10 Tips for Picking a Career Path in College

I recently spoke at Georgia State University's Summer Leadership Academy for high school students on:
10 Tips for Picking a Career Path in College

Five Ways to Ace College Exams for High School Graduates

My Tips for the Entering College Class of 2019:

Five Ways to Ace College Exams

c 2010-2015 Perry Binder (first printed in The Huffington Post)

Wouldn't it be great if college classes were pass/fail, and students could focus on learning rather than competing for grades? Let's get back to the real world for a second, as I propose what I would do as a student to prepare for college exams:

1- Ask your professors to give practice quizzes. Each semester is a feeling out process for students to figure out what types of exams a professor gives. Practice quizzes, with no attached grade, can relieve stress and reveal a lot about upcoming exams. I give a ten question practice quiz prior to the first and second tests so students can see my style and tricks. While my exams are "closed book," I give students the option of taking the practices quizzes with or without notes, with the belief that students haven't fully studied at this point. After the quiz, we go over the answers together.

2- On essay exams, ask your professor if you can write answers in an outline format. It is a difficult task for professors to write objective essay exam questions. Except on open-ended questions, they are usually looking for some specific responses. Why make that professor search all throughout your flowery paragraphs for those answers? Organize responses in an outline form and underline key terms. This method will make grading faster for the professor, and thus you have a happier grader.

3- Prepare flashcards for straightforward multiple choice exam questions. Make a flashcard for each term or concept discussed in class. Put the term on the front, with a definition and example applying the term on the back. For example: the legal term, Duty to Trespassers goes on the front of an index card. On the back: In general, homeowners may be liable for creating dangerous instrumentalities on the property. E.g., Jane surrounds her home with a mote filled with water and alligators to make sure Tom stays off that freshly cut lawn. Make sure to study the flashcards in reverse. (look at the back of the card to see if you can identify the term on the front) Sample easy exam question:

Harold's home was broken into three times this year. So he dug a huge hole on his lawn near the window that robbers seek entry. Then he placed a bear trap at the bottom of the hole and cleverly covered it with small branches and leaves. One night while sneaking up to Harold's window, Tim the Robber fell in, got caught in the bear trap, and was seriously injured. The next morning, Harold went out for the newspaper and to see what he'd caught. Tim screamed: "My leg. I'm hurt!" In Tim's lawsuit for injuries, Harold will likely:
a. win because Tim was a trespasser and landowners owe no duty to trespassers. 
b. lose because landowners owe a duty to keep the premises free from unreasonable dangers they create for trespassers.

I know which answer you'd like to pick. Choose the other one for exam purposes.

4- For "application" multiple choice questions, talk the material out with a study friend. A well written college exam will make you go beyond the mere memorization of material. Another sample exam question:

This morning on the way to our exam, Marcel purchased coffee at the drive-through window of a local burger establishment. With the car stopped, he placed the cup between his knees and opened the lid to add cream. Accidentally, he knocked the contents of the cup onto his lap, and hot coffee soaked through his sweat pants. He screamed: "Help me, I'm burning, and I've got a
test in 20 minutes!" After completing his exam, Marcel headed straight to the hospital, where doctors treated his third degree burns. He then sued the burger joint for failing to warn him that extremely hot coffee can rip through flesh. A jury awarded Marcel $100,000 in damages, but also found him to be 75% responsible and the defendant 25% responsible for the accident. How much money would Marcel be permitted to recover if the defendant does not appeal this verdict?
a. $100,000 
b. $75,000 
c. $25,000 
d. $0

If you chose letter "c," then you understand the legal concept of comparative negligence. In most states, a plaintiff's award is reduced by the percentage of fault assigned by the jury for an accident. However, in my state, if a plaintiff is found to be 50% or more responsible, then that plaintiff would recover nothing from the $100,000 verdict. Thus, the correct response would be letter "d."

5- On take-home exams or term papers, your computer's Spell Check is not the same as proofreading. True story: In a legal document, an attorney asked the judge for a delay in his case because he was undergoing a delicate medical procedure on his back: Disk surgery. However, he mistakenly typed a different four letter word that looked like DISK, inserting an unfortunate "C" rather than the needed "S." Spell check didn't pick up the error, since the word was spelled correctly. The take-away: Please proof your take-home exams and papers!

Pace yourself on game day. Flip through the exam before starting, to see what you've gotten yourself into. But before taking that test, try to get on the same page with your professor, because s/he really wants you to succeed.

Amazon's Best High School Graduation Gift Books

This is a list I complied a few years back...

Click here: High School Graduation Gift Books

Amazon

Jesse Friedman's Case and the Appearance of Impropriety

This is the third article I've written in The Huffington Post about the Friedman case:

The Friedman case continues to be defined by delay.  Two years after I posed the question, Is Actual Innocence “Capturing the Friedmans”?, the frustrating answer is: We still don’t know.  Below is a tangled story of: evidence withheld by the Nassau County District Attorney’s office from its own case advisory panel; a panelist’s subsequent modification of the panel’s original recommendations; a defamation lawsuit filed by the defense against the DA’s office; the recent election of DA Kathleen Rice to U.S. Congress; and a judge set to hear Friedman’s case, though she worked as an Assistant DA with DA Rice for years.

In the above 2012 article, I summarized the case background:

On November 25, 1987, I was sprawled out on my parents' couch, when my favorite high school teacher appeared on the TV news.  Arnold Friedman was a retired NYC instructor who taught computer classes in his home for local kids.  I watched as he and his 17-year old son, Jesse, were handcuffed and hauled away for horrific child molestation crimes occurring in their basement.  I fell off that couch in disbelief.  Arnold and Jesse Friedman each pled guilty to avoid a trial, and Jesse learned of his father's prison suicide in 1995.  Since his release in 2001, Jesse has attempted to clear his name, so he no longer must register as a Level 3 violent sexual predator. In 2003, new facts about his case emerged in the Oscar-nominated documentary, Capturing the Friedmans, which examined the evidence against the Friedmans and questioned whether any of the allegations against them were truthful.  On August 16, 2010, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit found "a reasonable likelihood that Jesse Friedman was wrongfully convicted" and that "the police, prosecutors and the [trial] judge did everything they could to coerce a guilty plea and avoid a trial."  That November, the Nassau County District Attorney appointed a panel of four experts to review the evidence against Jesse. 

Click here to continue reading in The Huffington Post

How Do You Spot An Outstanding Teacher?

Wise words from Georgia State University College of Education professors
Click here

NEW: Pinterest & 99 Motivators

Everyone - Please take a moment and visit my Pinterest board, forward to others, and pin an item (if you use Pinterest). 

Thanks!

http://www.pinterest.com/99motivators/ 

Perry

Perry Binder, J.D.

Author: 99 Motivators for College Success

From the Dorm to Lake Placid to Sochi

This article appears in The Huffington Post:

I like your hat, Bill offered mischievously to the middle-aged Russian man.
The man kept walking with a deliberate gait.
Trade you my Vikings football cap, Bill tries, with the tact of a paparazzo in the Olympic Village.
The Russian gentleman stopped and looked at Bill. Then at me, wrapped in a parka the size of the Hindenburg.
Nyet, the man delivered stoic faced, as he disappeared amidst the snow flurries.

This was the beginning of my trip to Lake Placid. It was a safe bet that Bill and I were not destined to be good will ambassadors for these Games.

We left for Lake Placid from our Binghamton University dormitory at 2:00 a.m., to a mock chorus of God Bless America from the less than enlightened frat boys. About forty pioneers boarded a charter bus for the one day, 14-hour roundtrip journey from Vestal, New York. As we pulled away from campus, my thoughts wandered back to Franz Klammer's downhill run in 1976 at Innsbruck, and to the ice-cold keg of beer in the back of bus -- courtesy of those more than enlightened frat boys.

Headline - Monday, February 18, 1980 - Bus waits may last throughout Games
For the sixth day in a row, spectators were forced to wait for more than an hour-and-a-half at some venues sites.

Headline - Many treated for frostbite
(UPI) A bitter wind from the Northwest ... plunged the 'chill factor' to minus 40 (F and C).

When the bus arrived at 9:00a.m., the first thing I wanted to do was see the Olympic torch and get in touch with all the good that it represents. The silver cauldron was perched about 100 feet above the snowdrifts. The base of the structure was a very unassuming platform from which the torch was first lit. After the lighting, the cauldron traveled up to its resting place along a track supported by two thin white beams, one on each side of the track. Access to the torch was permitted, as Bill took a picture of me on the platform. I posed with both arms raised in victory celebration form.

Continue reading From the Dorm to Lake Placid to Sochi

Integrating Social Networks into Out-of-Class Activities

Abstract accepted for The Future of Education conference, June 2014:

Integrating Social Networks into Out-of-Class Activities for
Traditional and Hybrid College Courses

Abstract

It is the framework which changes with each new technology and not just the picture within the frame. 
Marshall McLuhan, 1955

This paper supports the proposition that student use of social networking tools outside of class increases student-to-student and student-to-professor interaction, while enhancing critical thinking skills in the classroom.  Given the trend to move some classes into a hybrid format, the increased use of social networks on the students’ preferred “technology turf” is a key component in facilitating learning in such activities.  Further, the paper will offer insight from the perspective of a professor and a graduate teaching assistant (GTA), as they discuss the pros and cons of integrating social networks into out-of-class activities.  For example, the paper demonstrates how students and a professor formed an online Twitter community in an Internet Law business course, where students shared and commented on the latest international law news affecting the internet and social networks.  The class then assessed the legal context of social network behavior when they re-grouped in class.  As another example, a professor created a Facebook project, and (with a bit of trepidation) asked students to “friend” him.  In the project, students were instructed to find inappropriate comments posted anywhere on Facebook, re-post them on the professor’s “wall,” and comment on the implications of such postings if an employer actually read them.  Hand-in-hand with the pedagogical benefits of social networks, there is an overarching need to ensure student privacy in learning environments.  A major challenge faced by educators is how to teach students to navigate and leverage social networks in the business world, while maintaining their comfort level of privacy on the internet.  This paper addresses the importance of guiding students on how to be responsible digital citizens, as they analyze and assess the ethical use of social networks in the global workplace.  Thus, in a professor-GTA discussion over whether students in a study abroad class should maintain a public blog or a closed Facebook group for communication, the closed group option was chosen for privacy reasons.  Finally, the paper will introduce how out-of-class social network activities, when augmented with “gamification” (applying game-design thinking to non-game applications in an attempt to make the latter more fun), can elevate student engagement and learning in traditional and hybrid courses.

The Inspiring Teacher Series: Interviews with Master Teachers from K-12 to College

My favorite blog posts over the years involved interviews with great teachers who've inspired students year after year.  This blog post brings all of those interviews together.

The Inspiring Teacher Series: Interviews with Master Teachers from K-12 to College

Enjoy!


Questions included:
What inspired you to teach?
What teaching methods are most helpful in guiding students towards their goals?
What would you like to improve about your teaching?
What is the one thing you wish you'd known when you started your teaching career?

Kindergarten
Bridget Robbins

Middle School
Travis Tingle

High School
Paul Cohen
Brendan Halpin
Barry Hantman

College
Jody Blanke
Greg Henley
Mara Mooney

Top Takeaways: Success in College Life, Career Direction & the Classroom

TOP TAKEAWAYS:  SUCCESS IN ADJUSTING TO COLLEGE LIFE

-  Every college has many social and career-focused organizations.  Figure out which groups to participate in for fun and for your future.

-  Learn what your strengths are and how to use them in stressful situations.  You already know what your weaknesses are – now figure out how to compensate for them.

-  Live life with no regrets but understand the consequences of your decisions, whether they relate to classes, your future, or personal matters.

TOP TAKEAWAYS:  SUCCESS IN PICKING A MAJOR OR CAREER PATH

-  The media shapes our impressions of what different careers are like.  Research the benefits and challenges of your major and career path by interviewing people who work in that industry, and by securing an internship in that field.

-  Keep an open mind when choosing a major or career path.  Base these decisions on your likes, dislikes, personality, and work style, rather than on the expectations placed on you by family and peers.

-  Don’t let anyone crush your dreams.  However, the riskier your dream, the better your backup plan must be.

TOP TAKEAWAYS:  SUCCESS IN THE COLLEGE CLASSROOM

-  Seek out a friend in every class you take, so you can share lecture notes and maybe even study together.

-  Develop and stick to a firm studying schedule.  Procrastinators often claim to be self-motivators and need to consider working like structure people.

-  Your professors are rooting for you to succeed.  Ask them how they would study for their own exams.  Request practice quizzes, with the answers explained in class.

Excerpt: 99 Motivators for College Success