Archive for August, 2009
Hey students—think you’re the only ones who get a little nervous about returning to school in the fall? Here’s a news flash—teachers get the back-to-school jitters, too. Even though they are on the giving end of homework, tests, and papers, teachers have their own stress and anxiety that start way before the first day of school.
You’ve heard of stage fright, right? Well, teachers sometimes get classroom fright. It’s not easy standing in front of the room, expounding on a subject in front of students who range from alert and engaged to asleep and snoring. It’s actually similar to what stand-up comedians go through—sometime a lesson can bomb completely, but there are times that a lesson really hits home with students, and the resulting euphoria reminds teachers why they got into the profession in the first place.
When I taught middle school and high school English, I would actually have nightmares about returning to the classroom that would haunt my dreams starting as early as July. Two of them were recurring themes: there was one in which I would lose my voice as my students became increasingly boisterous during a lesson, and another in which a group of angry students ganged up on me and beat me up after being assigned homework. I woke from the latter one laughing—after all, I taught at an all-girls’ Catholic school and was fairly confident of my safety in a classroom full of plaid-uniformed adolescents–but you get the drift. I was obviously pretty nervous about starting in September.
While students are nervous about doing well, or at least worried about getting through tough subjects, teachers are worried about how to keep things fresh. You think you had it rough trying to get through Romeo and Juliet? Talk to a 20-year teaching veteran who is on her 20th time teaching the play and find out how she puts a new spin on “Wherefore art thou, Romeo?” each year. That’s why teachers with years of experience continue to go back for more coursework, with some giving up their entire summers to return to the classroom to learn about how to make their subjects more exciting for their students. And for those who choose to relax during the summer, chances are that their minds are still whirling with ideas for new lesson plans and revised curriculum guidelines.
Consider this—students and teachers have the unique ability to celebrate a new year twice. Sure, you might not be as inclined to bring out the funny hats and noisemakers for September as you are on December 31, but the point is teachers and students have the opportunity to make a new start twice in one year. Turning over a new leaf is exciting, but also daunting. Teachers know what mistakes they might have made the previous year and will be fighting hard not to make them again in the new year. Sound familiar?
If you are feeling a surge of butterflies in your stomach as you gear up for the start of another school year, remember that you are not alone. Take a breath and give it your best shot–which is exactly what your teachers will be doing—and it will be a happy new year after all.
–Barbara Bellesi
August 28th, 2009
Some bad news as high school students prepare to head back to school: SAT scores have taken a slight dip and the gap between minorities and their white and Asian-American counterparts is only increasing.
But the decrease isn’t as bad as you might fear. According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, the class of 2009 had an average score of 501 in critical reading, 493 in writing, and 515 in math. Of these three scores, only critical reading and writing experienced a drop from last year and it was only by a point each. However, it is worth noting that the reading score hasn’t been this bad since 1994 — though the SAT given then was considerably different from today’s SAT. (In the 90s, SAT scores could soar as high as 1600 and the test consisted of the oh-so-annoying analogy section, for example. The modern SAT did away with this favoring a new writing section and a score that only goes up to 800.)
Chester E. Finn Jr., the president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a think tank, had this to say about the new data, “This is a nearly unrelenting tale of woe and disappointment.”
While I don’t think the two-point drop is worth worrying about, the widening gap between different ethnicities is concerning. While white and Asian students average in the 500s in all three sections, Hispanic and black students have stayed firmly in the 400s.
Citing poorer school districts as a reason why minority students have lower scores, Gaston Caperton, president of the College Board which oversees the administering of the STAT, said, “As a country, we must do better providing students of every background access to the best education.”
– Genevieve M. Blaber
August 27th, 2009
Who says you have to shell out top dollar or leave your home state in order to receive an Ivy-League caliber education? Thanks to the power of the Internet, dozens of colleges and universities from across the country have made it possible for students to download and view lectures from some of their top professors and courses.
The best thing about these online lecture sites? They’re free! Check out a few below:
Who? Academic Earth
Where? www.academicearth.org
What? Features video lectures from the following universities: UC Berkely, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, UCLA, Yale.
Sample subjects? Physics III: Vibrations and Waves, Computational Science and Engineering I, and Aircraft Systems Engineering.
Who? Open Culture
Where? www.openculture.com
What? MP3s and videos of lecture from such schools as Columbia University, CUNY, UC Berkely, MIT, and Oxford University.
Sample subjects? Existentialism in Literature & Film, Astrobiology and Space Exploration, and Information, Law and Policy.
Who? WGBH Forum Network
Where? http://forum.wgbh.org/
What? Speeches and video lectures from professors and other movers, shakers, and top minds from around the nation.
Sample subjects? Lightness of Being: Mass, Ether, and the Unification of Forces with Prof. Frank Wilczek, Poetry and Perception with Susan Stewart, and Cultural Humanist with Joss Whedon.
And if you need to pump up on your math and science skills for upcoming SATs, make sure to check out the Khan Academy, which we first covered back last December. The founder, Salman Khan, is a Harvard MBA and has taped dozens upon dozens of YouTube videos detailing everything from the basics of algebra to the nitty-gritty of physics.
– Genevieve M. Blaber
>> Thanks to CollegeCandy for their recent coverage of Academic Earth and Open Culture.
August 26th, 2009
Today we welcome Elizabeth King as our guest blogger. Elizabeth is the author of Outsmarting the SAT. Be sure to visit her site for more tips!
Of course you don’t want your SAT scores to tank — who would? But just for fun, let’s pretend you do. Here are five ways to make it happen!
1. Take Practice Tests and Never Look at Them Again
You may like to think you’re “prepping” when you’re sitting around pecking through SAT practice tests, talking on the phone, updating your Facebook status, and watching Jimmy Fallon. In fact, you may also think you’re prepping if you sit down every couple of nights or so and do a timed section in The College Board book and score it. However, if you’re not continually reviewing mistakes you made, tracking them in a notebook, describing what you got wrong (Was it something you didn’t know? Was it the way the question was presented?), you’re not really studying.
You should have a running list of all the vocab words you’ve missed, all the grammatical constructions that have eluded you, and all the math facts and question styles that have given you trouble. Review it, love it, learn it.
2. Plan to Cram
Cramming is a not-too-distant cousin of the classic prep strategy “cutting corners.” Both involve finding as many ways as possible to alleviate the amount of effort you put into your SAT prep. No effort = lousy score. Here’s how you may be cutting the corners that will surely cut your score:
- You rely on calculator programs that claim to help you solve math problems on the test by plugging in variables. They will ultimately slow you down and they’ll be worthless on the most difficult problems, which actually challenge your critical and creative thinking skills.
- You’re ignoring the SAT all summer and planning to squeeze prep in during pre-season/back-to-school/last-minute summer reading.
- You’re pretending the flashcards can wait, thinking that you’re going to learn 2,000 new vocabulary words a week before the test.
3. Become a Sugar Addict
OK, this one is painful, but your sugar addiction is killing your ability to be in tip-top test-taking shape. You’re up! You’re down! You’re solving a math problem! Ohhhhh, you can’t remember the formula! You’re yawning! Annnnnnnnd… you bubbled the wrong answer. Test: 1. You: 0.
Seriously, though, you really need to think about your diet and your daily reliance on refined sugar. Being on a perpetual sugar high/low cycle effects your ability to sleep, your ability to stay awake, you energy levels, and your focus. And during a four-hour test? Forget it: you need real food that packs a punch, including complex carbs and protein. Your brain needs calories to work. Please feed it.
Moreover, the New York Times recently published an article saying that binging on fat (think that huge burger and fries you had last night) can have equally disastrous effects on your ability to focus. Considering a donut and a sausage muffin for breakfast before the test? Bad call.
4. Swear Off Reading Like the Plague
You swear off reading because you think it’s boring, you struggle to pay attention, or you’d prefer to be playing video games. But let’s face it: if you don’t learn to read and focus, you’re going to find yourself struggling on a test that is primarily 4 hours of reading. Plus, once you get to college, you’ll be required to do enormous amounts of reading on a weekly basis from which your profs will actually want you to learn. If you don’t read, you’ll either find yourself with a score that keeps you from getting into a school that’s worthy of your intelligence, or you’ll eek in and find yourself drowning in a college curriculum that’s caught you completely off guard.
So, start reading now for an SAT score, a college experience, heck—a life—worthy of your brilliant brain.
5. Freak Out on Test Day
Want do to poorly on any test, any time? Stress out from start to finish. Some classic freak-out inducers for SAT day:
- Go to the wrong test center.
- Lose your admissions ticket/ID.
- Forget your #2 pencils.
- Pass on breakfast and don’t bring a snack.
- Show up under the influence of some sort of illicit substance.
- Take the test for the first time on the very last test date before you apply to college to really enhance that “it’s now or never” panic.
- Be seen with your cell phone and have it confiscated.
… or worst of all…
- Open your test booklet and realize you didn’t prepare. (See Tip #1)
-Elizabeth King
August 21st, 2009
It’s become almost second nature these days; something interesting happens and you rush to update your Twitter account or Facebook Status. Maybe you even take a snapshot so all your online friends can see. But if the Southeastern Conference has its way football fans will be subject to a social network blackout during games.
Earlier this month, the Southeastern Conference — a college athletic conference that participates in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision — released a set of rules and regulations that its fans must now adhere to. In truth, the fan policy was par for the course except for this new section:
“[Ticketed fans cannot] produce or disseminate (or aid in producing or disseminating) any material or information about the event, including, but not limited to, any account, description, picture, video, audio, reproduction or other information.”
That’s right, the Southeastern Conference is afraid that by broadcasting your amateur game photos and updates across the Internet, you’re infringing upon the video rights that they recently sold to CBS and ESPN to the tune of $3 billion.
Fortunately though, the new policy is currently undergoing a few tweaks after members of the media and social media brought attention to the highly restrictive clause. While it’s understandable that the Southeastern Conference should want to protect their interests and the exclusive rights to media coverage that it sold, putting a muzzle on fans is not the way to go about it. Not only is it impractical — are they going to tackle anyone they see taking out a cellphone? — it hurts the relationship between the conference and fans.
It’s also highly indicative of how out of touch certain quarters are with social media. A fan who disseminates info about a football game is really only reaching his/her immediate social circle, and a throwaway mention of a good play — or a mediocre picture of a player that’s taken with a smartphone camera — hardly counts as competition for established sports outlets.
The Southeastern Conference clearly overreacted to what they saw as a threat posed by social media. Now that they’re rethinking their policy, I hope they grow to understand that Twitter and Facebook are not the enemy.
I’ve had my say, now tell me what you think! Was the Southeastern Conference right or wrong? Overreacting or not reacting strongly enough?
– Genevieve M. Blaber
August 19th, 2009
College loans getting to be too much? Why bother trying to pay them back when you can just sue your school?
That’s what Trina Thompson did. After taking out $70,000 worth of loans in order to earn a bachelor’s degree from Monroe College, Thompson graduated this April only to find she had no job. Four months later, and the 27-year-old is still jobless, but now she’s too busy filing a lawsuit against her alma mater to bother sending out resumes.
In her lawsuit, Thompson complains, “They have not tried hard enough to help me [get a job].”
It’s a subjective claim that experts say will likely hold no weigh in court. After all, while Monroe College may have touted its ability to get grads hired and promised to help via their Office of Career Advancement, it’s doubtful they explicitly stated how much they would help or even guaranteed that they would land every graduate a job.
You may be tempted to brush off Thompson’s lawsuit as a frivolous news item — it certainly seems to be — but the truth is that it could have far-reaching effects. Other schools may see her actions and, out of concern that unsatisfied students will launch similar lawsuits, decide not to offer career services anymore. Or, at the very least, they will heavily review the claims they’re making in regard to job placement. While it is certainly sad that Thompson is facing mounting bills without a job, we have to face a fact: Despite the recession, there are plenty of jobs out there and Thompson may just not want to settle.
Perhaps she had in mind a cushy IT job at Google after she had graduated. There’s nothing wrong with that. But there’s no reason why, while she sends out resumes and looks for a full-time position, she can’t supplement her income by working a part-time job in another industry. Instead, Thompson has chosen this attention-seeking move in a bid to somehow either win, or guilt her college into forgiving part of her loans.
It’s a lazy move. But hey, maybe she has a career in law now?
Genevieve M. Blaber
August 4th, 2009
