Going to the Dogs for Exam Stress Relief
By Deborah Williams
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An article, ‘’Montana State University Brings in Stress Dogs for Finals,” on The Huffington Post website describes the “Paws to de-Stress” program at Montana State University this past semester. The program, which was started by Jacqueline Frank, a commons assistant at the Renne Library, brings dogs to the campus during exam week to help students take a break from the stress of studying. Frank explains, “Stress levels rise around finals time on college campuses every year, and there’s research that shows that using animals in a therapy setting has multiple benefits, including reduced stress and reduced blood pressure.
The dogs were brought in by the Intermountain Therapy Animals organization for two-hours on each of the exam days that week. Students could stop by to pet the dogs during those times as a break from studying.
This program has been tried at other colleges. View this news story about the same program at Washington State University:
Topics: College Preparation and Advice | No Comments »
Help Your Child Avoid Senioritis
By Deborah Williams
Parents of high school seniors who have been accepted into college may be breathing a sigh of relief about the decision, but they also may notice that their senior has “shut down” with an acute case of “senioritis”! Senioritis is the belief that one has, for all intents and purposes, completed all the requirements for high school graduation and does not need to work hard now that the end of the senior year is here. Parents, however, may find the article, “7 Reasons to Avoid Senioritis,” on The New York Times education blog, The Choice, helpful in convincing their seniors not to slack off. Blog writer, Tanya Abrams, offers the following reasons that seniors should keep working even if it’s late in the year:
- Your Admission Offer May Be Rescinded. Remind your teen of the sentence in the acceptance letter that states, “that admission is conditional upon the student completing high school with the same academic and personal achievement on which the offer was based.”
- Your College Is Watching You. Many students mistakenly believe that the only the first semester of the senior year counts. This is not true because many colleges require that midterm and final grades be sent to the college admissions office.
- If You Were on Honor Roll When You Got In, You May Be Expected to Stay There. Colleges look at your transcript and accept students whose grades indicate that they are a good fit for their college. If honor roll students “cannot maintain the same level of success during [the] senior year, [they] cast doubt on their ability to succeed in college.”
- You May Have to Explain Why You Slacked Off. Seniors who slack off and/or who engage in some kind of misbehavior will receive a warning letter, but some may have to explain the reasons and hope that their acceptance is not rescinded.
- You May Have to Start Your College Search Over Again. Not only should seniors maintain the grades that got them accepted, they also must not engage in inappropriate behaviors, such as plagiarism, cheating, drunken misbehavior, or arrest.
- Senior Year Should Help You Transition to College. The end of high school is the best time to show that you are mature enough to handle the balance between academic pursuits and other commitments because that will be needed in college.
- Admission Officers Would Rather Not Target You. If a warning letter or request for an explanation is requested, you have become a target. That is not what the admissions officer wants; he or she knows that rescinding admission impacts a student’s life and future.
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Better Parenting Means Less Bullying
By Deborah Williams
One might assume that children who are the recipients of negative parenting—abuse, neglect, and overprotection—would be more likely to become bullies, but Science Daily reports in the article, “Poor parenting—Including Overprotection—Increases Bullying Risk,” that children exposed to negative parenting are more likely to experience childhood bullying by their peers. Research led by the University of Warwick “found the effects of poor parenting were stronger for children who are both a victim and perpetrator of bulling (bully-victims) than children who were solely victims.”
Theauthors of the study, Professor Dieter Wolke, Dr. Suzet Lereya, and Dr. Muthanna Samara—call “for anti-bullying intervention programs to go beyond schools to focus on positive parenting within families and to start before children enter school.”
Addressing the bullying crisis has tremendous benefits. Professor Wolke reminds us that, “We know that victims and bully-victims are more likely to develop physical health problems, suffer from anxiety and depression and are also at increased risk of self-harm and suicide.” Understanding the parent’s role in our anti-bullying programs is crucial to decreasing bullying.
Topics: Child Development, Parenting | No Comments »
Embracing Singapore Math in America
By Deborah Williams
The superior performance of math students from Singapore has been reported repeatedly over the last few years. One can argue that their methods have yielded consistent, outstanding performances on global assessments for several years. It should be no surprise, then, that some school districts across the country have begun implementing “Singapore Math” into their math programs. Jake Remaly, writer for the Madison Patch, reports that the Madison, New Jersey elementary schools is the most recent district to announce that it will start the program next school year.
The school board adopted the textbook, Math in Focus: Singapore Math, and approved plans to start the program next year with students in grades K – 2. Students in grades 3 – 5 will begin using the program the following year. The board’s decision came about after considering Common Core standards, the new standardized tests, and teacher and parent input. The program purports to “’feature visual representations and modeling strategies to solve complex programs’ and helps students understand how and why math works.”
View this video featuring Dr. Ban Har Yeap, assistant professor of mathematics and mathematics education at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, on why Singapore leads the world in math [8:06]:
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School Apps for Every School
By Deborah Williams
Parents who were looking for a way to keep up with their five children’s multitude of extra-curricular activities created a new company that allows schools “create custom mobile apps to engage with their communities.” Auli Akanegbu reports on EdTech’s Focus on K-12 that their company, SchoolInfoApp, began as TeamInfoApp, a mobile application focused on school athletics; however, feedback from schools indicated that they were more interested in creating apps to highlight news and events beyond the athletics department.” That change in the company’s mission evolved into SchoolInfoApp. The company receives information from each school with the things that they want on the school’s app. After processing that information, the company will create a custom app within 30 to 60 days.
Schools can create a custom app from a range of features that include the following:
- event calendars
- interactive maps
- picture and document galleries
- push notifications
- social-media integration
- contacts directories
- news feeds
The schools that have launched their own app report better financial status. Some report cost savings. Dr. Stenette Byrd, principal of Smithfield (Virginia) High School says that the document feature saved his school $2,000 on the need to print handbooks. Some schools even make money through in-app sponsorships, such as banner ads, from local businesses.
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Teachers and Professors at Odds About College Readiness
By Deborah Williams
A guest post by Education Week’s Caralee Adams on its School Research blog describes the disconnect between high school teachers and college professors: They differ on how ready America’s high school students are for college. Amazingly, the difference is very wide. According to the 2012 ACT National Curriculum survey results, “89 percent of high school teachers report their students are “well” or “very well” prepared for college-level work in the subject they teach, while just 26 percent of college instructors say incoming students are “well” or “very well” prepared for entry-level courses.” For the most part, the outcomes were similar to those in 2009.
The survey’s outcomes suggest a number of things that educators should consider:
- State and local efforts to bring high schools up to new college- and career-readiness standards have a ways to go, and familiarity with the changes ahead varies widely among educators.
- Teacher responses on the survey indicate that they will be open to efforts to make them more successful in the classroom.
- ACT recommends greater collaboration between K-12 and postsecondary educators on curriculum and academic expectations.
- There is a need for better computer technology in classrooms to digital assessments aligned with higher standards.
- Despite limited resources, “states and schools may need to consider channeling limited resources toward ensuring students efficient access to computer technology to prepare for the types of innovative assessment that are likely to accompany implementation of college-and career-ready standards.”
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Parents Complain About Research Based Program
By Deborah Williams
Parents at Warstler Elementary School in Plain Township, Ohio are complaining about the school’s implementation of mindfulness programs in their school. An article by Carolyn Gregoire in The Huffington Post reports that despite the growing body of research that supports the incorporation of mindfulness activities in schools, parents at Warstler don’t like it.
Mindfulness, or self-regulation, is essential for children to be successful in school, and research bears out the fact that schoolwide mindfulness programs improve behavior and test scores. It also reduced symptoms of depression among adolescents because it has been found to be “effective in lowering levels of the stress hormone cortisol, improving emotional stability and sleep quality, boosting compassion and self-knowledge and supporting weight-loss goals. The Beacon Journal reports that the Warstler mindfulness program “involves breathing exercises, meditation and stretching, with the general aim of improving the students’ focus and fostering greater emotional stability.”
The parents, however, are contending that the roots of mindfulness are grounded in Buddhism. Although Buddhism includes meditation, it “does not contain elements of prayer or worship.” Some parents believe that it is “a form of indoctrination into the spiritual beliefs of the Hindu faith.” The mindfulness program at the school has been discontinued.
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Minimizing Distractions During Virtual Classes
By Deborah Williams
The research done by Harvard professor, Daniel Schacter, and postdoctoral fellow in psychology, Karl Szpunar, found that instructors of online courses may diminish distractions “by interspersing online lectures with short tests, student mind-wandering decreased by half, note-taking tripled, and overall retention of the material improved.” They feel that these quizzes give students a reason to pay attention. Surprisingly, the researchers also found that having more testing “reduce[d] testing anxiety among students, and ease[d] their fears that the lecture material would be very challenging.”
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Digital Textbooks Inform Teachers About Student Engagement
By Deborah Williams
Technology is advancing so quickly that it is changing almost overnight—or so it seems. David Streitfeld, New York Times writer, reports in his article that new technology helps college professors know how much, if at all, their students are reading their textbooks.
CourseSmart textbooks have been piloted by some professors at Texas A&M, and it has provided useful data. These digital textbooks allow professors to measure their students’ “engagement index.” The technology can track whether or not students are “highlight[ing] significant passages, not bothering to take notes—or simply not opening the book at all.” Professors compared students with a high engagement index with those who don’t, and, not surprisingly, those with a high engagement index performed better in class.
Students don’t know that their engagement index is available for their professors, but professors use a student’s data to show underperforming students how their lack of engagement affects their performance in that class.
This is just one of the ways that digital textbooks are changing how students can engage with their content. Learn more about how this new technology is creating a ways to use textbooks:
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Help in Deciphering Financial Aid
By Deborah Williams
Navigating through the financial aid maze can be a challenge for high school seniors whose hopes for a college education is dependent upon the assistance that they can receive from a financial aid award. Caralee Adams, writer for Education Week’s higher education blog College Bound, reminds readers in her article, “Helping High School Seniors Sort Financial-Aid Offers,” that the types of financial aid are many. Financial aid can be awarded as “grants, scholarships, loans, work-study—some based on merit, others on need.” Some are awarded one time only while others are renewable if their academic performance is acceptable or if they can show that they still are in need.
Parents still need to come up with additional funding because these often don’t cover all costs. Justin Draeger, president of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, says, “Families should look at the total cost of attendance, including tuition, fees, estimates for living expenses, and transportation and see if it lines up with their budget.” After the scholarships and grants amounts have been subtracted, parents will need to decide how to fund the net amount, and if the financial aid is for one time only or is renewable, there will be more questions the next year.
Two new tools are now available to help families make good decisions about financial aid. The Financial Aid Shopping Sheet is a new tool from the U. S. Department of Education that many colleges are using now. It allows users to compare financial aid offers. Families also can compare offers for free online with College Abacus . It requires users to create a password-protected account. Additionally, comparisons of financial-aid awards can be compared on the College Board’s Big Future website.
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