Instructify

BY BILL FERRIS

This week’s MBTN looks at inspiring TED videos for educators, how to sabotage your resume, saving for college, and free ebooks on personal finance. More after the jump.

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A lot of your graduating students will head off to college this fall. They’ll get lots of advice from you, their parents and their guidance counselors, some of which may even listen to. If you’ve a mind to meddle without being overbearing, send them to this entry on the findingDulcinea blog, Web Sites Every College Applicant Should Know About, which is pretty much what it sounds like. This article tells future collegians where to go for everything from financial aid information to dorm-room survival. Your junior students will also appreciate knowing where to find advice on the application process as they gear up for making their college choices next year. -BILL FERRIS

Web Sites Every College Applicant Should Know About via The findingDulcinea Blog

Related stuff:

Show Them the Money: Explore Students’ Financial Aid Options

The Final Countdown – Countdown to College

Student Loan Advice for High School Seniors

Photo credit: CarbonNYC on Flickr.

9 Questions I ask my Students on the First Day of School – Teacher Elona Hartjes believes in the value of making a good first impression. That’s why she asks her students these nine questions to make sure the school year gets off to a good start. She provides some valuable insight, and makes her students think about their successes and wants when it comes to education. Perhaps the most important question on the list: What three things can you do as a student to help yourself be more successful this year?

15 Sites that will Make You Smarter - You’re already plenty smart just for reading Instructify, but if you want to exercise that gray matter even more, check out this list of brain boosting games and memory tools from Tipr. These tests, quizzes and trivia sites can come in handy if you want to relax with some online games that aren’t solitaire, or if you want to get some ideas for keeping your students sharp.

Einstein’s 5 Maxims for Creative Excellence – I’m no Einstein, but Einstein is. Besides that whole “Theory of Relativity” thing, Einstein also had these five pieces of advice for creative excellence. The first is my favorite: Imagination is more important than knowledge. So the next time someone says “you can’t make this stuff up,” prove them differently. List via Ace Online Schools.

7 Actions That Can Help Your Wallet in a Troubled Economy - Times are tough in this economic crisis, so take advantage of these tips to make sure you are managing your money in all the right ways. From Lifehack comes these simple, but effective rules that will help make sure you don’t relive your college days and have to eat Ramen noodles for lunch AND dinner. Perhaps one of the simplest things you can start doing: ignore the news. Just because the rest of the nation is fretting over the economic crisis doesn’t mean you have to buy in to how grim the media makes things out to be. -JEREMY S. GRIFFIN

Photo credit: shootingstarr(isablur) on Flickr

Right now, your high school seniors are probably stressing out about the difference between the cost of college and the amount of scholarship money they received. If you’re a guidance counselor or a teacher who doesn’t want your students to have to decide between buying books or food, show them these financial aid options, courtesy of studenthacks.org. They’ll find information about Pell Grants, Stafford Loans, plus lesser-known options like Plus Loans, as well as Social Security for students unlucky enough to have a deceased parent.

This list is a good resource for students scrambling to fund their education. Juniors can also use it as a primer for all the financial aid rigmarole they’ll have to go through next year. By exploring financial aid options, your students will have the money they need for school, and the peace of mind of not worrying how they’ll pay for their next meal. -BILL FERRIS

How to Find More Cash for School – 9 Financial Aid Options via studenthacks.org

Related Stuff:
Warn Your Students Against Financial Aid Myths
Student Loan Advice for High School Seniors
The Final Countdown – Countdown to College

Prevent your students from adding years to their student loan repayment schedule. Bankrate.com offers up some more good advice for your college-bound students. Cheryl Allebrand’s “13 Financial Aid Traps” is as much for parents as for their kids, and dispels several (thirteen, in fact) myths about getting more funding for college.

Allebrand lists mistakes ranging from withdrawing money from retirement accounts to using credit cards as a means of establishing credit to impress financial-aid types (and not running up credit card debt is darn good advice for anybody. Not that I’d know from experience or anything).

It’s all good advice, but I worry about the next generation if there are myths floating around like, “Get married to achieve independent status” for the FAFSA. -BILL FERRIS

13 Financial Aid Traps