Junior Focus 2017 Communicating Professionally and Effectively Tips • Include an appropriate subject line. • Should indicate the nature of your message. • Address your teacher properly. • “Dear Mr. Ferguson,” not “Hey,” or “FERGIE-FERG!!!” • Use proper English throughout the email. • No emojis or abbreevs. • Keep it short and to the point. • Don’t waste any time with fluff. Explain why you’re sending the email. Keep your message to a brief paragraph at most. • Be polite and respectful. • Your teacher is a valuable resource and an important relationship. Scenario #1 After getting your science test back, you realize that your teacher marked one of your answers wrong when your neighbor, who has the same answer as you, did not lose any points for that question. Scenario #2 It’s Wednesday afternoon and you just found out that your family has decided to visit your relatives this upcoming weekend, meaning you now will have to miss school on Friday. Coincidently, this Friday is also the day of your large unit test in your math class. Scenario #3 It is the end of the semester and your final assignment is due. Right before you go to send the paper to your English teacher, your computer crashes and you lose all of your work. The deadline is less than 30 minutes from now. How do you best handle these situations with your teacher? After getting your science test back, you realize that your teacher marked one of your answers wrong when your neighbor, who has the same answer as you, did not lose any points for that question. It’s Wednesday afternoon and you just found out that your family has decided to visit your relatives this upcoming weekend, meaning you now will have to miss school on Friday. Coincidently, this Friday is also the day of your large unit test in your math class. It is the end of the semester and your final assignment is due. Right before you go to send the paper to your English teacher, your computer crashes and you lose all of your work. The deadline is less than 30 minutes from now. Consider This… How might your actions impact future correspondence with your teacher(s)? Will this teacher: appreciate your questions or concerns? still respect you as an individual? give you the benefit of the doubt next time? be happy to write recommendation letters on your behalf? Personal Goals and Priorities Goal: what you PLAN to do Priority: what you HAVE to do Time Management Helpful Tips Create a study space that is free of distractions. Relaxing and having fun is just as important and necessary. Studying and being organized is different for everyone! Multiple Intelligences How do you learn? What is the Theory of Multiple Intelligences? Breaking the mold of just V-A-R-K multiple intelligences ≠ learning styles multiple intelligences represents different intellectual abilities Everyone shows some intelligence in every area Being good at one doesn’t mean you are bad at the others It is what you excel at, not how you approach it “Labeling creates limits, and when it comes to learning, we want to avoid restricting how we define student potential. People have many different intelligences, and strength in one area does not predict weakness in another.” - Edutopia Bodily-Kinesthetic Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence is about thinking in movements and includes the ability to use movements for either self- expression or precision to achieve a goal. Sample activities: Perform a skit to show the action of the idea you are trying to learn. Make a game out of the materials. Apply what you are learning to hands-on models or in-practice examples. Stay active when you are in a situation in which you need to concentrate. You can squeeze a stress ball when talking with someone or walk around while reading a book. Interpersonal Interpersonal intelligence is about social interaction and understanding the people around you and their motives, emotions, perspectives, and moods. This type of intelligence is important in managing relationships, understanding situations, and negotiating conflict Sample activities: Give and receive feedback. Talk out problems. Work on large-group projects so you can use your social abilities to divide up tasks and understand all aspects of the project. Be a part of active learning through mentoring, tutoring, or an apprenticeship. Intrapersonal Intrapersonal intelligence has been said to be the road to achievement, learning, and personal satisfaction. It is about being connected to who you are and how you feel, and knowing your own limits and abilities. Sample activities: Study alone in a comfortable yet quiet environment. Set goals for yourself, and monitor your progress regularly. Reflect on what you have learned, and think through new material. Create a connection between new material and subjects you already know, and gain understanding by finding their similarities Logical-Mathematical Logical-mathematical intelligence is about understanding complex problems and conceptualizing relationships between symbols, processes, and actions. Sample activities: Think about what you are trying to learn as a puzzle or a formula. Ask questions, and allow yourself to experiment with your own hypotheses to find solutions or new answers. Concentrate on symbols, designs, and words to bridge mathematical and verbal logic. Create an outline to understand your subject step by step. Musical Musical intelligence is associated with enjoying music, singing, making music, and playing an instrument. It involves a sensitivity to sounds as well as the emotions music conveys. Sample activities: Listen to music while you study to connect its patterns and sounds with the subject you are studying. Replay the same song just before a test. Create a rhyme, song, or chant for material you would like to memorize. Naturalistic Naturalistic learning is about understanding the patterns of living things and applying scientific reasoning to the world. Sample activities: Recognize and classify different types of plants or animals. Observe and record data. Create a living system for the material you are trying to learn. Imagine the new material as an ecosystem or a pattern for you to figure out. Write about nature, daily life, or people as a topic so you become engaged in your assignment. Verbal-Linguistic Verbal-linguistic intelligence is the ability to use words effectively for reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Sample activities: Use words to explain complicated subjects. Ask questions. Engage in the Socratic method, digesting information through a question-and-answer exchange. Hone your native ability to tell a story. Visual-Spatial Visual-spatial intelligence allows you to see and modify things in your mind and having an understanding of the visual world. Sample activities: Use art projects to create representations of the content you are learning. Draw related images next to your notes -- along with arrows between ideas -- to create connection and reference points. Organize with color. Use different-colored highlighters, paper, index cards, folders, or tabs to create a visual system for finding things and grouping topics. Visualize your topic. When you are learning something new, imagine what it looks like. Useful Phone Applications for Task Management and Organization 1. 24me (Free) If you've ever needed a personal assistant, consider downloading 24me, a smart and automatic task handler that can do almost everything you'd want an assistant to do. Your calendar, to-do lists, personal accounts, and notes are centralized in one place, and your day-to-day errands are completed by one tap. The app even lets you know what time you should leave for your meeting based on current traffic. 2. Evernote (Free) Your projects, notes, to-do lists, and saved items from the Internet are all synced on Evernote, allowing you access on any of your devices. Ideas including sketches, text, audio recordings, videos, and PDFs are organized into notebooks, and you can even use your smartphone camera to scan documents. Collaborate and share ideas with group members and annotate images to provide feedback on projects. 3. Dropbox (Free) Keep all your files, photos, docs, and videos in one place using Dropbox. Share large files with anyone — including those without an account — from any of your devices. Everything you store in Dropbox is automatically backed up and synced to the app, allowing you full access wherever you are. 4. Remember the Milk (Free) Create smart to-do lists on Remember the Milk and receive reminders via email, IM, text, Twitter, or mobile notifications. You can prioritize and organize your tasks by due dates, tags, or importance and assign tasks to others. Gmail, Twitter, Google Calendar, Evernote, and other services are integrated and all your information is synced to your devices. 5. Google Calendar (Free) Google Calendar is great for anyone who wants organization and a way to keep track of their own personal goals. You can see your calendar in different ways, like by the day or in a three-day view or see a map of where a meeting is. Most importantly, make sure you're meeting any aspirations you have with the "goals" feature. Add a goal and Google will remind you about it and schedule it into your day. 6. Todoist (Free) A simply designed app that helps you keep track of your projects and prioritize tasks, Todoist does it all. Add, complete, and reschedule tasks with drag-and-drop scheduling and set due dates. Organize lists according to color or prioritize by subprojects and subtasks. Not only can you easily share projects and lists with others, but you can also set weekly and monthly goals. 7. Wunderlist (Free) Wunderlist helps you organize and schedule your to-dos from any of your devices. Always remember deadlines and tasks by setting reminders and due dates.