Doing well in school takes more then being smart and working hard. There are a lot of little things you need to learn in order to survive in the classroom. This workbook will help you learn or improve on 42 different skills.

Learning the right Self-Talk will help you learn these skills. You will be given examples and asked to practice three kinds of Self-Talk.

Instructing Yourself. There are different ways to instruct yourself. You can remind yourself about what you need to do. You can plan ahead for what you need to do. You can decide on the steps you need to follow. Or you might remind yourself of what you need to avoid in order to do something.

Crediting Yourself. When you have done what you wanted to do, give yourself credit. Crediting yourself positively means you tell yourself that you made it happen. It happened because of your ability or effort. Even if it wasn't perfect, take credit for trying and having gotten it partly right.

When you say to yourself that you were just lucky you are using negative self-talk. That's also true if you think that what you did was real easy, or that other people were just being nice.

Complimenting Yourself. Pat yourself on the back when you are able to do something right. Don't wait for someone to compliment you. But don't go overboard. Compliment yourself only for having done a specific behavior. That's positive self-talk. When you do something wrong, it's okay to criticize yourself. But don't overdo it. Be specific. Don't put yourself down as a person.