Making New Friends
Find your group. Going to school can be a lot of fun, sometimes. Whether you're into music, pro wrestling, or horses, finding some other kids that you can talk to and be friends with is very important. Remember a friend is someone who makes you feel connected and supported. Break time is a great time to make friends. If you see someone doing the same thing you like go over and say "Hi". Talking to people is one of the best ways. Don't worry about being popular, or hanging out with the popular kids. Worry about hanging out with who you like, and avoid the people you don't. Try also getting a best friend so you can have someone who really understands you.
Join an after school club. Another great way to make friends is by joining a formal club or group at your school. For instance, you could join the music club, chess club, and even the dancing club. Check out the options offered at your school and consider joining one that lines up with your hobbies. If none of the clubs sound appealing, consider starting one at your school. For example, you could have an after school video game club, or a Magic: The Gathering group. Once you have come up with your group and determined how it will benefit your school, you will need to find a teacher to sponsor it, or start it yourself with some friends. Try joining a club that you have no interest in, in order to meet some people you might not meet normally. Even if you're not a great singer, try making the school choir work for you. Use it as a chance to socialize and make friends.
Try a team sport. Some schools offer team sports that allow you to compete against other schools and make friends with your fellow students. Most of the students have never played before, so it's more or less an even playing field at most schools. Soccer, track and field, basketball, and football can all make school a little more fun. If you don't want to play sports, consider attending the games and cheering on your team with your friends. Most of the time, you can get in for free, and it can be a great way of making new buddies. Sports aren't for everyone, and students sometimes overemphasize the need for playing sports. It can be a great way to learn skills, make friends, and have fun, or it can be a needless source of stress. It is not recommended to play games that add to your stress; only play games that you enjoy.
Loosen up. You could take a practical joke personally and get your feelings hurt, or you could laugh it off and start planning your response joke, and make it an epic one. One way to make friends is by being less serious at school and learning to cut loose every now and then. School shouldn’t be your dungeon. It can be a great place to have fun too. Expect that you'll have fun and you'll start having fun and making friends. Kids like to be friends with kids who seem fun and funny, not kids who seem serious or angry. If you want to make friends, you should be loose and comfortable. Talk to your school counselor or a trusted adult if you feel really anxious at school or find it really hard to joke around and talk with other people. Your teachers, counselors, and parents want to help you!
Keeping it Fun
Psych yourself up each day. You could wake up each morning with a bad attitude and each morning will turn into a bad day. Or, you could crank up some energetic tunes, eat a breakfast of champions, and make your school day epic. If you decide that your day will be fun, it likely will be. Pick a "get up" song to listen to each morning before school. You can even sometimes set an alarm on your phone or clock radio to play a particular song, so that the first thing you hear in the morning can be the tune that gives you energy and makes you happy. Forget that annoying buzzer. Try to eat a good breakfast each day, to make sure you have the energy to get through the day. Focus on healthy fruits and whole grains, avoiding overly processed and sugary items like Pop Tarts or sugar-bomb cereal. You could eat an apple for instance.
Personalize your school stuff. If it makes you happier and more comfortable with your environment, try decorating your backpack, binder, notebook, locker, and other supplies necessary for school. Use stickers, glitter pens, your favorite band's emblem, or other stuff to make your school things a little more fun to carry around with you.
Wear clothes that make you feel good. Trends go in and out, so it's hard to say what the coolest clothes will be at any given time. However, enjoying school doesn't necessarily mean wearing the latest and the greatest mall wear. Wear the clothes that you feel comfortable wearing, and the clothes that allow you to cut loose and have fun at school. If it helps, plan out your school clothes the night before, so you can make sure you have everything that you'll need, clean and ready to go, for the morning. Learn to do laundry yourself so that you won't have to worry about whether or not your favorite shirt is clean.
Let yourself daydream every now and then. It's a fact: sometimes school is going to be boring. You will have to sit through a few lectures and while away a few dull hours of waiting. You can use your imagination to make it more fun, though! Imagine school as an RPG with you at the helm, or a story being written with you as both writer and protagonist. Cast yourself as a secret agent, sent to school to report back on the activities of these local youth. Find some way to add a little spice to the dullness.
Making School Easier
Stay organized. One of the most stressful and frustrating parts of school can be making sure you have everything that you're supposed to have. Where's your English homework? Where's that math assignment? Is your pencil sharp? The less you have to worry about these little things, the more you'll be able to focus and enjoy school. Be prepared for class and everything will be easier. Get a good binder to organize your notes and homework assignments. Put each important document into it when you receive it, and regularly clean it out so junk doesn't build up. If you've got a bunch of old assignments in there, throw them out. Keep a homework journal, or keep a daily planner up to date. Do this so that you will never be caught off guard with a homework assignment you forgot about. Keep close track of due dates so you'll stay ahead of the game.
Take it easy on your teachers. Teachers are like students: some are great, and some are less than great. However, teachers are always the ones in charge of the classroom, and even if you're feeling frustrated or bored in class, you should choose to be nice to your teachers, and chances are that they will be nice back to you. That makes everyone's day a whole lot easier. It may seem like talking in class and cutting up with your friends while the teacher is talking will make class more fun, but in the long run, it might make it a whole lot more stressful and boring with a bad grade and a detention. If you have a "reputation" at your school for being a class clown or troublemaker, you might have an uphill battle, but you can still make a change. Wait after class and tell your teacher that you're trying and you want to do better. Ask your teacher how you can do better in class and avoid getting into trouble. He or she will be impressed that way.
Budget your time more effectively. Homework will be a lot less of a burden if you save enough time to get it finished completely. Eliminate the worry and stress of homework by starting it early and getting it done quickly instead of waiting until the last minute. Wouldn't the morning before school be a lot less stressful if you weren't scrambling to finish your work? Wouldn't the school day be more fun without worrying that you'll get a bad grade? Say you have one month before you need to turn in a big project. You could put it all off until the last night, or you could spend 30 minutes on your project each night. That does not take much much time, but it is a lot less stressful than completing six hours of work straight at the last minute.
Ask for help if you are having trouble on homework. If you're struggling in school, don't try to take it all on by yourself. Make it easy. Ask for help at school by joining an after-school study group, or going to the tutoring center if your school has one. Ask your parents or older siblings for help. Since they have most likely gone through the same subjects at school as you did, they will be a great help. Use your family as a resource for help with school subjects. Ask your teacher if you can stay 10-15 minutes after school to ask a few questions about your homework, if you're embarrassed to ask during class. It's always better to ask than to be confused.
Decide if you need a more challenging school. If you're feeling bored and uninspired at school, or are getting bad grades and acting out, it might be because you're not being challenged by the material. School might be more fun if it was challenging your mind more with engaging material that's closer to your interests. Explore the options in your area and consider switching to an alternative school or finding out whether or not you might qualify for skipping a grade. Private schools can be expensive, but you may also qualify for scholarships or financial aid. You will never know until you find out what options are available in your area. If your parents are unwilling to explore the options with you, talk to your guidance counselor or a teacher that you get along with. Tell them how you're feeling and ask for help.
Avoid distractions. It might seem like sneaking an iPod into your sweatshirt would be a great way of having fun at school, but it also risks getting you into trouble, and forcing you to fall behind when you're not paying attention. It may not seem like it, but the best way to enjoy the lessons you're learning in school is to listen more closely, not find ways to distract yourself. It may sound corny, but pretend like there's going to be some really critical bit of information in your math teacher's problem. Pretend it's not multiplication that you're learning, but complicated formulas to build robots. Use your imagination to find some way to stay focused.
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