If you own your phone, whose job is it to take care of it? Pay the bills? Keep it from getting broken? If you own your phone, who decided what kind of phone you bought? The answer is: You. If you own something, it is yours. You control it. You take care of it. You make decisions about it. That goes for owning a phone, owning a car, owning your health, or owning your education.
You need to take responsibility for what you learn. It is not your parent's job, or the teacher's job, or the principal's job to make you learn. It is your job. You are the first person responsible for teaching yourself and making sure you learn. The guides in Select are here to help you, when you need help, but they are not in charge of whether or not you learn. You are!
Think of it like your health. Doctors can give advice. But it is not their job to feed you healthy meals and take you to the gym to get exercise. That is your responsibility. If you have questions about what is healthy, doctors can give you guidance. And when you get sick or injured, then you can go to the doctor. But you are the person in charge of your health. If you don't own that, you won't be healthy.
So what happens when you get a cold? Or if you fall and scrape your knee? Would you go to see a doctor for that? No, you can put band-aids on yourself. You could go to a doctor, but it would cost you time and money. It also isn't a wise use of the doctor's time. She could be helping people that were really sick in the time that she was telling you that you had a cold and you needed to get some rest.
It is the same way in Select. You need to teach yourself. You need to really try to learn. And when you have small problems or questions, you should make a real effort to solve it for yourself. That is how you become a better adult. That is how you become a person that can take care of yourself and make a positive difference on the world around you.
The first thing you should do when you don't understand a resource or material is to try again. Focus. Break it down. Try a different strategy. Make a real effort to wrap your brain around it. Don't try just one way or one more time. Try a few different approaches.
Sometimes you will face a question that you can't answer for yourself. If you try several times and still need help, then you can go to a guide. Guides in Select can walk you through a problem and help you understand it. Don't expect them to just give you an answer. Their job is to guide, not do it for you. Your job is to use their advice to learn.
Below are a few more tips on how you can take ownership of your education and make your time in high school and in Select more valuable.
Learning at your own pace
Many students misunderstand what this means. This does not mean that you can go as slow as you want. It does not mean that you only work and learn when you feel like it. It is not an excuse to be lazy or get behind.
Learning at your own pace means that you do not have to be at the same point in every subject as every other student. For instance, if you are good at reading and writing, English classes may go quickly for you. On the other hand, you might struggle with math. Learning at your own pace means that you can get ahead in English and then use the extra time to stay caught up in your math.
Learning at your own pace also means that you can focus your time on the target you are ready for. Sometimes you may be in a better mindset for writing an essay, and other times you might feel more like doing science. Use those moods to help you be productive. However, not feeling like doing any work is not an excuse to do nothing. Part of life is getting the things done that you need to do. However, if you make sure to keep your progress ahead of schedule, on days that you don't feel like working as hard, you will have some time to take it a little slower.
Try different learning styles
Your brain does not work the same as everyone else's. Some people learn better with videos, other people learn better with reading. Some people can memorize easily, others can't. Some people need to listen, other people need to do something hands-on. Figure out what works best for you. Try different things until you find what works. If making posters or doing art helps you remember things, then do that. If you make a poster and then can't remember anything on the poster, then quit making posters. They aren't helping. Find what works for you!
Use your time wisely
Get ahead early, and stay ahead. This is the best way to feel like you are in control. If you are ahead and have a bad day (or week), you will still be ahead. You will feel like you have control of your education. If you are behind when life hits you hard, then you will feel even more stressed as you fall farther behind. So here is some life advice: Life will always have ups and downs. Use the good times to get ahead so that you can survive the bad times.
If you have a question, but the guide you need help from is busy, don't sit there for hours and then say you couldn't get anything done. Work on something else until the guide has time to work with you. Also, if you are stuck, don't just sit there waiting for someone to come help. Take responsibility and ask. The guides are not psychic. If you don't ask for help, that won't know you need it.
You ALWAYS have homework.
You have everything you need to do for the entire year assigned to you in August. That means you can work at home. Do you have to? That depends on your work ethic at school.
If you need to work at home to stay on pace with your goals, then you need to work at home. You always have homework unless you did enough to stay caught up while you were at school. If you are not caught up, and your parents ask if you have homework, the answer is YES!
Don't make excuses
Everyone can make excuses for everything. Having an excuse does not mean that you have a good reason for not meeting expectations. Is a dead chromebook a good reason to not work? Or could you have found a charger? Students make all sorts of excuses, but there is a simple test you can use to see if you have an excuse or an actual reason. It's called The $10,000 Rule. Here's how it works:
Whenever you are about to make excuses, ask yourself: If I were going to get paid $10,000 for accomplishing my task, would I be able to find a way to make it possible? Here is an example:
Imagine that your chromebook is dead, and you left your charger at home. You are about to make the excuse that you can't do any work. But if you were going to get paid $10,000 for getting a target done, could you find a way to do it? Would you borrow a charger? Use a book instead of the internet? Write on paper instead of typing? If you would do any of those things for $10,000, then you have an excuse, not a reason.
Find something the interests you
It is easier to learn when you care about the information. If it is interesting, your brain will retain it better. If you are reading stuff that is boring, that is your fault. Find things to read about and write about that are interesting. Most of the courses in Select can be personalized so that each person can explore topics that they are curious about. A guide would be more than happy to help you customize your education.