Posted by admin on Nov 28, 2007 in
Student Karl Rove and Howard Dean brought the national health care debate to Penn State on Tuesday night.
There was little agreement, but a good bit of name calling, during the event which ranged in tone from heated to humorous.
“That’s a made up statistic, Karl Rove. …For the first time tonight, I’m calling you on it,” said Dean, a medical physician and the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee. “You made that up.”
Rove had said that Medicare rejects claims twice as often as the overall health insurance industry, and he promised to put the proof in his Wall Street Journal column next week. “And I would appreciate it if you didn’t question my integrity. ..Mr. Dean, you just called me a liar and I don’t appreciate it,” replied Rove, former deputy chief of staff and senior adviser to George W. Bush and a Fox News contributor. Later, Rove called Dean “adolescent” after the former Democratic National Committee chairman interrupted one of his answers.
The exchange was part of a debate in front of more than 2,000 people at the Eisenhower Auditorium. The two participated in a similar event at DePauw University in September.
Tuesday night’s event was part of the Student Programming Association’s distinguished speaker series. All but one question dealt directly with health care, currently being debated in Congress.
Dean defended the public option, a government-sponsored insurance plan, saying it would provide more insurance opportunity for citizens.
“We have a choice (now) that is between one predatory insurance company, another predatory insurance company and a third predatory insurance company,” Dean said. “Give us the same choice that people over 65 have, give us the same choice that our brave soldiers that came back from Iraq and Afghanistan have, give us the same choice that the Congress of the United States has. Give us that choice.”
Rove replied, “Every one of those programs is subsidized by everybody else. …So let’s duplicate them for everybody, except we’re gonna run out of money. …Somebody has to pay the bills.”
Rove said the health care industry does not need large scale overhaul. Instead, he proposed medical tort reform and allowing people to buy health insurance across state lines, allowing people to take their health care with them when they switch jobs, allowing small business to pool together.
Earlier in the debate, Rove said 17 million of the 47 million uninsured Americans earn more than $50,000 a year.
“With all due respect, I don’t want to pick up Bill Gates’ health insurance costs,” Rove said. “These are people who ought to be able to find a way to pick up their own.”
Dean said that $50,000 worker would end up spending $13,000 on health insurance in the current system. “Only a Republican could like this kind of thing,” he said.
Throughout the debate, audience members mixed their applause and cheers for both speakers.
But Rove received boos and catcalls from the audience on three occasions. When he claimed the United States health care system was the best in the world, heralded the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 of as an example of bipartisanship, and criticized people for saying George W. Bush “wasn’t a legitimately elected president.”
At one point, in quick succession one spectator yelled out “war criminal” and another cursed at Rove.
“These people must be from Michigan,” Rove said.
The reference to Penn State’s football rival earned Rove some laughs. “Or maybe … Ohio State.” he added.
Posted by admin on Nov 28, 2007 in
Study Tips With today’s economy being in as poor a shape as it is, and jobs being so scarce, many New Yorkers are applying for opportunities and part time jobs in New York as well as out of state! Knowing this, many potential employers are now doing job interviews over the phone. This allows them the ability to check out more employee prospects without having to cover the costs of seeing the out of state applicant in person. Another reason telephone interviews are becoming more popular with part time jobs in New York is that it becomes easier to weed out applicants in a 5 minute phone interview than a face-to-face chat that could last as long as an hour or more. Knowing that, you the applicant need to be suited for interviews over the phone and be prepared as they could come at any time! Here are some tips on how to interview over the phone.
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rResearch The Company
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rYou can believe the company is going to do research on you before they call you for a phone interview, so you had better do some research of your own. With the internet, you can look up any company and find out all kinds of information about it (especially since most companies have a website). Find out where the company is located and if it has multiple branches. See what the company actually does. And most importantly, find out exactly what the job you’re applying for entails. 9 times out of 10, the interviewer will end up asking you “Why do you want to work for [the company he could be hiring you for]?” If you don’t know what the company does or what you’d be doing at the company, you might sound pretty foolish stumbling through this answer.
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rPractice Ahead of Time
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rThe old saying “practice makes perfect” might not be entirely accurate, but it definitely helps. There are certain questions that almost every interviewer asks. “Why do you want to work for this company?” “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” “What are your short term goals and long term goals?” “What are your strengths and weaknesses” and “What makes you the best candidate for the job?” Figure out your answers to each of these often asked questions ahead of time (as well as other possible interview questions) and practice saying it. The goal here is not to memorize your answer so that you sound like a robot reciting lines. It’s so you don’t stumble over your words and waste any of the interviewer’s time. Practice with a friend or family member. Have them be the interviewer and you be… well, you! Record the mock interview and study the tapes carefully. Try to find trouble places where you have long pauses or verbal tics like “um”, “uh”, and “like”. Eradicate these simple words from your vocabulary. You might not realize you say them when speaking, but an interviewer can quickly become annoyed by hearing you say “um” 3 times every sentence.
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rTake Notes
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rHave a pen and paper ready and waiting by the phone for when that phone interview might happen. Make notes of the interviewer’s name and the company they’re calling for. When they describe the position to you, write down all the important parts such as title, hours and pay. Make sure that if you ask the interviewer any questions that he/she didn’t cover, that you write down their answers. It’s also a good idea to keep note of what questions they asked you. This gives allows you to know exactly what you talked about for if you get a second phone interview, or better yet, an in-person interview.
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rFollow Up
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rAt the end of the interview, thank the interviewer for their time and ask when you might hear from them or someone else in the company again. Ask if you can meet them for an in-person interview. Ask when they might be making their hiring decisions. Thank them for their time (I know I said this already, but it’s pertinent!). If they have not given you a specific time frame, be sure to call the company in a few days to follow up on the interview and see if any new information (like a hiring decision) has become available.
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rIf you follow these tips, you should have a great phone interview. And make sure to read your notes afterward. If you don’t get this job, you can use it as practice for future phone interviews for full time or part time jobs in New York. Also, remember to smile when giving the interview. Smiling changes your vocal tone and makes you sound much more positive. Employers like that.
Posted by admin on Nov 28, 2007 in
Study Guide CCIE Voice Written
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Posted by admin on Nov 28, 2007 in
Student With so many companies around, there are a lot of offers for students to get their first credit card. It becomes difficult to make a correct choice at times. Here are some useful tips to pick up your first credit card.
On his/her way to build a good credit score, the first step for every student is to pick the correct credit card. With many offers around it is not easy to make a selection. You can make a decision based on important factors like interest rates, reputation of the company making an offer and the reward programs. Remember the following points while making a choice:
This is an excellent opportunity for you to pay off the outstanding regularly and create a good credit score.
The company is offering lowest rate will be your natural choice.
After all, the cost of these gifts is going to be recovered from your payments! Many times, these gifts may be of no use to you and may be available at a dollar store.
Card offers from a smaller bank may sometimes look attractive on the face but they’re not good in the long run.
Look for the cash back offer or some credit for purchase of selective merchandise.
Before applying for a credit card, it is advisable to check your credit report. This report is available free one time during a year. Also, you have to be honest with yourself whether
A lot of effort is required for building and maintaining a good credit score. Following the above tips will help you to stay responsible as well as organized in your financial matters.
Posted by admin on Nov 27, 2007 in
Student Christine Lewis and William Allan Kritsonis, PhD
Introduction
Strategic planning is a process of defining schools strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources. Strategic planning is the formal consideration of a school’s future. Strategic planning deals with at least one of three key questions:
”What do we do?”
“For whom do we do it?”
“How do we excel?”
The basic aim of strategic planning is to actively determine the nature or character of the school and to guide its direction
The need for effective strategic planning is very important to the success of our schools. The general operation of schools comes with many challenges. These challenges require educational leaders to develop plans to adjust their practices to meet the academic and behavioral needs of all students. The need for effective strategic planning has intensified because of the constraints in resources and increased expectations for accountability from external agencies such as state governments (Welsh, 2005).
Educational leaders need to effectively meet these challenges. They must interpret the regulations and policies and then develop system-wide action plans to effectively put these strategies into practice. Solutions now require detailed blueprints for systemic change that identify strategic performance indicators and benchmarks. These plans require that educational leaders, teachers, counselors and other related professionals work collaboratively to identify and improve positive academic and behavioral supports across the curriculum. This must be done with simplicity and commitment within the organization. Professional collaboration is critical for the learning and performance of the highly diverse students that comprise today’s classrooms. Incorporating the Ways of Knowing Through the Realms of Meaning (Kritsonis, 2007) can create better strategic plans.
Purpose of the Article
The purpose of this article is to discuss ways our educational leaders in public schools can incorporate the Ways of Knowing Through the Realms of Meaning (Kritsonis, 2007) to improve schooling. Strategic planning must move from modernism to postmodernism in order to improve education.
Incorporating the Ways of Knowing Through the Realms of Meaning to Improved Strategic Planning for Successful Schools
Educational leaders can change the way they develop strategic plans for public schools by creating plans using postmodernist thinking. Postmodernism can be the new and improve way to achieve success for our highly diverse student population. Educational leaders have to think outside of the box to create working strategic plans that will help students to be highly successful. Schools can close the achievement gap that our nation’s public schools are facing. Educational leaders can create a working strategic plan by incorporating the Ways of Knowing Through the Realms of Meaning (Kritsonis, 2007). If we do not know what we want to achieve, we cannot make decisions about how you are going to get there. The six realms of meaning can put schools on the path to success.
One of the key attributes of successful schools is that they have a well articulated vision and mission that all members of the school community believe. It is worthwhile spending time to get the vision and mission articulated because all other strategic planning decisions depend on whether or not the schools actions are consistent with the vision and mission.
Symbolics
The first realm of meaning is symbolics which includes speech, symbol and gesture. Educational leaders must establish ordinary language as part of a well planned strategic plan which is well written. The language in the strategic plan must be understood by staff, students, parents and stakeholders. The language should be precise and have a clear message. It should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-limited. Specific means the language should be clear and understood by all, including those not involved in the process. Measurable means the plan should articulate the desired outcome, not the specific strategies. The meaning