Thursday, July 3, 2014

College Class Organization

I am currently taking classes online through Liberty University and I thought it may be useful to others if I share how I organize my class work and keep up with all the deadlines. While I am taking my classes online, this would also work for any students who are taking classes on campus. Being a full time student means you are doing a lot of work and if you do not stay on top of it all it can overwhelm you-in return, bad grades. But with organization, self discipline, and lots of study you are sure to be on the deans list semester after semester.[...]
Things you will need include:
1- 3 ring notebook (I used 1 inch and take out papers after the B term so it is fresh for the D term. If    you are taking a lot of A term classes, you will probably need a 3 inch notebook. Also I personally like the flex cover notebooks but a regular one will work just as good.)
Indexing Tabs (You can either use the Table of Contents Tabs or sticky tabs and just write on them. I used the table of contents pack 1-8- since my semesters are 8 weeks long.)
Hole Punch
A way to print

Here is the front page of my binder. You can see the table of contents tabs. Also notice the sticky tab at the top of the page. This has my class name on it and is adhered to my course syllabus. The next picture will show it a little better.
Here you can see by sticking this tab on the course syllabus directly, it makes it super quick to flip right to it if I need too. I can not tell you how many times the school blackboard was down due to so many people being on it and I was so glad I had printed this out! I also print out the course schedule and the assignment instructions for essays, papers, discussion boards, etc and put it behind the syllabus. Again I can not tell you how many times I have had to pull out the "old" paper copy even though it is an online class.




Now here is the good part that ensures you NEVER miss an assignment! For each week, I print out the website page. I do one for my assignments page and one for my reading page.  Week one goes behind tab 1, week two's reading and assignments behind tab two and on and on until you have every week printed out. You can also put all of your notes you take for that week behind the appropriate tab as well. As I go through and do one of the assignments, I do a little check beside it so I know I have it done. If I do one of my videos, I check it off. And on and on until I have completed all of my reading and all of my assignments. Once I completely finish all work for a week, I do a giant check mark on the page, like you see here. Now I can remember at a glance that I have done it all. And I also use......
These little tabs. When I still have work to complete for that week, I leave this flag sticking out to remind me I still have more to do. When ALL work is completed for week two, I will move the tab to week three.
Now how I note my calendar.
I try to keep my calendar noted of upcoming assignments for two weeks in advance. That way I know exactly what is coming up and when. I can plan my life around my school schedule if things get crazy one week. Now these are neon green labels that I wrote on and stuck in the calender to make them pop out at me. I just got this new calendar and I do not have all of my engagements noted in here but I use about 8 different colors of highlighters to separate life tasks in my calender-one color for my boys appointments, one color for me, one color for my husband, one color for ministry, and on and on. You get the idea. With all that color going on I wanted something completely different for my school assignments. I will have to do a post soon about how I do my calender. But trust me, you want for it to jog your memory. Once you do that assignment, just check it off.

Well I hope this has helped you. It truly has made keeping up with things a lot easier for me. I LOVE it when I can find stuff at the drop of a hat! So how do you organize for school? I would love to hear below!

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