Resolutions for Students

There are a number of steps you could take to really improve your performance in school, so this is a perfect time to pick one or two great study habits and resolve to work on them. You'll find that you don't have to change your whole personality or your whole life to improve your grades; one or two small changes in your habits will make a huge difference.

• Resolve to read your assignments. Many students choose to skip this step and rely on teacher lectures. Most of the time you can get away with this to maintain an average GPA. But is that really your goal?
• Resolve to record every assignment and due date in your planner. This action, alone, will improve your performance.
• Resolve to read classic literature outside your assignments. This will increase your vocabulary and expand your mind.
• Resolve to be on time every day. Tardiness can lead to many more problems.
• Keep a journal. Journal writing is good for your brain, good for your emotional health, and good for your writing skills.

Can you think of another resolution that will improve your grades?

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Gadgets for Students

These days it's hard to justify a big-ticket purchase if it's not really useful for fun and for education. But the good news for parents is that most gadgets will do both! Find out which supplies and gadgets are really helpful for students, and which you might want to pass over.

1. Apple iPad

What is it you really want to do? Because whatever it is, you can probably do it on the iPad. With the many thousands of educational applications that are available, this product is the most versatile and useful for students from grade school to college. There is absolutely no reason to put this one off--except for the price. The good news? The least expensive version of this gadget is still better than the competition.

2. Livescribe Pulse Pen

Livescribe’s Pulsec smartpen is an actual ink pen that records what you’re writing and what you’re hearing as you take lecture notes. Anyone who has ever struggled at the back of an auditorium trying to make notes will love this product. If you can spare $150-200 for a pen, and if the student is willing to take the time to use it right, this product could make a monumental difference. Is it worth the purchase price? Yes.

3. Wacom Bamboo Tablet Pen

This gadget is a great tool for doodling and drawing, but it's also a great device for marking up PDFs with circles and highlights. That ability alone makes this a great gift for college students, who receive many reading assignments in the form of PDFs.?

4. Doxie Portable Scanner

Slip this portable scanner into your book bag, and it will be a lifesaver when you need to capture an image for a presentation--or it will be your best friend on those days when you lose your lecture notes and you have a test coming up. Share notes and images with your study group using this handy gadget.

5. iPod Touch

The iPod Touch ?could be one of the best study tools ever invented, if students want to use it this way. This little gem can do anything a laptop can do, with the right applications loaded. It can quiz students with thousands of flashcards, it can hold tutorials and games, and it can become a document editor. Students can email, chat, work on projects--just about everything a student needs to do. This is a definite yes to the question, "Can my child use this tool to study?"

6. Amazon Kindle

This e-reader didn't start out as a good choice for students; it was much too limited and too expensive at first. But it's getting better and better with each model. It's also coming down in price!

Students can download thousands of books and read them or store them for later--and many classic books that students need to read are available for free. With the new Kindle, students can also mark up PDFs and textbooks with highlights and notes.?

What's more, students can listen to textbooks as they relax, with the new text-to-speech option. E-readers are finally becoming totally student friendly!

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Supplies for Middle School Students

I know it might sound a little funny, but writing utensils (pens and pencils) become really important when you get to middle school. What's so different about pencils in middle school?

It's simple, really. Students will find themselves writing a lot more when they get into the sixth grade. Book report requirements might be two pages instead of two paragraphs, journal entries will be much more involved, and tests will invlove long essay answers. If you've ever tried to write a long passage with a cheap pencil and a bad eraser, you can image how frustrating middle school could be with a bad set of pencils!

Middle school students face new challenges. It's so important to find the right set of tools for middle school students. After all, you want to give yourself every possible advantage at this special time of your academic career!

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