Two new achievement systems have been developed and implemented for the Houston Schools &ndash a school board monitoring system and a new appraisal system for the superintendent. The district is committed to improving student achievement, as well as earning the confidence and support of the community. The two systems set new standards for the administrative structure and systematic improvement process for higher scholastic achievement in the Houston schools.

In 2001, Houston schools instituted a Declaration of Beliefs and Visions, which defined for school employees and the community what the district stands for and where it is going. The five goals put forth in the declaration are to:

• Increase student achievement,

• Increase management efficiency,

• Bring all school facilities up to standard,

• Improve public support and confidence in the Houston schools, and

• Create a positive district culture.

The declaration determined to accomplish these goals through:

• An educational structure built upon the relationship between teacher and student,

• Decentralization and shared decision making,

• A common core of academic subjects for all students, and

• Focus upon performance, not compliance.

The two new systems for the Houston schools provide a roadmap to achieve and measure the progress of these goals. Both are detailed and objective, providing a systematic means for meaningful and quantifiable organizational improvement.

Board Monitoring System

The monitoring system is comprehensive and demanding with data-driven accountability. It requires the superintendent to submit regular reports to the trustees on key education issues. These issues are student academic progress and readiness for college, quality of teachers, and how effectively funds are used in support of student instruction.

The reports must be in a specific, standardized format for future comparison. This includes what exactly is to be reported, how it is to be reported (using easy-to-understand data and bar charts), and how often the reports are to be submitted. The board wants nothing to be left to interpretation or guesswork, believing this too often is the cause of misperceptions formed of large, urban school districts. The information is to be used by the board for monitoring purposes, as well as provided to students, parents, teachers, the community, and the news media.

Superintendent’s Performance Appraisal System

The complement to the Board Monitoring System is the new performance appraisal system for the superintendent, which is expected to drive the focus for the Houston schools from the superintendent down to the classroom teacher. The system is objective and quantifiable, allowing the board to focus their attention on the performance levels the Houston schools need to reach. It requires more in-depth reporting and analysis of educational issues than the state of Texas currently requires. Specific goals of the appraisal system are to improve academic performance, management efficiency, and public and employee confidence and satisfaction.

The specific Houston schools educational issues that directly impact students and addressed by both new systems are:

• Dropout and graduation rates &ndash the aim is an 85 percent graduation rate by the 2006-07 school year;

• Achievement gaps by student groups, broken down by ethnicity, economic status, and gender;

• Number and percentage of students:

 Who are promoted to the next grade, as well as those held back,

 Served by special education programs, as well as those who have moved out and no longer need these programs,

 Receiving the highest scores on the state-mandated achievement test, and

 Who take exams for advanced placement courses and those who pass these courses; and

• Student college readiness, including:

 The college-ready scores from the state-mandated achievement test,

 Number and percentage of students taking dual-credit courses, earning college credit while in high school,

 Number and percentage of students who graduate under the state’s Recommended High School Program, and

 Number and percentage of students who score above the national average on the S.A.T.

Other issues addressed that indirectly affect student achievement are:

• Teachers’ attendance rates;

• Number of teachers teaching outside of their areas of certification;

• The effectiveness of tax dollars spent on teaching and the learning process;

• The effectiveness of educational programs costing $1 million or more, and whether they should be modified or discontinued;

• School employee attitudes toward the Houston schools board and their work environment;

• Progress in bringing Houston schools facilities up to standard;

• Public perceptions about the Houston schools board and its direction; and

• Progress in achieving a “recognized” status as an accountable school district.

Both systems outline expectations, set clear direction for action and improvement of quality education, facilitate regular and ongoing discussion for program effectiveness, use straightforward data, and hold the entire organization of the Houston schools accountable. Both systems were developed to evolve and change in response to the Houston schools board and community’s demand for better education for the students and ever-increasing accountability.

Learn more about these distance learning degree programs. With AIU Online’s distance learning schools accelerated degree programs, you can learn the skills you need to succeed in today’s competitive work environment. The BA degree presents a big challenge to students undertaking their studies via distance learning, requiring a maximum amount of motivation and commitment. Some students come in with enough college degree credit to get their distance learning college degrees in as little as one month. Programs A list of popular online distance learning programs that can help you get your degree online. And a distance learning master’s degree from UB presents a great value as well.

UB’s distance learning master’s degree also gives you extraordinary flexibility. To top it off, you can complete your distance learning master’s degree on a timeline that works best for your cash flow. Reputation - An established distance learning institution provides the student with the knowledge they a getting a REAL degree from a quality institution. Instead, you earn your degree by demonstrating your competence through a series of carefully designed distance learning assessments. Some studies reveal deep doubts among students and faculty that distance learning ever can have the degree of interaction in a non-distance environment. This website is created to help people who like to educate online using distance learning and online degree programs.

This review will occur even then the proposed Distance Learning course is a section of an already existing and approved course.” Art. Questions I would describe my need to take a distance learning course as follows: I need it for graduation, my major, or my job. Reading is a distance-learning college course delivered via satellite television that is supported and expanded by information available on the Web. Students who do well in distance-learning courses are usually comfortable contacting the instructor as soon as they need help with the course. Considering my professional and personal schedule, the amount of time I have to work on a distance-learning course is: a. Students who are taking multiple courses via distance learning benefit from consistency among those courses-similar course design, communication, technology, and assessment. College degrees may be just a distance learning course, distance learning program, distance learning college or university, on-line degree, or distance learning project away. A career change may be only a distance learning course away.

Search distance learning course descriptions. Taking a distance learning course with Staffordshire University can help broaden your horizons and open up new opportunities. All of the potential characteristics of participants should be considered when developing a distance learning course. Deaf students also cannot participate in teleconferencing sessions that might be part of a distance learning course. Mobility Impairments Students with a wide range of mobility impairments may enroll in a distance learning course. A distance learning course is one you take without physically meeting a teacher in a classroom on campus. The two most common modes for distance learning courses are: Correspondence (print-based): Course material will be sent to you by mail or courier.

Large markets for distance learning will undoubtedly emerge, and this will be a blessing for many students who cannot attend college classes. Find a distance learning program at an accredited college or university. You’ll find out how to propose, plan, and fund a distance learning program for any level from kindergarten through college. Online college and distance learning isn’t for everyone. Western Governors University is specifically designed to help adults like you fit distance learning and online college into your already busy lives.

Student attitudes toward distance learning. Of these citations, only 194, approximately 5%, dealt with student attitudes toward computer-mediated distance learning. As a Distance Learning student you have enormous flexibility in wherever, whenever and however you study. Whether you’re a busy professional or a student, online distance learning provides the solution for getting your MBA quickly and conveniently. the distance learning student must complete a unit of instruction and then pass a comprehension test or exercise before the a.d.a.

Harnesses distance learning technologies in a classroom environment. The success of long-distance learning hinges on its capacity to simulate a dynamic campus classroom. Explore the following three articles for strategies in transforming your traditional classroom activities to the distance learning environment. These people skills are obvious and natural in a “live” classroom, but may seem awkward in a distance learning situation. .accredited-university-online.com

These six steps will help you prepare for class and as a result, you will become more and more confident every time you enter the classroom. In time, you will feel excited about going to class and your grades will drastically improve. Remember that attitude is everything and you must start today by changing your attitude about class. Being prepared for the classroom will certainly help.

1. Pre-read material in your text before class. Having some exposure to the material will make it much easier to follow along with what the teacher says.

2. Review past material. Understanding what you did in previous classes will make it much easier to make connections to new material.

3. Make a list of questions that you may have from the previous day’s activities or homework. Try to get all questions resolved before moving on.

4. Do your homework. At least try each and every problem and make notes when you don’t understand something. At least the teacher will know that you tried.

5. Stay organized. Punch holes in all of your papers and keep them in the binder.

6. Come to class prepared with the appropriate materials such as your text, loose-leaf paper, and something to write with. You wouldn’t want to miss part of the class because you are busy looking around for a pencil!

Go to .live-etutor.com to learn more about online tutoring and watch a virtual tour inside of our online classroom. All tutors are screened, qualified and ready to help your child get better grades!

Bodybuilding workouts are the most important part of your bodybuilding endeavors, but many people have not done enough research to fully understand, and get the best from, their workouts. Here in this article we will show you how to maximise the results from your bodybuilding workouts.

Step 1

Put some real effort into it. Nothing important is ever achieved in this world without some effort, and if you are approaching bodybuilding in a half hearted manner, then you will only get half hearted results. Any results you will see will be far less than you would have seen if you had been dedicated to the task. If you really want the muscles and body you are working for, why not put in a full effort?

Step 2

Maintain your enthusiasm. One of the most important factors in keeping the right level of enthusiasm for your training is to time your gym visits judiciously. All gyms have some competition to use the equipment, and if you cannot get access to it, you may end up not being able to perform some of your most important routines. This is not only frustrating, it can lead to setbacks in your progress. If you can plan your gym visits for quieter times of day, such as morning opening, or early afternoon, that will help.

Step 3

Maintain your energy level.. Someone who is muscular is not necessarily fit, so you should work at being both. If your gym has a treadmill or an exercise bicycle, these provide the ideal opportunity to do some aerobic exercise in the middle of your bodybuilding exercises. Although this will add a bit of time to your overall workout, it will increase your intensity.

Step 4

Make sure each exercise is performed correctly. To maximise the effect of your bodybuilding workouts, they need to be performed as they are written in the textbook. Try to keep your back still while you are doing barbell curls. A large amount of your time will go to waste if you are not maintaining your effectiveness with correct technique. Get this part right, and you will gain far better results for your time.

Bodybuilding workouts need to be tailored to the needs of the individual, but the hints in this article should provide you with something to work on during your next gym visit.

Burn fat and gain muscle &ndash it isn’t as hard as you might think. You can train your body to burn excess calories instead of storing them as fat, and you can exercise to build up your muscles. With the right techniques, it is easy, so here we show you the best ways to burn fat and build muscle.

Step 1

The very first technique you need to learn in learning how to burn fat and build muscle is to train your body to burn off excess fat. The human body is intelligent to the degree that it watches the calories coming in, and the activity burning them up. It doesn’t have any idea what future calorific intake will be, so it tends to store excess calories as fat. Exercise is what your body needs to keep the fat burning off. Simple running, swimming or cycling will stimulate the body to burn off fat.

Step 2

These simple forms of exercise are the best starting point for a system to burn fat and gain muscle. As a complement to this, you will want to start eating as healthy a diet as possible, and you will need to add some resistance training to your program. The most effective form of resistance training is with weights. Weights increase the muscle mass, and this in turn leads to an increase in the speed at which calories are burned. Combine this with the reduced calories from your improved diet, and you should see a dramatic improvement in your health.

Step 3

At this stage, you can increase your food intake. You should see quick results from the previous step, as your muscles get bigger and your waist gets smaller. This is exactly the result you want when you burn fat and gain muscle. Eventually you will reach a stage where your metabolism will be trying to burn off fat and grow muscles, but the difficulty lies in the body’s natural tendency to burn muscle. Sometimes when you are hungry on waking, that is a symptom of your body burning muscle instead of fat.

Step 4

As you progress, you will need to step up your cardio and weight training. The weights you use will need to increase in weight constantly, as your body adjusts to each new level. When you can lift a weight for 8 reps with no obvious difficulty, you can then add to the weight and keep the pressure constant. At this stage, you can also add protein supplements. These can help you burn fat and gain muscle by repairing the muscle quickly. Protein is the nutrient which aids muscle repair, and this stimulates growth as your training program continues.

The most crucial step in learning to burn fat and gain muscle is to train your body, first to burn fat, and then to sustain muscle growth. Check out the links below for a free review of the best burn fat and gain muscle guides.

I. The Three Intuitions

IA. Eidetic Intuitions

Intuition is supposed to be a form of direct access. Yet, direct access to what? Does it access directly “intuitions” (abstract objects, akin to numbers or properties - see “Bestowed Existence”)? Are intuitions the objects of the mental act of Intuition? Perhaps intuition is the mind’s way of interacting directly with Platonic ideals or Phenomenological “essences”? By “directly” I mean without the intellectual mediation of a manipulated symbol system, and without the benefits of inference, observation, experience, or reason.

Kant thought that both (Euclidean) space and time are intuited. In other words, he thought that the senses interact with our (transcendental) intuitions to produce synthetic a-priori knowledge. The raw data obtained by our senses -our sensa or sensory experience - presuppose intuition. One could argue that intuition is independent of our senses. Thus, these intuitions (call them “eidetic intuitions”) would not be the result of sensory data, or of calculation, or of the processing and manipulation of same. Kant’s “Erscheiung” (”phenomenon”, or “appearance” of an object to the senses) is actually a kind of sense-intuition later processed by the categories of substance and cause. As opposed to the phenomenon, the “nuomenon” (thing in itself) is not subject to these categories.

Descartes’ “I (think therefore I) am” is an immediate and indubitable innate intuition from which his metaphysical system is derived. Descartes’ work in this respect is reminiscent of Gnosticism in which the intuition of the mystery of the self leads to revelation.

Bergson described a kind of instinctual empathic intuition which penetrates objects and persons, identifies with them and, in this way, derives knowledge about the absolutes - “duration” (the essence of all living things) and “

For those that are lucky enough to have a pool, pool maintenance is part of the package. Pool maintenance is extremely important to promote cleanliness and good pool chemistry. But pool maintenance isn?t all bad. It just takes some attention to detail and some routine care to ensure a clear, clean pool.

Daily Care

- Test Pool Water for Sanitizer Level. This is to make sure that pH and alkaline are in good balance. A pool with an improper balance can affect water clarity, damage pool equipment, cause erosion and even affect pool chemistry.

- Add Chlorine or Bromine. This sanitizes your pool and kills any algae, bacteria, or other living things in the water.

- Check skimmer basket. Clear debris from skimmer basket to help keep water circulating and fresh.

Weekly Care

- Shock Pool Water. These are necessary to destroy combined chlorine compounds. Shocks work with chlorine to help clean the pool.

- Add Algaecide. This is to prevent and control algae. A good algaecide should not damage or stain the pool.

- Add Metal Out. All pools have tiny particles that the filter system does not catch. This weekly dosage will help eliminate metal particles.

- Add Clarifier. This prevents cloudy water and they also remove particles that are too small for the filter system to catch. Clarifying agents will make particles stick together so the large pieces can later be removed through vacuuming or filtration.

As Needed

- Vacuum pool.

- Leaf skim.

- Brush walls.

- Check filter/backwash.

These quick and easy steps will help ensure that you help preserve the life of your pool and also ensures a beautiful, clean pool for you to enjoy!

We all heard the terms “psychopath” or “sociopath”. These are the old names for a patient with the Antisocial Personality Disorder (AsPD). It is hard to distinguish narcissists from psychopaths. The latter may simply be a less inhibited and less grandiose form of the former. Indeed, the DSM V Committee is considering to abolish this distinction altogether.

Still, there are some important nuances setting the two disorders apart:

As opposed to most narcissists, psychopaths are either unable or unwilling to control their impulses or to delay gratification. They use their rage to control people and manipulate them into submission.

Psychopaths, like narcissists, lack empathy but many of them are also sadistic: they take pleasure in inflicting pain on their victims or in deceiving them. They even find it funny!

Psychopaths are far less able to form interpersonal relationships, even the twisted and tragic relationships that are the staple of the narcissist.

Both the psychopath and the narcissist disregard society, its conventions, social cues and social treaties. But the psychopath carries this disdain to the extreme and is likely to be a scheming, calculated, ruthless, and callous career criminal. Psychopaths are deliberately and gleefully evil while narcissists are absent-mindedly and incidentally evil.

From my book “Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited”:

“As opposed to what Scott Peck says, narcissists are not evil &ndash they lack the intention to cause harm (mens rea). As Millon notes, certain narcissists ‘incorporate moral values into their exaggerated sense of superiority. Here, moral laxity is seen (by the narcissist) as evidence of inferiority, and it is those who are unable to remain morally pure who are looked upon with contempt.’ (Millon, Th., Davis, R. - Personality Disorders in Modern Life - John Wiley and Sons, 2000). Narcissists are simply indifferent, callous and careless in their conduct and in their treatment of others. Their abusive conduct is off-handed and absent-minded, not calculated and premeditated like the psychopath’s.”

Psychopaths really do not need other people while narcissists are addicted to narcissistic supply (the admiration, attention, and envy of others).

Millon and Davis (supra) add (p. 299-300):

“When the egocentricity, lack of empathy, and sense of superiority of the narcissist cross-fertilize with the impulsivity, deceitfulness, and criminal tendencies of the antisocial, the result is a psychopath, an individual who seeks the gratification of selfish impulses through any means without empathy or remorse.”

The Role We Can Each Play

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We can all play a part in lessening our reliance on fossil fuels.

A- Use low-energy lamps such as CFL replacements for as many incandescent lightbulbs as possible in our home or apartment.

B- Turn off all lamps in areas where they are not needed.

C- Turn down water heater temperature to between 120-125 degrees.

D- Seal your home or apartment from obvious air drafts.

These steps could save the average family $300. to $400. a year in electricity costs alone, lessening the fossil fuel needed to produce it. It certainly becomes plainly obvious that if all Americans stopped driving their automobiles and ceased all commercial transportation, which includes both ground and air travel, we would most likely not be importing any foreign oil and would likewise be exporting at least some of the oil that we produce here. Obviously, this is not feasable.

Lately, most governments of the world have made it their priority to begin to deal with the problems of energy consumption and how to deal with the over consumption of fossil fuels along with Renewable energy sources. Many are adopting the latest in renewable energy technology such as Wind Power and Solar Power generation. Many have begun new projects that when completed will save millions of dollars on imported oil, domestic use of oil, or other fossil fuels.

Renewable Energy is the road to take. We must now tame this new source to be more competitive and more reliable than its predecessors which have been a source for many decades earlier. Today, we are learning this taming process very quickly and as we adopt these new technologies they will become more rewarding. Eventually, it is hoped, the oil wells of the world will wane into a minority source of energy.

With Renewable Energy in the news of late and the phenominal increase in Windmill farm deployments in 2004 and 2005 along with greatly expanded use of Solar Energy in this same period in many areas of this country, it is hoped that this trend will greatly lessen our needs for Fossil fuel sources in the near future.

Philosophy is considered a science but it is difficult to say, when one has to compare with an ordinary science, for example biology, or chemistry. This is a question that turns into a burning problem among the scientists and linguists all over the world. Can philosophy be a science? What does philosophy operate with? It operates with categories, which can be as wide and as interchangeable as one can only imagine. Ordinary science operates with definitions, which are quite limited in their field of research. Ordinary science uses terms and laws of that very science to continue the research, uniting with the others in very rare cases. Philosophy gets into the sense of every science trying to achieve results.

We also can not call philosophy a supra-science, for it also uses hypothesis and arguments to state the opinion. But there is the obvious thing: there are now laws in philosophy and never will be, for the science changes with the age, the needs, beliefs and requirements of the citizens. To prove your opinion, you can write the definition essay and state all the facts and arguments you know to prove one way or another. This is also a nice way to research the problem and see what the solution is. But you have to research it carefully; otherwise definition essays will not be fruitful. As all sciences philosophy has gone through its stages of development. Some scientists believe that the crib of philosophy was mythology and religion. If to see the principles of life and some primitive morals stated in some myths we may see that the statement is quite true and philosophy still continues to develop out of social beliefs and ideas. Philosophy is a science which is obligatory learned by every college student in order for him to establish his own philosophy of life. It is quite exciting to find answers to ever existing questions: who am I? What do I know? What can I know? What am I destined to do? Here is one more interesting observation. You can see that all famous philosophers were researching other science fields also. For example, Freud, Yung, Kafka and others were doing research in linguistics and social sciences. Their numerous creations are the pride of human history for they revealed some secrets that remained undiscovered for a long time before their great contributions.

There are so many currents and branches, so many schools of philosophy that it is hard to decide, which one do you prefer and agree with. This much depends on the country, family, society you live in. This is one more difference between philosophy and other natural sciences. The law is stable for any country; gravity exists in India, same as in Brazil. Philosophy is a hard science, for it is very difficult to understand the sense of the dogma reading it only once. It is of course, not easy, but gives credit for you if you get interested and somewhere, being at the social event you quote one of the famous doctors of philosophy and make a great impression of an educated and intelligent personality.