Teach your child a few tried-and-tested tricks for managing pressure

To help your child become an autonomous and resilient learner:

Teach her a few tried-and-tested tricks for managing pressure.

It’s normal for your child to feel pressure when she sits down to write and exam. The important thing is not to buckle under that pressure. In their book Performing Under Pressure: The Science of Doing Your Best When It Matters Most, Hendrie Weisinger and J.P. Pawliw-Fry explain that handling pressure is skill and that it can be learned. Here are just a few of the tried-and tested tips they provide for managing pressure, which you may wish to share with your child:

  • Try re-framing pressure as a challenge instead of a threat: “This is a battle I can definitely win!”
  • Think only about the task, not the outcome: “I will concentrate on the present moment and take this one step at a time.”
  • Focus only on the factors over which you have control: “I am not going to waste my energy thinking about what ‘might’ happen.”
  • Remember past successes to give yourself a boost of self-confidence: “I have done this before, so I can do this again!”
  • Believe in your power to succeed: “This is going to work out and I am going to succeed.”

Set the tone for a successful exam period by creating a calm and positive atmosphere at home

To help your child become an autonomous and resilient learner:

Set the tone for a successful exam period by creating a calm and positive atmosphere at home.

With exams about to begin, it’s time to take some tips from Hendrie Weisinger and J.P. Pawliw-Fry and their book Performing Under Pressure: The Science of Doing Your Best When It Matters Most.

The book draws on research from more than 12,000 people and features the latest research from neuroscience and from the frontline experiences of Fortune 500 employees, Navy SEALS, and elite athletes. It offers 22 strategies that each of us can use to reduce feelings of pressure and excel in our personal and professional lives.

Pressure is what you experience when you believe that you have just one chance to succeed at a specific task – in other words, what you might feel when you are writing an end-of-year exam! It can create feelings of anxiety and hopelessness and can greatly reduce performance.

Happily, Weisinger and Pawliw-Fry make one thing very clear: No one actually thrives under pressure, but we can succeed if we learn how to manage it.

As a parent, you have the power to set a healthy tone for the exam period. As difficult as it may be, instead of hovering and passing on your anxiety to your child, try to be calm and positive and let your child know that you are there if he needs any help. You can also help your child by creating a calming pre-exam routine, which might include listening to a favourite song, doing some jumping jacks, and saying a positive affirmation.

Help your child combat exam stress with proven calming techniques.

To help your child become an autonomous and resilient learner:

Help her combat exam stress with proven calming techniques.

Your child will inevitably feel a degree of stress during the exam period. In addition to helping your child prepare academically for her exams, you can also help her prepare emotionally, so she goes into her exams in a calmer state of mind.

Here are a few tried-and-tested things that your child might want to try :

  • Stick to regular routines and study schedules;
  • Get at least eight hours of sleep every night;
  • Listen to soothing music or a guided meditation to induce calm;
  • Get some exercise every day;
  • Ask for help if you feel stressed or overwhelmed;
  • Take a few slow, deep breaths if you feel your nerves getting the better of you.

Be sure that your child spends time outdoors a few times a week, as it reduces stress and improves concentration

To help your child become an autonomous and resilient learner:

Be sure he spends time outdoors a few times a week, as it reduces stress and improves concentration.

End-of year exams are fast approaching, and they will inevitably be a major source of stress for most students. One very simple thing you can do that will benefit your child physically, emotionally and academically is to ensure that he spends time outside surrounded by trees and greenery. A recent review of hundreds of studies found mounting evidence “of a cause-and-effect relationship” between students’ performance in school and the time students spent in the great outdoors: Experiences in nature led to improvements in attention span, self-discipline and physical fitness, all while reducing stress.

In other words, to help your child be in the best possible shape for exams, get him away from his desk and his computer and into a park or forest. If you can’t get away from the city, consider walking in Summit Woods in Westmount, Mount Royal Park, the Morgan Arboretum, or any of the other nearby nature parks suggested here.

To find out more, read this CBC article.

 

Encourage your child to harness the power of passion and perseverance

To help your child become an autonomous and resilient learner:

Encourage her to harness the power of passion and perseverance.

In their book, U Thrive: How to Succeed in College (and Life), Dan Lerner and Dr. Alan Schlechter explain the roles that passion and perseverance play in achieving success. Here are some practical ways in which your child – and you! – can harness their power:

1) Identify your interests and strengths and let them guide you.

Try out new activities and hobbies to find those that bring you joy and motivate you to improve. Letting your interests guide you in your academic and career choices will bring you more satisfaction and success.

2) Deliberate practice makes perfect.

Excellence isn’t something we are born with; it’s something we achieve through practice and perseverance. To succeed, your practice must be deliberate: you must set yourself a goal and establish a plan to achieve it. Also, you should consider finding a mentor from whom you can learn first-hand.

This summer, encourage your child to try at least one new activity. Who knows: she may discover a new passion or talent!

Teach your child to cultivate happiness and positivity

To help your child become an autonomous and resilient learner:

 Teach him to cultivate happiness and positivity.

In their book, U Thrive: How to Succeed in College (and Life), Dan Lerner and Dr. Alan Schlechter provide lots of research-based advice on how to thrive in school, at work and in life. One of the things that they explain is that good grades and success do not bring happiness and positivity. In fact, it’s entirely the other way around: happiness and positivity bring good grades and success! Here are two things your child can do to be happier and more positive and that will help him flourish.

Engage with others

 

Fight the urge to isolate yourself during times of stress. Socializing and confiding in friends reduces stress and anxiety and helps us feel more positive. Plus, hanging-out with friends is much more fun that being alone!

Adopt a growth mindset

 

Learn to be open to critical feedback and embrace the notion that you can change and improve. See your mistakes as learning experiences, not as failures. Try this: say “thank you” when your parents or teachers give you constructive criticism: after all, they believe in you and are only trying to help!

Ensure that your child makes time for aerobic activity every day

To help your child become an autonomous and resilient learner:

Ensure that she makes time for aerobic activity every day.

Throughout the month of May, I will be providing tips based on the book U Thrive: How to Succeed in College (and Life). It was written by Dan Lerner and Dr. Alan Schlechter, who team-teach New York University’s most popular elective class, called “The Science of Happiness.” The book is a fun and comprehensive guide to surviving and thriving in college and beyond. However, it is also full of research-based tips for building positive lifelong habits that can help people of all ages flourish in school, at work and in life.

Chapter 10 of the book is dedicated to the benefits of exercise on the adolescent brain. Scientific studies have demonstrated that exercise – and especially aerobic exercise – improves memory retention and reduces stress. It also causes the brain to secret proteins that interact with the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for complex cognitive behaviour, personality expression, planning, decision-making, and moderating social behaviour.

So, if you want to help your child thrive in school, be sure she engages in some form of aerobic activity every day, for at least 30 minutes. Whether it be walking, dancing, cycling, skateboarding or playing basketball, just get moving!

A Letter of Thanks to Centennial Teacher Mr. Palmieri from Alumnus Carl Bowman

Last week, Centennial High School Alumnus Carl Bowman (2017) reached out to his favorite teacher, Mr. Palmieri, to thank him for the impact he made in preparing him to excel as a student in Laboratory Technology – Analytical Chemistry at Dawson College.

Hello Mr. Palmieri! Carl Bowman here. Long time no see!

I am here to let you know that I am doing well and miss having you as a teacher for Chemistry.

Ever since you taught me what the electron configuration meant on the periodic table, you have inspired me to deepen my understanding of chemistry to beyond the courses I had with you in High School.

I am now 20 years old and a second year (soon to be third year) student in Analytical Chemistry at Dawson College. I have decided to do my program in 4 years as I found the course load to be a bit heavy. The beginning of CEGEP was tough as I wasn’t used to lectures and having to write so many notes! On the very first day of CEGEP, I got lost trying to find the room where the general chemistry class was. As the teacher introduced himself and immediately started the lecture, I was starting to panic as I didn’t know what to do. Using some of the strategies I learned at Centennial, I have adapted well to how CEGEP works and I push myself to do the best that I can. I’ve succeeded better than I ever thought!

I wrote the Organic Chemistry final today. It was challenging but I think I really did well. There were 15 questions consisting of multiple choice, short answer, and of course reaction mechanisms. I came into the final with a 95% overall average after 7 mini tests! In the last 2 mini tests, I received 100%! The teacher congratulated me on a great job, said that I am a good chemist and encouraged me to continue what I am doing.

This summer, I have a mandatory internship requirement in my program. The Department Chair sent my CV to a company called McAuslan Brewery. I got a call before one of my classes and we scheduled an interview earlier this month. I worked hard to prepare for the interview and in the end, the interview went very well. I managed to ask some great questions and answered all of the questions they asked. I also provided them with my grades and transcript, as well as a copy of my updated CV. The very next day, I received a call from the employer. They asked me if I was interested in working for them, I happily said YES! So, I will be working at McAuslan Brewery in quality control. I am so excited to apply what I have learned at school to the real working world.

To sum up, I really enjoy my program at Dawson College. I have noticed that I have built a lot of confidence over the last 2 years, and I have been thinking about what you taught me since day one.

I hope you are doing well and you are having a great time teaching the grade 11 students chemistry and enjoy teaching it.

Take care,

– Carl Bowman

Teach your child a time management habit that only takes five minutes per day.

To help your child become an autonomous and resilient learner:

Teach him a time management habit that only takes five minutes per day.

Time management is about much more than cramming as much work as possible into a limited time period. Planning-out your tasks can actually reduce a lot of unnecessary stress. As Georgetown University professor Cal Newport points-out, it’s exhausting to have deadlines and obligations floating around in your mind all the time. In his book, How to Become a Straight-A Student, Newport suggests a time management system that helps achieve a healthy work-life balance and that only requires five to ten minutes of effort per day. Here is how it works:

  1. Create your calendar:         Use some sort of calendar (online or printed) into which you enter your activities, chores, and assignment deadlines, as well as dates on which to start those assignments.
  2. Create your daily to-do list:     Every morning, consult your calendar and write-down a daily schedule that maps-out when you have activities and when you will work on your chores and assignments (it can be as simple as a piece of paper).
  3. Manage your to-do-list:      During the day, cross-off what you have accomplished and write-down any new chores, assignments and deadlines that come up.
  4. Update your calendar:        In the evening, consult your to-do list and add any new chores, assignments and deadlines to your calendar. Next, switch the date of anything you did not accomplish that day to a new date in your calendar.
  5. Create a new to-do-list:      The next morning, create your new to-do-list based on your updated calendar.
  6. Repeat steps 2 to 5 every day! Good routines become good habits, which set you up for success.

Help your child defeat procrastination by adopting effective work habits.

To help your child become an autonomous and resilient learner:

 Help him defeat procrastination by adopting effective work habits.

Let’s be honest: school work is not always enjoyable! However, it’s unavoidable. Our natural urge to put-off doing unpleasant things often leads us to procrastinate, which results in us rushing to do things at the last minute and creates unnecessary stress. Fortunately, there are tried-and-tested ways to combat our tendency to procrastinate, and they involve adopting effective and efficient work management habits. In his book How to Become a Straight-A Student, Georgetown University professor Cal Newport presents five “anti-procrastination battle plans” that he developed by interviewing hundreds of straight-A university students at top American universities. To help your child develop a more effective and less stressful approach to managing school work, suggest that he try these five “battle plans” until they become habits:

  1. Keep a work progress journal: Every morning, write down which tasks you should realistically be able to accomplish during the day; then, at night, take stock of what you did not complete and why.
  2. Feed the machine: Drink water constantly, eat snacks that are low in sugar, eat regular meals, and limit caffeine.
  3. Make an event out of the worst tasks: When you have something especially difficult to do, set a special time and place in which to do it, ask your family and friends to not disturb you, and eliminate distractions (like smartphones).
  4. Build a routine: Reserve regular time slots in your week to accomplish recurring tasks.
  5. Choose your hard days: If you know you will have some very intense days of work or study ahead, plan them in advance and tell your friends and family about them, so they can encourage you and work around them.