Jumat, 01 Februari 2008

Time Management for High School Students

High School students are some of the busiest people in the world. To get the most from all you do, you must be in control of your time. Otherwise decisions that effect how well you play the game, what position you play and when you get to play will be decided for you. Your success in high school depends on your use of time. While you probably have not control over when your classes are scheduled, you do have control of the rest of your time. Here are some important things to remember.

  • Begin each semester by filling in a master schedule . First fill in things you must do (classes, work, practice, etc. that you can't change). Then, analyze the blanks you have left to find the most effective use for these times.
  • Establish a regular time and place for study. This will save you time in the long run because you will have "programed" you mind that "this is the time and place that I study."
  • If you have a study hall during school. USE IT !!
  • Use daylight hours to study whenever possible. For most people for every hour of study done in daylight hours, it will take them one and a half hours to do the same task at night.
  • Keep a date book and write down all class assignment.
  • Take breaks. Don't schedule marathon study session. Several short 50 minutes sessions are better that one long session.
  • By using flash cards or summary sheets, you can use odd times to study--while you're waiting for class to start or for a friend to pick you up.
  • If possible, schedule study time with a partner.*Choose your partner wisely however. Make sure you study, not socialize. If you schedule this just like you would soccer practice, or music lesson, it become routine.
  • Schedule the most difficult tasks for times when you are alert. (Algebra may be hard enough when you're fresh. When you're tired, it will be impossible!)
  • Make a daily checklist. Set priorities. Do the most important tasks first.

Budget Cuts Raise Wrath of Principals

By ELISSA GOOTMAN and JENNIFER MEDINA

Published: February 1, 2008

Principals across New York City turned on their computers Thursday morning to discover that because of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s new budget proposal, their budgets had been slashed overnight by sums ranging from $9,000 to $447,587. And they reacted with unvarnished fury, while frantically scouring for places to cut spending.

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G. Paul Burnett/The New York Times

New York City principals, teachers, union representatives and other officials gathered on the steps of City Hall on Thursday to protest the new school budget cuts outlined earlier in the day. Councilman Robert Jackson was one of the speakers.

One principal, Steven M. Satin of Norman Thomas High School in Manhattan, sent a protest by e-mail to the deputy schools chancellor in charge of finances, calling the cuts “an outrage and a disgrace and a slap in the face to everyone given the task of providing the best education we can for our students.” He forwarded his message to colleagues, and they in turn shot back replies ranging from outraged to scornful to sardonic.

“Might they also consider reducing what they pay in no-bid contracts for testing, ARIS, and any number of consultants living large on the backs of our students,” a Brooklyn principal wrote. “How much more do NYC public school students and their families have to give up?” ARIS is the acronym for an $80 million computer system that is used to compile and analyze student test scores and other data.

The e-mail messages were provided to The New York Times by a principal who wanted to show the depths of anger among principals but who did not want to be identified for fear of retribution by the Education Department or colleagues. In another sign of discontent, the principals’ and teachers’ unions, joined by elected officials, took to the steps of City Hall on Thursday to denounce the cuts. And in interviews, principals said they were carefully weighing what was expendable.

Asked what he would cut, Barry M. Fein, the principal of the Seth Low Intermediate School in Brooklyn, responded, “My throat.”

Because of the worsening economy, Mayor Bloomberg proposed citywide budget cuts last week that include, for the Education Department, $180 million in the current fiscal year and $324 million next year. On Wednesday evening, Kathleen Grimm, the deputy chancellor for finance and administration, sent an e-mail message to principals saying that schools would lose 1.75 percent of their budgets, effective immediately. On Thursday morning, principals learned the exact amount of the cuts, posted on their schools’ computerized budget systems.

“My team has looked closely at each school’s budget and has, I think, figured out how we can cut in a way that affects schools as little as possible,” Ms. Grimm wrote.

Principals said they were particularly upset because the cuts come in the middle of the year, when they have already hired teachers, planned their schools’ schedules, and promised their students and parents certain perks, like after-school programs. The reduction in money also comes as the Bloomberg administration is holding principals increasingly accountable for their students’ academic performance and reviewing them more rigorously, while giving them more freedom from supervision.

“The mayor and the chancellor love to call my members the C.E.O.’s of their schools,” Ernest A. Logan, president of the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, said on Thursday at City Hall, where he was joined by other elected and union officials. “I think that what we could have used is some consultation with principals at schools, with the school community, to say what’s the best way to absorb these cuts.”

Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers, called the cuts “draconian” and blamed them on Mr. Bloomberg’s control of the schools. “This is where we miss having an independent chancellor, not somebody who is appointed by the mayor,” she said. “We need people who are the management of the school system to say you can’t reflexively cut schools.”

Mr. Bloomberg, speaking on Thursday at Google’s offices in Chelsea, said the cuts would have “no impact whatsoever,” adding, “I know of no organization where you couldn’t’ squeeze out 1.7 percent, or even a lot more.”

“One of the great disciplines of managing anything is to walk in and question everything you’re doing and say, ‘Let’s see if you can do it with a smaller budget,’ ” the mayor said. “That focuses your attention on which things work and which things don’t.”

But principals disagreed.

Reached by telephone, Mr. Satin, of Norman Thomas High School, seemed taken aback to learn that The Times had received a copy of his message. But he acknowledged sending it, and added that he had since learned his school would lose $208,000.

“That’s six teachers’ salaries for the rest of the term,” he said.

Mr. Satin, a 36-year veteran of the school system, said he embraced many of the schools chancellor’s policies, including the increased power that principals have in exchange for greater accountability.

“I love the word ‘accountability,’ I love ‘be creative,’ ” Mr. Satin said. “We’ve been challenged to do it and we’re doing the best job we can. But it’s like pulling the rug out from under you overnight. It’s like saying, ‘Keep doing everything you’re doing, but do it with $208,000 less.’ ”

Mr. Fein, of the Seth Low school (and the self-declared throat cutter), said that after receiving Ms. Grimm’s e-mail message, he stayed up much of the night pondering potential cuts.

“I’m exhausted, emotionally wiped,” he said. “This is midyear, and a lot of these programs are in place and money has already been spent.”

The principals in their e-mail chain of complaints wondered whether their evaluations would take into account constraints because of budget cuts, and also spoke disparagingly of the city’s contracts with I.B.M., which developed the $80 million computer system, and as one principal put it, “a whole host of other private, for-profit corporations that have entered into our world.”

Acrimony over the budget cuts all but overshadowed another development in the city’s effort to give principals greater rewards in exchange for greater accountability. The department announced on Thursday that Karen Watts, principal of Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Morningside Heights, would be the city’s first “executive principal.” As part of the new program, Ms. Watts will be paid an extra $25,000 a year for three years to take over a troubled school, in this case the Acorn High School for Social Justice in Bushwick, Brooklyn. After the Acorn school earned an F on its school report card, its principal resigned under pressure. Ms. Watts’s school had earned an A.

Ray Rivera contributed reporting.