Movies and films give more than just entertainment. Watching foreign language movies is a fun, motivating way to improve language skills. While enjoying a movie, you can be immersed into authentic and varied language, the visual context and new expressions that you may not find in a textbook. Below are some ways that watching English movies can help you to learn English, and guide you how to get the most out of this technique.
How watching movies helps to improve your English skills
1. Listening skills
Watching movies is a great way to boost your listening skills. You will hear English used in a natural way, informal English, slag words and phrases you do not often find in books or dictionaries.
2. Speaking skills
Repeating what you hear on the screen can go a long way towards improving your speaking skills, from your fluency, words linking, pronunciation, to correct intonation.
3. Vocabulary and grammar
You will have chance to learn many words, phrases and grammar and how they are used in real life.
Watching movies and films, obviously helps to improve your English. However, while some can use this technique effectively, many people find it difficult. For example, there are no subtitles; they have to keep on pausing and playing to understand; they find it difficult to take notes while enjoying the movie; they are not sure whether they can remember these words after.
So how can learning English through movies be made enjoyable and effective?
1. Enjoy them
You don't need to understand everything. If you try too hard, it will be frustrating experience studying the language. Instead, try catching words and grammar points you already know and those you are not familiar with. You can pause and replay when you find something interesting or if you want to verify something. It is easier and time-saving if you have both English subtitles in your mother language. Since not all films have these, you can check the movie transcripts.
2. Re-watching, listening and shadowing
Re-watch your favorite films, and replay your favorite scenes. The more you re-watch, the more you can focus on the speech because you already know what is happening in every scene. Instead of focusing on what is happening, you can give more attention to what you hear. If you don't have time to re-watch the movie, then listen to the film audio. You can rip audio from films, save them as Mp3 files, and play them while doing other things. Also, mimic the way the actors say the lines by repeating them. You can look at the transcripts while doing so.
3. Use movies to reinforce what you have learned from textbook lessons
You can remember lots of new words and grammar through watching movies. Just compile transcripts of your favorite films in a single document. For new words and grammar that you meet in the lessons from your ELICOS courses, you can find them in the script, then check when and how they are used in different scenes in the film. To better remember the words and grammar, you can re-watch, and listen to the audio, color-note the script lines of the scenes that have the words you are studying and repeat them. Repeat and act out the scenes until you can recite and understand them without looking at the transcript and your notes.
In a nut shell
Learning English through movies is an enjoyable and effective strategy to improve your language skills. Don't stress yourself too much! Just enjoy watching movies, re-watch, listen and mimic your favorite movies and scenes. The subtitles and transcripts are also a great help. By so doing, you may be amazed at your language improvement as time goes by!
Learning English can be very fun and effective if you take ELICOS course at Scots English College (Scots). As a government registered ELICOS provider, Scots offers various premium quality ELICOS courses right in the heart of Sydney's CBD. We also have practical tips and useful resources to help you learn English quickly, easily and effectively. Check out these helpful tips to improve your English through English movies.
By Suri Do
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
A Brief History of Special Education
Perhaps the largest and most pervasive issue in special education, as well as my own journey in education, is special education's relationship to general education. History has shown that this has never been an easy clear cut relationship between the two. There has been a lot of giving and taking or maybe I should say pulling and pushing when it comes to educational policy, and the educational practices and services of education and special education by the human educators who deliver those services on both sides of the isle, like me.
Over the last 20+ years I have been on both sides of education. I have seen and felt what it was like to be a regular main stream educator dealing with special education policy, special education students and their specialized teachers. I have also been on the special education side trying to get regular education teachers to work more effectively with my special education students through modifying their instruction and materials and having a little more patience and empathy.
Furthermore, I have been a mainstream regular education teacher who taught regular education inclusion classes trying to figure out how to best work with some new special education teacher in my class and his or her special education students as well. And, in contrast, I have been a special education inclusion teacher intruding on the territory of some regular education teachers with my special education students and the modifications I thought these teachers should implement. I can tell you first-hand that none of this give and take between special education and regular education has been easy. Nor do I see this pushing and pulling becoming easy anytime soon.
So, what is special education? And what makes it so special and yet so complex and controversial sometimes? Well, special education, as its name suggests, is a specialized branch of education. It claims its lineage to such people as Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard (1775-1838), the physician who "tamed" the "wild boy of Aveyron," and Anne Sullivan Macy (1866-1936), the teacher who "worked miracles" with Helen Keller.
Special educators teach students who have physical, cognitive, language, learning, sensory, and/or emotional abilities that deviate from those of the general population. Special educators provide instruction specifically tailored to meet individualized needs. These teachers basically make education more available and accessible to students who otherwise would have limited access to education due to whatever disability they are struggling with.
It's not just the teachers though who play a role in the history of special education in this country. Physicians and clergy, including Itard- mentioned above, Edouard O. Seguin (1812-1880), Samuel Gridley Howe (1801-1876), and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (1787-1851), wanted to ameliorate the neglectful, often abusive treatment of individuals with disabilities. Sadly, education in this country was, more often than not, very neglectful and abusive when dealing with students that are different somehow.
There is even a rich literature in our nation that describes the treatment provided to individuals with disabilities in the 1800s and early 1900s. Sadly, in these stories, as well as in the real world, the segment of our population with disabilities were often confined in jails and almshouses without decent food, clothing, personal hygiene, and exercise.
For an example of this different treatment in our literature one needs to look no further than Tiny Tim in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (1843). In addition, many times people with disabilities were often portrayed as villains, such as in the book Captain Hook in J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan" in 1911.
The prevailing view of the authors of this time period was that one should submit to misfortunes, both as a form of obedience to God's will, and because these seeming misfortunes are ultimately intended for one's own good. Progress for our people with disabilities was hard to come by at this time with this way of thinking permeating our society, literature and thinking.
So, what was society to do about these people of misfortune? Well, during much of the nineteenth century, and early in the twentieth, professionals believed individuals with disabilities were best treated in residential facilities in rural environments. An out of sight out of mind kind of thing, if you will...
However, by the end of the nineteenth century the size of these institutions had increased so dramatically that the goal of rehabilitation for people with disabilities just wasn't working. Institutions became instruments for permanent segregation.
I have some experience with these segregation policies of education. Some of it is good and some of it is not so good. You see, I have been a self-contained teacher on and off throughout the years in multiple environments in self-contained classrooms in public high schools, middle schools and elementary schools. I have also taught in multiple special education behavioral self-contained schools that totally separated these troubled students with disabilities in managing their behavior from their mainstream peers by putting them in completely different buildings that were sometimes even in different towns from their homes, friends and peers.
Over the years many special education professionals became critics of these institutions mentioned above that separated and segregated our children with disabilities from their peers. Irvine Howe was one of the first to advocate taking our youth out of these huge institutions and to place out residents into families. Unfortunately this practice became a logistical and pragmatic problem and it took a long time before it could become a viable alternative to institutionalization for our students with disabilities.
Now on the positive side, you might be interested in knowing however that in 1817 the first special education school in the United States, the American Asylum for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb (now called the American School for the Deaf), was established in Hartford, Connecticut, by Gallaudet. That school is still there today and is one of the top schools in the country for students with auditory disabilities. A true success story!
However, as you can already imagine, the lasting success of the American School for the Deaf was the exception and not the rule during this time period. And to add to this, in the late nineteenth century, social Darwinism replaced environmentalism as the primary causal explanation for those individuals with disabilities who deviated from those of the general population.
Sadly, Darwinism opened the door to the eugenics movement of the early twentieth century. This then led to even further segregation and even sterilization of individuals with disabilities such as mental retardation. Sounds like something Hitler was doing in Germany also being done right here in our own country, to our own people, by our own people. Kind of scary and inhumane, wouldn't you agree?
Today, this kind of treatment is obviously unacceptable. And in the early part of the 20th Century it was also unacceptable to some of the adults, especially the parents of these disabled children. Thus, concerned and angry parents formed advocacy groups to help bring the educational needs of children with disabilities into the public eye. The public had to see firsthand how wrong this this eugenics and sterilization movement was for our students that were different if it was ever going to be stopped.
Slowly, grassroots organizations made progress that even led to some states creating laws to protect their citizens with disabilities. For example, in 1930, in Peoria, Illinois, the first white cane ordinance gave individuals with blindness the right-of-way when crossing the street. This was a start, and other states did eventually follow suit. In time, this local grassroots' movement and states' movement led to enough pressure on our elected officials for something to be done on the national level for our people with disabilities.
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy created the President's Panel on Mental Retardation. And in 1965, Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which provided funding for primary education, and is seen by advocacy groups as expanding access to public education for children with disabilities.
When one thinks about Kennedy's and Johnson's record on civil rights, then it probably isn't such a surprise finding out that these two presidents also spearheaded this national movement for our people with disabilities.
This federal movement led to section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act. This guarantees civil rights for the disabled in the context of federally funded institutions or any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. All these years later as an educator, I personally deal with 504 cases every single day.
In 1975 Congress enacted Public Law 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA), which establishes a right to public education for all children regardless of disability. This was another good thing because prior to federal legislation, parents had to mostly educate their children at home or pay for expensive private education.
The movement kept growing. In the 1982 the case of the Board of Education of the Hendrick Hudson Central School District v. Rowley, the U.S. Supreme Court clarified the level of services to be afforded students with special needs. The Court ruled that special education services need only provide some "educational benefit" to students. Public schools were not required to maximize the educational progress of students with disabilities.
Today, this ruling may not seem like a victory, and as a matter of fact, this same question is once again circulating through our courts today in 2017. However, given the time period it was made in, it was a victory because it said special education students could not pass through our school system without learning anything. They had to learn something. If one knows and understands how the laws work in this country, then one knows the laws always progress through tiny little increments that add up to progress over time. This ruling was a victory for special education students because it added one more rung onto the crusade.
In the 1980s the Regular Education Initiative (REI) came into being. This was an attempt to return responsibility for the education of students with disabilities to neighborhood schools and regular classroom teachers. I am very familiar with Regular Education Initiative because I spent four years as an REI teacher in the late 1990s and early 2000s. At this time I was certified as both a special education teacher and a regular education teacher and was working in both capacities in a duel role as an REI teacher; because that's what was required of the position.
The 1990s saw a big boost for our special education students. 1990 birthed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This was, and is, the cornerstone of the concept of a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) for all of our students. To ensure FAPE, the law mandated that each student receiving special education services must also receive an Individualized Education Program (IEP).
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 reached beyond just the public schools. And Title 3 of IDEA prohibited disability-based discrimination in any place of public accommodation. Full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, or accommodations in public places were expected. And of course public accommodations also included most places of education.
Also, in the 1990s the full inclusion movement gained a lot of momentum. This called for educating all students with disabilities in the regular classroom. I am also very familiar with this aspect of education as well, as I have also been an inclusion teacher from time to time over my career as an educator on both sides of the isle as a regular education teacher and a special education teacher.
Now on to President Bush and his educational reform with his No Child Left Behind law that replaced President Johnson's Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The NCLB Act of 2001 stated that special education should continue to focus on producing results and along with this came a sharp increase in accountability for educators.
Now, this NCLB Act was good and bad. Of course we all want to see results for all of our students, and it's just common sense that accountability helps this sort of thing happen. Where this kind of went crazy was that the NCLB demanded a host of new things, but did not provide the funds or support to achieve these new objectives.
Furthermore, teachers began feeling squeezed and threatened more and more by the new movement of big business and corporate education moving in and taking over education. People with no educational background now found themselves influencing education policy and gaining access to a lot of the educational funds.
This accountability craze stemmed by excessive standardized testing ran rapid and of course ran downstream from a host of well-connected elite Trump-like figures saying to their lower echelon educational counterparts, "You're fired!" This environment of trying to stay off of the radar in order to keep one's job, and beating our kids over the head with testing strategies, wasn't good for our educators. It wasn't good for our students. And it certainly wasn't good for our more vulnerable special education students.
Some good did come from this era though. For example, the updated Individuals with Disabilities with Education Act of 2004 (IDEA) happened. This further required schools to provide individualized or special education for children with qualifying disabilities. Under the IDEA, states who accept public funds for education must provide special education to qualifying children with disabilities. Like I said earlier, the law is a long slow process of tiny little steps adding up to progress made over time.
Finally, in 2015 President Obama's Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) replaced President Bush's NCLB, which had replaced President Johnson's ESEA. Under Obama's new ESSA schools were now allowed to back off on some of the testing. Hopefully, the standardized testing craze has been put in check. However, only time will tell. ESSA also returned to more local control. You know, the kind of control our forefathers intended.
You see the U.S. Constitution grants no authority over education to the federal government. Education is not mentioned in the Constitution of the United States, and for good reason. The Founders wanted most aspects of life managed by those who were closest to them, either by state or local government or by families, businesses, and other elements of civil society. Basically, they saw no role for the federal government in education.
You see, the Founders feared the concentration of power. They believed that the best way to protect individual freedom and civil society was to limit and divide power. However, this works both ways, because the states often find themselves asking the feds for more educational money. And the feds will only give the states additional money if the states do what the feds want... Hmm... Checks and balances, as well as compromise can be a really tricky thing, huh?
So on goes the battle in education and all the back and forth pushing and pulling between the federal government and the states and local government, as well as special education and regular education. And to add to this struggle, recently Judge Moukawsher, a state judge from Connecticut, in a lawsuit filed against the state by the Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding, rocked the educational boat some more when in his ruling he included a message to lawmakers to reassess what level of services students with significant disabilities are entitled to.
His ruling and statements appear to say that he thinks we're spending too much money on our special education students. And that for some of them, it just isn't worth it because their disabilities are too severe. You can imagine how controversial this was and how much it angered some people.
The 2016 United States Presidential election resulted in something that few people saw coming. Real Estate mogul and reality star Donald Trump won the presidency and then appointed anti-public educator Betsy Devos to head up this country's Department of Education. Her charge, given to her by Trump, is to drastically slash the Department of Education, and to push forward private charter schools over what they call a failing public educational system.
How this is going to affect our students, and especially our more vulnerable special education students, nobody knows for sure at this time. But, I can also tell you that there aren't many people out there that feel comfortable with it right now. Only time will tell where this is all going to go and how it will affect our special education students...
So, as I said earlier, perhaps the largest, most pervasive issue in special education is its relationship to general education. Both my own travels and our nation's journey through the vast realm of education over all of these years has been an interesting one and a tricky one plagued with controversy to say the least.
I can still remember when I first became a special education teacher back in the mid-1990s. A friend's father, who was a school principal at the time, told me to get out of special education because it wasn't going to last. Well, I've been in and out of special education for more than two decades now, and sometimes I don't know if I'm a regular education teacher or a special education teacher, or both. And sometimes I think our country's educational system might be feeling the same internal struggle that I am. But, regardless, all these years later, special education is still here.
In closing, although Itard failed to normalize Victor, the wild boy of Averyon, he did produce dramatic changes in Victor's behavior through education. Today, modern special education practices can be traced to Itard. His work marks the beginning of widespread attempts to instruct students with disabilities. Fast forwarding to 2017, for what happens next in the future of education and special education in our country... Well, I guess that depends on all of us...
Award-winning author, speaker and educator Dan Blanchard wants to share with you a little bit of his history and this country's history on the struggle of special education and regular education and thier relationship to each other throughout their history. Learn more about Dan at: http://www.DanBlanchard.net. Thanks.
Perhaps the largest and most pervasive issue in special education, as well as my own journey in education, is special education's relationship to general education. History has shown that this has never been an easy clear cut relationship between the two. There has been a lot of giving and taking or maybe I should say pulling and pushing when it comes to educational policy, and the educational practices and services of education and special education by the human educators who deliver those services on both sides of the isle, like me.
Over the last 20+ years I have been on both sides of education. I have seen and felt what it was like to be a regular main stream educator dealing with special education policy, special education students and their specialized teachers. I have also been on the special education side trying to get regular education teachers to work more effectively with my special education students through modifying their instruction and materials and having a little more patience and empathy.
Furthermore, I have been a mainstream regular education teacher who taught regular education inclusion classes trying to figure out how to best work with some new special education teacher in my class and his or her special education students as well. And, in contrast, I have been a special education inclusion teacher intruding on the territory of some regular education teachers with my special education students and the modifications I thought these teachers should implement. I can tell you first-hand that none of this give and take between special education and regular education has been easy. Nor do I see this pushing and pulling becoming easy anytime soon.
So, what is special education? And what makes it so special and yet so complex and controversial sometimes? Well, special education, as its name suggests, is a specialized branch of education. It claims its lineage to such people as Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard (1775-1838), the physician who "tamed" the "wild boy of Aveyron," and Anne Sullivan Macy (1866-1936), the teacher who "worked miracles" with Helen Keller.
Special educators teach students who have physical, cognitive, language, learning, sensory, and/or emotional abilities that deviate from those of the general population. Special educators provide instruction specifically tailored to meet individualized needs. These teachers basically make education more available and accessible to students who otherwise would have limited access to education due to whatever disability they are struggling with.
It's not just the teachers though who play a role in the history of special education in this country. Physicians and clergy, including Itard- mentioned above, Edouard O. Seguin (1812-1880), Samuel Gridley Howe (1801-1876), and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (1787-1851), wanted to ameliorate the neglectful, often abusive treatment of individuals with disabilities. Sadly, education in this country was, more often than not, very neglectful and abusive when dealing with students that are different somehow.
There is even a rich literature in our nation that describes the treatment provided to individuals with disabilities in the 1800s and early 1900s. Sadly, in these stories, as well as in the real world, the segment of our population with disabilities were often confined in jails and almshouses without decent food, clothing, personal hygiene, and exercise.
For an example of this different treatment in our literature one needs to look no further than Tiny Tim in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (1843). In addition, many times people with disabilities were often portrayed as villains, such as in the book Captain Hook in J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan" in 1911.
The prevailing view of the authors of this time period was that one should submit to misfortunes, both as a form of obedience to God's will, and because these seeming misfortunes are ultimately intended for one's own good. Progress for our people with disabilities was hard to come by at this time with this way of thinking permeating our society, literature and thinking.
So, what was society to do about these people of misfortune? Well, during much of the nineteenth century, and early in the twentieth, professionals believed individuals with disabilities were best treated in residential facilities in rural environments. An out of sight out of mind kind of thing, if you will...
However, by the end of the nineteenth century the size of these institutions had increased so dramatically that the goal of rehabilitation for people with disabilities just wasn't working. Institutions became instruments for permanent segregation.
I have some experience with these segregation policies of education. Some of it is good and some of it is not so good. You see, I have been a self-contained teacher on and off throughout the years in multiple environments in self-contained classrooms in public high schools, middle schools and elementary schools. I have also taught in multiple special education behavioral self-contained schools that totally separated these troubled students with disabilities in managing their behavior from their mainstream peers by putting them in completely different buildings that were sometimes even in different towns from their homes, friends and peers.
Over the years many special education professionals became critics of these institutions mentioned above that separated and segregated our children with disabilities from their peers. Irvine Howe was one of the first to advocate taking our youth out of these huge institutions and to place out residents into families. Unfortunately this practice became a logistical and pragmatic problem and it took a long time before it could become a viable alternative to institutionalization for our students with disabilities.
Now on the positive side, you might be interested in knowing however that in 1817 the first special education school in the United States, the American Asylum for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb (now called the American School for the Deaf), was established in Hartford, Connecticut, by Gallaudet. That school is still there today and is one of the top schools in the country for students with auditory disabilities. A true success story!
However, as you can already imagine, the lasting success of the American School for the Deaf was the exception and not the rule during this time period. And to add to this, in the late nineteenth century, social Darwinism replaced environmentalism as the primary causal explanation for those individuals with disabilities who deviated from those of the general population.
Sadly, Darwinism opened the door to the eugenics movement of the early twentieth century. This then led to even further segregation and even sterilization of individuals with disabilities such as mental retardation. Sounds like something Hitler was doing in Germany also being done right here in our own country, to our own people, by our own people. Kind of scary and inhumane, wouldn't you agree?
Today, this kind of treatment is obviously unacceptable. And in the early part of the 20th Century it was also unacceptable to some of the adults, especially the parents of these disabled children. Thus, concerned and angry parents formed advocacy groups to help bring the educational needs of children with disabilities into the public eye. The public had to see firsthand how wrong this this eugenics and sterilization movement was for our students that were different if it was ever going to be stopped.
Slowly, grassroots organizations made progress that even led to some states creating laws to protect their citizens with disabilities. For example, in 1930, in Peoria, Illinois, the first white cane ordinance gave individuals with blindness the right-of-way when crossing the street. This was a start, and other states did eventually follow suit. In time, this local grassroots' movement and states' movement led to enough pressure on our elected officials for something to be done on the national level for our people with disabilities.
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy created the President's Panel on Mental Retardation. And in 1965, Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which provided funding for primary education, and is seen by advocacy groups as expanding access to public education for children with disabilities.
When one thinks about Kennedy's and Johnson's record on civil rights, then it probably isn't such a surprise finding out that these two presidents also spearheaded this national movement for our people with disabilities.
This federal movement led to section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act. This guarantees civil rights for the disabled in the context of federally funded institutions or any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. All these years later as an educator, I personally deal with 504 cases every single day.
In 1975 Congress enacted Public Law 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA), which establishes a right to public education for all children regardless of disability. This was another good thing because prior to federal legislation, parents had to mostly educate their children at home or pay for expensive private education.
The movement kept growing. In the 1982 the case of the Board of Education of the Hendrick Hudson Central School District v. Rowley, the U.S. Supreme Court clarified the level of services to be afforded students with special needs. The Court ruled that special education services need only provide some "educational benefit" to students. Public schools were not required to maximize the educational progress of students with disabilities.
Today, this ruling may not seem like a victory, and as a matter of fact, this same question is once again circulating through our courts today in 2017. However, given the time period it was made in, it was a victory because it said special education students could not pass through our school system without learning anything. They had to learn something. If one knows and understands how the laws work in this country, then one knows the laws always progress through tiny little increments that add up to progress over time. This ruling was a victory for special education students because it added one more rung onto the crusade.
In the 1980s the Regular Education Initiative (REI) came into being. This was an attempt to return responsibility for the education of students with disabilities to neighborhood schools and regular classroom teachers. I am very familiar with Regular Education Initiative because I spent four years as an REI teacher in the late 1990s and early 2000s. At this time I was certified as both a special education teacher and a regular education teacher and was working in both capacities in a duel role as an REI teacher; because that's what was required of the position.
The 1990s saw a big boost for our special education students. 1990 birthed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This was, and is, the cornerstone of the concept of a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) for all of our students. To ensure FAPE, the law mandated that each student receiving special education services must also receive an Individualized Education Program (IEP).
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 reached beyond just the public schools. And Title 3 of IDEA prohibited disability-based discrimination in any place of public accommodation. Full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, or accommodations in public places were expected. And of course public accommodations also included most places of education.
Also, in the 1990s the full inclusion movement gained a lot of momentum. This called for educating all students with disabilities in the regular classroom. I am also very familiar with this aspect of education as well, as I have also been an inclusion teacher from time to time over my career as an educator on both sides of the isle as a regular education teacher and a special education teacher.
Now on to President Bush and his educational reform with his No Child Left Behind law that replaced President Johnson's Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The NCLB Act of 2001 stated that special education should continue to focus on producing results and along with this came a sharp increase in accountability for educators.
Now, this NCLB Act was good and bad. Of course we all want to see results for all of our students, and it's just common sense that accountability helps this sort of thing happen. Where this kind of went crazy was that the NCLB demanded a host of new things, but did not provide the funds or support to achieve these new objectives.
Furthermore, teachers began feeling squeezed and threatened more and more by the new movement of big business and corporate education moving in and taking over education. People with no educational background now found themselves influencing education policy and gaining access to a lot of the educational funds.
This accountability craze stemmed by excessive standardized testing ran rapid and of course ran downstream from a host of well-connected elite Trump-like figures saying to their lower echelon educational counterparts, "You're fired!" This environment of trying to stay off of the radar in order to keep one's job, and beating our kids over the head with testing strategies, wasn't good for our educators. It wasn't good for our students. And it certainly wasn't good for our more vulnerable special education students.
Some good did come from this era though. For example, the updated Individuals with Disabilities with Education Act of 2004 (IDEA) happened. This further required schools to provide individualized or special education for children with qualifying disabilities. Under the IDEA, states who accept public funds for education must provide special education to qualifying children with disabilities. Like I said earlier, the law is a long slow process of tiny little steps adding up to progress made over time.
Finally, in 2015 President Obama's Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) replaced President Bush's NCLB, which had replaced President Johnson's ESEA. Under Obama's new ESSA schools were now allowed to back off on some of the testing. Hopefully, the standardized testing craze has been put in check. However, only time will tell. ESSA also returned to more local control. You know, the kind of control our forefathers intended.
You see the U.S. Constitution grants no authority over education to the federal government. Education is not mentioned in the Constitution of the United States, and for good reason. The Founders wanted most aspects of life managed by those who were closest to them, either by state or local government or by families, businesses, and other elements of civil society. Basically, they saw no role for the federal government in education.
You see, the Founders feared the concentration of power. They believed that the best way to protect individual freedom and civil society was to limit and divide power. However, this works both ways, because the states often find themselves asking the feds for more educational money. And the feds will only give the states additional money if the states do what the feds want... Hmm... Checks and balances, as well as compromise can be a really tricky thing, huh?
So on goes the battle in education and all the back and forth pushing and pulling between the federal government and the states and local government, as well as special education and regular education. And to add to this struggle, recently Judge Moukawsher, a state judge from Connecticut, in a lawsuit filed against the state by the Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding, rocked the educational boat some more when in his ruling he included a message to lawmakers to reassess what level of services students with significant disabilities are entitled to.
His ruling and statements appear to say that he thinks we're spending too much money on our special education students. And that for some of them, it just isn't worth it because their disabilities are too severe. You can imagine how controversial this was and how much it angered some people.
The 2016 United States Presidential election resulted in something that few people saw coming. Real Estate mogul and reality star Donald Trump won the presidency and then appointed anti-public educator Betsy Devos to head up this country's Department of Education. Her charge, given to her by Trump, is to drastically slash the Department of Education, and to push forward private charter schools over what they call a failing public educational system.
How this is going to affect our students, and especially our more vulnerable special education students, nobody knows for sure at this time. But, I can also tell you that there aren't many people out there that feel comfortable with it right now. Only time will tell where this is all going to go and how it will affect our special education students...
So, as I said earlier, perhaps the largest, most pervasive issue in special education is its relationship to general education. Both my own travels and our nation's journey through the vast realm of education over all of these years has been an interesting one and a tricky one plagued with controversy to say the least.
I can still remember when I first became a special education teacher back in the mid-1990s. A friend's father, who was a school principal at the time, told me to get out of special education because it wasn't going to last. Well, I've been in and out of special education for more than two decades now, and sometimes I don't know if I'm a regular education teacher or a special education teacher, or both. And sometimes I think our country's educational system might be feeling the same internal struggle that I am. But, regardless, all these years later, special education is still here.
In closing, although Itard failed to normalize Victor, the wild boy of Averyon, he did produce dramatic changes in Victor's behavior through education. Today, modern special education practices can be traced to Itard. His work marks the beginning of widespread attempts to instruct students with disabilities. Fast forwarding to 2017, for what happens next in the future of education and special education in our country... Well, I guess that depends on all of us...
Award-winning author, speaker and educator Dan Blanchard wants to share with you a little bit of his history and this country's history on the struggle of special education and regular education and thier relationship to each other throughout their history. Learn more about Dan at: http://www.DanBlanchard.net. Thanks.
Over the last 20+ years I have been on both sides of education. I have seen and felt what it was like to be a regular main stream educator dealing with special education policy, special education students and their specialized teachers. I have also been on the special education side trying to get regular education teachers to work more effectively with my special education students through modifying their instruction and materials and having a little more patience and empathy.
Furthermore, I have been a mainstream regular education teacher who taught regular education inclusion classes trying to figure out how to best work with some new special education teacher in my class and his or her special education students as well. And, in contrast, I have been a special education inclusion teacher intruding on the territory of some regular education teachers with my special education students and the modifications I thought these teachers should implement. I can tell you first-hand that none of this give and take between special education and regular education has been easy. Nor do I see this pushing and pulling becoming easy anytime soon.
So, what is special education? And what makes it so special and yet so complex and controversial sometimes? Well, special education, as its name suggests, is a specialized branch of education. It claims its lineage to such people as Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard (1775-1838), the physician who "tamed" the "wild boy of Aveyron," and Anne Sullivan Macy (1866-1936), the teacher who "worked miracles" with Helen Keller.
Special educators teach students who have physical, cognitive, language, learning, sensory, and/or emotional abilities that deviate from those of the general population. Special educators provide instruction specifically tailored to meet individualized needs. These teachers basically make education more available and accessible to students who otherwise would have limited access to education due to whatever disability they are struggling with.
It's not just the teachers though who play a role in the history of special education in this country. Physicians and clergy, including Itard- mentioned above, Edouard O. Seguin (1812-1880), Samuel Gridley Howe (1801-1876), and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (1787-1851), wanted to ameliorate the neglectful, often abusive treatment of individuals with disabilities. Sadly, education in this country was, more often than not, very neglectful and abusive when dealing with students that are different somehow.
There is even a rich literature in our nation that describes the treatment provided to individuals with disabilities in the 1800s and early 1900s. Sadly, in these stories, as well as in the real world, the segment of our population with disabilities were often confined in jails and almshouses without decent food, clothing, personal hygiene, and exercise.
For an example of this different treatment in our literature one needs to look no further than Tiny Tim in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (1843). In addition, many times people with disabilities were often portrayed as villains, such as in the book Captain Hook in J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan" in 1911.
The prevailing view of the authors of this time period was that one should submit to misfortunes, both as a form of obedience to God's will, and because these seeming misfortunes are ultimately intended for one's own good. Progress for our people with disabilities was hard to come by at this time with this way of thinking permeating our society, literature and thinking.
So, what was society to do about these people of misfortune? Well, during much of the nineteenth century, and early in the twentieth, professionals believed individuals with disabilities were best treated in residential facilities in rural environments. An out of sight out of mind kind of thing, if you will...
However, by the end of the nineteenth century the size of these institutions had increased so dramatically that the goal of rehabilitation for people with disabilities just wasn't working. Institutions became instruments for permanent segregation.
I have some experience with these segregation policies of education. Some of it is good and some of it is not so good. You see, I have been a self-contained teacher on and off throughout the years in multiple environments in self-contained classrooms in public high schools, middle schools and elementary schools. I have also taught in multiple special education behavioral self-contained schools that totally separated these troubled students with disabilities in managing their behavior from their mainstream peers by putting them in completely different buildings that were sometimes even in different towns from their homes, friends and peers.
Over the years many special education professionals became critics of these institutions mentioned above that separated and segregated our children with disabilities from their peers. Irvine Howe was one of the first to advocate taking our youth out of these huge institutions and to place out residents into families. Unfortunately this practice became a logistical and pragmatic problem and it took a long time before it could become a viable alternative to institutionalization for our students with disabilities.
Now on the positive side, you might be interested in knowing however that in 1817 the first special education school in the United States, the American Asylum for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb (now called the American School for the Deaf), was established in Hartford, Connecticut, by Gallaudet. That school is still there today and is one of the top schools in the country for students with auditory disabilities. A true success story!
However, as you can already imagine, the lasting success of the American School for the Deaf was the exception and not the rule during this time period. And to add to this, in the late nineteenth century, social Darwinism replaced environmentalism as the primary causal explanation for those individuals with disabilities who deviated from those of the general population.
Sadly, Darwinism opened the door to the eugenics movement of the early twentieth century. This then led to even further segregation and even sterilization of individuals with disabilities such as mental retardation. Sounds like something Hitler was doing in Germany also being done right here in our own country, to our own people, by our own people. Kind of scary and inhumane, wouldn't you agree?
Today, this kind of treatment is obviously unacceptable. And in the early part of the 20th Century it was also unacceptable to some of the adults, especially the parents of these disabled children. Thus, concerned and angry parents formed advocacy groups to help bring the educational needs of children with disabilities into the public eye. The public had to see firsthand how wrong this this eugenics and sterilization movement was for our students that were different if it was ever going to be stopped.
Slowly, grassroots organizations made progress that even led to some states creating laws to protect their citizens with disabilities. For example, in 1930, in Peoria, Illinois, the first white cane ordinance gave individuals with blindness the right-of-way when crossing the street. This was a start, and other states did eventually follow suit. In time, this local grassroots' movement and states' movement led to enough pressure on our elected officials for something to be done on the national level for our people with disabilities.
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy created the President's Panel on Mental Retardation. And in 1965, Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which provided funding for primary education, and is seen by advocacy groups as expanding access to public education for children with disabilities.
When one thinks about Kennedy's and Johnson's record on civil rights, then it probably isn't such a surprise finding out that these two presidents also spearheaded this national movement for our people with disabilities.
This federal movement led to section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act. This guarantees civil rights for the disabled in the context of federally funded institutions or any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. All these years later as an educator, I personally deal with 504 cases every single day.
In 1975 Congress enacted Public Law 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA), which establishes a right to public education for all children regardless of disability. This was another good thing because prior to federal legislation, parents had to mostly educate their children at home or pay for expensive private education.
The movement kept growing. In the 1982 the case of the Board of Education of the Hendrick Hudson Central School District v. Rowley, the U.S. Supreme Court clarified the level of services to be afforded students with special needs. The Court ruled that special education services need only provide some "educational benefit" to students. Public schools were not required to maximize the educational progress of students with disabilities.
Today, this ruling may not seem like a victory, and as a matter of fact, this same question is once again circulating through our courts today in 2017. However, given the time period it was made in, it was a victory because it said special education students could not pass through our school system without learning anything. They had to learn something. If one knows and understands how the laws work in this country, then one knows the laws always progress through tiny little increments that add up to progress over time. This ruling was a victory for special education students because it added one more rung onto the crusade.
In the 1980s the Regular Education Initiative (REI) came into being. This was an attempt to return responsibility for the education of students with disabilities to neighborhood schools and regular classroom teachers. I am very familiar with Regular Education Initiative because I spent four years as an REI teacher in the late 1990s and early 2000s. At this time I was certified as both a special education teacher and a regular education teacher and was working in both capacities in a duel role as an REI teacher; because that's what was required of the position.
The 1990s saw a big boost for our special education students. 1990 birthed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This was, and is, the cornerstone of the concept of a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) for all of our students. To ensure FAPE, the law mandated that each student receiving special education services must also receive an Individualized Education Program (IEP).
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 reached beyond just the public schools. And Title 3 of IDEA prohibited disability-based discrimination in any place of public accommodation. Full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, or accommodations in public places were expected. And of course public accommodations also included most places of education.
Also, in the 1990s the full inclusion movement gained a lot of momentum. This called for educating all students with disabilities in the regular classroom. I am also very familiar with this aspect of education as well, as I have also been an inclusion teacher from time to time over my career as an educator on both sides of the isle as a regular education teacher and a special education teacher.
Now on to President Bush and his educational reform with his No Child Left Behind law that replaced President Johnson's Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The NCLB Act of 2001 stated that special education should continue to focus on producing results and along with this came a sharp increase in accountability for educators.
Now, this NCLB Act was good and bad. Of course we all want to see results for all of our students, and it's just common sense that accountability helps this sort of thing happen. Where this kind of went crazy was that the NCLB demanded a host of new things, but did not provide the funds or support to achieve these new objectives.
Furthermore, teachers began feeling squeezed and threatened more and more by the new movement of big business and corporate education moving in and taking over education. People with no educational background now found themselves influencing education policy and gaining access to a lot of the educational funds.
This accountability craze stemmed by excessive standardized testing ran rapid and of course ran downstream from a host of well-connected elite Trump-like figures saying to their lower echelon educational counterparts, "You're fired!" This environment of trying to stay off of the radar in order to keep one's job, and beating our kids over the head with testing strategies, wasn't good for our educators. It wasn't good for our students. And it certainly wasn't good for our more vulnerable special education students.
Some good did come from this era though. For example, the updated Individuals with Disabilities with Education Act of 2004 (IDEA) happened. This further required schools to provide individualized or special education for children with qualifying disabilities. Under the IDEA, states who accept public funds for education must provide special education to qualifying children with disabilities. Like I said earlier, the law is a long slow process of tiny little steps adding up to progress made over time.
Finally, in 2015 President Obama's Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) replaced President Bush's NCLB, which had replaced President Johnson's ESEA. Under Obama's new ESSA schools were now allowed to back off on some of the testing. Hopefully, the standardized testing craze has been put in check. However, only time will tell. ESSA also returned to more local control. You know, the kind of control our forefathers intended.
You see the U.S. Constitution grants no authority over education to the federal government. Education is not mentioned in the Constitution of the United States, and for good reason. The Founders wanted most aspects of life managed by those who were closest to them, either by state or local government or by families, businesses, and other elements of civil society. Basically, they saw no role for the federal government in education.
You see, the Founders feared the concentration of power. They believed that the best way to protect individual freedom and civil society was to limit and divide power. However, this works both ways, because the states often find themselves asking the feds for more educational money. And the feds will only give the states additional money if the states do what the feds want... Hmm... Checks and balances, as well as compromise can be a really tricky thing, huh?
So on goes the battle in education and all the back and forth pushing and pulling between the federal government and the states and local government, as well as special education and regular education. And to add to this struggle, recently Judge Moukawsher, a state judge from Connecticut, in a lawsuit filed against the state by the Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding, rocked the educational boat some more when in his ruling he included a message to lawmakers to reassess what level of services students with significant disabilities are entitled to.
His ruling and statements appear to say that he thinks we're spending too much money on our special education students. And that for some of them, it just isn't worth it because their disabilities are too severe. You can imagine how controversial this was and how much it angered some people.
The 2016 United States Presidential election resulted in something that few people saw coming. Real Estate mogul and reality star Donald Trump won the presidency and then appointed anti-public educator Betsy Devos to head up this country's Department of Education. Her charge, given to her by Trump, is to drastically slash the Department of Education, and to push forward private charter schools over what they call a failing public educational system.
How this is going to affect our students, and especially our more vulnerable special education students, nobody knows for sure at this time. But, I can also tell you that there aren't many people out there that feel comfortable with it right now. Only time will tell where this is all going to go and how it will affect our special education students...
So, as I said earlier, perhaps the largest, most pervasive issue in special education is its relationship to general education. Both my own travels and our nation's journey through the vast realm of education over all of these years has been an interesting one and a tricky one plagued with controversy to say the least.
I can still remember when I first became a special education teacher back in the mid-1990s. A friend's father, who was a school principal at the time, told me to get out of special education because it wasn't going to last. Well, I've been in and out of special education for more than two decades now, and sometimes I don't know if I'm a regular education teacher or a special education teacher, or both. And sometimes I think our country's educational system might be feeling the same internal struggle that I am. But, regardless, all these years later, special education is still here.
In closing, although Itard failed to normalize Victor, the wild boy of Averyon, he did produce dramatic changes in Victor's behavior through education. Today, modern special education practices can be traced to Itard. His work marks the beginning of widespread attempts to instruct students with disabilities. Fast forwarding to 2017, for what happens next in the future of education and special education in our country... Well, I guess that depends on all of us...
Award-winning author, speaker and educator Dan Blanchard wants to share with you a little bit of his history and this country's history on the struggle of special education and regular education and thier relationship to each other throughout their history. Learn more about Dan at: http://www.DanBlanchard.net. Thanks.
Perhaps the largest and most pervasive issue in special education, as well as my own journey in education, is special education's relationship to general education. History has shown that this has never been an easy clear cut relationship between the two. There has been a lot of giving and taking or maybe I should say pulling and pushing when it comes to educational policy, and the educational practices and services of education and special education by the human educators who deliver those services on both sides of the isle, like me.
Over the last 20+ years I have been on both sides of education. I have seen and felt what it was like to be a regular main stream educator dealing with special education policy, special education students and their specialized teachers. I have also been on the special education side trying to get regular education teachers to work more effectively with my special education students through modifying their instruction and materials and having a little more patience and empathy.
Furthermore, I have been a mainstream regular education teacher who taught regular education inclusion classes trying to figure out how to best work with some new special education teacher in my class and his or her special education students as well. And, in contrast, I have been a special education inclusion teacher intruding on the territory of some regular education teachers with my special education students and the modifications I thought these teachers should implement. I can tell you first-hand that none of this give and take between special education and regular education has been easy. Nor do I see this pushing and pulling becoming easy anytime soon.
So, what is special education? And what makes it so special and yet so complex and controversial sometimes? Well, special education, as its name suggests, is a specialized branch of education. It claims its lineage to such people as Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard (1775-1838), the physician who "tamed" the "wild boy of Aveyron," and Anne Sullivan Macy (1866-1936), the teacher who "worked miracles" with Helen Keller.
Special educators teach students who have physical, cognitive, language, learning, sensory, and/or emotional abilities that deviate from those of the general population. Special educators provide instruction specifically tailored to meet individualized needs. These teachers basically make education more available and accessible to students who otherwise would have limited access to education due to whatever disability they are struggling with.
It's not just the teachers though who play a role in the history of special education in this country. Physicians and clergy, including Itard- mentioned above, Edouard O. Seguin (1812-1880), Samuel Gridley Howe (1801-1876), and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (1787-1851), wanted to ameliorate the neglectful, often abusive treatment of individuals with disabilities. Sadly, education in this country was, more often than not, very neglectful and abusive when dealing with students that are different somehow.
There is even a rich literature in our nation that describes the treatment provided to individuals with disabilities in the 1800s and early 1900s. Sadly, in these stories, as well as in the real world, the segment of our population with disabilities were often confined in jails and almshouses without decent food, clothing, personal hygiene, and exercise.
For an example of this different treatment in our literature one needs to look no further than Tiny Tim in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (1843). In addition, many times people with disabilities were often portrayed as villains, such as in the book Captain Hook in J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan" in 1911.
The prevailing view of the authors of this time period was that one should submit to misfortunes, both as a form of obedience to God's will, and because these seeming misfortunes are ultimately intended for one's own good. Progress for our people with disabilities was hard to come by at this time with this way of thinking permeating our society, literature and thinking.
So, what was society to do about these people of misfortune? Well, during much of the nineteenth century, and early in the twentieth, professionals believed individuals with disabilities were best treated in residential facilities in rural environments. An out of sight out of mind kind of thing, if you will...
However, by the end of the nineteenth century the size of these institutions had increased so dramatically that the goal of rehabilitation for people with disabilities just wasn't working. Institutions became instruments for permanent segregation.
I have some experience with these segregation policies of education. Some of it is good and some of it is not so good. You see, I have been a self-contained teacher on and off throughout the years in multiple environments in self-contained classrooms in public high schools, middle schools and elementary schools. I have also taught in multiple special education behavioral self-contained schools that totally separated these troubled students with disabilities in managing their behavior from their mainstream peers by putting them in completely different buildings that were sometimes even in different towns from their homes, friends and peers.
Over the years many special education professionals became critics of these institutions mentioned above that separated and segregated our children with disabilities from their peers. Irvine Howe was one of the first to advocate taking our youth out of these huge institutions and to place out residents into families. Unfortunately this practice became a logistical and pragmatic problem and it took a long time before it could become a viable alternative to institutionalization for our students with disabilities.
Now on the positive side, you might be interested in knowing however that in 1817 the first special education school in the United States, the American Asylum for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb (now called the American School for the Deaf), was established in Hartford, Connecticut, by Gallaudet. That school is still there today and is one of the top schools in the country for students with auditory disabilities. A true success story!
However, as you can already imagine, the lasting success of the American School for the Deaf was the exception and not the rule during this time period. And to add to this, in the late nineteenth century, social Darwinism replaced environmentalism as the primary causal explanation for those individuals with disabilities who deviated from those of the general population.
Sadly, Darwinism opened the door to the eugenics movement of the early twentieth century. This then led to even further segregation and even sterilization of individuals with disabilities such as mental retardation. Sounds like something Hitler was doing in Germany also being done right here in our own country, to our own people, by our own people. Kind of scary and inhumane, wouldn't you agree?
Today, this kind of treatment is obviously unacceptable. And in the early part of the 20th Century it was also unacceptable to some of the adults, especially the parents of these disabled children. Thus, concerned and angry parents formed advocacy groups to help bring the educational needs of children with disabilities into the public eye. The public had to see firsthand how wrong this this eugenics and sterilization movement was for our students that were different if it was ever going to be stopped.
Slowly, grassroots organizations made progress that even led to some states creating laws to protect their citizens with disabilities. For example, in 1930, in Peoria, Illinois, the first white cane ordinance gave individuals with blindness the right-of-way when crossing the street. This was a start, and other states did eventually follow suit. In time, this local grassroots' movement and states' movement led to enough pressure on our elected officials for something to be done on the national level for our people with disabilities.
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy created the President's Panel on Mental Retardation. And in 1965, Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which provided funding for primary education, and is seen by advocacy groups as expanding access to public education for children with disabilities.
When one thinks about Kennedy's and Johnson's record on civil rights, then it probably isn't such a surprise finding out that these two presidents also spearheaded this national movement for our people with disabilities.
This federal movement led to section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act. This guarantees civil rights for the disabled in the context of federally funded institutions or any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. All these years later as an educator, I personally deal with 504 cases every single day.
In 1975 Congress enacted Public Law 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA), which establishes a right to public education for all children regardless of disability. This was another good thing because prior to federal legislation, parents had to mostly educate their children at home or pay for expensive private education.
The movement kept growing. In the 1982 the case of the Board of Education of the Hendrick Hudson Central School District v. Rowley, the U.S. Supreme Court clarified the level of services to be afforded students with special needs. The Court ruled that special education services need only provide some "educational benefit" to students. Public schools were not required to maximize the educational progress of students with disabilities.
Today, this ruling may not seem like a victory, and as a matter of fact, this same question is once again circulating through our courts today in 2017. However, given the time period it was made in, it was a victory because it said special education students could not pass through our school system without learning anything. They had to learn something. If one knows and understands how the laws work in this country, then one knows the laws always progress through tiny little increments that add up to progress over time. This ruling was a victory for special education students because it added one more rung onto the crusade.
In the 1980s the Regular Education Initiative (REI) came into being. This was an attempt to return responsibility for the education of students with disabilities to neighborhood schools and regular classroom teachers. I am very familiar with Regular Education Initiative because I spent four years as an REI teacher in the late 1990s and early 2000s. At this time I was certified as both a special education teacher and a regular education teacher and was working in both capacities in a duel role as an REI teacher; because that's what was required of the position.
The 1990s saw a big boost for our special education students. 1990 birthed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This was, and is, the cornerstone of the concept of a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) for all of our students. To ensure FAPE, the law mandated that each student receiving special education services must also receive an Individualized Education Program (IEP).
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 reached beyond just the public schools. And Title 3 of IDEA prohibited disability-based discrimination in any place of public accommodation. Full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, or accommodations in public places were expected. And of course public accommodations also included most places of education.
Also, in the 1990s the full inclusion movement gained a lot of momentum. This called for educating all students with disabilities in the regular classroom. I am also very familiar with this aspect of education as well, as I have also been an inclusion teacher from time to time over my career as an educator on both sides of the isle as a regular education teacher and a special education teacher.
Now on to President Bush and his educational reform with his No Child Left Behind law that replaced President Johnson's Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The NCLB Act of 2001 stated that special education should continue to focus on producing results and along with this came a sharp increase in accountability for educators.
Now, this NCLB Act was good and bad. Of course we all want to see results for all of our students, and it's just common sense that accountability helps this sort of thing happen. Where this kind of went crazy was that the NCLB demanded a host of new things, but did not provide the funds or support to achieve these new objectives.
Furthermore, teachers began feeling squeezed and threatened more and more by the new movement of big business and corporate education moving in and taking over education. People with no educational background now found themselves influencing education policy and gaining access to a lot of the educational funds.
This accountability craze stemmed by excessive standardized testing ran rapid and of course ran downstream from a host of well-connected elite Trump-like figures saying to their lower echelon educational counterparts, "You're fired!" This environment of trying to stay off of the radar in order to keep one's job, and beating our kids over the head with testing strategies, wasn't good for our educators. It wasn't good for our students. And it certainly wasn't good for our more vulnerable special education students.
Some good did come from this era though. For example, the updated Individuals with Disabilities with Education Act of 2004 (IDEA) happened. This further required schools to provide individualized or special education for children with qualifying disabilities. Under the IDEA, states who accept public funds for education must provide special education to qualifying children with disabilities. Like I said earlier, the law is a long slow process of tiny little steps adding up to progress made over time.
Finally, in 2015 President Obama's Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) replaced President Bush's NCLB, which had replaced President Johnson's ESEA. Under Obama's new ESSA schools were now allowed to back off on some of the testing. Hopefully, the standardized testing craze has been put in check. However, only time will tell. ESSA also returned to more local control. You know, the kind of control our forefathers intended.
You see the U.S. Constitution grants no authority over education to the federal government. Education is not mentioned in the Constitution of the United States, and for good reason. The Founders wanted most aspects of life managed by those who were closest to them, either by state or local government or by families, businesses, and other elements of civil society. Basically, they saw no role for the federal government in education.
You see, the Founders feared the concentration of power. They believed that the best way to protect individual freedom and civil society was to limit and divide power. However, this works both ways, because the states often find themselves asking the feds for more educational money. And the feds will only give the states additional money if the states do what the feds want... Hmm... Checks and balances, as well as compromise can be a really tricky thing, huh?
So on goes the battle in education and all the back and forth pushing and pulling between the federal government and the states and local government, as well as special education and regular education. And to add to this struggle, recently Judge Moukawsher, a state judge from Connecticut, in a lawsuit filed against the state by the Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding, rocked the educational boat some more when in his ruling he included a message to lawmakers to reassess what level of services students with significant disabilities are entitled to.
His ruling and statements appear to say that he thinks we're spending too much money on our special education students. And that for some of them, it just isn't worth it because their disabilities are too severe. You can imagine how controversial this was and how much it angered some people.
The 2016 United States Presidential election resulted in something that few people saw coming. Real Estate mogul and reality star Donald Trump won the presidency and then appointed anti-public educator Betsy Devos to head up this country's Department of Education. Her charge, given to her by Trump, is to drastically slash the Department of Education, and to push forward private charter schools over what they call a failing public educational system.
How this is going to affect our students, and especially our more vulnerable special education students, nobody knows for sure at this time. But, I can also tell you that there aren't many people out there that feel comfortable with it right now. Only time will tell where this is all going to go and how it will affect our special education students...
So, as I said earlier, perhaps the largest, most pervasive issue in special education is its relationship to general education. Both my own travels and our nation's journey through the vast realm of education over all of these years has been an interesting one and a tricky one plagued with controversy to say the least.
I can still remember when I first became a special education teacher back in the mid-1990s. A friend's father, who was a school principal at the time, told me to get out of special education because it wasn't going to last. Well, I've been in and out of special education for more than two decades now, and sometimes I don't know if I'm a regular education teacher or a special education teacher, or both. And sometimes I think our country's educational system might be feeling the same internal struggle that I am. But, regardless, all these years later, special education is still here.
In closing, although Itard failed to normalize Victor, the wild boy of Averyon, he did produce dramatic changes in Victor's behavior through education. Today, modern special education practices can be traced to Itard. His work marks the beginning of widespread attempts to instruct students with disabilities. Fast forwarding to 2017, for what happens next in the future of education and special education in our country... Well, I guess that depends on all of us...
Award-winning author, speaker and educator Dan Blanchard wants to share with you a little bit of his history and this country's history on the struggle of special education and regular education and thier relationship to each other throughout their history. Learn more about Dan at: http://www.DanBlanchard.net. Thanks.
How to Get University Scholarship
The opportunity for scholarship has always been life time ambition of many students. A lot of folks have been trying fruitlessly for loans to study but their effort has always been in opposite direction.
First of all you must have access to information which is a problem for many students; because many do not have access to information that will enable them have access to grant for their studies. But thank for internet; anybody can get the information now. To apply for the University of your choice. The University will then ask you to either fax, or scan and mail your credentials to them.
These are some of the Universities you can apply to for scholarship:- We have commonwealth foundation, we have Ford foundation that gives 100,000 Dollars to students, there is the University of Edinburgh that offers free Master program online.
There are very many others like the Africa Development Bank, Desmund Tutu's Masters, Edinburgh Global Master, Gordon Meculloch(MBA), Indian Government Scholarship Scheme for Africa. Commonwealth Scholarship, PhD fellowship for Developing Countries, Ford foundation Scholarship, Eric Bluemink Scholarship, Deroty Hodgkin PHD scholarship.
Other are Hubert Humphrey fellowship, International Fulbright service, PhD Scholarship from developing Countries at the ICCD, ACLS fellowships, Talent for governance Triangle etc.
It is the University that recommends you to these Organizations for sponsor. Like the one of Desmond Tutu, which is managed by a University in London. So all you need to do is to contact the University of your choice to process your application.
Their course duration is usually four years for undergraduate and a year or two for Masters. These Universities are mostly in UK. But we also have some in the U.S.A.
If you are oversea student, Educational studies provide you an opportunity to travel and study abroad for free without worry about visa and traveling expenses. Even at Embassy, they do not request for many documents because you are a student. Once you present your admission letter, they stamp your visa, and your visa is free.
Basically, what is required to qualify to study for degree programs is College education or their equivalent, while for Master Degree, you need a BSC.
So Watch out when these Universities will open their Scholarship position, so that you will apply. Do not forget somebody is paying all the bills including your accommodation, feeding, flight ticket, etc. Thanks, God bless.
He is the CEO, Zion Mensula International, an Entrepreneur, Internet Business Pioneer, He is earning a living from legitimate internet business opportunities, and he has trained lots of people on how to make a living online. He is making a difference being useful to his community.
First of all you must have access to information which is a problem for many students; because many do not have access to information that will enable them have access to grant for their studies. But thank for internet; anybody can get the information now. To apply for the University of your choice. The University will then ask you to either fax, or scan and mail your credentials to them.
These are some of the Universities you can apply to for scholarship:- We have commonwealth foundation, we have Ford foundation that gives 100,000 Dollars to students, there is the University of Edinburgh that offers free Master program online.
There are very many others like the Africa Development Bank, Desmund Tutu's Masters, Edinburgh Global Master, Gordon Meculloch(MBA), Indian Government Scholarship Scheme for Africa. Commonwealth Scholarship, PhD fellowship for Developing Countries, Ford foundation Scholarship, Eric Bluemink Scholarship, Deroty Hodgkin PHD scholarship.
Other are Hubert Humphrey fellowship, International Fulbright service, PhD Scholarship from developing Countries at the ICCD, ACLS fellowships, Talent for governance Triangle etc.
It is the University that recommends you to these Organizations for sponsor. Like the one of Desmond Tutu, which is managed by a University in London. So all you need to do is to contact the University of your choice to process your application.
Their course duration is usually four years for undergraduate and a year or two for Masters. These Universities are mostly in UK. But we also have some in the U.S.A.
If you are oversea student, Educational studies provide you an opportunity to travel and study abroad for free without worry about visa and traveling expenses. Even at Embassy, they do not request for many documents because you are a student. Once you present your admission letter, they stamp your visa, and your visa is free.
Basically, what is required to qualify to study for degree programs is College education or their equivalent, while for Master Degree, you need a BSC.
So Watch out when these Universities will open their Scholarship position, so that you will apply. Do not forget somebody is paying all the bills including your accommodation, feeding, flight ticket, etc. Thanks, God bless.
He is the CEO, Zion Mensula International, an Entrepreneur, Internet Business Pioneer, He is earning a living from legitimate internet business opportunities, and he has trained lots of people on how to make a living online. He is making a difference being useful to his community.
How to Change Status From Student F1 Visa to H1B Visa?
F1 Visa is non-immigrant student's visa. To attend college and universities in U.S.A., international students would need F1 Visa to enter U.S.A.
H1B Visa is non-immigrant temporary work visa. Employers in U.S.A. can hire foreign workers who meet minimum requirements set by United Stated Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
Minimum Requirements are further divided into two categories
Students can apply for specialty occupations. If student is hired, employer will typically apply for H1B Visa. Application process for the employer will be usually handled by Employer's Immigration attorney.
Before applying for H1B Visa, one has to ensure H1B quota is still available. USCIS have total of 65,000 H1B Cap under General category and 20,000 exclusive for students who obtained Masters or higher degree from U.S. Universities.
USCIS accepts H1B visa application starting April 1st every year for the next Fiscal Year. It will take 15 days to few months for USCIS to approve the H1B Visa application. Fiscal year for USCIS started October 1 of each year and runs till September 30 of next year.
Student can start working for the employer with approved Employment Authorization Card. Visa application can be then submitted to USCIS. After H1B approval, F1 status will change to H1B from the start date in approval document.
In most cases, it's not required to get H1B Visa stamping to start working, if the student is already residing in U.S.A.
Visit Happy Schools Blog to know if USCIS is still accepting H1B Visa 2011 applications and why it takes over 4 months get approval notice.
H1B Visa is non-immigrant temporary work visa. Employers in U.S.A. can hire foreign workers who meet minimum requirements set by United Stated Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
Minimum Requirements are further divided into two categories
- Employer Job Requirements
- Employee Requirements
Students can apply for specialty occupations. If student is hired, employer will typically apply for H1B Visa. Application process for the employer will be usually handled by Employer's Immigration attorney.
Before applying for H1B Visa, one has to ensure H1B quota is still available. USCIS have total of 65,000 H1B Cap under General category and 20,000 exclusive for students who obtained Masters or higher degree from U.S. Universities.
USCIS accepts H1B visa application starting April 1st every year for the next Fiscal Year. It will take 15 days to few months for USCIS to approve the H1B Visa application. Fiscal year for USCIS started October 1 of each year and runs till September 30 of next year.
Student can start working for the employer with approved Employment Authorization Card. Visa application can be then submitted to USCIS. After H1B approval, F1 status will change to H1B from the start date in approval document.
In most cases, it's not required to get H1B Visa stamping to start working, if the student is already residing in U.S.A.
Visit Happy Schools Blog to know if USCIS is still accepting H1B Visa 2011 applications and why it takes over 4 months get approval notice.
US: Why Should You Choose to Study There
As per a survey conducted named "The Value of Education Foundations for the future" by HSBC, Indian parents have the USA as the most preferred educational destination. The average fee of tuition for a student is almost 33,215 US dollars per year. The parents are equally eager to send their students to foreign destinations for education so that their wards could benefit from international exposure and getting an education in the most reputed of universities. But parents are also worried about their child getting homesick in a foreign environment.
The students also have the option of pursuing their education along with part-time earning opportunities. These part time earning opportunities are available to the student under OPT (optional practical training). The students can work up to a duration of a year if they are from a non-science background. But when they are pursuing a degree in the science, engineering, technical and mechanical backgrounds, they are eligible to pursue an OPT of up to 36 months. The students get different benefits like becoming a part of a culture that is different than their own. Apart from that, they also mingle with students from different backgrounds, which also, helps in developing essential life skills.
The USA has the most top notch universities in the world like University of Harvard. The country also allows complete flexibility to its students. They don't need to pursue the entire 4 years in the same institution. They can change after pursuing two years of academic education in a single university.
For pursuing the rest two years of their academic degree, they can shift to a different university. Every course in the US has a certain number of credit hours associated with it. A single credit hour is associated with 12 and a half hours with a teacher in a class over 15 weeks. It also includes a minimum number of 25 hours devoted by students to student work outside the class distributed over a 15 week time period. Every subject has 3 credits which, implies devoting 37 hours in a teacher's class over a 15 weeks time and 75 hours during the same time span. So, this requires students on a US student visa to expend at least 2 ½ hours per week in a 15-week time span and 5 hours in additional work outside the class during the same time.
The students need to devote hours as per the number of credits linked to their subjects. Some subjects have more credits linked with them like 4 or 5. They have to devote 1 hour extra over the 15-year time span in class.
Visa House can help you in getting a US student visa. Nancy Damon is a freelance visa consultant and author. She can offer complete guidance on various issues like F1 visa.
The students also have the option of pursuing their education along with part-time earning opportunities. These part time earning opportunities are available to the student under OPT (optional practical training). The students can work up to a duration of a year if they are from a non-science background. But when they are pursuing a degree in the science, engineering, technical and mechanical backgrounds, they are eligible to pursue an OPT of up to 36 months. The students get different benefits like becoming a part of a culture that is different than their own. Apart from that, they also mingle with students from different backgrounds, which also, helps in developing essential life skills.
The USA has the most top notch universities in the world like University of Harvard. The country also allows complete flexibility to its students. They don't need to pursue the entire 4 years in the same institution. They can change after pursuing two years of academic education in a single university.
For pursuing the rest two years of their academic degree, they can shift to a different university. Every course in the US has a certain number of credit hours associated with it. A single credit hour is associated with 12 and a half hours with a teacher in a class over 15 weeks. It also includes a minimum number of 25 hours devoted by students to student work outside the class distributed over a 15 week time period. Every subject has 3 credits which, implies devoting 37 hours in a teacher's class over a 15 weeks time and 75 hours during the same time span. So, this requires students on a US student visa to expend at least 2 ½ hours per week in a 15-week time span and 5 hours in additional work outside the class during the same time.
The students need to devote hours as per the number of credits linked to their subjects. Some subjects have more credits linked with them like 4 or 5. They have to devote 1 hour extra over the 15-year time span in class.
Visa House can help you in getting a US student visa. Nancy Damon is a freelance visa consultant and author. She can offer complete guidance on various issues like F1 visa.
Feel Inspired And Take A Look At Engineering Courses In London
One of the most famous and prolific UK engineers was Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Born in 1806 in Portsmouth on the south coast of the UK, he went on to be chief engineer of the Great Western railway running all the way from London to Exeter. Isambard also designed the Bristol Clifton suspension bridge in the late 1820s, and the worlds largest ship at the time 'the Great Eastern' in 1858.
Isambard Kingdon Brunel died in London, during 1859. Throughout his relatively short life he had created many engineering marvels that are still are still noted as some of the best in the world, even in today's society with the highrise buildings or skyscrapers being built-in china and the USA, what Brunel achieved during his time still stands out as something special.
Long before Isambard Kingdom Brunel, famous buildings and structures were built and created, the Pharos of Alexandria, the pyramids of Egypt, the Acropolis in Greece and the great wall of china, stand as some of the best accomplishments of ancient engineers.
From an early age many youngsters love building things. Playing with interlocking blocks as a toddler is something that most of us have done. As we grow, the idea of building the highest tower using what we can find in the toy box. And then on to building dens and tree houses in the garden, most of us have a wish to be creative and are intrigued to see how things work from an early age.
In many ways this is a form of engineering, the putting together of materials to build and create and to see what can be achieved with design and planning. A summary of civil engineering is the design construction and maintenance of such things like roads, bridges, dams and buildings. All of which youngsters love to do whether they know it or not.
There are many types of engineering, from mechanical and electrical engineering all the way through to chemical and computer engineering. To become qualified, many years of study are needed. Either a two-year course at college or A levels in various subjects like maths and science, then university to gain degrees in a chosen field. After achieving the needed qualifications, finally on a career within the industry.
A current report suggest that there are over 46,000 graduate engineers coming through university each year. 5.4million people within the UK are already employed in this sector, which is a huge amount of people, bearing in mind the UK has in the region of 65 million inhabitants. The engineering industry employs over 8% of the UK work force.
Further training within each sector is so important, the advancement of science and technologies change the boundaries of what can be done every year and to keep up with advances further study is needed. Keeping up with these trends and making sure as people stay a valuable asset to the company they work for.
For further training there are courses that are available, a city the size of London has a variety of courses that can be attended, just make sure the one you book is fully accredited. These courses are attended by those that want to improve through new relevant ways and experiences in the industry.
Courses can be booked on-line and are available all year around. The courses are usually kept small so usually no more than 10 attend. It is usually possible to get a discount if the courses are booked a month or two in advance.
While in London why not take a visit to some of the vast structures and achievements of the London skyline that are famous worldwide, London Bridge built-in 1824, the Millennium Wheel built-in 1999 or the recently built Shard Building, the 310m high skyscraper in Southwark. You may get some inspiration for the next project that you will work on.
London Training for Excellence are one of the UK's fastest growing companies, they are proud to offer over 300 unique courses covering a vast range of sectors. The company look to offer clients the chance to improve performance through highly relevant, innovative and professional training courses. Their experienced team assist clients to understand their personal requirements. London Training for Excellence share their passion of education through their approach to the courses they offer; courses that provide insightful, high quality and exceptional content. To learn more, please visit http://www.londontfe.com
Isambard Kingdon Brunel died in London, during 1859. Throughout his relatively short life he had created many engineering marvels that are still are still noted as some of the best in the world, even in today's society with the highrise buildings or skyscrapers being built-in china and the USA, what Brunel achieved during his time still stands out as something special.
Long before Isambard Kingdom Brunel, famous buildings and structures were built and created, the Pharos of Alexandria, the pyramids of Egypt, the Acropolis in Greece and the great wall of china, stand as some of the best accomplishments of ancient engineers.
From an early age many youngsters love building things. Playing with interlocking blocks as a toddler is something that most of us have done. As we grow, the idea of building the highest tower using what we can find in the toy box. And then on to building dens and tree houses in the garden, most of us have a wish to be creative and are intrigued to see how things work from an early age.
In many ways this is a form of engineering, the putting together of materials to build and create and to see what can be achieved with design and planning. A summary of civil engineering is the design construction and maintenance of such things like roads, bridges, dams and buildings. All of which youngsters love to do whether they know it or not.
There are many types of engineering, from mechanical and electrical engineering all the way through to chemical and computer engineering. To become qualified, many years of study are needed. Either a two-year course at college or A levels in various subjects like maths and science, then university to gain degrees in a chosen field. After achieving the needed qualifications, finally on a career within the industry.
A current report suggest that there are over 46,000 graduate engineers coming through university each year. 5.4million people within the UK are already employed in this sector, which is a huge amount of people, bearing in mind the UK has in the region of 65 million inhabitants. The engineering industry employs over 8% of the UK work force.
Further training within each sector is so important, the advancement of science and technologies change the boundaries of what can be done every year and to keep up with advances further study is needed. Keeping up with these trends and making sure as people stay a valuable asset to the company they work for.
For further training there are courses that are available, a city the size of London has a variety of courses that can be attended, just make sure the one you book is fully accredited. These courses are attended by those that want to improve through new relevant ways and experiences in the industry.
Courses can be booked on-line and are available all year around. The courses are usually kept small so usually no more than 10 attend. It is usually possible to get a discount if the courses are booked a month or two in advance.
While in London why not take a visit to some of the vast structures and achievements of the London skyline that are famous worldwide, London Bridge built-in 1824, the Millennium Wheel built-in 1999 or the recently built Shard Building, the 310m high skyscraper in Southwark. You may get some inspiration for the next project that you will work on.
London Training for Excellence are one of the UK's fastest growing companies, they are proud to offer over 300 unique courses covering a vast range of sectors. The company look to offer clients the chance to improve performance through highly relevant, innovative and professional training courses. Their experienced team assist clients to understand their personal requirements. London Training for Excellence share their passion of education through their approach to the courses they offer; courses that provide insightful, high quality and exceptional content. To learn more, please visit http://www.londontfe.com
Today's Educational System
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| Today's Educational System |
The reality is that children today are not encouraged to learn or memorize but rather they are simply encouraged to show up for so many days out of a school year. They gain no work ethic from this. It is amazing how the numbers that are slapped on paper are what claim the child's potential.
There was a meeting at the network that I work for and it explored how today's youth are not college material and unlike the olden days children do not move out of home at the age of 18, Children tend to still live at home between the ages of 18-25 due to the complete laziness they have been conditioned to in the educational system.
The vast majority of today's youth do not know what accomplishing a goal is thanks to the 36 hours a week, ten months out of every year that they spend in what has become America's educational environment.
Not knowing the meaning of earning something is what this world has come to. Children are being taught that simply going through the motions is what matters. Then when they get out in the real world reality is their biggest slap. They have difficulty not only keeping but finding jobs due to the fact that they cannot even fill out an online job application and properly complete an assessment test. An assessment test shows the work ethic that you have, it shows your ability to work with others as well as your ability to take initiative when needed.
Apparently schools are suffering financially and as far as enrollment for both public and private schools. It is hard to support something that doesn't support your child having the future that they should be helping provide.
I do not condone what goes on today in the schools. Middles school a bully can throw a fit if their victim ignores them and be told by a mediator that they have to be nice to the bully. In High School the Teachers throw fits when the assessment test results show that the children are struggling. Yet, at the same time you see teachers in the news for "fudging" grades to make themselves look good and Principals being arrested for stealing money from the schools.
The Problem With College and Career Readiness Education
Preparing our children to be successful in college and once they step out into the workplace is certainly an educational goal worth striving for, but should college and career readiness by the ultimate goal of the traditional education system?
I am proof that focusing on college and career readiness can actually work. I graduated with high honors from both college and graduate school. I have a job and time to blog and come up with other fun ideas and projects. I have good communication skills, interpersonal skills, work with people and take on leadership roles.
However, when I think back and reflect about my years in primary and secondary school, I know there is so much information that is missing. For me, those first years of school seem to be a blur. I know I did receive some information, I know I was there at school, in a room with a teacher and other 20 or 30 students, I know I had the books and I also know, I was a very distracted girl, I know I did not like all they taught and felt no inspiration to learn. Nevertheless, I did the work, I got passing grades, and moved up from one grace to the next until I was "ready".
Yes, many students reach a level of "college and career readiness". But what does that really mean? Even more worrisome, could that be the only goal that is worth it?
New schools and new teaching and learning models have been sprung up for years in different countries around the world. In the US these "avant-garde" schools are implementing many different approaches to teaching and learning. These schools are mostly private schools or public charter schools. Unfortunately, many of the students that need these schools the most, as they provide greater literacy reinforcement and a new source of inspiration to learn beyond the expected bottom line, are missing out.
What happens when we forgo true mastery of skills, abilities and understanding for the quick and ready-made? When we don't allow the teaching and learning process enough flexibility and resources to provide individual attention to students and support to teachers? What happens when the aim of traditional schools continuous to be the mass production of "workers", giving just enough time, tools and strategies to grasp the very basic concepts and understanding to move on? The answer is simple and worrisome, where the original goal was to produce "useful and moral citizens" the reality is that we are producing nothing more than mediocre children.
Of course many students in traditional educational systems succeed. But shouldn't the aim be the success of ALL?
And what about this insistence on "college and career" as the next obvious steps, or rather THE steps to take after graduating from high school?
I did follow the very traditional path of college, marriage and career. As I look back and forward into the evolution of our human civilization, that traditional path is still very much ingrained in the way western culture has structured itself. Within society, many of us think we are doing what we want to do with our lives, but in reality, immersed in the traditional education systems, we have been programmed for years. Of course, at the time schools as we know them formally began, its main purpose was to develop rational and discipline citizens, men and women willing and able to follow society's rules and limitations that make everyday life possible. The school became a civilizing institution.
But, when the standards teachers work with emphasize "college and career readiness" we are telling young students that these are the only acceptable options on the table for their future. I believe, that in a never ending quest to produce children that get into college and find jobs, schools have created massive mediocrity.
College: before our modern times, going to a higher institution of learning was not designed for everyone. Nowadays we have more than enough physical evidence that people that don't go to college can still be greatly successful. This success doesn't happen by accident, but by action and self-disciple. If students grow up and get educated in creative and innovative environments, who can tell how many useful technologies they may be able to come up with or what new ideas they may develop that change the way we live our lives in the coming future. At one time in our human history colleges may have been great places to share ideas and learn about a variety of topics not available to everybody else. Now, that is not necessarily true anymore. People around the world connect and share ideas by the second. The internet is all about information, connectivity and learning that takes place instantly. Many free courses are available online, all the books you could imagine to download and the forums for discussion of new ideas.
Career: this word doesn't mean a Job, not anymore. Now a career may be thought of as the path one entrepreneur takes along a line of innovative ideas, products and services. Now a career is not a life spent working for a company, performing exactly the skill, it says in your resume, you acquired in your college degree. The workplace has changed, and the role of a professional within it has also change. Social skills are needed in the workplace, yes, ability to follow rules and procedures, to work in teams, to manage time... but more and more offices and companies are revamping their organizational structure and what they expect employees to do. It's no longer a follow the leader, static environment. It is an ever changing and challenging place, where cultural awareness and diversity is the new norm, where each individual is expected to take on a leadership role, where working standing up is ergonomic and we are even having "walking" meetings.
Innovative educational models have come and go, the stronger ones have endured. But to get access to those, most parents still need to pay. While the public education systems of some states have taken positive steps forward, other are lingering behind, within the security of the states' educational standards and the CCS. Don't get me wrong, having a set of standards is useful in many ways. But the limiting expectation of college and career readiness may be doing more harm than good.
As valuable as is it to prepare children with the skills they will need to be useful and productive once they get out of school, it is also valuable to make the time they spend in school one of self-discovery, reflection, creativity and problem solving outside the box. Because, if children don't see themselves represented in other individual or self-made boxes outside the box of "college" and the box of "career", they will default to mediocrity. Supporting and building of the confidence of children is what opens up the path they will choose to travel no just toward college and career, but through life.
Let's prepare our children to be ready to face life's challenges and opportunities. Let's refrain from forcing "college" and "career" as the only two options and the only to reason that school is worth their time for. School, as a time and place, is so much more than that.
Let's continue the conversation! Leave me all your comments below or send me a tweet @southcentraledu
Gabriela Gotay
I am proof that focusing on college and career readiness can actually work. I graduated with high honors from both college and graduate school. I have a job and time to blog and come up with other fun ideas and projects. I have good communication skills, interpersonal skills, work with people and take on leadership roles.
However, when I think back and reflect about my years in primary and secondary school, I know there is so much information that is missing. For me, those first years of school seem to be a blur. I know I did receive some information, I know I was there at school, in a room with a teacher and other 20 or 30 students, I know I had the books and I also know, I was a very distracted girl, I know I did not like all they taught and felt no inspiration to learn. Nevertheless, I did the work, I got passing grades, and moved up from one grace to the next until I was "ready".
Yes, many students reach a level of "college and career readiness". But what does that really mean? Even more worrisome, could that be the only goal that is worth it?
New schools and new teaching and learning models have been sprung up for years in different countries around the world. In the US these "avant-garde" schools are implementing many different approaches to teaching and learning. These schools are mostly private schools or public charter schools. Unfortunately, many of the students that need these schools the most, as they provide greater literacy reinforcement and a new source of inspiration to learn beyond the expected bottom line, are missing out.
What happens when we forgo true mastery of skills, abilities and understanding for the quick and ready-made? When we don't allow the teaching and learning process enough flexibility and resources to provide individual attention to students and support to teachers? What happens when the aim of traditional schools continuous to be the mass production of "workers", giving just enough time, tools and strategies to grasp the very basic concepts and understanding to move on? The answer is simple and worrisome, where the original goal was to produce "useful and moral citizens" the reality is that we are producing nothing more than mediocre children.
Of course many students in traditional educational systems succeed. But shouldn't the aim be the success of ALL?
And what about this insistence on "college and career" as the next obvious steps, or rather THE steps to take after graduating from high school?
I did follow the very traditional path of college, marriage and career. As I look back and forward into the evolution of our human civilization, that traditional path is still very much ingrained in the way western culture has structured itself. Within society, many of us think we are doing what we want to do with our lives, but in reality, immersed in the traditional education systems, we have been programmed for years. Of course, at the time schools as we know them formally began, its main purpose was to develop rational and discipline citizens, men and women willing and able to follow society's rules and limitations that make everyday life possible. The school became a civilizing institution.
But, when the standards teachers work with emphasize "college and career readiness" we are telling young students that these are the only acceptable options on the table for their future. I believe, that in a never ending quest to produce children that get into college and find jobs, schools have created massive mediocrity.
College: before our modern times, going to a higher institution of learning was not designed for everyone. Nowadays we have more than enough physical evidence that people that don't go to college can still be greatly successful. This success doesn't happen by accident, but by action and self-disciple. If students grow up and get educated in creative and innovative environments, who can tell how many useful technologies they may be able to come up with or what new ideas they may develop that change the way we live our lives in the coming future. At one time in our human history colleges may have been great places to share ideas and learn about a variety of topics not available to everybody else. Now, that is not necessarily true anymore. People around the world connect and share ideas by the second. The internet is all about information, connectivity and learning that takes place instantly. Many free courses are available online, all the books you could imagine to download and the forums for discussion of new ideas.
Career: this word doesn't mean a Job, not anymore. Now a career may be thought of as the path one entrepreneur takes along a line of innovative ideas, products and services. Now a career is not a life spent working for a company, performing exactly the skill, it says in your resume, you acquired in your college degree. The workplace has changed, and the role of a professional within it has also change. Social skills are needed in the workplace, yes, ability to follow rules and procedures, to work in teams, to manage time... but more and more offices and companies are revamping their organizational structure and what they expect employees to do. It's no longer a follow the leader, static environment. It is an ever changing and challenging place, where cultural awareness and diversity is the new norm, where each individual is expected to take on a leadership role, where working standing up is ergonomic and we are even having "walking" meetings.
Innovative educational models have come and go, the stronger ones have endured. But to get access to those, most parents still need to pay. While the public education systems of some states have taken positive steps forward, other are lingering behind, within the security of the states' educational standards and the CCS. Don't get me wrong, having a set of standards is useful in many ways. But the limiting expectation of college and career readiness may be doing more harm than good.
As valuable as is it to prepare children with the skills they will need to be useful and productive once they get out of school, it is also valuable to make the time they spend in school one of self-discovery, reflection, creativity and problem solving outside the box. Because, if children don't see themselves represented in other individual or self-made boxes outside the box of "college" and the box of "career", they will default to mediocrity. Supporting and building of the confidence of children is what opens up the path they will choose to travel no just toward college and career, but through life.
Let's prepare our children to be ready to face life's challenges and opportunities. Let's refrain from forcing "college" and "career" as the only two options and the only to reason that school is worth their time for. School, as a time and place, is so much more than that.
Let's continue the conversation! Leave me all your comments below or send me a tweet @southcentraledu
Gabriela Gotay
Saint Patrick's Day and Ireland the Land of Learners
So, if we take the learning nation of Ireland, what are we really like here? We are a country stockpiled with sociable chatterboxes and have a huge number of successful athletics when you think about the size of this land. We make an impact wherever we go and we are also very generous philanthropically for the size of Ireland. We as a race contribute hugely to global charities, peace keeping forces and volunteer work. We are hugely proud of anything remotely Irish.
So, in simple terms that makes us auditory and kinesthetic learners that need huge amounts of encouragement and praise. We really care about what everyone else thinks of us. So like most other parts of the world we are a largely extrovert society. We need to work with others in social settings and we are very social beings.
The hugely interesting fact about auditory learners is that they do not need to just listen, they need to talk as well. We all know how much we Irish love to speak. The idea of us starting school at five and learning to be quiet in a classroom situation is just outright ridiculous. We must admit that we work our way through so much in Ireland by gossiping. The information overload taxi driver, the restroom queue gossip or the local store conversation. It makes us better able to cope with the legendary Irish rainy weather if nothing else.
One of the real difficulties with being an auditory learner (besides just being in trouble in class for talking all of the time) is the rambling way we work, there is no structure. This is the most common difficulty that many of our students have, especially all the super talkative kinesthetic boys who are brilliant on the sports field but feel like trash at everything else in school. They simply have no idea how to structure an answer or to focus their thoughts onto the page at hand.
Sure, for the Irish it is perfectly alright and acceptable to write exactly the way you talk too. The best way to work with auditory kinesthetic learners is through role play. This is sociable group work that allows us to talk out scenarios. We get to put ourselves in the situation and we all do great in this part of oral school examinations. We are a country filled with bucket loads of generationally provided and divided political views. It is important for us to get to talk about these at length on a regular basis.
Students almost fall off of their chairs with shock when I ask them what they think or have a personal opinion on, but it is so much easier to write about what you feel especially when this is what matters to you when you are kinesthetic. Normally boys just get to run this out of their systems on the sports field rather than working through it in english or history class.
It is equally vital to allow us Irish to talk about everything that matters to us in our own unique way. The Irish have a great gift of the gab, the wit that has a name for every object, landmark and sculpture. We talk about creativity and innovation, this is a wonderful example of innovation with words. We can express any situation as a joke. We have always been gifted story tellers and can spin any yarn.
We are also hugely competitive, hence our many sporting heroes, the mark we leave whatever we set our minds to. Competition is such a great way to inject energy into any learning environment too.
There is a pride deeply engrained in the Irish and as a result we can never cope with being made a fool of in public. We may try to joke our way out of any situation but it hurts deeply. Everyone we have ever spoken to in this country has a school story where they lost face and they have never forgotten it. This is why we have to focus on the learners always, the real people we are helping to grow and develop. Everyone is different but we all fall into patterns of behavior that can be accommodated. You can't just take an education model from one country to another and expect it to work, especially since the models are always developed for the teachers and governments not the students. There are very simple patterns and learning styles but you have to look for them and you have to use each nations strengths and values to achieve what is important for them, even the Irish.
Marie O'Riordan, Opportunity Miner, Legacy Planeteer & International Honorary Award Winning Philanthropist. Working with Dr. Naoise O'Reilly Ph.D., Expression Developist. We are The Forever Method.
So, in simple terms that makes us auditory and kinesthetic learners that need huge amounts of encouragement and praise. We really care about what everyone else thinks of us. So like most other parts of the world we are a largely extrovert society. We need to work with others in social settings and we are very social beings.
The hugely interesting fact about auditory learners is that they do not need to just listen, they need to talk as well. We all know how much we Irish love to speak. The idea of us starting school at five and learning to be quiet in a classroom situation is just outright ridiculous. We must admit that we work our way through so much in Ireland by gossiping. The information overload taxi driver, the restroom queue gossip or the local store conversation. It makes us better able to cope with the legendary Irish rainy weather if nothing else.
One of the real difficulties with being an auditory learner (besides just being in trouble in class for talking all of the time) is the rambling way we work, there is no structure. This is the most common difficulty that many of our students have, especially all the super talkative kinesthetic boys who are brilliant on the sports field but feel like trash at everything else in school. They simply have no idea how to structure an answer or to focus their thoughts onto the page at hand.
Sure, for the Irish it is perfectly alright and acceptable to write exactly the way you talk too. The best way to work with auditory kinesthetic learners is through role play. This is sociable group work that allows us to talk out scenarios. We get to put ourselves in the situation and we all do great in this part of oral school examinations. We are a country filled with bucket loads of generationally provided and divided political views. It is important for us to get to talk about these at length on a regular basis.
Students almost fall off of their chairs with shock when I ask them what they think or have a personal opinion on, but it is so much easier to write about what you feel especially when this is what matters to you when you are kinesthetic. Normally boys just get to run this out of their systems on the sports field rather than working through it in english or history class.
It is equally vital to allow us Irish to talk about everything that matters to us in our own unique way. The Irish have a great gift of the gab, the wit that has a name for every object, landmark and sculpture. We talk about creativity and innovation, this is a wonderful example of innovation with words. We can express any situation as a joke. We have always been gifted story tellers and can spin any yarn.
We are also hugely competitive, hence our many sporting heroes, the mark we leave whatever we set our minds to. Competition is such a great way to inject energy into any learning environment too.
There is a pride deeply engrained in the Irish and as a result we can never cope with being made a fool of in public. We may try to joke our way out of any situation but it hurts deeply. Everyone we have ever spoken to in this country has a school story where they lost face and they have never forgotten it. This is why we have to focus on the learners always, the real people we are helping to grow and develop. Everyone is different but we all fall into patterns of behavior that can be accommodated. You can't just take an education model from one country to another and expect it to work, especially since the models are always developed for the teachers and governments not the students. There are very simple patterns and learning styles but you have to look for them and you have to use each nations strengths and values to achieve what is important for them, even the Irish.
Marie O'Riordan, Opportunity Miner, Legacy Planeteer & International Honorary Award Winning Philanthropist. Working with Dr. Naoise O'Reilly Ph.D., Expression Developist. We are The Forever Method.
Disruptive Thinking for the US Educational System
The US educational system is run like a government entity. In reality, it resembles the services industry. In a business that provides services, there is a deliverable for the customer. In public schools, the customer is the student and teachers are the front line workers who provide the service. If schools adopted business practices, they would ask the customer: what would you like? In business, when clients do not believe they received what they paid for, they take their dollars elsewhere. As taxpayers, we pay for a service from the school districts. Therefore, we should ask: what is the deliverable for our children?
The deliverable is success, not retention of information. The teacher's number one job is to make students successful. In a business, teachers would be responsible for understanding what resources are needed to ensure they make customers happy. However, in today's schools, the politicians dictate what resources are needed to make students successful. In fact, politicians even tell school districts what subjects to teach and when certain subjects should no longer be taught. For example, in the state of Florida, English grammar is no longer taught after the fifth grade. Is the fifth grade sufficient time for a student to have command of their native language?
As you can imagine, as in business, the front line workers become frustrated when leadership does not listen to their requests for appropriate resources to service clients. In school districts throughout the nation, the frustration continues to escalate.
While teachers may temporarily have their hands tied because of government policies, there are a number of effective tactics that can be introduced to the classroom to ensure the success of their students/clients. Changing the approach of forcing students to memorize other people's ideas. Instead, help them bridge the gap between book knowledge and practical application. This will force them to think through problems and situations, instead of choosing multiple choice. One way to do that is to organize students in roundtable discussions. Create case studies from examples in books and have them apply what they learn to real time situations. More importantly, the teacher should only facilitate the discussions. Empower the students to take turns leading the conversations. It would be the teacher's job to prepare each student the day before for the lesson. If the students lead, they will have to read. And their peers will pay attention. This approach fosters innovation and leadership.
In addition, bring professionals to the classroom. They should not be motivational speakers. They should talk to the students about how to bridge the gap between what they learn in school and how that knowledge is utilized in the workforce. This helps students become better decision makers for career choices.
In well-run businesses, leadership creates the direction and the vision. From there, they get out of the way and allow employees to do their job. As conditions change and requests for different resources are made, leadership makes it available. To enhance success, leadership brings all stakeholders together to discuss how to increase the value proposition. In schools, that would mean teachers, students, parents, legislators, and suppliers of educational materials would come together and talk about how to make students more successful.
For those schools that are already taking this approach, thumbs up to you. For the rest, it is purely a matter of changing the mindset for why schools exist.
As other countries become developed, they will make it increasingly difficult for nations to compete without citizens with a world-class education. To avoid this dilemma, it is time to have a single-minded commitment that focuses on making students successful.
What do you think? I'm open to ideas. Or if you want to write me about a specific topic, connect through my blog www.turnaroundip.blogspot.com
The deliverable is success, not retention of information. The teacher's number one job is to make students successful. In a business, teachers would be responsible for understanding what resources are needed to ensure they make customers happy. However, in today's schools, the politicians dictate what resources are needed to make students successful. In fact, politicians even tell school districts what subjects to teach and when certain subjects should no longer be taught. For example, in the state of Florida, English grammar is no longer taught after the fifth grade. Is the fifth grade sufficient time for a student to have command of their native language?
As you can imagine, as in business, the front line workers become frustrated when leadership does not listen to their requests for appropriate resources to service clients. In school districts throughout the nation, the frustration continues to escalate.
While teachers may temporarily have their hands tied because of government policies, there are a number of effective tactics that can be introduced to the classroom to ensure the success of their students/clients. Changing the approach of forcing students to memorize other people's ideas. Instead, help them bridge the gap between book knowledge and practical application. This will force them to think through problems and situations, instead of choosing multiple choice. One way to do that is to organize students in roundtable discussions. Create case studies from examples in books and have them apply what they learn to real time situations. More importantly, the teacher should only facilitate the discussions. Empower the students to take turns leading the conversations. It would be the teacher's job to prepare each student the day before for the lesson. If the students lead, they will have to read. And their peers will pay attention. This approach fosters innovation and leadership.
In addition, bring professionals to the classroom. They should not be motivational speakers. They should talk to the students about how to bridge the gap between what they learn in school and how that knowledge is utilized in the workforce. This helps students become better decision makers for career choices.
In well-run businesses, leadership creates the direction and the vision. From there, they get out of the way and allow employees to do their job. As conditions change and requests for different resources are made, leadership makes it available. To enhance success, leadership brings all stakeholders together to discuss how to increase the value proposition. In schools, that would mean teachers, students, parents, legislators, and suppliers of educational materials would come together and talk about how to make students more successful.
For those schools that are already taking this approach, thumbs up to you. For the rest, it is purely a matter of changing the mindset for why schools exist.
As other countries become developed, they will make it increasingly difficult for nations to compete without citizens with a world-class education. To avoid this dilemma, it is time to have a single-minded commitment that focuses on making students successful.
What do you think? I'm open to ideas. Or if you want to write me about a specific topic, connect through my blog www.turnaroundip.blogspot.com
Are We Really Educating Our Children?
Once again, I sat down with the wisest person I've ever met. In this conversation, he and I brainstormed about the educational system. As with all of my conversations with him, I experienced the sensation of being educated about subjects I may not have considered. This dialogue was no different. As usual, he leads with questions.
He asked me if I knew the etymology of the word education. That led me to Wikipedia. There I learned that etymologically, the word "education" is derived from the Latin educatio ("A breeding, a bringing up, a rearing") from educo ("I educate, I train") which is related to the homonym educo ("I lead forth, I take out; I raise up, I erect") from e- ("from, out of") and duco ("I lead, I conduct").[3] With that said, he asked if I could discern what was missing in the educational system. He asserted that we've lost sight of the intention of the word educate.
I'm rarely foolish enough to defend my point of view against him. Therefore, I listened. And he gave me an earful.
He said the educational system starts with a presupposition that children are not intelligent. On the other hand, some institutions believe many four years olds qualify as geniuses. Why is it that so many children grow to dislike school and do just enough to get by if they start as geniuses? It may be because we don't leverage the brilliance children already possess. If you look at the word education, it has more to do with bringing up, to lead oneself, conduct and come out of. These children already have what it takes to lead themselves. They only require guidance.
The educational system is the opposite of empowering children to lead themselves. Instead of guidance, we impose beliefs upon them. We demand they memorize thoughts, beliefs and discoveries of others. We are asking them to be robots with memory chips. We do not engage them in such a way they develop authentic thinking. They only learn to rely on thoughts in their memory. What's worse, is many of the tests are multiple choice or true and false. And there are people who do not memorize the material. They just memorize if the answer is A, B, C, D or true or false.
In that paradigm, children never learn to lead themselves. In fact, that method teaches children to shut themselves down and value the knowledge of others more than they value their own innate brilliance.
I told him his analysis was harsh. He said he was still being nice. However, he said there is a better way to guide people to lead themselves to authentically think.
He suggested teachers serve as a guide to students. Instead of the teacher being at the front of the class, each student would be better served if they led class lessons. The teacher's role would be to work with each student to help them prepare for their turn at leading a lesson.
In that paradigm, the students would have to know the material to teach it to his or her peers. The student would also benefit if they could give their perspective on what they learned and how it relates to supposedly unrelated matters. That would encourage thinking. Furthermore, the other students would study the material with the intent of quality control. They would be more critical of their peers leading class than they are of the teacher. Some of the students would question their peers in a more challenging way than they would question the teacher.
This method would ensure students learn the material and lead themselves. The idea of critical thinking would become first nature and it would leverage the brilliance they already possess.
What do you think? I'm open to ideas. Or if you want to write me about a specific topic, connect through my blog www.turnaroundip.blogspot.com. Ted Santos
He asked me if I knew the etymology of the word education. That led me to Wikipedia. There I learned that etymologically, the word "education" is derived from the Latin educatio ("A breeding, a bringing up, a rearing") from educo ("I educate, I train") which is related to the homonym educo ("I lead forth, I take out; I raise up, I erect") from e- ("from, out of") and duco ("I lead, I conduct").[3] With that said, he asked if I could discern what was missing in the educational system. He asserted that we've lost sight of the intention of the word educate.
I'm rarely foolish enough to defend my point of view against him. Therefore, I listened. And he gave me an earful.
He said the educational system starts with a presupposition that children are not intelligent. On the other hand, some institutions believe many four years olds qualify as geniuses. Why is it that so many children grow to dislike school and do just enough to get by if they start as geniuses? It may be because we don't leverage the brilliance children already possess. If you look at the word education, it has more to do with bringing up, to lead oneself, conduct and come out of. These children already have what it takes to lead themselves. They only require guidance.
The educational system is the opposite of empowering children to lead themselves. Instead of guidance, we impose beliefs upon them. We demand they memorize thoughts, beliefs and discoveries of others. We are asking them to be robots with memory chips. We do not engage them in such a way they develop authentic thinking. They only learn to rely on thoughts in their memory. What's worse, is many of the tests are multiple choice or true and false. And there are people who do not memorize the material. They just memorize if the answer is A, B, C, D or true or false.
In that paradigm, children never learn to lead themselves. In fact, that method teaches children to shut themselves down and value the knowledge of others more than they value their own innate brilliance.
I told him his analysis was harsh. He said he was still being nice. However, he said there is a better way to guide people to lead themselves to authentically think.
He suggested teachers serve as a guide to students. Instead of the teacher being at the front of the class, each student would be better served if they led class lessons. The teacher's role would be to work with each student to help them prepare for their turn at leading a lesson.
In that paradigm, the students would have to know the material to teach it to his or her peers. The student would also benefit if they could give their perspective on what they learned and how it relates to supposedly unrelated matters. That would encourage thinking. Furthermore, the other students would study the material with the intent of quality control. They would be more critical of their peers leading class than they are of the teacher. Some of the students would question their peers in a more challenging way than they would question the teacher.
This method would ensure students learn the material and lead themselves. The idea of critical thinking would become first nature and it would leverage the brilliance they already possess.
What do you think? I'm open to ideas. Or if you want to write me about a specific topic, connect through my blog www.turnaroundip.blogspot.com. Ted Santos
Getting A Suitable CISCO Certification In The Right Way
CISCO certification can help you in securing a decent job in the IT sector and so you need to ensure that you opt for the right options in this regard. Certification helps you in staying on top of the industry no matter what it takes. You can easily get experienced once you opt for the right options in this regard. In this article, we are going to talk in particular about getting a suitable CISCO certification without any difficulty. You got to pay proper attention towards the below mentioned article.
Some of the key instructions that you should follow in order to get a CISCO certification are discussed below. I am pretty convinced that you will be able to generate some fine results.
• You should first choose the right path that fits your career goals and experience in the right way. You should even choose a path which is accompanied by field technicians, service providers and routers. You need to be rest assured that you opt for the right options that suit you in the right way.
• Now, you need to recognize the precise certification levels consistently so that you are able to hold on to the current position. Professional level can be easily achieved by experts who are planning to gain more specialized certifications. The deeper security knowledge and professional level exams will surely help you in learning more and more about this topic.
• Now, you got to carefully study the examination requirements on their website. You will surely be able to get some key information in regard to this topic. All the major assessment tests are quite good when it comes to ensuring immense success in regard to certification.
• You got to reassure that you undergo exam training that suits you in the right way. By doing this you will be able to gain some expertise in this industry.
• You should reach the test location at least 15 minutes before the exam begins. I am pretty convinced that you will be able to look out for some fine options. Internet research plays a crucial role in all the industries and you need to research hard online for making the right move.
So, these are some of the finest things that you should remember in regard to getting a suitable CISCO certification in the right way. I am pretty convinced that you will be able to generate some fine results. Enjoy a lot while getting certified.
By Sandra Wilson M
Some of the key instructions that you should follow in order to get a CISCO certification are discussed below. I am pretty convinced that you will be able to generate some fine results.
• You should first choose the right path that fits your career goals and experience in the right way. You should even choose a path which is accompanied by field technicians, service providers and routers. You need to be rest assured that you opt for the right options that suit you in the right way.
• Now, you need to recognize the precise certification levels consistently so that you are able to hold on to the current position. Professional level can be easily achieved by experts who are planning to gain more specialized certifications. The deeper security knowledge and professional level exams will surely help you in learning more and more about this topic.
• Now, you got to carefully study the examination requirements on their website. You will surely be able to get some key information in regard to this topic. All the major assessment tests are quite good when it comes to ensuring immense success in regard to certification.
• You got to reassure that you undergo exam training that suits you in the right way. By doing this you will be able to gain some expertise in this industry.
• You should reach the test location at least 15 minutes before the exam begins. I am pretty convinced that you will be able to look out for some fine options. Internet research plays a crucial role in all the industries and you need to research hard online for making the right move.
So, these are some of the finest things that you should remember in regard to getting a suitable CISCO certification in the right way. I am pretty convinced that you will be able to generate some fine results. Enjoy a lot while getting certified.
By Sandra Wilson M
A School That Raises People, Not Students
Education is, without doubt, an integral part of our lives and something that has to be treated very seriously. However, there are some problematic aspects to it, particularly in the way it's being implemented in most parts of the world. The common trend is that schools focus entirely on the academic aspect of kids' education, and completely forget to teach them the other important parts of being a good human being.
That's why it's very important to consider where you want to send your children to study. A regular school may or may not work for them, but what you can be sure about is that your kids will benefit most from a school designed specifically to raise good people, not simply bright students.
These two things don't have to be mutually exclusive either, which is what some parents tend to fear when it comes to choosing the right school for their kids. No, your child won't fall behind in classes simply because his/her teachers are also taking the time to explain good human values to them. Quite on the contrary, a child being raised this way will be quicker to adapt to and accept their responsibilities in life, and they'll know how to contribute to society and be a better person.
Are you confused over where to send your kids in order to give them an education like that? Don't worry - there are plenty of good places, and in fact, there's probably a good school of that type in your local area if you're willing to spend some time looking for it. The Internet can be a great friend here, as it can quickly reveal all the good schools in your area that focus on this type of education.
Remember though, just because you've found a good school for your kids doesn't mean that your responsibilities as a parent end there. Quite on the contrary, there are some serious expectations for you with regards to what you teach your kids at home, and this will be just as important in their upbringing as giving them a good education at school. As long as you follow what the school is trying to teach them, and contribute something of your own in the same tone, you should handle that job just fine.
So, with all that in mind, don't limit your kids' potential and future development just so you can stick to the traditional model for schooling. A lot can be done to improve on that model, and if you're concerned with making your kids better people, then you'll spend all the time it takes searching for the right school.
Just one last thing to be careful about - if there are multiple schools that seem similar (and suitable) in your local area, you should go and talk to the teachers around them personally. This will solidify any impressions you might have of the schools (or break them, sometimes), and will show you exactly where your kids will feel at home - you should know, as a parent!
If you are worried about selecting a good school, you can consider Catholic Coeducation School in Adelaide.
By Trevor Levine
That's why it's very important to consider where you want to send your children to study. A regular school may or may not work for them, but what you can be sure about is that your kids will benefit most from a school designed specifically to raise good people, not simply bright students.
These two things don't have to be mutually exclusive either, which is what some parents tend to fear when it comes to choosing the right school for their kids. No, your child won't fall behind in classes simply because his/her teachers are also taking the time to explain good human values to them. Quite on the contrary, a child being raised this way will be quicker to adapt to and accept their responsibilities in life, and they'll know how to contribute to society and be a better person.
Are you confused over where to send your kids in order to give them an education like that? Don't worry - there are plenty of good places, and in fact, there's probably a good school of that type in your local area if you're willing to spend some time looking for it. The Internet can be a great friend here, as it can quickly reveal all the good schools in your area that focus on this type of education.
Remember though, just because you've found a good school for your kids doesn't mean that your responsibilities as a parent end there. Quite on the contrary, there are some serious expectations for you with regards to what you teach your kids at home, and this will be just as important in their upbringing as giving them a good education at school. As long as you follow what the school is trying to teach them, and contribute something of your own in the same tone, you should handle that job just fine.
So, with all that in mind, don't limit your kids' potential and future development just so you can stick to the traditional model for schooling. A lot can be done to improve on that model, and if you're concerned with making your kids better people, then you'll spend all the time it takes searching for the right school.
Just one last thing to be careful about - if there are multiple schools that seem similar (and suitable) in your local area, you should go and talk to the teachers around them personally. This will solidify any impressions you might have of the schools (or break them, sometimes), and will show you exactly where your kids will feel at home - you should know, as a parent!
If you are worried about selecting a good school, you can consider Catholic Coeducation School in Adelaide.
By Trevor Levine
What Happened to the Student Portfolios?
Many teachers want to change the way they do things, but sometimes there's just a lack of tools, a clear plan, or systems already in place about how to proceed. Teachers and administrators are so busy, that unless the tools and the plans are ready to go, sometimes the best intentions have to get left behind.
Authentic assessment is a great example of something so many teachers want to do, but can't always pull off. At one school I worked at, teachers all agreed to a new plan of authentic assessment. The administration had made it clear that each student should have a student portfolio of real work samples. Not only would teachers view this work as part of the assessment process for report cards and conferences, but each portfolio would be passed on at the end of the year to the next year teacher so they could get to know their new kids.
It started as an exciting idea by administrators and teachers - instead of just using test grades, let's look at real student work! Let's get on the bandwagon of portfolio assessment! So the teachers made boxes to store some of the students' best work throughout the year.
Well, at first all was going well. Good samples got saved, and some of it got used a few times during parent teacher conferences. But then, as the year progressed, the realities of paper and time started working against the teachers. The boxes got more and more stuffed full of paper and there was no system set up for weeding out work as more came in. Some teachers kept the boxes in order, and others let them get increasingly messy. At the end of the year, some teachers were stressed when the administration asked them to prepare a final folder of best work spanning the year for each student, to pass on to the next teacher. Some of them managed this better than others - the ones that were very well-organized. Finally, the boxes that some of the teachers made were all lined up and labeled. It was at this point that everything started to fall apart.
The teachers started moving faster and faster to finish cleaning their classrooms for summer vacation. Students were revved up with end-of-year energy and kept the teachers very busy. Some of the portfolios were meant to be labeled, but that just wasn't a priority with everything else going on. And some of the boxes weren't labeled that well either. When the kids left on the final day, admin asked the teachers to move the portfolios and other boxes all into the hall so the cleaners and painters could work in the summer. Some of the portfolio boxes that were labeled well got moved to a hallway storage area. Some stayed mixed in with the rest of the boxes.
Well, sometime late in the next fall, I was helping out at the school, and there was a need to clear out some storage space. Someone said there were a bunch of boxes lying around. They asked me to help figure out what they were and get rid of them. Well... there they were, the boxes of portfolios of beautiful student work. Most of them had never made it to the next grade teachers. "Wait!" I said... "There are teachers expecting these! This is student work! This is supposed to go to their next teachers!" I frantically tried to contact teachers. Some had left the school. I checked on student names... they were all in different rooms now, it would be a long process to match the folders to their new teachers, and some were missing last names and grades. Some folders were meant for the middle school down the road but had never made it there. No one at that school was expecting them or ready to pick them up - it was already way into the school year and they were on to other things, too, and no one had time, energy, or cars to deal with these boxes of mixed up student work. No one could even organize getting the work back into the students' hands or their parents' hands because the kids were all spread out in different rooms and grades. No one wanted to deal with these darned boxes. In the end, they had to be tossed in the recycling bin. At least they were recyclable; I rationalized, as I watched them get hauled away. And at least some of the other portfolios in the school had made it to their destinations and not to this corner of the hallway. But, it made me think, there must be a better way.
Now, just a few years later, at least there is a much better way - digital portfolios are starting to become available to replace big heavy boxes filled with papers. But even as we find good solutions with technology, we still need to remember, that behind every good idea, there's a need for good implementation and planning, so that all of our teachers, students, parents, and administrators can see good things come of their good intentions.
June Schwartz is writing expert for digital portfolio at Open School ePortfolio.
Authentic assessment is a great example of something so many teachers want to do, but can't always pull off. At one school I worked at, teachers all agreed to a new plan of authentic assessment. The administration had made it clear that each student should have a student portfolio of real work samples. Not only would teachers view this work as part of the assessment process for report cards and conferences, but each portfolio would be passed on at the end of the year to the next year teacher so they could get to know their new kids.
It started as an exciting idea by administrators and teachers - instead of just using test grades, let's look at real student work! Let's get on the bandwagon of portfolio assessment! So the teachers made boxes to store some of the students' best work throughout the year.
Well, at first all was going well. Good samples got saved, and some of it got used a few times during parent teacher conferences. But then, as the year progressed, the realities of paper and time started working against the teachers. The boxes got more and more stuffed full of paper and there was no system set up for weeding out work as more came in. Some teachers kept the boxes in order, and others let them get increasingly messy. At the end of the year, some teachers were stressed when the administration asked them to prepare a final folder of best work spanning the year for each student, to pass on to the next teacher. Some of them managed this better than others - the ones that were very well-organized. Finally, the boxes that some of the teachers made were all lined up and labeled. It was at this point that everything started to fall apart.
The teachers started moving faster and faster to finish cleaning their classrooms for summer vacation. Students were revved up with end-of-year energy and kept the teachers very busy. Some of the portfolios were meant to be labeled, but that just wasn't a priority with everything else going on. And some of the boxes weren't labeled that well either. When the kids left on the final day, admin asked the teachers to move the portfolios and other boxes all into the hall so the cleaners and painters could work in the summer. Some of the portfolio boxes that were labeled well got moved to a hallway storage area. Some stayed mixed in with the rest of the boxes.
Well, sometime late in the next fall, I was helping out at the school, and there was a need to clear out some storage space. Someone said there were a bunch of boxes lying around. They asked me to help figure out what they were and get rid of them. Well... there they were, the boxes of portfolios of beautiful student work. Most of them had never made it to the next grade teachers. "Wait!" I said... "There are teachers expecting these! This is student work! This is supposed to go to their next teachers!" I frantically tried to contact teachers. Some had left the school. I checked on student names... they were all in different rooms now, it would be a long process to match the folders to their new teachers, and some were missing last names and grades. Some folders were meant for the middle school down the road but had never made it there. No one at that school was expecting them or ready to pick them up - it was already way into the school year and they were on to other things, too, and no one had time, energy, or cars to deal with these boxes of mixed up student work. No one could even organize getting the work back into the students' hands or their parents' hands because the kids were all spread out in different rooms and grades. No one wanted to deal with these darned boxes. In the end, they had to be tossed in the recycling bin. At least they were recyclable; I rationalized, as I watched them get hauled away. And at least some of the other portfolios in the school had made it to their destinations and not to this corner of the hallway. But, it made me think, there must be a better way.
Now, just a few years later, at least there is a much better way - digital portfolios are starting to become available to replace big heavy boxes filled with papers. But even as we find good solutions with technology, we still need to remember, that behind every good idea, there's a need for good implementation and planning, so that all of our teachers, students, parents, and administrators can see good things come of their good intentions.
June Schwartz is writing expert for digital portfolio at Open School ePortfolio.
How Mighty Is the Pen? The Dire Problem of Education Finance
School funding in the U.S. is essentially unfair and inequitable. In a society in which it is nearly impossible to advance without a good education, in which education has become a civil right of man, it would be wrong to deny any child quality education.
We cannot logically expect our children to advance in society that will not give them the money they need to get a decent education. And even after primary and secondary education, it makes no sense to put the poor in college debt when they were already given less opportunities to get into that college than the rich. Making college so expensive continues to burden the poor and when the time comes, their children are put in this cycle. This violates the original intentions of American life, giving equal opportunity for all.
Why are there so many struggles placed on those who work hard? Currently systems are based on a revenue limit, meaning districts provide money for schools depending on property wealth of the school. School finance should be given based on the current wealth for one family and society, more finance on the less fortunate and vice versa. If this cycle of giving less to the less fortunate continues, it will create a socioeconomic gap that hurts quality of education, teacher fold, and school ranking.
School funding works at three different levels: local, state, and federal. Federal funding is minimal for lack of educational clauses in the constitution, while state governments are the sole voice in taking control of financing. Yet instead, local funding has shown to be the most domineering and main source for school funding. This has become a problem because local funding depends on property wealth, and property wealth widely varies within city and district. Cities that suffer from a predisposition of "poorness" get poorer the funding. Those schools are stuck in the ditch of debt and are unable to escape due this revenue-limit system.
As well as the federal and state funding level needing repair, the local and district division is also issue. Districts may be considered the smallest unit of funding, but funding inequality is prevalent within districts too. This disparity is exemplified in the rising differences among schools in material and teacher quality. Teachers get paid more in low poverty districts and as a result compete for those jobs. Consequently, high-poverty districts suffer from a shortage of teachers, lower quality teachers, and a high turnover rate. And in our current system, schools finance judgments are per-teacher-based, so high-poverty schools are unable to receive the aid they need because of surface teacher salaries. Schools instead should be given enough money in a per-student system rather than per-teacher system in effort to increase output per student.
Renowned economist and critic Eric Hanushek addresses the finances of education issue in his novel Courting Failure. In his novel, he explores and discovers the correlation that low student performance indicated inadequate funding. It is precisely this situation that shows children's right to adequate and equal education cannot be pursued if do not fix the underlying problems, such as that of public funding state levels need to provide a safety net for the schools of their region. States can do so by providing more to the less-wealthy and less the more-wealthy. Yet while doing this, they must make sure the funding level is high enough that all these schools can function properly, instead of the "minimum" levels they currently adopt.
Hanushek also questions the term "adequacy", the current national requirement for school education. Strikingly, 28 states have been ruled unconstitutional in this area. States assert minimal education standards that no reasonable people would consider acceptable. Adequacy's violations can be visualized if we imagine fully efficient public school and an actual public school or what society believes students should learn and what they actually learn. The space between these two ideas is incredible and throw off all vouches for adequacy. This gap comes from how finance calculations are made, typically through teacher-salary, lack of inclusion for more expensive students (e.g. English language learners), and different standards of adequate funding. We need to stop resorting to traditional terms of what is "sufficient" and instead adopt concrete definitions needed to give real standards to schools so they can be efficiently and thoroughly funded.
Another widely claimed label is "equity", the idea to distribute resources equally throughout schools in a state. If we are to allow all students equal opportunity in school quality and ranking, this distribution should be done in a way that lessens the differences ranging across school districts' abilities to raise funds. Lawsuits claim that such is a violation of the "equity" principle, that poor districts should not get more money than rich districts, but if we do not help or nurture those in need, we are raising them for unequal chances and opportunities for their future lives. Indeed, it is necessary to limit the poorness of these districts.
Studies suggest this inequality can be reduced by transferring more of responsibility of funding from local to state. Well respected Californian finance reform advocate, Arun Ramanathan, proposes a plan to better state-wide academic funding.
1) Instead of a revenue-limit formula, adopt a student weighted formula.
2) Ensure that school funding gets allocated directly towards students.
3) Require districts to clearly show district and school level spending
4) Monitor correlation of financial inputs and academic results. Ensure that those who need special help get the help they need.
A plan similar to the one Ramanathan proposed was implemented in Colorado recently. The plan itself calculates the difference that state funding has to make up for local funding to be equal throughout the state. The idea is that if the districts can raise more from local taxes, the state does not have to make up the difference if the locals make less. The new finance act makes sure to have expenditures visible and comparable for the public, allowing for direct regulation of financial reform. The plan also accounts for those who qualify for reduced-lunch and ESL learners. By diving 20-40% more money toward those students, the financial system balances giving all students equal opportunity. Using these plans, Coloradans have begun showing improving trends in educational finance.
With plans like these, there truly is a future in education reform. But it is up to all the other states, or rather, the federal institution to begin addressing the concerns the students' well-being as students.
By Tanzeela Khan
We cannot logically expect our children to advance in society that will not give them the money they need to get a decent education. And even after primary and secondary education, it makes no sense to put the poor in college debt when they were already given less opportunities to get into that college than the rich. Making college so expensive continues to burden the poor and when the time comes, their children are put in this cycle. This violates the original intentions of American life, giving equal opportunity for all.
Why are there so many struggles placed on those who work hard? Currently systems are based on a revenue limit, meaning districts provide money for schools depending on property wealth of the school. School finance should be given based on the current wealth for one family and society, more finance on the less fortunate and vice versa. If this cycle of giving less to the less fortunate continues, it will create a socioeconomic gap that hurts quality of education, teacher fold, and school ranking.
School funding works at three different levels: local, state, and federal. Federal funding is minimal for lack of educational clauses in the constitution, while state governments are the sole voice in taking control of financing. Yet instead, local funding has shown to be the most domineering and main source for school funding. This has become a problem because local funding depends on property wealth, and property wealth widely varies within city and district. Cities that suffer from a predisposition of "poorness" get poorer the funding. Those schools are stuck in the ditch of debt and are unable to escape due this revenue-limit system.
As well as the federal and state funding level needing repair, the local and district division is also issue. Districts may be considered the smallest unit of funding, but funding inequality is prevalent within districts too. This disparity is exemplified in the rising differences among schools in material and teacher quality. Teachers get paid more in low poverty districts and as a result compete for those jobs. Consequently, high-poverty districts suffer from a shortage of teachers, lower quality teachers, and a high turnover rate. And in our current system, schools finance judgments are per-teacher-based, so high-poverty schools are unable to receive the aid they need because of surface teacher salaries. Schools instead should be given enough money in a per-student system rather than per-teacher system in effort to increase output per student.
Renowned economist and critic Eric Hanushek addresses the finances of education issue in his novel Courting Failure. In his novel, he explores and discovers the correlation that low student performance indicated inadequate funding. It is precisely this situation that shows children's right to adequate and equal education cannot be pursued if do not fix the underlying problems, such as that of public funding state levels need to provide a safety net for the schools of their region. States can do so by providing more to the less-wealthy and less the more-wealthy. Yet while doing this, they must make sure the funding level is high enough that all these schools can function properly, instead of the "minimum" levels they currently adopt.
Hanushek also questions the term "adequacy", the current national requirement for school education. Strikingly, 28 states have been ruled unconstitutional in this area. States assert minimal education standards that no reasonable people would consider acceptable. Adequacy's violations can be visualized if we imagine fully efficient public school and an actual public school or what society believes students should learn and what they actually learn. The space between these two ideas is incredible and throw off all vouches for adequacy. This gap comes from how finance calculations are made, typically through teacher-salary, lack of inclusion for more expensive students (e.g. English language learners), and different standards of adequate funding. We need to stop resorting to traditional terms of what is "sufficient" and instead adopt concrete definitions needed to give real standards to schools so they can be efficiently and thoroughly funded.
Another widely claimed label is "equity", the idea to distribute resources equally throughout schools in a state. If we are to allow all students equal opportunity in school quality and ranking, this distribution should be done in a way that lessens the differences ranging across school districts' abilities to raise funds. Lawsuits claim that such is a violation of the "equity" principle, that poor districts should not get more money than rich districts, but if we do not help or nurture those in need, we are raising them for unequal chances and opportunities for their future lives. Indeed, it is necessary to limit the poorness of these districts.
Studies suggest this inequality can be reduced by transferring more of responsibility of funding from local to state. Well respected Californian finance reform advocate, Arun Ramanathan, proposes a plan to better state-wide academic funding.
1) Instead of a revenue-limit formula, adopt a student weighted formula.
2) Ensure that school funding gets allocated directly towards students.
3) Require districts to clearly show district and school level spending
4) Monitor correlation of financial inputs and academic results. Ensure that those who need special help get the help they need.
A plan similar to the one Ramanathan proposed was implemented in Colorado recently. The plan itself calculates the difference that state funding has to make up for local funding to be equal throughout the state. The idea is that if the districts can raise more from local taxes, the state does not have to make up the difference if the locals make less. The new finance act makes sure to have expenditures visible and comparable for the public, allowing for direct regulation of financial reform. The plan also accounts for those who qualify for reduced-lunch and ESL learners. By diving 20-40% more money toward those students, the financial system balances giving all students equal opportunity. Using these plans, Coloradans have begun showing improving trends in educational finance.
With plans like these, there truly is a future in education reform. But it is up to all the other states, or rather, the federal institution to begin addressing the concerns the students' well-being as students.
By Tanzeela Khan
Creating A Great Resume - PDF Worksheet
R.I.P. OBJECTIVE STATEMENT
Lets get started with, in my opinion the most important part of any resume, the objective statement. The objective statement has taken the spotlight and is king on the resume. Now you might be saying to yourself, "If the objective statement is king why am I saying R.I.P. to it?" Great question: R.I.P. to the old way of writing your objective statement. The days of writing an objective statement about what your looking for in a position is over. Since we are a staffing/placement firm for Registered Nurses and Therapists here is an example of what we see most of the time on an objective statement on a resume that is sent to us for an open position. (This is just an example that we made up and in no way singles out anyone)
Example mission/objective statement - To obtain a challenging career as a Registered
Nurse in which I can utilize my excellent customer service and organizational skills while providing the highest level of patient care. The mission/objective statement written above is no longer acceptable to hiring managers and/or facilities. It is outdated! 99% of anyone who has ever written a resume/cv has just about written the same mission/objective statement entailing what he or she as a employer are looking for to benefit them. Remember the title of this little worksheet - WE WANT TO STAND OUT WITH OUR RESUME/CV ABOVE OUR COMPETITION. WE WANT TO BE REMEMBERED AND THE FIRST TO GET THE CALL FOR AN INTERVIEW.
How do we accomplish this goal?
We start by changing our way of thinking. Instead of thinking what's in it for me, think how can I help this company/facility with the skills I bring to the position.
Our new mission/objective statement should read - Motivated medical professional with over 8 years experience organizing and providing exceptional assistance to an entire emergency department. Adept in accurate data entry with excellent communication skills.
With mission/objective statements, it's the first statement that the hiring manager or recruiter will see. You only have one chance and 15 seconds to get it right. Compare the two mission/objective statement above and you can clearly see which one stands out!
When you are selecting a font for your resume, the font size should be between 10 and 12 to allow for readability. You should use a readable, font such as Times New Roman, Arial, or Calibri. Do not use the default - it's boring and we want to stand out.
1. Know the purpose of your resume - The objective of your resume is to land an interview, and the interview will land you the job.
2. Use effective titles - Like it or not, employers will usually make a judgment about your resume in 15 seconds. Try to be as descriptive as possible. For example:
Bad title: Registered Nurse
Good title: Per Diem/Supervisor RN - ICU/CCU/PCU
3. Proofread it twice - One small typo and your chances of getting hired could slip.
Proofreading it once is not enough, so do it twice, and what I mean is have someone else read it the second time for errors.
4. Put the most important information first - This point is valid both to the overall order of your resume, as well as to the individual sections. When describing your experiences or skills, list the most important ones first. You may have to tailor this for each different position you apply for. Make sure to compare to the position summary.
5. Do not include "no kidding" information - There are many people that like to
include statements like "Available for interview" or "References available upon request. If you are sending a resume to a company, the hiring manager knows that you are available for the interview and that you will/should have references.
By Nicholas Blake
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