jessicafinnigan – Page 4

Planning Productive Summers

May 28, 2018

Goals, Habits, Motivation, Productivity, Projects, Study Skills, Summer

Do you wonder what to do over the summer while still having fun? Students and parents often feel burnt out from the school year and as a result, do not take full advantage of the opportunities that summer offers. Working on a few core skills can help students reduce their stress during school. I suggest that students start with something that interests them, such as art, writing, science, math, reading, or history. After they have picked a topic or project that…

Maintaining Accurate Family Calendars

May 21, 2018

jessicafinnigan

Calendars, Habits, Organization

Do you ever feel like you have trouble keeping your family calendar current? Family calendars help make time visible for the whole family. They are also an excellent way to model organization. Family Calendars as the most useful when they are as accurate as possible. To maintain accuracy they should be updated on a regular basis. These meetings do not need to take more than 5-10 minutes and can be apart of other gatherings such as before or after dinner. The frequency…

Finals: Success Story

May 14, 2018

jessicafinnigan

Coaching, Finals Prep, Goals, Retrieval Practice, Study Skills, Studying, Tests

I wanted to share a fantastic story of a student that I coached through preparing for her high school finals. This was her first experience studying for finals, and she wanted to do well. However, she was very resistant to the idea of adding new study strategies, because she was convinced that she could do well with her usual methods. We came up with a plan to test her theory. We decided to randomly divide her classes into two categories, my…

Importance of Family Calendars

May 6, 2018

jessicafinnigan

Calendars, Habits, Organization, Uncategorized

A shared calendar is a keystone to family and student organization. As children grow their schedules often become more complicated at the same time they are trying to establish their independence. Family calendars help make time visible for the whole family highlighting how all activities fit together and help families identify conflicts or extraordinarily busy days. Like 0

Review: My Class Tracker – High School and Middle School

April 30, 2018

jessicafinnigan

Extracurricular Activities, Homework, Planners, Product Review, Study Skills

I am always searching for great planners for my students. It is often difficult to find a good planner that accurately captures the unique scheduling needs of students. After listening to an interview with the designer, of My Class Tracker, I decided to test with a few with of my students. My students who used the planner thought that it was better than the other systems they had been using. They universally felt that it helped them organize their school…

Homework vs. Studying

April 16, 2018

jessicafinnigan

Habits, Homework, Study Skills, Studying, Systems

What is the difference between studying and homework? We often use “homework” and “studying” interchangeably when they discuss school work. I define homework as the compulsory assignments that are given to students by a teacher. Homework is generally graded or checked in class. I define studying as the strategic work that students choose to do on their own to master material. Studying can often look and feel a lot like traditional homework assignments such as reading, creating flashcards, or taking…

US Congressional Award

April 9, 2018

jessicafinnigan

Awards, Extracurricular Activities, Goals, Organization, Projects

Two years ago I listened to a podcast, where they discussed the US Congressional Award. Although the award started in the 1970s, I was unfamiliar with the program. The description peaked my interest, and I decided to research it in more detail. A quick overview: The Congressional Award is the United States Congress’ award for young Americans. It is non-partisan, voluntary, and non-competitive. The program is open to all youth regardless of ability, circumstance, or socioeconomic status. It accommodates young people with…

Unique Student Schedules

April 2, 2018

jessicafinnigan

Balance, Organization, Planners, Productivity

The unique organizational needs of students often go unnoticed. The underlying complexity can go undetected because the school day provides a consistent structure. From the outside, a typical weekly student schedule often looks very standard with only a small amount of variation. However, on closer inspection, our modern school structure is very intricate and require a considerable amount of navigation and customization. For all intents and purposes, students have a collection of bosses; one for each class. They must learn how…

Review: ScholarPrep College Organizer

March 26, 2018

jessicafinnigan

College, Extracurricular Activities, Goals, Motivation, Organization, Planners, Product Review

Are you stressed about college the college admissions process? There is understandably a lot of excitement stress around preparing for college. The process can feel overwhelming. I have found that the key to successfully navigating this process is to start early and to keep track of the awards, accomplishments, and events along the way. This approach can help students and parents be less anxious about because there are concrete steps they can take to shape their future proactively and will be…

Prevent Burnout- Increase your Organizational Skills

March 19, 2018

jessicafinnigan

Balance, Burnout, Organization, Productivity

Do you ever feel like you have so much homework? Do you ever wonder how you will get it all done? Do you ever wonder why you feel so stressed out about how you will get all of your stuff done and keep your stress in check? There are a lot of things that cause stress for students. Often the stress is drastically increased because we do not teach organizational skills. I think of organizational skills and homework like a train.…

Build Your Team

March 12, 2018

jessicafinnigan

Getting Unstuck, Habits, Motivation, Procrastination, Productivity, Teams, Technology

Many students believe that they must push through school entirely on their own. While students need to do their own independent work they should build a team that can help them navigate the social and academic aspects of High School. Every student’s team will be different and may change over time as their needs shift and their independence grows. Because teams are so personalized, it is vital to help students identify who is already apart of their team, and who they…

Studying for Open Note Exams

March 5, 2018

jessicafinnigan

Retrieval Practice, Study Skills, Studying, Tests

How do you prepare for an open note exam? Every finals season I have students who are convinced that they do not need to study for their open note/book exams. They are often under the impression that because they have access to resources during the test that they do not need to prepare. They are unaware of the lurking danger of open note tests; that they will run out of time to complete their exam. Students generally run out of…

Take Advantage of Office Hours

February 27, 2018

jessicafinnigan

Habits, Productivity, Strategic Advantage, Study Groups, Study Skills, Studying, Teams

Sometimes it is hard to crack how to get better grades in college. Because there are so few graded assignments in college it can be hard to adjust our study strategies. To fill these gaps it is important to be more strategic. One of the great secrets of successful college students is that they take advantage of office hours. Office hours are often presented to students as an opportunity to ask specific questions and get help on assignments. However, what…

The Power of Distraction Blockers

February 19, 2018

jessicafinnigan

Distraction Blockers, Goals, Habits, Technology

Do you ever feel distracted by the internet? Do you ever have every intention of doing your homework but the internet keeps you from getting things done? The question is how do we get our work done and still have time for fun? There are different parts of the internet that are distracting. That is why there are different types of distraction blockers. Assessing what is distracting you can help you pick the right solution. Browser extensions System-wide solutions Router-based solutions…