AHHH! The excitement and family bonding of piling into the car (or the train or the plane) and heading off to explore the many college locations that promise a bright future for our maturing young adults! (insert sound of screeching tires) But wait! This scenario is out of order. There are so many other considerations to make before packing a bag, not the least of which is a plan to implement upon arriving at the destination(s).
Let’s start at the beginning and forestall the fun part until we’re better prepared.
There are big schools and small ones, schools far away from home and those close by; schools offering a 4 year degree and others with graduate programs; schools his or her friends are attending and schools where nobody knows your name; the school mom, dad, brother, or sister went to and schools that mom, dad, brother, or sister wish they had. The choices are virtually limitless, injecting the need for a little preplanning.
STEP ONE: Make a list of potential colleges. Don’t limit yourself yet. At this point, 20 schools is not too many to handle and the list will decrease as you make informed decisions.
STEP TWO: Check online to see the qualifications each school seeks in their admission process. Compare the “wants” with your student’s academic and extracurricular history. Decisions at this step can revolve around either end of the spectrum: low GPA and ACT results will not be impressive to the College of William and Mary, but high scores may indicate that your academically gifted student will not be challenged sufficiently by schools with low standards.
STEP THREE: Visit your high school’s website to check for a link to Naviance. Follow the steps to check out the scattergram of recently admitted graduates from your high school to each college, based on GPA and standardized test scores. This information can be a second decision point academically or for other reasons.
I personally chose a college which no person from my high school had attended in the previous 3 years, but I had to wait until graduation to get the most current information. Your student may want to be “the only one” or part of a large contingent from the neighborhood. It's a question often neglected, yet a viable decision point.
STEP FOUR: Select an itinerary (or two or three). Try to limit the number of schools visited on each trip to a reasonable goal, maybe 3, that will avoid getting them confused. While the plan may be geography based, think about having one large campus on the same trip as a smaller one.
STEP FIVE: Contact the admissions department at each school on the itinerary and schedule a guided visit. This gets your name on the roster and gives you someone to answer questions.
STEP SIX: Have a standard list of questions so you can gather comparative information. Other issues will come up at each campus, but you will be assured of having the same baseline input from each school.
STEP SEVEN: Take notes during and after the visit. Write down your opinions as soon as practical and include comments that will bring the specific school to mind, like “huge oak trees in quad.” Anything you can do to keep the memories organized will be helpful once you’re back home.
STEP EIGHT: Pack your bags. Remember that you’ll be walking around these campuses, so be warm (or cool) and have very comfortable shoes.
Have fun!!
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
TIPS FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PARENTS: SHOULD WE HIRE A TUTOR?
TIPS FOR PARENTS
My tutoring service does not usually work with elementary school students, but there are others who specialize in this age group. Hearing in a Parent-Teacher Conference that your pride and joy is a whole grade below “standards” can be devastating, especially for the involved parent who is truly committed to education. So the question arises: do we send our child to a tutor.
There is no quick answer to this heart-wrenching question. Whether you choose to use the services of a professional or to tackle the problem yourself is a personal one and only you can make the decision. Here are some thought-provoking questions that will help you feel confident in whatever choice you make.
1. What is the level of the difficulty? If your fifth grader is reading at a 4.5 level, the problem is small and may require only greater exposure to harder reading material. For a fifth grader reading at a 2.0 level, the problem is much greater and remediation is essential, probably from someone with special skills in analyzing the situation and providing an extensive battery of solutions.
A child who has difficulty with just one area, like fractions in math, may overcome the hurdle through a few, fun, at-home activities. Some tips on what you can do within the family are presented later in this article.
2. What is your relationship with the student? Some parent-child connections thrive on an educational component; others are complex enough with daily living and social issues. If you want to “pick your battles,” as some would say, perhaps “teaching” your student about the 19th Century “Scramble for Africa” isn’t the best battleground. Be assured that the parent who takes a student to a tutor is no more and no less honorable than the one who researches Leopold II’s influence at the Berlin Conference. If teaching your student at home is likely to cause strife, then outside help is justifiable. If having your child read Call of the Wild aloud to you and a younger sibling each night and discussing the characters would be enjoyable, then take advantage of the opportunity to strengthen a family bond while improving classroom performance.
3. What are the financial obligations? What are you getting for your money? If a service tells you that they can increase your student’s reading level by a full year in just 9 months, remember that the school year is 9 months long and this kind of improvement is expected without intervention.
4. What is your child’s level of outside activity? A student who is already heavily committed to choir, dance class, Tae Kwon Do, gymnastics, horseback riding, scouts, religious training, and baseball might have to give up an extracurricular to make room for additional study. Make sure that the outside help will not be viewed as a penalty by your student. Learning should be considered a reward, not a punishment, especially at an early age with 10 or so more years of it ahead.
I’ll leave the topic of choosing a tutor for another blog. Let’s consider right now that you’ve decided to address a situation from your own home. Here are some tips to help parents of elementary students design “kitchen table tutorials.”
1. Do Not “over assign” home work. There are too many division problems on a whole page and it wouldn’t be any fun. Instead, ask the student to correctly work just one problem from each section on a page. If the attempt is not successful, you have several other problems to use as demonstration and retesting. Break other work into small parts, say a chapter in a novel or a subsection in history. Use a few minutes after the “assignment” to discuss what was learned and what else the student would like to know about the subject. Verify accuracy of facts and give your student a chance to discuss, no matter how young he or she might be. This will solidify the learning and enhance the student’s ability to integrate information and synthesize knowledge from other subjects.
2. Ask the student to work only as many math problems or answer as many factual questions as you are willing to correct. The feedback must be immediate but math review problems may come with only answers and no solutions manual. You will have to work out every problem the student misses in order to find the point of error.
The same goes for an independent reading assignment. You’ll have to read the same story, chapter, or article and be prepared to show the student where and how to find answers to related questions which you may have to design yourself.
3. Cover a variety of topics each time. A little of this and a little of that each day will help to strengthen each concept in the student’s repertoire. A common problem with many textbooks and curricula is that a subject is covered, tested, and then ignored for the rest of the year. You want to review often and across the curriculum.
4. Provide appropriate rewards. You know your student better than anyone else does, so dream up clever rewards, ask the student for suggestions, and surprise good work with something your extraordinary student will view as special.
A short afterthought for those willing to try home work. Home schooling is not easy, but working at home can be tremendously rewarding for both student and parent. Use the grocery store (or, even better, a toy store or electronics center) to explore fractions, percents, and social interactions. Play “car games” to improve vocabulary, visual discrimination ability, and deductive reasoning. Use cartoons to discuss “beginning, middle, end” writing strategies, identify themes, and watch for new vocabulary words.
Even if you choose to employ a tutor for specialized learning, the first, best, and perpetual teachers are our parents.
My tutoring service does not usually work with elementary school students, but there are others who specialize in this age group. Hearing in a Parent-Teacher Conference that your pride and joy is a whole grade below “standards” can be devastating, especially for the involved parent who is truly committed to education. So the question arises: do we send our child to a tutor.
There is no quick answer to this heart-wrenching question. Whether you choose to use the services of a professional or to tackle the problem yourself is a personal one and only you can make the decision. Here are some thought-provoking questions that will help you feel confident in whatever choice you make.
1. What is the level of the difficulty? If your fifth grader is reading at a 4.5 level, the problem is small and may require only greater exposure to harder reading material. For a fifth grader reading at a 2.0 level, the problem is much greater and remediation is essential, probably from someone with special skills in analyzing the situation and providing an extensive battery of solutions.
A child who has difficulty with just one area, like fractions in math, may overcome the hurdle through a few, fun, at-home activities. Some tips on what you can do within the family are presented later in this article.
2. What is your relationship with the student? Some parent-child connections thrive on an educational component; others are complex enough with daily living and social issues. If you want to “pick your battles,” as some would say, perhaps “teaching” your student about the 19th Century “Scramble for Africa” isn’t the best battleground. Be assured that the parent who takes a student to a tutor is no more and no less honorable than the one who researches Leopold II’s influence at the Berlin Conference. If teaching your student at home is likely to cause strife, then outside help is justifiable. If having your child read Call of the Wild aloud to you and a younger sibling each night and discussing the characters would be enjoyable, then take advantage of the opportunity to strengthen a family bond while improving classroom performance.
3. What are the financial obligations? What are you getting for your money? If a service tells you that they can increase your student’s reading level by a full year in just 9 months, remember that the school year is 9 months long and this kind of improvement is expected without intervention.
4. What is your child’s level of outside activity? A student who is already heavily committed to choir, dance class, Tae Kwon Do, gymnastics, horseback riding, scouts, religious training, and baseball might have to give up an extracurricular to make room for additional study. Make sure that the outside help will not be viewed as a penalty by your student. Learning should be considered a reward, not a punishment, especially at an early age with 10 or so more years of it ahead.
I’ll leave the topic of choosing a tutor for another blog. Let’s consider right now that you’ve decided to address a situation from your own home. Here are some tips to help parents of elementary students design “kitchen table tutorials.”
1. Do Not “over assign” home work. There are too many division problems on a whole page and it wouldn’t be any fun. Instead, ask the student to correctly work just one problem from each section on a page. If the attempt is not successful, you have several other problems to use as demonstration and retesting. Break other work into small parts, say a chapter in a novel or a subsection in history. Use a few minutes after the “assignment” to discuss what was learned and what else the student would like to know about the subject. Verify accuracy of facts and give your student a chance to discuss, no matter how young he or she might be. This will solidify the learning and enhance the student’s ability to integrate information and synthesize knowledge from other subjects.
2. Ask the student to work only as many math problems or answer as many factual questions as you are willing to correct. The feedback must be immediate but math review problems may come with only answers and no solutions manual. You will have to work out every problem the student misses in order to find the point of error.
The same goes for an independent reading assignment. You’ll have to read the same story, chapter, or article and be prepared to show the student where and how to find answers to related questions which you may have to design yourself.
3. Cover a variety of topics each time. A little of this and a little of that each day will help to strengthen each concept in the student’s repertoire. A common problem with many textbooks and curricula is that a subject is covered, tested, and then ignored for the rest of the year. You want to review often and across the curriculum.
4. Provide appropriate rewards. You know your student better than anyone else does, so dream up clever rewards, ask the student for suggestions, and surprise good work with something your extraordinary student will view as special.
A short afterthought for those willing to try home work. Home schooling is not easy, but working at home can be tremendously rewarding for both student and parent. Use the grocery store (or, even better, a toy store or electronics center) to explore fractions, percents, and social interactions. Play “car games” to improve vocabulary, visual discrimination ability, and deductive reasoning. Use cartoons to discuss “beginning, middle, end” writing strategies, identify themes, and watch for new vocabulary words.
Even if you choose to employ a tutor for specialized learning, the first, best, and perpetual teachers are our parents.
Monday, January 9, 2012
PAYING FOR COLLEGE: SAVING MONEY ON TEXTBOOKS
Hearing the phrase “paying for college” usually makes us think of tuition, scholarships, and maybe housing. It makes our kids think about clothes, computers, and decorations for the dorm room. Many of us have been flabbergasted by one of the major expenses of college -- TEXTBOOKS.
In 2008, the federal government revised the Higher Education Act in more ways than just adding “Opportunity” to the name. Colleges now must provide information about a majority of classroom textbooks at the time of registration. Students will know the title, ISBN, and retail price of the textbook in all acceptable formats.
When I was in school, we just went to the college bookstore the day before classes started, found the shelf labeled with the course number, and grabbed the books stacked there. The price at the register might have been as much as $100. To save a few bucks, we might have looked for the texts that had that yellow tape, “used.” That’s still an option for your college students, but it might be a costly one. A single text could cost nearly $200!!
Textbook expenses may be minimized by one of these alternatives.
BUY ONLINE
Many websites are available for searching out a used version of the textbook. You might try Amazon.com or one of these:
http://usedtextbook.blogspot.com/2011_07_12_archive.html
www.cheaptextbooksblog.com
It’s preferable to have the ISBN to be sure you have the right edition and the page references from the syllabus match the page numbers in the textbook. I’ve had the challenge of matching an old version with a newer one several times and it is not fun!! Sans the ISBN, be sure you have the proper title, author, and publication date in order to have a usable text.
Look for books that are “like new” or similar terminology, but don’t immediately dismiss the really cheap ones that might be described with “binding torn,” especially if the course isn’t one that your student is particularly passionate about. Do try to avoid those which are “majorly highlighted” or have “many marginal notes.” The student should be able to make his or her own notes for reference and study.
Since shipping might take a week or longer, start the search for the best price as early as possible. Having the book early may have a hidden benefit. Your student may be inspired to actually look at the content before classes start!
RENT TEXTBOOKS
Some of the same websites offer the option to rent books for 30 days or longer. A semester is longer! Watch for the cost of extending the rental period.
You might check out these websites:
www.ecampus.com/textbook-rental.asp
www.cheapbookrenter.com
One benefit to rental may be that most sites will exchange a book that arrives in really bad condition. And you don’t have to worry about reselling a rental.
E-TEXTBOOKS
Some publishers even offer texts in electronic format which may be appealing for our technically literate offspring. This alternative wouldn’t work well, however, for the student who makes marginal notes or highlights in context. Even if pages can be downloaded and printed, the cost of duplication could be excessively expensive and inconvenient.
STUDENT EXCHANGE
If your students (or you) are members of a fraternity or sorority, older students may be willing to pass down their books, particularly in the Gen Ed courses that almost everyone is required to take.
ESPECIALLY FOR MATH
As a math teacher, I always suggest that my students look for a COMPLETE SOLUTIONS MANUAL rather than just the Student Version. I also look for solutions, not just answers. I’ve discovered many professors who use the unassigned problems as test questions, and having worked the problem previously can take some of the challenge out of a test.
WHAT ABOUT HIGH SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS?
Although these suggestions are geared toward college students, I always try to have the high school textbooks available in my tutoring service. If your school requires students to purchase their textbooks or if your student doesn’t want to lug the huge history book back and forth between home and school, it can be expedient to have a copy at home. Also, if your student wants to be a doctor and is taking an advanced biology course, having the high school text available for reference in college can serve as a refresher to previous knowledge.
In 2008, the federal government revised the Higher Education Act in more ways than just adding “Opportunity” to the name. Colleges now must provide information about a majority of classroom textbooks at the time of registration. Students will know the title, ISBN, and retail price of the textbook in all acceptable formats.
When I was in school, we just went to the college bookstore the day before classes started, found the shelf labeled with the course number, and grabbed the books stacked there. The price at the register might have been as much as $100. To save a few bucks, we might have looked for the texts that had that yellow tape, “used.” That’s still an option for your college students, but it might be a costly one. A single text could cost nearly $200!!
Textbook expenses may be minimized by one of these alternatives.
BUY ONLINE
Many websites are available for searching out a used version of the textbook. You might try Amazon.com or one of these:
http://usedtextbook.blogspot.com/2011_07_12_archive.html
www.cheaptextbooksblog.com
It’s preferable to have the ISBN to be sure you have the right edition and the page references from the syllabus match the page numbers in the textbook. I’ve had the challenge of matching an old version with a newer one several times and it is not fun!! Sans the ISBN, be sure you have the proper title, author, and publication date in order to have a usable text.
Look for books that are “like new” or similar terminology, but don’t immediately dismiss the really cheap ones that might be described with “binding torn,” especially if the course isn’t one that your student is particularly passionate about. Do try to avoid those which are “majorly highlighted” or have “many marginal notes.” The student should be able to make his or her own notes for reference and study.
Since shipping might take a week or longer, start the search for the best price as early as possible. Having the book early may have a hidden benefit. Your student may be inspired to actually look at the content before classes start!
RENT TEXTBOOKS
Some of the same websites offer the option to rent books for 30 days or longer. A semester is longer! Watch for the cost of extending the rental period.
You might check out these websites:
www.ecampus.com/textbook-rental.asp
www.cheapbookrenter.com
One benefit to rental may be that most sites will exchange a book that arrives in really bad condition. And you don’t have to worry about reselling a rental.
E-TEXTBOOKS
Some publishers even offer texts in electronic format which may be appealing for our technically literate offspring. This alternative wouldn’t work well, however, for the student who makes marginal notes or highlights in context. Even if pages can be downloaded and printed, the cost of duplication could be excessively expensive and inconvenient.
STUDENT EXCHANGE
If your students (or you) are members of a fraternity or sorority, older students may be willing to pass down their books, particularly in the Gen Ed courses that almost everyone is required to take.
ESPECIALLY FOR MATH
As a math teacher, I always suggest that my students look for a COMPLETE SOLUTIONS MANUAL rather than just the Student Version. I also look for solutions, not just answers. I’ve discovered many professors who use the unassigned problems as test questions, and having worked the problem previously can take some of the challenge out of a test.
WHAT ABOUT HIGH SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS?
Although these suggestions are geared toward college students, I always try to have the high school textbooks available in my tutoring service. If your school requires students to purchase their textbooks or if your student doesn’t want to lug the huge history book back and forth between home and school, it can be expedient to have a copy at home. Also, if your student wants to be a doctor and is taking an advanced biology course, having the high school text available for reference in college can serve as a refresher to previous knowledge.
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