My Home School News!

The term technical education actually has reference to learning about a particular subject with hands-on experience. When one engages in technical education, they actually learn from someone who does what they teach.

It seems to be more defined as to subject-matter as opposed to a college education which offers a much broader scope and concentrates more on theory. The basic idea for this form of education is to teach you how to learn. Then you still have to learn the specific requirements for your job once you get out of college.

With technical education, you actually learn from a master in the field. This is also sometimes referred to as an apprenticeship. When you’re done with this training, you are ready to do the tasks by yourself. You can go right to work for someone without needing any additional training.

The benefits for technical education are big for prospective employers. Many companies have spent a great deal of their money training new employees. Then, many times, the people don’t like the jobs and quit. Then the companies are forced to start all over again with new employees. It is a never-ending cycle that costs the employers a lot of money and time.

In the past, technical education was looked at as a negative thing as it was associated with the lower class of the social scale. The industries that engaged in this practice were manual laborers such as welders, electricians, and blacksmiths. Many people stayed away from this type of training simply because of the reputation associated with it. However, in today’s fast changing economy, technical education is generally accepted as the norm in many new industries.

Now industries such as retail, tourism, information technology, funeral services, cosmetics, and cottage industries all rely on some form of technical education.

Many types of businesses are demanding a much more specialized workforce. With the way the economy is changing, people with generalized knowledge are becoming phased out for people with highly specialized skills.

In many cases, this results in a higher level of starting pay for new employees. The companies that are hiring feel more comfortable about giving someone a decent salary when they know they can handle the work. Another great thing about technical education is the job placement. Many trade schools offer job placement directly after you graduate. They have many relationships with employers and the employers know exactly what they’re getting in a new graduate.

Overall, technical education is a great way to get a head start on your career. You can focus on the skills you need to do the job that you want to do. If you want to be on the fast track to a great career, technical education may be the way to go. You’ll no longer have to waste years of your life learning theory. You can get started learning what you need to know in order to succeed.

When parents share their child’s Down Syndrome or Individualized Education Plan with me, they frequently tell me that they don’t understand it; they disagree with it, or they neither understand it nor agree with it. These problems seem to be the common denominator in many advocacy situations, and parents of children with a variety of disabilities from autism to dyslexia, dyslexia or emotional disabilities describe the same feelings of confusion and uncertainty about how to resolve these problems.
Parents in this situation tell me they are unhappy with, or unsure about what is happening in school and that they feel left out.
It may surprise parents to know that their child’s IEP document is intended to represent the shared opinion (or consensus) of the IEP team: a team which includes YOU as an equal partner. As you struggle to translate the IEP document, you will notice contributions from teachers and other professionals, but do you see your own contribution in writing? If not, doesn’t this strike you as odd given that you are an equal member of the team?
Consensus doesn’t mean unanimous agreement; often IEPs contain several perspectives. As a parent it is your right to have a different perspective from other team members and still expect to see your input in the IEP.
Consensus does, however, imply that every aspect of the IEP was discussed and that reasonable effort was made to ensure that you understood the information to the extent that you were able to judge whether you agreed or disagreed with it.
The most crucial thing to remember is that consensus is reached through the process of sharing and discussing information and ideas. Every part of the IEP document including: present levels of performance, strengths and needs, goals and accommodations, and type and level of services must be discussed by the team if the final document is to accurately record the teams general agreements and the reasoning behind the decisions made.
For example if you ran out of time at the meeting and were told that you would receive a draft of the complete IEP to look at and make comments on (and to please get back to them with changes by next week), I suggest you instead request a follow up meeting. Don’t bypass the discussion because this is your best chance to participate in creating your child’s IEP.
Good luck! Your K12 Advocate, Ailsa

http://www.ssi-online.org/

From the SSI website:
The Seeds Are Sown
The Student Statesmanship Institute (SSI) is a dynamic Biblical worldview and leadership training program established by the Foundation for Traditional Values (FTV) to further the mission of affirming and restoring America’s Judeo-Christian heritage.
Through the years, thousands of adults benefited from FTV’s Greatest Story Never Told Seminars and materials, highlighting [...]

Child education is one of the most important and most difficult tasks that you will be faced with as a parent. Children education does not just mean reading writing and arithmetic, although these are some of the most important aspects of it. Instead, children’s education encompasses almost everything. Children have to learn everything from basic social skills, to responsibilities and ethics, to academics subjects. A lot of this takes place naturally, but sometimes the wrong lessons are taught. If parents don’t sit down and think about kids education seriously, there is no way to know how the kids will turn out.

Child Education
Children education starts at almost the moment of birth. Young minds are constantly forming new impressions and taking in new information. There is no end to it. Reading to your kid and nurturing him are where it starts. From contact with the parents, the kid gets his first taste of interaction with the outside world.

Of course, reading is at the center of much children’s education. From the time they’re born until they learn to read themselves, books and stories are some of the most important ways that kids take in the world. You can give your children education in history, civics, and the way the physical world works before they even get into school. A lot of this education is pretty primitive, of course, but nonetheless it is the foundations of higher learning. Even more important is exercising your child’s imagination. Books are a great way to get your kid to start to think about the way the world works and what his or her place within it is.

If you are really interested in children education, it might pay to try your hand at it before you raise kids of your own. It is amazing how many parents are totally ignorant of how children learn things. In my case, a year as a volunteer teaching in poor inner-city schools really made a difference. I didn’t realize there were so many factors involved in children education, and that there were so many children who were not getting the education that they needed. Just learning this has made me a better parent and a better member of the community. It was very rewarding, and it is something I would do again in a heartbeat! Unfortunately, I am busy raising my own kids right now. As great as teaching was, raising them is even better. More on Education at Mens101.

Speed reading

You must know the multiple benefits of homeschooling if you are contemplating this or already doing this. You’ll have more control over the curriculum, be able to customize teaching to your child’s personal learning style, and avoid the pressures and dangers of public schools. However, are you aware of the major mental and social damage you can cause if you don’t make the right choices?

Every child needs someone to talk to and someone to play with, and they find their mates in school. Have you ever though of what public school kids think of homeschooled kinds? They think they are homeschooled due to some psychological problems or behavioral issues or simply because their parents are weird. Your child might be made fun of or picked on because he isn’t considered normal. You need to take care of these problems if you want your child to attend college just everyone else.

How to Handwrite Nice

Friendships with other children of a similar age must be found if they are homeschooled as they cannot be allowed to develop in isolation as this is unhealthy. The following tips will get you started towards placing your child on the track of a positive social life. The best place to start is your own environment and neighborhood? How many children of the same age as your child live around your home? Do you know their parents? If not, try to get going now. Talk to the parents who live close by and tell them about your interest in setting up a play date so they can get to know each other. Since you are the initiator, it is your responsibility to set the ball rolling, so fix up a party and call a clown to liven things up. Call all the kids in the neighborhood along with their parents and set up a ball game, fishing, bowling or similar activities which kids love and even be prepared to baby sit if necessary.

Speed Reading Tips

Sports are important: Next to school, sports teams provide the best environment for your child to form deep bonds with other kids. They spend a lot of time at practice and root for each other in games and you’ll be meeting other parents while watching all the games. In case your child has some physical handicap, which would prevent him for participating in these types of sports activities make him join groups like girls/boys scout or other similar kid organizations.

Many parents are cautious and have strict guidelines for their homeschooling kids on what they hear on radio, watch on TV or experience on the net. While it is important to keep them away from dangerous situations, it is also important to let them be exposed to the same influences as other children. Remember your kid is fighting a lone battle with other kids who think that he is from Mars, imagine his predicament in public when he shows his ignorance about what is hot on TV, what other kids are wearing at parties and which bands are making a mark? Unless they are exposed to life as it is, they would have a tough time interacting with others and would soon be treated as an alien.

Popular Graphic Design Magazines

Any serious graphic design student or graphic designer should subscribe to at least one graphic design industry magazine. Graphic design magazines give graphic designers and graphic design students the ability to keep up with current graphic design trends, learn about new or coming graphic design technology, and discover new graphic design opportunities.

One of the best graphic design magazines is HOW Magazine. This graphic design magazine allows graphic designers to find information about graphic design technology, freelancing as a graphic designer, and graphic design career opportunities. Students of graphic design will find this graphic design magazine helpful in its showcases of graphic design career opportunities, graphic design schools, and graphic design events. Of interest for all graphic designers and graphic design students is the stress that this magazine puts on not just the how, but the why and the creativity of graphic design.

Graphic Design USA is another fabulous graphic design magazine. This graphic design magazine has technology information for serious graphic designers to keep up with industry news. Graphic Design USA magazine also has resources for students of graphic design, as well as contests and scholarship programs. The online version of Graphic Design USA magazine also has opportunities for free graphic design stuff, and a graphic design online newsletter that can be emailed to your inbox weekly.

Print Magazine is yet another great graphic design magazine. It tends more toward the creativity side of graphic design. With regional and nationwide graphic design contests, student graphic design contests, and other graphic design competitions, this graphic design magazine is a must for students of graphic design or those just starting a career in graphic design. The online version of Print Magazine offers graphic design forums, a free graphic design newsletter, and other free graphic design stuff.

DT&G, (Design, Type, and Graphics) Magazine is an online only publication for graphic designers. It offers the option to read on the web site, or on a text only email edition that is sent out around the first of every month to subscribers. Not only does this online graphic design magazine offer industry news, graphic design technology information, and other graphic design features, but it also offers reviews of graphic design software, graphic design books, and other graphic design resources. Anything graphic design related, big or small, might be included in this online graphic design magazine.

There are many other graphic design resources and graphic design magazines that can be found both on and off of the internet. Serious graphic designers and graphic design students should subscribe to at least one graphic design industry publication in order to keep up with the latest graphic design industry news. If you would like to find more graphic design magazines and resources, do an internet search for graphic design magazine and be amazed at the wealth of graphic design information available to you in this type of graphic design forum.

Learn more about benefits of online education.

When I went into the first parent teacher conference for my daughter, her teacher gave me a glowing review and reminded me that one of the best things I could be doing with her is reading books. This is something that we have been doing ever since she has been old enough to focus her eyes on a picture, even if she wasn’t yet old enough to understand what the words meant. Reading was something we did with her all of the time, and it shows in how well she is doing now that she is in school.

Reading Books
Reading is one of the most important things that anyone can do. There are some that slip through school and out into the real world without being able to read. I don’t understand how that happens, but it does. I can’t imagine living in a world where reading books would be something I could not do. This is something that is essential to a good life, and it usually starts out with reading books when we are very young, even if we just look at them for a moment and then chew on them for a while.

If you aren’t sure about which reading books you should be reading to your child, don’t think so hard. There are hundreds if not thousands of books out there just for children and any of them will do. When they are young, look for reading books that have large colorful pictures, and that may have few words. The stores should be very simple and should wrap up quickly. As they get older, the books can then become a bit more detailed, though pictures are still very important. When they start school, relating pictures to words is going to be very helpful. More on Education Resources.

Distance Learning has gone from unheard of to amazingly popular over the past decade. This method of schooling has really provided people with a new option for studying. There has always been a form of Distance Learning with correspondence courses and television courses. anyhow, these never caught on as studying over the Internet has. There are many answers to Distance Learning. So, if you are interested in going back to college or beginning college you should explore the opportunity of studying over the Internet full time. One of the Benefits of Distance Education is the various choices you get with it.At the very least you should talk about taking some courses through this format. The following answers prove what a wonderful format Distance Learning has and the many answers it can offer you.

Time Management
One comfort of Distance Learning is the ability to study in your own time. Some people are more alert in the mornings and may choose to study at this time. Others prefer the afternoons, evenings, or even the middle of the night! Since you can study at your leisure you will schedule your schooling around your life!

Benefit of Online Learning
Distance Learning allows you to adjust school around your life, not the other way around. New mothers may stay home with their children and attend school right over the computer. Individuals who are looking to get ahead can continue to work full time and take a full load of classes via Distance Learning. Of course, there are sacrifices you must make along the way. If you are working between a job, family, and school, then you will not have much free time. But, it is important to know that you can handle it and it is worth the effort to get ahead.

Many people complained in the past about being stuck in a no good job because they did not have an education. Moreover, they could not get an education because they had to work full time to help their families. Through Distance Learning, everyone has the opportunity to study while they are employed full time. They can get their degree and can move up the corporate ladder to a better income and a better job. Distance Learning has really opened many doors and given people the ability to change their circumstances. It can help you change your life, too.
No travelling

Another comfort of Distance Learning is No travelling. This obviously saves a lot of time and gas money. It also allows you to study at a university a great distance from your home if you want. You may be in Texas and “attend” a university in California or New York. You will receive a great education all the while continuing your daily life. Not having to make any big changes or commute is an amazing benefit of distance education. In fact, many students cite this as one of the best benefits of distance education!

Benefit of Online Learning
College is expensive, but distance education courses are generally much more affordable than traditional brick and mortar courses. That is because much of the expense associated with brick and mortar education is not present in the distance education courses. As a result, the tuition is much lower. With lower tuition, more people are able to afford to attend college and get the degree they have always dreamed of without being saddled with huge student loans to pay off.

These are just a few of the benefits of distance education. There are actually countless more and each student finds different things they like and appreciate about studying via distance education. This method of studying is different from attending traditional classes. However, you will find you are able to transition quite easily and learn as much if not more than in a traditional classroom.

For many adults, reading a book or newspaper seems effortless. Yet reading effortlessly comes from constant use of basic skills learned at an early age. Once children learn these basic skills, they can eventually read complex books like War and Peace.

What are these skills? To read, one must recognize thousands of words. Since all English words are built from only twenty-six letters, the huge task of recognizing letters and their sounds and putting them together to form words becomes greatly simplified. An English-speaking child only has to sound out the letters and then put the sounds together to read the word. This is not games and music, but not difficult.

Like other western languages, English has its peculiarities. For example, many vowels have more than one sound, and many sounds can be spelled more than one way. However, even with these complexities, English is far easier to learn than Chinese, where children have to memorize thousands of word pictures, rather than twenty-six letters and their sounds.

Reading is difficult at first, but, once learned, the process becomes automatic and unconscious. When we can read quickly without sounding out every letter of every word, all the knowledge of the world opens to us. However, like learning to drive a car, if we don’t learn the basic skills, we don’t learn to read, or we read poorly.

Enter public-school education theorists who think otherwise. Don’t adults read without sounding out every letter of every word, they ask? So why teach children phonics? Why put children through the alleged boredom, drudgery, and hard work of learning letter-sounds? How can reading be joyful if literature becomes drills? If children memorize whole words instead of putting together letter sounds, all this pain will be gone. Rather than teaching kids the alphabet and how to sound out M-O-T-H-E-R, teach them to recognize MOTHER and other whole words in a book, like Chinese word-pictures or ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. Have the child read simple books that repeat each word over and over, so that they come to recognize the word. Do this for each word, they claim, and the child will learn to read. This is called “whole-language” reading instruction.

The only problem is that whole-language doesn’t work. It is a disaster. Most young children are only able to “memorize” a few hundred relatively simple words. Even an adult’s mind can only memorize at most, a few thousand words.

In contrast, children who learn to sound out the letters of words with phonics can read tens of thousands of words, and eventually read ANY word, because they can sound out each letter in the word and put the sounds together.

Author and education researcher Charles J. Sykes describes whole-language reading instruction in one first-grade classroom in his book “Dumbing Down Our Kids”:

“Reading instruction begins with “pre-reading strategies” in which “children predict what the story is about by looking at the title and the pictures. Background knowledge is activated to get the children thinking about the reading topic.” Then they read the story. If a child does not recognize a word, they are told to “look for clues.”

“The whole-language curriculum gave specific suggestions that children: “Look at the pictures,” ask “What would make sense?” “Look for patterns,” “Look for clues,” and “Skip the word and read ahead and then go back to the word.” Finally, if all this fails, parents/teachers are told, “Tell the child the word.”

During the 1990s, when whole-language instruction was in full force, outraged parents bitterly complained about their children’s deteriorating ability to read. In response, public schools across the country then reverted to their usual tactics – they kept the failed policy but changed its name.

Many public schools today say they now teach kids to read with “balanced reading instruction.” What this means is they combine whole-language instruction with a smattering of phonics. “See,” they can say to parents, “we are now teaching your kids phonics.” The only problem is that too often the “balance” is still about 80 percent whole-language, and 20 percent phonics, if and when the teacher thinks phonics is “needed” in “special cases.”

If you were a doctor and were treating a patient for a serious infection, would you give the patient a “balanced” cure of arsenic and antibiotics? That is the moral and practical status of “balanced” reading instruction where whole-language instruction still predominates, because whole-language is the arsenic of reading-instruction methods. This how it is about education.

Parents, don’t let public-school officials fool you with their glib talk of “balanced reading instruction.” You need to personally investigate how your local school teaches your kids to read. The best thing to do is to test your children’s true reading abilities with an outside, independent testing company. You may be shocked by the outcome of the test. The Resources section of “Public Schools, Public Menace,” lists many such independent reading-testing companies.

Learn more about benefits of online education – this can make sense to you.

http://www.ssi-online.org/

From the SSI website:
The Seeds Are Sown
The Student Statesmanship Institute (SSI) is a dynamic Biblical worldview and leadership training program established by the Foundation for Traditional Values (FTV) to further the mission of affirming and restoring America’s Judeo-Christian heritage.
Through the years, thousands of adults benefited from FTV’s Greatest Story Never Told Seminars and materials, highlighting [...]