Another App to Keep College Students Organized

  

Here's another app I found to help keep college students organized: Timetable. Enjoy the following review by Linda Gorman of the Daily Orange:

"You’ve probably said it before, but this time you’ll mean it: This is the year you’re going to get organized. No more scribbling assignments on your hand or digging for syllabi crumpled at the bottom of your backpack.

Organization is tough. But if wall calendars and color-coded subject folders aren’t your thing, don’t throw your hands up yet. If you have a smartphone, you have a whole host of tools at your disposal to make the scary business of getting organized a little more manageable. One of the best tools available is the top-rated, recently updated Android application, Timetable.

Timetable, available for free from Google Play, offers students a simple way to keep track of courses and assignments.

From a centralized dashboard, users start out by entering their courses, called “lessons,” into the app, including details such as location, time, teacher and subject. From there, students can add tasks or exams for each lesson with due dates and details about the assignment or test. Lessons are displayed as colored modules on a daily or weekly calendar.

The calendar is useful, but the real utility of the app comes into play when changing the default settings to allow notifications and auto-muting.

Timetable automatically silences your phone during scheduled lesson times. Never again will you slink down in your chair and pretend you have no clue whose One Direction ringtone interrupted your short-tempered professor mid-lecture.

For those who want more information right on their home screens, Timetable offers push notifications about upcoming deadlines, as well as widgets with details about the day’s lessons or tasks.

Timetable’s user interface is clean, intuitive and highly customizable. Users have a choice of color themes for widgets and for the app itself. Students can specify the days of the week that Timetable will use, as well as the information about each lesson and task, such as subject, teacher, location and more.

If you have multiple Android devices, it’s possible to take your schedule with you wherever you go. Timetable syncs your account to the Cloud to keep data consistent and current on whatever tablet, phone or notebook you’re using.

Getting organized and staying organized is important, and it will give you a leg up on your classmates. Entering classes, assignments and exams into Timetable is a great way to get the semester off to a good start."

More on organizing for college:
3 Apps Every College Students Needs to Get Organized
Organizing Your Dorm Room
Getting Organized for School - Backpack Checklist

Getting Organized for School - Planning Dinner

  

Happy Labor Day! Hope your day is enjoyable! For some this is the last hurrah before school starts. For others, school has already been in session for a while.

Whenever school starts for you, reality sets in at the time! Summer is nice - schedules are more flexible, days are longer, vacations break up routines. But if you're a parent of school-aged kids, it's kind of nice to restore some of those routines again when school starts.

One of the biggest items to consider is dinnertime. Studies show that kids who eat dinner with their families several times a week are less likely to get involved in drugs and crime. It's a nice way to catch up with the family and can be the central focus of the day.

But. .. it takes planning, doesn't it? In order to save precious time, I recommend planning menus for the week and shopping just once a week. Each extra trip to the grocery store is a real time-drainer! Meals don't need to be elaborate, just tasty and balanced, to keep everyone functioning at peak energy.

Create an arsenal of quick, easy favorites - enough choices so you and your family don't get bored. If you need some help, check out our Hassle Free Dinners and Three Steps to Planning Dinner.

More on quick dinners:
Dinner in 15 - Citrus Salmon
Dinner in 10 – Lime Dill Chicken
Dinner in 10 – Chicken with Cranberry/Mandarin Sauce

 

Getting Organized for School - Organizing Homework without Battles

  
I repeat this blog post every year because homework can be such a battlefield!

Having trouble getting your child to do homework? Or does homework seem to stretch out over an unusually long time? When my children were in school I came up with a solution that gave my girls control and motivation, as well as some training in time management.

While they were having their after-school snack, each girl would list out all her homework assignments on a 3 x 5 card with the estimated time needed to complete each subject. Then, depending on how much time we had that day for homework, she would plan out her homework time, interspersing homework time with play time - a video game, a game with me, a TV show, shooting hoops, playing outside, etc. I recommend 30 minutes studying and 15 minutes to play with longer study times for older kids, shorter for younger.

I found that my kids were motivated to complete their homework in the time they estimated so they could get to playing. Plus homework time didn't turn into an endless expanse of time with no end in sight.

If one of the girls would underestimate the time it took to complete an assignment, her play time was still honored. Just having a change of scenery refreshes the brain.

By giving each girl some control over how she managed her time, she was motivated to do her homework and felt a sense of accomplishment from organizing her homework. Homework was broken up into bite-sized pieces and interspersed with fun. Homework battles were greatly reduced!

A suggestion: study your child. One of my daughters, an introvert, was depleted both physically and socially when she came home from school because she had used up all her words. She needed food and time to regroup before she was ready to talk about her day. My other daughter, also an introvert, wouldn't use up her words at school and was a chatterbox because she felt more comfortable using her words at home.

A child with ADHD may need to get rid of a bunch of energy before sitting down to homework. Each child is different, and as we study our children, we'll have more insight into creating an atmosphere for their success.


More on homework:
Getting Organized for School - Start the Night Before
Getting Organized for School (and Life!!) - Getting Enough Sleep
Getting Organized for School - Discover Your Child's Learning Styles

 

Getting Organized for School - Start the Night Before

  
Wouldn’t you love to have a peaceful, stress-free morning tomorrow? Starting the night before can help eliminate the rush and push, getting your day off to a pleasant and calm start. This is a blog post I wrote when we had five teenage foster daughters trying to get to school on time each morning!

Getting Your Child Organized

Knowing how much sleep your child needs is essential to his/her well-being and success at school. Trying to function well in a sleep-deprived stupor is impossible.

I feel strongly that a huge role of mine as a mom and foster mom is to create an atmosphere where my child can succeed. In order to insure that my children get enough sleep, I work backwards:

- I figure out when my child needs to be in bed with the lights out in order to get the sleep she requires. We have five foster daughters in our house this week. One starts school today, two tomorrow and two on Thursday. We are reining in bedtime so everyone can get enough sleep.

- We determine how much time is needed for nightly routines – shower/bath, brushing teeth, room decluttering, prayers, reading, etc. – and start the routine that much earlier than bedtime. With five girls and one bathroom between them, we are starting at 7 to get them all in their rooms by 9!

- Next, we figure out how much time is needed for morning routines - shower/bath, brushing teeth, breakfast, etc. Each child sets the alarm to allow enough time for her morning routine to be accomplished without rush. We have one child who is younger than the rest, and has trouble judging time. When she first came, we wrote out a timed schedule of what she needs to do in the morning and how much time it should take.

- We encourage each child to choose her clothes for tomorrow and lay them out.

- Before choosing her clothes, she should have packed her backpack – homework assignments, permission slips, gym clothes, etc., checking her backpack checklist.

- Before packing her backpack, she can pack her lunch and put it in the fridge. If she doesn't want to make a sandwich the night before because it will get soggy, at least she can pack everything else and know which kind of sandwich she will make in the morning. (I must confess, I made my girls’ lunches throughout high school. For some reason it stressed them out, and I didn't mind doing it.)

Getting Yourself Organized

If I am running behind in the morning, it makes life stressful for everyone! So I try to create the same type of routine for myself. If I am sleep deprived, I get crabby and little things that shouldn't bother me trigger inappropriate responses.

- I need to know how much sleep I need and determine when I need to be in bed with the lights out in order to get it.

- Working backwards again, I calculate how much time I need for my nightly routine and start the routine that much earlier than bedtime.

- During my routine, I think through what my morning routine will be and how much time it will take, including fixing breakfast and making sure everyone else gets out the door on time. I set my alarm to allow for that to happen without panic. Ten minutes can change panic to calm, so I try not to cut my morning routine too short.

- Before I start my evening routine or during my routine, I think through what I'm going to wear tomorrow and make sure it's clean, ironed, etc.

- Before that, I think through my schedule for tomorrow and pack my briefcase and/or purse and/or gym bag (backpack or diaper bag for some of you) with what I need for the day tomorrow. I'm much less likely to forget something if I can think it through calmly.

- If I'm going to need a lunch, I'll prepare it before I pack my bag and stick it in the fridge. If I take leftovers from dinner, I try to package them while putting the food away after dinner.

- While I'm packing my lunch or while preparing dinner, I look to see what I have planned for breakfast. When I plan my meals for the week, I also plan breakfasts so I can get what I need when I do my weekly grocery shopping.

- After dinner is a good time to set the table for breakfast. If you have two tables - one in the kitchen and one in the dining room, you can set both whenever you empty the dishwasher - one for breakfast and one for dinner.

It’s a lot to think about, isn’t it? It’s easy to see why time slips away without even realizing it. But by being intentional about your evening schedule, you’re creating an atmosphere of success for both your child and yourself which will hopefully result in a peaceful and productive day tomorrow!

What do you do to get your day off to a good start?



More on Organizing for School:
Getting Organized for School (and Life!) - Getting Enough Sleep  
Getting Organized for School - Ideas for Creating a Central Hub  
Three Steps to Time Management for the Working Mom

Getting Organized for School - Helping Your ADHD Child Stay Organized

    
I've done a lot of study on ADHD and have a soft spot in my heart for those living with it. The following article offers excellent ideas for helping your ADHD child get organized for school.

"Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a chronic disorder that begins in childhood and often persists into adulthood. Inattention can create difficulty with organization, which can pose problems in school during childhood and the teenage years.

Problems with organization stem from problems with executive functioning in the brain (i.e., the level of detail and the time it takes to complete the task). Learning organizational skills can help a child or teen overcome this obstacle. It can also be helpful with the other symptoms of attention deficit disorder, such as time management.

The NYU Child Study Center notes that some children have difficulty with organization, though the deficits are more severe in children with ADHD. But learning organizational strategies early can prevent the symptoms from interfering with productivity. Parents can play an essential role by teaching the child different techniques and monitoring progress.

For example, the parents and child can make a schedule for homework with due dates, and leave space for checking off the assignment when it is done. A homework schedule helps with other symptoms of ADHD, such as hyperactivity and impulsiveness, as it keeps the child on a specific routine.

Parents can use the schedule to make sure the child submits his assignments on time, and see if there are areas in which he is struggling. When making the schedule, part of it should be kept open to review assignments, as careless mistakes are also a symptom of inattention.

Besides creating a method to keep track of assignments, the child or teen also needs an area to work where the number of distractions are limited.

For example, the child should have a consistent place to do homework with all clutter removed. The study area should also be quiet. The child can also create a storage area to hold important papers for school, such as a binder labeled for each class. Parents should also encourage the child to pack his bag at night to prevent school work from being lost or left at home. Experts from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign also say that the child should also clean his desk at the end of the day to help maintain organization; this also encourages the establishment of a daily routine.

Since inattention can make it difficult for the child to do complex tasks, caregivers can help break tasks into steps and write out each step. This exercise also helps the child learn planning and follow-through. Leave room on the list to check off when a step is completed. When taking notes, the child should leave the page margins open to add more information when reviewing the material.

Parents should also consider the use of a reward system, which reinforces the child’s new organizational skills. Here are some ideas for ADHD behavioral interventions for the home that work and have been proven effective.

Parents should remember that a child’s or teen’s behavior takes time to change — it’s not going to happen overnight. Don’t be discouraged by setbacks, which are usually temporary in nature. Help be a cheerleader and positive support for your teen or child. You may find the results encouraging and beneficial, not just for your home life, but for your child’s mental health as well."



More on organization and ADHD:
Helping Your ADHD Child Get Organized
ADHD Organization - Decision-Making
ADHD Organization - Time and Energy

 

Getting Organized for School - Discover Your Child's Learning Style

  

I try to repeat this blog post every year because I think it's so important! It's critical that we are students of our children so we can create an atmosphere where they can succeed!

One of the greatest gifts you can give your child is understanding her learning style. Discovering my daughters' learning styles greatly increased my ability to help my children learn - knowing whether they were auditory, visual, or kinesthetic learners. It kept me from forcing my learning style on them, and helped me suggest ways to study and learn.

Cynthia Tobias has written several books on learning styles and learning in general. I'll recommend two that I found very enlightening: The Way They Learn and Every Child Can Succeed: Making the Most of Your Child's Learning Style. She gives numerous ideas for implementing each type of learning style.

As you talk these concepts over with your child, knowing his learning style gives your child confidence, the ability to adapt his learning accordingly, and freedom from comparison. You may find it helpful to discuss this information with your child's teacher, especially if he is a kinesthetic learner and must be moving in order to learn.

You still have time before school starts to read one or both of these books. What a great tool to stash in your parenting tool belt!

More on getting organized for school:
Getting Organized for School - Ideas for Creating a Central Hub
5 Tips for Organized Back-to-School Shopping
Three Steps to Organizing Your Child's Room



 

Getting Organized for School - Ideas for Creating a Central Hub

  
With school starting in less than a month for some, it's time to start thinking of how to create an atmosphere of success for your student and your family as a whole. If things are organized and running smoothly, your child will be more likely to do well. If chaos reigns, it will be very difficult for your child to focus and excel.

One idea is to create a family hub - a central location for several important things:

- You need a location where you keep papers to be signed for school, library books, invitations, and other important information. The point is to have one location into which you deposit vital information so you know where to look when you need it. It can be a drawer, a decorative box, a shelf - whatever works for you. And it needs to be in a central location. When my kids were home, I used a basket in my kitchen.

- If you want to include backpacks, briefcases, and keys in your hub, you could put up pegs or hooks near the door you normally enter. Or use a coat rack or a coat closet to store these vital necessities.

- You may also want to create a section in your hub for each person in your family to house their important stuff.

- And a family calendar would be a vital part of this hub, too.

I searched around the internet and found several different ideas for creating a family hub or parts thereof. Let these be a springboard for creating your own family hub!

Aren't these clever ideas? What does your hub look like? We'd love to see pics!

More or getting organized for school:
5 Tips for Organized Back-to-School Shopping
Are You Overscheduling Your Kids or Yourself?
Creating Routines and Systems

5 Tips for Organized Back-to-School Shopping

        
Summertime is a great time to do some back-to-school shopping. Vacations often involve shopping, so why not get some of that school shopping out of the way? But read these tips first to maximize your effort:



1. Take inventory of what you have. If you have children, tackle this job one child at a time. Make a list of all tops, categorizing them separately - short sleeve, long sleeve, t-shirts, dressy, dressy casual, etc. Do the same with bottoms - shorts, capris, jeans, skirts, dress pants, etc.

2. While going through the closet, start a donation pile and a throwaway/rag pile and a giveaway pile for clothing you want to pass on to specific people.

3. Make a list of all the possible outfits, both summer and winter.

4. It will become obvious which articles of clothing have no matches or matching accessories - shoes, socks, jewelry, belts, etc.. Make a shopping list.

5. NOW it's time to shop! If you are shopping for your children, make back-to-school shopping a fun event. If you can, take one child at a time, have lunch together, and make it a special day.

Even though this process takes a while, it is far more productive. You may discover outfits you never considered, you'll clear the closet of unwanted items, and your shopping will be intentional rather than haphazard, which will likely save you money. And you and/or your child will have a list of outfits to wear - especially helpful on those days when choosing an outfit seems overwhelming!

More on family organizing:
Managing Paper, Part 2
Keeping  Things Organized - Family Five Minute Challenge
Creating Routines and Systems

 

Wrapping Up the School Year

     
As the school year closes, it's a good time to wrap up end-of-year activities. Even if you don't have kids in school, many activities take a break for the summer - a perfect time to put closure on those activities.

If you volunteer, declutter and organize any paperwork for your position. If you are passing that position on to someone else, hand off that paperwork  so the transition goes smoothly.

If you've taken a class, organize your class notes and related material. Look over your notes for action points you want to take away from the class.


If you have school-age children, sit down together and look over school papers, projects and artwork you have saved. Determine an acceptable amount to save and work with your child to determine which masterpieces to keep. If you wish, make a scrapbook of the year.

If there are too keepsakes many for your comfort, take pictures of the rest and put them in a photo album. Or send them to relatives or soldiers. Or create placemats, lamp shades, collages, etc. with them.

Print photos you want to keep from this year and divide into categories. Or copy to CDs or DVDs or another medium. Organize according to activities. Remove these pictures from your camera to make room for your summer fun.

If you haven't done so already, evaluate summer clothes for the family. Get rid of those that don't work and fill in the blanks with new ones. While you're at it, if other clothes are outgrown, get rid of those also. Donate, hand them down - whatever, but get them out of the house!

Finally, celebrate the end of school! Make something special, decorate, do something silly, make certificates to celebrate milestones. Whatever you do, celebrate all the work each of you has accomplished during the school year.

More on wrapping up:
Planning an Intentional Summer for Your Child
Managing Paper, Part 2
Organize a Fun Activity List

Websites to Help You Organize School, Church, and Team Activities

Great article by Heather Alexander of Knoxnews reviews a couple of websites that help parents and teachers organize activities, volunteers and group gifts. 

"I've never been a room mom. And though I support my daughter, her teacher and our school, I have NO desire to be the point person for the classroom.

I'm disorganized, and I know it. I try to overcome it by hunting down tools that make organizing things easier.

Recently, I have come across two really useful websites.
SignUpGenius is a free website that helps parents stay organized by signing up electronically for duties.

You can sign up for an account at www.signupgenius.com, enter a list of email addresses for the parents of classmates or members of a team. Once you have that, you can invite the people on your list to sign up for things.

For example, a teacher could use it to set up parent-teacher conferences, a room mother could use it to organize parents to be the weekly mystery reader, and parents of kids who play sports could use the site to organize snacks and drinks for practices and games. It even has reminders that automatically get sent out prior to the commitment.

SignUpGenius was created by a dad who organized a church function where the food and drink sign-ups went horribly wrong. "I kept thinking to myself ... there has got to be a better way. So I set out to create one," said SignUpGenius founder Dan Rutledge.

The other helpful site is www.FrumUs.com.

I had never heard of it until recently when I got an invitation to contribute to a gift for A. L. Lotts Elementary School's third-grade teacher and cross country coach Jessica Greer.

I clicked on the link and discovered the site provides a way to collect money online from a group of people for a gift.

To use the site, you establish an account and add an email list. Then you can start a collection and invite people from your email list to give to the group gift.

There are no fees for this and no minimum amount required. The money that is collected can be used to purchase gifts or gift cards from the company's website, which includes dozes of retailers such as Amazon, Gap and Walmart.

This would be a great tool to collect for a group gift to a teacher and would work for a birthday or for a shower gift as well.

A mom created this site after she realized no one had collected money to get a gift for her son's baseball coach at the end of the season.

So, the ingenuity of one mom and one dad are meeting the very real needs of disorganized parents everywhere. And I, for one, am grateful."

More on family organizing:

Center'd Planning Website

Get Organized for Your Vacation with Trip Doc App

Three Steps on Time Management for the Stay-at-Home Mom

Backpack/Briefcase Checklists for School, College, and Work

    
With school starting, I want to run several blogs on getting organized for school. The inspiration for today's blog came from The Disney Dream Team's Tracy, who created a system for remembering what needed to go to school with each child.

While Tracy's system targeted her elementary school children, a backpack checklist would work for middle school, high school, and college students. This could even work as a briefcase reminder for work, too. This is how it works:

Create a chart listing the days of the week at the top. Under each day, make a column for each person who needs a checklist. On the far left, list possible items that might need to be included in the backpack that day: a band instrument, shoes for gym, signed paperwork, a folder or notebook for a particular class, library books, etc.

You can create your chart on your computer and reproduce it each week. Or you could use a dry erase board or laminate a poster board to re-use each week. Each person on the chart could be noted in a different color. Then items can be checked off on the appropriate day as a reminder to put those things in the backpack. 

Make sure you leave extra rows at the bottom for items that aren't necessarily needed each week.

To make life easier, have everyone pack their backpacks the night before. What a morning stress reliever!

More on getting organized for school:  
Organizing for School - Papers
Get Organized for School - Clothing Inventory
Hope for Disorganized Students!
Getting Ready for School: Organizing Homework Papers

Getting Ready for School: Organizing Homework Papers

   
When we were foster parents, we usually had at least one child who lost homework papers, assignments, etc. One of our foster daughters came up with a wonderful idea: a colorful plastic expandable file we got at Walmart. It's only about 2 inches thick and has several compartments. She labeled a section for each of her classes. 

In each class she placed homework assignments and other important papers in the appropriate file. When she did her homework or needed to turn in a field trip slip, it went back in the proper file. 

This kept all important papers and homework neatly filed and easily found, and kept her bookbag from having massive quantities of papers crunched everywhere. Plus, it reduced the number of items that got lost. She cleaned her file out every week or so to get rid of items no longer needed.

An inexpensive and simple way to organize your organizationally-challenged child!

More on homework:

Getting Organized for School 2010: Homework

Getting Organized for School 2010 - Online Homework Help

Helping Your Child Organize Large Homework Projects

 

Getting Organized for School (and Life!) - Prioritizing Your Activities and Schedule

    
With school starting soon, I'm going to occasionally recycle some of my previous blog posts regarding getting organized for school over the next few weeks. Here's one I'm very passionate about:

If you have school-age children there are three times a year when it might be beneficial to re-prioritize your activities and schedule: January, summer and fall. 

Even if you don't have kids, fall is like a second January. Summertime is usually chaotic, and now it's time to regroup.

Prioritizing activities and schedules involves looking at your schedule in light of your passions and gifts. Does your schedule reflect those things you love and are gifted to do? If not, burn out or discouragement is ahead. 

When you know where you're going and why, life is fulfilling. You're confident you are running after those things you love. You're basking in the satisfaction of using your gifts and doing a good job. Even if difficult times should arise, it gives you a compass through the storm. What could be better?

If you are overwhelmed at the thought of re-prioritizing, I'd love to help! 
 
- I'm available to coach you through this. 

- I have several time management books which walk you step-by-step through this process. 

- Rethinking Your Life in 3 Weeks provides bite-sized tasks to do each day. 

How I can help:
Rethinking Life Coaching
1-2-3 ... Get Organized Time Management Books 
Rethinking Your Life in 3 Weeks
 

Helping Your College Student Live Intentionally

College can be a scary place, especially for a freshman. Why not make it a little less scary by encouraging your student to live intentionally.

Living intentionally - what is that? 
- It's figuring out what is important and aligning your life accordingly. 
- It's determining what you're passionate about and making sure you're investing in these areas.
- It's figuring out your gifts and talents and using them to the max.
- It's thinking about what kind of legacy you want to leave.
- It's eliminating things from your life that compete with your passions, gifts, and legacy.
- It's maximizing your time in order to reflect your passions and your gifts and your legacy.

This is an ideal time to consider these things, before the chaos of college begins. Once classes start and all those choices of how to spend his time arise, decisions will be easier as your student can sift various options through his own filtering system: does this activity match my goals?

Sound complicated? It's not. 

All of my time management books, including Three Steps to Time Management for the College Student workbook, guide you through the process of living intentionally: determining your passions, gifts and legacy and aligning your life accordingly.

They are available as ebooks on Kindle,  and as downloadable PDFs or on flash drives at 1-2-3 ... Get Organized.

Help your student get ready for fall classes and for life by living intentionally! You couldn't provide a better gift!


More on college: 

Cutting Costs on College Textbooks

Packing for College 2011

College Time Management - Why Early Classes Predict Better Grades

Another Way to Streamline Your Morning Routine

Yesterday I was swapping out my summer and winter clothes, even through we got a couple of inches of snow last week! I'll still keep my winter clothes handy in my closet, but less accessible than summer and spring clothing. 

This week is very busy as I have a coaching client I meet with each day, I'm a part-time executive assistant for the president of a local corporation and I have a speaking engagement tonight.

Your week is probably packed, too, so you might want to try what I did yesterday. I went through my clothes and chose my outfits for the entire week. As I had some of my summer clothes folded, I needed to toss some wrinkly ones in the drier and iron some others. 

You may want to do the same thing for your children, if applicable - not toss them in the drier, but help them choose outfits for the week. If they are old enough, they can do it for themselves. 

While you are at it, choose accessories and shoes for each outfit. Your kids can do the same - even place underwear and socks with each outfit. 

What a nice way to start the week and make mornings go more smoothly!

More on smooth morning routines: 

Increasing Efficiency

Getting Organized for School - A Successful Day Starts the Night Before

Creating Order for the Disorganized Child

 

Teachers: 5 Tips to Help the Disorganized Student

The following article by Janelle Cox, is written for new teachers. However, home schooling parents would also benefit from the insights contained in the article.

"A student with a lack of organizational skills can easily be fixed by providing a routine and clearly stating directions and expectations. These students often forget homework, have messy desks, cannot keep track of their materials and do not have time management skills. Teachers can help these students by having them follow a structured routine and provide them with strategies that will keep them organized. Use the following tips to help your disorganized student manage their responsibilities.

1. Set Up a Routine 

A student with a lack of organizational skills can easily be fixed by providing a routine and clearly stating directions and expectations. These students often forget homework, have messy desks, cannot keep track of their materials and do not have time management skills. Teachers can help these students by having them follow a structured routine and provide them with strategies that will keep them organized. Use the following tips to help your disorganized student manage their responsibilities.

By providing structure in the classroom the disorganized student will have no choice but to stay organized. Establishing a classroom schedule will allow students to be less frustrated and confused, and will provide them with a sense of where they are going and what materials they will need. To lessen their confusion, place a schedule in their folder or tape one to their desk. This way the student can use it as a reference throughout the day. 

2. Use a Checklist 

A checklist is a great tool for a disorganized student, because it visually shows them the expectations that they need to accomplish for the day. For younger students have the list already prepared for them and go over it with the student each morning. For older students, show them how to prioritize their list and to check mark the items after they have been completed. 

3. Monitor Homework 

Encourage parenteral support by writing a letter to parents describing your homework policy. Require that each night after the homework is completed it is signed by a parent and returned to school the following day. This process will ensure the student stays on task and encourages parents to be involved. 

4. Organize Classroom Desks 

A disorganized student will not take the time to clean out their desk. Each week set aside time in your class schedule so students can complete this task. Brainstorm organizational ideas with the students on specific ways they can keep their desks tidy. Make the list visible in the classroom so each week they can have access to it. Suggest that they label materials for easy access and throw away items they no longer use. 

5. Use Memory Aids 

Memory aids are a helpful way to remember tasks and materials. Have the student use tangible items such as: sticky notes, rubber bands, index cards, alarm clock, a watch or a timer. These items will help remind the student of their task. Another memory aid is to use an acronym to remind them of what they need to do. An example would be the word CATS. (C=Carry, A=Assignment, T=To, S=School)

Teaching these new strategies will help students complete their tasks efficiently and effectively. These tips give students the tools that they need to manage their obligations and be successful in school. With a little help and encouragement a disorganized student can learn how to lead an organized life.

Additional Tips to Keep Students Organized

• Use the buddy system and assign a classmate to assist the student with their organizational skills.

• Use different color paper for different subjects so it is easier to locate papers.

• Require papers be put into binders.
• Have student put important materials in their take home folder or backpack as soon as they receive them.
  
• Use different color folders for different subjects so the students can locate them easily.
  
• Provide containers for small items so they will not be lost.
  
• Provide a monthly calendar and label when assignments are due.
  
• Have the student show you their completed checklist each day before they go home."

 More on student organization:

myHomework iPhone App Helps Students Get Organized

Back-to-School Organizing Tips from 10-Year Olds

Organizing a Classroom for ADD and ADHD Students

 

The Washington Post: Organizing a Homework Space for Special Needs Children

         

The Washington Post ran two articles yesterday on creating functional and attractive spaces for special needs children. The following August 2011 article about creating homework spaces for special needs kids by Delece Smith-Barrow was referenced. The other two articles are linked below. All three are great reads on a topic rarely addressed.

"For children with special needs or mild learning disabilities, homework often becomes a responsibility shared with their parents. Mom or Dad may spend an hour or two helping them complete math problems, and all the teacher sees is the A paper turned in the next day.

'Oftentimes [these students] kind of fly under the radar screen because parents help them so much at home,' says Ann Dolin, a former Fairfax special-education teacher and founder of the local tutoring service Educational Connections. 'Lots of times kids come back to school with a beautiful paper. Everything’s done. The teacher has no idea what it took to get that child to do it.'

Dolin, with her army of 163 tutors, helps children of all learning capabilities complete class assignments in a timely manner and figures out the best way for them to focus at home.

'They don’t have to sit down at the desk the whole time,' she says. 'They could have a lap desk or sit down on the floor. Some kids may pace around the house and read their notes . . . That type of movement during homework is important to many kids.'

We spoke with Dolin by phone about creating a homework space for young children with special needs, which school supplies work best for these students and how to make a homework area fun. Here are edited excerpts.
 
Q. Where is the best place to set up a homework station?
A. It really needs to be in earshot of the parent. Many kids with learning disabilities can’t really be left on their own and be expected to get their homework done independently. For example, the kitchen might be too distracting for some children, so a good alternative would be the dining room because it’s not right in the middle of a really busy location, but the parent can walk around the corner and check up on the child.

Generally the bedroom is not a good place for elementary-schoolers to do homework unless they are really motivated. It is far too distracting.

You kind of have to identify the needs of your child. Some kids like the hum of a busy area, like the kitchen. Some kids can’t stand the noise and the other goings-on, and they really need a quiet place. But in general you don’t want a place where the TV is on and there is a lot of stimulation from other distractions.
 
Q. How should you set it up?
A. The main thing is that you want to have everything together. For example, you could have an old shoe box lying around and put everything the student needs in that shoe box: pencils, markers, ruler, calculator.

For a lot of kids with learning disabilities, an electronic spell-checker is fabulous. I usually order them from Amazon because they are a lot cheaper. It helps them be more independent. Instead of saying, 'Mom, how do you spell this or how do you spell that?' Mom can say, 'I will spell this one for you, but you can look up the next one on your Spelling Ace.' Many kids with special needs are really frustrated with using a dictionary. Kids with learning problems often spell phonetically. So for example, they might spell phone f-o-n-e, and they’re never going to find it in a dictionary. A Spelling Ace picks up phonetic variations of words.

I like to keep things in a box rather than in a place. This way the supplies are portable.

 
Q. Besides a desk, what else works well for doing homework?
A. Many kids have a hard time sitting still at a desk. One of my favorite things is a lap desk. You’ve probably seen it at Office Depot or Barnes & Noble where it’s a cushion on the underside and the top is a hard, flat surface. I like them because the child can really sit anywhere comfortably. And oftentimes, if you let children pick it out, they are more likely to use it.

There is a Web site called Room It Up that has really colorful lap desks and Pottery Barn Kids has really cool lap desks.

Q. What’s something fun parents can add to a homework space that’s not too distracting?
A. There is this really neat product called Tangle Jr. It’s a fidget toy. For kids who are hyperactive, they are always grabbing at things or flicking their hair and they’re craving sensory input. They are doing that to help sustain their attention. And so as parents, often when we see our kids doing that, fidgeting with a pencil or flicking a paper clip, it’s our first inclination to say, 'Stop doing that. Focus on your homework.' Instead of something dangerous like a paper clip, you can give them Tangle Jr.

The other thing I always suggest to parents is to have a timer. I really love timers for kids, especially those with ADHD. I call them Super Bowl kids. The Super Bowl is on for hours, but the amount of playing time is probably 40 minutes. Sometimes kids are like that when they do their homework. They might sit there for two hours, but the amount of time they actually do homework is a half-hour.

What we know is that when you say to a child, 'Okay, you have spelling, math and reading assignments, so start your homework,' and it seems like this really big task to them, they’re likely to procrastinate and drag it on. But if you say, 'I’m setting the timer for 15 minutes, and I want you to work as hard as you can for 15 minutes and then when the timer goes off you can daydream or you can take a break,' what parents will find is children are far more productive in that 15 minutes than they would be alone for that half hour. And it doesn’t have to be 15 minutes. It depends on the age of the child. For a little kid, it can be seven minutes; for an older kid, it can be 20 minutes.

Q. Are there certain school supplies you recommend for students with special needs?
A. Some kids like raised line paper so that kids with a writing disability can feel the lines on the paper, and it helps them write neater. Many kids with a disorder called dysgraphia use it. Their writing can be illegible, and the paper helps them stay on the line.

Also, the E.Z.C. Reader. They are really cool, colored reading guides. Not only does color help with attention, using the guides helps them read more fluidly because their eyes are able to track the lines better. Color has been proved with research to help with attention, and the tracking helps kids’ eyes move more fluidly from left to right.

Q. Are chalkboards or dry-erase boards helpful for certain tasks?

A. Kids are much more likely to write on a dry-erase board than a piece of paper. But you can’t turn in a dry-erase board. But if a parent is practicing math problems or helping with spelling, then a white board is the way to go.

I’m not sure what it is about a pencil, but for kids with sensory issues, the feeling of a pencil on paper is uncomfortable for them. When you write with a pencil, there’s friction between the pencil and paper. And that pulling or tugging is not as appealing as white boards because the marker just glides across the board.

Kids also like erasing, so it’s not set in stone. When it’s wrong, you can erase it so much faster with a white board. 

Q. How should parents set up the area if there are multiple kids doing homework?
A. They should purchase study carrels. Those are just inexpensive cardboard dividers that can fold up and be put away at the end of homework. And they really prohibit kids from making faces at each other or poking each other. They’re really good at allowing a child to focus on his work and not worry about what another child is doing across the table. We get our study carrels from Calloway House.

Further reading:
If you would like to read more on this topic, Dolin suggests the following books: “The Organized Student,” (Fireside, 2005) by Donna Goldberg, “Organizing the Disorganized Child,” (HarperCollins, 2009) by Martin L. Kutscher and Marcella Moran and “Homework Without Tears,” (Canter & Associates) by Lee Canter and Lee Hausner."

More on special needs:
Decorating for a Child with Special Needs 
Designing Rooms for Children with Special Needs 
Help for Parents of Disorganized, Inattentive and Forgetful Kids

Getting Organized for School (and Life!) 2011 - Prioritizing Your Activities and Schedule

      
If you have school-age children there are three times a year when it might be beneficial to re-prioritize your activities and schedule: January, summer and fall. 

Even if you don't have kids, fall is like a second January. Summertime is usually chaotic, and now it's time to regroup.

Prioritizing activities and schedules involves looking at your schedule in light of your passions and gifts. Does your schedule reflect those things you love and are gifted to do? If not, burn out or discouragement is ahead. 

When you know where you're going and why, life is fulfilling. You're confident you are running after those things you love. You're basking in the satisfaction of using your gifts and doing a good job. Even if difficult times should arise, it gives you a compass through the storm. What could be better?

If you are overwhelmed at the thought of re-prioritizing, I'd love to help! -I'm available to coach you through this. 
- I have several time management books which walk you step-by-step through this process. 
- Rethinking Your Life in 3 Weeks provides bite-sized tasks to do each day. 


How I can help:
Rethinking Life Coaching
1-2-3 ... Get Organized Time Management Books 
Rethinking Your Life in 3 Weeks

Getting Organized for School 2011 - Kids' Artwork and Paper

  
I repeat this blog post every year because paper gets out of control so easily! If you have a system from the beginning, you're less likely to get overwhelmed.

Along with school, comes all those papers! And art masterpieces. What to do with them? You want to preserve memories of your child’s school years, but you don’t want to train her to be a pack rat.

I’ll have to admit – I wasn’t very proactive in this area when my children were growing up. We’d sort through papers every once in a while, frame some, and store others, but we didn’t do it very consistently.

I researched this topic when asked to contribute to an article written by Mary Beth Breckenridge at the Akron Beacon Journal (Preserve your Children's Masterpieces without Creating a Mountain from Paper Memoirs, September 5, 2005). I found some great ideas I wish I had used.

So today’s blog comes primarily from the article Mary Beth wrote from the hints that two other organizers (Deniece Schofield and Chris Perrow) and I contributed. And I’ve added a couple I’ve come up with since then.

First, choose a receptacle for such papers. It could be a file folder, a hanging file, an art portfolio (or one made by taping two pieces of poster board together), a box, a binder with protector sheets - whatever works for you and your child.

Before storing your child’s artwork, you may want to display them. You could create a gallery in your child’s room or elsewhere by hanging a colorful piece of string or yarn across a wall and clip the artwork to the string. Voila – instant gallery.

Or use a picture frame to house artwork, swapping out the front picture when a new keeper comes along, storing the other pictures behind the most recent one. And there’s always the refrigerator or a bulletin board.

Another option is to turn the artwork into placemats (by laminating them), wrapping paper or greeting cards. A glass-covered coffee table can show off artwork under the glass. Or turn your child’s artwork into a calendar. Create a collage with several pieces of artwork. There are even companies that turn your child’s artwork into a book.

Artwork that doesn’t make it into the keeper file can be sent to grandma or to our troops, if it seems too cruel to toss them.

With your child, clean out her backpack at the end of the week. Some papers will not be sentimental and will go easily into the recycling bin. Try to encourage your child to choose only one item a week to keep. Label the back of the paper with the date and a description, especially if the picture may not be readily identifiable!

Some weeks may be more prolific than others, and it may be too traumatic to narrow it down to one item. If you don’t mind, and you have enough room, make exceptions here and there. There may be items you treasure, but your child doesn’t see the value in them at her age – keep those, too.

At the end of the month, as you are evaluating that week’s papers, look back over the previously stored papers to see if some of the sentimentality has decreased for the earlier keepers. Time has a way of diminishing the attachment. Repeat every month.

For large three-dimensional projects take a picture rather than storing the entire project. Large art pieces can be taken to a copy center and reduced to a manageable size.

At the end of the school year, determine if your storage is adequate to house that year’s keepers. If not, purge until it is. Label the container with your child’s name and the year.

For family night one night, take out the keepers for the last few years and reminisce – what a fun memory!


More on organizing for school:

Getting Organized for School 2010 - Learning Styles

Getting Organized for School 2010: Starting the Night Before

Getting Organized for School 2010: Homework

Three Steps to Time Managenent

Getting Organized for School 2011 - A Family Hub

    
I polished up a blog from the past on getting ready for school:

It's hard to believe that in some parts of the country school will be starting in 1-2 weeks! School here starts August 24. Only about a month left! Prepare now to avoid chaos later. 

If you don't have one already, create a hub - a location where you keep papers to be signed for school, library books, invitations, and other important information. The point is to have one location into which you deposit vital information so you know where to look when you need it.

It can be a drawer, a decorative box, a shelf - whatever works for you. And it needs to be in a central location. When my kids were home, I used a basket in my kitchen.

Your family calendar would be a good addition to the hub as well.

If you want to include backpacks, briefcases, and keys in your hub, you could put up pegs or hooks near the door you normally enter. Or use a coat rack or a coat closet to store these vital necessities. 

You may also want to create a section in your hub for each person in your family to house their important stuff.


Related Posts:
Getting Organized for School (and life!) - Getting Enough Sleep
Get Organized for School (or life!) - A Family Calendar
Getting Organized for School - Backpack Checklist