No Acronymn Left Behind

While the Secretary of State, Condolezza Rice attends the peace talks in Syria, Mr. Bush is standing by his words about the value of our education. IMLS, that stands for the Institute of Museum and Libraries Services, has given a great amount support to hiring new librarians for the millenials and moved IMLS funding from the materials meant for millenial's to research. The ADA and the Congressional Budget Office is responding to the needs of the elderly and disabled by looking at ways to afford insuring their health over the next century, and watching how Medicare and Medicaid insurance stagger. How are we to forget the acronyms in our health benefits plans? HMO, PHHP, MCI, LLAL etc. I am not exactly harvesting all of these in one blog, but I can see the confusion already. My estimate is one acronym will be generated for every one hundred dollars spent on health care. One hundred acronyms will be generated for every two hundred dollars spent in classrooms by teachers who obey these acronymns. A sample of them are the IEPs, CATs and SIMs. These are evaluation tools designed to see the achievement in students each year. Hopefully, the teachers have bought enough books, paper and pens to ensure each child's chance during the No Acronymn Left Behind years.


IEPs are created by a multidisciplinary team of education professionals, along with
the child’s parents, and are tailored to the needs of the individual student.
Moreover..

The IEP is a
blueprint for everything that will happen to a child in school for the next year. Special and
general education teachers, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists,
school psychologists, and families form the IEP team and meet intermittently to discuss
student progress on IEP goals. Before the IEP team meets, an assessment team gathers information together about the student to make an evaluation and recommendation. The school psychologist, social worker, classroom teacher, and/or speech pathologist are examples
of educational professionals who conduct educational assessments. A neurologist may conduct a medical evaluation, and an audiologist may complete hearing tests. The classroom teacher also gives input about the academic progress and classroom behavior of the student. Parents give
input to each specialist throughout the process. Then, one person on the evaluation team coordinates all the information, and the team meets to make recommendations to the IEP team. The IEP team, which consists of the school personnel who work with the student and families, then meets to write the IEP based on the evaluation and team member suggestions.
“The IEP contains information about the student’s strengths and needs, as well as goals
and objectives based on these areas of need. Regular monitoring of student progress not only
helps to evaluate whether the student is making progress toward these identified goals, but also
helps the teacher to examine the effectiveness of the curriculum and the strategies used to
teach the student.”
− Autism program specialist IEPs always include annual goals, short-term objectives, and special education services required by the student, as well as a yearly evaluation to see if the goals were met. Annual goals must explain measurable behaviors so that it is clear what progress should have been made by the end of the year. The short-term objectives should contain incremental and sequential steps toward meeting each annual goal. Annual goals and short-term objectives can be about developing social and communication skills, or reducing problem behavior. A parents and teachers guide to follow is available on the web:
http://www.researchautism.org/resources/OAR_EducatorsGuide.pdf

See Appendix D which provides more information on writing objectives and developing measurable IEP goals for learners with autism. Somehttp://www.fairtest.org excellent blog feeds on NCLB

http://www.bloglines.com/blog/mesoj
http://www.fairtest.org

Water For Elephants, by Sara Gruen

I am in the middle of this great memoir-like story about depression-era circuses across the United States. The main character is narrating the part of the traveling veterinarian who maintains the animals for better or for worse. They include a foundering white horse Silver Star, agile monkeys, well-fed tigers and Rosie, who has just joined the Benzini brothers circus train in Joliet, Illinois, she is over 5 tons, is 58 years old, and doing pretty well for her age. She has many pachyderm talents, including bathing and carrying lot's of water from place to place, which her trainer and vet are mainly responsible for now. She has Uncle Al in a tizzy, though, since he now realizes the care may be more than it's worth having an elephant in the circus. Previous trainers didn't want her and almost gave her away. Sadly, but not surprisingly, this is turning out to be the circus from hell for the trainers and crew, and the land of the misfit animals to the rest of us. Sara Gruen is the author of many books on animal husbandry including, Riding Lessons and Ape House.

60% or fuzzy math

Over 60% of Iraqis are unhappy with the way their lives are leading and the toll on American lives is not any better. What is the worth in this outcome? As opinions arise, I find that the math stands for itself, Iraq is not eagerly against insurgents it is just limping along. So a question to a question keeps stirring in my mind and should be in the minds of U.S. politicians. Why continue in the Iraq war for the elite benificiaries?

State of the Union Address

http://www.whitehouse.gov/stateoftheunion/2007/

After his State of the Union Address, President Bush has called Iraqis in power irresponsible, implying doom to the country after the unclaimed mess left by the opposing party for freedom. I ask Mr. Bush if he is ordering the empowered Iraqis to govern from home or to leave their official nation? What seems responsible for Iraqi government and people now is to think about their own safety. As in a crash landing, the flight attendant asks adults to assist small children after helping themselves. I apply the same rule to struggling Iraqis. Have their basic needs of food, water and shelter been met? I answer this question, again with another question. Whenever has the Middle East seen the end of bitter struggle for these basic needs? I invite more questions to this bigger picture discussion

Town Hall

The importance in the exchange of information can't be underestimated, especially in its importance to today's political climate. Anyone 18 years and older must participate in the very world they criticize whether it is about the drugs and crime on the streets, education and medical costs or the care of our elderly. I hope to see more radio and satellite hosted town hall participation over the next campaign. Blogs, newscasts and podcasts online or on the media are available via Voice Of America News, the BBC news, or pbs.org. Please vote fully read.

This paper examines the development of a right to communicate and how it can be defined and implemented. The authors contend there is a need to address:www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_12/mciver

Tea is too painful

Recently the weather in the Northeast has been sooo terribly dry, I have left a spot of tea by the reference desk to sip in order to talk throughout the day ironing out the answers to questions on our library users' minds. I had a complaint recently about how close the tea cup was to the reference books and incoming mail. I had to respond with a shrug. Too bad I hadn't had the great presence of mind to answer the plaintant with my very great "Employee of the Month Idea"! Have a complaint? Just turn it into flattery and you will get everywhere. You may even be nominated for the employee of the month award. This is the best way to deter departmentalism, it might even erase all of the lines of animosity. Just a suggestion, not a!@@$^%$&*^(*

To Distance or not to distance?

I never knew that using the old contacts would help me to network in a brave new world of public libraries. It never hurts to get in touch with old friends or bosses you may haven't spoken to in a while to get some of their personal feedback on the job market, their experiences and views of the necessary skills employers are looking for, especially research skills. You may be overlooking a lot of juicy information, like your quirkiness, that friends have on hand. Letters are great, but blogging, email, listservs, conferences, hell, even shopping can do wonders for the old network.

Suddenly business cards have blog or urls on them to exchange not just opportunities but also personal information that can be helpful to those who want the inside feel of a company.