Fall 2013 Back to School Must-have's for Nontrads - What's Hot?

Nontraditional students, what would YOU like to suggest for this year's hot Must-have's for Nontrads?

Here are some old and new ideas:

#1. A new backpack. My idea is a medium-sized one. My favorite color is blue, but a green one would be OK. You could decorate it with some fun patches or pins if you like. OR a rolling backpack.

#2. An iPhone or SmartPhone. A must nowadays. Make sure you have some great apps for it too, or know where they are, like an alarm clock, scheduler, etc. Ask your fellow students what apps to put on there. And let me know what they say. I'd love to blog about that too.

And make sure you turn the volume off for class. Some teachers are sticklers about this. They DON'T want to hear your phone ring when they are talking. Just saying.

#3. A Hoodie. The young people love them. You want to blend in. It's a no-brainer. But wait until Fall if you get hot easily.

#4. Some new clothes. I know, it's easy to scrimp in the fashion department when you have a lot of other bills. But try at least getting one or two new outfits if at all possible. I promise you, the other students will be doing it. Ask somebody in the clothing department to help you pick the clothing out, if you are clueless like me, that is.

#5. Cool, walkable shoes. Ditto.

#6. A backup service. On the cloud (think: BackBlaze) or on another hard drive or thumb drive. Don't risk losing a final report. Back it up.

#7. Water/lunch/food money/your Student ID - goes without saying, really.

 #8. A Digital e-Book Reader in case you have your books in digital format. (I like Kindle, but of course there is Nook plus lots of others to choose from...) You can also use your iPad or Phone.

#9.  A notebook for each class. Don't try to bundle them together - - you may jumble your notes together. Talking about notes - - take them by hand OR record your lectures with a digital recorder.


#10. A copy of a campus map (digital or not), your class locations and schedule, phone numbers and/or Facebook locations of at least two class members (for each class - - just in case)... plus?

Other ideas?

Give me your best suggestions for more on this list. What would YOU suggest?

-Betsyanne - former Nontraditional Student in Education. What stories I could tell you. :-) I will try to get my book together soon. Later!

There are some more suggestions here:

What to bring in your backpack the first day of classes

Your college backpack - What is in it?  

Ideas for saving money at school

(non-material things) Other things to have for success in school

And here are some of my Nontrad links:

The Nontrad site and blog

Join Nontrads on Facebook

 Nontrads on Yahoo

 Nontrads on Twitter

5 Fun Products for Nontraditional Students

5 cool things for Nontraditional Students to check out

Now is the time for after-Christmas Sales. You may find these products anywhere on sale, or you can buy them on Amazon or Ebay.

For some (insert: me here) this is just a dream list. Especially for the phone electronics. But for others, they just might help make life easier.

These are also ideas for gifts for that deserving nontraditional student.

If you can, now is the time to treat yourself or that nontraditional friend or family member now that after-Christmas sales are happening.

I have some examples of each with the suggestion from Amazon.

You can also go to Ebay and find some really good deals on used items (as you can on Amazon too.) SquareTrade can give you a warranty on many of these, and the price is low.

1. A  digital recorder. I own two RCA digital recorders. That is the same kind in the picture. I got them for ESL tutoring. I haven't used them yet, but the price was right and the size is small and very portable. I looked up prices before I bought it. This one is really reasonable and does the very same things that the more expensive models do.

A digital recorder is perfect for recording lectures. You can take these home and re-listen to them in your spare time. You can also type them up to use as study notes. It is a handy tool. Here that is:



2. A rolling (or regular) backpack - great for carrying books, lunches, and much more. This example has a special compartment for your computer. I did not use a rolling backpack when I was a nontraditional student, I used a regular one. But these look very handy. I saw at least five other nontraditional students use them at WKU when I was a teacher ed student.



3. An iPhone, iPad, or iPod. These portable goodies can make your life simpler and help with scheduling.



4. And a new computer wouldn't hurt. When I was going back to school, I often used the computers at school. But sometimes the computer labs were crowded. I brought my computer to school sometimes, but mostly used my computer at home. That's where a portable laptop can be such a good choice for nontraditional students.

I prefer Macs, but you can find good deals on other PC's too.
This is a refurbished Apple laptop that would be perfect for writing papers. It is on sale for a really good price on Amazon.



5. Some GRE helps and study books can come in useful if you take this test for graduate school. I used the general book (earlier version). I probably also should have used the special Math program too for review. Math has always been my hardest subject. When I took a remedial math class in college, I really liked it and got a B in it.

The teacher went back to the explanation of each math method - - and I finally understood it a lot better. Here are some suggestions for popular and useful help. I like it that the first one offers a CD in it. You can also find Kindle downloadable versions of these.



I hope everyone is having a great holiday season.

Later!

Nontraditionally yours,
E. Sheppard / Betsyanne

Remember: You CAN do it!

More Nontrad links: The Nontrad site and blog Join Nontrads on Facebook Nontrads on Yahoo Nontrads on Twitter