How to Stand Out When Applying for College 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 strategies 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.

To learn more, you'll want my new book, Free College, on Amazon (Click Here to Buy). How to avoid needing college loans; for families of Pre-K through High School students.

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

Photo Credit: Pixabay

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 information creates 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.

You are reading from the blog, RoadtoFreeCollege.com, where we empower families with knowledge to navigate the path to higher education without the burden of excessive loans.

 

For more information, you’ll want my book, Free College, CLICK HERE . It teaches families how to help their kids become more successful in school, college, and life.

 

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases, at no additional cost to you.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

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

In Order to Follow Your Dream, You Have to Have One

Why Take Harder Classes in High School.

Why Grit Matters

Pre-Valentine’s Day Classroom Management Activity

The day before a holiday, Thanksgiving, Christmas Break, Easter Break, even a pseudo-holiday like Valentine’s Day or Halloween, is usually just this side of insane. Students don’t want to work. There’s candy everywhere. Gifts are being given. Focus is lost. Just keeping the lid on seems overwhelming. Unless you have an educationally sound, kid-approved lesson that keeps them interested, occupied and engaged. Decades ago I created such a lesson. Kids loved it. I loved it. It‘s easy, academic and fun! The bonus of this lesson, it helped with student retention in foreign language classes.

Here are the steps to follow:

1. Completely erase the entire white board. You will want the space.

2. Number the entire board from 1 to 35. Place holiday appropriate symbols, like pumpkins or hearts, around each number.

3. Put a large assortment of dry erase pens at the front of the room. The more color variety the better.

4. After school, the day before a holiday, have each student in your most advanced class go to the board and draw a culturally appropriate picture next to a number. If your class is smaller than 35, they will need to draw more than one. Be sure to explain to the class the night before they need to come up with three or four ideas for their drawings. Most students are eager, although the shy need some encouragement. After this has become a tradition in your classes, you will overhear students commenting they look forward to being in the class that gets to draw the pictures. Never let an underclassman participate in putting the pictures on the board.

5. Check each picture as they finish drawing. A few may need a little help so their drawings are clear, and some can be too obscure. You may need to edit, as students can be a bit gross at time. One Thanksgiving students drew a very vivid picture of a turkey being beheaded. I erased that one. Remember, all day students are going to see these pictures. You want to understand them, so you can give hints if necessary. My favorite was The Twilight Zone Marathon. It became a tradition in my program which was passed down each year from class to class.

6. Before the first class arrives the next morning, place a stack of German (French, Spanish, Chinese)/English dictionaries on the first desk of each row. I always had enough dictionaries that students could work in groups of two. Three does not work. Working alone is tough.

7. Students should look up what they see on the board, and write the German (French, etc.) on their own papers. Don’t let them put two student names on one paper. This never works. Trust me on this.

8. They must write the definite article and the noun. If there is an adjective, like in a drawing of black cat, they must include the adjective, with the correct ending. This allows you to preview grammar not yet taught. Students are very receptive to this, and ask for help. It’s a contest. They want to win.

 9. Buy a small bag of individually wrapped candy and give a piece to each member of the first team finished. Be sure to check the work. Sometimes they make errors, of course. Don’t be too picky. Perfection is not the goal.

 10. After the first group finishes, and as each group finishes, they will help their classmates. You’ll find they don’t give them the answers, but give them hints instead, especially in grammar.  

11. Collect work as it’s finished and the rest at the end of the period. Grading is subjective. First year classes typically have a few students who finish by the end of the class period. Most, however, finish about half of the pictures. Second year will complete more. The majority complete about two-thirds of the pictures. Most third year students finish them all, as do AP/IB/fourth year students.

12. There are several goals in this lesson. Students learn the correct way to use the dictionary. They learn the symbols and abbreviations. It removes the mind-numbing boredom a dictionary lesson will create, and replaces it with fun. 

Students learn vocabulary that’s both meaningful, and is usually more advanced than where they are in the curriculum. This they do without complaint. You are able to foreshadow grammar, so when it arrives later in the school year, you’re able to point back to what they discovered at Halloween or Thanksgiving. 

Finally, it keeps students focused, doing an academic lesson without arguing at a time where students are going nuts in other classes. I had four decades of happy “day before’s” while colleagues were losing their minds.

If you don’t teach a foreign language class, adapt this lesson to your curriculum. Remember to keep it fun and entertaining, but academic. 

You are reading from the blog, RoadtoFreeCollege.com, where we empower families with knowledge to navigate the path to higher education without the burden of excessive loans.

 

For more information, you’ll want my book, Free College, CLICK HERE . It teaches families how to help their kids become more successful in school, college, and life.

 

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases, at no additional cost to you.

Image Credit: Pixabay

Joining the Classroom Seating Debate

The photo above is not a traditional seating arrangement for a foreign language class. I looked on many sites to find an accurate photo or chart, but to no avail. It’s a pity, since a picture is worth… you know. Imagine this; you’re standing in front of the teacher’s desk which is centered in front of the classroom, facing the students.

As you look straight ahead, there’s a wide aisle. There are no student desks or obstacles there. This aisle divides the room into two sections, and makes it easier to move around the room. Half of the student desks are in rows to the right and half to the left. Each row contains three to four student desks, depending upon the size of the classroom.

Each row of student desks faces the wide, empty center aisle. This means, of course, they face each other, and not the white board. But, when students turn their heads slightly toward the board, they can see easily. They can also see the teacher as he/she moves about the room. The teacher can see the face of each student too. This is important when learning a foreign language.

Students need to see the teacher’s mouth as a new word or phrase is being formed. The teacher needs to see the mouths of the students too. This modeling and checking for understanding goes on constantly. But there is a secondary benefit. Student rows are short, and it’s easy to treat them as “teams”. This is helpful for routine tasks, like collecting work, passing back papers, practicing vocabulary, language games, etc.

Students love this configuration. They can see everything in the room much easier. This includes the teacher. Teachers love this seating arrangement because it makes classroom management and instruction much easier. When setting it up, just remember not to allow any of the seats to be pushed against a wall. Leave space around the “block” of student desks on each half of the room for better flow, visibility and classroom management.

There’s a reason this seating arrangement is used so often in foreign language classes. Visibility and being able to reach students easily is important when teaching languages. It may help in other disciplines as well. Give it a try.

You are reading from the blog, RoadtoFreeCollege.com, where we empower families with knowledge to navigate the path to higher education without the burden of excessive loans.

 

For more information, you’ll want my book, Free College, CLICK HERE . It teaches families how to help their kids become more successful in school, college, and life.

 

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases, at no additional cost to you.

Image Credit: Pixabay

Senior Post-Graduation Plans

Every January, Freshmen, Sophomores and Juniors were able to see their goal: To be a senior in my German or French class and write their post-graduation plans on the poster in front of the room for all to see. In order to do that, of course, they had to be enrolled in my class as a senior. This message was subtle, but it worked.

I started displaying this special poster every January several years ago. It is a simple thing to do. It seems insignificant, but the impact was huge. My goal was to encourage students to go to college. At first, only a few had such plans. After a few years, there was a shift. The last thirty years of my teaching career, all of my seniors went to college.

But there was a secondary benefit that I did not expect. Often I heard underclassmen saying, “I can’t wait until it's my turn.” They knew they had to be enrolled in my French or German class as a senior in order to put their names and post-graduation college plans on the poster. This helped my advanced classes grow in size.

Supplies Needed: One large white poster. If this is not available on campus, go to Smart and Final or some other restaurant supply store and buy yourself a roll of white butcher paper. It is much less expensive, and has many uses. Two fine, felt tipped pens of two different colors. I used black and blue, but any two dark contrasting colors will do. Two wide, felt tipped pens of two different colors. Pick colors that are bright, cheerful and easy to read from a distance.

Procedure: 1. Using the wide pens put the title SENIOR Post-Graduation PLANS on the top of the poster. 2. Create two columns on the poster, numbering one through the total number of seniors you have enrolled in all your classes combined. 3. Ask seniors to tell you when they have decided which college they are going to attend, and have been notified of their acceptance. 4. Once they know where they are going, have them put their first name and last initial next to a number, the name of the college or university, and what they are going to study. If their major is undecided, they write “undecided”.

Be sure to hand them the fine, felt tipped pen you want them to use, alternating colors to make it easier to read. Remind them to write bold, like John Hancock. You will have to stay on top of them, until this becomes a tradition in your program. Once it becomes the thing to do, they will remind you. This annual event helped create a positive vibe in class. Students were proud to display the fact that they reached their goals. This instilled the desire to take part in the underclass students in lower levels of French or German. As a side benefit, administration liked it as well. It’s easy. It’s fun. It encourages students to stay in German or French until they graduate and to go to college. All good.

You are reading from the blog, RoadtoFreeCollege.com, where we empower families with knowledge to navigate the path to higher education without the burden of excessive loans.

 

For more information, you’ll want my book, Free College, CLICK HERE . It teaches families how to help their kids become more successful in school, college, and life.

 

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases, at no additional cost to you.

Image Credit: Pixabay

Why Flexibility is Important to Success

New Year’s Resolutions for Language Classes

Help students start the New Year off right. Students will soon be selecting their classes for the fall semester. This lesson will encourage them to do what is best; continue their French or German study. Although some people do not keep resolutions, many do.

I always started off with an example from real life. Decades ago my dentist told me I was dehydrated and needed to drink more water. But, I don’t like the taste of water. That year I resolved to drink a full glass of water after brushing my teeth each morning. I still do. I even drink one after brushing my teeth at night.

Talk to students about how they too can improve their lives in some little way. It can be health related (sleeping ten hours each night), relationship related (be nicer to their little sister), school related (homework before electronics), or whatever. 

The goal of this lesson is to get students thinking about doing what is good for them in baby steps. You will also sneak in a little practice in vocabulary and use of the future tense.

Supplies Needed: One large white poster. If this is not available to you on campus for free, go to Smart and Final or some other restaurant supply store and buy yourself a roll of white butcher paper 

CLICK HERE (ad). It is much less expensive, and has many uses. Two fine felt tipped pens of two different colors. I used black and blue, but any two dark contrasting colors will do. Two wide, felt tipped pens of two different colors. Pick colors that are bright, cheerful and easy to read from a distance CLICK HERE (ad).

1. Using the wide pens put the title BONNES RÉSOLUTIONS DE NOUVEL AN or NEUJAHRVORSÄTZE on the top of the poster. Beneath that write the fragment: “ Je vais…” or “Ich werde…”

2. Create two columns on the poster, numbering one through the total number of students you have enrolled in all your classes combined.

3. As a homework assignment, have students write down one little thing they could do which would make their lives just a little bit better (In the language they are studying, of course). Give them an example or two from your life.

4. The next day, have them check each other’s grammar and spelling. You can check it yourself during class time, or during your prep.

5. Have students make corrections. Once complete, while the class is busy with another task, have each student put his/her resolution on the poster using a thin felt marker CLICK HERE (ad), alternating colors to improve legibility. Have them place their initials next to their resolutions.

6. Give them points for this assignment. Encourage them to write their resolutions in their school planners and read them over at the beginning of each day. Explain to them the power of “intent”. 

You are reading from the blog, RoadtoFreeCollege.com, where we empower families with knowledge to navigate the path to higher education without the burden of excessive loans.

 

For more information, you’ll want my book, Free College, CLICK HERE . It teaches families how to help their kids become more successful in school, college, and life.

 

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases, at no additional cost to you.

Image Credit: Pixabay