The Race to the Finish Line! It’s not winning that matters, it’s how you play the game. “It’s all about the amount of training and focus you have” Usain Bolt We all want to get to the finish line and we all want to be winners. When we can’t be the “winner”, some of us just give up. So if school has become a race that never ends or if you are unhappy about where you are placing, then let’s think about where we need to go from here. First, we have two lessons to think about. We should focus on the training because that gives us the positive end result and we should focus on how we play. Usain Bolt 100 meter and 200 meter Olympic Gold medalist and world record setter, has a plan for how to not only reach the finish line first, but by a long shot and having a tremendous amount of fun in the race.

Make a Plan How does he do it? He has a training plan and he didn’t get there overnight nor from one year to the next. Just like all athletes have a training schedule, all students should have a study plan. Set up times to study, make out a schedule, take note of tips on how to study that you learn from teacher’s and observe from others AND get enough rest.

Get to know your teacher Schedule Take notes Be Healthy Use study guides Get to know your teacher What are some things that our plan should include? A study schedule, a notetaking system, a healthy lifestyle, using a study guide system and a personalization of our trainers, our teachers.

STUDY TOOLS Finally, there are some study tools that you might find helpful to use.

Review homework before bed Organize DAILY Graphic Organizers Review homework before bed Organize DAILY Make lessons apply to real life What are some of those study tools? Well, graphic organizers and flow charts are great, reviewing homework and lessons right before bedtime is another, organizing yourself DAILY, and trying to make the lessons apply to your real life be it through current events or at dinner conversations.

Make up sentences with words Make up a word game Discuss ideas and concepts with others Try taking vocabulary words and making up sentences with them, even if they are “goofy”. Make up word games and discuss classroom ideas and concepts with others.

Get the most out of your AGENDA

Use the monthly calendar for recording projects. Items going home. Use the monthly calendar for recording projects. Make “personal due dates” for parts of large assignments Make use of the “study helps” at the beginning.   Why? Your agenda is not only good for writing down assignments but it is a great tool for writing down items that need to go home or get to school, for recording monthly projects on the monthly calendar, for assigning “personal due dates” for large projects and the “study helps” that are contained at the beginning of the agenda.

Refer to the agenda daily before leaving school and home Social Activities Clubs and Sports Events Of course if you write it down you must use it. Get into the habit of referring daily to the agenda before leaving for school or home. Look at the agenda upon arriving home to plan out your evening. Use your agenda to make responsible decisions in social activities and finally make sure to write down all of your social activies and club and sports events so that you can plan your work time responsibly.

Usain Bolt fastest man in the world 9.69 second 100-meter