A Note From the Principal
Dr. Tim Anderson

Help your middle schooler set or renew academic and responsibility goals
Now that the school year at South View is well underway, you and your child probably have a better idea of where strengths and weaknesses are appearing.
Over the winter break, consider taking some time to help your child establish goals for the remainder of the school year. While We work hard at school to encourage each learner to set their own goals, your support and guidance around academics can help increase success.
Encourage your child to do these things:
  1. Be realistic. If your learner has struggled in the past, bringing every grade up to an A in one quarter may not be a realistic goal. Encourage your student to identify the most important needs, and set goals to improve those.
  2. Write down goals. One study found that when people wrote down their goals, they were 33% more successful in achieving them than those who didn’t write them down.
  3. Plan. Accomplishing goals takes vision, effort and time. If bringing up a science grade will take an extra 30 minutes of study each night, your child may need to cut down on time spent on other activities.
  4. Check progress every few weeks. How is your learner doing? What changes, if any, should be made?
  5. Review goals at the end of the next grading period. Your child should figure out a maintenance plan for goals he’s met, an action plan for those he hasn’t and an exploration plan for new goals. 
  6. Be in class. Your child won’t learn the day’s lesson if not in class. Students should only miss school when it’s really necessary

Shift school responsibilities onto your child
Middle schoolers don’t morph into responsible young adults overnight. But they may not turn into them at all if their parents & caretakers always do everything for them. Students in the middle grades are generally capable of taking responsibility for:
  • Making lunches. Give your child a lesson in how to pack a lunch bag. Lay down some basic rules about what’s OK—or not OK—to pack, and insist that your student prepares lunch the night before.
  • Waking up on time. Show your child how to set an alarm clock. In the morning, let the alarm do the work of waking up your learner. (you could act as a “backup alarm” until the alarm system is working well.) If your child is too quick to hit “snooze” and doze off again, be sure the clock is placed across the room from the bed so your child will be forced to get up to turn it off.
  • Keeping track of assignments. Ask about your child’s home­work. But don’t question her constantly about her progress. Be clear that turning work in on time is her responsibility.
For more ideas, Social Worker Doug Eischens recommends this article: Stop Doing These 8 Things For Your Teen This School Year
Adapted with permission from the December 2021 issue of Parents Still make the difference!®  (Middle School Edition) newsletter. Copyright © 2021 The Parent Institute®, a division of PaperClip Media, Inc.