It’s time to get your brain ready for school

Bob Doyle, Columnist

Through the vacation months, most varsity and want-to-be varsity athletes have been running, lifting and using exercise machines. When the first practices begin, they will be ready to regain their starting positions (or beat out others for the same position).

The same desire to get ready for a new school year would help most students begin well with their classes. There are three areas in need of work for many students.

First is note taking. Good note takers are getting rarer due to the emphasis on oral communication (particularly cell phones) over writing, filling out forms on computer (by pointing and clicking) and multitasking many young people try to do.

When you are used to do several things at once, your attention keeps on shifting from one thing to another. Having to sit down and focus on one thing will likely be a challenge. A typical response will be “It’s so boring!” (code for “My attention keeps on shifting, I can’t follow, this is too frustrating for me.”)

I suggest taking notes while watching a news program or a documentary on a public broadcasting television station (Maryland, Pennsylvania or West Virginia) that has no distracting commercials. Start out with a blank sheet of paper, a pencil and try to take good notes in long phrases or sentences (in your own words) for about 15 minutes (the first time).

Then turn off the program and see if your notes make sense. Do they capture the essence of what was shown or spoken? Could you talk to some one using your notes and describe what the program was about? If you are successful, gradually extend the time until you can take notes comfortably for an entire hour (typical length of a high school or college class).

When I read an interesting non-fiction book, I will take notes on each chapter, condensing the main points as well as occasionally writing down the page numbers where the key ideas are expressed. Second is writing. The old favorite is to keep a diary or journal of your personal experiences or reflections. When I was in college in the 1960s, there were no phones in the dorm rooms, but there were pay phones in the halls eager to devour your loose change and within earshot of others.

I got into the routine of writing my parents each week to let them know how college was going (Georgia Tech as undergraduate and Virginia as a graduate student). Today, a student can do a blog on the internet, which their friends could access. The fact that others could read his/her blog would likely spur clear writing with well chosen words and phrases.

In our Cumberland Sunday paper, I enjoy the Writer’s Block columns by a recent graduate from Frankfort High in Short Gap. I hope that before she finishes Journalism school, I’ll be able to read more of Kelly’s delightful musings.

Third is reading. There was a recent survey that American adolescents and young adults average about 20 minutes a day in reading non-work or non-school material. This is not surprising with all the television channels on cable, satellite networks, movies and television programs down loaded from the internet, DVDs through the Mail, DVDs through Video outlets, YouTube, FaceBook, cell phone services, etc.

Another survey said the average adolescent spends more hours a day with media (television, internet, cell phones, game boxes, WII, etc.) than their school classes. It is now common for a teen to be on a cell phone, surfing the internet and doing their homework all at the same time. For most, reading requires a quiet environment so they can concentrate and reflect on the ideas.

There are such places — they are called libraries. Most of us have interests (sports, history, science, health, even celebrities); our libraries have related material that we can read there or even check out.

Since an average student spends three to four hours reading during each school day and perhaps another hour after classes reading, going from reading less an hour a day to four to five hours a day will be a jolt to the brain. Go to the library, find a good book or two on your interests and block off some reading time each day. Leave your cell phone in another room; each day read annother 15 more minutes. Your reading skills and stamina will be ready when classes begin.

The moon will be full this Wednesday evening in front of Capricornus. Just to the left to the moon will be the very bright planet Jupiter, about 1500 times farther away. (Our moon is about 250,000 miles out while Jupiter is 375 million miles away from Earth.) On Thursday evening, the moon will have moved just above and slightly to the left of Jupiter.

Bob Doyle invites comments and questions from readers; his phone number (to leave a message) is (301) 687-7799 or try email at rdoyle@frostburg.edu .