After-school workshops help with student success

Every Monday at 3:30 -4:30 p.m., Lamar offers student workshops to students after school.

Student workshops help students with their organization, time management and growth mindset skills. Many students are having trouble managing their school work and after-school activities this year, so student workshops help them improve on those things.

“We do foundational workshops, we try to see where the kids are with time management and organization..,” said Melanie Drake, Avid coordinator. “Do the kids know how to balance work, school and fun is what we look for.”  

The student workshops are free and open to all grade levels. The workshops are every Monday until Nov. 15. Growth Mindset is in room 234, time management/organization is in room 232, and note-taking skills are in room 1106. The specific workshop skills taught at each session depend on the date.

“We create our own stress and anxiety. Nobody likes to feel that way, but when you don’t know how to time manage and prepare and organize your work, your reading, your homework, your life, you create that stress,” Drake said.

Students that struggle with organizational skills and time management are more likely to experience procrastination, lower grades and test scores, and lack of sleep, Drake said. Academic stress leads to developing anxiety or depression. Additionally, students who have academic stress tend to do poorly in school. Student workshops offer the opportunity to improve the students’ lifestyles.

“We saw a need where a lot of students were coming to us saying they wanted to drop a class for a certain reason..” said Jordan Kavanaugh, junior and senior Avid teacher. “The main reasons were because of bad grades, and those bad grades were due to lack of organization, and not knowing how to take notes.”

Students who have participated in the workshops said they found them helpful and plan on using the skills from the workshops in the future.

“The workshops have helped me catch up on my missing assignments from my classes,” senior Lorenzo Arias said. “I really enjoy the workshops because they allow me to meet new people and stay organized.”