Summer is a great time to really think about the past year and to set goals for the upcoming one. While you might want to block out what happened the previous academic year, remember that we have to learn from our successes and our failures. This will help you to set appropriate goals and strategies for the upcoming year. Find a time when you can really sit down and think about the past year. Even if you had the best academic year of your life, there is still value in reflection. Think of this as New Year’s resolutions for the school year. The key is making them stick.

The first thing you want to do is to take stock. Either think about or write down your responses to the following questions.

• What could you have done differently or better? This can be general or specific to each one of your classes in school. Be as specific as you can here. Something general like “study more” does not really help you at all. And an answer like that is really the easy way out. How could you have studied differently? Would you change the location or the time of studying? Would you study two or four days in advance?

• What habits would you like to improve? How could this have helped your performance last year? Examples of habits include time management, study skills, sleep, etc. Before you fall into the same bad habits again, pick the few that you really want to improve upon.

• Reflect on how and where you were most successful. What was it about those experiences that led to your success? Success does not just happen; you work for it. Don’t just dwell on the instances when success was not at your fingertips. Think about the times when your efforts were rewarded. What can you learn from those?

• How did your strengths shine through? We all have strengths. By better understanding those strengths, we can use them to be more effective. You might realize that you are really great at managing and leading others. You might want to take the lead on group projects. You might find that you are fantastic at editing papers. Perhaps you can help a friend edit a paper and she can help you with the format of a lab report. Now, I am not advocating for cheating here, but rather using your skills to help others and vice versa.

• What was your responsibility in the things that did not go well? It is often too easy to blame others for our own shortcomings. If you had a flimsy relationship with a teacher and your grades plummeted because of a lack of communication, what could you have done to strengthen that relationship? If your group for a project did not carry its weight and produce a quality project, how could you have more effectively managed communication or the members?

Once you have really dissected the past year, you can more effectively plan for the upcoming year. So let’s set some goals:

• What grades do you want to achieve this year and how will you do it? The second part of this question is actually the most important. Think strategically about the five or six things you must do to be successful.

• Outside of academics, what do you hope to accomplish? List five things you want to happen through your extracurricular activities, and how you plan to make them a reality.

• You are likely going to be taking some standardized tests this year. Map out which ones you plan to take and how and when you will study for them.

• What are your personal goals for the year? While school and extracurricular activities will certainly eat up quite a bit of your time, remember that this is your life. You probably have interests outside formal activities and school. Think about five things you would like to have happen this year. They can be simple things like reading 10 books or learning how to cook four of your favorite dishes.

Before the last days of summer disappear and you are suddenly in the thick of the academic year, take just a few minutes to reflect and plan. Your year will go by more smoothly and with less stress.

It is so hard to imagine that this year’s senior class has finally grown up. I have known many of my seniors since they were unsure, shy, aspiring underclassmen. Now they are the ones who are going to rule the school. Being a senior is not just a rite of passage; with the privileges come great responsibility. Here are do’s and don’ts to remember:

– Do think about your future and what you want to do after high school. It can be too easy to push off major decisions about your future until the future becomes your present. However, doing so is going to limit your opportunities down the road. Start developing your plans now.

– Don’t procrastinate on your college applications. How you work on your applications not only determines where you will get accepted, but also so much about your personality. Be thorough. Be detail-oriented. Be timely. Respect those who are helping you through the process, including your counselors and recommenders.

– Don’t forget that school still matters. Regardless of your plans next year, you are in school for a reason and that is to learn. Take every opportunity you can to learn as much as you can!

– Do remember that “senioritis” is not a real affliction. Getting bored of school is not a real medical or psychological condition. Really, it is just a made-up excuse to let school fall low on your priority list.

– Don’t’ forget to have fun! This is the last year that you will be spending with many of the people you have seen at least 200 days a year for perhaps the last 12 years. Your childhood friends will hold a special place in your life and the memories you create now will last for many years to come.

– Do learn the essential skills that you will need beyond high school. Get your license if you don’t have it already. Learn to do laundry — it is more complicated than you can imagine. Learn to cook — cereal does not count. Really learn to cook a few of your favorite dishes.

– Do get a job at some point in the next year. The money is certainly one piece of it. The more important reason, though, is that you are going to learn a new set of skills that no textbook will teach you.

– Don’t forget that this is more than another year of high school. This is another year of your life. Use this year to also pursue your personal interests. Perhaps you have been wanting to pick up the ukulele or read the entire Harry Potter series. Whatever it is big or small, explore all of your interests.

– Do savor every moment of this year. It is going to fly by faster than you can even realize right now.

All the best!

Your Insight Team

It’s that time of year- the countdown has officially begun! 

The first day of school is just here and for those students entering their freshman year in high school, this is no ordinary first day of school. The first day of high schools marks an important life transition in so many ways. How is it that so much can change in just few months between eighth grade graduation and the beginning of high school? Students who once felt that they could commit to memory every deadline and exam date often find that they drop the ball on small assignments, forget to study for an upcoming test, or encounter unforeseen conflicts between schoolwork and extracurricular commitments. These experiences speak to the accelerated pace, significantly heavier workload, and emphasis on inquiry based learning that students encounter in high school.

In this month’s article, I will offer some key suggestions and words of advice to students and their families in navigating this exciting and challenging transition.

As students enter high school, my hope is that they approach the challenges they face with what I like to call a “growth mindset.” This approach to learning is based on the research findings of Dr. Carol Dweck at Stanford. Dr. Dweck’s research has shown that students who attribute their academic successes to hard work and persistence perform better in the long run than students who attribute their success to being “smart” or “talented.” Indeed, contemporary neuroscience tells us that the brain is more like a muscle that gets stronger when we exercise it. Students who have a growth mindset are not afraid to try hard problems and fail because they understand that like lifting weights, exercising their brains is what builds intelligence.

The growth mindset approach underpins another important transition students will face in high school. My colleagues and I have observed that many of our students at the high school level struggle with critical reading, both on standardized exams and in the classroom. As students learn about literary devices, syntax and essay structure, I find that many students mistake the elements of good writing for the meaning of the text itself. At the high school level, students are expected to use what they know about effective writing to support their own opinion regarding the meaning of the text. That means students need to have opinions about what they are reading. A great way to support this development at home is to choose an article or current event to discuss around the dinner table each week. Students need to be encouraged to take intellectual risks and express opinions that may be unpopular; this will support their success in the classroom setting and foster their capacity to read critically.

Last, but not least, an article about transitioning to high school would be incomplete without a note on time management and organizational skills. Each year, most students receive a planner directly from school. And most students will use this to write down homework—that is, if they use it all. I cannot overstate that proactive planning is often what separates the top students from the rest of the crop. Don’t just write down your assignments; write down WHEN you are going to complete them.

Beyond time management skills and hard work, my hope is that Insight students learn to meet the inevitable challenges on their academic journey with greater patience and self-confidence, rather than with a “grit your teeth and bare it” kind of attitude. What the top universities in this country are looking for, as explicitly stated in their application questions is intellectual vitality and curiosity. That means: work hard, but don’t forget to have fun while you’re learning. High school may just be starting for Freshman, but it will be over in a flash—enjoy it!