About Tulsa University ( Oklahoma) - visit on Sep. 2

As a comprehensive, doctoral-degree-granting institution, The University of Tulsa provides undergraduate, graduate, and professional education of the highest quality in the arts, humanities, sciences, business, education, engineering, law, nursing, and applied health sciences.

The University's mission is nurtured and supported by:

• exceptional faculty, who draw students into the pursuit of knowledge, introducing them to the pleasures and responsibilities of the life of the mind in a challenging world, and who include in their numbers the 1998-99 Carnegie Foundation Professor of the Year for all U.S. doctoral and research universities, a national Carnegie Foundation Pew Scholar, a Carnegie Foundation Professor of the Year for Oklahoma, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and four Fellows of the Institute for Advanced Study.
• a humanities-based general curriculum that stimulates scientific, social, and artistic inquiry, while stressing competence in oral and written communication;
• graduate, professional, and research programs that foster advanced theoretical development, promote professional preparation, enhance the quality of the faculty, and extend the University's international reach;
• substantial library resources and information technology that support research and classroom learning;
• a residential campus that fosters a sense of community and integrates curricular and extracurricular life; and
• abundant opportunities for students to undertake community service, internships, and study abroad; to participate in substantive research, often as early as the freshman year; and to study and reflect in ways that foster intellectual, spiritual, and moral growth.

TU's 200-acre campus is located two miles east of downtown Tulsa, a metropolitan city with a population exceeding a half a million people. The city's remarkable cultural, technological, and economic resources nourish the University's mission and enrich its life, just as the University, in turn, enriches the city.

In its vibrant urban environment, The University of Tulsa offers a diversity of learning experiences, a balance between career preparation and liberal education, teaching, and research, and endeavors to instill in its students an understanding that stature as an individual and value as a member of society depend upon continual learning.

Bentley University ( visit on Aug.27)

About Bentley University

Located on a classic New England campus just minutes from Boston, Bentley is a dynamic community of leaders, scholars and creative thinkers.

Bentley University is one of the nation's leading business schools, dedicated to preparing a new kind of business leader and one with the deep technical skills, the broad global perspective and the high ethical standards required to make a difference in an ever-changing world. To achieve our goal, we infuse our advanced business curriculum with the richness of a liberal arts education. The results are graduates who are making an impact in their chosen fields and turning their passions into success stories. Located on a classic New England campus just minutes from Boston, Bentley is a dynamic community of leaders, scholars and creative thinkers.

Today, the challenges of a rapidly changing world have made business skills and experiences hot commodities. More students are considering business as the foundation of their higher education experience, and considering Bentley in the process. With our unique blend of business, technology and the liberal arts, Bentley, a private, not-for-profit institution, provides students with relevant, practical and transferable skills.

At Bentley, we blend the breadth and technological strength of a large university with the values and student focus of a small college. Students interested in business professions choose from a wide range of programs that address all functional areas including accountancy, finance, marketing, management and liberal arts — all anchored in technology.

Facts About Bentley

Campus and Location

• Set on 163 acres in Waltham, Massachusetts
• Minutes west of Boston
• Free daily shuttle from campus to Harvard Square in Cambridge

Enrollment

• Undergraduate students: 4,168 full time; 140 part time
• Average undergraduate class size: 26
• Approximately 81 percent of full-time undergraduates live on campus
• Graduate students: 1,401
• Average graduate class size: 21
• PhD students: 43
• International students represent 13 percent of the undergraduate student population, 24 percent of the graduate students including PhD candidates

Faculty

• More than 276 full- and 184 part-time faculty members, who teach at both undergraduate and graduate levels
• 82 percent hold doctoral degrees
• Professors are accessible, committed to excellent teaching and advising as well as to pursuing research and scholarship in their field
• Many have significant experience in the business world
• Faculty-student ratio is 1 to 14

Curriculum

• As a business university, Bentley distinctively "fuses" business and the arts & sciences and provides international leadership in business education and research.
• Bentley is a leader in promoting ethical and socially responsible enterprise and the critical role of information and communication technology in achieving sustainable high performance.
• Bachelor of science degrees in 11 business fields; bachelor of arts degrees in five arts and sciences disciplines
• The graduate school emphasizes the impact of technology on business practice and offers PhD programs in Business and Accountancy, an MBA with 7 areas of concentration, an integrated MS+MBA, seven Master of Science degrees, and custom executive education programs.

Tuition and Fees for 2014-2015

• Undergraduate: Tuition is $42,511, including all mandatory fees.  Room and board costs vary depending on type of housing and meal plan.
• Graduate: Tuition for each three-credit MBA and Master of Science course is $3,915.

Careers

• Based on a survey completed six months after graduation, more than 95 percent of responding Bentley students find professional employment or enroll in graduate school
• Recruiting programs bring more than 1,200 job opportunities to students each year
• Almost 90 percent of students take on at least one professional internship while at Bentley; more than 60% complete more than one
• Workshops, individualized advising, and resource materials help students fine-tune career goals
• Many of Bentley's 44,500 alumni serve as contacts and resources for students through panel discussions, informational interviews and a mentor program

5 Ways to be a More Patient Mom

If there is one virtue I have been challenged to practice every single day since becoming a parent, it is patience.

In the baby days it was learning how to breastfeed and figuring out how to soothe my baby.  In the toddler years it was accepting the slow pace of walks while my child explored everything, or waiting (what felt like a million years) to get more than five straight hours of sleep in the night.  With a preschooler came the never ending questions about dinosaurs, and the list goes on and on… and on.

Every day there are dozens of opportunities to practice patience.

Here are five ways I try to be a more patient mom.

I try to see the situation from my child’s point of view.
My son doesn’t feel the urgency to get the muffins in the oven by 10am.  He just wants to enjoy stirring the mixture.  If I have time to spare, I try to take his viewpoint into account and do my best to accommodate it.  Does it really matter if the baking takes 5 minutes more than planned?  It may feel a bit unproductive to me, but he is learning so much through the experience that it is worth taking the extra time to let him get involved.

I plan ahead.It is not realistic to get through a trip to the grocery store with the kids in 20 minutes, even though I regularly get the shopping done in that time if I am by myself.  Instead of setting myself up for disappointment, where I’m likely to be rushing everyone and feeling stressed, I try to plan in extra time whenever possible.  This means leaving on our walk to school 10 minutes before we have to get there instead of five minutes, which is the time it actually takes us to walk to school.  Some days we get there early, but more regularly we simply have some extra time to look at a spider or go back to get a forgotten water bottle.  Planning in that extra time allows me to relax and therefore be more patient as unexpected events arise.

I take one thing at a time.
I find that when I am feeling stressed about “waiting” or when I am prone to snap over some behavior, that I am usually focused on more than what is in front of me.  My kids may be taking a long time to get into the bath but I’m not actually concentrating on getting them into the bath, I’m already worried about brushing teeth, finding the favorite PJs, getting the dishes put away, and wondering if we are ever going to get to bed on time.  If I step back and try to do one task at a time, I am less likely to lose my temper and more likely to be working through the present situation with focus and patience.

I ask myself, “What will the situation be in one hour from now?”When I am dealing with tantrums or high energy situations, it can be very draining and easy to lose my patience.  If I take a moment to look at the bigger picture, I am reminded that things will be different in half an hour, one hour, or one day from now.  Asking myself how things might be different gives me hope and the incentive to do my best in this moment as “this too shall pass.”  It wont be this way forever, but the way I behave can (and will) affect the future.  Do I want my kids to look back on a mommy who was kind and patient, or otherwise?

I remind myself that patience is a way to show love.It never feels good to lose your patience, and it is even worse when you see how your temper affected your child.  Having foresight and remembering that patience is a way to show love is a great motivator to actually practicing it.  When I feel my patience is being tested, some big deep breaths and reminding myself how much I love my kids can really help me stay focused on the goal of modeling patience and embracing the challenges of parenthood… because love is at the root of it all.

Patience Pays You Back

When I look back and think about the times I was patient, versus the ones I was not, I can see a clear difference in my willingness to connect with my child and be accepting of the challenge that is parenting.  Rushing through things or willing things to be different does not help in tough situations.  Instead, opening my heart and actively trying to practice patience can make a world of difference.

If you are looking for ways to explain the concept of patience to your child, check out these six hands-on activities for teach patience where you can explore the topic together.  You may also want to check out these journal prompts for moms about patience.

Shared from creativewithkids.com

Homework Tips for Parents

Homework 101

“It’s time to do your homework.”
“But Mom, Dad...”

Sound familiar? For many parents, these words are heard from the month of September and last well into June. What can be done to maximize stronger work habits and minimize frustration for you and your child? Quite a lot.

School-to-Home Organization

• Eliminate the risk of forgotten books/notebooks at school by asking teachers to check in with your child at the end of the day. For those children using lockers, hang a typed list on color paper reminding your child what to ask him/herself each day when packing up homework (see box, below, for example). In addition, a small index card could be taped on the cover of your child’s planner.
• Advocate for a well-established communication system between home and school.

Homework Organization

• Select a specified area for homework and necessary supplies. When completed, request that your child return all materials/supplies to their appropriate places.
• Help your child avoid avoiding homework. Work with your child on establishing rules on when and how homework will be accomplished. For example, should your child start with his favorite subject? Take a break after each assignment? How will your child know when it is time to return to work? (Verbal reminders, such as “Johanna, just a reminder that there are only two more minutes left in your break” and timers are very effective in reminding your child to return to work.) What stimuli is acceptable or unacceptable when studying? How homework is completed is equally important as completing it.
• For weekend homework, encourage your child to begin on Friday evenings. This is invaluable. Not only is information fresh in their minds but it allows enough time to make contingency plans for forgotten books or purchasing materials for projects.
• Ask yourself: “Are the teachers giving homework and instructions that suit my child best?” If not, don’t hesitate to share concerns and ideas with the teacher.
• If your child misses school, help your child be responsible for finding out the next day’s homework. While there may be times your child cannot complete the homework without the classroom instruction, it is still good to have your child follow through by calling a classmate or emailing the teacher (if this option is available) during the day. This learned skill becomes very important by mid-elementary years and, certainly, by middle school. It further minimizes some anxiety when your child returns to school.
• For children taking medication, ask yourself and your child if he or she is finding that the medication is working as optimally as possible. Work with your professional to determine if a change may be required.

Reinforce Learning

• Become intimate with your child’s areas of need (for example, organization, inattentiveness, comprehension, decoding) and help find appropriate techniques to enhance and reinforce learning. Locate professionals early in the school year at your child’s school and/or in the private sector who can provide helpful strategies.
• In general, study cards or index cards are easier than a study guide or worksheet. Have your child write words, thoughts or questions on one side and answers on the other. The act of writing out a card is one more opportunity to enhance learning by reinforcing memory.
• Use the Internet to supplement and complement classroom materials.
• For children having difficulty extracting ideas, build lists of words for your child from which to choose. Similarly, ask them to compare and contrast ideas. For those with writing challenges, there are several approaches: Have your child verbalize his or her ideas first. Use a word-web format or an old-fashioned outline using bullets before writing an essay. Encourage your child to refer to the list/chart/web/rubric and use a minimum of details (2–3 details for younger children; 4–10 details for older children).
• Consider making board games, such as a bingo or lotto board, as another way to reinforce learning. An opened manila folder works great as a board, index cards can be used for questions and coins can be a player's pawn. It is inexpensive, simple and a great addition to family time!
• Offer to give practice tests. After a few weeks of school, you will have a sense of a teacher’s testing style. Practice tests that mirror the teacher's style offers your child the opportunity to “experience” what could be asked.
• Consider a study group. For slightly older children, a study group of two or three can be very beneficial and make learning more enjoyable.

The ultimate goal is to provide your special learner with good work habits, to prepare and anticipate, to avoid unnecessary tardiness and to stay on task. Par for the course with teaching organization, homework and learning strategies is making a long-term commitment. The foremost rule is to find the best system for your child; frequently this will mean many trials before finding the best one. Parental assistance can go a long way in making your child feel a sense of accomplishment and progress while minimizing stress for all of you. 

Shared from www.ncld.org

First Days of School

The First Days of School

Try these strategies to help your child (and you) get in the groove of the first days of school.

Get up early. This means you can have a relaxed breakfast , leave enough time to deal with upsets — and still get to school on time.

Don’t talk about how much you will miss your child. Don’t let your own worries get in the way. Walk your child into school (or put her on the school bus) and then talk to other parents if you need support. Your child has enough to worry about on the first day without soothing your anxieties.

Focus on fun. If you escort your child to school, check out the playground before you go in. Meet the teacher together and take a look around the new classroom for things you know he enjoys, like art supplies, a fish tank, or the reading corner.

If your child gets upset, acknowledge the feeling and ask her for suggestions. You might say, “I know you’re upset. I bet other kids are too. Let’s think about what will help you feel better.” Suggest reading a book together or starting an activity.

Ask the teacher for help. If your child won’t let you go, turn to the teacher. She probably has a lot of experience with this. You might say, “Let’s go say hello to your teacher together. She will take great care of you.”

Make a swift exit. Take your cue from the teacher and from your child, but when it’s time to go, go. A quick exit may be more useful to your child than a drawn-out goodbye. You can often call school later to check on how a young child is doing. And you’ll probably find out that she’s doing fine.

Shared from www.pbs.org

Welcome Back Letter

Dear Discovery School Families,

Welcome to a new school year here at Discovery School.This year holds many opportunities for learning and sharing experiences for all our Discovery community.  We share as a common goal to work together as a team to achieve what’s best for your children, our students.

I feel happy and excited to continue working with you this second year as DS Guidance and Career Counselor. I am married and have two small girls who are students in our school. This is my 21^st  year in education. I’ve worked abroad in countries including El Salvador and Germany. I am proud to be part of Discovery and believe in making a difference in children´s education and lives.  I am also a firm believer that every child has the ability to learn as long as he or she is exposed to a variety of teaching methods which instill in them a desire to learn and succeed in every task they engage in. I love working with children and playing an important role in education.

Throughout the year I look forward to meet all our new community members as well as our returning parents. Communication is the key for success this year; therefore, I invite all new families to make an appointment to see me to help you make this transition a smooth one. I would also like to meet with all seniors and their parents individually before the September holiday. You can contact Ms. Carolina Matute or e-mail me at mzambrana@discoveryschool.edu.hn to arrange a meeting.

To help us build a stronger bond between school and parents, we invite you to volunteer and share your knowledge and experience if you can in topics such as:

·       healthy habits

·       nutrition and fitness

·       setting short term and long term goals ( personal and academic)

·        motivational practices

·        physical and behavioral changes

·        acquiring study and organization skills

Please e-mail me if you are interested in speaking to our students and/or parents on the topics above mentioned.

My doors are open to each of the Discovery families. Please feel free to contact me at any time this school year. I look forward to a great 2014-2015 year.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Marilís Zambrana Beckmann

Guidance and Career Counselor