Everything you need to know about back-to-school high school

1. READY,
SET,
H I G H
SCHOOL!GRADES 9-12
High School Edition
Get Ready to Get Educated
about High School and High

2. Middle School V.
High School• There is a LOT more work in high school than there is in middle school.
• Middle School schedules are usually fixed, whereas High School
schedules grant each student the personal freedom to choose
whichever electives he/she fancies
• In Middle School, students usually adjust to only three to four new
teachers, whereas in High School, students must learn to juggle their
relationships with eight to nine.
• Athletics in Middle School pale to athletics in High School
– Athletics in High School provide gateways to school spirit and
socialization amongst students
– Studies show that students who participate in High School athletic
programs are less likely to drop out of school.
• Psychologically, transitioning from eighth grade, the oldest grade
(aka, the “coolest”) in Junior High, to ninth grade, the youngest
grade in High School, can be demoralizing
• Often, high school is much larger in size compared to middle school
– In many cases, a number of middle schools are piled into a single
high school
– This also means that high schools offer larger class sizes

3. High School is T O
U G H !• Peer Pressure Is Real: Clothes, eating, cheating, drug
and alcohol abuse, etc. will be new challenges your
high schooler will most likely encounter during High
School
• Transitioning into High School means buckling down!
More personal responsibility is places on High
Schoolers, which means teachers offer less “hand
holding,” or personal and individual attention to each
student
– The impersonal nature of the high school classroom and
emphasis on self-motivation can present a difficult
transition for many students.
• DID YOU KNOW that more students flunk ninth grade
than any other grade?
• Make sure your high schooler stays organized, keeping
stress at bay!

4. On a Positive
Note…• While bullying is a serious fear of many
eighth graders entering high school,
studies have proven that there is less
bullying in high school than in middle
school
– Seniors are more likely to ignore the
freshman class than they are to
participate in “Freshman Friday”

5. Academic Planner
It is of UTMOST importance that your adolescent
maintain his/her academic planner– academic
planners teach students time management skills
that will help him/her out when he/she enters high
school AND college.

6. Three to Five Star
Notebook• Each “subject” should be reserved for a specific
class your high schooler is taking.
• Encourage diligent note taking
– Students who take good notes do a better job at listening
during class
– Good notes give students a better starting point for
studying
– Encourage your high schooler to read over the notes
he/she took everyday before class

7. Color Ball Pens Pens and
HighlightersColor-coding, hi-lighting, and underlining are
important habits for your high schooler to acquire
when reading important school-related material
-Benefits of color-coding:
-Improves study morale
-Studies show that students who study color
coded material score higher than students who
study conventional black and white formats
-Color coded material means fewer eye
fixations, which means that studying becomes a
much more fluid and enjoyable process
-So encourage your kids to hi-light and color
code their notes!

8. Pocket Folders
• To transport all of your high schooler’s
homework, creative writing brilliance, and
everything in between!
• It’s useful to color code your adolescent’s
pocket folders according to subject
– For instance:
• Green= Earth Science; Yellow=
Trigonometry; Etc.

9. Ti-83+
Calculator• A graphing calculator is a necessity for students
who will engage in more serious math subjects like
algebra and trigonometry.
– Don’t let your high schooler convince you that the
graphing calculator apps on his/her smart phone are
acceptable. Most teachers find the usage of cell phones
absolutely unacceptable and insist upon graphing
calculators instead.

10. Graph Paper and
Copy Paper
• High schoolers will be asked to draw graphs
on graph paper and hand it as homework.
Graph paper is a necessity!
• Loose-leaf paper is essential to handing in
writing assignments too! If your child doesn’t
want to rip pages of his/her
notebooks, extra loose leaf paper will
always come in handy

11. Flash Drive• Flash drives are a crucial item for your adolescent to
own. Flash drives enable students to work on the
same project both at home and at High School.
• While online software systems, like Dropbox, provide
services that are similar to that of a flash drive, flash
drives provide extra assurance to your high
schooler, since it guarantees that all of his/her
assignments will be in on time.

12. A Sturdy
Backpack
• Pick a backpack that has
– Chest and/or hip straps and a padded back, to decrease
stress on the back and enhance comfort
– Has reflective material on the back, so that it can be seen
at night
– Has many individual pockets, to distribute weight evenly
In the United States,
92% of students
carry backpacks
that hold 10-22% of
their body weight

13. Never Forget #2
Pencils & Big Pink
Erasers!Standardized testing usually
requires the use of a #2 pencil.
Do NOT have your high schooler
be without one!

14. Hand Sanitizer
• Nearly 22 million days of school are missed
annually due to the common cold
• A case control study of 6,080 schools reported
that those who enforced classroom-dispensed
instant hand sanitizer at specific times
throughout the day experienced 20% fewer
absences due to illness

15. A Reusable Water
Bottle• Keep our pre-teens loving the planet! Especially
during hot months, a reusable water bottle makes
all the difference. Keep these facts in mind:
– In response to public concern, manufacturers
have developed BPA-free reusable water bottles.
– When you use a reusable water bottle, you help
reduce the production of bottled beverages and
therefore, the landfill and recycling burden of the
bottles.
– Buying and using a reusable water instead of
bottled water saves you money over the long
term.
• In fact, Greeniacs.com reports that bottled
water can cost up to 10,000 times as much per
gallon as tap water.

16. Brought to You by
Shoplet• Shoplet is the leading purely online office
supply retailer. Founded in 1994, Shoplet is
one of the original e-marketplaces.
• We specialize in everything and everything
back-to-school as well as office supplies, break
room supplies, and cleaning and maintenance
equipment.

17. SOURCES
• http://www.itsasnap.org/snap/statistics.asp
• http://eyetrackingupdate.com/2009/11/10/pu
pil-tracking-reveals-why-color-coding-study-
materials-is-a-good-idea/
• http://www.edudemic.com/2011/10/heavy-
backpacks/
• http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/family/10-
differences-middle-high-school.htm