How I Learned How to Do Better in School

by Bladimir Castillo

When I just came here I was disorganized and lazy. I didn't have time to do homework and I didn't care about school. I thought that because of the new country, school would be hard.

But during my first year I heard about a course that is supposed to help students do better at school. This course was at Albert Einstein High School, my first high school in the U.S. I thought this course would be boring but it wasn't. It was one of the most interesting classes I have taken. This course is called "A Better Habit of Studying" and has been helping many kinds of students in the metropolitan area.

The first thing they taught me was to improve my communication with my parents. This was very helpful because I didn't have any communication with my parents about school at all.

The second thing that they taught me was to have self-esteem - to be proud of myself. This is something I should never give up. It would help me and encourage me to always try to seek new experiences.

One of the most important things that they taught me was to have a habit of study - to make a schedule of my daily things and to follow it. I also need to have a desk to study at home.

In this course they gave me some papers in order to help me be in track - to keep doing the things I'm supposed to do. The first one is for the teachers. The second one is for me. And the third one is for my parents.

The result is that I now I am doing much better in school. I'm more organized, I have better communication with my parents and I have a good GPA. The GPA is very important in this course.

Even though I took this course during my freshman year at Albert Einstein, I am still practicing what I learned in this course because I don't want to go down. Besides this course taught me how to succeed in the future and set up my goals. The papers they gave me help to keep me on track.

What I Learned

In order to start this program you have to have self-esteem. This is what they taught us. We had to sit down and think about ourselves.

- Think if I am efficient, productive and proud of myself.

- Think if I congratulate myself for my achievements.

- Think if I have support from my family and school for my achievements.

- Think if you feel good when someone else has achievements.

This course also includes communication skills and teaches you how to improve your communication, here are some steps. They told us to . . .

- Try to talk about the school and other topics every single day.

- Try to keep active and positive communication.

- Try to learn from this positive communication.

- Reinforce this communication.

- Self evaluate daily about your communication.

Gregorio Encarnacion, a Blair student took this course during his freshmen year because he wanted to improve and do better in school. He said, "The new students who just came here will be good that they take this course, so they will start doing as well as other students do."

Make a Habit of Study

This part of the course can help you to be organized, to do your homework better, and to learn most of what you are taught.

Set up a schedule of your daily activities including your homework.
Follow your schedule regularly.
Study until you finish all your homework and your projects.
Study without interruption.
Get a desk to study, and try to get a lamp.