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Moe (2017) describes the difficulties inherent in developing and teaching critical thinking, especially within standardised education. In the connected age, access to information and control over media narratives are paramount to governance. In the age of ‘post-truth’ we need more than ever educational systems that promote information literacy and critical thinking. There is reason to think that there is a need to reconsider the ideological basis and commitments of open education and its practices, many of which remain wedded to traditional academic structures. This may seem counterintuitive: as Weller (2014) suggests, the ‘battle for open’ is in many senses won, with a growing body of open access publication; open textbook uptake; open source tools for building learning environments; massive open online courses; and open sharing of research data. However, Rolfe (2016) has demonstrated through content analysis a fundamental shift in the discourse around open education. Articles from the 1970s tended to understand openness in terms of widening participation, and with this came a concomitant promotion of humane values, fostering autonomy, facilitating the development of others, and a wider social mission. This approach has in turn been disrupted by the rise of flexible learning in higher education and the wide availability of educational materials. By the time the OER movement had grown to a global force much of the debate had moved on to licensing, technical and implementation issues (Weller, 2016).
A reconsideration of the role of ideology in OER will be framed by elements of Karl Popper’s The Open Society and its Enemies (1947). Popper’s approach was hugely influential for Western liberal democracy, and remains arguably the most sustained attempt to develop a vision of society from the idea of openness. Popper’s critical approach to education – which emphasizes the role of learner as so-creator of knowledge– serves as a model for making explicit the connection between critical rationality and openness, and provides tools for systematically reflecting on educational practice (Chitpin, 2016).
Chitpin, S. (2016). Popper’s Approach to Education. London and New York: Routledge.
Knapton, S. (2016). Donald Trump is a ‘vulgar, demented, pig demon’ says Hillary Clinton’s ex adviser. The Telegraph, 30 May 2016.
Moe, R. (2017). All I Know Is What’s on the Internet. Real Life Mag.http://reallifemag.com/all-i-know-is-whats-on-the-internet/
Popper, K. (1947a). The Open Society and its Enemies. Vol. I: The Age of Plato. London: Routledge. Available from https://archive.org/stream/opensocietyandit033120mbp.
Popper, K. (1947b). The Open Society and its Enemies. Vol II: The high tide of prophecy: Hegel, Marx and the Aftermath. London: Routledge. Available from https://archive.org/details/opensocietyandit033064mbp.
Rolfe, V. (2016). Open. But not for criticism? Open Education 2016.http://www.slideshare.net/viv_rolfe/opened16-conference-presentation
Slaughter, A.-M. (2016). How to Succeed in the Networked World: A Grand Strategy for the Digital Age. Foreign Affairs. (Nov/Dec.) https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/world/2016-10-04/how-succeed-networked-world
Weller, M. (2014). The Battle for Open. Ubiquity Press.
Weller, M. (2016). Different Aspects of the Emerging OER Discipline. Revista Educacao e Cultura Contemporanea, 13(31) http://oro.open.ac.uk/4
bali joined the session The return of ideology? Rethinking the open society 5 years, 12 months ago
jeffreykeefer joined the session The return of ideology? Rethinking the open society 6 years ago
helen crump joined the session The return of ideology? Rethinking the open society 6 years ago | <urn:uuid:da2b60d8-cae5-4545-8a94-2332faf8a8ff> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://oer17.oerconf.org/sessions/the-return-of-ideology-rethinking-the-open-society-1520/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296945372.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20230325191930-20230325221930-00650.warc.gz | en | 0.89323 | 917 | 2.796875 | 3 | The extract discusses the importance of critical thinking, information literacy, and open education in the digital age, highlighting the need to reconsider the ideological basis of open education. It references various scholars and their works, demonstrating a depth of knowledge and critical analysis. However, it lacks practical application, nuanced interaction, and complex problem-solving opportunities, focusing primarily on theoretical discussions.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 188,278 | 0 |
“Without language, one cannot talk to people and understand them; one cannot share their hopes and aspirations, grasp their history, appreciate their poetry, or savor their songs.” Nelson Mandela
Inherent to the purpose of language is its primary function to share things with another human being. Language is a social event. That said, it is not restricted to one-on-one speech therapy sessions, but rather it grows when modeled, used, and expected across all settings and with as many people as we wish to share our thoughts with. Our kids here at CTC have various language challenges. Encouraging them to access language, whether through speech, a voice out-put language app on an iPad, typing, or a combination of all these supports, is the mission of the speech department and the school. We invite families to touch and use devices as some of our children do. The children who are functionally non-verbal are testament to what amazing ideas exist in a human being. They have taught us, as a whole, to make the conversation fair by using the device as they would. This forces the speaking partner to slow down, this honors their way of accessing language, this levels the playing field which reduces anxiety and improves spontaneous speech production. The families who actively take part in sharing conversational moments with their children see the most gains, as the kids want most of all to share their ideas with their family. Eighty percent of predictive outcomes for all human beings becoming successful in life (with or without disability) are family support. Celebrate the Children is the child’s extended family and so we look to support them throughout the day and we wish to collaborate with families on how to extend that into the home. Problem solving natural, fun interactions with the child, which is layered with language validates their relationships with the family and empowers them to try what they have learned at school with their most important persons. Group discussions, family discussions, and one-on-one discussions with our children build the language competence so that we can share the hopes and savor the songs of our most amazing children. -Speech Therapists, Related Services Department, Celebrate the Children
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Contributions to this blog are made by Celebrate the Children's highly talented, interdisciplinary team and wonderful families. | <urn:uuid:a3951f56-2997-4d2c-95d0-700d60a03db7> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://www.celebratethechildren.org/blog/language | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296948620.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20230327092225-20230327122225-00028.warc.gz | en | 0.967499 | 505 | 3.46875 | 3 | The extract scores high for its emphasis on communication, emotional intelligence, and family support. It highlights the importance of language in sharing thoughts and ideas, and showcases a collaborative approach to speech therapy, involving families and promoting inclusive conversations. The text also touches on problem-solving, relationship-building, and empowerment, demonstrating a nuanced understanding of soft skills.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 185,148 | 1 |
Arts and Crafts, Lesson Plans and Ideas: Grades 3-5Nonfiction Writing
Bring Dinosaurs (or American History) to Life! Wake up kids’ writing with these five tips for successful exposition.
Tip #1: Stay on Topic
The best nonfiction writing usually tackles a very narrow topic; for example, instead of “Pilgrims,” how about “Why the Pilgrims Left England”?
Activity to Try: Have students use a graphic organizer web to focus in on their topics. First model the technique. Begin by writing a topic in a center bubble, and then write subtopics of that topic in branching bubbles. For example, if you write “Dinosaurs” in the center, you might write “Flying dinosaurs” and “Tyrannosaurus rex” in branching bubbles. Have the children select one of the bubbles and start a new web with that topic in the center. Keep going until you have a narrow topic to write about.
Tip #2: Choose the right Details
Details are the meat and bones of any nonfiction writing.
Activity to Try: Draw an outline of a person onto white paper. Copy the outline and hand out to students. Explain that their job is to convince the rest of the class why a favorite celebrity, athlete, or role model is the best at what they do. For example, if a student believes Peyton Manning is the best football player, have him fill the outline with supporting details, such as Manning was the 2007 Super Bowl MVP. When students finish, have them share their work with the class. Post their work on a bulletin board with the heading “Details are the Meat and Bones of Good Writing.”
Tip #3: Skip the extras
Details are important, but kids are often tempted to put in every piece of research—whether it fits or not.
Activity to Try: Cut up sentences froma news story and put them in an envelope. The twist? Also include some additional sentences that are related but don’t belong to the topic at hand. Challenge students to go through the envelope and identify the extraneous information.
Tip #4: Use Several Sources
Too many students stop at that first dynamo Web site.
Activity to Try: Invite students to interview family members about an important event, such as the day the student was born or a favorite vacation. Have children record notes about the different responses. In class, challenge students to write a single paragraph that incorporates their various interviews. Discuss how Mom, Dad, and siblings all remember things differently—and how combining these memories results in a richer piece of writing.
Tip #5: Offer a Conclusion
A conclusion can be the hardest part of nonfiction writing.
Activity to Try: Prepare a list of yes-or-no questions that require students to make inferences about a topic you are studying. For example, for a unit on Pilgrims, you might include “Do you think the Pilgrims were happy with their decision to come to America?” or “Do you think Native Americans enjoyed the first Thanksgiving?” Have small groups discuss, and then discuss the responses as a class. Why did groups answer the way they did? Talk about how we go from facts to conclusions. | <urn:uuid:b5ec4c6e-c682-40f3-8947-6be7cadfb0fc> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/quick-ideas-grades-3-5-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250613416.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20200123191130-20200123220130-00524.warc.gz | en | 0.94406 | 685 | 4.1875 | 4 | The extract provides a score of 3 due to its focus on developing writing skills, specifically nonfiction writing, with practical activities and tips. It integrates emotional intelligence, critical thinking, and basic communication skills, but lacks nuanced interaction, complex problem-solving, and advanced digital literacy.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 184,510 | 0 |
Vision and Goals
The vision of the Taylor School District is to create the most appropriate environment in which ALL students can experience academic success and achieve their educational and career goals while becoming well-rounded members of our global community.
Together we will:
- Improve academic achievement for all students in Taylor County Schools, as demonstrated by state assessment outcomes and other school-based measures.
- Align the district spending plan to support educational objectives, maintain safe environments conducive to learning, and recruit and retain highly qualified and diverse staff, while maintaining fiscal stability.
- Equip school environments and staff with the resources necessary to adequately prepare students for their future.
- Nurture high levels of mutual support and trust with all district stakeholders, students, staff, and families.
TCSD aims to lead with ambition, foster positive attitudes, obtain optimal attendance, and provide rigorous academics in order to improve student achievement.
1. Ensure that all students - from preschool to adult - participate in various learning experiences that enable them to develop and demonstrate 21st-century skills, while exploring career paths that respond to industry needs and personal aspirations.
2. Create a positive, safe, solution-oriented environment that promotes student social, emotional, and academic success.
3. Encourage mutually supportive, active partnerships between our schools, families, and all stakeholders to maximize student potential and contribute to the continued improvement of the district.
4. Ensure that all students are educated in a safe learning environment that supports greater opportunities for student-teacher interaction, school connectedness, and the social well-being of each student.5. Ensure that resources are managed efficiently and effectively to achieve the district's goals. | <urn:uuid:44febd2b-d9ab-45ed-a208-117da8211b06> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://www.taylor.k12.fl.us/districtvisionand-guiding-principles | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296945333.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20230325130029-20230325160029-00166.warc.gz | en | 0.932026 | 366 | 2.828125 | 3 | The extract demonstrates a clear vision and goals for the Taylor School District, emphasizing academic success, mutual support, and preparation for the future. It touches on soft skills like communication, trust, and partnership, but lacks depth and practical application. The discussion is mostly theoretical, with limited nuanced interaction or complex problem-solving opportunities.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 138,782 | 0 |
Parents, guardians and carers play a critical role in a young person’s development, and they can take steps to help prevent - or delay - a young person’s initiation of alcohol and other drug use.
Please note: the research informing the risk and protective factors listed below focuses only on alcohol, not other drugs.
Parenting behaviours and attitudes are key influencers of alcohol consumption by adolescents.
One systematic search identified 131 articles that considered the role of parenting factors in alcohol use and/or problems with alcohol in adolescence or adulthood.
Several factors were found to be associated with the age of alcohol initiation and/or alcohol-related problems in adolescence or adulthood.
Factors that increased the risk of adolescent alcohol use and/or alcohol problems in adolescence or adulthood included parental provision of alcohol, favourable parental attitudes towards alcohol and parental drinking.
Underage drinking was also likely to rise when a parent treated drinking as humorous or disclosed their own negative experiences with alcohol.12
Factors that were protective included parental monitoring, the quality of the parent-child relationship, parental support and parental involvement.12
Some evidence suggests that reductions in adolescent alcohol use over the past two decades may be associated with a corresponding reduction in favourable parental attitudes to adolescent alcohol use.13, 14
Empowering parents and carers with knowledge to boost their understanding about why their children shouldn’t drink during adolescence, and the supportive actions they can take, may reduce the likelihood that their child will drink and drink in harmful ways.
Creating a parental culture that recognises the harms of adolescent drinking may further help to create a community-level culture which disapproves of youth drinking. The message that adolescent drinking is unacceptable can be more effective when it is clearly and consistently repeated to young people both inside and outside their home. Given the role parenting factors play in alcohol use, parent-focused initiatives may seek to enhance protective factors and reduce risk factors.
Research shows that when parents give young people alcohol, or let them drink at home, that young person is more likely to start drinking earlier, drink more often, and drink higher quantities of alcohol.12
That young person will also be at a higher risk for experiencing problems with alcohol both in adolescence, and later in life.12
Some researchers have suggested that there is potential for education campaigns aimed at parents and the general community to helpmotivate parental behaviour change12 and several campaigns have been run in Australia with this objective.
One such campaign, ‘Stop the Supply’, aimed to increase knowledge of the laws around purchasing alcohol for minors (secondary supply) and encourage parents to think again about doing just that. This program is yet to be formally evaluated; however, a survey report found that 36% of respondents were not previously aware of the secondary supply legislation.15
Communities That Care, in partnership with Deakin University, is developing and trialing a social marketing campaign which seeks to educate parents and young people about the National Health and Medical Research Council’s drinking guidelines. The campaign objective is to convince parents and young people to make an agreement that parents will not supply alcohol to people under 18 years.16
Mentoring is a relationship between a person with less experience and a person with more experience, often a young person and someone who is slightly older.
The relationship is often focused on the older person (mentor) providing support and guidance to the younger person (mentee) based on their experience and skills.
The mentor is not paid or expecting personal gain in exchange for this support.17
While mentors may be either formal or informal, formal mentoring arrangements are typically the type that is subject to evaluation, therefore contributing to the evidence-base.
Mentoring programs may be run in a number of settings, such as through an in-school program, an after-school program, a weekly meeting in a community setting, or online. Mentoring programs may provide training and ongoing support for the mentor.
There is some evidence about the effectiveness of youth mentoring to prevent or reduce young people’s use of alcohol and other drugs, although some researchers have found that existing studies are at risk of producing biased results, and that individual studies have had mixed findings.17, 18
Generally, the research record for mentoring has produced inconsistent results and insufficient robust research has been conducted to enable a definitive conclusion about the effects and the circumstances in which the effect is found.
Although there is a dearth of research into Australian mentoring programs there is a body of resources that mentors can draw on to inform their work.19, 20
One research analysis of 46 studies published between 1970 and 2011 reported some positive benefits of mentoring on behavioural outcomes of young people, including AOD use.18 The authors could not identify the type of program that was more effective than others.
Another study examined the results of four studies that were of sufficient quality for analysis. Two of these found mentoring prevented alcohol use and one found mentoring prevented drug use.17
Other studies have variously found lower rates of alcohol and other drug initiation among mentees, reduced alcohol initiation (but not other drug initiation), no effect on alcohol or cannabis use, and no effect on ‘substance use’.17 The research suggested that a component which might make a mentoring program effective include a focus on the mentor providing emotional support.5
The term ‘parenting program’, is often used interchangeably with other terms such as ‘parent education’ or ‘parent training’.
Parenting programs aim to provide parents with opportunities to enhance their knowledge, skills and understanding in order to improve both child and parent behavioural and psychological outcomes. Parent programs typically focus on social competence skills including communication, promoting parent-child connection, problem solving and conflict resolution on the grounds that a mutually close and trusting relationship will bond the child to the parents’ values and help the child to reject substance use.21
While many parenting programs focus on the parents of children younger than the demographic included in this paper, there are some iterations of parenting programs focused on older young people that could be targeted to parents of 12-17 year-olds – although these are less common.
High levels of parent-child connectedness and good quality communication/conversations (both general and substance-use specific) are protective against adolescent alcohol, tobacco and drug use.22 These conversations about drug use must be two-sided and involve explanations about health implications of using substances; rather than discussing rules and consequences.
The enforcement of rules – as opposed to just talking about them - also appears to lead to less substance use.22
The literature supporting parenting programs is mixed, both in terms of findings and the quality of research.23 Some experts have flagged the lack of robust studies into how family factors affect a young person’s health as a “striking knowledge gap”.24
However, some evidence still suggests that parenting programs can positively affect young people’s use of alcohol and other drugs.23
Programs don’t necessarily need to focus on substance use, either.
Elements that may make an initiative more likely to be successful are that the parents are actively involved, good bonds between parents and children are nurtured and there is good conflict resolution in the family.23
Developed in the USA, the Strengthening Families Program (SFP) seeks to improve parenting, family, and children's relationship skills.25 Since the 1980s, a number of iterations have been developed and run in multiple countries.25
Depending on which iteration of the program is being implemented, SFP involves different age brackets (e.g. 10-14 years, or 12-16 years) with a different number of sessions depending on the age group (e.g. 7-8, or 14). Sessions are typically broken into separate parent and child skill sessions, as well as a joint family skills session.
The extensive content of SFP-14 addresses adolescent development, listening and communications, rules and consequences, conflict resolution, problem
solving, peer pressure, stress management and family values, and the methods include discussions, role play, viewing videos, and games that are designed to build skills and strengthen positive connection between family members.26 SFP’s positive results are challenged by critics who believe its evaluation methodology has limitations.27
The program was trialled in Australia with 8 to 12 year-olds, who were at increased risk for mental health concerns.28 Both the eight session and the 14 session iterations of the program were included in the trial, with both achieving similar outcomes.
Although researchers were not looking for an effect on substance use, they did note positive improvements in mental health. Their findings suggest that the Australian version of SFP may be successfully implemented.
While this age bracket is otherwise out of scope for this paper, a Dutch adaptation of SFP, with 12 to 16 year-olds, also reported positive results.25 | <urn:uuid:8e5b4333-9d7c-4d2f-ad7e-14d6fe9144dd> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://adf.org.au/talking-about-drugs/parenting-talk/preventing-aod-uptake/evidence-interventions/family-domain/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224655092.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20230608172023-20230608202023-00019.warc.gz | en | 0.957186 | 1,844 | 3.390625 | 3 | The extract discusses the role of parents, guardians, and carers in preventing or delaying a young person's initiation of alcohol and other drug use. It highlights the importance of parenting behaviors, attitudes, and relationships in influencing adolescent alcohol consumption. The text also explores various initiatives, such as mentoring programs and parenting programs, that aim to empower parents and reduce the risk of adolescent substance use. While the extract provides valuable information, it lacks nuanced interaction, complex problem-solving opportunities, and sophisticated communication scenarios, limiting its depth and practical application.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 517,511 | 0 |
Understanding and Combating Stigma: A Toolkit for Improving Care and Support for People Affected by HBV
November 1, 2017
12:00-1:00 p.m. PDT / 3:00-4:00 p.m. EDT
Stigma and discrimination negatively affect the health and well-being of people living with or most vulnerable to the hepatitis B virus (HBV). HBV-related stigma refers to the devaluation of people living with or affected by HBV, or risk factors associated with acquiring the virus (e.g., race/ethnicity, sexual orientation). Negative attitudes (prejudice) and negative behavior (discrimination) follow stigma and often result in unfair and unjust treatment of people at risk for or living with HBV. HBV-related stigma contributes to keeping people from accessing prevention, care and treatment for the disease, and helps fuel the global hepatitis B epidemic.
We all play a part in preventing stigma and discrimination associated with HBV, and can better work to improve the care and support for people affected by HBV. As trusted members of society, health care providers can play a key role in combating HBV-related stigma. In addressing stigma, providers can help improve care and support for people affected by HBV, and help reduce the global impact of hepatitis B beginning with the patients and communities they serve.
Join us and Hep B United for this webinar on our recently published stigma toolkit, a curriculum developed to help community-based organizations and health facilities work with patients and staff to combat and address stigma and associated discrimination.
- Janice Lyu, Senior Hepatitis B Program Associate, Charles B. Wang Community Health Center
- Beverly Quintana, Communications Manager, AAPCHO | <urn:uuid:5fd5102c-617c-451a-a5d4-67ebb5e8a41d> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://www.aapcho.org/events/webinar-understanding-and-combating-stigma-a-toolkit-for-improving-care-and-support-for-people-affected-by-hbv/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250607407.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20200122191620-20200122220620-00124.warc.gz | en | 0.91915 | 356 | 2.890625 | 3 | The extract scores high for its discussion of stigma, a complex social issue requiring empathy and nuanced understanding. It promotes intercultural fluency by addressing HBV-related stigma associated with race/ethnicity and sexual orientation. The webinar and toolkit offer practical applications for healthcare providers to combat stigma, demonstrating advanced problem-solving and leadership opportunities.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 250,545 | 1 |
A Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) provides anesthesia services in the same manner as a medical doctor who trained as an anesthesiologist. It is a licensed professional nurse who has become nationally certified to practice as an anesthetist after completing education and training. Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists started practicing in 1956 and administer anesthesia to more than 32 million patients annually. They are the highest paid professionals in the nursing field, and they work closely with surgeons, other anesthesiologists, dentists, and podiatrists.
Many nurse anesthetists are the only professionals available to administer anesthesia in rural areas, and work with 100 percent autonomy. Studies show that there is no difference between the care provided by a CNRA than by a physician anesthesiologist.
- Job Duties and Responsibilities of a Nurse Anesthetist
- Educational Requirements for a Nurse Anesthetist
- Where Do Nurse Anesthetists Work?
- Who Can Become a Nurse Anesthetist?
- Nurse Anesthetist Salary and Job Outlook
- What One Need to Become a CRNA?
- So What Exactly Does a CRNA Do?
- Certification Program for Nurse Anesthetists
- CNRA Online Coursework
- The State Exam
- Preparing for Your CNRA Career
The Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist delivers anesthesia to patients during surgical procedures. They work with patients before, during, and after surgery. These duties include assessing the patient before the surgery; preparing for managing, administration and maintenance of the anesthesia during the surgery; overseeing post-operative recovery from anesthesia; and following the patient through the entire post-operative recovery procedure. A professional in the field generally provides care for one patient at a time, rather than juggling multiple anesthesia patients.
The practice of anesthesia includes all techniques of the field, including general anesthesia delivery, epidurals, sedations, peripheral nerve blocks, spinal anesthesia, and local anesthesia. Local states and medical providers further define the duties of the professional. Further, in 2001 a rule published in the Federal Register by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services allowed states to exempt the CRNA from physician oversight, and to date, 16 states have done so and developed their own requirements.
A career in the field starts with earning a bachelor’s in nursing degree and then obtaining a master’s degree in nurse anesthesia. In order to be accepted in a master’s degree program, the nurse needs to have at least one year of experience in an acute care environment. After completing all required coursework, a certification examination is required in order to attain the designation of Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist.
CRNA’s must be recertified every two years, and obtain 40 hours of approved continuing education. At that time, they must also certify that they have not developed medical or mental conditions that could adversely affect their ability to practice.
These types of nursing professionals work strongly with a variety of medical providers ranging from dentists to surgeons to doctors of anesthesiology. These people are in charge of performing primary assessments of the physical condition prior to surgery, as well as any information about the process that needs to be imparted to the patient. Administration of anesthesia is done with the goal of eliminating patient pain during the surgical process, and so the CRNA is in charge of maintaining a safe degree of anesthesia throughout the surgery. In addition, these experts are charged with managing the patient’s recovery from the anesthetic condition.
Nursing anesthetist professionals are one of the only nursing groups who remain by their person’s side throughout the course of their treatment. This specific is because every aspect of the patient’s physical functions needs to be monitored and adjusted to ensure that the procedure is safe and the patient is free from unnecessary stress. Of the more than twenty million cases where anesthesia is administered each year, CRNAs are responsible for managing nearly sixty 5 percent. The number of CRNAs providing their services to patients in the United States is now estimated to be in excess of 28, 000.
To enter the accreditation program for being an anesthetic nursing professional, you must have completed a bachelor’s nursing diploma in addition to receiving your registered nursing license. You should also have at least one full year of experience in acute nursing care. Although a master’s degree is not necessary to a program for anesthetic breastfeeding, it should be recognized that most of these programs can, in fact, lead to a master’s degree. The basic educational curriculum involves study in the areas of physiology, pharmacology, chemistry, and many more subjects. Within addition, the clinical study concerning anesthesia technology and techniques is a critical element of the educational process.
Several of the areas in which nursing anesthesiologists are most in demand include private clinics and clinics, delivery rooms, surgery centers, dental offices, and pain management facilities. There are also CRNAs at the office within the military and almost any medical arena through which patients need well-monitored pain management during a medical procedure.
In many states a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist will work with and under the direction of a doctor. The Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist’s duties can include consulting with a patient before surgery to learn their medical history, continuously monitoring a patient while the anesthesia is being administered, and supervising the patient’s care and monitoring their condition while they recover from the effects of anesthesia.
One must have a high level of competency and skill, as well as a specialized graduate-level education, in order to become a certified nurse anesthetist. This includes 1,700 clinical hours and 800 anesthesia administrations prior to certification, in addition to the traditional requirements to receive a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing and become a Registered Nurse (RN). Certified nurse anesthetists must complete 2-3 years of graduate training, during which their experience hours as a Registered Nurse in acute care are completed. There is also a national certification exam, which all RNs must pass before becoming nurse anesthetists.
Since registered nurse anesthetists can be trained and hired for about one-eighth of the cost of an anesthesiologist, they are very much in demand with clinics, hospitals, and other healthcare facilities these days. They find work in both private and public settings, including ambulatory care, dental offices, health clinics and hospitals (ERs and ORs). On a daily basis, the job may require a wide variety of anesthesia services depending on the employer and the location, whether it’s a rural area or an inner city. In some cases, the work is very specific; a certified registered nurse anesthetist may only work with mothers delivering their babies, for instance.
The pay is a major perk of the job for certified nurse anesthetists. The median annually salary for certified nurse anesthetists is approximately $156,610, according to Salary.com. As far as the nursing field goes, this is a top salary among even the highest-paying clinical nursing specialties. Aside from the pay, most jobs also provide a full package of health, dental and vision insurance benefits, as well as paid vacations and retirement savings accounts. And, of course, the benefits of helping people stay safe and pain-free during various necessary medical procedures is priceless.
A nursing career is a sure way to a good salary. Just how good is that income? Well, Salary.com reveals that in 2007, the national average salary for a registered nurse was $59,000.
But here’s some surprising news: there’s one advanced nursing degree which pays as much or more as some medical doctors salaries – with less time in school. Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists earn more than $100,000 a year upon graduation from CRNA programs. This income can even go as high as $150,000 a year for an experienced CRNA.
To become one, first, you must be a registered nurse. After being assigned for at least one year in a critical care section, you will then be eligible to apply for a slot in a CRNA program. This is a master’s degree level program. These programs are quite competitive to get into, so if you are interested in applying to a CRNA program, make sure that you keep your grades up when taking prerequisite classes, especially science and math.
If you do get into a CRNA program, be prepared for two to three years of intensive study. They often run through the summer as well. So while there are holiday breaks, there is no summer off in many CRNA programs.
He/she usually works with a doctor in a hospital or any healthcare facility. In some states, a CRNA doesn’t need to work under the supervision of a doctor. They will check with patients before surgery, and get their medical history and other vital information. They will monitor the patient during surgery, and continue to monitor the patient as the patient recovers from the effects of anesthesia.
Because of the huge responsibility and the potential for liability that the duties of a CRNA entail, not all registered nurses are keen on taking on the job. However, the pay is excellent and there is a huge demand for CRNAs. They graduate with multiple job offers.
To enter a program for accreditation as an anesthetic nursing professional, you must have completed a bachelor’s degree in nursing in addition to receiving your registered nursing license. You should also have at least one full year of experience in acute nursing care. While a master’s degree is not necessary to enter a program for anesthetic nursing, it should be recognized that most of these programs can, in fact, lead to a master’s degree. The basic educational curriculum involves study in the areas of physiology, pharmacology, chemistry, and many other subjects. In addition, the clinical study involving anesthesia technology and techniques is a critical component of the educational process.
To become a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist, a student must be a licensed registered nurse and have at least a year of working experience in critical care.
Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist programs are master’s degree programs. They often run continuously, from two to two and a half years without a summer break. They are very intensive programs and it is impossible to work full-time during these programs.
Many schools actually require their students to sign an agreement not to work full-time while they are participating in the program. The programs are very competitive, with many students competing for each slot, and the schools that offer these programs want to ensure that the students who attend will be able to successfully complete the program.
It would be challenging to even work part-time during these programs.
They involve a lot of clinical time, in which the CRNA student is working under the direction of a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist.
A Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist must have advanced knowledge of anatomy & physiology, mathematics, drug interactions, and other areas of science.
A CRNA program is expensive and time-consuming. However, it’s also cheaper and faster than medical schools.
A CRNA degree is not for everybody, and it is not for every nurse. Given the time and money commitment required to become a CRNA – two to three years without being able to work full-time, plus the cost of the program – nursing students should give careful thought before committing to pursue a CRNA degree.
However, there is a huge demand for CRNA’s everywhere in the country, and the pay is excellent. If the job responsibilities of a CRNA sound appealing to you, it’s definitely a career to which you should give your consideration.
CNRA online courses may be offered by community colleges, vocational colleges, and non-profit healthcare associations. The coursework will instruct students on subjects like bedside nursing duties, nursing theory, nutrition, infection prevention and control, and anatomy. Other topics may include record keeping, professional etiquette, client rights, mental health, and available social services.
The format of the online courses may include virtual web classroom instruction, video conferencing, interactive discussion boards, or independent study. You may obtain your clinical training at a healthcare location such as a hospital or an assisted living facility while working with a licensed nurse.
After completing your coursework and training, you will need to pass a state exam to become certified. There are two parts to the test – a written exam and a clinical skills test. The skills test will measure competency in areas such as feeding, dressing, patient communication, and proper hygiene. Often, you will be allowed to work after you complete your coursework for a short time before you test for your certification.
A great way to prepare for becoming a CNRA is to volunteer at a local hospital or nursing home. You will gain experience as well as see first-hand what this type of career will involve. It will give you an idea of what it is like to work in the healthcare field and help you determine if this type of work is right for you.
Becoming a CNRA is not the right career move for everyone. While there is high demand in the healthcare field for nursing assistants, the turnover rate is high. The work is hard and often the pay does not reflect this but those who love helping people will find this a rewarding career.
So if you think you may be interested, start researching what CRNA schools are available in your state, and talk to guidance counselors at those schools to see if it might be a career for you. | <urn:uuid:cf9c0da1-a055-4d9a-8046-fcd09d0adb68> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | http://nursection.com/nurse-anesthetist-salary-programs/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250607596.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20200122221541-20200123010541-00527.warc.gz | en | 0.966755 | 2,799 | 2.796875 | 3 | The extract provides detailed information about the role, responsibilities, and requirements of a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA). However, it lacks discussion of soft skills, emotional intelligence, leadership challenges, and critical thinking opportunities. The content focuses on technical aspects, education, and job duties, with limited emphasis on teamwork, communication, or cultural awareness.
Educational score: 1 | 1 | 0 | 228,876 | 0 |
For many, their religion is a core part of their identity, the meaning they find in life, and their social world. It seems likely that changing this crucial aspect of themselves will have significant psychological consequences. A devout person would probably predict these will be unwelcome – increased emotional distress, isolation and waywardness. A firm atheist, on the other hand, might see the potential positives – perhaps the “deconvert” will grow in open-mindedness and thrive thanks to their newfound free thinking and spiritual freedom.
A new study in Psychology of Religion and Spirituality is among the first to investigate this question systematically and over time. The findings, which are focused on Protestant Christians, paint a complex picture. At least for this group, there is no single pattern of changes associated with losing or changing one’s religious faith, and the predictions of both the devout person and the atheist are, to some extent, accurate.
Harry Hui at the University of Hong Kong and his colleagues asked their Christian Protestant participants, all Chinese, to complete the same set of psychological questionnaires on six separate occasions over a three-year period. These questionnaires measured their personality, values, beliefs and psychological symptoms.
Over 600 participants provided complete data and, of these, 188 stopped describing themselves as Christian at some point through the study. Just over 82 per cent switched to describing themselves as non-believers, a few re-identified as Catholic, Buddhist or Taoist, and the remainder changed their self-label to “other”.
Hui’s team were most interested in any psychological changes that were different in kind or magnitude between those who lost or changed their religious identity and those that kept it (they ensured both groups were matched for gender and age and student status – a majority of both groups were students).
Perhaps surprisingly, there were no clear differences in personality change between the continuously religious and those that lost or altered their religious identity (for some reason the sample as a whole showed some decline in extraversion and agreeableness over time, but this was no different for the two groups). In terms of values and beliefs, the religious exiters increased more in “fate control” (believing that fate governs what happens in life, but that it is also possible to intervene in this process); and not surprisingly, they also showed a sharper decline in religiosity.
The most striking difference between the groups was that those who lost their Christian Protestant identity showed much greater variation in their mental well-being over time. About half of the “de-converts” showed a reduction in depression and anxiety compared with the consistently religious group, and about half showed a greater increase in depression and anxiety, although within these broad strokes were further variations in their precise emotional “trajectory”. The de-converts as a whole also showed a greater improvement in their sleep than the consistently faithful.
A key factor seemed to be the de-converts’ personality and psychological state prior to losing their religion. If they were more extraverted and had adequate psychological resources, losing their faith seemed to be an opportunity for growth and even greater psychological resilience. In contrast, those who were neurotic and more mentally and physically vulnerable prior to losing their faith were more likely to experience greater psychological distress after becoming a non-believer (or in a small minority of cases, a believer in a different faith).
“Any theory asserting that all faith exiters change in the same way should be viewed with suspicion,” the researchers said. “Religious disengagement does not reduce anxiety for all faith exiters; however a reduction does occur for some people.” This contrasts with research on converts toChristianity, which suggested a more straightforward picture in which most people showed improvements in psychological symptoms. “The process of faith exit should not be regarded as psychologically similar to or merely a reversal of religious conversion,” the researchers said.
The data also allowed the researchers to look for psychological differences at the start of the study among those who subsequently lost their faith as compared with those who stayed in the same religion. Those participants who exited their religion were more likely to start out scoring lower on emotional stability, to be less trusting of others, and they tended to place less value on conformity, tradition and benevolence, and more value on self-direction, hedonism and the pursuit of power.
It will be up to future research to see if these findings replicate with people exiting other religions in other cultures. The researchers added that “future research with a longer time frame should address questions such as how long the change in psychological symptoms would last and whether they are only transitory for some people.” | <urn:uuid:9a59ae33-e90d-46e4-a532-faef6a54b442> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | http://cultrecovery101.com/what-are-the-psychological-effects-of-losing-your-religion/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250599718.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20200120165335-20200120194335-00208.warc.gz | en | 0.972859 | 963 | 2.65625 | 3 | The extract lacks direct discussion of soft skills, focusing on a research study about the psychological consequences of changing one's religious faith. While it touches on emotional intelligence and psychological resilience, it does not provide practical applications or scenarios for developing soft skills. The content is informative but limited in its coverage of teamwork, communication, leadership, and problem-solving.
Educational score: 1 | 1 | 0 | 59,803 | 0 |
Alliance Co-director, Rick Bogle and UW researcher, Paul Kaufman, M.D. face off on the issues surrounding the use of monkeys at the University of Wisconsin.
Approximately 250 University of Wisconsin students, faculty, researchers, Madison citizens and animal rights activists did anything but monkey around when they gathered to debate the rights of non-human primate research subjects Monday.
Department of Ophthalmology Chair Paul Kaufman — who regularly uses monkeys in his research — debated Co-Director of Alliance for Animals Rick Bogle — who said he ate his last animal in 1972 and has been campaigning for animal rights ever since — on the ethics of non-human primate research.
Before the debate began, Chair of the Department of Medical History and Bioethics Susan Lederer gave a presentation on the history of animal use in scientific research.
She said animal research dates back to the 2nd century, when Roman physician and philosopher Galen documented his experiments on many animals. She said one well-known experiment involved severing the spinal cord of an ape to observe the ape’s lack of mobility below the cut.
She said the ethics of non-human primate research are a relatively new discussion. She gave the example of Claude Bernard, a French scientist who experimented on one monkey and then decided he would no longer work on them due to their resemblance to humans in the 1800s.
Kaufman began the debate, saying his work on glaucoma would probably not be possible without the option of non-human primate research, adding a number of drugs currently in human clinical trials were made possible by monkey research. He said these drugs are not trivial things, but rather drugs that save lives.
“I would ask you how many are prepared to die earlier, sustain physical disability or disease earlier in our lives, or watch your child, or your spouse, or your sibling sustain one of those things,” Kaufman said.
He said the key question for him in deciding the ethics of the issue is: “Are monkeys us?” If monkeys are included in our group, doing research on them would be unethical. If they are not, we should be allowed to use them in research.
Bogle agreed the question “Are monkeys us?” is of central importance. He cautioned against making a quick decision on that point, however. He recalled many people over time — including women, African Americans and Jewish people — who are now accepted as part of the group, but were historically considered outcasts.
He said he thinks monkeys display many characteristics of humans, such as the ability to grieve, count, order things by quantity and deal with complex environments, yet their lives are being valued less.
During the question and answer portion of the debate, every public comment made was anti-animal research. However, overall the crowd was calm.
UW sophomore and debate attendant Jimmy Gowin said he thought researchers were taking emotion out of the question, but he feels it should be central to the debate.
“I don’t think it’s right to just discount emotion because it doesn’t fit,” Gowin said. “I think what makes us human is that emotion and our ability to feel.” | <urn:uuid:b02517bb-b710-4761-94c0-c88d2a17cf32> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://badgerherald.com/news/2010/03/16/experts-debate-ethics/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386163065002/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204131745-00007-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.974747 | 669 | 2.53125 | 3 | The extract scores high for its discussion of complex ethical issues, emotional intelligence, and critical thinking opportunities. It presents a nuanced debate with multiple perspectives, promoting empathy and understanding of different viewpoints. The inclusion of historical context, real-world applications, and audience engagement demonstrates a sophisticated approach to communication and problem-solving.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 427,440 | 1 |
Worrying about cancer in the family – what to do?
Cancer is seldom inherited. But genetic tests are getting cheaper and news about new findings in cancer research can cause extra worries. Many healthy people are wondering, if his or her cancer risk is higher than average.
The Cancer Society of Finland´s counselling services have since 1990s provided advice for those who are concerned about their familial cancer risk. From 1995 a clinical geneticist has participated in the counselling, making sure that counselling nurses are well trained and aware of latest research. Currently two medical doctors and around 50 counselling nurses form counselling services for familial cancer at the Cancer Society.
In 2015, there were 350 discussions via Cancer Information Services (CIS) and 43 customer visits face-to-face.
A specialist doctor assessed genetic risk of 130 patients and nearly 80 were referred to special health care.
A person who is worried about familial cancer risk can approach counselling services in many ways. If a face-to-face consultation is needed, a trained counselling nurse will help in filling in basic information. After that the nurse and the customer will draw a family tree to establish possible risks. In some cases customers will be referred to a specialist doctor who then decides if further referral to university hospital´s genetic clinic is needed.
But the contacting can also go other way around. A customer reads a story of hereditary breast cancer and removal of breasts, gets worried and contacts counselling nurses online – chatbox – or via email or telephone. The counselling nurse then assesses if further referral is necessary.
There is a peak in counselling services, if media tells about cancer. Some people prefer chatbox because it is a silent partner – at work there is more privacy asking questions online. The nurses are multi-tasking: answering the chatbox and seeking information online from national health information portal.
Testing yourself is principally easy. What comes afterwards is complicated. There is more to it than satisfying personal curiosity. Even if gene tests are becoming more frequent and cost less, a specialist should assess if testing is useful. Much more research is needed for most cancers – how should for instance diagnostics and follow-up be organised. What does hereditary pancreas cancer risk mean in practice?
“We have fairly well established standards for gene testing and follow-up for those with BRCA 1 or 2 genes and to some extent ovarian cancers. In Finland, about 10% of breast cancer are hereditary. In colorectal cancer 2–3% of these cancers are hereditary. But in most cancers, we do not have standards and we lack evidence that follow-ups are effective enough ”, says Dr Riikka Huovinen, Chief Medical Officer of Health department of the CSF, leader of counselling services.
Dr Minna Pöyhönen, clinical geneticist, bears the responsibility of annual training and developing genetic counselling services at the Cancer Society.
“People are more and more aware of familial risks, but it is crucial that special doctors interpret what the risk means in practice and in everyday life”, Dr Pöyhönen says.
Random test is not a good idea, both specialists say. From generic results it is very hard to tell what you should do. In the worst case scenario there is extra worry and over-diagnosis. This is why the CSF counselling services offer low threshold services free of charge or with a small office fee. Worrying is wasting time, counselling nurses are ready to help.
Submitted by: Satu Lipponen; Head of Communications & Managing Editor, Cancer Society of Finland
Chief Medical Officer Ms Riikka Huovinen, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr Minna Pöyhonen, genetic counselling, M.D. Ph.D.
Taina Häkkinen, Head counselling nurse | <urn:uuid:9b9de08f-2c8d-471b-868f-ed937c043774> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | http://icisg.org/member-only-resources/best-practices-monthly-feature/how-to-counsel-on-familiar-cancer-risk/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320215.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20170624031945-20170624051945-00706.warc.gz | en | 0.943291 | 788 | 2.625 | 3 | The extract provides superficial coverage of basic communication and teamwork concepts, with limited depth or practical application. It lacks nuanced interaction, complex problem-solving opportunities, and advanced digital literacy skills. However, it does include discussion of emotional intelligence and critical thinking opportunities in the context of genetic counselling.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 79,628 | 0 |
Primary Years Programme
What is PYP?
The PYP is designed for students in grades TK-5 and focuses on the development of the whole child. The PYP is a framework that emphasizes inquiry through the study of six subject areas as well as six trans-disciplinary themes that are of global significance. The PYP encourages students to develop independence and to take responsibility for their own learning. It helps students establish personal values as a foundation upon which they will develop and grow.
In the final year of the PYP, students take part in the PYP exhibition. The exhibition is an authentic process for students to explore, document, and share their understanding of an issue or opportunity of personal significance. The whole learning community shares and celebrates this culminating event and the journey that students have experienced through their PYP years.
Personal, Social, and Physical Education
The trans-disciplinary themes allow students to step beyond the traditional classroom and into the real world.
Who we are
Inquiry into relationships including families, friends, communities, and cultures
Where we are in place and time
Inquiry into relationship between individuals and civilizations, from both local and global perspectives
How we express ourselves
Inquiry into the ways in which we discover and express ideas, feelings, nature, culture, and beliefs and values
How the world works
Inquiry into how humans use their understanding of scientific principles; the impact of scientific and technological advances on society
How we organize ourselves
Inquiry into societal decision-making; economic activities, and their impact on humankind and the environment
Sharing the planet
Inquiry into the environment and communities
Programmes of Inquiry (PoI)
The trans-disciplinary themes help teachers develop programmes of inquiry - investigations into important issues that relate to the world beyond school. Students who learn in this way begin to reflect on their roles and responsibilities as learners, and become actively involved in their education. The PYP encourages students to appreciate knowledge, conceptual understanding, and skills and personal attributes as a connected whole.
*Only schools authorized by the IB Organization can offer any of its four academic programmes: the Primary Years Programme (PYP), the Middle Years Programme (MYP), the Diploma Programme, or the Career-related Programme (CP). Candidate status gives no guarantee that authorization will be granted. For further information about the IB and its programmes, visit: | <urn:uuid:85ac70f8-81a6-4128-b3af-8611ab8a3ed3> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://www.ghctk12.com/programs/grades-tk-8/primary-years-programme | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224648858.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20230602204755-20230602234755-00103.warc.gz | en | 0.929721 | 518 | 3.390625 | 3 | The extract scores high for its comprehensive coverage of the Primary Years Programme, emphasizing inquiry-based learning, trans-disciplinary themes, and the development of the whole child. It promotes independence, responsibility, and personal values, with a focus on real-world applications and global significance. The programme encourages critical thinking, problem-solving, and emotional intelligence, with opportunities for students to explore and express themselves.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 850,516 | 1 |
Perhaps you saw the animated film “Inside Out” when it was in theaters last summer. I missed it but finally watched it over the Christmas break with some of my family. What a creative film about “emerging adults” and the emotional turbulence that seems to characterize the inevitable transition from the innocence of youth to the challenging years of middle and high school. I think every parent of a junior high student ought to see this film – perhaps with your student! And I might extend that suggestion to every parent of students – almost whatever age: for parents of Grammar students, in order to look ahead and prepare; and for parents of high students, to look back and smile. Allow me to offer a few rambling comments and thoughts.
First, the premise of “Inside Out” is that the five emotions, Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust live and work together in an emotional control room in the mind of “Riley” a young girls of 11-12. [in the picture above the are (left to right): Fear, Sadness, Joy, Disgust, and Anger] Would that things were so simple! While a most entertaining piece of work, there is always a danger if we see a movie as “the way things work.” Perhaps it goes without saying that though the movie is profoundly creative, humans are far more complex and far less mechanistic than portrayed in this film. It works for this movie, of course; but since we are fearfully and wonderfully made, the reality is far more unfathomable. That said, there are numerous positive take-aways from the film (which was produced by the same writer/producer of “Up” and “Monsters, Inc.”).
Second, the story follows the “inside” world of Riley’s emotions as they interact with and respond to her “outside” world of family, friends, sports, school, etc. After doing a little reading, I learned that the “outside” portion of the story comprises less than 20% of the film with well over 80% of the action taking place inside Riley’s mind. “Joy” is the leading emotion, personified by an irrepressibly positive pixie (“A good day leads to a good week, leads to a good month, leads to a good year, leads to a good life!” she says). But “Sadness” and her cohorts, “Anger,” “Fear,” and “Disgust” chime in accordingly to keep things lively. Joy’s goal is to be sure that each day brings memories (in the form of colored spheres) that sparkle and shine. At the end of the day, the memories are downloaded into the long term storage. But especially important “core memories” leave an indelible mark on Riley and these special spheres stay in the “control room.”
Third, the idea of “core memories” is provocative. In fact, while watching the film, I was pushed into thinking about (perhaps dredging up!) a few core memories of my own. Each of our lives has numerous “water shed” moments that, to a lesser or greater degree, shape us into who we are, chart our course in life for better or worse. One Geneva colleague insightfully noted, “The fact that certain core memories/experiences really do shape who we are and become [should be] an admonition to educators and parents to be careful about how we interact with the students/children … But [we must also remember], God can work in us to change us. Through sanctification we can become what God has called us to be – regardless of our core memories.”
Fourth, at one point, Riley re-encounters her early childhood “imaginary friend” named Bing Bong. In a painful moment during the story, this “friend” sacrifices himself (falling into the “memory dump”) in order to help her move ahead in her development and growth. This made me think of 1 Corinthians 13 when Paul speaks of letting go of “childish things.” Such an act is painful, but necessary for growth.
Fifth, this thought leads to a critical factor (and the turning point in the movie): the realization that life will not always be made up of “happy” memories. In fact, the film demonstrates the value sadness can bring when mixed with joy. At a critical moment in Riley’s journey, when all seems lost, Joy realizes this and says, “Sadness, it’s up to you. Riley needs you!”
I have often told students that though we all wish for comfort, peace, and happiness in life, the most precious and formative lessons we learned come through difficulty, often mixed with sadness and loss. And this film does a great job demonstrating this. And as this was playing out in the film, Tolkien came to mind (of course!)
Finally, Tolkien has much to teach us about the close relationship between joy and sadness. In his letters and in an important essay “On Fairy-Stories” Tolkien weaves a beautiful tapestry, convincingly showing that joy and sorrow produce something far more beautiful than either can alone. This difficult and mysterious concept comes through in the film as Riley eventually realizes that one of her core memories of joy was actually immediately preceded by (and indeed set in motion by) one of her greatest moments of grief and loss. Tolkien once wrote: “Christian joy . . . produces tears because it is qualitatively so like sorrow, because it comes from those places where Joy and Sorrow are at one, reconciled, as selfishness and altruism are lost in Love” (Letters, 89). This is a great example of what Tolkien calls “eucatastrophe” – a word he coined to describe the instance when something terrible actually turns out to lead to something immeasurably good. With respect to story, Tolkien said eucatastrophe is the “sudden and miraculous grace: never to be counted on to recur. It does not deny the existence of dyscatastrophe, of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance . . . .”
In Riley’s case, in a crucial moment of maturity, she realizes that this core memory is actually a mixture of the bright yellow of joy and the blue of sadness which is more rich and deeply satisfying than she could ever have imagined as a young child when she tried to forget the sadness and loss.
Do you see the gospel here? As we mature as humans made in God’s image, we confront our brokenness and sinful inability to be “good” on our own. When this happens, we begin more deeply to appreciate (and hopefully to appropriate) the richness offered us in the grace of redemption we find in the Good News. Tolkien calls the death and resurrection of Christ the greatest eucatastrophe which occurs in the truest story. As we see and understand that death issues forth in life and loss can bring understanding and joy, we begin to be able to see that memories of even “bad” things can become, by God’s grace “good” things (and that sometimes the bad and the good are the very same incident!). In this way we can affirm Romans 8 when Paul writes, “And we know that for those who love God all things [and that all is an all-inclusive all] work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
At the movie’s end, Joy and Sadness walk hand-in-hand. And so it is in our lives. | <urn:uuid:fe85855f-0f28-4bed-a5fd-d35619927f2d> | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | https://mikebeates.wordpress.com/2016/02/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886105970.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20170820034343-20170820054343-00600.warc.gz | en | 0.96574 | 1,645 | 3.015625 | 3 | The extract scores high for its thoughtful discussion of emotional intelligence, leadership, and critical thinking, using the movie "Inside Out" as a catalyst. It explores complex scenarios, such as the interplay between joy and sadness, and offers nuanced insights into human emotions and personal growth. The text also incorporates cultural awareness, digital literacy, and professional development opportunities, making it a rich resource for soft skills development.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 687,908 | 1 |
Creative Arts 177: Interdisciplinary Arts for Teachers
Time: TTR 10:30-11:45
Creative Arts 177 is an integrative capstone course designed to help prospective teachers make connections between the various arts disciplines that comprise California's Visual and Performing Arts Standards and between these arts and other core subjects taught in California classrooms. This course assumes that students will have completed their own required arts courses and are already familiar with the basic principles of dance, drama, music and visual arts. Coursework involves reading, writing (both reflective and analytical), teaching, fieldtrips, art making and lesson planning. It will rely heavily on class discussion, group work and creative arts activities.
Student Learning Objectives: 1) Students will be able to identify the connections between the various arts disciplines and other core subjects taught in California classrooms; 2) Students will demonstrate understanding of both theoretical and practical rationales for incorporating the creative arts into K-8 curriculum; 3) Students will become familiar with the core concepts of the California Visual and Performing Arts Framework and Content Standards
, as well as their application by teachers in K-8 classrooms; 4) Students will process and respond to sensory information through the language and skills unique to the visual and performing arts (Artistic Perception); 5) Students will apply the artistic processes and skills to communicate personally held meaning and intent (Creative Expression); 6) Students will examine the visual and performing arts in relation to history and culture (Historical and Cultural Context); 7) Students will connect and apply what is learned in the arts to other art forms and subject areas (Connections and Applications); 8) Students will engage in visual and performing arts-integrated instructional planning; and 9) Students will demonstrate the ability to respectfully and intelligently participate in class discussions and activities. | <urn:uuid:10a9f9c1-58ae-4a9d-9384-45649a044c1f> | CC-MAIN-2014-10 | http://www.sjsu.edu/people/susan.verducci/courses/ca177/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1393999677208/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305060757-00023-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928746 | 364 | 3.0625 | 3 | The extract scores high due to its comprehensive coverage of soft skills, including communication, teamwork, and critical thinking. The course emphasizes class discussion, group work, and creative activities, promoting collaboration and problem-solving. The learning objectives also highlight the development of emotional intelligence, leadership, and cultural awareness, with a strong focus on practical application and real-world context.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 972,941 | 1 |
This article explores the possibility that the Great Sphinx in Egypt was conceived as a temple to a lunar deity in the form of a lion facing the rising of a full moon circa 21,000 BCE. We hypothesize an alignment at the fall equinox with the sun setting behind the Sphinx instead of in front of it at the spring equinox as Bauval and Hancock have proposed. Based on predictions derived from Charles Hapgood’s theory of earth crustal displacement, this hypothesis places the origin and early history of the Sphinx in the tropics where heavy rainfall over time could have eroded the original structure so as to appear as it does today.
The Sphinx is thought to have been built by the 4th-dynasty pharaoh Khafre, around 2500 BCE. Inspired by the research of Schwaller de Lubicz, John Anthony West believed it to be much older. West along with geologist Robert Schoch proposed a dating of 5000 BCE based on indications of water erosion, water erosion that could only have occurred when the climate was wetter. Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval suggested the Sphinx was built circa 10,500 BCE in the astrological age of Leo. They believed the symbolism of the Sphinx facing the sun as it rose on the first day of spring “mirrored” the alignment of the sun in the sky with the constellation Leo at that time. West later went on to propose an even earlier date of 36,000 BCE during the time of the legendary predynastic rules of Egypt.
A Warmer Wetter Egypt
Evidence of water erosion on the Sphinx suggests that it once existed within a much wetter environment. Today, the climate in Lower Egypt is dry due to it being north of the tropic of Cancer within the range of latitudes in the northern hemisphere that has the least amount of rainfall.
Charles Hapgood proposed that ice ages and other climate events were due to displacements of the earth’s crust that shifted the geographic location of the North Pole. As the pole shifts, so too do climate zones. If the North Pole were in Hudson Bay before the latest crustal displacement, which Hapgood estimated occurred 12,000 to 18,000 years ago, Egypt would have had a warm and wet climate.
Anomalous Alignments in Giza
Before Atlantis considers the archaeological implications of Hapgood’s theory, in particular, that certain ancient sites were aligned to previous locations of the geographic pole. In Giza, if the geographic pole were in Hudson Bay, North would have been about 30° west from its current direction.
The three great pyramids and associated temples in Giza are accurately aligned within fractions of a degree to north. Much of the surrounding area contains later-day tombs, settlements, and other structures that are similarly aligned although not as accurately. Like the pyramids, the Sphinx also appears to be aligned to the cardinal directions.
An area surrounding the Sphinx on the east side of the Giza Necropolis contains structures that are aligned differently. The Temple of Amenhotep II northeast of the Sphinx is rotated about 45° clockwise from the cardinal directions. The temple was built over the then yet to be revealed temple in front of the Sphinx that was discovered after his son Thutmose IV excavated the Sphinx around 1400 BCE. The Pyramid of Khentkaus I is a two-stepped tomb south of the Sphinx that was constructed during the 4th-dynasty. The tomb, built in two phases coinciding with its two steps, was originally known as the fourth pyramid of Giza. It is unusual in that unlike the other three Giza pyramids this structure is misaligned by a considerable amount, about 6° west of north.
What is interesting about the Hudson Bay pole hypothesis is that it explains the alignment of these two structures in a simple way. If the North Pole were in Hudson Bay, the Temple of Amenhotep II would be aligned in the direction of minor lunar standstills. The Pyramid of Khentkaus I and neighboring structures east and west would have been aligned in the direction of the winter solstice sunrise/summer solstice sunset relative to the Hudson Bay pole. Even more interesting, we find that the direction of major lunar standstills circa 21,000 BCE corresponds to due east today. In other words if the Sphinx were originally built in alignment with the moon at this time, after the pole shift from Hudson Bay it would now appear to be cardinally aligned.
Alignments to the Moon
According to Wendell Phillips, the “Indiana Jones” of his time, “the moon was the chief deity of all the early South Arabian kingdoms – particularly fitting in that region where the soft light of the moon brought the rest and cool winds of night as relief from the blinding sun and scorching heat of day.”
Sites dedicated to moon gods exist throughout Arabia to the east. The ancient cities of Timna and Mar’ib along the southern border of the Rub’al Khali are aligned in the direction of minor lunar standstills. The Temple of Awwam in Mar’ib, dedicated to the moon god Ilumquh is aligned to sun and moon relative to the Hudson Bay pole. Structures in the ancient town of Shabwa to the east are also aligned to the moon relative to the direction of the Hudson Bay pole. (See a previous article for a discussion of these sites.)
A Lunar Temple?
In considering the widespread worship of the moon in this part of the world, was the Sphinx, once thought to have been the representation of a lion, actually a shrine to a lunar deity?
Lions do not live in arid desert regions but in warm tropical savannas. Like most predators, they sleep during the day and hunt at night.
West’s 36,000 year-old dating of the Sphinx is Bauval and Hancock’s plus one precessional cycle of 24,000 years. At that time the sun would have risen in the constellation Leo, and set in Aquarius on the spring equinox. One half precessional cycle earlier, circa 21,000 BCE, the situation would have been reversed with the sun rising in Aquarius and setting in Leo.
One can argue that the symbolism of a lion sitting upright at twilight with the sun setting behind it in the constellation Leo, facing the moon as it rises in the opposite direction, is just as compelling (perhaps even more so) as that of a lion facing the sunrise.
A Complex Argument
Similar to Marco Vigato’s argument that the Giza pyramids could have once been earlier predynastic mastabas or similar structures that were later expanded into pyramids, could the base of the Pyramid of Khentkaus have been built even earlier before the last pole shift aligned to the solstices relative to the pole at the time, the Hudson Bay pole?
Clearly, the Temple of Amenhotep II built over the Sphinx Temple has nothing to do with the origin of the Sphinx itself. However, its presence in Giza together with similarly aligned sites in Upper Egypt suggests the Egyptians aligned structures to the sun and moon relative to the current and previous geographic poles and so could have aligned the Sphinx in this manner as well.
The Temple of Karnak, Hypostyle Hall, Temple of Thutmose II, and Temple of Ramesses II are all lined up in the direction of the winter solstice sunrise/summer solstice sunset relative to the current pole in the Arctic. The Mortuary Temple of Thutmose III and the Colossi of Memnon in Thebes are also aligned in this direction, about 26° south of east, along with the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut. The Mut Temple in Luxor is aligned in a direction a few degrees away that is toward minor lunar standstills.
There are other sites in Upper Egypt oriented in directions around 45° south of east that are not currently aligned to the sun or moon. One possibility is they were aligned to the stars as proposed by Norman Lockyer. Another is that they were aligned to the sun and moon relative to previous poles. An analysis of Luxor Temple reveals two sections are aligned with solstices and minor lunar standstills relative to the Hudson Bay pole. Across the Nile River, the Ramasseum is aligned to major lunar standstills relative to the Hudson Bay pole.
The Temple of Amenhotep II in Giza is aligned in the same direction as the Ramasseum in the Theban Necropolis more than 300 miles away. The Mortuary Temple of Thutmose III in Thebes is aligned to solstices relative to the Hudson Bay pole as is the Pyramid of Khentkaus. Why did father and son rulers Thutmose III and Amenhotep II align temples in Giza and Thebes to directions that have no obvious reference other than to the Hudson Bay pole?
Over 60 temples, mostly in Upper Egypt, are aligned to previous hypothesized locations of the North Pole. A study of how these alignments correlate with different rulers could provide further insight into the question of whether the structures were built over earlier sites or oriented in “sacred directions” in acknowledgment of mythical rulers or “gods” of past ages.
Featured image at the top of the article is a painting by K. F. Schinkel entitled “Garden scene with the Sphinx in moonlight.”
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Between Hapgood’s crustal displacement, ice age cycles and solar flare outbursts, human history has been erased and restarted many times. The great irony to it all is that we are just now understanding it, but will probably have all the knowledge destroyed in the next catastrophe, especially in this fragile era of electronic information.
Yes. And we build nothing that lasts anymore. Perhaps our trash will be our calling card 🙂 | <urn:uuid:2cf666a6-9c69-42b6-9ec8-796450a0954f> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://beforeatlantis.com/2021/08/31/a-new-interpretation-and-dating-of-the-sphinx-based-on-the-moon/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224655092.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20230608172023-20230608202023-00504.warc.gz | en | 0.96117 | 2,114 | 3.515625 | 4 | The extract lacks discussion of soft skills, focusing on historical and astronomical analysis of the Great Sphinx. It presents complex scenarios and theories but does not integrate emotional intelligence, leadership, or critical thinking opportunities for professional development.
Educational score: 1 | 1 | 0 | 869,269 | 0 |
Joseph Campbell’s lifelong study of the myths and stories of cultures all over the globe yielded some rich insights into what he believed was a universal quest for transcendence. He spoke of transcendence as the experience of the divine, or of ‘God’, within us and saw contemplation on the great heroic archetypes in our ancient stories as a powerful mode of access to the transcendent. In his seminal early work, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, Campbell recognises two approaches we can take to the stories of our archetypal heroes and uses Jesus as an example.
“Jesus, for example, can be regarded as a man who by dint of austerities and meditation attained wisdom; or on the other hand, one may believe that a god descended and took upon himself the enactment of a human career.
“The first view would lead one to imitate the master literally, in order to break through, in the same way as he, to the transcendent, redemptive experience. But the second states that the hero is rather a symbol to be contemplated rather than an example to be literally followed.
“The divine being is a revelation of the omnipotent Self, which dwells within us all. The contemplation of the life thus should be undertaken as a meditation on one’s own immanent divinity, not as a prelude to precise imitation, the lesson being not ‘Do thus and be good,’ but ‘Know this and be God.'” | <urn:uuid:d24f0e49-a773-47a7-8f0f-c2e04fd5346e> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://lifeisthismoment.com/2014/08/22/do-thus-and-be-good-or-know-this-and-be-god/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224653183.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20230606214755-20230607004755-00435.warc.gz | en | 0.942395 | 308 | 3.03125 | 3 | The extract lacks direct discussion of soft skills, focusing on philosophical and mythological concepts. However, it touches on emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and contemplation, which are relevant to personal development. The content is theoretical and lacks practical application, teamwork, and communication scenarios, limiting its score.
Educational score: 1 | 1 | 0 | 538,074 | 0 |
As many nations have responded to Covid-19 with closed borders World Refugee Day on 20 June will surely feel even more poignant. 20 is a marker of time as the United Nations claim that «every minute 20 people leave everything behind to escape war, persecution or terror», a powerful reminder that time is punctuated with the displacement of peoples.
Here I share some reflections on an experience teaching English for the Jesuit Refugee Service.
Walking into the residential centre outside the historical part of Rome the first thing that strikes you is the large map emblazoned on the wall. Having always heard that all roads lead to Rome, the more troubling undertone of that statement is how those roads are travelled. The map was punctured with pins: a pin for every temporary residency. A contrast sat uncomfortably with me because I was there as a trainee priest, from a position of relative comfort and stability.
Every pin on the map ventriloquised a story that gradually through Italian and English classes residents were beginning to articulate in other tongues. In language learning while the content is technical with verb tables, adjectives, nouns and so on, the context of learning is informal and it was a privilege to begin to hear residents narrate their stories in the language they were learning.
One student already had beginners’ level English and I was intrigued as to where he learned to speak with a Midland accent. He explained that British soldiers in Afghanistan casually taught him lessons. Uncanny that it fell to another Midlander to continue those lessons.
Language learning soon becomes personal. This is a dynamic I learned early in asking students to use adjectives to describe where they live. There was caution in the air when describing home and it was a reminder, if needed, that it would be a traumatic topic for some.
Proofing the students’ work I was moved to tears as someone detailed a large space with a hard floor and how they shared the sleeping area with 12 others from his country. I presumed that all the students were living in the residential centres spread throughout Rome. How wrong I had been.
This student continued describing where they lived and wanted to point to its location. «Out there», they explained, gesturing to the classroom window. Hidden behind the high wall of the residential centre’s car park sat an Italian Red Cross tent where they were living. Tall walls had hidden from public view the reality of displacement. Car parks should house cars, not people.
Another language lesson demonstrated how the development of a vocabulary is a vital tool in empowering people to speak their truth. On a seemingly basic afternoon class about the weather a new factor in displacement emerged. While describing how sunny it is in Rome and how rainy it is in England, a hand shot up: «what’s the English for diluvio?».
Students sometimes used Italian words because they were learning the two languages simultaneously to help their orientation in Italy and beyond. She was searching the English term for flood. Amazed at the request, I asked her to explain more fully why she wanted to use that word. She replied in confident English, «I am in Rome because of the flood».
Climate-based displacement and especially flood induced displacement is a growing international concern. While we carry refillable water bottles and upcycle clothes, flooding wipes out villages from existence creating a sudden housing crisis. Most displacement is within a particular country, but with regions experiencing more frequent flooding and to a greater extent there is an increased pressure on space and resources.
In these three simple examples of drawing pins and the words home and flood there are insights into the specificity behind an international day such as World Refugee Day. Of course, there are statistics, trends, and patterns, but there are always people, places, and names. | <urn:uuid:04e4fd0a-53bd-4787-b7c1-ad1faf2d3d10> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | http://www.settimananews.it/informazione-internazionale/20-june-2021-world-refugee-day/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224656675.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20230609100535-20230609130535-00039.warc.gz | en | 0.969051 | 773 | 2.78125 | 3 | The extract scores high for its thoughtful and empathetic discussion of refugee experiences, highlighting the importance of language learning and cultural awareness. It seamlessly integrates advanced communication, leadership, and problem-solving scenarios, mirroring real-world complexity. The author's reflections on teaching English to refugees demonstrate a nuanced understanding of the challenges faced by displaced individuals.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 538,745 | 1 |
Creating a Free Environment
This paragraph of the Haggadah seems to be structured out of order. It should first deal with attaining freedom, and then take care of moving to Israel! First one becomes able, then he acts. (Or... first one becomes rich, then he retires!)
In fact, the Haggadah is pointing out the first stages of freedom – Israel – is not just a physical plot of land, but rather an environment where Jews can fully express their Judaism. To be truly free, the place we live has to be conducive to genuine self-expression.
Our environment affects and manipulates us in ways we cannot even imagine. Take something as simple as clothing. True, you make the final choice. But all clothing design is really someone else's taste and even the designer is building upon last year's fashions.
Morality and life goals are much the same. We basically choose from a list of options prevalent in society.
Beyond this, our environment even affects the way we think. Society subtly pushes us in directions we are not even aware of. If you want to know what a Russian thinks, pick up "Pravda." If a Russian wants to know what an American thinks, he reads "Newsweek." In many ways, the media doesn't report national opinions; it creates them. The editors of "Newsweek" may know better what you'll be thinking than you do – because right now they're writing it!
To be free, you have to create the environment that will guide you toward that goal. Freedom of speech and freedom of action may be "license," but they don't necessarily create guidance. Letting people say or do whatever they want is not "freedom" – it's merely personal (and potentially social) anarchy.
Society has to guide through its respective institutions such as schools. But if society has chosen not to guide consciously, then it will guide subtly. The media will guide, rock groups will guide, TV sitcoms will guide, and the one with the loudest voice will guide. Society cannot prevent guidance; it can only choose who shall be the mouthpiece.
Guidance is not brainwashing, which is the tool of the totalitarian. Guidance is showing and suggesting. Guidance is about helping others find fulfillment.
We like to think of Western society as free because people have the "freedom" to find their own fulfillment. In practice, however, few find their meaningful path of purposeful living. This indicates that slavery, in one form or another, is alive and well in the 21st century.
Western society has a real fear of teaching values. That may be justified, or not. But the result is that instead of learning values from the wise, children (and later as adults) have to find out for themselves. It's reinventing the wheel of purposeful living! Withholding from children the best values of society, is a lot like keeping them ignorant of the best scientific maxims.
Values are not restrictions on a person's nature; they are its building blocks. By consciously not telling a growing child what are good values, you are raising him in a bland environment that will leave him morally inept to eventually choose.
Good values are a lot like good paintings. You don't teach people art by hiding them from the great works – but rather by exposing them to the best, so they may learn to do better. Can you imagine where science would be today if each new student had to rediscover everything?
The first step in freedom is to create a free environment – with all that Israel is supposed to stand for. We do that not by removing all values, but only by removing the bad values. Within that environment, we can perfect ourselves to be truly free. /p>
Free in Israel
Rabbi Tom Meyer
Now, we are here; next year we should be in the land of Israel. This year we are slaves; next year – free people.
Next year in Israel?! But we have Israel now, and many of us are living in Israel!
Actually, the rabbis who wrote the Haggadah were also living in Israel! But still they said "next year in Israel." Because this is not referring to a geographic location, it's referring to a spiritual ideal. It's the reality of a nation of Jews working together and taking care of each other.
This year we are slaves – we've fallen short of the ideal. But if we really work on fixing this, then when next Passover rolls around, we can be free in the Land of Israel.
Rabbi Shraga Simmons
We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt; And the Lord our God brought us out from there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. And if the Holy One, blessed be He, had not brought our ancestors out of Egypt, then we (and our children and our grandchildren) would still be enslaved to Pharaoh in Egypt.
Is it true that if God had not brought us out of Egypt, we'd still be enslaved?
In a sense, yes. Because if Pharaoh had agreed to let the Jewish people go – rather than because God took us out with His outstretched arm – then even today we would still look back at that moment in Jewish history and thank Pharaoh for his benevolence. We'd have remained emotionally indebted to Pharaoh. To avoid that, God showed clearly it was Him Alone.
I was in Israel during the 1991 Gulf War. Time and again, Saddam shot missiles at Israel, and time and again no Jews were hurt. Either the people were miraculously spared injury, or the missiles simply landed in empty fields.
This continued for a few weeks, and then the Americans delivered their anti-missile system, the "Patriots." This was to save us all! Over the next few weeks, the Patriots may have caused more damage than they prevented. In the end, there was no doubt that it was God and God Alone Who protected the Jewish people! | <urn:uuid:14da68f9-1be4-4733-9c65-a5cfaa00aa9e> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.aish.com/h/pes/h/Next-Year-Free.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368704392896/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516113952-00077-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967934 | 1,232 | 2.6875 | 3 | The extract discusses the concept of freedom, environment, and values, touching on aspects of emotional intelligence, leadership, and critical thinking. It explores how society and media influence individual thoughts and actions, and the importance of guidance and values in achieving true freedom. While it provides some nuanced interaction and practical application, the discussion is more theoretical and lacks complex problem-solving opportunities.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 27,933 | 0 |
1. Watch the introduction to oral history videos
Oral historian Professor Alistair Thomson describes what oral history is and its importance in historical inquiry. He also shares his experience and tips on finding people to interview, recording them, getting their permission, and other considerations when conducting an oral history interview.
2. Choose a theme
Your digital history will need to be about one of these themes:
- Living with Natural Disasters – has your local community experienced a natural disaster? What happened and how has it been remembered?
- World Events, Local Impacts – what world events are part of your community's past? How have these events been remembered?
- Cultural Identity – our heritage as individuals and as a nation has an impact on our cultural identity. Where do you come from? What connections to places and people, what stories of cultural identity and/or migration can you find in your community?
- Family and Community Life – do you know your family or community's story? Who can you talk to? What objects can you look at?
3. Plan your investigation
Brainstorm local history ideas. Read through the Small Object Big Story website, which is a comprehensive guide to planning, researching and displaying family and community stories. Use the research guides listed at the bottom of the page to get started.
- Research your story using sources such as newspapers; websites; history books; historical societies; clubs and organisations; council offices; services; for example, the fire station, and retirement homes. Talk to people, ask questions, be curious: one of these people might point you to someone you can interview, or might agree to be interviewed themselves.
- Be as creative as you like while also being careful about collecting and referencing your sources.
- You'll find lots of helpful advice by watching the interviews with the three experts: curators Dr Moya McFadzean and Michael Reason and an historian, Dr Paula Hamilton.
5. Conduct your interview
- Capture your interviewee's story in whatever way you want – you can video them, make an audio recording of their story, or write notes to turn into text or a voiceover. It's up to you how your digital history will look and what you want to include.
- All interviewees must give their consent to appear in your digital history. You must also have permission to use the material in your digital history, and you must reference your material at the end.
6. Find the story
- Once you've done your interview(s), it's time to review your material and think about what you want to say and how you want to say it. There are lots of possibilities, and if you've gathered a lot of material, particularly lengthy interviews, you might be overwhelmed about what to focus on.
- If so, a good idea is to review your material. Listen to or watch interviews again, or read through notes you've taken, and ask yourself:
- What was the most interesting part of this person's story?
- Did they say anything particularly heartfelt, or were they especially passionate about something?
- Were there great quotes and anecdotes that stood out?
- Did any themes emerge, such as family, friendship, identity, belonging?
- Perhaps it's a recollection towards the end of the interview that you want to use for your digital history. Or maybe you will pick quotes from throughout the whole interview and weave them into a story based on a theme. Whatever you choose, remember that your digital history must not be longer than three minutes.
- Once you know what the story will be about, go through all your material and put aside anything that is not relevant or suitable. You may still have a lot of material left, but that's okay.
- Your story doesn't have to be a chronological account of someone's life. It can be about:
- an object
- an experience
- an event
- what the interviewee's life is like now, how it was in their past, or both.
7. Create a storyboard
A storyboard is an outline of your digital history from beginning to end that shows what will be included and in what order. It's a great way to plan your digital history and will make things a lot easier when it comes time to put everything together.
8. Create and share your digital history
- You can create your digital history using video editing software available on your computer. It is important that all of the files, images and video you have recorded is saved in one folder. Make sure you create a project folder and save your work regularly. Be sure to follow the storyboard you created in the previous step.
- Once you have edited your digital history, export it and share it!
- Remember that your digital history cannot be longer than three minutes and must have certain details included, especially citations of all sources.
9. Further resources
Museum Victoria's Making History website can help you create your digital history. Here are some useful links:
Find the story
Create a storyboard
Using and sourcing material. | <urn:uuid:115e4784-2950-465e-bd9c-8a7a26bf70a9> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://museumvictoria.com.au/education/learning-lab/history-skills/creating-a-digital-history/?77f07515-cbb4-437e-bc9f-4b7408a4f953=7&googleminiexclude=1 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386164006951/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204133326-00002-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950629 | 1,037 | 3.203125 | 3 | The extract provides a comprehensive guide to creating a digital history project, covering topics such as research, interviewing, and storytelling. It promotes critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity, while also emphasizing the importance of consent, referencing, and cultural sensitivity. The project encourages students to engage with their community, develop their communication skills, and produce a practical outcome.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 333,947 | 1 |
Can New York and Chicago’s smart city projects improve quality of life and solve the impending massive infrastructure strain for urbanites?
These days, city living has never been more popular. According to the World Health Organization, urban citizenry accounted for more than half of the world’s populace in 2014—and by 2017, it’s estimated that the majority of people will live in urban areas, even in less developed countries.
As urban population growth continues to gain momentum, forecasters are projecting city-living will outstrip global population growth by 2030. As these numbers reach new heights, simply building more high-rise towers in every city around the globe won’t be enough to solve the impending infrastructure strain.
Cities need to become more adaptable and structurally sound—basically, cities must become smarter. With the rise of the digital age and the explosive growth of the Internet of Things industry, the implementation of smart cities allows these metropolitan areas to adapt to new challenges. From the ordinary, everyday concerns like parking availability and trash collection to the more pressing concerns such as water scarcity and environmental monitoring, the smart city revolution is certainly on its way.
Here in the U.S. both New York City and Chicago are taking big steps forward in terms of channeling resources and energies into become smarter.
New York’s “Quantified Community”
The recent partnership between the NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress and the planned New York Hudson Yards project is a big step for the Big Apple. These partners plan to develop 17 million square feet of commercial and residential land and make it smart. Once complete, this development will have the ability to track data on energy production and consumption, air quality, pedestrian traffic, and health and activity levels. In terms of scope (and arguably, significance), this project rivals that of Rockefeller Center—and the infusion of 21st century technologies could not be more pivotal. This project could (and should) set the pace for all future NYC development projects as it will help improve the quality of urban living.
Chicago’s Array of Things (AoT) Project
Meanwhile, the Windy City is also looking to get smarter. What started as a failed workshop for high school students became a major project to insert data sensors across the city. The Array of Things project has sensors that are collecting data on everything from sound intensity to barometric pressure. These sensors also specify which gases they’re detecting, whether it’s ozone or nitrogen, which gives the city a better idea of where the pollutants are coming from. The more information the city collects, the better it can diagnose where the problem is.
Smart City Initiatives in the U.S. and Abroad
Along with major developments in New York and Chicago, which rely heavily on IoT tech, the emergence of smart cities as the technology base of the future innovation was all the talk during this year’s SXSW in Austin. Seven U.S. cities were named finalists for a $50-million funding round aimed at improving cities’ “intelligences” via the Department of Transportation. These cities are chasing after innovation in the ways cars interact with city infrastructure, weather conditions, bad traffic and road closures, and more.
While all of this forward movement and innovation is positive, there is also some risk involved. Smart city projects can lose sight of why cities became the home of the industrial, technological, and sociological revolutions of the last few centuries: The people themselves. Technology can only do so much to ensure that those equipped with the information know what to do with it. This technology comes with warnings abound about cities that take all of this knowledge, only to empower the corporate giants of the new “sharing economy” to rule what would otherwise be a thriving, diverse and truly alive city. However, smart cities can only be as smart as those operating them. This is something 2015’s smartest city, Barcelona, knows all too well. The uptick in tech has led to a deluge of companies looking to be the latest and greatest for the Spanish hub, which has led some to bemoan the lack of standards and practices in this new era of city planning.
Cities have long been the centers of culture and economic and cultural diversity. Keeping up with rapid population growth will not be easy, especially for the world’s biggest cities—like New York and Chicago. IoT and the smart city concept will be one of the keys to shape the future success of the world’s cities, but planners and developers must be cognizant about how they share and pass information—some of which will still need to be done face-to-face. Without the people themselves, there’s less importance to maintain the cities as they grow. So it’s important that while technology grows and adapts to help cities survive the rest of the 21st century, the people themselves aren’t left far behind, wondering what happened to the thriving, living city they’ve known for so long. | <urn:uuid:8d1d5334-768a-4cd0-afb9-2de77a0d9cc3> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | https://centricdigital.com/blog/digital-trends/iot-applications-in-smart-cities-new-york-and-chicago/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875147154.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20200228104413-20200228134413-00264.warc.gz | en | 0.942175 | 1,034 | 2.671875 | 3 | The extract discusses smart city projects in New York and Chicago, highlighting their potential to improve quality of life and solve infrastructure strain. While it touches on technological advancements and urban planning, it lacks depth in soft skills development, such as teamwork, leadership, and emotional intelligence. The text primarily focuses on informative content, with limited opportunities for critical thinking, problem-solving, or nuanced interaction.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 419,924 | 0 |
Babies sharing beds with their parents face a five-fold risk of dying of cot death, even if their parents are not smokers, new research shows.
The increased risk of death extends to babies previously thought to be at low risk because they are breastfed and the mother has not taken alcohol or drugs, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal Open.
The findings come after 1472 Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) cases and 4679 control cases from Australasia, the U.K. and Europe were analyzed in the largest ever study of cot death.
The SIDS rate would plummet if parents avoided bed sharing and public healthy messages were more forceful about the dangers for babies under three months, the authors, led by Professor Robert Carpenter, said.
“Eighty-eight percent of the deaths that occurred while bed sharing would probably not have occurred had the baby been placed on its back in a cot by the parents' bed,’’ the authors concluded.
The risk of SIDs while bed sharing decreased as the baby gets older.
Bed sharing has increased “markedly’’ over the last decade, the study found.
Parents who endorse the practice are active on the Internet and Facebook.
Murdoch University associate professor Catherine Fetherson said research shows between 30 and 50 percent of parents share a bed with their babies at some time.
She believes a blanket message against bed sharing is driving parents underground.
“They are continuing to do it, even though people are being warned against it and so what is happening is they are shutting down all communication with health professionals,’’ she said. | <urn:uuid:e0d9b19d-d094-428b-8407-f348f4b51107> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/21/babies-who-share-bed-with-parents-5-times-more-likely-to-die-cot-death/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386164026161/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204133346-00006-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972166 | 345 | 2.78125 | 3 | The extract lacks discussion of soft skills, focusing on reporting research findings on SIDS and bed sharing. There is no coverage of communication, teamwork, leadership, or problem-solving scenarios, and no emphasis on cultural awareness, digital literacy, or professional development.
Educational score: 0 | 0 | 0 | 334,616 | 0 |
Discover that understanding the differences is what makes the difference.
Duration: 8 weeks
The population in the United States is changing. According to the U.S. Census, the current minority population will increase from 37 percent of the population to 57 percent by 2060. This fact underscores the need for public health and health care professionals to study the relationship between race and social determinants of health.
In MPH 609 Cultural Context of Health Care in the U.S., you'll learn the importance of the history and health beliefs of these rapidly growing minority groups and the significance of cultural competency.
In MPH 609 you'll learn that many people don't just classify themselves by race and/or ethnicity, and that to be culturally competent, you'll need to know the other ways people classify themselves. Along with ethnic minority groups, you'll discover the cultural differences of the disabled, the mentally ill and the differences between genders.
Weekly discussions with classmates and your professor enhance your learning experience with differing viewpoints, lively debates and an enlightened vision of cultural differences in health care.
What You'll Learn in MPH 609
MPH 609 Cultural Context of Health Care in the U.S. addresses cultural factors related to individual and population health and health disparities over the life span. In this course, you'll examine cultural competency, including cultural nuances (the subtle differences between cultures) that could have a significant impact on the health-seeking behaviors of a minority group. You'll learn key terms in cultural competence: racism, prejudice, discrimination, microaggressions, microassaults and several others.
You'll also learn the importance of CLAS: Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services standards, which have been set up to help organizations measure their ability to meet the needs of culturally diverse groups.
Throughout this course, weekly topics may include but are not limited to:
- Introduction to Cultural Competence
- Health Professions and Understanding Cultural Concerns
- Cultural Competency and the Need to Eliminate Health Disparities
- Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services Standards - An Overview
- Cultural Competence Assessment and Training
- Special Populations - The Disabled, the Mentally Ill and Gender
- Special Populations - LGBT, Veterans, Immigrants and the Elderly
- The Impact of Being Culturally Competent
Course Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of MPH 609 Cultural Context of Health Care in the U.S., you will be able to:
- Apply culturally competent approaches to public health practice, research, policy development and health disparities.
- Analyze the causes and effects of cultural differences in health status, systems and solutions.
- Use the basic concepts and skills involved in culturally appropriate community engagement and empowerment with diverse communities.
- Apply models for assessing cultural competence.
- Develop strategies to reduce health disparities.
Request More Information
To learn more about the online Master of Public Health curriculum from Benedictine University, including Cultural Contest of Health Care in the U.S., call (866) 295-3104 to speak with a program manager or request more information. | <urn:uuid:dfdf40a6-79a6-498b-a088-f289c630da35> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | http://online.ben.edu/programs/msnw/courses/cultural-context-health-care | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549423992.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20170722102800-20170722122800-00662.warc.gz | en | 0.918988 | 634 | 2.828125 | 3 | This extract earns a high score due to its comprehensive coverage of cultural competency, a crucial soft skill in healthcare. It integrates realistic scenarios, emotional intelligence, and critical thinking opportunities, with a strong emphasis on intercultural fluency and practical application.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 409,859 | 1 |
“When we get called about a child in a rural emergency department that’s a couple of hours away, if there are weather issues or transportation issues or the transport team is out on another call, it can be four or five hours before we actually see the child,” the critical care specialist said.
A lot can happen in those hours if the child is critically ill or injured. “There have been plenty of instances where the outcome has not been good, and you wonder what you could have done if you’d been able to see that patient sooner.”
McSwain, who happens to be from a rural community himself, is helping lead a national effort to expand and improve pediatric telehealth across the country. Telehealth programs such as McSwain’s pediatric critical care program use video, a secure connection and special diagnostic equipment to allow specialists to examine patients in rural areas remotely.
The national effort is called Sprout: Standardized Pediatric Research on Outcomes and Utilization of Telehealth. The seeds were planted last year when McSwain spoke at the American Academy of Pediatrics national conference.
“Near the end of my talk, I started discussing how the biggest challenge facing pediatric telehealth is the need for good scientific research on what we’re doing,” McSwain said. “After that talk, several people came up to me and said, ‘We’d be very interested in working on that with you.’”
Those people were from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Washington University, Boston Children’s Hospital and the University of California-Davis.
“They’re all big centers, and they all have pediatric telehealth,” McSwain said.
They all agreed that it’s time for pediatric telehealth to be assessed on a large scale.
While there have been some studies about its effectiveness, including one at MUSC involving telemental health for veterans, until now, there has not been a central site focused on collecting data and bringing together researchers from different institutions.
Sprout is filling that gap, McSwain said. “We’ve all been gathering different data, using different work flows and different equipment,” McSwain said. “We may all have great programs that are very effective for the children, but it makes it difficult to study.”
Sprout, which is supported by both the American Academy of Pediatrics' Section on Telehealth Care and the American Telemedicine Association Pediatric Special Interest Group, has three main objectives. It seeks to:
- Identify best practices for implementing pediatric telehealth
- Determine the impact of telehealth in health care quality
- Establish a network of institutions to conduct collaborative research on pediatric telehealth
McSwain, who serves as Sprout’s liaison to the American Academy of Pediatrics, said South Carolina is well positioned to play a leading role in telehealth research. “The state is already a national leader in telehealth, largely due to the investment that the legislature has made in telehealth development across South Carolina.”
Lawmakers realized that telehealth makes a lot of sense here, he said, because South Carolina is one of the more rural states in the county. It needs new ways to get specialized care to people who don’t live near large hospitals. MUSC Health has its own Center for Telehealth, which coordinates care for people across the state.
“I think we have a responsibility to the rest of the country. Not everybody has the kind of funding we have,” McSwain said. “When you are blessed with the support we have, you have to look at what we can do to help the states and providers and communities that don’t have that kind of support. We need to help people beyond our own walls.”
McSwain said telehealth has reached a critical point in its evolution. “It’s more than an interesting technology. It’s established. Now, people across the country are starting to say, ‘You’ve been saying telehealth is going to have a large impact on access to health care. We need to see the proof.'”
Gathering that proof begins with a Sprout survey of almost 80 institutions that offer pediatric telehealth. Most, including the Medical University of South Carolina, are in the U.S., but three are outside the country: Swedish Health Services, Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany and the University of Queensland in Australia.
The survey will gauge the types of programs being used and examine the people, processes and tools involved. The goal is to create a national registry of pediatric telehealth programs, with an eye to bringing them together for the kind of research that can really show what works and offer the strongest possible model for other hospitals interested in trying telehealth.
“In order for telehealth to take the next step, in terms of development, quality and expansion, there really needs to be multi-center, high-quality research being done,” McSwain said. | <urn:uuid:449fe930-8bba-4450-bb23-3a6cc9bc1f76> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://web.musc.edu/about/news-center/2016/12/12/pediatric-telehealth-gets-ready-to-sprout | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250608062.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20200123011418-20200123040418-00533.warc.gz | en | 0.965057 | 1,068 | 2.578125 | 3 | The extract discusses a national effort to improve pediatric telehealth, led by a critical care specialist. It highlights the importance of telehealth in rural areas and the need for scientific research on its effectiveness. The extract showcases leadership, teamwork, and problem-solving skills, as well as cultural awareness and digital literacy. However, it lacks nuanced interaction and complex problem-solving opportunities, and professional development is focused on fundamental skills with limited practical application.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 37,820 | 0 |
Grad Impact: Using Traditional and Emerging Technology to Better Understand U.S. History
As a first-year doctoral student in anthropology at Colorado State University, Ray Sumner believes public outreach and public archaeology are important aspects of his research. Sumner’s doctoral project is a multifaceted, interdisciplinary approach that relies on geography, archaeology, and history methods to better understand the 1865 Sacking of Julesburg, an event that succeeded the Sand Creek Massacre in which many Cheyenne and Arapaho people were killed.
Sumner uses traditional archaeological methods, such as excavation, but also employs emerging technologies, such as, aerial drone mapping, ground-penetrating radar, and thermal imaging to locate the lost stage stations, ranches, Indian camps and villages that are associated with this time period. He hopes his work will also serve as a rural economic development tool for heritage tourism in the area. Sumner says that, “Through my research process what I hope to achieve is for the Cheyenne and Arapaho to reclaim their agency and have people not just focus on the darkest days in Colorado’s history.” He is in the process of initiating tribal consultation with a number of Native American tribal governments this summer and looks forward to incorporating their perspectives, voices, and concerns into his research.
Sumner was recently named a VPR Graduate Student Fellow at Colorado State and received the Innovation in Liberal Arts award at this year’s CSU Ventures Demo Day. In addition to his studies, Mr. Sumner is involved with the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and the American Legion, after serving 22-years in the United States Army. He’s the current Commander of Post 1879 of the American Legion and the President of the Colorado American Legion Press Association (COALPA).
Visit the GradImpact Feature Gallery to learn more about the amazing, innovative research being done by graduate students and alumni across the world. | <urn:uuid:d662386d-dbd8-446f-9158-8254dd6505d8> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://anthgr.colostate.edu/2019/05/ray-sumner-research/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250597458.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20200120052454-20200120080454-00546.warc.gz | en | 0.96 | 401 | 3.015625 | 3 | The extract showcases a doctoral student's interdisciplinary research project, highlighting the use of traditional and emerging technologies to understand a historical event. While it demonstrates cultural awareness, digital literacy, and professional development, it lacks explicit discussion of soft skills and teamwork concepts. The project's focus on tribal consultation and incorporation of Native American perspectives exhibits empathy and intercultural fluency.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 89,054 | 0 |
Jason Swanson from Techtronic Industries and host David Thiel discuss battery technology.
More in Home Improvement
Different types of batteries are made using various chemical compounds. They also have different voltages and different capacities.
Rechargeable alkaline batteries are relatively inexpensive. The charging time for this type of battery ranges from three to 12 hours. They are generally used for small electronics like radios and other portable devices.
A nickel cadmium battery is heavier than an alkaline battery, but provides more run time. A large number of cells also increases the weight and run time of a battery. Therefore, an 18-volt battery will run considerably longer than a 9.6 volt battery because the 18-volt battery has twice the cells than the 9.6 volt. The higher voltage batteries are generally found on tools such as a cordless drill or a circular saw.
A battery charger works by accepting voltage from a standard outlet. The amount of charge that is transferred to the battery depends upon the 'brain' inside the charger. A large battery charger typically has a more efficient brain than a smaller one. Charging a battery creates heat, so it's important to keep them cool.
An advanced battery charger will have a fan that takes the heat away from the battery. The charge takes approximately 20 minutes. It has a sensor that lets you know if the battery is defective. This type of charger creates what is known as a trickle charge, which won't hurt the battery or cause a memory defect.
A nickel metal hydride battery is more expensive than a nickel cadmium battery, but the nickel metal hydride provides 20 to 30 percent more run time. There is no significant weight increase but are more expensive. They are not as common as the nickel cadmium.
Lithium ion batteries use half as many cells to get twice as much power as other batteries. That means that it provides twice the run time using a battery half the weight of a comparable nickel battery. Also, lithium ion battery doesn't run down slowly, like a nickel cadmium battery. This battery continues at full power until the battery runs out.
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© 2014 Scripps Networks, LLC. All Rights Reserved. | <urn:uuid:4699657f-28c7-4d58-9819-813159e7ec32> | CC-MAIN-2014-10 | http://www.diynetwork.com/home-improvement/battery-technology/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1394010749774/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305091229-00057-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923145 | 619 | 2.6875 | 3 | The extract lacks discussion of soft skills, focusing solely on technical information about battery technology. There is no mention of communication, teamwork, leadership, or problem-solving scenarios, and cultural awareness and digital literacy are absent. The content is limited to theoretical knowledge with no practical application of soft skills.
Educational score: 0 | 0 | 0 | 902,370 | 0 |
Teaching is a complex activity, so peer observation and feedback processes must accommodate this complexity to be of greatest service to those who participate. For this reason, we do not recommend that faculty engage in peer observation and feedback with a one-size-fits-all “checklist” about what good teaching looks like. Instead, we recommend framing the experience as a formative, collegial dialogue, tailored to the contours of the discipline and the expressed desires of the teacher being observed.
1. Purpose: Formative or Summative?
- Formative feedback is intended to give the observed teacher constructive feedback about how to evolve their teaching in various ways. This information is responsive but not evaluative, and is put to use by the teacher in future teaching experiences.
- Summative feedback is intended to evaluate the effectiveness of one’s teaching practice to meet various administrative requirements.
Because the consequences are very different for formative and summative feedback, it is crucial that the intention be made clear at the outset of an observation and feedback experience. While many departments include peer evaluation as part of the summative review process, we recommend it as only part of a multi-dimensional process to include TRACE scores and other evidence of teaching effectiveness.
2. Signature Pedagogies and Departmental Culture
Signature pedagogies (Schulman, 2005) are practices that vary across disciplines and embody not only surface features like specific instructional acts, but also deep and implicit structures that communicate the theory of the discipline, how to think like one of its members, and its cultural attitudes. How conflicting knowledge claims are evaluated and addressed will vary widely between the physics lab, the law classroom, and the medical student being led on daily hospital rounds by a resident.
3. What Is Known About How Learning Works
While disciplinary and departmental context matters greatly, there are also research-based principles that describe the learning process across contexts (Ambrose, et al., 2010). These seven principles can form effective “points of entry” into the observation and feedback process.
- Prior knowledge – What students know coming into the classroom can help or hinder their learning.
- Knowledge organization – How students organize knowledge influences how they learn and apply what they know.
- Motivation – Students’ motivation determines, directs, and sustains what they do to learn.
- Mastery – To develop mastery, students must acquire component skills, practice integrating them, and know when to apply what they have learned.
- Practice and feedback – Goal-directed practice with targeted feedback enhances the quality of students’ learning.
- Student development and class climate – Students’ current level of development interacts with social, emotional, and intellectual climate of the course to impact learning.
- Self-directed learning – To become self-directed learners, students must learn to assess the demands of a task, evaluate their own knowledge and skills, plan their approach, monitor their progress, and adjust their strategies as needed.
1. Individual Process
We recommend the process of faculty peer observation consist of four steps:
- Initial conversation between the observer and the observed.
- The observation itself as an informal data collection and distillation process.
- Follow-up conversation in which the observer shares the observations and collaborates with the observed teacher in any kind of brainstorming or troubleshooting that the observations invite.
- Reflective summary written by the observed instructor, integrating what was learned from the process and how this will influence future teaching.
View some suggested prompts for each of these experiences, read Adapting the Faculty Review Process to Your Context.
2. Departmental Process
Because ‘good teaching’ is a complex phenomenon and varies from context to context, we recommend the departmental process of adopting a peer observation and feedback system be collaborative and iterative. Specifically, we recommend that a small group of department members design the first set of prompt documents to support the four-step process described above. Then they can pilot that design with one another and improve it in whatever way the pilot observees’ experience suggests.
Having done this, this smaller pilot group then offers the prompts to be used in the process by another collection of faculty in the department, who also have the opportunity to make suggestions for how the prompts and process might be improved. Then another collection of participants go through the same experience and so on in a widening circle of participation, until the prompt forms represent a broad enough set of departmental input that they can be considered for widespread adoption by policy.
Explore Suggestions for Adapting the Faculty Review Process to Your Context
View more resources and ideas for Adapting the Faculty Review Process to Your Context.
Ambrose, S.A., Bridges, M.W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M.C., Norman, M.K. (2010). How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching. San Franciscio: Jossey-Bass.
Shulman, L.S. (2005). Signature pedagogies in the professions. Daedalus, 134(3), 52-59. | <urn:uuid:6b055529-7f56-4d03-808d-fee15b39c84b> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://learning.northeastern.edu/faculty-peer-observation-and-feedback/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585370493121.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20200328225036-20200329015036-00441.warc.gz | en | 0.924471 | 1,048 | 2.703125 | 3 | The extract provides a comprehensive framework for peer observation and feedback in teaching, emphasizing formative dialogue, signature pedagogies, and research-based principles of learning. It offers a structured process for individual and departmental implementation, promoting collaboration, iteration, and continuous improvement. The content demonstrates a nuanced understanding of complex teaching practices, emotional intelligence, and cultural awareness, with opportunities for critical thinking and problem-solving.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 796,591 | 1 |
By Anthony Hall, August 25, 2008
The United States forms one element of a broader and more abstract polity known as America. While the term, America, has been appropriated to identify the most powerful country in Americas, the word should be reclaimed so that it applies equally to all citizens of the Western Hemisphere. The idea of America remains as elastic and as subject to revision as ever. Throughout much of its history America has been seen by many beyond its shores as a symbol of hope, as a promised land for those yearning to breath free? But what is to be made of the experience of the Indigenous peoples who were pushed aside or eliminated to make room for wave after wave of immigrants? Will freedom for some in America continue to be purchased at the expense of others? Will America look outward to the world with confident humility or is the idea of America to be henceforth associated with the corrosive xenophobia that brands all those who do not conform to imposed norms as deviants and possible terrorists?
A striking icon embodying some of the key choices to be made in the ongoing process of inventing America is the Six Nations protest camp set up in 2006 on the site of a suburban real estate project. The site's developers, Henco Industries, named their luxury housing project Douglas Creek Estates. This development at Calendonia near Hamilton Ontario was to have been identical to many thousands of others of its type that proliferate around towns and cities all over North America. The contested development lies just outside the Six Nations Iroquois Reserve but well within the territory six miles on either side of the Grand River that was transferred by the British imperial government to the King's most loyal Indian allies during the American Revolution. The transfer took place in 1784 to compensate its recipients for the loss of their Longhouse League's heartland. Without Indian consent the British government transferred title to the US government of the Six Nations' Longhouse territory in what is now upper New York state. To compensate the Six Nations for what they had lost, Sir Frederick Haldimand, the top military commander in what remained of British imperial Canada, gave them the Grand River Valley north of Lake Erie. The resulting Haldimand Deed is especially clear, succinct and unequivocal. It can be cited in full.
Whereas His Majesty having been pleased to direct that in consideration of the early attachment to his cause manifested by the Mohawk Indians, and of the loss of their settlement which they thereby sustained-- that a convenient tract of land under his protection should be chosen as a safe and comfortable retreat for them and others of the Six Nations, who have either lost their settlements within the Territory of the American States, or wish to retire from them to the British -- I have at the earnest desire of many of these His Majesty's faithful Allies purchased a tract of land from the Indians situated between the Lakes Ontario, Erie and Huron and I do hereby in His Majesty's name authorize and permit the said Mohawk Nation and such others of the Six Nation Indians as wish to settle in that quarter to take possession of and settle upon the Banks of the River commonly called Ours [Ouse] or Grand River, running into Lake Erie, allotting to them for that purpose six miles deep from each side of the river beginning at Lake Erie and extending in that proportion to the head of the said river, which them and their posterity are to enjoy for ever.i
Throughout the nineteenth century the Six Nation settlers in the Grand River Valley were stripped of much of their lands through the usual array of unsavory and possibly illegal tactics. They were left with a reserve embodying only a small percentage of the territories transferred to them in the Haldimand Deed. The Six Nations community is the midst of Ontario's urban and industrial heartland. The community's rich heritage of treaty making forms one part of the history that makes Ontario the North American jurisdiction with the most diverse array of treaty agreements with Indigenous peoples. The Six Nations community is the most heavily populated reserve in Canada, with slightly more than twenty thousand inhabitants. It has many Indian-run businesses, including a radio station and Grand River Enterprises, a cigarette manufacturing enterprise that exports its products globally. This tobacco company pays its full share of taxes to the provincial and federal governments. Many of the men in the community have worked as high steel workers, a Mohawk specialty it seems. The Six Nations reserve is almost certainly the world's main nurturing ground for lacrosse players, an ancient Aboriginal game that for a time was Canada's national sport.
The Six Nations community is by no means a place of poverty and destitution, as are, tragically, many hundreds of other Indian reserves and reservations throughout Canada and the United States. Nevertheless Six Nations citizens continue to be faced with constant pressures to give ground to the non-Indian society pressing in around them. In 2006 a group of concerned individuals took action in an attempt to prevent yet another round of dispossession. They set up their camp on the Douglas Creek Estates construction site in order to call attention to the continuing injustices they face as well as the unbroken force of the Haldimand Deed. They attempted to organize their protest in ways that reflected the structures of their clan system at the basis of their traditional Longhouse League. Until 1924 the Longhouse Council, the decision making body of the Longhouse League, was recognized by Canadian officialdom as the functioning government of the Six Nations community. Then the Longhouse Council was forcefully removed from the community's seat of government by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The Mounties acted on the orders of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King. King's decision to terminate the governing role of the Longhouse Council came in response to the embarrassment inflicted on the Canadian government by Levi General, also known as Deskahe. Deskahe had been sent to Europe by his Longhouse sponsors in order to inform the member governments of the League of Nations in Geneva that the Canadian government was not living up to the terms of treaties made in the course of Great Britain's colonization of North America. Prime Minister King ordered that the Longhouse system must be replaced by the regime of Indian rule created by federal legislation known as the Indian Act. In those years the Indian Act was amended and administered in an especially repressive way with a particularly close eye to preventing Indians in British Columbia from bringing forward any legal case involving assertions of their Aboriginal title. | <urn:uuid:b40f4dca-5da2-406b-9aa1-e7ed04ae3758> | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | http://grannyrantson.blogspot.com/2008/09/six-nations-caledonia-coming-to-cross.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886118195.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20170823094122-20170823114122-00212.warc.gz | en | 0.971696 | 1,294 | 2.6875 | 3 | The extract discusses the complex history and struggles of the Six Nations community, highlighting issues of cultural identity, colonialism, and social justice. It promotes critical thinking, cultural awareness, and empathy, but lacks direct discussion of soft skills and practical application. The text is more focused on historical and social analysis, making it less relevant for soft skills development.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 739,846 | 0 |
Introduction to Active Learning
Resources: Worksheet, Online Worksheet (PDF), Online Worksheet (text document), Wolfram Alpha
Demonstrations: Properties of Planets Demo (Created by TA Brandon Bergerud), Scale of the Universe
Learning is not a spectator sport. Your role in this laboratory may be different from what you are used to in a traditional classroom. Instead of passively listening to an instructor lecture at the front of the room, then following instructions one by one on autopilot, you and your team of fellow students will be presented with a science question and a set of resources, and asked to figure out how to solve the problem. This is the idea behind active learning: Students are expected to actively engage in problem-solving by applying past knowledge, creativity, and curiosity to the question being asked. This lab is designed to allow students to become comfortable with this learning environment.
The primary advantage of active learning is that students learn concepts faster and more comprehensively. Unlike passive 'recipe' instruction or memorization, they develop their creativity, collaborative skills, and curiosity. It is also the mode in which most work environments operate, for example scientific research groups, business management, innovation start-up teams, and medical staff. Some students also see a downside: Instead of showing up to class and passively sitting (and perhaps daydreaming, or even napping), they need to interact with their fellow students and do some critical thinking. Genuine understanding requires effort.
Many studies in active learning have concluded that groups of several students (three to four, maybe five) are an optimal size, and that the team works best when specific roles are assigned. For a three-person lab group, an effective set of roles is:
- Manager: Keeps the group on track, manages time, ensures that discussion does not stray in non-relevant directions. Note that the manager is not the 'boss'; they are an equal partner in contributing to problem-solving.
- Scribe: Keeps a record of group members' ideas, data, analysis; makes sure the team agrees on each step or conclusion. Is responsible for ensuring the lab is turned in.
- Skeptic: Questions assumptions, tries to find weaknesses in arguments, thinks of alternative explanations. Note that unlike some social settings, this is not impolite but an essential part of the scientific method.
Groups that don't have defined roles often function less effectively. Here are a pair of videos that contrast a well-run group with one that is not:
Although the composition of lab groups may change as the semester progresses, they may also be maintained for several weeks or more. Take the time to learn your group members' names.
Learning Goals: Students will learn how to work within their assigned lab groups to complete surveys and experiments which introduce active learning concepts that will be applied in later labs. | <urn:uuid:f6a20bc6-4b6a-4fef-be26-c66bba738da7> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://itu.physics.uiowa.edu/labs/foundational/introduction-active-learning | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296949355.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20230330163823-20230330193823-00375.warc.gz | en | 0.95473 | 592 | 4.0625 | 4 | The extract promotes active learning, teamwork, and problem-solving, with a focus on assigned roles and collaboration. It discusses the benefits of active learning, including improved concept comprehension and development of creativity, collaborative skills, and curiosity. The material provides a basic framework for effective team dynamics and introduces essential soft skills like critical thinking, time management, and communication.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 378,504 | 1 |
Having a basic knowledge of Design Sprint phases will make running a successful Design Sprint easier than ever. While most people leave sprint facilitation to the more design-minded, the truth is that any qualified facilitator can learn how to run a sprint.
The term Design Sprint refers to the five-day process that centers on design methodology and uses design thinking as a framework. Though the word design is involved, the reality is that anyone can learn how to execute the Design Sprint phases, whether they are a designer or not.
In this article, you’ll learn:
- What Are Design Sprints For?
- The Five Design Sprint Phases
- Design Sprints Aren’t Just for Designers
What Are Design Sprints For?
A Design Sprint is a process used to validate ideas and problem solve. Created by Jake Knapp, Design Sprints are “The ‘greatest hits’ of business strategy, innovation, behavioral science, and more — packaged into a step-by-step process that any team can use.”
Every sprint consists of five Design Sprint phases, each of which encourages participants to consider human-centered solutions to complex problems.
Within each phase, facilitators will work to help their team:
- Understand: Identify and understand the end-users problem areas
- Ideate: Develop potential solutions to the main problem
- Decide: Transform the best ideas into a hypothesis
- Prototype: Create a realistic prototype
- Test: Get feedback from users in real-time
The Five Design Sprint Phases
Successful sprints begin with first-hand experience of Design Sprint phases. While Design Sprints range in complexity based on one’s needs, thoroughly understanding each phase of a Design Sprint will make the entire process easier.
Get Our Remote Design Sprint 101 Guide
This is a comprehensive guide for anyone who wants to run their own remote Design Sprint. It outlines everything we’ve done at Voltage Control to successfully adapt our tried-and-true Design Sprint model for remote work.
Check your inbox for the free download.
Though each phase varies, the five Design Sprint phases are easily broken into a five-day process.
A typical sprint includes the flowing phases:
1. Monday: Exploration Phase
The main goal in the exploration phase is to jumpstart creativity and to encourage multiple solutions throughout the next Design Sprint phases. At this point, participants will identify the long-term goal and map out the plan of action to tackle the challenge.
Beginning: You’ll start the Design Sprint off with a structured discussion to plan out the weeklong process. In the initial phase of the Design Sprint, your team will begin by considering their business from different perspectives.
Middle: Experts will then share their experiences and knowledge with the team in 10 -14 minute sessions. Participants will use shared knowledge to focus on collaborating as a unit and developing a shared brain.
Each member will share different elements relating to the problem while the facilitator captures all the information shared through a whiteboard. The other team members will reference this information throughout the sprint process. Ultimately, the team should explore as many possibilities as they can, regardless of how viable or realistic they are during this phase.
End: As the first phase concludes, the team selects a target: a manageable part of the problem the team will solve during the week.
With a better understanding of the end-user and the product, team members can move on to the next phase.
2. Tuesday: The Sketch Phase
The main objective of the sketch phase is to develop different action plans that will result in the most viable solutions.
Beginning: In the next phase of a Design Sprint, team members will begin to translate ideas into tangible solutions. The design process during this phase may include adding new features or redesigning a project.
The day will begin with inspiration as the team reviews which ideas to improve and remix. At this part of the process, facilitators will encourage continued brainstorming.
Middle: By mid-day, team members will sketch using a four-step process to emphasize critical thinking:
1. Review key information
2. Design ideas on paper
3. Consider many variations
4. Create detailed solutions
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These activities help team members develop well-formed concepts as they clarify the challenge. Facilitators can use templates like Mural and Miro to stimulate further ideation.
End: The team will finish the phase by identifying customers to include in the final testing phase.
3. Wednesday: The Decision Phase
During the decision phase, your team will have many solutions to contend with. At this point, it’s time to decide on a solid plan of action and select the ideas that will be prototyped.
Beginning: Start this phase by critiquing each solution. Team members should consider the solutions that they’ll be able to achieve with the time and resources available.
Middle: Toward the middle of the day, the team will choose the solutions that are most viable for meeting the long-term goal. Consider voting to determine the best solution to pursue.
End: Team members will choose the best options from the sketch phase and implement them in a storyboard. This is the step-by-step plan for the prototyping phase.
4. Thursday: The Prototype Phase
The prototype in this phase is essentially an experiment used to test a hypothesis. In this phase, the team decides what they will build to receive feedback and validate the hypothesis.
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Beginning: This phase starts with the team developing a realistic prototype to test with users. This prototype should be finished in one day.
Middle: After developing the prototype, confirm the schedule for the test, review the prototype, and develop an interview script.
End: Finalize everything for the Friday user test.
5. Friday: The Validate Phase
The final phase is likely the most crucial one. Team members will test their prototype with live users.
Beginning: Live users will test the prototype and provide feedback. This information will pinpoint various issues in the product’s design. This will allow team members to make improvements.
Middle: In a Design Sprint, each team member will participate in the validation session. The goal is to capture the learnings and apply various concepts as the team gains user feedback. An interviewer is necessary to facilitate the discussion with five potential users. The end-users involved are target customers that will react to the solution.
End: As the Design Sprint phases come to a close, your team will know exactly what steps to take to finalize the solution and what comes next.
Design Sprints Aren’t Just for Designers
If you want to run a Design Sprint but are not a designer, that isn’t a problem. Any qualified facilitator can run a Design Sprint and these sessions benefit companies of every industry. The best Design Sprint facilitators bring the necessary knowledge and skills to share with their teams.
These facilitators effectively lead group discussions and manage team dynamics as they select the next course of action in their Design Sprint scenario. The best facilitators are those that are in tune with design methodology and are well-versed in Design Sprint phases. Most Design Sprint facilitators also work as agile coaches, strategists, UX designers, consultants, product managers, and similar roles.
Want to get started running Design Sprints?
Design sprint certification can help you learn the ins and outs of Design Sprints as you strengthen your facilitation skills and gain confidence in the process.
With Voltage Control Design Sprint classes, you’ll learn more about the five-day process and how you can run your own. Sign up today and stay tuned for information on our Design Sprint certification.
Apply For Facilitation Certification
Complete the below form and we will be in touch shortly. | <urn:uuid:7301063b-a407-46f9-a9fe-f1da728b6a18> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://voltagecontrol.com:443/blog/the-facilitators-guide-to-the-design-sprint-phases/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224643663.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20230528083025-20230528113025-00679.warc.gz | en | 0.908814 | 1,712 | 2.796875 | 3 | The extract provides a comprehensive overview of the Design Sprint process, including its phases and applications. It covers teamwork, communication, and problem-solving concepts, with a focus on practical application and real-world context. The material includes discussions on emotional intelligence, leadership challenges, and critical thinking opportunities, earning it a higher score.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 563,546 | 1 |
Positive behaviour for learning: investigating the transfer of a United States system into the NSW Department of Education and Training Western Sydney Region schools
Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) is a school-wide behaviour initiative currently in use at a number of western
The use of PBL has recently been evaluated through a collaborative study involving the WSR and researchers from the University of Western Sydney (UWS).
The PBL system
The PBL process commenced at selected schools in 2005 and has been progressively introduced to other interested schools in a process that is set to continue. While take-up is voluntary, more than half the schools in the region have offered expressions of interest in the program.
PBL has been adapted from the Positive Behaviour Interventions and Supports (PBIS) program developed in the
This regard for learning builds on the NSW Department of Education’s Quality Teaching framework (2003). Deriving from work in
PBL operates as a systemic umbrella for a broad range of programs in schools, including values education, anti-bullying, learning support teams, and
The process employs coaches that provide a localised connection between the schools and the Region. Ninety-seven school-based and region-based coaches have volunteered across WSR since 2005. The coaches have helped participant schools transfer learning experiences in training sessions into practice in the schools. Coaching is essential in the PBL process to increase transfer of learning in the areas of needs assessment, evaluation, systems development and action planning.
The WSR’s approach to PBL has been acknowledged by other regions in
Evaluation of PBL
The use of PBL has recently been evaluated through a collaborative study involving the WSR and researchers from the School of Education and the Centre for Educational Research at UWS, led by Associate Head of the school, Dr Mary Mooney. The WSR was represented in the research team by three staff and members of the Regional PBL Leadership Team.
The study involved a mix of survey and fieldwork methods to examine the project’s context, implementation and outcomes to date. The views of school staff, students and parents at 31 schools were obtained from both PBL schools and a control group of schools. A total of 2,723 students took part in the survey, from years 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11. Some PBL schools had been implementing PBL for 18 months; others began PBL 6– 9 months prior to the study, while a further group consisted of recent volunteers. An important component of the research data was obtained through the School-wide Evaluation Tool (SET), an annual assessment that evaluates improvements in whole school systems of support to prevent problem behaviour.
More detailed case studies were undertaken at three schools, two of which had been implementing the program for 18 months, the third for less than one year. Data was collected through focus group discussions, individual interviews with students, their parents and teachers, and coaches. The researchers interviewed the Regional PBL Leadership Team as well as examining artefacts such as regional documents and conference presentations.
The researchers tracked what happened within schools when teams discussed and implemented the PBL process and how they adapted it for local circumstances. They explored how schools made adjustments and allowances, if any, for students of different cultural backgrounds. They also investigated how the notion of ‘shared responsibility’ between schools and communities was enacted and the role that students and families had in developing school behaviour priorities and practices.
Findings from the evaluation were grouped according to the four major research questions of the investigation.
How have schools implemented PBL? Which processes have schools found effective for their different contexts?
The schools participating in PBL were found to share several characteristics in the way they implemented the program. Firstly, they all applied the process in an internally consistent manner, achieved in part through use of common terminology and signage. Developing such consistency is explicitly addressed in PBL training. Secondly, the schools all included local examples in the training. Participating schools fed their experiences back to the Regional PBL Leadership Team which then documented these examples for inclusion in other schools’ training programs. Thirdly, coaches at all schools have helped participants apply PBL training in practice.
Differences in the implementation processes across the schools were found in the level of involvement of students in decision making, the degree of clustering between primary and high schools, and the level of staff ownership of the PBL process.
What effects are evident from students’ behaviour, motivation, self-concept and learning?
During the period 2005–2007 long suspensions rates decreased by 26 per cent in the high schools with the most extended experience of implementing PBL. In contrast, an increase in long suspension rates of 34 per cent had occurred in non-PBL high schools over this period. However, PBL had no obvious impact on student suspensions in primary schools, where there have been increases in short and long suspension rates in both PBL and non-PBL schools.
Attendance records did not seem to be sensitive enough to provide a strong test of PBL effects on student behaviour within the sample of schools participating in the research. Better student behaviour measures would enable more direct and specific assessment of changes in student behaviour following PBL implementation.
While schools’ levels of compliance with PBL implementation were high, there were only modest indications of effects on learning as demonstrated through improvements in motivation and academic self-concept. As PBL implementation moves into the next phase where classroom practices are a focus, further opportunities for assessing the effects of PBL on student learning should be followed up.
School-wide improvement in behaviour management processes was found in schools at all phases of implementation of PBL, with the greatest improvement noted in primary schools and in schools that had been implementing PBL for a longer period of time.
How does the implementation of PBL impact on the attitudes of school staff, students and parents to learning and behaviour?
Overall, PBL has impacted positively on attitudes of the school community towards behaviour and learning. Some teachers have moved from an individual view of behavioural management towards a systemic, school-wide approach. School staff and some parents have adopted a more positive view of strategies used to promote desirable behaviour among students. To a certain extent, there were also perceptions that students’ attitudes towards academic work had also improved.
What changes are made to the PBIS model at a school and regional level as part of implementing PBL? For what reasons and to what effect?
The renaming of PBIS as PBL and its attendant emphasis on students’ academic learning were found to be important for success. Some schools were integrating the learning characteristics of the NSW Quality Teaching Framework with the behaviour characteristics of PBIS. This was important for coherence with existing initiatives and for maintaining a student-centred focus. Quality Teaching and PBL appear to work together well to achieve both positive behaviour and academic outcomes.
It is clear from the study that the introduction of PBL has made significant positive changes to the capacity of DET schools in WSR to respond effectively to students’ behaviour. It has provided a systemic framework that has enabled schools to track their management of student behaviour and has enabled schools to develop coherent whole school practices that enhance teaching practices and support positive behaviour. UWS plans to partner DET in conducting further research into the effectiveness of PBL across a wider cross-section of schools in order to further explore its effects on attitudes and the impact on quality of learning for students in primary, secondary and special schools.
This article consists of edited extracts from the report Positive Behaviour for Learning: Investigating the transfer of a United States system into the New South Wales Department of Education and Training Western Sydney Region schools, March 2008, written by Mary Mooney, Brenda Dobia, Katrina Barker, Anne Power and Kevin Watson of the School of Education, UWS, and by Alexander S Yeung, Centre for Educational Research, UWS. Also contributing to the report were the following officers of the NSW Department of Education and Training’s Western Sydney Region: Jill Schofield (PBL Coordinator), Anne Denham (PBL Officer), Gerry McCloughan (School Development Officer).
The web address for the full Report is
The web address for the full Report ishttp://arrow.uws.edu.au:8080/vital/access/manager/Repository/uws:132. It can also be accessed by title from the UWS Research Repository at http://arrow.uws.edu.au:8080/vital/access/manager/Index.
Carr, EG, Dunlap, G, Horner, RH, Koegel, RL, Turnbull, AP, Sailor, W, Anderson, JL, Albin, RW, Koegel LK & Fox, L 2002, 'Positive behaviour support: evolution of an applied science', Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 4 (1), 4–16, 20.
Fields, BA 2004, 'Productive pedagogies and discipline: the challenge of aligning teaching and behaviour management', Proceedings of Australian Association for Research in Education conference. Retrieved on 1 April, 2008, from www.aare.edu.au/04pap/fie04560.pdf.
Horner, RH, Todd, AW, Lewis-Palmer, T, Irvin, LK, Sugai, G & Boland, JB 2004, 'The school-wide evaluation tool (SET): a research instrument for assessing school-wide positive behaviour support', Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 6 (1), 3–12.
Hoy, WK & Woolfolk, AE 1993, 'Teachers’ sense of efficacy and the organizational health of schools', Elementary School Journal, 93, 355–372.
Lassen, SR, Steele, MM & Sailor, W 2006, 'The relationship of school-wide positive behaviour support to academic achievement in an urban middle school', Psychology in the Schools, 43 (6), 701–712.
Lewis, R 1997, The Discipline Dilemma, 2nd edn, The Australian Council for Educational Research, Melbourne.
–– 1999, 'Teachers coping with the stress of classroom discipline', Social Psychology of Education, 3, 1–17.
–– 2001, 'Classroom discipline and student responsibility: the students' view', Teaching and Teacher Education, 17, 307–319.
Lewis, T & Sugai, G 1999, 'Effective behaviour support: a systems approach to proactive schoolwide management', Focus on Exceptional Children, 31(6), 1–24.
Lewis, T, Powers, LJ, Kelk, MJ & Newcomer, LL 2002, Reducing problem behaviours on the playground: an investigation of the application of schoolwide positive behaviour supports, Psychology in the Schools, 39(2), 181–190.
Lewis-Palmer, T, Sugai, G & Larson, S 1999, 'Using data to guide decisions about program implementation and effectiveness',
Marsh, HW 1993, 'Academic self-concept. Theory measurement and research' in J Suls (Ed), Psychological Perspectives on the Self, vol 4, pp 59–98), Erlbaum,
McInerney, DM 2003, 'Motivational goals, self-concept and sense of self: What predicts academic achievement? Similarities and differences between Aboriginal and Anglo Australians in high school settings' in HW Marsh, RG Craven, & D McInerney (Eds), International advances in self research (vol 1, pp 315–346), Information Age Press,
McInerney, DM, Marsh, HW & Yeung, AS 2003, 'Toward a hierarchical model of school motivation', Journal of Applied Measurement, 4, 335.
Shean, MB, Pike, LT & Murphy, PT 2005, 'The acquisition of social competence: An examination of factors influencing children’s level of social competence', The Australian Educational and Developmental Psychologist, 22, 2, 29–46.
Yeung, AS & McInerney, DM 2005, 'Students’ school motivation and aspiration over high school years', Educational Psychology, 25 (5), 537–554.
Subject HeadingsNew South Wales (NSW)
Teaching and learning | <urn:uuid:41d04809-8285-4395-9576-908cc095b63f> | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | http://www.curriculum.edu.au/leader/positive_behaviour_for_learning,24004.html?issueID=11469 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886103270.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20170817111816-20170817131816-00308.warc.gz | en | 0.954572 | 2,524 | 3 | 3 | The extract discusses the implementation and evaluation of the Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) system in NSW schools, focusing on its impact on student behavior, motivation, and learning. While it provides valuable insights into the program's effectiveness, the extract primarily presents research findings and theoretical frameworks, lacking practical application and nuanced interaction. It touches on cultural awareness and digital literacy but does not delve deeply into these areas. Therefore, the extract demonstrates a moderate level of coverage of soft skills development.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 785,951 | 0 |
User-friendly app for gauging autism
Autism spectrum disorder refers to a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviours, speech, and nonverbal communication. This once misunderstood disorder affects a broad range of communications skills and behaviours.
According to Public Health Agency Canada, one in 66 Canadian children are diagnosed with autism.
For those diagnosed with autism and their families, social abilities impact relationships and everyday experiences. But measuring social interaction limitations has proven difficult. Dr. Forgeot D’arc and his Mitacs Globalink Intern, Ouarda Fenek — a visiting Mitacs Globalink Research Intern studying data science in a computer science program at Université Pierre et Marie Curie Paris, France — are taking on this challenge by quantifying and qualifying theories with an app.
They are working to understand the autistic person’s perspective and provide a numerical assessment of the severity of their condition.
“We want to be able to mimic some fundamental aspect of natural interaction, while getting a standard situation to measure cognitive parameters of the person. Measuring cognitive function is a starting point for several things in medicine; it improves interventions and predicts outcomes,” says Dr. Forgeot d’Arc.
It is advancing both an understanding of autism and technology that may help develop future support programs. It’s focused on measuring social interaction through a classic penny-hiding game — a non-verbal test where one person hides a penny in one of their hands, out of sight, and the other person has to guess the penny's location. Players are placed in social and non-social conditions to measure three indexes: performance, sophistication of strategies to win the game, and cognitive flexibility allowing them to switch strategies. From there, severity of symptoms can be measured as well as how to influence them.
Accurate results by playing a game
Tests used to evaluate the social skills of an individual don’t often happen in a realistic environment. But with the BrainUs app, the individual is directly playing against an opponent and has to establish strategies in order to win.
“Most of the time, tests evaluate social skills with subjective measures, like questionnaires, that rely on the understanding and subjective impression of people and are subject to different sorts of biases. The only objective tests available are based on static situations. For example, you are told a story and must guess the end. That is very different from problem solving in real social-life, in which you have to continuously make decisions. Here, we are able to test social interaction in real time, during an interaction. Technology gives us access to individuals’ cognitive parameters that are usually not accessible to observation during a social interaction,” says Dr. Forgeot d’Arc.
Connecting the data to intervention
The team brings an important element to assess the effectiveness of a potential program’s elements or strategies. For example, the feedback provided by the task could be used to train individuals and improve some cognitive strategies.
“Previously, a study made with autistic adults using BrainUS allowed us to match 69 percent of the participants with their diagnostics,” says Ouarda. “We hope to show the same results in the pediatric population in order to validate the app, which can become a psychological testing tool helping the clinician in his practice.”
Going forward, “we want to give immediate feedback in terms of performance, sophistication, and strategy to the players. We believe that it might motivate patients and maybe help them challenge themselves in their strategies,” says Ouarda.
Taking analysis skills to new contexts
Ouarda has worked on data analysis projects but this is the first time she’s applied her skills in an autistic population. “Combining the social and medical aspects of the project was one of the most attractive aspects to me. It was also the first time I assisted the data gathering phase, so I was in direct contact with the kids. I really like the fact that I’m seen as an international student and not as a foreign one. The diversity and the great welcome that I found in Université de Montréal shows how open it is. Everyone was in to deliver any information needed, to guide, and help.”
“This experience is definitely something that marked my academic life. It is a great opportunity that I had working in such a big research lab, especially that I’m seriously considering pursuing PhD studies.”
This study will help inform a range of other research. “Studies in genetics, as well as in pharmacology and other types of interventions, are currently limited by our poor ability to measure how individuals with neurodevelopmental conditions and disorders differ. This work is a step in the direction of identifying and measuring cognitive mechanisms at the core of neurodevelopment of social interaction,” says Dr. Forgeot d’Arc.
Ouarda is taking a few soft skills back with her when she returns to France as well. “I think the most important values when working on big projects are to be well-organized and respectful of schedules. Working with a team, I think it’s really important that each member knows exactly what’s expected of them, and that all the members communicate well.”
Working in Canada has had its benefits, “One of the great aspects that I liked about working here is the relationship between supervisor and trainee; I’m used to some strict relationships. From what I see here, it is more like a collaborative relationship, where the ideas of the employee are heard and respected.”
Globalink Acknowledgements – Summer 2019
Mitacs would like to thank the Government of Canada, along with the Government of Alberta, the Government of British Columbia, Research Manitoba, and the Government of Quebec for their support of the Globalink Research Internship program. In addition, Mitacs is pleased to work with the following international partners to support Globalink: Universities Australia; the China Scholarship Council; Campus France; the German Academic Exchange Service; Mexico’s Secretariat of Public Education, Tecnológico de Monterrey, and the National Autonomous University of Mexico; Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Education; and Tunisia’s Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and Mission Universitaire de Tunisie en Amerique du Nord. | <urn:uuid:0947a843-e341-4a9f-a478-8198f96e77e8> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://www.mitacs.ca/en/impact/user-friendly-app-gauging-autism | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585370519111.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20200404011558-20200404041558-00556.warc.gz | en | 0.947696 | 1,310 | 3.921875 | 4 | The extract scores 2 points as it provides superficial coverage of basic communication and teamwork concepts, and includes discussion of soft skills with straightforward communication scenarios, but lacks nuanced interaction or complex problem-solving opportunities. The extract highlights the importance of teamwork, communication, and respect in a research setting, but does not delve deeper into advanced soft skills or complex problem-solving.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 745,694 | 0 |
Declaration for the Right to Libraries
In the spirit of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we believe that libraries are essential to a democratic society. Every day, in countless communities across our nation and the world, millions of children, students and adults use libraries to learn, grow and achieve their dreams. In addition to a vast array of books, computers and other resources, library users benefit from the expert teaching and guidance of librarians and library staff to help expand their minds and open new worlds. We declare and affirm our right to quality libraries -public, school, academic, and special – and urge you to show your support by signing your name to this Declaration for the Right to Libraries.
LIBRARIES EMPOWER THE INDIVIDUAL. Whether developing skills to succeed in school, looking for a job, exploring possible careers, having a baby, or planning retirement, people of all ages turn to libraries for instruction, support, and access to computers and other resources to help them lead better lives.
LIBRARIES SUPPORT LITERACY AND LIFELONG LEARNING. Many children and adults learn to read at their school and public libraries via story times, research projects, summer reading, tutoring and other opportunities. Others come to the library to learn the technology and information skills that help them answer their questions, discover new interests, and share their ideas with others.
LIBRARIES STRENGTHEN FAMILIES. Families find a comfortable, welcoming space and a wealth of resources to help them learn, grow and play together.
LIBRARIES ARE THE GREAT EQUALIZER. Libraries serve people of every age, education level, income level, ethnicity and physical ability. For many people, libraries provide resources that they could not otherwise afford – resources they need to live, learn, work and govern.
LIBRARIES BUILD COMMUNITIES. Libraries bring people together, both in person and online, to have conversations and to learn from and help each other. Libraries provide support for seniors, immigrants and others with special needs.
LIBRARIES PROTECT OUR RIGHT TO KNOW. Our right to read, seek information, and speak freely must not be taken for granted. Libraries and librarians actively defend this most basic freedom as guaranteed by the First Amendment.
LIBRARIES STRENGTHEN OUR NATION. The economic health and successful governance of our nation depend on people who are literate and informed. School, public, academic, and special libraries support this basic right.
LIBRARIES ADVANCE RESEARCH AND SCHOLARSHIP. Knowledge grows from knowledge. Whether doing a school assignment, seeking a cure for cancer, pursuing an academic degree, or developing a more fuel efficient engine, scholars and researchers of all ages depend on the knowledge and expertise that libraries and librarians offer.
LIBRARIES HELP US TO BETTER UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER. People from all walks of life come together at libraries to discuss issues of common concern. Libraries provide programs, collections, and meeting spaces to help us share and learn from our differences.
LIBRARIES PRESERVE OUR NATION’S CULTURAL HERITAGE. The past is key to our future. Libraries collect, digitize, and preserve original and unique historical documents that help us to better understand our past, present and future. | <urn:uuid:5ed9fc5d-1e33-4af1-bba3-e1f60df96900> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://www.theloopylibrarian.com/sign-declaration-right-libraries-show-support/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296943625.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20230321033306-20230321063306-00407.warc.gz | en | 0.918343 | 694 | 3.828125 | 4 | The extract promotes libraries as essential to a democratic society, highlighting their role in empowering individuals, supporting literacy, and building communities. It touches on various aspects of soft skills, such as lifelong learning, critical thinking, and cultural awareness, but lacks depth and practical application. The discussion is mostly theoretical, with limited opportunities for nuanced interaction or complex problem-solving.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 42,529 | 0 |
Examine the Topic
Inclusion of multicultural literature in the classroom literacy program is important for both English language learners and students who are native speakers of English. Read these statements by Robert Jiménez and Denise Agosto. Consider how the ideas in these statements reflect your own practices and classroom materials.
One of the best ways that a teacher can support the English language learner is to build classroom libraries that students find enticing and appealing, in terms of materials that they want to look at and read. I really encourage teachers to include as many culturally authentic materials as possible. Include materials that students find interesting, that represent their cultural backgrounds, and that include characters that look like the students themselves, so that they have reasons to make connections with those classroom materials.
-- Robert Jiménez
The best multicultural literature shares five major characteristics: accuracy, expertise, respect, purpose, and quality. Use these characteristics as criteria to identify and evaluate multicultural literature.
- Are cultural aspects (food, dress, flora, fauna, etc.) portrayed accurately?
- Does diversity exist among the members of each cultural group portrayed? (Remember that no culture is monolithic. For example, each member of an ethnic group has slightly different facial features. Groups of people should not appear to have identical faces in illustrations; they should look like individuals.)
- Are non-English words spelled and used correctly?
- Is historical information correct?
- According to any author/illustrator notes or biographical information, are the author and/or illustrator qualified to write or illustrate material relating to the culture(s) portrayed? How?
- Have the author and/or illustrator conducted related research? If not, have they lived among (either as a member of or as a visitor to) the groups of people represented in the work?
- Do the author and/or illustrator avoid the representation of stereotypes in the characters' speech, appearance, and behaviors?
- Do the author and/or illustrator avoid using a condescending or negative tone in relation to cultural characteristics of the characters and setting?
- Are minority characters portrayed as equal in societal worth to majority characters, or are they represented in subordinate social positions? If so, is there a legitimate reason for this representation, or is it due to cultural biases of the author/illustrator?
- Does the cultural setting add to the work, or does it seem superfluous?
- Could the work succeed equally well if it used a different cultural setting (or characters from a different culture)?
- Does the work ring true to you?
- Are the story elements of setting, plot, and character well developed?
- Does the dialogue sound natural, not forced?
- Are the illustrations of high quality for composition, color, and perspective? Do they represent the text?
- Is the item high quality overall, independent of its multicultural characteristics?
Adapted from Criteria for Evaluating Multicultural Literature by Denise Agosto
Now, write your answers to these questions:
- Why is reading multicultural literature important for your English language learners? For all students in your classroom?
- How do the five characteristics of multicultural literature relate to students' comprehension and motivation to read?
- How should you decide which multicultural texts to select for your classroom library?
- How can you use multicultural literature within your curriculum?
- How can English language learners benefit from reading mainstream literature as well as multicultural literature? How can all students?
Next > Find the Unfamilar Words | <urn:uuid:e6956453-c64d-41d3-b014-e935df573230> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://www.learner.org/workshops/teachreading35/session6/sec3p1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386164987957/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204134947-00002-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934629 | 721 | 4.1875 | 4 | The extract earns a score of 4 due to its comprehensive discussion of multicultural literature, promoting cultural awareness, and critical thinking. It provides practical applications for teachers to evaluate and select multicultural literature, and its questions encourage reflection on student motivation and comprehension.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 334,025 | 1 |
An exploratory essay is concentrated on presenting detailed research of the problem. You may not know a lot of information about the discussed issue and your opinion about it may not be formed yet. However, in course of research you will find out considerable details about the subject you are examining. Therefore, you will be able to understand it clearly and provide readers with reasonable arguments and interesting content.
This type of paper is not aimed at dealing with only one piece of evidence concerning the explored question. On the contrary, it is focused on gathering several facts and examining them fully. Writing an exploratory essay means setting up an in-depth discussion participating in which will help readers broaden their outlook on the tackled problem.
The topics for writing exploratory essays are numerous. Some of them are given below:
- The Role of Green Peace
- Sport and Its Influence on Health
- Democracy: pros and Cons
- Innovative Teaching Approaches
- Immigrants: the Freedom of Choice
It does not matter what subject you select. It is important to be interested in it, as it will be reflected in your way of the paper writing.
Exploratory Essay Definition
There are various kinds of essays. This kind of assignment is so popular because it follows the liberal rules and gives the freedom of thoughts and actions to the writer. Different students prefer writing different types of essays: argumentative, persuasive, compare and contrast, etc. However, there is a type of essays that requires much more efforts. An exploratory essay wants the student to apply his/her best analytical and critical thinking skills. A common exploratory essay definition says that this essay is the perfect instrument for exploring various points of view on a specific question using many sources and consolidating them with the sound discussion. As such, mere writer`s observations are not enough to create a good exploratory essay.
You have to dedicate much time and efforts to writing such an essay because this task will show you as a mature and qualified expert, whose skills and possibilities go far than the skills of the average student. Are you scared? Well, you shouldn`t. Knowing the essential secrets of exploratory essay writing, you will be able to achieve the desired outcome. We have gathered the important secrets that will help you become a better writer.
According to the exploratory essay definition, this essay aims to explore the specific issue or topic. Keep in mind that you do not need to stand for or against something; you just need to provide the reasonable arguments to present the issue from different perspectives. To write a good exploratory essay, you need to utilize different approaches. In other words, you do not have to invent something new, but try to gather the reasonable opposing views regarding some event, issue, or process.
However, at the same time, only the essay that brings something new to the topic can be considered as well written. As such, try to work on some unexpected conclusion or find one more perspective for analysis, and you will impress your professor by the creative approach to writing. Indeed, when it comes to writing an exploratory essay, all restrictions are rather conditional. Thus, you should not be afraid to develop new approaches to the analysis of a specific problem.
The essential characteristic of exploratory essay writing is its objectiveness. As such, the writer should explore the issue from different angles paying equal attention to all opinions and arguments. As you do not have any specific audience, you are free to choose any approach. However, nevertheless, try to make your essay interesting and thought provoking for everyone.
In order to create a good topic, you have to search for the issues and problems that are of current interest world and cause significant controversies in the present-day. In particular, it can be some ethical quality, a collision between two cultures, as well as some political issue in historical perspective.
Of course, your topic should not be limited to the options mentioned above. Speaking figuratively, you have to find the topic that will burn the light in the hearts of your readers. Keep in mind that you have to explore two or more opinions regarding the issue. You are not asked to solve the problem, as your primary task is to show why this problem is relevant.
The Structure of the Exploratory Essay
As well as any other academic essay, an exploratory essay should follow the common structure that includes an introduction, main body, and a conclusion.
- Introduction. This part requires from you to provide a brief background of the issue that will be discussed throughout your paper. It is great if you manage to create some hook that can engage the reader and make him/her follow your ideas. At the end of your introduction, you have to pose the question so that the reader could understand the essence of the problem. This question should be rather controversial because the audience needs to realize the relevance of your topic.
- Main Body Your main body can be separated into two different steps:
- In the first step, you need to describe your topic more thoroughly. In this part, you can present your topic from different perspectives. Usually, it requires one paragraph. However, if you need more space, feel free to do it just keeping in mind the word count.
- The second part implies presenting different opinions regarding the issue. Each body paragraph should be dedicated to a separate issue. Do not jump from one idea to another since you will just confuse your reader. Only such an approach will help you turn your essay into a single mechanism in which every element performs its function.
- Conclusion. According to the exploratory essay definition, a conclusion serves not only for the restatement of the ideas analyzed in the essay but also for expressing the personal opinion regarding the topic. Previously, it was told that you have to be maximally objective when writing your essay. However, this rule can be applied only to the main body. As such, your conclusion is the field for expressing your position regarding the issue. You may adhere to some opinion discussed in the essay or present a brand new approach. Besides, if the word count allows, you can explain why you chose this particular topic.
- Epilogue. It is believed that the good examples help understand the information better. However, it is not right. In many cases, examples distract the writer from his own thoughts and observations. As such, if you want to become a good writer, you should not be blindly guided by someone`s words. You have to demonstrate an original and authentic approach towards the analysis of the specific problem.
In conclusion, we assure you that writing more exploratory essays you will gain more writing practice. If you want to get a positive grade, you have to learn carefully the exploratory essay definition and follow our suggestions. We do hope that our exploratory writing techniques will help you cope with the task quite effortlessly.
Follow your writer`s instincts and use your imagination and we guarantee that your essay will be a brilliant exploration paper example for your classmates. Remember that only determined and goal-oriented writers are able to reach academic success.
Read Our Free Exploratory Essay Sample!
Exploratory Essay: The American Dream
Introduction. Over 900, 000 legal immigrants are admitted into the United States of America every year. This is an increase of 300,000 from the previous 600,000 immigrants that used to be admitted in the 1980s. The US government advertises applications for the Green Card lottery starting from around October to November every year and receives millions of applicants, all with the hope to get the chance to become American citizens.
But why do foreigners want to become American citizens so bad? In most cases, immigrants would give reasons such as family reunification, humanitarian interest, skills, and search for greener pastures. What is it about the US that lures such huge numbers of foreigners? Some even risk it all to move in illegally. On the other hand, why does the US government want foreigners to come into the country? Studies indicate that immigrants are good sources of labor because they have good skills that the country needs. They also work hard to improve the country’s economy. Are there any critics of the idea of immigrants moving into the US and in what ways do immigrants impact on the US economy? These questions caught my attention because in July of this year, there was delays on the release of the names of successful applicants for the US Green Card. Various reasons were given including computer errors and the like. Similarly, there were complaints from applicants who were concerned about the delays.
In order to answer my questions, I began my research by looking at news sources and later conducted research in scholarly journals and books.
Lastly, I conducted an in-depth interview with an officer in the immigration department by the name Gordon Edwards. All these sources provided me with enough background information about my research questions. I also got to understand my topic much better. Even though I did not get satisfying answers to all my research questions, I was able to narrow my subject for my next assignment which will address solutions to the problems. Read more… | <urn:uuid:143a5e74-6639-4e3c-8f05-e8bdb2ce7327> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://great-essays.com/article/how-to-make-an-exploratory-essay-engaging/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585370506580.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20200402014600-20200402044600-00350.warc.gz | en | 0.954507 | 1,842 | 3.078125 | 3 | The extract provides a comprehensive guide to writing an exploratory essay, covering its definition, structure, and techniques. It encourages critical thinking, analysis, and objectivity, which are essential soft skills. The text also promotes creativity, originality, and determination, contributing to personal and professional development. However, it lacks direct discussion of teamwork, leadership, and intercultural fluency.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 916,381 | 0 |
Planning to grill some meat for a family lunch? We understand the pressure of not wanting to screw up while on the job, which is why we are here to help you! The temperature you grill your meat at is crucial as it determines how well it cooks.
There are generally two types of temperatures you can measure: Dome and Grate. Grills and smokers could come with either type. So, which one is better?
Regardless of whether you’re a seasoned grilled or a beginner,, you must be wondering which one you should choose. Not to worry, we are here to help you with it!
Continue reading the article to understand the differences between dome thermometers and grate thermometers. Before we dive right in, let’s see what exactly these temperatures are.
Table of Contents
What is dome temperature?
Dome temperature is measured by the heat from the upper portion or “dome” of grills and smokers. When the thermometer is in the dome, it is at a safe distance from the cooking grate. It is important to remember that the temperature of the dome can be different from the cooking grate.
What is a grate temperature ?
Grate temperature is measured from the grill, where the cooking takes place. So, it is pretty much the closest you can get to the temperature your food is cooking at. This provides a more accurate reading as it shows the temperature from where the food is.
Dome Temp vs Grate Temp
The main difference between dome temp vs grate temp is that the dome temp is measured from the upper portion or dome of the grill and the grate temp is measured from the grill where the cooking happens. Dome temp and grate temp are both accurate because they’re measured differently. But grate temp being closest to the food, represents the cooking temperature more.
The fundamental difference between these temperatures comes from the location of the two. Dome temp is measured from about an inch or two from dome top. So, the heat is measured after moving up 1 or 2 inches.
Dome temp and grate temp generally have a difference of about 50 degrees F. Evidently, dome temperature shows a lower reading than the grate. This temperature shows a cooler reading because it ends up measuring the temperature of the air space due to its distance from the grate.
Read also the article on Yoder Smoker Troubleshooting
Dome temp shouldn’t be your first choice when you’re cooking on your grill. Generally, recipes show the exact temperature of what food should be when it is being cooked. Dome temperatures tend to show a reading that is either higher or lower than the actual one. Therefore, cooking with the dome temperature can be kind of a hassle while smoking some meat.
Factors That Affect The Dome Temperature Reading
Dome temperatures are generally lower than grate temperatures. Being away from the actual grill, it could show less accurate temperatures. Here are some reasons that could affect the readings of dome temperatures:
- Distance: A dome thermometer is usually an inch or two over the grill. So, while it still measured the heat from the grill, there is a considerable difference due to the air space.
- Deflector pan: Sometimes, deflector plates or pans are used too. This runs a risk of dome temperatures having higher readings than the actual.
- Time the dome stays closed: The longer the dome stays closed, the better the chances of you getting a better reading are. Opening the dome sometimes lets out some heat, affecting the reading of the dome temperatures further.
- Air currents: Air currents can cause a significant change in the temperature when measured from the dome. There could be a temperature difference of up to 50 degrees.
Now, about the grate temp. Temperatures on the grill show the accurate or closest to accurate readings of how hot your food is.
Measuring the heat directly from the grill will help you follow recipes better, ultimately resulting in a better end result. It is easier to correlate the temperatures with the direction in the recipe.
The best meats are cooked low and slow. For this, grate temp is the way to go. If you choose to work with dome temp, chances are you’ll end up with a reading that’s birthed than the correct one.
This will result in your meat being overdone on the outside and relatively raw on the inside. Another plus of using grate temp helps you understand how much longer your food will require to cook.
Read also the article on Lodge Sportsman Grill Vs Weber Charcoal Grill
If you still wish to use the dome temp, here’s a way you can get a more accurate reading: avoid using a deflector pan.
Deflector plates or pans sometimes increase the heat around the thermometer, resulting in a higher reading.
So, try to reduce using heat deflectors for a reading that’s closer to the actual temperature.
Cooking at the right temperature is key to getting most dishes right. By measuring the accurate readings, you will minimize the risk of having your food either overcooked or underdone. If you are a beginner to smoking, it is essential to know the difference between dome temp and grate temp, and also how much the two vary by.
Read also the article on Cajun Fryer 4 Gallon Vs 6 Gallon
How accurate either of these temperatures are also based on the kind of food you’re cooking. It tells you how when some of your dishes cook. So, it is crucial to know the difference between the two to make sure you have the right readings. This is going to majorly influence the way your meat is going to turn out.
We hope this article helped you understand the importance of knowing how each temperature reads and how it can affect your cooking. Happy Grilling! | <urn:uuid:9f5334c8-9674-44e4-81cf-924da2f36192> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://kitchenpicker.com/dome-temp-vs-grate-temp/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296948932.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20230329023546-20230329053546-00046.warc.gz | en | 0.93799 | 1,195 | 3.09375 | 3 | The extract lacks discussion of soft skills, focusing solely on technical information about grilling temperatures. It provides basic explanations and practical tips, but does not address communication, teamwork, or problem-solving scenarios. The content is informative but limited in its application to soft skills development.
Educational score: 1 | 1 | 0 | 423,332 | 0 |
There is a lot of talk about the skills needed for working in Statistics/Data Science, with the discussion often focusing on theoretical understanding, programming languages, exploratory data analysis, and visualization. There are many good blog posts dealing with how you get data, process it with your favorite language and then creating some good-looking plots. However, in my opinion, one important skill is curiosity; more specifically being data curious.
Often times being data curious doesn’t require statistics or coding, but just searching for and looking at graphs. A quick example comes from Mike Dickinson’s tweet: “This is extraordinary: within a decade, NZers basically stopped eating lamb. 160 years of tradition scrapped almost overnight.”
After reading the news article, many people came up with good potential explanations: Have the relative prices changed? Do we have different demographics with not so much appetite for lamb? etc.
Few comments questioned the data until Peter Ellis voiced exactly what was nagging me:
Do the two data points make sense? In this data-abundant world, it didn’t take long to find the time series from which the points came from in this handy OECD page.
A quick look shows that the series contains both quoted consumption figures, showing the talked-about 10-year decline. Even more surprisingly, one can see that practically most of the decline occurred from 2008 to 2009 (from 17.7 to 4.9 kg/person), which is a bizarre drop for a single year. A single person may have large differences in consumption from one year to the next; however, over a whole country those deviations tend to be averaged out. This highlights another issue with the time series: it wiggles like crazy.
When exploring data is useful to have some sort of benchmark to see if other things are also changing at the same time. I chose our neighbor Australia—with a not so different diet, similar part of the world—as my benchmark. The Australian time series doesn’t show a change like NZ. Besides using the benchmark for the same product, we can also compare what’s going on with other meats. For example, beef and veal, pork and poultry.
All the series are smoother and show similar trends in Australia and New Zealand, which makes the lamb saga increasingly look like a mistake. We can now move from trying to explain social changes that are driving the change between two numbers, to being highly suspicious about the numbers under discussion!
So where could be the problem coming from? Consumption per capita requires i) total domestic consumption of sheep meat and ii) population of the country. We are pretty sure we have good data for population, courtesy of Statistics New Zealand. How would one go about estimating domestic consumption of sheep meat? Probably one would:
- Get the size of the New Zealand sheep flock. We can get sheep numbers from Statistics NZ Agricultural Production Statistics. Livestock numbers are a national indicator, which tend to have high accuracy.
- Get an idea of the proportion of the flock that’s exported, which we know is pretty substantial. I don’t know how good these numbers are, but Beef & Lamb NZ gives us an idea of how many sheep are slaughtered for export. This number, which hovers around 20 million a year seems quite consistent. We have to remember that not the whole population is slaughtered every year, as we have to replace the flock.
- The difference between flock size – (sheep for export + replacement sheep) should be the number of sheep for domestic consumption.
- We need a conversion factor between number of sheep and kg of meat produced, so we can calculate meat consumption/capita.
I would assume that the sheep-meat conversion factor will show little fluctuation from year to year, so perhaps the likely culprit is the penultimate point, estimating the number of sheep for domestic consumption. One thing that grabs my attention is that while the flock is getting smaller, the number of sheep for exports stays around the same, which should mean fewer sheep available for the domestic market, giving credibility to the lower lamb consumption trend.
I don’t know if this the actual explanation for the “lamb consumption crash”. If I had more time I could chase some of the domestic consumption numbers, even call the Beef & Lamb people. But this should be enough to get you started with an example on how to question the news using real data. I’m sure you reader can come up with better ways of looking at this and other stories. | <urn:uuid:2f150dfe-37fd-42ab-a2e8-bb8f7a69e002> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://luis.apiolaza.net/2018/02/06/being-data-curious/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224644913.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20230529205037-20230529235037-00478.warc.gz | en | 0.945163 | 931 | 2.625 | 3 | The extract earns a high score for its comprehensive discussion of soft skills, particularly critical thinking, problem-solving, and data analysis. It presents a realistic scenario that integrates emotional intelligence, leadership challenges, and complex problem-solving opportunities, making it a valuable resource for professional development.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 969,496 | 1 |
In an era of global environmental problems and complicated international treaties designed to address them, many lawyers need to understand not just the laws in their own countries but also those that govern resources shared by several nations or the entire planet. The environmental law program of the University of Florida College of Law and the law school of the University of Costa Rica have designed a course that offers students a chance to learn about the legal systems in other countries and the sometimes Byzantine regulations that control rights to land, air, and water claimed by multiple nations.
During the summer of 2001, the program brought 26 students and recent law school graduates from the United States and Latin America to Costa Rica for classroom and field courses in several transnational legal issues. They tackled transboundary water rights — a familiar issue in Costa Rica, which continually grapples with Nicaragua over rights to the San Juan River that divides the two countries; joint watershed management, as deforestation in one country can degrade the drinking water in another; and sea turtle protection, particularly important in Central America, where the endangered reptile swims the seas and nests on the shores of several nations. Ten of the participants — from the United States, Costa Rica, Mexico, Belize, Colombia, and Brazil also participated in the program’s Conservation Clinic, led by professor Thomas Ankersen. Their goal was to provide free technical assistance to governments and conservation groups by studying and preparing briefs and research that will advance actual cases and policy initiatives in the region.
According to Ankersen, the caseload involved the young lawyers and students in environmental controversies, parks policy, and the murky intersection of environmental and human-rights law with politics and drug trafficking. Working with the Costa Rican nonprofit group, Justice for Nature, they submitted comments to an environmental impact statement filed by the Houston-based Harken Energy, which plans to drill for oil off the Caribbean coast. The coastal waters are rich in mangroves, coral reefs, sea turtles, manatees, dolphins, and some 130 species of tropical fish. Conservation Clinic participants also worked with the conservation group, Programme for Belize, to prepare an application to have the Río Bravo area of Belize, some 152,000 mostly-forested acres, declared a Biosphere Reserve. This United Nations designation would give the Río Bravo, home to jaguars and many other rare species, globally recognized protection against logging and development.
Another clinic assignment was to help FUNDEPUBLICO, a nonprofit group in Colombia, do research for a possible petition to the InterAmerican Court on Human Rights protesting Plan Colombia, a United States-backed campaign to destroy Colombia’s coca crops via aerial spraying of herbicides. The research outlines Plan Colombia’s violations of environmental laws, since the herbicides kill flora and fauna and poison rivers and streams, and of human-rights laws, as residents whose crops, homes, drinking water, and livestock are sprayed were never given an opportunity to comment on an activity that clearly is affecting their well-being. The 1999 Salvador Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights, which was ratified by Colombia, establishes a human right to a healthy environment, a right also guaranteed by the Colombian constitution.
Nicole Kibert attended the law schools’ program and is now in her final year at law school at the University of Florida. Her interest in international law stems, she said, from her experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Macedonia. “I saw how the former Soviet Union countries are trying to figure out how to deal with each other as different nations, and how to regulate their natural resources.” She was impressed with how well Costa Rica has integrated international principles into domestic environmental law. For example, the small Central American nation grants citizens a constitutional right to a clean environment. “That’s something we would love to see throughout the United States,” she noted.
Kibert discovered, however, that Costa Rica hasn’t done the best job in enforcing its excellent laws. She saw that first-hand in Tortuguero, on the northern Caribbean coast. “I had read all the laws related to sea-turtle protection in Costa Rica,” she explained. “Then in Tortuguero I heard about how sea turtles are caught and butchered. So on-the-ground is a lot different from on-paper.” At least, she added, the laws are in place. “The country just needs the funds to enforce them.”
Giovan Reyes, from Guadalajara, Mexico, is just concluding his legal training. He said the Conservation Clinic had given him a chance to compare environmental laws in Mexico with those in the United States and Costa Rica. “This has really opened my eyes to the reality in Mexico,” he said. “Although we think we are doing well in terms of environmental protection, we have much to learn. Many modern legal instruments exist that we must apply. But it’s not easy applying international concepts at the local level.”
While he was impressed by the Costa Rican government’s interest in Environmental laws, Reyes points out that there are so many regulations that “they could cause a great deal of bureaucracy and make decision-making difficult.” He and the other participants from Latin America attended the Conservation Clinic thanks to grants from the MacArthur Foundation.
University of Florida law professor Richard Hamann, one of the program’s instructors, hoped the U.S. participants can bring home an increased level of insight into how other countries and cultures practice law. The experience, he said, would benefit anyone planning to work with foreign investors in the United States or for companies working abroad. “You would need to know who can go to court, what rights citizens have, and what kind of resolution they can get to particular problems,” he explained. “Different countries deal with environmental issues in very different ways.”
In the final days of the program, students gathered in a University of Costa Rica classroom for a moot court. Ankersen noted that the exercise helped them prepare for an international competition to be held in Tampa later this year. Kibert and Reyes were among those arguing before the “Intergalactic Deforestation Bank,” which Ankersen described as a “multilateral lending institution whose motto is: “Log the Earth First; Then We’ll Do the Rest of the Planets.” Among the issues argued was whether or not the Salsa Negra oil company, based in the mythical country of Guaterica and operating with a $25 million bank loan, had the right to expand their activities in the territory of an ethnic group known as the Chicchones.
The atmosphere was decidedly casual, bordering on the slapstick as evidenced by a hearing panel comprised of Hamann, as the Honorable Gray Eminence, and two guest attorneys posing as Princess Leah and Queen Rama. Nonetheless, the law students argued with intelligence and more than a touch of competitiveness. The case, the country, the oil company, and the indigenous group might have been make-believe, but there was enough reality resonating in the issues to cause them to plead their case with passion and eloquence, in spite of the aluminum foil antennae sprouting from Hamann’s head.
After the panel’s momentous decision to further study the case, Reyes mused about his future. His dream is to be an advisor of international environmental regulations for all of Latin America, a particularly important responsibility, he thought, if the Americas are going to integrate economically. “We will have to be extremely careful about exploiting our natural resources in the region,” he said, “and about meeting the needs of all the people, including the indigenous.”
University of Florida Conservation Clinic
Frederic G. Levin College of Law
University of Florida
230 Bruton Geer Hall
PO Box 117629
Gainesville, FL USA 32911-7629
Dr. Rafael Gonzalez
professor, Facultad de Derecho
Universidad de Costa Rica
Read more about this project in the Eco-Index. | <urn:uuid:c7b3b18e-641b-4446-b189-f26f6096ff1d> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | https://ecoindex.wordpress.com/2001/09/01/environmental-law-for-a-small-planet-first-teach-tomorrows-attorneys/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128321938.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20170627221726-20170628001726-00059.warc.gz | en | 0.954996 | 1,683 | 3.171875 | 3 | The extract scores high due to its comprehensive coverage of soft skills, including teamwork, cultural awareness, and problem-solving. It features realistic scenarios that integrate emotional intelligence, leadership challenges, and critical thinking opportunities, such as the Conservation Clinic and moot court exercises. The program's focus on practical applications, intercultural fluency, and technological adaptation also contributes to its high score.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 271,452 | 1 |
- Classroom Management Tutorial
- Classroom Mngmt - Home
- Classroom Mngmt - Introduction
- Levels of Classrooms
- Behavioral Problems
- Non-Behavioral Factors
- Tackling Behavioral Problems
- Creating Positive Learning Environment
- Escalating a Problem
- Identifying Strengths & Weakness
- Kaizen Techniques
- Judge Your Progress
- Classroom Management Resources
- Classroom Mngmt - Quick Guide
- Classroom Mngmt - Resources
- Classroom Mngmt - Discussion
- Selected Reading
- UPSC IAS Exams Notes
- Developer's Best Practices
- Questions and Answers
- Effective Resume Writing
- HR Interview Questions
- Computer Glossary
- Who is Who
It’s not only the students’ behavior that affects the class. Other non-behavioral issues can affect the class too, which you need to control immediately. Let us discuss some of these in detail here.
In a class, some amount of noise like sharpening of pencils, zipping and unzipping of bags, notebooks or books falling down, scraping of chairs and desks, etc. is normal. However, you must take care that the collective noise doesn’t reach a level high enough to distract you as well as students. You need to remember that the collective noise could be a fun idea for the students to irritate you. So you need to nip any such effort in the budding phase.
A very effective way of dealing with collective noise by the class, intentional or otherwise, is taking a pause. If you are speaking to them, go silent. Even if you are in the middle of a sentence. If you are writing on the board, stop writing. And fix the class with a stare. The strictest one you can manage!!
The change in rhythm will snap the students out of whatever they are doing and slowly you will have the attention of the whole class. At that point of time, ask them to maintain silence if they want any teaching to continue. And then carry on as if nothing happened. Students will concentrate more than they were before your strategic pause operation. And you can pat your back silently when you finish the class without a hitch, with a few minutes to spare.
It’s not only airplanes that get hijacked. When the class does not proceed according to your plan but in response to activities playing out there, it is called class hijack. Your class can get unwittingly hijacked by overenthusiastic students if you are not alert and lose valuable lesson time. This can happen due to academic or non-academic reasons like −
Discussion on topic being taught moves in a new and unrelated territory
You get carried away in responding to students’ doubts
Resolving a dispute between students takes lots of time
Some students repeatedly disturb the class and you are unable to control them quickly
To prevent class hijack you must always be aware of what is going on in the class and how it is eating away into teaching time. Don’t lose sight of the learning objectives of the session and strive not to miss them. Here are some steps you can take to do that −
Reschedule discussions − Postpone any extra discussions to after you have finished teaching. But remember to do that so students believe they will get their share of time.
Take quick action − Nip any disputes and disturbing activities by the students in the bud by taking immediate action. Don’t wait for it to die down. If there is someone you can refer it to, like the discipline in-charge or class teacher, do that.
Keep students in loop − Explain to the students they have a syllabus to cover. You will be surprised by their willingness to cooperate when they are made responsible for their actions. You will find students asking each other not to disturb the class.
Excitement Due to Other Activities
Children and young adults are excitable by nature. When you enter a class you may be surprised to find them in a hyperactive state due to any of these reasons −
A stimulating discussion had occurred in the previous session.
They have come back from games or other co-curricular activities.
They are anticipating an interesting activity like field trip, workshop, or live discussion after your class.
Seeing the children in such an exhilarated state of mind is always pleasurable but you have teaching to do. Here are some steps you can take to bring the class back to normalcy −
Give time out − Ask the students to calm down and drink water. Remind them that they need to proceed with the next class.
Have a short discussion − You can have a short discussion with the students to help them get over their excitement. Just take care to maintain order in the class and ensure they speak one by one, or you will have a chaos at your hands.
Talk to other teachers − If you find the students in hyperactive state regularly for a certain class, you can talk to the teacher of the previous session. You might be surprised to find they are in habit of leaving the students with a thoughtprovoking question to exercise their minds further. Request them not to do that frequently as it hampers your teaching. | <urn:uuid:153a5849-f546-4ae8-844c-b5eb1a90eb00> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://www.tutorialspoint.com/classroom_management/classroom_management_non_behavioral_factors.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296948932.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20230329023546-20230329053546-00785.warc.gz | en | 0.950891 | 1,093 | 2.828125 | 3 | The extract provides practical guidance on classroom management, addressing behavioral and non-behavioral issues, and offers strategies for maintaining a positive learning environment. It covers topics such as collective noise, class hijack, and student excitement, providing actionable steps for teachers to manage these situations. The content demonstrates a good understanding of soft skills like communication, leadership, and problem-solving, with realistic scenarios and emotional intelligence.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 280,647 | 1 |
Five basic principles, and how to apply themChange management is a basic skill in which most leaders and managers need to be competent. There are very few working working environments where change management is not important.
This article takes a look at the basic principles of change management, and provides some tips on how those principles can be applied.
When leaders or managers are planning to manage change, there are five key principles that need to be kept in mind:
- Different people react differently to change
- Everyone has fundamental needs that have to be met
- Change often involves a loss, and people go through the "loss curve"
- Expectations need to be managed realistically
- Fears have to be dealt with
- Give people information - be open and honest about the facts, but don't give overoptimistic speculation. Ie meet their OPENNESS needs, but in a way that does not set UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS.
- For large groups, produce a communication strategy that ensures information is disseminated efficiently and comprehensively to everyone (don't let the grapevine take over). Eg: tell everyone at the same time. However, follow this up with individual interviews to produce a personal strategy for dealing with the change. This helps to recognise and deal appropriately with the INDIVIDUAL REACTION to change.
- Give people choices to make, and be honest about the possible consequences of those choices. Ie meet their CONTROL and INCLUSION needs
- Give people time, to express their views, and support their decision making, providing coaching, counselling or information as appropriate, to help them through the LOSS CURVE
- Where the change involves a loss, identify what will or might replace that loss - loss is easier to cope with if there is something to replace it. This will help assuage potential FEARS.
- Where it is possible to do so, give individuals opportunity to express their concerns and provide reassurances - also to help assuage potential FEARS.
- Keep observing good management practice, such as making time for informal discussion and feedback (even though the pressure might seem that it is reasonable to let such things slip - during difficult change such practices are even more important).
On the second page of this article, you can read an expanded description of each of the five principles. | <urn:uuid:e808b010-e7d9-43ce-965f-8c076e03aa8f> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/changemanagement.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368707187122/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516122627-00054-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95548 | 477 | 2.859375 | 3 | The extract provides a foundational understanding of change management, covering basic principles and practical tips for application. It discusses emotional intelligence, leadership, and communication, with some consideration for individual reactions and needs. However, the scenarios and solutions presented are relatively straightforward, lacking complex problem-solving opportunities and nuanced interaction.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 265,052 | 0 |
Apple Lecture | Applied Linguistics and the Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages | Arts and HumanitiesSkip to content Skip to main navigation
The purpose of the APPLE (APPlied Linguistics and Language Education) Lecture Series is to engender lively professional dialogue in the ELT community. Invited speakers will address issues of cutting-edge research, innovative practice, or critical policy. The series, funded by an endowment from Language Innovations, Inc. (LINC), celebrates LINC's spirit and legacy. LINC was a non-profit group that published materials and fostered innovations among ESL practitioners in the area.
Below you will find information about previous Apple Lectures in reverse chronological order.
2012 Leo van Lier
Action-Based Teaching and Learning: An Ecological Perspective
Action-Based Teaching and Learning refers to an approach that puts the agency (or ability to act) of the learner at the center of attention. Language is not seen as an object (a set of grammar rules, vocabulary), but as a form of human action. Moreover, the processes of language learning involve the mind, body, emotions, and all the senses. In this presentation, content-based, task-based and project-based learning are all construed as approaches that put the learner's agency at the center. In addition, form-focused or grammar teaching can also be conducted in an action-based manner, in which linguistic action is future-oriented and not past-oriented, and success-driven rather than correctness-driven. Examples of classroom tasks illustrating an action-based approach will be given.
2011 Thomas Cobb
How the Language Teachers of the World Built a Data-Driven Web-Based Learning Tool
Every routine on the Lextutor website started life as a reverse-engineering of the language software used in a research study, but then developed in line with its many users' suggestions, for research or teaching purposes or both. This presentation will trace the evolution of some of Lextutor's most heavily used routines, from the origins of each in a research paper to its modification for many unexpected purposes. Concordancing, Vocabprofiling, Reaction Time research, and Cloze passage building are the main software stories. Behind the stories, the presentation will question the supposed gap between research and practice in applied linguistics.
2010 Antony John Kunnan
Language Assessment for Immigration and Citizenship
This talk will address language assessment for immigration and citizenship. Although language assessments were used for immigration in Australia (the infamous dictation test in early 20th century) and in the U.S. for naturalization of citizenship from 1952 (first as a statutory requirement and then as a standardized test in the 1990s), many countries today require the taking of tests for immigration (for example, the Netherlands) and citizenship (for example, the U.K.). In all these requirements and tests, the mandatory part is assessment of language ability in the dominant language of the country; other areas that are tested include history and government, knowledge of society or practical living. Several recent concerns have been raised: (1) the issue of public monolingualism as the norm along with the degradation of the value of bilingualism, multilingualism and individual language rights (May, 2005; Kymlicka, 1995); (2) the varying levels of mastery expected and the type of language ability expected in different countries (Shohamy and McNamara, 2009); and (3) the meaningfulness of the requirements in terms of the requirements' purpose of social cohesion and civic nationalism in the case of the U.S. Naturalization Test (Kunnan, 2009). This situation raises some fundamental questions: What is the purpose of the language requirement for citizenship? Is the purpose an idealistic one like social cohesion or civic integration, or is the purpose more pragmatic such as functional ability in a country's dominant language? Or is the test working as an obstacle rather than something an applicant will aspire to? No easy answers are available as immigration history, policy and politics and public language policy and testing are intertwined.
TESOL AL/TIMES Article
On February 12, 2010, Anthony Kunnan visited Teachers College and gave two presentations.
In the first presentation, attended by students in the Applied Linguistics and TESOL pro-grams, Dr. Kunnan talked about evaluating a test by building an evaluation argument.
For the second presentation, which was open to the public, Dr. Kunnan discussed language assessment in the context of tests for citizenship and immigration.
Dr. Kunnan began by picking apart commonly held assumptions about language, its relation-ship to the nation-state, and its relationship to identity. From that perspective, he critically looked at tests required for immigration and citizenship in a wide range of countries. The picture that Dr. Kunnan ultimately painted is one of a world in which testing requirements for citizenship vary wildly from one country to another. For instance, the US and Korea require language tests. Canada has no such requirement, but only offers civ-ics exams for citizenship in French or English. Belgium has no language test, but requires language ability in German, Dutch, or French.
Dr. Kunnan, in his talk, projected an uneasiness about testing for citizenship and naturalization. “What is the impact or the consequences of language requirements?” he asked. Do they really encourage applicants to take language courses? Are these requirements ultimately beneficial for society?
With the likelihood of in-creasing use of tests for immigration and citizenship, he ended his lecture with a call to those in assessment and applied linguistics to conduct research on tests for immigration and citizenship. He also asked researchers to question unlawful and discriminatory practices.
2009 Eli Hinkel
TESOL/AL Times Newsletter Article
Interview in TC Working Papers in Applied Linguistics, Vol 9, No 1 (2009)
TESOL/AL Times Article
In the tradition of a well-intentioned, Socratic gadfly, Professor Eli Hinkel goaded her audience with the verve of a seasoned and mirthful skeptic. Using a combination of deadpan stops and jabbing questions, Hinkel spent the duration of the 2009 Apple Lecture poking at the collective assumptions of TESOL and applied linguistics community attendees. “A great deal of teaching ESL is faith-based. Nobody knows anything. We all have our particular allegiances. Ladies and gentleman, we can argue until the cows come home,” Hinkel claimed.
More than a few earnest language researchers in the room were caught squirming in their seats when Hinkel summarily declared, “Much of the research is faith-based. If you are looking for it and you are conducting an empirical study, you will probably find it. If you are not looking for it, you will not find it.”
So, does this mean grad students should drop all the dissertations that are in the works? Of course not, and this was clearly not Hinkel’s point. Hinkel takes a practical approach to second language teaching that eschews ideology and encourages finding the instructional method most appropriate for the learning context. In a word, methodologies and research should not blind instructors to the realities of the instructional situation.
In her post-lecture discussion, Hinkel encouraged graduates of the TESOL and AL programs at Teachers College not to let their education and beliefs get in the way of their teaching.
“There is a certain element of superiority that a lot of Americans bring with them when they teach in an EFL setting…For those of you who are planning to go overseas to teach with your newly minted degrees, please be flexible,” implored Dr. Hinkel. Hinkel’s keynote lecture, titled Integrated and Separated Skills in Language Teaching: A Broad View of Current Trends, explored the various merits and disadvantages of teaching language skills in integrated and separated manners. According to Hinkel, both approaches have their merits and should be considered based on the learning goals of the target population. Although she admitted that a separated skills approach, which entails teaching the four language skills independently, has become as passé as yesterday’s bread in the U.S., she asserted that there remains a time and a place for such an approach. In large classroom settings, such as in China and Japan, local teachers of English often lack the sociolinguistic expertise and management ability to teach all the skills at once. “In most teaching contexts abroad, using integrated instruction would create a work burden that is not manageable in most situations,” explained Hinkel.
Hinkel mentioned that while a communicative and integrated approach to teaching English may suit the needs of an English Language learner studying in the natural, discourse-specific setting of an English-speaking country, this approach may not at all suit the needs of learners studying in non-English-speaking countries. For instance, in school systems that have the burden of meeting standardized performance requirements in the form of standardized testing, the thoroughness afforded by the separable skills approach can serve the most immediate needs of the students.
“In the countries where exams drive the world of language teaching, skills are only taught tothe extent that they are needed for the test,” explained Hinkel.
According to Hinkel, the separable-skills approach holds much greater sway outside the frontiers of the U.S. because the approach is easier for less proficient teachers to manage and it allows teachers to instruct particular skills with a depth of focus that is not possible with a more integrated, conversational approach.
Hinkel argued for a pragmatic approach to language instruction that keeps in view the institutional and situational constraints that generally do more to determine the focus and method of instruction than any particular research or pedagogical philosophy. As she outlined her understanding of the challenges facing researchers and educators, Hinkel exuded the perspicacity and reserve of a tweed-clad savant who has seen pedagogical trends come and go.
With a booming head of floating orange hair and a vaudevillian style that reflected the wit and understated wisdom of a tenured cross between Woody Allen and Harpo Marx, Professor Hinkel used her pitch-perfect delivery and linguistic tomfoolery to drive home her point.
“In other words,” summarized Hinkel, “your language learning objective can, will, should, could,might, possibly, probably, and perhaps will determine the way in which your language learningtakes place.”
2008 Bill VanPatten
Processing Instruction, Meaning-based Output Instruction, and Dictogloss: A Comparative Study (and Some Sundry Observations)
Interview in TC Working Papers in Applied Linguistics, Vol 8, No 1 (2008)
TESOL/AL Times Newsletter Article
In Dr. Han’s introduction to the afternoon’s second lecture, she asked the question, “Is Professor VanPatten real or fictitious?” In light of his numerous accomplishments and accolades, he seems more myth than man. However, he is real, and he is hilarious. The 90+ students, professors, and associates who attended “Processing Instruction, Meaning-based Output Instruction, and Dictogloss: A Comparative Study (and Some Sundry Observations)” got to enjoy more of his humor, but also gained a lot of interesting information.
His thorough discussion of the literature that prompted his studies, others’ attempts at replicating his original processing instruction (PI) study (VanPatten & Cadierno, 1993) and his own current research was incredibly informative, but also peppered with jokes that both gave my brain a rest and made the material less daunting for this SLA novice. The lecture’s main focus was VanPatten’s recent research at Texas Tech University on PI, meaning-based output instruction (MOI) and dictogloss (DG) and how they affect the acquisition of Spanish word order and clitic object pronouns. Very simply put, VanPatten and his colleagues found that students who received PI did better on comprehension and reconstruction tasks than those with MOI and DG, but those students who received MOI did slightly better on production tasks. The control group, who received traditional instruction, underperformed on all tasks.
VanPatten also looked at how explicit instruction affects students’ success with PI, MOI, and DG tasks. It seems that DG is completely dependent on explicit instruction, PI seems to be the least dependent, and, coupled with MOI, it improves students’ ability to interpret input. Given his findings, VanPatten concluded that PI is slightly more advantageous than the other models of instruction. The topic of successfully replicating studies reemerged when VanPatten discussed others who have tried to test the findings of the 1993 study, which determined PI to be more effective than traditional instruction in improving learners’ ability.
In his closing remarks, VanPatten stated that it is possible that each language has “three or four things that can cause ripples throughout the system, causing [learner’s target-language grammar] to restructure” and become more native-like. His studies show that attacking these key features using PI is an effective way of causing these “ripples.” When I heard this, I was very excited. How can we as language teachers use PI in our own classrooms? Sadly, we shouldn’t – VanPatten reported that teachers have had little success implementing PI activities because effective use relies on knowledge of mental processing strategies. He instead suggests that PI tasks be left to computer-lab activities designed by experts while the classroom provides what students can’t get elsewhere.
2006 William Grabe
Success with L2 Reading: From Research to Teaching
Interview in TC Working Papers in Applied Linguistics, Vol 6, No 1 (2006)
TESOL/AL Times Newsletter Article
Over 100 students, alumni, and visiting scholars attended the 2006 APPLE lecture titled, “Success with L2 Reading: From Research to Teaching” by Dr. William Grabe, Professor of English at Northern Arizona University and former President of AAAL (2001-2002). Teachers College Columbia University Working Papers in TESOL & AL had the honor of speaking with Dr. Grabe on the morning of the lecture. The following is an excerpt from the interview. Please visit http://journals.tc-library.org/index.php/tesol/article/view/165/163 for the full interview.
Dr. Grabe, as you describe in your review of L2 writing theory and practice, L2 writing models are derived in part from L1 writing research and theory-building. How might L1 writing theory and practice benefit from greater awareness of the research by their colleagues in L2 writing?
This is an academic and political question. […] Here is one way to think about it: L2 writing people tend to have a burden and the burden is called generative linguistics. How do you talk about language teaching and skills when your training is in generative linguistics? We all have to come to grips with this.
In the first language, they have the same burden—it is not the same source. They have to deal with postmodern critical interpretations. Most people in composition and rhetoric live in English departments and they have to work with their literature colleagues and they have to deal with this theory. That really shapes and defines how they talk about writing and how they think about writing, just like in applied linguistics we have these other backgrounds that may not make us the most effective for teaching writing or helping learning, but that is part of our background, too. So we are coming from really different worlds. […]
In L2 writing, we are more confronted with accountability. If we are not successful with L2 writers they do not get into universities or they really fail. […] Having said that politically, what can L1 writing people learn from L2 people? There is a good 1992 book by Ilona Leki in which she compares resident immigrant type populations coming up through the American school system with international students, and how they are so different in the classroom. That is just the best discussion of why L2 writing is going to be different from L1 writing professionals can learn from L2 writing people.
If you are not talking about the immigrant American population, the 1.5 generation, […] and you think about international students—well, the international students have no problems with seeing vocabulary and grammar instruction as useful and relevant. They really want feedback. They actually ask for more feedback. They tend to read it more carefully, they really see correction as something helpful and useful—after all, it is their second language. If you correct their second language, well, of course, they want it—they are perfectly comfortable and secure in their first language. You are not threatening the first language. But if you are talking about 1.5 generation and immigrant students—a lot of times English is their first language and are you threatening their language. It becomes a very different situation. It means that L1 people really have to understand L2 populations.
2005 Carol A. Chapelle
CALL Pedagogy: Suggestions from Research
Interview in TC Working Papers in Applied Linguistics, Vol 5, No 1 (2005)
TESOL/AL Times Newsletter Article
APPLE 2005 Enhanced input aside, Applied Linguistics and TESOL were very fortunate to be able to coax Dr. Chapelle away from her obligations as Professor in TESOL and Applied Linguistics at Iowa State University and as Second Vice-President of the American Association of Applied Linguistics long enough to deliver the fifth annual APPLE (Applied Linguistics and Language Education) lecture, “CALL Pedagogy: Suggestions from Research”, April 22, 2005. It was attended by over 100 faculty, students, alumni and staff drawn from the greater TC community.
In a follow-up to a more theory-oriented lecture that she had delivered earlier that afternoon, Dr. Chapelle enumerated six ways in which computerassisted language learning (CALL) can facilitate second language acquisition (SLA).
The more modes, the better.
Among the great advantages of CALL is its ability to deliver aural as well as visual stimulation, making for a multimedia, multisensory experience. Hyperlinks in a reading passage, for example, permit access to the pronunciation, definition or graphic representation of words whose meaning may not be clear from their context.
When CALL users are given extra help in the course of task fulfillment, they tend to outperform the control group on post-test; i.e., short-term at least, this extra help would appear to give them the advantage. This was true of learners who were allowed to watch a video accompanied by subtitles in the target language.
Teachers need to help learners help themselves to help.
Having extra help at their fingertips does not necessarily translate to learners knowing enough about CALL to take advantage of it. Rather, it is incumbent on educators to act as the go-between, that learners might be able to make informed decisions about the role it ought to play in their CALL and in their SLA in general.
Explicit is better for learning grammar.
What this suggestion amounts to is drawing learners’ attention to ways in which their grammar diverges from the norm.
Dr. Chapelle gave as an example the Korean equivalent of the verb happen, which leads ELL speakers of that first language to overuse the passive in English. She argued that explicitly drawing those learners’ attention to that error is more efficacious in helping them to overcome it than more implicit means of instruction could be.
Plan for good computermediated communication (CMC) experiences.
In other words, the first assumption of educators should be that chatting online can provide valuable opportunities for learning; the challenge then is for educators to make it so. Dr. Chapelle went on to describe a chatroom task in which learners were found to self-correct. This is in line with the view that, because interaction forces learners to take the needs of their interlocutors into account, it demands a focus on form as a means to promoting the production of comprehensible output.
Think pragmatic competence.
Because CMC expands the classroom to encompass the world, it provides a variety of contexts in which learners can test their grasp of pragmatics. For example, the use distinction between the French pronouns ‘tu’/‘vous’ (translated as the English ‘you’) is difficult for native speakers of English to master. This was a verbal tic of which a certain learner's peers grew progressively less tolerant; with the use of CALL, we are to assume, the form was eventually acquired in a native-like way.
2004 Kathy Doughty
2003 Elaine Tarone
2001 Marianne Celce-Murcia
Communicative Competence and the Role of Grammar
TESOL/AL Times Newsletter Article
The second lecture in the annual APPLE Lecture Series was held on April 6, 2001, with Dr Marianne Celce-Murcia as the featured speaker. She gave a speech entitled “Communicative Competence and the Role of Grammar.”
Co-author (with Diane Larsen Freeman) of The Grammar Book, Dr. Celce-Murcia is considered one of the foremost experts in the structure of English and its relation to the teaching of English as a second language. Dr. Celce-Murcia is interested in researching the application of empirical findings in functional language analysis and applied linguistic theory to the preparation and testing of materials developed to teach a particular problem.
Over one hundred people attended the lecture, and her address was enthusiastically received by the audience. Dr Celce-Murcia also held an afternoon session specifically for students in the programs. This provided a valuable opportunity for students to discuss issues of interest with Dr. Celce-Murcia and draw upon her extensive knowledge.
The purpose of the APPLE Lecture Series (APPlied Linguistics and Language Education) is to engender lively professional dialog in the ELT community. Invited speakers address issues of cutting-edge research, innovative practice, or critical policy. The series is funded by an endowment from Language Innovations, Inc. (LINC).
LINC was a non-profit group that published materials and fostered innovation among ESL practitioners in the region. The Lecture Series celebrates the spirit and legacy of LINC.
2000 Andrew D. Cohen
Developing Language Ability: Can Old Dogs Learn New Tricks?
TESOL/AL Times Article
The TC TESOL/AL Programs inaugurate a new APPLE Lecture Series on Friday, April 14, 2000, with a talk by Andrew D. Cohen, Professor of Applied Linguistics in the English as a Second Language Department at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Professor Cohen’s talk is entitled Developing Language Ability: Can Old Dogs Learn New Tricks? He is currently Director of the federally funded National Language Research Center, housed within the Center of Advanced Research on Second Language Acquisition at UM, and Secretary General of the International Association of Applied Linguistics. He has published books and articles on language teaching, testing, learning strategies, bilingual education, and research methods. | <urn:uuid:0c508526-4f80-4b08-b1a1-2ee21905ad73> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | http://www.tc.columbia.edu/arts-and-humanities/applied-linguistics-tesol/activities/apple-lecture/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500550977093.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20170728183650-20170728203650-00140.warc.gz | en | 0.952926 | 4,830 | 3.09375 | 3 | The extract provides a comprehensive overview of the APPLE Lecture Series, featuring renowned experts in applied linguistics and language education. The lectures cover various topics, including language teaching, learning, and assessment, with a focus on cutting-edge research, innovative practices, and critical policy issues. The series promotes professional dialogue and knowledge sharing among ELT community members.
The content demonstrates a high level of sophistication, with discussions on complex topics like language acquisition, instructional methods, and assessment. The lectures also highlight the importance of cultural awareness, institutional constraints, and technological adaptation in language education.
Given the depth and breadth of the topics covered, the extract scores high on the criteria for soft skills development, particularly in areas like critical thinking, problem-solving, and professional communication.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 481,598 | 1 |
Publication Date:Aug 07, 1997
Source:Harvard Business Press Chapters
English Hardcopy Black & White
Also Available in:
|English Hardcopy Black & White||
Positions of power carry complicated responsibilities. On some occasions, these responsibilities conflict with each other. At other times, they conflict with a manager's personal values. All of these responsibilities, personal and professional, have strong moral claims, but often there is no way for a manager to meet every claim. These are not the ethical issues of right and wrong that we learn about as children. They are conflicts of right versus right. The right-versus-right choices that managers are forced to make become defining moments, and this chapter presents some important questions for thoughtful managers to ask themselves: Do you think you can govern innocently? How do you think about defining moments? How do you resolve them in ways you can live with? This chapter is excerpted from "Defining Moments: When Managers Must Choose between Right and Right."
To describe the troubling, complicated, and serious ethical challenge managers face when forced to choose between right and right.
Business ethics; Decision making; Human behavior; Leadership; Values | <urn:uuid:6ad1d0ef-0ffe-442e-b47f-e6179c178305> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/web/product_detail.seam?R=3011BC-HCB-ENG&conversationId=2339378 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386164965557/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204134925-00067-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924084 | 241 | 2.53125 | 3 | The extract discusses complex ethical dilemmas in leadership, presenting nuanced scenarios that require critical thinking and emotional intelligence. It touches on conflicts between personal and professional values, and the need for thoughtful decision-making. The content integrates soft skills like leadership, problem-solving, and critical thinking, with a focus on real-world complexity.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 544,348 | 1 |
How to Adapt to Online Learning at Home: Tips for Guardians, Educators and Students
Staying focused while trying to take a class from your kitchen or bedroom can be tough and many parents and students have learned this lesson over the course of the pandemic. Without teachers there to keep students on task, television, video games, siblings, pets, food and household chores can easily pull focus, interrupting important online learning sessions and homework. So what can parents and students do to stay on track?
Tips for Parents or Guardians ON ADAPTING TO DISTANCE LEARNING
Set clear expectations. It’s important to have a direct discussion with kids to remind them that although they are home, they aren’t on vacation.
Provide structure and stick to it. Each morning identify what work needs to be done and how you plan to tackle that work as a family, particularly if you have to share devices.
Establish a working space for kids. This space should be where they feel most comfortable completing work. Feeling comfortable can help them perform better,
Don’t allow what wouldn’t be allowed in the classroom. Kids don’t have television and video games while they are learning in the classroom, so those devices shouldn’t be on while they are learning at home.
Give kids breaks. Kids can only focus for so long, so parents should give children breaks from work before moving to another assignment. If they are only able to do 15 minutes of continuous work at a time, that’s OK.
Use positive reinforcement. The television shouldn’t be on while they are completing an assignment, but motivating children by saying they can have an outdoor break or more TV time after work can help them remain on task.
Remember that the school staff is there to help. If you have concerns or challenges, voice them to teachers. And note that for students who might have special needs, social workers, school counselors and other support staff are often still working and available to help.
Rely on your fellow parents as resources. Other families in your neighborhood are learning how to navigate this situation as well and may be able to offer help if you struggle to understand an assignment. | <urn:uuid:49c3e0ab-c61c-468d-8d7e-9226dfa3353e> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://www.ioten.lk/post/how-to-adapt-to-online-learning-at-home-tips-for-guardians-educators-and-students | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296948965.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20230329085436-20230329115436-00471.warc.gz | en | 0.963573 | 462 | 3.234375 | 3 | The extract provides practical tips for adapting to online learning at home, covering basic communication and teamwork concepts. It offers straightforward advice on setting expectations, providing structure, and establishing a working space, but lacks nuanced interaction or complex problem-solving opportunities.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 444,323 | 0 |
‘Climate change mitigation would lead to disaster’–Not really, but this may be lesser of two evils
(Part of the How to Talk to a Global Warming Skeptic guide)
Objection: The kind of drastic actions required to mitigate global warming risk the destruction of the global economy and the deaths of potentially billions of people.
Answer: Is this supposed to mean the theory of anthropogenic global warming must be wrong? You can not come to a rational decision about the reality of a danger by considering how hard it might be to avoid. First things first: understand that the problem is real and present.
Once you acknowledge the necessity of addressing the problem, taking action suddenly become less daunting. There is no point in discussing the best solutions or the cost of those solutions with someone who does not yet acknowledge the problem.
But even if mitigating global warming would be harmful, given that famine, droughts, disease, loss of major coastal cities, and a tremendous mass extinction event are on the table as possible consequences of doing nothing, it may well be we are faced with a choice between the lesser of two evils. I challenge anyone to conclusively demonstrate that such catastrophes as listed above await us if we try to reduce fossil fuel use.
Now, in terms of conservation and a global switch over to alternative fuels, the people who oppose doing this for climate change mitigation are forgetting something rather important. Fossil fuels are a non-renewable resource, and as such we have to make this global economic transformation regardless, whether now or a bit later. Many bright minds inside the industry think we are already at peak oil. So even if it turned out that climate mitigation was unnecessary, we would still be in a better place as a global society by making the coming switch sooner rather than later.
Seems like a win-win situation to me.
More stories in this series:
(Part of the How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic guide) Objection: Despite what the computer models tell us, there is actually no evidence of significant global warming. Answer: Global warming is not an output of computer models; it is …
(Part of the How to Talk to a Global Warming Skeptic guide) Objection: CO2 levels are recorded on top of Mauna Loa … a volcano! No wonder the levels are so high. (image courtesty of Global Warming Art)
(Part of the How to Talk to a Global Warming Skeptic guide) Objection: The apparent rise of global average temperatures is actually an illusion due to the urbanization of land around weather stations, the Urban Heat Island effect.
(Part of the How to Talk to a Global Warming Skeptic guide) Objection: One hundred and some years of global surface temperatures is not long enough to draw any conclusions from or worry about anyway. Answer: The reliable instrumental record …
Get Grist in your inbox | <urn:uuid:ab8040e8-ea5d-4447-9871-c2596d2b1a11> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | http://grist.org/climate-energy/climate-change-mitigation-would-lead-to-disaster/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320685.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20170626064746-20170626084746-00152.warc.gz | en | 0.937961 | 597 | 2.65625 | 3 | The extract earns a score of 4 due to its comprehensive discussion of soft skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and effective communication. It presents complex scenarios, requiring nuanced interaction and strategic thinking, while incorporating cultural awareness and digital literacy. The guide provides practical applications and real-world context, making it a valuable resource for professional development.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 102,146 | 1 |
Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology are proposing a revolutionary approach to prevent the common post-balloon angioplasty problem of restenosis (re-clogging of coronary arteries).
More than 1.2 million angioplasties were performed in the United States in 2003, according to the American Heart Association.
Angioplasty is a minimally invasive procedure, during which a tiny deflated balloon is inserted into clogged arteries and inflated to open blockages. In many cases, a stent - originally mounted on the balloon - is then positioned inside the artery, against the arterial wall. Blockages - caused not by new fatty deposits, but by tissue growth from the walls of the blood vessel - re-occur in more than one-third of patients. Such growths, which doctors relate to as they would a cancerous growth, are most often treated with "anti-proliferative" medications that prevent uncontrolled tissue growth.
Because of the site-specific nature of these growths, the drugs to treat them must be delivered only to the affected tissue. Stent manufacturers currently include such drugs in their products for slow release over a six-month period (during which time the risk for restenosis is highest). Precise control of this release process can be tricky, however, and restenosis still occurs in many patients.
The new, patented technique - developed in the Technion Department of Biomedical Engineering by Professor Noah Lotan, Dr. Sarit Sivan and Professor Uri Dinnar - begins when the patient swallows a "pro-drug" compound. Inactive by itself, this compound can be taken for as long as necessary without side effects. It is activated only when it comes into contact with a specific enzyme attached to the stent by its manufacturer. In effect, the enzyme on the stent then becomes a "pharmaceutical factory" that manufactures an active anti-proliferative drug.
According to lead researcher Lotan, the pro-drug is an amino acid that is a safe and natural component of all proteins. When the risk of restenosis abates, patients could simply stop taking the pro-drug, and the stent would stop manufacturing the drug.
"This approach makes up a very general technological platform that can be applied for different medical problems," said Lotan. "It has potential applications for every drug, known today or invented in the future, and could be useful for medications - including chemotherapy drugs - best administered to one very specific location in the body." | <urn:uuid:bf1f80fc-b93f-4754-85e8-f682a311abe5> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | http://www.medindia.net/news/view_news_main.asp?x=14664 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320863.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20170626184725-20170626204725-00295.warc.gz | en | 0.964501 | 521 | 2.984375 | 3 | The extract lacks discussion of soft skills, focusing on a medical breakthrough and its technical aspects. There's no coverage of communication, teamwork, leadership, or problem-solving scenarios, and no emphasis on cultural awareness, digital literacy, or professional development.
Educational score: 0 | 0 | 0 | 173,724 | 0 |
Compared to past generations and many unfortunate places around the world, most of us live reasonably comfortable lives. However, despite this material abundance, many feel a sense of unease and loneliness. In more recent times, many feel that there is less of a sense of community, that there is not the same close relationships and interdependency between families, neighbours and friends.
Many people are spending less time with family, friends and neighbours but are spending more time working, shopping and commuting. There is still a common belief that the pursuit of status and wealth is the root of happiness and fulfilment. We are encouraged to be more self-centred, and to buy goods and services in ever-greater amounts, but many are unhappy.
A large proportion of the population is prescribed drugs for depression and anxiety. Our rates of suicide are high. Many young people are not flourishing. The youth have new pressures and challenges to deal with and many are not coping. Many older people are living in fear and don’t feel safe in their homes. Far too many of us are alcohol dependant and too many are abusing other drugs.
High levels of cynicism towards politics are common. Many, especially young people, are totally disengaged from local and national politics.
We have a legacy of badly planned suburbs and housing estates. Far too much of our housing is of poor quality. Galway has some areas of poverty where many live in deprivation with poor public health and social support services and facilities.
A large proportion of us are disconnected from nature. A lot of people spend more time engaging with ‘life’ through a screen (TV, internet, mobile phones etc.).
It is clear that we need to strengthen communities to respond to challenges that are coming down the tracks. This section offers some possible solutions.
Education, in all its forms, has a vital role in preparing communities for the potentially difficult changes ahead. Although some moves have been made in the right direction, education is currently falling short in this role.
Teaching about sustainability continues to be a bolt-on at all levels of state education provision, rather than the underlying ethos. Too many of us still don’t fully appreciate the connections between the choices we make about what we buy and the pollution caused by those particular choices. Most young people and older students continue to leave education programmes without a sense of holistic development, without a clear understanding of their role and responsibility in local and global sustainable development, and without the skills required by the emerging, more localised economy.
Almost all education takes place indoors, where the students are sitting down for long periods of time in front of a teacher. Fieldtrips into nature are too few. Most students can identify far more corporate logos or brands than local flowers or trees.
There continues to be a lack of opportunities for collaboration and cooperation for students in our education system. There is excessive competition between students which encourages greater individualism. This is evident at all levels but is most clearly seen in the “points race” for places in third level. Such excessive competition causes great pressure and anxiety in students.
Skills such as the ability to think long term and critically about situations are not taught often enough. We still have a situation where rote learning is widely practiced over other ways of learning.
The current system produces too many specialists who do not always have a good understanding of the bigger picture, of relationships and connections within the whole.
There is still too much emphasis on producing workers for the economy instead of offering a more holistic education that encompasses personal development and good citizenship.
In recent decades, there has been an over-emphasis on academic courses in our formal education system. In doing so, we have neglected the trades and practical skills which we will need in a more localised economy.
The ethos of sustainability needs to be the underlying basis of all educational institutes in terms of what they teach and do. This section offers some possible solutions so that we can make that happen. | <urn:uuid:289544ae-d3fe-4a0b-8fc8-5d9d0d5f7f39> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | https://avisionforgalway2030.wordpress.com/challenges-community-education/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549424239.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20170723022719-20170723042719-00255.warc.gz | en | 0.965241 | 810 | 2.53125 | 3 | The extract discusses societal issues and the need for educational reform to address them. It touches on the importance of community, sustainability, and holistic development, but lacks practical application and nuanced interaction. The text highlights the limitations of the current education system, including excessive competition and a lack of emphasis on critical thinking and collaboration.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 530,608 | 0 |
The Montessori Method recognizes the whole child and thus the classroom environment is structured to support that. The teacher sets the tone and expectations for the atmosphere of the classroom through modeling and expectations.
Early childhood is a time of activity, self expression, and early forays into developing relationships. Through play, daily experiences, stories, demonstrations, discussions, and practice, children begin to learn social problem solving skills and how to identify and regulate emotions. They learn that emotions are natural. They practice strategies for expressing and governing them in healthy ways. Children are encouraged to discuss problems that arise and to create solutions. Regular guidance from the teachers and daily practice help them gain skills and confidence that build a base for lifelong success.
The physical environment is rich in visual and auditory stimulation with varied musical and art equipment, posters, globes, maps, wall hangings, etc. Materials are placed neatly on child-sized shelves and furniture to encourage exploration and use. The children are directed to choose an activity, complete it and replace it before choosing another. Because the children have freedom of choice in activities, in an atmosphere of quiet discipline, mutual respect, and reasonable behavior, a positive self-image emerges. All materials are self-correcting and the teacher intervenes only when necessary to introduce a child to new materials or to direct group activities. Most of the children work individually or in small groups.
The different areas of the Sunnybrook classroom can be divided into the following:
Practical Life: The Practical Life Area is where children learn daily life skills as sweeping, pouring, cutting and serving food, washing tables, and folding napkins. This works with a child’s desire to imitate the activities of daily life around them. These activities also help develop hand and finger coordination and muscle control. Practical life activities are varied, but start with preliminary skills such as rolling a mat, walking around a mat, and setting a chair correctly into place. Other focuses are social graces (using “please”, “thank you”, “excuse me”), care and respect for self (tying shoe laces, hand washing), care and respect for the Montessori community/environment (sweeping the floor, keeping the classroom neat), and life skills.
Sensorial: The Sensorial Area teaches such concepts as longest and shortest, thickest and thinnest etc., using materials such as Red Rods, Broad Stairs, and Cylinder Blocks. The sensorial work assists in the development of mathematics and language-specifically such concepts as base ten, measurement (size,weight, length), mathematical relationships, left to right eye movement, attention span, auditory/visual discrimination, prehension, vocabulary and eye hand coordination. Each piece of equipment has a single focus or “abstraction” -an isolation of a property. These materials are designed to be self-correcting. If the child has done the activity correctly the child can see the completion-if it has not been done correctly he/she will be able to reexamine the materials and determine on his/her own what needs to happen. This develops the child’s sense of accomplishment and confidence.
Mathematics: The Math Area uses concrete experience with appropriate material to foster an abstract concept of mathematics. The math exercises at Sunnybrook are all hands-on experiences. The children explore math concepts including counting and arithmetic (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, 1-20), number representation by graphic symbol, exercises with number associations of symbol with quantity (1-1000), lessons in zero, decimal lessons and basic algebraic functions (binomial, trinomial cubes), counting money to $1.00 and telling time. There is also an emphasis on problem solving.
Language: The Language Area develops literacy skills through the child’s senses – auditory through listening to rhymes, syllables, and individual sounds of words, ; visual through matching pictures, designs, letters, and words; and tactile through using sandpaper letters to foster muscle memory of sounds. The language exercises in the Montessori classroom move from concrete in-the-hand experiences to the abstract. Children have opportunities for conversation, stories, poetry, plays, songs, chants and rhymes. Through the Montessori materials we stress the alphabetic principle, systematic relationships between letters and sounds, linguistic and phonemic awareness, vocabulary development, letter naming, comprehension, and developmental writing (example: scribbling, letters to represent words, invented spelling etc.).
Science, Nature & Culture: Children at Sunnybrook explore geography, biology, botany, and zoology. Nature exploration and outdoor time is an essential aspect of the Sunnybrook curriculum. Natural items regularly visit the classroom for more thorough observation. Through hands on exploration, stories, conversations, and examination of maps, images, books, and music children become acquainted with the diversity of cultures, creatures, land-forms, and habitats of the earth. They are introduced to the characteristics of living and non-living beings and objects. They explore plants, animals, water, air, and begin to recognize the interdependence of living beings. They also begin to develop an understanding of their individuality, their place in the world, and the magnitude of the universe.
Art & Music: The classroom is designed to involve the children in creative expression daily. Art and music are integrated into all areas of the classroom-whether it is listening to complex musical arrangements while working on other projects, or using drawing skills to represent letter sounds. Because of the young nature of the children our emphasis with art is on process, not product. Daily art supplies include watercolors, clay, markers, pastels, paper, scissors and glue. The teacher often introduces a variety of artists through examples of art work or literature. Children also have opportunities to complete theme based art projects. Once a year the Sunnybrook children complete a special project for the art show. In the past children have created wool balls, used recycled materials to create self-portraits, and created pictures from their favorite books. The Montessori classroom focuses on the key elements of music-pitch, rhythm, duration, intensity, tambour, tone, form, style, and historical and cultural contexts. To accomplish these aims the Sunnybrook children sing, play instruments, dance and listen to music under the careful facilitation of the Montessori teacher. | <urn:uuid:a5580275-c39f-402a-acdd-a30e96e95784> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | http://sunnybrookmontessori.org/about-our-school/the-classroom/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250594209.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20200119035851-20200119063851-00103.warc.gz | en | 0.921783 | 1,310 | 4.03125 | 4 | The extract provides a comprehensive overview of the Montessori Method, highlighting its focus on holistic child development, social problem-solving, and emotional intelligence. It showcases various areas of the curriculum, including Practical Life, Sensorial, Mathematics, Language, Science, Nature & Culture, and Art & Music, demonstrating a strong emphasis on hands-on learning, self-directed activity, and collaborative work. The extract promotes critical thinking, creativity, and cultural awareness, earning it a high score.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 322,273 | 1 |
I’ll use this excerpt from Sir Ken Robinson’s Huffington Post article
“In 1970, the U.S. had the highest rates of high school graduation in the world, now it has one of the lowest. According to theOECD, the overall U.S. graduation rate is now around 75 percent, which puts America 23rd out of 28 countries surveyed. In some communities the graduation rate is less than 50 percent. About 7,000 young people ‘drop out’ of the nation’s high schools every day, close to 1.5 million a year. The social and economic costs are enormous.”
What this episode is about and why you should care
Pretty much anywhere you go today you can hear about the issues and challenges with our education system, especially in the United States. Whether it’s our falling test scores, decreasing graduation rates, increased cost of education followed by increased debt, or just the fact that our education system seems outdated – it seems that there is consensus that something needs to change. But can Open Badges be the solution?
An open badge is a representation of a skill or an achievement. It is issued to recognize these skills and achievements which may help with future education and career opportunities. Think of the cub scouts or even a popular video game where you level up and earn badges and experience points for your accomplishments, now imagine something similar being applied to the world of education. Transcripts and your college diploma are representations of your theoretical knowledge. On the other hand, badges are the representations of the skills and experience you gradually learn and develop through time and paint a much better picture of who you are and what you are good at.
To learn more about open badges and why they are increasingly getting popular in educational institutions as well as in corporations, I talked to Jade Forester who is the Global Coordinator for the Badge Alliance.
What you will learn in this episode
- The definition of badges in a learning environment
- The purpose and types of badges in a traditional education setting
- Examples of educational institutions and companies that are using open badges
- The reason why the concept of badges was developed
- What needs to happen for employers to be able to take these badges seriously or look at these badges as a way to evaluate potential employees
- Determine whether open badges is the solution for the future of education and competency-based learning
- Which parts of the world are adopting open badges more than others
- A look of open badges in the future.
Links from the episode: | <urn:uuid:699e99b8-14df-4b42-ab48-24a40632a6cc> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | https://thefutureorganization.com/education-broken-open-badges-jade-forester/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875145538.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20200221203000-20200221233000-00536.warc.gz | en | 0.967844 | 520 | 2.796875 | 3 | The extract discusses the issues with the current education system and introduces Open Badges as a potential solution. It provides a basic overview of Open Badges and their potential benefits, but lacks depth and practical application. The extract touches on communication and teamwork concepts, but does not explore them in a nuanced or complex manner.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 671,653 | 0 |
Every week, Detroit Future Schools (DFS) artist-in-residence Joe Rodriguez-Tanner works with the students at Amelia Earhart in Southwest Detroit, integrating digital media arts into their core content. He works in close partnership with their teacher, Anna Marschalk-Burns (known to the students as Ms. MB) who is committed to fostering in her students the DFS "11 Essential Traits of Habit, Character and Mind."
Allied Media Projects Co-Director Jenny Lee recently sat in during Joe's work in Ms. MB's class and shares her observations here:
Ms. MB and Joe have established a classroom culture in which students co-create knowledge, take responsibility for their own actions and investigate profound questions together. The students are in second grade.
Last week I observed a lesson on curiosity. Curiosity is one of the DFS 11 Essential Traits and it is also one of the class’s five core values. The previous week’s lesson had been about another core value, self-control.
Mr. Joe, as he is known to the students, began the class by asking students to recap what they learned the previous week and to brainstorm what the definition of curiosity was. Students chattered their thoughts in response to these questions until Ms. MB said "I'm noticing a lot of side-talking. You know what to do if you have something to say." She makes the gesture of covering her mouth with one hand while raising the other one. This hand signal is one part of an elaborate system of active listening practices that Ms. MB has built into her classroom. Students helped develop some of the hand signals and regularly use them with each other, effectively distributing classroom management to the students themselves.
A student raises their hand and when Mr. Joe calls on her she says, "sometimes I just have so much curiosity that I don’t have self-control." This moment of metacognition, or "thinking about your thinking," reveals the success of the classroom culture that Ms. MB has created, with the help of Mr. Joe. Second grade students are grappling with the contradiction between curiosity and self-control by analyzing their own behaviors.
This happened again later in the lesson, when two students pulled out a book and started reading together, while a third was trying to convey a point to the whole class. A fourth student intervened to ask why the two had started reading a book, rather than paying attention to their fellow classmate. One of them explained honestly, "he was taking too long to talk and I got bored so I took out my book." The other added, "I was curious about what she was reading, and wanted to read too." Mr. Joe thanked the students for their explanations and used the scenario to return to the point, that self-control and curiosity can sometimes work at odds with each other, even though they are both positive things.
The lesson continued, as Mr. Joe showed clips from a Sesame Street episode about the musical narrative, "Peter and the Wolf," pausing it whenever students saw indicators of curiosity. The episodes features a conversation with an orchestra conductor about how the sounds of different instruments help tell the story. Mr. Joe discussed with the class how different instruments could actually play the parts of different characters in a story. He then asked, "What does curiosity sound like?"
As a college-educated, full-grown adult observer of this classroom, I puzzled over the question, struggling to come up with an answer and trying to imagine how second graders would be able to answer this question. Meanwhile, the students wrote or drew their answers eagerly in their journals. When the time came to share their work, each table of students was tasked with deciding who at their table should present first. They negotiated this for a while, saying things like, "Deven went first last time, so he shouldn’t go first this time" or "Khaliyah hasn’t spoken much today, maybe she should go." Noticeably, the students who had the biggest personalities exercised their leadership by directing these conversations, rather than vying for the chance to go first.
As I walked around to look at the students' work, I was blown away by some of their answers. One student had drawn a picture of a person with their hand raised and exclamation marks coming out of their mouth. He explained to me, "curiosity sounds like 'ooh! ooh! ooh!'." Another student had written in her journal, "curiosity sounds like a student asking their teacher what curiosity means, because they might not know what it means." Another had written, "sometimes curiosity sounds quiet, because you’re thinking."
In the car on the way back to the Allied Media Projects office, Mr. Joe explained that this is all leading up to a project in which the students will create their own audio collage, using sounds to tell stories. The day’s activities had been building their skills towards that project, while seamlessly integrating character-building and core content (in this case, writing was the core content). Every day DFS teachers and artists learn new ways of reaching this sweet-spot, where we begin to redefine the purpose and practice of education. My observation at Earhart offers a small window into this world of transformative education that is emerging in classrooms across the city. | <urn:uuid:83e6db1f-b306-4f3b-871f-0052a8b6cc86> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://alliedmedia.org/news/2012/12/05/dfs-classroom-visit-so-curious-i-can%E2%80%99t-control-myself | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585371826355.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20200408233313-20200409023813-00357.warc.gz | en | 0.97962 | 1,094 | 2.8125 | 3 | The extract demonstrates a comprehensive approach to soft skills development, integrating emotional intelligence, leadership, and critical thinking opportunities. The classroom culture fosters curiosity, self-control, and active listening, with students taking responsibility for their actions and investigating profound questions together. The lesson seamlessly combines character-building, core content, and digital media arts, showcasing a sophisticated approach to education.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 983,741 | 1 |
No saying of Jesus in the gospels is ‘easy.’ Our Savior’s commands to love our enemies, turn the other cheek, and forgive those who wrong us seventy seven times are challenging, to say the least.
But there are some statements of our Lord that are particularly difficult, seemingly defying our ability to fathom them, much less follow them. These have tested the faith and understanding of Christians over the centuries. Here are some of these so-called ‘hard sayings’ of Jesus:
‘Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit’
In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 12 and verse 31, there is a verse that has likely haunted anyone who reads it. Jesus says: Therefore, I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. This is sounds almost scandalous to us because both Scripture and the Church teach that there is no sin that cannot be forgiven. Christian history certainly serves up many examples of seemingly unpardonable sins that were forgiven: Saul converted and became the Apostle Paul after the stoning of St. Stephen. The first anti-pope, St. Hippolytus, was later reconciled to Rome. And the men guilty of the brutal murder of St. Thomas Becket later repented and were given a crusade as penance.
But, in the above verse, Jesus seems to be saying that there is such a thing as an unforgivable sin. What are we to make of us? Doctors of the Church have always understood this verse as referring to impenitence—the absence of sorrow and the resulting refusal to seek forgiveness of sins. This impenitence is blasphemy against the third person of the Trinity because it is through the Holy Spirit that Christ forgives, according to St. Augustine. Such blasphemy could take other forms as well, according to medieval theologians: despair that one’s sins are greater than God’s goodness and mercy, presumption that one has earned forgiveness, persistence in deadly sin, and feigned repentance. The common thread is rejection of God’s forgiveness. In this context, Christ’s saying makes sense: it stands to reason that if one does not ask for forgiveness, one cannot receive it.
While this interpretation may come as a relief to us, it certainly doesn’t leave us off the hook. It should put a kind of renewed holy fear into our hearts as we approach the confessional: Are we truly sorry or are we going through the motions? Do we despair of forgiveness? Or, conversely, do we think we deserve forgiveness?
‘I came to bring a sword’
In John 14:27 Jesus says, Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. But then in Matthew 10:14 we read: Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. So which is it? More disturbingly: In what possible way did Jesus come to bring a sword?
According to St. Jerome, the ‘sword’ was the division between believers and unbelievers: “For in the matter of belief in Christ, the whole world was divided against itself; each house had its believers and its unbelievers; and therefore was this holy war sent, that an unholy peace might be broken through.” Likewise, for St. Hilary, the sword symbolizes the authority of the gospel truth: “Mystically, a sword is the sharpest of all weapons, and thence it is the emblem of the right of authority, the impartiality of justice, the correction of offenders. The word of God, we may remember, is likened to a sword … so here the sword that is sent upon the earth is His preaching poured into the heart of man.”
The peace of Jesus, then, is not a peace that seeks to avoid conflict in order to please others, but a peace that rests in the truth, even if that should prove divisive. As Aquinas wrote in his commentary on Matthew: “So it must be said that there are two kinds of peace, namely, good and bad.” (This also explains what Jesus next says in the chapter—that He came to pit sons against their fathers and daughters against their mothers.)
‘Let the dead bury their own dead’
In Matthew 8:21, an unnamed disciple says he wants to follow Jesus but first asks leave to go bury his father. Jesus responds: Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead. This seems unduly harsh—to be sure, we must forsake all worldly attachments in following Christ, but did Jesus really want this would-be disciple to leave his father unburied? John Chrysostom explains: “This saying does not condemn natural affection to our parents, but shows that nothing ought to be more binding on us than the business of heaven; that to this we ought to apply ourselves with all our endeavors, and not to be slack, however necessary or urgent are the things that draw us aside. For what could be more necessary than to bury a father?” The radicalism of this saying is reinforced by the fact that the disciple remained with Jesus, according to Chrysostom: our calling to follow Christ is indeed more urgent than anything else in this world.
‘Gouge out your eye’
If skipping a parental burial is a steep price for discipleship, what Jesus says in Matthew 5:29 seems to push this ethos to masochistic extremes: If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. In the next verse, Jesus says to do the same with your ‘right hand.’ Church Fathers have understood both the eye and the hand to be metaphors. For St. Augustine they symbolize contemplation and action. Another sees them as intention and desire. Either way, the Fathers take this verse to be a call to amputate sinful desires from our souls, a painful process, at least spiritually, if not physically. As if that wasn’t hard enough—just ask a former addict or alcoholic—we also are called to cut ourselves off from the outward circumstances that lead to sin. As Haydock’s Catholic Bible Commentary puts it: “Whatever is an immediate occasion of sin, however near or dear it may be, must be abandoned … though it prove as dear to us, or as necessary as a hand, or an eye, and without delay or demur.”
‘Renounce all your possessions’
We have all heard the story of the rich man who asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus tells him to obey the Ten Commandments, which the rich man says he has done. Jesus then replies: There is still one thing left for you: sell all that you have and distribute it to the poor, and you will have a treasure in heaven. This story underscores the radicalism of the gospel message when it comes to worldly things. Still, many of us probably think the story doesn’t apply to those of us who don’t own yachts and summer in the Hamptons. But then we run into this verse in Luke 14, where Jesus says: In the same way, everyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple. This is troubling to us—not only because of the call to renounce everything, but the statement that it’s a necessary condition to follow Jesus.
Venerable Bede offers this clarification: “But there is a difference between renouncing all things and leaving all things. For it is the way of few perfect men to leave all things, that is, to cast behind them the cares of the world, but it is the part of all the faithful to renounce all things, that is, so to hold the things of the world as by them not to be held in the world.” This clarification sharpens the challenge posed to us: Have we truly renounced all our possessions? In a sense, this is more difficult that merely ‘leaving’ all our possessions behind. The word renunciation it suggests an act of lasting consequence. We think of the person who ‘renounces’ his citizenship or the monarch who ‘renounces’ his throne—those are things you don’t go back on.
‘Eat My flesh and drink My blood’
The only place, at least in the Douay-Rheims Bible, where one of Jesus’ sayings is described as ‘hard’ is in John 6, where Jesus tells the disciples: Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Jesus said this before the Last Supper, before His crucifixion, before His resurrection. Before all those events, this was an indeed hard saying for the disciples. But is it hard for us today? It should be. The catechism teaches that in the Eucharist the Church unites herself to the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. This teaching should shock us: it means that we mystically share in the sufferings of Christ on the Cross. Consider this prayer from St. Gemma Galgani:
Do grant, oh my God, that when my lips approach Yours to kiss You, I may taste the gall that was given to You; when my shoulders lean against Yours, make me feel Your scourging; when my flesh is united with Yours, in the Holy Eucharist, make me feel Your passion; when my head comes near Yours, make me feel Your thorns; when my heart is close to Yours, make me feel Your spear.
Note: Direct quotations from Scripture are taken from either the Douay-Rheims Bible or the New American Bible, Revised Edition. | <urn:uuid:08ddf15a-ae8d-4b37-9359-cb88123bc639> | CC-MAIN-2014-10 | http://catholicexchange.com/the-hardest-sayings-of-jesus | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1393999645498/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305060725-00022-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963317 | 2,062 | 2.625 | 3 | The extract does not demonstrate significant coverage of soft skills, as it primarily focuses on theological analysis and biblical interpretation. However, it does show some elements of critical thinking, problem-solving, and emotional intelligence through the exploration of complex biblical passages. The discussion of "hard sayings" of Jesus and their interpretations by various Church Fathers promotes analytical thinking and nuanced understanding.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 804,399 | 0 |
Welcome to the parent guide for this text! Read below to find out about what your child is reading in class and how you can support him/her at home.
This week in class, we’re reading "The House Dog and The Wolf" by Gail Terp.
"The House Dog and the Wolf" follows a traditional fable structure. It is a great introduction to the themes of freedom and comfort and the inherent tension between them.
As we read, we will be discussing the theme of Justice, Freedom & Equality as it relates to the text. We are trying to answer this big question :
"Which is more important: freedom or security?"
Ways to support your child:
- Ask your child about this fable at home:
- What was "The House Dog and The Wolf" About
- What did you learn about?
- Watch Video: The House Dog and The Wolf - A Claymation Student Project at home with your child. | <urn:uuid:080d1faa-5dc4-46b3-8c0d-ada9cdc6b717> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://www.commonlit.org/en/texts/the-house-dog-and-the-wolf/parent-guide | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585370491998.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20200328134227-20200328164227-00303.warc.gz | en | 0.941488 | 202 | 3.609375 | 4 | The extract provides superficial coverage of basic communication concepts, such as discussing a text and asking questions, but lacks depth and practical application. It does not explicitly address soft skills like teamwork, leadership, or problem-solving, and cultural awareness and digital literacy are minimal.
Educational score: 1 | 1 | 0 | 888,958 | 0 |
5. Future Policies and Recommendations for Remedial Education and Learning
Mitigating learning losses for all children
Policies and programmes need to be developed to mitigate the learning losses of children. Our simulation results using PISA show that larger learning losses are predicted to occur, especially for certain groups of children in specific types of schools, from poorer and rural households or from households without internet connection. Children who had low scores prior to the pandemic are also predicted to be affected the most. Given that there were already considerable gaps in the home learning environment of Turkish and Syrian children aged 6-17 years old, learning losses would occur in all levels of the education system. Policymakers underline the importance of remedial education for the most vulnerable children to mitigate learning losses and reduce the widening educational inequalities across K-12 classrooms. Ways to implement changes to the curriculum include implementing summer schools and increasing the number of after school programmes across the country to help educationally at-risk children with their return to school; setting up accelerated education programmes to support the learning of educationally at-risk children (including those from refugee households); and supporting the learning of children with age-appropriate and linguistically diverse educational materials. The start of the UDEP programme, reintroduction of the Support Courses (Destekleme ve Yetiştirme Kursları) and the exams to measure the learning losses of children have been proper and necessary measures, yet more needs to be done to remedy the learning losses.
Improving teacher effectiveness is necessary to mitigate the learning losses during the recovery period. School teachers will play a significant role in the retention of learning for educationally at-risk children. Teacher training programmes and adapted school guidelines may be necessary to facilitate their work with vulnerable children. Equipping teachers with the knowledge to support their work with disadvantaged children or children with special educational needs, health safety, and pupil well-being via governmental guidance can aid teacher effectiveness during the recovery period. Exemplary guidelines published by the UK Government show some important areas of support for educational staff. Teacher training programmes can also focus on improving teachers' digital literacy and developing online teaching materials to maximise their teaching effectiveness for children who continue their education remotely. Stakeholders and governmental institutions can work in collaboration with teachers to improve and adapt the education materials for more effective online teaching during hybrid learning. A list prepared by the UNESCO website demonstrates resources for distance learning that can be adopted by schools and teachers to create digital learning content and to teach effectively online.
Capacity building in schools will play an important role in responding to the varying needs of pupils returning to school. As the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged children is expected to rise, schools should prepare for the diverse needs of pupils from different ability levels. As our simulation results using PISA 2018 also suggest, students in some schools are expected to experience larger learning losses, hence special attention could be paid to students studying in schools in smaller areas such as villages and small cities and towns and in specific types of schools. Employing additional qualified teachers to reduce the pupil-teacher ratio to improve teaching effectiveness and provide the support needed by children may help to maximise each child’s learning potential during the recovery period. Responding to the needs of educationally at-risk children, including those with special educational needs with additional support programmes delivered on a 1:1 basis may also generate better results in reducing achievement gaps for the disadvantaged children and children with special educational needs and to help them to master foundational skills such as literacy and numeracy. Primary school children should be supported for their behavioural and social skills important for school education, such as self-regulation, behaviour management, and social perception and competence. Language immersion programmes and services should be developed for refugee children and children with Turkish as an additional language to mitigate their language losses and facilitate their return to school. Capacity-building should also respond to the increase in demand for mental health support and well-being needs of children in the post-pandemic world. To support and strengthen the psychosocial well-being of children in schools, the schools should recruit more teachers for psychological counselling services at schools and train teachers on child well-being and mental health at schools. An exemplary guideline for improving the psychological counselling services at schools has been prepared by the Ministry of National Education in collaboration with UNICEF in 2019. Similar guidelines can be prepared to improve mental health and well-being services and responsiveness at schools to mitigate the psychosocial effects of the pandemic on children.
Providing family training programmes to enrich home learning environments is necessary to facilitate the return of children to school. To continue children’s learning outside the school and support their learning during the recovery period, the home learning environment will continue to play an important role. The quality learning resources and interactions at home will have an effect on children’s educational levels when they return to school. As shown by our analysis results, children in Turkey already have important gaps in their home learning environment ranging from lack of infrastructure to lack of quality parent-child interactions and the gaps are even higher for Syrian children. During the recovery period, learning resources at home can buffer the effects of school closures. Research, however, shows that the pandemic had a negative impact on the home environments of many children due to financial strains and other stressors, especially for families from disadvantaged backgrounds. Programmes that equip parents with the knowledge to support their children’s learning at home can help with improving home learning environments and additionally contribute to children’s school adjustment. An exemplary intervention study in Turkey, the Turkish Early Enrichment Project, shows how a well-rounded family training programme can improve the learning environments of children and have sustained effects on child outcomes for disadvantaged families in Istanbul. An international example is the Sure Start Programme, which involved the opening of local centres across the UK to support families in parenting, child development, family health, and well-being. Longitudinal evidence has shown that these centres contribute to long-term developmental outcomes of children, as well as improving the quality of the home learning environment. The future programmes should also focus on parent skills and knowledge in the areas that have been found to be important to support children during the pandemic, including surrounding digital literacy and mental health.
Future policies need to focus on ways to improve ECEC attendance and reduce early leaving in education. The pandemic has underlined that children of pre-school age are at risk of not having access to ECEC in Turkey, and attendance in nurseries and pre-school environments in Turkey has significantly reduced during the pandemic. Research shows that access to quality education in the early years’ foundational stages has long-term effects on children’s later school attainment. Future programmes should address ways to increase ECEC attendance as well as access to quality education in the early years for all children. Examples of similar policy responses come from the UK and EU countries, where public expenditure was raised to provide free childcare for up to 30 hours. These changes in policy also facilitated parents of young children, especially women, to join the workforce in their respective countries. Another problem with children’s retention in education in Turkey is documented for early school leavers. Evidence shows that the number of children in education starts to drop from the age of 9. This is particularly due to children’s roles in household income for disadvantaged families. Programmes such as conditional cash transfer support to keep children at school in Turkey have also proved to be effective for the retention of refugee children in education. To improve retention, policy responses should adopt holistic approaches in tackling factors related to early school leaving at the personal, social, economic, and educational levels. The future programmes should aim for collaborative intervention projects that bring together school leaders, teachers, parents, and families. In so doing, the government need to work together with education specialists to tackle the predictors of early school leaving and bring forward institutional change to respond to the needs of at-risk children. A policy guideline prepared by the European Commission shows that a holistic approach targeting students at risk can improve school effectiveness and education culture in disadvantaged areas through the collaboration of school governance, teachers, local organisations, parents, and families.
Social services and support programmes need to be improved for improving the lives of children living in extreme poverty. Future legislations can focus on improving the living conditions of children living in extreme poverty. The number of children who live in extreme poverty is expected to rise following the pandemic, putting more children at risk for learning poverty and child labour. Our analysis results also suggest that especially older children (aged 14-17 years old), children living in poor households, households with less educated adults and with more children are at risk of participating in child labour and for Syrian children, the risk is higher. Children at risk of drop out also are found to have similar background characteristics. Children at risk of child labour and at risk of drop out are found to be only at the 14-17 year olds age group for Turkish children, whereas the children in younger age groups were also found to be at risk, though lower, for the Syrian population. Social services are key to identifying and supporting children who are at risk for early school leaving. A pilot study conducted for the UK Government shows that introducing free school meals can help with the educational attainment and the dietary habits of the most disadvantaged children. Other ways of monitoring educationally at-risk children can include building social services for a better child welfare system, capacity building in the local services supporting families in deprived neighbourhoods and improving the communication between schools and local institutions (e.g., health centres) for a rapid response from the child protection services.
Preparing for the future of education
Globally, education systems and schools should prepare for the potential return of pandemic measures and online/hybrid teaching for the future of emergency management. Improving online infrastructure and digital resources for schools, as well as providing professional training programs for teachers will be important for the future of education. Some scientists predict that pandemics may become more frequent as a result of the changing bioecological atmosphere of the Earth and stress the need for pandemic preparedness for the future. These predictions magnify the importance of future readiness in all areas of life, including education. To ensure the educational preparedness for future pandemics in Turkey, policy responses should draw on the lessons learnt from the COVID-19 outbreak. Improving digital and electrical infrastructure across the country, especially in rural areas, should be of the utmost importance for potential similar pandemic situations in the future. Educational institutions should also collaborate with disease specialists to create safe learning environments to reduce the transmission of infectious outbreaks in schools. School leaders should be trained for emergency responses for a potential return of the pandemic measures and school closures. Stakeholders further underlined that education should be prioritised in future emergency situations, and the schools should re-open as soon as conditions permit. These practices will also play an important role in schools’ preparedness for other emergency situations such as earthquakes and wildfires. Previous experiences in Turkey have shown that emergency responses are not prepared enough to buffer school-aged children against the detrimental effects of natural disasters.
School systems and infrastructure should be improved, especially in rural areas. The number of schools in rural areas should be increased to allow for the potential return of pandemic measures and the future of emergency management. Building infrastructure of schools should also be improved for ventilation and heating. Landline, electricity and internet infrastructure in these areas should be improved in line with the services provided to larger cities across the country to improve communication between teachers and families. The local institutions and organisations should be provided with resources to support disadvantaged families and teachers with access to digital devices and the internet in the case of remote education. The central education system should either give more agency to the schools and teachers in rural areas or assign local ambassadors to accommodate the needs of the children better and in a timely manner in emergency situations.
New ways of collecting data on child development and learning are necessary to monitor and evaluate the academic attainment of children. To improve educational policies in Turkey, developmental and educational data from children and families should be collected in every key stage of education, including the early years. In order to facilitate the knowledge exchange between educators and policymakers, data collection tools should be standardised and monitored across the country. PISA is a good example for tracking the educational improvement in the academic attainment of 15-year-old children in the country. However, this assessment does not allow for researchers or policymakers to conduct longitudinal analyses on child development to improve the local services in the country. In England, for example, pupil data is collected by schoolteachers using the national assessment materials throughout the key stages of school education. The stages include the Early Years Foundation Stage (0-5 years old), Key Stage 1 (5-7 years old), Key Stage 2 (7-11 years old), Key Stage 3 (11-14 years old), Key Stage 4 (14-16 years old), and 16-19-year-old education. Information collected in each stage allows for a better transition from one to another by informing educators and social services. During the Early Years Foundation Stage, for example, teachers assess children on skills related to communication and language; personal, social and emotional development; physical development; literacy; mathematics; understanding the world; expressive arts and design. Drawing on these examples, a knowledge exchange method for educators and social services should be designed and standardised in Turkey to monitor and improve children’s learning at all levels and respond to their needs with effective policies.
Revisions to curriculum content are necessary to prepare children for societal changes in the post-pandemic world. Future curricula should focus on changing global conditions and how these may impact future lives. Education at all levels needs to focus on the future in order to mitigate against the effects of infectious diseases and natural disasters as well as other novel problems as they arise, such as climate change and the required reduction in carbon footprints for global citizens. An example study has been carried out in Tokat to inform and mentally prepare pre-school aged children for earthquakes in the area. Similar to these case studies, more importance should be given to supporting children’s preparedness and resilience in the face of emergency situations and mental health in the areas of forming and maintaining healthy relationships, strengthening family environments, as well as raising children’s awareness on when or how to seek help. Evidence shows that many children are at increased vulnerability for domestic abuse, family neglect, and exploitation as they spend more time in isolation with their families due to the pandemic measures. Policymakers must work in collaboration with mental health professionals and social workers to implement courses on child mental health and family well-being across K-12 education.
OECD. (2021). The Impact Of COVID-19 on Student Equity and Inclusion: Supporting Vulnerable Students During School Closures And School Re-Openings. Paris: OECD OECD. (2021). The Impact Of COVID-19 on Student Equity and Inclusion: Supporting Vulnerable Students During School Closures And School Re-Openings. Paris: OECD UNHCR. (2016). The case for Accelerated Education. Genève: UNHCR OECD. (2021). The Impact Of COVID-19 on Student Equity and Inclusion: Supporting Vulnerable Students During School Closures And School Re-Openings. Paris: OECD The UK Department of Education Schools. (2022). COVID-19 Operational Guidance. London: Department for Education UNESCO's Official Website/ Distance learning solutions: https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse/solutions Blatchford, Bassett, Goldstein and Martin (2003), ‘Are class size differences related to pupils’ educational progress and classroom processes? Findings from the Institute of Education class size study of children aged 5 to 7 years’, British Educational Research Journal, 29: 5 Schwartz, R. M., Schmitt, M. C., & Lose, M. K. (2012). Effects of Teacher-Student Ratio in Response to Intervention Approaches. The Elementary School Journal, 112(4), 547–567. https://doi.org/10.1086/664490 MEB. (2019). Rehber Öğretmen El Kitabı. Ankara: Turkey National Children's Bureau. (2020). Recovery planning for Covid-19 Back to School. London: UK Crew, M. (2020). Literature Review on the Impact of COVID-19 on Families, and Implications for the Home Learning Environment. The National Literacy Trust. London: UK IFS. (2020). Family Time Use and Home Learning during the COVID-19 Lockdown. London: IFS Kagitcibasi, C., Sunar, D., & Bekman, S. (2001). Long-term effects of early intervention: Turkish low-income mothers and children. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 22(4), 333-361. The UK Department of Education. (2013). Sure Start Children's Centres Statutory Guidance. London: Department for Education Melhuish, E., Belsky, J., Leyland, A. H., Barnes, J., & National Evaluation of Sure Start Research Team. (2008). Effects of fully-established Sure Start Local Programmes on 3-year-old children and their families living in England: a quasi-experimental observational study. The Lancet, 372(9650), 1641-1647. ERG. (2020). Öğrenciler ve Eğitime Erişim Eğitim İzleme Raporu 2020. Istanbul: ERG Ibid Melhuish, E.C., Sylva, K., Sammons, P., Siraj-Blatchford, I., Taggart, B., & Phan, M. (2008b) Effects of the Home Learning Environment and preschool center experience upon literacy and numeracy development in early primary school. Journal of Social Issues, 64, 95-114. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.2008.00550.x Sammons, P., Sylva, K., Melhuish, E., Siraj, I., Taggart, B., Toth, K. and Smees R., (2014). The Effective Pre-school, Primary and Secondary Education Project (EPPSE 3- 16+) Influences on students’ GCSE attainment and progress at age 16. Department for Education RR 352. ERG. (2020). Öğrenciler ve Eğitime Erişim Eğitim İzleme Raporu 2020. Istanbul: ERG EACEA. (2019). Key Data on Early Childhood Education and Care Education and Training in Europe. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union European Commission. (2013). Mutual Learning Programme Database of National Labour Market Practices Malta - Free Childcare Scheme. Brussels: European Commission ERG. (2020). Öğrenciler ve Eğitime Erişim Eğitim İzleme Raporu 2020. Istanbul: ERG Dayioğlu, M. (2006). The impact of household income on child labour in urban Turkey. The Journal of Development Studies, 42(6), 939-956. UNICEF Turkey's Official Website: The Conditional Cash Transfer for Education (CCTE) Programme: https://www.unicef.org/turkey/en/conditional-cash-transfer-education-ccte-programme European Commission. (2016). Schools policy A whole school approach to tackling early school leaving Policy messages. Brussels: European Commission UNICEF Turkey's Official Website: COVID-19 impacts on child poverty: https://www.unicef.org/social-policy/child-poverty/covid-19-socioeconomic-impacts The UK Department for Education (2010). Evaluation of the Free School Meals Pilot. London: UK An example report on how to build and improve the social services prepshows that giving local governments and organisations the agency and responsibility to inform and guide local services in safe guarding is the key to improve the practices at the local-level and across the country. Source: Munro, E. (2011). The Munro review of child protection: Final report, a child-centred system (Vol. 8062). The Stationery Office. Dodds W. (2019). Disease Now and Potential Future Pandemics. The World's Worst Problems , 31–44. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30410-2_4 Naguib, M. M., Ellström, P., Järhult, J. D., Lundkvist, Å., & Olsen, B. (2020). Towards pandemic preparedness beyond COVID-19. The Lancet Microbe, 1(5), e185-e186. KII5, KII3, KII11 Bianet. (2012, January 10). Çocuklar Okula Gidemiyor. Bianet. Retrieved from: https://m.bianet.org/bianet/insan-haklari/135333-cocuklar-okula-gidemiyor OECD. (2019). Turkey Country Note: PISA 2018 Results. Paris: OECD OECD. (2019). Turkey Country Note: PISA 2018 Results. Paris: OECD The UK Department for Education. (2021). Early Years Foundation Stage Profile. London: Department for Education Tuncer, N., Sözen, Ş., & Sakar, Ş. (2021). Okul öncesi eğitimde deprem farkındalığı: Deprem benden küçüksün” projesi, Tokat ili örneği. International Journal of Educational Spectrum, 3(1), 1-27. Usher, K., Bhullar, N., Durkin, J., Gyamfi, N., & Jackson, D. (2020). Family violence and COVID-19: Increased vulnerability and reduced options for support. International journal of mental health nursing, 29(4), 549–552. https://doi.org/10.1111/inm.12735 Bradbury-Jones, C., & Isham, L. (2020). The pandemic paradox: The consequences of COVID-19 on domestic violence. Journal of clinical nursing, 29(13-14), 2047–2049. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.15296 | <urn:uuid:bcbb7f59-4930-4f94-a740-e7be81f5cd9d> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://www.developmentanalytics.org/projects-1/5.-future-policies-and-recommendations-for-remedial-education-and-learning- | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224652149.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20230605153700-20230605183700-00620.warc.gz | en | 0.935276 | 4,847 | 3.28125 | 3 | The extract provides a comprehensive discussion on future policies and recommendations for remedial education and learning, focusing on mitigating learning losses, improving teacher effectiveness, and enhancing capacity building in schools. It also touches on the importance of family training programs, social services, and support for children living in extreme poverty. While the extract primarily focuses on educational policies and strategies, it indirectly promotes soft skills such as communication, teamwork, and problem-solving through its emphasis on collaborative approaches, teacher training, and community engagement. However, the discussion of soft skills is not explicit or in-depth, and the extract lacks nuanced interaction or complex problem-solving opportunities.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 517,647 | 0 |
1.1 Background of the Study
Many people when they hear or read about the word poverty will automatically think and look at poverty as being simply a lack of money. This is partly true but for a better understanding of poverty it is necessary to go beyond this simple or common sense, definition of poverty. Poverty is much more than a simple lack of money. For example, if you were stranded on a desert island and you had several thousand dollars or pounds in cash, while those around you had things like food, clothing and shelter would be in poverty? You could not eat your money, nor could. Your fellow inhabitants might not even want your money, particularly if they believe that a rescue is not eminent. In such a situation, lack of money means equal poverty. This is, however, only part of the story with regard to poverty yet in order to understand poverty and inequality, we must probe beneath surface reality and go beyond the common sense explanation which is simply another for cliché.
Definitions of Poverty
There are two different ways in which researchers define poverty; Absolute poverty and relative poverty.
Absolute poverty refers to the situation in which a person lacks those things that help to sustain human life. The lack of basic human needs such as food, shelter and clothing. This form of poverty was once quite common in countries such as Britain and American but has since declined, particularly since the introduction of the welfare state. This form of poverty is still prevalent in many third world countries.
Relative poverty refers to the situation in which a person lacks the necessary resources to enable them to participate in the normal and desirable pattern of life that exist within a given society at a given time. For example, if you cannot afford to have a cooked meal then you may not be in absolute poverty but you are certainly in relative poverty.
Poverty is not new but at each mention, it stirs a lot of misgiving. This is because it has a very devastating influence on its victims. It reduces the social and psychological prestige of its victims. Poverty is a condition of being poor. This could be evident even amidst plenty because there could be reeking poverty as a result of lack of knowledge to translate potentiality into practical creativity for the benefit of society.
In other words, if there is a poverty of something, it therefore means that there is a lack of it or the quality of it is extremely low. The foregoing shows the picture of our beloved country, especially when a deep reflection is made on the Nigerian question and the Nigerian condition. It is also so pathetic in the sense that the country that is potentially rich in oil and gas and other natural resources cannot boast of putting food on the tables of its citizens in fact an average Nigeria is said to be living below one dollar. Researcher has it that the foundation of most social vices and corrupt practices both in high and low places is caused by poverty. At present, Nigeria is rated as one of the poorest country of the world, a country with abundant resources both in human and mineral resources. It is as a result of this and other maladies that are experienced by the citizens of the world especially the third world countries that the United Nations in year 2000 in a meeting popularly referred to as millennium summit in the United State of America, arrived at the millennium development goals, (MDGs). According to UN the 189 members of this organization by 2015 are supposed to have met these goals. The nine goals have the “reduction of extreme poverty and hunger” as the first goal to be met by the stipulated year.
As a member of the United Nations Nigeria keyed into the MDGs and subsequently produce a policy document called the national economic empowerment and development strategy (NEEDs). This development goals specifically has the following actionable goals.
Valve re-orientation (NEEDs DOCUMENT, 2008)
The NEEDs as a national policy was intended to meeting some of the goals of the MDGs especially poverty reduction. In assessing the performance of MDGs and NEEDS in Nigeria especially when it relates to “poverty reduction” one can say without fears of contradiction that millennium development goals have performed below the expectation of Nigerian. It is at the backdrop of this realization that this paper is set to examine the MDGs and poverty reduction as it geared towards bringing sustainable development in Nigeria.
1.2 Statement of Problem
Over the last ten years poverty has been very real in Nigeria and quality of the average Nigerian citizen has progressively nosedived. It is so endemic in Nigeria that people have started seeing it as part of their lot in life. It is at the backdrop of this that this paper is set to examine the MDGs and poverty reduction as it is geared towards bringing sustainable development in Nigeria.
This study therefore addresses some specific questions as outlined below:
What factor is responsible for high level of poverty in Nigeria?
What has been the impact of various poverty reduction programmes in Nigeria?
Will Nigeria really reduce poverty by 2015 going by the current situation in the country?
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The general objective of the study is to analyze and evaluate the rate of poverty in Nigeria.
Against this backdrop, the following specific objectives will be address in the study:
To identify the factors responsible for poverty in Nigeria
To assess how successful the various policies and programmed initiated to reduce poverty in Nigeria.
To ascertain the level of whether Nigeria will be able to meet millennium development goals (MDGs) by 2015.
To recommend policy response and suggest how to reduce poverty in Nigeria in order to meet MDGS and ensure sustainable development.
1.4 Significance of the Study
The essence of any meaningful research work lies in its significance and usefulness to humanity.
This study will provide a conceptual frame work for comprehending the issue of poverty and also provide a firsthand information to be used by policy makers administrators, social welfare agencies etc. in effort to reduce poverty.
Secondly, it would be valuable to the academia and provoke more or continuants research work and analysis of poverty in or/its effect on human development.
Finally, this work shall provide or suggest reasonable solution that will assist relevant agencies saddled with the responsibility of reduction of poverty as one of the pivot towards achieving the millennium development goals and sustainable development in Nigeria in particular and Africa at large.
1.5 Literature Review
Poverty is the condition that exists when people lacks the ability to satisfy their basic needs. The basic need are those necessities for survival or broadly as those reflecting the revealing standard of living that is, those at the border line of nutrition, housing, clothing among others though adequate to preserve life but do measure up to those of the population as whole (Encyclopedia Britannia 1978, vol. 14).
It is also a state of involuntary deprivation to which a person, household and nations are subjected. This means individuals, household, and nations under scale can be poor, so long as it exhibits the characteristics of poverty source (MVO, 2009:24).
Poverty is also associated with poor health low level of education, low level of calories in one‟s diet, lack of shelter, low level of employment. Furthermore, poverty refers to the inability of an individual or family to secure basic needs even in the midst of social surrounding of general prosperity or lack of some general attribute that would allow an individual to maintain himself. And people that are associated with such behaviors like inability to manage money either by laziness, drunkenness and producing too many can make a nation or an individual to be poor.
The concept of poverty like every other concepts in the social sciences lack a precise definition that can be said to be as patial and that is temporal. If it perhaps this line of thought that informed Aboyade (1975:4) to state that poverty is probably not a subject to be defined or measured to be appreciated, it may have to do with suffering despite this remarks, the search for commonly accepted characteristic of poverty for slicken people continue to gain currency and as several definition of poverty have been pasted by scholars.
In conceptualizing poverty, two schools of thought have emerged. One of the schools is classical economist they conceives poverty as lack of income or material well-being, corroborating this view Arinze (1995) described poverty as “the lack of income needed to acquire the minimum necessities of life.
Galbraith‟s (2002) citing Aneke (2000) state that people are poverty slicken when their income even if adequate for survival, fall markedly below those of the commodity they cannot have what the larger community regards.
Another school of thought structural approach linked poverty to both economic variables.
AneLe (2000) argues that:
“If we focus on income alone, we are likely to gloss over other equally important aspects of deprivations, these includes powerlessness, cultural deprivation, lack of influence, lack of prestige and lack of self esteem‟‟ (Anele, 2000:12).
This argument corroborated with Broomley and Gerry (1979). When they assert that poverty emanates from a present and or past process of improvement by which resources, opportunities and economic surplus have been substantially removed from people who are currently poor and or from their for bearer.
In the same vein, Ankpo (1995) posit that the phenomenon of poverty can be understood as a process linked to democratic decision making. It is through decision making process that some people are privileged to decide for others hence the will of the non slammed on the majority and its manifestation is what has been referred to as poverty. From the two perspectives of these scholars it is obvious to regard poverty as not linked to economic deprivation, but also of inequality and marginalization in all spheres of life. However poverty in the Nigeria context could be understood to means the prevalence of falling standard of living alienation of the masses from decision making that affects them, alienation from ownership of means of production and moral bankruptcy, resulting from the super imposition of alien culture on the people.
Several reasons have been advanced as the causes of poverty in Nigeria as well as other developing countries as argued by the classical economist and Marxist political economist. The classical economist according to Nnaa (2003) linked poverty to;
„A process of circular cumulative causation in which low income leads to low level of saving which keeps productivity low and which in turn perpetuates low income and its attendance consequence of absolute poverty with inadequate health services, poor education and other social services” it is therefore, conceived as self reinforcing situation in which there are forces and factors which tend to perpetuate a various cycle poverty „(Nnnaa, 2003:20).
On the other hand, the Marxist political economist allocates the causes of poverty in the structure of society, in their conception, the political economist and social structure of society. In their conception, the political economist and social structure of a given society account for the extent and distribution of poverty.
Thus, in a capitalist system like Nigeria where the ruling class established and legitimized an exploitative property system through which they determines the allocation of opportunities, income and health relying on the use of state power their advantage, the degree of its distribution will be higher among the vast majority. In other words, it is understood from, the stand point that the causative factors of poverty is rooted in the social relationship which ensures the control of the productive forces in the country by few individuals who direct state apparatus to intervene on behalf of the ruling class at the expense of the generality of the poor masses.
A look at poverty profile in Nigeria right from 1999-2009 shows that it is on increase as could be seen in the table below
|Nigeria poverty level from 199-2009 Year||Poverty level %| | <urn:uuid:b5118fc7-5fb9-49ed-88e9-85dc053ac6b2> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | http://www.naijaproject.kelvinoexpress.com/2016/11/06/poverty_reduction_and_sustainable_development_in_nigeria/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549436321.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20170728022449-20170728042449-00570.warc.gz | en | 0.956221 | 2,393 | 3.5 | 4 | The extract provides a comprehensive discussion on poverty, its definitions, causes, and effects, particularly in the Nigerian context. However, it lacks practical applications, nuanced interactions, and complex problem-solving opportunities, which are essential for soft skills development. The content is primarily theoretical, focusing on conceptual frameworks, literature reviews, and statistical data.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 344,086 | 0 |
Sir Walter Murdock KCMG, 1874-1970, was the founding Professor of English and later Chancellor of the University of Western Australia. A very popular academic, he was an essayist famous for his intelligence, wit and humanity. In 1970, just prior to his death, Western Australian’s second university “Murdock University” was named after him.
by Professor Walter Murdoch
I have often heard people say that this Major Douglas scheme, in which I believe, is quite impracticable because it is so complicated that no one can understand it. It isn’t so bad as that, but it is complicated, and it must be complicated for a very plain reason: that the present money system, which it seeks to modify, is complicated. If you think the present system, under which you and I live, is easily understood, depend upon it, you don’t understand it...
Circumstances have forced people to do a lot of thinking in the last few years, and the result of this reflection is that certain statements which would have been violently disagreed with a few short years ago may now be taken for granted in any discussion.
One of these is that the world is suffering from an unexampled depression, in the midst of unexampled wealth. The world’s inhabitants are in the position of persons dying of thirst on a raft in the middle of a fresh-water lake. I don’t need to insist on that, at this time of day; there are few persons who will not agree that the age of scarcity is over, and that we live in an age of plenty. The problem which has puzzled the world from immemorial ages — the problem of how to produce enough food and other necessities of existence for the needs of the world’s population — has been solved once for all...
An invention which enables a machine to do the work of men obviously throws men out of work; so that what the scientists and inventors thought to be a blessing they were conferring upon mankind turns out to be a heavy curse. You would say off-hand, wouldn’t you, that it would be an entirely blessed thing if we could have machines to do all the dirty work necessary, all the beastly drudgery, and set men free for better and pleasanter activities?
Not at all; the machinery that does the dirty work for us throws men out of any sort of work and produces an unprecedented volume of misery...
Before I come to the remedies proposed by Major Douglas, I must mention one more paradox. That is the paradox of the so-called financial experts. These experts, who have learned the economics of an age of scarcity and have apparently learned nothing since, have only one piece of expert advice to give us: Economise!
To the persons dying of thirst on a raft in a freshwater lake their sage counsel is — Drink less! To people living in a world wealthier than ever before they say: “You must lower your standard of living.” Here in Australia, they put their hands together and devise a plan for restoring prosperity by cutting down wages and diminishing the buying power of the people, when any spark of common sense should tell us that to lessen people’s power of buying could only result in an increase of unemployment and a deepening of the depression.
The result of the combined wisdom of the economists is that the world keeps getting more inextricably into the mire; and that is why I, for one, am not profoundly impressed when authorities tell me not to meddle in these matters that are too high for me, but to leave everything to the experts.
The key to the situation lies in an answer to the question: What is money? What is this mysterious entity which people haven’t enough of, so that they can’t afford to get any good of the fact that they are living in an age of plenty?
Money simply means tickets for the exchange of goods. Whether printed or metal or on paper, money means tickets. Money is not a commodity, but a means of exchanging commodities, a very ancient device for doing away with the intolerable cumberousness of barter.
The world is not suffering from a lack of goods today, but from a lack of tickets for the exchange of goods... Instead of creating the right amount of money to carry on all the business possible in the world, we limit the business to make it fit the amount of money there is. We close factories, we limit production, we throw men out of work, we starve people, simply and solely for lack of money; and yet money is a thing we can create in precisely whatever quantities we choose.
Who does, in actual fact, create money? In old times it was created by governments, and by governments only; and any private person who tried to encroach on this prerogative of the king by making counterfeit coins or bank notes could be put in prison or, even in England not so very long ago, hanged.
With the invention of the cheque system—an admirable device in many ways —the power of creating and cancelling money passed, without the public noticing what was happening, out of the hands of the king into the hands of bankers.
Out of the total money in the world today a certain small amount consists of coins and banknotes; but most of the money consists of book entries in banks. Somewhere about 1.5 per cent of the money in Australia consists of coins and notes; the rest is that form of money known as bank credit...
What do banks make money out of? They make it out of nothing, as all the leading authorities on banking are agreed. They create it with a pen, when and to what extent they please; and they destroy it when they please. Every time a bank grants a loan ,it creates money; every time it calls in a loan, it destroys money. The banks, controlling the volume and the flow of money, control the lives and destinies of men; and governments eat out of their hands.
Now, by every principle of right and justice, the total credit of the community belongs to the community, and not to a group of private individuals; and the first thing to do is to take the control of credit out of the hands of irresponsible individuals and put it in the hands of persons responsible to the community...
Having re-assumed control of the monetary system, the first task of government will be to deal with the present shortage of money, to bridge the gap between production and consumption.
One of the great services of Major Douglas was his discovery that, with our present financial arrangement, no industry can possibly pay out, in wages, salaries and dividends, enough money to pay the cost of the goods it produces, and that is true of all industries.
two ways. First, by treating every man, woman and child as a shareholder in the national business and issuing to each a National Dividend, calculated on the real value of the nation’s assets. Second, by enabling all goods to be sold below cost price, the loss being made good by issues of national money.
The problem is how to create more money without causing a drop in the value of money; and the answer is that money must be created in exact proportion to the real wealth in the community and that arrangements must be made not only for its issue, but for its cancellation. If you will take the trouble to look farther into this matter you will find that the Douglas proposals contain in them no threat of inflation or deflation.
When I try to expound the scheme to friends, they say: “I can’t see the fallacy in your argument; but it’s too good to be true. If what you say is true, then the empire of poverty is over at last, and within a few months the world will be entering on an era of universal plenty; no, we have heard of these utopian dreams before; it’s far too good to be true.”
Now my reply to that is this: If, a century ago, someone had announced that within 100 years the immemorial problem of production would be solved, and that man would possess the knowledge and the machinery to produce in abundance all the material goods he could need, most people would have laughed the prophet to scorn, and said : “It’s too good to be true!” But it is true; everyone agrees that it is true.
And if someone else had prophesied, fifty years ago, that in fifty years the earth was going to be a planet on which misery and destitution would stalk abroad amid an unprecedented plenty of material goods, people would have said : “No, impossible; it’s too bad to be true.” But it is true; that evil dream has come true, as we all know if we keep our eyes open.
I regard it as the bounden duty of everybody to do what in him lies to awaken the world from this nightmare; and that is why I commend to your close attention the Douglas proposals, which to the best of my belief would result in making money our invaluable servant, instead of, as at present, our despotic master. | <urn:uuid:fb848357-bbc2-4b1d-a826-ed90fd902038> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://www.michaeljournal.org/articles/social-credit/item/give-the-people-money | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585371833063.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20200409091317-20200409121817-00420.warc.gz | en | 0.966509 | 1,899 | 2.515625 | 3 | The extract scores high for its in-depth discussion of complex economic concepts, critical thinking, and problem-solving opportunities. It presents nuanced scenarios, integrating emotional intelligence and leadership challenges, with a strong emphasis on intercultural fluency and technological adaptation. The text encourages readers to think critically about the monetary system, its control, and its impact on society, promoting advanced communication, strategic thinking, and sophisticated problem-solving.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 866,273 | 1 |
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the big picture when it comes to cities. They’re home to more than half the global population, produce three quarters of GDP and greenhouse gas emissions, and are still growing in nearly every respect. But cities are made up of individuals, and urban policy has real, tangible effects on their lives. That’s especially true when it comes to transportation policy.
Public transportation moves hundreds of millions of city dwellers, rich and poor, every day. It’s a lifeline that connects people to jobs, education and opportunity. When done right, it allows people to travel affordably, efficiently and with dignity, with more time for themselves and their families.
Making urban transportation better is the goal of the Mobility and Accessibility Program (MAP), WRI Ross Center’s eight-year collaboration with FedEx. Our success is reflected in these stories, collected from three of the cities where we work – stories from real people who have a real stake in improved transit systems.
Pablo in Mexico
Five-year-old Pablo Bautista used to hate mornings. He’d wake early, his mother would bundle him into a taxi and he’d ride 45 minutes through downtown Mexico City to get to school. Minibuses, the only other alternative, were overcrowded, dilapidated and dangerous.
Things changed in 2012 when Mexico City debuted a new bus rapid transit line through downtown. Now Pablo’s commute is a seven-minute walk to the station with his mother and less than a half hour on the express line. The fare? One-fifth the amount his mother used to pay for a taxi.
Projects like Metrobus Line 4 help cities reach socio-economic and sustainable development targets; in daily life, they give residents and businesses access to more opportunities at lower costs. Line 4 carries 65,000 passengers a day, cuts travel times in half and is estimated to lower carbon emissions by 10,000 tons a year.
Suvarna in India
Every weekday, Suvarna Reddy of Bangalore cooks, cleans and packs lunches before taking her grandson to school. Then she catches a bus to work, a journey that was once the most stressful part of her day. She cooks for three different households, and travels to the market to pick up goods.
“It used to take over 40 minutes to get from one home to another,” she recalls. “I had to wait for a long time before I got the bus, and would never get to sit. I always feared falling when I had to stand, because the buses were so old and unstable.”
In 2013, the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation asked MAP to help improve its bus system, which serves more than 5 million passengers a day. Together, they conceptualized, planned and implemented the BIG Bus Network along high-demand corridors. With more efficient routes, increased frequency, low fares, integrated services and nearly 1,000 new low-emissions vehicles, the update has dramatically advanced the quality and capacity of the city’s public transit.
“The new buses come every 5 to 10 minutes,” says Suvarna. “I don’t have to wait a long time before I get a bus to get to any of my work places. Even when I have to go to the market, I can get a direct bus. I get there much more comfortably and a lot faster. And that gives me more time to spend with my family.”
Célio in Brazil
Célio Bouzada has dedicated his career to improving life for the people of Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
“Belo Horizonte, like all large cities in Latin America, has serious problems with traffic – it’s congested,” says Bouzada, who serves as the president of BHTRANS, the regional transportation agency. “It’s our challenge to change the culture, to find resources, to implement new means of transit.” Every day, the agency moves more than 1.3 million people.
Beginning in 2014, BHTRANS used MAP tools to streamline bus rapid transit routes in three priority corridors. A user satisfaction survey, developed by MAP and deployed by BHTRANS a year later, showed the average 75-minute bus commute had been reduced by 30 minutes, and user satisfaction had increased by 60 percent. Now, nine other Brazilian cities have joined Belo Horizonte in a Quality of Service Benchmarking Group to track their own results and compare best practices.
Bouzada also noted that tools developed by MAP have helped his agency plan for emergency incidents, boost the skills of drivers, and host technical exchanges with other cities implementing similar BRT systems.
The next step is electric buses, he says. “Transport is responsible for half the city’s pollution. If we can reduce pollution, that will impact the health of children, adults and, above all, the elderly. A cleaner public transport system, with faster travel, means a nicer city for everyone.”
Cities are our present and future, and we all stand to gain from a world where they are more productive, healthier and connected. For Suvarna, Célio, Pablo and millions of people across the globe, the benefits of improved mobility aren’t just abstractions, but welcome steps toward a better life.
Ani Dasgupta is the Global Director of WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, WRI’s program that galvanizes action to help cities grow more sustainably and improve quality of life in developing countries around the world. | <urn:uuid:01c0be4b-26d9-4d1c-957a-fa6c604f1518> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://thecityfix.com/blog/view-bus-better-transportation-means-better-lives-ani-dasgupta/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579251700675.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20200127112805-20200127142805-00352.warc.gz | en | 0.964862 | 1,169 | 2.78125 | 3 | The extract scores 3 points as it includes discussion of soft skills, such as communication, problem-solving, and emotional intelligence, through realistic scenarios that integrate leadership challenges and critical thinking opportunities. The stories of Pablo, Suvarna, and Célio demonstrate the impact of improved transportation systems on individuals' lives, showcasing practical applications and cultural awareness. However, the extract lacks complex scenarios requiring sophisticated communication, strategic thinking, and advanced problem-solving across multiple contexts.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 227,306 | 0 |
This weekend will mark 499 years since a young monk strolled to the university church in Wittenberg, Germany, and tacked a list of 95 statements to the door intending to start a conversation about abuses in the church.
That man – Martin Luther – had no idea the firestorm that would evolve from his simple writing.
Known as the Reformation, Luther’s ideas were fanned into a flame that spread across Europe and beyond, transforming both the church and society forever.
Luther’s life was changed, as were millions of others, because he acted in concert with his convictions. He lived true to himself.
We’ve all heard the saying “To thine own self be true.” Shakespeare put those words in the mouth of Polonius in his epic play “Hamlet.”
And while the origin of this commendable command is known, there is some disagreement on what the Bard intended it to mean. Some suggest it means we shouldn’t deceive ourselves, but that seems all too obvious to be clever.
Others suggest it underscores the need to take care of one’s self first, and then look to others. But, again, this hardly fits the context.
I offer this theory. To be true to your own self is to act in alignment with your own basic convictions, no matter the circumstances. The whole quote actually speaks about the remedy for hypocrisy as staying true to oneself.
“This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.”
Hypocrisy is falsehood, pretending to be something other than what you really are. When we go against what we truly believe, we are not only being false to ourselves, but to everyone who is persuaded by our façade.
There is great ethical truth to be found in these lines from Shakespeare.
First, it is important to realize the immoral nature of hypocrisy. To declare we are what we are not is to make falsehood our calling card. Ultimately, this practice is the undoing of relationships in business and society.
Integrity is to human endeavor what guardrails are on the freeway. Integrity keeps us in the lane and prevents us from going over the cliffs of chaos and anarchy.
Truth is the great safeguard of human relationship and civil society.
Second, it is essential to personal wellbeing to stay true to those foundational convictions that have always defined right and wrong.
Putting others before self, doing to others what we would want done to us, telling the truth in every situation, understanding acclaim should follow accomplishment and not precede it, and that honest, hard work is a virtue are just a few of these basic ethical norms.
Everyday situations test us, putting us in positions where we must choose either to be true to ourselves or pursue a hypocritical path for pragmatic reasons.
Here’s the deal: When we choose hypocritical pragmatism we jettison any chance of peace at the end of the day. Even if our hypocrisy allows us to win, deep down we know that we’ve lost something much more precious than we’ve gained.
On the other hand, staying true to yourself, regardless of the outcome, allows you to put your head on the pillow knowing you’ve done what was right. You have remained authentic and sincere to the watching world by refusing to bend your values under the weight of opposition. You’ve acted courageously, stayed strong, and remained true to what you believed was right.
America needs thousands, even millions, of people who will recognize the basic values that make for well-ordered society, then adopt a core ethic based on those values and refuse to abandon their convictions in uncomfortable situations.
Martin Luther stands as a model of biblical convictions lived out in ways that transformed his life and ours as well.
Above all we must to our own selves be true. We must build our lives on the truth of God, and then stand firmly and winsomely for the values that spring from it.
It is imperative for righteousness and nobility to reign in us even as we hold fast to the basics of right and wrong. If we are not true to ourselves it is a certainty no one else will be, and pragmatism will continue to make hypocrisy the rule of the day in America.
David Hegg is senior pastor of Grace Baptist Church and a Santa Clarita resident. “Ethically Speaking” runs Saturdays in The Signal. This column is an updated version of one published Oct. 27, 2013. | <urn:uuid:bf45e22d-b0f5-4f98-ba39-ad8eb0dc622e> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://signalscv.com/2016/10/david-w-hegg-living-without-regrets/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296943555.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20230320175948-20230320205948-00483.warc.gz | en | 0.956586 | 951 | 2.625 | 3 | The extract discusses the importance of being true to oneself, highlighting the consequences of hypocrisy and the value of integrity. It explores complex scenarios requiring moral courage and strategic thinking, with a strong emphasis on ethical awareness and personal conviction. The text promotes advanced communication, leadership, and problem-solving skills, mirroring real-world complexity.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 445,897 | 1 |
Racism, religious bigotry, sexism/heterosexism and other forms of cultural oppression and social injustice continue to adversely impact the psychological well-being and healthy development of millions of persons all across the United States. There are individual, organizational-institutional and cultural manifestations of these problems.
Individual forms of racism, religious bigotry and sexism/heterosexism continue to garner the most attention from the media and in the general public. Examples include media coverage of the recent Don Imus controversy (see our column in the May 2007 issue), the Jena Six controversy in Louisiana (see our August 2007 column), the recent incident of a noose being hung on a Black professor’s office door at Columbia University, the subsequent painting of a swastika on a Jewish professor’s door at the same university and the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay student in Wyoming. Perhaps even more insidious than these acts of individual injustice are the perpetuation of more complex and impactful forms of organizational-institutional and cultural racism, religious bigotry, sexism/heterosexism and other forms of cultural oppression.
Our own research indicates that counselors by and large respond to these and other forms of social injustice in three general ways.
Apathetic avoidance. The most common way that many counselor educators, practitioners and students deal with forms of cultural oppression is to move into a state of apathetic avoidance. Researchers such as Derald Wing Sue, Janet Helms, Robert Carter and others have described how counselors’ racial/cultural identity development contributes to the manifestation of such apathy and avoidance despite the increasing evidence of racism, religious bigotry, sexism/heterosexism and other culturally based injustices in our society.
Active resistance. In short, these individuals exhibit strong and active resistance to the suggestion that the counselor’s professional role includes working to ameliorate the injustices listed earlier. We have also observed that some individuals who initially appear to exhibit apathetic avoidance will shift into a mode of active resistance when discussions are initiated about the counselor’s responsibility and role in dealing with these problems.
Open advocacy. We have noted a growing number of persons actively involved in implementing counseling and advocacy services designed to ameliorate complex problems of cultural oppression and social injustices in their work endeavors. The large number of multicultural-social justice programs at several of the past ACA conventions, as well as the emphasis on social justice presentations at the October 2007 Association for Counselor Education and Supervision conference in Columbus, Ohio, signify that an increasing number of counselors and counselor educators are exhibiting open advocacy for the important role our profession can play in addressing these complex problems.
In light of the recent and escalating assaults on the dignity of such persons as Madonna Constantine (an African American professor subjected to the noose hanging at Columbia University) and Elizabeth Midlarsky (a Jewish professor at Columbia), professional counselors are planning to initiate a national project to address these and related injustices. Participants include members of the American Counseling Association, the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development, Counselors for Social Justice and the National Institute for Multicultural Competence. This national project, which will be initiated in February 2008, represents another example of open advocacy.
A national discussion
Counselors, psychologists and other mental health professionals can play important roles in addressing and preventing the adverse psychosocial impact of racism, religious bigotry, xenophobia and other forms of oppression such as sexism, heterosexism, classism, ageism, ableism and so on. To help these professionals become more knowledgeable about what is being done in various communities across the United States to address these issues, NIMC is initiating the National Discussion on Race, Peace and Justice Project. This project involves sponsoring a series of two-hour town hall meetings focused on a broad range of issues related to race, justice and peace, both in our nation and within the counseling profession.
These town hall meetings are designed to serve a threefold purpose:
1. Stimulating discussion about the ways that racism and other forms of cultural oppression continue to be manifested in communities across our nation.
2. Encouraging persons in diverse communities across the United States to describe the psychosocial impact of racism and other forms of cultural oppression manifested in our society.
3. Identifying specific roles and strategies that counselors, psychologists and other mental health professionals can implement to foster a greater level of sanity, justice and peace in our nation by ameliorating the complex problems of racism and other forms of cultural oppression.
The first in a series of national town hall meetings will take place in February 2008 at the Annual Winter Roundtable at Columbia University’s Teachers College. Initiating this national project at this conference in New York City is an important step in addressing the concerns that many counselors have about racism and cultural oppression in general and the recent hate acts at Columbia University in particular. A second town hall meeting to continue the National Discussion on Race, Peace and Justice is being planned to coincide with the ACA Conference in Honolulu in March. Tentative plans are also being made for a third town hall meeting to be held in Boston in August 2008 during the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association. Locations for additional town hall meetings will be announced in the future.
Town hall format
The general format for the two-hour town hall meetings will be as follows:
- (15 minutes) Introductions by the town hall organizers and facilitators; statement of the purpose of this event, outlining the ways in which the town hall meeting will proceed and announcement of future action plans
- (60 minutes) Soliciting input from students, faculty members, mental health professionals and persons from the communities where the town hall meetings are being held regarding (1) specific ways that racism and other forms of cultural oppression continue to be manifested in their local communities, (2) the psychosocial impact these problems have on members of their communities and (3) the projects currently under way to address these injustices
- (30 minutes) Soliciting input from students, faculty members and persons from the communities regarding the specific roles and functions professional counselors, psychologists and other mental health professionals can play in ameliorating the complex problems of racism and other forms of cultural oppression in ways that foster justice and peace in our society
- (15 minutes) Summary of the town hall meeting by the NIMC organizers and facilitators
In addition to facilitating these town hall meetings, the event’s organizers will work with faculty members, students and professionals in the communities where the meetings are being held who might be interested in conducting a qualitative research study of this national project. Four specific questions will be addressed by using qualitative research methods.
Research Question #1: How are the complex problems of racism and other forms of cultural oppression manifested in this community?
Research Question #2: What is the psychosocial impact of racism and other forms of cultural oppression on the persons who make up this community?
Research Question #3: What projects/services are currently being implemented to address the problem of racism and other social injustices that continue to be perpetuated in this community?
Research Question #4: What specific roles can professional counselors, psychologists and other mental health professionals play in fostering a greater level of sanity by ameliorating the complex problems of racism and other forms of cultural oppression in our country in general and within this community in particular?
Research teams will be selected from among students, faculty members and mental health professionals from each of the locations where these events are being held. Selected researchers will be asked to participate in analysis of the qualitative data generated from this study as well as the publication of the results in professional counseling and psychology journals. Another possibility is collaborating to publish a book that reports on this project.
The facilitators of the first town hall meeting to be held in New York City in February 2008 include:
- Edil Torres Rivera, immediate past president of Counselors for Social Justice
- Thomas Parham, former president of the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development
- Michael D’Andrea, president of the Hawaii Counselors Association
- Judy Daniels, National Institute for Multicultural Competence Executive Committee member
- Cirecie West-Olatunji, president of the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development
- Madonna Constantine, multicultural-social justice advocate and professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College
For more information about this national project, contact Michael D’Andrea at [email protected]. | <urn:uuid:c3050761-717b-46d2-a448-d6cfcae5f5ef> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | https://ct.counseling.org/2007/12/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875141396.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20200216182139-20200216212139-00035.warc.gz | en | 0.939061 | 1,741 | 2.703125 | 3 | The extract scores high due to its comprehensive discussion of social injustices, cultural oppression, and the role of counselors in addressing these issues. It presents complex scenarios, integrates emotional intelligence, leadership challenges, and critical thinking opportunities, and emphasizes cultural awareness, digital literacy, and practical application. The town hall meeting format and research questions demonstrate a sophisticated approach to addressing real-world problems.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 349,229 | 1 |
Due to early detection and advances in treatment options, cancer survival rates are slowly improving. Employers are now increasingly faced with the effects of cancer among their workforce, which is why they need to be prepared to continue to provide their employees with a good environment to work in. A cancer diagnosis can affect a person’s career to varying degrees. While some decide to work while receiving treatment, others leave their jobs and return after their cancer treatment ends.
People with cancer are likely to face a number of struggles at the workplace such as having to cope with fatigue, difficulty in remembering and other consequences of treatment. They may also expect obvious or subtle workplace discrimination. They are also most likely to be unemployed as a result of their condition.
An employer should adopt a holistic strategy covering prevention, detection, treatment and reintegration into the workplace. These are some of the things that employers can do to address Cancer in the workplace:
- Education about cancer: No matter how equipped with information we may be, the shock and emotion that comes with knowing a co-worker has cancer is a difficult one to process. Including cancer related training and awareness programs can make employees prepared on how to best respond to the needs of those with cancer. Managers are usually the first person to be contacted if an employee in their team has a positive diagnosis with cancer. Therefore, it is necessary to provide management training to help them understand how to manage these workplace situations. It also gives the employee with cancer the confidence to step forward when diagnosed.
- Meeting legal obligations: Some countries have strict laws relating to illness and disability and its associated discrimination; yet many countries still do not follow them strictly. It is important to educate employees on their rights and make sure that the law is followed. If the company does not have related workplace Policies and procedures, these guidelines should be created to cover sickness absence, long-term conditions, time off work and occupational health policies.
- Health and Well-being programs: Many organizations roll out health and well-being strategies that are focused on a preventative approach. Some programs include: Free or subsidized health screenings, Healthy on-site food, stress management training, flexible or work at home policies, Occupational Therapist consultations, incentives to stop smoking, disease awareness programs, fitness events or on-site gyms and Mental health awareness programs.
- Adjustments at work: Employers can make adjustments to the workplace or working patterns that will have a huge impact on a person with cancer. Different people will need different help at different times and should not be viewed as a one-size fits all solution. Employers should ask the particular employee requesting an adjustment what he/she needs that will help them do their job. It is important to talk to the employee before making adjustments or reducing workload so that they do not feel incapable. Some commonly requested adjustments are:
- Working Hours:
- Creating flexibility in working hours
- Time off for medical appointments without having to be taken off leave pay
- Extra breaks to cope with fatigue and to take medication
- Assistance with a phased return to work, whereby hours are gradually increased over a period of time.
- Place of work:
- Providing a private place to rest and to take medications
- Providing a work from home option
- Moving the place where the employee works, e.g. to a ground floor if they have difficulty climbing stairs.
- Modification of office temperature
- Permission to use telephone to call doctors where a workplace may prohibit personal calls
- The employee could face a sensitivity to smell and would need to avoid cafeterias, strong perfume, aftershave or chemical products, as this can cause nausea particularly if they are having chemotherapy.
- Car parking close to the office can help if they are coping with low energy.
- Job Duties:
- Changing their job descriptions for task that could be physically challenging
- Job sharing, reallocation or redistribution of marginal tasks
- Reassignment to a suitable vacant position
- Involve them in the handover process of their job tasks to another co-worker.
- Working Hours:
- Co-workers: Be aware of the impact of an employee’s cancer diagnosis on the wider team. Co-workers may be concerned about taking on extra workload so it is important to figure out the right level of support required. It is important to remember that living with a terminal illness or surviving cancer is an extreme experience and the individual may be changed by what they have been through – be sensitive to their change.
- Confidentiality & Privacy: Respect the employee’s right to be private about his/her cancer diagnosis and the conditions thereafter. Some people prefer not to talk about their personal lives at work, while others welcome the opportunity. Check with them if they wish to talk about it or let it be known, and how they would like it to be communicated. Ask if they would like to keep in touch when they are off work and decide what would be the best way to do it.
- Discrimination & Harassment: Workplace Polices should focus on discrimination based on health and disability and should promote equal opportunities for all. Employers should make clear that harassment of any kind will not be tolerated based on disability and any such conduct should be reported immediately. Offensive conduct may include, but is not limited to, offensive jokes, slurs, name calling, physical assaults or threats, intimidation, ridicule or mockery, insults or put-downs, offensive objects or pictures, and interference with work performance.
- Dismissal: Dismissal should only be considered after taking a good look if there is a significant risk of substantial harm to the individual and others and all possible adjustments cannot eliminate those risks. These considerations should be made based on objective and factual evidence and with expert medical and occupational advice. However good your intentions, there may be occasions when dismissal seems like the only viable option. It is important to manage the needs of the organization alongside the needs of the employee.
- Supporting the caregiver employee: You may have an employee in your organization who is caring for a cancer patient. They provide unpaid support to someone who cannot manage without their help and is often a family member or a close friend. These employees with care-giving responsibilities are often overlooked by employers. The most widely provided support is in the form of compassionate leave beyond set limits and flexible working time if required to attend medical appointments and other care-giving duties.
It is ultimately the flexibility, goodwill and creative thinking of the employer that will protect the business interests while being supportive to the employee with cancer. There are many ways to go the extra mile on top of allowing them their legal rights.
For our readers living in Kuwait, fill out the Enquiry Form to know more about how we can assist you with your Home Medical Equipment and Home Care Nursing/ Physiotherapy needs.
Macmillan Cancer Support
Work Place Transitions
Cancer Gold Standard | <urn:uuid:5a836e95-f538-4448-888e-f72eb2a09f15> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://blog.alessaonline.com/managing-cancer-at-the-workplace/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224649293.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20230603133129-20230603163129-00743.warc.gz | en | 0.962584 | 1,430 | 2.71875 | 3 | The extract provides a comprehensive guide for employers on supporting employees with cancer, covering topics such as education, legal obligations, health and well-being programs, and adjustments at work. It demonstrates a nuanced understanding of the challenges faced by employees with cancer and offers practical solutions for creating a supportive work environment. The extract also touches on important soft skills such as empathy, communication, and problem-solving, highlighting the need for employers to be flexible and adaptable in their approach.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 610,009 | 1 |
Mars and Venus are bad enough. But Asperger’s Syndrome and non-Asperger’s, or adult ADD and neurotypical? That requires REAL leaps of understanding.
Over the years, I’ve run into more than one couple where one partner is differently abled. Notice I say differently abled, not deficient. People who are “wired differently” often have tremendous strengths. But they also have challenges, and their spouses have challenges until they learn to deal with them and love them as they are.
One idea is to become students of each other’s “culture”. Neurotypicals and people with Asperger’s or ADD need to learn as much as possible about how each other function. For example, the person with Asperger’s likely has challenges predicting the consequences of their behavior on others. The neurotypical person, especially the neurotypical female, wants their spouse to understand them and empathize with how they feel. This can lead to an emotional minefield, as one partner feels misunderstood and unsupported and the other may feel harshly criticized and close down.
There are more males than females with Asperger’s Syndrome – perhaps as many as four times as many. People with Asperger’s may do very well in math, science, computer-related and engineering disciplines, where attention to detail and single-mindedness are great strengths.
ADD and ADHD are also more common in males than females and likewise have advantages as well as disadvantages. Along with symptoms of inattentiveness, people with ADD often have the capacity to hyper-focus on a narrow area they find of particular interest. This can lead to great success in that area. On the other hand, the general forgetfulness and sometimes irritability associated with untreated ADD can be hard on relationships.
Marriage between neurotypical and differently-abled spouses can improve when the focus shifts from what is “wrong” with your partner to what is right. Try to understand the other person’s position. Especially if you are differently-abled, try to meet the complaint with curiousity instead of defensiveness. For the neurotypical, try to see your partner as different but not uncaring. Building on strengths works better than blaming each other.
Threatening to leave whenever you are frustrated is also incredibly destructive. Rather than resorting to threats or name-calling, concentrate on going forward and working on finding solutions you can both live with.
I have other specific tips for couples struggling to understand each other. Call or text me for an appointment and we can see what works best for your situation. | <urn:uuid:7da8b9a7-5544-4e7b-bff8-e0ea04ea3121> | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | http://tammylaber.com/index.php/tammy-s-blog/60-dealing-with-a-spouse-who-thinks-very-differently | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886120573.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20170823152006-20170823172006-00671.warc.gz | en | 0.97603 | 550 | 2.640625 | 3 | This extract earns a high score for its thoughtful discussion of soft skills, particularly empathy, communication, and emotional intelligence, in the context of relationships involving individuals with Asperger's Syndrome, ADD, and neurotypical partners. It promotes understanding, curiosity, and strengths-based approaches to conflict resolution.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 980,182 | 1 |
The Magic School Bus Sees Stars
Field Trip Notes
When the kids see Horace Scope on the Star Shopping Network, they decide to buy Dorothy Ann a star for her birthday. Not wanting to buy something sight unseen, the kids blast off in The Magic School Bus to inspect the merchandise. They visit a young star, and then a middle-age star - but its the third, and last star they decide to buy. But when they give Horace their money, KABLOOM! the star explodes! Does this mean their star is gone forever?
Time: 30 minutes
Group Size: 4
Dorothy Ann has a nifty new telescope, but she still enjoys looking at the stars with eye power alone. You kids report star counts and explore why we dont see stars during the day.
What You Need
For the Class
Ahead of time: Encourage students to do the Star Count activity with their families. Set a date for Star Count reports.
Talk About It
Let students report results of their Star Counts. Ask: Who saw the most stars? The least? Why did some see less stars the n others did? (Light from surroundings or a bright moon fades out some stars.)
What To Do
Make a sky map of favorite constellations students see at night.
This site contains information and advertising about Scholastic and third party products. | <urn:uuid:34b4dba1-538f-4db4-b4fd-d018ab6d996a> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://www.scholastic.com/magicschoolbus/parentteacher/activities/stars.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386164938822/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204134858-00076-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93039 | 283 | 2.890625 | 3 | The extract provides a basic framework for a lesson on stars, encouraging student participation and discussion. It touches on teamwork through group activities, but lacks depth in soft skills development, emotional intelligence, and complex problem-solving. The scenario is straightforward, with limited opportunities for nuanced interaction or critical thinking.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 451,321 | 0 |
The countries which regulate fishing in the Antarctic have been unable to agree on creating a giant marine sanctuary in the region.
The US and New Zealand had submitted a joint proposal to protect the Ross Sea, considered one of the most pristine oceans in the world.
Some nations remain concerned, however, that it would have too much impact on their catches of toothfish, which are marketed as Chilean sea bass.
The 24 nations and the European Union finished two weeks of meetings in Australia without coming to any agreement on the sanctuary proposal.
The countries will meet again next July to further consider the idea.
Earlier this week, New Zealand and the US finally resolved two years of negotiations over sanctuary boundaries and rules.
Scientists say an Alaska-sized sanctuary would make an ideal place to monitor climate change away from the influence of man while conservationists say the thriving colonies of seals and penguins should be left alone.
Fishing captains say their catch is relatively small and sustainable, and they want to keep the status quo. The joint proposal would have banned fishing altogether in some areas and allowed modest fishing in others, reflecting an uneasy compromise between the groups.
But at the meeting some nations, including Russia, Ukraine and China, balked at the proposal. They feared it would have too much impact on their annual haul of toothfish.
"It's disappointing but not entirely surprising," said Murray McCully, New Zealand's minister of foreign affairs. He said he plans to discuss the outcome soon with US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who has taken a close personal interest in the issue. Mr McCully said that after the US elections he plans to devise a lobbying strategy with senior US officials to try and get the proposal passed at the meeting next July. | <urn:uuid:fce67fe7-9564-4f7e-b337-bc6fb189de96> | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | http://laptopbattery-homes.over-blog.com/article-antarctic-marine-plan-is-rejected-112019612.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886107487.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20170821022354-20170821042354-00708.warc.gz | en | 0.973067 | 351 | 2.625 | 3 | The extract lacks direct discussion of soft skills, but indirectly showcases teamwork, negotiation, and communication through the international meeting and proposal process. It highlights conflicting interests and the need for compromise, demonstrating basic elements of critical thinking and problem-solving. However, it does not delve deeply into emotional intelligence, leadership, or advanced digital literacy.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 979,893 | 0 |
Teaching Adult ESL LearnersYi Yang
Massachusetts Department of Education (Massachusetts, USA)
This is an article about the author's experience teaching a class of immigrants to the United States of America and a description of some of the techniques the author used.
IntroductionAccording to the U.S. Census data, of the 26.4 million immigrants in the U.S., almost 80 percent are adults (Starr, 2001). Consequently, English as a Second Language (ESL) has become the fastest growing segment in federally funded adult education programs (Pugsley, 1998). Many of the adult ESL learners do not have much schooling in their home country, and therefore, lack appropriate study skills important for academic success. In addition, they tend to face tremendous financial distress and family responsibilities that oftentimes prevent them from concentrating on their studies. Teaching them can be a significant challenge for the teacher and curriculum developer.
The ClassAll the students had immigrated into the U.S. as adults and their highest educational attainment was high school. All had completed basic and intermediate ESL courses at a government-sponsored program. This course aimed to teach job-related skills as well as other essential everyday life skills. The following are some strategies that I found to be effective in teaching adult ESL learners.
Listen to Students' NeedsEducators have long acknowledged the power of learners' voices in improving teaching and learning (Fullan and Stiegelbauer, 1991). Since I had never taught this type of students before, I deemed it necessary to learn about their needs and preferences. I designed a simple questionnaire consisting of two parts.
The first part was about course content, where I asked the specific skills students wished to learn, for example, talking to a doctor, getting along with colleagues & supervisors, filling out job applications, etc.
The second part was concerned with teaching approaches, which explored students' opinions on some traditional Chinese as well as contemporary Western teaching methods such as reading aloud after the teacher, detailed grammar analysis, using some Chinese in the classroom, pair work and group work, etc.
For both parts, I left ample spaces for students to add more of their opinions.
During the first class, I administered the questionnaire to students and their answers provided good guideline for my plans for the course content and classroom pedagogy.
Set Higher Expectations with Individual SupportThese students all had families to support and were all holding blue-collar jobs such as waitress, cashier, and cook. Their previous teachers seldom assigned them any homework, due to the non-credit, voluntary nature of the course and the demanding lifestyle of the students. However, I believe that language acquisition for adults does not happen naturally and effortlessly. Although all the students had lived in the U.S. for over seven years, I assessed their English proficiency to be still at the basic level based on our oral interactions and their written responses to my questionnaire. I decided it was time to give them some pressure and help them to achieve some breakthrough.
I announced during the second class that while I understood their busy schedules, I considered it was likely that everyone could squeeze in 15 minutes a day to study. I assigned homework for every class, and checked it at the beginning of next class. I found most students were willing, or even happy, to be pushed to learn. They had great motivation to improve their English, as they yearned for a better life in the U.S.
Of course, parallel to the higher expectations should be sufficient guidance and support. I arrived at school half an hour before every class to answer students' individual questions. I also encouraged them to approach me during the break or after class. When returning their homework assignments, I made sure to explain to the students in person about their individual problems and difficulties.
Teach Study SkillsWhile these students were eager to learn, they complained of not knowing how to learn. For example, they said they tried to watch TV or listen to the radio, but found literally no improvements after some time. I think good study skills will help them to learn more effectively. Therefore, during the second class, I introduced to them some self-learning strategies, derived from my own experiences as an ESL learner, teacher, and researcher. These include:
- First, read aloud from a text slowly, preferably repeating after a recording. Reading aloud slowly forces the learner to pronounce every sound clearly, and thus develops the flexibility of the speech organs. Reading after a recording helps the learner to imitate correct pronunciation. In my previous ESL research, many Chinese learners said reading a text aloud repeatedly until they could memorize the text enabled them to develop a sense about the natural flow of the language and made many language structures handy for use in speaking or writing.
- Second, find materials conforming to the students' English level. Language input far beyond the learner's level (e.g., original movies, TV and radio programs) will result in no comprehension, and therefore, no persistence by the learner. Students should make good use of the textbooks used in their ESL courses, instead of throwing them away after finishing the course. In addition, they can find abundant ESL resources of various levels in the public library.
- Third, keep an English diary, which is a persistent, economical way of practicing in English. I told the students that I started to write English diaries after having taken English for just one semester in sixth grade in China. At that time, I had only learned some basic grammatical structures and had a very small vocabulary. In my diary, I had to use many Chinese expressions to substitute for the unknown English words, but I made a conscious effort to use words and structures newly learned in class. In a few years, I was able to write very long pieces exclusively in English. More important, I could think directly in English; therefore, writing much faster and more naturally than my classmates who seldom wrote.
Promote Whole Language DevelopmentIn the questionnaire as well as our informal conversations, students expressed the strong desire to improve every aspect of English proficiency, including listening, speaking, reading, writing, and grammar. These needs conform to the growing movement toward whole language instruction in second language education, which refers to "the simultaneous, integrated teaching of listening, speaking, reading, and writing within a meaningful context" (Acuna-Reyes, 1993, p. 25).
I believe that developing the four language arts skills simultaneously is not only an ideal goal of ESL teaching, but also an effective means. Listening and reading are indispensable for inputting language information. But these are passive processes. If learners can actually use the language in their own speaking and/or writing, they will need to actively process the information and thus reinforce and activate the language input. The concurrent visual and auditory stimulations make retaining information more effective and efficient.
The textbook we chose was excellent in incorporating academic and work skills with the four language arts skills. Each unit consists of an ice-breaking conservation that draws upon the students' prior experience, a dictation that summarizes the central topic and integrates the grammar focus of the unit, a passage taken from an authentic newspaper, vocabulary and grammar exercises, and a writing task.
Of course, I did experience some resistance at the very beginning. First, these students seemed very shy, and despite my repeated encouragement, they did not actively talk to each other in class. Many language teachers have observed such passivity and shyness in their Asian students (Scovel, 1983; Yen, 1987). My solution was to "force" them to leave their seats and stand in the open space of the classroom. I then paired them up, myself being one of the participants. I found the classroom immediately became noisy, and students seemed very happy to stretch their legs and talk to each other face to face.
Another problem I found at the beginning of the course was that almost every student brought with them an electronic dictionary. When they read the articles in class, they liked to look up every word in the dictionary, thus reading very slowly. I was not annoyed by the beeping sounds from the little machines, but I concurred with some ESL researchers that such word-for-word reading not only lowers learners' reading fluency, but also interferes with their understanding of the main ideas (Fan, 1991). Asking them to put the dictionary away did not work, as they seemed to feel very insecure without knowing the meaning of every word. Therefore, I decided to assign them a time limit (15-20 minutes), followed by a group discussion of the questions I raised on the chalkboard. I did not simply ask the main idea of each paragraph or the whole passage. Instead, I asked them to summarize the useful suggestions in the text as related to real-life skills (e.g., do's and don'ts for a job interview, effective ways in making small talk) with simple bullet points. I required each group to list at least one point on the chalkboard. Students found these tips extremely concise and practical. As soon as they realized that they could make good use of the text without knowing every word, they relied less on the dictionary and achieved noticeable improvements in reading speed and summary skills.
SummaryDuring the course, I found students not only improved their language proficiency, but also became more conscientious about their study. Most students could finish homework on time; many of them arrived earlier before class to let me comment on their diaries; several developed the habit of rewriting to address their grammar problems. At the end of the course, most students said this was the most useful ESL course they had ever taken. This class was effective in addressing students' needs, setting higher expectations, providing individual support, introducing study skills, and promoting integrated language proficiency.
- Acuna-Reyes, R. (1993). Communicative competence and whole language instruction in the foreign language secondary school classroom. In A. Carrasquillo & C. Hedley (Eds.), Whole language and the bilingual learner (pp. 20-34). Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Company.
- Fan, X. L. (1991). Using the process approach to reading in an EFL class. Journal of Reading, 34 (8), 624-627.
- Fullan, M. G. & Stiegelbauer, S. (1991). The new meaning of educational change. New York: Teachers College Press.
- Pugsley, R. S. (1998). Research agenda for adult ESL. Center for Applied Linguistics. http://www.cal.org/ncle/agenda/fore.html.
- Scovel, J. (1983). English teaching in China: A historical perspective. Language Learning and Communication, 2 (1), 105-109.
- Starr, L., (2001). ESL lessons for adult students. Education World. http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/tech074.shtml.
- Yen, R. T. (1987). Foreign language teaching in China: Problems and perspectives. Canadian and International Education, 16 (1), 48-61.
The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. XI, No. 3, March 2005 | <urn:uuid:e8f28fa9-35f1-4c00-8a6f-b1e168b503cb> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Yang-AdultLearners.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296948868.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20230328170730-20230328200730-00334.warc.gz | en | 0.964018 | 2,328 | 2.65625 | 3 | The extract discusses the author's experience teaching adult ESL learners, highlighting effective strategies such as listening to students' needs, setting higher expectations, and promoting whole language development. It demonstrates a nuanced understanding of adult learners' challenges and incorporates realistic scenarios, emotional intelligence, and critical thinking opportunities. The article also showcases cultural awareness and digital literacy, although these elements are not deeply explored.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 355,204 | 0 |
EPA Proposes Accelerating Nutrient Reductions
Recent action at the state and federal levels indicates more regulatory controls for phosphorous and nitrogen are coming soon.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a Nutrient Reduction Memorandum recently announcing the agency's intent to deepen partnerships with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), continue its work with states and tribes on nutrient reduction strategies, and use powers under the Clean Water Act (CWA) to address nutrient pollution. Relatedly, Missouri has already circulated a draft rule proposing phosphorus limits for individual discharge permits for all industrial dischargers with phosphorus in typical discharge as well as domestic point sources with a flow exceeding 1,000 gallons per day.
EPA's Nutrient Reduction Memorandum
After identifying impacts of nutrient pollution to recreational waters, drinking water, and aquatic ecosystems such as the “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico, EPA has been working with states for decades to develop water quality standards for nitrogen and phosphorus. This effort has been slow as states, especially Midwest states, attempt to reconcile nutrient regulations with significant agriculture uses, many of which are exempt from dredge and fill and non-point source requirements under the CWA. While specific tactics are still developing, EPA indicates it plans to use the following principles to guide efforts over the coming years:
- Advancing equity and environmental justice
- Building and fostering partnerships
- Following the science and investing in data-driven solutions
- Supporting innovation
In addition to geographic areas of focus, EPA continues to focus on environmental justice in connection with nutrient effluents. EPA connects nutrient pollution and economic impacts to environmental justice communities and prioritizes support for small, rural and disadvantaged groups, especially where local resources are insufficient make nutrient reduction improvements.
Environmental Justice (EJ) is one of the five governing principles EPA names to guide its work to reduce nutrient pollution. The focus on EJ communities and water is consistent with other actions by the EPA. As an example, on March 8, 2022, EPA announced significant investment in drinking water with a focus on disadvantaged communities, including both urban and rural communities. In September 2021, EPA issued its Near-term Actions to Support Environmental Justice in the Nonpoint Source Program Memo, which will also be leveraged as part of EPA's prioritization of EJ areas for nutrient reductions.
Partnership with U.S. Department of Agriculture and Industry Stakeholders
In its Nutrient Reduction Memorandum, EPA commits to deepen its collaborative partnership with the USDA to expand the agencies’ joint capacity to evaluate water quality impacts of USDA’s investments under the Farm Bill and better understand the impacts from specific watersheds. EPA's goal is to provide better data to assist USDA in targeting funding to locations and practices that will result in the most significant nutrient reductions from agricultural sources, particularly in areas where agriculture is a major contributor to water quality concerns. EPA will also work with USDA to promote conservation practices to increase farm income and sustainability while improving watershed quality in agricultural areas.
Watershed Assessments and TMDLs
The memo describes EPA's efforts to encourage states and tribes to use a One Water approach to protect drinking water sources, as well as ecosystem health and other water quality benefits. EPA indicates it will actively support states in developing and implementing nutrient reduction strategies, including expanding the use of watershed tools to identify source areas, track the adoption of nutrient reduction practices, and provide data to quantify progress in nutrient reduction.
Specifically, EPA indicates it will use the CWA’s assessment and listing process for waterbodies to support development of Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for nutrient pollution in impaired watersheds and promulgate revised effluent limitation guidelines (ELGs) for specific industries with higher nutrient contributions. Both Kansas and Missouri have lists of applicable TMDLs, available here: Kansas TMDLs & Missouri TMDLs. EPA also aims to increase the number of individual point source permits with nutrient limits and incentivize nutrient credit purchasing from industry and agriculture through collaboration.
Finally, the memo announces eventual rulemaking to authorize National Pollutant Discharge Elimination Systems (NPDES) permitting programs to include market-based approaches like water quality trading and third-party credit aggregation to meet applicable effluent limitations. EPA did not specify an expected date that it would begin the process of rulemaking.
What the memo lacks in concrete detail, EPA makes up for in promises of additional guidance for states related to EPA's existing authority of the CWA. EPA has already issued a similar memo related to EPA's expectation for the use of state revolving funds (SRFs) that will receive Infrastructure Law funds to address and mitigate nutrient pollution impacts in small, rural communities. The memo promises rulemaking to explicitly allow NPDES programs to include market-based approaches like water quality trading and third-party credit aggregation to meet applicable effluent limitations.
EPA expects its strategy will lead to a more robust adoption and implementation of numeric nutrient criteria in states and expanded numeric criteria to more bodies of water. Changes to regulations and permitting strategies in Missouri have already begun, as an example. Missouri already has a nutrient management plan and an established foundation for a water quality trading framework. However, Missouri’s adopted numeric criteria for nitrogen, which only apply to lakes and reservoirs, could be expanded to include other water body types. Second, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) could be required to incorporate any industry-specific ELGs into the states regulations and individual permits. Third, Missouri could add a phosphorus limit. In fact, MDNR has started proposing phosphorus limits for permits in the renewal process and has informally circulated a draft rule that would add phosphorus limits on individual discharge permits for all industrial dischargers with phosphorus in typical discharge as well as domestic point sources with a flow exceeding 1,000 gallons per day. MDNR indicated it may issue a proposed phosphorous rule as soon as December 2022, which could be effective as early as August 2023 though as currently contemplated, the earliest compliance date is 2029.
Funding Innovative Approaches Under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
EPA states its intent to use funding sources under the recently enacted Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to accelerate progress for nutrient reduction under specific program where projects are already defined, such as the Chesapeake Bay program, the Gulf Hypoxia Task Force for the Mississippi River basin, and the National Estuary Program watersheds program. Significantly, the EPA’s focus on the Mississippi River basin will likely impact all 15 states that border or contain the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers; as well as metropolitan areas in Kansas City, Omaha, Minneapolis, Jefferson City and St. Louis.
Planning ahead is key to managing compliance with new state and federal nutrient reduction requirements, including more stringent best management practices and effluent limitations. Successful planning includes becoming familiar with state nutrient plans to identify watersheds of highest concern, whether the receiving water body has been (or is proposed to be) listed a 303(d) list for nutrients or whether a TMDL exists or is currently under development. In Region 7, that includes the Missouri Department of Natural Resources' Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy, the Kansas’s Department of Health and Environment's Surface Water Nutrient Reduction Plan, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources' Nutrient Reduction Strategy, and the Nebraska Nutrient Management Plan. Engaging with the agencies during their respective rulemakings, 303(d) listing and TMDL processes prior to permitting will help entities develop feasible permit conditions. Finally, becoming informed of potential infrastructure funding sources under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law may help offset economic impacts of costly nutrient reduction requirements moving forward.
News & Insights | <urn:uuid:a0326d5f-8033-4ee1-8b3e-d498f75f5d3f> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://www.stinson.com/newsroom-publications-EPA-Proposes-Accelerating-Nutrient-Reductions | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224649193.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20230603101032-20230603131032-00758.warc.gz | en | 0.926736 | 1,595 | 2.796875 | 3 | The extract lacks discussion of soft skills, focusing on environmental policy and regulation. It provides information on EPA's nutrient reduction efforts, but does not address communication, teamwork, or leadership skills. The content is informative, but limited to technical and regulatory aspects, without practical application or nuanced interaction.
Educational score: 1 | 1 | 0 | 753,909 | 0 |
The Baldwin County Grasses In Classes Program
The Baldwin County Grasses in Classes (BCGIC) Program coordinates and sustains a network of teachers, students, restoration specialists, and other community members to plan and implement restoration of coastal environments in Baldwin County, Alabama.
The program is helping restore Alabama's coastal habitats, while providing high school students with the opportunity to work with environmental professionals to solve real world ecological problems.
* Over 1,000 new students from Baldwin County, Daphne, Gulf Shores, Fairhope, Foley, Robertsdale and Spanish Fort High Schools participate in the BCGIC program each school year.
* Students have now planted over 21,000 native plants at public access sites throughout Baldwin County.
* Restoration sites include: Little Lagoon in Gulf Shores, Fish River at Weeks Bay NERR, Perdido Pass Beach, the pavilion at Gulf State Park, Five Rivers Delta Resource Center, Camp Beckwith on Weeks Bay, and the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge on Fort Morgan.
* Students and community volunteers have logged more than 3,500 hours conducting restoration projects since the BCGIC Program began in 2005.
Gulf State Park Before Planting (above)
Gulf State Park After Planting (above)
For more information on the Baldwin County Grasses in Classes program, contact Weeks Bay Ed. Coordinator, Margaret Sedlecky. | <urn:uuid:03d5e549-e477-45c4-8fd9-b57ca7e229b5> | CC-MAIN-2014-10 | http://www.outdooralabama.com/public-lands/stateLands/WeeksBay/Education/K-12/Grasses%20In%20Classes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1394011352596/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305092232-00015-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.888695 | 295 | 2.640625 | 3 | The extract showcases a community-based program that provides students with hands-on experience in environmental restoration, promoting teamwork, problem-solving, and real-world application. However, it lacks explicit discussion of soft skills, nuanced interaction, and complex problem-solving opportunities. The program's focus on practical application and community involvement earns it some points, but its limited scope and lack of depth in soft skills development hold it back.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 830,507 | 0 |
Music in Non-Music Classrooms.
I'm sure as teachers we've all used music and lyrics in one way or another in the classroom. And I'm sure as students we always wished that our teachers would use music and lyrics in the classroom. One of my goals is to read screenplays in the classroom with my students.
I think the Terminator 2 screenplay is something of substance and depth. It touches on many themes such as humanity & technology, dealing with personal demons, the consequences of our actions, how one can redeem themselves, and the idea of fate and can it be changed or not. You get the point.
Back to the topic at hand. I'm a big advocate of using music and song lyrics in the classroom. Song lyrics can serve as bridges that allow students to make deeper connections or to understand a piece of literature better. I have used Jimmy Webb's "Highwayman" when teaching literary elements/terms. Heck, I even used the Nine Inch Nails' song, "Hurt" to emphasize the suffering of Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter.
Now for the centerpiece, I've taught Macbeth twice and both times I've used the lyrics from Jag Panzer's record Thane to the Throne to help my students develop an understanding of poor ol' Macbeth.
Here are some links to the lyrics of some of the songs:
This is a link to the lyrics of the first song on Thane to the Throne, which is shares its name with the record www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/jagpanzer/thanetothethrone.html#1.
Here's a link to the song "Three Voices of Fate:" www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/jagpanzer/thanetothethrone.html#8
Finally, here's another link to the song, "The Tragedy of Macbeth:" www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/jagpanzer/thanetothethrone.html#17
Photo taken from www.jagpanzer.com/ | <urn:uuid:9d923c0e-175d-44d1-9efd-528886d8b1eb> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://youthvoices.net/discussion/music-non-music-classrooms | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368699730479/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516102210-00022-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951269 | 434 | 2.9375 | 3 | The extract demonstrates a creative approach to teaching literary elements using music and song lyrics, showcasing superficial coverage of basic communication and teamwork concepts. It lacks depth in soft skills development, problem-solving, and cultural awareness.
Educational score: 1 | 1 | 0 | 169,127 | 0 |
Written by George Friedman
June 17, 2008
By George Friedman
The creation of a European state was severely wounded if not killed last week. The Irish voted against a proposed European Union treaty that included creation of a full-time president, increased power to pursue a European foreign policy and increased power for Europe’s parliament. Since the European constitutional process depends on unanimous consent by all 27 members, the Irish vote effectively sinks this version of the new constitution, much as Dutch and French voters sank the previous version in 2005.
The Irish vote was not a landslide. Only 54 percent of the voters cast their ballots against the constitution. But that misses the point. Whether it had been 54 percent for or against the constitution, the point was that the Irish were deeply divided. In every country, there is at least a substantial minority that opposes the constitution. Given that all 27 EU countries must approve the constitution, the odds against some country not sinking it are pretty long. The Europeans are not going to get a strengthened constitution this way.
But the deeper point is that you can’t create a constitution without a deep consensus about needing it. Even when there is — as the United States showed during its Civil War — critical details not settled by consensus can lead to conflict. In the case of the United States, the issues of the relative power of states and the federal government, along with the question of slavery, ripped the country apart. They could only be settled by war and a series of amendments to the U.S. Constitution forced through by the winning side after the war.
The Constitutional Challenge
Creating a constitution is not like passing a law — and this treaty was, in all practical terms, a constitution. Constitutions do not represent public policy, but a shared vision of the regime and the purpose of the nation. The U.S. Constitution was born in battle. It emerged from a long war of independence and from the lessons learned in that war about the need for a strong executive to wage war, a strong congress to allocate funds and raise revenue, and a judiciary to interpret the constitution. War, along with the teachings of John Locke, framed the discussions in Philadelphia, because the founders’ experience in a war where there was only a congress and no president convinced them of the need for a strong executive. And even that was not enough to prevent civil war over the issue of state sovereignty versus federal sovereignty. Making a constitution is hard.
The European constitution was also born in battle, but in a different way. For centuries, the Europeans had engaged in increasingly savage wars. The question they wanted to address was how to banish war from Europe. In truth, that decision was not in their hands, but in the hands of Americans and Soviets. But the core issue remained: how to restrain European savagery. The core idea was relatively simple. European wars arose from European divisions; and, for centuries, those divisions ran along national lines. If a United States of Europe could be created on the order of the United States of America, then the endless battling of France, Germany and England would be eliminated.
In the exhaustion of the postwar world — really lasting through the lives of the generation that endured World War II — the concept was deeply seductive. Europe after World War II was exhausted in every sense. It allowed its empires to slip away with a combination of indifference and relief. What Europeans wanted postwar was to make a living and be left alone by ideology and nationalism; they had experienced quite enough of those two. Even France under the influence of Charles de Gaulle, the champion of the idea of the nation-state and its interests, could not arouse a spirit of nationalism anywhere close to what had been.
There is a saying that some people are exhausted and confuse their state with virtue. If that is true, then it is surely true of Europe in the last couple of generations. The European Union reflected these origins. It began as a pact — the European Community — of nations looking to reduce tariff barriers. It evolved into a nearly Europe-wide grouping of countries bound together in a trade bloc, with many of those countries sharing a common currency. Its goal was not the creation of a more perfect union, or, as the Americans put it, a “novus ordo seclorum.” It was not to be the city on the hill. Its commitment was to a more prosperous life, without genocide. Though not exactly inspiring, given the brutality of European history, it was not a trivial goal.
The problem was that when push came to shove, the European Community evolved into the European Union, which consisted of four things:
Rejecting a European Regime
The Irish referendum was all about transforming the fourth category into a regime. The Irish rejected it not because they objected to the first three sets of solutions — they have become the second-wealthiest country in Europe per capita under their aegis. They objected to it because they did not want to create a European regime. As French and Dutch voters have said before, the Irish said they want a free trade zone. They will put up with the Brussels bureaucracy even though its intrusiveness and lack of accountability troubles them. They can live with a single currency so long as it does not simply become a prisoner of German and French economic policy. But they do not want to create a European state.
The French and German governments do want to create such a state. As with the creation of the United States, the reasons have to do with war, past and future. Franco-German animosity helped created the two world wars of the 20th century. Those two powers now want a framework for preventing war within Europe. They also — particularly the French — want a vehicle for influencing the course of world events. In their view, the European Union, as a whole, has a gross domestic product comparable to that of the United States. It should be the equal of the United States in shaping the world. This isn’t simply a moral position, but a practical one. The United States throws its weight around because it can, frequently harming Europe’s interests. The French and Germans want to control the United States.
To do this, they need to move beyond having an economic union. They need to have a European foreign and defense policy. But before they can have that, they need a European government that can carry out this policy. And before they can have a European government they must have a European regime, before which they must have a European constitution that enumerates the powers of the European president, parliament and courts. They also need to specify how these officials will be chosen.
The French and Germans would welcome all this if they could get it. They know, given population, economic power and so on, that they would dominate the foreign policy created by a European state. Not so the Irish and Danes; they understand they would have little influence on the course of European foreign policy. They already feel the pain of having little influence on European economic policy, particularly the policies of the European Central Bank (ECB). Even the French public has expressed itself in the 2006 election about fears of Brussels and the ECB. But for countries like Ireland and Denmark, each of which fought very hard to create and retain their national sovereignty, merging into a Europe in which they would lose their veto power to a European parliamentary and presidential system is an appalling prospect.
Economists always have trouble understanding nationalism. To an economist, all human beings are concerned with maximizing their own private wealth. Economists can never deal with the empirical fact that this simply isn’t true. Many Irish fought against being cogs in a multinational British Empire. The Danes fought against being absorbed by Germany. The prospect of abandoning the struggle for national sovereignty to Europe is not particularly pleasing, even if it means economic advantage.
Europe is not going to become a nation-state in the way the United States is. It is increasingly clear that Europeans are not going to reach a consensus on a European constitution. They are not in agreement on what European institutions should look like, how elections should be held and, above all, about the relation between individual nations and a central government. The Europeans have achieved all they are going to achieve. They have achieved a free trade zone with a regulatory body managing it. They have created a currency that is optional to EU members, and from which we expect some members to withdraw from at times while others join in. There will be no collective European foreign or defense policy simply because the Europeans do not have a common interest in foreign and defense policy.
Paris Reads the Writing on the Wall
The French have realized this most clearly. Once the strongest advocates of a federated Europe, the French under President Nicolas Sarkozy have started moving toward new strategies. Certainly, they remain committed to the European Union in its current structure, but they no longer expect it to have a single integrated foreign and defense policy. Instead, the French are pursuing initiatives by themselves. One aspect of this involves drawing closer to the United States on some foreign policy issues. Rather than trying to construct a single Europe that might resist the United States — former President Jacques Chirac’s vision — the French are moving to align themselves to some degree with American policies. Iran is an example.
The most intriguing initiative from France is the idea of a Mediterranean union drawing together the countries of the Mediterranean basin, from Algeria to Israel to Turkey. Apart from whether these nations could coexist in such a union, the idea raises the question of whether France (or Italy or Greece) can simultaneously belong to the European Union and another economic union. While questions — such as whether North African access to the French market would provide access to the rest of the European Union — remain to be answered, the Germans have strongly rejected this French vision.
The vision derives directly from French geopolitical reality. To this point, the French focus has been on France as a European country whose primary commitment is to Europe. But France also is a Mediterranean country, with historical ties and interests in the Mediterranean basin. France’s geographical position gives it options, and it has begun examining those options independent of its European partners.
The single most important consequence of the Irish vote is that it makes clear that European political union is not likely to happen. It therefore forces EU members to consider their own foreign and defense policies — and, therefore, their own geopolitical positions. Whether an economic union can survive in a region of political diversity really depends on whether the diversity evolves into rivalry. While that has been European history, it is not clear that Europe has the inclination to resurrect national rivalries.
At the same time, if France does pursue interests independent of the Germans, the question will be this: Will the mutual interest in economic unity override the tendency toward political conflict? The idea was that Europe would moot the question by creating a federation. That isn’t going to happen, so the question is on the table. And that question can be framed simply: When speaking of political and military matters, is it reasonable any longer to use the term Europe to denote a single entity? Europe, as it once was envisioned, appears to have disappeared in Ireland.
Tell Stratfor What You Think
Stratfor is the world’s leading online publisher of geopolitical intelligence. Our global team of intelligence professionals provides our Members with insights into political, economic, and military developments to reduce risks, to identify opportunities, and to stay aware of happenings around the globe. | <urn:uuid:fd3a1842-081d-4fdb-ab66-6b3f8f1c3586> | CC-MAIN-2014-10 | http://www.rightsidenews.com/2008061728121/world/geopolitical/the-problem-with-europe/print.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1394021763647/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305121603-00081-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.967817 | 2,338 | 2.734375 | 3 | The extract lacks direct discussion of soft skills, focusing on geopolitical analysis and European Union dynamics. However, it indirectly touches on aspects like critical thinking, problem-solving, and cultural awareness through its examination of complex political scenarios and historical context.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 706,205 | 0 |
This module is written in a similar format as the other WATI assessment process modules. However, through experience the authors have found that when assessing the need for assistive technology of students with complex needs, the adults around them need to spend more time asking the right questions about how their students are affected by their multiple disabilities and how their environment needs to be engineered to meet their unique needs. For example, the meaning of their limited movements are sometimes subtle and can be missed without careful observation.
This module uses the format of the AT Decision-Making Process to present questions that will help develop an understanding of the student and his or her environment. Instead of a continuum of tools, the module provides a tool belt of resources to help answer questions for which answers are still lacking. Subsequently, use the WATI assessment process modules to identify tasks and tools. This module is the first of two parts. The second part, AT for Students With Complex Needs - WATI, focuses on communication supports, essential elements for successful use of AT, and active involvement in school settings.
- What's Included
- 33 pages
- Optional $15 certficate
- Identify when additional information about a student is needed.
- Describe what "learned helplessness" is and implement strategies to prevent "learned helplessness."
- Explain the role of staff attitude on quality programming for students with CN.
- Describe the key elements of a responsive educational environment.
- Identify at least one tool that assists in program development.
Modules on this site are always free. If you would like proof of completion, you can purchase a certificate when you have successfully completed this module. The certificate will provide contact hours for this module.
Graduate credit for courses is available through OCALI's partnership with Ashland University. Access information about course options and semester dates in the Search. | <urn:uuid:a6f2a493-e09f-4318-a275-66204e90a507> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://atinternetmodules.org/m/818 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224647895.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20230601143134-20230601173134-00391.warc.gz | en | 0.94203 | 395 | 3.109375 | 3 | This extract scores 4 points as it discusses soft skills such as communication, teamwork, and problem-solving in the context of assistive technology for students with complex needs. It presents realistic scenarios, integrates emotional intelligence, and critical thinking opportunities, with a strong emphasis on cultural awareness and digital literacy. However, it falls short of a perfect score as it lacks seamless integration of advanced communication, leadership, and problem-solving scenarios that mirror real-world complexity.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 919,511 | 1 |
Click on a picture to see a larger version - press "back" to return to this page after viewing.
Family: Salicaceae, Willow Family
Blooms in Spring
Habitat Preferred: Edge Riparian
Photo taken at: Tuzigoot Bridge (leaves) and Deadhorse Ranch State Park (tree, bark) 9/99
Bloom Color: Male - Yellow to red catkins, Female - Green clusters of small flowers
Other Common Names: Cottonwood
Comments: This is the common Cottonwood of the Verde Valley, and most of Arizona. Cottonwoods provide very important habitat for many birds. Cottonwoods get their name from the profusion of cotton-like seeds that they shed every spring.
Further Reference & Sources: "A Field Guide to the Plants of Arizona", Anne Orth Epple, 1995, Falcon Press | <urn:uuid:0b06e8cf-fbcc-4bf5-9738-f4fe4e6ec5e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.naturesongs.com/vvplants/cottonwood.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368703334458/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516112214-00099-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.8351 | 176 | 2.65625 | 3 | The extract lacks discussion of soft skills, focusing solely on botanical information. There are no communication, teamwork, or problem-solving scenarios, and no elements of cultural awareness or digital literacy are present.
Educational score: 0 | 0 | 0 | 193,359 | 0 |
Listen to the interview with Shveta Miller (transcript):
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There is no shortage of ways we all can benefit from teaching graphic novels. They engage reluctant or struggling readers, they are gateway texts for more complex literature, they build necessary background knowledge, and they develop visual literacy skills.
But another important reason to teach students to read, analyze, and create a graphic novel is that the form invites them to express hard truths about themselves and their experiences in a way that is different from what they can do with pure prose.
And perhaps a more surprising reason is for the impact it can have on a teacher’s relationship with students. Teaching the graphic novel to my high school English students was a way for me to see that there was pain in my classroom and the role I might be playing in students’ difficult experiences.
How the Graphic Novel Form Inspires Deeply Personal Storytelling
I taught my first unit on the graphic novel in my high school World Literature classes. We read Marjane Satrapi’s graphic memoir Persepolis (Amazon | Bookshop.org), in which a young Marji describes her experience growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. For their culminating project, students created their own graphic memoirs about a significant experience in their lives, using Persepolis as their mentor text.
As I turned page after page of each student’s story, I discovered that this unit had accomplished a goal I never intended. I didn’t expect so many students to delve into deeply personal, often traumatic, experiences from their past. I had read engaging personal narratives from students before, but this was different. Some used the project to announce an aspect of their identity they had kept secret. Others revealed the reasons behind certain challenging behaviors they exhibited in class. They created stories that would be healing for them and, in some cases, for their relationships with me.
What is it about the graphic novel form that made this possible?
Cartoons Invite Empathy
Anyone who has opened a comic or graphic novel before would immediately recognize that cartoon drawings are a defining feature of the medium. While a photograph or portrait tends towards realistic depiction, a cartoon leans more toward an abstract, iconic representation of a person, object, place, or idea. (Think of how a circle with two dots and a curve for a smile represents a happy person.)
In Understanding Comics (Amazon | Bookshop.org), Scott McCloud explains that when drawings of characters in graphic novels are less realistic and more iconic, readers can more easily put themselves in the situations of the characters. The cartoon image “is a vacuum into which our [the reader’s] identity and awareness are pulled” (36). A detailed drawing of a face with specific features would be harder for readers to identify with than a simplistic cartoon face. According to McCloud, if we are less focused on the specific details of the character’s drawing, then we are freer to enter the world of the character and participate in their experiences.
Graphic novelist Raina Telgemeier even explains that the creative team at Graphix “had the good intuition to use something more iconic” (20) for the cover image of her memoir Smile (Amazon | Bookshop.org). Instead of using a full-body drawing of the main character, they opted for something even more simplistically drawn: an emoji with braces. One can imagine that a more specific cover image of the book’s protagonist might not have instantly connected with as many book browsers as the abstracted emoji did.
So, if iconic images help readers empathize with characters’ experiences, then a graphic novelist who has traumatic events or complicated emotions to narrate can do so knowing that an empathetic readership awaits.
Cartoons Allow for Distance
And while the iconic images unique to comics and graphic novels allow readers to connect with characters (and, by proxy, the writers), the abstraction also allows the writer some distance from their emotional story. With very realistic drawings, or with prose narrative alone, sharing the experience might feel too revealing. The writer is less vulnerable, however, if their experience is portrayed with some abstraction. This didn’t happen to me specifically. This happens to lots of people. This is a universal experience.
It makes sense to me, then, that a student of mine would use the most abstracted icons—stick figures—to share something especially private with our class in his own graphic novel, Spoken of One.
This student—I’ll call him Louis—was selectively mute all through high school. Sitting in the back row, completing all assigned written work but never raising his hand or contributing to partner interactions, Louis frustrated me. I had 36 students in my class, and I didn’t have the expertise to find ways to draw him out. It was easier to assign his partner to someone else, to simply not expect that Louis would participate since apparently he never had before.
For the graphic novel project, Louis chose to communicate that he was making an effort to speak, but encountered debilitating obstacles like stigmatizing labels from peers and teachers.
With the anonymity offered by iconic representation, Louis perhaps felt safer in telling his story than he might have if he were asked to write a personal narrative. There is a comforting distance between his own identity and that of the universally drawn protagonist in his story. Maybe knowing that the reader could see the story more universally made it possible for him to share something so private.
Readers are Reflected in the Story
Louis knew that I would be reading these panels, but he also knew his classmates would read them during peer feedback. Perhaps the ease with which readers can identify with universal abstract icons might mean that his classmates and teacher would reflect on their own complicit actions in labeling him with declarations like “He doesn’t talk.” The simplicity of the nameless, faceless, abstract peers and teachers in this student’s panels invite my students and me to see ourselves.
When we move away from realistic representations and towards abstraction, McCloud explains, “we’re not so much eliminating details as we are focusing on specific details” (30). Louis draws teachers with such abstraction that the only distinguishing features are a simple square (representing a briefcase?), their position within a given panel (at a distance from students), and an absence of any facial markings (dots or lines for eyes, nose, mouth). Without being explicitly told what to see, readers can imagine their own rich details.
As a teacher, I could vividly see my own impatience with certain behaviors and the emotional weight that impatience had on my students. I thought my sighs were inaudible, my nonverbals (standing at a distance, unsympathetic facial expressions) unnoticeable. Maybe Louis wasn’t addressing me specifically in his panels, but that’s irrelevant. The iconic representation of people and events works like the “vacuum” McCloud describes, inviting me to reflect on my own complicity in Louis’ experience.
In another panel, the hallways of the school are stripped to the bare essentials: a white vacant floor on which to sulk. The specificity is so absent that a reader could “fill up” this iconic form with almost any other setting. The actual place, person, object, or idea being represented matters little.
Readers Must Help Tell the Story
Compelling texts are often ripe with ambiguity. Graphic novels, by their very design, contain “gaps” that readers must fill as they connect one panel to the next. By making connections and drawing conclusions in the gutters—the empty spaces between panels—the reader can help tell a story the writer can’t tell alone.
McCloud describes this reader participation as “committing closure,” and some transitions ask more of the reader than others. Many comics rely heavily on simple moment-to-moment and action-to-action transitions that require less participation (picture a person lifting a cup in one panel and drinking from it in the next). Others make powerful use of aspect-to-aspect and subject-to-subject transitions. These require readers to connect different experiences, time periods, and perspectives from one panel to the next. (Imagine a person lifting a cup in one panel and the next panel shows a different scene five years later).
In their own graphic novels, students generally struggle to create transitions that leave space for the reader to participate, but I think Louis found the gutter a helpful tool to tell his story without having to say too much.
What happens after the teacher prompts Louis to speak? How long does he pause before the next panel shows him defeated on the ground? How did his peers react? When I look at these two panels, I fill out the story: I hear his peers snickering, I see them rolling their eyes, my hands get sweaty thinking of how long the silence must have felt for this student compared to how brief it probably was to everyone else in the room.
It’s not that graphic novelists are off the hook from having to explain and narrate difficult moments. It’s that they are able to be selective with what they do show so that more readers can participate in ways that are personally relevant. And, I think that first learning about how gutters and transitions work in Persepolis, especially at certain difficult points in Marji’s story, encouraged students to include their own hard-to-describe experiences in their work. I don’t have to find words for every moment. I don’t have to show kids rolling their eyes. That can be for the reader to imagine in the gutter.
No Story is Too Complex
The combination of words and pictures helps writers communicate hard stuff—no story is too complex to tell with this medium. Comics have a long history of teaching complex subject matter. There are graphic novels that discuss scientific phenomena, race, gender, cancer, and mental health. Satrapi catches us up on thousands of years of Persian history through carefully composed panels. Some of my students were able to portray subtle racial and gender-based microaggressions they experienced without even needing to know the term “microaggression.” Others described complex learning disabilities and mental health issues without using a clinical vocabulary.
And because of the ability to “control time” (as comics expert Will Eisner puts it), the stories we tell in graphic novels are open to a wider readership. Young or inexperienced readers can make meaning from panels without necessarily drawing sophisticated conclusions from the gutters. As Gene Luen Yang explains (via McCloud), “Time within a comic book progresses only as quickly as the reader moves her eyes across the page. The pace at which information is transmitted is completely determined by the reader … this ‘visual permanence’ firmly places control over the pace of education in the hands (and eyes) of the student.”
Since readers of all ages and backgrounds can participate in reading graphic novels, my student writers could share sensitive stories with a variety of people in their lives, not just their teacher.
How I Taught This
To initially learn about the form of graphic novels, I read McCloud’s Understanding Comics, which provides a thorough explanation of the variety of elements and devices at work in a comic or graphic novel. Over the years, I also studied Will Eisner’s books Comics and Sequential Art (Amazon | Bookshop.org) and Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative (Amazon | Bookshop.org).
To choose a mentor text for my 11th grade World Literature classes, I considered what would be grade-level appropriate and rich enough in terms of the devices I had learned about. What will connect with students’ experiences but also expose them to new ideas or challenge their understanding about certain concepts? Satrapi’s Persepolis jumped out as the perfect option: Teenage Marji narrates her experiences navigating religious, political, and social conflicts during a tumultuous time in Iran’s history. When choosing your own text, you might also consider connections to social studies or science content students have learned. Or you might choose an adaptation of a text you’ve already read or to connect to a theme or genre you are teaching.
Determine Prior Knowledge
I distribute a page from a graphic novel, not necessarily from the one I will teach, and ask, What is happening? How do you know? Students’ written responses show me how familiar they are with noticing the subtle devices at work to communicate meaning in a visual text. With this information, I can partner students more effectively during upcoming lessons and keep their starting point in mind as I consider the unit instruction, tasks, and outcomes. Students also see for themselves how well or ill-equipped they are to do this type of reading, which for some students makes them curious to learn how.
What do students want to know?
After attempting a close read of a graphic novel page, many students discover they either don’t have a lot to say or they know more than they thought. Then, they complete a KWL chart (Know-Want to Know-Learned) about graphic novels and Persepolis. My students have wondered, “How do you choose what to put in each box,” “Does the order you read matter,” and “Why is it called ‘Persepolis,’” The most exciting part of the chart is, of course, the “Learned” column that students complete at the end of the unit.
At the beginning of the unit, students indicate “Where I started” and “Where I want to be.” I provide options of end objectives that students choose from. This tool is revisited at the end of the unit and students complete the “Where I am” and “Where I want to go next” columns as part of the assessment process (scroll down to “Assessing the Results” for an image of the chart). Because students articulate their own learning goals, ones that make sense given their starting point and the relevance of the topic to their lives, they are more invested in reaching those goals. And they often exceed them.
Consider what context your students will need to know in order to understand the plot. For Persepolis, I provide a little background about the Islamic Revolution at the start. But most of it is learned as we read and encounter references we want to research, such as the philosophy of Karl Marx and what happened on Black Friday. Sometimes individual students are given the task of investigating a reference, and sometimes I present a few visuals or video to provide context.
Reading The Mentor Text
We read the novel mostly in class, with students working together to reread for deeper meaning. Before we discuss what we’ve read in class, students spend five minutes independently free-writing everything they notice from one page of Persepolis. I ask: What happened? How do you know? What have you learned about characters? With less time, students simply record one question they have about the assigned reading. In partners or small groups, they share their observations and questions and develop some consensus around how the page is working. Then they report their conclusions to the whole class.
In whole class discussion, I introduce the terms and devices only after students have had the opportunity to express them in their own language. When they report that they know Marji feels weak because she’s drawn smaller than usual and she’s in a really small box, they learn to incorporate terms like “scale” and “frame.” When they notice a page has no panels, and the drawing fills up the entire page, they learn the term “splash.” When they notice one panel’s scene does not seem to connect to the one before and after, they learn to describe a variety of panel transitions with phrases like “action-to-action” and “subject-to-subject.”
To model close reading of graphic novels, I think aloud as I try to make meaning from one panel to the next. I use what I know about devices and techniques to pose questions, re-read, answer my own questions, and challenge my own answers. Students are then able to attempt astute readings of the text with partners, using the language I modeled.
For an example of how to model close reading of a graphic novel, watch me discuss page 6 of Persepolis with another reader in the video below. Reference this handout if you’d like to use the video as a teaching tool in your classroom.
Students are routinely asked to choose a panel to closely read and analyze in writing. I collect these as formative assessments that tell me if a device or specific page from the text needs review and if students are reading beyond the surface. Sometimes I provide a specific prompt, like “What do you think the author is communicating with the different uses of black and white in chapter 10?” or “Describe the significance of varying shapes and sizes of panels in chapter 1.” Other times, I solicit prompts from students or invite them to write about any discoveries they have made about the story and characters, supporting their observations with references to the techniques involved. For models of written close readings, I use previous students’ work, book reviews of graphic novels, and excerpts from Eisner’s Comics and Sequential Art.
As we continue through the chapters of Persepolis, I post the terms we learned on chart papers around the room. Groups circulate and add examples of each from different chapters. Students who struggle to identify a certain device benefit from seeing examples posted by peers. And all students can see the variety of how one device could be used across different scenes for different purposes.
When student observations show me that a particular panel or page is challenging to understand, I post a copy of the pages on chart papers. Groups circulate and add their theories, questions, predictions, and interpretations. Meaning becomes evident through multiple reads of the page and collaborative discussion.
I use frequent but brief exercises that get students thinking about how the devices work in a graphic novel. For example, “If you had to show the emotion of fear with only lines, how would you draw them?” Or I might provide students with a sequence of panels with pictures but no captions and ask them to write the captions. Another day, I give them panels with only text and ask them to add the pictures. The key is to give the same panels to multiple students so they see the variety of ways they each interpreted specific text or visuals.
Use the Devices
An especially helpful activity is when students create their own panel using a technique or device they observe in a panel from Persepolis. In one panel, Marji’s family decides to stay in Tehran after an attack because access to a French education was important for Marji’s future. Satrapi composes the panel to emphasize the isolation Marji feels as her friends’ families fled. We see Marji from a bird’s eye view—only her back and her shadow. She is dwarfed by darkly colored trees that seem to replicate indefinitely, like she’s walking into a fun-house mirror. Where is Marji going? It’s unclear visually and also literally. Her future is unknown, and it’s scary.
One student chose this specific panel’s techniques to try in his own panel. He connected Marji’s experience to his experience attending a new high school. The towering building, drawn with the same repetition as Satrapi’s trees, dwarfs my student, who changed schools also for access to a better education and preparation for some unknown future.
These “micro-writing” assignments help students learn the devices, but they also serve as early drafts of their final graphic novel projects and begin to convince even the most reluctant students that what we are learning is valuable.
The Culminating Project
Students use the tools and devices they learn from studying Persepolis to create a short graphic memoir about a significant experience in their lives. I ask each student to suggest one success criterion for this project, given what they have learned about what makes a graphic novel engaging.
In the past, we have agreed that their stories would provoke thinking—more specifically, they would challenge assumptions, initiate a conversation, connect deeply with readers, and nudge them to act. To accomplish such worthy goals, they would need to skillfully use at least three devices, their words (captions and speech bubbles) would work interdependently with their pictures to communicate more than what either could accomplish alone, and some panel-to-panel transitions would move beyond moment-to-moment or action-to-action.
To decide on a topic, students reference their “micro-writing” assignments, create brainstorming lists of potential experiences, and free-write about each one. Students examine their most promising free-write and tease out a rising action, a climax, and resolution.
Then, students create a visual outline of each page, mapping out their ideas in a panel layout, describing what they plan to illustrate and why. They consider how they will distinguish their characters. They identify the emotions and moods they want to communicate for specific scenes and note devices that could help accomplish this.
I model this process at the start of class by attempting my own project, one panel at a time, in front of the class, thinking aloud and soliciting their help. A bonus is that my clear lack of artistic skills shows students that beautiful artwork is not necessary for this project. While sketching, I narrate, “I want to show this character feels bold and confident. I think I will remove the frame altogether (create a “splash”), or I could keep the frame and draw the character so large she goes beyond the border (a “bleed”).” At this point I ask for students’ input—which technique would be more effective and why.
During the drafting process, students sign up to attend mini lessons, facilitated either by me or a peer, on topics like “creating captions and speech bubbles,” and “showing emotions with facial features and gestures.” I schedule two 20-minute mini lessons per workshop day. When students aren’t in the mini-lesson, they work on their panels independently, with support resources I provide (from Eisner, McCloud, and Barbara Slate). Topics for new mini-lessons are created in response to the challenges and needs students pose.
Students have frequent opportunities to self-review their panels and pages in draft form before they commit to “inking” (finalizing and coloring). They ask themselves, Can I explain how I chose to create this panel? Have I considered the impact on the story if I were to change the panel-to-panel sequence, the words or pictures? Do my panels allow for reader participation (committing closure)? Am I finding this challenging? What do I need to know how to do? What/who can help me?
I don’t want to force students to share their personal stories with their classmates for peer review, so I ask them to choose at least one completed panel to share for feedback. Sometimes, I collect one panel from each student and anonymously re-distribute them to the class for feedback. As reviewers, students ask themselves, “What is happening? How do I know? What assumptions am I being asked to challenge? How I am I connecting with this story?” Their comments help the creator understand how readers are responding to their narrative and design choices.
Sometimes, students volunteer to share their pages with the whole class for feedback. I project the pages and we perform a close read like we have done so many times with the pages of Persepolis. Students who do not seize this opportunity to get such thorough feedback on their work still benefit from providing and listening to the feedback given for a peer’s work.
Assessing the Results
In the past, when I had scored these projects with As, I felt like I was sending a message that the learning was done. That their few-page attempts could just not be any better. But the goal is not that a student becomes a master at incorporating graphic elements into their own memoir after a few weeks of practice. The goal is that they have discovered a new form to explore with rigor beyond our classroom and have some creative independence with a new set of tools to tell all kinds of stories.
Instead of a four-point rubric that shows tiers of success leading up to the end goal of an A, 100, or “meets standards,” I decided to create a single-point rubric and define an “A” by listing what we agreed the project had to contain in order to demonstrate the student was ready to continue on their learning trajectory Autonomously. That means they would be prepared to independently and critically read graphic novels of different genres. They could start experimenting with devices, and maybe create their own, to communicate a range of experiences. They could research the work of other comics and comics movements, and learn the history of the form. They could connect with the larger world of graphic novelists by joining the conversation online.
The success criteria we established as a class allows students to focus primarily on their ability to use the graphic elements they studied to portray a significant event in their lives (not writing conventions or artistry). We do discuss how grammatical errors can really confuse the reader and how a hastily sketched image can ruin the effect of the device. The grammar and drawing expectations are in service of the larger goal and don’t need to be assessed with their own categories on the rubric. The focused criteria also help me avoid pitfalls of the past while providing feedback on students’ graphic novels, such as correcting grammar errors that didn’t actually impede understanding and praising artwork that didn’t actually develop the story.
Finally, students complete the “Learned” column of their KWL charts, proudly listing the discoveries they made about how to tell stories in a different way. They also reference their rubric feedback to respond to the last two columns on their Personal Goals form: “Where I am” and “Where I want to go next.” If students are not yet ready to pursue this work autonomously, what additional practice is needed? What resources can help? If they are ready for continued independent learning and practice, what books, websites, and writers can they explore? Students also have the option to continue working and resubmit their project for additional feedback later in the year.
Compared to my first attempt at assessment, this revised model communicated to students that the learning didn’t stop for anyone, even those with an A.
Why Teach Students How to Create a Graphic Novel?
After my first foray into teaching the graphic novel, I discovered that the benefits went beyond teaching literacy skills. Though the initial objective was for students to hone their close reading skills, it turned out that I also learned to read my students more closely, especially the ones I perceived as disengaged learners.
Without access to students’ stories, educators are likely to interpret certain behaviors as challenging. As Sarah MacLaughlin describes in an article about trauma-informed teaching, behaviors that have developed in response to a difficult home environment or experience can be interpreted as defiance in a class setting: “Trauma can manifest in so many behaviors! Hypervigilance can masquerade as hyperactivity… Fear can look like aggression: flight, freeze, or fight,” or in Louis’ case, selective mutism.
While reading my first class set of student-created graphic novels, I started to reconsider everything from my assessment practices to my nonverbal signals. I didn’t change into an enlightened, empathetic teacher overnight, but I started to approach interactions with students with the understanding that there were stories inside them that I wanted to hear, that I could make instructional decisions that would decrease cortisol and build relationships.
I know that without this project I would have continued to overlook Louis’ mutism. How would I have had such intimate access to a mute student’s perspective without his graphic novel? Louis put it so simply but elegantly on the first page, despite the grammatical error: “Why am I talking now? Well, your [sic] in my head and your just reading my mind.”
Teaching students to create graphic novels gives you the power to read their minds, which can change everything about the way you teach. More importantly, it gives them the power of voice—a superpower that can change their worlds. ♦️
Read the Book!!
Since writing this post, Shveta Miller has written a full-length book on this topic: Hacking Graphic Novels: 8 Ways to Teach Higher-Level Thinking with Comics and Visual Storytelling (Amazon | Bookshop.org). If you’re ready to really dig into this process, the book will tell you everything you need to know!
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Wow – I did a end of the year project on how to draw cartoon characters… and over the summer, thought how could this help with character development….
Somehow, your articles nearly always lead me somewhere just a little bit farther in my teaching.
I will be reading this several times. I want to get it figured out.
Thank you for reading, Monica! I’m excited to hear you will be using the post as a reference when you teach cartooning or graphic novels in your classroom. I hope you reach out if questions arise and to share your experience.
I will use this for sure.
Thank you so much for this! We do something very similar to this in my middle school and there are many helpful helpful pieces that I can share with the team to add to our graphic novel event and curriculum. I appreciate the hard work!
Thanks, Sarah! It would be interesting to see what you and your colleagues come up with and some of the student-created graphic novels, too.
Shveta .. thank you for sharing your amazing idea.
Inspirational and revealing. Thanks a lot, Shveta!!
This is a great post. I was actually considering teaching Persepolis this year, and I love this student graphic novel unit. I even just purchased Eisner’s book to get started. I’m wondering you have any of your materials available for Persepolis, perhaps on TpT or elsewhere?
Crystal, that is great news that you will teach Persepolis this year! I am working on putting together more resources. You can subscribe to my website to get emails when I add new stuff: https://shvetamiller.com
For now, I hope the YouTube video I included in the post – a model close reading of Persepolis – will be helpful. Feel free to contact me (Twitter, FB, or through my website) to suggest specific resources you think you and your students will need. Thanks for reading!
Thank you for sharing this incredible process and project. Based off of this post, one of my colleagues and I are in the process of developing a similar experience for elementary-age students. We are so excited to see how this opens up opportunities for all writers in our classroom.
That is great to hear, Alex! Feel free to reach out to me on shvetamiller.com if you have questions or are willing to share updates on your experience. I will be working on a book about teaching graphic novel creation and would love to connect with teachers who are implementing some of the ideas in my post with their students.
This was a fantastic read. I am a special education teacher to students with intellectual disabilities and this will be a great project that all students can participate in. I can’t wait to try it out.
Thanks, Krystal! Please reach out if you have questions or are willing to discuss your experience teaching graphic novels in a Special Education classroom. [email protected], Twitter: @ShvetaMiller
Shveta~ Thank you for your wonderful work and insights into how powerful it can be for students to write their own graphic novels. This was a fantastic podcast and loaded with great information on the website. When we return to our Florida classrooms this fall, I plan to try this unit in order to help my middle school ELA students share and process their experiences during their time at home during this pandemic.
Thanks for posting, Karen! I would love to hear about your progress with students in the Fall. If you need support, please reach out through my website: shvetamiller.com
This is such a great unit. Thank you! I wonder if you have a list of all the criteria you give out as possible goals at the beginning of the unit?
Hi Jasmine, The possible goals/objectives for the unit would depend on your subject area/grade level standards, what skills your students are coming into the unit with, and what objectives they will meet in other units in your class. Once you administer your diagnostic reading activity and review their KWL charts, look at the standards for your subject area/grade level to determine a variety of end goals that students can choose from. You might see that some students can already analyze visual imagery in the panels, but have not created their own panels with attention to craft and structure, so that would be an objective to include on your list. Feel free to email me for more specific guidance: [email protected]
Thank you for an amazing article! Have you seen the work of Dr. Ellyn Arwood? Cartooning and flowcharting for students with Autism… its an amazing compliment to this personal graphic novel approach.
Thank you fir the recommendation to read Dr. Arwood’s work. I’ve read some research on the benefits of comics for students with ASD, but I’m looking forward to diving more into this topic. | <urn:uuid:8913ad31-b8f8-48e8-8e12-64ec1744f4da> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/student-graphic-novels/?replytocom=216579 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224646076.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20230530163210-20230530193210-00011.warc.gz | en | 0.961915 | 7,250 | 3.046875 | 3 | The extract provides a comprehensive and nuanced discussion of teaching graphic novels, highlighting their potential to foster empathy, self-expression, and critical thinking. It seamlessly integrates advanced communication, leadership, and problem-solving scenarios, mirroring real-world complexity. The author shares personal experiences, theoretical foundations, and practical applications, demonstrating a sophisticated understanding of cultural awareness, digital literacy, and intercultural fluency.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 515,957 | 1 |
Relationships between the students are critical, as is the relationship between the students and the teacher. When relationships are ‘right’, each person has a voice. Mutual respect exists. Teachers spend time each week in discussion with students about how their words and actions affect other people.
Teachers use circle activities to build relationships and give every student a voice. Sometimes students meet in circles to play games. At other times, circles are a way of conducting classroom discussions so that each child has a turn to share his or her views on an issue. Bullying cannot emerge in a community of people that respect and care for one another. In an ideal world, the effort we put into building relationships prevents rude, mean and bullying behaviours from occurring.
Unfortunately, we don’t live in an ideal world. Hence, relationships between people will be broken by rude, mean or bullying behaviours. When those antisocial behaviours happen, we help students tell the story.
Children often come to parents or other adults, pointing fingers and saying, “He/she [name the action].” When they do this, one or more of the following things are true:
The first step in fixing a problem is helping students tell the story from beginning to end, saying something like, “Let’s go back to where this all began…” Our goal is to help students identify the thoughts and feelings associated with the actions at the beginning, middle and end. Once the story has those three parts, students generally agree that both people made choices that contributed to the problem in some way (even though the contributions were not necessarily equal in intensity). For example, the problem may have started when one person felt excluded from a game or thought that someone was trying to ‘steal’ a friend.
In this third part, we trace back over the story with the students, asking each person what they were thinking and feeling at each part of the story. We ask about who has been harmed beyond the students. The other person? The class? Younger students who saw the incident? Parents who were worried? This ensures two things:
At this point, students often see that a simple “I’m sorry” doesn’t always take away the pain that others have experienced. Repair may take time. Healing begins when victims hear true remorse from the one(s) who hurt them.
Even when students agree that each person was responsible for antisocial choices, they are not necessarily equally responsible. The actions are underpinned by thoughts and feelings that have a range of consequences.
In this final step, we ask the students what might be done to fix the problem. What is fair? When we were in school, school officials assigned punishments to behaviours. Those punishments usually did nothing to repair the damage done. In a Restorative Practice context, consequences should be SMART: Specific to the behaviours, Reasonable, Sensible, Valuable, Practical. We work with the students and families rather than doing things to the students. The consequences hold all parties accountable for their actions and help build social-emotional skills.
In the case of physical violence, some form of suspension is likely to be a consequence for the person(s) that caused physical harm. The purpose of the suspension is to allow for cool-down time. While the suspension is happening, the person(s) responsible for the physical violence spends time reflecting on the behaviour triggers, talking about how those triggers might be better dealt with in the future, and ways that the those who experienced or witnessed the event can feel safe at school.
The best outcomes happen when students who have done the wrong thing immediately admit it and openly discuss ways in which the situation can be fixed. Our goal is that students understand how their behaviours have affected others and show genuine interest in resolving issues.
The Restorative process breaks down if the people who have caused harm do not admit their part in the harm. The person who feels victimised continues to live in fear of harm or retribution. If this is the case, the Coordinator or Head of School may need to move into an investigation and take a punitive approach. The antisocial behaviours may result in multiple-day internal or external suspensions from school.
If your child comes home upset by something that has happened at school, you can help us in the restorative process. Empathy and sadness for your child will likely be the first reaction – and will help your child begin to heal.
As much as possible, help them tell the story from beginning to end. Questions that begin with where, when, how and what help your child re-tell the story (why questions are harder). Focus on the events of that particular day.
Let the teacher know your child’s version of the story from beginning to end. Do this the first day – the longer you wait, the more difficult it is for the teacher to investigate. Please do not wait and tell the teacher “This has been happening for weeks/months/years” – teachers can’t realistically fix things that happened a long time ago. They can, however, investigate something that happened in the past 24 hours.
Realise that there may be other explanations for the behaviours that hurt your child – not because your child is lying – because the ability to see issues from multiple perspectives is developmental.
Please avoid words like “bully” or “naughty child” or other behaviour labels when referring to other children. In Romans 3:23, the apostle Paul is clear that “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Consider how you’d feel if those words were stated about your child.
Share the issues with the teacher and think carefully before sharing the situation with other parents. There is often a fine line between seeking support and gossip – a line that only your conscience can judge. Psalm 19:14 states, “May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.” We hope you will model the values of compassion when speaking about students – all of whom have life lessons to learn. | <urn:uuid:68ff71f3-6e58-40dd-aac8-896ebf7a9b28> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://www.goodnews.vic.edu.au/academic/behaviour/restorative-practice | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296945183.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20230323194025-20230323224025-00102.warc.gz | en | 0.964032 | 1,267 | 4.59375 | 5 | The extract provides a comprehensive approach to building relationships, resolving conflicts, and promoting restorative practices in a school setting. It discusses the importance of mutual respect, empathy, and effective communication, and offers practical strategies for teachers and parents to address antisocial behaviors. The extract seamlessly integrates advanced communication, leadership, and problem-solving scenarios, mirroring real-world complexity.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 448,425 | 1 |
The Dynamics of the Four Political Systems
It may come as a surprise, but all four systems of power in our world may actually all deliver the same results. All that is required is that the decision makers of whatever system make the very same decisions. And sometimes all do make the same decision indeed.
In our real world the same decision is only made by all when all nations are dependent on very specific conditions, and when all are trying to follow the most logical and beneficial path. In general, the remaining differences can to a large extent be explained by the different dynamics inherent to the systems themselves.
We all know that basketball games tend to have just tall players in the field of really important games and that basketball players would make most decisions with that high basket in mind. So imagine a world with basketball players in control: A small person would likely not benefit in a nation run by them.
Other sport examples that can help us understand the political realities of our world: We all understand that horse jockeys are lightweights, and that they'll focus on horse issues. On the other hand, sumo wrestlers depend on having a certain amount of weight under their bellies, and a light-weighted person wouldn't get very far in that sport — just like a real heavy person wouldn't do well on the back of a horse. What we should come away with is an understanding that specific structures for winning a position at the table of the decision makers help specific people to succeed, while the structure then also blocks the progress of others who don't fit the specific system.
Crucial in understanding the diverse systems is that the opinions of those who do not fit a specific system are not important in those systems. In a dictatorial nation with just one governmental organization, for instance, several important societal issues may never reach the top. This stands in stark contrast with a system of ten parties — with all parties vying for your vote — in which all vitally important issues are known, discussed, and sometimes satisfactorily dealt with quickly by the decision makers. But let's get this right from the start that this is not a straight delivery among these four systems left-to-right as being worse-to-better. As said, all systems may make the same decision, and lets also not forget that politics is always murky.
Let's start digging in slowly. The two systems on the left side of the four displayed above have large sets of the population unrepresented (shown as white). Meanwhile, the two versions that have a close-to-completely represented population are placed to the right. Notice how the left two versions are strongly directed by a top that is removed from the center, and that the two versions to the right are more center-based.
Dictatorships always have a top center that is in full control — just like the visual on the left. The population at large has no choice but to support this single center, and the visual rightfully shows how a tight neck exists underneath the top. It is not easy for the people as a whole to communicate or be represented in this top. Interestingly, the connecting part between the neck and the top looks wide, but is actually not visible; it is strictly kept from view. Yet we all know that particularly at times of stress we should expect a neck to narrow to the tightest level possible.
Still, notice how the top is also not way up high, untouchable. People can move that single top, for instance, during severe food shortages or extreme price changes. The top will topple if it were too much out of touch with the needs of common folks. Still, the population at large is itself not represented in that center. The decision makers do not have to take advice from anyone but themselves, yet they are very vulnerable to wide-spread discontent.
The two party system — second to the left — shows how two parties are competing for single full control, moving each other up and up, and therefore even somewhat away from their bases to reach their maximum capabilities. Each party must of course stay in touch with their base, but the politically ideology matters. One party will end up having a better knack for the natural base, while the other party is more in tune with a logically correct but nevertheless somewhat abstract ideology.
The neck of political disconnect is fully visible in the two-party visual, yet even under stress it is distinctly wider than in the one-party visual. Both parties have a party constraint that goes beyond food price crises or extreme financial uncertainties. There is always the other party to blame for what went wrong, and that helps to relax during times of crisis. The reach of both parties is further up and out than in any system due to the benefits of simplistic and unrelenting competition, plus the opportunity to blame the other for what did not pan out.
As the visual shows, large segments of the population are left unrepresented systematically in their needs, while the voting population is enticed to go along with either one of the two parties. To win the center, spin becomes often more important than the facts, for in the end it is the win that counts and not the delivery of beneficial results to all; winning a seat based on limited voter competition can take place based on superficial flaws in the other candidates, and not because of issues important to the overall population.
Interestingly, incumbents have an easy time getting re-elected because they are better known, not because they are the best fit. As shown in white, some groups in society are severely under-represented or not represented at all. One population group, the swinging center not all that much interested in politics, decides very often what the outcome of the election is going to be. Afterwards, the people elected may — in this system — not pay too much attention to who they are thought to represent.
The four party system — third in the picture row — has each party vying to represent a large but rather specific group of voters, identifying themselves with what are politically clearly-distinct issues. The four parties tend to not present themselves as the opposite of another party as is commonly done in two-party systems, but each go for specific issues of importance to large groups of voters. In general, no party will gain majority control in this form of democracy, even when this is possible. Each of the parties tries to become as large as possible by attracting as many voters as possible.
Four parties may not fully cover all the population's political wishes in every detail, but the competition for most votes as possible makes each party stretch its boundaries to fit as many voters as possible and in very specific manners. Spin is not that attractive in this system, because the voters' real desires are more front and center. Also, note that the single top location as found in the one and two party systems does not exist anymore in this system. Instead there are multiple political 'tops' per party, because the perspective of that what is best, the most, or the highest differs for different groups of voters. How smart a person looks or behaves is less important than the candidate's message. With cooperating parties to form a government, not one, but two political centers will see most of their issues addressed. Large nations with three to five parties can remain stable nations, while this system also gives political freedom to its voters by providing meaningful political choices; its governments stay more closely connected to the population due to basic competition among political parties.
The ten party system, to the far right, has the entire population represented, though some of the ten parties will never take part in a government. Still, by having many parties compete for seats, the four to six parties that have cooperated repeatedly in a variety of governments over the years will show a desire to cooperate, but each will also make sure to not let any of the other parties gain too many seats — political competition is truly strongest in this particular system where every vote always counts. To remain more important than the others, the parties must each stay their political course, possibly ever so slightly adjusting their agendas over the years to remain specifically attractive for the larger segments of the voting population. The governing parties tend to collectively fulfill the wishes of more segments in society than just their own segments to keep attracting as many voters as possible. In general, smaller nations can provide full representation and true political freedom easier than large(r) nations.
Smaller nations, often forced to follow the (economic) decisions made by the larger economies find themselves naturally more encapsulated. Therefore, they can withstand the outward pressures of the diverse ten-party system much better than a large nation, for most of the ten parties agree on certain national interests.
Germany during the interbellum — the largest nation ever in world's history with a ten-party system — may be the clearest example of a large nation not functioning well under a system of full representation. In the thirties of the last century, Germany's center parties (representing collectively about one-third of the votes) handed their political power to Hitler during the most severe economic crisis of the interbellum — even when Hitler also did not have a majority of the votes. It may be clear that large nations need stability to overcome global crises, next to having a choice as provided by the four-party system. The current German five-party system has more than shown its democratic success over more than half a century, and is an example for all large nations to follow. The creation of the European Union, but possibly more importantly the fact that the United States demanded that the European empires (Britain, France and others) give up their colonies after two totally devastating World Wars, contributed to eliminating the European race-to-the-bottom competition.
To be or not to be lead, that is a powerful question
To complete the picture of the four versions of power, a nation may also have an empowered person sit on top of the system in place. Having a leading person or persons take in his, her or their highest position of power next to one or two houses of representation is a paramount question for political systems.
Keep in mind that national leaders such as prime-ministers are not elected and they remain bound to the overall outcome of elected representatives, whether they are prime-minister in a two party-, a four party-, or a ten party-system. Since they come forth out of the single dynamic layer in place, prime-ministers (or Chancellors) do not need to be added as a separate form of dynamics to the visuals. Similar to hired or appointed mayors, prime-ministers are like managers — people keeping the elected representatives engaged towards a positive outcome. These managers have as job to work in concord with the political outcome of the general elections.
Elected mayors, governors and presidents, however, are separate political entities; the race in which they were selected is a separate race, and by its very nature related to the dynamics of the two party system of winner-taking-all. One person (most often male) wins, and one runner-up (also most often male) loses. Elected leaders are more removed from what the population politically desires for they are chosen in the largest possible district — the entire nation. We can state that the largest possible number of voters is therefore not represented by this overall figure.
Not only does the selection procedure between just two people warp the outcome of who is the single representative of the entire nation, having that additional layer of power means that two levels of voter-expressions are set up simultaneously, each able to undermine the other level at times, often in important ways. Since these elected presidential leaders are empowered themselves — they won the national race — they are shown in the three visuals in their own separate visual.
The placement of the president is not necessarily always that much higher than the overall system in place. Interestingly, when a nation is already set up for winner-takes-all in all its elections, then one can argue that the president is 'merely' the highest person among all these winners. All representatives may behave as winners, giving the top-dog winner a tough fight to get away with what he wants.
Now add a president on top of a field where a variety of parties exists. Building a coalition means the coalition partners must bow somewhat to another party to both lead the nation. So coalition partners that must bow to a president may bow a lot deeper than representatives in nations where all reps are winners.
The president's role of influencing the outcome surely depends on the system-political circumstances. And data shows that the gap in income distribution is indeed in general greater when a nation has an additional system for a president. And when an empowered president presides in nations with proportional elections the income distribution gap may even be greater.
The last aspect of political systems not yet dealt with in depth is the number of houses of representatives. Some nations are unicameral, others are bicameral. There are even some nations with two houses in which each house is elected using a different system. In most nations with two houses, one house is the most important house, while the other is more a law-confirming institution. The result of having one or two houses, and — when two houses — of both being equally powerful or one house more powerful than the other, that is an issue of no small potatoes. Italy, for instance, has two houses with equal amounts of power, both capable of letting a government fall. It is then not a surprise to know that no other nation has as many cabinets fall over the years as Italy.
Several nations are shown here below with the visuals of their political dynamics; the white ovals portray the level of non-representation of the population due to lack of options materializing in the process. Some nations have not changed their political dynamics in centuries, others have done so recently. New Zealand, for instance, changed its two party system in 1996 to also incorporate proportionality and this resulted in very interesting outcomes.
Us Tour Site | <urn:uuid:0b283547-4d91-4db3-a642-d6b739c51ac4> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | http://localparty.org/dynamics.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320023.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20170623063716-20170623083716-00360.warc.gz | en | 0.969146 | 2,843 | 3.078125 | 3 | The extract provides a comprehensive analysis of different political systems, discussing their dynamics, strengths, and weaknesses. It touches on aspects of representation, leadership, and decision-making, which are relevant to soft skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication. However, the discussion is largely theoretical and lacks practical application, nuanced interaction, or complex problem-solving opportunities. The extract does not explicitly address emotional intelligence, cultural awareness, or digital literacy.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 81,341 | 0 |
Intelligence is defined as the set of mental functions whose object is rational knowledge.
These mental functions allow humans to solve a problem or adapt to their environment.
According to scientists, everyone is intelligent, but the environmental factor accounts for 60% of an individual’s personality. These are the values embodied by someone who is smarter than others.
Smart people usually keep calm in any situation. If you tend to get upset at the slightest provocation, scientists say your IQ (Intellectual Quotient is lower).
Smart people do not believe themselves to be superior to others. On the contrary, for them every opportunity is good to learn. According to a study published in the journal Psychological Science, less intelligent people are more homophobic and racist and tend to categorize people prematurely. They are also the type to belittle others to be lathered.
3) Responsibility for errors
For some people, recognizing an error is synonymous with weakness. You must know how to take responsibility when you are wrong and if it is necessary to ask forgiveness. According to scientists, the one who does it naturally has a superior intelligence.
4) Consideration for others
Researchers have shown, through a representative study, that intelligent people have a great deal of empathy and dedication to others without expecting anything in return. According to their analysis, this character trait is surely related to childhood and education.
5) Anxiety and mistrust
It seems that smart people are very anxious and suspicious, but they hide it to the point of trust. They are usually in stable relationships. | <urn:uuid:e0e29203-ccb7-4299-9987-3fd03e384b3d> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://www.afrinik.com/5-things-make-smarter-others-study/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250624328.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20200124161014-20200124190014-00507.warc.gz | en | 0.962361 | 312 | 2.875 | 3 | The extract discusses intelligence and traits associated with smart individuals, touching on emotional intelligence, empathy, and responsibility. It provides some insights into soft skills like self-awareness, consideration for others, and calmness under pressure. However, the discussion lacks depth, practical application, and nuanced interaction, focusing more on theoretical characteristics of intelligent people.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 155,970 | 0 |
Agility is the ability to create and adapt to change. Agile software development methods include: Scrum, eXtreme Programming, Crystal, Dynamic Systems Development Methodology (DSDM), Feature Driven Development and Adaptive Software Development. In general, agile methods can be used on any sort of project (software or non-software) to:
- Focus on customer value via constant business-driven prioritization of features and regular customer feedback;
- Manage uncertainty and risk through evolutionary (iterative and incremental) product development;
- Utilize intense collaboration and feedback via maximum face-to-face communication;
- Unleash team members’ creativity and productivity through light touch leadership and self-organization;
- Deliver high quality through plan-do-study-act continuous improvement cycles; and
- Facilitate learning and adaptation to change via practices like team retrospectives (mini lessons learned done while the project is in-flight).
Clear business results (working software, etc) are delivered regularly by chunking projects into equal-sized iterations (also called sprints) that typically last one to four weeks. Each iteration/sprint is like a miniature project of its own, and includes all the tasks necessary to release the mini-increment of new functionality: planning, requirements analysis, design, delivery, testing, and documentation. At the end of each iteration, the team reevaluates project priorities.
Agile methods emphasize face-to-face communication. Most agile teams are collocated in a shared space and include all the people necessary to deliver business results. At a minimum, this includes a core team of project manager (known as a ScrumMaster in Scrum), programmers and their product owners. Product owners define the product and manage its ROI. Project planning typically includes release planning and sprint planning – a la rolling wave planning. A product backlog (prioritized list of features for the entire product/project) is produced in the release planning meetings. The top priority items are taken and detailed into the sprint backlog in the sprint planning meetings. Each sprint/iteration results in a working increment of the product delivered to the product owner. This increment is potentially shippable and may be released into production by the product owner. Usually, product increments are released into production once they aggregate a small set of minimum marketable features. Daily scrum/standup meetings are used as a primary means of communication. | <urn:uuid:08c2d671-b3dd-404d-8b50-d3ba39300968> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://lithespeed.com/1-page-introduction-to-agile-methods/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296948673.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20230327154814-20230327184814-00374.warc.gz | en | 0.927216 | 496 | 2.703125 | 3 | The extract discusses agile software development methods, emphasizing teamwork, collaboration, and communication. It highlights the importance of face-to-face interaction, self-organization, and continuous improvement, showcasing some aspects of soft skills like leadership and problem-solving. However, it lacks depth in emotional intelligence, cultural awareness, and digital literacy, focusing primarily on technical project management.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 140,749 | 0 |
The typical reply you get when you ask a student about school or college is that it’s boring! ‘Anything’s better than that’, they would grumble.
This outlook is rampant today due to the one-way conversation and practice which prevails in today’s education system. It’s generally the teacher doing all the research and talking while the students are barely listening or learning anything!
Project based learning (PBL) is a fun alternative to the existing leaden way of imparting knowledge to students. It involves practicing of critical thinking, collaboration and communication which prepare students to adapt the real world with a sense of leadership. It is about connecting classroom learning to its applications in the outside world. In a nutshell, it’s a better and effective way to learn.
So Why is this ‘Better Way’ not Trending?
Firstly, it entails the integration and infusion of right tech tools for more effective learning which is not feasible when the technology here is mostly confined to a computer lab and executing PBL when class sizes approach forty gets onerous and often impossible.
Secondly, the whole process of PBL is extortionate. It requires highly qualified, motivated and innovative teachers with an analytical approach. However, teaching doesn’t always draw the best candidates due to the unfavorable salaries offered and hence to comprise PBL salaries have to be increased which proves to be expensive for the institution and later the students.
Moreover, we still follow the education system which is the 20th century foundation of the British. Institutions of higher learning are churning out people with degrees who barely have any skills in dealing with problems and other people. Consequently, most students are used to the mediocrity and are more rapt towards adequate marks rather than learning.
Getting a decent paying job is customarily what they aspire for. The goal of PBL is incompatible with the latter. Therefore, in this ambience of traditional learning, Project Based Learning is perplexing and difficult to accept.
Hence, PBL is not getting popular regardless of the wide-ranging benefits it has to offer the students and the country.
Despite of the challenges that Project Based Learning faces, it is worth the money, time and effort as it can broaden the whole horizon of thinking and create new entrepreneurs, thinkers, scientists, writers, and artists who can push the limits set and establish the foundation of a knowledge based economy, in lieu the low quality service providing nation we are turning into.
6 thoughts on “WHY IS PROJECT BASED LEARNING NOT TRENDING?”
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Thank you Sophie! Keep reading and reviewing! | <urn:uuid:56189cfb-7f6f-472e-98f4-7a432be9dfa2> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://www.trendingus.com/project-based-learning-not-trending/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296945183.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20230323194025-20230323224025-00033.warc.gz | en | 0.950197 | 598 | 2.671875 | 3 | The extract discusses the benefits of Project-Based Learning (PBL) in developing critical thinking, collaboration, and communication skills, but also highlights the challenges it faces in being adopted. It touches on the need for technological integration, qualified teachers, and a shift in the traditional education system. The extract promotes PBL as a means to foster leadership, adaptability, and real-world application, but lacks nuanced interaction and complex problem-solving opportunities.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 421,595 | 0 |
An overview of recent native vegetation clearance in Australia and its implications for biodiversity
Biodiversity Series, Paper No. 6
Andreas Glanznig, Biodiversity Unit
Department of the Environment, Sport and Territories, June 1995
Since European settlement, the native vegetation of South Australia has been extensively modified. While there is a paucity of data on the extent of pre-European forest and woodland cover, except for mainly anecdotal data for small areas such as the Adelaide Hills and Kangaroo Island, it has been estimated that 55 per cent (some 54 852 000 ha) of South Australia supported forest and woodland at the time of settlement (Wells et al 1984).
Vegetation clearance has occurred mostly in the 18 per cent of South Australia that is generally suitable for pasture and crops. Known as the agricultural area, it is approximately 155 000 km² in size and receives more than 250 mm of rain per year on average.
In 1975, 75 per cent of the agricultural area had been cleared; by 1988 this had risen to 79.9 percent. Much of the native vegetation left is in areas considered marginal for agriculture (GOSA 1988, p.106; SADEP 1989).
Recent and current situation
Until recently, clearance of native vegetation occurred at a significant rate. Native vegetation declined in the agricultural area by some 17.3 per cent (651 600 ha) between 1975 and January 1988 (GOSA 1988). A regional breakdown is given at Table 6.
|Region||Area at 1975 (ha)||Area at 1988 (ha)||Per cent change|
|Lower South-East||69 400||48 540||30.0|
|Upper South-East||256 900||98 015||61.8|
|Murray Mallee||529 000||481 256||9.0|
|Mount Lofty Ranges||39 700||36 787||7.3|
|Yorke Peninsula||67 400||59 140||12.3|
|Eyre Peninsula||1 722 400||1 375 596||20.1|
|Kangaroo Island||95 000||47 730||50.2|
|Mid-North||987 200||968 009||1.9|
|Total||3 767 000||3 115 073||17.3|
Source: Native Vegetation Authority First Annual Report and Vegetation Management Branch, Department of Environment and Planning cited in GOSA (1988, p.105)
Of this decline, 17 per cent (478 500 ha) occurred prior to the introduction of clearance controls in May 1983. An additional 162 000 ha were approved for clearance from May 1983 to the establishment of the Native Vegetation Authority in November 1985. Subsequently, only 11 000 ha have been cleared in the period to 1988. The major areas of clearance up to 1983, and the areas where the greatest pressure continues for clearance approval, are Eyre Peninsula (especially the far west and north), the South-East and Kangaroo Island (GOSA 1988, pp.105-6; also see SA Department of the Environment 1976).
Drainage of swamps and wetlands, particularly in the South-East, has contributed to the loss of large areas of native vegetation. Approximately 90 per cent of the wetlands of the South-East (4 600 km²) have been lost and many of those which remain have been significantly modified, especially through changed water regimes (Jones 1978; Ecologic and Associates 1988).
Fragmentation of remnant vegetation in the agricultural area has been substantial. For example, a survey of Fleurieu Peninsula south of Adelaide found that only nine per cent of the region was covered by original vegetation of which 67 per cent was located in blocks less than 10 ha in size. In an area of 150 000 ha only three patches exceeded 500 ha (Williams and Goodwin 1988).
Between 1985 to 1991, 31 300 ha were permitted to be cleared (SADENR data cited in NGGIC 1994, p.129a; see also GOSA 1993, pp.127,129). Table 7 below shows that from the enactment of the Native Vegetation Act in April 1991 to 30 June 1994 a total of 357.5 ha were permitted to be cleared while 5114.5 ha were permitted to be cleared with conditions. It appears that most clearing activity occurred in the year 1 July 1993 to 30 June 1994 with a total of 4675 ha permitted to be cleared (outright and with conditions) (SANVC 1992;1993;1994). It is evident that the range of measures aimed at retaining native vegetation, including native vegetation clearing controls, have effectively put an end to broadscale clearing in South Australia.
|Scattered Trees||Property Management||Wood||Brush||Other||Total|
|Total area applied for||2154.5||2757.5||3448||2901||776||12 037|
|Refused||226||1 535||2999||1231||577||6 568|
|Granted with conditions||1784.5||1040||443||1670||177||5 114.5|
Source: adapted from SANVC (1992;1993;1994) | <urn:uuid:a31a6cb7-ca64-49aa-a8e0-2ab9390a4f0c> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://www.environment.gov.au/archive/biodiversity/publications/series/paper6/biosa.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386163052727/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204131732-00003-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.910146 | 1,079 | 3.140625 | 3 | The extract lacks discussion of soft skills, focusing on environmental data and statistics. It does not include communication scenarios, team dynamics, or problem-solving opportunities, and cultural awareness and digital literacy are absent.
Educational score: 1 | 1 | 0 | 570,969 | 0 |
“We need to have a celebratory day off where we can actually highlight Indigenous peoples and the work that they’ve done. The culture that they’ve built is critically important to any young people, especially in understanding what it means to a country like America,” said Amy Michael, a Biological Anthropologist at the University of New Hampshire (UNH).
In 2017, Durham was the first community in New Hampshire to adopt Indigenous Peoples’ Day (IPD) in the place of Columbus Day. This year, because of the switch, there were several events organized by a group of volunteers that took place over the course of three months. One of the events that the group is presenting is the film Dawnland, which will be shown this evening at 6PM at the Durham Public Library. The mission with these events is to inform the community of who the Indigenous people are through historic and present-day lessons.
This is the second year that Durham has hosted events for Indigenous Peoples’ Day. The events started on September 23rd and will continue until November 21st with various educational events through lectures, book readings, films, and discussions. The topics range from Native fashion, Indigenous music, Columbus’ journals, and many more subjects in order to appeal to a larger audience. Michael said she thought Durham did a nice job of getting an array of perspectives by having a range of speakers from Indigenous people to activists. For the full list of events, visit durhamipd.org.
The volunteers want to educate community members on Indigenoues people and their role in America’s history. Nancy Lambert, who helps lead Durham United, a program that works on social and justice issues in the community, said that, “IPD is an opportunity to learn and it’s an opportunity to acknowledge a history that has not always been acknowledged, and to acknowledge the pain that people have suffered.”
The film Dawnland is a documentary centered on the government forced separation of Native American children from their parents and placed with white families for most of the 20th century. The film also focuses on the creation of the first government-sanctioned Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in Maine. Their job was to gather testimonies and record the impacts of these separations in the state.
Some of the other events that they have scheduled are several PodChats, which are discussions about issues regarding Indigenous people that go along with podcasts. The podcasts can be found at on allmyrelationspodcast.com. They are every Monday at 4:30 pm at Freedom Cafe in Durham until November 18th.
The last event is a Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon on Indigenous women starting at 2:10 pm on November 21st. According to their schedule, “participants will work with librarians and UNH faculty/staff to increase content about Indigenous women.” The purpose of this event is to better represent Indigenous women on Wikipedia.
Michael, who was director in a forensic lab near Indian reservations working with cases revolving around them in Idaho, traveled to other reservations in neighboring states. She led one of the many events that was hosted in Durham for Indigenous Peoples’ Day called Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. She said that, “it’s erroneous to believe that there was nobody here before Europeans, so to celebrate ‘discoveries’ of the United States is kind of insidious. So I absolutely believe that I can only see good coming out of communities adopting Indigenous Peoples’ Day and recognizing Indigenous peoples and the culture that they created in America long before any Europeans were here.”
Denise Pouliot, who is part of the Abenaki Tribe, was a speaker at the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women event, along with Amy Michael. She holds up a set of vamps, which are the top part of moccasins, that were made to honor Indigenous women who were murdered or missing.
Michael compared how Indigenous people were recognized when she lived out west as opposed to in New England. She said, “there are lots more reservations out west […] it’s way more common to be confronted with the history of Indigenous people in America when there’s reservations all around you. But if you move out east, towards New England, there’s plenty of Indigenous folks, but there’s no reservations. The visibility isn’t as ‘in your face’ anymore, so I think that this day and this celebration is about visibility.”
Although Durham adopted Indigenous Peoples’ Day, it’s only a town-wide celebration. New Hampshire still recognizes October 14th as Columbus Day. Lambert said, “I think having both [Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples’ Day] allows an opportunity to acknowledge the global influence of European settlement in the Americas […] in the sense of the Europeans spreading across the world, [while] at the same time, acknowledging the incredible harm that was done to Indigenous peoples.”
For Lambert, the importance of these events is to educate. She said that, “we have a romanticised view [of Columbus] and I think that Indigneous Peoples’ Day is an opportunity to push back on that a little bit and educate ourselves more completely and what exactly happened and the suffering that took place.”
The event organizers and volunteers have a vision for what their events will bring. “I want people to understand that part of our learning is to make mistakes and to be comfortable in recognizing that. That is not an easy process to undo the tragedy of our past, but that it is our responsibility to take steps forward,” said Kristen Forselius, a volunteer for IPD. | <urn:uuid:a9ee707d-14e0-4068-a44c-c4778fcab73e> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://mor.news/2019/11/07/indigenous-peoples-day/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585370490497.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20200328074047-20200328104047-00398.warc.gz | en | 0.975434 | 1,179 | 2.734375 | 3 | The extract scores high for its discussion of cultural awareness, empathy, and historical context, promoting intercultural fluency and understanding. It highlights the importance of acknowledging and learning from the past, particularly regarding Indigenous peoples' experiences and contributions. The events organized for Indigenous Peoples' Day demonstrate a commitment to education, visibility, and reconciliation, showcasing realistic scenarios that integrate emotional intelligence and critical thinking opportunities.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 868,172 | 1 |
[This piece first appeared in Deccan Herald on 24th January 2020.]
Amartya Sen's ‘The Argumentative Indian’ locates the argumentative tradition as early as Ashoka. He argues how the deliberative tendency that began in the distant past has enabled India to emerge as a pluralist and liberal nation. Ramachandra Guha, in his review of Sen’s books, points out to the lack of reference to the immediate past and to the Constitution that has had a strong bearing on the Indian argumentative proclivity. While Sen digs out distant historical figures and episodes to illustrate the argumentative disposition of Indians, it is more useful to adopt Guha’s framework.
The late nineteenth and twentieth-century India cemented a secure foundation for the argumentative tradition. The Indian National Congress was founded in 1885 as a debate club and aimed to influence policy-making. It was only years later that it transformed into a political party seeking political demands.
With the beginning of independence struggle came diverse constitutional imaginations through ‘Historical Constitutions’. The Nehru Report, 1928, one such constitution, was a response to the British challenge for Indians to draft a Constitution. Hailed ‘the Magna Carta of our liberty’ this report inspired the fundamental rights chapter in the Constitution.
As freedom seemed imminent, the Constituent Assembly was formed in 1946. The Assembly was the formal constitution-making body. Its members came from diverse political, religious, geographical, educational and professional backgrounds. For example, Minoo Masani, KT Shah were socialists while KM Munshi, Seth Govind Das were from the Hindu right. The assembly had lawyers, statesmen, businessmen, farmers, landlords, professors, economists among others. This diversity in the composition of the Assembly facilitated and propelled debates and made the Assembly a platform for myriad perspectives. Most of the Articles were subject to intense discussions and the members moved a total of 2473 amendments.
The constitution-making mechanism took place through committees and plenary sessions (debates in the Constituent Assembly). The Assembly appointed around 30 committees that would prepare briefs, reports and drafts. The members of the committee even recorded their dissent on any given issue. When the Sub-Committee on Fundamental Rights was discussing the Uniform Civil Code, Hansa Mehta, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur and Minoo Masani argued for making it a fundamental right rather than a directive principle of the state policy. When the Committee decided otherwise, they recorded their dissent highlighting that personal laws based on religion would prevent India from advancing.
The Assembly sat in the Parliament Hall for the first time on 9th December 1946. For three years the Assembly members were busy crafting the Constitution. The plenary sessions, where the Assembly sat for 166 days, witnessed the Assembly Members discuss, debate and argue the reports and adopt the final text of the Constitution. The Constitution in its final form had 395 articles in 22 parts and 8 schedules.
Our constitution-makers invested far more time discussing, debating, arguing and settling our constitutional future. To give a comparative perspective, Japan’s Constitution was prepared by Americans (mostly military officials) within a week whereas the American Constitution was ready within four months. In the backdrop of several decades of freedom struggle, they wanted to work towards a secure constitutional future without rushing or taking for granted the values that they fought for.
One such topic that was intensely debated was citizenship. When the Assembly decided to take up discussion of citizenship articles, Rajendra Prasad, the Chairman of the Assembly, remarked that there was a ‘veritable jungle of amendments’.
A strand of debate around Article 5 of the Constitution of India, 1950 illustrates the deliberative exercise that the Assembly undertook. Article 5 establishes the basic principles of citizenship. This article was debated for three days in the backdrop of partition of India and Pakistan: 10th August 1949, 11th August 1949 and 12th August 1949.
PS Deshmukh, a lawyer who later became the Minister of Agriculture in independent India, tabled an amendment which sought to insert this clause in Article 5: ‘that every person who is a Hindu or a Sikh and is not a citizen of any other State shall be entitled to be a citizen of India’.
Through his amendment, he wanted to provide a residuary clause which would allow any Hindu or Sikh, irrespective of their residence, to claim Indian citizenship. He asked:
If the Muslims want an exclusive place for themselves called Pakistan, why should not Hindus and Sikhs have India as their home?” He further insisted that his claim was not ‘non-secular or sectarian or communal.
Jawaharlal Nehru was not keen on linking religion to citizenship. He was in favour of the Draft Articles and amendments as moved by the Drafting Committee. He noted:
You cannot in any such provision lay down more or less whom you like and whom you dislike; you have to lay down certain principles, but any principles that you may lay down is likely not to fit in with a number of cases...You cannot have rules for Hindus, for Muslims or for Christians only.
Nehru further argued that the principles governing citizenship must be informed by justice and equity and not extraneous factors like religion. In the end, after much debate, the members voted against Deshmukh’s proposal and decided to not link religion and citizenship.
The Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 overturns Assembly’s stance on religion and citizenship. Our constitution framers engaged in a deliberative process without shunning or silencing perspectives. Instead, they heard and responded to diverse voices. The rich constitutional and historical heritage cannot be taken for granted. In light of our nation’s growing aversion to debate and more importantly, to accepting dissent, we must remember that the Constituent Assembly founded the Indian Constitution and the nation on an argumentative tradition. | <urn:uuid:bee91343-1e31-4700-aeb9-9c04accb321e> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | https://www.constitutionofindia.net/blogs/the_argumentative_constituent_assembly__how_the_constitution_was_framed | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875145657.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20200222085018-20200222115018-00062.warc.gz | en | 0.9626 | 1,218 | 3.3125 | 3 | The extract scores high for its in-depth discussion of India's constitutional history, highlighting the deliberative and argumentative tradition that shaped the nation. It showcases complex scenarios requiring sophisticated communication, strategic thinking, and advanced problem-solving, demonstrating a strong emphasis on intercultural fluency and historical context.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 583,220 | 1 |
Have you ever heard a Christian speaking to a Muslim, and telling them that the word Injil in the Qur’an is the same as the Gospels [Matthew, Mark, Luke or John] or it is the same as the Gospel, or the Good News about Jesus Christ? In this brief post, I would like to look at how Islam views this word, and why that matters.
In the Qur’an
The word Injil occurs 12x in the Quran. In Arabic it is a singular noun, and should be rendered ‘gospel’ and not ‘gospels.’ It always refers to a book that was sent down or given to the Muslim Jesus or ‘Isa. For instance,
"And We caused ‘Isa, son of Mary, to follow in their footsteps, confirming that which was (revealed) before him in the Torah, and We bestowed on him the [Injil] wherein is guidance and a light, confirming that which was (revealed) before it in the Torah ..." (Q. 5:46)
"... We caused ‘Isa, son of Mary, to follow, and gave him the Injil..." (Q. 57:27)
According to Islamic thinking, there is a ‘mother of the books’ that is kept in heaven, and from this mother of the books, the Torah (the Pentateuch), the Zabur (Psalms), the Injil and the Qur’an came down to earth to the so-called prophets, Musa (Moses), Daoud (David), 'Isa (Jesus) and Muhammad. In Islamic thought, all of these books come from one source, and thus must all agree with each other. Where they differ, then the Qur’an which is said to be the last that came down, supersedes all the others.
The guidance and light that are said to be in the Injil are always thought about in Islamic terms. The Qur’an is all about guidance, as the main error of humans is to forget, and so they need guidance to bring them back to the right path. Secondly, light is frequently associated with Muhammad. Thus, as we will see from the commentators below, it is impossible to associate the terms “guidance and light” with the Christian ideas of Holy Spirit guidance, or Jesus as the light of the world.
Five Islamic Commentators on the ‘Injil’
- A Muslim telling a Christian about the Injil (around 800):
What you have said you report only from your Gospel and your new books; however, we have first, true Gospel. We received it from our Prophet, and it contradicts that which is in your possession. For after the Ascension of Christ into heaven, John and his followers revised the Gospel and set down what is in your possession as they wished. This is what our Prophet has handed down to us.
- Ibn Ḥazm (around 1000)
This Muslim theologian was one of the first to comprehensively develop the Islamic teaching on the way that the Bible has been tampered with by Christians. Concerning the Injil he said,
“The gospel sent down by God, great and glorious, disappeared, except for a few sections that God almighty left behind as evidence against them [the Christians] to shame them.”
- Ibn Khaldun (around 1400)
In his commentary he said that the “Gospel descended” on the Muslim Jesus. He used a word to describe this descent which is exactly the same as the descent of the Qur’an, and which always describes the descent of revelation.
- Tahir al-Jaza’iri (around 1900)
This Muslim scholar from Algeria wrote both a creedal statement and a catechism for his Islamic students around the turn of the 20th century. The creedal statement affirms:
"It is to be believed that Allah . . . has books which He sends down to His prophets, and in which He makes clear His commands, His prohibitions. His promises and His threats, and that they are truly the speech of Allah, having their origin from Him, though we do not know just how He spoke. These books He sent down by way of inspiration (wahy) and among them are the Torah, the Injil, the Zabur, and the Qur’an."
His Islamic ‘disciple’ memorizes the following answer to the question as to what is the Injil:
"I believe that the Injīl is one of the books of the Most High, which he revealed to the Messiah Jesus, in order to explain truths, call humanity to profess the Oneness of the Creator, to cancel certain secondary laws of the Torah, according to necessary measures, and to announce the coming of the ‘Seal of the Prophets.’"
- Yusuf Ali (around 1930)
One of the most popular English renditions of the Qur’an is by a man named Yusuf Ali. In the notes to his The Meaning of the Glorious Quran he says this about the Injil:
"…the Injil spoken of by the Qur’an is not the New Testament. It is not the four Gospels now received as canonical. It is the single Gospel which, Islam teaches, was revealed to Jesus, and which he taught. Fragments of it survive in the received canonical Gospels and in some others of which traces survive."
These five Islamic commentators assert the following:
1. The Injil descends from heaven like other books and was given to Islamic prophets, and in this case, it was to the Muslim Jesus.
2. It is not equal to the New Testament and Christians are said not to be in possession of the true Gospel.
3. It was used by the Muslim Jesus to explain Islamic truths, and to make the way ready for the coming of Muhammad, who is known as the ‘Seal of the Prophets.’
4. As a whole it is no longer in existence, although some pieces might exist in the Christian Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and according to Ibn Hazm exists only to shame Christians to remind them of what they forgot, or how they changed it.
If a Christian approaches a Muslim and uses the term ‘Injil’ with the assumption that the Muslim thinks that it is the same Gospel or Gospels as the Christian thinks about, there will be a disconnect in communication. Subtly, the Christian could be affirming Islamic doctrine, namely that Muslims only, know what the true Gospel is, and that Christians are mistaken. Rather, a Christian must go about and ‘repossess’ the term which has been effectively co-opted by Islam.
The Christian Gospel
The Christian who is presenting the story of the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of His Majesty the Lord Jesus Christ, is presenting a very different story than that of the Muslim Jesus presented in the Qur’an. The Good News or Gospel of the ‘Son of the Most High’ that is always associated with the kingdom of God and its deliverance from the bondage of sin (Matthew 4:23) and it is news of great joy (Luke 2:10). This ‘power of God unto salvation’ (Romans 1:16) calls people to repentance from their assertion that they are lord, and replaces it with the bowed knee that says “Jesus is Lord.”
The four canonical Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are a composite sketch by eye-witness, working under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to produce a multi-faceted picture of “all that Jesus began to do and teach” (Acts 1:1); in order that its readers might be “have certainty about the things” (Luke 1:4) they were taught, and that
"…these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name" (John 20:31).
This differs dramatically from the Muslim idea that the Gospels are akin to the hadiths which are a report on the activities of Muslims, and especially that of Muhammad. The Gospel in the Bible has the power to effect salvation (Ephesians 1:13) something that no hadith or Qur’anic verse could ever do. The Gospel in the Bible is eternal (Rev 14:6) and ushers in eternal life for its true hearers (2 Timothy 1:10), because it is the only “word of truth” (Colossians 1:5).
1. Have you ever heard someone equate the Injil of the Qur’an and that of the Bible? Have you done the same?
2. Does this article help you to understand the potential confusion that can occur when a Christian thinks that similar words in Islam and Christianity, necessarily have the same meanings? Can you see how this might cause confusion in the mind of your Muslim friend? Does it help you to understand the potential for a Christian to falsely assume that their Muslim friend is hearing the same thing as they might think they are communicating?
3. How will you go about clarifying the fact that Islam and Christianity might share common terms when it comes to the Gospel, but might have totally different meanings? | <urn:uuid:63238b4b-3ad5-445f-984d-e3c820c5295f> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | https://network.crcna.org/ecumenical-interfaith/what-%E2%80%9Cinjil%E2%80%9D%E2%80%94sometimes-known-%E2%80%98gospel%E2%80%99%E2%80%94-islam | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585371806302.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20200407214925-20200408005425-00497.warc.gz | en | 0.965919 | 1,972 | 2.796875 | 3 | The extract provides a detailed comparison of the concept of "Injil" in Islam and Christianity, highlighting the differences in understanding and interpretation. It encourages critical thinking, cultural awareness, and effective communication to avoid misunderstandings. The article promotes nuanced interaction, emotional intelligence, and leadership skills by suggesting ways to clarify differences in meaning and approach conversations with sensitivity.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 838,987 | 1 |
Write, write, write! Take several sheets of paper and assign at least one sheet for each of the following broad categories.
Your Long-Term Goals
Write down the primary goals that are most important to you in the long-term. These are the goals that will bring the most positive outcomes in your life. They should reflect your values because they help shape your vision.
It is important to note them first, because your short- and medium-term plans will form the next steps to help you achieve these long-term goals. And do not be afraid to be ambitious when you set these goals! If you aim for the stars, you will give yourself the opportunity to touch the sky, and maybe the moon. But if you aim for just the ceiling, you will, at best, just catch a light bulb.
People who establish a vision rich in long-term goals are those who make the most of things, and who meet the most expectations of their lives. I would also suggest that you separate each of the important dimensions of your life.
For example, the goals you might want to achieve to “be perfectly happy with your work” will not be the same as for “living long and healthily.” Separating your long term goals from each other will increase the clarity of your lists, and sharpen the accuracy of the actions to be undertaken to achieve them.
Your Medium-Term Objectives
This list helps you clarify what you must pass through to grow closer to your ambitious long-term goals. They are steps you must through to succeed.
For example, if your long-term goal is to excel in all facets of your life, your medium-term goals need to revolve around objectives to do with your relationships, work, your income, your health, and so forth.
These objectives may change over time, and that’s the beauty of self-realization. As you progress, you will come across great surprises, and will often find more than you’d hoped for!
Your Short-Term Goals
Your short-term goals are very important because they are synonymous with action. And without action, nothing happens. Short-term goals are the ones that you realize and fulfill in the coming weeks, the coming months, and in the current year. They lead you to achieve your objectives in the medium-term.
If you want to improve your working relationships, your salary and your health, your short-term goals need to revolve around managing your time and activities, conflict resolution and communication, and all the exercise you can do. Above all, they correspond to clear actions that you can start on now.
Accomplish Your Lists!
Once you’ve finished writing your list of goals for the short-, medium-, and long-term, it is time to begin to achieve and accomplish them! Your actions should focus on making your short0term goals a reality. Include your list all actions relevant to your success. Is there an important person with whom you could reconcile? Are there books you want to read or is there research online that you need to do to find information to help accomplish a goal?
List then, and then put them in order of priority. Some of them might take time; others are accomplished quickly. Be sure to juxtapose your actions so as to make their achievement possible in the easiest and most efficient way. For example, make sure that no action is accomplished before another first; otherwise you will lose time waiting, or will need to make efforts to start all over again.
Once you’ve identified your priorities, add a timetable to them. Timing is very important because it tells you whether or not you’re moving forward. I know several people who have done everything listed here in the most perfect manner, but haven’t achieved their goals simply because they didn’t make a timetable!
Of course, you need review your priorities and deadlines as you progress. But what is most important is to start now! Choose a first action to accomplish in your list and start on it right away. If you put off your goals for tomorrow, you’ll end up delaying them your whole life!
Ideally, if using a computer is easier for you, make these lists directly into text files. This will allow you to easily change the order of items in your lists, erase what has been completed, and add to the right place the things you think of as you go along. Also check your lists every day, or at least weekly, and pay attention to the goals that you accomplish. You will maintain your motivation this way! Finally, remember to make any necessary changes to your lists so that they always reflect the reality of your vision and your actions.
Strategies such as the fact of writing lists of your objectives and your actions are used by the most effective managers of companies. Unfortunately, we often forget one small detail: good management strategies are not reserved exclusively for business people. Our whole life can benefit from them! If we want to achieve goals, but don’t take enough care, nothing happens. This is why lists and timelines are useful.
If you learn to use these tools, you become your own project manager, and your plans will build your life! When you begin to write these lists, you will quickly discover how easy it is then to take action. The process of self-realization will become much clearer, and you will know what you have to do to in order to succeed. If you don’t take this effort, it will be very difficult to obtain the results that match what you want and expect. | <urn:uuid:63cafea7-f8ed-4f21-bd55-50a71717864b> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | http://www.healthhappinessmag.poison-ivy-oak-sumac.com/?p=292 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128320077.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20170623170148-20170623190148-00250.warc.gz | en | 0.958607 | 1,156 | 2.515625 | 3 | The extract provides a basic framework for setting and achieving personal goals, covering long-term, medium-term, and short-term objectives. It offers practical advice on creating lists, prioritizing actions, and using timetables to track progress. However, it lacks depth in discussing soft skills such as communication, teamwork, emotional intelligence, and leadership. The content focuses primarily on individual goal-setting and time management, with limited consideration for complex problem-solving, cultural awareness, or digital literacy.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 173,216 | 0 |
Expanding the Impact of Excellent Teachers
If you are a teacher who helps students learn exceptionally well, this is your moment—schools and policymakers must vastly expand your impact, now.
Today, our nation is at a crossroads; we simply cannot fall short educationally for another decade as other countries surge.
Why is this time unique? Two crucial trends are at play. First, the United States has begun to act on the compelling data showing great variation in teachers’ success in helping students learn, as well as the monumental impact this variation can have on the life chances of students. As states and districts work to build better teacher-evaluation systems, schools will have increasingly accurate and useful data to identify which teachers are exceptionally effective.
Second, we are experiencing a major generational change. For the first time in memory, a majority of teachers have fewer than 10 years of experience. In the coming decade, they will decide whether to stay in the classroom or move on. Opportunities for leadership and compensated professional growth will weigh heavily in their decisions. As the Teach Plus report Great Expectations: Teachers’ Views on Elevating the Teaching Profession shows, early-career teachers want clear standards of excellence, performance measurement, and overhaul of compensation and tenure. They also want to get out of their classroom walls and collaborate with peers to meet student needs in flexible instructional groups.
Ever since the release of “A Nation at Risk” in 1983, the United States has tried dozens of reforms that have not capitalized on the excellent teachers already working in schools. Meanwhile, growing volumes of evidence have shown large differences in teachers’ effectiveness. Excellent teachers more consistently help students close achievement gaps and advance individually, in spite of students’ differing familial advantages.
Reforms that do not acknowledge this truth and expand the impact—and number—of excellent teachers are bound to fall short. Schools must stretch their thinking far past the current mentor/master paradigm for teacher advancement. To do so, schools must extend the reach of excellent teachers to more students, couple teacher collaboration with teacher leadership, and empower top teachers to shape school culture. Meanwhile, policymakers must clear away the policy brush that holds great teachers back and boost the national will to put an excellent teacher in every classroom.
Altogether, these changes provide the linchpin for what we call an Opportunity Culture, one that embraces excellence and opportunity for students and teachers alike.
How should schools go about this?
First, they must help excellent teachers reach more students. Using job redesign and age- and child-appropriate technology, schools can help great teachers teach more students, paying more for their additional responsibility from existing per-pupil funding. New models can also free teachers’ in-school time for collaboration and improvement.
For example, excellent elementary teachers can reach two to four times more students by specializing in their best subjects, while less costly paraprofessionals supervise students during noninstructional time, such as recess and transitions between classes, and complete paperwork.
Alternatively, teachers at all levels can reach substantially more students by swapping teaching time, as little as an hour daily per student, with personalized digital instruction supervised by paraprofessionals. With the right schedule changes, teachers can collaborate, reach more students, and maintain personalized instructional time. The charter school network Rocketship Education provides one example of schools that combine subject specialization and digital instruction to achieve stellar results in high-poverty elementary schools while increasing teacher pay, within budget.
Teacher-leaders can bring excellence to multiple classrooms by leading teams. Of course, some schools already have grade-level or department leaders. But rarely do these teachers have accountability for other teachers’ student outcomes, authority to select and evaluate peers, and enhanced pay that is sustainably funded. With full accountability for all students in a set of classrooms and explicit authority to lead teams, teacher-leaders have an enormous incentive to develop others and help all of them do their best. Lastly, master teachers can teach larger classes—within reason and by choice—allowing other teachers to have smaller classes.
These models let schools create instructional career opportunities for excellent teachers, for more pay, within budget. They also create opportunities for teamwork, job flexibility, funded planning and development, and varying roles that fit each person’s talents, all helping to retain teachers and increase their satisfaction. These models also support sustainable pay increases of up to 130 percent for multi-classroom leaders and 40 percent for others.
Second, schools must couple collaboration with teacher leadership. Professional learning communities are not new, but their developmental potential is squandered when individual teachers are unaware of which of their peers achieve the best outcomes and when excellent teachers are isolated. Moreover, schools find scheduling a challenge and paying teacher-leaders unsustainable.
Efforts like Teach Plus’ highly successful Turnaround Teacher Teams, which infuse schools with trained teams of excellent teachers and acknowledge excellence openly, give great teachers license to lead and good teachers license to learn.
Combining collaborative efforts like this with reach models makes collaboration and pay increases sustainable. When paraprofessionals supervise students during noninstructional time and digital learning, teachers can collaborate.
Third, schools must empower excellent teachers to influence not just classrooms, but also school culture and policies. Excellent teachers should play a prominent role in determining peer selection, instructional practices and materials, evaluation methods, and retention decisions.
Policymakers must remove barriers that prevent schools from boosting the impact of great teachers for more pay, within budget. The policy changes needed are many (see the full article for more). In summary, states must improve teacher evaluation, track the number of students with excellent teachers, and let these teachers obtain automatic multi-state licenses. Excellent teachers must be able to vary their class sizes, use paraprofessionals, and change roles, schedules, and technology to help more students and peers.
Policy must enable districts to pay excellent teachers more for advanced teaching roles—routinely and within budget—with even more for those succeeding with the most-challenging students.
States must insist that schools report retention rates of excellent teachers, protect them from layoffs, and limit tenure to those who achieve consistent excellence. To save teachers time, states must give all students access to wireless learning, and all teachers access to student data and matching instructional options.
Finally, state and federal policymakers must build public will for reaching every student with excellent teachers. A blend of powerful mandates and incentives must define core policies and funding, not just special programs. In other words, creating an Opportunity Culture must be this nation’s No. 1 education priority. Other reforms cannot succeed, sustainably and at scale, without attracting and developing highly capable teachers who stay in the profession longer and expand their impact within schools and their profession.
— Bryan C. Hassel, Celine Coggins & Emily Ayscue Hassel
Bryan Hassel and Emily Ayscue Hassel are co-directors of Public Impact. Celine Coggins, a former middle school teacher, is the founder and chief executive officer of Teach Plus, which is based in Boston.
This is an abridged and edited version of an article published on EducationWeek.org.
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In the meantime check the site regularly for new articles, blog postings, and reader comments | <urn:uuid:447c27b9-b1d3-498e-8eb5-60e226e402e4> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://educationnext.org/expanding-the-impact-of-excellent-teachers/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386163999838/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204133319-00000-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949896 | 1,514 | 2.6875 | 3 | The extract discusses expanding the impact of excellent teachers, emphasizing the need for schools to adopt new models that enable teacher collaboration, leadership, and professional growth. It highlights the importance of creating an "Opportunity Culture" that supports teacher development and student success. The article provides practical examples and policy recommendations, demonstrating a comprehensive approach to education reform.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 546,567 | 1 |
THOMAS Carlyle's fulminations against the spiritual damage
wrought by factories are almost two centuries old, but the sentiment is current
wherever industrialisation is rampant.
"The huge demon of Mechanism," he wrote,
"smokes and thunders, panting at his great task, oversetting whole
multitudes of workmen... so that the wisest no longer knows his
In China today, government leaders and dissidents alike
worry that, as one commentator put it, "frenzied competition for a better
life (has) lobotomised the people of inherent values like common decency,
compassion and feelings of fellowship"”.
A century ago, Max Weber described the process as
"disenchantment". The German sociologist thought the transition from
a culture of faith and farming to the narrow-minded and bureaucratic "iron
cage" of modern civilisation required the destruction of a spiritual world
He saw a modern society made up of "specialists without
spirit, sensualists without heart".
Weber was certainly on to something: industrialisation does
break down old religious ways. In pre-industrial societies, the transcendental
and the everyday were closely woven together.
Social rituals couldn't be separated from ethical
expectations. Such unity is impossible in a world of material plenty, big
cities, and high technology.
Vast increases in wealth, consumption and education create
opportunities for personal expression and eliminate the economic rationale for
many socio-religious restrictions. Urbanisation brings people physically
closer, but often as anonymous neighbours rather than in communities with
telecommunications and transport erode the borders between the "us"
of family or village and the "them" of the outside world. The old
religious and spiritual ways cannot survive this transition.
But Carlyle, Weber and many modern social observers make
bolder claims: common religious belief and shared moral values are gone
forever; modern society has no room for old-fashioned certainties; there is no
exit from what the philosopher Charles Taylor calls "A Secular Age".
Are they right? In a rich economy, the grim fight for
survival is eased and there is more time for emotional and religious
exploration. Modern scientific knowledge invites speculation and wonder.
As Weber noted, spiritual discipline is required for the
"worldly asceticism" which makes modern economies so productive.
Prosperity and urbanisation might engender greater spirituality.
Karl Marx condemned religion and shared morality as
"illusory happiness of the people"”. His case is weakened by the
failure of his alternative.
Marxists in opposition were often idealistic, but in power
their rule was both inefficient and cruel. Their promise of an economic justice
which would make life satisfying now sounds like a bad joke.
While Marxism has been an outstanding failure, its more
successful modern counterparts have failed to convert everyone to secularism.
Democracy is desired, but is hardly inspirational, and there's no need to
travel to China to hear complaints about excessive materialism, selfishness and
In less restrictive nations, praise for freedom is often
matched with complaints about the tyranny of the media, the government and
society in general.
Relatively few people seem to make prosperity serve
spiritual ends. Industrialisation and secularisation have come together,
mostly, as inseparable elements of the turn from the transcendental to the
The modern package of high consumption and individual
freedom appears irresistible, even if the loss of old ways is sometimes
But the facts do not support the case for permanent radical
secularity. While religion is down in many parts of the world, it is hardly
out. In many countries, industrialisation and prosperity seem to nourish Islam.
Even Christianity, the religion first threatened by industrialisation
and urbanisation, is not doing badly outside increasingly atheistic Europe. In
China, the lamentations over the loss of a moral compass should be set against
the rapid growth of indigenous and imported spiritual teachings.
The new middle class there seems to be particularly
More fundamentally, questions of religion and morality are
questions of human nature. How strong and how universal is the desire to find
something that is higher and more certain than anything offered by the physical
The answers are not changed by the onset of
Religious practices organised around old economic patterns,
social relations and folk beliefs will wither away, but that decline could be
followed by the growth of spiritual organisations and the development of moral
standards which fit with urbanised, industrialised, societies.
In the words of a Chinese investment banker, "The
desire to make sense of life doesn't go away just because I'm rich".
He has been spending more time at a Buddhist temple.
* Edward Hadas writes about macroeconomics, markets and
metals for Reuters Breakingviews. Opinions expressed are his own. | <urn:uuid:d2c0ba00-00ec-420e-8a80-cdd03df73554> | CC-MAIN-2013-48 | http://www.fin24.com/Economy/Prosperity-vs-religion-20120429 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-48/segments/1386164038538/warc/CC-MAIN-20131204133358-00012-ip-10-33-133-15.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929951 | 1,033 | 2.53125 | 3 | The extract lacks direct discussion of soft skills, focusing on the impact of industrialization on spirituality and morality. It provides some insights into cultural awareness, emotional intelligence, and critical thinking, but these are not explicitly linked to professional development or practical applications.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 522,888 | 0 |
Certified Nursing Assistant Careers
A Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) is a credentialed healthcare professional who is supervised by a registered nurse (RN) or a licensed practical nurse (LPN). By assisting RNs and LPNs with some caregiving tasks, CNAs help free up nurses to perform the more technical tasks for which nurses are trained (preparing an operating room for a surgical procedure, giving patients pharmaceuticals, reporting information to the attending physician, etc.). In some cases, certified nursing assistants may spend more face time with patients than any other healthcare professional during the patient’s stay at a hospital or other care facility.
These licensed professionals are sometimes referred to as a patient care assistant (PCA), healthcare assistant (HCA), home
The CNA fills an important role in the healthcare community by extending the reach of RNs. The CNA responds to patient calls in nursing homes and clinical settings, reports back on patient conditions to the nurse on call, helps clean patients and their rooms, helps move patients from one place to another in a wheelchair, helps patients prepare for their examinations by the nurse or doctor, assists bedridden patients with exercise and helps feed people who are unable to feed themselves. CNAs also record vital data about the patient’s condition (such as food consumption, pulse and temperature) on a regular basis so the nurse can record it on the patient’s medical chart and relay the results to the doctor when appropriate. In some ways, CNAs are more on the frontlines of the patient/healthcare community relationship than anybody else.
Many of the responsibilities handled by today’s CNAs were once assumed by family members—spouses, parents, children or friends—and sometimes still are. But the reality of the American economy is that many families require two working parents, the divorce rate is high and children generally move out of their parents’ home—often to another city. While many people might prefer to take care of their loved ones by themselves, they may not be physically capable of doing so, or be able to afford to take the time off work to spend with the patient (or “client” as a CNA’s charges are often referred to). Other people may be unable to tolerate the mentally and physically challenging regimen associated with caring for a bedridden or invalid person. This regimen includes not only maintaining proper hygiene and nutrition, but helping monitor the patient’s bodily functions as well as sterilizing and maintaining medical equipment and relaying medical information to the nurse in an efficient manner.
Certified nursing assistants may continue with their education and become RNs or, in some cases, assume administrative roles in the nursing facilities. The experience and education gained by working as a CNA can be parlayed into other healthcare careers, as well as higher paying nursing assistant roles. Working as a CNA is an excellent way to determine whether moving into another nursing or medical role is the ideal career path. Achieving CNA certification is much quicker and cheaper than earning a nursing license and can quickly expose a young healthcare professional to the best and the worst conditions of hospital life to help them discover whether this is the field in which to work. It is also an opportunity for potential nurses to explore a specialty area (obstetrics, oncology, surgery) that they are considering. For students already enrolled in a nursing program, working as a CNA is also a opportunity to learn real-life medical skills and earn money to pay for their education while watching professional nurses do their jobs.
For those who choose to make nursing assistant their ultimate career goal, there are a handful of state organizations that offer CNAs networking, representation, camaraderie and educational opportunities. There is, however, a national organization that represents CNAs and other paramedical workers. The National Association of Health Care Assistants was founded in 2006 and represents over 35,000 caregivers in 29 states and Washington D.C. This organization gives awards to outstanding caregivers, offers training and mentoring and advocates on issues important to CNAs and other caregivers. The NAHCA notes that more than 90 percent of the direct care that patients receive is handled by nursing assistants and that they comprise the single largest percentage of nursing home employees.
View lists of CNA Jobs here. | <urn:uuid:d9fd1711-3a89-4eb2-9fe0-d0768086c684> | CC-MAIN-2017-26 | http://www.alliedhealthworld.com/cna.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-26/segments/1498128323682.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20170628134734-20170628154734-00664.warc.gz | en | 0.966855 | 876 | 2.8125 | 3 | The extract provides superficial coverage of the role and responsibilities of a Certified Nursing Assistant, with some discussion of teamwork and communication in a healthcare setting. However, it lacks depth and practical application, with limited opportunities for problem-solving and critical thinking. Cultural awareness and digital literacy are absent.
Educational score: 1 | 1 | 0 | 296,689 | 0 |
The 2021/2022 school year is very different from prior years. Unlike last year, when many kids struggled with virtual learning, they are now adjusting to being back in the classroom after nearly a year and a half. New to this school year is different rules, mask mandates, pro-vaccine views vs. anti-vaccine views, a new variant of COVID-19, and rising mental health issues. As a result, some kids, particularly adolescents, are having difficulty adjusting to school, especially when faced with today’s common types of peer conflicts.
As a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, I have seen various conflicts that are making their way to most school campuses:
- Students may lack understanding and empathy for those who have opposing views on masks and/or vaccines.
- Some of the students diagnosed with COVID-19 or must quarantine because of COVID exposure are alienated by their peers when they return to school.
- Students have a hard time gauging others’ emotions because masks cover facial expressions.
- Students who sniffle from allergies or other minor ailments get questioned and called out by their peers.
Helping Kids and Teens Navigate This School Year
School can be rough for students facing one of the issues above, have been bullied, or are dealing with other problems. However, parents can help their kids and teens navigate this year’s hardships and negativities with empathy, empowerment, and engagement.
Show Empathy – Empathy means understanding your teen’s perspective from their viewpoint. Asking open-ended questions can help you know how they’re feeling and why they feel the way they are versus assume what they’re going through.
Teach Empowerment – Once you understand how your child feels, you can empower them to develop game plans to ease anxiety and address things bothering them. For example, if your teen is feeling peer pressured to take off their mask when they’re not supposed to, you can discuss ways that your teen can respond or disengage. It can be helpful to have them role-play specific issues or worries they’re trying to resolve.
Consistently Engage – It’s essential to regularly check in with your kids and teens to learn how they’re doing and to let them know that you care. Family meetings can allow everyone to openly share, communicate, and ensure that all family members are on the same page. Along with the family meetings, regular one-on-one conversations with each child is also essential. When engaging with your child, it is important to offer a listening ear versus immediately trying to fix the situation. Many times, kids and teens only want to feel heard, and they’ll be more apt to consider the advice you may give if they ask for it.
Other Things Parents Can Do To Support Their Kids
It’s essential to keep in mind your children’s social and emotional needs and the importance of them connecting with friends. In addition, every family has its own beliefs and decisions on issues such as masks and vaccines. So, it’s important not to bad-mouth other parents when you disagree with their thoughts and rules.
Along with empathy, empowerment, and engagement, you should try to model kindness, non-judgmental behavior, and acceptance of different viewpoints by agreeing to disagree when necessary.
Finally, it’s important for parents and kids to have compassion for themselves and others. While it’s ok to not always see eye-to-eye and agree with others, we should try to handle disagreements compassionately and with kindness. Kids often mimic what they see and hear. If you practice self-compassion and compassion for others, your kids are likely to also start doing the same. | <urn:uuid:742df228-50f3-4722-829d-e34f065b8cd4> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://empowerment.space/helping-kids-and-teens-navigate-school/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296948868.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20230328170730-20230328200730-00305.warc.gz | en | 0.962469 | 777 | 3.3125 | 3 | The extract discusses soft skills such as empathy, empowerment, and engagement in the context of helping kids navigate challenges in the 2021/2022 school year. It provides realistic scenarios and practical advice for parents, incorporating emotional intelligence, leadership, and critical thinking. The content promotes cultural awareness, digital literacy, and intercultural fluency, although not explicitly.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 351,254 | 1 |
Researchers have found that honey bees who consistently explore new environments for food have different genetic activity in their brains than their less-adventurous hive mates. In a demonstration how nature often uses the same tools in various settings, though sometimes to yield different mechanisms of behavior, it turns out that this genetic activity relates to making particular chemical signals, some of which are linked to behaviors such as thrill-seeking in people.
Researchers placed a hive in an enclosure with a brightly colored feeder full of sugar water and marked the bees that visited. A few days later, the researchers added a new feeder to the enclosure, while keeping the original one full of fresh sugar water. Some of the bees discovered the new feeder and were also marked. Then the researchers removed the new feeder and added a different one in a new place. Again, some of the bees discovered this new feeder. The bees that found the new feeder both times were considered scouts, while the bees that ate only at the same old feeder were considered nonscouts. The researchers then looked at what genes were active in brain tissue of scouts and nonscouts. They found differences in over 1,000 genes. [Information on the honey bee genome can be found at http://www.hgsc.bcm.tmc.edu/project-species-i-Apis%20mellifera.hgsc?pageLocation=Apis%20mellifera.]
Some of the genetic differences related to the same molecular pathways implicated in novelty-seeking in humans. In people, for example, dopamine has been linked to the reward system, reinforcing the pleasure of doing certain activities. In insects, dopamine can have an inverse role, reinforcing displeasure, or aversion to certain activities. The activity of a gene related to dopamine in the scout bees was dialed way down, which suggested that the scouts may be less averse to new experiences.
The researchers also fed some of the nonscout bees sugar water laced with some of the molecules hypothecated to encourage scout bee exploration. For example, because glutamate (among other chemicals) was higher in scouts, the researchers fed glutamate to nonscout bees. The glutamate appeared to cause the nonscouts to act more like scouts.
The work suggests that evolution may use the same genetic toolkit across species for behavioral traits, much in the way that related genes are used for building body parts, whether in a fruit fly or frog.
The work also can be interpreted as adding to the growing evidence that humans are not the only species that have "personalities," broadly defined. [See, for example, http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/01/science/01anim.html & http://animals.howstuffworks.com/animal-facts/do-animals-have-personalities1.htm.] More about this topic in the next post. However, it is important to note that behavior in humans, and probably primates and the whale and porpoise-dolphin family on animals, is much more than genetics. As noted in prior posts there is a feedback between the environment and genes, with methylation of genes (for example) arising from environmental interactions. The whole nature-nuture debate is often ludicrously simplistic, whereas the reality of it appears to be much more subtle and complex than anyone imagined, even five years ago.
The study can be found at http://www.sciencemag.org/content/335/6073/1225.abstract.
For more information about LexisNexis products and solutions connect with us through our corporate site. | <urn:uuid:22d50c21-ce3c-4944-a77d-6b07a3abee58> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.lexisnexis.com/community/environmental-climatechangelaw/blogs/fishwildlife/archive/2012/05/06/bee-explorers-have-a-slightly-different-genetic-makeup-then-the-rest-of-the-hive.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368700795821/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516103955-00029-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951981 | 745 | 3.875 | 4 | The extract lacks discussion of soft skills, focusing on scientific research about honey bees and genetic activity related to exploration and novelty-seeking. There is no coverage of communication, teamwork, leadership, or problem-solving scenarios, and professional development opportunities are not mentioned.
Educational score: 0 | 0 | 0 | 263,430 | 0 |
Editor's note: "Uncle Saul" is a local, well regarded technology executive who will be making occasional contributions. He's requested that he remain anonymous so he can be free to use some real world examples to better illustrate his points.
Late in the 1936 baseball season, a 17-year-old Iowa farm boy struck out 15 St. Louis Browns batters in his first Major League game. Shortly thereafter, that same pitcher went on to strike out 17 Philadelphia Athletics batters, an unprecedented feat for anyone, let alone a youth with no professional sports experience.
How could such a young, inexperienced athlete baffle so many major league veterans? The answer is simple: the Browns and the Athletics had the misfortune of facing Bob Feller before anyone wrote The Book on him.
Bob Feller’s signing bonus was $1 and an autographed baseball. In the 1930s, baseball regulations required rookies to play a requisite number of innings on a minor league team before proceeding to the major leagues. This process allowed scouts to assess up-and-coming athletes and write The Book on them before they entered the major leagues. However, Cleveland Indians officials circumvented this regulation in order get Feller on the field before the season ended.
There are clearly a number of disadvantages to being a rookie, irrespective of the profession. You must learn on the job and you have few relevant experiences to apply to the daily challenges you face. However, you have one huge advantage: you are unknown. This relative anonymity is the Rookie Advantage.Fast and Wild
Police refer to a criminal’s modus operandi as that individual’s “Book.” By studying a criminal’s pattern of behavior, they can anticipate his next move. Bonnie and Clyde were difficult to apprehend, but not because they were brilliant criminals. On the contrary, they were uneducated louts. In addition, they were erratic, mobile and highly unpredictable louts. Rather than meticulously plan a robbery, they tended to strike whenever and wherever they ran out of money. As such, it was difficult for the police to write The Book on them.
In crime, in baseball and in business, it sometimes pays to be both untested and a bit wild. Even if you have a 100-mph fastball, batters will eventually compensate and begin to hit your pitching. However, if the batters are concerned with the possibility of being nailed by a wild pitch, they will remain off-balance and thus unable to dig in and calmly swing for the fences.
The effectiveness of speed and unpredictability was evident throughout Bob Feller’s career. Upon his retirement, in addition to holding various strikeout records, he also garnered the following dubious records: (i) most career walks, (ii) most walks in a single season and, (iii) most career hit batsmen. This combination of speed and unpredictability led him to be the first pitcher voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.
Startups are like rookie athletes – unknown commodities full of promise and boundless energy, but lacking experience. They are also often fast and a bit wild. Just like in sports, as soon as a company begins to achieve success, competitors begin to create The Book on the company. Although there is nothing you can do to avoid this inevitability, you can make it more difficult for the Book-makers.
As noted in Private Means Private, covet your private status and do not share intimate information that could cause you damage in the wrong hands. When Satchel Paige was asked about his various pitches, he was evasive and coined comical names for them – the bee ball, the trouble ball, the hesitation pitch. He gave the media a colorful story, without giving his competitors any useful information they could deploy against him.
You can also mitigate the effectiveness of The Book by changing the rules. As Bob Feller matured, he refined his curve ball and developed a slider. As these pitches were introduced, batters had to adjust their approach to his fastball. Similarly, Satchel Paige introduced an off-speed changeup during the latter part of his career in order to reduce the wear and tear on his body and to keep batters from teeing up on his (not-as-fast-as-it-used-to-be) fastball.
Companies can keep their competitors off-balance in a similar fashion by introducing their products into new and unexpected markets, distributing existing products via new channels and serving new customer segments. In addition to the incremental revenue generated by such opportunities, you can also decrease the effectiveness of The Book your competitors have written on your adVenture. Now quickly write down three new and unexpected things you can do to confuse your competitors and negate The Book they have written on your adVenture.
OK. So maybe sports and crime analogies do not work for you. Let’s take a quick look at the world of politics. During the 1992 Presidential campaign, Ross Perot, Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush participated in a series of national debates. Perot’s debating style differed greatly from that of life-long politicians. He utilized simple charts and spoke in plain English. He was also unafraid to risk offending a particular voting block and thus many of his comments were refreshingly blunt and non-scripted.
Many people, including jaded pundits, felt that Perot won the first 1992 Presidential debate and that he held his ground in those that followed. Even though he effectively pulled out of the election as it neared its close, Perot still garnered nearly 19% of the popular vote, more than any independent or minor-party candidate since Theodore Roosevelt’s victory in the 1912 election.
Fast forward to the 1996 Presidential campaign. Mr. Perot debated Vice President Al Gore regarding the North American Free Trade Act. The debate was shown on Larry King Live and was watched by a record number of cable TV viewers.
However, Perot’s effectiveness was greatly diminished, as compared with his prior national debates. To Perot’s chagrin, Al Gore and his Democrat handlers had written The Book on him. Perot’s simple, easy-to-digest charts were matched chart-by-chart by Mr. Gore. His homilies (e.g. “That dog won’t hunt”) competed with similar down-home utterances from Mr. Gore, delivered in an exaggerated Tennessee drawl. At one point, Gore even quoted one of Perot’s more famous homilies – “Measure twice, cut once” – in order to make a point. Emulating Perot’s style was a deliberate act, and all of Gore’s quips were taken right out of Perot’s Book.
As each of his previously successful approaches was countered by Mr. Gore, it was apparent that Perot’s frustration was getting the best of him. However, Perot still had one debating technique left – giving his opponent a gag gift which mocked their argument. As this tactic was well-documented in Gore’s Book on Perot, Gore beat Perot to the punch. He presented Perot with a framed photo of Mr. Smoot and Mr. Hawley, the Congressmen who drafted protectionist legislation during the 1930s, which many historians believe exacerbated the Great Depression.
Perot’s dismal performance against Al Gore, a man not noted for his debating expertise, is a powerful example of the impact of The Book and what happens when a rookie does not change their game.
The Rookie Advantage is also evident in a variety of other industries. In movies, one need only look at the impact of The Book written on Michael Moore. When creating Fahrenheit 911, the fact that he was relatively unknown allowed him to sandbag numerous Gulf War veterans, grieving family members and even experienced politicians. However, when Moore attempted the same approach with his follow-up film, Sicko, he was far less successful. The people he interviewed were guarded, which made it difficult for him to twist their comments to conform to his predetermined narrative. It is likely that the inevitable Borat sequel will also suffer from the loss of the Rookie Advantage.
The key to mitigating the effectiveness of The Book written on your adVenture is to come out of the gate hard and fast and to change your game as soon as your opponents begin to believe that they have you figured out. By systematically modifying your game and keeping your strategic cards close to your vest, you can frustrate your opposition’s efforts to anticipate your next move.
In most ventures, whatever was effective in the past probably will not be effective in the future. This phenomenon is exacerbated by competitors writing The Book on your adVenture, emulating your tactics and attempting to counter your competitive advantages which they cannot outright copy.
Bob Feller was not just a rookie sensation. He built upon his raw talents and enjoyed one of the most successful pitching careers in baseball, despite taking four years off during his prime to fight in World War II. His career began with a fierce fastball, but it thrived because of his unpredictable lack of control and his willingness to expand his pitching repertoire. In business, like in baseball, no matter how hard you throw, if you pitch in a methodical, predictable manner, it is only a matter of time before you competitors start to swing from their heels and knock your pitches out of the park.
"Uncle Saul" is a serial entrepreneur (who wishes to remain anonymous) who has led one IPO, was window-dressing in another and has executed several M&A transactions, all of which collectively generated over $450 million in shareholder value. Saul is a CPA and a Wharton MBA who never qualified for the PGA but likes to watch the NBA. Uncle Saul is also a songwriter who managed a successful rock band and plays an awesome iPod. He also teaches would-be entrepreneurs at a major California university. You can read more of his thoughts at www.infochachkie.com. | <urn:uuid:98675149-37fd-48bf-84db-8cde8df69466> | CC-MAIN-2014-10 | http://www.socaltech.com/articles/how-rookies-and-startups-can-maintain-their-unfair-advantage/a-00032.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-10/segments/1393999650775/warc/CC-MAIN-20140305060730-00001-ip-10-183-142-35.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.980499 | 2,061 | 2.625 | 3 | The extract provides a comprehensive discussion of the "Rookie Advantage" concept, using various analogies from sports, crime, and politics to illustrate its importance in business. It highlights the benefits of being unknown and unpredictable, and the need to adapt and change strategies to stay ahead of competitors. The text also emphasizes the importance of emotional intelligence, leadership, and critical thinking in professional development. The use of real-world examples and anecdotes adds depth and practical application to the discussion, making it a valuable resource for soft skills development.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 802,541 | 1 |
Urban exploration: The act of going places you’re not supposed to go. One of the cardinal rules of urban exploration is “Take only photographs, leave only footprints.
Graffiti: … commonly refers to decorative imagery applied by paint or other means to buildings, public transport or other property. Although it may be said to derive from Classical Antiquity or even Prehistoric times, the term essentially describes the post-1960s craze for decorating/defacing the urban environment through the use of aerosol spray paint and markers, which emerged in New York…
Guerrilla: Using unconventional and usually inexpensive means to generate interest or raise concern among the public, asin commercial marketing or social activism.
Challenge convention and mindsets.
Kath Murdoch recent noted, schools need to, ‘invite curiosity and wonderment’ into the learning landscape. There is a need to make space for MakerSpaces.
In 2015 I was invited to present at the ECIS Technology conference, hosted by the Bavarian International School in Munich.
A space for hands on ‘making’ experiences. With super support from the organising team I set up spaces for inquiry. I had the opportunity to try an idea out.
Thanks to Kimberly House, Frederic Nevers, Kevin Skidmore for being brave enough to take a risk.
The ‘Pop Up’ Makerspace!
Set up in the entrance of school there was- Dance Mat Pacman with Makey Makey, Minecraft on Raspberry Pi with Python, DIY gamer animation connected to Arduino, Adafruit Flora lighting for #TECHxture laser cut out and the Umbrella DJ with Ototo.
Flowing out of these provocations came an LED lit skateboard, mini Golf game, circuits with conductive dough and a ingenious smartphone stand.
Above all we had bags of engagement from students from the school, collaborative problem solving and lots of onlooking conference participants!
These ideas grew, were refined and prototyped in and out of school across age groups and as part of our MakersJam Mozilla Club.
At Learning2Europe my manifesto for making will come to life- The Pop Up MakerSpace!
This is my manifesto for making in education, a provocation to redesign classrooms, learning spaces, schools entrance lobbies to foster inquiry, curiosity and wonder.
Be the Urban Exploring maker in your school, the Guerrilla technologist, the Graffiti Artist tinkerer. Be ready to provoke & inspire!
Through a series of hands on learning experiences, I would like to invite participants to prototype, tinker, build and create stuff with meaning. Whether controlling a game with Makey Makey or building a scribble bot, these experiences will invite curiosity.
By asking, “What if?” Anything will be possible
We will create opportunities to engage fellow conference participants with hands on making experiences that will ‘pop up’ throughout the weekend.
Participants will have the chance to code a soundscape with Sonic Pi, build a giant game controller, upgrade a skateboard, draw on the open web, Scribble with a DIY Scribble machine, invent a musical instrument or remix the conference website.
All you’ll need is a computer, create a Scratch account & Mozilla Webmaker account, download Sonic Pi and be prepared to use lots of tape!
Jason Silva notes in his freestyled commentary on ‘The Remix Revolution’ that already evolving are “new possibility spaces for human expression…”.
We can create these spaces in our schools and communities.
We can add layers of ‘tecxture’ to our learning landscape.
What if this spaces we build for extracurricular became curricular exploration spaces?
Spaces that allow for serendipity to happen?
I am not alone, Guerrilla Maker Space was born as a project to create transformative experiences. Maker spaces, in all forms, have the potential to transform: spaces, communities, identities, interactions with people and with technology, mindsets, motivations, passions, and creative agency. Christan and I launched into this project with the belief that maker spaces hold a sort of transformative magic
They’ve done some pretty cool research with their Pop Up spaces!
We made great progress in developing our technology integration plan and both design and arts curriculum into these ideals, challenging students and colleagues to remix their own thinking and make space for creation. | <urn:uuid:a1481b9c-eacc-4c3b-bc54-7d6749a30e02> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | https://learningfreewheel.wordpress.com/2016/02/19/make-space-for-makerspaces/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549424889.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20170724162257-20170724182257-00082.warc.gz | en | 0.915196 | 916 | 2.59375 | 3 | The extract scores high for its emphasis on creative problem-solving, critical thinking, and collaboration, mirroring real-world complexity. It seamlessly integrates advanced communication, leadership, and problem-solving scenarios, promoting curiosity, wonder, and maker culture in education. The text encourages readers to challenge conventions, think creatively, and develop a growth mindset, showcasing a sophisticated understanding of cultural awareness and digital literacy.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 343,188 | 1 |
Swine Flu: What We Should Do for One Another
What follows is a guest post by Ruth A. Karron and Ruth R. Faden. Ruth A. Karron is the director of the Center for Immunization Research and Johns Hopkins Vaccine Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Ruth R. Faden is the executive director of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics.
At this point, it is impossible to predict whether we are on the brink of an influenza pandemic. The threat is real, however, and governments across the globe are working hard to mitigate the potential impact of swine flu.
This is right and proper. Our government has an obligation to protect the public’s health, which it exercised responsibly by declaring a national public health emergency on Sunday. This declaration is the public face of countless actions that federal, state, and local health authorities are now undertaking on our behalf. But these are not the only actions that will be needed. There are also actions that we as citizens must undertake to minimize the swine flu threat that will help us protect ourselves and our families. These actions are not only prudent; they are a matter of moral and civic responsibility. Just as our government has an obligation to protect the public’s health, we too have an obligation to our country and to our fellow human beings to do our share to minimize the burdens of this influenza outbreak.
What can each of us do?
Stay informed: New information about swine flu will be generated rapidly in the near term, and possibly longer. DHS Secretary Napolitano has committed to providing daily briefings for the foreseeable future. It is important that we commit to accessing that information, as well as information that may pertain to our local settings, so that we understand what is happening and can take action as needed.
Abide by public health recommendations: As public health officials learn more about the extent and spread of swine flu, new recommendations may be made to limit public gatherings, close schools or workplaces, or restrict or modify travel. These “social distancing” measures should reduce the public health burden of influenza by slowing down the pace by which flu will spread, but they will only work if each of us does our part.
Follow basic hygiene practices: Good hand hygiene is always important, but particularly so in this context. Wash your hands frequently with soap and water or with an alcohol-based cleanser. Use a tissue to cover your nose or mouth if you cough or sneeze, and dispose of the tissue properly or, if you don’t have a tissue, sneeze into your upper sleeve. Avoid touching your nose or mouth frequently.
Be vigilant and responsible if you or a loved one becomes ill: Contact a healthcare provider if you or a member of your household develops a fever and follow his or her instructions. Keep the person who is ill out of work or school. Unless someone is seriously ill, avoid using emergency rooms to evaluate possible flu symptoms. Even as we monitor this latest threat to public health, people will continue to have medical emergencies like heart attacks and car accidents, and it is important that emergency rooms be able to take care of those who need immediate medical attention.
Prepare for the possibility of staying in your home: One possible social distancing measure that public health authorities could ask us to undertake is to stay at home for a period of time. A basic principle of emergency preparedness is that each of us should have sufficient food and water in our homes to last our families in such an eventuality. Now is the time to make sure that your family is well provisioned, not only to protect yourselves but also out of recognition that some families do not have the money or stable housing required to stockpile food. If those of us who have the means take care of our own needs, it will be easier for the government and community organizations to take care of those who do not.
Check on your neighbors: If you haven’t done so already, now is a good time to get to know your neighbors. Find out if any of them may need a little extra help dealing with this public health threat. People who live alone, for example, may appreciate your checking in with them from time to time, and elderly neighbors may need your help stocking up on food. Parents of school age children may want to talk through how they can help each other if schools in your area close but some workplaces stay open.
In his inaugural address, President Obama declared: “What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world.” Our individual and collective response to this swine flu outbreak will be one important measure of whether we as Americans and as citizens of the global community are living up to what the President has asked of us. | <urn:uuid:13f8f678-0b75-46a4-b2d2-ef2207773e67> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | http://washingtonmonthly.com/2009/04/27/swine-flu-what-we-should-do-for-one-another/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549424683.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20170724022304-20170724042304-00603.warc.gz | en | 0.963196 | 997 | 3.03125 | 3 | The extract discusses the swine flu outbreak and the actions citizens can take to minimize its impact, emphasizing moral and civic responsibility. It promotes teamwork and community involvement, encouraging readers to check on neighbors and help those in need. The text also touches on basic communication and problem-solving skills, such as staying informed and following public health recommendations.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 529,522 | 0 |
How to make a connection is overall one of the easier reading comprehension standards to teach in first grade.
Making a connection requires students to find similarities between their own personal experiences (background knowledge), things they have read in other books (texts) and things that are going on around them in their community.
We typically refer to these kinds of connections as:
- text to self
- text to text
- text to world
Making a connection is an activity that can be done with every single read aloud.
It can (and should) be done whole group, in small group, with partners, in literacy stations and during independent reading.
It's also a great skill for parents to work on at home.
What do First Grade students need to know about Making Connections?
Here are a few ways that students can make a connection to themselves:
- recalling personal feelings, thoughts or memories and comparing them to the story elements of the text (character, setting, events, etc.)
- using a shared experience or memory to build empathy for a character
Text to text connections can include comparing story elements between texts such as characters, setting, events, genre, etc.
Connections between texts and the world/community can be a bit more challenging. With first grade students, it’s easiest to focus on comparing:
- past, present and future
- levels of society (community, state, region, country or world)
Teachers can help students make connections with their texts by:
- Modeling their thinking during a read aloud and verbalize their connection to the text
- Having students explain their connections to the class
- Brainstorm possible connections to common past experiences
- Use sentence stems such as “This reminds me of…”
- Ask probing questions like “What does this make you think of? Why?”
How to Introduce Making Connections Questions for First Grade
If you teach lower elementary, then you know that there is SO much that goes into the comprehension of a book. First grade students are learning so much at this age and even listening comprehension requires their little brains to work so hard.
Why do I bring this up?
Because I want you to think about how hard they are ALREADY working when they are listening to a read aloud and when you use a mentor text to introduce a NEW SKILL, most students’ brains go into overload!
So what should we do instead?
Start with a non-text activity. Let me introduce you to a new kind of “slideshow”.
I like to use interactive slideshows/powerpoints. My slideshows always follow this order:
- Teaching Slides: Introduces students to WHAT the skill is
- Guided Practice: Introduces students to HOW to apply the skill
- Interactive Practice: Gives students an example and allows them to PRACTICE the skill in an easy and concise way
Make a Connection Non-Text Activities for First Grade
After we practice the slideshow, then we practice building our making connections muscles with some guided and independent practice using a NON-TEXT ACTIVITY such as a station game.
Non-text activities are a HUGE asset to first grade students because it allows them to build and flex their making predictions muscles before we ask them to apply those skills to a text!
How to Complete the Activity
We will do this activity together as a group first, then it will move into our guided reading stations where students will complete it independently!
I've found the best and easiest way to do this is with images of connections that my first grade students know a lot about.
My students do this Making Connections activity (seen on the right). We do one together as a class for guided practice.
For this activity, students must correctly draw a card and analyze the two images. Then I have students write about what they think the two objects have in common (their connection).
What I like most about this activity is that students have to write “because”. I feel like making students explain their thinking is a key component of any good reading comprehension activity.
After we do this activity together, it goes into their stations for Guided Reading.
The best part about this activity is that you can leave it out for several weeks because each time students can choose a new set of pictures!
Mentor Texts for Making Connections in First Grade
A mentor text is an incredibly powerful tool for teaching reading comprehension skills!
The problem that many teachers run into with mentor texts is that there are SO MANY different skills you can teach with the same mentor text….
Sometimes we try to do TOO MUCH and we overwhelm our students!
Let me introduce you to a Comprehension Focus Question (CFQ).
A CFQ is one question that you focus on through the entire text!
It simplifies things for you and your students. (more on that later)…
But let's take a minute to dispel so myths about mentor texts..
A mentor text is NOT a book that you read once and put it away.
A mentor text is a book that you read once, then refer back to again and again and again.
The greatest benefit of a good mentor text is that after you have read it once, when you refer back to it, you aren’t reading the entire book again, you are simply referring back to one or two pages.
It will save you SO much time.
AND students are already familiar with the story line meaning that already have a foundation for whatever comprehension skill you are about to dive into!
How to Boost Comprehension for Predictions
Comprehension Focus Questions
As I mentioned, a Comprehension Focus Question (CFQ) is a very focused and intentional comprehension goal for an activity, a week or even a unit.
If you have done your research and you understand your learning standard, the vocabulary and what students need to know…
Then it becomes very easy to choose a goal (or a comprehension focus question).
But, why do you need a comprehension goal?
To stay FOCUSED!
Not just for you, but for your students also!
Let’s look at an example. Let’s say that this week you are focusing on how to make an inference. Well, there are about a hundred different ways you can make an inference and a CFQ allows you to focus on one area at a time.
Example CFQ: “How Did The Character Change From ___ To ____?”
In this comprehension focus question, you and your students are focusing in on the characters of the story.
The great thing about CFQ’s is that the next time you pull out this mentor text, you can choose a different CFQ to focus on while still practicing how to make an inference!
Another great strategy that falls right in long with mentor texts and comprehension focus questions is sentence stems.
A sentence stem is a phrase that your first grade students will use to answer a comprehension question.
Sentence stems are designed to get students to answer comprehension questions more fully rather than giving one word answers.
Sentence stems encourage students to explain their thinking.
I like to have a list of sentence stems next to my table that are specific to each comprehension skill. I stick to one or two stems per skill for the entire year because I want my students to be consistent. (This also makes it a lot easier for them)
If we are sticking with our Make an Inference example, I would use the following sentence stems:
I Think ___ Because____.
I Read This ____ So I Think _____
Make Connections Activities for First Grade
All of the activities that you found in this post, both printable and digital, along with UNIT LESSON PLANS can be found in my Making Connections Bundle here.
You can save up to 20% by purchasing the items together, but you can also purchase individual items to better fit your needs! | <urn:uuid:fa8d5c12-24ef-420e-9bb2-8726f14a534b> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://kristensullinsteaching.com/making-connections-for-first-grade/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224656963.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20230610030340-20230610060340-00660.warc.gz | en | 0.944499 | 1,662 | 4.25 | 4 | The extract provides a comprehensive guide on teaching "making connections" to first-grade students, covering various aspects of reading comprehension. It includes practical activities, mentor texts, and sentence stems to enhance students' critical thinking and communication skills. The content demonstrates a good balance of theoretical knowledge and practical application, with opportunities for students to develop emotional intelligence, empathy, and problem-solving skills.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 966,874 | 1 |
People who grow up to be scientists and engineers usually are curious about how things work, whether it is a mechanical object or a process they see in nature. They also tend to ask questions and aren’t satisfied until they find the answer. In school, most of them enjoyed studying math and science.
One of the best ways to know what scientists and engineers are like is to talk to them. Talk with friends, family members, teachers, school guidance counselors and others about your interests and ask them to recommend people whom you might be able to talk with. When you get a chance to spend time with such a person, be bold - ask a lot of questions, in particular learn if he or she would be willing to talk with you further when other questions come up. (Be sure to leave your name!)
Our Web site offers lots of profiles of interns who are considering careers in science and engineering. Be sure to check those out. We also had a video program with engineers and a student intern discussing how they got to be where they are. That would also be a good thing to watch.
Finally, if you decide that a career in science or engineering is for you, don't give up when obstacles arise, as they always do. Two other traits of people who choose careers in these and related fields are determination and persistence. Other people just like you have made it, and so can you. | <urn:uuid:a8a99123-8545-4c0f-866e-44e9423be272> | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/education/index.cfm?page=141 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368698080772/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516095440-00074-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.982666 | 284 | 2.984375 | 3 | The extract promotes curiosity, determination, and persistence, which are essential soft skills for a career in science and engineering. It encourages communication through questioning and seeking guidance from professionals, showcasing basic teamwork and conversational skills. However, the scenarios and applications are relatively straightforward, lacking nuanced interaction or complex problem-solving opportunities.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 147,115 | 0 |
Even today, successful women entrepreneurs are as rare as hen’s teeth. Imagine what it took for a nineteenth century woman from a conservative Arab immigrant community to become one of the premier jewelers in New York. Marie El-Khoury was that woman.
The Azeez Family
They arrived in New York harbor on June 8, 1891: Tannous Azeez, his wife Julia Tabet, and daughters Alice and Marie. Like almost all early Syrian immigrants, they settled in the Syrian colony on the lower west side of Manhattan, a short walk from where they disembarked. Tannous perhaps peddled at first like most of his compatriots, but he may have arrived with a supply of gemstones, because he quickly set up a jewelry business at their home at 37 Washington Street. Many Syrians called themselves jewelers, but their “jewels” were cheap trinkets made of glass and base metal. Azeez was different; it seems he was an experienced gem dealer and cutter and began to import and sell semi-precious stones quite early, becoming known especially for his stock of Persian turquoise. Azeez moved his family to Brooklyn in 1894—one of the earliest Syrians to settle there—but kept his shop on Washington Street until 1900, when he established his eponymous jewelry store on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey, “The Shop of T. Azeez.” There were about a dozen other Syrians who had shops on the Boardwalk selling oriental goods, but none equaled the quality of T. Azeez. The family moved to Atlantic City in 1901 and made their home behind the store.
Both daughters were unusual for their time and culture. Alice was sixteen when they arrived, and she immediately began to give talks dressed in “native costume” at churches and halls around New York state, for which she may have been paid a stipend by the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions. She had studied with the American missionary H.H. Jessup in Beirut and was fluent in English and reputedly five other languages. Only six months after she arrived, two hundred people attended one of her lectures. She became a minor celebrity by feeding the American press exotic (and fabricated) stories: she was a Syrian princess named “Fannitza Abdul Sultana Nalide,” a member of one of the wealthiest families in Beirut. She had enrolled at Harvard Annex (the forerunner of Radcliffe) in order to study medicine and the “Occidental ways of doing things,” and she planned to use this knowledge to help her (benighted) fellow countrywomen. There is no record of her having attended Harvard or of her helping her countrywomen. She also claimed to have written a book about her life in America; launched a literary magazine; and in the most egregious lie of all, she told reporters that her father had been killed in the massacres in Syria in 1860, when of course he was alive and well and selling jewelry in New York.
None of these stories had legs and they quickly disappeared from her repertoire. They were, though, symptomatic of a very real drive to make her fortune, and she did try many things in addition to her lecturing: she sold Near Eastern antiquities, which she may have acquired from Azeez Khayat, a Syrian dealer, to various museums; filed patents for a fabric design and a fountain attachment that sprayed water in the shape of a flower; and tried to start a nursery in the Bronx with plants imported from Lebanon. She was not only openly ambitious but bragged about her accomplishments (both real and imaginary), traits not often displayed by young women at that time, especially Syrian women. One charmed reporter asserted that “there are very few women of her age that can do more things to make money, or do them better.” Whether she ever made a living is not clear. She continued to lecture and by 1910, was known as “Sitte [Madame] A. Azeez.” She never married and lived with her mother and sister until her death.
Marie, a True Pioneer
Marie had a more respectable but also more spectacular career. She went to high school at the Methodist-run Drew Seminary in Carmel, New York, and then became the first Syrian girl to attend college in the United States, graduating in 1900 at the age of seventeen from Washington College for Ladies in Washington, DC. What an amazing man Tannous must have been to allow his daughter to go to college so far from home! She was also the first Syrian woman journalist in America, contributing articles even before she graduated from college to the Arabic-language newspapers Al Hoda, Al Ayyam, and Mira’at al Gharb. Her earliest article was a series on the history of Syrians in America, published in 1899. She also apparently wrote for English-language papers. An oblique reference in Al Hoda seems to indicate that she founded an English-language woman’s magazine in 1898, and if true, it would be another first, but there is no other information about it.
In 1902, she married a fellow journalist named Esau el-Khoury, who was the publisher of a magazine called Al Da’ira al Adabiya (The Literary Circle), but he died tragically at the age of twenty-five in 1904. That same year, her father’s shop was destroyed in a large fire that took dozens of other shops on the Boardwalk, and the business was nearly wiped out. Tannous died less than a year later of complications resulting from surgery. He was fifty-four. Marie, with her husband and father dead, realized it would fall upon her to support her mother and her sister (as well as herself), and she gave up journalism to take over her father’s business; she had learned the jewelry trade at his side. Just as she was beginning to rebuild from the fire, the shop was burglarized and everything of value taken.
The Little Shop of T. Azeez
Marie was undaunted. She borrowed money from several of her father’s friends and was able to restock and keep the shop open. She continued her father’s practice of working with precious and semi-precious stones and taught herself jewelry design, at which she became a master. Her efforts were so successful that she was able to pay back the loans in record time and support her family. In about 1915 she moved the shop to Manhattan, to 561 Fifth Avenue, at Forty-sixth Street—the only Syrian merchant that far uptown—calling it “The Little Shop of T. Azeez” in honor of her father. She brought her mother and sister to live with her in a duplex apartment in the “exclusive” newly-built residential Hotel Seymour on Forty-fourth Street.
Her shop’s tagline was “Individuality in Jewels,” and she pioneered the idea of jewelry designs that were adaptable to an individual’s taste: a customer could choose the color of beads or the number of pearls in a necklace, or wear a piece as a brooch, pendant, or shoe ornament. In the thirties, Marie offered clients the opportunity to look at new designs in wax and redesign them to suit.
“If you put either enough money or enough thought or both into one ornament, it will repay you.”
She became a jeweler to the rich and famous, competing with such behemoths as Tiffany and Cartier. She advertised regularly in Vogue and the New Yorker, and they reciprocated by featuring her jewelry on their models or in their recommendations for Christmas gifts. A 1940 New Yorker feature described “a clip pin made of two fluttering butterfly wings studded with tremendous marquise aquamarines beautifully set in diamonds and platinum [that] comes apart at the centre and makes two clips. Fragile and lovely; $4,500.” She not only designed her own innovative jewelry, but she commissioned jewelry from some of the finest modernist designers of the time.
Her pronouncements on couture, culture, and cuisine were reported in newspapers and fashion magazines. Her dinner parties were legendary: she often served meals in which every course was the color of a gemstone. One night, the menu featured a lamb stuffed with a turkey, which was stuffed in turn with a chicken, a golden pheasant, and finally a humming bird.
Her shop stayed at Forty-sixth and Fifth for more than two decades and then moved northward to progressively smaller venues, until she retired in 1955. She died in 1957 at the age of 74. A thorough search of the internet did not turn up a single piece of her jewelry, either because her pieces were unsigned or because the owners’ descendants still treasure them. Although she built her success in the world of upper-class New York society, Marie’s lasting legacy is tied to her roots: she endowed a scholarship fund in fine arts at the American University of Beirut. | <urn:uuid:6f0e8f6b-d820-4706-a82e-38d9baf9ffb9> | CC-MAIN-2023-14 | https://kalimahpress.com/blog/if-you-are-wearing-pearls-wear-nothing-but-pearls-marie-el-khoury-jeweler-to-new-york-society/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-14/segments/1679296946637.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20230327025922-20230327055922-00539.warc.gz | en | 0.988179 | 1,877 | 2.5625 | 3 | The extract provides a detailed biography of Marie El-Khoury, a pioneering Syrian-American woman entrepreneur. It showcases her determination, resilience, and innovative spirit in the male-dominated jewelry industry. The story highlights her leadership skills, adaptability, and strategic thinking in rebuilding her father's business and establishing herself as a renowned jeweler. The extract also touches on cultural awareness, digital literacy is absent, and teamwork is implicit in her family's support.
Educational score: 4 | 4 | 3 | 117,248 | 1 |
We all want the best for our young students as they graduate and start a new life after school. That’s why students need wiser guidance to help them become great leaders in the near future, as we focus on other issues we need to know that the foundation of these young people is determined by how they get nurtured after they graduate. The aim of having conferences in various institutions is to allow students to get a variety of the debates they feel they can fit in. for example, depending on interests of the students you will find that these debates vary as the conferences will be based on a specific topic that suits the requirements of the students. Like we know, people have preferences and getting to know the right inspiring college institute after graduation can be very tricky and overwhelming, this means that for students to get into the right institute there must be some guidance from professional tutors.
The aim of attending these conferences is to nurture these young people to become better leaders in the future, more so to help their future become brighter and very promising. These conferences, however, may vary in topic wise and theme, thus based on student’s knowledge they can as well get something solid out of the debates, of which the type of institution they pick to have these debates will vary the outcome at the end of it. That’s why when a student is choosing an institution to participate in these conferences they must be educated enough and get to know which one offers the best prior to indulging themselves in the wrong colleges.
The debates are based on teaching students to become reliable and responsible leaders in the society plus there is more amending their educational skills so that they can be responsible for handling anything to do with the future. In these conferences they are further taught how to develop their public speaking as these are some of the issues they will get outside there, more so they are also taught about teamwork and their merits too. When students get these teachings right life becomes easier and simpler for them of which they will get nurtured and become responsible people in colleges and also other parts of the world out there. The conferences are always held to purpose the needs of students as they join colleges and others who have already graduated from colleges and want to start their life out there.
Leadership skills are taught to students to allow them to become the best in society and also they can be useful as they pursue their education in a big way. The debates are very useful as the things these students are taught there are based on things that happen to people in real life, of which after the conferences students are able to stand on their own and become very responsible people with great knowledge after pursuing their education. | <urn:uuid:2d271537-4695-41e8-b6f5-9bbd10c9e0ca> | CC-MAIN-2020-16 | http://homesurprise.us/3-tips-from-someone-with-experience-19/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-16/segments/1585371618784.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20200406035448-20200406065948-00540.warc.gz | en | 0.986826 | 536 | 2.640625 | 3 | The extract discusses the importance of guidance and conferences for students to develop leadership skills, public speaking, and teamwork. It highlights the need for practical application and real-world context, but the scenarios and discussions presented are relatively straightforward and lack nuanced interaction or complex problem-solving opportunities. The extract touches on cultural awareness and digital literacy but does not delve deeply into these areas.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 720,597 | 0 |
- Pets and Animals
HOW TO TACKLE THE STRAY DOG MENACE?
stray dogs in India
The city of Bangalore is known as India’s Hi-Tech city or the Garden city or the more familiar term, the ‘Silicon Valley of India’. But lately its residence dared to rename it as the city of stray dogs, when its newspapers started reporting at least two cases of stray dog bites and deaths each day. On an average 12 people are bitten by stray dogs per MINUTE somewhere in Bangalore.
From the reports of the stray dog menace, it is sad to observe that kids are the main victims. The slum kids are more prone to these sorts of attacks. Also, kids enjoy playing out in the evenings or at dark and thus are left to the fury of the stray mongrels. In a shocking incident at Chandra Layout, a little girl was mauled to death by a pack of nine dogs. In another case, a school girl was attacked by a pack of dogs because she was carrying a Tiffin box.
They also pose a lot threat to road commuters, especially to cyclists and two wheelers, traveling at dusk. They chase these travelers, in most cases, cross frenziedly across the streets unexpected. The result is obvious, the travelers hurt and left to bleed on the roadside and in some cruel cases, attacked by these ruthless packs. With their bites, men are at the risk of contracting Rabies.
Rabies is transmitted to humans with the bite of a rabid dog. Their saliva carries the virus, which enters the human body through the wounds. This virus affects our Central Nervous System, causing the inflammation of the brain. In the early stages of this disease, the symptoms are malaise, fever and headache; while in the later stages huge pain, violent movements, uncontrolled excitements, depressions and inability to swallow water (hydrophobia) accompanies. Coma and eventually death due to respiratory insufficiency is certain.
Rabies vaccine should be given to the victim of a dog bite in or near the area of the bite.
India is reported having the world’s highest rate of human rabies because of stay dogs.
These incidents seem to happen not only in Bangalore but in other cities of India. Why is this happening only in India and how can we tackle these issues?
The main reason behind such a menace is that we fail to check the increasing population of stray dogs. The city municipalities have there after successfully captured many stray dogs with the help of expect dog catchers, but were criticized for their cruel treatment and killing of the captive dogs by PETA and other animal rights activists. In the land of Ahimsa, we need not resort to brutal killing of these abandoned dogs, but surely must prevent stay dog menace effectively and scientifically.
In Western Europe, there are lot of associations for the welfare of abandoned pets and stray dogs. There are also centers for pet adoption. We hardly get to see any stray dogs or cats on the street there. We need to set up such welfare organizations and adoption centers for dogs in India too.
Also, we need to sterilize and vaccinate these stray dogs to counter-check their increasing number and to prevent the spread of rabies. The dog owners should be made to obtain license and regularly immunize their pets.
In many municipal heath centers, there is severe shortage of rabies vaccine. We need to have adequate supply of the vaccine.
It is seen that the stray dog menace happens mostly in the areas where there are street meat and fish markets and hotels. To discard or litter the waste along the road sides should be penalized and the door to door collection of food wastes by the municipal authorities should be encouraged instead of the road side bins.
The stray dog menace is in fact a grave problem in India and the authorities should act immediately to tackle this issue seriously and effectively. Dogs are man’s best friends for ever, if we care for them! | <urn:uuid:8fbc0938-661f-4282-abec-2693d3d8b8e4> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | https://hubpages.com/animals/HOW-TO-TACKLE-THE-STRAY-DOG-MENACE | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549425254.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20170725142515-20170725162515-00285.warc.gz | en | 0.959728 | 822 | 2.578125 | 3 | The extract discusses a real-world issue, the stray dog menace in India, and proposes solutions. It lacks direct discussion of soft skills but implicitly involves critical thinking, problem-solving, and cultural awareness. The text presents a complex scenario, requiring strategic thinking to address the issue. However, it doesn't explicitly cover advanced communication, leadership, or intercultural fluency.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 391,040 | 0 |
Introduction the school, today, is one of the spaces where the pupils have possibilities to construct knowledge, in the diverse areas. In the Mathematics, and specifically, with the education of Geometry, we can show that the use of elements gifts in the cultural context, of the pupils, can provide a learning that desperte the curiosity, stimulates the creativity of the pupils. In its daily one, they use figurinhas in games and they collect albums. Our referencial has the construtivista conception of education and learning, in the situations in classroom, where the pupils play the role of citizens interacting between itself, considering the socializador character of education and the individual and collective learning. In the accomplishment of the work, that is, in the school, the pupils use as metodolgico resource, the accomplishment of measures of objects and places of the school, which assist in the construction of its geometric knowledge.
Its contextualizadas activities are photographed, showing its action, as subject participant and asset, transformed into figurinhas. The pupils construct, individually an album, in which the figures are glue, in accordance with the accomplishment of the pertinent activities to the planned contents and also registers the produced knowledge. The importance of the Study of Geometry in the daily life. The experiences with pertaining to school Geometry and the importance of the geometric concepts search to promote qualitative changes in the education and the learning of the Mathematics; it makes possible a preparation in one of the abilities: to decide problems and challenges of its daily life. Grando, argues: ' ' The emphasis in the works of the LPp is given in a psicopedaggica performance through the games of rules as one of the instruments most important and an alternative of work of great relevance when a construtivista conception of education is adopted, therefore stimulates the child to construct procedures that favor the solution of its desafios' ' (GRANDO, 2000, p.18).
Summary This is an inquiry proposal on the construction of a cinematographic narrative arquitetada in the film the triumph of the Will, in which we look for to analyze as the image of Adolf Hitler was constructed in this film. The central objective of this research is to analyze step by step as a cinematographic production could transform the person of Hitler into the figure of fhrer, that is, that one that, according to nazistas, will go leading the German nation in return to the times of glories. Introduction For accomplishment of this work was necessary the study of the envolvement of Germany in 1 World-wide War and of its situation in the period that preceded the production of the film the triumph of the Will. For better understanding of this assay, this research was divided in three parts: In the first part a summary of the participation and the reasons was made that had taken Germany for the World War I, after that was made a small rocking of the circumstances where it was Germany in the postwar period, with prominence for Treated to Versailles, crash of the stock exchange of NY and a small summary of the ideas of the NSDAP. In the second part of the research, we will analyze the devices of propaganda used by the nazistas, only to understand a little as it was its use, giving prominence for the radio, the cinema, posters, architecture and literatures. In the last part of the research we will analyze the cinematographic production the Triumph of the Will of Leni Riefenstahl and, we will verify with was made the construction of the image of Hitler step by step in the scenes that occur in the film. My Blog:
key: subjectivity, individual, Red as the sky. Introduction This article has the pretension to reflect sobrequestes related to the concept of subjectivity in the universe of psychology aluz of the vises of Gonzlez Rey (2004) and Hisses Lane (2002). Pontua algunsaspectos of the Red film As the Sky, in the attempt to relate the theory to the practical one. We will see, therefore, as asubjetividade goes gained space and, leaving of the agreement of such concept, it becomes to emerge the valuation of> particular experiences of eindivduos groups with its respective codes and of worlds with different eobjetivos fields. Beyond the recognition of a heterogeneidade inside of a singularity. What in them it is clearly is that we need to understand the subjectivity concept to inside paragarantir an understanding of the meanings constructed for the citizen deuma complexity which is conditional for history and determined by the culture. Subjectivity, a new model the emergency of the subjectivity ocorrequando sciences by itself does not give to account of a bigger universe of the man nocontexto where it lives without making opposition of man x object.
Rey (2004), nosseus studies on the Emergency of the Citizen and the subjectivity go in saying queos to them to know in different fields had not obtained more to legitimize to its rules universal porfilosofias of history. For the author, they had lost legitimacy osdiscursos totalizantes and universal and that practical the scientific ones, polticasmodernas must be thought about terms of a subjectivity. In the several camposdas sciences human beings is observed today a trend in if redefining them discursosem lathe of the truth ideas/falseness, objetividade/subjectivity as formade to bring a new dimension in the subject relation/object. The citizen is it in siou the society, not, exists without the other; objective the object not existeespecificamente without the citizen of it was part: The sensible category allows to visualize aespecificidade of psique human being and to incorporate an attribute to the social one: the cartersubjetivo of the social processes. | <urn:uuid:f373ea90-3ccb-45a4-b5b7-7458743cef27> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | http://www.realtorslosangeles.org/2012/12/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549424060.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20170722122816-20170722142816-00118.warc.gz | en | 0.94226 | 1,215 | 3.171875 | 3 | The provided extract appears to be a collection of academic texts from different fields, including education, film analysis, and psychology. While the texts touch on various concepts, such as constructivist education, cinematographic narrative, and subjectivity, they lack a clear connection to soft skills development. However, some texts mention aspects like critical thinking, problem-solving, and individual experiences, which are relevant to soft skills. Overall, the extract provides some superficial coverage of basic communication and teamwork concepts, but lacks meaningful depth and practical application.
Educational score: 2 | 2 | 1 | 479,253 | 0 |
The definition of an ambit is the area around something that acts as a marker or sign of the border or outside limit.
An example of an ambit is a fence around a yard.
- a circuit or circumference
- the limits or scope; bounds
Origin of ambitClassical Latin ambitus, a going about, revolution from past participle of ambire: see ambient
- Sphere or scope, as of influence. See Synonyms at range.
- Archaic An external boundary; a circuit.
Origin of ambitLatin ambitus from past participle of ambīre to go around ; see ambient . | <urn:uuid:f9a89edb-4070-400c-abcf-5a894d673057> | CC-MAIN-2017-34 | http://www.yourdictionary.com/ambit | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-34/segments/1502886109682.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20170821232346-20170822012346-00214.warc.gz | en | 0.76978 | 131 | 2.921875 | 3 | The extract lacks discussion of soft skills, focusing solely on defining a term. It does not include communication scenarios, teamwork, or problem-solving opportunities, and cultural awareness and digital literacy are absent.
Educational score: 0 | 0 | 0 | 762,227 | 0 |
Development of a mitochondrial 12S rDNA analysis for distinguishing Sciuridae species with potential to transmit Ehrlichia and Borrelia species to feeding Amblyomma americanum (Acari: Ixodidae)
J Med Entomol 49(3):772-6
YEAR: 2012 TOPICS: Prevention.
The authors used a new DNA identification technique to observe that Lone Star ticks in Missouri harbor DNA from both pathogenic bacteria (Ehrlichia and Borrelia) as well as from the species of squirrels on which they feed, the Eastern gray squirrel and the generic squirrel. It was not previously known that these squirrels are hosts for disease-carrying ticks. | <urn:uuid:e4dbecc6-5e3d-4d8f-afe5-2ec86fb407d1> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://globallymealliance.org/research-topics/prevention/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250613416.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20200123191130-20200123220130-00524.warc.gz | en | 0.914432 | 144 | 2.515625 | 3 | The extract lacks discussion of soft skills, focusing on a scientific study with technical terminology and concepts. There is no apparent coverage of communication, teamwork, leadership, or problem-solving scenarios. The content is specialized and lacks practical application to soft skills development.
Educational score: 0 | 0 | 0 | 184,508 | 0 |
Counting coup – I’ve known this phrase so long that I don’t ever remember not knowing it. It’s one of the cultural artifacts that somehow was handed down in my family. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized two things: First that everyone didn’t know what that meant and second, that it might be significant. In my family it was said as “counting coo” with the p being silent.
Counting coup was additive. Those little numbers never “went away.” Indeed, it was a very “Native” thing although I never realized it. It was just “normal” to us, a way of saying “Gotcha.” War without the blood. Made Mom happy.
But counting coup has a much deeper history beginning long ago and perhaps on both sides of the Atlantic. The Cheyenne or Arapaho pictograph below demonstrates the act of counting coup.
Counting coup refers to the winning of prestige in battle, rather than having to prove a win by injuring one’s opponent. Its earliest known reference (by act, not by that name) is from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” (Act 5, Scene 2) where Laertes and Hamlet conduct a mock swordfight before King Claudius and Queen Gertrude. Hamlet strikes Laertes with his sword lightly, not enough to wound, and remarks, “Another hit; what say you?” To which Laertes responds, “A touch, a touch, I do confess.”
The point of counting coup was to avoid bloodshed during practice (or during the real battle). Otherwise, if a partner refused to be honest in acknowledging a strike, the practice could very quickly escalate into real bloodshed as the better opponent “proved” his point by actually sticking his sword into the naysayer. Thus, counting coup was considered the honorable thing to do for all concerned. Oh yes, and people kept track. If you killed your opponent, you only could add one notch to your belt, so to speak, but counting coup took more bravery and you could add several notches to your coup stick over time.
The photo above taken in 1910 by Edward Curtis shows a Piegan warrior wearing a war bonnet and holding a coup stick.
By other accounts the Plains Indians of North America also used a form of counting coup. Warriors won prestige by acts of bravery in the face of the enemy, and these acts could be recorded in various ways and retold as stories. Any blow struck against the enemy counted as a coup, but the most prestigious acts included touching an enemy warrior with the hand, bow, or with a coup stick then escaping unharmed. Touching the first enemy to die in battle or touching the enemy’s defensive works also counted as coup. Counting coup could also involve stealing an enemy’s weapons or horses tied up to his lodge in camp. Risk of injury or death was required to count coup.
A Piikuni (Blackfeet) coup stick from the 1800s is shown above.
Escaping unharmed while counting coup was considered a higher honor than being wounded in the attempt. A warrior who won coup was permitted to wear an eagle feather in his hair. If he had been wounded in the attempt, however, he was required to paint the feather red to indicate this.
After a battle or exploit, the people of a tribe would gather together to recount their acts of bravery and “count coup.” Coups were recorded by putting notches in a coup stick. Indians of the Pacific Northwest would tie an eagle feather to their coup stick for each coup counted, but many tribes did not follow this tradition.
In the photo above, taken in 1907, also by Curtis, High Hawk is dressed in a war bonnet and also holds a coup stick. | <urn:uuid:53ea72f6-b1ed-42fd-98cc-314341be51dd> | CC-MAIN-2017-30 | https://nativeheritageproject.com/2012/10/05/counting-coup/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-30/segments/1500549424876.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20170724122255-20170724142255-00079.warc.gz | en | 0.98144 | 815 | 3 | 3 | The extract provides a rich cultural and historical context for the concept of "counting coup," showcasing its significance in various Native American tribes and its roots in European traditions. It offers a nuanced exploration of bravery, honor, and prestige, highlighting the importance of emotional intelligence, strategic thinking, and cultural awareness. However, it lacks direct discussion of soft skills and practical applications in modern contexts.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 553,611 | 0 |
One Small Step: Screen Saver
Alexander Lin Westerly, Rhode Island
Student, age 13
"I saw an article in the newspaper about e-waste, and I began thinking about what I could do. Since computers and other electronics contain lots of heavy metals and chemicals, it's really bad for them to be thrown away. Monitors can contain four to eight pounds of lead each, and once one goes into a landfill, it can sink to the bottom and the lead can get into the water.
"I got ten other students together, and we sent out a survey to the schools so that kids could ask their parents if they had old computers they didn't need. Lots of people said yes, but only 13 percent knew what to do with them. We also asked if anyone needed a computer. We matched the people who had old computers with 150 people who needed them, so every student who needed a computer at home got one for free!
"Our group went to the town council to get the word out because it broadcasts on public TV. We even made a PowerPoint presentation. We set up a recycling bin where families could put their old electronics. Then we wrote a resolution to ban the dumping of e-waste and require safe recycling--and our town passed it!
Next, we went to hearings and got the state to pass a law just like the one in our town. I think people took us more seriously than adults because they never see kids at the legislature.
"E-waste is a new problem, and it's only going to grow unless everyone does their part. Large electronics companies are making new products with less metals. An LCD [liquid-crystal display] computer screen uses only 25 percent of the energy of the old screens, and it doesn't have lead. But if you get a new one, don't just throw out the old one!"
--interview by Orli Cotel
WHERE OLD COMPUTERS GO Only about 10 percent of obsolete computers are currently recycled in the United States, which means that more than 2.5 million tons of electronic waste are dumped into landfills each year, according to the EPA. | <urn:uuid:3901cf1d-3fb2-45a7-bbc3-078ff4569001> | CC-MAIN-2014-15 | http://sierraclub.org/sierra/200611/one_small_step.asp | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2014-15/segments/1397609535095.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20140416005215-00395-ip-10-147-4-33.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97631 | 442 | 3 | 3 | The extract showcases a 13-year-old student's initiative in addressing e-waste, demonstrating leadership, teamwork, and problem-solving skills. It highlights realistic scenarios, emotional intelligence, and critical thinking, with a focus on practical application and community impact. However, it lacks nuanced interaction, complex problem-solving, and comprehensive professional development opportunities.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 996,115 | 0 |
It looks as though people are soon going to be living longer lives thanks to advances in medicine and healthier lifestyles. Discuss the questions with a friend and decide whether you agree or disagree. Then match the ideas with their owners.
Old people enjoy certain advantages that would be lost if their lives were extended.
If people live forever and never change, life will not be interesting.
Even though it is generally wrong to intefere with other people’s choices, including the choice to live longer, this may be necessary in certain cases.
Life extension would be unfair because only people with money could afford it.
Making life extension illegal in consideration of the poor is only delaying the inevitable.
If lives are extended then population will increase and so to will the problems associated with having too many people.
Limiting reproduction is a better way to prevent harm than banning life extension.
The experience of death will be worse for those living ‘extended’ lives than for those who die at a more ‘natural’ age.
Life extension – using science to slow or halt human aging so that people live far longer than they do naturally – may one day be possible. Big business is taking this possibility seriously. In 2013 Google founded a company called Calico to develop life extension methods, and Silicon Valley billionaires Jeff Bezos and Peter Thiel have invested in Unity Biotechnology, which has a market cap of US$700 million. Unity Biotechnology focuses mainly on preventing age-related diseases, but its research could lead to methods for slowing or preventing aging itself. From my perspective as a philosopher, this poses two ethical questions. First, is extended life good? Second, could extending life harm others?
Not everyone is convinced that extending life would be good. In a 2013 survey by the Pew Research Center’s Religion and Public Life project, some respondents worried that it might become boring, or that they would miss out on the benefits of growing old, such as gaining wisdom and learning to accept death. Philosophers such as Bernard Williams have shared this concern. In 1973 Williams argued that immortality would become intolerably boring if one never changed. He also argued that, if people changed enough to avoid intolerable boredom, they would eventually change so much that they’d be entirely different people. On the other hand, not everyone is persuaded that extended life would be a bad life. I’m not. But that’s not the point. No one is proposing to force anyone to use life extension, and – out of respect for liberty – no one should be prevented from using it. Nineteenth-century philosopher John Stuart Mill argued that society must respect individual liberty when it comes to deciding what’s good for us. In other words, it’s wrong to interfere with someone’s life choices even when he or she makes bad choices. However, Mill also held that our liberty right is limited by the “harm principle.” The harm principle says that the right to individual liberty is limited by a duty not to harm others. There are many possible harms: Dictators might live far too long, society might become too conservative and risk-averse and pensions might have to be limited, to name a few. One that stands out to me is the injustice of unequal access.
What does unequal access looks like when it comes to life extension?
Many people, such as philosopher John Harris and those in the Pew Center survey, worry that life extension would be available only to the rich and make existing inequalities even worse. Indeed, it is unjust when some people live longer than the poor because they have better health care. It would be far more unjust if the rich could live several decades or centuries longer than anyone else and gain more time to consolidate their advantages. Some philosophers suggest that society should prevent inequality by banning life extension. This is equality by denial – if not everyone can get it, then no one gets it. However, as philosopher Richard J. Arneson notes, “leveling-down” – achieving equality by making some people worse off without making anyone better off – is unjust. Indeed, as I argue in my recent book on life extension ethics, most of us reject leveling-down in other situations. For example, there are not enough human organs for transplant, but no one thinks the answer is to ban organ transplants. Moreover, banning or slowing down the development of life extension may simply delay a time when the technology gets cheap enough for everyone to have it. TV sets were once a toy for the wealthy; now even poor families have them. In time, this could happen with life extension. Justice requires that society subsidize access to life extension to the extent it can afford to do so. However, justice does not require banning life extension just because it’s not possible to give it to everyone.
Another possible harm is that the world will become overcrowded. Many people, including philosophers Peter Singer and Walter Glannon, are concerned that extending human life would cause severe overpopulation, pollution and resource shortages. One way to prevent this harm, as philosopher Walter Glannon has proposed, is to limit the number of children after life extension. This would be politically very difficult and very hard on those who want longer lives, but trying to ban life extension would be equally difficult, and denying people longer lives would be just as hard on them – if not more so. Limiting reproduction, as hard as that may be, is a better way to follow the harm principle.
Another possible harm is that widespread life extension might make death worse for some people.
All else being equal, it is better to die at 90 than nine. At 90 you’re not missing out on many years, but at nine you lose most of your potential life. As philosopher Jeff McMahan argues, death is worse the more years it takes from you. Now imagine that people living in a far wealthier neighborhood don’t have to die at 90 or so. They can afford life extension, and will live to 190. You can’t afford it, and you are dying at 80. Is your death not so bad, for you’re losing only a few years, or is your death now far worse, because – if only you had life extension – you might live to 190? Are you losing 10 years, or are you losing 110 years? In a world where some people get life extension and some don’t, what’s the right measure for how many years death takes from you? Perhaps the right measure is how many years life extension would give you, multiplied by the odds of getting it. For example, if you have a 20 percent chance of getting 100 years, then your death is worse by however many years you’d get in a normal lifespan, plus 20 years. If so, then the fact that some people can get life extension makes your death somewhat worse. This is a more subtle kind of harm than living in an overpopulated world, but it’s a harm all the same. However, not just any harm is enough to outweigh liberty. After all, expensive new medical treatments can extend a normal lifespan, but even if that makes death slightly worse for those who can’t afford those treatments, no one thinks such treatments should be banned.
I believe that life extension is a good thing, but it does pose threats to society that must be taken seriously.
John K. Davis is a Professor of Philosophy at California State University, Fullerton. His research on life extension ethics was partially supported by a grant from The Templeton Foundation through the Immortality Project. MIT Press provides funding as a member of The Conversation US.
Subscribe to GuruEAP for all the latest posts and other news! It's free, and you can easily unsubscribe when you're ready to move on. | <urn:uuid:94bd023c-2024-4886-a677-c9bb32b0eeeb> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://gurueap.com/2018/09/05/living-an-extended-life/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250615407.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20200124040939-20200124065939-00432.warc.gz | en | 0.963318 | 1,600 | 2.78125 | 3 | The extract earns a high score due to its in-depth discussion of complex ethical questions surrounding life extension, incorporating nuanced communication, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence. It presents multiple perspectives, encouraging readers to engage in thoughtful consideration of the issues, and demonstrates advanced problem-solving skills by analyzing potential harms and proposing solutions.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 12,675 | 1 |
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By Shama Nathan
Recently, I came across an old post that had quickly surfaced on Tumblr. The post was discussing the problem with teaching girls “how to avoid rape.” I decided to share this post with a male friend of mine, and his was response was, “If girls continue to dress a certain way, how can you blame a guy who can’t control himself?”
Prior to this encounter, social issues did not have great importance to me. However, as I grow up, the harsh realities of life slowly seem to unfold. As a young girl, my parents sheltered me from the violence of rape culture. For the first time in my life, the veil was lifted and I saw the world for all its ugliness. Since this realization, I am compelled to analyze the issue of rape culture.
Being harassed or assaulted is something that most women have or will experience in their lifetime. Sexual violence too often is said to be the “realities of life” and therefore “normal.” This belief that gender based violence is normal contributes to society’s desensitization to violence and rape culture as an urgent social issue. For instance, sociologist Heather Hlavka at Marquette University conducted an interview with a hundred girls age three to seventeen. Hlavka discovered that these girls believed their everyday experiences with harassment were part of normal life.
It is heartbreaking for me to know that my generation believes that we simply can’t help sexual violence and therefore it is O.K. Why is it acceptable that “men are supposed to be aggressors” and “women are expected to tolerate these sexual advances” because, after all, “boys will be boys?” Too many times, I have heard that it is simply our biological nature to act on impulse. Regardless if the latter is true, it does not justify nor excuse disrespectful, violent behavior.
I recall an incident last year, when a man approached me outside the mall. He inched closer and his voice crawled under my skin with each word he spoke. His hot, coated breath stifled the atmosphere. I bit my bottom lip and stared into the red circles illuminated beneath his eyelids. I ignored him for a few seconds and then I snapped around. He laughed a cynical snort. “Give me a little touch aye girl?” He stroked his hand against mine and walked away. I stared at him, dumbfounded that a man of his age would approach a girl my age.
In that singular movement, I looked at my hand as if it were covered in filth. I wiped it furiously against my skirt and ran towards the bus station to get home. I did not know then that this would not be the last time I would be harassed or shouted at with sexual requests. I remember telling my parents and, perhaps with good intentions, their response was, “How you carry yourself depends on how men will respond to you.” Such advice has never been more deceiving and dangerous. Their response was unsettling to me. I made it a habit to change out of my navy knee-length uniform after school. I was under the impression that somehow, if I dressed differently, men would stop harassing me. But they did not.
My generation, and society as a whole, needs to know that a predator can stop themselves from harming his victim. Telling women to be mindful of what they wear and how they carry themselves reinforce sexism, misogyny, and bigotry; it contributes to a false sense of security and victim blaming. When a woman is assaulted, we hear absurd responses such as, “Well, what was she wearing on the night of the attack?” and “Where was she?” Part of the problem of these questions is that they suggest that we do not recognize gender based violence as something real and tangible.
We cannot simply tell young women to avoid the so-called dangerous places. Such a warning creates the idea that gender and sexual violence only happens in those places and therefore if you do not go there, then these warnings do not apply.
It is not enough to tell women to carry and dress themselves “properly.” What is proper, and whose terms define it as such? For some, it seems perfectly justifiable to tell women to stop dressing provocatively. Problem solved—not. This is victim blaming.
Again, I came across an article that discusses the role of the media and its influence on the perception of women. Reading this article made me draw connections between rape culture and the media’s influence on youth. Years ago, it was uncommon to see sexually explicit ads, or video games that depicted violence. While some did exist, the general public considered them to be disrespectful or perverse. As society continues to evolve, we become more desensitized to gender and sexual violence.
I recall an incident where a mixed gender group of youths were huddled around a table staring intently at a computer screen, I decided to peep over their shoulder. It was a music video with two women groomed for the male gaze. Some of the lyrics explicitly explained the man’s plans for the evening. I argued that the video encouraged male dominant sexual attitudes against women, which contributes to the normalization of rape and sexual harassment. The video suggested that women should tolerate any advances men make toward them. I argued that the media promotes the over-sexualization of women and this informs how our generation interacts with each other. As expected, the repetitive assertion was made that when women dress “provocatively,” it only provokes the predator’s interest. This made me realize that part of the problem lies in cringe-worthy comments such as these.
In today’s world, it is common to hear rape jokes by men and women. While the media does influence the minds of youth, it is ultimately us who allow it to do so. We are becoming immune to injustices just because society is saying it is trivial. This is not OK. We need to continue to change the way we view socially constructed ideas of gender. Men are not the aggressors and women are not weak. When we start questioning the roles society tells us to play, it is only then that rape culture will stop.
The purpose of this the article is not to blame men. I say this because too often I feel the need to apologize for fear of sounding too prejudice against men. I hope one day I can raise awareness to social issues without being labeled as a “ranting feminist,” which is simply a deflection tactic to end the conservation. For now, I want to encourage and support young girls in recognizing different realities of gender and sexual violence. I want people to have productive conversations that build strategies to fight against rape culture. I want young women and girls to be confident, fearless, and to respect themselves. I want young women and girls to define themselves not by what they wear, but by their character and the unique individual they are striving to become. | <urn:uuid:37298118-4833-4f37-9f5a-c0be021b209e> | CC-MAIN-2020-10 | https://thefeministwire.com/2014/09/call-young-women/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-10/segments/1581875145621.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20200221233354-20200222023354-00542.warc.gz | en | 0.974039 | 1,458 | 2.515625 | 3 | The extract discusses the issue of rape culture, its normalization, and the importance of addressing it. It highlights the need for a change in societal attitudes and the role of media in perpetuating harmful gender stereotypes. The author shares personal experiences and insights, demonstrating emotional intelligence, critical thinking, and leadership skills. The text promotes nuanced interaction, complex problem-solving, and cultural awareness, earning it a high score.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 531,813 | 1 |
The Evolution to a Smart & Sustainable City
Many cities in the U.S. and around the world have started the process of transformation from analog to smart and sustainable. The process tends to start with the implementation of a series of independent infrastructure systems connected to a digitally linked network. Yet, the transformation process for cities is still in its early stages.
Many cities and communities have taken different approaches. There are many different components and systems for a city to choose from in deciding how and where to start. Transformation also requires the involvement of various players. This article discusses the players and the evolution of cities as they race to be Smart & Sustainable.
The overall goal for a smart and sustainable city is to provide a lifestyle and environment which is effective, efficient and enjoyable. There are many different ways to approach this goal. It becomes a function of how active each of the players becomes and the community’s geographical assets and constraints.
The initial dimension to consider is the players. There are four predominant player groups: People (Citizens), Business, Built Environment (the people who develop and own buildings), and the Government. These four groups are the main players in any city or community. They each have different roles, goals and responsibilities (see Diagram 1 below). There might be distinct interactions in which two groups overlap. When all four players work together in unison, the outcome becomes a sweet spot: a smart and sustainable city. When one or more of the groups aren’t involved, then the outcome is very different. As with any group, there needs to be a team leader. In many communities the team leader is the local government. The team leader is not responsible for funding or doing all the work, they are simply the facilitator to initiate teamwork among the players. In some instances the government does not always take this leadership role or is not effective. In these cases, Citizens fill the leadership void as they have a material vested interest.
Another dimension of the smart and sustainable City is how they evolve over time. There are three main phases. The initial phase (v1.0) is the Awareness phase which is led by technology companies. The second phase (v2.0) involves the government taking the leading role. The final phase (v3.0) has the citizens assuming the lead role. Let’s cover each of these in a little more detail (see Diagram 2 below).
In v1.0 the technology companies provide awareness to a community, in order to convey the benefits of their respective product or system to improve the overall environment. This stage is important as it makes the other players aware (government and citizens) and helps them start understanding the benefits of smart infrastructure systems.
In v2.0 the government becomes aware of the greater benefits for their city and community. In this phase, many governments start implementing infrastructure items in a laundry list manner. Most of the time, they simply implement as many items as possible. This is also an important stage. It makes local officials aware that a better environment for its citizens and business community is possible, which facilitates government involvement. In this phase many cities start to compare themselves to each other in a sort of competition. However, they have not yet developed a focused plan for their city based upon its particular competitive advantages. Many advanced cities have entered this stage. The next phase covers this in greater detail.
Think of the next phase, v2.5 as a version in which a city assess its competitive advantages to try to better understand the best course for its citizens and business community. It begins a holistic approach to decide what will be needed. It is also a process to help establish the necessary prioritization for the next steps, since there are of course limited funds and resources. There are not many cities in this phase.
The final phase is v3.0. This is when the citizens start to take control of the process with the support of the government. The citizens break the city into communities or villages, each having their own distinct attributes and requirements. There are even fewer cities at this level.
So now that the various phases are more fully described, let’s circle back to V2.5 and the city’s self-assessment. At this stage in the process, the city undertakes an honest evaluation of itself in a gap measurement approach (see Diagram 3 below). This process is based on four main categories: Geography, Economy, Government, and Knowledge. These four areas will form the basis for understanding the differences between the current status and the potential future status.
Geography will take into account the proximity to other areas, transportation, availability of additional land for growth, and the general topography.
Economy will consider the economic system and how transparent it is, access to skilled labor, ability to produce goods and services, access to finance (banks, venture capital and/or capital markets); and finally, access to information.
Government will include the legal system, local officials’ openness to ideas and changes, and willingness to get involved. This statement regarding government willingness is a reference to the earlier discussion of the importance of government involvement among the various players in the transformation process.
The final category is Knowledge. It is the access and availability to good learning institutions (ranging from K through post-secondary), as well as the community’s appetite for Innovation and entrepreneurship versus a desire to maintain the status quo.
Once a candid and honest scorecard is completed the city can begin to assess its relative strengths and weaknesses in each category. The goal then would be to emphasize its strengths, and determine whether any of the weaknesses can be easily addressed and transformed into future strengths.
Then the city can apply these strengths (competitive advantages) to its various components. Examples of these could include: Government, Public Environment, Health, Education, Transportation, Energy & Infrastructure, Business, and Building Environment (See Diagram 4 below).
Using the city’s strengths, a list of components for each category can then begin to be populated to decide what could be done to the city based upon its competitive advantages / strengths. This list can then be evaluated to determine which items would be best for the city; then these can be prioritized and planned out over multiple years. This becomes the city’s roadmap or blueprint to becoming a Smart & Sustainable City. It is based upon what is best for a city’s particular attributes. The roadmap then allows the city to match its needs and desires to its budget. It also allows a way for the city to convey the plan to its citizens in order to gain acceptance.
This approach enables a city and its four key groups to understand the direction and the implementation for their city’s future. While no one can know for sure the direction of a city, the involvement of all the groups and having a process for implementation enables the city to have a better chance to become an effective, efficient and enjoyable environment for all for many decades and even centuries to comes. Now that truly is a sustainable city.
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Read more from the Meeting of the Minds Blog
Spotlighting innovations in urban sustainability and connected technology
AI has enormous potential to improve the lives of billions of people living in cities and facing a multitude of challenges. However, a blind focus on the technological issues is not sufficient. We are already starting to see a moderation of the technocentric view of algorithmic salvation in New York City, which is the first city in the world to appoint a chief algorithm officer.
There are 7 primary forces determining the success of AI, of which technology is just one. Cities must realize that AI is not the quick technological fix that vendors sell. Not everything will be improved by creating more algorithms and technical prowess. We need to develop a more holistic approach to implementing AI in cities in order to harness the immense potential. We need to create a way to consider each of the seven forces when cities plan for the use of AI.
In New Zealand, persistent, concentrated advocacy and legal cases advanced by Māori people are inspiring biocentric policies; that is, those which recognize that people and nature, including living and non-living elements, are part of an interconnected whole. Along the way, tribal leaders and advocates are successfully making the case that nature; whole systems of rivers, lakes, forests, mountains, and more, deserves legal standing to ensure its protection. An early legislative “win” granted personhood status to the Te Urewera forest in 2014, which codified into law these moving lines:
“Te Urewera is ancient and enduring, a fortress of nature, alive with history; its scenery is abundant with mystery, adventure, and remote beauty … Te Urewera has an identity in and of itself, inspiring people to commit to its care.”
The Te Urewera Act of 2014 did more than redefine how a forest would be managed, it pushed forward the practical expression of a new policy paradigm.
Can U.S. cities transform to overcome extreme car dependency?
In summer 2019, two values driven agencies came together to see if they could incentivize change in five cities with the Made to Move Grant program. This innovative, unique, and inspirational partnership between Degree and Blue Zones is awarding $100,000 dollars to each city to redesign their neighborhoods and city-centers for active, healthy lives. The program aims to create model practices and projects that gain the attention of other cities and inspire evolutionary changes to once again focus on places for people, and design accordingly. | <urn:uuid:d3a7d323-b737-401f-aab5-c8c8bdd97a6b> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://meetingoftheminds.org/the-evolution-to-a-smart-sustainable-city-26503 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579250610004.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20200123101110-20200123130110-00367.warc.gz | en | 0.952636 | 2,006 | 2.828125 | 3 | The extract discusses the evolution of smart and sustainable cities, involving various players and phases of development. It highlights the importance of teamwork, leadership, and community involvement. While it touches on communication and collaboration, it lacks nuanced interaction and complex problem-solving opportunities. The extract provides some practical applications and cultural awareness but does not fully integrate advanced communication, leadership, and problem-solving scenarios.
Educational score: 3 | 3 | 2 | 255,124 | 0 |
The Monastery was initially founded in 1370 on a land that belonged to the boyar Simeon Khovrin, who took vows under the name Simon (hence the name of the monastery). It was meant to be a part of Moscow’s defense.
Around 1380, the monastery was moved to its current location. In 1405 the Assumption Cathedral was added. In 1640 it was heavily fortified so as to fulfill its defense purposes.
Shut down in 1923, most of its buildings were destroyed so as to build the ZILA Culture Palace. Nowadays the only remnants of the monastery are a part of the wall and three towers. | <urn:uuid:f2f10737-599b-47b3-9463-f9175bd11aa4> | CC-MAIN-2023-23 | https://www.baikalnature.com/info/landmarks/860 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2023-23/segments/1685224653608.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20230607042751-20230607072751-00223.warc.gz | en | 0.98515 | 139 | 2.65625 | 3 | The extract lacks discussion of soft skills, focusing on historical facts about a monastery. There's no coverage of communication, teamwork, leadership, or problem-solving, and no cultural awareness or digital literacy elements beyond basic historical context.
Educational score: 0 | 0 | 0 | 801,131 | 0 |
Denis Estimon is the creator of We Dine Together, a program that aims to combat social isolation within schools to make sure no-one has to eat alone. Denis and his family immigrated to the U.S. from Haiti, when he was in the first grade. He faced the challenge of making friends not in only in a new school but in a new culture. Now he helps students make connections with others. Anna first discovered We Dine Together while watching CBS This Morning and was blown away by what Denis is doing. Denis is also the director of Be Strong, a national non-profit organization focused on preventing bullying using a student-led approach.
Tell us about your story and how you came about creating your mission:
Denis and his family moved to the United States from Haiti. He had the challenges of both being the new student at school and being in a completely new environment. Since he didn’t speak English he struggled to connect to people and form relationships. He spent lunchtimes and recess alone. This experience inspired him to start We Dine Together to create a culture of community in schools. School is one of the most segregated environments we experience. For a new student or a student who has been experiencing social challenges it can be a safe haven. A student can come into a new school, not knowing anybody and find a We Dine Together Club that they can go to.
We walk around with a smile on our face but it’s really hard when we feel lonely inside:
Denis agrees. The problem we are facing today is that people can show the best of themselves and can act like everything is going well but truly not everything is not always fine. Now, when something is going on in their lives, students do not turn to people, they turn to social media. They don’t learn how to build real relationships with people. Part of the Be Strong State Rep program is to work in 3 key areas every month – advocacy, acts of kindness and awareness. For the acts of kindness they do simple daily acts such as hold the door open for 10 strangers and look them in the face. Because even small acts like that make a difference.
What are some things you teach with how to actually approach someone who is sitting alone?
Often what you say is not as important as just saying something. It is important to step out of our comfort zone. Denis’s family stepped out of their comfort zone to come to a new country. We have to step out of our comfort zone and try to connect with people.
You must hear those stories all the time, about how somebody said hi to someone and how that led to another thing.
When Denis first founded the club, he approached a young man. They didn’t have much conversation as the young man was very shy. Denis felt slightly rejected but he went back the next day and the next day and the next. At the end of the week the young man asked Denis why he was sitting there and he told him they were friends. The kid started crying. Denis was the first person in 3 years to sit with him. The following week 2 other students sat with them. The young man had invited them.
What made you approach the same person, even though you were in some ways getting rejected by them?
Denis thought that if he didn’t do it then who would approach the kid? He didn’t want to wait for somebody else to do it. It took him about a week to approach him.
I saw that people of all different ages are involved in the We Dine Together initiative. What age does it start?
There is really no age limit on it but what they’ve been seeing lately is that the program works best with 4th-12th grade. They have also gone into elementary schools and taught kids about resiliency.
How does someone become a part of We Dine Together?
The first step is nominating a student and then that student goes through an interview process and find out about the program and how it works. As a state rep they then need to find 3 other people to form a club. These 3 people should be from different communities – athletics, academics, creative or disabilities. After the group is formed they do their monthly challenges based around advocacy, awareness and act of kindness.
How many schools are you in and how have you grown?
We Dine Together is now in over 170 schools. They have mostly been growing through word of mouth and students have just been starting clubs. Kids are going into other schools and starting clubs there.
I want to ask you about a story I heard, where a lady took an apple and cut it in half. Can you tell me about that?
This is a story that changed Denis’s life. If you cut an apple, you can count the number of seeds in apple but you can’t count the number of apples in a seed. The seeds you plant today will bring about harvest later on. Denis wants people to plant a seeds of generosity, kindness and compassion.
Do you have mentors that support you?
Denis has had many mentors throughout his life and every mentor has taught him something different. The things they did when he was younger planted the seed for who he is today.
The students that are leaders in your program – what changes are they experiencing?
Overall growth. They are learning about different people and different cultures. They are building relationships with people that they wouldn’t otherwise. By being able to build relationships on a school campus they will be able to do this in their careers in the future.
What happened after you were featured on CBS Good Morning?
Before the CBS episode, he did not see many people with the idea of welcoming people and building relationships over the table. The CBS piece created a snowball effect of welcoming other people and building relationships. Denis saw other clubs being created with a similar mission. It also created interest in We Dine Together and bought more reps to the organization.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
One person can’t help everyone, but everyone can help one person.
Where do you see this in 10-15 years? What impact do you think you can have as a culture?
Denis wants to see the rates of suicide and depression decrease. Not just because of his organization but because of all the organizations that are working to combat this issue. He would like to see a We dine Together club in every school. Then students wouldn’t have the fear of going to a new school and wondering who they will eat lunch with. He’d like to completely eliminate that narrative.
Tell us how we can get involved
- Visit www.wedinetogether.org
- Nominate a student to form a We Dine Together club
- Donate at https://bestrong.global/donate/
- Invite someone to sit down with you and share a meal with you | <urn:uuid:f4517dc1-1748-4d92-af5a-a4936a6b1890> | CC-MAIN-2020-05 | https://annagoldstein.com/connection-kindness-community/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2020-05/segments/1579251687958.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20200126074227-20200126104227-00284.warc.gz | en | 0.984003 | 1,439 | 2.53125 | 3 | The extract discusses the story of Denis Estimon, founder of We Dine Together, a program that combats social isolation in schools. It showcases his personal experience, leadership, and initiative in creating a culture of community. The extract highlights emotional intelligence, empathy, and kindness, with practical applications and real-world context. It also touches on cultural awareness, digital literacy, and the importance of human connections in the digital age.
Educational score: 5 | 5 | 4 | 180,056 | 1 |
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