My Boarding School Blog

In these trying times of economic downfall parents have cringed on the thought of boarding schools for their children. Thought of as the school for kids of the rich and famous, boarding schools have become a prestige that only caters to the higher class of the society. You can rub elbows with daughters of prime ministers or sons of the royal family in a high class boarding school.

Many would wonder why some not so rich parents choose to send their kids to boarding school even if this will cost them both an arm and a leg. Perhaps there is more to it than what money can afford.

There are a couple of things to consider when choosing a boarding school that is right for your child. Some things to consider are the following:

Class Size – most boarding schools have smaller classes which enable teachers to fully focus on each student’s strengths and weaknesses. In a smaller class students are encouraged to participate and this foster a bond among classmates. In a public school most classes are cramped and student teacher relationship is not very evident which cause some students to lag behind.

Faculty – Boarding schools take pride in their faculty and staff. They employ the best educators and professors who hold MBAs from prestigious universities.

Renowned facilities – perhaps the most known fact about boarding schools is their state of the art facilities. Cozy dormitories, sports facilities equipped for leisure activities. Vast school grounds where one can get attuned with nature and get motivated to study. Some boarding schools even have in house cafes and restaurants that serve delicacies and delicious cuisines. Truly you get what you pay for.

Academic Curriculum – obviously the very most important consideration among parents and students alike is the competitive academic curriculum that boarding schools offer. They are regarded as ideal preparation for college.

Counseling – Boarding schools offer intensive college counseling in preparation to college application and requirements. Guidance and in depth advise on how to get into the most prestigious universities and colleges will be given.

With all these in mind you can weigh your options on whether you would pursue to enroll in boarding school. You can check The Association of Boarding Schools for further resources on advantages of boarding schools. It is always good to be informed to help you with choices that can determine your child’s success in getting into a good college especially in these trying times.

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American College Testing, most commonly known as ACT is a test designed to measure your capability to take on higher learning. It is characterized as aptitude tests used for screening purposes by most colleges and universities in the United States. The ACT gauges your knowledge and understanding in four areas namely English, Math, Reading and Science. Most colleges will require a good ACT score for admission to their institution.

The goal of taking an ACT exam is to assess a student’s readiness for college. Although ACT scores are sometimes used by the state to measure a school’s performance making it compulsory to all graduating students including those who does not plan on pursuing a college education. The student is tested on four subjects and there is an optional test which focuses on writing.

Scores will range from 1 being the lowest and 36 the highest in every subject. The English exam totals to 75 questions and students are given 45 minutes to complete the section. Questions are divided into two categories, 40 questions pertaining to usage and grammar of the English language while the remaining 35 questions are geared towards the rhetorical skills of the students. Mathematics comprises of 60 questions and given a total of 60 minutes to finish the section. The mathematics section is divided among Elementary Algebra (24 questions), Intermediate Algebra (18 questions) and combination of Trigonometry and Geometry (18 questions). Reading is allotted 35 minutes for 40 questions. Sciences and Social Studies cover 20 questions, and the remaining 20 evolves around Arts and Literature. Science covers 40 questions with only 35 minutes to answer.

What scores does a student need in order to gain admission to a prestigious college or university may depend on the standards of a particular educational institution. The highest score for ACT is 36 which can be very hard to achieve. Most universities consider an ACT score of 27 as satisfactory but other factors come into play such as:

• The national rank of other students who took the test showing where a student ranks among other test takers. An ACT score of 27 will not be sufficient enough if there are many of students who got the same average out of the whole population who took the exam.
• Scores on individual subjects are also evaluated to determine a student’s areas of improvement and which subjects they are more likely to excel in.
• High school records and school extracurricular activities.

ACT scores can also help in qualification for a scholarship grant that can be hard to achieve especially if there are many qualified applicants. ACT score is not the only ticket you’ll need to get into a good college you will still have to work on everything else to be rightfully given the chance to pursue higher education in a prestigious and renowned college or university.

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Reading is an important part of our day to day lives. It is unfortunate that most children nowadays seldom read books at all because their time has been filled with video games like xbox and media gadgets like Ipad. The Internet also has replaced paperback novels and instead of reading rich texts most people opt to just watch videos online. If parents had instilled the importance of reading at a young age then kids would grow up to be more knowledgeable and imaginative. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that teaching children to read at an early age, even a day after they are born will stimulate their brain and enhance its development in language skills furthermore this strengthens the bond between parent and child.

Having a good foundation on your reading skills will also be a benefit in school as you will be able to understand and interpret the ideas and lessons from textbooks that are used in school curriculums. Reading does not only entail the ability to grasp the meaning of the words in the text but to connect the ideas from the words to what we already know.

Reading with comprehension allows the reader to relate the words in the text to what he knows, feels and thinks of at that particular moment. We read with a purpose in mind whether is for gaining knowledge, looking for an answer or to be entertained. And while we read, we think actively at the same time participating in the exchange of information that is happening when we read; we take in the words and relate it to our previous knowledge. In short, we make sense of what we read and not just plain decoding of text.

Comprehension is not mastered in one sitting, it is developed over time and we learn by doing the process over and over again until we have so much knowledge that reading with comprehension becomes an easy thing for us. Why do we need to read? How important is it for my daily life activities? Is it necessary? The answer to all these questions is—–YES. Here is why.

Reading will increase our literacy and with it we can live comfortably. Being able to read the street signs, directions, prices and public notifications makes our life easier. We can live independently and manage to go around places knowing that you will be able to find your way back.

Reading can help us nourish our language and help us communicate better. In a world that is slowly becoming smaller and smaller because of globalization and increases in population, people are becoming more sociable and interdependent. To facilitate peace and understanding, being able to enrich our vocabulary for use in communication is very important.

So take time to pick up a book that interests you and develop a skill which can be of use for you for a lifetime. Help other kids to learn how to read to become a better individual and to be equipped with knowledge useful for life.

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When you see leaders like Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, or Martin Luther King delivering their speeches, you just can’t help but be amazed of their public speaking skills and begin to ask yourself, “What is it about them that make people want to listen?” Is it because of their authority? In most cases, these people have developed the ability to connect with people. The ability to involve people, make them feel important. And this is all being done through the use of their body language and communication skills. This is what attracts attention. Their confidence, positive mental attitude, and even their fashion sense make a significant impact as well.

The Britannica encyclopedia defined oratory as the rationale and the practice of persuasive public speaking. In order to be good at this, public speaking should be honed to students early on in their education. The earlier one begins the better. That’s why this was incorporated by the US Department of Education in our school and college’s curriculum.

More often than not, students feel nervous and anxious when they are asked to deliver a speech in front of the class. This causes the kids not to create the required impact necessary in speeches. If you are one of these students who get jittery and nervous while delivering a speech, and are looking for some tips on how to deliver a speech smoothly, below are some public speaking tips that can certainly help you out.

Tips on How to Be an Effective Public Speaker

Know Your Content

It does not matter how good a speaker you are, if the content of your speech is not organized or poorly researched, being confident and all will not make any difference at all.

Make sure that you exactly know the message you want to communicate through your speech. It also pays to do a little research on what kind of audience you are going to delivery the speech to. With all these information in hand, you should be able to write and organize your content properly.

Remember that speeches follow a logical sequence. One message should lead to another and so on. Also, make sure that you pause before jumping from one topic to another.

Spice Up Your Content

Once you have taken care of the basic material, you need to add some flavor to it by including some stories or funny experiences, to make your speech more interesting. All these, of course, should be aligned with the point you are trying to make in your speech. You can ask help from friends or family if you feel you lack in this area.

Practice, practice, practice

One of the most critical steps on how to effectively carry out a speech is, practice. Practice your speech as many times as you can. You can practice by standing up in front of a mirror. Observe your body language while carrying out your speech, and then make the necessary adjustments.

Become Familiar with the place

It’s very common for students to become very nervous when speaking in front of a large audience. What you can do to help you relax is by going to the hall where you have to deliver the speech. Arrive at the place one hour before your speech. This will help you get familiarized with the surroundings. If possible, rehearse the entire speech along with your visual aids, if you are going to use any. This can certainly put you at ease and reduce your anxiety.

Voice Modulation

Voice modulation is also very critical. All kinds of audiences find a monotonous voice boring. Make sure to put some stress into your speech especially on the important points. If you included a personal experience that you would like to share in your speech, pause first before you tell it. On the entirety, make sure that your voice has clarity and audibility. Deliver it loudly, and at the same time, slowly.

Hide Your Anxiety

Lastly and probably the most important tip is to keep your nervousness and anxiety hidden. Being nervous during a public speaking engagement is natural. Even the great speakers that you feel are very confident, may actually just be faking their confidence! The audience cannot tell the difference if whether you are truly confident or if you’re just faking it. So fake it! Put a smile on your face and deliver!

We hope that this will better equip you the next time you are asked by your teacher or professor to come up on the stage to deliver a speech. Joining organizations like Toastmasters, can greatly improve your skills. In the end, it is practice, exposure, patience and your ability to stay relaxed, are keys to effective public speaking. If you do all these, soon you will find the audience cheering and applauding your name. Good Luck!

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Standardized tests are examinations in which all students answer the same set of questions usually in a multiple choice format with only one correct answer per question. There are many debates arguing whether standardized tests can truly measure a student’s academic performance. Some argues that answering a series of questions by choosing the correct answer among the options does not cultivate creative thinking or create anything.

The reliability of standardized tests can be 100% reliable if the results are the same when taken twice. But for all tests there is what we call a measurement error. A measurement error is the variation of an individual’s score due to different testing conditions or the taker’s mental or overall state at the time the test was taken. Because of measurement error two individuals with different scores on a test today might get the same scores on the test given the following day.

Standardized tests cannot really measure difference between two individuals as they rarely cover different factors of an individual’s intellect furthermore a student’s overall academic excellence is not brought by just excellence in cognitive ability rather it is a combination of cognitive, analytical, creativity and skills. Students learn when they can actively extract meaning out of their actions then connecting this knowledge to something that they are trying to learn. Most standardized tests only concentrate on narrow skills and memorization on facts.

Listed below are the most common standardized achievement tests administered to students today.

Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT)

A standardized test for college applicants published by the College Board, a non-profit organization in the United States is one of the most common tests high school students are preparing for.

American College Testing (ACT)

Is a standardized test for college admissions to screen applicants for higher education in the US produced by the ACT Inc. It is a multiple choice examinations covering subject areas in English, Math, Reading Comprehension and Science.

Standardized testing is faced with a lot of loop holes in fairly evaluating our student’s academic performance. A much better way to evaluate student achievement should be done by integrating teacher observation, student work and performance assessment. In these factors a student’s overall hard work is evaluated fairly. This is a good reference for companies that offer standardized tests so they can progress from the ancient testing method that we use today.

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