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.

   

Mizz C. and the A+ Guides Get a Makeover

  

“Mizz C! Mizz C! An eighth grader made a paper airplane out of the vocabulary handout, and it’s flying over Columbus Avenue. Do I still have to take the test?"

"Mizz C! Mizz C! I forgot my locker combination, and my math handout was inside. Can I skip the test?"

Mizz C. often heard questions like these when dinosaurs roamed the halls of the middle school where she once taught. That was back in the last century when Mizz C. and her students were all middle grade newbies. 

Mizz C. wanted to help her students survive and enjoy the middle grades. So she became an expert in getting lockers unstuck and tracking down runaway textbooks.

In those good old olden days, Mizz C. often thought: “There should be study skills books on getting organized for school, taking tests, writing papers, and giving speeches.” So she wrote a series of books called the A+ Guides.


Mizz C’s middle-graders moved up to high school. Her A+ Guides moved up to the attic where they got a little yellow and faded. A whole century passed. Soon it was 2011. Mizz C. heard rumors. Many middle grade kids still couldn’t find missing handouts or get their lockers opened. Mizz C. got to thinking. “Why not publish some new A+ Guides just like the old ones?”


“Well, that won’t work,” Mizz C. soon realized. “A lot of new fangled things have been invented. Students aren’t writing with quill pens anymore. 

Some of them write on typing machines called computers.” 

Mizz C. had to face the truth. She and her A+ Guides needed makeovers.


So Mizz C. threw out pages from her faded, yellowed A+Guides. She researched the latest organizing, note taking, test taking, and writing tips. She even added health tips she had learned about while writing many other books besides the A+ Guides. She gave her books bright new covers. Then she took the scariest step of all.


MIZZ C. WENT DIGITAL!!!!

Mizz C. could now send her new books, just like that, into outer space to something called the Internet. 


Mizz C. also learned something else: there was a new way of writing for complete strangers. It was called blogging, which sounded a little bit like blabbing. Mizz C. decided to begin blabbing—blogging that is—whenever she had an opinion. Which was a lot.


After blogging came Facebook, and Twitter.


Now Mizz C. is officially in the 21st Century. She’s inviting all middle graders to come on in. No need to buy an A+ Guide to read Mizz C’s blog post, though she won’t stop you if you’d like to. Mizz C. likes nothing better than giving advice--even when people don’t ask for it. Stop by anytime.