A Bug’s Life: GO AROUND THE LEAF! DON’T PANIC A Bug’s Life: GO AROUND THE LEAF! The school year has started and we are all nervous and excited. How will I do? Will I study the right things. Oh, the anxiety never goes away!! If you feel you are sinking in school anxiety remember what you need to do if with a hole in the boat: DON’T PANIC. Assess the situation and come up with a plan. In the Disney movie A Bug’s Life, a leaf falls into the path of the ants. Panic ensues among the carriers. A line “watcher” swoops down, assesses the situation and guides his fellow ants around the leaf and back onto the path again. When a “leaf” is placed in your path, assess the situation and figure out how to go around it.

If you do what you’ve always done, you will always get what you got! Be willing to try something new Be willing to be yourself Be willing to accept success The next thing to do after deciding not to panic is to ASSESS. Look at where things have gone wrong before and it is true that in order to get different outcomes we have TO CHANGE the actions. So, to begin we must be willing to try something new and look for things we have done that didn’t go well. We must be willing to be ourselves and not be overly influenced by negative comments around us and we must be willing to accept success and not take on an attitude of failure.

Make a Plan Study hours Schedule Make study notes SLEEP Now that you have assessed the situation you must make a plan. Set up times to study, make out a schedule, take notes on how to study and what to study AND get enough rest.

Make A Plan EAT WELL BE POSITIVE Use your study guides Use old tests Know your teacher Your plan should also include eating well, being positive, developing and/or using study guides, reviewing old tests and taking the knowledge you have of your teacher in the way she tests, the kinds of questions she asked and how she grades into account.

My Help has turned to H… I’M IN TROUBLE! Sometimes, we get into trouble by not “meaning to”. We realize we are stuck out on an island and we are shouting for help but it isn’t coming and we feel like we are in hell, kind of like Alex in Madagascar. He “broke out” of the zoo in order to help a friend. He then gets put on a boat to Africa where he and his friends fall off and end up in Madagascar, a place so incredibly boring and scary for him. His efforts to get off the island fail and he feels like he is in hell. When that happens to you GET HELP. Say I am in trouble. Ask your teacher or the Learning Coach for advice.

HOW DO WE GET IN TROUBLE? RESCUE FRIENDS KNOW IT ALL “BITE THE HAND” Before you can get “rescued” it is always helpful to take a few minutes to figure out how you got stranded on the island away from your class. There are many reasons for this but three could be the following. Perhaps you were too busy “rescuing friends” by doing what they did. Perhaps you suffer from the “I know it all” syndrome and when things started getting hard you determined you didn’t need help from anybody. Thirdly, perhaps you “bit the hand” as Alex says. Perhaps you have been rude to teachers, or not turning in homework, or not keeping up with the reading and now you are stranded.

HOW DO WE GET OUT? MAKE A PLAN GROVEL LEARN NEW WAYS So, how do we get out? Again, we MUST make a plan. Get with someone you know and have them HELP you. That can be a friend, a teacher, the Learning Coach and/or a counselor. GET HELP. Then after you have the plan, grovel to the “authorities”. Admit your past wrongdoings to your teacher, parents, or whomever and share your plan. GROVEL. Finally take your plan and be willing to learn new ways.

TAKE OWNERSHIP YOUR MOTHER DOESN’T WORK HERE! YOU INCREASE YOUR SELF-ESTEEM NO MORE NAGGING! Take ownership of your trouble. Your mother doesn’t work at school nor do you want her too!!! You will feel better about yourself and people will stop nagging you. It is really true!! If you don’t believe me, try it!

Who are you? The King? Chick Hicks? The Rookie- McQueen? USE THE RIGHT TOOLS Who are you? The King? Chick Hicks? The Rookie- McQueen? One way

Chick Hicks Plays dirty Plays up to the girls Has only one interest- prize and doesn’t care how he gets there No self-respect

McQueen Rookie Doesn’t realize what’s important Needs to realize others help him out- can’t do it solo Needs to realize that you can win and still lose

The KING RECOGNIZES THE IMPORTANCE OF: His Crew His sponsors Himself Teams Other racers

STUDY TOOLS Graphic Organizers Flash cards Quiz each other Make it apply to real life Make up sentences with words, make up a word game

TEST TAKING TOOLS LISTEN AND READ DIRECTIONS CAREFULLY WATCH FOR SIGNAL WORDS FOCUS ON VERB COMMANDS- compare, match, illustrate ASK QUESTIONS – format, content, scoring