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!

Resources for Going Green

Whether you love living on planet Earth or you'd rather be an alien living in a distant galaxy billions of light-years away, Earth is the only planet we have, at least for the foreseeable future. In light of the hundreds of new articles, research papers, videos, and campaigns focused on the effects of pollution, the dangers of global warming, and the worrisome loss of bio-diversity happening right now, it's becoming increasingly important for citizens to be well-educated on the problems facing today's society and how they can do their part to slow rising temperatures, decrease carbon emissions, and stop the extinction of hundreds of species with which we share this planet.

At Recyclebank, you can learn more about recycling, composting, and cutting down on household waste. You'll earn points for doing so. Once you have enough points, you can redeem them for awesome rewards like movie theatre tickets and virtual magazine subscriptions. It's learning at it's most rewarding!

In the Environmental Protection Agency's game Recycle City, you can "see how... people {can} reduce waste, use less energy, and save money by doing simple things at home, at work, and in their neighborhoods."

You can learn more about the issues at the EPA's official website as well.

You can also calculate your individual carbon footprint and get advice on how to lessen your impact on the environment right here.

Lastly, if you are interested in learning even more about this topic, please check out Rachel Carson's novel Silent Spring.

Become a Citizen Scientist with Zooinverse

Have you dreamed of making a difference in the world? Have you ever wanted to help real-life scientists make exciting new discoveries at the cutting edge of science? While you're waiting to become a scientist yourself, you can make your dreams come true by becoming a citizen scientist with Zooinverse.

You can help scientists classify galaxies, examine solar flares, explore the lunar surface, find planets around distant stars, analyze weather on Mars, discover more about the formation of stars, take a peek at the edges of black holes, organize sun-spot sightings, discover near-Earth asteroids, learn more about Earth's climate, hear whales communicate, explore the ocean floor, find and classify animals in the Serengeti, spy on penguins, track genetic mysteries, uncover the building blocks of the universe, and much, much more.

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.

Let's Get Creative: 800+ Prompts to Inspire You

This awesome site has over 800 visual prompts designed to ignite the creative fire within you. Whether you're a writing enthusiast or looking for ideas for a creative writing assignment, it's a worth a look.

Writing Resource: Write About

Check out Write About, the writing website designed by educators for students just like you. You can browse through thousands of visual prompts that excite the senses and spark the imagination to get those creative juices flowing. Just find something that inspires you and write as much or as little as you like in any style you choose. From there, you can collaborate with other students or keep your work private; it's up to you.

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. 

More Free Math Worksheets

At Math-Drills.com, you can find thousands of worksheets on a wide variety of topics from simple computations to algebra, geometry, and statistics. After selecting a general topic to study, you will be taken to a list of sub-topics and their accompanying worksheets. Each worksheet has several different versions, which is ideal if you need a little extra practice.

For students in Kindergarten through Grade 5, k5learning.com has a range of free worksheets on various math, grammar, and reading comprehension topics.

You can also find a ton of free math worksheets, video lessons, games, and activities for students in 1st through 7th grade at this website.

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.

Junior Rangers Program

If you're going to be visiting a national or state park sometime in the near future, you might want to consider becoming a Junior Ranger. You'll learn a lot about the environment and the various types of wildlife and vegetation living in each park, and you'll even get a cool Junior Ranger patch for your efforts. Even if you're not going to be taking a trip to a park anytime soon, you might want to check out the National Junior Ranger Program Booklets to learn more about fossils, the night sky, the wilderness, the Underground Railroad, and marine life. You can visit the site right here.