A S P E C I A L S E C T I O N O F T H E S C A R S DA L E I N Q U I R E R - J A N UA RY 1 3 , 2 0 1 7
FINDING THE BEST COLLEGE MATCH
When matchmaking makes the grade: which college environment is ‘right’ for you?
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By TRACI DUTTON LUDWIG
Technology for students is key to the future By MAJA TARATETA
erything in the school environment is going the way of technology,” said Rob Kissner, president of The Digital Arts Experience in White Plains, which offers STEM and computer programming classes to children and adults. “It’s really important to get into good habits,” when it comes to students using technology, advised Jonathan Hill, dean of the Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems at Pace University in Pleasantville. “It can be a creative and learning tool or it can be a binge-watching consumption tool. To be a successful learner, you have to know how to use it with some level of discipline.” When it comes to talking about students and technology, many experts, including Kissner, begin the conversation with one word: Google. Google has a free suite of productivity tools — including Classroom, Gmail, Drive and Docs — that more and more schools in Westchester are utilizing, he said. He noted
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hen grandparents — and even, gulp, parents — turn to 12-year-olds to recover lost computer login passwords, amend smartphone settings and set up photosharing accounts, you know that today’s students, whatever their ages, are more technologically savvy than ever. While schools assign more work that requires the ability to effectively use and master software, apps and other gadgets, and while even textbooks, testing and learning go digital, the question remains: Amid the cacophony of available technology, what software, apps and gadgets are the most important for today’s students to know how to use? Experts say the answer lies in technology that promotes time management and organization ability and teaches coding. The future, it seems, can’t be denied. “Ev-
t’s one of the most transitional times in students’ and parents’ lives. The shift from high school to college ushers in an important rite of passage, which, for many, is the first major taste of independent life. Just like real life, the admissions process is full of all the excitement and stress that comes from new challenges and uncertainties. First, it’s the application deadlines. Then, it’s the agonizing wait for acceptance decisions. Finally, it’s the student’s choice about which offer to accept, a process that is not always as clear as one might think. With so much pressure about getting into the “best” school, students often forget the subjectivity of the prize. They can easily lose sight of the fact that college selection is a very personal process. Furthermore, selecting the “right” school — emphasis on “right” for one’s individual strengths, interests and personality — is much more important than snagging a “yes” from “that” university with the impressive reputation. Matching a student with a truly right school supports the richest college experiences and the greatest student success. According to Michael P. Kiers, a college counselor with 14 years’ experience at Iona Prep, “College environment is not something students looking at schools really think about. They believe the name is the biggest factor in the selection process. Every student in Westchester knows the 20 schools into which people want to get admitted, but with over 3,000 four-year schools out there, students need to search for their match. By match, I believe the school should fit with the student academically, socially and financially. Having all three of these will allow the student to succeed … A good match supports success because the student will feel more comfortable when attending the school. He or she will have more confidence in the classroom, feel socially accepted, and not be indebted for life due to a large loan bill after graduation.” With nearly 5,000 institutions of higher education in the United States, and approximately 26,000 worldwide, there is truly a perfect match for everyone. Good advice emphasizes the importance of students engaging in opportunities and applying themselves
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Recommended education reading list… for parents By MARY LEGRAND
INSIDE 2A Education News & Notes 3A Your child’s 1st teacher: you! 4A G etting a handle on college applications 5A Eliminating your child’s stress 7A Learning values through youth sports 7A C apture your teen’s authentic self with senior portraits 7A Latest advancements in college happening digitally 8A Summertime offers unique education opportunities
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arents have an abundance of important roles in the lives of their children, including clothing and feeding them, of course. But being a force behind the success of their education is one of those roles as well, and many parents take a proactive approach in that regard, educating themselves on aspects of their children’s learning options. Luckily, there is a wide range of books available on the topic and the list could go on for miles. A number of books that are mentioned in a variety of online sources, including the Dec. 11, 2016 issue of The New York Times, might be of interest to parents committed to furthering the education of their children. Quite a few of these books appear in lists from other sources as well, and they’re mentioned here in alphabetical order based on author’s name. Jo Boaler’s “Mathematical Instincts” is described in The Times as offering “cre-
ative approaches to nurturing students’ understanding of mathematical concepts and which replace fear and avoidance with wonder, joy and discovery.” In “Grit,” author Angela Duckworth, a psychologist, “says passion and perseverance are the keys to success,” according to The Times, while Nobel winner Daniel Kahneman’s “Thinking, Fast and Slow” “discusses how we make choices in business and personal lives and when we can and cannot trust our intuitions.”
Stephen King’s “On Writing” is listed by The Times as a “memoir that is a master class on the writer’s craft.” Parents of older children and adults are fully aware of the ups and downs of their children’s lives, and “The Gift of Failure” by Jessica Lahey may ring a bell as a result. The Times describes the book as showing “the value of disappointment, frustration and life’s inevitable hurdles that provide opportunities for resilience, resourcefulness and self-reliance.”
J u d y Lythcott-Halms’ “How to Raise an Adult” offers advice on how parents can “foster healthy self-reliance instead of hollow self-esteem” in their children, according to The Times. Randall Munroe’s “Thing Explainer” shows how “cells, elevators, smartphones, nuclear reactors and more are demystified with simply annotated blueprints,” according to The Times. “Weapons of Mass Destruction” by
Cathy O’Neil describes “how decisions that impact our lives are made by algorithms instead of people,” according to The Times, and Nate Silver’s “The Signal and the Noise” is described as an “interdisciplinary guide to the art and science of prediction models — applied statistics and pattern detection — explaining how big data is used to make predictions ranging from likely flu outbreaks to earthquakes, climate change, winning poker hands, chess moves, baseball teams and presidential races.” The final offering in the Dec. 11 list in The New York Times is a cross-market best-seller as well, and arguably the most well-known among them. “I Am Malala” by Malala Yousafzal with Christine Lamb “relates the experience of the young Pakistani advocate for women’s education who was shot by the Taliban and later won the Nobel Peace Prize.” As 2016 wound down and the calendar page turned into the new year, the most popular education books, as listed Continued on page 5A