Boarding Schools Blog Posts
20 Most Bizarre College Sports Mascots
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Tue, Aug 10, 2010 @ 07:00 AM
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School Sports, boarding schools, College Prep Schools, Day Boarding Schools, Teenage Rebels
You’ve probably heard of the Tigers, the Wildcats and even the Wolverines, but did you know there was a squirrel or a mollusk representing a U.S. college? That’s not all; there are 18 other bizarre mascots, from a banana slug to a boll weevil.
Check out the stories behind the 20 Most Bizarre College Sports Mascots!
An apparent homage to the corn fields surrounding the campus of Concordia College, its mascot, Kernel the Cobber appears to be an angry ear of corn. Putting aside the fact that corn is not the most feared of all vegetables, Kernel does look particularly vicious. And weird.
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2. Delta State University's Fighting Okra
2. Delta State University's Fighting Okra
Delta State has long been known as the Statesmen in a nod to State Rep. Walter Sillers, Jr., who was the speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives for 20 years. However, in the late 1980s, a basketball player and some dorm mates were complaining to each other that a Fighting Statesman was not particularly frightening to their opponents. They wanted a mascot that was "mean and green." The discussion continued and one of the baseball players suggested that since it was green, fuzzy and tough, that okra would be the perfect mascot. Thereafter, the rally cry of, "Okra! Okra! Okra!" could be heard regularly at basketball games, prompting the creation of the unofficial Fighting Okra mascot.
3. Evergreen State College's Speedy the GeoduckIs it an asparagus? A plate with vegetables on it? No, it's Speedy the Geoduck (pronounced "Gooey Duck"), more commonly known as a clam. Why the school chose a phallic mollusk to represent its sports teams, no one seems to know. Although the school's fight song gives some hints: "Go, Geoducks go; through the mud and the sand, let's go. Siphon high, squirt it out, swivel all about, let it all hang out. Go, Geoducks go. Stretch your necks when the tide is low. Siphon high, squirt it out, swivel all about, let it all hang out." Maybe the belief that the burrowing clam is an aphrodisiac has something to do with it?
4. Grays Harbor College's Charlie ChokerGrays Harbor certainly wins the prize for most menacing mascot. Yet Charlie Choker is also perhaps the most misunderstood of all college mascots. Because he actually isn’t a criminal, he is a logger. A choker-setter is a pivotal role in logging operations and is the strong, courageous individual who places a cable with large clamps around a log to remove it from the forest. The explanation doesn’t diminish his creepiness.
ESL Programs at Boarding Schools
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Allison "AJ" Miller
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Tue, Aug 03, 2010 @ 02:11 PM
tags:
boarding schools, All Boys Boarding, Co-Ed Schools, Education, Schools with ESL, All Girls Boarding, Junior Boarding
The fast academic pace at most boarding schools necessitates a strong command of the English language prior to enrolling. In order to keep up with coursework and perform at your best, you should be able to read, write and speak English with near fluency. If you aren’t almost fluent, you will likely struggle.
That doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t attend U.S. or Canadian boarding schools, however. It simply means you should look for boarding schools that offer English as a Second Language (ESL) programs for students whose native language is not English.
ESL programs help students to quickly get up to speed on the language. Depending on their mastery of the language, students are generally placed into a beginner, intermediate or advanced ESL class. From there, students are integrated with American students into classes where English is the only language spoken.
16 Most Unbelievable School Pranks Ever Committed
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Thu, Jul 15, 2010 @ 08:00 AM
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School News, boarding schools, CalTech, College Prep Schools, Flip Cards, Harvard, MIT, Placard, Pranks, School Pranks, Switcheroo
In addition to being known for rigorous academic programs, cut-throat athletics or a prestigious history of tradition, the following schools and universities have also earned a reputation for some of the best school pranks of all time. Creative, clever and most of all, unexpected, check out this list of 16 of the Most Unbelievable School Pranks Ever Committed that earned national and even international attention for their respective alma matter.
Check out our list of the 16 Most Unbelievable School Pranks Ever Committed and let us know what you think!
1. There's No Stopping Them
Auburn University is well-known for its football program. Its rivalry with Georgia Tech, which originated in 1892, is equally well-known. That rivalry came to a head in 1896, when Auburn students decided to "grease the skids" of an Auburn football win over Georgia Tech by lubricating the train tracks and platform at the Auburn Train Station with grease and lard the night before the train carrying Georgia Tech's football team was to arrive. The next morning, as anticipated, the train's efforts to stop at the station were a complete failure. The train blew past the station by at least five miles before it was able to stop. After having to walk the five miles back to the station, Georgia Tech's team was easily defeated 45-0 by Auburn.
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2. Harvard's Fish Story
2. Harvard's Fish Story
Since the eighteenth century, a five-foot-long wooden carving of a cod fish has hung above the entrance to the chamber of the House of Representatives in the Massachusetts State House as a symbol of the importance of the cod to the region's early economy. The fish hung in its lofty position for years until the 1933 staff of the Harvard Lampoon, Harvard University's monthly humor magazine, decided it needed to be acquired. Despite its importance to the Massachusetts legislature, the cod was left surprisingly unguarded. Obtaining it took little effort. Three Lampoon staffers walked into the statehouse and surreptitiously snipped the two wires holding the cod, lowered it into a long flower box, and walked out. The theft caused quite the uproar in Boston but only 50 hours later the cod was returned without incident and hung again in the state house - albeit six inches higher.
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3. Veterans of Future Wars
3. Veterans of Future Wars
When World War I veterans lobbied Congress in 1935 to receive their war bonuses ten years early, to ease the strains of the Great Depression, the Harrison Bonus Bill was born. So was an idea. Princeton senior Lewis Gorin decided that if present-day veterans could get their bonuses early, why shouldn't future veterans be prepaid for their service – before fighting in a war?! Gorin lobbied that all male citizens between 18 and 36 should be paid a $1,000 war bonus on June 1, 1965. The Veterans of Future Wars movement spread quickly, with local chapters springing up on college campuses nationwide, with spin-off groups, such as the Association of Gold Star Mothers of Future Veterans, following suit. (Although it was originally meant to be a satirical look at government, all but two members of the Princeton VFW ended up fighting in World War II.)
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4. Placard Switcheroo
4. Placard Switcheroo
Flip-cards seen at football games are generally used to spell out a word or phrase related to the teams on the field. The 1961 Rose Bowl game between the Minnesota Golden Gophers and the Washington Huskies was an exception and one of the first pranks involving flip-cards. During half-time at the game, spectators picked up the stack of cards from their seats and began to turn them over as instructed, revealing a series of gigantic images for people watching on TV. All was going according to plan until the fourteenth image when instead of showing the word "Huskies," the thousands of placards spelled "Caltech," the prank-happy school just down the road in Pasadena. Later, one of the Caltech students responsible admitted that a fellow prankster had posed as a reporter and asked the head Washington cheerleader how the flip-card system worked. Then other team members gained access to the cheerleaders' hotel rooms and switched instruction sheets.
New Hampton School to Begin iPad Pilot Program for All Ninth Graders
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Mon, Jun 21, 2010 @ 11:32 AM
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School News, boarding schools, Gifted Students, Int'l. Baccalaureate
New Hampton School to Begin iPad Pilot Program for All Ninth Graders
June 21, 2010
June 21, 2010
NEW HAMPTON, NH -- New Hampton School is pleased to announce the introduction of an iPad pilot program for incoming ninth-grade students beginning in September.
All ninth-grade students and selected faculty members will receive iPads as part of the program, which was funded by a recent reunion gift from the New Hampton School Class of 1960. The pilot program will inform how the school will continue to improve technology integration in the classroom and prepare students for college and beyond.
“It’s been our vision to be a nationally recognized innovator in how we deliver curriculum and durable skills to our students,” says Head of School Andrew Menke. “This pilot program affords us the opportunity to create an environment of exploration for our students.”
Menke says that the school will evaluate the implementation of the iPad in the ninth graders’ experience, and then decide whether the iPad will be fully integrated into the school experience for all students.
New Hampton School Technology Integration Coordinator Hans Mundahl says that the pilot program is much more than giving a slick, new device to a group of curious students.
“It is a tool that will help our students solve problems,” says Mundahl. “We’re hoping to enable students and teachers to work creatively with one another in new ways. It has the chance to transform the way faculty teach and the way students learn.”
Financial Aid for Students Attending Boarding Schools
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Allison "AJ" Miller
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Tue, May 18, 2010 @ 07:00 AM
tags:
boarding schools, College Prep Schools, Education, Financial Aid, Junior Boarding, Military Schools
With boarding school tuition rivaling that of private colleges, at just under $40,000 a year, many families need some financial assistance to afford it or help with tuition costs. And, in fact, an estimated 30% of all families with students attending a boarding school receive some sort of financial aid, with the average aid amount being around $17,000.Similar to colleges and other private schools, families apply for financial aid when their child applies for admission into a boarding school. In general, families making more than $120,000 in household income have a lower chance of qualifying for aid; those making less should qualify for some form of need-based financial aid.
Boarding schools offer two general types of aid: need based and merit based.
Families with lower incomes typically qualify for help from the school in the form of grants. Grants do not need to be repaid. However, because of the high cost of attendance, most families also need to apply for loans to cover the balance. Boarding schools generally have established relationships with banks and funding sources that will provide educational loans.
Combating Underachievement in Gifted Students
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Tue, May 11, 2010 @ 02:36 PM
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boarding schools, College Prep Schools, Gifted Students, Int'l. Baccalaureate
Even students who are labeled gifted or talented experience underachievement. When they are performing well below what their parents or teachers recognize they are capable of, they are underachieving. But pointing out the situation is often not enough to spur a gifted child to suddenly increase their level of scholastic output or effort.There are generally two major reasons gifted students can be underachievers: external forces and internal forces. Among external forces are more environmental factors, such as classes and teachers that do not provide a challenge, peer pressure, isolation from peers by being gifted and family dynamics. Internal factors include feelings of anxiety or depression, learning difficulties and rebellion.
Many underachievers are prone to disorganization. They lose assignments, don’t turn in homework, daydream, lack prioritization skills and spend more time on activities like reading or video games than on the work they should be doing for class. Others are perfectionists who are often unable to complete assignments on time because they are so worried about doing a great job; others are more concerned about speed, and being done first, to do a quality job. Either way, the result is the same – performance of a lower caliber than is possible.
15 Fictional Boarding Schools We Wish Were Real!
We have trawled through films, literature and even video games to put together this list of 15 awesome boarding schools we wish were real. How many do you know?
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Tue, May 04, 2010 @ 07:00 AM
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boarding schools, fictional boarding schools, harry potter, hogwarts, x-mansion, x-men
1. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry - The Harry Potter Series by J. K. Rowling
Hogwarts is located somewhere in Scotland, on a lake shore sometimes called Black Lake where a non-threatening giant squid sometimes acts a lifeguard. Students ages 11 through 17 attend the somewhat scary-looking castle made up of a jumble of rooms which seem to move. The first two years, students are not allowed their own broomsticks, however the older students are free to roam the skies. Who wouldn't want to attend Hogwart's?
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2. Regis High School - Toy Soldiers – filmRegis High is the preparatory school home of many teenage boys of wealthy, powerful families, who have rebelled in one way or another, providing the nickname "Rejects High". When the school is taken over by terrorists, the students must step up and save themselves and the helpless, bumbling authorities from the threat. You'd love going to school and participating in antics with these resourceful students who save their school and teachers from harm.
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3. Welton Academy - Dead Poets SocietyIn the 1989 Academy Award-winning film by Peter Weir, Dead Poet's Society, Welton Academy is an autocratic boy's prep school where the young men meet an off-beat but inspiring English professor who encourages individuality. The fictional boarding school is located in beautiful Vermont and is based on the actual experiences of the author. You'd love meeting the interesting, often humorous and heart-touching students, and especially the English prof that encourages non-conformity and life-changing enlightenment through poetry and literature.
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4. Miss Minchin's Boarding School - A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson BurnettCaptain Crewe, a doting father, sends his seven year old daughter, Sara, to live at Miss Minchin's, requesting that she receive special attention, quarters, a personal maid and anything she wants. Sara befriends the outcast students and loves the school's maid, Becky, but on her 11th birthday her father dies in India after losing all his fortune when a friend invested it unwisely and Sara is forced to join Becky in the housekeeping staff. In the end, an Indian nobleman chances upon Sara, explains he had lost her father's fortune but after her dad's death recovered the money and Sara is again wealthy; she then rescues Becky to become her own personal, well-treated maid and gives Miss Minchin the humiliation she richly deserves. Another classic boarding school which captures our imagination.
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