March » 2009 » Carol J. Carter

Graduating With a Major in Go-Getting

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

Every college student this year and for the next few years needs to graduate with a major in â€œGo-Getting,â€ as the article below implies. Grads need at least one if not two solid internships and work experience from jobs in retail, fast food, child care or yard work. These experiences, if well done, can show employers how students think, work as a team and lead others to positive goals, which is something recruiters look for during the interview process. Companies today want to know that the grads they hire arenâ€™t just a good bet for the entry level, but for the long term as well. Data shows that companies spend an average of $40,000 training new hires. If those grads go on to be promoted to positions of more responsibility or better, start new divisions within their company, they will be fueling future economic growth. There is no better way to ensure job security than having outcomes which directly impact and create business growth.

ARTICLE
Wall Street Journal
By EILEEN GUNN
Reorganizations grab fewer headlines than job losses, but they are common in a recession, and often precede or follow layoffs. And they can be as just as disheartening. It can be difficult to figure out where you fit in as management changes are made, new work groups are formed, and you find yourself working for a new boss. To survive, you’ll need to adapt, while also assessing the future of your job.

To view the entire article visit
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123845358462571299.html

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The Global Campus Meets a World of Competition

CAROL’S SUMMARY: Private career colleges like University of Phoenix have pioneered in the on-line learning environment because they are completely-student centered. In their language, they might say “customer-centered.” Traditional colleges who are still under pressure for high academic and research standards often
struggle to make students a top-priority with so many competing priorities to juggle.

In the on-line world, traditional colleges have lagged behind the private career colleges and it is costing traditional universities a bundle. In the article below, the cost issues, especially, are laid out during these very
difficult economic times. The on-line option in addition to student success, retention, research and fund-raising, has become onerous but necessary as our world marches towards a whole new learning and teaching model in the on-line learning world.

ARTICLE:

Online-education venture at the U. of Illinois tries to distinguish itself from other distance-learning programs

By DAN TURNER

The University of Illinois Global Campus, a multimillion-dollar distance-learning project, is up and running. For its March-April 2009 term, it has enrolled 366 students.

Getting to this point, though, has looked a little like the dot-com start-up bubble of the late 1990s. Hundreds of Internet-related companies were launched with overly ambitious goals, only to later face cutbacks and other struggles to stay alive. Most crashed anyway. Some observers now say the Global Campus must try to avoid the same fate of churning through a large initial investment while attracting too few customers.

The project, planned about four years ago, was designed to complement existing online programs offered by individual Illinois-system campuses at Urbana-Champaign, Springfield, and Chicago. Those programs primarily serve current students as an addition to their on-campus course work. The Global Campus, in contrast, seeks to reach the adult learner off campus, who is often seeking a more focused, career-related certification or degree, such as completing a B.S. in nursing.

To view this entire article you must subscribe to www.chronicle.com

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Does Experience Trump Higher Education?

CAROL’S SUMMARY: Does experience trump education? It certainly can. That is why it is more important for students to plan interesting and different ways to spend their summer or winter breaks in high school than overly obsessing about their SAT score. In life, as Dr. Robert Sternberg says, you need Successful Intelligenceâ€”the ability to be analytically, creatively, and practically intelligent. Schools foster analytical skills, which are important, but the other skills you need for life success like taking calculated risks, learning new skills, stretching beyond your comfort zone and learning to work with people who arenâ€™t like you, can propel you to job success and security.

Questions to consider:
1. What are all the things you could imagine for yourself if things could go as well as possible?
2. What are the successes as well as failures that have been your greatest life teachers?
3. How can you think about your future as a balance of education and experience?

ARTICLE:

By Matthew Vuturo
Wall Street Journal
March 27, 2009

I wouldnâ€™t trade my education for anything. All of my educational experiences have shaped the person I am today, high school on through my business degree. Educating their children was my parentsâ€™ top priority, for which I will be eternally grateful.

But, these days, as I look around, I canâ€™t help but feel like education is the biggest scam going. With so many accredited institutions minting fresh undergraduate and graduate degrees, the perceived value of formal education has become greatly diminished. An undergraduate degree used to represent a real achievement in life, whereas now it seems to be mere proof one has a pulse.

Like many others who went through a traditional M.B.A. program, I dedicated serious time and money to completing my degree. With a full time job and classes most nights of the week, the two years I spent dedicated to the cause was a grind to say the least. I remember a year ago now how much I believed my advanced degree would help me get my foot in the door, and in front of the right audience. I knew it didnâ€™t guarantee me anything, but I did think it would help me stand out and get my shot.

Visit http://blogs.wsj.com for the entire article

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Proximity to Fast Food a Factor in Student Obesity

CAROL’S SUMMARY

The study below shows that fast-food restaurants nearÂ schools is linked to obesity among students. But the issue doesnâ€™t stop there. Many school cafeterias serve high sugar, high carb menus with a plethora of soft drinks available from vending machines for purchase throughout the day. Data suggests that students who have diets high in sugar and carbs with very little protein have a hard time focusing, staying awake and keeping their attention on the subject matter at hand.

The Steamboat Springs school district in Colorado just banned these types of foods and beverages from their schools. No doubt with the obesity link and the even greater risk of students with attention problems, more districts around the country will follow suit. Parents would do well to think of ways that students can reduce sugar dependence and experiment with meals that feature protein and vegetables, which can form lifelong patterns of health. The alternative is a large crop of emerging students who become adults that tap out our healthcare system because they didnâ€™t form healthy eating habits in their youth.

ARTICLE
New York Times
By RONI CARYN RABIN
Ninth graders whose schools are within a block of a fast-food outlet are more likely to be obese than students whose schools are a quarter of a mile or more away, according to a study of millions of schoolchildren by economists at the University of California and Columbia University.

To view the entire article visit
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/health/nutrition/26obese.html?emc=eta1

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New Workplace Equalizer: Ambition

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

The article below is about a new strain of ambition seen from women, equalizing the male and female career ladder. These trends are no doubt fueled by student loan debt, general debt grads may have acquired and the recent downturn in the economy which may make the model of one parent staying at home extremely difficult financially.

Women as well as men are less likely in this economy and this decade to take their jobs for granted. If they are dissatisfied, they may be more cautious about building their skills and networks while still maintaining their day job, paycheck and benefits at least for the next few years until things turn around. In the meantime, it is nose to grindstone for those of us who have jobs balancing work, family, and often a second job or school at night for better prospects in the future.

ARTICLE
Wall Street Journal
By SUE SHELLENBARGER
After decades of glacial change in gender roles, a new generation of working women is proving to be as ambitious as their male counterparts, as measured by their eagerness to move up the career ladder.

Based on a unique long-term study of attitudes in the U.S. work force, about two-thirds of both men and women under age 29 say they desire more responsibility on the job. Having children doesn’t dent the ambitions of young women workers; 69% of mothers in this age group say they want to move up on the job, compared with 66% of women without children, says the study of about 3,500 wage, salaried and self-employed workers and small-business owners, released Thursday by the nonprofit Families and Work Institute in New York.

To view the entire article visit
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB123801512551141207-lMyQjAxMDI5MzI4NTAyMTU1Wj.html

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Our Students Need More Practice in Actual Thinking

CAROL’S SUMMARY: To be ready for the challenges of the global world, students need to have highly developed critical and creative thinking skills, problem-solving and decision-making to name a few. The trouble is, the standardized testing pattern rarely promotes critical and creative thinking.

How can you as a parent promote critical and creative thinking skills at
home?
* Ask questions of your child. Question-asking is one of the most prized
skills and helps you as a parent to be a coach for your child as they grow
older and need more complex thinking skills at their disposal.
* Do creative and different things together as a family. Spend time asking your
kids what they would do in the world if they could do anything–get them to
think big. Whatever they share, ask them to come up with small steps that could move them closer to their big dream. As much as possible, spend time at home imagining, creating and sharing your vision.
* Ask what else. If your child suffers a disappointment or a setback, ask what other good can come from that door closing. What will this setback
do to provide a stepping stone to a new experience?

The more you demonstrate thoughtful, probing and interesting behaviors with
your child, the more they will see critical and creative thinking first-hand
from you.

ARTICLE:

By ROB JENKINS

During a recent meeting of a committee charged with reviewing my state’s higher-education core curriculum, a committee member asked, “Do students really need two math courses?”

In a word, yes.

Admittedly, as an undergraduate English major, I may have asked the same question myself a time or two. And certainly it’s true that, in the nearly three decades since I sweated through pre-calculus, I’ve never once had to factor an equation â€” nor, frankly, do I remember how. (Just ask my teenagers, who’ve occasionally been misguided enough to ask me for help with their algebra homework.)

To view this entire article you must subscribe to www.chronicle.com

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Guiding Hands Find New Ways

CAROL’S SUMMARY:
Counselors these days are re-inventing themselves, stepping up to the challenges they face as are their counterparts in the world of business. One of the ways counselors are multiplying their efforts and expanding their leadership is through taking full responsibility for the advisory classes, grades 5-12. These advisory classes are becoming the backbone of academic, emotional and social intelligence for students. Counselors can make themselves indispensable to their principal, the teaching team and the district as a whole by taking the lead on the advisory courses, measuring data and providing the passion and the purpose behind full school compliance. Counselors are setting the standard by helping their management team to analyze these success factors:

1) Attendance

2) Critical and creative thinking skills

3) Grades

4) School involvement

5) Use of resources, including tutors and others who can help in learning

6) Planning and strategy for the future.

The more that counselors become strong leaders and coaches, the more they will lead their schools and districts to new, measurable outcomes of achievement. Thatâ€™s job security.

ARTICLE

Washington PostÂ

By Michael Birnbaum

Washington Post Staff Writer

They don’t just wait for students to come to their offices in search of college brochures, health pamphlets or other help. These days, counselors are scouring schools for at-risk kids to prevent personal or academic troubles before they arise. In tough economic times, students and families need the guidance more than ever.Â Â

To view entire article visit http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/22/AR2009032201899.html?referrer=emailarticle

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Social Networks are the R&D Teams of the Future

CAROL’S SUMMARY:

All of learning is changing because of technology. The more that we as educators, authors and administrators understand the way students learn and the need to have a learning â€œexperienceâ€, the more students will be motivated, engaged and challenged. Here are questions to consider:

What changes might you need to make to harness this potential?

1) How will you have to be different?

2) How will your students need to interact as teams?

3) How will you measure the outcomes of this new learning world versus the more lecture-based formats of the last one hundred years?

4) How can more students who struggle show their ability and their knowledge through technology?

ARTICLEÂ

ASCD
Author name not posted
This morning’s session “Professional Learning Networks Using Web 2.0 Tools,” presented by Meg Ormiston, shared a bunch of networking tools (find the liveblogged rundown on the session’s wikispace) and some big ideas:

“Social networking for educators is about breaking down isolation. Imagine if every 2nd grade teacher was on Twitter and their network was primarily other 2nd grade teachers. It would accomplish so much more than all our binders of curriculum.”

To view entire article visit http://ascd.typepad.com/blog/2009/03/prof-learning-networks-using-web-20.html

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Why College Towns Are Looking Smart

CAROL’S SUMMARY:
During times of recession, many people are reconsidering where they live and where they might want to live for better jobs, lower taxes, and possibly better school systems. In the WSJâ€™s article, Why College Towns Are Looking Smart, many of the college towns across America seem to be recession-proof, at least for the time being.

Some people, who have lived in the big cities, paying high taxes and falling from high income jobs, are analyzing where else they could live and work now that technology has really brought down the need to be at a â€œhome officeâ€ base. Hewlett Packard recently had more than 50% of their workforce shift to home offices to save money on facilities. These kinds of company moves open up more options for the highly skilled, trustworthy worker to work from whatever community they wish. Skype, Twitter and other forms of keeping in touch facilitate this type of flexibility which can promote financial stability and success in low-income parts of the United States and even the world.

ARTICLE:
Wall Street Journal
By KELLY EVANS

Looking for a job? Try a college town.

Morgantown, W.Va., home to West Virginia University, has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the U.S. — just 3.9% — and the university itself has about 260 job openings, from nurses to professors to programmers.

“We’re hurting for people, especially to fill our computer and technical positions,” says Margaret Phillips, vice president for human relations at WVU.

To view entire article visit www.wsj.com

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Start Over as an Intern

CAROL’S SUMMARY:
In this job market, many mid level and middle-aged employees are going back to intern for companies for which they have a passion and an interest, but no experience. While this may mean a temporary financial hit for some, it may produce long-term benefits on a whole new career path. It can often obviate the need for business school, or it can help ensure you are accepted to business school if you are convinced you need that degree and learning for your career advancement.

Here are some questions to ask yourself:

1) If there is an industry or field about which you have a deep passion, how could you pitch a one-month internship to both show your capabilities and truly verify your interest in that area?

2) Financially, how can you supplement your income so that you can work without pay on an internship? Can you get a minimum wage job, or even work as a consultant for your former employer?

3) Who are at least three people who can provide strong recommendations for you so that you can get your foot in the door for the internship? Have these in hand or as part of your electronic portfolio when you make the pitch for securing the internship.

ARTICLE:

Wall Street Journal
By ALEXANDRA LEVIT
When I was in school just over a decade ago, internships were only for college students. The jobs we performed were unglamorous. But in today’s professional world, internships have gotten a facelift, and mid-career adults are flocking to them as a way to reinvent their careers.

Marieka Torrico, 31 years old, of Alexandria, Va., chose an unpaid internship in Bolivia to jumpstart her career in public health. She had been a medical-records assistant for nearly five years. “I felt that I needed to start living my life in a way that would make a difference to others,” Ms. Torrico says.

To view entire article visit
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123768268795705241.html?mod=article-outset-box

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