School Science News for Kids

Coronado Heights Elementary, 5911 N Sapulpa, will be closed Friday because of a water line break, Putnam City Public Schools spokesman Steve Lindley said. Lindley said a main water line feeding the school has broken, and repairs are ongoing. He said the school currently has no working restrooms or water for food preparation in its cafeteria. It isn’t known when the repairs will be completed, he said.

STAFF REPORTS

Me: “Hi.”

Little boy: “Are you Mr. Superintendent?”

Me: “Yes.”

Little boy: “My dad says you are great.”

Me: “Thanks.”

Little boy” “My mom says you’re terrible.”

Me: Speechless.

My job performance is evidently 50/50. Pretty good. I’ll take it.

I stumbled across a great column by Jay Mathews today in the Washington Post regarding teaching writing in our schools. or rather, how badly our schools are at teaching writing.

Mathews says, With a few exceptions, our schools are bad at teaching writing. Students are not asked to do much of it, mostly because reading and correcting their work takes so much time. Instruction methods are often academic and lifeless.

English teachers rarely assign non-fiction reading and are even less apt to require non-fiction writing. Almost no high school students, except those in private or International Baccalaureate schools, are required to do major research papers.

Worthy attempts at reform haven’t gotten far. Writing instruction is killing our children’s natural desire to express themselves. Compare their school assignments to their e-mails and you will see what I mean.

Leading this movement is Paula Stacey, an editor and educator who has taught every level of writing instruction. Her Sept. 21 Education Week piece exposed the torture that is Composition 101. “We have the entire English department at a local high school,” Stacey wrote, “embracing a schoolwide essay format that calls for exactly three central paragraphs containing exactly eight sentences: topic sentence, detail sentence, commentary sentence, another detail sentence, another commentary sentence, a final detail sentence, a final commentary sentence, and a concluding sentence.

“At a different high school across town, a history teacher hands out zeros to students who don’t have the thesis statement as the final sentence in the opening paragraph. Meanwhile, a woman I know who teaches at an elite research university bemoans the fact that her students, among the best in the country, have mastered the five-paragraph essay, but can’t develop a complex idea in writing.”

Drawing upon my experiences in the classroom, the best examples of writing were those that enabled students to express thoughts and ideas about something real and relevant and meaningful.  I agree with Mathews that teaching writing is hard work and time-consuming.  But great teachers know that there is a huge ROI on that work.

One great resource to inspire great writing in the upper grades is the book, Moes Cafe.  These classroom-tested prompts put students in a place or in front of a character and ask them to describe what they see. The thinking, writing, and scribbling they do for the prompts inspires them to create their own stories and poems. After writing 90-word mini-stories, students read a short story or watch a film scene to help them expand on their own creative works. For writing teachers in grades 6-12, this one is worth checking out.

, and let us know if you agree. Wed love to hear from you.

Schoodoodle.com offers a wide selection of instructional materials for language arts, writing, math, science, social studies, and early childhood.

Upon completion of online business analyst education requirements, including business analysis certification, you can work as either a business consultant or employee with both technical and business skills and knowledge.

The role of a business analyst is to help a company examine its departments or divisions and to seek ways of improving its functionality and productivity in an effective, efficient manner. As a business analyst you would evaluate the structure of a business for example marketing and sales, accounting and finance, systems management, labor and human resources management, functional management, and facilities. The goal is to take a close look at different and determine what could be refined. A systems analyst generally works for a company or organization in the computer or technical department. Their role is to assist the company in responding to changing technology by improving its computer information systems by designing and optimizing hardware and software. The role of the functional analyst is to capture, consolidate, and communicate the information from the Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to the rest of the team. Hence the functional analyst is an important link between SMEs in providing the business requirements and the rest of the team trying to construct the solution.

Online Business Analyst Education Programs

• Master of Science (MS) in Information Technology – Business Analysis

University of Phoenix

• BS in Information Technology – Business System Analysis

• Essentials of Business Analysis
• Master Certificate in Business Analysis
• Mastering Business Analysis

DeVry University

• Bachelor’s – Computer Information Systems – Systems Analysis and Integration

Business Analyst Education and Training

Business analyst education covers a variety of business and technical courses. These business analyst courses may include basic business management as well as financial management and accounting. Programs of study also emphasize strong oral and written communication skills.

It is also important to have strong information technology skills in this field. Business analyst training may covers topics such as analyzing business needs, designing, developing, and implementing, and monitoring IT solutions, and business goals and solutions. In addition other courses are:

• Database Concepts
• SQL for Business Settings
• Management Information Systems
• Programming Essentials
• Systems Analysis

This might be more so in the business analyst masters degree level. Business analyst degree courses may also include, quantitative analysis, leadership and management, critical thinking, business research, economics, and managerial skills.

In addition, business analyst education courses may also include entrepreneurial management, and international business. In many business analysis masters degree programs, a concentration on the technology side is useful for functional analyst jobs as well.

Business analysis certification can be attained at the master’s degree level. The master certificate in business analysis is designed to help business and IT professionals already working in the world of business learn how to accurately change, evaluate, and analyze present business practices so as to improve satisfaction and productivity using information systems. The programs concentrate on utilizing new technology to analyze business in order to come up with solutions.

Most systems analyst training programs are design to teach students how to design, implement and manage enterprise applications and infrastructure. This helps graduates to be able to design, deploy, and manage data communication infrastructures and systems in business or technical setting.

Business Analyst Careers

What is a business analyst? A business analyst examines business change needs and assesses the impact of forecasted changes. I.T. processionals who choose business analyst education, systems analyst training, or functional analyst training paths tend to pursue consulting or full time positions as computer system or business analysts.

Graduates with a master’s certificate in business analysis tend to have several options on where to work in small, medium, or large corporations and business. Although job output varies by the industry and specific job requirement requisite skills normally include business planning, issues management risk assessment, business economics, reporting, finance and accounting. Possible career options are:

• Operations research analyst
• Information technology business analyst
• International business specialist
• Business analysis consultant
• Entrepreneur

A computer systems analyst is an essential bridge between non-technical personnel in a company, and enterprise systems. This requires good analytical sense, a broad knowledge base in computer systems and databases, and the ability to understand and analyze business problems.

Expected Salary and Projected Career Growth

Job opportunities for systems analysts exist in most businesses and industries that rely on computers and information technology. Opportunities also include database administration, computer security, and computer programming.

The job outlook for financial managers is positive with employment growth expected to remain steady as businesses continue to integrate technology into their business practices. According to the United States Department of Labor (BLS), the median annual salary is around $82,000 year.The median expected salary for a Business Systems Analyst as of 2011 was $50,856.

The employment of management analysts is expected to grow 24% between 2008 and 2018 according to the BLS, Jobs with business analyst education or certification are categorized under the field of financial management and business analysis consultant average about $90 an hour.

You should buy toys specifically designed to be used outdoors to help your children have fun, let them release some of that extra energy. This way you will keep toys in better shape than if you had just used toys for indoor and taken into out.

Buying a jump king trampoline is a big step to keep your children on their way to the physical and mental development. When teaching young children to swim, there are many toys available that can help you. Some toys can be fun for the child and easier for you to teach him or her swimming. There are also plenty of toys, such as diving rings, that can strengthen and improve their swimming technique.

Owning an outdoor toy in your garden not only provides unlimited outdoor fun but also a way to implement all your child’s dreams.

Wooden houses and tree houses are fantastic during summer hot and rainy days. They create magical memories for years to come. Cared for properly, they can be passed from brother to brother, in fact some of you have had the chance to share your own treasured childhood toys to your own children.

The first and most important points on any product you buy for your children is reading all the information first, and if there is a label saying not for children under three, do not use it for a toddler. When searching for a toy to play either outside or inside the house, make sure there are no small parts that can choke your child.

Make sure that ride ons for 1 year olds are safe and robust. You must choose a ride on toy that is hard to break. Children can easily destroy their toys so make sure you do not choose one that is very robust. Apart from that, a delicate toy could hurt your child.

Stanford Sloan Masters in Management 2012 Essay Questions

These three straightforward questions are comprehensive and wide ranging in effect. They give the Stanford Sloan MiM adcom both factual information about you such as your current work responsibilities, your goals, and details of work experiences, and also insight into your thought process, self-evaluation skills, and ability to synthesize and draw conclusions. The questions reflect the adcom’s interest in admitting people with the requisite experience who are movers-and-shakers in their current context and who will be path-breaking leaders in the future. While no work or page length is specified, the instructions say to “use separate sheets of paper to answer the following questions.”

When I reflect on our many successful Stanford clients, initiative in the face of need is the common thread among them. They are always the ones who revealed, especially in Essay A, that they do not turn away or see a problem or need for action. They grab the initiative when they recognize an opportunity to contribute. They are comfortable expressing emotion and their values, and their actions reflect both, but particularly the latter. Think purpose-driven, principle-driven lives. 

Essay 1: Tell us about your current duties and responsibilities, including references to the total number of people you supervise and/or the amount of assets you manage. Describe one or two of your major accomplishments and explain why they are meaningful to you.

In describing duties and responsibilities, focus on those that have a higher level component and/or large scale. Be selective; don’t detail every single thing you are responsible for. Also, do highlight the breadth of your work – include your people management (not just number of reports but their professional levels and scope), strategic role, operational role, key decision-making responsibilities, P&L responsibility, global involvement. In selecting accomplishments, I suggest using two, ideally representing different types of skills/capabilities. At least one should be fairly recent. In describing why they are meaningful to you, avoid generalities like “from this experience I learned how to lead large global teams” – to make this statement meaningful you’d add some words about exactly HOW you DO lead large global teams.

Essay 2: What educational and personal objectives do you hope to satisfy through the Sloan Program? What type and level of work do you expect to be engaged in five years from now?

This essay will show that you are focused and that your objectives align with the program’s offerings. You might start sketching your answer by addressing the last part first (regardless of how you structure your final essay) – clarifying your professional plans for five years hence will reveal development needs both educational and personal. Describing that target role and industry, you will naturally see the challenges of getting from where you are now to that future place and doing it well. These developmental needs create your educational and personal objectives. Finally, discuss in concrete terms how the Sloan program will address them, providing details and examples.

Essay 3: Describe a situation that challenged your leadership skills and explain what you learned about your strengths and weaknesses.

The bulk of this essay should be a straightforward narrative – tell the story of a time when your leadership skills were challenged. In selecting the content, keep in mind the accomplishments you discussed in essay 1 in order to avoid redundancy. This essay provides another opportunity to show you working in an interesting context, dealing with high level and/or high stakes issues, interacting with significant decision makers. Conclude the essay with a frank discussion – don’t focus only on strengths and skim over weaknesses. Show how learning about the stated weakness has helped you by providing a very brief (even one sentence) example of how you’ve applied that learning. Alternatively, you can link the weakness to the objectives in the previous essay. 

Deadline: December 15, 2011

Decisions by: mid-January 2012