Time Management for 9th and 10th Graders

Both classes received corrected work from me today. This should be put into their binders in the section for CLASS. The odd thing is the corrected work is also notes, because it is their practice of Cornell notes. I want them to store these in the notes part of the CLASS section.

Today we learned about how to manage their time. I told them to imagine they were filling a bucket with rocks, then filled in the space between the rocks with pebbles, then filled in the rest of the space with sand. The bucket represents their time. The big rocks represent their obligations. The pebbles represent what they want to do. And the sand represents time wasters.

Next, I gave them a calendar for one week with the times of the day listed for each day. I told them to fill in their "rocks" for the next 3 days. Rocks are things like school, sleep, eating, chores. Then they put in their "pebbles" like the fair, time with friends, etc.

Then I told them to pretend that an evil teacher assigned them to write a 5 page research paper on Shakespeare on Friday. It's due Monday and three of the sources have to be books. What on their calendar could they cancel or postpone so they can get the paper completed? We practiced prioritizing. It wasn't fun because we had to cancel the fair and the hike at Mt. Rainier! ouch.

Their homework is to complete a weekly calendar for next week, filling in all the obligations and fun activities they have planned. This is due on Monday.

Interesting side notes: Shanice had a weird allergic reaction to something on her face. She broke out in hives. But as quickly as they appeared, they disappeared.

During the sophomore class we got a bit off task and talked about problems some of the kids are having at home. I let them talk it through and then we got back on task.