stick with that decision. 

But wait! Mizz C. has found a homework decision loophole. She hearby grants you permission to alternate hard and easy homework until you’re all done:

Big, monster homework first, mini-break, followed by easy homework. Then back to: hard homework-mini-break-easy homework.

Meanwhile, to help you plan out hard and easy homework, use the chicken and Mizz C’s A+ 20/10 Study Method.

   

Decisions, Decisions

It starts before you even open your eyes. “Do I get out of bed right now or sleep five more minutes? Wear a jacket or sweater, sneakers or shoes to school today? Eat oatmeal, toast, or a muffin for breakfast? Grab an apple or banana for lunch? Sit in front or back of the school bus? Raise my hand in class or hide behind the kid in front of me? Start on easy or hard test questions? Pick a fantasy or a mystery book for my book report? Write about snakes or cockroaches for science? Do harder or easier homework first? Do all my homework right after school or right after dinner?”

Experts call having too many choices "decision fatigue." Mizz C. calls it brain freeze.

Here’s how one stressed-out student describes "decision fatigue:"

After making many decisions they become hard for me too. They also . . . make me very tired and lazy to the point where I don’t want to do anything. If they start to make me tired I procrastinate or try to forget that I have a decision to make.

Mizz C. has loads of decision making tips that she'll be blabbing about in the future. Here are a few starters:

• Only make big decisions you're rested and fed. 

• Save your brain power for deciding the big stuff. Figuring out what activities to choose is way more important than deciding what to have for breakfast.  

• Put small decisions on autopilot. Go with the same food choices, if possible, for some meals or snack times. It's Oatmeal-for Breakfast-Week! Every Monday is Green Pants Day. Too many choices? Toss a coin! Heads up, it's a mystery for the next book report or snakes for the science project. Do harder homework first one week then easier homework first the next week. Decide which homework style works better for you. Stick with it for good. 

Now if only someone could help Mizz C. decide which shampoo to buy when the store runs out of her usual brand. Shampoo for curly, frizzy, dry, oily hair? Flower or lemon-scented? Economy or trial size? 

Never mind. Mizz C. needs a nap.

What a Pain!

Okay, middle schoolers. Guess which kind of pain 9-13 year olds are most likely to suffer in a month? "Blisters?" "Sore knuckles?" "Fear of flying saucers landing on my school?” None of the above. It's headaches.  

Mizz C. doesn’t want you to miss school or "you time" because of headaches. Some mini habits can help you prevent many of them. Ready?

• Drink several glasses of plain old water every day, especially before, during, and after sports. Dehydration, aka cells screaming: "water, we need water," can cause headaches.
• Get the right amount of regular sleep—9 to 11 hours a night for middle schoolers. Overtiredness causes many headaches.
• Eat healthy meals and snacks around the same times every day. Skipped meals can trigger headaches.
• Give your eyeballs a rest from too much screen time.
• Avoid caffeinated drinks. They can cause rebound headaches when you suddenly stop them. 
• If you get that tight, nervous feeling called stress, go for a walk or a run. Or stop to breathe slowly and deeply until you feel calmer. Or close your eyes and let your stressful thoughts float right out of your head. 

“Okay, okay, Mizz C. we get it. But I'm getting a headache right NOW! Make it go away. I have to finish my homework.”

Mizz C's Headache Begone Plan:

• Stick a wet washcloth in the freezer to make a Headache Washcloth Popsicle.
• Drink a big, cold glass of water.
• Eat a small snack.
• Set a timer for about twenty minutes. You remember timers from Mizz C’s posting on how to love, love, love timers as much as she does.
• Go get your Headache Washcloth Popsicle. Lie down. Put the cool cloth on your forehead. 
• Close your eyes and take a short nap until the timer goes off.
• If you still have the headache when you wake up, ask a parent for an ibuprofen if that’s what your family uses for headaches.*

Feel better now? Go play with your dog or your little sister then go back to your homework, headache-free.

* Mizz C. isn't a doctor even though she sometimes acts like one. She does know that headaches can be a sign of illness. So watch for other symptoms such as fever, aches and pains, or stomach ache. There might be a bug going around.

Tame Your Paper Monsters

Mizz C. found this mashed-up test on the ground while walking near a local school. "How sad," Mizz C. thought as she picked up the corrected test in a failed attempt to save its life. 

Perhaps the student who dropped it had never had a chance to read Mizz C’s A+ Guide to Great Grades. Or maybe the wet, muddy ground was this student's filing system instead of a beautiful accordion folder like this.

XO Beautiful accordion folder

MIZZ C. LOVES, LOVES, LOVES  accordion folders. She wants to marry one, but she’s already married. She wants to live in a stationery store but already lives in a house. She’s all about filing recipes, bills, letters, receipts, and clippings.

Why just last month Mizz C. needed to find the receipt for her food processor, which shouldn’t have broken in the middle of grating three kinds of cheeses. But she had the store receipt in her “Household Appliances” accordion folder, of course! So when she called the company and read the receipt information to them, guess what? They sent her a new food processor for free!

                                                    Here it is: 

(The heirloom tomato is a hand-painted birthday card from her dear cousin Elizabeth, who suggested that Mizz C. was once a hot tomato but is now an heirloom tomato. So true.) 

"So what's your point, Mizz C?" you middle schoolers are probably wondering? "Are you about to share a tomato recipe? We thought this was a study skills blog, not a food blog." Mizz C's roundabout point is this great study tip: save and file away your school work until the end of the school year. After that, on the last day of school, you have Mizz C's permission to create a fleet of paper airplanes from all your work, after which you'll put them in the closest recycling bin sorted by subject like the organized A+ students Mizz C. knows you are. 


Your old corrected homework, tests, and teacher handouts are like Mizz C’s receipts. Keep them in a file or accordion folder at home even if they have ketchup on them, jam prints,  or a grade you'd rather forget. They’re the best study tools ever for future tests. Handouts clue you in to what your teacher will probably put on a test. Corrected tests and homework show what you're strong in and what needs work. So give your handouts, old tests, and homework a good home:

Oh! Oh! One more thing before the blogger authorities shut down Mizz C. for blabbing too much. Write your name and the date on all your handouts, tests, and homework assignments in case they lose you. That way if Mizz C. finds one of your important class papers on her daily walks, she can track you down.