8 Time Management Skills for College Students

Within the first few days of starting college, many students quickly learn that managing their time is one of the most challenging -- and difficult -- aspects of being in school. With so much to do and keep track of, strong time management skills can make all the difference.

1. Get -- and use -- a calendar. It can be a paper calendar. It can be your cell phone. It can be a PDA. No matter what kind it is, though, make sure you have one.

2. Write down everything. Write down everything in one place. (Having multiple calendars just gives you more to do amidst an already tight schedule.) Schedule when you plan to sleep, when you are going to do your laundry, when you're going to call your parents. The crazier your schedule gets, the more important this becomes.

3. Schedule time to relax. Don't forget to schedule in time to relax and breathe. Just because your calendar goes from 7:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. doesn't mean you can.

4. Keep trying new systems. If your cell phone calendar isn't big enough, buy a paper one. If your paper one keeps getting torn, try a PDA. If you have too many things written down each day, try color-coding to help simplify. Very few college students make it through their programs without some kind of calendaring system; keep trying until you find one that works for you.

5. Allow for flexibility. Things inevitably come up that you weren't expecting. You may not have known that your roommate's birthday is this week, and you certainly don't want to miss the celebrations! Leave room in your calendar so that you can move things around a little when needed.

6. Plan ahead. Do you have a large research paper due the last week of the semester? Work backward in your calendar and figure out how much time you need to write it, how much time you'll need to research it, and how much time you'll need to pick your topic. If you think you'll need six weeks for the entire project, work backward from the due date and schedule the time into your calendar before it's too late.

7. Plan for the unexpected. Sure, you just might be able to pull off two papers and a presentation during midterms week. But what happens if you catch the flu the night you're supposed to be pulling the all-nighter? Expect the unexpected so you don't have to spend more unplanned time trying to fix your mistakes.

8. Schedule rewards in. Your midterms week is a nightmare, but it will all be over Friday by 2:30. Schedule a fun afternoon and a nice dinner out with some friends; your brain will need it, and you can relax knowing that you're not supposed to be doing anything else.

The “Best” Articles About Education — 2008

As I did in last year’s The “Best” Articles About Education — 2007, I’ve put quotes around the word “Best” in the title of this list since I’m sure there are many, many articles about education I have not read and posted about this year. I’m particularly in
terested in hearing people’s suggestions for additions to this list.

Here are my rankings for the five “best” articles about education this year:

Number five is an article I heard about from Middle Web‘s newsletter called “Of Particular Interest.” Quoting John Norton, Middleweb’s editor: “A recent “practice guide” from the federal National Center for Education Research distills what its panel of scholarly authors believe are seven of the best research-based instructional strategies teachers can use to improve student learning…Don’t be put off by the lengthy scholarly introduction — skim and skip to page 4.” It’s well worth looking-at. I’d also encourage you read an excellent summary of the report that was written by Karen Janowski.

Number four is (are?) actually three articles — all written by my favorite writer on classroom management issues, Marvin Marshall. The three are:

* “About The Question ‘Why?’” where he shares how pointless it is to ask that question of a student about his/her behavior, and how critical it is for us to consider that same question when we reflect on, and explain about, the content we are teaching.

* “No Child Left Behind and Evaluating Teachers.”

* Working With Discouraged Adolescents

Number three is A Broader, Bolder Approach To Education. It’s an excellent statement that focuses on the importance of working on inequalities outside the schoolhouse door, such as economics and health, to promote academic achievement, as well as calling for a broader interpretation of what “academic achievement” is. You can also access summaries of important research backing-up the statement.

Number two is by one of my favorite writers, Paul Krugman, called Poverty Is Poison. In it he highlights, among many things, a new study that shows poverty’s negative effect on the brain development of children. It particularly impairs language development and memory.

And, now, my pick for the number one article about education in 2008 is… Whose Problem is Poverty? by Richard Rothstein, the former education writer for The New York Times. He gives a good summary in this most recent article of one of his main themes — that a lot of the reasons behind lower academic achievement are non-school related, and that if our society is serious about helping students improve we need to deal with issues like the lack of affordable housing and adequate health care for low-income families.

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous “The Best…” lists and also consider from : edublog.com

Good grades pay off literally

Teachers have long said that success is its own reward. But these days, some students are finding that good grades can bring them cash and luxury gifts.

In at least a dozen states this school year, students who bring home top marks can expect more than just gratitude. Examples:

•Baltimore schools chief Andres Alonso last week promised to spend more than $935,000 to give high school students as much as $110 each to improve their scores on state graduation exams.

•In New York City, about 9,000 fourth- and seventh-graders in 60 schools are eligible to win as much as $500 for improving their scores on the city's English and math tests, given throughout the school year.

•In suburban Atlanta, a pair of schools last week kicked off a program that will pay 8th- and 11th-grade students $8 an hour for a 15-week "Learn & Earn" after-school study program (the federal minimum wage is currently $5.85).

In most cases, the efforts are funded privately through corporate or philanthropic donors.

The most ambitious experiment began in September, when seven states — Arkansas, Alabama, Connecticut, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Virginia and Washington — won spots in an Exxon/Mobil-funded program that, in most cases, pays students $100 for each passing grade on advanced placement (AP) college-prep exams.

It's an effort to get low-income and minority students interested in the courses, says Tommie Sue Anthony, president of the Arkansas Advanced Initiative for Math and Science. "We still have students who are not sure of the value, who are not willing to take the courses," she says. "Probably the incentives will make a difference with those students."

Gregg Fleisher of the National Math and Science Initiative, which runs the seven-state program, says the effort is modeled on a program adopted by Dallas in the 1995-96 school year that saw AP course-taking jump substantially. That program is now statewide.

While many educators would blanch at offering kids cash for good grades, Fleisher and others say the idea is simple: "It's an incentive to get them to basically make the right decision and choose a more rigorous class," he says. "This teaches them that if they work at something very hard and have a lot of support, they can do something they didn't think they could do."

An analysis of the Texas program last month by Cornell economist C. Kirabo Jackson found that it linked to a 30% rise in the number of students with high SAT and ACT scores and an 8% rise in college-going students.

But a few critics say the payouts amount to little more than bribes, undermining kids' motivation to do high-quality work when they're not being paid.

"It's a strategy that helps only around the edges," says Thomas Toch of the Education Sector, a Washington think tank. Most students in AP classes "are already internally motivated, and the opportunity to earn college credits for passing AP tests is a bigger motivator than small cash awards."

Bob Schaeffer of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, a watchdog group, is more blunt: "Bribing kids for higher test scores — or paying teachers bounties for their students' work — is similar to giving them steroids," he says. "Short-term performance might improve but the long-term effects can be very damaging."

At Northeast Health Science Magnet High School in Macon, Ga., principal Sam Scavella says he's trying lots of different incentives for doing the right thing. If students attend Saturday study sessions, they qualify for an iPod, movie tickets or a dinner for two, among other prizes.

Jessie Humphrey, a sophomore at Northeast, is one of 25 students who made the school's All-A Honor Roll. That entitled her to a slot in a special drawing Thursday. When it was over, she walked away with a 26-inch, flat-screen television set, which now sits in her room.

An honor roll student most years, Jessie, 15, says she usually pulls As and Bs, but this semester, "I got lucky and got all As."

Scavella says the incentives seem to be making a difference — only 10 students made the All-A Honor Roll this time last year.

"We have to reward the behavior we expect," he says. "I don't see it as a way of paying students to do well — it's a reward. If you do well in school, then life will pay you well. If you do well in school , you can afford a lifestyle that will pay you well."

The two-year New York City experiment, begun last September, essentially pays students monthly to do their best on skills tests. If it seems like an economist's dream, that's because it's the brainchild of wunderkind Harvard economist Roland Fryer, who also serves as the schools' chief equality officer. He came up with the idea while trying to figure out how to make school "tangible" for disadvantaged kids with few successful role models. "I just thought that giving them some short-term incentives to do what's in their long-term best interests would be a good way to go."

While teachers talk about success, he says, it's not enough to tell a kid that, in the long term, hard work will pay off. "We're asking them to look down a path that they have probably never seen anyone go down … and then to have the wisdom and the fortitude to wait for their reward."from : www. usatoday.com

The “Best” Articles About Education — 2008

As I did in last year’s The “Best” Articles About Education — 2007, I’ve put quotes around the word “Best” in the title of this list since I’m sure there are many, many articles about education I have not read and posted about this year. I’m particularly interested in hearing people’s suggestions for additions to this list.

Here are my rankings for the five “best” articles about education this year:

Number five is an article I heard about from Middle Web‘s newsletter called “Of Particular Interest.” Quoting John Norton, Middleweb’s editor: “A recent “practice guide” from the federal National Center for Education Research distills what its panel of scholarly authors believe are seven of the best research-based instructional strategies teachers can use to improve student learning…Don’t be put off by the lengthy scholarly introduction — skim and skip to page 4.” It’s well worth looking-at. I’d also encourage you read an excellent summary of the report that was written by Karen Janowski.

Number four is (are?) actually three articles — all written by my favorite writer on classroom management issues, Marvin Marshall. The three are:

* “About The Question ‘Why?’” where he shares how pointless it is to ask that question of a student about his/her behavior, and how critical it is for us to consider that same question when we reflect on, and explain about, the content we are teaching.

* “No Child Left Behind and Evaluating Teachers.”

* Working With Discouraged Adolescents

Number three is A Broader, Bolder Approach To Education. It’s an excellent statement that focuses on the importance of working on inequalities outside the schoolhouse door, such as economics and health, to promote academic achievement, as well as calling for a broader interpretation of what “academic achievement” is. You can also access summaries of important research backing-up the statement.

Number two is by one of my favorite writers, Paul Krugman, called Poverty Is Poison. In it he highlights, among many things, a new study that shows poverty’s negative effect on the brain development of children. It particularly impairs language development and memory.

And, now, my pick for the number one article about education in 2008 is… Whose Problem is Poverty? by Richard Rothstein, the former education writer for The New York Times. He gives a good summary in this most recent article of one of his main themes — that a lot of the reasons behind lower academic achievement are non-school related, and that if our society is serious about helping students improve we need to deal with issues like the lack of affordable housing and adequate health care for low-income families.

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous “The Best…” lists and also consider from : edublog.com

Time Management Tips for College Students

What Are Some Time Management Tips for College Students?
Many schools' time management techniques have similar goals. They include the elimination of cramming for tests, reduction of anxiety pertaining to schoolwork and other responsibilities, the gaining of time for other activities and motivation.

When developing time management techniques in college, it's important that students understand their goals as they pertain to time and have the ability to develop and follow a schedule. Without these factors, it's hard for students to understand the motivation behind their time management.

Often, on time management sites provided by schools, students may download a scheduler, a weekly, monthly and yearly planner and worksheets pertaining to the distribution of one's tasks.

The University of Dartmouth (www.dartmouth.edu) includes a downloadable tip sheet which include time management skills. Some pertain to the following:
- Find ways to build on your success
- Keep long term goals in mind
- Plan each day
- Notice when you're being unproductive
- Break old and negative habits
- Concentrate effort on tasks that provide long term benefit
- Ask for advice
Penn State University offers a time management page that helps students better understand their time management goals. Tips according to Penn State University include the following:
- Be specific when setting goals
- Review lecture notes everyday
- Schedule fixed blocks of time first
- Make use of time before and after class
- Schedule breaks
- Set clear start and stop times

Other time management tips include the following:
- Learn material the first time around
- Have confidence
- Learn what works for you
- Study difficult subjects first
- Work with classmates

Professors Use Technology to Fight Student Cheating

Teachers, long behind in the cheating arms race, may finally be catching up. They are using new technologies, including text-matching software, webcams, and biometric equipment, as well as cunning stratagems such as Web "honey pots," virtual students, and cheat-proof tests. The result: It appears to be getting at least a little harder for students to plagiarize from websites, text-message answers to friends during tests, or get others to do their homework.

The percentage of students who admit to cheating, which had risen from about 20 percent in the mid-1900s to top 50 percent in 2002, has dropped about 10 percentage points, according to one of the nation's leading cheating experts, Donald McCabe of Rutgers. Some of that recent decline may be because of students redefining "cheating" to exclude the increasingly common practice of cutting and pasting material from the Internet, McCabe believes. But the tide may also be turning, at least in part, because of anticheating technology blitzes like those at the University of Central Florida, where many business students now take their tests on cheat-resistant computers in a new, supersecure testing center. UCF students report much less cheating than students at other campuses. "We've scared the living daylights out of them," explains Taylor Ellis, associate dean for undergraduate programs and technology at UCF's college of business.

Professors at the forefront of the cheating war say they have had to scramble to catch up to youngsters who have proved brilliant at using new technology to get A's without studying. There are hundreds of websites that offer custom-written papers. YouTube has dozens of student-made videos teaching how, for example, to scan a Coke bottle label into a computer, replace the nutrition information with physics notes, and paste the label back onto a bottle to create a cheat aid unlikely to be caught by teachers. And students say it is easy to load notes into cellphones or programmable calculators and sneak peeks at the devices during tests. Some say they've used their devices' infrared, Bluetooth, or texting capabilities to share information with other test takers.

A recent Ohio State University graduate said he often walked into tests with three calculators in his backpack so that he could turn one in if the professor tried to crack down by asking students to turn in their calculators. He said other students hid powerful calculators in the bodies of old, basic ones that are permitted in exams.

"Cheating is super easy now. College classes are way too big, and you can pull out anything on your desk," he says. And it is widespread, he says, because students are busy, hungry for good grades, and often skeptical of the lifetime benefit of learning what many professors put on tests. The student, who worked nearly full-time during school, said it took him only an hour or so to program his calculator with notes. That saved him as much as 20 hours of study time. "I don't really consider what I did cheating...because in the real world I would be using that device...I see that as just being more efficient."

Of course, most schools are still trying to fight cheating by old-fashioned methods, such as appealing to students' sense of fairness. And, in fact, studies show that well-designed and enforced honor codes can make big dents in improper behavior.

Unfortunately, student pledges are not a cure-all. So, instructors and school administrators say they have little choice but to join the technological arms race. The instructors are hoping to encourage students to do their own original work by using:

Antiplagiarism software: Teachers say they are catching a surprising number of plagiarizers by simply Googling unattributed phrases they find in students' papers. Often, they say, they find passages lifted improperly from Wikipedia, free essay sites, or other Web pages.

Several new software companies are giving instructors even more firepower to fight cheating. Turnitin.com, SafeAssign, and a few other new companies have built up databases of millions of school papers, books, articles, and Web pages that they compare against homework. Millions of students around the world now turn in their homework electronically to the companies so that the programs can highlight parts that match other sources. Teachers sign on to the companies' sites to look at the results and decide how much similarity is too much.from :www.usnews.com