EduServ

For students to graduate from a school,  means that they have  successfully passed each and every subject they are studying.  Sometimes couple of students  end up  failing some subjects and not joining their classmates in the graduation ceremony. This creates feelings of sadness among the students, in spite of how much we  try to explain to them, that the graduation ceremony is not a reward nor a punishment. there is a barrier that the student should cross in-order to graduate, and if some are  not in the ceremony means that they should have done more. May be with time the graduates will understand that such a criteria at a school helps their diploma to have credibility and recognition. Evey thing is done out of care.

In an article that we read in ASCD smart brief they stated that:

“It is crucial that students are reading at grade level by the time they leave third grade when students stop learning to read and begin reading to learn.” We at EDUSERV^® believe that during the early years, students are taught phonetics and the blending of sounds as a first step in reading, and then they should be given extensive motivating learning sessions, so that no child will finish grade two not being able to read fluently. There is nothing more beautiful than an expression on the face of a child who started his reading journey.

Is facebook or other Social networking to be considered as learning tools? Pro or con? let us start the debate by leaving your comments.(click on  have your say icon below )

Teachers have an exceptional opportunity to make a meaningful, permanent difference in the lives of their students – students who deserve a high-quality education in every classroom, and in each part of the world.

We at EDUSERV^® international are committed to train our teachers to open minds and stir imaginations.

Each time you visit a class room, go and inspire them to reach their full potential.

By the age of 29, Blake Mycoskie had already started and run four companies. But on a trip to Argentina in 2006, he found the inspiration to start the company he says he’ll work at the rest of his life.

Mycoskie is the 31-year-old founder of Toms Shoes, a company that donates one pair of shoes to someone in need for each pair it sells.

While in Argentina, Mycoskie met a group of children in a village he visited. Struck by their lack of shoes and the consequences they faced because of it (ranging from foot injuries and diseases to being ostracized), he decided he would provide footwear for these children and others like them around the world. While figuring out how to do it, Mycoskie decided he didn’t want to create a charity. “I wanted it to be sustainable, and I didn’t want the burden of fundraising year after year, so I created a business,” he says.

Mycoskie modeled his first designs off the alpargata–a traditional Argentine shoe–but used higher-end materials to ensure comfort and durability. At a price point of $40, he’s built in a big enough margin to pay for the extra pairs of shoes that will be donated. Within six months of opening for business in 2006, Toms Shoes had given away 10,000 pairs of shoes, far exceeding Mycoskie’s projection of 250 pairs.

The growth of the company has relied primarily on word-of-mouth. Mycoskie says that he hasn’t had to spend money on advertising because his customers are walking billboards. “When someone asks customers about [the shoes], they’ll tell the whole story of the company. They feel good that a child somewhere is wearing shoes because they bought some,” he explains.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneur/2008/june/193766.html

Ellen Zimiles was walking through downtown Maplewood, N.J., over Labor Day weekend in 2008, when she noticed a disturbing sign hanging in the town’s local bookstore. It said that unless someone took over the bookstore by November, it would close.

Distressed at the potential blow the closure would deal to the community, which was already suffering from the recession, Zimiles suggested to her husband, Jonah–who had recently graduated from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business and was planning to start a vocational training center for people with autism–that they purchase the store.

“Based on my business school training and knowing how difficult the independent bookstore business was, I said it might be tough,” Jonah Zimiles says. But the idea evolved the more the couple discussed it. Ultimately they decided they could use the bookstore as a training facility to help people with autism learn retail job skills and move on to larger companies. It was a cause close to their hearts: Their 14-year-old son has autism.

Within two months, the Zimileses were the owners of Words. They immediately began hiring people with autism and since have employed more than 10 people with autism. Depending on their abilities, the employees stock shelves, check inventory, catalog books and other products, help with labeling bags and perform other duties. Besides the vocational training, the Zimileses’ small business

also provides a welcoming place for families who have children with disabilities to shop.

“I find it very difficult with our son, because while he’s getting better, it’s hard to take him places because his behavior can be sort of odd,” Jonah says. “We’ve gotten the word out to say, ‘Please, please, please bring your kids in.’ Families can feel comfortable here.”

Words sells a line of greeting cards made by people with autism, and the business attracts speakers who address subjects of concern to people who have disabilities or have children with disabilities. The store also stocks a wide selection of books on those topics, although it is very much a mainstream bookstore. (Yes, it carries the Twilight series.) And like any good community business, Words supports as many local events and fundraisers as it can.

The store also has drawn some big names who like what the Zimileses are trying to accomplish. Recent speakers include former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean and former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo. In addition, the venue, which the Zimileses moved to a larger space last year, regularly hosts authors of all genres who discuss topics related to their books.

For Jonah, who graduated from law school nearly 28 years ago and has worked as an attorney, national director of planned giving and endowments for the United Jewish Communities and stay-at-home father, this latest career turn is exceptionally rewarding.

“I never thought I would start my own business, but as this opportunity came around, I felt like my education and the social enterprise program of [Columbia University] made me well equipped for it,” he says.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneur/2010/may/206060.html

Admission to the reputable universities in the world is a process that requires schools to be a place for academic development, to build and nourish students’ creativity and talent.

Students in the senior year of this academic year are waiting for an e mail or a letter from universities they applied to, whishing that it starts with the following sentence:

After careful review of your application for admission, we are happy to inform you that we are able to offer you admission for the Fall Quarter of 2010.

But some end up with an e-mail starting by:

After careful review of your application for admission, we regret to inform you that we are not able to offer you admission for the Fall Quarter of 2010.

What is it, that reputable universities look at and help them decide whether to accept or reject a candidate?

For fall 2010, UCLA (for example) received more than 57,000 applications for 4,690 available spaces for freshmen.

They believe that each application is unique, and each student presents wonderful attributes and potential. Their work is extraordinarily difficult: admission officers thoroughly review each application and carefully balance grades, coursework, test scores, honors, awards, community service, leadership, and work experience.

Admission officers also consider the opportunities and challenges students face while achieving so much in their schools and communities. Ultimately, no single attribute or achievement guarantees admission—there are simply too many well-qualified, accomplished, and capable applicants for the number of freshman spaces available at UCLA.

Experienced homeschoolers often grimace about this inquiry, sometimes known as the “S” question (socialization). The real concern, it seems, is whether homeschooled children will be able to function in the adult world if they don’t have the same institutional-type “socializing” experiences schooled children have. The educator and author John Holt once commented, “If I could give just one reason why children should NOT go to public schools, it would be the socialization they receive there. In general, the kind of behavior one finds most often in schools is petty, cruel, and mean-spirited.” Parents who may be concerned that their homeschooled children are missing a valuable experience by not participating in the type of socialization which happens in a public school environment should probably ask themselves if that is the type of “socialization” they want for their own children.

Homeschooled children, on the other hand, have plenty of opportunities for meaningful socialization with people of all ages through local clubs, community classes and sports activities, church involvement and even through their personal relationships with their family and friends. Additional opportunities are often available through local home-school support groups, park days, field trips for homeschooling families, and more.

http://www.homeedmag.com/faq.html

We at EDUSERV  believe that homeschooling is a last resort for some parents whose children have a certain learning difficulty and are frustrated in their dealings with the educational system. We raise the following questions for our readers to think about: Are all homeschooling parents equipped with the necessary skills to motivate their children in poetry, chemistry, physics, math, social studies art and music, and up to what level? Doesn’t the parent relationship with their children protect them from all psychological diseases that can emerge from socializing at school? If the community around a family is not up to their expectation; which is better: to send their child to school and to  keep a close eye on him? Or by Home schooling  him in order to protect him from socializing?

“We can teach our children to have courage, faith and endurance; they can teach us to laugh, to sing, and to love”

I would like to share this article that I have read in the guardian newspaper, with all EDUSERV’s blog readers, just to raise the question again “what do we really want assessments to focus on? What children can do? Or rather focusing on failure?

Its official: unions representing 80% of head teachers say they will not   administer the tests

Primary school heads will press ahead with a boycott of Sats tests for 10- and 11-year-olds next month, Britain’s biggest teaching unions confirmed today, potentially throwing league tables and assessment regimes into chaos.

The National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) confirmed after a meeting of their executives that their members would take industrial action and would not adminster national tests in maths and English.

The decision means the next government is heading for a clash with headteachers, who will be boycotting the tests on the first day of a new administration.

The tests are due to be sat by 600,000 children in their last year of primary school between May 10 and May 13.

Last Friday, headteachers in England voted overwhelmingly to boycott the tests.

The unions said Sats in their current form “disrupt the learning process for children in Year 6 (aged 10 and 11), and are misused to compile meaningless league tables which only serve to humiliate and demean children, their teachers and their communities”. They said they supported a system of assessment that “highlights what children can do rather than focusing on failure”.

to read the whole article kindly check the link below:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/apr/21/primary-heads-to-boycott-sats#start-of-comments