The blog is not being shut down but, despite our love of WordPress, we are moving to another blog publishing platform.

Our new URL is: www.findingschools.blogspot.com. So please update your bookmarks!

Visit our new site and let us know what you think of the change. Our new site has all the same great posts you’ve read here and a few upgrades we couldn’t really implement in WordPress.

Also, we’ve made a few changes to our School Choice International website so do make sure to visit us there as well.

We are also pleased to announce that we have succumbed to the Twitter bug and you can follow us at: www.twitter.com/findingschools

Our new blog site isn’t just different in the way it looks, we promise more diverse content to keep you informed on education around the world and happenings at School Choice. For example, our president, Liz Perelstein, was just named one of Fortune Magazine’s 10 Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs for 2010! Even more exciting, we hear Pippin (the School Choice mascot) will be back in the office soon after taking a brief break to further his education and spend time with his family.

We hope you’ll continue to follow our blog at the new address!

See you at Blogger.

Nowadays, finding the right tutor for your child has gotten even more complicated. Everywhere you look, tutoring services claim to offer the best and most customizable programs available, while graduate students crowd the internet offering their services in the hopes of earning a little cash on the side. Despite the intimidating nature of the search, I know you’re committed to finding some help for your child as the school year gets underway. Here are a few ideas to consider as you choose between a tutoring center and a private tutor.

Before you begin your search, try to establish some goals for you and your child regarding his or her education. It’s important to establish these goals immediately, as the nature of your goals will affect every aspect of your search. Do you want to help your child get a head start on next year’s curriculum? Are worried about your child’s falling grades? Do you simply want him or her to have some extra academic practice while you have a little free time? Regardless, be sure that you sit down with your child and talk with him or her about tutoring. Sensibly helping him or her understand the reasons why you’d like to hire a tutor will help preempt any rifts between you and your child down the line.

Now that you’ve got a list of goals, think about what each service could offer. Certainly either option has advantages and disadvantages, so the key will be figuring out how to best maximize those advantages in order to reach your goals. A tutoring center will most likely cost a lot more than a private tutor; however, because they use many tutors, they will be able to work around your schedule. With a private tutor you might be at the whims of his or her schedule, especially if he or she is in demand among other parents. A private tutor, fortunately, will be able to customize his or her tutoring to the needs of your child, while tutoring centers make use of standard verbal and math curricula in order to target and improve general skills.

Furthermore, if you value a close working relationship with your child’s educator, you might want to hire a private tutor, someone with whom you can meet and communicate as often as necessary. Although tutoring centers often don’t allow parents to interact with the tutors, they do have a center director who communicates with parents regarding the child’s progress. This isn’t to say that tutoring centers don’t work with parents well, but that you can have a greater hand in your child’s education if you go with a private tutor.

Ultimately, the decision is up to you and your child. Before you finalize the hire, make sure your child has some say in the matter. Remember, if your child isn’t happy with the situation and with his tutor, then you’ll have a bit of a struggle every time a tutoring session rolls around.

This guest post is contributed by Alisa Gilbert, who writes on the topics of bachelors degree.  She welcomes your comments at her email: alisagilbert599@gmail.com.

Researcher:

Question: “If you could magically make parents do ONE thing this coming school year to support their child, what would it be?”

Answer: Sleep!

Why?: The consequences of sleep deprivation can be harsh: depression, anxiety, inattention, conduct problems, drug and alcohol abuse and impaired cognitive functioning. Sleep deprivation also affects emotional regulation; a mother can tell when her child is tired just by how easily she gets irritated.

Read more!

Film:

Director: Davis Guggenheim (famous for “An Inconvenient Truth”)

Synopsis: follow 5 families on a quest for “a better education”

World premiere: Sundance Film Festival (January) where it won “Audience Award for Documentaries”

Premieres in NYC: TODAY (24^th September)

Warning: critics say the film leaves viewers with a sense of despair (the educational equivalent of global warming maybe?).

Read more here!

Pippin started school today with a big bang – literally.  He saw what was happening inside the glass door and went crashing into it in an effort to get through it faster.  But his bravado was short-lived.  With puppies ranging from a lab and a husky, to a Dalmatian, he soon saw that his macho demeanor didn’t stop the bigger dogs from sitting on him, biting his ears and boxing with him.  Finally put in his place, he soon went after the Pomeranian, who was more his size.

It was hard for him to concentrate on his lessons, but he was one of the few who didn’t have a toileting accident, and when we heard about some of the problems others were having with their dogs (eating their poop so they wouldn’t get in trouble for doing it inside, or biting their owners) it began to feel like we’re pretty lucky to only have the problems of our thumbtack eating, cigarette smoking mascot.

Thanks for your interest in Pippin’s educational adventures.
Have a good weekend, everyone,

Liz

Pippin is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, and he definitely fits the typical temperament of the breed, “highly affectionate, playful, extremely patient and eager to please.”

Welcome to School Choice International!

‘Successful Living Abroad,’ an 18-part on-line global lecture series based on the expatriate family book series by ExpatExpert. It’s FREE and devotes most segments to Raising Global Nomads.

About the author:

“As the Expat Expert, Robin Pascoe is well known abroad for her inspirational and informative articles, corporate presentations, and best-selling books. She is the author of five widely-used books on global living. Since 1998, her popular website has served as an international meeting place, discussion group, and source of advice and information for hundreds of thousands of expats world-wide.”

Congratulations Robin!

The personal tale of the heartache and immense growth due to a relocation is a must-read for any family considering international relocation!

Here’s a snippet ~

“You know what personal trainers say: “no pain, no gain.” Now a member of the “global mobility” world, I am almost embarrassed that my only overseas assignment was 12 years ago in a Western, English-speaking location—London—and for a predictable three years. But for me and for my family, even that relatively sheltered adventure provided an abundance of pain, out of which came infinitely more gain.”

What: Georgia Learning Outcomes of Students Studying Abroad Research Initiative (GLOSSARI)

Research Question: How does study abroad affect academic performance?

Who: Don Rubin, research director

Where: 35-institution University System of Georgia

How: 10 year research project involving students who studied abroad and control groups

Results: almost too many to list! Here’s a start…

• Improved academic performance upon returning
• Higher graduation rates
• Improved knowledge of cultural practices and context
• Improves academic performance of at-risk students

.

“I think if there’s one take-home message from this research as a whole it is that study abroad does not undermine educational outcomes, it doesn’t undermine graduation rate, it doesn’t undermine final semester GPA. It’s not a distraction.” Don Rubin

Read the whole article at InsideHigherEd.com

Here are some highlights:

• The Unbearable Whiteness of Barbie at Occidental College
• Stupidity at Occidental College
• The Joy of Garbage at Santa Clara University
• Zombies at University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa
• The Phallus at Occidental College

To learn more about these courses (for instance, the assigned readings) and to see the rest of the list, see the rest of the article!

What Do We Think?

Silliness aside, these course offerings illustrate a value that is central to the American educational system; US universities and colleges teach students to how to learn and analyze. Many of these skills can be acquired regardless of the content of the course… for instance, in The Joy of Garbage, professor Virginia Matzek teaches students to “do research and learn to work with data.” Students must analyze the difference between garbage, discard and waste. While the content for the course is garbage, the skills are priceless!

Compare this approach to systems which focus on memorization; an educational system that values information retention would never offer a class on garbage, zombies or the phallus, as the specific information learned would be relatively useless (except probably as dinner-table conversation starters… well maybe not even that!)