The PTA Parent - Thursday, February 19, 2009

In This Issue
Movie Safety Guidelines | Scholarship Success | Black History Facts
Quick Parent Tips | 100 Ways | PTA In the News

Guiding Your Family's Movie Choices

The third in a six-part series on media and technology use

As the Academy Awards® near, people scramble to see the most-lauded films and conversations focus on who deserves to take home the prized Oscar® statue. Movies are a big part of our lives, and there are likely a few that hold important memories for your family.

Having a family movie night is a great way to spend time together. Movies can jump-start difficult conversations, help your children see the world from a different perspective, or fuel the imagination. But it's important that parents do their homework. Check out these tips for making responsible movie choices.

Movies can contain inappropriate content, and some movies are full of product placements or other influential messages. Technology advances have also made it easier for users to access illegally copied rented movies and other shared files over the Internet. 

So as your children clamor to see the hottest movies this Oscar season, here are some tips to help you make sure your family enjoys movies without the risk of exposure to something inappropriate:

• Do your homework before you or your children watch a movie. If you feel a movie is inappropriate for your child, explain why.
• Watch with your child and talk about the movie afterward.
• Talk to your child about piracy.
• Establish a media use contract with each child in your family.

Go to pta.org/movietipsheet to learn more.

Recession-Proof Your Teen's College Plans

7 tips for scholarship success

The ongoing recession has adversely affected families on many levels. With job losses, weakened stock portfolios, and sliding home values, saving for college seems a grim task. Students are considering less expensive community college options or postponing college plans altogether. However, college scholarship expert Marianne Ragins says you can recession-proof college plans with this seven-step strategy for scholarship success:

Marianne Ragins knows something about offsetting costs for college. As a high school senior, she secured a record-breaking $400,000 in scholarship funds. Ragins is the publisher of http://www.scholarshipworkshop.com, a college and scholarship information website. She shares this seven-step strategy for making college plans recession-proof:

1. Start early - Many of the largest scholarship programs have deadlines in the fall or winter. Students shouldn’t wait until they actually get accepted to the school of their dreams to apply for scholarships. In fact, they don’t even have to wait until senior year. They can win money for college as early as age six.
2. Don’t ignore the small stuff - To be successful, students should explore scholarship treasures in their backyard. Even though local and regionally based scholarships may be for smaller amounts, they can add up, and ultimately wipe out a textbook bill or more.  Some of these scholarships may be easier to win since the number of applicants is often fewer.
3. Participate! - One of the best ways to stand out among a crowd of other scholarship applicants is through participation in activities beyond the classroom. Students should strive to be well-rounded and get involved in several meaningful activities. A leadership role in some of the activities is also important.
4. Community service is key - Not only can some scholarships be won on the basis of community service alone, nearly all scholarship programs want to see students who get involved in activities that benefit others. They also love students who can recognize a school or community issue and successfully come up with a way to solve it.
5. Don’t consider limits - Applying for two or three of the largest scholarships is not enough. The scholarship application cycle can be long. If students apply for a few large scholarships and wait to see if they win them before applying for others, they can miss out on other scholarship opportunities. If students prepare an application package that includes two compelling essays and a student résumé, they should be well-prepared to apply for every legitimate scholarship they find.
6. Perfect essays - Essays should reflect more than the information included in a student résumé or transcript. They should highlight and explain extracurricular activities and reveal how specific activities may have impacted them or positively affected someone else.
7. Scoop up effortless funds - Although they may not offer scholarships (though Upromise actually does) programs such as http://www.upromise.com/ can also help with the tuition bill. These are no-cost programs that allow individuals to register credit and frequent shopper cards to earn rebates into a college savings account.

This information is excerpted with permission from www.scholarshipworkshop.com and the book Winning Scholarships for College by Marianne Ragins. See her website for more information.

Black History Facts

February is Black History Month. This commemoration offers all parents a chance to begin sharing our nation's rich, diverse cultural history with their children. The hope is that this sharing extends well beyond February and beyond African-American heritage. For younger kids, Crayola.com offers activities and craft projects related to Black History. For older kids, here are some facts about Black History to serve as conversation topics:

• Black History Month began as "Negro History Week," which was created in 1926 by Carter G. Woodson, a noted African-American historian, scholar, educator, and publisher. It became a month-long celebration in 1976. The month of February was chosen to coincide with the birthdays of abolitionist Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.
• On February 12, 2009, the NAACP marked its 100th anniversary. Spurred by growing racial violence in the early 20th century, and particularly by race riots in Springfield, Illinois in 1908, a group of African-American leaders joined together to form a new permanent civil rights organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
• John Mercer Langston was the first black man to become a lawyer in Ohio when he passed the Bar in 1854. When he was elected to the post of Town Clerk for Brownhelm, Ohio in 1855, Langston became one of the first African-Americans ever elected to public office in America. John Mercer Langston was also the great-uncle of Langston Hughes, famed poet of the Harlem Renaissance.
• Hiram Rhodes Revels was the first African-American ever elected to the United States Senate. He represented the state of Mississippi from February 1870 to March 1871. 
• Shirley Chisholm was the first African-American woman elected to the House of Representatives. She was elected in 1968 and represented the state of New York. She broke ground again four years later in 1972 when she was the first major party African-American candidate and the first female Democratic candidate for president of the United States.
• Selena Sloan Butler founded the National Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers [http://www.pta.org/1226.htm], a parallel organization to the national PTA, and served as its first president in 1926. The two organizations merged in 1970 and Butler is considered a cofounder of what we know as PTA today.

For more history, timelines, projects and activities, go to the History Channel’s page devoted to Black History.

PTA Briefs

Quick Parent Tips

• Online shoppers should be familiar with discount and promotional codes for online retailers. These codes offer discounts for products purchased online. CurrentCodes.com serves as a clearinghouse for lists of promotional and discount codes from more than 1,600 retailers.
• How can you encourage your four-year-old to write letters rather than scribble?: “Kids learn best when they are doing something that is meaningful to them.” (Read more at the Duluth News-Tribune's parenting column online)
• Become more confident in your parenting choices. Pointers from Dr. Benjamin Garber (read more at the Nashua Telegraph)

There are many ways that you can help your child succeed! A few small activities each week will pay huge dividends over the course of the year. Here are a few that you can do this week:

• Serve on school task forces that examine such things as school dress codes or bully prevention policies. ~ Participe en grupos de tareas escolares que evalúen temas como los códigos de vestimenta escolar o las políticas para evitar la intimidación.

• Participate in meetings to determine special educational needs and services. ~ Participe en reuniones para determinar necesidades y servicios educativos especiales.

PTA In the News

• Olympic medalist Dara Torres champions on behalf of children as the newest ambassador for PTA.
• Lessons learned during fire-safety day sponsored by local PTA helped a student's family escape home fire.
• Sara Collins Elementary School, a PTA-certified School of Excellence, is set to have Robotics Team compete in state-wide tournament.