As Thousands of American Teachers Face Pink Slips, Teaching Is China’s Hottest Job

On recent shopping trip to Trader Joe’s, I discovered that the guy bagging my groceries was a laid-off elementary-school teacher. Hed taught for eight years and planned to be a teacher for life until the budget cuts that have raised class sizes and sent pink slips to tens of thousands of teachers nationwide put that dream on ice. “Know anywhere that’s hiring?” he asked me. “China,” I replied.

Indeed, a booming population and increased demand for education across the Pacific has left schools struggling to fill teaching vacancies, particularly for kindergarten teachers. According to Asian Correspondent, school leaders showed up to a recent job fair in Hebei province looking to fill nearly 9,000 positions. Only 810 applicants showed up, giving prospective teachers plenty of options.

Kindergarten teachers are in such demand in China that one applicant, Lin Li, spent a little over an hour at the fair and “had three kindergartens agree to sign me.” Kindergartens that serve students from wealthy families are recruiting across the country, offering vocational-school graduates twice the average salary of recent four-year university grads, plus insurance and housing.

The language barrier means teaching in China isnt an option for the thousands of laid-off American educators, like the one I met at the market. Until states stop gutting education budgets, hell have to keep making ends meet stocking shelves and bagging groceries.

Jan 16, Similar Triangles (with worked solutions & videos)

  Similar Triangles

 

 

Properties of Similar Triangles

Similar triangles have the following properties:

• They have the same shape but not the same size.
• Each corresponding pair of angles is equal.
• The ratio of any pair of corresponding sides is the same.

If the above two triangles are similar then

When the ratio is 1 then the similar triangles become congruent triangles (same shape and size).

 

 

How to tell if two triangles are similar

We can tell whether two triangles are similar without testing all the sides and all the angles of the two triangles. There are three rules to check for similar triangles. They are called the AA rule, SAS rule and SSS rule. As long as one of the rules is true, it is sufficient to prove that the two triangles are similar.

AA Rule

The Angle-Angle (AA) rule states that

If two angles of one triangle are equal to two angles of another triangle, then the triangles are similar.

This is also sometimes called the AAA rule because equality of two corresponding pairs of angles would imply that the third corresponding pair of angles are also equal.

Example 1: Given the following triangles, find the length of s

Solution:

Step 1: The triangles are similar because of the AA rule

Step 2: The ratios of the lengths are equal.

Step 3: Cross multiplying: 6s = 18 Þ s = 3

Answer:  The length of s is 3

 

 

SAS Rule

The Side-Angle-Side (SAS) rule states that

If the angle of one triangle is the same as the angle of another triangle and the sides containing these angles are in the same ratio, then the triangles are similar.

Example 2: Given the following triangles, find the length of s

Solution:

Step 1: The triangles are similar because of the RAR rule

Step 2: The ratios of the lengths are equal.

Answer:  The length of s is 3

 

SSS Rule

The Side-Side-Side (SSS) rule states that

If two triangles have their corresponding sides in the same ratio, then they are similar.

 

 

The following videos will investigate the properties of similar triangles

 

The following videos will introduce the concept of similar triangles.

 

 

Solving Problems with Similar Triangles

The following videos give more examples of how to solve problems using similar traingles.

 

Using similar triangles to solve shadow problems

 

 

 

Wylie ISD considers construction choice

The administration of the Wylie Independent School District will recommend the selection of Dallas-based W.B. Kibler Construction Company to build a new building for the fifth and sixth grades.

The district’s board will consider the hiring of a construction manager for the proposed building at its regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. today at the WISD administration building, 6249 Buffalo Gap Road.

Superintendent Joey Light has said the building of about 65,000 square feet on land west of the current junior high school building will include 30 classrooms and cost about $7 million.

According to the company’s website, construction of buildings for educational institutions is one of its specialties.

Current projects, according to the website, include buildings for schools in Robert Lee and Haskell and a church in Sweetwater.

Last month WISD officials advertised for bids for the new building and interviewed representatives from five contractors before the preliminary selection of W.B. Kibler.

Also on the agenda for today’s meeting are the superintendent’s contract, school calendar for 2012-13, transportation report, and board workshop next month.

Light’s current contract expires June 30, 2014, and it could be extended after an executive session during today’s meeting.

Three to vie for Edison State interim

Edison State Colleges three candidates for interim school president wont have a chance to get the job permanently.

Former state Rep. Dudley Goodlette, former Brevard Community College President Mike Kaliszeski and former Miami Dade College Provost Kathie Sigler wont be considered for the full-time position to permanently replace President Kenneth Walker, Edison board Chairwoman Ann Berlam said Wednesday.

Randy Hanna, chancellor of the Division of Florida Colleges, recommended the three candidates to the board.

Edison trustees, who will discuss the three candidates Friday, want to have an interim president in place by end of January so the college can start a search for a full-time president. The board, which learned longtime trustee and Walker supporter Washington Baquero resigned for undisclosed reasons Wednesday, hopes to hire a president by next fall.

The intention of the board and the three individuals I talked to is they are interested in serving in an interim capacity while we do a search, said Berlam, who interviewed the three candidates and will report her findings to the board Friday.

Edison started searching for an interim president Nov. 29 when trustees placed Walker on leave pending an investigation into whether he can be terminated with cause.

Relations between Walker and faculty turned icy this year as he, under direction of trustees, proposed a 2 percent pay increase for professors. He also recommended firings of two administrators and did not immediately disclose concerns about staff issuing hundreds of improper course substitutions to students and did not notify trustees Edison’s baccalaureate nursing program wasn’t nationally accredited.

Charlotte Campus President Patricia Land is now acting as district president. With decades of work in higher education and public service, Berlam said all three candidates are qualified for the interim position.

The candidates also fill another board suggestion: They are all Edison outsiders.

I think the board wanted someone who has the experience but who did not necessarily have specific ties to the college, Berlam said. Were looking for a fresh face.

Goodlette, a Naples native who served in the Florida House from 1998 to 2006, said Wednesday he could be that fresh face. Goodlette, 63, served on FGCUs presidential search committee in 2008 and on Hodges Universitys board of directors from 2007 to 2009.

I dont know how the interim role will be defined, said Goodlette, who doesnt plan on attending Fridays meeting. If that role is defined in a way that I think I could add value, Id be interested in becoming interim president.

Goodlette, who does private consultant work, is not interested in the full-time presidency.

Sigler, 67, and Kaliszeski, 61, offer boatloads of higher-education experience. Sigler held positions at Miami Dade College for 37 years. She was president of the campus from 2007 to April 2008, when she retired.

I dont think it would be appropriate to comment, Sigler said Wednesday. I think the board should ask their questions first.

Kaliszeski, meanwhile, held various positions for 31 years at Brevard Community College in Cocoa. He served as president of Brevards Melbourne campus from 1999 to 2008. Kaliszeski didnt return a message Wednesday.

Baquero will be one trustee who wont be studying Kaliszeskis resume. Baquero, a Fort Myers-based family practitioner, resigned after 15 years as a trustee.

(Baqueros) dedication to the mission of the college is exemplary, and he will be missed, Land said in a statement.

When Students Give Back to the Community

In college, my roommates and I dumped any loose change from our pockets and wallets into a communal piggy bank. By the end of the school year, we’d gathered enough for food during finals week. It was a nice treat considering we rarely stopped to think about how a few cents here and there could really add up to something.

The 330 students I work with as a City Year corps member at P.S. 50 in East Harlem, New York, have set a much higher bar. They spent the month of November collecting change for their community as part of the annual Penny Harvest, a service learning project run by City Year and the nonprofit Common Cents.   

I often tell people that just because my students have a higher risk of dropping out of school, that doesn’t mean they don’t have a desire to be active citizens and make a difference in their community. And the kids proved me right, really getting into the effort. They performed original songs about Penny Harvest over the P.A. system in order to generate awareness among their peers. A fifth grader I work with was concerned that there weren’t enough signs around the school letting people know about Penny Harvest, so she took it upon herself to draw her own as an example.  

Their enthusiasm was evidence that students in this community—many of whom come from low-income backgrounds—aren’t thinking only about their own lack of resources. Instead, they’re socially aware, recognizing that there are people around them who need help.

While the collection period for Penny Harvest closed at the end November, allocating the funds raised is a year-long process. A team of fourth- through eighth-grade students was selected to be the voice of the student body. Throughout the year, they’ll learn more about various community issues and (with the vision of the student population in mind), they’ll choose an organization to donate the money. I was part of a grant allocation committee in college, and it was hard work for a 20-year-old, so I’ve been impressed by this student panel’s ability to take on such a big project. 

In the literacy intervention and enrichment activities I do with seventh-grade students, we read news articles about people doing good works throughout the world. I’ve enjoyed the discussions about what it means to be a role model and a hero, but its clear that my students don’t need to look beyond the halls of our own school to see a commitment to service in action. Through their involvement with Penny Harvest, they are making a difference and becoming heroes themselves.

Nov 19, Fact Families or Family of Number Sentences (with videos, worksheets, games & activities)

  Videos, worksheets, games and acivities to help students learn fact families or family of number sentences in Singapore Math.

 

 

Making A Family Of Number Sentences

 

 

Basic Math: Fact Families
How to create fact families of number sentences.