I’ll be adding more items, but for now you can find most of my seminar handouts as well as the “handout to end all handouts” available for download from the Downloads page.

If there’s anything you know I have that you’d like to download, or any requests for information in downloadable form, send me an email or leave a comment and I’d be happy to hunt something down or put something together.

Now go enjoy the last weekend of the summer!

Je n’ai pas d’articles concernant le Québec sur mon site, mais je suis heureux de recevoir vos questions et commentaires en français. Je peux lire le français, et je peux repondre en anglais ou en français, si quelques erreurs de langue seconde ne vous dérangent pas.

Merci pour votre visite!

Not sure what AP is and why you should care?  Come on over and read the standardized tests primer on the message board!

Helpful Hint of the day:  If you want to see all the posts I’ve ever written about a particular topic, you can either use the search function at the top right hand side of the screen, or simply scan the list of “categories” down the right hand side and click on one to reveal all posts that have been categorized under that term.

(For a simple, easy-to-follow explanation of this online tool, visit http://rssday.org/)

And while you’re at it, here are the RSS feeds I use to keep informed about educational goings-on. Visit these pages and look for the orange RSS button to subscribe!

Academia Group Inc. – Academica’s Top Ten is a daily digest of top news and opinion affecting post-secondary education in Canada, published as a free service to our clients and friends based on publicly-available information.

Education In The News (Canadian) – They don’t have an orange RSS button, but at the very bottom of the page you’ll find an option to “Subscribe to Posts.” Click on that.

Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario Media Releases – On the main EFTO page, you’ll find the orange button to subscribe to their media releases.

Macleans “On Campus” – The education section of Macleans magazine online. Their RSS feed is a small, blue button (not orange) on the right hand side of the screen just above the red menu bar.

Queen’s University Admissions Blog – You have to be a bit of an RSS sleuth (or use “FireFox”) to find their “feed” since they don’t have a subscribe button or link. Use this link to add manually to your RSS reader: http://queensuadmission.wordpress.com/feed/

Tyndale University Admissions Blog – Again, no obvious button to subscribe, so you can use the address http://www.tyndale.ca/admissions/blog/feed/atom/ to enter into your RSS reader.

So, that’s what’s in my “Education” folder of my RSS reader right now. Find yourself an RSS reader (like Google Reader) and start subscribing!

Along with upgrading some “behind the scenes” areas of the website, I’ll be adding my handouts from my conference seminars, as well as making some information more easy to find.

I found myself saying, “you can get there from my website” a lot in Hamilton last weekend at the OCHEC 2008 Convention, and while you absolutely  can, you might need to know exactly where to look.  So, over the next few days those links should be more prominent on the site as well, and I think it’s time for a new theme again!  (I like the layout of this one, but I do find it not only a little dark, but there are some features like the bullets down the right hand side that never seemed to work properly.)

So, with any luck, we’ll have a brand new (inside and out) page to celebrate RSS Awareness Day tomorrow!  Cross your fingers and/or say a little prayer . . .

If you read blogs (like this one) or other websites that regularly update with new items, you may find it handy to use “RSS” to keep up with them.

There’s a great, short, instructional video at RSSday.org which will explain the technology if you’re unfamiliar with it.

I use Google Reader to keep track of everything I want to stay on top of, and to celebrate RSS Awareness Day on May 1, I’ll share my collection of educational “feeds.”

In preparation for May 1:

1. watch the video to learn how this technology can enhance your online experience
2. sign up for an “RSS Reader” (described in the video)
3. “Subscribe” to this website’s RSS feed by clicking the big orange button in the top right corner (also described in the video)
4. Come back on May 1 for my personal collection of educational RSS feeds

It’s right there ———->

But, I do still very much enjoy online communities, and I had this crazy idea: since I’m usually in email contact with a lot of universities about their policies, what if I could bring the admissions people into the discussion?

So, I did a very brave (stupid?) thing. I emailed them all. I told them about the community I was forming. I gave them carte blanche to go ahead and advertise the heck out of their schools and programs. What do I care? They should *want* to advertise to you, to attract this segment of the population. In exchange for providing first-hand answers from the schools themselves, I thought the trade-off was a no brainer.

Now of course, I had to email them with the idea — because none of you were there yet. So, admittedly, I led them to the board, but there was not much for them to do. I told them that I was going to give them first crack at the board, and they could post a welcome message from their school, links to their site . . . whatever they wanted. And, that over the coming weeks, I would then mention the site here and at the upcoming Ontario conferences.

A couple of schools wrote me back and said they thought it was a great idea. Some have indicated that welcome posts will be forthcoming. One school (and if you want to know who, you’ll just have to visit and find out for yourself!) has posted a welcome message already. I can tell by the activity log that probably about 8 universities have visited the message board, but not posted.

I’m going to assume that some universities need to see people there first before they’ll know how to get involved, so I now unleash you upon them. Visit the site and ask your questions, and see who comes! There are specific folders for each school so that information can be easily tracked. If a school is slow to respond, then I’ll gently inform them that they have questions waiting.

And, perhaps it would be a nice gesture to acknowledge the school who was first to post, even before any of you guys showed up, by posting in that area, too.

These message board things are a tricky business. I know there’s nothing sadder than a low-activity board, but not only did I want a place where people could compile their information and experiences by school, I wanted to get the schools in on it, too. I think we can do that, if you make it worth their while by posting.

Not sure what to post? Feel free to introduce yourself in the general area. But also, remember that the schools probably aren’t going to know what to post either. Why not ask them something that’s not on their website — how many homeschoolers did you admit last year? How far in advance should a homeschooler contact your university? What’s usually the most difficult part about dealing with a homeschooler’s application? What can we do to make the application process smoother?

Statistics tell us that over 90% of people only visit boards and never post. But, I’m asking you to bite the bullet and share *something.* It can be a new question or in response to something already written. (I’m putting shorter “fact sheets” up there that aren’t meant to be comprehensive, but basic starter guides for different topics.) It can be something you’ve learned, or an experience you’ve had in the university prep/admission process. If you’ve looked into university admissions at all, you have something valuable to share with others just starting out.

So there you have it. This board might suffer the same miserable fate as most out there, but I hope that, when you go looking for info about Ontario universities, you’ll go there. Either ask your question directly to one of the university reps or post what you have found in other sources. Join us here:

http://messageboard.rainsberger.ca/index/

What can I say? That would make me happy.

I don’t pretend to understand how this all works, but a tweak of a database name here and, boom, we’re back.  (This time, I hope it’s to stay.)

My webhosting company has given me the green light to migrate servers and join the cool kids on the new, super fast side of the block.  So, today I put on my thinking cap, read a lot of instructions, probably scour  the message board forum to look for questions other people have posted, and answers from the more knowledgeable “been there done that” folk.

A techie I ain’t, but a nerd I am.  I love the challenge of an intellectual puzzle and am actually very excited to start plugging away at this challenge.

If you notice any disruption to the system, you’ll know why.  (Or, you won’t even get this message, so you won’t know why. But, at some point after the fact you’ll be able to know what was happening.)  You’ve gotta break a few eggs . . .

See you on the other side!