Tool Box Tips
By: Emme, Ruby, and Kim

Reading and Writing

If you have trouble reading or writing here's a tip that may help you: Read or Write Out Loud. This tip can help you write because normally it's easier to catch mistakes if you are talking to someone or yourself. If you read out loud you'll have a better chance of understanding the story and not losing your place. Although if you are in a library whisper the story to yourself. Try not to read or write out loud in a noisy area, because you can get easily distracted with other noise and the room will get very loud with you talking too.

Memorizing Facts

I'm not going to lie, memorizing anything is hard. Especially if what you're trying to memorize doesn't interest you. An easy way to memorize facts for school is to create a game. Make sure that the game you create is fun and you will remember playing it. That way when you think of the game you will also think of what you learned during it.

Math and Stem

We all know that math and stem are based on numbers. Some people are math magicians and some people are struggling, and then some people are in the middle. If you are struggling with math or stem or you are stuck on a problem here's a tip that should help you: Break Down the Work. When you're doing a problem like 19 + 17 x 67 start with what you already know and go from there. Let's say that you know how to add numbers with 2 digits, but you don't know how to multiply with 2 digit numbers. If this is your case then you can add 19 and 17 first. After you add these numbers you have to multiply. What you can do is break down 67. You know that the 6 represents 60 and that the 7 represents 7. You can multiply the answer you get from 19 + 17 by seven. Now all you have to do is multiply the answer from 19 + 17 x 7 by 60.

Time Management 

Managing time is hard. To be honest I am really bad at managing time. If you're someone like me a good idea would be to set a timer for how long you do something. You could set a timer for 30 minutes of homework and then a timer for 15 minutes for a break. After you have a break you could do more of your homework. If you use this idea make sure that you're going to have time to do all of the important things. If you have to many breaks doing your homework could take way to long.

Organizing Tip

Organizing papers for school and just organizing in general is really helpful. Before you can use our tip you're going to get a folder or binder for each of your classes. An easy way to stay organized is to label areas in your binder/folder. You can buy dividers and label them or you can use brads in a folder and you could label the pockets on your folder. This is an easy and non-expensive way to stay organized.

Taking Notes

Taking notes on the right things can be difficult, but sometimes it's even harder to look back at your notes. A simple way to take notes and stay organized is to color code your notes. You could maybe write the important information that you really need in a pen and you could write the extra information in a colored pencil. Another way is to make each line a different color and put specific information on one color line and then other information on a different color. I used the second method and it worked really well for me. I was able to go back to my notes and read them very easily.