ATYP Homework - How NOT to Panic!

Welcome back!

We know that many of you are having your first experience with ATYP homework, or are coming back from the long summer break having maybe forgotten how homework works here. We know that for some of you this may be the first time you've had any significant amount of work outside of school - and that you might not know how to deal with it.

Even though we talked about homework tips at orientation, here is a breakdown of at least some of the strategies that seem to work best.

First, let's look at what a typical schedule might look like for an ATYP student:

The student has ATYP class on Tuesday (in green) and regular school on the other afternoons (blue). Say the student has soccer practice from 5:00-6:30 Tues-Thurs (red), and a game Saturday afternoon (purplish). Piano lesson on Thursday from 3-4, and youth group Sunday evening from 5-6. You want to take Friday night off to go to a football game. You take all of those things that take up time in your week and put them into a graph like this that visually represents your week. Then you look for blocks of time where you can focus on your ATYP work. Seeing the holes helps you to create a schedule - and lets family and friends know when you need to be focusing. And notice that we've blocked off time on Sunday to go to help session.

You can fill these holes by saying "I'm going to work on my ATYP homework for a certain amount of time," or by deciding "I'm going to finish a certain amount of work" (a specific number of sections for math, or a specific assignment for English). Different strategies work better for different people. You may go back and forth until you figure out what's effective for you. 

Here are some other tips:

• Try to have at least attempted all the math by Sunday, so you can get help at help session, and to have at least thought about all of the English prompts, so you can get feedback about ideas.
• Post your schedule of what you're doing where your family can see it - they can help you to be accountable.
• Reward yourself when you have accomplished what you have set out to do. Rewards can be any small thing you want - a gummy bear, ten minutes of texting with your friends, or a funny cat video on YouTube. 
• Make it a goal to have finished all of your homework by two nights before class - if class is on Tuesday try to be done Sunday night, for example. That way if an emergency comes up you have extra time built into your schedule.
• Use your study period at school wisely - either work on ATYP work that is easily transportable, or get other schoolwork done so that you have more blocks of time available at home.
• English students - review all of the prompts early in the week, so you can be jotting down ideas for what to write about as they come to you. Nobody likes staring at a computer screen trying to think about what to write about. Give your brain some time to generate thoughts. 
• Think about writing a really detailed outline of longer papers (weekly writings, unit essays), including selecting quotes on one day, and then working on actually writing the paper another day. Once you've got the outline done and all of those ideas have percolated, you'll be amazed at how much faster the actual writing goes.
• If you get stuck, move on and come back! For math students, skip the problem that is giving you trouble and come back to it when you finish that section. For English students, re-read the material that the prompt comes from and then go to something else. Give yourself time to process!
• Check out the resources in your book - there are a lot of them! For math students, you have access to online videos and help on homework problems. There are also answers in the back of the book for odd numbered exercises. For English students, there are sections on how to start writing, how to create an outline, how to write thesis statements, etc. 
• English students should start on your revisions now! Waiting until the last minute causes much grief and takes a lot longer. Doing revisions now will help you learn from the comments that the teacher has made on your papers. Then you won't have to make those same corrections over and over.
•  If you continue to struggle, ask for help! Teachers, parents, other students, and the ATYP staff all have ideas that might work for you. We are here to help you figure it out! Utilize the contact information given to you by your teacher.

Communication is the key to solving homework issues, and getting your homework done on time is the key to being successful in ATYP. We want you to have fun and learn from your assignments - not be anxious about them. So talk to someone and come up with a plan that works for you!