On November 8th, the voters of who live in the Los Angeles schools district will be faced with their fourth proposition, called Measure Y. The $3.985 bond measure, which will be paid by property taxes, is for more planned expansion within the Los Angeles schools, allowing them to add another 25 elementary schools to the current list of 160 schools that are scheduled to be constructed by year 2012. Some of the money also is slated for other needs, such as new school buses, repairs and charter schools.
The other three bond measures were passed for Los Angeles schools new construction and repairs that were long overdue. Classrooms were literally falling apart, and classes were excessively overcrowded with year-round schedules for many schools. The previously passed measures underwrote the current 160 schools on the list for construction.
Many people, however, are asking if this fourth measure is truly needed. According to the Los Angeles Daily News, the traditional Los Angeles schools are slowly but steadily losing students from their rolls. Since the 2002-2003 school year, the traditional Los Angeles schools have lost 4,471 students. According to Los Angeles schools officials, they expect another 4,304 to be dropped this year. There are several reasons for these drops in enrollment.
First, one in every 20 students is choosing to attend a charter or private school, rather than attend traditional Los Angeles schools. The 88 charter schools within the state now enroll about three percent (about 200,000) of the public school students. About 35,000 of these students attend charter schools within the Los Angeles schools. The number of charter schools within the state continues to increase, with another 20 new charter schools planned for this fall.
The California Charter Schools Association predicts that ten percent of public school students within the state will attend charter schools by the year 2014, with perhaps an even higher percentage in the Los Angeles schools area. They cite that the number of charter schools would need to triple in order to accommodate all of the students currently on waiting lists. With the smaller size and flexibility of charter schools, they can be created and implemented in a very short time, as compared to the large, traditional Los Angeles schools that take years to construct.
The second reason for the drastic drop in enrollment at the Los Angeles schools is birth and lifestyle trends:
• Los Angeles County statistics have shown that hundreds of fewer babies are being born in the county each year. The trend is expected to continue through to the end of the decade.
• Upper income singles and couples with few children have replaced neighborhoods that were once inhabited by large immigrant families. With the rising housing prices in the Los Angeles schools area, most young families or families with many children can no longer afford to live there, opting to move to areas with lower costs of living.
• Additionally, according to researchers at the Public Policy Institute of California, another trend is smaller immigrant families. In their 2002 report, they show that after the first generation, immigrant families successively have smaller families.
Glenn Gritzner, special assistant to the Los Angeles schools, says that the Los Angeles schools have taken the changes in demographics into consideration, but they are not critical enough to change the school building plans. Gritzner states that, if school plans and trends/statistics remain on course through 2012, there still will be 200,000 Los Angeles schools students in portable classrooms and plenty of overcrowded Los Angeles schools remaining. Plus, trends are only current patterns that are subject to change. Measure Y definitely is warranted.
There is a lot of discussion in the news and especially in school districts across the nation about per student spending rates. As noted in the Business Journal of Phoenix, these rates have doubled over the past 30 years, yet test scores and graduation rates have remained the same.
The Phoenix schools would not know what doubling the per student spending rate might do for the achievement of their students. They, along with the rest of the state's schools, rank 49th in per student spending - next to the bottom! This is according to the Quality Counts 2004 study by Education Week.
Currently, the Arizona legislators have the opportunity to correct this grossly unjust oversight but are still in debate. The state has a $1.2 billion budget surplus to spend. The Phoenix schools and the other schools in Arizona are in dire need of this money, which is a nationally known fact. The state is becoming a laughing stock over its neglected educational system. Yet, those in the State Capitol are debating between using the surplus for education funding, in support of biosciences, or property tax cuts. All areas are important to the state and in need of funding relief; however, as in the Phoenix schools, if you do not graduate students prepared for college and the workplace, the state's economy will suffer in the future.
Business groups see education in the Phoenix schools as top priority. They know that to survive in business today, and especially tomorrow, it takes qualified job candidates with college degrees and the skills to succeed. Otherwise, the businesses will not succeed. Historically in such situations, businesses eventually relocate to areas that graduate higher-skilled high school graduates, knowing that many will return to the area after college. Currently, Phoenix schools, along with the remainder of the state, are consistently ranked at the bottom nationally for the number of students who graduate from high school. Is it any wonder that businesses are concerned.
Many parents seek alternatives to the Phoenix schools, unhappy with the school system. Many home school their children. Some move to specific areas in order to enroll their children into better schools. For those parents who can afford it, their children attend private schools. The majority, however, are stuck in the Phoenix schools, because they cannot afford to do otherwise.
The legislature will definitely increase spending for education this year for K-12, of which the Phoenix schools will receive their portion. With all the attention on per student spending, how can they do otherwise? Yet, will the allocated increase be enough? Without quality education in the Phoenix schools, many of the youth of Phoenix will be destined to low-wage, dead-end jobs with little opportunity to succeed. Very few will even consider college, let alone fulfilling such a dream.
The fastest way to build muscle is to be consistent, once you have learned what you need to know about diet and bodybuilding exercise. Provided you are following the right exercises in the right way, you will make faster gains the harder and more consistently you work out. As ever, it pays to learn what you are doing before you start, so here you will discover the fastest way to build muscle.
Step 1
If you are looking for the fastest way to build muscle, look first at your diet. You need to be taking in the right nutrients, and the right number of calories before you can expect your bodybuilding work to succeed. It is a very common error amongst newcomers to bodybuilding to over concentrate on protein. Protein is absolutely necessary, but it needs to be combined with an adequate amount of carbohydrate, or else the muscles will not have the fuel they need to use the protein and grow.
Step 2
Eat twice as much food. Of course this piece of advice presupposes that you have amended your diet to be taking in the correct balance of nutrients. If you are using diet as part of the fastest way to build muscle, eating double the amount of food will ensure that your muscles will be built, and that your hard work will pay off. Just be sure that your hunger is enough to warrant eating that much food.
Step 3
Keep a diary of when you work out. When exercises become habitual, it is easy to forget exactly how many reps you have performed, or how much weight you managed to lift at the time. Keep a record of everything you do, either on paper or by an electronic method, and you will be able to make sure that you are increasing both your number of reps and your weight at the right time. You need to be constantly increasing the demands on your body for the fastest way to build muscle.
Step 4
These four steps of the fastest ways to build muscle would not be complete without mentioning weight training technique. If your exercises are not being performed properly, you could be wasting a lot of the hard effort you are putting in. The lift phase needs to be performed with the weight under control, but as quickly and smoothly as possible, while exhaling your breath. The release is just the opposite, and needs to be executed as slowly as you can, taking at least twice as much time as you need . This may be difficult when you start, but it will soon become second nature – correct weightlifting technique is an essential part of the fastest way to build muscle
The four tips in this guide have given you a good insight into the fastest way to build muscle. Use them, and they will serve you well.
Sachem School District teachers completed another professional development activity thanks to the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning. The program is called the Strategic Instructional Model (SIM) and looks at how teachers can improve literacy in low performing adolescents
The Strategic Instructional Model
Developed over 25 years of research, SIM works to help teachers recognize what lessons are of greatest importance and target those lessons towards a diverse group of learners. SIM rests on four philosophical principles:
• Low proficiency students can be taught in mainstream classrooms.
• Teacher's aides, or support teachers, should concentrate on helping students develop learning strategies.
• Subject teachers should organize their lessons so that the material can be understood and remembered by low proficiency students.
• The students should be actively involved in deciding how to learn new strategies.
SIM works on two levels, one addressing the needs of the teacher and the other addressing the needs of the student. For teachers, SIM training provides a method for organizing information in ways that are most useful for students, so that they can understand what they learn and then be able to use it to accomplish tasks. For students, academic coaching develops learning strategies that can be applied to what they learn in school. These strategies range from learning ways to approach written texts, including informational readings and math word problems, as well as ways to express information in writing, as is often required on standardized tests.
Another important element of SIM is the way that it promotes teamwork among teachers, students, and parents. In deciding what content to teach to students, teachers and students work together to determine what information students need and what the best method of delivering that information is. This creates a feeling of comradery in the learning community and helps all stakeholders contribute to the overall success of students.
What Long Island Teachers are Saying About SIM
Many classroom teachers have welcomed SIM as a concrete approach to meeting the needs of their students. After observing a demonstration writing lesson conducted using the method, teacher Jill Kristoff comments, "The SIM sentence writing strategy is a very useful tool for children, teaching them grammar and sentence structure, as well as improving their writing; and because it is taught in steps, children of all abilities can be successful with it!"
What Long Island Schools Students are Saying About SIM
Students agree with their teachers that SIM offers them a lot of structure for understanding what they are learning. After observing the demonstration lesson conducted by University of Kansas teacher – trainer Dottie Turner, one student said, "Ms. Turner helped me a lot with sentences. She taught me what a good sentence needs. Now my sentences are much better with details, and they are not boring." Another student also believed that she had benefited from the demonstration lesson and expressed her pride in participating in a professional development experience for her teacher. She commented: "The demo lesson was helpful to my writing. It was also a lot of fun. Teachers were sitting in the back, but they were not watching me. They were watching Ms. Turner. I loved that lesson!"
The Sachem School District community hopes that SIM will help local teachers and students achieve higher statewide assessment scores by including all students in the learning experience. The Strategic Instructional Model meets the guidelines for the No Child Left Behind Act and studies have shown improved academic performance for all students. Long Island schools welcome this added tool for improving the achievement of their students and look
In the first two parts, representing, adding, and subtracting numbers using base ten blocks were explained. The use of base ten blocks gives students an effective tool that they can touch and manipulate to solve math questions. Not only are base ten blocks effective at solving math questions, they teach students important steps and skills that translate directly into paper and pencil methods of solving math questions. Students who first use base ten blocks develop a stronger conceptual understanding of place value, addition, subtraction, and other math skills. Because of their benefit to the math development of young people, educators have looked for other applications involving base ten blocks. In this article, a variety of other applications will be explained.
Multiplying One- and Two-Digit Numbers
One common way of teaching multiplication is to create a rectangle where the two factors become the two dimensions of a rectangle. This is easily accomplished using graph paper. Imagine the question 7 x 6. Students colour or shade a rectangle seven squares wide and six squares long; then they count the number of squares in their rectangle to find the product of 7 x 6. With base ten blocks, the process is essentially the same except students are able to touch and manipulate real objects which many educators say has a greater effect on a student's ability to understand the concept. In the example, 5 x 8, students create a rectangle 5 cubes wide by 8 cubes long, and they count the number of cubes in the rectangle to find the product.
Multiplying two-digit numbers is slightly more complicated, but it can be learned fairly quickly. If both factors in the multiplication question are two-digit numbers, the flats, the rods, and the cubes might all be used. In the case of two-digit multiplication, the flats and the rods just quicken the procedure; the multiplication could be accomplished with just cubes. The procedure is the same as for one-digit multiplication - the student creates a rectangle using the two factors as the dimensions of the rectangle. Once they have built the rectangle, they count the number of units in the rectangle to find the product. Consider the multiplication, 54 x 25. The student needs to create a rectangle 54 cubes wide by 25 cubes long. Since that might take a while, the student can use a shortcut. A flat is simply 100 cubes, and a rod is simply 10 cubes, so the student builds the rectangle filling in the large areas with flats and rods. In its most efficient form, the rectangle for 54 x 25 is 5 flats and four rods in width (the rods are arranged vertically), and 2 flats and five rods in length (with the rods arranged horizontally). The rectangle is filled in with flats, rods, and cubes. In the whole rectangle, there are 10 flats, 33 rods, and 20 cubes. Using the values for each base ten block, there is a total of (10 x 100) + (33 x 10) + (20 x 1) = 1350 cubes in the rectangle. Students can count each type of base ten block separately and add them up.
Division
Base ten blocks are so flexible, they can even be used to divide! There are three methods for division that I will describe: grouping, distributing, and modified multiplying.
To divide by grouping, first represent the dividend (the number you are dividing) with base ten blocks. Arrange the base ten blocks into groups the size of the divisor. Count the number of groups to find the quotient. For example, 348 divided by 58 is represented by 3 flats, 4 rods, and 8 cubes. To arrange 348 into groups of 58, trade the flats for rods, and some of the rods for cubes. The result is six piles of 58, so the quotient is six.
Dividing by distributing is the old "one for you and one for me" trick. Distribute the dividend into the same number of piles as the divisor. At the end, count how many piles are left. Students will probably pick up the analogy of sharing quite easily - i.e. We need to give everyone an equal number of base ten blocks. To illustrate, consider 192 divided by 8. Students represent 192 with one flat, 9 rods and 2 cubes. They can distribute the rods into eight groups easily, but the flat has to be traded for rods, and some rods for cubes to accomplish the distribution. In the end, they should find that there are 24 units in each pile, so the quotient is 24.
To multiply, students create a rectangle using the two factors as the length and width. In division, the size of the rectangle and one of the factors is known. Students begin by building one dimension of the rectangle using the divisor. They continue to build the rectangle until they reach the desired dividend. The resulting length (the other dimension) is the quotient. If a student is asked to solve 1369 divided by 37, they begin by laying down three rods and seven cubes to create one dimension of the rectangle. Next, they lay down another 37, continuing the rectangle, and check to see if they have the required 1369 yet. Students who have experience with estimating might begin by laying down three flats and seven rods in a row (rods vertically arranged) since they know that the quotient is going to be larger than ten. As students continue, they may recognize that they can replace groups of ten rods with a flat to make counting easier. They continue until the desired dividend is reached. In this example, students find the quotient is 37.
Changing the Values of Base Ten Blocks
Up until now, the value of the cube has been one unit. For older students, there is no reason why the cube couldn't represent one tenth, one hundredth, or one million. If the value of the cube is redefined, the other base ten blocks, of course, have to follow. For example, redefining the cube as one tenth means the rod represents one, the flat represents ten, and the block represents one hundred. This redefinition is useful for a decimal question such as 54.2 + 27.6. A common way to redefine base ten blocks is to make the cube one thousandth. This makes the rod one hundredth, the flat one tenth, and the block one whole. Besides the traditional definition, this one makes the most sense, since a block can be divided into 1000 cubes, so it follows logically that one cube is one thousandth of the cube.
Representing and Working With Large Numbers
Numbers don't stop at 9,999 which is the maximum you can represent with a traditional set of base ten blocks. Fortunately, base ten blocks come in a variety of colors. In math, the ones, tens, and hundreds are called a period. The thousands, ten thousands, and hundred thousands are another period. The millions, ten millions and hundred millions are the third period. This continues where every three place values is called a period. You may have figured out by now that each period can be represented by a different colour of place value block. If you do this, you eliminate the large blocks and just use the cubes, rods, and flats. Let us say that we have three sets of base ten blocks in yellow, green, and blue. We'll call the yellow base ten blocks the first period (ones, tens, hundreds), the green blocks the second period, and the blue blocks the third period. To represent the number, 56,784,325, use 5 blue rods, 6 blue cubes, 7 green flats, 8 green rods, 4 green cubes, 3 yellow flats, 2 yellow rods, and 5 yellow cubes. When adding and subtracting, trading is accomplished by recognizing that 10 yellow flats can be traded for one green cube, 10 green flats can be traded for one blue cube, and vice-versa.
Integers
Base ten blocks can be used to add and subtract integers. To accomplish this, two colours of base ten blocks are required - one colour for negative numbers and one colour for positive numbers. The zero principle states that an equal number of negatives and an equal number of positives add up to zero. To add using base ten blocks, represent both numbers using base ten blocks, apply the zero principle and read the result. For example (-51) + (+42) could be represented with 5 red rods, 1 red cube, 4 blue rods, and 2 blue cubes. Immediately, the student applies the zero principle to four red and four blue rods and one red and one blue cube. To finish the problem, they trade the remaining red rod for 10 red cubes and apply the zero principle to the remaining blue cube and one of the red cubes. The end result is (-9).
Subtracting means taking away. For instance, (-5) - (-2) is represented by taking two red cubes from a pile of five red cubes. If you can't take away, the zero principle can be applied in reverse. You can't take away six blue cubes in (-7) - (+6) because there aren't six blue cubes. Since a blue cube and a red cube is just zero, and adding zero to a number doesn't change it, simply include six blue cubes and six red cubes with the pile of seven red cubes. When six blue cubes are taken from the pile, 13 red cubes remain, so the answer to (-7) - (+6) is (-13). This procedure can, of course, be applied to larger numbers, and the process might involve trading.
Other Uses
By no means have I explained all of the uses of base ten blocks, but I have covered most of the major uses. The rest is up to your imagination. Can you think of a use for base ten blocks when teaching powers of ten? How about using base ten blocks for fractions? So many math skills can be learned using base ten blocks simply because they represent our numbering system - the base ten system. Base ten blocks are just one of many excellent manipulatives available to teachers and parents that give students a strong conceptual background in math.
The base ten blocks skills described above can be applied using worksheets from http://www.math-drills.com. The worksheets come with answer keys, so students can get feedback on their ability to correctly use base ten blocks.
One of the biggest problems across our nation is large classrooms and too many students falling behind in their education. There are too few teachers for individualized instruction, and generally those parents of children who fall behind cannot afford private tutoring. They personally cannot tutor their own children, in most cases, because they either lack sufficient education themselves or are too busy - sometimes working two and three jobs to support their family.
In the fall of 2005, the Chicago schools got the help they needed in this area from the United Stated Department of Education that now underwrites the new Chicago schools A.I.M. High! program. (A.I.M. means Advancing Individual Mastery.) The program gives supplemental tutoring services after-school to low-performing students, who attend Chicago schools that have not met adequate yearly progress for three consecutive years under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act.
The tutoring is held in the child's school at no cost, covering Chicago schools students in grades one through twelve. There are a maximum of 15 students for each tutoring class, and a maximum of 20 weeks of instruction per student, including 60 to 80 hours in reading and math. Tutoring teachers receive professional development and are both highly qualified and certified. Tutors are familiar with each student's particular needs, using an individualized tutoring plan that specifies achievement objectives for each student with timetables. Nationally recognized instructional tutoring materials are used by these Chicago schools tutors. Children with special needs receive special accommodations.
According to Chicago schools Superintendent Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings cut through the red tape and bureaucracy to make the tutoring program happen. Duncan expressed his appreciation to Spellings at a special ceremony in 2005, which was attended by the Secretary, Mayor Richard Daley, Senator Dick Durbin, Senator Mike Enzi, Congressman Danny David, Congressman Bobby Rush, and other city and Chicago schools officials.
Though such assistance was promised by NCLB, this extra assistance from Spellings for the Chicago schools means a win-win situation for the schools, the educators, the community, the parents, and especially for the Chicago schools students. Spellings noted that A.I.M. High! will make a huge difference for Chicago schools students in their futures - meaning there may be an opportunity to continue on to college and knowing that they will be prepared to enter the workforce with sufficient skills to be successful.
Both the Chicago schools and Spellings see this as a new opportunity for the U.S. Department of Education and school districts across the nation to work together to help students succeed in life. It is definitely a win-win situation for all concerned.
