How to Help Stressed Out Students
After spending time out of the classroom, whether over winter, spring or summer break, many students have trouble adjusting to school when it’s time to return to school. They often feel frustrated with the sudden, large workloads, thus negatively impacting their performance in school. In order to ensure academic success, parents should work to make sure that the transition is as smooth as possible.
Devise a Plan – When students are suddenly assigned large amounts of work, some do not know where to begin. The first step in ensuring academic success for the school year is to create a strategic plan that helps tackle each assignment in a way that is effective and stress-free. Before working on any assignment, parents should sit down with their student and create a plan to divide assignments into smaller tasks for each day of the week. This plan should revolve around the deadlines given by teachers for each subject, and should be updated each week to reflect new assignments. By breaking down the work load into smaller, digestible assignments, students are taking a massive ‘to-do list’ for school, and are dividing it into mini ‘to-do lists’ for each day of the week.
Create a Routine – A daily routine is a big key to managing workloads and deadlines in school. Parents should make sure to push their student into a routine that sets him/her up for success this year. Routines will vary from student to student, but parents should be sure to block off a chunk of time for their student to focus on completing schoolwork, as well as time to relax and unwind from the school day. Most importantly, parents should make sure that their student sticks to their routine each day of the week.
Observe and Encourage – Between work, parenting and other obligations, parents always have a lot on their minds. Despite this, parents should make sure that they are keeping track of their student’s assignments, exams and overall progress in school. To do this, parents can maintain a calendar with due dates, exam dates and any other academic deadlines. Additionally, parents should be sure to constantly communicate with their student regarding his/her progress in completing assignments, preparing for exams and other schoolwork. Finally, parents should be a source of encouragement, and should work to motivate their student to complete schoolwork. Parents can do this by reviewing completed assignments, addressing any questions or concerns and acknowledging and rewarding their student for his/her hard work.
Minimize Distractions – When your student is working on schoolwork, he/she should be focused only on completing it. Create a study space at home for students to complete schoolwork at each day. This area should be stress-free, quiet and free of smartphones, televisions, tablets as well as any other distractors. Make sure that your student completes schoolwork in this area each day.
Consider Looping in a Third Party – If you notice that your student is still struggling to manage the workload at school, consider looking for a tutor to help your student solve the issue. A tutor can work with your student directly to complete lessons and assignments, provide homework help and create the best plan to manage assignments and their deadlines.
Frank Milner is the President of Tutor Doctor, a worldwide in-home tutoring company catering to children and adults of nearly all ages. A published author with over a decade of experience in the tutoring industry, Milner has played an integral role in observing and implementing effective teaching methods tailored to every child's personal learning needs.