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To help with our goal to distribute one million free child safety kits we are currently offering a 25% discount on all services and products for every 10 referrals. Its a great feeling to know you are helping a child.
Helpful Articles
Hear what presidential hopefuls John McCain and Barack Obama have to say about No Child Left Behind. Lets hope these guys and their running mates Sarah Palin or Joe Biden get it right for the future of our children.
Rhetoric Meets Reality for No Child Left Behind
Author: James William Smith
The No Child Left Behind Act certainly had an ambitious goal. It mandated that all students tested in reading and math would reach grade level by the year 2014.
Six years ago, when the law was passed, almost no one believed that this standard for success was realistic. However, despite a lack of reality, the law was approved by Congress with sanctions for school systems that fail to make adequately yearly progress toward that 2014 goal, sanctions which cost millions of dollars and result in school takeovers.
However, the Act had a politically correct title and what politician could ever cast a vote that would leave a child's education behind. So, the law was passed under a fancy heading, but with a measurement for success that was beyond the outer limit of reality.
This political rhetoric meets reality dilemma on the issue of education exists in this Election 2008 Presidential campaign. Consider that it will be up to the next Congress and the newly elected President to decide whether to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act in 2009.
So, where do the 2008 Presidential candidates stand on the reauthorization of the "No Child left Behind Act", since one of them will be an important decision maker concerning its future after the November election in 2009? Unfortunately, their positions on the current law are high on political rhetoric but lacking in real specifics.
Republican John McCain, who voted for the original legislation, has admitted “that the law should be fixed, especially in the areas of testing students with disabilities and non-English speaking students, but the law should not be repealed.” He also has commented on the need for additional “emphasis on science and math.” Senator McCain also supports school vouchers and additional choice options.
Although McCain appears to be quite supportive of the law, Matt David, a spokesman for the Senator, says of McCain, “His support for reauthorization will depend on what amendments are made to the bill, not only what’s added to it, but also what could be taken away.” It certainly looks like the Senator from Arizona would prefer to lead from behind on the education issue.
Democratic candidate Barack Obama has not been complimentary in his comments about the law. Speaking to the National Education Association, he has called the legislation “one of the emptiest slogans in the history of America.” Specifically, he has been critical of the heavy reliance on standardized tests which “has pushed out a lot of important learning that needs to take place,” and worries that “creativity has been drained from the classroom.” Concerned also about adequate funding, Obama has suggested that “the law left money and common sense behind.”
Obama would reform the No Child Left Behind law by funding it. He would improve the assessments used to track student progress to measure readiness for college and the workplace and improve student learning in a timely, individualized manner. Obama would also improve the accountability system so that there is support, rather than punishment, for schools that need improvement.
It's easy to see the political rhetoric that would appeal to Obama’s voting base, but much harder indeed to discover a detailed plan on the funding and specific reform for the current federal education law from the Democratic candidate in this election year.
Undoubtedly, the proposed changes in the law that will be necessary for its reauthorization will focus on the following controversial areas:
1. How would the legislation be changed to deal with the measurement metric known as Adequate Yearly Progress? This method of measuring student and school success has been described by many as being “too inflexible, too arbitrary, and too punitive.” It is difficult to find anyone who really believes in the current measurement objective and its timeline is thought to be unrealistic as well.
2. Everyone wants to improve teacher salaries and training. Whether this should be done with some kind of “pay for performance” plan will be subject to serious debate.
3. There are many who are calling for national curriculum standards and testing. Although it does not appear that Congress is ready for such a change, it will be debated.
4. Since the No Child Left Behind Act was never properly funded by Congress, the amount of money needed for federal education programs will certainly be an important issue for the next Congress to consider.
5. Many people have expressed concern that the mandated testing in language arts and math has caused schools to spend considerably less time and effort on other curriculum areas, as well as more time and expense preparing students to pass mandatory tests.
As a new school year begins in America this fall, the Presidential candidates should be asked the necessary questions in order to determine their specific vision of the American educational system of the future. The voters and the national media should insist that each of them propose a specific and detailed education plan.
The time has come for the Presidential candidates and Congressional politicians to come forward with creative solutions to fix or abolish the current educational system. Continued political rhetoric on the issue is simply not enough. In fact, political rhetoric has already met the outer limits of tangible reality for the 2002 landmark federal education law, known as "No Child Left Behind".
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/k-12-education-articles/rhetoric-meets-reality-for-no-child-left-behind-563040.html
About the Author:
James William Smith has worked in Senior management positions for some of the largest Financial Services firms in the United States for the last twenty five years. He has also provided business consulting support for insurance organizations and start up businesses. Visit his website at http://www.eWorldvu.com or his daily blog at http://www.eworldvublog.blogspot.com
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One of the most important decisions a parent will ever make is ensuring their childs education!
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Helpful Articles
There are alot of pet lovers who don't know much about Roger Clemens or the New York Yankees but they can write a book about their cat Wiskers. Wether your dog or cat has his or her own photo on Myspace or Dogbook or your pet is just the star of your home, here is a great article for you and your kids to be aware of to help keep your dog happy!
An Apple computer is also a great place to store your favorite pets pictures. Also check out Apples iTunes.
Dog Health Care Tips for the Cold Winter Months
Author: K. Taylor
There are three highly common things that threaten your dogs health in the winter months. The good news is that by taking a preventive measures and following the dog care tips below, you can keep your dog happy and healthy all winter long.
Avoid Dog Poisoning
Antifreeze kills dogs. It is reported that antifreeze has a taste that
dogs like so they are naturally attracted to it. As a responsible dog
owner, this dog care tips is one of the most important dog health care
tips that I can give you. Make sure that antifreeze is stored in a sealed
container and when flushing your radiator that you are quick to thoroughly wash
away any spills that may occur.
Protect Your Dogs Paws
Protect your dogs paws from harmful irritants such as salt when walking your dog
in the winter. You should know that both ice and salt can be harmful to
the pads on your dogs paws. Both can damage the skin leading to tears or
possible infections on the pad of the paw. Also, most dogs will lick the
salt off of their paws thus digesting the chemicals found in the road salt. pet
supply store. Your dog may resist wearing the booties at first but you
should be persistent in order to protect their sensitive paw pads. Play it safe
and train your dog to wear dog booties.
Provide Dry Bedding and Check Water Sources Regularly
If your dog spends any amount of time outdoors in the winter months
their are two things that you must be aware of. The first is providing
proper bedding and replacing it regularly so that it does not get wet and
freeze. Straw is great to use for bedding because it can easily be
replaced and it is a great insulator.
The second thing that you must pay careful attention to if your dog stays
outside in the winter months is their water bowl. A dogs water bowl will
quickly freeze in winter months so you must keep a close eye on it to assure
that your dog has access to fresh water.
By following these dog care tips for winter, you can assure that your dog
will be happy and healthy when warmer months roll around.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/pets-articles/dog-health-care-tips-for-the-cold-winter-months-228541.html
About the Author:
For free dog health care tips for every season, I highly recommend the Dog Health Care Blog.
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What goals would you set, what accomplishments would you seek, for your students or school if you had the money to achieve it.
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Helpful Articles
As we enter this election year, it really is not important if you are a Hillary Clinton fan or a John McCain supporter. What really matters is our children. Here is a great article on preparing our children for school.
Create Web 2.0 Lessons for your Classroom
Author: Alyx Kaczuwka
Are you teaching a group of students for whom technology seems an integral part of their lives? To reach today’s millennial kids, you need lessons that are interactive, immediately relevant, full of rich media and most importantly, engaging. It used to be that the only way to take advantage of the computers in your classroom was to install games or encourage students to search the Internet, but when you create Web 2.0 lessons, you can offer more truly interactive opportunities within your classroom.
If you’re wondering what resources you have when you create Web 2.0 lessons, the sky is the limit. Displaying images gives you the power to include diagrams, photos and animated slideshows. Use audio to narrate students’ way through a lesson, expound on graphics and photos, or provide original historical source material. With Flash movies, you can provide simulations and video footage.
There are many tools that help you create online content, and they range from the free to many thousands of dollars. One easy, free tool is the Content Authoring Tool (CAT), a very flexible and interactive way to create classroom presentations. By using templates, it makes it easy to incorporate images, audio, and Flash movies in a lesson. You can use CAT to create entire lessons, and students working on a group project can use CAT to create a class presentation on a topic they have researched. No programming knowledge is necessary, but those with knowledge of basic HTML will be able to customize lessons even further. Lessons can be delivered online, or exported for use on any computer.
Additionally, the following tools have broadened the resources available in the classroom and reduced the reliance on simple Internet search. For example, history and geography lessons would benefit from images available through the free Google Earth program, with which you can take students virtually to any location, such as the Grand Canyon or Eiffel Tower. For other subjects, sites such as Google Video and YouTube have coverage of recent and past news, political speeches, and social commentary, so these video sites can be great economics, history or current events tools. Most videos on these sites range from one to ten minutes long and can easily provide enrichment on a subject within a brief window of classroom time. Websites such as Flickr make it easy to upload images and include them in a slide show. Google Video and YouTube also allow you to share your own videos. Most of these sites attach searchable “tags” to content, making it simple for teachers to find material related to their subject.
Any of these elements can stand alone as an enrichment tool or can be included in a full-fledged multimedia lesson. Integrating text, audio, images and Flash movies into your lessons brings all the available Web 2.0 content into a cohesive presentation.
However you choose to do it, implementing Web 2.0 resources in your classroom via interactive multimedia lessons can be an easy and fun process, and adds richness and depth to students’ learning experiences. Creatively-inspired teachers interested in creating more engaging and interactive lessons can explore the resources available to them and produce a better learning experience for their students than ever before.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/k-12-education-articles/create-web-20-lessons-for-your-classroom-217704.html
About the Author:
About the Author
Alyx Kaczuwka is the Strategic Architect for teachbits.com . Alyx invites you to visit teachbits.com and try out its easy-to-use free resources for creating Web 2.0 lessons for your classroom.
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Kids grow so fast, why buy new when you can swap everything and anything a child wants and needs.
If your child has given up soccer to play baseball give us a try. Who knows you just might make a friend who plays soccer half way around the world.
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Ekidsmind is all about parents, Kids, teachers and families. We are an advocate for healthier, smarter and safer kids. Please help keep our community strong by sharing links and articles that are important to you. Also share your favorite school and family photos, meet new friends or just blog about your day on our Kick Apps site below.
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Attention all please leave your profiles here,Just click on join and follow the instructions.
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Meet Valdis
The worlds top Avatar super hero. She has the strength of the Incredible Hulk and The climbing ability of Spiderman. Valdis has the Xray vision of Superman and the combined fighting power Pokeman and Yu-gi-oh Warriors. Join the adventure as she travels the world in her F16 Viper using Google's earth flight simulater to fight evil. Please help us find the writing stars of tommorrw. Email us a wild adventure for our super hero Valdis at ekidsmind@aol.com and your peers will read all entries, vote on them and we will use the very best on our website! Every vote counts So tell your friends and family to vote for your story at www.ekidmind.net. If your story gets printed your class will win a free $500.00 fundraiser and you will win a $50.00 credit for any Item on this site.
Design your own teeshirt,hat or sweatshirt and become famous! Your peers will vote on the best designs and the winners will earn 10% of the profits from the sale of their design. Every vote counts so Don't forget to tell your friends and family to vote on our site www.ekidsmind.net. Upload your designs at www.flickr.com/groups/ekidsmind/.
When you upload a picture of yourself or someone else wearing your design you receive a 10% discount on any of our products or services. Refer 5 friends to our site and receive another 10% discount!
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