Archive for December, 2008

Wonkitorial: Cutting To The Front Of The Lunch Line

Monday, December 29th, 2008

All of her adult life, Caroline Schlossberg Kennedy emphatically stated that she wanted to be a “private” person, and therefore completely out of the public’s eye but free to attend countless social events with her pals from New York City’s Social Register.
But now, JFK’s deep-blue-blooded daughter has changed her mind and wants to claim what some would believe to be her rightful inheritance by

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My Goodness

Friday, December 26th, 2008

And now it seems as though women aren’t supposed to use the “L” Word first.
Heh. Are we supposed to teach that in our schools?

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The Carnival of Education: Week 203

Friday, December 26th, 2008

Welcome to the midway of the 203rd edition of The Carnival of Education.
Unless clearly labeled otherwise, all entries this week were submitted by the writers themselves.
Folks interested in hosting a future edition of the C.O.E. should please let us know via this email address: owlshome [at] earthlink [dot] net.
Visit the C.O.E.’s early archives here, later archives there, and our latest

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Author Talk with Jay Mathews

Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008

Join Education Sector for an author talk with Jay Mathews, columnist and author of the forthcoming book, .

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Learn About Home School Curriculum Diy Tips And Home School History Basic Information

Saturday, December 20th, 2008

Home schooling has come a long way. From the early days when parents merely passed on what knowledge they had, perhaps sometimes supplemented by instruction from an itinerant tutor, it is now an acceptable alternative to institutionalized education and is a legal alternative for parents in all fifty states.

While Home Schooling allows parents to decide, within certain prescribed parameters, what and how they will teach their children, it is always advisable to work with a recognized home school curriculum. There are many home school curricula available; all with different approaches and philosophies to education and the teaching and learning process. What every home school curriculum has in common is that is works towards ensuring that at the end of the home schooling process, a child has achieved a sufficient level of knowledge and developed the cognitive skills to enable him or her to function successfully in the outside world. Among the popular home school curricula parents can choose from are (in alphabetical order):

Is Learning German Really That Hard?

Friday, December 19th, 2008

There are only three different languages that is offered before when I was still studying in high school.
Spanish, Sign Language and German. My school required two years of foreign language studies in order to graduate.
My best friend decided to learn german fast and I decided sign language.
To make a long story short after two years of required foreign language classes my reward was standing next to the choir translating into sign language for the audience and her reward was a one month trip to Germany, on the schools dime.
I should have learned German, she had more fun and she still remembers how to speak German, my sign language is very very limited.

Traveling to a different country can be tough, but not knowing the language can make the experience even tougher.
Whether it is for a family vacation or if you are planning on moving to Germany it would probably be best to know a piece of the language, just to be able to navigate your way through the cities.
german language schools are offered everywhere and anywhere, nowadays, access to German language schools can be as easy as login onto the net.
If you never plan to visit Germany, it would still behoove you to learn to speak the language, which is unequaled in it’s beauty.

With living in such a diverse country, where every background of every region of the world is right in our backyards, coming accross someone who only knows German, would be very grateful in meeting a person with the same tongue.
I went on a European adventure which took me through seven different countries.
The country I like most is Germany.I took a course in German and also I can speak German.
This definately came in handy when me and my wife got lost!

The Best Way To Learn Italian

Friday, December 19th, 2008

The Italian language can be easy for some and yet still appear difficult for most of the people who are trying to learn it. Though there are similar and common reasons as to how difficult to learn the Italian language is, there are still ways and means how to solve these problems.You can get down and serious, crazy or purely insane. It doesn’t matter how you act towards your Italian lessons or how weird your approach of practicing it becomes, what matters is that you have all the concentration and focus needed to accomplish these things.

Instead of wasting time thinking about what could happen or the difficulty of learning the Italian language, its best to break the myths and surpass the hesitations. Learning Italian could bring you interest you never thought you’d have and even the desire to visit the Italian speaking country at its best – Italy!

Now that it has been mentioned, the thought of not visiting Italy or visiting it for a just short time is one of the hindrances which most people think of right away and also the reason why learning Italian is never a top priority. But there is a purpose why you should learn the language. Many Italian lessons today offer survival conversational phrases which most likely can become useful if ever you find yourself under the shadows of the leaning tower of Pisa or inside a restaurant with staff and customers speaking Italian and Italian alone.

Another common reason why people refuse to get involve in learning Italian is because they think they don’t have the time to sit down and read on the texts of the language. Again, there are more sources now than before. It isn’t only getting to a language class where one can learn Italian but also online, movies, audio aids and immersion are tops for learning this language or even any foreign language for that matter. It’s everywhere and anyone can read through a 10 key point article about Italian basics each day. That could only take about 10 to 20 minutes.

The idea here is that there are certainly no limits to how a person can learn a foreign language. Italian is just one thing out of the other hundreds of foreign languages. It’s great to learn new things everyday and you don’t even have to lose anything. When you think you can’t, it could only be because you really don’t want to or just too lazy to do it.

Learning the Italian language or another foreign language benefits you and you alone. It helps enrich and expand your vocabulary and reduces unemployment vacancy. There are just endless beautiful things to gain from learning the language so allow your self be enthralled by the opportunity. Click here to Learn Basic Italian.

National American University

Friday, December 19th, 2008

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Image# 1816517 National American University is a regionally…

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Learn To Speak Chinese Language Well

Friday, December 19th, 2008

In the business world needless to say, speaking and listening are the most important skills in order to share your idea.

Let me put my concept straight if you know what you want to converse and you know lots of Chinese words, then you can easily create sentences in Chinese!

Well that’s what you will be getting from this website

You might be asking yourself this question How can I read and learn Chinese without knowing any Chinese’s letter? My answer is “You can start by reading PIN YIN language. PIN YIN is the language which is used by people who learn Chinese around the world.

There is a wealth of books out there on how to speak Chinese, from learning Chinese the ‘fast and fun way’, to Chinese for Dummies to Chinese ‘made easy for kids’. Of course, there are a wealth of basic courses on beginner’s Chinese, and let’s not forget a massive number of Chinese phrases and Chinese language dictionaries. The problem with these is that many of the books fail to produce a format that is user-friendly enough and inexpensive enough to be of adequate value.

Every book on how to learn Chinese offers its own method for doing so. Authors explain terms like high, middle high, middle, middle low, and low tones. They offer warnings that tone can drastically alter the meaning of a word. For example, one comment Chinese word can mean mother, hemp, scold, or horse, depending on the tone that is used. Thereafter, the race is on to understand what all this means, and how to apply it to a self-taught study of the language.

Chinese language lessons often contain a word that describes the pinyin system, which is a term used to describe the romanticized (translated ‘readable’) Chinese language to facilitate English-speaking people who wish to learn Chinese. Unfortunately, many different Chinese language-learning books offer their own spelling versions of many common words.

Beyond that, many CD-ROMs and audio materials that help facilitate self-teaching the Chinese language utilize native Chinese speakers who speak too fast or in over-long sentences that are almost impossible to wrap the tongue around. Many books and audios proclaim ease-of-use, steady pace, and confidence building language exercises; however the reality that is found between the pages is more than a little intimidating.

Many people who have spent hundreds of dollars on multiple Chinese language learning materials often wish they could utilize the services and expertise of a private tutor to help them grasp the many nuances and rules involved in speaking Chinese. Many people think that private language tutors are way beyond their budgets. In addition, some wishing to learn to speak Chinese live in rural areas, where Chinese language tutors are not to be found.

Searching online resources is one way to get around this, but finding an excellent online learning environment for learning to speak Chinese Mandarin dialects is also a little more difficult than one would think. The ideal way to learn any language is to be able to communicate with someone who speaks that language. Mando Mandarin is an online, one-on-one tutoring program that helps students learn Chinese from native Chinese language speakers.

Also a fun site to immerse yourself in for awhile, is those creating Chinese names from your given name, full in beauty of characters and meaning. You can learn to draw Chinese characters for free online as well.Click here to look for that Learning Chinese Online. Actually, anything you wish to learn in Chinese, you can learn free online. Upon that, once you have mastered basic abilities, you may wish to up the ante and consider the next level of learning and programs available to you.

Performance Funding 2.0

Friday, December 19th, 2008

Doug Lederman reports on a new performance-based funding initiative for colleges and universities and cites Education Sector’s new report, “Ready to Assemble.”

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