Dr. Jill Biden on Good News for Higher Education

WH.gov: Dr. Jill Biden on Good News for Higher Education

Dr. Jill Biden, lifelong educator and wife of Vice President Joe Biden, gives parents some good news about how the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act makes college more affordable. Learn more at http://www.whitehouse.gov/StudentAid .

Can B-school Students Learn From Cartoons?

Can B-school Students Learn From Cartoons? By Diana Middleton, Wall Street Journal

A look at some of the latest news and research--quirky and serious--coming from the halls of business schools around the globe: A graphic novel for students, podcasts for potential applicants and research that shows bosses lie more than their subordinates.

The Case for Saturday School

The Case for Saturday School by Chester E. Finn Jr., Wall Street Journal

Kids in China attend school 41 days a year more than students in the U.S. Now, schools across the country are cutting back to four-day weeks. Chester E. Finn Jr. on how to build a smarter education system.

• Vote: What impact will a four-day school week have?

When Success Follows College Rejection

When Success Follows College Rejection By SUE SHELLENBARGER, Wall Street Journal

Some of the biggest names—Warren Buffett, Ted Turner and Nobel laureate Harold Varmus—were once rejected by the school of their dreams.

• Vote: Did you get in to your first choice?
• Work & Family Mailbox
• The Juggle: Learning How to Handle Rejection

New Help for College Borrowers

New Help for College Borrowers By KAREN BLUMENTHAL, Wall Street Journal

Buried in the health-care bill is some modest help for parents borrowing to pay college costs. But the legislation doesn't address current and former students who are wrestling with education debt.

India OKs Foreign University Proposal

India OKs Foreign University Proposal By ARLENE CHANG, Wall Street Journal

India's cabinet approved a proposal to allow foreign universities to set up branches here, potentially opening a huge market to international educational institutions.

Indian Students Compete for Plum Colleges

Indian Students Compete for Plum Colleges By JIM YARDLEY, NYTimes

As India’s middle class has steadily grown, so has the intensity of the competition for the limited slots in the country’s system of higher education.

• Video: Exam Season

Ada Lovelace Day!

Get your Ada Lovelace t-shirt @ Spreadshirt shop.

Ada Lovelace was one of the world’s first computer programmers, and one of the first people to see computers as more than just a machine for doing sums. She wrote programmes for Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, a general-purpose computing machine, despite the fact that it was never built. She also wrote the very first description of a computer and of software. Read more at FindingAda or Wikipedia. (via FindingAda and BoingBoing)

thisibelieve.org: Classical Music Stars of the 1950s

thisibelieve.org: Classical Music Stars of the 1950s

For the original version of This I Believe, host Edward R. Murrow invited a number of classical music artists to share their beliefs. Their essays reach beyond their profession to explore their thoughts about the world of the 1950s. Click the links below to hear what these musicians had to say.

• The Mountain Disappears
• That Little, Inner Voice
• The Reason For Life
• The High Price Of Money
• Uniting Into A Proud National Family

"College coach" canned after bummer SATs

"College coach" canned after bummer SATs By Con Chapman

Parents in an affluent Boston suburb are furious as rejections from top-notch universities roll in

This post originally appeared on Con Chapman's Open Salon blog. It is a work of satire.

HEALTHCARE PASSES! Student Loan Overhaul Tied To Health Care Bill

The House passes the healthcare reform bill,
219-212, and sends it to President Obama to sign into law!


HuffingtonPost: Student Loan Overhaul Tied To Health Care Bill

The Envelope, Please: Six Applicants for the Class of 2014 Tell Their Own Stories

Clockwise from top left, Michael Greshko, Brian C. Bose, Erik Bates, Omosefe Aiyevbomwan, Brett Ferdinand and Anne Paik

The Envelope, Please: Six Applicants for the Class of 2014 Tell Their Own Stories
By JACQUES STEINBERG, NYTimes Blog: the Choice

The Choice, is introducing a new season of “The Envelope, Please,” an occasional online series. Over the next two months, six high school seniors from across the country will share — in print and in video — as they receive word on whether they have been accepted, rejected or placed on the waiting list at their first-choice colleges:

• Sleep-Deprived and Fighting ‘a Terrible Case of Senioritis’By OMOSEFE AIYEVBOMWAN


• With the Lure of Generous Aid, Oklahoma State Beckons By ERIK BATES


• A Yes From Yale, but Waiting to Hear From Others By MICHAEL GRESHKO


• Inspired by His Mother ‘To Push Forward’ By BRIAN C. BOSE


• A Missed Deadline Provides a Costly Lesson By BRETT FERDINAND


• Awash in Nervous Anticipation By ANNE PAIK

Jane McGonigal on how games can make the world a better place

TED: Jane McGonigal on how games can make the world a better place

Games like World of Warcraft give players the means to save worlds, and incentive to learn the habits of heroes. What if we could harness this gamer power to solve real-world problems? Jane McGonigal says we can, and explains how.

Monster Mash-Up

Monster Mash-Up: Sketchbook by Ward Sutton, NYTimes

“Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith, captivated readers and unleashed a whole new genre. Grahame-Smith’s follow-up, “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter,” hit bookstores this month, to be followed this spring by “Jane Slayre” and “Android Karenina.” As publishers run out of 19th-century classics to ransack, can these more contemporary titles be far behind?

(very cool graphic!)

The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival

The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF) is the nation’s largest showcase for new Asian American and Asian films, annually presenting approximately 120 works in San Francisco, Berkeley and San Jose. Since 1982, the SFIAAFF has been an important launching point for Asian American independent filmmakers as well as a vital source for new Asian cinema.

SFIAAFF is presented by The Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) , a non-profit organization dedicated to presenting stories that convey the richness and diversity of Asian American experiences to the broadest audience possible. We do this by funding, producing, distributing and exhibiting works in film, television and digital media.

Teenage Girls Explore Their Lives Through a Camera’s Eye

Teenage Girls Explore Their Lives Through a Camera’s Eye By COREY KILGANNON, NYTimes

Through a program at the Studio Museum in Harlem, a dozen new photographers are documenting growing up in New York City.

• Slide Show: First Exposures

National School Standards, at Last

National School Standards, at Last NYTimes Editorial
States must adopt rigorous standards that lay out clear goals for what children across the country should learn year to year.

• Panel Proposes Single Standard for All Schools (March 10, 2010)
• Many Nations Passing U.S. in Education, Expert Says (March 9, 2010)
• Obama to Propose New Reading and Math Standards (February 22, 2010)
• Test Experts Urge States To Screen for Cheating (February 13, 2010)

Obama Calls for Sweeping Overhaul in Education Law

WH.gov: Weekly Address: Education for a More Competitive America & Better Future

The President discusses his blueprint for an updated Elementary and Secondary Education Act to overhaul No Child Left Behind, the latest step from his Administration to encourage change and success in Americas schools at the local level.

Obama Calls for Sweeping Overhaul in Education Law By SAM DILLON, NYTimes

President Obama spoke to students in October at a school in Silver Spring, Md., that was named a “Blue Ribbon” school under the law in 2005. The Obama administration is seeking changes to the Bush-era No Child Left Behind law and proposing to eliminate provisions that have labeled one in three schools as failing.

• The Caucus: Education Overhaul
• Times Topics: No Child Left Behind Act

HAPPY PI DAY!

Pi by Xaero0 video info

SAT I March 2010

Week (0r Two) Before the Test

• Gather all your completed SAT Practice Tests into ONE pile.
• Review a completed test every evening before the Night Before the SAT Test.
• Look-up any difficult vocabulary.
• Note how you used POE (Process of Elimination) to get the right answers.
• Analyze your wrong answers, and adjust your POE.
• Re-read NYTimes The Choice Blog: For Those Withholding SAT Scores, Advice on Completing the Common Application By Jacques Steinberg

The Night Before the Test

• Don't cram for the SAT!
• Follow you normal Friday Night Homework routine.
• Go to bed early.

Day of the Test:

• Wake up fifteen minutes early to focus your thoughts.
• Eat breakfast
• Bring Student ID
• Bring pencils, calculators, ear plugs, water, energy bar, etc.
• Arrive early--use the spare time to encourage yourself and your friends to do your best.

During the Test

• Stand up and stretch!

Essay:

• Read the Prompt
• Read the Quote
• Read the Prompt again.
• Think for 1 minute (don't write).
• Brainstorm. Focus, focus, focus your examples. Organize. (2 minutes)
• Write (20 min)
• Intro Paragraph:
• Thesis plus preview of your examples
• 3 body paragraphs. Topic sentence plus 3-4 sentences of concrete detail.
• Transition between paragraphs.
• Conclusion.
• Fix errors and upgrade vocabulary (2 min).
  

Writing Section

• The Fist of No Error (see sidebar)

Critical Reading

• POE (process of elimination)
• Avoid answers that are too extreme (narrow, general, always/never, etc)

Sentence Completion--1 Blank

• Cover the answers.
• Read the sentence.
• Note trigger words (ex: conjunctions, prefixes, modifiers, negation) which change the meaning of the sentence.
• Read the sentence again, substituting your own word in the blank.
• Match your choice with the supplied answer choices.
• Not sure of the meaning? Look at the root--is similar the root similar to the root of a word that you know?
• Use POE to target the correct answer.
• Yes, the word you don't know can be the correct choice.

Sentence Completion--2 Blanks

• Cover the answers.
• Read the sentence.
• Note trigger words (ex: conjunctions, prefixes, modifiers, negation) which change the meaning of the sentence.
• Read the sentence again, substituting your own word in the blank.
• Uncover the first column of words. Match them with your choice in the first blank (two answers should be retained, the other three should be dismissed).
• Not sure of the meaning? Look at the root--is similar the root similar to the root of a word that you know?
• Uncover the second column of words. Match them with your choice in the second blank (the target choices in the 1st blank are usually synonyms of each other; and the second blank is usually opposite of each other; OR the target choices in the 1st blank are antonyms of each other and the second blank is are synonyms).
• Remember: there is only one correct answer!).

Short Parassage (new)

• Read the questions first.
• The short passage questions are usually about the tone, main idea, or inference.
• There is usually one dual short passage set per SAT test.
• Each of the four questions compare/contrast both passages.
• Draw a quick Venn Diagram to organize the info.
• The dual passages may not contradict each other (i.e. +/-), but one passage may be general, and the other passage may be more specific. Remember WHAT the topic is about, and the AUDIENCE.

Long Passage

• Read the blurb (who? what? where? when?)
• Skim & underline for information (Proper Nouns, Unusual Punctuation, Lists)
• Mark-up the passage as per the Questions (Beware of stealth EXCEPT and Inference Questions)
• Read the passage critically (why? how?)
• Answer the questions via POE

Dual Passages

Dual Passage--Intro

• Draw a Venn Diagram
• Read the blurb (who? what? where? when? audience? type of text?)
• Fill out the Venn Diagram

Dual Passage--Passage 1

• Skim & underline the First Passage for information (Proper Nouns, Unusual Punctuation, Lists)
• Mark-up the passage as per the First Passage Questions (Beware of stealth EXCEPT and Inference Questions)
• Read the passage critically (why? how?)
• Answer First Passage questions ONLY via POE
• Skip all Second Passage and Dual Passage Questions

Dual Passage--Passage 2

• Skim & underline the Second Passage for information (Proper Nouns, Unusual Punctuation, Lists)
• Mark-up the passage as per the Second Passage Questions (Beware of stealth EXCEPT and Inference Questions)Read the passage critically (why? how?)
• Answer Passage 2 questions ONLY via POE
• Skip all Dual Passage Questions

Dual Passage--Dual Passage Questions

• Update Venn Diagram (tone +/-) (note if there is a switch in tone/argument)
• Answer Dual Passage questions via POE
• Finish!

After the Test

• Don't just go home--celebrate with a special lunch or snack.
• Go on to your next task!

GOOD LUCK!

Risk and Opportunity for Women in 21st-Century

Happy International Women's Day!

Risk and Opportunity for Women in 21st-Century By KATRIN BENNHOLD, NYTimes

If progress has been dramatic since the Nobel physicist Marie Curie was barred from France’s science academy a century ago, it has been slower than in other parts of society.

Colleges and Schools Try to Do More With Less

Colleges and Schools Try to Do More With Less By CHLOE VELTMAN, NYTimes

Even though belt-tightening measures have put tremendous strain on teachers and students, schools are continuing to produce remarkable creative works.

College Degrees Without Going to Class

College Degrees Without Going to Class NYTimes, Room for Debate Blog by the NYTimes editors

Are online courses as educationally effective as face-to-face instruction?

Responses by:

• Greg von Lehmen, provost, University of Maryland University College
• Robert Zemsky, education professor, University of Pennsylvania
• Anya Kamenetz, author, “DIY U”
• Mark Bauerlein, English professor, Emory University
• Karen Swan, education professor, University of Illinois Springfield
• Ronald G. Ehrenberg, economist, Cornell University

Open for Questions: Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act

WH.gov: Open for Questions: Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act

White House Domestic Policy Director Melody Barnes and Education Secretary Arne Duncan take your questions about how new legislation can help make college more affordable for all students. March 2, 2010.

National Grammar Day!

National Grammar Day by KATHERINE SCHULTEN, NYTimes

5 easy ways to use The Times to teach and learn grammar.

National Grammar Day with GrammarGirl.

Language is something to be celebrated, and March 4 is the perfect day to do it. It's not only a date, it's an imperative: March forth on March 4 to speak well, write well, and help others do the same!

Graduates Fault Advice of Guidance Counselors

Graduates Fault Advice of Guidance Counselors By JACQUES STEINBERG, NYTimes

Most young adults who go on to college found guidance counselors’ tips about career and college inadequate and impersonal, a study finds.

• Post a Comment on The Choice Blog
• A Veteran High School Counselor Responds to a Report Critical of the Profession
  March 5, 2010, 3:50 PM

Helping America Become a Grad Nation

WH.gov: Helping America Become a Grad Nation

President Obama is joined by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and General Colin Powell as he announces plans to help reduce dropout rates and prepare students for college and careers. March 1, 2010.

March is National Women's History Month

The National Women's History Project (NWHP) teaches people about the important activites of women. NWHP sponsors Women's History Month. This year's theme is Writing Women Back into History .