To learn more about each of the following topics, select the heading you are interested in. More information will appear as a drop-down, so you can focus on learning about one topic at a time!
We sleep better and feel more rested if we go to bed and wake up at the same time every day.
Sleep deprivation not only makes it harder for us to learn but also negatively impacts our health.
Set a regular bedtime and wake up time for everyone in the household. Use alarms just like during a regular in-person school year.
Set up a morning routine and a bedtime routine for everyone in the household.
Keep phones, computers, and ipads out of bedrooms at night. Plug in all devices in a common area, and invest in alarm clocks instead.
Twelve Simple Steps to Improve Your Sleep
BHS Resources:
If your child is struggling with insomnia, consider reaching out to their guidance counselor, who can make a referral to a BHS social worker.
If space permits, it can help students to have a space dedicated to homework at home
If your child is able to be productive independently and has their own room, try to set up a dedicated work space that isn’t their bed
If your child needs more supervision and there’s another adult working from home, consider converting the kitchen table or part of the living room into a shared work space.
If more than one child needs to do remote learning and you’re sharing space/devices, create a schedule for alternating device/space use, and use a timer to help stick to that schedule.
Include your student in the design of their workspace, they may like to have markers and scrap paper handy or want to have a desk plant or candle/incense to make the space their own.
Online resources:
Remote learning during coronavirus: how to make your home a workable school
4 Tips for Distance Learning with Multiple Children During COVID-19
Choosing the Right Environment
BHS Resources: Learning Center teacher, Tutorial teacher, guidance counselor
Children - even adolescents - thrive on routine. Even teenagers may need more support than usual from parents to set up healthy routines during remote learning.
Integrate the Canvas assignment calendar with your child’s phone calendar (and your own if you want to get notifications of assignment due dates).
Instructions for iPhone (with the student Canvas app)
Instructions for iCal feed (Google calendar, Outlook, etc.)
On Monday, make a copy of one of the schedule templates below and adapt/fill out for the week:
Example: daily/weekly checklist
Each morning, check Canvas (inbox, calendar, and announcements) and psbma email and adjust the plan for that day if necessary. If you have a printer at home, consider printing, or invest in a whiteboard.
Consider posting each family members’ daily routine in a common area and/or on a whiteboard in your child's room.
Alternate work periods with movement breaks, phone breaks, meal breaks - consider using a timer. Set aside specific times for student-chosen activities to look forward to.
Make a plan with your child for how/when you will check in with each other about assignment completion.
Online resources:
Routine and Teens: How You Can Help
How to Talk to Teenagers about Routines
How to Create Healthy Routines for Teens during the Age of Coronavirus
BHS Resources: Learning Center teacher, Tutorial teacher, guidance counselor
A routine, daily check helps students respond to teacher communications promptly and plan their work better
Help your child set a daily alarm on their phone to check their Canvas inbox, announcements, and calendar and psbma email and adjust their daily plan accordingly.
Online resources:
BHS Resources: Learning Center teacher, Tutorial teacher, guidance counselor
Organization is a skill that helps us get our work done better, and even teenagers can need adult support to get organized
Help your child set up folders in their psbma Google drive, one for each class, and perhaps subfolders (for notes, papers, labs, etc.).
Encourage your child to name Google docs clearly and specifically (not just “Social Studies assignment” but “Chapter 1 notes 9/10/20,” for example), and stick to the same system for naming docs
Encourage your child to create folders for website bookmarks (for frequently used websites for each class, Quizlet, Kahoot, etc.).
Online resources:
Practice These Habits to Keep your Digital Life Organized
13 Tips to Organize your Google Drive
How to Get Organized and Manage Your Time in High School
How to Help your High School Kid to Get Organized
BHS Resources: Learning Center teacher, Tutorial teacher, guidance counselor
Especially with disrupted routines, adolescents may need extra support breaking down large tasks into manageable steps and working on them over time
For larger, longer assignments, encourage your child to set aside a block of time each day to work on it in their weekly schedule - even if it isn’t due for a while. Look at the list of steps and enter interim due dates for each step into the Canvas or phone calendar (or paper planner)
For quizzes/tests, encourage your child to set aside a block of time each day starting a week before the test, and use one of these Active Study Strategies.
Online resources:
Strategies for improving memory and retention when studying
BHS Resources: Learning Center teacher, Tutorial teacher, guidance counselor
Managing distractions at home can be one of the greatest challenges with remote learning
Phones - while fabulous and fun - can also build addiction pathways in our brains and make it harder for us to sustain our concentration on challenging tasks
When we pull our attention from the task at hand to and and from our phones, it...
(a) takes us more time to refocus and therefore longer to finish the task and
(b) tires our brains out, so we feel exhausted even if we haven’t spent as much time on the actual task as we think
For everyone in the household - adults and children - put phones away during work sessions (and/or put on Do Not Disturb or Airplane Mode).
For computers/tablets necessary for work completion, consider website-blocking software to help avoid distracting websites. Here’s another app that can help.
With your child, make a plan for when you all get to use devices for fun versus when you will practice sustaining your attention on work; consider using a timer.
How to use music to focus: (a) make long playlists (rather than switching back and forth to find a new song every few minutes), (b) choose music that either doesn’t have words or is in a language you don’t understand. But music might be actually more distracting than helpful - it depends on the person and on the music.
Keep in mind that video classes will be even more tiring for your child’s brain than in-person classes are. Expect that your child will need a device break after a Zoom or Google Meet class in order to be able to effectively complete other online work later. Make sure everyone in the household has a balance of off-screen and on-screen time.
Online resources:
Phone addiction: How to deal with problematic smartphone use
Do Not Disturb: How I Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain
Neuroscientists say multitasking literally drains the energy reserves of your brain
BHS Resources: Learning Center teacher, Tutorial teacher, guidance counselor
Teachers love hearing from students! Communicating with/asking for help from teachers when struggling is a really important skill for all students to practice
Set a routine for checking the Canvas inbox daily (not just the calendar or announcements) and responding right away to inbox messages and psbma emails from teachers.
Guidelines and example messages for how/when to reach out to teachers.
Online resources:
Explicit Instruction of Self-Advocacy Skills
BHS Resources: Learning Center teacher, Tutorial teacher, guidance counselor
School can be plenty stressful for our children, even without a global pandemic or trying to manage remote learning!
Neuroscience teaches us that when we practice ways to manage our stress/anxiety, we give our brains the chance to learn more effectively and handle challenges better
Encourage your child to incorporate a mindfulness practice into their daily routine - and consider establishing one yourself
Include daily exercise into your family’s routines
Practice “positive discipline” as a family
Reach out for mental health support
Online resources:
Tips to Help Teens Cope During COVID-19
Mental Health During COVID-19: Signs Your Teen May Need More Support
Managing Stress in Teens and Adolescents: A Guide for Parents
For BIPOC: Resources for Self-Care
Centro bilingüe para la atención plena
BHS/Brookline resources:
Start with your child's guidance counselor; they can make a referral to a BHS social worker