Pam Goodman - How to Be the Best Student You Can Be

TITLE PAGE

How to Be the

Best

StudeNt You caN Be!

Pam Goodman

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2014 by Connectingthedots

How to Be the Best Student You Can Be!

Pam Goodman

www.connectingthedotsforkids.com

pamgoodman11@gmail.com

Published 2014, by Torchflame Books
an Imprint of Light Messages

www.lightmessages.com

Durham, NC 27713 USA

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-61153-125-1

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-61153-126-8

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 International Copyright Act, without the prior written permission except in brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

www. connecting the dots for kids .com

DEDICATION

To my amazing children,
I have been blessed to be your mom.

To Kyle Barber,
thank you for your wise counsel
and inspiring words,
this book is dedicated to you.

To Becky Posada,
thank you for your editorial input
and endearing friendship.
Appreciate everything you have done
for me and my family.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank the children I have been so blessed to serve as well as the many fine parents and professional educators with whom I have collaborated.

Thank you to Dr. Nancy Barbour, a fine, intelligent, beautiful woman, whom I deeply respect because of her love, commitment and ability to support all children and their parents. I am so honored and continually blessed to know you. Thank you for all your time and wisdom!

Thanks to my dear friends who have prayed for me more times than I will ever know. I so appreciate you and all of your prayers. You are a blessing in my life and I know it!

INTRODUCTION

H i! My name is Ms. Pam. I have written a couple books and been involved in teaching and education for a super long time. I love children and academics. I am hoping that some of my knowledge and experience can help you become the best student you can be.

How this book came about is when a wise young man told me that my books Homework Hassles and Unleash Your Childs Potential were great books for adults, but what about us kids? Its great that you want to provide parents with solid educational ideas of what they can do to be the best parent they can be, but what about teaching kids how to be the best students we can be? This book is dedicated to this fine young man and I am honored to share it with you.

Just in case you did not know, everyone has a job at school. Your teacher has a job. Your parents have a job. You have a job. All the jobs are important and once everyone does their own job, amazing things happen. When we all have different opinions on what each others jobs and goals are, all we get is frustration and disappointment.

Here are the jobs.

This book is chock full of ideas that can help you become the best student you can be. This is not a book on how to be the best friend, best brother, best sister, best son, best daughter, best doctor, best teacher, best parent or the most popular student. It is a book about leadership, making choices and understanding your role as a student and how everything fits together.

I am proud of you for looking for ideas on how to become the best student you can be!

If you ever start a book club on this book, please let me know. I would love to participate with you. I am always looking for ways to make my books better and YOUR input means the most to me. Happy Reading!

CHAPTER 1: WHY SCHOOL?

W hy do you go to school? Some kids go to private, some to charters, some to public and some home school. The purpose for all school is to learn. You were not born all knowing and you dont know what you dont know.

Babies werent born all knowing. As far as I know, everyone was a baby once.

Did you know that there are many skills learned at school besides facts. These skills are preparing you for life and your dream job. If you had to learn all of them at once, you would feel overwhelmed; so, that is why they break learning down by grade level. So, besides the math facts and academics, what other skills do you learn at school?

Building Confidence

Confidence? Yes, confidence. You gain confidence by mastering skills. If you are having trouble mastering skills, you need to see what part you have to do with it. For example, if you see no value in the skill, then mastering the skill does not feel very rewarding and you may not put any effort into learning it. You might require an attitude adjustment

because all tasks require a little patience and practice. If you are a visual learner and you did not look at the visual, you cannot absorb the lesson as well.

Oprah Winfrey is the most confident person I know. I am sure she had to learn new skills just like everyone else. She is a leader and did not have the way carved out for her and that confidence sure does look good on her.

Can I show you some skills that might bore you, but will prove to be quite useful to you later? The people mentioned in this chapter never gave up, no matter how many mistakes they made and how frustrated they got.

Making Choices

The biggest tip that I can give you is that everything is a choice. We all make over 10,000 choices a day.

Choices, such as,

• What to wear?
• When to eat?
• What to eat?
• What to eat first?
• What to leave on your plate?
• When to brush your teeth?
• If you are going to brush your teeth?
• Where to sit?
• What to do next?
• Are you going to adjust your attitude?
• Are you going to practice or just worry?
• Are you going to put effort into an assignment?
• When you make a mess, are you going to clean it up?
• Are you going to prepare your backpack the night before?
• Are you going to focus and do your work?
• Are you going to follow the rules at school?
• Who are you going to talk to today?
• Are you going to ask for help?
• Which video game are you going to play?
• What friend are you going to ask to come over?

Get it?

We make choices that we dont even realize we are making.