hand outs and hand ins

parent papers. homework. announcements. meetings. practices. appointments.
Do you have all these papers to handle. Let's get organized.
Papers from school for parents? Ok, easy. Give them to your parents. You don't decide if your mom needs to know about the parent-teacher club. Just give her the papers from school.
Homework. Keep papers for each subject together. Don't throw your English homework in the science folder. You need it in English, not science. Teachers are not going to let you go to your locker all the time.
Announcements. Listen for news of things around your school. Look at signs. If you plan to play a winter sport, sign ups are in October. That seems really early but you won't know what to do if you're not looking and listening to announcements.
Meetings. Teams and music groups have meetings. Clubs have meetings. Write down the place and time. Tell your parents if you have to stay after school. Make sure you can get home after the meeting.
Practices. Try and get a schedule from your coach or director. Show it to your parents so they know your schedule.
Appointments. Lots of kids leave school for appointments at the orthodontist, doctor, and family stuff. Check with your teacher about any work you will (or did) miss while you're gone. Here's a good tip on teachers... DON'T say to a teacher, "Did you do anything while I was absent?"
Grrrrr. Teachers really hate that question. It makes them think that you're saying they probably didn't do any work at all. Ask like this, "Mr. Moyer, may I have the papers from yesterday's science lesson?" He'll say, "sure, there was one worksheet. Use page 61 in your book to help answer the questions." He'll think, wow. What a nice student. Really polite.

where's my reading folder?

Keep stuff together.

At school you have a storage area for your stuff, right? Is yours a locker? Cubby box? Desk? Shelf?

Whatever it is, the space starts off nice and clean when your teacher assigns it to you. Think about how you can organize it. Some experienced middle school students keep morning materials on one side and afternoon stuff on the other. Try to keep the reading folder next to the reading book. Put the math binder with the math book. If you have one big binder for lots of subjects make sure you put in pockets for loose papers. Some teachers do notebook checks and count that as part of the grade. Have you ever seen a binder with wrinkled and torn and dirty pages sticking out everywhere? That's the kind of binders we don't like in middle school.
Part of growing up includes taking care of your own materials. Teachers will help you to stay organized but it's your job to put the papers in the right place and keep track of everything. Every day. For each class. All year. It's a skill.

This skill needs to be used at home, too. Keep stuff together. Be sure your folders and books don't get mixed up with the mail. Keep your books separate from your brother's stuff.

Doing school work on the couch, yes, that's fine. Leaving your folders under the couch is not fine. Doing school work at the kitchen table, yes, that's fine too. Leaving your folders on the table is not fine. Finish one assignment then put the materials away. Get out the book and papers for the next assignment. Finish the work then put the materials away. Keep everything together. Oh, did I say that before? Yeah. That's because you have to do it.

Put everything back in your school bag before bed. If there's a paper to be signed or something you want to go over before school then leave them on top of the bag. Take care of the things you kept out in the morning but be sure to put everything in the bag before you head out the door.

I hope you won't be yelling, "WHERE'S MY READING FOLDER?"

Have a great school day.

make mornings easy

We really hate starting our days with stress! Stress can be caused by not having the stuff we need where it's supposed to be... picture your dad running around the house searching for his keys when he's in a hurry to go somewhere. That's unwanted stress. It causes yelling and sweating and sometimes bad words fly! Let's avoid it.

Here's Aunt Jen's checklist to make middle school mornings start off right.
Use the first part before bed so when you get up in the morning you won't be running around like a crazy person.

• completed homework (this isn't a joke. really. do your homework)


• text books


• pens and pencils


• signed parent papers (like tests and excuse blanks)


• library books


• house key


• calculator


• lunch or money to buy lunch

Put all this in your backpack and don't leave home without it. Keep your backpack in the same spot every night.

Use this part in the morning to be fresh and ready to learn.

• get your body clean


• use deodorant on the armpits (nobody wants to sit beside a stinker)


• put on clean clothes and boys, clean boxers and socks, please


• eat breakfast


• brush your teeth and don't forget to wipe your mouth so you're not dragging around extra toothpaste on your cheeks all day


• check your hair (maybe use that invention called a comb)


• give your parents a hug and get to school on time


• don't forget your backpack

Use these steps each day and soon your middle school mornings will be so smooth you'll feel like a grownup. but cuter.

Tomorrow let's talk more about being fresh and clean.

first days are fun

hi everyone!
It's the middle of August and we have some exciting firsts coming up. How do you feel about the first days of school? How about the first day in a new school? Did you know that teachers and even principals get excited and nervous on the first day of school too? All your Aunts, Uncles, parents and grandparents have all been nervous and excited about the first day of school and we survived.
Aunt Jen's ready to talk about some things we can do to remain calm and enjoy the beginning of the school year.
Ok everyone thinking about the first day of school take a deep breath. Good. Now take another one and let's get to planning for a great day.
1. Make sure you know where your school is and how you'll get there. Let's all be on time on the first day, please.
2. Make sure you have at least one writing stick for the first day and by writing stick I mean a PEN or PENCIL that you can write with. Teachers will want you to fill in some easy stuff like your name and phone number. Do you know your number?
3. Decide what you want to wear the first day and boys, make sure you wear clean socks.
Tomorrow we'll make a plan for the morning of the first day.