Great app for students to manage assignments etc
Not a YNAB thing per se but I just found this great app for students to keep track of their assignments and due dates etc. I know my son is struggling with managing it all online and I am suggesting he try this to help.
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That looks interesting. My 7th grader is having trouble keeping up with his assignments. We're trying to get him to write them down (on ANYTHING!) so he can keep track. He refuses to use a planner. His older brother just uses a blank piece of paper to write his stuff down on, so we asked him if that would work for him. He starts, but as he's going through his assignments, he says, "Oh, I can do that right now." so he does that assignment. Then he goes to the next one... doesn't write it down because "I can do this one too, right now." Then he gets distracted, and loses track of where he was, and doesn't know what is remaining. So we're TRYING to get him to write them down first, then do them, and cross them off as he does them.
So I'm not sure if an electronic version would be any better at this point for him or not. He needs to get into the habit of writing them down. Besides, he doesn't have a phone, so he'd have to use the tablet, and if it was on the tablet, I know he'd just get distracted by MineCraft, and completely ignore the homework app... Grrr. But yes, this does look like a good app, if the student isn't totally resistant to writing down his assignments. lol. Thanks for sharing. I basically just talked myself out of trying it, but I hope it works for your son!
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Bruce I went old school and got mine a month overview desk protector size calendar to write everything down. Last semester when the school sent everyone home and went online, he missed a final exam. This was after I asked him whether he had an exam that day (it was a Sunday) and he told me he had it under control and I was just confusing him. Flash forward to 11:30 pm and I get a knock on the bedroom door. Mom, i missed the exam. What do I do? Luckily this was one of the "useless" courses he was taking (my tuition dollars hard at work) and he had a 95% going into the exam so even getting 0 on the final he ended up passing the course.
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MXMOM We've considered those big month overview desk calendars. Might be worth the try, they're not that expensive...
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Bruce DOLLAR STORE
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Bruce Is your son the type that just needs the occasional reminder or does distraction seep in more often than not? If you asked him every Sunday what he had to do the coming week, would that be enough for him, or would it need to be more of an every other day deal? In college, I would write every assignment from all the syllabi I had into my planner for the semester. If he did it all at once (maybe while watching a movie?) is it something he'd reference often enough to remind him?
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Faness Probably Mondays, and revisit a couple times during the week. On Sunday, he doesn't even have most of his assignments for the week yet. Usually gets them on Monday, but some pop up in the middle of the week too. Only "longer term" projects would be known the weekend before, if they carried across the week boundaries... But that's a good idea, I may just need to sit with him each Monday and get the assignments on a piece of paper, and then check with him a couple more times in the week to see if anything new needs to be added.
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Faness said:
In college, I would write every assignment from all the syllabi I had into my planner for the semesterSuch a girl thing to do (please excuse the sexism).
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MXMOM I really miss the days where I could get to class and use the boring bits to draw out a schedule of my responsibilities (where to go, when things were due).
Now I don't get any down time during class (teacher), so I miss having that built-in time to gather my thoughts.
But seriously, y'all, if your kids are studying online, don't they have a schedule/ToDo list provided to them by their teachers and/or the online learning system? Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams Assignments, Blackboard, Canvas, SeeSaw, etc - whatever you're using should show the student what is expected, right?I know one of the teachers in my building is meeting with her students (video meeting) to have them all write in their planners/assignment notebooks so that they can see the expectations for the week/day, but that's because she determined they needed to build this skill... I suppose she's going above and beyond, but it likely saves everyone time and headaches because of the fewer emails to chase work. And this is an elementary campus...
You know what else saves teachers time and headaches? Parents who help their kids build these skills. Thank you so much, on behalf of your kids' teachers!
I recommend a checklist for each day. If you want to get fancy, have one column for things that need to be worked on and a separate column for things that are due (tests, projects, things that need to be done ahead of time). I always did the "Dues" on the left and the "Dos" on the right.
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Move Light Sound Life Yes, they do have Google Classroom, and there is a "ToDo" tab on there, but it's a combination of him being so easily distractible that he misses things, and the fact that we really want him to get into the habit of writing things down (to begin with, that's ALL we're asking!) and eventually to plan when he'll do things, so everything gets done at or before the time it's due. For now, we're just telling him to cross it off the list when it's done. Things are only going to get harder from here on out, so we want him to have the skills for when it really matters.
His brother's teachers kind of instilled that in them last year, but it's a different school, and these teachers aren't doing that. That's understandable, they've got enough going on without that. He still missed something (got a 0/5 on it) from yesterday, for something that was supposed to be done "during class". I don't know what I can do about that. If the teacher says do it during class, and he doesn't do it... sigh.
Anyway, thanks for the tips, I may implement the due/do checklist once he gets used to at least writing everything down.
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Move Light Sound Life said:
MXMOM I really miss the days where I could get to class and use the boring bits to draw out a schedule of my responsibilities (where to go, when things were due).my mother makes fun of me because I am such a list maker. I (sometimes) procrastinate by making lists instead of doing the actual work.
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MXMOM my wife is this way, lists all over the place. I've caught her making a list for things she's already done, and she said, "I know it's done, but I just love crossing things off the list! So I have to make the list so I can cross it off..."
Son definitely didn't inherit that tendency.
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Move Light Sound Life said:
But seriously, y'all, if your kids are studying online, don't they have a schedule/ToDo list provided to them by their teachers and/or the online learning system? Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams Assignments, Blackboard, Canvas, SeeSaw, etc - whatever you're using should show the student what is expected, right?Not sure about elementary and secondary school but at Carleton University where son #2 is studying, there is no one consistent platform for their assignments. Or there may be but the instructors are inconsistent in how they post the information. After 2 years I am pretty savvy as to navigating around the thing. And I created a spreadsheet with all the assignments and weighting to ensure that he was staying on track to pass the course. I didn't personally involve myself in the assignments management but from what I saw there was no one spot where all the assignments were posted.
I am a paper person even though I am very computer savvy. But I find that the online content doesn't "stick" in my brain. Plus I am visual so I like to be able to see the whole thing at once. That's just me and my son may be different but even though he was online in highschool for a certain things (Moodle) they didn't really learn this skill. To be honest, planning is not a skill they teach (or taught) in school. They handed out an agenda (which in university they don't get) and were told to write their assignment due dates in it. When I started working the "planner" was all the rage. Everybody had one. Filofax was big before I started. Then there was David Allen Getting Things done.
We actually went to all day seminars to learn how to plan. I think if they started this in school at the elementary level with the stickers etc for the artistic crowd and the basic date blocks for the others this is a skill they will use the rest of their lives.
Edited to add - I just logged in to the university learning site and I see that there is a calendar that can be exported or linked to. However, the use of it is inconsistent. Only one course has the lectures listed (with links) and one course has nothing listed. The others seem to have the assignment due dates. The class with the most content (lectures and assignments) is a first year class and I find that the instructor is doing more "hand holding" than the other courses. Possibly because it is a first year course.
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aaaarrrghhhh! Just went upstairs to make sure he is awake for his Wednesday 8:30 am live class and he fell asleep (again). This happened a couple of weeks ago and I never thought to check. Today I texted him at 9:30 to see if he was up. No answer so I knocked on his door. I am trying to let him "adult" and kind of pretend that he is not living at home but that doesn't seem to be the right thing. So nagging must be done!
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