This week, we recommend collaborating with your student to discuss what they have independently discovered. Use your own responses to the interactive components of the module slides to engage in discussion with your student and model how they might think about module content.

Below we are providing some ideas for discussion questions, but we recommend using them as a guideline to facilitate a two-way discussion rather than a list of questions to ask your student. It is always helpful for you to answer the questions about yourself as well in order to model a growth mindset for your student and help engage them in the discussion.

Some introductory discussion questions may include the following:

• What did you think about Time Vortexes and Savers? How might it relate to you?
• Which Time Vortexes did you identify as the three most relevant to you? Are they relevant because they’re hard to avoid, or because they take up a lot of your time?
• There are a lot of Time Savers that can help you manage your Vortexes. Do you have any ideas for which strategies would work best for you?
• What is a Time Saver you can use to prevent Time Vortexes from impacting you? What’s a Time Saver you can use if a Time Vortex pops up while you are working?

Sometimes, students are hesitant to engage in discussion. Below are some common student behaviors/responses and suggestions for how you might respond in order to facilitate further discussion with your student:

1. Student Response/Behavior: Student needs more visual support to help them identify and plan for Time Vortexes.
2. Potential Parent/Coach Response: Create a list of Time Vortexes and draw pictures or act them out to help your student visualize them. Cross out the Time Vortexes when you’ve identified a Time Saver to “defeat” the Vortex.
3. Example Conversation:
4. • Parent/Coach: So what will it look like when you get distracted by hunger during homework time?
   • Student: I guess I’ll keep looking for snacks, or maybe going to the kitchen.
   • Parent/Coach: I do the same thing when I’m hungry! Let’s draw a little refrigerator next to “hunger” on our list to remember. Now what could we do to stop hunger from distracting us?
   • Student: Could I have a snack before starting my homework?
   • Parent/Coach: I think that’s a great idea! Why don’t you write that down as a Time Saver, and now that we’ve figured out how to get past the time stealer of hunger, we can cross it out since we defeated it!

2. Student Response/Behavior: Student is anxious or feels that Time Vortexes are a failure on their part.
3. Potential Parent/Coach Response: Zoom in on the definition of Time Vortexes, helping your student brainstorm a few other everyday instances of something that’s not necessarily bad, but can turn into a Time Vortex if we’re not intentional about breaks.
4. Example Conversation:
5. • Parent/Coach: Why are you worried about time spent playing with the dog?
   • Student: Because I’ll be a bad student if I don’t spend enough time on my homework!
   • Parent/Coach: Catching yourself with a Time Vortex doesn’t mean you’ve done something wrong; it actually means you’re getting better at noticing your work habits and building skills to work more efficiently overall!
   • Student: But I’m supposed to finish all of my assignments instead of playing.
   • Parent/Coach: Well it wouldn’t be nice if we never got to play with the dog just because we have other things to do. We can always make time to do the things we want to do, just so long as we set a good plan to divide break time from work time.
   • Student: So I can still play with the dog?
   • Parent/Coach: Of course! We just have to balance it with your schedule.

3. Student Response/Behavior: Student wants to make a control plan for every possible Time Vortex.
4. Potential Parent/Coach Response: Review the Achievable and Time-Based aspects of Goal Setting from Module 2.
5. Example Conversation:
6. • Parent/Coach: It looks like you wrote down almost every Time Vortex on your list here.
   • Student: Well I have to be prepared for all of them!
   • Parent/Coach: That’s true, but it’s not really practical for anyone to ask themself to tackle every possible Time Vortex all at once. We should start with a limited number and try to control those; once you have reached your goal on controlling those, it can be time to add some more.
   • Student: But how do I pick just a few?
   • Parent/Coach: Well why don’t you think about something that distracted you today, and we can start there.

Finally, Week 2 is a good time to review and discuss your student’s strategy card, which they created in their module slides on slide 12.