Hello everyone!

As this year draws to end, I was reflecting upon my years in MoDG, and what advice I would give to my fellow students. So here it is!

• Begin the day with prayer- I cannot express the effect that this had on how my day went. Prayer helped centre my mind, heart, and body and in turn granted me with the ability to be at my optimum.
• Set short term goals that help for the long-term ones– One thing that I have learned with doing homeschool is that it is really easy to become overwhelmed with assignments. In order to stop myself from being discouraged at the amount of work I would have to do or become overwhelmed and allow it to pile up, every morning I looked at my daily list and I took a post-it note and broke it down. For example, if I have a week to write a paper, I cannot cross of the end goal of writing the paper on day one. However, I can cross off planning my paper and writing the introduction. The next day I would write paragraph two and three etc. Now I feel accomplished ?. Sometimes it’s helpful to accomplish the smaller goals every day.
• Set learning objectives– This really helped me focus on ‘mastering’ rather than just getting the task finished. I know it sounds obvious but to intentionally sit down and say, “I am going to learn what chlorophyll is and how it takes place” helped focus the brain on being interested in the task rather than taking on mentally the whole study of Biology.
• Try not to put one week’s work into another- This is by far the hardest one because sometimes it’s just not possible. But whenever I could I made sure that by the end of the week that I was carrying none of that week’s work into the next. This sounds really simple but when you’re in the thick of the school year it can feel like you’ve conquered!
• Allow yourself to learn- This sounds silly but eventually I had to take the pressure out of ‘getting a good grade’ or ‘just finishing this assignment’ because I couldn’t keep up with the pressure, I was placing on myself. So, I just gave myself permission to be open to learning and taking correction. (SURPRISE. I learned more and spent less time re-taking assignments)
• Find a study method that works for you – It was literally my final year by the time I figured out what study technique was most effective for me!! I found that working in 30-minute intervals allowed me to stay focused and I wasn’t getting distracted. Before I would do big, long study and work sessions and get nothing done because I would be so focused on the number of hours I was studying rather than the effectiveness of the study. But try new things out until you find your rhythm.
• Take notes – This may seem obvious, but I found that I would get super distracted in class unless I was taking notes or (leads to next point ?)
• Participate in class- I don’t particularly like participating all the time because I find it difficult sometimes, but this is a game changer for engaging the mind! Even if it’s just in the group chat. For me, it clicks my mind from passively learning to actively learning.

These are the main ones that I could think of!!  I am not going to lie and say it was all roses for me or that I kept to these all the time, but WHEN I did, things went much more smoothly. Also, remembering that my call is to now be a student helped me to understand the importance of this season for me.

Have a blessed summer everyone!