| Top-rated schools enrolling more kids in fine arts, group says
Texas public schools with better state ratings enroll more students in fine arts classes than lower-performing campuses, according to the Texas Coalition for Quality Arts Education, a state advocacy group. The coalition reviewed more than 1,800 Texas schools and found correlations between fine arts participation and academic success. The study reveals a larger fine arts enrollment is a factor in higher academic ratings, higher attendance and lower dropout rates. Rep. Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, joined coalition members at the Capitol to emphasize the importance of arts education.
The 50-group coalition also said that students enrolled in fine arts courses tend to score high on SAT exams. Members presented its findings to lawmakers reviewing the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exams.
Wikipedia founder to visit Australia
THE founder of online encyclopedia Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, will visit Australia next month as a key speaker at a series of seminars on the future of knowledge. The seminars to be hosted by information and communications technology company education.au, will start in Adelaide on April 23. The company’s chief executive, Greg Black, said Mr Wales was at the front line of the democratisation of knowledge. "We’re expecting his visit to spark significant debate about the way knowledge and information is shared, now that we can all play a part in its creation," Mr Black said. Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia to which anyone can contribute, is considered to be the fastest-growing reference resource in the world. Launched in 2001, it is the 12th most visited website in the world and the 10th in Australia.
Little Chute Area School District announces coaches
LITTLE CHUTE - The varsity baseball team at Little Chute High School will be under the direction of Trevor Behm, a physical education teacher who has been with the district since 2005-06. The Board of Education approved his coaching position along with Bryan Lamers as a volunteer assistant at its Feb. 26 meeting.
Mike VanEperen will head up the junior varsity baseball program.
Guy VanDynHoven was approved as a volunteer assistant varsity softball coach.
The board hired Tracy Schmidt, a middle school counselor, as junior varsity softball coach.
James Brooks will head varsity boys and girls track. He previously served as an assistant track coach at the high school four seasons and head coach of girls track in Germantown.
Danielle Rankin, a student teacher at the elementary school, will become an assistant track and field coach.
Dialog Medical Celebrates National Patient Safety Awareness Week ...
ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dialog Medical, the leading provider of informed consent and patient education systems for hospitals and physician practices, today recognized the National Patient Safety Foundation's National Patient Safety Awareness Week with a review of the impact effective informed consent can have on patient safety. Numerous organizations have studied this impact, including the National Quality Forum, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and The Leapfrog Group. In early February, the Joint Commission, in a Public Policy white paper on patient safety, recommended that healthcare institutions re-design informed consent forms and the informed consent process. "More than 170 hospitals and thousands of physician practices have already accepted the challenge issued by the Joint Commission," said Scott Fleischman, vice president of sales for Dialog Medical.
New materials for HIV/Aids education - 05.03.07
Personal and Social Education (PSE) teachers now have additional resources for the teaching of sex education to P3 to P6 pupils.
These additional resources include posters and a booklet in Creole entitled Piberte, (Puberty). The booklet contains illustrations and the scientific names in both English and Creole of body parts important in the sexual development of an adolescent and the posters provide detailed information about HIV/Aids including its modes of transmission. The materials, which are aimed at helping to end misconceptions on the pandemic amongst the pupils, were produced by a team of PSE teachers in collaboration with the Ministry of Health who had been working on the publications since last year. The Ministry of Health printed the materials.
CDEC announces scholarships
GRANTS - Continental Divide Electric Cooperative has announced that its Education Foundation will accept applications for 2007-2008 academic scholarships until May 1. This year the foundation expects to award as many as 35 new scholarships and renew 50 current scholarships. Applicants must be co-op members or immediate family members in the CDEC service area and receive power services from CDEC. The $2,000 renewable grants can be used to address the costs of higher education at accredited universities and colleges in New Mexico. Students must register for and successfully complete at least 12 credit hours per semester and they must use the money to pursue a bachelor's degree. The local utility has one of the largest cooperative-sponsored scholarship programs in the state, which it attributes to the mining boom of the 1970s and 1980s, private donations and unclaimed capital credits.
Schools slug it out in the ICT arena
THE battlelines have been drawn among government schools fighting for recognition as a learning centre that is deft at using information and communication technology (ICT) in classroom instruction. The Ministry of Education's Department of Schools has highlighted the importance of ICT use in education for this year's Quality and Equity in Education (QEE) Project for Government Schools. In the ongoing three-day competition, public schoolteachers are encouraged to be more creative in the use of ICT in their teaching and learning processes. Themed "The Use of ICT in Education", participating schools will present projects displaying their ICT skills relevant to the environment and situation in their respective schools and community. The theme was introduced in this year's competition to allow for more focus during the evaluation process.
COCHRAN, DODD INTRODUCE LEGISLATION TO IMPROVE GEOGRAPHY LITERACY
WASHINGTON, D.C.Senators Thad Cochran (R-MS) and Christopher Dodd (D-CT) introduced on Thursday the Teaching Geography Is Fundamental Act, which authorizes competitive grants through the Department of Education to improve K-12 geography curriculum, teacher training, and instructional materials. The bill, which was originally introduced by Cochran in the 109th Congress, and co-sponsored by Dodd, focuses on providing educators with the tools they need to improve geography literacy and educating teachers about better ways to communicate the importance of geography to their students. To expect that Americans will be able to work successfully with the other people in this world, we need to be able to communicate with and understand each other, Senator Cochran said.
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