Assistant Principal - Mission - Staff and Student Wellbeing

At last week’s College assembly via Zoom, Mr Furey and I shared our thoughts on ‘Developing and Maintaining Motivation for Learning’. It is hoped with parental encouragement, some or all of these hints may be of use. While regular school may have only been back for just over three weeks, in reality many of the College community have been working hard for almost eight weeks. With effort comes fatigue and putting in place the top ten tips, just might help students get to a well-deserved midyear break:

1. Develop a positive mindset – If I think I can do it, that is the first step in getting it done.
2. Drink plenty of water - healthy body, healthy mind
3. Schedule short study breaks - each 30 or 50 minutes to improve concentration...try a short meditation exercise to refresh your mind
4. Perhaps when you hit a ‘mental blank’ - try another task, something that has a quick result and gives an instant feeling of achievement. It works! 
5. Consider your triggers for procrastination….stop thinking googling everything is research, don't be tempted to ‘check in’ with friends or look at your phone to see if you have any messages. If you are smiling at any of this, then you need to consider removing the causes….and address the triggers for procrastination. 
6. Break your tasks down into manageable chunks… a 1000-word essay can be broken down into an introduction, four or five main body paragraphs and a conclusion.
7. Set some goals in your classes to increase YOUR engagement and motivation. Goal setting such as - improving in class tests in year seven Maths, asking three questions this week in year nine Science or submitting your Legal Studies homework on Edrolo before it is due. All simple goals that could lead to better habits and motivation.  
8. Motivational quotes - from famous achievers allow you to maintain focus. If they can do it … so can I. 
9. Create a positive working environment. By this I mean making your surroundings as favourable as possible - for what works for you. Here you need to consider when you are most alert (are you a morning person), remove all the distractions from your study area and allow yourself a chance to develop some good habits.
10. As a student at St John Paul College, you have an excellent resource in front you every 51 minutes …. each teacher you have today will have their own motivational techniques of how they got through school, university and postgraduate study while maintaining a career...tap into that resource when you think you may have lost all motivation. 

Until next time:

Give God your weakness and he’ll give you his strength.