The purpose of this essay is to provide the knowledge and tools to become aware, then observe, and finally to engage, intellectually and morally, with civic and sacred sites and memorials as individuals and as communities, educationally and politically.
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The time may be ripe for federal legislation that would banish paddles from American schools forever.
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In the United States, foreign-born workers of Hispanic origin have been central to the construction industry for decades. Many of these workers have experienced only limited education in either English or Spanish and most are bilingual to some degree. As employers are beginning to recognise the benefits of providing access to the OSHA 10- and 30-hour Construction Safety Training Course, the industry has begun to experience a downward trend in preventable accidents, illnesses and fatalities. Despite this decline, a detailed review of recently published research indicates that foreign-born workers of Hispanic origin remain nearly 70% more likely to be involved in a work-related incident than their American-born counterparts. In order to develop and provide effective workplace learning programmes it is necessary to assess the impact which these workers’ literacy and confidence in a second language has on their professional capabilities. This problem is examined by utilizing a simple post-test only randomised experimental design to measure knowledge retention among this demographic immediately following the completion of OSHA 10-hour Construction Safety Training Courses when the languages of instruction were English-only, Spanish-only and both English and Spanish. The data revealed that workers who fall into this category retained more knowledge from the training course when it was taught using a translanguaging approach. This data will be of value to designers of workplace education programmes, who will be better placed to incorporate a bilingual element into their instructional methodologies.
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And now for something completely different.
After my wife told me I sat too much, and reading various scary things about the evils of sitting too much and the benefits of standing desks, I decided to try out a standing desk. At first I was going to order one or buy one locally, and then I looked at the prices and decided that I’d better try it out before I invest. To try it out, I built one to put on top of this old desk. The desktop was already pretty much the size I wanted, about 2/3″, at Home Depot. The other boards (same width) were cut at the store for me to my design. Then I just got some wood screws and put it together. (Note to self: get a better drill.) It turns out to be quite sturdy. Of course, I had to carefully measure for the exact right height, and I did a very good job there on getting the height exactly right for me.
Now, when you get a standing desk, there is a breaking-in period (so I read, and so I am confirming right now) in which your feet and legs won’t be able to handle standing all the time, or not without some distracting pain. So to begin with, at least, it’s a good idea to have chair. But it has to be a tall chair. At first, I used a counter stool from downstairs, but that didn’t work because it wasn’t tall enough (I need a 30″ to reach my desktop height comfortably; a taller person might need a slightly taller stool). So I got an adjustable barstool, as you can see here, and it works fine.
Another thing that makes the standing desk more tolerable is a soft, but not too soft, floor. At first I thought I could just stand in my shoes. I discovered that my shoes are not very comfortable for standing in for long periods of time. Just standing on the carpet, although it is a somewhat plush carpet, was also a no-go. So I decided that all the standing desk blogs were right and that I needed a special mat, an “anti-fatigue” mat, that would be easier on my feet. So for $40 I got a kitchen “chef mat” and put a couple of memory foam bath mats on top of those. They help, but I’m still trying to decide what is best. Generally I put the two bath mats on top of each other then on top of the chef mat, and then shift positions as different parts of the foam get compressed. I suspect that I should probably spend the $75+ and get a gel mat.
Finally, for the piece de la resistance, I have a little stool to rest my foot on. This is another commonly-recommended accessory of standing desks. At first I didn’t think it would be that necessary, but as it’s necessary to shift one’s position pretty frequently, it’s just nice to have another position to put my legs in. It also helps, by the way, to shift my feet back a few inches as necessary, to keep the weight more on the balls of my feet than on my heels. But if they all just start getting too sore, I just switch to the stool for a little bit. It’s not that bad.
I’ve been at it for almost a week now, and I’m starting to get used to it. I can confirm the things commonly said about standing desks: it makes me more focused and productive, and I might have lost a little weight even. Next thing to try, after I get used to being on my feet, is a treadmill desk…
Total cost, including $25 wood and screws, $80 stool, and $40 mats: $145. Wife no longer nagging me about sitting too much: priceless.
The Common Core State Standards have potential to improve student learning but are arriving with a questionable assumption: common standards plus increasing accountability pressures will translate into improved practice and achievement. Standards define where students need to be; accountability systems document where they are. Educators are supposed to discover ways to close the gap. Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) could play a pivotal role in closing this gap, but not unless we re-conceptualize their structure and content to include meaningful reflection on instruction and provide teachers with a roadmap to productively guide collaborative work around the CCSS.
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Well-meant attempts to differentiate education are akin to prison reform; they are helpful for people stuck in prison, but the assumptions underlying the basic structure of prison are not addressed. To compassionately meet the needs of all children, we must do away with the idea of grade levels, not just work in different ways to mold children to pre-determined grade levels.
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