My Boarding School Blog

Do you ever feel too tired and weak to lift that math book and start to study for today’s homework? Have a big exam the next day but you feel too lazy to review your notes? It’s not surprising to feel this way as most students undergo the same situation in school. How can we help these students to increase their motivation to study? Here are some tips on how to boost your child’s self motivation in studying.

Set a Goal – It is always good to set a goal for things that we do because it reminds us the reason behind doing these things. Surely doing your homework everyday will become a routine and eventually increases boredom. Set a goal that is realistic that your child will be able to achieve in a given period. For example, if your child has completed a week’s worth of homework he can play video games on weekends. Start with small goals and when a child grows the goals will evolve into something that is long term and serious. If a student graduates with honors from secondary school she will be able to apply for higher education in prestigious schools. If this is envisioned by the child he will be able to dream big and strive to fulfill that dream.

Plan – Setting a goal will be useless if you don’t lay out the ways on how you’ll do it. Discuss a sound plan on how to achieve the goals. Try to make alternative plans in case the first one fails, it’s always good to have a back up plan.

Optimize – Surround yourself with people with whom you share the same goals. This will help you keep your plans at work and your eye on the goal avoiding distractions that can cause you delay or to procrastinate.

Reward every once in a while – Reward doesn’t have to always be at the end of the road To cultivate self motivation teach your kids to reward themselves once in a while when they have reached significant milestones in their plan towards the goal.

The hardest part of studying is getting started. We always think of ways and reasons to procrastinate and set important tasks aside. One way of getting motivated will be to start right away, by doing this you have already accomplished half of the task now finishing it is where your will power and determination will be put to work.

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Ever wonder where famous celebrities and prominent leaders graduated from. What were they like when they were still in school? Are they already a promising star in high school or were they a late bloomer in college. It’s interesting to know how it’s like for prominent leaders such as President Obama or famous Hollywood actors such as Adam Sandler or George Clooney to picture how they study and be a normal student living the campus life.

Most of you would be surprised to know that not all Hollywood stars are school drop-outs. A beautiful face is not enough to ease your way to stardom as some of the most famous celebrity faces known for their glamour and good looks also has a college degree at hand. And besides good looks don’t last forever.

Among these pretty faces is Jodie Foster who enrolled in Yale and took Literature. She graduated with a B.A. degree and was awarded magna cum laude. The voluptuous catwoman, Halle Berry studied broadcast journalism in Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, Ohio. Friends star Courtney Cox graduated at Mount Vernon College finishing interior design and architecture.

Legally blonde movie actress, Reese Witherspoon, attended a university just like the character she played but not to study law rather to study English Literature at Stanford University. Behind the beautiful smiles of Natalie Portman lies an intelligent woman who graduated with a degree in Psychology from Harvard University. Alias star, Jennifer Garner attended Denison University studying chemistry and drama. Late night anchor comedian Conan O’Brien is an alumna of Harvard University and even in college he was already immersed in the comedy industry by being a contributing writer for the Harvard Lampoon humor magazine. Last but not the list on the Hollywood A-list would be the bombshell, Brooke Shields who proved that beauty is beyond skin deep one must have something to hold on to after the beauty fades away. She studied French literature and graduated with honors.

The most powerful and influential leaders of our time has endured endless nights in college too. United States President Obama graduated from Columbia University with Political Science as his major and took Law in Harvard Law School. He enjoyed many firsts as he became the first black president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review. Former president Bill Clinton was even on a scholarship in University of Oxford before he went to get his J.D. in Yale Law School. Warren Buffett, a successful American investor attended University of Nebraska-Lincoln where he received his diploma in just three years. He then applied to Harvard Business School but was rejected because he was too young. He finished his graduate studies in Columbia University.

Equally famous are sports athletes and many of the world renowned players we have are college graduates. To name a few, we have Tiger Woods who went to Stanford University but was not able to get his degree. Shaquille O’Neal got his degree from Louisiana State University and Michael Jordan who went to University of Carolina which he took up Geography. He left the university to enter into NBA but returned to finish his degree.

Many will contest that these famous stars and icons could have had made it big on their own using their talents, looks and skills alone but what most of them did was to finish their education and get that degree even though it looks as though they don’t need it anymore. Most people think that power, fame and success can replace the knowledge gained from school but we are mistaken, a good foundation will make a person standing tall when all the fame, beauty and opportunities fade away.

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Who would have thought that mobile smart phones can be used as an educational tool? That these electronic gadgets do not only serve as a medium of communication to connect with friends and family but a helpful tool for research as well.

Educational Institutions are using technology to aid in enhancing student academic performance. From the development of the Internet which opened everyone to the information highway to these mobile gadgets you can take with you anywhere you go, the possibilities are endless.

The University of Leeds is giving away iPhones to its 500 medical students to access online text books. Smart phones are used to disseminate information like memos, notices and student schedules. Applications can be downloaded to smart phones anywhere there is a wi-fi internet connection. Useful applications range from Dictionaries, Language-specific dictionaries and medical encyclopedias. It is a vast collection of libraries at your fingertips.

Apple Microsoft leads in the development of mobile applications with their iPhone, iPad and iTouch. Their apps store offers a wide range of useful apps for students. Basically their gadgets offer access to the Internet when connected via wi-fi. Through the Internet you can download apps that can feed updates into your mobile device various information on news, health, entertainment and other stuff. Another feature of these smart phones is their one click access to your social networking sites. Getting connected is useful when you are studying in groups, working on research projects and consulting term papers with your professors.

Email helps students a lot in exchanging information and documents necessary for school. Almost all institutions have websites where online transactions can be made easily and hassle free. Imagine how technology has made the lives of our students easier so that they may focus on their academic courses and subjects all the more.

The University of Leeds has revolutionized its way of teaching and helping their young students embrace technology and learn to live with it making good use of it. The iPhones provided for the medical students should be returned once they graduate and if in case it is has been lost or stolen relative information stored in them can be remotely erased in cases where patient files and cases are stored and should be kept confidential.

Freshmen students at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston make use of the mobile applications to find make their way around campus. As new students they are often lost in between classes and they find themselves having a hard time locating buildings and classrooms. An application that serves as a map of the campus helps them to find their way to their next class in a breeze.

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The craze about social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are taking teenagers by the storm. Students are hyped with these sites as well, it’s even available on mobile cell phones to keep you connected virtually everywhere you go. If you live in the Stone Age and happen to raise an eyebrow reading this then let me tell you a bit about social networking.

Social Networking sites are web based applications that enables people to connect with other people by means of “befriending” them or adding them to your network. It is easy to get started. Sign up to an account with your email address, build your profile then search people you know on the Internet and invite them to sign up to the site as well. As you go along your list of friends grow and additional plugins and customization will enable you to receive updates about your friends from time to time on changes on their profile. At first you will be overwhelmed with all the things happening simultaneously on the site like the shout outs, comments, message boards and tags. As you get familiar around the site you’ll find yourself easily navigating through your friends’ profile pages and adding your own comments as well.

Social networks have gain popularity recently due to its easy to use features and social activity. It has made connecting to people whom you have lost contact with easy to track down and reach out to. Long lost high school buddies, relatives from all over the state and other countries are easily communicated by just a click of a button.

It is likely that many people can get addicted to using these social networking sites. Unfortunately among those highly affected by its widespread popularity are college students. Why? College students are almost always connected to the Internet as their studies and subjects require them to be, especially in cases of online education. These sites lure college students into engaging in social activity, gaining online friends which aren’t as real as your inner circle all the more exciting to play or have fun with. In your Facebook account you can be whatever you want to be, you post pictures of your best self and post shout outs of current events happening in your life. The problem most psychologists see in college students who get hooked with this virtual world is that there is a tendency of detachment to reality.

Social media addiction may well be a problem we will face if the craze of social networking goes on as students spend more time updating their Facebook profile that reading text books. If school work is ignored and students are glued into the computer monitor to get online on Facebook; post a tweet in Twitter or upload pictures in MySpace. Spending more than 2 hours a day on these social networking sites is bothersome especially if you can’t do your tasks and assignments anymore. Depriving yourself of sleep just to get on these social networking sites screams that you may already have a problem. Stop and assess yourself. Although getting in touch and staying connected is but all second nature to us humans we must know our limitations and boundaries in spending valuable time engaging in these social media, there are lots more important things to do that  needs our full attention like our studies and extra curricular activities. Moderation is the key just like in most things we enjoy. Set limits and boundaries to enable a healthy balance in life.

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The curriculum is an authoritative prescription for the course of study of a school or system of schools. In their traditional form, such prescriptions set out the content to be covered at a grade level or in a course or sequences of courses, along with recommended or prescribed methods of teaching. In their contemporary form such prescriptions have been re-presented as national and state standards, outlining outcomes to be achieved by schools without prescribing the specific bodies of content to be covered or methods of teaching to be used.

However, most scholars who evaluate these curricula do not believe that direct the work of schools in significant ways. Curricula-as-documents are more often than not developed after the fact, and are based on existing practices of teachers or a simple listing of the content of textbooks being used. Further, many teachers are not familiar with the curriculum their district has mandated.

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