Tips for Success in Class

1. Ask ques­tions when you don’t under­stand some­thing and when you do. This class (all of my classes) are about ques­tion­ing what we know, how we know it and how we change as a result of know­ing.  So if I intro­duce some­thing in class that you don’t get, stop me.  If some­one else offers a point of view that makes no sense, stop that per­son and ask for clar­i­fi­ca­tion.  In this class one way I can tell that you’re truly pro­gress­ing is by the kinds of ques­tions you’re asking.

2. Par­tic­i­pate in class dis­cus­sions. Silence may be golden in some set­tings, but not in my class­room.  By speak­ing up dur­ing class dis­cus­sions two good things hap­pen: I get to know you a bit and I get the idea that you care about the class.  You might be pas­sion­ate about the sub­ject, but silent pas­sion doesn’t help much in my grade book.

3. Be a lit­tle bit self­ish. If you believe that your suc­cess at school is impor­tant to your future (and I hope you do) make sure you’re get­ting the train­ing you’re going to need. Part of that is my respon­si­bil­ity as your teacher. But how well trained and pre­pared you end up also depends on you tak­ing advan­tage of devel­op­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties. So ask your ques­tions, nego­ti­ate, lead, change what we explore in class and pro­mote your val­ues. Speak your mind and ask for what you need.

4. Keep track of cur­rent events. Make it a point to be news­pa­pers or news web­sites, you never know when an IB eco­nom­ics arti­cle will pop up.Keep track of upcom­ing events and assign­ments. IB stu­dents are under a fair amount of stress, but being orga­nized is a good way to avoid fur­ther stresses. If you have an up-to-date plan­ner and are on top of your sched­ule you’ll find your life becom­ing less stress­ful and more productive.

See me after class if some­thing is not work­ing out. I’m in my room K403 most classes.  Drop in some time if you need advice or assis­tance — or just to say “hello”. As mean as I always am in class (‘wink), I actu­ally care about you and how you learn. If you’re read­ing this, you obvi­ously care about being successful.

If I have assigned a writ­ten assign­ment and you would learn bet­ter by cre­at­ing a pod­cast, we can often do that. The point is obvi­ously that you learn and that you are grow­ing as an leader, a man­ager and a thinker. What­ever I can do to help you on your path, I’m happy to do.