Benefits of Associate Degree Before Transferring to a Four Year College

By Deborah Williams

Recently, many college students are earning an associate degree before transferring to a four-year college.  Caralee Adams, writer for Edweek’s College Bound blog, writes that there are a number of reasons that actually earning the associate degree before transferring to a four-year college.  It can…

• …increase the likelihood of completing a bachelor’s degree
• …save students money
• …improve their earnings compared with that of earlier transfers

Researcher Clive Belfield reports these findings from a study of the Community College Research Center at Teachers College at Teachers College, Columbia University.  He notes that getting an associate degree before transferring to a four-year college can increase earnings by $50,000 over 20 years.  He also reports that many community college students have difficulty deciding the best time to transfer to a four-year college.  He suggests that state community college systems “create stronger incentives for making the completion of an associate degree before transfer a priority for students.
Of course, starting out with an associate degree can save you mone

Let the Little Ones Play by Deborah Williams

Dr. Jo Van Herwegen, a psychology researcher at London’s Kingston University, has released new

research findings that show that structured play should be the primary learning technique for pre-school children.  An article, “Structured Play Trumps Age for Future School Success,” on the Science Daily website reports that Dr. Van Herwegen opposes starting school early unless it involves “a formalized setting with trained people…but if it means sitting down and doing formal, proper learning at the age of four or five, then that’s wrong.”  She further asserts that pre-schoolers don’t have the learning foundation—including working memory and language–,so a formalized education setting is inappropriate.
Van Herwegen suggests a program that is similar to what is done in Belgian pre-schools.   Those programs include the following types of activities:

• Carpet time discussions
• School-related activities
  • Painting
  • Learning to hold a pen while sitting at tables and chairs
  • Standing in lines
  • Where to put things
  • How to listen

Short video, yet so powerful

The message in this short video is so simple, yet so powerful. If you "get it," not only will it make
you a better person, but quite possibly...it will change your life.

Watch - The 100/0 Principle >>

I-pads for note taking

Handwritten notes are good for many students to take notes; however, a recent post by Beth Holland on the Edutopia blog makes the case for teaching students to use multiple media to take notes so that they can use what works best for them and integrate online learning tools.  Holland explains that some students may prefer to use some of the iPad’s features to help them connect better to the information.
Cameras and Microphones

• Students may want to take a picture of the whiteboard and insert it into their personal notes.
• Students may want to include audio recordings of their thoughts during the note-taking process.

Typing and Drawing

• Some students prefer typing and drawing their notes. Holland suggests the following apps:
  • Penultimate combined with Evernote
  • PaperPort Notes (which also includes speech-to-text)
  • Notability, the potential exists to type and draw simultaneously as well as include photos and audio
  
  
  
  

Special Needs

With the dramatic increase in the diagnosis rate for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ADS) over the last five years, researchers have found few strategies that are helpful in developing social skills for autistic teens.  A recent report on the Science Daily website describes a promising method that is effective and available at a low cost.
Joshua Plavnick, assistant professor of special education at Michigan State University, acknowledges that strategies for ASD adolescents must be “effective and practical,” and he and his colleagues have found that regular video-based group instruction provides significant gains in various social behaviors.  The video teaching techniques that he and his colleagues published their findings in the research journal Exceptional Children that “the students demonstrated a rapid increase in the level of complex social behaviors each time video-based group instruction was used.”  What’s more, those students retained those behaviors even when the videos were not used as often.  The newly-acquired skills transferred to the students’ homes as well.  Parents reported on anonymous surveys that they were highly satisfied; one even reported that the student started asking family members to play games together, and this was a new behavior.
This instructional strategy seems promising.  It addresses the needs for a rapidly increasing group, and it is cost effective for schools.

Always believe in Yourself is the First Step to Self Literacy

He said... "You Can't Climb the Ladder of Success with Your Hands in Your Pocket!" "You need to figure out for yourself what makes you happy and go for it! Then trust yourself no matter what everyone else thinks!" He continued... "What's the point of being on this Earth if all you want to do is be like the everyone and avoid trouble!" I agree to all these statements and a few more from this video, do you? Watch here! Watch now...

Diamonds are all around us if we only stop to listen and look

Right now we all live in a time of infinite abundance and a wealth of possibility. Each of us is right in
the middle of our own "Acre of Diamonds", if only we would realize it and develop the ground we
are standing on before charging off in search of greener pastures. Watch - Acres of Diamonds >>

Reading in the 21st Century

Some Dyslexics Read Better With E-readers

By Deborah Williams
The convenience of e-readers is undeniable, but researchers at the Smithsonian have found another benefit:  easier reading for dyslexics.  The Science Daily article, “E-readers Can Make Reading Easier for Those With Dyslexia” explains that “when e-readers are set up to only a few words per line, some people with dyslexia can read more easily, quickly and with greater comprehension.”
The researchers found that using e-readers helped dyslexics with particular deficits the most.  They found that those with visual attention deficit, or the “inability to concentrate on letters within words or words within lines of text,” and visual crowding, which is not being able “to recognize letters when they are cluttered within the word,” were able to reduce or eliminate these issues and improve reading because e-readers reduced visual distractions for them.  It seems that “the small screen on a handheld device displaying few words (versus a full sheet of paper) is believed to narrow and concentrate the reader’s focus, which controls visual distraction.”
The outcome of a study of 103 high school students with dyslexia provided the evidence for this discovery.  They found that those with the two deficiencies—visual attention deficit or visual crowding—benefitted the most from using e-readers.  On the other hand, dyslexics without either of these two deficiencies did not enjoy the same benefit.
<iframe width=”420″ height=”315″ src=”//www.youtube.com/embed/2e8ljKqFQjk?rel=0″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>

s

Educating our Children on Adopting Healthy Habits

Keeping Young School Children Healthy

By Deborah Williams

By now, your children have settled into the new school year’s routines.  Along with these adjustments, parents of young children should prepare for the inevitable: transmission of germs.  No matter how diligent you are with preventative action, young children are going to be exposed to germs in school.  An article on the Science Daily website reports that there are more than 200 cold viruses that children may be exposed to when they are in school.
Dr. Jessica McIntyre, a family physician at Loyola University Health System and assistant professor in the Department of Family Medicine at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, explains the reason that young children are likely to get more colds during the school year because of the enclosed environment of a classroom with other children who share common viruses.  McIntyre contends,  “Parents sometimes worry that they have done something wrong to cause frequent colds, or that their child is not healthy. Actually, cold viruses help build a child’s immune system and are an unavoidable part of growing up.”  She assures parents that exposure to these common viruses actually helps young children to build solid immunity so that by the time they become teenagers, they should experience much fewer colds a year.
McIntyre suggests the following to help young children have fewer illnesses:

1. Teach your children the three C’s:
   1. Clean – Wash your hands and make sure your kids wash their hands frequently
   2. Cover – Cover your cough and sneeze, preferably with a tissue, but if one is not available, cough or sneeze into your elbow
   3. Contain – Stay at home if you are sick; germs are one thing that aren’t good to share
2. Family flu vaccines. Everyone who is 6 months or older should be vaccinated.
3. Have your children wash their hands as soon as they get home from school and consider having them change into “home clothes.” This is especially beneficial if you have a young infant at home.
4. There is some evidence that certain complementary products can be effective in cold prevention if taken regularly.
   1. Probiotics: 1 gram mixed with milk twice daily
   2. Vitamin C: 1 gram daily

College in the Future

College Savings for Dual Enrollment Classes

By Deborah Williams

The cost of college continues to rise, and parents are wondering if their children will be able to get a college degree.  If parents had the good fortune and foresight to save for their children’s college educations, they established and contributed to a college savings plan, also called a 529 Plan.  The advantages of preparing for this significant expense are many, such as, little or no college loan debt and tax advantages, for example, but parents may not be aware that they can use some of the money while those children are still in high school.  Education Week blogger, Carolee Adams reports on the College Bound blog that money from a 529 plan can be used for high school students enrolled in college courses.  These dual-enrollment, or concurrent-enrollment, students don’t have to wait until after their high school graduations to offset the expenses for their college courses, which are often called Advanced Placement (AP) courses.
This can be an effective cost- and time-saving measure for families.  First, dual-enrollees pay a fraction of the tuition cost for a college course.   Second, these students reduce the amount of time needed to complete a degree when they successfully

What is your child eating,and is it affecting his grades?

Fatty Acids and School Performance

By Deborah Williams

The results from a recent British study show that low levels of DHA and other omega-3s show are directly related to below average reading ability and behavior concerns.  The summary of this study appears on the National Institutes of Health’s US National Library of Medicine website.  The study, led by P. Montgomery and others at The Centre for Evidence-Based Intervention at the University of Oxford, involved 493 students aged 7 to 9 who read below grade level.
Those students’ fatty acids levels were obtained from fingerstick samples from each child.   In addition to assessing fatty acids levels, each child’s reading and working memory were assessed.  Finally, a behavior rating was done for each child as well.  After controlling for sex and socio-economic status, the researchers found the following:

• Lower DHA concentrations were associated with poorer reading ability and working memory performance
• Lower DHA concentrations were associated with higher levels of parent rated oppositional behavior and emotional lability (likelihood to change)

The implication of the study is for parents to consider supplementing the diets of students with below average reading performance with DHA and other Omega-3 LC-PUFA and/or with Omega-3 LC-PUFA found for ADHD, Dyspraxia, Dyslexia, and related conditions.

Life is Like a Cup of Coffeee

Click on the link below and watch the following movie.


http://www.flickspire.com/m/HealthyRev756/LifeIsLikeCoffee

It's That Time of Year

When Your Child is Stressed About Going Back to School

By Deborah Williams

Entering a new school can be the cause of much stress for a child, and that’s true even when that child
is not new to the area.  An article on the Medical Express website reminds us that the “transition grades”—grades one, six, and nine—can be stressful, too.  The truth is that whenever a child starts the year in a different building, he or she often stresses about how to fit in the new population.
Parents might find suggestions from one expert, University of Alabama at Birmingham associate professor Josh Klapow, worth considering when trying to help their children.  Klapow’s first suggestion is for parents:  See your child’s counselor as a child advocate, and form a partnership with him or her.  He suggests at least once appointment with the counselor either with or without your child.  Also, let the school know of significant changes in your child’s home situation (e.g., “changing to a different school system, hitting a growth spurt, or experiencing a parental divorce”) because they can affect your child’s stress level as well.
Klapow’s suggestions for children follow:

• Make social connections before going back to school. A familiar face can reduce stress.
• Parents of children 12 or younger should notify the school/teacher/counselor about any family changes.

Preteens and teens can be reluctant to discuss what is bothering them. Ask open-ended questions and let them talk to you about what they think will help their situation.
Finally, Klapow cautions parents to be watchful for any change in their children but be aware that children need time to adjust and to switch into their new situation

The face of how workers are hired are changing.

Do Community Service to Get Hired

By Deborah Williams

If the fulfillment that comes from serving others is not enough motivation for your college graduate to embrace community service volunteering, then the results of a new survey might change his or her mind.   A recent post by Nader Salass on The Huffington Post The Third Metric section reports that college graduates who volunteer might have an advantage when being considered for employment.  “The Deloitte Volunteer Impact Survey reveals that skilled and dedicated volunteer work makes college graduate job candidates more appealing to human resources executives.”
The Deloitte Volunteer Impact Survey revealed a big discrepancy between hiring managers and potential employees.  This survey showed that “skilled and dedicated volunteer work makes college graduate job candidates more appealing to human resources executives.”  Surprisingly, about 81 percent of hiring managers believe that volunteer work made graduates more attractive as potential hires, but only 46 percent of the college students who were surveyed thought that volunteering could improve their chances of getting hired.  The results are similar for military service members.  “The study found that 78 percent of hiring managers found returning military veterans with volunteer experience more appealing” while “…only 48 percent of military personnel had considered volunteering at a nonprofit.”
Millennials who are college graduates should consider volunteering to ramp up their resumé

THINK BIG !!!!!

The Top 10 Distinctions Between Millionaires and The Middle Class

August 22 2013

A lot of us sit around during this time of year outlining new plans, new ideas, new strategies … it’s a normal time of year to do this.
And what’s interesting is that the word “new” literally means, “never having existed before”.
What’s super interesting to our own developments is this.
We’ve found that the most progress in our own lives, both financially and personally, have come NOT from any new ideas but by studying the old and implementing them as new.
For example, our biggest successes in real estate did not come from any of the tens of thousands of dollars spent on real estate boot camps, seminars, courses etc.  They came from taking a very old strategy that worked, had been forgotten, and then implemented as if it were brand new.
We’ve also made the most progress in our financial knowledge NOT by reading the latest Forbes issues or watching the latest commentary on CNBC but by reading really old, dusty books on the history of economic cycles.
When we were first getting into sales two books had huge impacts on me and the newest one was ten years old, the other, at least 40 years old.
We made our very largest strides in marketing by not taking the latest blogging strategies, or website linking, or Twitter updating but by taking old direct mail principles and applying them with new technologies.
It’s become very obvious to us the true money making power comes from studying history.  The history of your industry, of your field, of the very best individuals that have ever been in it.
Recently we find ourselves recommending, urging and even pushing people to turn off blogs (this one included), Twitter, Facebook and certainly all email for a few hours each day and go off and study … then reflect, plot, scheme and plan.
This leads us to this week’s pretty big idea that we came across recently:
It’s infinitely easier to become financially independent by becoming a person deserving of it than to go off and try to become financially independent by chasing money.
We never really understood why you needed to be “passionate” about your business endeveaors.  But now we get it … it’s partly so that you can survive the rough times but, more interestingly to us, it’s so you become an avid student of your craft.
When you turn into a serious student you learn all this interesting stuff and you have an amazing appreciation for why things begin happening to you.

Last week, after organizing our offices, we came across this little book that seems to fit with today’s message.
It’s “The Top Ten Distinctions between Millionaires and the Middle Class“, by Keith Cameron Smith.
It’s a tiny book, 95-pages total but it does an excellent job of summarizing some of the long lasting principles that create wealth.
Here they are, the Distinctions between Millionaires and the Middle Class by Keith Cameron Smith:
Distinction #10: Millionaires think long-term.  The middle class thinks short term.
Distinction #9: Millionaires talk about ideas.  The middle class talks about things and other people.
Distinction #8: Millionaires embrace change. The middle class is threatened by change.
Distinction #7: Millionaires take calculated risks.  The middle class is afraid to take risks.
Distinction #6: Millionaires continually learn and grow.  The middle class thinks learning ended with school.
Distinction #5: Millionaires work for profits. The middle class works for wages.
Distinction #4: Millionaires believe they must be generous.  The middle class believes it can’t afford to give.
Distinction: #3: Millionaires have multiple sources of income. The middle class has only one or two.
Distinction #2: Millionaires focus on increasing their net worth.  The middle class focuses on increasing their pay checks.
Distinction #1: Millionaires ask themselves empowering questions. The middle-class asks themselves disempowering questions.
Food for thought.
Until next time … Your Life. Your Terms!

Posted by : Tom | 5 Comments »

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 22nd, 2013 at 10:15 am and is filed under Business Lessons, Personal Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Financial Literacy

 Literacy is not just about academics as most people think. Financial literacy is very important. Schools should implement teaching financial literacy in the curriculum.





















 

How to Survive Student Loan Debt

By Deborah Williams

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Many students cannot fund their college educations without taking out student loans.  Most students have no difficulty getting a student loan, but after graduation, that looming debt can be overwhelming.  Kristin Kloberdanz penned an article, “8 Ways to Keep Your Student Loan Debt From Crushing You,” on the Take Part website with tips for making sure that students don’t get in over their heads.  Here are tips that Kloberdanz learned after interviewing Lauren Asher, the president of the Institute for College Access & Success, which runs the non-profit Project on Student Debt.  Here are her tips:

1. Know your loans. Make sure you know how much you owe, what kinds of loans you have, and where you are to send your payment.  Private lenders are not required to carry protections and forgiveness like federal loans.
2. Stay in touch with your lender. Inform the lender if you move so that you can stay out of trouble with your debt.  If you have more than one loan, check on the possibility of consolidating them into one loan, but don’t consolidate private loans with federal because you will lose your federal protections.
3. Review your repayment options. If you are not able to manage your payments, consider repayment options that are based on your income.  The Project on Student Debt created a site for federal loans, consider what’s available at http://www.ibrinfo.org.
4. Contain the cost of your loan. Ask the lender about lowering the principal by including a written request each time you send extra money to ensure that it is being applied to the principal rather than future payments because those include fees and interest.  If you can pay off a loan, pay off the most expensive one first and the private ones.  If your employer offers loan forgiveness, be sure to take advantage of that.
5. Stay out of trouble. Make all payments on time.

If you’ve missed a payment:

1. Talk to your lender. Be upfront with the lender to discuss options that you may not know about.  If yours is a federal loan, you can learn more about those options from those websites.
2. Explore other options. Check out other options apart from the lender.  Two places to begin are www.studentloanborrowerassistance.org and www.studentaid.gov.    Reports from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau can inform you of complaints about your lender as well.
3. Time is of the essence. Although you might have late payments and you haven’t defaulted on a federal loan, you have time to straighten things out and save your credit rating.  A bad credit rating can mean it’s difficult to get an apartment, a car loan, or a job.  Additionally, tax refunds can be claimed, your wages can be garnished, or your Social Security benefits can be reduced if you default on a federal loa

Boards games Vs Technology

Play a Board Game, Improve Your Brain

By Deborah Williams

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With the stimulating enticement of video gaming, many children have not played board games in years—if ever–, but new research suggests that having children play board games can increase their learning capacity.  The article, “Playing to Learn,” by Janet Eastman appears as part of the Summer Ed series of stories about ways to prevent summer loss.  Eastman asserts, “Research shows that games can teach children reading, math and logic, free of academic stress.   Funagain, the board game center at the Ashland High School, provides board games to help students prevent brain drain by playing cards and board games.
Proponents give the following benefits for students who play board games:

• Improved eye-hand coordination and manual dexterity
• Boosted confidence for test-taking
• Fosters a love for math if used to introduce mathematical concepts
• Teaches students how to play by the rules and how to polish social skills
• Improved planning ahead

Less Screen makes better students; Fact or Fiction

 

Better Health With Less Screen Time

By Deborah Williams

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A Science Daily article reports that a leading psychologist and child health expert, Dr. Aric Sigman, asserts in the Archives of Disease in Childhood that it is urgent for parents to decrease the amount and to delay when children start having screen time because too much screen time can lead to serious health and developmental problems.  Sigman believes that, in light of all the evidence, leaders of medicine and government “should take a stand and set clear guidelines” on this issue.
He supports his claims by citing a number of studies that point to the connection between too much screen time and poor health.  They include the following physical health concerns:

• Heart disease
• Stroke
• Diabetes
• Other irreversible effects from being too sedentary such as an increased obesity risk and reduced attention span

Sigman also believes that increased screen time is associated with psychological problems:

• Screen addiction
• Facebook depression
• Increased risk of disengagement and vulnerability to victimization after high levels of screen time in early childhood
• Poor social skills
• Impaired ability to express empathy

Parents can implement simple rules to avert these possible health problems: limit screen time and delay screen viewing until age 3.
View this BBC News report about Dr. Sigman’s findings:

Are we Preparing for Later Years?

Canadians failing to financially prepare for longer lives

By Brenda Bouw | Pay Day – 11 hours ago

 

For all the efforts we Canadians put into prolonging our lives, from healthy eating and exercise to pharmaceutical support, it seems we forgot to follow up on one thing: saving money for those extra years.

A new survey conducted for Blackrock Canada says Canadians may be living longer, but not saving more to compensate.
“We’re calling it the Longevity Paradox – people know they have to prepare for long retirements, but they’re not really doing what they need to do to get there,” said Noel Archard, head of BlackRock Canada.
The survey shows 56 per cent of Canadians believe their savings will need to last at least 25 years in retirement, which would take them until they’re 90 years old if they retired at the traditional age of 65.
Younger investors are even more optimistic, believing they’ll need at least 30 years worth of retirement savings. (It’s not clear whether they expect to live until they're 90, or retire earlier than 65, but both would be considered optimistic).
“I guess that’s good news,” said Archard. “But the worse news is that only about 15 per cent of them have a clear idea of how much that means they will need to save.”
The survey shows investors who haven’t yet hit retirement have been good at socking away cash, but only 59 per cent have a plan. Blackrock says that number drops by about half among younger investors and those with less than $100,000 in retirement savings
“Those are arguably the folks who need a plan the most,” Archard says.
The survey comes follows a recent report from the C.D. Howe Institute which shows Canadian life expectancy has increased on average since 1950, and calls on policymakers to adapt through changes to tax and pension rules.
The Blackrock report also calls on policymakers, as well as employers and the financial industry, to help solve what it calls “defining financial challenge of our age.”
“Investors are unjustifiably optimistic and dangerously passive,” the Blackrock report states.
The survey says 70 per cent of investors believe government pension plans will be there for them in retirement and 24 per cent don't have an RRSP. Nearly two in five investors have no workplace retirement plan, including a quarter of currently employed investors, the survey says.
“There tends to be a false sense of security when it comes to planning for retirement,” says Archard. “We hope that the money will somehow be there when we need it but we’re not taking the action required to ensure it is. This is a serious problem, and addressing it must become an urgent priority.”
The survey was conducted in early May included 1,720 investors who had investment of more than $5,000 outside of real estate and workplace pensions.

Be Inspired

When you were younger didn't you think you could accomplish anything, do anything and
become anything you wanted? Shouldn't you still think that?

Something for Educational Institutions to Think About

Tuition Free College for Oregon Students

By Deborah Williams

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Legislators  in Oregon are considering an idea that could be the answer for so many prospective college students who don’t have the financial resources to pay for college, and they don’t want to take on its tremendous debt.  Steven Dubois pens an article on The Huffington Post website that describes the new program, which  was started by Seattle’s Economic Opportunity Institute and is based partially on an Australian model.  The idea, Pay It Forward, allows students to attend Oregon’s public universities without paying tuition or securing a loan.  In exchange, students will have three percent of their paychecks deducted for about 25 years and deposited into a fund to pay for future students who choose to participate.  Graduates from two-year colleges would have 1.5 percent deducted instead of the three percent.  Those who do not complete their graduation requirements “would pay a pro-rated portion of their incomes.”
The bill was passed unanimously by the state’s legislature and probably will be signed by the governor within the next few weeks.  Should it become law, Pay It Forward will begin as a pilot project by the 2015 Legislature.  The startup costs, estimated to be about $9 billion, still need to be resolved because the first participants would not be able to contribute to the fund for several years.

To be Schooled or Not

Research Required to Graduate | Home

Reasons to Stay in School

By Deborah Williams

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At one time or another, almost all students wonder if what they are studying will be helpful after graduation.  For some, it is the reason that they drop out before they graduate high school.  A recent article on the Teen page of The Huffington Post published a summary of what some Reddit users say are the least and most useful things that they learned in school.  Here are some of the most useful things that these users learned in school:
Most Useful

• Teachers can be friends, too.
• How to communicate with people
• Forced presentations in class really got me over my social anxieties and made me a less shy person
• How to write essays.  I hated it at high school but it really helped with my University assignments.
• Social skills are probably the most valuable thing you learn in high school.  Just in terms of everyday life use.
• Learning to use computers, write a résumé and definitely learning how to read an analog clock in grade 1.
• How to properly write a CV (curriculum vita)
• Learned how to save my money in a bank

Graduation Requirements

Readd the article below and share your comments.

Research Required to Graduate

By Deborah Williams

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Until recent years, research projects have been an expected requirement  for students, especially in secondary school.  That practice is not an expectation for many students, and when it is, it varies from school to school and from teacher to teacher.  A recent post on the lohud.com blog on The Journal website reports that the New York regents board is considering a requirement that all New York high school students must produce  a research paper in order to graduate.  The requirement is aligned with the Common Core learning standards, and the Board of Regents is likely to adopt this requirement at its next board meeting.
The Regents are considering including minimum requirements for the Regents Research Paper:  at least five pages long and at least four sources.  Also, students must complete the paper before taking the English Regents, which is typically in the eleventh grade.
English teachers would be responsible for teaching research skills, and accommodations would be made for students with limited English skills.  Some consideration is being given to allowing students to adapt a paper from another class, and who might score the papers has yet to be determined.

Something for Canadian and American Schools to Think About

Why High School Graduates in China and India Are More Ready for College

By Deborah Williams

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While American schools are wrestling with budget cuts, school officials in India and China have significantly increased their spending on public education.  The United States still spends more per student than these countries, but China and India’s investment, it seems, has been paying off.  Kelsey Sheehy, writer for the U S News and World Report’s School Notes blog, reports that high school graduates in China and India are better prepared for college than American high school graduates:

• High school students in India and China are going to college and finishing at a higher rate than America’s 50 percent college graduation rate.
• Many of their college graduates are STEM—science, technology, engineering, and math—majors.  China graduates about 1.5 million college students with STEM degrees while the United States graduates less than 500,000 such graduates.

Part of the reason for the disparity seems traceable to programs in lower grade levels.  Ann O’Leary, director of the Children and Families program at the Center for the Next Generation, believes that high school graduates are not getting the level of training needed to succeed in college-level STEM programs.  She suggests the U.S. needs to do the following:

• Improve teacher training
• Provide access to job shadowing and internship experiences to all high school students in STEM courses

New Literacies

The following article below goes back to what I have been saying all along about literacies. Times have certainly changed, and the younger generation seems oblivious as to what is not appropriate in terms of writing. There is no self control with the youths of today. I would love to hear your thoughts.

Man gets offensive restaurant bill that curses his ‘needy kid

Joe Gibson received this bill after dining with his son on Father's Day. (Photo via Gawker)Joe Gibson probably didn't expect the shocking treatment he got on Father's Day while sharing a meal at Friendly's sports bar in St. Louis, Mo. with his son.

After sharing chicken, soda and french fries with his three-year-old son, he received a bill with one unusual item at the bottom of the receipt:

"F**kin needy kids."
Naturally this upset Gibson who took to posting the bill on the Facebook page of local newspaper, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The paper then ran a story about the issue and interviewed the Friendly's sports bar owner.
"Normally, we don't let anyone in who's under 21. But the guy said he was with his kid for Father's Day... so I said 'sure,'" Denny Domachowski tells the paper.
Also see: Debate over kind gesture on restaurant bill
Domachowski claims that the offending words were a joke written by the waitress and intended for the kitchen staff only. Those types of comments are normally deleted from the bill before given to the customer, but they were accidentally left on.
"I can understand why the gentleman was upset," Domachowski says. "And that's why I apologized." He also claims that the waitress has been reprimanded.
However, while Gibson acknowledges that accidents happen, he is less than appeased.
"If it happened to me, it could happen again," he says. "What else are they writing about other people?"
Also see: Unusual message over mom's restaurant bill
Apparently, Gibson is right. Because he is not he only parent to receive a restaurant bill with derogatory remarks about his kid.
In 2009, a British couple received a bill from Cactus Joe's restaurant that referred to their two-year-old daughter as a "little f*****." The wait staff who wrote the comments was fired and the restaurant apologized.
And there are other types of offensive restaurant bills with customer insults.
Last year, a New York City woman of Asian descent was served a bill from Papa John's restaurant chain that referred to her as "lady chinky eyes." She posted the bill on Twitter, which went viral, later prompting a public apology from the pizza chain, as well as the termination of the waitress responsible for the bill.
What are your thoughts on bills of this nature? Are they innocent mistakes or part of a larger problem with restaurant policies? Sound off in the comments.

Schools for the Future

School Vision Centers

By Deborah Willia

One of the most frustrating issues for a teacher is having students with visual impairments who don’t have their corrective eyewear in class.  This is compounded when a teacher has several students with vision problems in the same class.  Often, the problem is that their parents cannot afford to pay for proper eye care, or they cannot pay for the eyewear that is prescribed for their children.  A non-profit department of Luxottica, an eyewear company will help the students at Public School 188 on New York’s Coney Island and Public School 18 in the Bronx by establishing vision centers inside both schools in September.  This venture is part of a partnership with the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), and the centers will be funded by Medicaid reimbursements as part of the UFT’s Community Schools Initiative to strengthen social services in schools.”
According to The Huffington Post article by Rebecca Klein, this is not the first time that this has been tried.  Last year, the UFT partnered with OneSight to establish a vision center in an Ohio school with a significant low-income population.  OneSight Executive Director, Dr. Jason Singh, noted that OneSight found that 64% of the students examined at the school needed glasses.  Dr. Siingh noted, “Eighty percent of what we learn is visual, and yet one in four kids have an undiagnosed vision problem.”
Here is an overview of the impact of the OneSight Vision Center at Oyler School:

Are more adults going back to school?

Why Business Managers Should Go Back to School

At times, business managers may feel their career has come to a stall and they think about pursuing a degree to augment their academic portfolio. A survey conducted by the Bellevue University inferred that the demand of the economic setup is causing professionals to reevaluate their careers. On many levels, such initiatives are a worthwhile investment in terms of valuable networking and updated information. However, there are certain important considerations to be kept in mind.
Among the statistics that were obtained, as much as 47% said that the fluctuations in economy caused the pursuit of additional degrees. On the other hand, 26% said that their motives were driven on the account that their select career had far too low progressive opportunity.
The point of opting for a degree should be dependent on the end goals. The relevance of degree to the professional standpoint is paramount. The scope and the duration of the additional degree are dependent on what the individual can achieve.
For that matter, a number of organizations look towards managers who can multitask or are well versed with the attributes of project management. So if a manager already has an MBA degree, he/she can augment it with a project managed certificate like a CSU Certificate in Project Management from Cardinal Stritch and other course programs that come in handy when project managers are replaced by the traditional hierarchical structure. Such an approach is successful on the account that it’s highly directed.
In the current status quo, pursuing a simple course is a much more viable strategy than pursuing a full fledged degree. The reasons for this being the cost benefit analysis which is in favor of courses.
Another important parameter to consider is what the benefits of reverting back to academics are. The main benefit is updating on the latest concepts and how they can translate into becoming a better professional. In management, a number of new concepts have come in place which renders the previous ones obsolete.
Previously, business strategies focused on solutions in which each process was designated separately. Now the idea is to manage each aspect together using algorithmic approach. This is such a vital tool to add to a manager’s portfolio that a promotion at work is going to look brighter than ever.
The concept of socializing has also become more important. Gone are the days of isolated success, and now is the time of composite progress. Reverting back to academics will allow managers to socialize with the modern student sphere. This is going to help their creative process by adding more ideas.
Pursing education with their work will also give managers a good opportunity in terms of getting a target market as well. The growth of virtual classes has made it possible to manage study and work together.
A fundamental difference of the current educational paradigm from the previous one is the pursuit of indigenous research projects. This has a massive impact on the knowledge base.
The level of specialized education has increased during the last few years. It’s possible to get into those courses that are ideally suited to one’s of career. The important parameters to evaluate are the relevance and the cost factor. After all, no one wants going back to school and ending up in debt.
The recession may have constrained a lot of people’s choice in terms of a career, but there are ample opportunities for those who want to improve.

Technology in the classroom

Technological Literacy in the Classroom

Posted on May 29, 2013  by Laura Pizzirusso in Classroom Ideas, Literacy, Technology.
Tags: Literacy, Technology
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Just try to stop technology in the classroom, and you might have better luck trying to stop a freight train. Harry Keller, Editor of Science Education and Literacy for ETC Journal (educational technology & change), writes in Technological Literacy: The Key to Education Reform that by combining technology with literacy can we reform education. Much more than simply “one of the latest buzz phrases in education,” technological literacy is not isolated technologies such as interactive white boards and iPads that surface in classrooms followed up by literacy lessons. The concept is about knowing how to effectively use technology, hands-on, in the classroom.
But knowing how to use technology is the first step, and knowing how to effectively use it is the second step. I know an “old-school” elementary-level teacher who is not technologically savvy. For the most part, she doesn’t respond to parent emails with emails. She asks students and support staff how to use the classroom ipads. This doesn’t make her a bad teacher, she is simply “technologically illiterate” in a district that is becoming heavily technologically literate. But what Keller would say in this case is “the solution [to our current education crisis] is at hand, but without technological literacy in our schools right down to the classroom teacher, it won’t be implemented, and we’ll continue down the slope to increasing failure.” That kind of  implication makes me want to meet with her to gently show how these things work.
Just having technology available in a school system is not the answer – Keller argues that we now need “the ability to understand and evaluate technology” – both from a teacher perspective and district perspective. He writes that “anyone in the implementation chain must also be able to understand the implications of the decision to use a particular technology.”
Yet even our young students are technologically savvy, often referred to a “digital natives” – and we know that we can reach students this way. With the increase in online literacy programs like Big Universe and the multitude of learning apps for typical and special needs students, we need to use technology effectively, otherwise it becomes simply a replacement for a chalkboard.
Tonya Wright in Technology and Literacy in the Early Childhood Classroom, writes that “the early childhood community has been slower to catch when it comes to technology. A recent survey of early childhood professionals by Child Care Information Exchange revealed that among child care centers, most that use technology only do so for administrative purposes such as accounting or record-keeping; and classroom use is often limited to educational software.” Yet “technology can positively impact classroom practices” – from “lesson plan ideas, recipes, and classroom themes,” even by preschool students.
She suggests using digital images (in a slide show), e-pal sites, create student electronic portfolios, and Word-processing and desktop publishing software. Her suggestions are great as the real-life applications to these includes technological literacy, a basic skill set for many of today’s jobs, and includes capabilities such as creating slide show presentations, interacting with others through digital means, and before even getting the job, creating a visual portfolio on a leave-behind CD after an interview.
This doesn’t mean the old school teacher I referred to has to throw out the chalk with the chalkboard. Clearly our district is pushing a current technology, and I’d like to see them be held accountable for teaching her how to use it. She’d be surprised how quickly it would become just another tool to effectively teach. Is your district pushing