BASINGSTOKE’S largest secondary school has made progress since it was graded as “inadequate” by Ofsted in March – and there has been praise for the man who has now taken over as the permanent headteacher.

Charlie Currie has been leading Brighton Hill Community College as the interim headteacher after former head David Eyre retired months after the inspection result, which he publicly challenged Ofsted over.

Following the critical Ofsted report, Hampshire County Council, as local education authority, applied to the Education Secretary to replace the governing body with an interim executive board (IEB), which came into effect on September 1.

An Ofsted inspector, who visited the school in Brighton Way, in November, said the school is now making “satisfactory” progress in raising students’ achievement and addressing the issues for improvement.

Her Majesty’s Inspector John Daniell said in his report, published this month, that although attainment at the end of Key Stage 4 rose slightly in 2011, with 60 per cent of students gaining five or more A* to C grades at GCSE, including English and maths, this remains below the school’s target.

He said better progress has been made in music, drama and German, but the quality of teaching is variable, with some still inadequate.

The report said: “Where teaching is better, there is a correlation with good behaviour because students are challenged and therefore engaged in their learning.

“In some lessons, students’ good behaviour accelerated their rate of progress because they are enthused and motivated to succeed, whereas in others, inappropriate behaviour acts as a barrier to progress, which students say they find frustrating.”

Mr Daniell said the IEB had “set about making clear its high expectations in its mission to drive up standards.”

He added: “The interim headteacher and his team have accurately analysed the school’s existing strengths and areas for development, and have galvanised staff’s enthusiasm in tackling key issues head-on.”

Mr Currie said: “We were delighted with the outcome because it indicates that the school is making significant progress.

“We have been able to make outstanding headway in a very short time to put the school in the right place to progress. It (the grading) would never have been ‘good’. We were expecting, and hoping, it would be ‘satisfactory’. I was very pleased with it.

“It means we have been able to come a long way in a short time and that when we have our full inspection, which is scheduled to take place between March and the summer term, that we would expect by that time to have our ‘notice to improve’ removed.”

Basingstoke MP Maria Miller visited the school in November to find out how things were going.

She said: “I am delighted to hear about the progress that has been made at Brighton Hill Community College over a very short amount of time, and it is fantastic news that things are really getting back on track here.”


News By:

basingstokegazette.co.uk

VANCOUVER, CANADA -- Caption At home with Ryan Reynolds isn’t a bad way to spend your holidays!

According to multiple reports, Ryan took rumored new girlfriend Blake Lively to his hometown of Vancouver this week.

According to People, the pair was spotted at the Original Cupcake Shop, where they purchased several cakes and various cupcakes.

“They seemed like a really sweet couple,” an employee told the mag.

Us Weekly also reported that Ryan, 35, and Blake, 24, were spotted on Monday night at Vancouver’s Tojos restaurant, with the actor’s mother and brother.

On Tuesday, the pair reportedly grabbed a bite to eat at Benny’s Bagels, with a source telling the mag that they were “really friendly,” but mostly only interacted with each other.

Prior to their Vancouver getaway, the “Green Lantern” co-stars were spotted together in New York City and Boston.


News By:

accesshollywood.com

Three trailers have reached the Web as people attempt to scurry away from their laptops and enjoy the holidays with friends and family. But they are worth watching, so take a moment and enjoy the cinematic teases.

First, Ridley Scott has dropped our first look at “Prometheus,” a sci-fi adventure with a stellar cast (Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Noomi Rapace) that most thought would be a prequel to his seminal “Alien” (and many still believe will be connected somehow). Either way, Scott’s return to science-fiction heralds attention no matter what he’s attempting, and so “Prometheus” is high on our radar heading into 2012.

Next up is “Bel Ami,” Robert Pattinson’s steamy period romance that finds the “Twilight” heartthrob sleeping his way through Europe in search of wealth and power. Now that sounds like a tough task for the young actor, don’t you think? “Bel Ami” opens in March. The trailer is an MSN exclusive.

Finally, Julianne Moore and Ed Harris tackle real-life politicians Sarah Palin and John McCain in HBO’s “Game Change,” the adaptation of the best-selling book about their failed presidential campaign. “So find me a woman,” Harris’ McCain says when looking for a game-changing running mate. And Moore’s impersonation of Palin is a game changer, indeed.

I take it back. That’s not an impersonation. That’s the spitting image of Palin. It’s scary. And the movie looks scary good, no matter what side of the political fence you fall on. All three films will be out next year.


News By:

hollywoodnews.com

Angelina Jolie has admitted that she will break down in tears if one of her six children asks to be excused from the family's global travels.

The Hollywood actress and her partner Brad Pitt, who have three adopted kids and three biological tots, pride themselves on their nomadic lifestyle, settling for a few weeks at a time wherever their work takes them.

But Jolie knows eventually her children will want to live in one place and she can't bear the thought of leaving one behind.

"Right now they love it. If we're in the same place for two months they wanna know why we're not getting on an airplane," Contactmusic quoted her as saying.

"They really love to travel. Because they're such a big travelling pack, it's not one child moving around the world and missing friends, there's so many of them they have constant play dates and are always together.

"But I'm sure they're gonna say, 'Mum, let me stay home' and when that happens I'm gonna cry. I don't wanna settle, I love travelling, but we'll see.

"They'll probably end up living all around the world and my old age will be Brad and I travelling, trying to visit all our grandchildren in random countries," she added.


News By:

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

LOS ANGELES, CALIF. -- “The X Factor” and its $5 million recording contract is in America’s hands to decide.

Josh Krajcik, Chris Rene and the lone lady left standing, Melanie Amaro, took the stage for one last set of competition performances, and based on the judges’ comments, one contender may be in the lead. But who is it? Read on to find out…

Here’s how Round 1 went:

Josh, a burrito maker from Ohio, hit the stage with “Uninvited,” joined by Alanis Morissette. A little thrown off by the superstar power on stage, Josh was strong in his singing, but had a moment or two of insecurity standing next to the Grammy winner – and Simon Cowell noticed.

“Alanis — amazing, looks cute, by the way. Josh — I thought you were a little bit intimidated in the beginning,” Simon told the singer following his performance. “Then, as the song got into gear, I heard the old Josh back… It was an 8 out of 10.”

Chris dueted with Avril Lavigne on her song, “Complicated,” which featured one of the Santa Cruz performer’s own rap verses, something Josh’s mentor, Nicole Scherzinger, complimented.

“It was a little shaky in the takeoff… but your energy and the light around you is so flippin’ contagious,” she said. “You shined up there.”

Looking like the cat who got the cream, Simon introduced his contestant, Melanie, who sang “I Believe I Can Fly” alongside R. Kelly. Performing the tune in R. Kelly’s key signature made it less of a show piece for the powerhouse vocalist, according to Chris’ mentor, L.A. Reid.

“I felt you got a little bit over shadowed,” L.A. said.

Simon, however, praised his contender.

“You didn’t look like someone in a talent competition… It was a fantastic version of the song,” the Brit chimed in.

AH Nation Poll: Now that they’ve performed in the final, who should win “The X Factor”?

With no clear frontrunner in Round 1, Round 2 was anyone’s game as the contenders performed without superstar help and in Josh’s case, without any help at all. Just a lone man on stage, the Ohioan took out his guitar and gave a soulful rendition of “At Last.”

“This is what we call the $5 million song,” Simon said. “This is the song that’s gonna determine your fate… and what I liked about it was it was all about you, what we liked about it in the first place. This is gonna be a very, very close call tonight, I can feel that.”

Chris tugged at heart strings when he performed the song he did at his audition – his own composition – “Young Homie.”

Giving his all on stage alongside dancers and spruced up musical accompaniment, the young man was in his element and he was moved to tears by the end.

“You are magic!” Paula Abdul screamed. “You are the consummate singer/songwriter, performer… You make everyone fall in love with you.”

Melanie, then took to the stage for her final number – Beyonce’s “Listen,” complete with a choir and vocal runs that showed her true musical prowess.

“That is the Melanie I love,” L.A. said. “That wasn’t a $5 million performance, that was a $50 million performance.”

Simon, however, went one step further, telling Melanie she was the reason he imported his foreign reality competition stateside, and, perhaps, putting her in the lead.

“I brought this show to America because some of the greatest singers in this world are from this country, and you just proved that,” he said. “You, based on that performance tonight, you should be the winner of ‘The X Factor,’ because you’re gonna represent this country all over the world.”

“The X Factor” crowns a winner on Thursday night at 8 PM ET/PT on FOX.


News By:


accesshollywood.com

LOS ANGELES, CALIF. -- Amid stories surrounding the Kobe Bryant divorce, a new name emerged – Carla DiBello, who some reports suggested may have been romantically linked to the NBA superstar during his marriage to wife Vanessa.

On Tuesday morning, it appeared DiBello was speaking out about her relationship with Kobe, in a statement that confirmed the two were close friends, but nothing more.

However, now a rep for DiBello tells Access Hollywood that DiBello never issued any such statement linking herself to the NBA star.

As previously reported on AccessHollywood.com, Kobe’s wife, Vanessa, filed for divorce from the Lakers star on December 16, after 10 years of marriage.

In her filing, Vanessa cited “irreconcilable differences.”


News By:

accesshollywood.com

LOS ANGELES, CALIF. -- With Kim, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian, Kendall Jenner has three sisters to offer up advice on everything from guys to her career – but which one’s blunt honesty can sometimes come off as a little “mean”?

“I don’t have a favorite, I love them all!” Kendall told Billy Bush and Kit Hoover on Monday’s Access Hollywood Live.

So, who does the 16-year-old Kendall and younger sister Kylie, 14, go to when they need guidance on dating?

“It’s so hard right now. Sometimes, we go to Kim, but then when we go to Kim, Khloe is like, ‘Why are you going to Kim? Like, I have the husband!’” Kendall said with a laugh.

Kendall explained to Billy and Kit that Kim is the sister she looks to for guidance on her career as a model, but what about help with friends?

“I would say Kourtney, but sometimes Kourtney, she’s just like, she doesn’t care, so she could be like mean about things,” she explained.

As for Khloe, she “just gives good advice about everything,” the young reality star told Billy and Kit.


News By:


accesshollywood.com

Progressive advocacy group, the Courage Campaign, may have found a way for Kim Kardashian to gain some fans after the backlash of her quickie divorce from Kris Humphries. It’s asking the reality star to pay more taxes.

"Surprisingly, [Kim] pays only one percentage point more in taxes than the average Californian, 9.3 percent," the organization says according to AdWeek.

The campaign asks Kardashian to support the Millionaires Tax, a California ballot measure that asks state residents who make more than $1 million a year to pay more in taxes to make up for state budget cuts, including ones to education, children and senior services, and road and bridge repairs.

The Courage Campaign goes on to point out that Kardashian "proudly boasts three separate closets for shoes, including one of her favorites, a pair of $2,500 Christian Louboutin lace and python booties," and could stand to pay a little more to relieve the state’s budget shortfall.

I have to say that the fact that she only pays 1% more in taxes than the average Californian who makes $47,000 a year is a winning argument for me. But, will Kim think so?

If you think Kardashian should support the Millionaires Tax, visit TaxKimK.com.


News By:

hollywoodreporter.com

WEST NEWBURY — It's the season of giving and Pentucket Regional High School Visual Arts Teacher Marcia Nadeau-Tanner and her Senior Studio and AP Studio art students are offering a unique gift to residents in the Pentucket communities.

As part of a new graphic design unit developed by Tanner this year, the students are seeking to create visual designs for residents' marketing or advertising needs. There is no charge for the service.

Under the supervision of Tanner, students will work with clients to design a marketing piece. Clients will receive both a hard copy of the final design and a "print-ready" electronic file.

Requests for the design services have already been submitted by the Pentucket Music Department, Boys Soccer Team, the Pentucket Fine and Performing Arts Foundation, Pentucket Education Foundation and High School Community Service coordinator.

Tanner explained that creating authentic learning experiences for students is in keeping with teaching children 21st Century Skills, a focus for the Pentucket Regional School District.

"Authentic leaning experiences require collaboration between school and community. The benefit of having students work and learn in real-life situations creates a powerful connection for engaged student learning," Tanner said.


News By:

newburyportnews.com

The phrase "Go West Young Man" has lent itself to the English language for the past 160 years. But Education Secretary Michael Gove appears likely to ignore that advice as he looks to all parts east for inspiration on improving school standards in the UK.

He will today publish evidence from his independent review body on the national curriculum comparing the English system with the rest of the world. Mr Gove is aiming to make use other effective methods to provide what his officials call a "gold standard" curriculum here.

The report, by Tim Oates, director of research at Cambridge Assessment, will highlight places like Singapore and Hong Kong, which are at the top of international league tables. Singapore, for instance, insists its pupils learn their times tables by the age of nine – while Hong Kong teaches pupils about animal and plant cells by the age of 10 in science lessons instead of having to wait until secondary school. And the report does not just look to the Far East for inspiration – parts of Eastern Europe features in the list of countries to be marvelled at, too. Poland puts greater emphasis on classic books on its reading list for literature – the work of Homer and Sophocles as opposed to the three most popular books in GCSE exams, Of Mice and Men, Lord of the Flies and To Kill a Mockingbird. A glance at the international league tables for reading and maths standards shows evidence Mr Gove could cast his eye over other eastern countries, too.

The last Pisa (Programme for International Student Assessment) study in 2009 is topped by Shanghai, the first time China had entered schools for the survey. In Shanghai, pupils spend less time in extra-curricular activities such as sport, concentrating instead on preparing themselves for exams in the basics.

Then there is Finland. It has no league tables or targets; it instead relies on its teachers to prepare their lessons. Teaching there is the most sought-after career in the country.

But any attempt to "easternise" the curriculum over here is likely to have its opponents. "There are advantages to using international comparison data and it is right to view the curriculum in an international context but this must be put into perspective," said Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders. "We know the danger of putting too much stock in cherry-picked international statistics that do not factor in cultural context. The national curriculum must be right for pupils in this country, not a 'me-too' model based on what is done elsewhere."

A second part of Mr Gove's announcement – that the curriculum reforms are being put back for a further year to allow a greater debate on the shape they will take – is being welcomed by secondary heads. "It is encouraging to hear the Department for Education recognise that rushed and poorly debated curriculum change creates chaos for schools by allowing them too little time to prepare," Mr Lightman said.

Mr Gove said his review will be completed by the end of next year – rather than January – and will not be implemented until 2014. This is being interpreted by some as evidence that the review group has not come up with the solutions he would like, including a more traditional 1950s-style curriculum in its first drafts – a claim denied in DfE circles.

Leading by example: What the world can teach Britain

From Shanghai: Top for reading and maths in international league tables. Shanghai schools concentrate less on extra-curricular activities such as sport and spend more time preparing pupils for exams in the core subjects. Critics say we spend too much time on tests but we do try to insist pupils do two hours of physical activity – sport or physical education – a week.

From China generally: Children start formal primary schooling at the age of six or seven (in line with most European countries) instead of aged five as in England. The education budget was also increased by 9 per cent last year, compared with being protected from overall cuts and modest growth of about 1 per cent in England

From Singapore: Children learn their times tables and division in maths by the time they are nine. In England, this is a target for Key Stage Two, which covers seven to 11-year-olds. Secondary school pupils are taught about quadratic equations at 13 instead of 14 as in England.

From Finland: Teaching is the most sought-after profession with 16 candidates for every vacancy on a teacher-training course. All teachers have to have a Master's degree – thus enhancing the status of the profession. In England you can qualify with a third degree pass although Education Secretary Michael Gove is planning to tighten this to just those with 2:2 passes or better.

From Hong Kong: Children in primary schools are taught about plant and animal cells in science lessons at the age of 10 instead of waiting until they start at secondary school, as the system works in England.

From Poland: Reading lists concentrate more on the classics from the likes of Homer, Sophocles and Shakespeare. In GCSE exams, 90 per cent of the answers are based on the same three books – Of Mice and Men, Lord of the Flies and To Kill a Mockingbird. Shakespeare, though, is a compulsory part of the national curriculum.

Bottom of the class: how Britain scores

Reading

1. Shanghai-China 556
2. Korea 539
3. Finland 536
4. Hong-Kong 533
5. Singapore 526
...25. UK 494

 

Maths

1. Shanghai-China 600
2. Singapore 562
3. Hong Kong 555
4. Korea 546
5. Chinese Taipei 543
...28. UK 492


News By:

independent.co.uk

FLOWERS, balloons and messages have been left outside Hythe Bay Primary in memory of an "inspirational" teacher who died suddenly last Friday.

Pupils, parents and colleagues created a colourful display in tribute to Year 2 teacher Marion Broom, who lived in Palmarsh and had worked at the school for 18 years, on Monday.

Head Carolyn Chivers said: "Everyone will tell you what a great colleague Marion was. She had a wicked sense of humour and loved to party – we have all agreed to put on our biggest, "blingiest" jewellery at the staff Christmas party next week in her honour.

"But there was another side to Marion – the caring colleague who mentored the new teachers in this school like a mother, would help anyone with anything and was never afraid of hard work."

Mother-of-two Mrs Broom, who was in her 40s, started as a cleaner at Hythe Bay and became a dinner lady, but her "talents were spotted" and she became a teaching assistant. She then studied for her GCSEs, A levels and a degree to qualify as a teacher. She was studying for a master's degree in education.

Mrs Chivers said: "If your child was ever taught by Marion, you will know she was able to get the best from any child, achieving the highest standards with the children in her classes. She had exceptional skills with our more vulnerable children, her patience and understanding ensured that she would always go that extra mile for them.

"Parents and carers loved her. She was never afraid to say it like it was, but in a kind and professional way of course. She understood the traumas of family life and would always lend a sympathetic ear to those who needed it. After her own family, the children and families at Hythe Bay were Marion's life.

"Len, her husband, was the real love of Marion's life. Our thoughts and prayers are with Len and the boys at this very sad time and, although we will all miss her more than words can say, the memories we all have of her will always make us smile.

A Facebook tribute page had gathered more than 100 fans by Tuesday. One, Claire McIllroy, wrote: "To this day, I have never found anyone who has been able to make me laugh as much as Marion did, or met anyone as wonderful, kind and truly inspirational. I consider myself incredibly lucky to have worked alongside Marion, in fact truly privileged! My thoughts are with Marion's family and everyone at Hythe Bay."

The creator of the page, RIP Marion Broom, wrote: "Thank you everyone for the wonderful display of love that was at the school this morning. I'm sure she will be looking down with a tear in her eye."


News By:

thisiskent.co.uk

IT is hardly surprising that so many pupils are leaving secondary school lacking literacy and numeracy skills when so many primary schools are failing to equip children for secondary school in the first place.

According to the latest primary-school league tables, more than 1,300 schools across the country are missing targets for pupils mastering the basics. Meanwhile, to this region’s shame, Hull and Wakefield are among the very worst performing areas in England, with Rotherham and North Lincolnshire not far behind, based on 11-year-olds’ performances in English and maths Sats tests.

This means that one in 10 boys is leaving primary school with the reading age of a seven-year-old, while one in 14 has the writing age of a seven-year-old. And with secondary schools already having enough on their hands without correcting the faults that primaries should have put right, the result is far too many teenagers leaving school still deficient in English and maths and therefore struggling at university or failing to find a job.

Indeed, the consequences reach even further. For, as Morrisons announced last week, many recruits even lack basic social skills such as turning up on time and making eye contact. Yet it is hardly surprising that, if children are not taught to read and write properly, they lack the self-confidence necessary for all kinds of simple social interaction.

This is a damning indictment of the education system and of primary schools in particular. And while education in itself cannot be relied upon to solve the problems of the troubled families identified by the Government yesterday in the wake of the summer riots, it has to form a large part of that solution. For if teaching is more effective, it becomes more attractive, and a child who feels he is learning and making progress has less incentive to skip school, roam the streets and look for trouble.

There are, of course, many excellent primary schools with top-quality teachers and the results to show for it. But far too many are failing in their basic functions and the cost of that failure is becoming too much for society to bear.


News By:

yorkshirepost.co.uk

The 2012 UK Life Science Industry Leaders Survey* highlights a concern that the UK is losing its position as a center for global R&D. Nick Stephens, chief executive of executive search organization RSA, presents results from the survey and draws out some themes that are relevant to the industry as a whole.

These are challenging times for the UK life sciences industry as it copes with a host of issues. Some of these are impacting the industry worldwide and others, such as the reorganization of the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) and the introduction of new commercial arrangements, are specific to the UK.

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Recurring throughout the report is a palpable concern that the UK could lose its position as a center for global pharmaceutical research and development. There is a belief that government could be doing more to support the industry, as this extract from the “Wave a Magic Wand” section of the survey suggests:

“Put a big flag on the cliffs of Dover and say the UK is open for business and welcomes world-class clinical research back to our shores. Get all the NHS Trust CEOs in a room and tell them that their jobs are on the line unless they get fully square behind the NHS, supporting and embracing research. Make rates of corporate tax and tax credits the envy on research the envy of the world.”

The survey is now an annual feature of the UK Life Sciences sector, so it is interesting to look back and see how, if at all, things have changed over the last 12 months. In 2010 the three key messages from life science leaders were:

• The UK is not competing effectively in the global marketplace
• Create the right environment for growing early phase, smaller companies
• Make the most of the NHS and a talent for innovation and discovery

2010 also highlighted four key issues: the cost of operating in the UK, reorganization of the NHS, regulatory burdens, and fiscal and tax incentives to enable small companies to grow.

Some targeted support for R&D

The government has made progress on this last point in terms of providing some targeted support for R&D. Foremost amongst these is the Patent Box scheme, which applies a 10% corporation tax rate to profits derived from all active patents from April 2013. This does give an incentive for companies in the UK "to retain and commercialize existing patents and to develop new innovative patented products."

There have also been new tax credits for R&D, whereby a company can set tax against National Insurance contributions and income tax. This is ideal for small biotechnology companies which tend not to make profits but instead innovate toward acquisition by larger companies. Another positive sign has been the £800 million ($1.25 billion) invested in the National Institute for Healthcare Research.

These rays of sunshine in an otherwise overcast economy have done little to raise the spirits of UK life science leaders. In 2010, 60% were optimistic about the government’s engagement with and support for the industry, but in the space of 12 months, half of these lost faith. Now just one in three general managers has a positive outlook; and this amongst a group that tends to exude a positive attitude no matter what the challenge.

Gauging value of new therapies

Further into the survey, the causes for concern become more concrete. Payer evidence mechanisms - gauging the value of new therapies across a range of criteria - are becoming an increasingly common feature of health care management and the UK is no exception. This year we polled leaders on the new UK value-based pricing system and the results were not positive. Three out of five felt that it would reduce market access (and therefore patient access to novel drugs). Over half felt that it would cause the UK to fall behind as an early launch market; 70% felt it would delay launches in the UK and 40%, that it would reduce return on investment.

The reorganization of the NHS and the associated changes to the model of engagement is a major issue in the UK because during the periods of change everything grinds to a halt. It exacerbates an already difficult situation where multiple “hurdles” limit patient access to novel and effective medicines. It’s a far cry from the days when a representative sat down and talked to a doctor who would then decide whether to prescribe a particular drug.

When it came to suggesting solutions for some of the current challenges, respondents highlighted the need for flexibility (organizations and process) and innovation. Central to this is the current enthusiasm for “open innovation” with external partners - for example R&D scientists in universities, small biotech companies, even competitors - to achieve new therapies and medicines.

Fears on off-shoring

In the UK’s preclinical R&D, there were concerns about off-shoring (90%), the cost of pre-clinical research (74%) and increasing regulation (64%). In clinical research and regulatory affairs, concerns center on the impact of NHS changes (90%), the cost and speed of clinical trials in the UK (81%), and increasing regulatory burden (68%).

The real concern for the UK pharmaceutical business is that business will go offshore. Pfizer’s decision to move its anti-infectives business to Shanghai (though recent changes in China may indicate a silver lining) was proof that the alarm bells were for real. Moving to emerging markets may no longer give huge cost-savings but it remains a very real threat to the UK

The general message from the survey is that the UK is doing itself few favors when it comes to making itself an attractive place to undertake clinical trials.

The UK is still the biggest and most appropriate current set up for research and development but it is going to have to do a lot more if it is to retain this position. Central to this is the alignment of the health care sector, regulatory environments and educations systems, to deliver positive outcomes for both patients and the industry. If the UK doesn’t do this, there are others that will. And it will be their patients and economy that benefit, Mr Stephens concludes.


News By:

thepharmaletter.com

During the recent salmon virus scare, there has been a concerted effort by activists seeking to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt about B.C.'s aquaculture industry using a combination of half-truths and illogical claims.

But they are wrong. Just recently both the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) released statements in which they made it clear that using all accepted scientific methods available to them, they were unable to confirm the presence of the ISA virus in any samples tested.

The activist community claims the CFIA and DFO have worked together in an effort to cover up the presence of a virus which would have far reaching and devastating effects on wild salmon.

But to the scientific community this shows there is no virus. It could not be identified, and it could not be replicated in cell culture - a crucial part of the scientific process when it comes to testing for viruses.

Testing for viruses is something the CFIA takes seriously, does often and does well. Being responsible for the food safety of the entire country means that regardless of the industry involved they are able to enact measures when responding to a reportable virus.

If you consider the BSE (MadCow) and Avian Flu incidents you see that when drastic measures are needed, they are taken. But they have to be based on sound science.

In B.C., regular testing and high survival rates prove our fish are free of ISA, and our methodology and quality of sampling have been recognized as good science by some of Canada's top labs.

While it is true that the ISA virus can be deadly to farmed Atlantic salmon, the same has never been shown for Pacific species. The fear of mutation and potential devastation of wild stocks is unfounded, illogical and pure speculation.

And the thought that farmed B.C. salmon could be the only source of such a virus conveniently ignores over eight million Atlantics released into B.C. waters since 1905 in attempts to enhance sportfishing opportunities, and the fact that the first Atlantic salmon farm was located in Puget Sound nearly 15 years before Atlantics were farmed in B.C.

Finally, if there is a government conspiracy with aquaculture, why have we been hindered by excessive red-tape, government foot-dragging and endless buck-passing in our efforts to manage and grow our operations sustainably, using the best science and technology available?


News By:

canada.com

Sixth-grade students shuffled from room to room at St. John of the Cross Catholic School on Tuesday to learn various aspects of biomedical engineering.

This is the second year students will work to solve a human need while they explore advanced sciences and health issues.

Students from St. John, Our Lady of the Lake and Sts. Robert and William schools listened to science professionals speak about the value of advanced technology and learned how prosthetics are created.

The presenters told students that inventors are needed, and shared some of the current problems in the industry that would be very valuable to solve.

Tracy Davis, a Euclid public schools teacher and enrichment teacher at St. John, said she wants to highlight the importance of higher math and science.

“We’re trying to get people to realize that unless you up the ante in terms of math and science, you’re not going to get those high-paying jobs. (Euclid) is a hotbed of biomedical engineering technology and many of the people are coming in from the outside to get these jobs,” she said.

Davis also said it is important for students to be exposed to multiple options early so they can pursue the right education.

“If they can meet the challenge and get excited … and realize in middle school in sixth grade and realize, ‘Oh my goodness if I really like this and I want to do it I’m going to have to do (Advanced Placement) math, I’m going to have to start right now,’ ” she said.

In addition to being exposed to better opportunities in well-paying fields, the students also will have the chance to compete in Akron’s BEST Medicine engineer fair. BEST stands for Bridging Engineering, Science and Technology; and last year, many students from St. John won awards in the competition.


News By:

news-herald.com

Vocational training and engineering and science education are crucial to the future of Cambodia’s youth if the country hopes to capitalise on new agricultural and industrial opportunities, education specialists said yesterday.

A panel of government officials and UNDP, ILO and UNESCO representatives spoke to journalists at Better Factories Cambodia ahead of the nation’s first National Youth Employment forum, which will be held tomorrow and Friday at the capital’s Phnom Penh Hotel.

Seng Sakda, director general of the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training, said it was important to give young people skills relevant to Cambodia’s labour market.

“The education, skills and employment of Cambodia’s young people are critical for the growth of the economy,” he said. “This event will address youth employment before a national employment policy is implemented.”

The forum will bring together UN officials, international policymakers, civil society representatives and youths to discuss youth unemployment, education and skills development, business opportunities and emerging industries.

Tauch Choeun, director general of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, said the government was focused on equipping school students with vocational skills. This was partly a response, he said, to the number of university graduates who were being “mismatched” into employment that did not suit their qualifications due to a lack of jobs in certain fields.

Jose Bendito, economic development policy adviser with UNDP Cambodia, said many young people were seeking white-collar opportunities that Cambodia’s labour market couldn’t offer everyone, while few were given the chance to study engineering and science – disciplines essential to expanding industry.

Another issue, the panelists said, was the importance of creating enough jobs to ensure young people didn’t feel forced to leave the country for work.


News By:

phnompenhpost.com

The teaching of information and computer technology (ICT) is inadequate in a fifth of secondary schools in England, the watchdog Ofsted says.

Inspectors said teachers lacked the expertise and confidence to teach more demanding topics properly.

The report said areas such as databases and programming were poorly taught, with some pupils making more progress outside lessons than in them.

Schools Minister Nick Gibb said ICT teaching was "far too patchy".

Of the 74 secondary schools visited between 2008 and 2011, achievement was good or outstanding in just 27 of the schools, satisfactory in 33 and inadequate in 14.

In 30 of the schools, nearly half of students reached the age of 16 without adequate foundation for further study or training in ICT and related subjects.

Ofsted said in some secondary schools, pupils were being spoon-fed small pieces of learning and there were no opportunities to develop an understanding of programming.

Continue reading the main story

Start Quote

Young people need to be given the opportunity to learn ICT skills in an interesting, challenging and relevant way”

Miriam Rosen

Chief inspector

The report also noted that the numbers of pupils taking ICT at GCSE ICT had plummeted since 2007.

In 2011, 31,800 students sat the examination, compared with 81,100 in 2007 - a reduction of 64%.

However, in England's primary schools the picture was more positive, with teaching judged to be good or outstanding in nearly two-thirds of schools.

Of the 88 primary schools visited, achievement was judged to be outstanding in 11, good in 39, satisfactory in 33 and inadequate in just five.

In the summer, Google chairman Eric Schmidt said education in Britain was holding back the country's chances of success in the digital media economy.

Dr Schmidt said the UK needed to reignite children's passion for science, engineering and maths.

E-safety

Ofsted inspectors also highlighted concerns about children's safety while using the internet.

The report said: "While e-safety had been promoted effectively in all the schools visited as part of the survey, several of them had reported incidents of attempts to contact pupils inappropriately.

"In discussions with inspectors, the issue of underage use of social networking sites arose frequently, underlining the importance of schools continuing to maintain e-safety as a priority for staff training and awareness-raising with parents."

Chief inspector Miriam Rosen said: "In a world that is becoming increasingly reliant on technology, young people need to be given the opportunity to learn ICT skills in an interesting, challenging and relevant way.

"Schools should provide a range of ICT courses that are suitably matched to students' needs, support them with their learning and prepare them for higher education and for skilled work in a technological age."

'Patchy'

Mr Gibb said too many young people were not being equipped with the skills and knowledge they needed for further study and the workplace.

He said: "It's clear that ICT teaching is far too patchy - with outstanding work in some areas but real weaknesses in the quality of courses, curriculum and teacher training in others.

"We want to move away from the over-focus on buying computer hardware, which dates rapidly and towards teaching pupils to be technologically literate and quick to adapt.

"We are looking very carefully at ICT as part of the national curriculum review and have listened closely to the computing industry's calls for more rigorous computer science courses to help tackle the skills shortages facing high-tech industries."


News By:

bbc.co.uk

London - Criminal behaviour can't be blamed on how someone's brain is wired, at least not yet, says a report from British experts who examined how neuroscience is being used in some court cases.

"Having a psychotic brain is not a general defence against a criminal charge," said Nicholas Mackintosh, emeritus professor of experimental psychology at the University of Cambridge, who led the group that produced the report. "There's no such thing as a gene for violence."

The report was done by the Royal Society, the world's oldest scientific academy. The document is part of the group's ongoing investigation of the effects of recent advances in neuroscience on various parts of society, including education and the law.

Another report early next year will look at the potential implications of neuroscience on military and security issues.

Useful for parole hearings

After examining the state of neuroscience and how it might apply to the legal system in the UK, the Royal Society concluded it's too soon for the law to be swayed by scientists' understanding of the brain.

Still, brain scans have been cited in an increasing number of cases in the US. The authors of the report said they could one day prove useful for matters like parole hearings when trying to predict whether someone will commit another crime.

The scientists said that while some criminals, such as psychopaths, have different brain structures from most people, these differences aren't enough to release them from being legally responsible for their actions.

Some experts said it was too simplistic to think brain scans could explain human actions.

"When we see a brain image, we want to assume a blob correlates to a complex behaviour," said Carl Senior, a neuroscience expert at Aston University in Birmingham and a spokesperson for the British Psychological Society. Senior was not connected with the Royal Society report.

Other factors to consider

He said many other factors like a person's upbringing and circumstances determined whether a crime was committed - and that a brain scan wouldn't be able to show that.

The report cited data gathered in the US by one expert that suggested the number of cases where neurological or behavioural genetics evidence was used in criminal cases had doubled from about 100 to roughly 200 during the years 2005 to 2009.

That information was reported by Nita Farahany, an associate professor of law at Vanderbilt University's law school.

Mackintosh said most of those cases were for defendants on death row. He said neuroscience has not yet been used in British courts and is rarely used elsewhere.

However, he cited a case in Italy, where a woman was convicted of killing her sister and burning the body, and attempting to kill her parents. Her defence team introduced genetic information showing the defendant had brain abnormalities, arguing that she was mentally ill.

In August, the court cut the woman's sentence from life in prison to 20 years.

Age of criminal responsibility

Mackintosh wouldn't comment on whether he thought that was appropriate, except to say that genetic data and brain scans should only be used in exceptional cases.

He also suggested neuroscience might be helpful in determining things like the age of criminal responsibility, which in England is age 10.

"The science says a 10-year-old brain is still immature and developing," he said, adding that the brain generally isn't fully developed until age 20.

There has long been a debate in the UK about the age of criminal responsibility, provoked in part by the 1993 killing of Liverpool toddler James Bulger by Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, both 10.

In 2001, both were released and given new identities, but Venables was later sent back to a prison hospital.

Senior acknowledged it was tempting to look to neuroscience as a possible explanation of criminal activity but that to do so would be a mistake.

"We just know far too little about brain imaging to draw any conclusions right now," he said. "But let's revisit the situation in a couple of decades and see where the evidence stands."


News By:

news24.com

The UK education system is marred by numerous cases of cheating and breaching the rules, as disclosed by an investigation conducted by The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian. The journalists reported that exam boards “coached” teachers on how to improve their students’ GCSE and A-level results. Our observer Sergei Sayenko has more details.

Undercover Daily Telegraph reporters attended 13 conferences organized by exam boards for teachers whose students were supposed to take different exams. The journalists found that chief examiners routinely informed teachers about future questions, areas of the syllabus that would be assessed and specific words or facts students must use to answer in questions to obtain higher marks.

As it happens, exam panels are competing with one another for attracting a greater number of schools. The exam boards that offer help in obtaining higher grades profit the most, since their exams become the most popular. A total of five such panels are working in Britain.

According to the journalistic inquiry, teachers are paying up to 230 pounds a day to attend seminars where they receive advice that goes far beyond the standard “guidance” and opens exam boards to accusations that they are undermining the purpose of exam syllabuses by encouraging “teaching to the test”.

Given the revelations, Education Secretary Michael Gove has called for a fundamental reform of the exam system and urged an official inquiry into the questionable practice.

The undercover investigation by The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian has produced tangible results. The Welsh Joint Education Committee – WJEC – has confirmed that chief examiners Paul Evans and Paul Barnes have been suspended over the findings. The advice which they gave during the so-called “consultations” was secretly videotaped by The Daily Telegraph reporters.

Both examiners were fired, apparently, in order to teach their colleagues a good lesson. Similar cases of exam cheating have been reported in the UK before, the most recent one involving the University of Wales, the second-largest institute of higher education in the UK founded 120 years ago. The university was abolished in October this year following a series of visa scandals.

This unprecedented measure was meant to draw the line under accusations of visa fraud and lack of control over foreign colleges accredited by the university to confer its degrees. A BBC inquiry revealed that foreign students paid money to obtain the answers to graduation exam questions. That enabled them to seek MBAs and apply for work visas. The effectively functioning scheme also spared the students the need to do a substantial part of academic work.

Judging by the recent scandals, the British education system, which used to be one of the world’s best just recently, is plagued by corruption. Some experts put the blame for it on the British authorities. The government of David Cameron has been taking measures to contain an influx of foreign students, on the one hand, and has been raising tuition fees at UK universities, on the other. As a result, many gifted citizens of the UK are shut out of higher education institutions and the British universities are open only for the wealthy.


News By:

english.ruvr.ru

One of the positive developments in East Africa during the last two decades has been the enormous demand for higher education which has led to the mushrooming of universities and other institutions of higher learning in the region.

According to Ambassador Yeko Acato, Secretary to the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE), they have so far registered five public and 27 private universities in Uganda. Makerere University is the oldest and most prestigious University in Eastern Africa.

When I graduated in 1970, there was only one university in the entire East African region and it was appropriately called, the University Of East Africa. The Class of 1970 was the last of the University of East Africa which had three constituent Colleges, namely Makerere University College, University of Nairobi and the University of Dar es Salaam.

Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere, an alumnus of Makerere, was the one and only Chancellor of the University Of East Africa. Some prominent East Africans who are alumni of Makerere include President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya and former President Ben Mkapa of Tanzania. The entire university community of Makerere in 1970, including students, teaching staff and support staff was about 10,000, at most.

I am advised that today the student population of Makerere University, Kampala is at least 40,000 and counting. The population explosion at Makerere is both an opportunity and a challenge. Good, because it has opened the doors to a large number of people who are yearning for higher education for various reasons. Bad, because the quantitative success achieved at Makerere has been at the expense of academic excellence.

As Makerere expanded, the quality of education and the high academic standards which hitherto made the institution famous declined, quite drastically at one stage. In 1999, I expressed, in writing as an Old Makererean, my deep concern to then Vice Chancellor, Prof. John Ssebwufu, about the trend towards the commercialisation of Makerere. I copied my letter to Prof. Kayanja, Vice Chancellor of Mbarara University of Science & Technology (MUST) and Mr F. X. Lubanga, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education.

Prof. Kayanja agreed entirely with me while Prof. Ssebwufu argued that he was compelled by lack of resources to introduce private sponsorship of students. It, however, gives me pleasure to note that Makerere's academic standards are once again on the rise. Makerere of the 1960s had much better living conditions for both students and teaching staff.

Strikes by teaching staff were unheard of. Despite the relative decline in academic standards, the primary role and purpose of university education at Makerere and elsewhere in Africa remains the same. The primary role of a good university is not to produce job seekers and job makers. This erroneous assumption is a major root cause of the decline in academic standards. I believe the primary role of a university is to advance the growth of the frontiers of knowledge and understanding of our environment in all aspects.

In this regard, I recall an event which took place at the end of a week-long "Fresher's conference" in June 1967, when the Principal of Makerere University College, Prof. Y.K. Lule, administered an oath to all "Fresh Men and Women" at the Main Hall, followed by a reception. The oath we took was, in a nutshell, to seek the truth and nothing, but the truth; not to search for or create jobs. I have since then been owed by that oath.

The search for the truth, which contributes to the growth of knowledge, remains one of my primary goals in life. It is, therefore, regrettable that Makerere stopped that important practice. I believe our young people must be inspired and encouraged to pursue higher education and learning, first and foremost, to acquire knowledge for its intrinsic value because knowledge is power.

One of the primary objectives and ends of good education is, in fact, to develop and nurture a questioning and inquisitive mind; to be skeptical about easy promises and quick-fix type of solutions and to apply the lessons of history or past experience creatively.

Getting a good job is certainly important for survival, but that does not make job search the primary objective for going to school, especially for going to study at a university. If one looks around, most of the wealthy people in Uganda and Africa are not university graduates. I should like to express the hope that Makerere will, once again, focus on its historical and core role, which is to contribute to the advancement of the frontiers of knowledge by means of original research and sound teaching, for the benefit of humankind.


News By:

allafrica.com

In a role reversal of who’s grading whom, students will play a part in evaluating their teachers for a new state initiative beginning in January.

The Georgia Department of Education is piloting a teacher evaluation system in 26 districts, including Richmond County, to measure how teacher effectiveness affects student achievement.

Richmond County teachers are accustomed to being evaluated in the past from a previous rubric, but the standards now take into account student opinion, student academic growth and how principals rate a teacher’s instruction based on 10 performance standards.

In January, the pilot program will launch in only five Richmond County schools, while all of the district’s teachers will go under the evaluation in the 2012-13 school year.

“It’s going to be a reflective tool,” said Missoura Ashe, the executive director for elementary schools. “If we don’t address ineffective teaching, we’ll never grow.”

The state is introducing the evaluations to fulfill the requirements of the federal Race to the Top grant, from which Georgia received $400 million for school reform. Richmond County will receive about 16 million from the pot.

In the 2013-14 school year, the evaluations will determine performance-based pay for teachers, although its still unclear whether grades will affect salaries or monetary supplements, according to Race to the Top communications director Jon Rogers.

Rogers said the evaluation system will be more specific than what most districts now use, so that instruction methods can be fully scrutinized and improved.

“Currently, teachers are labeled either satisfactory or unsatisfactory, so I think everyone agrees the system has to be improved,” Rogers said. “We want to provide more constructive feedback for teachers and principals to say ‘Hey, this is where they’re doing great, this is where they need to improve.’ ”

In classes and grades that have standardized testing, like math and reading, teachers will be graded on their students’ growth and achievement gap reduction on those tests. For subjects like chorus that are not state tested, schools will design pre- and -post tests to measure student growth, Ashe said.

In their opinion surveys, students will anonymously grade their teachers on areas such as how much they know about the subject and how well they communicate. For lower grades, pupils will address questions like “My teacher explains things so I can understand” with smiley or sad faces. The higher grades will answer questions on a five-point agree to disagree scale, which might give teachers a brand-new outlook on how they are perceived by students.

“Students are in the classroom, so who’s better to talk about the teacher’s practices than them?” Ashe said. “Teachers will really be able to reflect, and say ‘Wow, I didn’t know my students thought that way.’ ”

For the principals’ evaluation piece, the administrators will observe teachers twice over the year for 30 minutes each. They will use a rubric of 10 standards, ranging from how well they communicate to their instruction strategies.

Jamie McCord, the principal at Jamestown Elementary School, said teachers are not afraid of the evaluations because it will give them direction on how to grow.

Although being under the microscope is stressful, McCord said her teachers have gotten used to the old methods of evaluation and many see it as a way to become better for their students.

“We want to be excellent in everything, so if I have excellent teachers my students are going to be excellent,” McCord said.

Jamestown is one of the five pilot schools to test the evaluations along with Glenn Hills Middle, Morgan Road Middle, C.T. Walker Traditional Magnet and Academy of Richmond County. The schools, like all the pilot schools in the 26 districts, were chosen at random by the state.

Despite the benefits, evaluations often spark intense debate among educators for their accuracy and fairness. Race to the Top teacher-lead adviser Katherine Wood, whose job is to give a teachers’ opinion amid Race to the Top implementation, said the evaluations still give important insight.

“The more perspective on a teacher that we can get, the better,” Wood said. “To have student perception, to have the observations and for the student growth to be taken into account, it paints a bigger picture.”


News By:

chronicle.augusta.com

THE HIGHER TEACHER TRAINING COLLEGE YAOUNDE HAS GRADUATED ITS 50TH BATCH OF LAUREATES.

The graduation ceremony was presided over by the Minister of Higher Education, Jacque Fame Ndongo during a ceremony which took place at the Multi Purpose sports complex in Yaounde.

The laureates of the 50th batch of the Higher Teacher Training College, ENS, expressed their determination to contribute in moving the country forward by knowledge sharing.

Prof. Jacques Fame challenges the laureates to take advantage of the New Information and Communication Technologies to enhance pedagogic innovation and be identified as heroes and heroines.

He said “Your batch is peculiar; 50 years of maturity, experience and know-how. I therefore urge you to remain important actors as the country works towards becoming an emerging one by 2035.”

For the first time in fifty years, laureates specialized in Cameroon’s national languages and culture also graduated.

The 37 graduates and the head of the department, Zachée Denis Bitja’a Kody, said they will foster national unity and promote cultural diversity through the teaching of national languages.


News By:

crtv.cm

Spending on Executive Education declined rapidly in many markets in 2009, with business schools often reporting cuts of 20%-30%. However, a new international report, Executive Education Futures, found that just under 60% of purchasers believe spending will grow in the next 24 months.

Although total spend is important, corporate purchasers are focusing on value, often seeking to do more for less. However, value is judged not just on financial measures, but also quality of teaching, fit with the provider and impact.

CarringtonCrisp, who carried out the study, ran an online survey of both those studying and purchasing executive education, and carried out one-to-one interviews with firms currently using executive education programmes. Respondents were drawn from 51 countries.

Demand for executive education is greatest in the fields of strategy, general management and leadership. Least popular are enterprise and business growth and logistics and supply chain management. Key to a successful programme was a connection between teaching and real business issues. Academics with relevant and recent consultancy experience command a premium. One respondent commenting: There is always a risk of tutors not having enough direct business experience to help participants apply academic models to their daily business.

For those studying, cost is not the key to choice of provider, although one student said: Everything about the course was good just thought it was a little bit expensive i.e. felt like we were paying for the facility and not the programme.

While more than half of individuals carefully compare the cost of programmes before deciding where to study and say that value for money is more important than the actual cost of the programme, less than 10% will choose the lowest cost study option. Among corporate interviewees choice of provider is more about the fit with a particular company, understanding the culture and personal relationships, than it is about cost. An employer said: The academics wanted to showcase their tools and models, rather than understand the business and speak their companys language.

Cost may not be key for individuals, but the reputation of the business school/provider is very important. Twice as many individuals (50%) ranked Reputation of the business school/provider as Most Important when choosing where to study compared with any other option.

But where does reputation come from? Other aspects rated as important in making choices include course content, value for money, quality of teaching, personal recommendation and FT rankings of the business school as a whole and specifically its executive education services. Some corporates also reported that they find a number of the second tier business schools more flexible in meeting employers needs; there can be a trade-off between having academic stars deliver a programme and the ease of dealing with particular providers. Employers also dont want to pay bespoke prices and then feel that they are being offered something off the shelf. Several employers commented that some schools spend more time telling them they cant do what the employer wants and trying to shoe-horn them into something else, than trying to meet the purchasers needs.

Measuring the success of programmes will always be tricky. Individuals suggest that nearly 80% have a successful or very successful experience. However, just over a quarter of participants colleagues are keen to learn from them on their return to work.

Many employers use coaching to enhance the value of learning. Coaching can help embed knowledge, along with alumni programmes and tools such as Linkedin. Finding a way to sustain the impact and measure the growth of an individual and benefit to the business would be very valuable for many employers. Increasingly, one of the main requirements of purchasers is a greater focus on personalised learning plans.

Whatever terms are used, the focus for employers in the future will be to drive greater value for money from their spending on executive education. For some this will simply be expressed in money terms, for others as a better connection between content and work and for a further group it will mean being able to show a clearer, demonstrable impact upon staff performance on their return to work.


News By:

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

London, 7 December 2011 – IP&TV World Forum, the world’s leading connected entertainment event, is set to be the best yet in 2012 following the announcement of keynote speakers from MTV, NBC Universal and Sony Network Entertainment. Focussing on the rapidly converging TV market, next year’s event will unite global players in the broadcast arena to provide unrivalled insight into the IP & Connected TV industry.

Now in its eighth year, the conference and exhibition will take place at London’s Olympia on 20 -22 March. It will provide international networking opportunities with service providers and broadcasters from varied platform backgrounds – Smart TV, OTT, cable, satellite and terrestrial TV – to compare experiences and brainstorm solutions for delivering multiscreen and multiplatform services.

The focus on connected entertainment and utilising social TV will be echoed by Kristin Frank, General Manager of MTV and VH1 Digital, who will give a keynote speech on the first day of the event. Frank, who is one of the world’s biggest innovators in broadcasting, comments: “Social media and second screen platforms are providing TV networks with new tools in the development of transmedia storytelling that will ultimately drive greater engagement and advertiser benefit.”

Gavin Whitechurch, Director of IP&TV World Forum, says: “This is an exciting time in connected entertainment, as OTT is now so pervasive and compelling that all service providers are seeking to harness over the top to enhance on-demand offerings, and IP connectivity to add new value to their services. The developed focus for 2012’s IP&TV World Forum reflects the evolving marketplace and will give delegates invaluable insight into new industry trends while giving them the opportunity to connect with peers and potential customers.”

Extending the topic of social TV and refining the relationship between audiences and content, Jesse Redniss, Vice President of Digital Strategy and Development at NBC Universal, will provide a talk on taking consumer engagement to the next level through gamification. Redniss drives the strategy in the digital sphere at NBC and has spearheaded gamification in broadcast, producing high quality games to promote the brand.

“The convergence between social, broadcasting and gamification is huge. I look forward to discussing this,” adds Redniss.

Also confirmed to deliver a keynote is Shawn Layden, Chief Operating Officer at Sony Network Entertainment, who will cover the subject of delivering compelling consumer services to multiple devices by leveraging the cloud. Layden reveals: “As digital entertainment extends from the living room and the laptop to everywhere people wish to enjoy it, the digital marketplace is transforming and the convergence of content, technology, services and the experience is the crucial nexus. We believe Sony is well positioned across this volatile landscape to play a leadership role in defining this new convergence and we look forward to sharing those views with the members of the IP&TV World Forum.”

IP&TV World Forum boasts a unique, innovative and case study driven programme featuring over 280 speakers, which is divided into four tracks focused on content business: IP opportunities, multiscreen entertainment, new user experience management and networks and architecture for TV. With more than 7,000 attendees and over 200 exhibitors expected to attend, the three day show is already set to be a huge success.


News By:

itwire.com

Africa has been slow to tap investment through the U.N.'s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) carbon offset programme and stands to lose the most should talks to broker a continuation of the emission-reduction pact fall through.

Africa accounts for only two percent, or 76 of the 3,612 projects registered under the CDM programme, which lets firms in rich nations offset their climate-warming emissions by investing in emissions-reduction projects in the developing world.

"The balance sheet so far for Africa has not been a happy one with the CDM, but we should not discount the fact that actually quite a lot of money and projects have entered that pipeline but they have gone to other countries," said Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environmental Programme in Nairobi, Reuters reports.

Under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, industrialised nations were legally bound to cut greenhouse gas emissions as the world faces rising sea levels and greater weather extremes.

Delegates from over 190 nations are meeting in the South African port city of Durban to discuss a new global deal to replace the Kyoto pact when the first commitment period on tackling climate change expires at the end of 2012.

Critics say the process of registering CDM projects is arduous, expensive and too complex for many African firms, though others argue the pipeline of projects seeking registration is growing.

"In the last 18 months or so (we have seen) a significant growth in CDM projects and a growth in capability of technical advisers and financial advisors to assist in these projects," said Karin Ireton, Director Sustainability at Africa's biggest banking group Standard Bank.

"We could see a much greater investment in cleaner technology projects in Africa if we manage to get a second commitment period or a transitional arrangement," Ireton said.

Without a future commitment under Kyoto to cut emissions beyond the end of 2012 when the first phase expires, there will be no demand for carbon credits or offsetting.

The meagre number of projects is also due to the fact that most poor African countries do not have many polluting industries, putting the continent at a disadvantage.

CDM A FAILURE?

Most profitable CDM projects have been those destroying industrial gases HFC-23 and N20 at adipic acid plants and the only sub-Saharan country to list such schemes is South Africa.

Africa's largest registered project eliminates gas flaring at the Pan Ocean oil field in Nigeria, effectively blocking more than 2.6 million metric tonnes carbon dioxide being emitted annually. The second biggest is a similar project at Nigeria's Kwale field, hindering about 1.5 million tonnes of emissions.

Other projects in Africa are much smaller, mainly tapping gases at landfills and using them to generate electricity.

"Due to an absence of heavy industry, it is hard to generate emission reductions with classic types of CDM projects. For example, with a green grid adding more hydroelectricity resource generates very few emission reductions," said Paul Soffe, associate director at project developer EcoSecurities.

Investors are concerned about the future of Kyoto, slowing global growth prospects, record CDM credit issuance this year and stricter limits for using credits in the European Union's emissions trading scheme after 2012.

The uncertainty has already had a knock-on effect on the CDM market, pushing primary investment down to $1.5 billion in 2010 from $2.7 billion in 2009 and $6.5 billion in 2008.

Benchmark U.N. carbon credits have also been hit and were trading at 4.92 euros as of 1232 GMT, just shy of the 4.53 euros on November 28.

But some critics say the scheme has never produced the gains that its proponents claimed.

"It (CDM) is a failure. What has it done. It was actually a distraction to delay action. Can you tell me what it has really achieved in Africa? Nothing," said Mithika Mwenda, coordinator for Pan African Climate Justice Alliance.

"Even if we turn the whole of Africa into forest, without addressing this problem where emissions are being produced, then I don't think we are going to do anything. We need action which is not happening there."


News By:

defenceweb.co.za

The conventional wisdom used to be that if you allowed children to speak French at home, they would become confused. It would impede their progress academically and it would ensure that they had a hard time mastering the English language.

Misguided but presumably well-meaning teachers tried to convince generations of French-speaking parents that they did their children a disservice by continuing the French tradition at home. Fortunately, not all of them were convinced. But enough were.

By the 1960s, so many had abandoned the language of their parents and grandparents that it was deemed necessary to form a new organization dedicated to preserving the French language in Louisiana. That organization was the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana.

Better known as CODOFIL, that organization has done much to promote the French language and to reach out to other Francophone areas of the world.

One of CODOFIL's most significant contributions to French education has been the French Immersion programs. Immersion programs have taught children to speak French fluently, rather than to merely conjugate verbs and memorize grammar rules.

But the benefits have gone beyond even that. Today, standardized test scores are showing that bilingual kids are doing better in school than their fellow students who speak only one language. And that's across the board - even in English, which teachers once believed would be adversely affected by also speaking French. But it just makes sense.

There are many words in English that come from Latin. And French is one of the languages that evolved from Latin.

It stands to reason the two languages would share cognates — words that sound the same and roughly mean the same.

If you know the French word, you may well be able to guess the meaning of an unfamiliar English word just by the way it sounds. Yes, that can be tricky, but it seems to work more often that it doesn't. It's also easier to learn another language entirely, especially Latin-based languages like Spanish or Italian, if you speak French.

Another benefit has been that kids in immersion programs are exposed to the cultures of their teachers, who come from around the world. This is good. But it's also true that students need to be exposed to and help preserve the French language of Louisiana.

There are precious few native Cajun and Creole French speakers who enter the French Immersion program as teachers.

CODOFIL now has announced a plan to recruit education majors to get their degrees in France with the purpose of coming back and teaching in French Immersion programs.

This would be good news, if the plan comes to fruition. But it is to be hoped that part of the plan is to preserve the French of Louisiana, rather than to replace it with standard French.

There are so many words and phrases that give Louisiana French, in all its varied forms, its color and its vibrancy.

It is the verbal expression of a culture and a consciousness.

It would be a shame to lose it.


News By:

dailyworld.com

Saint Leo University students pursuing a degree in biology are now better equipped to tackle some of the world's most pressing problems, from cancer to global warming. The Catholic, liberal arts university opened a renovated biology laboratory with state-of-the-art equipment to prepare bachelors in biology students for scientific trailblazing.

As the first major renovation to the Florida campus' Lewis Hall in over 40 years, the lab has been redesigned to facilitate teamwork and improve communication among students and instructors. Laboratory worktables and benches have been realigned, directing students' attention to the instructor and allowing students to engage more freely with one another.

The addition of several advanced technologies is helping raise the bar on research at Saint Leo. Molecular equipment—such as an RT-PCR machine and a gel imager machine—allows students to examine DNA, RNA and proteins in cancer cells. A large incubator makes it possible for students studying gene expression to grow bacteria cultures and other organisms. A Millipore water purification system provides ultrapure water, so students can prepare culture media without worrying about contamination in lab experiments. A walk-in cold room and a renovated chemical cold storage room provide a stable environment for research.

“The improved lab exposes students to the rich research scenarios they will encounter as scientists,” says Linda Bergen-Losee, M.A., biology instructor and lab director. “The new design allows students to collaborate with professors and peers, conveniently prepare materials for laboratory exercises, and engage with science in a more active way.”

Saint Leo University invested $800,000 in the lab renovations, and is planning to spend a comparable amount to revamp two additional labs in the near future for 1) environmental science and botany, 2) and cell biology and molecular biology.

The renovated biology lab is the first of many enhancements students can enjoy in the coming years at Saint Leo University. The faculty is currently redesigning the bachelors in biology curriculum, with plans to add concentrations in focused areas of biological study.

Located in Central Florida, Saint Leo University offers campus students the opportunity to use the outdoors—nearby beaches, lakes and parks—as an extension of the biology lab. For example, in an introductory marine biology class, students conduct research while canoeing along the Florida coastline. Additionally, botany and ecology classes make use of the campus grotto and neighboring state parks to study local flora and the ecological impact of tourism on mangroves and coastal ecosystems.

Currently, Saint Leo University's traditional liberal arts campus has 230 students pursuing a degree in biology, 25 students pursuing an environmental science degree, and 19 pursuing a medical technology degree. Saint Leo's biology students can complement their major with minors in criminal justice, education, chemistry and engineering. All biology seniors conduct independent research under the mentorship of a faculty member, and may continue onto graduate degrees in medicine, pharmacology, veterinary science and public health.

About Saint Leo University

Saint Leo ranks as one of the top universities in the South, according to U.S. News & World Report's “America's Best Colleges” list. Saint Leo's traditional liberal arts campus, located 30 miles north of Tampa, educates more than 1,900 students. Total enrollment across its campus, regional education centers, and online programs exceeds 15,000. Among the oldest Catholic universities in Florida, Saint Leo is one of the nation's 10 leading providers of higher education to the U.S. military, and is a nationally recognized leader in online education.



News By:

benzinga.com

It’s D-day at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, though hundreds of students and faculty at the 124-year old university won’t know what that means for weeks, if not months.

On Wednesday, Hugh Windsor, appointed by the provincial NDP government, delivered a report on the school’s future viability to his masters at the ministry of labour and advanced education, and the mood around the school in Halifax is less than cheery.

NSCAD University is facing a potentially catastrophic budget shortfall this year of more than $2 million, and speculation on its possible doomsday scenarios run the gamut from being forcibly merged with Dalhousie University to its outright closure. Windsor was given carte blanche in his recommendations — none of which have been made public, said a spokesperson for NSCAD; there is no timeline for its release — which is greater cause for worry.

How NSCAD arrived here is, of course, significant. A thriving international hub of art education since at least the late 60s, when it became a destination for a burgeoning crew of conceptual art superstars like Sol LeWitt, John Baldessari and Lawrence Weiner, the school recently undertook bold steps to expand. Its state-of-the art new campus in the Halifax port region opened in 2007, but it did so with a deficit. Ever since, up to 10 percent of the school’s annual, provincially-allotted budget has gone to debt servicing.

The larger question the NSCAD situation provokes, though, isn’t tied to the specifics of its particular crisis. In a tightening economy, art is typically a first target of public funders looking to shave valuable dollars. Art education, meanwhile, is expensive. Its demands for studio space and specialized equipment run far beyond the norm. So the question in the minds of some in the Nova Scotia provincial government is less whether NSCAD can survive, but whether it — and others like it — should.

“It’s like an engineering school — you’re constantly upgrading technology,” acknowledges Sara Diamond, the president of Toronto’s Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCAD), which fills a similar role here as NSCAD does for the Maritimes. As part of a practical package that folds fine arts education in with bleeding edge design technology, Diamond argues that the benefits of such institutions far outweigh their costs.

“Our students emerge as highly skilled and extremely adaptable,” says Diamond, who chairs an association of schools that includes OCAD, NSCAD, Emily Carr University in Vancouver and the Alberta College of Art and Design University in Calgary. “We hear from employers across all sectors, ‘we need your students. They’ve got the thinking and skills to turn around big problems.’”

John Kissick is the director of the School of Fine Arts and Music at the University of Guelph, which in recent years has become a virtual factory of successful Canadian artists. He suggests that fine arts unto itself is by no means a frill. “I could argue on and on, in terms of the skill sets needed in the marketplace today, that a studio arts education is as good as it gets outside of the professions,” he says.

Kissick is a graduate of the fine arts program of Queen’s University, which is undergoing its own crisis, suspending enrolment for the program for the 2012-2013 school year, though Dean of Arts and Science Alistair MacLean attributes this to the pending retirement of one of the program’s three full-time professors (“I was concerned with admitting new students without being certain we could fulfill course requirements,” he said).

For MacLean any crisis is a broader one. In a tightening funding environment — Ontario schools have been told to expect no funding increases for at least six years — universities chase dollars wherever they can find them. Art programs, he says “can be seen as boutique — they take up lots of space, they have small classes. So if they’re not healthy, they’re vulnerable.”

Then there is the argument that art has become overly-academic, applying unnecessary layers of intellectual rigour to what a broader public might assume to be an intuitive pursuit. Nonetheless, the vast majority of Canada’s best-known contemporary artists are art school graduates: Marcel Dzama, who received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Manitoba, or Jeff Wall, the most prominent of a set of renowned Vancouver photo-conceptual artists, who studied at the Courtauld Institute of the Arts in London in the early ’70s.

Luis Jacob, a Toronto-based artist who has built a significant international career without having gone through an art program, still acknowledges its significance. “An art school is really important for giving young people a community — a set of peers all trying to create their artistic identities together. That’s extremely important,” he said.

For Jacob, who has shown at the Guggenheim Musuem in New York and at the prestigious Documenta exhibition in Europe, the lack of community in his own artistic development left him craving it all the more. “This idea that artists sit alone in a studio and create things and then become successful isn’t true,” he says. “Art is a professional and social milieu, and art schools are a huge part of creating that.”

Diamond argues to not just to maintain that aspect, but augment it. “An art education is very intimate — there are low faculty-student ratios. You get a lot of student engagement in these environments,” she says.

Schools like OCAD have also evolved in recent years to lead cross-disciplinary learning across arts, humanities and sciences that bodes well for a future demanding innovation, she says. “We end up turning out independent, extremely flexible thinkers with interdisciplinary skills who are ready for anything.”


News By:

thestar.com

While the state focused on an approaching freak late-October snowstorm, one that would devastate a large swath of Connecticut's power grid and raise serious questions about reliability and emergency response, a report was quietly released that could have more important long-term implications for the creation and cost of electricity in the state.

There is a certain irony that the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering released its report on Oct. 26. For the next two weeks media attention focused on electricity (or more accurately the lack of it), while the report "Advances in Nuclear Power Technology," went virtually ignored.

It concludes that expansion of nuclear power could provide the best means to meet the state's energy needs in the long term, do so without creating greenhouse gases, and supply needed energy-generation diversity.

If one or more new plants were built, the logical choice would be at Millstone Power Station in Waterford, where Dominion operates two reactors. It has the transmission infrastructure and is located in a region that would not view nuclear power as some alien presence.

Yet the authors of the report also recognize that the impediments are significant. No federal depository is available to accept the highly radioactive waste that is a byproduct of nuclear power. Financing the construction would be difficult. And nuclear power remains unpopular with an ill-informed public.

Academy

Chartered by the state legislature in 1976, the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering is a private nonprofit corporation patterned after the National Academy of Sciences. It advises state government and industry "in the application of science and engineering to the economic and social welfare." It has a reputation for objectivity and its report, requested by the Connecticut Energy Advisory Board, deserves serious consideration.

The report recognizes fuel diversity as critical to stabilizing electricity costs in Connecticut. Almost all power plants built in New England during the past decade use natural gas as their primary fuel. That gas must be imported. It is highly vulnerable to price spikes. Natural gas sets the market price and sets it high for Connecticut.

Connecticut's electricity rates have been the highest in the continental United States since 2007, with a rate now 69 percent higher than the national average, putting the state at a significant disadvantage in trying to keep and attract business and industry.

There are other factors driving the cost. Connecticut's deregulation plan, which required electric companies to sell their plants and buy power on the wholesale market, did not work. States that did not choose that course have lower prices.

Electrical grid congestion and lack of flexibility, particularly in southwestern Connecticut, requires the purchase of more power from less efficient, costly plants. Also adding upward price pressures are environmental regulations that require electric companies to purchase costly renewable resources and discourage coal plants.

The answer is not to ease environmental rules and boost pollution. Renewable sources, such as wind, solar and hydro can contribute, but will not be enough to meet long-term energy needs, the report concludes. The answer may be nuclear power. Over the last 10 years nuclear plants in the U.S. have operated at 90 percent of capacity and are not subject to the cost fluctuations of fossil-fuel plants.

Challenges

But any nuclear expansion plans would face major obstacles, including public opposition. A survey conducted for the academy found only 22 percent of respondents were very favorable or extremely favorable toward nuclear power, 45 percent were not favorable. Yet these opinions may come partly from ignorance, with 48 percent of respondents indicating there were no nuclear power plants in Connecticut or they weren't sure.

More significant was the decision by the Obama administration to abandon plans for a national nuclear waste depository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Sixty-six utilities have successfully sued the U.S. Department of Energy for breaching its contract to accept nuclear waste, with a potential cost to taxpayers exceeding $11 billion. Connecticut law prohibits any new nuclear plants until there is a place to dispose of the waste. State officials must apply pressure on Congress and the president to solve this problem.

Nuclear plants are expensive to build, $4 billion to $5 billion according to the report. To make that feasible would require long-term contracts for the electricity to be generated, assuring a return on investment. Also needed would be economic incentives that recognize the importance of energy diversification and possibly public/private partnerships, concludes the report.

Not being ready to build now has one advantage. Currently, five new-generation nuclear plants are under construction in southern states. Their successful completion and operation could help establish public trust in the technology.

That does not mean Connecticut has the luxury of time. The groundwork for potential nuclear construction in a decade or so should begin now. The state that built the first nuclear-powered submarine should not accept as its fate that high electric rates will forever place it at a competitive disadvantage.


News By:

theday.com

NanoSail-D2, the solar sail satellite deployed in low-Earth orbit, has successfully reentered into the Earth's atmosphere, says NASA.

After analyzing data about its return, NASA has announced that the satellite NanoSail-D2 has reentered the Earth's atmosphere and burned up. Far from being merely the end of its usefulness, NanoSail's reentry was actually the main goal of its mission. Deorbit and reentry occurred on Sept. 17, six months later than initially predicted, and allowed NASA scientists to observe the behavior of small solar sail in low-Earth orbit and during reentry. Engineers hope to use small solar sail technology to control the future reentry of satellites and space debris.

A solar sail is a spacecraft that makes use of sunlight for producing and controlling motion. Although the effect is too small to be observed in daily life, light actually exerts pressure on surfaces. Solar sails consist of a lightweight, reflective material with a high surface-area-to-mass ratio. As light shines on the surface of the sail, its pressure produces a gentle force that, over time, can accelerate a spacecraft to high velocities. Some engineers have speculated that large sails could even provide efficient means for traveling between planets and even to distant stars. NanoSail-D2 tests the technology on small scale, and is aimed at providing a means of bringing defunct satellites safely back to Earth. As both light and the wispy traces of the upper atmosphere produced drag on NanoSail's reflective sails, the spacecraft's orbit slowed and gravity slowly pulled it back down towards the Earth.

NanoSail-D2's early days were fraught with trouble. The original NanoSail-D was destroyed when its launch rocket went off-course and crashed into the Pacific Ocean in August of 2008. The replacement satellite NanoSail-D2 was launched on Nov. 20, 2010, but it too ran into trouble. Although the satellite made it safely to orbit, it failed to jettison from its parent satellite FASTSAT, aboard which NanoSail-D2 was piggybacking. To controllers' surprise, NanoSail unexpectedly ejected on its own from FASTSAT on Jan. 17, and deployed its sails two days later, allowing the mission to begin.

Because of its broad and highly reflective sail, NanoSail made an interesting target for observers of the nighttime sky. NASA and SpaceWeather.com hosted a joint astrophotography competition, challenging amateurs to capture images of NanoSail-D2 as it flashed in the night sky. In addition to generating a wider public interest in the mission, the photographs also gave controllers information about NanoSail's behavior while in low-Earth orbit, where interactions with the dynamic atmosphere made its flight somewhat unpredictable. Winners of the photography contest will be announced next year.

Studying NanoSail's deorbiting and reentry was a main goal of the mission. Engineers hope that in the future small solar sails may be attached to orbiting satellites in order to bring them back to the Earth's surface in a controlled manner at the end of their mission. Defunct satellites and other space debris, such as spent rocket stages, provide a collision threat to functioning satellites and manned spacecraft. NanoSail technology could allow controllers to bring old satellites safely down and out of harm's way.


News By:

digitaljournal.com

TABUK CITY, Kalinga, Dec. 2 (PIA) -- The Division Office here celebrates Education Week, recognizing achievers in Department of Education programs and honoring teachers and DepEd employees who have retired from government service last year.

Schools Division Superintendent Norma Brillantes said the December 5-9 Education Week will be celebrated by the different schools. A separate culmination program will be held on December 20 to be conducted simultaneously with their Christmas break.

This year’s Education Week theme is “K to 12 Basic Education Program: Patuloy sa Tapat na Pagbabago at Pag-unlad.”

According to Brillantes, they will give recognition to outstanding teachers, non-teaching personnel and school managers in the Gulayan sa Paaralan programs and best performers during the Brigada Eskwela.

Awardees, she said, will receive plaque of recognition and the privilege to represent the division of Kalinga in the case of schools that emerged best in the gulayan and brigada eskwela. This aims to inspire every educator to do more for the school children to ensure their good future,” Brillantes said.

Brillantes said they will also honor the 2011 retirees who were dedicated in providing education to the communities.

There will be tree planting within the compound of the division office and establishment of division personnel own gardens, she said.

“The activity reaffirms and emphasizes the role of education in empowering and developing the young to be more productive citizens of the country and responsive to the needs of the times,” Brillantes said.


News By:

pia.gov.ph

THE popular headteacher of Ilfracombe Infants School is retiring at the end of term after devoting 25 years and her entire teaching career to the school.

Christine Thompson joined as a newly qualified teacher in 1986, later spending two years as deputy before serving at its head for the past decade.

She will be handing the reins to deputy head Theresa Hodge, who will be taking over as headteacher in the New Year.

The school has won a stack of honours during her tenure, including currently being ranked as “outstanding” by education inspectors Ofsted, while Key Stage 1 results are rated the second best in the whole of Devon and have remained significantly above national average for the past eight years.

In 2007 Christine was named Primary Headteacher of the Year for the South West at the annual Teaching Awards and shortlisted as a national finalist.

Other accolades included a Gold Artsmark Award as well as a Healthy School Plus and Investors in people awards, while in 2009 it reached the national finals of the Times Educational Supplement primary school of the year awards.

Christine has always remained unfailingly modest about these achievements and told the Gazette: “It’s not about me, it is about the children and what we have achieved for them.

“The Ofsted report was a real ‘wow’ moment. It was about the whole school community, the staff, governors and the support we get from our parents would be very hard to match.

“It has been a privilege to work at Ilfracombe Infants and I have an endless amount of happy memories to keep me going for a long time ahead into retirement.

“I have met and worked with the very best people, dedicated individuals who work tirelessly to meet the needs of our children.”

Christine did not begin teacher training until she was 28 and qualified at the age of 32. She and her husband Garry moved to Ilfracombe from Birmingham and he also taught in the town, working at Ilfracombe junior School until retirement two years ago.

She specialised in creative arts and has always worked to bring that into her teaching and the life of the school.

Her mentor and inspiration at Ilfracombe was previous head Mary Trewin, who passed away in 2005 but left a huge mark on the school and her successor:

“She was the most positive influence over my whole career and I have much to thank her for,” added Christine.

Mary’s drive saw the school win funding in 1998 to refit and extend the old Victorian building and do away with the six much-detested outdoor classrooms it had been forced to use.

“In everything you do, the children come first and in every decision you have to make, they are part of that,” said Christine.

“It has had its highs and lows, its ups and downs, but it has been the best rollercoaster ride ever.”



News By:

northdevongazette.co.uk

THE call for children to experience more practical science in school has been backed by leading figures at the Centre for Life.

A Commons committee report recently warned that students were missing out on the practical studies that could inspire them to take up science.

The Centre for Life runs Europe’s largest practical science workshop programme in the form of Lifelab, and it’s an approach to education that chief executive Linda Conlon considers crucial to bringing through the next generation of scientists.

She said: “Everyone learns best by doing, and children are no exception. The Centre for Life is a science village where real science happens.

“We are able to capture some of that excitement through our education resource, Lifelab, which offers a huge selection of practical workshops and experiments focusing not only on science but also technology, engineering and maths.

“By keeping kids switched on to science and STEM subjects at critical stages in the curriculum, we are able to give them the best possible opportunity to pursue science as a future career.

“We are encouraged the Government agrees that practical lessons, fieldwork and fieldtrips are essential contributors to good quality science education.”

The Commons Science and Technology Select Committee published a report in September calling for measures such as a central resource for information on standard experiments and for exam boards to require courses to include fieldwork.

However, the Government responded yesterday by saying that while practical lessons are “essential contributors to good quality science education... it is not the place of the National Curriculum to prescribe the detail of how teachers should teach science”.

The committee has described the response as hugely disappointing.

Chairman Andrew Miller MP said: “We must make science an exciting subject to study and an obvious route to future employment.

“The Government agrees with this but has failed to show us how it will address the poor practical science experiences of many students.”

Life has seen a quarter of a million North East schoolchildren benefit from Lifelab workshops in the last 10 years, and education and outreach manager Noel Jackson said the aim is to support teachers in providing science experiences that are memorable, enjoyable and of lasting benefit.

Life is currently a partner in the Hands On DNA project, which is looking to give teens the opportunity to use cutting-edge lab equipment and the latest techniques to explore DNA and evolution. The project is run by the UK Association for Science and Discovery Centres, and is supported by the Wellcome Trust.


News By:

nebusiness.co.uk

After a full day of teaching, some 35 educators settled in Wednesday for a three-hour lesson in a room at the Santa Maria-Bonita School District office.

The group of elementary and middle-school teachers sat at tables with others from their school, ready to absorb a lesson aimed at improving student mathematics skills.

Cal Poly Professor Kate Riley took her spot at the front of the make-shift classroom to begin the second of several teacher workshops made possible through a $250,000, one-year grant from the federal Improving Teacher Quality (ITQ) program.

The grant allows Cal Poly and Santa Maria-Bonita to partner and prepare for the new California Common Core State Standards in Mathematics, which were developed to establish consistent and clear education standards for English-language arts and mathematics.

The goal is to better prepare students for success in college, career and a competitive global economy.

Fifth- through eighth-grade teachers who volunteered in Santa Maria-Bonita - picked partially because it is a "high-needs" district - are getting a jump start learning standards that don't launch until fall 2014.

"It's really above and beyond," Riley said of the teachers' commitment to 40 hours of learning and another 40 hours next summer.

Wednesday's lesson started with a focus on the meaning of fractions.

Simple enough, but teachers quickly discovered that, like their students, a lot of them were using different processes to come up with a correct answer.

"Your students are going to reason about the problems in many different ways," Riley said, referencing practice problems from a Powerpoint presentation. "I want you to do this with your students.

"As we go on through the year, we're all going to be wrong. You need to work outside your book."

Some teachers scrawled notes on workshop handouts while others enthusiastically explained how they determined what would be four-fifths of a piece of paper.

Stephanie Miller, director of curriculum and instruction for Santa Maria-Bonita, sat in on the workshop.

"It's really the teachers that make the difference," Miller said. "Our scores reflect that."

A number of teachers were brushing up on their skills, like Joy Snyder and Magda Eaker, both sixth-grade teachers at Adam Elementary who have been in the profession about 20 years.

"Doctors have to go through their" training, Snyder said, noting that she and Eaker went through a similar workshop a couple years ago. "You kind of feed off each other."

Arellanes Elementary teacher Kim Carey falls into a different category.

"I'm new," said Carey, who has two years of experience teaching a fifth- and sixth-grade combo class. "So I really need this. You have to be able to explain it."

The next workshop will be in January, when teachers from different generations will continue preparing to educate future generations.


News By:

santamariatimes.com

BUSAN - Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan visited a university for prospective teachers and its affiliated elementary school in this southern port city Wednesday as part of efforts to improve her country’s education by emulating Korea’s teaching and teacher training programs.

She was briefed about the admissions process, training courses and operations by Kim Sang-young, president of Busan National University of Education, in Kim’s office.

“Korea is a prime example of how the power of education can transform a nation,” the queen told Kim and her entourage, including Jordanian Ambassador to Korea Omar Al-Nahar and Maysa Jalbout, director of research and planning from Jordan’s government.

“We, Jordan, are facing similar challenges that Korea experienced decades ago. I strongly believe that the single most important element in education is the quality of the teachers.”

The queen expressed her wish for cooperation with Korea to improve the quality of the education system and its teachers. “I would like to see how you approach training teachers and I would like to see how we cooperate,” she said.

The visit was made on the sidelines of the ongoing Fourth High-Level International Forum on Aid Effectiveness, which will end today.

The queen was one of the VIP guests at the forum, along with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Jordan’s queen kept fixing her eyes on documents elaborating on the university and Korea’s overall education system while listening to an English presentation by professor Cho Kyung-sook at the department of English education.

Queen Rania replied “great” as Cho asked for the queen’s support to open a Korean language training course in Jordan.

She was envious after learning that in Korea it’s very competitive to become a licensed teacher. She said in Jordan teaching is an unpopular career among students.

She inspected classrooms and an exhibition hall and spoke to some of the students who welcomed her visit with loud applause.

Finding parent-made craftworks on display, she looked impressed, saying “How active their parents are!”

She went on to say, “It’s so important to provide students with opportunities to learn about music, arts and other creative subjects.”



News By:

koreatimes.co.kr

If there's one thing that Taylor Bean and Robyn Land have in common, it's the spark in their eyes - the kind of highonlife excitement that draws people in to their enthusiasm - and an eagerness that comes from following one's dreams.

As just two of the nearly 150 students currently studying at the Boucher Institute of Naturopathic Medicine in New Westminster, both Bean and Land are midway through studies that will, they hope, lead them to careers helping people and being advocates for a field of health care that is still plagued by plenty of misconceptions (for more on naturopathic medicine in B.C., see related story below).

"I was going to become a high school teacher. But my focus changed," says Bean.

The Cranbrook native, now 29, finished a degree at King's University in Edmonton with the goal of following it up with a teaching degree - but along the way she realized that, though she loved being involved in education, it wasn't going to be the right fit.

"I knew I also wanted to be in health care," she recalls.

But none of the traditional paths - like a career as a dietitian or in physiotherapy - appealed.

But then the pieces fell into place as she explored the possibility of naturopathic medicine.

"It was something that fit all my needs in what I wanted to do: education, nutrition, physical medicine, and people. And the challenge - every patient is different. It was what I wanted."

For her fellow student Land, the arrival at Boucher was also like a puzzle coming together.

Land's work as a doula and in yoga, as well as her interest in health and community along with an educational background in environment, made the naturopathic health-care field an ideal fit.

Land, who runs a yoga studio in the Brentwood area of Burnaby, says it all began when an acquaintance mentioned Boucher's clinic to her - after making an appointment and seeing an ND for the first time, she said she knew she'd found her calling.

"I was just blown away - it was just awe-some. That holistic way of looking at health (was appealing)," she says.

She immediately began to explore the option of entering the school as a student.

Bean and Land have something else in common, along with their counterparts at the school - being among the few who get through a rigorous and stringent application process.

Each year, between 100 and 125 people apply to get into the school - only 36 are accepted to begin the four-year program. (The school has recently begun to offer a part-time six-year program as well.)

All students must already have completed an undergraduate degree at an accredited post-secondary institution and must meet certain prerequisite requirements, including course work in biology, organic chemistry, psychology and more.

Mark Williams, director of admissions at the school, says the challenge of qualifying as a student means those who enter the demanding program are extremely committed - their attrition rate, correspondingly, is incredibly low.

Last year, for example, the school graduated a complete cohort of 36 students - not one had dropped out over the four-year process.

"There's a lot of factors to that (low attrition rate) beyond the application process," he says.

Students are typically very personally committed to the lifestyle and philosophical approach, he says.

As well, the small class sizes and close relationships among students and teachers means that those who may be struggling are likely to be spotted and supported, rather than falling through the cracks.

It's those small classes that appealed to Bean, who knew from her past educational experiences that she would be more likely to thrive in a close-knit setting; she was also accepted to a major naturopathic college in Ontario but opted for Boucher in part because of that.

"I love the feel of the school," she says. "It's a great place to be."

Located at the Columbia SkyTrain station in downtown New Westminster, the school is spread out over several floors of a building, with administrative offices on the main floor, classrooms and a library on the second floor, and a clinic on the third.

The clinic is used as a teaching facility - patients are cared for by a licensed naturopathic doctor in a team with two senior students, giving the students the opportunity for hands-on training. It's a successful model, says Amy Juschka, the school's communications officer.

"We have about 650 patients a month in here," she says, during a tour of the facilities with The Record.

A patient's first appointment, she notes, is an hour to an houranda-half long.

"It's a thorough physical assessment," she said. "They look at the system as a whole, not just treating one specific issue. They're looking at the underlying (issues)."

She says the philosophy of "doctor as teacher" is a critical one and guides the relationship between patients and doctors.

"It's really a core philosophy," she said.

The field of naturopathic medicine has become increasingly popular in recent years, though Juschka notes that there are still "many, many misconceptions" in the public.

"There's not a good understanding of what NDs do," she said. "Particularly because it's not the same in every province (in terms of oversight). In B.C., naturopathic doctors are licensed and regulated."

In 2009, the B.C. government introduced revised legislation, allowing naturopathic physicians to have prescribing authority.

Both Bean and Land say they've encountered some resistance when telling people about their career plans but, for the most part, their families and friends have been encouraging and positive.

"Being part of something that's new to people is exciting in its own way," says Bean. "It's very rewarding to start talking about what you do and have people ask questions."

Land says her enthusiasm has also been infectious to those around her.

"They see how inspired I am, they can see me going through the process, and I think it makes people excited too," she says.

The facility is in a period of change and growth: in the spring, the school announced it would be launching a naturopathic midwifery program; in February, they're hosting a symposium in Vancouver on neurological conditions; and a natural health store is slated to open in the new year on the school's main floor, with easy access to Columbia Street. Additionally, they're hoping to move the clinic to the ground floor, expanding it to allow more patients to be seen.

"We have a real commitment to being here in New Westminster," says Juschka. "New Westminster has been great, very supportive to our efforts - and this is an exciting time for us."


News By:

royalcityrecord.com

IT should be as easy as ABC for schools to get rid of incompetent teachers, yet it is apparently all but impossible.

There are an estimated 600,000 teachers currently working in our state schools. That’s an awful lot.

How many have been sacked for incompetence in the last 40 years? According to research by the BBC’s Panorama programme last year (and cited in the Sunday Times this week) the answer is 18. Not 18,000, but one-eight. Eighteen. Their unions would have us believe that poor teaching doesn’t really exist.

Strange then, that over the past decade, Britain has slumped alarmingly in international league tables (from eighth to 28th in maths, for example). The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, which publishes the annual league tables, said that nearly 20 per cent of British children leaving school have such low standards of literacy and numeracy that it was “likely to cause them problems gaining employment upon leaving school”.

The inability of schools to sack bad teachers – who are setting our children up to fail in later life – is a national scandal. It would not be tolerated in any other profession.

Yet the mighty teaching unions blindly, and militantly, defend the indefensible and flex their industrial muscle to the point where the sacking of incompetent teachers is virtually unheard of. That is wrong – and grossly unfair on the children who suffer as a result.

This week an idiotic teaching union leader (if you’ll excuse the tautology) described the new Education Act as a “crime against humanity”, rightly getting himself into trouble for using such inflammatory language.

Dr Derek Roach, deputy general secretary of NASUWT, went on to declare a need to “reclaim progressive values within our schools”.

And yet it is those very progressive values which have so poorly served generations of our schoolchildren, far too many of whom emerge from their schooldays barely literate and numerate, and all too often largely unemployable.

Grade inflation, the all-must-win-prizes attitude, poor discipline and poor teaching have all contributed to our stagnation in the international academic arena.

The Education Act, which has just received royal assent, will go some way to redressing the balance by making it easier for the government to close down failing schools.

One of the reasons schools fail is because of poor teaching by a minority of teachers who aren’t up to the job. The size of that minority is a matter of debate – estimates from seasoned experts ranging, apparently, from five to 35 per cent of the profession. It would be interesting to hear what the teaching union leaders make of those figures. Presumably they would disagree vehemently.

News By:

nwemail.co.uk

PUBLIC sector workers in the Coleraine area will take part in one of the biggest strikes for a generation on Wednesday.

Unite, Unison, GMB, TSSA and SIPTU unions have all voted for industrial action which is set to severly affect council, health and education services across the borough.

Picket lines will be manned in Coleraine with up to two million workers across the UK taking action in a row over pensions, pay freezes and job cuts in the public sector.

The strike action is expected to cause widespread disruption - with teachers, health workers and transport staff all among those joining the pickets.

Translink will not operate any local bus or rail services on Wednesday.

Ciaran Rogan, Marketing Executive said, “We apologies and appreciate many passengers will be inconvenienced by this industrial action and want to give as much notice as possible in order that people may make alternative arrangements for travel on that day.

“We are disappointed and regret the impact this will have on our customers but unfortunately this is beyond our control and we must be guided by passenger safety first and foremost.”

Services will return to normal on the Thursday. Translink says it is awaiting information from the Education and Library Boards to learn their needs for the day and will discuss options for school transport.

Coleraine Borough Council said the strike would affect the delivery of its services.

A spokesperson said: “It is unlikely that residents will have their black bin emptied on Wednesday, November 30, however Council asks that bins are put out as usual. Any black bins that are not emptied on that Wednesday will be emptied on Thursday or Friday, December 1-2.

“Coleraine Borough Council apologizes to its residents for the inconvenience that this causes to them. If you have any queries regarding your bin collection please contacts 028 7034 7272.”

A number of schools, playgroups and nurseries are also expected to close. The North Eastern Education and Library Board has issued guidance to schools in relation to the strike.

A spokesperson said yesterday: “It appears that virtually all the unions representing both teaching and non-teaching staff in schools will be taking part in the action. School meals and transport workers as well as teachers and support staff could be involved.

“The Board has advised school principals to try to clarify who in their school will be absent on the day and as a result assess the risks and determine whether or not their school can remain open to pupils. They should then arrange to communicate this to parents as quickly as possible.”

A Housing Executive spokesperson said: “As a consequence of the widespread industrial action we anticipate that Housing Executive services will be significantly disrupted.

“On Wednesday we will only be taking calls for emergency repairs and homelessness through one number 03448 920 901.”

Unison leader Dave Prentis said there was “absolutely no chance” of reaching a deal before Wednesday over the Government’s controversial pension reforms. “It could be the biggest action since the 1926 General Strike,” Mr Prentis predicted.

Mr Prentis warned of further industrial action in the New Year if the dispute is not resolved: “It could involve rolling programmes, region by region, service by service, workers within particular services - nothing is ruled out at this stage.”

Passengers at airports and ports have been warned to expect huge queues because of action by immigration and passport officers. NHS operations and appointments are being cancelled and rescheduled because of action by NHS staff ranging from nurses to radiographers.

Across the country Jobcentres will close, Government departments will operate on skeleton staff and courts staff will also join the day of action, causing the cancellation of cases and the closure of many court buildings.


News By:

colerainetimes.co.uk

The trade union representing teachers here in Finland, the OAJ, is calling for longer school days as a part of an upcoming reform in the national school curriculum. Even though Finnish children spend well below the OECD national average of hours in class, academic performance is among the very best in the world.

A new national curriculum for elementary schools is currently being formulated behind closed doors at the Ministry of Education. The group of civil servants working on reforms have not shown the plans even to the OAJ, the union that represents teaching professionals.

"If this were a broadly-based, publicly-open working group, it would be possible to provide comments as the work progresses. As it is, we will not be able to take a position before it is finalized, and then it's in the hands of the politicians," remarks OAJ chairman Olli Luukkainen.

A curriculum reform proposed last year was withdrawn after a clash over the expansion of elective subjects in elementary schools. That plan was vocally opposed by the Centre Party, the teachers' union and the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities.

According to what the OAJ has been able to find out, the curriculum proposal now expected in February will not contain any major reforms. However, it does think it probably that the new curriculum will increase the number of classroom hours.

"We have the impression that it's being considered in a positive light. We think there should be the funds available. The number of school hours in Finland is below the OECD average," notes Olli Luukkainen.

He adds the view that more teaching time in the classroom could lead to better academic performance.

Longer days, better results?

Finnish schoolchildren have among the shortest school days in any of the OECD countries. The number of hours spent in the classroom in Finland is just over 22 a week; in South Korea it is over 33.

Professor Jouni Välijärvi of the University of Jyväskylä, who coordinates the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in Finland, says that longer days elsewhere is not a good reason to extend school days here.

"Indeed, PISA results show that this number of hours enables excellent results. It should be carefully considered if this would be an efficient method. It would also mean considerable expense," points out Professor Välijärvi.

The long school day of South Korean public school pupils often continues with extra lessons in private schools, while Finnish pupils have more free time. Both rank at the top of the PISA ratings.

In the view of Professor Jouni Välijärvi, instead of longer days in the classroom, Finland should invest in more special education and after-school club activities.

"There seems to be something in the air in other developed countries urging an increase in the systematic education of small children. I am not convinced that this is wise. It could produce exactly the opposite results intended."


News By:

yle.fi

Re: "20,000 more Alberta children living in poverty; Growing number 'not acceptable,' premier says," The Journal, Nov. 24.

As an elementary teacher with decades of experience teaching young children, I must say that the proposal to focus on a comprehensive approach to poverty reduction outlined in The Journal absolutely resonated with what I see on a daily basis in our classrooms.

Most of the "educational" problems of many of our students actually have very little to do with education, and have a great deal to do with social and economic problems that affect them in many ways. It has been said before that poverty is the greatest learning disability, and that is certainly what I have seen over the years.

Quite apart from coming to school hungry, too many of our children fall behind because they simply lack the experiences and supports that are in place in the homes of more advantaged children, including books and parents who have the time to read and talk with them. This is despite the best efforts of their parents, who are too often forced to work two or more jobs for low wages just to make ends meet.

Teachers and support staff will continue to work hard to try to develop the full potential of every child, but what would really make the greatest difference is a comprehensive approach to reducing the poverty that is playing the key role in limiting their futures in this wealthy society.


News By:

edmontonjournal.com

STUDENTS and staff are celebrating after Sheffield University was named University of the Year in the 2011 Times Higher Education Awards.

The university - beating off competition from five others shortlisted - was rewarded for its many ‘imaginative and innovative initiatives’ as well as ‘exceptional research, teaching, access and business performance’.

The news is the latest boost for the institution, which has already been named Sunday Times University of the Year and the Sheffield Students’ Union was rated top in the UK in the 2011 Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey.

University of Sheffield Vice-Chancellor Professor Keith Burnett said: “This is wonderful news for everyone. To be chosen for such an honour is a powerful tribute to the hard work, dedication and ability of our staff, students, graduates and partners.

“At a time of real challenge for quality, access, and the funding of universities, the University of Sheffield has drawn particular inspiration from our founding principles as a civic university established by public subscription and the donations of ordinary working people.

“This has become a unifying passion for all of us, to put knowledge to work in tangible ways, ranging from advanced manufacturing to translational neuroscience to what is perhaps the country’s most ambitious programme of student and staff volunteering.”

Judges in the awards said the University had ‘stood out as a result of a strategy based on its values and rooted in its founding principles’ and praised the institution’s ‘determination and grit’ in focusing on its local community.

University Registrar Philip Harvey and Students’ Union President Thom Arnold received the award at a ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London, which was attended by more than 1,000 members of the higher education community from around the UK.

Thom said: “Sheffield is known for its strengths across the board, not only in research and teaching but also for its outstanding Students’ Union.

“The culture in Sheffield is about making a difference in people’s lives, and I was proud to collect the award for University of the Year award together with University staff in recognition of the fact that the real strength of our University lies in our strong commitment to work positively together.”

Deputy Prime Minister and Sheffield Hallam MP Nick Clegg said: “This award is thoroughly well deserved. I’ve seen first hand the cutting edge research Sheffield University is doing in a wide range of fields, from advanced manufacturing to translational neuroscience and everything in between. ‬‪

“Everyone in Sheffield should be proud of the great work done by the staff and students.”

The University was also shortlisted for two other categories in the Times Higher Education Awards - Widening Participation Initiative of the Year for the most imaginative and innovative outreach projects that encourage people from under represented backgrounds to enter higher education and Outstanding Support for Early Career Researchers category.


News By:

thestar.co.uk

The Chequamegon School District recognizes the importance of a school climate that fosters learning, healthy relationships, and a feeling of safety for all students. The CSD staff has been working very hard on these efforts and have implemented several programs that promote a climate in which all students feel comfortable, valued, accepted, and secure. Of course, this is an ongoing process and one that is always evolving and changing. Feedback from students helps to steer and direct these efforts so that we are focusing our energy on the immediate needs of the student body.

One major initiative that our district started three years ago is a program called Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). This program is carried out district wide and follows these key ideas, which can be found at developing scientifically based behavior and academic interventions and supports, creating an environment that prevents problem behaviors, teaching and encouraging prosocial skills and behaviors. In a nutshell, this program rewards and encourages positive behaviors, while consistently and proactively works with students whose behavior needs improvement. Under the PBIS initiative, our district has put in place clear expectations for all students. These expectations are: Be here, Be ready, Be caring, Be respectful, Be safe. Students understand what is expected of them and are rewarded when they meet or exceed these expectations.

Building a positive school climate begins early in the elementary years and both elementary campuses of the Chequamegon School District focus a lot of time in this area. As educators we recognize the importance of promoting a positive school experience for all students so that they gain self-confidence and pride in their school, as well as a feeling of being connected with the community. We are in many ways setting them up for success in the later years of their schooling and hopefully as well adjusted adults.

Both Park Falls and Glidden Elementary schools teach a violence and bullying prevention curriculum called Second Step. These lessons are taught by the counselors during their guidance lessons. Second Step was implemented during the 2008-2009 school year. This curriculum focuses on empathy and communication training, bullying prevention, emotion management and coping, problem solving, decision making, and goal setting. The middle school curriculum also focuses on substance abuse prevention. With this understanding as educators, we are optimistic the program can and will positively impact our kids now and across their life spans.

In addition, classroom guidance lessons are provided that address students’ growth in the areas of academics, careers, and personal/social development. In the education field we know a lot of emphasis has been placed on academics and as educators we are accountable for making sure students leave our school with the best possible education they can attain. It is our responsibility to ensure this does indeed occur. We sometimes forget our students are also people and more importantly children. They need to learn strategies they can use to help with their studies and improve their academic capabilities. They also need to gain an awareness that someday they will need to get a job to support themselves and others. Lastly, it is important that students learn how to appropriately deal with problems when they arise in their lives. The guidance lessons address all these areas.

Other notable things occurring in the elementary are monthly pep assemblies being run as a way for students to get pumped up about their schooling experience and inform them of what areas we are doing well in and need to improve on. A movie was created about what our Eagle Expectations are and how we can follow them. This has been shown to the students, each teacher has a copy of it, and it is available for viewing on the school’s website.

As students get older and begin their middle school years, they spend more time learning to work together and to problem solve. Students in grades 6-8 participate in noon advisories. During this time, students are arranged in small groups with a teacher to have discussions and participate in activities that promote positive social interactions between peers and also enhance relationships between students and teachers.

There are two unique programs taking place in the middle school that promote positive interactions between peers. One is the Courage Retreat, which is a training that all sixth graders go through annually. With the help of Youth Frontiers and several Chequamegon High School students, these middle schoolers learn to have courage and stand up for what is right. The training uses games, music, discussion groups, and stories to help students see each other differently. Students are taught how to overcome their own fears and find the courage to stand up for those who are being picked on.

Natural Helpers is another great program that has been ongoing in the middle school for many years. Trained seventh and eighth grade students become resources for other students and help them deal with problems in a positive and appropriate way, as well as understand how to seek help from adults when necessary. The current eighth grade natural helpers group has recently developed a project titled SAVE, which stands for Students Against Violent Expressions. These students will be creating public service announcements and presentations/skits about being respectful to oneself and others.

Having positive mental health becomes more and more important as students head into their teenage years. At the middle school and high school level, counselors work with students individually and in small groups to work on social skills, conflict resolution and stress management. At both levels a suicide awareness program is implemented called Signs of Suicide (SOS). This is a nationally recognized program that gives teens a “depression check-up” as well as the knowledge to recognize depression if it occurs and tools to help them respond effectively. The program highlights the relationship between depression and suicide, teaching that suicide is, most often, a fatal response to a treatable disorder - depression. SOS teaches the action steps individuals should take if they recognize the signs of depression within themselves or in a friend: ACT: Acknowledge your friend has a problem, tell the person you Care, and Tell a trusted adult. A goal of the program is to develop healthier, better educated students and more prepared parents and staff when they are faced with symptoms of depression, suicide, and self-injury. In addition, this is a community-based tier III intervention under the PBIS model.

At the high school level, as students continue to grow and change, the counselor continues to provide individual and small group counseling as needed, as well as provide activities that emphasize positive interactions between students. The Student Advisory Team (SAT) goes through a program with the high school student body called Raising Student Voice and Participation (RSVP). Under this program the students participate in a series of class meetings where they identify issues in the school that need improvement. The SAT uses that information to plan activities throughout the year that will improve the areas that are identified.

Annually, a group of high school students take part in a training through Cornerstone Productions where they learn how to use drama to teach other students. Last year they created two skits that were presented to the staff, elementary and middle school students. One skit demonstrates the harmful effects of bullying, and the other showed the importance of interacting nicely with other kids on the playground. In December, another group of high school and middle school students will be participating in this drama training.

As high school students begin thinking more about their post-secondary plans, it is important that they are aware of their opportunities to plan a bright future. Beginning with a 4-year plan that originates in 9th grade and culminating with an individual meeting in September of their senior year, students and parents are given the tools to make appropriate choices regarding their post-secondary plans. These consistent contacts between the high school counselor, students and parents build relationships to ensure kids know where to access help when needed.

Our heath curriculum also plays a role in improving our school climate. Lessons that help to prevent student harassment and bullying teach students to respect themselves as well as others. Along with the curriculum, guest speakers from Time-Out shelter present valuable information on healthy relationships.

Another key player in promoting a safe school environment is our school liaison officer. Annually, our officer speaks to all of our students about making healthy choices regarding their interactions with others, as well as the effects of bullying. Having an officer on school grounds offers students another resource person for students, as well as an opportunity to report any bullying or harassment issues that arise.

As a district, we all want students to feel safe, happy and enjoy learning. Through all of these programs, as well as day-to-day interactions between students and staff, we hope that our school climate will continue to grow even stronger. Every report of harassment or bullying is addressed and taken very seriously with the hope that as students are guided through these situations, they are learning the appropriate ways to communicate and work out their conflicts in a peaceful manner.


News By:

ashlandcurrent.com

A small group of nontraditional students — they’ve already earned their teaching degrees — obediently picked up yellow highlighters and read from their binders of handouts and worksheets.

Despite their education, the group was back at Dorothea Lange Elementary School this month learning, essentially, how to be better educators.

Kathy Mihlhauser, a master teacher at Dorothea Lange in charge of teaching teachers in the Lucia Mar Unified School District, was teaching a lesson plan designed to show teachers how to hone their instruction as part of the district’s new System for Teacher and Student Advancement Program (TAP).

The program, funded by a $7.2 million federal Teacher Incentive Fund grant, aims to improve teachers and student test scores through more frequent, structured teacher observations and by offering annual bonuses that average $3,000.

One of the ways teachers at the seven TAP schools learn how to improve is through weekly “cluster” meetings, which pull teachers from each grade level out of class for one hour a week to walk through lessons with a master teacher.

Six designated TAP substitute teachers fill in with their own lessons during the meetings.

At Dorothea Lange, fifth- and sixth-grade teachers worked at identifying different types of thinking and pondered how to introduce some of the same teaching strategies in their classrooms.

Those strategies were taught the same week by master teachers at Nipomo Elementary, Grover Heights, Oceano and Fairgrove elementary schools and Mesa and Judkins middle schools.

Each cluster includes steps to identify an objective, obtain new learning and then allow time for teachers to develop what they’ve seen in small groups with fellow educators.

Fifth-grade teacher Karen Carlisle, who has taught at Lucia Mar for 10 years, worked at Dorothea Lange with a partner to determine whether a prompt required students to use analytical, practical, creative or research-based thinking.

“I’m going to put creative,” Carlisle said, conscious of the fact that her partner didn’t fully agree.

“I’m going to stand by it,” she added, with a nervous laugh.

“That’s what we ask our students to do,” said an approving Mihlhauser.

For the first 11 weeks of the school year, Mihlhauser and other master teachers squeezed in lessons on how to score well on the 19-point observation rubric, which accounts for half of the points that determine a teacher’s bonus. The rest is decided based on class and school growth.

The process allows teachers to reflect on their teaching and refine their craft.

“We’re all wonderful teachers,” Carlisle said. But “in any profession, there’s always room for growth.”

Master and mentor teachers and principals began the first of four rounds of observations last week, and cluster meetings will begin focusing on each site’s area for improvement.

At Nipomo Elementary, the focus is English Language Arts, which was largely dependent on recent student test scores.

Master teachers Julie Bowles and Shanna Rowland led a cluster for kindergarten and first-grade teachers at Nipomo Elementary last week, opting to show a 30-minute video to demonstrate effective teaching strategies while teachers took notes.

Principal Brett Gimlin participated, too.

“We’re all in this together,” Gimlin said. “Some of our teachers are nervous. They want to be the best. To do that, you have to have good feedback.”

After the session, Bowles and Rowland noted the changes since implementing TAP.

Students have more structure. They know their objectives. They hear what their teachers are learning in cluster.

“It just seems to be a really positive vibe,” said Rowland, who has taught for six years and transferred to Nipomo from Grover Beach Elementary for TAP. “That kind of trickles down to the kids.”

Linda Brichetto, a mentor teacher at Nipomo who has taught for more than 30 years, is one teacher who’s already had her first surprisingly nerve-wracking observation.

“The cluster did prepare me,” Brichetto said. “I knew what to expect. Intellectually, I trust them, but that didn’t stop me from getting nervous.”

The TAP system at Lucia Mar was highlighted as a model for teacher evaluation improvement in California in a report released last week by EdTrust-West/Teach Plus LA.

But, as the first public school district in the state to implement TAP, the report notes only time will tell how well Lucia Mar teachers and students respond.


News By:

santamariatimes.com

Kindergarten today asks more of our children than it used to, and so California’s Senate Bill 1381 increased the minimum age for entrance to five years. Four year-olds now will have pre-K training. Hopes are high that these changes will produce a better-educated population. However, early achievement may not in fact ensure later success.

Sebastian Suggate has studied the matter. He found that students from countries where reading is not taught until age six actually do better on standardized reading tests than those from countries that begin at five or earlier, as in the USA. Children who start even later catch up quickly: Suggate collected extensive data from about 400 students in New Zealand – some in public schools and some in private “Waldorf” schools, where reading teaching doesn’t even begin until age seven. Difference in reading achievement between the two groups disappeared by age 10.

Research comparing Waldorf school students’ academic skills to those of public school students shows even more encouraging results. In a report exploring the value of the Waldorf approach for public school reform, Ida Oberman found that second-graders from four Waldorf-style schools underperformed in comparison to 10 “peer-alike sites.” Yet by eighth grade, these students could match and even outperform comparison sites on state school achievement tests.

If nothing is lost from academic achievement when training starts later, and some competencies even may be gained, why then the rush to begin it? Why buy toddler flash-cards, fund pre-K academies, and start kindergartners on reading and math when children could be otherwise engaged, developing other kinds of skills and dispositions, such as empathy and creativity?

Sir Ken Robinson, who led a British inquiry into how education might better foster innovation, explains that today’s schools are organized according to industrialized manufacturing principles. But humans are not machines. Worse, standardized approaches fitted to an old-fashioned, mechanistic, conformity-demanding view of the world stifle creativity. They punish those interested in questions not on the tests, producing graduates less able to think creatively than they did in preschool. To counter this, Robinson promotes an ecological approach.

Ecological thinking means considering us humans as part of a larger system, and as complex systems ourselves. Fostering more active outdoor play among our younger students honors this viewpoint.

Time spent outside protects children against what author Richard Louv of San Diego has termed “nature deficit disorder,” in which children less exposed to nature grow to fear and disrespect it, and cannot see themselves in connection with the larger world. Louv has reported that students at schools that hold classes outdoors show significant gains in social studies, science, language arts and math achievement. Studies also show increases in self-esteem, problem-solving abilities, cooperative play, and motivation to learn as well as reductions in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms when children spend more time with nature.

Moreover, fully embodied activities that can be engaged in outside, like running, gardening, catching grasshoppers, or even rolling sideways down a grassy hill can help children develop better body awareness, stimulate sensory integration, increase manual dexterity and foster visual capacities that may be hampered by too much indoor or screen time. In this way, more play can help ready the body to hold a pencil productively, form letters and numbers, orient them from right to left and grasp their meaning.


News By:

signonsandiego.com

STAFF and pupils at a York primary school are celebrating after they passed a spot inspection with flying colours.

Derwent Infant and Junior School Federation was graded “satisfactory” by Ofsted in May last year. Earlier this month an inspector made a visit with just two hours notice to see if improvements had been made and reported “good” progress.

Head teacher Carole Torode said: “Everyone has worked extremely hard since the last Ofsted inspection in May 2010 and we are very proud to have made good progress.”

Inspector John Rutherford said: “Standards of attainment in writing have risen significantly since the previous inspection. In July 2009, a quarter of the pupils reached the expected level by the time they left school. By July 2011 this figure increased to almost three quarters. As a result, standards of attainment in English overall have improved over the same period, from two-fifths of pupils reaching the expected level to four-fifths. Senior leaders set challenging targets for pupils’ outcomes at the end of Key Stage 2 and frequently check with teachers that every class is contributing sufficiently to achieving these targets. Pupils’ progress towards their individual targets is closely monitored and additional support is quickly provided if they are beginning to fall behind.”

Mr Rutherford said the teaching of writing at the school had also improved significantly, and pupils were given interesting things to write about, linked to exciting first-hand experiences.

He said: “During the monitoring visit, for example, older pupils designed leaflets and scripted television programmes following their visit to a marine centre. They were highly motivated to talk and write about what they had seen and they quickly produced accurate work in the appropriate style.

“Younger pupils were visited by Guy Fawkes and this inspired them to write independently some fascinating facts on fireworks for a wall display.”


News By:

yorkpress.co.uk

Sometimes, parents can learn more from their children than the other way around. The other day, my two-and-a-half-year old daughter engaged in a novel form of play with her alphabet blocks. She took a big white wooden letter R, turned it on its side and said "This is a rabbit." Then she took a red B and did the same thing, proclaiming it a bear. One by one, she propped the letters up on their sides on her train table (after tossing all the tracks on the floor) in what she called a "petting zoo." She did this for 15 minutes, uninterrupted, before turning to another toy.

Now, picture her in a "structured" learning environment. A set period of time to play with the alphabet blocks, sharing them with a dozen or more other children, being "taught" how to put them correctly in sequence, name the words they start, etc. Would she exercise her imagination by turning letters into animals? Would she have the time and space to play alone for 15 minutes? Or would she be too busy fighting off other kids for access to the blocks, or be forced to sit still and watch a teacher instruct her in the "correct" use of the letter R?

This week, Canadians were confronted with yet another report extolling the benefits of Early Childhood Education (ECE), this time as early as age two. The Early Years Study 3, published by a Canadian group called the Margaret and Wallace McCain Family Foundation, focuses heavily on the advantages that ECE would produce for children and the economy. It somewhat apocalyptically warns that "our survival as a species will depend on our children acquiring the skills they will need to cope with the social and environmental revolutions of the 21st century," implying that the fate of the entire planet rests on a Scandinavian model of state-sponsored child care.

But the report does not talk about what is lost with ECE - and that is critical.

The first loss is creativity. Two recent studies out of MIT and Berkeley University found that direct instruction can actually limit young children's learning. As an article recently printed in the National Post noted: "Teaching is a very effective way to get children to learn something specific- But it also makes children less likely to discover unexpected information and to draw unexpected conclusions."

The second loss is attention. A soon-to-be published study by scholars at the University of Notre Dame shows that birth spacing - the number of years between kids - increases reading and math scores for first-born children. Why? Because the parents have more time to devote to the child before a sibling comes along. So why would parents then put their children into group care and force them to compete with a classroom of other toddlers for a teacher's attention?

The third loss is parenting ability and affection. The latest data for this come from Sweden, where 92% of children aged 18 months to five years are in daycare, which is 90% subsidized by the state. According to Swedish researcher Jonas Himmelstrand, two decades into this experiment, the Swedes are witnessing a number of adverse outcomes, including psychological problems in children. These are attributed to a lack of attachment of infants to their parents in early life as well as a reduction in parents' sense of responsibility for - and lack of practice in caring for - their children.

Are these losses offset by the gains of ECE? The question itself assumes that those gains are real to begin with. A Quebec study conducted in 2010 by the think-tank CIRANO found that the emphasis on daycare has actually led to worse learning outcomes: "The evidence presented shows that [increased daycare attendance] has not enhanced school readiness or child early literacy skills in general, with negative significant effects on the [picture and vocabulary test] scores of children aged five and possibly negative for children of age four.''

When you factor in the billions of dollars a year it would cost to implement ECE for all Canadian two-tofive-year-olds, it becomes clear that there are better things to do with this money, including leaving it in parents' pockets so that one can choose to work less and parent more for those first few years. "We need to turn our family policy junkyard into a human development system," says the Early Years 3 report. No, we don't. We need to turn human development back over to families, where it belongs.


News By:

nationalpost.com

The National Education and Culture Ministry said it was confident that the certification process for teachers would be completed by 2013, two years ahead of schedule.

The ministry’s human resources development and education quality chief, Syawal Gultom, said that 2,791,204 teachers applied for certification in 2010 and 1,102,021 of them had been successfully certified in 2011.

“Based on the facts, in my opinion the certification process for teachers will be completed in two years time,” he said on Wednesday, as quoted by kompas.com.

He said that as of this year there had been 961,688 teachers that were not selected due to various obstacles, such as not having a required bachelor’s degree or not reaching the minimum age of 50 with 20 years of teaching experience.

According to Syawal, the most important element of the certification process was to carry out a fair and accountable selection that prioritized those that demonstrated a superior ability or served for a long period of time.

“The point of certification is how we prioritize people with better quality,” he said.

The ministry announced that it plans to certify 300,000 teachers in 2012.


News By:

thejakartapost.com

Palm Springs — Health class is on its way out at Palm Springs Unified School District.

The board of education voted unanimously and without discussion Tuesday to eliminate health as a graduation requirement.

“We're trying to provide as much opportunity during the school day for students to take courses that will help them do math and read and write better,” said Brian Murray, director of secondary curriculum and instruction.

Schools are not required to provide a full health class, but topics such as HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention and drug and alcohol abuse and prevention must be taught.

These topics will be folded into biology curriculum in Palm Springs Unified, most likely in the final month of the year after state testing is finished, Murray said.

“We're still teaching the important subjects that students need to know about, but we're not taking a semester to do it,” he said.

Lessons on nutrition may be covered in physical education classes. The district is still working on how other topics, such as birth control and other sexual health issues, Murray said.

Basing these topics on science may be beneficial for students, said Pete A'Hearn, district science specialist.

“It's not about an adult persuading a kid,” he said. “It's not emotion. It's fact.”

A'Hearn, who has taught both health and biology and will work on the new curriculum, said that if done well, combining the classes could strengthen both: health concepts will give a real-life hook to biology and biology classes will add a scientific component to health.

Health class proponents fear that cramming it into another class will dilute important curriculum.

“There's always an unintended consequence of moving it out of a course and the quality is always less,” Mary Marks, school health education consultant for the California Department of Education, said in July.

“Health is usually the one that gives, because there's less accountability to it.”

Desert Sands Unified School District eliminated health as a graduation requirement this summer, inciting outcry from teachers, parents and students.

Conversely, none of the five audience members at the Palm Springs Unified spoke about the change.

Coachella Valley Unified requires one semester of health.

Health class is important, but doesn't require an entire semester, said Cathedral City High School junior Solomon Worlds.

“I know high school is supposed to just be about general education, but a lot of people start to specialize,” said the 16-year-old, who wants to take an additional music class that the current health requirement doesn't leave room for in his schedule.

But mom Esmeralda Guzmán said she thinks health topics are more important.

“I actually learned a lot” from health class, particularly about sexual health her son Jiovanni, 15, said.


News By:

mydesert.com

FAIRBANKS — Barbara Nore, a choir teacher at North Pole Middle School, has been named Alaska Music Educator of the Year.

Nore has taught orchestra, band, French, technology and math at the school since 1992. She was chosen by the Alaska Music Educators Association, which is a state affiliate of the National Association of Music Education.

Nore was credited for taking teaching to the next level by leading students to Juneau and Washington, D.C. through the Close Up program. She does so to help students “learn what it means to become effective citizens,” she said in a school district news release.

Nore has been with the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District since 1984. She also has an after school hand-bell choir.

Outside the classroom, Nore has been a Girl Scout leader, Alaska Orff-Schulwerk Chapter president, school district music coordinator and AMEA state president, and she performs weekly in the Northern Lights Opera.



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newsminer.com

ST MARTIN'S Preparatory School is officially among the best schools in the country, according to The Sunday Times's annual guide.

The Grimsby school was among the top 2,000 schools in the UK to be published in the 21st edition of the newspaper's Parent Power guide.

The list of state and independent secondary schools is said to be "the last word" on academic performance, ranking schools by their recent results from public examinations. St Martin's performance in its Key Stage 2 results over the past three years saw it named among the top three per cent of preparatory schools in the country, being placed 52nd out of the top 100 prep schools nationally.

Head teacher Stephen Thompson, said this meant St Martin's was the "best performing" independent or state primary school in the area.

He said: "The school is absolutely buzzing with excitement, it is a huge achievement for us.

"We were the only local primary school – private or state – that was in any of the lists. There are more than 2,200 prep schools in the country so we have been placed in the top three per cent, which is fantastic.

"So as well as being named as the top performing local primary school, we are even one of the top schools nationally.

"In Key Stage 2 results, the expectation is that children achieve level four, but the vast majority of our pupils get a level five.

"The good thing about the Sunday Times's list is that you are judged on your average results over three years. So that is why we have been recognised; because we are consistently exceeding national expectations. We don't blow our own trumpet often, but we feel that this is a significant achievement for our school, staff, pupils and parents."

Mr Thompson said he believes the school's success is down to traditional teaching methods and smaller class sizes with a maximum of 16 pupils.

He said: "I don't think people realise what a difference class size can make, hopefully, by appearing on this list, this will highlight that.

"We've written to the Education Secretary Michael Gove to say that we are really happy with our results and that we believe that it is down to our smaller classes, transitional methods and careful monitoring.

"We are waiting to hear feedback on that, but it would be wonderful to invite them up here and show them what we are doing – because we are very proud of what we have here."

Pupil Alexander Salisbury, 11, said "I like coming to this school because of the teachers, they are really nice and friendly."

Saffron West, also 11, said: "I think the school is great and I really enjoy coming here."


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thisisgrimsby.co.uk