Earn a College Scholarship One “A” at a Time

We’ve all heard the joke, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” It can be applied to many things. It could explain how to win lots of free money for college. Great grades, especially those in hard classes, help students earn college scholarships. But just like you wouldn’t be able to eat a whole elephant all at once; it’s impossible to digest an entire chapter, unit or course in one sitting.

Students do best when they study throughout the semester and not by cramming just before a test. I learned this when studying foreign languages in high school. Since I took more than one at a time, I realized I needed a system to keep the vocabulary and grammar straight in my head. So whenever the teacher wrote something on the board, I copied it into my notebook. When I went home at night, I turned this information into a chart or list. I kept it all in a reference section I created for each language in my notebook.

I studied these pages every night, except Friday (I kept Fridays for fun). At the end of each unit, I consolidated the grammar rules and other helpful tips I had accumulated. By the end of each unit, I was ready for the exam. By the end of the semester, I was ready for the mid-term. By the end of the school year, the final exam was a snap. But I didn’t stop there. The first week of summer vacation, I went through my notebook and threw away everything except for my reference sections. I reorganized them and put them away for the next level course for each language I would be taking in the fall.

I learned three foreign languages in bite sized chunks. This strategy worked in high school, and it worked in college. For especially difficult college courses, I not only used this method to keep up, but also joined study groups. Other students were surprised at my organized notes. Many in my study groups adopted my method. It works for languages, but it also works for other subjects. Cramming doesn’t. Learning small amounts at a time leads to higher grades and more scholarships.

For more information, you'll want my new book, Free College Awareness, coming soon from Griffin Publishing and Watering Seeds. How to avoid needing college loans; available soon to families of Pre-K through High School students.

You are reading from the blog: http://www.roadtofreecollege.com

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We All Came from Somewhere

Life is Fleeting, like the Butterfly. Enjoy it.

How to Get a Teenager to Go to Bed

There’s a simple trick to making sure your teenager gets enough sleep to do well in school. Set a designated bedtime. That time should have been created when your child was much younger. So if you never established a set bedtime for your child, you’re going to have a hard time doing so now. But no one said parenting was easy.

You know what time your child’s school requires him/her to be on campus each morning. You are also aware of how long it takes to get to school, by bus, by car, by bike or walking. The next important period of time is how long it takes your child to get ready for school and have a nutritious breakfast. Count backwards until you know what time your child needs to get up in the morning.

Then look at the chart below. It shows how much sleep the average child requires by age. It’s a range, and your child may be at one end or the other. Don’t let them fool you. They need this much to function properly, no matter what they say. Students who go to school sleep deprived are drowsy in class, cannot focus, and don't end up doing as well as they could.

1-2 years = 11-14 hours

3-5 years = 10-13 hours

6-13 years = 9-11 hours

14-17 years = 8-10 hours

Now count backwards from wake up time. That’s bedtime. Not just on school days, however. All studies show the body (and the brain, of course) is healthiest and works best if there is a set sleep routine which does not vary (like on weekends). Besides the health benefits, it’s important to recognize the brain moves information from short term memory to long term memory during sleep. If a child does not receive the necessary amount of sleep, the day’s learning will go into the trash bin and be lost.

But your counting isn’t over. Your teen will protest and say he/she isn’t sleepy. That is, unless you set the stage for sleep. Count back one hour from bedtime. At my house, we called this quiet time. No electronics, (that includes phones), no loud music and no exciting activities were allowed during quiet time. Mostly, we read. Turn off some lights in the house, create twilight inside. This will signal the brain to prepare for sleep.

If your child rebels at your attempt to be a responsible parent, remember you control the money. Many of the activities teenagers enjoy cost money. If your children understand you are just requiring them to do what is going to help them be healthier, do better in school and receive more scholarship money for college, maybe they’ll cooperate without complaint. Good luck with that. It’s far easier to start when they are in diapers by establishing a bedtime routine in your house. 


For more information, you'll want my new book, Free College Awareness, coming soon from Griffin Publishing and Watering Seeds. How to avoid needing college loans; available soon to families of Pre-K through High School students.

You are reading from the blog: http://www.roadtofreecollege.com

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Be Careful Where You Go to College

Many students and families are unaware of the possible consequences of students going away to college. There are many benefits to studying away from home, fewer distractions, becoming more independent, etc. There are also some negative factors to consider, more expense, lack of family support, etc. But one long term negative is rarely discussed.

Students often end up living where they went to college after they graduate. Local businesses set up job fairs on campus, and graduates are offered jobs. New graduates settle into life in the community where they spent four or five years studying and found a job. They don’t want to leave.

This can be heartbreaking and/or financially devastating for aging parents. Families with several children often see them living in different states, far from “home”. New graduates don’t have the funds to fly back to visit family on holidays. It is an expensive matter for parents to travel all over the country to see their scattered offspring and later grandchildren. 

Grandkids are less likely to spend quality time with grandparents who don’t live nearby. This has a negative effect on grandparents and grandchildren alike. Distance may make the heart grow fonder, but it also keeps loved ones apart, which can be painful.

Although attending college where the cost is lowest or scholarships are offered is practical, after graduation plans should be discussed in advance of applying to colleges far away from home. I have advised my own grandchildren to make sure they like the area where they plan to attend college, because they may end up living there. Lucky for me, they want to go to colleges in my state. That’s not too lucky for their parents, however, since they don’t live here. And so it goes.

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How to Set Huge Goals

Actions Speak Louder than Words

Publish Student Work Online

The school district where I worked gave each teacher a website. After designing mine, I realized it was great not only for making sure students and parents knew classroom procedures and assignments, but also for showcasing student work.

Each week I picked one writing assignment to use for this purpose. The length ranged from one paragraph for first year French students to much longer compositions for more advanced classes. After students finished their work, they exchanged papers for proofreading. They took the work home that night for editing. The next day, each row exchanged papers and read them all. They selected the top work for each row. Then, each side of the room picked the best from these and submitted it to me.

This meant I was given two essays. I picked the one to publish on the class web site. But before it was placed there, I proofread it myself and allowed the student to make further corrections. Then the composition was emailed to me. When I placed it on our site, I identified it only by the student’s initials, plus the class section, (such as V. T. French 2, Period 3). This allowed the student to be “published” while his/her identity was kept confidential from the general public. Of course, the students in the class knew whose work it was, giving the student bragging rights.

Not only was this a terrific way to encourage quality work, it also lifted up class morale to see one of their papers published on the Internet. It was wonderful PR for the language program as well. People could see the level of work students were producing and also watched as it improved throughout the school year.


For more information, you'll want my new book, Free College Awareness, coming soon from Griffin Publishing and Watering Seeds. How to avoid needing college loans; available soon to families of Pre-K through High School students.

You are reading from the blog: http://www.roadtofreecollege.com

Photo Credit: Pixabay

How to Be Happy No Matter Your Circumstances

How to Earn Lots of Scholarship Money

Don’t Do Anything that Doesn’t Require a College Education

These are words I learned from my brilliant Master Teacher, Frau Lila Thom. She told me if I completed a task, it would be done, but that would be the only benefit. If a student did the task, it would also be finished, but he/she would have learned something from the doing. I worked hard to remember this, until it became a habit.

If you keep this in mind, students are able to learn much more than just the curriculum in the lesson plan. In addition, you’ll have more time to do things that really do require a college education. I taught mostly high school foreign languages, German and French. But I also taught English from time to time. In all subjects, I had several “jobs” for students. They collected work, passed it back once graded (which I did), sorted classroom supplies, filed papers (some students loved this task), wrote the date, Verb of the Day and Quote of the Day on the white board each morning and erased the board at the end of the day.

A recurrent activity in my classes was short quizzes on new vocabulary and verb conjugations. We had them three or four times each week. After a student monitor passed out the paper (made by tearing recycled paper into fourths), I gave the quiz. Students exchanged papers in an established routine, and we checked them together. I never had a problem with cheating on these quizzes. Perhaps this is because I walked around the room as we graded them. It took three or four minutes of class time, but would have taken me hours to do on my own. I learned to use my time doing what required my skills and education, and let students do what did not.

They also checked each other’s student notebooks. I put a rubric on the board, and students exchanged folders (but not with the person who graded theirs). This made it unnecessary for me to carry 175+ folders home each quarter. It also helped students to see what others students did with their papers. They learned how to better organize their own work this way. This benefit would not have been derived if I had graded the folders.

After a while, you get a feel for what students can handle. The hardest thing for a teacher to do is to learn to delegate. If you do everything, you are depriving them of the lessons they would learn if they did some of the tasks for you. You are not lazy if students complete some jobs. You are being wise. Students learn responsibility and become self-confident when you trust them.  Use your college education when it’s needed, allow students to show you they are capable when it is not.


For more information, you'll want my new book, Free College Awareness, coming soon from Griffin Publishing and Watering Seeds. How to avoid needing college loans; available soon to families of Pre-K through High School students.

You are reading from the blog: http://www.roadtofreecollege.com

Photo Credit: Google Images

Best Way for Students to Start the Day

Show Students, Don't Just Tell Them

How to Stand Out When Applying for Scholarships

Only 20% of U.S. students are enrolled in foreign language classes at the present time. In four states, California, Texas, Florida and New York, more than 600K students are studying a second language. In just eight, Washington, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Massachusetts and Georgia, between 300K and 450K are enrolled. This is alarming for many reasons.

For students who want to earn more scholarship money for college, however, it’s good news. In order to rise above the other students applying for college and/or college scholarships, applicants need to do more and become more. The following statistics create a simple way to make this happen.

The first year your school allows you to take a foreign language class sign up. Pick a language that's not spoken in your home. This will show college evaluators that you are not taking the “easy way”. Continue studying this language through high school. In your sophomore year add another foreign language to your class schedule. If you speak a second language at home, this is a good time to make it official. You might even be able to test into a higher level, rather than starting at first year.

The first foreign language you study should be one that could help you in your future career. Do some research to find out which language offered by your school is most likely to be required in college for someone with your career goals. The second language (if not a home language) could be another related to your area of interest or perhaps a hobby. If you love food, then add French. If you enjoy science, study German. But remember to continue studying both languages until you have completed at least three years (at the high school level) in each.

Few students of the 66% of high school graduates who try for college do this. Most take the minimum suggested. If you take a few required classes in summer school, you’ll have plenty of room for extra language courses in your class schedule each year. This is an easy way to get noticed by scholarship committees and earn more free cash for college.


For more information, you'll want my new book, Free College Awareness, coming soon from Griffin Publishing and Watering Seeds. It shows how to avoid needing college loans; and is available soon to families of Pre-K through High School students.

You are reading from the blog: http://www.roadtofreecollege.com

Photo Credit: Pixabay

How to Help Students Prep for College