When it comes to education, private schools are well-known for their rigorous academic standards and top-notch curriculum. However, while any private school’s theoretical aspects are essential, much more goes into creating a thriving educational environment. This blog post will cover some of the fundamental essentials needed to have a successful private school.
Continue reading Choosing a Private School
My daughter loves books. Her joy of reading began in grade school and she still loves reading and collecting books. Books never get old and there are so many to choose from. If your student is into digital versions of books, there are many programs available as well.
I’ve done the research for you and each link has multiple suggestions for you and your student. I hope these books are helpful and will be great additions to your library.
Continue reading Books for Students and Their Parents
While there are no single shortcuts to academic success, there are fortunately a number of beneficial ways for students to actively increase the chances of it. Here are the best techniques to encourage your college-bound student to stay motivated and achieve.
It’s widely known that successful students are often those who are forward thinkers. Before leaving for college and starting the first semester, encourage your student to research the syllabus of the course and learn what it entails, such as the deadlines and dates of any essays or exams they will have, as well as any academic books that they may require. Building forward thinking structures such as this can prepare them for the organisational skills that they will need at college.
Note taking is a valuable skill for college life and can make the difference between passing and failing an exam. Numerous studies surrounding students and note taking have proven that those who effectively take notes remember the material better than those who don’t. Students that write down everything that their professors say can prove to be inefficient. It’s best to encourage them to take time to actively listen and jot down the most significant points that can aid their study, and to review and organize their notes to ensure that they are coherent for when they need to refer back to them.
Most colleges offer an array of support services to make the student experience as helpful as possible. While it can be rewarding to feel academically challenged, it can sometimes cause unnecessary stress which can affect student’s overall work quality and performance. If applicable, encourage your college-bound student to attend workshops, one-to-one meetings with their professors, academic writing classes, or even online course training and exam preparation websites such as https://www.athomeprep.com.
Keeping an eye out for academic opportunities such as societies and work experience through flyers or social media can greatly impact your student’s academic success. Getting involved can enable students to be recognized, network with others, and learn new invaluable skills that can be instrumental to their desired future careers. It can also be a great way to meet like-minded people and quickly make new friends!
While putting effort in at college equates to success, it’s important to remind your college-bound student that their well being should remain a priority above all. Students who spend all their time studying may begin to neglect their sleep, nutritional habits, physical and mental health, as well as their social lives. This can result in the feeling of “burn-out” and can even induce feelings of anxiety. College life can easily be balanced through allowing well-deserved breaks from studying, and smart time management. For example, it can be useful to create daily reminders in digital calendars on their phones and laptops to outline their schedule and set goals, as well as know when to organize study days and rest days.
I was in Starbucks the other day and I saw a group of teenagers come in and order triple espressos before school. Now I love a good espresso every now and then, but I got the feeling this was nearly an everyday occurrence with these teens. Could this affect their GPA?
Does coffee affect your student’s ability to excel academically? What about their sleep habits or the drugs they take to stay awake?
A survey was conducted of over 1,000 current college students to determine how their sleep and energy habits affect their GPAs. Is the exhaustion that comes from an all-nighter truly the price students have to pay for good grades? Does that extra cup of coffee offer an advantage over the sleeping student? And what about prescription ADHD medications? Their findings may surprise you.
Here are some excerpts from an article and supporting graphics of the survey results by Best Mattress Brands:
With millennials continuing to push coffee demand to record-breaking amounts, studies also continue to reveal the health benefits of the beloved beverage, so college students may see little harm in their caffeine consumption. Drinking coffee can provide an immediate rush of energy to make it to early classes or stay awake late enough to hit the books, but the craving for a boost may be more harmful than we realize. Not only is the extra caffeine in the body’s system preventing a good night’s rest –– also it can negatively impact a student’s GPA.
Our study found as students consume more daily cups of coffee, the lower their GPA becomes, on average. While coffee may provide energy and allow for extra study time, lack of sleep that may result from caffeine can take away from the body’s ability to form long-term memories.
the less sleep a student gets, the lower his or her GPA, according to our survey results. While the scientific community still debates the exact purpose of sleep, previous studies have shown that quality sleep is vital for a healthy body and mind, especially when it comes to learning and memory. It shouldn’t be surprising then that students who sleep eight hours or more on school nights see an average GPA improvement of 5 percent over those who get five hours or fewer of sleep each night.
Skimping on sleep may masquerade as a legitimate trade for an increased GPA, but lack of sleep actually increases stress levels instead, while GPAs drop. The long-term benefits of crawling into bed sound much more rewarding than forgoing sleep to cram for another quiz.
Adderall and Ritalin have become known as “study drugs” that help students concentrate and stay awake. Although these drugs are used to treat individuals who struggle with attention deficit hyperactivity disorders, their use has spread to students trying to better their grades. But do these drugs live up to the hype?
The study again found that sleep to be a better source of energy than stimulants. The 9 percent of current college students who had a prescription for Adderall or Ritalin slept less and earned a lower GPA on average. Understandably, these drugs often correlate with certain learning disadvantages, so a lower GPA may not be surprising.
You may have seen them; memes about plagiarism checkers pop up here and there. They either scoff at the tools’ malfunction or the distrust they provoke. What triggers such a reaction?
Plagiarism checking has become an integral part of the evaluation of papers, and now students’ perception of academic dishonesty has changed. More of them know how to cite, whether it’s appropriate, and how to avoid accidental plagiarism. The problem, however, is that a great many peers look for ways to beat the tools or still believe that plagiarism isn’t a big deal when it occurs only occasionally.
There must be something that forces them to think along these lines. As it turns out, it’s the pressure to succeed and the stress it causes. One study, “The Effect of Anti-plagiarism Software on Students’ Plagiarizing Behaviour” reveals that 59% of the surveyed students feel pressure when being checked, and 41% either think that plagiarism tools aren’t a necessity, or they feel neutral about them.
These attitudes toward plagiarism checkers are quite understandable. Just imagine yourself taking a lie detector test—would you feel anxious? More than likely.
But these attitudes may prevent your children from improving their writing skills. After all, checkers shouldn’t be making students obey, like a sort of policing agency. Instead, they should educate and point them in the right direction. So, let’s treat checkers as helpers rather than accusers.
What follows are some arguments that can help relieve the stress that college students face and let them see the value in using a plagiarism prevention tool.
Stress is the response to a challenge—the challenge of getting good grades, maintaining a scholarship, or meeting their parents’ expectations.
The stress of being checked is a response to uncertainty or lack of understanding of what constitutes plagiarism, how to conduct research, what sources to use, how many of them should be enough, etc. If the knowledge gap grows, students experience more stress at college. So, one of the most effective stress management techniques is to learn to write without the threat plagiarism, accidental or otherwise.
This video by The Texas A&M University Writing Center sheds some light on writing with integrity and provides comprehensive advice on how to do it right:
If anxiety is still difficult to overcome, parents need to act proactively and explain why there’s no need to stress out.
So, why is being checked a normal thing?
Equal opportunities. Educational institutions lay special emphasis on academic integrity. This is a kind of ethical code that ensures everyone behaves responsibly. No cheating, no unauthorized collaboration, no plagiarism. By checking for originality, a college or university creates equal conditions for all. If a student makes every effort to write originally, others should also attempt to be honest.
Learning moments. Advanced plagiarism prevention solutions provide reports that contain all sorts of information about the scanned paper: a score for text matches, a list of sources used, quotes made, etc. Some of these reports also highlight references and citations, which makes it simple to see what citations are incorrect, if any sources need attribution, and more. Students can quickly get a handle on what’s right and what’s wrong to avoid making the same mistakes in the future.
Developing student voice. When students write originally, they begin to develop their own voice. Students can’t simply stuff essays or theses with quotes or research data provided by outside sources without providing their original thoughts. Plagiarism checking pushes students to not rely heavily on the opinions of others, and that’s a good point.
Plagiarism checkers alone can’t motivate students to write with integrity, but they can create favorable conditions for fair assessment.
If everyone knows that they won’t receive good grades for plagiarized works, they’re more likely to take the effort to write originally.
To fully assess work, teachers need to involve students in the process. Plagiarism prevention tools make this simple. Students can check the work of their peers, exchange reports, give advice on how to cite properly, and add more original insights. By doing so, students grow their confidence in writing and, therefore, become less inclined to cheat.
Fair assessment with plagiarism prevention software helps students take control of their learning success and boosts their responsibility.
Apart from being great motivators, originality detectors can help students to avoid accidental plagiarism and the recycling of their own writings.
Essays, research, reviews, or any other type of written assignment requires a high level of concentration. If students are too pressed for time, they may forget to include sources in the reference list or fail to put someone’s words into quotation marks.
This oversight leads to a lot of stress and anxiety. Here’s when a plagiarism checker like Unicheck can be of great help to students. Advanced tools usually deliver search results in the blink of an eye and provide hyperlinks to matching sources. As a rule, navigating such reports is quite straightforward, and you can always use the tools to educate your child and show your support that way.
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Note: I was provided access to the Unicheck software to test it myself. I found it helpful in determining whether content was original. It provides you with the exact text that is similar, along with checking any citations and/or references in the article. In my opinion, this software would be a beneficial tool for your college student.
Most students who go to college are hoping to achieve great grades, ace their exams, and get into the career of their choice. However, things don’t always end up that way, as some find that their grades start to slide after a while. This is often due to factors such as an increased social life, bad lifestyle, and lack of proper rest among other things.
As a college student, it is important that you put your studies first in order to maintain good grades. It is very easy to get caught up in the excitement of college life, but unless you are very careful, this could have a serious negative impact on your education and the grades you achieve at college. In this article, we will look at some of the things you can do to maintain good grades.
There are various key points of consideration you have to think about if you want to achieve and maintain good grades. One of the things you have to be very careful about is your social life. There are lots of students who get caught up with partying and social events, which then leads to missed classes and substandard work.
Of course, there are ways in which you can catch up if it is just an odd class or two. For instance, there are sites that offer everything from class notes to homework help for economics and other subjects. However, regular missed classes due to hectic social lives will almost certainly end in disaster in terms of your education.
Another thing you have to be mindful of when you start college life and live away from home is your lifestyle. A huge number of students fail to eat properly when they start going to college. They sometimes skip meals and when they do eat, it is generally fast food and junk that they consume. In addition, many end up not getting enough sleep due to late nights out or last-minute cramming for tests and exams. All of this can take its toll both on your health and your ability to study. You, therefore, need to ensure you eat healthy, balanced meals and you don’t skip meals. In addition, get proper sleep and develop a nighttime routine so you are refreshed and ready to focus each morning.
Some students think that being disorganized is part and parcel of college life – it isn’t! If anything, you need to be more organized to ensure you are dedicating enough time to your studies. If you struggle to buckle down and get on with studying, try to develop a study timetable. You can factor in breaks and nights out in addition to your studies so you know when you have free time and when you should be sitting down and focusing.
With these tips, you should find it easier to focus on your studies. This means you can achieve and maintain good grades at college far more easily.
As a parent that is trying to prepare their child for college, it’s important that you give them everything that they need to study effectively. One of the things that parents often forget about is a proper study area in the home, but it’s so important. If your child is sitting on the couch trying to study, they’ll easily get distracted and they won’t work very effectively. It’s far easier for them to concentrate properly if they’ve got a dedicated area for studying, and their results will reflect that. If you haven’t already got a study area for your child, here’s everything that you need to include.
Furniture
The first thing that you’ll need is some good furniture. If your child is sitting on a beanbag or relaxing in an armchair, they’re not going to be in the right frame of mind for working. Instead, you need to think about the school environment and try to recreate that to some degree. There are some great companies like civic australia who sell a good range of classroom furniture. Getting some proper desks and chairs from there will give the study space a more formal, learning environment feel that is conducive to concentration and work. It’s important that your child is comfortable in their study area, but it needs to feel like a place where they can get their head down and work, not a place where they can relax and watch TV.
Furniture placement is very important too because you need to limit distractions. You need to place the desk somewhere that gets good sunlight, but it’s best to avoid putting it directly in front of the window because they can get distracted easily. In a corner is always good because it makes it easier to focus.
Noise
Noise is a huge distraction and if your child can hear the TV going downstairs or they can hear their siblings playing out in the garden, they’re not likely to stay focused for very long. That’s why it’s essential that you pick somewhere that doesn’t have too much noise. Hopefully, you’ve got a fairly quiet area of the house that you can use, but you can also do things like put draught excluders under the door to block out noise. You also need to make the family aware that they should keep the noise down during study time. If you really can’t find anywhere where there isn’t any noise, you should invest in a good pair of noise cancelling headphones for them so they can focus properly.
Learning Tools
Giving them the right learning tools is so important, so you should invest a little money if you need to. They might need access to certain websites or software that comes with a subscription. Even things like a good stock of stationery can be a big help when they’re trying to stay organized. The best thing to do is to speak with your child and ask them what tools they need to help make their studying more effective.
Creating a good study area for your child will make it so much easier for them to prepare for exams and eventually get into the college of their dreams.
No matter what stage they’re at in their educational journey, your kids should appreciate that the classroom only provides a platform. If they truly want to maximize the capabilities of learning to experience its greatest rewards, they must be willing to do more.
Frankly, going that extra mile is the hallmark of a champion. Here are five simple tricks that will fire your child to greater results than you ever thought possible. What are you waiting for? Let’s get to work.
Becoming well versed in various subjects is important. Ultimately, though, they will eventually need to choose a pathway en route to creating a great career for themselves. While youngsters shouldn’t feel forced into making a definitive decision, it doesn’t hurt to think about the future career ASAP. After all, this will help them know which subjects need to be prioritized or what courses may be taken further down the line. Apart from anything else, that vision will serve as great motivation throughout the journey ahead.
Whether your child is a school pupil or a university student, you cannot expect the teacher to provide everything. They are a fountain of knowledge, but they can’t be expected to know everything. Their advice can form the basis, especially with regards to exam prep. Nonetheless, using services like GradeBuddy to enhance their knowledge of key topics should be on your child’s agenda. With that coupling of personal progress and class education, they should gain a deeper understanding. This should come as a huge help in both academic and practical ways.
Education isn’t just about increasing their knowledge. You are ultimately trying to prepare your child for the best career and lifestyle. As such, encouraging them to take the time to invest in key transferable skills is an essential part of the process. This is especially true when you actively recognize a lack of confidence in public speaking and similar areas. Their studies are the perfect opportunity to work on those weaknesses as well as their strengths. Find the right balance to boost your hopes of success in the real world, and it will pay dividends in the long run.
Passing exams is one thing, but driving themselves towards a great career is another altogether. No two people are identical, and their education should be tailored to personal needs. Making education about the individual can be achieved through many methods. Learning a new language with DuoLingo, alongside a chosen field, allows your child to chase the dream of working abroad. Meanwhile, using practical approaches is far more rewarding for your personal tastes. Essentially, doing the best thing for them is the key to even greater success.
There’s more than one way to enhance your knowledge of a subject. Frankly, experience is just as vital as education, and is something colleges and employers actively seek. This is why extracurricular activities can become your secret weapon for future applications. Apart from impressing others, it’s a great way to boost their self-confidence and capabilities within a chosen field. If your son or daughter is looking for the perfect finishing touches to their strategy, this is the only answer they’ll need.
Wednesday’s child may be full of woe but Wednesday’s parent can substitute action for anxiety. Each Wednesday Wendy and I will provide parent tips to get and keep your student on the college track. It’s never too late or too early to start!
Wednesday’s Parent will give twice the info and double the blog posts on critical parenting issues by clicking on the link at the end of the article from www.pocsmom.com to www.parentingforcollege.com and vice versa.
This post is about how parents can convey the importance of academics to prepare their child for college:
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Back in the “good ole’ days” reading, writing and arithmetic were the core subjects. Kids were taught to read with “Dick and Jane”, write printing and cursive on Big Ten tablets, and master 2+2=4. But as time progressed and primary education became a stepping stone for higher education, the curriculum, while still centered around these core subjects, has evolved. With the focus on higher education, it’s even more crucial that your kids understand the importance of academics.
How has it evolved and how can you help your kids be successful learners in these three disciplines?
In today’s digital age, reading is done a little differently. Kids used to go to libraries and check out books; now they go online and download them for e-readers. Technology competes for their attention and hours spent reading have been replaced with hours online in social media and playing games. Finding the time read is difficult, but you need to encourage your kids to read from the time they are small children until they finish college.
Why is reading so important? It expands their vocabulary and opens their minds to new ideas. Reading is a critical part of any standardized test and a key aspect of the college entrance exams. Reading teaches them to pay attention and ingest information as they read. It’s going to benefit them in high school, in college and in life if they develop a love for reading.
Years ago writing was a separate subject. Kids were schooled in the nuances of printing and moved on to cursive. Today, most schools don’t concentrate on the mechanics of it but on the content. Additionally, written correspondence is becoming less frequent as emails and text messages are replacing actual notes and letters.
An easy way to encourage writing in your kids is start them with journaling at an early age. Writing down their thoughts helps them to learn effective communication and teaches them how to use the written word to express their thoughts and ideas. This will be incredibly helpful in high school as they work on essays and as they begin to construct their essays for college applications and scholarships.
It’s amazing to me how many teens do not know how to make change or use basic math tables without a calculator. They learn the basics of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division in grade school; but as time progresses, calculators begin being used and they forget how to calculate things without them.
How can you help your kids use those skills in their daily lives? Take them to the store with you and have them calculate and compare prices. Download math games and puzzlers to their phones, tablets and e-readers. As they move on into high school, help them to see the importance of math skills and formulas. Having these courses in your high school curriculum will help them as they apply to colleges and eventually move on to more advanced math in college and in their careers.
Schools now offer more than the three course disciplines: reading, writing, and arithmetic. But the foundation these subjects give students makes it easier for them to study history, science, art, music and communication. Breaking it down to these three will help parents guide their kids as they progress through school and focus on academics.
Here’s an article written by David Replogle, a University of Virginia student, for The Real College Guide. It’s a topic you should discuss with your college-bound teens because the risks and the consequences of cheating far outweigh the perceived benefits.
On my honor, I have neither given nor received aid on this examination. This is the honor code of my college, University of Virginia, and what I’m required to scribble after every test. A student convicted of violating the code can be removed from the university, and say goodbye to paid tuition. Harsh. But…students still cheat. So what’s behind this risk-taking behavior?
A few instructors and professors have actually asked. Here’s your cheat sheet to their findings on why college students cheat:
WHY? Cheating Can Be Rationalized
After realizing that nearly three-fourths of his class had cheated on a take-home exam, one instructor and his colleagues at Iowa State University College of Business conducted a 2006 study examining how students bend the rules:
Researchers found an ego-based climate in which students justify their actions through rationalizing, minimizing and even blaming. “Factors that can be used to encourage ethical behavior can also be manipulated to encourage behavior that is unethical,” the researchers determined.
Respondents blamed the professor for assigning answers that could be found online and for not assuming students would collude on the assignment. They also focused on more serious offenses of cheating and questioned whether certain actions could even be constituted as cheating.
WHY? Everybody Else is Cheating
Indeed, “everyone cheats” was the rationale of some respondents in the Iowa study. And in a TED lecture from last year, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Dan Ariely describes several experiments in which he found not “a few people who cheated a lot” but instead “a lot of people who cheat a little bit.”
Interestingly, he also found what he dubs “endemic” cheating. “If somebody from our ‘in’ group cheats, we feel it is more appropriate to behave this way,” Ariely explains. “But if it’s somebody we don’t want to associate ourselves with — from another university or another group — people cheat less.”
WHY? Cheating’s Getting a Lot Easier
Between smartphones, online courses and hundreds of Web outlets where students can download or custom-order essays, technology makes cheating more accessible than ever. One UVA English professor, who wishes to remain anonymous, says she no longer leaves the room when administering tests: “The number of students who have Internet on their cell phones makes me downright paranoid, and I just can’t trust that they won’t feel tempted to use them.”
School administrators are looking for ways to combat this trend. In a recent study published in the MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, researchers note that Troy University is exploring moves to ensure academic integrity, including subjecting students to fingerprint analysis, video surveillance and audio recording when taking online courses.
WHY? There’s So Much Pressure
As college stresses mount, it certainly can be tempting to search for an answer key online, copy a worksheet from a friend or even plagiarize a few sentences for that six-page paper that’s due. “It’s always a struggle to keep up the GPA, not just for yourself but for your parents too,” says Tiffany Morris, an Auburn University junior. “Your GPA follows you after you’re done, and I think that’s one of the greatest motivators behind kids cheating.”
The demands of college can be daunting, to say the least. “It’s always a balance. I’m living in my sorority house this year, chairing a committee and trying to cope with a double major,” says Chelsea Bradley, a junior at Virginia Polytechnic Institute. “I guess one of the biggest detractors to cheating for me is knowing that it’s not a good thing to do.”
As it turns out, moral prompts can trump the urge to cheat even under pressure. In one of Ariely’s MIT experiments, he asked participants to recall 10 books they had read in high school and others to recall the Ten Commandments. Says Ariely, “The people given the opportunity to recall the Ten Commandments did not cheat at all.”
WHY NOT? Cheating Totally Isn’t Worth It
Whatever your moral code, you stand to lose a lot by cheating. One of the most controversial decisions in the history of the UVA Honor Committee came last spring, when fourth-year student Jason Smith was found guilty of lying about an assignment in a pass/fail one-credit course. It resulted in his expulsion.
“The Jason Smith case was sobering,” says Sam Beaver, a UVA junior and former Honor Committee support officer. “It just goes to remind you that any little thing can come back to haunt you.”