Lights Out, Middle Schoolers!

And that goes double for you, iPad, Mortal Kombat, TV, cell phones, and laptops!

Are tech toys stealing your sleep? Colorful, exciting tech screens are fun. But they can really mess up your sleep if you keep them on too long. Bright lights interfere with a great sleepytime chemical called melatonin that your body releases when the lights dim. Here's what happens to melatonin when tech toys light up the night:

• brightly-lit screens = less melatonin
• less melatonin =  trouble falling asleep 
• trouble falling asleep = falling asleep at school
• falling asleep at school = crankiness, forgetfulness, stress, and trouble with the teach.

Bad way to go to sleep--with the TV remote and a bowl of popcorn about to hit the floor. 

Isn't this better?

So put your screens to sleep 30 minutes before you put yourself to sleep. 

P.S. Feel free to pop in at Mizz C’s other snoozy blog posting--the one where she tells the world that sleep is an important study skill. 

Sleep workshop over. Go catch some zzzzs.

New Years' Resolutions Can Be Habit Forming

A habit is something you can do without thinking - which is why most of us have so many of them. ~Frank A. Clark

It's late January. Did you make a 2012 New Years’ resolution to start a new habit, Middle Schoolers? Good move. According to The New York Times, almost half the people who make a resolution keep it. What are their secrets? 

• Make one small resolution at a time. How about one of these? 
• Keep a short, specific To-Do List to get yourself organized. 
• Go to bed a little bit earlier every night. 
• Use a timer to do homework for short periods with no interruptions.

• Move temptations out of sight. Too distracted by TV, video games, or other gadgets? Do your homework in a gadget-free room. 

•  Tell the world what your new habit is. Ask friends and family members to help you stay on track.

• Give yourself gold stars! Use a calendar to keep track of how well you’re doing. 

• If you slip-up, restart your engines. Tomorrow's another new year.

Mizz C. started one good habit in 2012: blabbing and blogging. She can't stop!

Time Flies When You're Hooked on the Internet

What’s this chicken doing on Mizz C’s brand-new blog? The chicken is Mizz C’s kitchen timer. She uses it to keep cupcakes, turkeys, brownies--and her work time--from burning up.

Now Mizz C. has a horrible, embarrassing confession to make. Not so long ago, she could sometimes be an A+ Time Waster. She surfed the Internet and checked her e-mails a million times a day for no good reason.

This had to stop.

So Mizz C. started setting her chicken timer for chunks of work time. When the timer dinged, she would take a a short break to read e-mails and check out silly animal YouTube videos.

Lo and behold! The chicken timer helped Mizz C. get more work done. So she began to let her chicken timer boss her around instead of the Internet.

“Hey, maybe middle graders should use kitchen timers to get their homework done,” Mizz C. thought. And that’s how she came up with the A+ 20/10 Study Method. It’s all explained in Mizz C’s A+ Guide to Great Grades.  

In the meantime, go to the kitchen. See if you can find a timer.

Or ask one of your parents to get you one instead of a new bike, video game, or trip to Disneyland. 




From now on, you can keep those plug-in, screen-faced time thieves--computers television, video games, and the telephone from taking over your life. 

The A+ 20/10 Study Method really works. Mizz C. used it to write today’s blog post. When the chicken timer goes off, she’ll reset it for just a few minutes to watch her favorite penguin YouTube video. It cracks her up every time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pK8dplyTHM&feature=related