10 other things to do during class

I have already written about the boring teachers and how to stay awake.

But if the lessons are really boring, and you think they are useless, try to fill the time with usefull stuff.

Here is my top 10 to do during class, when I am not that interested.

On 10: Make the most fantastic drawning. And then upload it and show it! On 10, cause I can't draw..

On 9: Work out your notes, colour them, write them again, to make it more clear

Make the notes more clear to yourself. So if you look to them 5 weeks later, you will still understand them.

On 8: Think of a good deed you want to do. Good deeds make you feel good. So think of one you can do. Things like 'cook, so my mom won't have to do it'.

On 7: Play games with your neighbour. Allright, not that usefull. Only on the social side. And you neighbour has to be bored also.

On 6: Plan your day. Think of what has to be done today. Make a to-do list, you won't have to do it at home anymore!

On 5: Make homework. Pretty tough cause the teacher won't like it. But it is a very usefull thing.

On 4: Think of subjects you can blog about. Make a list of subjects where your next blog will be about.

On 3: Work on those subjects. Make a mindmap, start to think about the lists. Work those subjects out, it takes creativity, and it will make me enthusiastic. I love this one!

On 2: Read a book/reading assignment. Read read read!

On 1: Play games on your calculator. The most useless in this list, but the best. I love it. Compete with your classmates, play games. (755 at snake, beat me!)

Now I'm curious, if you will be bored in class, what will you go do!?

So I decided to become a hippy

Saturday I had to compete in the Dutch Championships debating for students, in Leiden.

Debating is something that is extremely underestimated in Holland, but it is coming up.

There were three kind of debates on the championship.

1. The Parlement Debat, the 'real' debate. 3 vs 3. Debating about a thesis.
2. The trouble speech. You get a situation, and you have to speech yourself out of it.
3. The balloonspeech. You are a person, and you are with 4 others in a balloon, which is descending. Four have to jump, you have to say why you aren't among those. The public has to decide who is going to jump.

I did the balloonspeech.

The first round I had to be Barack Obama. Not that hard. "Change we need", "I have hope" and "Yes we can". Ended third out of seven. It was a bit different than I expected. There was a jury who decided who had to jump. Pretty weird.

Second round, I had to be a medicinemaker. With thick glasses from my father (from the '60) on my head, I ended second! Yeah.

The parlement debaters won 1, lost 3, the trouble speecher ended 5th and 7th, bummer.

So we were in the great auditorium to watch the finals. And suddenly I had to compete in the finals! Wow! Great!

I had a half an hour to prepare myself. Now you can choose your personality for yourself.

I decided to be a hippy. Got my shoes of, some kind of ribbon on my head and put the two fingers in the air. Peace!

But I had to prepare my speech. If I wanted to have the public vote for me, I had to be funny. But I couldn't make up any jokes. I thought (after reading all those blogs about creativity) I just sing a hippy song in my head, the jokes will come. They didn't came. So I decided to sing the song. On stage. In front of an 500 heads counting audience. And with one handicap. I can not sing.

Just do it, with the nike slogan in my head I stood there. "Yo, I, euhm, decided to sing a song for you. "Here is a little song I wrote. You might want to sing it, note for note. Don't worry.. come on.. Be happy!"

And everybody sung with me! That was a great feeling!

But, unfortunatly, after a close call I was voted out of the balloon. Ended 4th. 

Nobody sung in that debate before, I heard afterwards.

I was satisfied. And happy. Don't worry.

I'm dutch, so my English is pretty good, but not perfect, please correct me when I'm wrong!

5 easy tips to make the teacher like you

I am not someone who naturally hates teachers. I do think it is important to be some kind of 'friends' with your teacher.

If your relationship with your teacher is good, he is more likely to help you. And eventually, he is the one who gives you your marks!

So here are some tips to make your teacher like you.

1. Greet every time. "Good morning sir". It sounds really simple, but the teacher does notice you 'That is nice he said that'. Simple, and it works.
2. Make your homework. Of course, you already should be doing that, but sometimes, you just can't do it because.. But you SHOULD do it. Cause if he asks 'who did do their homework' and you can raise your hand, he will notice you positively again!
3. Ask how he is doing. Just an extension to number 1. Also simple, but you have to do it in a 'later stadium'. When you said 'good morning' a couple of times you can do this. Ask how he's doing, how was his weekend, vacation, whatsoever.
4. If you want to know something about the stuff you need to learn, and you won't see him the rest of the week, email him! You show interest, and he will notice that.
5. And the last, and maybe the least, cause you might be busy enough. Ask for extra work. Say you want to improve yourself, and the work that is given now isn't enough.

These tips are not hard at all to use, and it does work. You don't have to put a lot of work in it, but you do get something from it. A better relationship with the teacher means that he is more willingfull to work with you, and that can only be in your advantage!