Your Summer Plans Finalized

now that the school year is over it's time to talk about summer I love the summer I think teachers and students deserve a relaxed summer I never took a summer class I'm not a big proponent of taking classes over the summer however I do realize and understand that for some students their circumstances it makes sense to take a summer class or to take something for remediation or to get ahead in for whatever curriculum you are it makes sense for some students but for the majority students I just want you to enjoy summer there's so many great benefits of taking your brain and your mind away from the day in day out of studying and everything with school and University and just relaxing meeting new people trying new things there's so many great benefits to summer please go ahead and enjoy it however I don't want you to forget everything that you learned because we all know the summer fog when you go back to school in August or September is real and as teachers we spend a lot of time remediating with students helping them remember the stuff that's one of the big drawbacks with summer is students forget a lot of stuff so I have a plan for you it's not right for everybody but it might be right for you so if you're interested this is what I used to recommend to my students to make sure that they would be prepared for the next year and before you start thinking oh crap here's going to be math problems or reviews no no no I am not going to be promoting any work that you need to be doing it's it's a really simple process and it's just really a framework that I want you to be a to follow and think about throughout the summer time most Summers for students is going to be around 10 weeks I know some of you are already on summer or you have longer breaks so adapt this framework however is going to fit for you but the first thing that you have to be able to hear to is number one is taking some time for yourself ideally if you're looking into the 10we time frame that is going to require two weeks I want you to spend at least two weeks doing nothing with school get away from school do not be doing any work do not be thinking about any work maybe even get away from your friends that you've been hanging out with every single day over at school just go ahead and decompress it is so important to re-energize yourself from the day and day out grind two weeks do nothing don't try to be learning anything don't try to be doing any review or even thinking about school or what's going on just take some time for yourself and obviously have some fun hang out with friends whatever may be the case just give yourself some time away from learning let the brain be free but after two weeks is over I'm telling you I know you don't want to hear this but this can be very very helpful and it's not going to require a lot from you each and every day to be able to do but the reality is one thing that I preach over and over with students is if they want to get better at math it's all about being consistent so I don't want you to spend hours and hours studying I want you to enjoy your summer however if you can set aside 15 to 30 minutes every single day preferably the best time in the day I would probably say is the morning maybe wake up a little bit earlier I know you probably want to sleep in so sleep in but maybe at some time during your day just find 15 or 30 minutes and in reality if you're going to do this you're probably going to want to plan ahead you're probably going to want to identify what is some work I can do each and every day that's going to require 15 or 30 minutes here's some examples that you could probably follow maybe review some homework review quizzes review tests select a couple problems to go ahead and do it doesn't need to be much the more consistent that you can be the better it is going to be for your brain to help retain the information but I want you to focus on the stuff that you learned last year go back through the whole course from the very beginning all the way to the very end rework those old problems review those problems you got wrong the problems you got right look over back over your notes just give yourself a refresher don't let this stuff go into the black hole of your brain it's going to make next year so much worse it doesn't take a lot of heavy lifting just for 153 minutes a day now this time period is going to be the work time period it's going to be roughly in the 10 week time frame it's going to take about four weeks so four weeks of you just being consistent and I know there's going to be some time you might have some family trips coming up and that might alter it a little bit just try to be as consistent as you can it might even be helpful to get a checklist or a calendar and make a mark each and every time that you able to follow through that helps with being consistent that shows your commitment to yourself for your learning and understanding then it's going to be almost school year and I know once we even get to July it's crazy back to school is planted all over all the stores they are getting your brain in that mindset to go back to school and I don't think in July that's the best thing that you should be thinking about but at the end of July right you are in reality going back to school so guess what these little quick Refreshers is not going to be enough you do need to take that refresher and accelerate it and that is going to be the two week ramp up for the two-e ramp up basically the two weeks before school yes enjoy those last moments of Summer I can't tell you how many great memories I've had with friends going up north enjoying trips with them going on the boat I have a lot of good memories with my friends especially as the summer was nearing to the end however those last two weeks are also very very critical for you to get your brain into the mindset of getting ready for your studies so all we're simply going to do is do the exact same thing we did for those four-week Refreshers but we're going to intensify it rather than 15 to 30 minutes now start looking at 45 to 60 minutes start getting serious you know you're going back to school you know you're going to be start doing work and again guys it's an hour out of your day once you go ahead and do this work enjoy your life enjoy the summer this does not have to be a recipe of taking over your whole summer of not having fun but I'm telling you you put in this little work throughout the summer and you come back into the next year and you're going to have a completely different experience than if you would have done none of this at all I've gone through enough school years seen students that are prepared for the upcoming year and students that are not and you can see it's a world of a difference and it's not even so much about the math that they've retained over throughout the year but is that they are mentally prepared and ready to get back into the grind because the reality is if you just take time and don't do anything for three months and just completely drop off the face of the Earth of not doing any studies it takes a long time for you to be able to get back into that routine for example I used to work out every single day then I hurt my back I could not move I could not work out and it has taken me over a year to get myself back into the gym it's very difficult because it's just been something I haven't gotten used to back into but I'm now starting to get back on my bike because I said you know what no matter what do something that you can do consistently so that's why I'm getting on my bike every single day and just doing a ride my back still hurts I can't go very far I can't work myself very hard but I'm getting on my bike every single day doing a 30 45 minute ride no matter what I am committing myself to my routine and that is what I want you to do for this summer find a routine that's going to work for you and commit to it I'll see you next year