Whether being back in school is a blessing or a curse, the inevitable first few weeks are finally here. Even those few perks can be defeated by small things like the unpredictable temperatures or the extensive amount of time it takes to complete an important task. Luckily, small things such as preparation and changing the way one studies can make the year less miserable.

Weather Permitting: Locker Essentials

Cardigans and Jackets: There is no sugar-coating the truth: the school is cold year round, especially in certain rooms that seem to always be freezing. Going from one room to another can feel like time travelling from summer to winter no matter the month. Although students can bring jackets with them every day to avoid this, one can easily forget on an unexpectedly brisk day. Keeping one light and one heavy jacket in one’s locker, such as a cardigan or sweater, helps avoid getting caught in the cold.

Hand Heat Packs: On especially cold winter days, sometimes extra layers are not enough when walking to school. According to the University of Ottawa, the best way to quickly bring up body temperature is to simply hold onto something hot, such as a cup of coffee. Since walking with hot drinks is not always a good idea, keeping emergency heat packs in your bag is the second best thing to do for cold walks to and from school. These can be picked up at the checkout of most grocery stores for about $1 and can often be reusable.  

Umbrella: Although everyone tries to check the weather and plan accordingly, it is common to forget to bring necessary things like an umbrella on a stormy day. Simply leaving a spare in one’s locker can come in handy if the situation arises.

Open in Case of Emergency: Health and Beauty Hacks

Period Kit: One of the worst things that can happen to a girl during class is to unexpectedly get her period. Not being prepared can lead to bleeding through clothing and painful cramps which can ruin one’s day. It can impact her concentration in class, especially during a particularly stressful day. Planning in advance and keeping the necessary materials can make the first day feel less agonizing. Keeping a small bag with items such as tampons, pads, liners, sanitary wipes, pain relievers, heat packs, spare jeans and quarters for bathroom dispensers can be a life saver to have when the day comes.

Hair Kit: No matter how much time is spent putting hair up in the morning, there is no escaping the inevitable: a girl’s hair hates her and will come out of whatever intricate hairstyle she spent time on in the morning that she could have spent sleeping in. Or, she may have hair ties on her until that one hot school day when she cannot find any. Packing away a small kit with essentials such as hair ties, bobby pins, hair clips, elastics, travel-sized hair product and a comb is much more effective than searching through the bottom of a book bag for stray hair ties.  

Makeup Kit: Like any painted masterpiece, makeup needs the occasional touch up. Eyeliner can fade, mascara can run, foundation can decide not to want to stay once the wearer becomes sweaty. It happens to everyone, but taking precautionary steps and packing away a small kit with emergency essentials, such as concealer, mascara, eyeliner, setting powder, blush, chapstick and makeup remover, is important for any makeup wearer. Stick to cheaper products, as they are meant to stay in your bag or locker.

Write it Down, Make it Happen

Study Smarter: Most students use Quizlet, an app on our iPads that allows students to create virtual flashcards, take practice tests and play games that help teach the material typed in. Yet most will take their notes on paper and then go home to copy all of them into Quizlet for easy studying. While this is a good habit to get into, it can be time consuming. Instead, typing notes directly into Quizlet instead of writing them on paper saves students time they could be using for studying the notes. This is especially ideal for courses without study guides where students have to study directly from their notes.

Keep it Organized: When taking notes, there is information needed for only one chapter and information a student will need for the entire duration of the course. When this occurs, most students will circle the information to stand out on the page. While this is helpful, it is still difficult to have to flip back through all of the notes for one item written months ago and try to find it among everything else. While it is important to write it with the other notes, keeping space at the back of the notebook for these important things makes it easier to find them when you need them later on.

Wrap it up: Washi Tape hacks

Claim what’s yours: Washi tape is a Japanese tape made from trees, making it sticky enough to stay airtight on surfaces, even sheets of paper. Since it isn’t like masking tape, it can be removed it from anything it’s put on without leaving behind a residue or tearing a surface. Students can use a strip of this tape on their iPad charger so that it is not only undeniably theirs, but when it comes time to turn the iPad in, no residue will be left behind on the charger.

This tape is also great for everyday supplies, such as pencils, pens, highlighters, scissors, markers and anything else in a book bag. Not only does it show claim, but it makes these supplies easier to find, depending on what color tape is applied to them. A system can be worked out where a student uses a different color for pens, pencils and highlighters.

Keeping tabs: When separating things in notebooks, such as units, chapters, or marking periods, most students simply keep a blank page where they write that at the top. It may work, but it takes flipping many pages to find where one part starts and the other ends. Washi tape applied to the outside of the page basically bookmarks it without actually using a bookmark that could fall out, or a simple tab that will fall off or become bent. Washi tape will stay, not ruin the pages, and it can be color coded to up the organization points. Also, it looks much better than having a bent tab or sticky note hanging out of a notebook.