Things to Consider as You Read

There are several things you should keep in mind as you read. Ask yourselves the following questions as you go along in order to enhance your understanding of any fictional literary piece.

• What is the setting? Remember that the setting includes time, place, and atmosphere. A smoky street in Victorian London at midnight is going to evoke a far different feeling than modern-day Buckingham Palace at High Tea. 
• Who are the characters? What are their motivations? Who do they love? What are they flaws and weaknesses? What are their strengths and best attributes? What role do they play in the story, and how do they play it? Label the protagonist, antagonist, supporting characters, and minor characters. 
• What is the mood? How do the setting and the tone combine to make you feel? 
• What is the over-arching theme? 

When doing character analysis, please consider the following things: 

• Class. A lower class character is going to have different sorts of conflict, different friends, and perhaps a different caliber of education than an upper class character. 
• Gender. Women are still largely second-class citizens in most of the world. If the story you're reading is set in the past, a woman may be considered property and have little to no worth. Female characters often struggle against chauvinism, sexism, and the patriarchy. 
• Age. Is your character young and foolish, or old and wise? Is s/he somewhere in between? Is s/he wise beyond their years? Did s/he never really grow up? 
• Race. African Americans, Latinos, Asians, and many other racial and ethic groups are commonly discriminated against, both in fiction and in reality. 
• Religion. Religion might influence a character's beliefs and principles, and might also contribute to their struggles throughout the story. Sadly, an American Catholic is probably going to have an easier time than an American Muslim. 
• Geographical context. In general, characters in more developed parts of the worlds face different conflicts than characters in third world nations. For example, a first-world character might be struggling with his/her identity, while a character in a third world nation might be struggling to find enough food to keep her family fed. 
• Historical context. Place all of the above in their proper historical context. An African American is going to have a very different life in Carolina in 1803 than an African American in New York in 2015, just a woman is going to have a different life pre- and post- suffrage and the Woman's Rights Movement. 

Tackling Break Homework

Please enjoy the following dialogue between the two co-runners of this blog, Code Name Finn and Code Name Queen.

Finn: All right, let's all breathe a collective sigh of relief that it's finally, finally, finally here: Mid-winter Break. That means nine whole days without school, without homework, without grumpy teachers and difficult tests, without icky cafeteria food, without waking up at some horrible hour of the morning to catch a rickety old bus... Hallelujah!

Queen: Hold it right there. I think you're forgetting something important. A lot of our students have homework to complete over the break. Don't you remember when you were in school?

Finn: Nope! I've distilled the entire experience down to what I learned and that one time with the snakes... Anyway. Homework over the break sounds like a Groke.

Queen: For our readers unfamiliar with 'Finn's' eccentricities, a Groke is not a good thing. And Finn's right. Homework over the break is no fun at all. However, there's a simple way to make it less of a hassle.

Finn: Right! When I was in school, my mom always encouraged me to do my break homework the day I got it. Sometimes I was lucky enough to have a teacher who would give it to us early in the week so that break could start the moment the final bell rang on Friday, but most of the time my Friday afternoons were spent buried in piles of break homework.

Queen: But at least you got to enjoy the rest of your break without having that homework hanging over your head. It's way too stressful to leave it to the last minute. Best to get it done and put it out of your mind.

Finn: Absolutely. I don't recall ever leaving anything to the last minute while I was in school, but when I procrastinate on feeding my dogs, boy does it get noisy up in here! That food had better be out by noon on the dot, or else they'll burst into synchronized howling, barking, and whining. That was the last time I ever waited until 12:05 to put the bowls down.

Queen: Howling dogs aside, please don't wait to do your break homework. Finish it ASAP, and then you can enjoy yourself worry-free for nine glorious days.

Finn: You can thank us later.

Queen: As an educator, I'm contractually obligated to remind you that learning doesn't have to stop just because you're on break. If you're looking to learn something this Mid-winter break, check out the 'fun' tag on our blog to find entertaining educational resources.

Finn: What she said!

Queen: Have a wonderful break, everyone!

Combatting Test Stress

Oh no! Your teacher just told you that there's a major test in one week. It's in your worst subject, and you've really been struggling with the current unit. On top of that, it's going to count for thirty percent of your final grade. What are you going to do?

Thankfully, this is just a hypothetical scenario, so you can let out that breath of air now. However, this does happen to most students at least once or twice in their academic careers. If you're looking for tips to combat test stress, you've come to the right place. I'm going to lay out a nice little timeline for you to follow, starting with two weeks before the test (I'm not a time traveller, just well-prepared) right up to the seconds before the paper lands on your desk. Please note that the following timeline doesn't apply for major tests like the SHSAT, SAT, ACT, or regents exams. You should start studying for your Regents at least a month in advance, and you should spend a solid six months getting ready for the SAT and ACT tests.


Two weeks before The Test: You don't know that you have a test coming up in two weeks (yet) but as a well-prepared student, you know that teachers give tests and quizzes all the time, and that some of the really mean ones even give random pop quizzes at the worst of times. In order to stay prepared for every eventually, you do a little of studying every night by reviewing your class notes for fifteen minutes every school day. And believe it or not, doing your homework, asking questions in class, conferencing with your teachers, and actively participating in classroom discussions and other in-class work is a form of studying as well. The more invested in learning you are, the easier you'll find tests and quizzes, and studying.


One week before The Test: It's Friday, but you're pretty bummed out about the test. First of all, cheer up. With the right study methods, that test is going to be a piece of cake, or at the very least not a complete disaster. Right now is the time to come up with a plan. Set aside a set amount of time to study for the test every day for the next seven days. Look up practice sheets on the topics, and bookmark them on your computer. Go through your notes, and highlight, star, or even rewrite the most important parts. Make a list of your greatest strengths and weaknesses in this particular class and unit, and make sure you spend a lot more time on your weak areas than on your strong areas. Shoot a quick e-mail to your teacher asking if you can conference with him or her sometime before the test if one or two topics are leaving you completely lost. If you have a tutor, inform him/her of the upcoming test and, if you feel you need it, try to arrange an extra or extended session with them. Call/text/hologram (is that a thing yet?) your friends and see if you can get together a small study group. If you were going to see your friends anyway this weekend, you might want to postpone your trip to the ice skating rink and head over to your local library instead. (If you are going to have a study session this weekend, make sure it's somewhere you won't get distracted. You're not going to get any studying done if someone succumbs to the siren song of your X-Box 500.)


The week leading up to The Test: Stick to the plan. If you said you were going to study for 60 minutes on Monday, study for 60 minutes on Monday. See your tutor, visit your teacher, meet up with your friends for lunch-time study groups, etc. The better prepared you are, the less stressful the test will be.


The night before The Test: Make sure you eat a good dinner tonight. Try to stay away from greasy foods that might give you a belly ache, and make sure you don't wash dinner down with an entire packet of cookie dough. I know it's tempting, but your stomach will not thank you in the morning. Do a bit of light exercise before sundown to burn off some energy (just make sure that you stay away from more dangerous sports like mountain-biking, at least for tonight). Take a nice, relaxing shower or bubble bath and settle down to read your favorite book. Try not to study too hard tonight. Cramming never did anyone any good, and all-nighters are just a bad idea all around. If you feel that glancing over your notes might help you, feel free to spend fifteen or twenty minutes doing so, and then put it away for the evening. You're as prepared as you're ever going to be. If you frantically try to cram everything into your head now, all you're going to do is get stressed out and throw yourself off your game. Go to bed a little early if at all possible, and set your alarm to wake you up 15 minutes earlier than usual.


The morning of The Test: Urg, waking up. I know, I don't like it either, but you're getting up early for a reason. Mornings can be stressful, and stress is the thing we're trying to avoid here. Waking up a little early will give you time to do everything you need to do in a calm, orderly manner instead of in a mad dash to get everything ready before the bus comes. Make sure you have pencils and a calculator in your book bag, and everything else you might need for your test, like a protractor or a ruler. Eat a healthy breakfast with lots of fruits, protein, and whole grains. Example: A toasted whole wheat waffle with strawberries and a little dollop of cream, paired with a breakfast sausage and a glass of milk. If you have to have coffee, reach for the decaf. You don't want to be running to the bathroom every ten minutes during the test, and the smell might be enough to trick your body into waking up faster.


Ten minutes before The Test: If you can, excuse yourself to go to the bathroom. Splash some cool water on your face and do a little bit of stretching to loosen your limbs. Wait until you're done in the bathroom to start doing some calming breathing exercises. Slowly breathe in to the count of five, hold for the count of six, and exhale for the count of seven. Repeat.


Five minutes before The Test: By now, you should be settled in to your desk. Take out your materials if you haven't already, and keep breathing. Tell yourself that everything is going to be fine. You studied, after all. You studied hard, and even if you don't feel confident, you are prepared and awake and full of good food. This test won't know what hit it.


At the end of The Test: Thank goodness that's over, right? If you're still a little (or a lot) nervous about how you did, remind yourself that you studied. You did your best. You got all the extra help you could. And even if you don't get a stellar grade, chances are that you won't have failed, and in the end, it's just a test. One bad grade isn't going to ruin your entire future. You might want to ask your teacher if they offer extra credit as well, especially if you asked them for a conference earlier in the week. Teachers tend to be a lot more willing to help you succeed if you're willing to go the extra mile and meet them halfway.

Time Management and Scheduling

Time. It's something we all struggle with on occasion. Whether it's flying by far too fast while you're on holiday or dragging on for-ev-er in your Period 8 Friday Geometry class, you've probably wished at least once or twice that you had a magic PAUSE button for those times when life throws too much at you all at once.

So let's take a few moments to talk about managing the time you do have. We all have the same 24-hour day, unless I've got some extraterrestrial viewers who are sneaking under my radar. (Joke.) Chances are that you're going to spend a solid 7 to 10 hours of it in Dream Land. That's perfectly normal for growing school-children and teenagers, and it can actually negatively impact your health if you're getting any less. Most days, you spend six to eight hours at school as well. Then there's getting to and from school, eating dinner, taking showers, doing homework, studying for tests, doing community service, attending extracurricular activities, spending time with your family, doing chores, and sooo much more.

Many students lead busy lives, but you shouldn't have to spend your life in a state of super-stress or let your grades suffer because of it. If you take a look at your schedule and spend a day recording every action, you might just find that a lot of your time is wasted. If you're disorganized and you spend ten minutes scrambling to find your homework every morning, another ten minutes fruitlessly pawing at the mess in your book bag to find your assignments, and yet another ten minutes searching for the proper supplies to complete said assignments, you've just wasted a half-hour on something that could have taken you seven minutes.

Tip #1: Get organized. Spend a weekend sorting out all your school supplies and labeling everything. I have a drawer in my desk for pens, one for pencils, another for highlighters, yet another for erasers, still another for Post-It's, and a final one for paper clips and other odds and ends. I know where my paper is, I always have a calculator handy, I keep a pencil and a pad out at all times to jot down creative ideas (or, more often, a note to feed my dogs), and I have four labeled folders for all of my various day-to-day activities. (I also have a stethoscope so I can walk around saying, "Don't worry, I'm a Doctor," all the time. But that's mostly irrelevant.)

You might also find that you waste a lot of time on social media and on your phone. You'll log onto Facebook to check on your farm for 'just five minutes' and you'll look up fifty minutes later regretting it.

Tip #2: Keep your phone out of arm's reach, and put it on silent. Don't turn it off entirely, because you'll still want it handy in case of an emergency, but out of sight truly is out of mind, and you want to get rid of as many distractions as possible.

Tip #3: Download an application that will block distracting sites like Facebook, Twitter, and whatever else you crazy kids are using these days. You don't want to shut off the Internet entirely because you'll probably need it for research, but it'll be handy to turn off the super-distracting parts of it for a set period of time.

Now that you're distraction-free, you need a plan.

Tip #4: Budget your time. My planner used to look something like this:

• Geometry Homework (20)
• Physics Worksheet (15)
• History Essay - due Friday (60)
• Print out project for art (5)
• Read short story for English - due Thursday (30)

Those little numbers in the parentheses were my estimates of how long each task would take me. What you're not seeing is the class I used to mark with (120)'s three times a week, but that's besides the point. I used to star things, too, and I generally used to arrange things in order of importance. High school is a little more flexible than middle school in that your teachers will often assign you things that aren't due for a few days, so if I was having an off day I might skip the History essay, skim the English reading, and draw an arrow into the next day for both of those tasks. This really kept me on course because once I got the hang of estimating the time something would take me, I could use that to guide me back into my work if I ever found that I'd started to daydream and still hadn't finished my math work after a half an hour. 

Tip #5: Set up a time to do your homework, and stick to it if at all possible. I used to come home, get changed into something more comfortable, have a snack, and dig into that homework right away. That's not always possible if you have ballet at five on Tuesdays on Thursdays and Student Government right after school on Wednesdays, but try your best. And if you're really pressed for time, make use of your commute. If you find the unicorn known as a Quiet Bus at Rush Hour, start on your English homework. Make your Time Budget while you're waiting for the Student Gov meeting to start. See if you can start a study group with your friends at lunch to get some science work done. 

So, you've got regular homework down, but what about studying?

Tip #6: Spend ten to fifteen minutes reviewing your notes every day. This will help you actually learn the information rather than cramming it all into your head the night before test day, and it'll significantly cut down on the time you need to spend studying the days before a quiz. It can also help you identify your weak points so you can arrange for a quick conference with your teacher during class. 

Tip #7: Don't let school consume you. This might seem like a shocking statement coming from an educational blog, but it's the truth. You still need to spend time with your family and friends. You still need to get outside and play. You still need some down time when you're not worrying about the next report card. My co-partner and I both believe that learning is more important than grades. However, high-stakes testing grows more stressful for both teachers and their students each year, and sometimes the real purpose of school and the joy of learning get lost in the pressure to perform. Grades are important, yes, but what good do they do you if you need to sacrifice spending time with your family to study? What good are grades if every bit of curiosity and wonder at the marvels of the world around you has been sapped away by the pressure to be perfect? 

I'll leave you with this little piece of advice my mother used to give me before every test: Do your best. She always told me that it wouldn't matter if I brought home a 93 or a 39, as long as I'd tried my best, because your best is all you can be. 

Real World Math Practice

Unless you're planning to become an engineer, scientist, accountant, or mathematician, you've probably sat through at least one math lesson wondering when you were going to be using this in the real world. And, to be honest, unless you're going to pursue one of the above-mentioned professions, the answer is probably either 'never' or 'rarely enough that you'll end up googling it rather than remembering all these complicated formulas.'

But that doesn't mean that we should scrap math class the minute we master 2 + 2. For starters, higher math like algebra and geometry comes in very handy in high school and college physics and chemistry classes. And as you've probably already figured out, science is essential in understanding the world around us. If you're still rolling your eyes and thinking that gravity would work regardless of whether you understood it or not, you're right. Gravity worked for billions of years before we came along, and it'll keep on working long after we're gone. But knowing about gravity is important for the same reason that any piece of knowledge is important - because it allows you to make connections to other bits of knowledge, which helps you solve problems and think up brand new ideas, which is important whether you're going to be a rocket scientist or an office worker or a manual laborer.

Okay, back to the point. The typical American is never going to do a single algebra problem after their College Math 101 final exam. However, you're still going to be doing a lot of math. If you plan on using money, paying taxes, following recipes, shopping for food and clothes, owning a house or a car, renting a flat, taking out a loan, opening a bank account, paying bills, or going furniture shopping, you're going to have to do a bit of math.

If you're an elementary school student looking to improve your math skills, try taking those skills out into the real world. Take a look at a recipe book or just google 'recipes' and see if you can figure out how much of each ingredient you'd need if you were cooking for two people, or three, or five. Hunt for coupons in your local newspaper and see how much you'd save if you were to use it to purchase something. Go grocery shopping with your guardian and see if you can estimate how much the total will be. Look at two different brands or sizes of the same item and calculate the price per ounce/pound/liter and see what the better deal is. Measure a regular shape in your house and calculate its surface area and volume. Add up everything you drink in a day and calculate the ratio of milk to water or juice or soda, and find what percentage each beverage makes up of your daily fluid intake.

Ultimately, the best way to get better at math is to practice. This is true of most things in life. If you want to be a better reader, read more. If you need to learn to ride a bike, practice until you spend more time pedaling than crashing and falling off. If you're looking to speak a new language, the only way to get better at speaking is by actually talking.

So get out there and practice! And if you can't exactly 'get out' because of Mother Nature's snowy gifts, you can start by calculating how many more days of winter we have to endure before we can all step outside without becoming a human popsicle.

Why it's Vital to Supplement School with Home Learning

In today's increasingly global, intensely competitive, and dizzyingly fast-paced society, it is vital to supplement what you learn at school with home learning. First of all, let's define what I mean by 'home learning.' I don't mean homework, and I don't mean studying for school-related tests or quizzes. Nor do I mean sitting down and reading your entire biology book in one session. (Seriously, don't do this. You will wake up in terrible pain several hours later regretting every life choice you ever made. I speak from experience. Possibly; it could have been a dream for all I know.)

What I do mean by home learning is going to the library and finding a novel that captivates your attention. I mean tuning into the science channel for a little while. I mean going online to watch educational videos that inspire you. I mean sitting down and writing a poem about what's outside your window, or writing a short story about what your cat does when you're not looking (spoiler: he licks everything you own), or writing a series of novels about alien dinosaurs that may or may not be planets.

Find a topic that interests you and learn everything you can find about it. Admittedly, that's probably an impossible goal in this day and age. If you try to learn everything you can find about volcanoes, say, you'll have to sort through fifty million webpages, videos, articles, pictures, ads, etc, etc. When I was a child, all I had to do was take out five books from the library and watch a 45-minute documentary and presto, I had explored every possible avenue of volcano-related knowledge that existed in my small corner of the world. Perhaps a better bit of advice would be to explore the topic of your desire until your curiosity is throughly satisfied.

Find something you're passionate about. If you like art, take a virtual museum tour. Do some research about galleries that offer free or reduced-price or optional admission, and politely request that your caregiver organize a day trip in the near future. If you want to try your hand at art, see if you can borrow some art supplies from your school or local library. If not, you may just have to settle for sketching with a pencil or pen and drawing online until you can save up enough to explore some other mediums like pastel, watercolor, or sculpture. See if you can apprentice with a local artist or if you can negotiate a work-for-knowledge sort of employment.

You might want to explore film-making or photography. Even if you start with the camera in your phone, you can still play with light and shadow, theme, mood, tone, composition, and subject. Experiment. Mix it up. With your parent's permission, you might even be able to start a Youtube channel. Enlist the help of your friends to interview elders in your community. Gather stories from the people around you, or find an beautiful little place of isolation where you can record the swaying of trees or the blossoming of flowers or the ebb and flow of the urban environment.

Volunteer. Find out if there are any local animal shelters or hospitals nearby that accept volunteers. If you love working with animals or helping other people, this might be a great way to gain experience, give back to your community, and start building your resume or CV.

Spend a day at the library with the goal of exploring something completely new. Go to the geography section and find a book about a country you've never heard of. Wander over to the history section and pick out a few books about time periods you know little about. Make your way over to the science isle and find materials about a theory you've never even knew existed. Either do it the old-fashioned way and leave your electronics at home, or bring along a tablet or laptop for additional research. (Just make sure it's silenced beforehand, or you might find yourself on the receiving end of a very disapproving SHHH!)

If you're interested in computers, electronics, engineering, or robotics, see if you can find a really old desktop computer from the '90s. You might have to look around your neighborhood on trash day or ask around to see if anyone is looking to get rid of a broken computer, or you might have to settle for buying one. A general rule of the thumb is the older, dingier, dustier, and more broken it is, the cheaper it'll be. Your goal here is to take apart the computer, so don't spend more than 10 or 15 dollars. If you can find a tower as well, great. (For those of you too young to remember what a tower is, it's a big, loud, noisy black box that used to run our computers and stub our toes back in the days before laptops.) I took one of those bad boys apart a few years back, and it was pretty awesome. I am, however, contractually obligated to inform you that you will find fifteen years of dust, pet hair, and other assorted debris, so consider yourself warned.

If you're interested in coding, that's another story entirely. I'm planning a post about online resources for students just like you, so keep checking back over the next week.

You might be interested in geography as well. Try starting a rock collection, and learning about the origin of each rock, how it was formed, approximately how old it may be, and how professional geologists would classify it.

If you love nature and find yourself inspired by trees and flowering plants, there's a couple of things you can do to foster that interest. Ask your caregiver if you can start a small garden in your yard, or, if you don't have a yard, ask if you can dedicate a windowsill or corner of your room to a small garden. You might want to try growing herbs, flowers, succulents, tomatoes, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, or even bushes and small trees. You might even want to start a butterfly garden or a compost pile. (Please remember that unless you're living on a piece of property that you yourself own, you will either need to ask your landlord and/or caregiver for permission.) You can also join Arbor Day foundation and get ten trees delivered to your house when you purchase a year-long ten dollar membership. You'll be helping the environment, beautifying your community, purifying your air, and providing a place for local birds to nest. And I will stress again that you must ask your caregiver to borrow their credit card before purchasing a membership, unless you are an adult or are old enough to have a high school checking account with a debit card.

If you're interested in writing, you might want to start a blog, or contribute to an existing forum for young writers. If your school has a journalism group or newspaper, enquire about joining.

I'm sure that there are other interests I've missed. If you'd like a personalized recommendation for home learning ideas for your personal interest or hobby, leave a comment and myself or my co-partner will be more than happy to help you.

My point here is that you should find something you love. Find something that excites you, something that inspires you, something that matters to you, something that speaks to your heart and your mind and your very being.

This isn't just important because it'll boost your grades. (Though, it is likely to help you perform better in school. That's just a bonus.) It's important because you are young and full of excitement and curiosity. Right now, you have so much potential. Make the most of it by exploring the world around you and learning as much as you can. If you're doing what you love, it won't feel like 'work' or 'learning,' but it'll still prepare you for your future years of schooling and for your future career. If you find that thing that inspires your mind to soar to new heights, you can start thinking of the kind of job you'll want when you grow up. If you love nature, you might become a botanist. If you can't go a day without animals, consider researching a veterinary career. If you're a computer whizz, think about becoming an engineer or a coder.

The best part of finding what speaks to you is that you'll start to see the world in an entirely new light. The more you know, the more connections you can make. The more you bring into the classroom with you, the more knowledge you'll leave with. Please don't think of learning as a chore. Learning... Learning is a box holding a key to a whole new world. So get out there. Learn something, even if it's one little thing every day, and watch as the world opens itself to you. It won't happen overnight, and it might not happen for years. But if you make a habit of learning, and if you learn to love learning, one day you will look down and find that key in your hand. See where it takes you. You might be surprised to discover where it leads, but I promise you this: you will not be disappointed.

Concentration and Quiet

As a student, your number one responsibility is ensuring that you complete your school-work and learn what your teacher teaches you. This can be difficult if there are too many distractions when you're trying to do your homework or study.

Some students have noisy siblings or pets. This can be a definite problem, but don't get angry with your dog or yell at your little brother just yet. If noise is a problem in your study space, there are several solutions.

• Earplugs are my go-to life-saver for blocking noise. You can get a jar of fifty pairs at the drug store for around ten dollars. The ear plugs are reusable, but I'd suggest replacing them every other week or so to avoid infections. 
• If you have a pair of headphones, crank it up! I don't mean to blast the latest pop hit. That could be a distraction all by itself, especially if you're going to be dancing around in your chair when you should be writing your English essay. Here are a few alternatives:
• Rain sounds. 
• Jungle sounds.
• White noise.
• Heartbeat sounds. (This one is great if you're nervous about an upcoming test or assignment, as it is very calming.) 

Maybe noise isn't the problem, though. Maybe you can't focus because there is just too much happening around you. Try to set up a calm, quiet, peaceful study space away from the hustle and bustle of siblings running around, pets hopping about, and caregivers preparing dinner. This is especially important as you get into middle school and high school. 

No one can focus well on an empty stomach. Have a snack before you start. 

If you've been hitting the books for more than two hours, it's time to take a break. Get up. Do some stretches. Take a few deep breaths. Go outside for some fresh air. Rehydrate yourself. Wash your face to energize yourself. You might even want to spend a few minutes cuddling your pets or catching up with your siblings/caregivers. Just don't make the mistake of logging onto social media during your break. Before you know it, you'll look up and it'll be an hour later and you'll be way behind schedule. 

And finally, if you're falling asleep at your desk and you can't stay awake another minute, take a short nap and set your alarm to go off in fifteen or twenty minutes. Just make sure it's out of arm's reach so your power nap won't turn into an early bedtime.