Crack the January Code: Navigating New Year Academic Challenges with Expert Insights

January presents both challenges and opportunities for students as it merges the joyous aftermath of a prolonged holiday break with the structured demands of a busy academic calendar. It signifies a time of reintegration into the academic routine, encouraging personal growth and resilience.

Join us as we delve into a Q&A with Rachael Moss, our Executive Function Coach and Professional Development Specialist. Rachael offers insights as a coach and former classroom teacher to assist families in cultivating strong academic habits for the months ahead.

Let’s jump in!

Q&A with Rachael Moss, MA, MS Ed.

Why is January a difficult month for students?

I think that January can be difficult for kids, much in the same way that it can be difficult for adults — it’s a time when they are bombarded with messages about how they should change.  

I think that both kids and adults feel overwhelmed by the beginning of a new year. Returning to school after winter break normally means going back to a routine after days and days of NO school-related routine! Over the years, I have seen students struggle when they reenter school, and as a teacher, I know that reestablishing my own routines is difficult. This is often coupled with a focus on resolutions, mandated not always by an inward desire to improve but sometimes by outward pressures. For some folks, this just makes us “dig our heels in” even more.  

In my classroom, I often structured the first few weeks of January not as “new year, new you!” but as “back to school,” understanding that kids need a little bit of handholding to remember who they are in school and what they do well.

While I always encourage students to improve and better themselves, as an Executive Function Coach here at Educational Connections, I like to focus January on a student’s current skills, rather than promoting an idea that kids have to change things about themselves to improve. I want students to come to change out of their own motivation, not out of pressure I would place upon them.  

What are some strategies you use with your students to help them better manage their January workload? 

In my experience as a teacher, January is often a time when teachers start new units and projects. And, because there are few long breaks in January, it’s also often a time when those projects are substantial. This is where backward planning can really help a kid.  

In backward planning, our Executive Function Coaches teach students to look not only at the final project/product (a big project due at the end of the month; a unit test) but also at all of the smaller parts/portions of work that go into that larger project.

Let’s say a student has a science report due at the end of the month. The student feels confident about this at the beginning of the month because the final requirement — 4 typed pages — doesn’t seem scary at all. And, the student may rightly assume that it will only take an hour or two to type up.

But, the student may not be thinking of all the other parts of the process: 

• finding sources in the library after school
• reading all the sources
• taking daily notes in class to use in the paper
• organizing the entirety (notes, sources) to form a thesis.

The student is only thinking of that final part of the process:  how long it will take to type up 4 pages.  

By encouraging the student to look at all parts of the process, and by encouraging students to reflect on the amount of time ALL the work will take (not just typing the final project), we can help kids better understand the work they have in front of them while we also teach them necessary skills like self-regulated behaviors.  

What can parents do to help?

I think that parents can help kids in the areas where they struggle. If kids are feeling pressure to make drastic changes, because it’s a new year, parents can reinforce all the strengths that kids currently exhibit — in the classroom and beyond — to reinforce that change doesn’t have to be drastic, but that keeping with strengths is a great way to maintain growth and progress. I think that with a new year, it’s important to talk about what routines work for the entire family, and why it’s good to “get back into the groove” of things, after winter break.

In terms of backward planning, I always think it’s valuable when adults break down their own backward planning for kids, of things that everyone experiences. For example, you can backward plan a grocery trip — using math to budget, a list to plan, and then figuring out how much time it will take (there and back again) to plan when you’ll go and how it will all work out. The real pay-off comes when parents help kids reflect upon how they felt during the entire process — Did they feel frustrated when making the plan? Did they feel accomplished when the plan all worked out?  

Adults can really help kids identify their feelings about work/tasks so that they can think about the benefits of planning and how it will reduce stress in the future.  

I also think it’s valuable when adults open up to kids and tell them about times when they struggled with these same issues. We’ve all misplanned a task, and we’ve all felt pressure to change ourselves with the coming of a new calendar year. One advantage that adults have is that we were all children at one point; sharing our wisdom with young people also allows us a marked measure of compassion for the often stressful business of growing up and making our way through school. 

We’re here to help your child start building better habits!

Our Subject Tutors and Executive Function Coaches strike just the right balance of positive support while also challenging students to be responsible and accountable for their schoolwork: the perfect formula for getting your son or daughter’s school habits on track.

If you’re looking for extra help, we’re here to support your student by giving them the skills they need to build more classroom confidence in 2024.

You’re Invited: Join Rachael at our Free Upcoming Webinar

Habit Formation 101: Proven Strategies to Help Your Child Create Lasting Habits

Join Rachael and I on January 23, 2024 to hear insights on:

• Unlocking the 3 Rs of habit formation— Reminder, Routine, and Reward— the building blocks for enduring habits

• Why habits take longer to build than you might think (and the science debunking the well-known 21-day habit formation theory)

• Dive into strategies our Executive Function Coaches use to help students build strong academic habits, including the power of backward planning

• Learn why students with ADHD need extra reinforcement in their habit-formation journey

Please register in advance so we may send you the webinar link. We look forward to seeing you there and helping you empower your child with the tools they need for a productive and successful 2024!