Denver schools are a model of good health

Colorado has a reputation as one of the healthiest places to live in the country. Lots of skiers and healthy outdoors types usually come to mind. Denver Schools are doing their best to make that perception a reality. Denver Public Schools Student Services and the Nutrition Center have created a unique health initiative to bring information and medical attention to needy children in Denver Schools. The Nutrition Center is run by the University of Denver and is aimed at providing communities like Denver Schools with ways to improve the problems of childhood obesity and malnutrition.

With community funding from the CU Cancer Center, and partnerships with other community educators, Denver Schools offer a variety of nutrition and medical programs. The Center for Human Nutrition provides Denver Schools’ 3rd and 4th graders with classes on healthy eating and behaviors. The Denver School Based Health Centers now are present in 7 high schools, 3 middle schools, and 3 elementary schools. These centers are placed in areas with higher poverty and increased risk. Counseling, pregnancy care, and private health care reach the corners of the Denver Schools District with the greatest need.

These partnerships between Denver Schools and community businesses reach even further than school boundaries. The Colorado Nutrition Network used the collaboration to create an educational program in the Denver Schools community aimed towards at-risk residents. Denver Schools expect these programs to have far reaching effects that will impact concerns like dropout rates and student test scores.

Many reports linking childhood obesity to diseases such as diabetes make the Denver Schools initiative a program watched by many around the country. It is considered a national model and offers resources and assistance to other school districts that wish to implement a similar program.

Denver Schools also benefits from a University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center program that may contribute to the future health of students at Denver Schools for years to come. Each year high school students in Denver Schools can apply for one of the Summer Cancer Fellowships Programs to do research and clinic work at the Health Sciences Center. The National Cancer Institute funds this program that benefits many students at Denver Schools each year.

Denver Schools also team with University Hospital to provide middle school children with an opportunity to shadow a hospital employee for a day. While these programs may not address every issue that Denver Schools face, they are positive steps away from raising children who watch TV, play video games and eat junk food to the exclusion of all other activities. Denver Schools are clearly aware of the correlation between household income and poor nutrition. They are one of the few districts in the county that have taken active and effective steps to slowing down and reversing this trend. Teachers, principals and superintendents nationwide will watch Denver Schools to assess their results and mimic their actions.

Get the most out of your education free online courses

The cost of education in this modern world can be simply frightening to potential students when they begin to look into the possibility of taking a course or degree to try and further their education and get ahead as far as a career is concerned. The cost of learning is often so high that it may put people off the idea. There are better things to spend hard-earned money on, according to some. However, they would be wrong. There is nothing more important than an individual’s education. That is why some universities and colleges are actually starting to offer a free online education at a basic or taster level for people that may be interested in going on to gain an online degree.

Free online university courses are becoming more and more popular. Whilst it is rare for a university or college to offer a full online degree at no cost to the student, some do offer a range of courses to whet the appetite and get people interested in learning again. A free online education may be basic but it is better than nothing. Here are just some of the institutions that offer free online university courses:

1. Brigham Young University – This institution offers free online university courses in a variety of subjects. Family life, family history and religious scripture study (all about the Mormons of course) are just some of the courses that you can choose to take. They are commonly called Independent Study Personal Enrichment courses on the website, but are your basic free online university courses.

2. The University Of Washington – UW Educational Outreach is a program designed to do just what its name says. The free online education here is excellent because the courses cover a broad range of subjects, from Hamlet to HTML basics to World War II. One of the free online university courses is bound to get even the most reluctant academic interested!

3. Lancaster University – This British university offers a free online education in topics related to basic computer language and web authoring. These free online university courses are designed to introduce everyone to the extended world of the Internet, which is something that everyone deserves at no extra cost.

4. Eagle Forum University – This online school website offers a basic free online education with courses about the American government and its history. They are interesting fact-based course that are available to anyone with an Internet connection. They are simply designed to educate all Americans and outsiders a brief history of the USA.

The free online education that most institutions offer is not for credit. You cannot use the courses as part of degree at any institution, but the content may just serve to peak an area of interest in you. If it does this, then the free online university course that you take has served its purpose. After all, it is simply there to encourage learning.

As you can see, online college courses require students with strong character traits as well as the will to put a lot of hard work into it. You must have or be able to develop the above qualities. Online degrees will seem a lot more manageable if you take the advice above to heart.

Holidays and student budgets what to do

Maybe you’ve just finished your exams. Maybe you’re still writing final papers. The last thing on your mind has been the holidays, but now that they’re almost here, what are you going to do? How are you going pay for the gifts that you need to buy?

Budget

Although it might already be too late for this, at least now is the time to make a mental note for next year to budget extra money for gifts in December. It’s the same thing as budgeting the extra money you need for books each January and each September. It’s better not to be caught off guard by these things!

Use your credit card wisely

It is not smart to put hundreds of dollars of Christmas gifts on your credit card. If you are not going to be able to pay back your credit card, then don’t use it. It is smarter to get another, separate loan, or to call your bank to lower your student loan payment for this month than to put it on your credit card which could have an interest rate as high as 20%!

Organize the gift exchange

Instead of giving presents to everyone of your friends, organize a few gift exchanges: maybe your residence floor, your sorority sisters, or your biochemistry friends will want to do an exchange. You can set a price limit for each exchange too, like $5 or $10.

Homemade gifts

The best gifts are homemade gifts. You might want to make your gift exchange a homemade gift exchange! If you are short on time right now, but you know that you will have time later, you can always give some coupons for Christmas. Be sure that you remember to honor them, though! Think of your talents: making someone a home-cooked meal, giving a personal manicure or pedicure, or giving lessons on how to play bridge could be a great gift. If you know that you will have money after Christmas, you can also consider giving coupons for gifts that will cost you money, such as a night at the movies, or a nice dinner.

Work for the holidays

As a student, you are probably lucky to have one or two weeks off during the holidays. If you work for one or two days of the holidays, even, then you will earn enough money to buy the gifts that you need to buy. Be sure to give yourself some break, though. You have worked hard enough all semester and you deserve it.

Be charitable

Instead of exchanging gifts with some of your friends, consider doing charitable donations. You can each pick a charity, and then each donate a set amount of money to the other person’s charity. Be sure to send a nice card that says you made a donation in their name.

You could also decide to give each other canned goods for the local foodbank. Buying 6 or 7 dollars of canned goods might not be a lot of money, but it will be a great help for those people who need it. You’ll feel good, you’ll save yourself money, and you and your friends and family will have done a good deed.

Remember

The key to surviving Christmas is to be honest. If you have friends who aren’t in school and who have lots of spending money, the best thing is to explain to them that money is tight this year. Sometimes they forget or don’t know how much being a student costs. Once you remind your family and friends of your budget, they will be more than willing to participate in some of these fun and money-saving holiday suggestions.

Seattle schools are all children special needs

It’s a great commentary that the “save Seattle Schools” blog hosted on is a wildly active forum for community interaction. Anytime I visit the site there are discussions on anything from the military recruiting in Seattle Schools to discussions of the budget and the school board. One of the latest really got my attention. It was focusing on the way that the Seattle Schools run its gifted program.

Now I know that the Seattle Public Schools aren’t alone in their challenges of how to educate these children. But the reason it attracted my attention was because of a recent NPR (National Public Radio) segment on educating children with autism. What struck me was the similarity in the Seattle Schools attempt to educate its gifted population and its special needs population.

It left me with the burning question: are all Seattle Schools’ students really special needs students? Well, think about it. One of the hottest topics in educational pedagogy is multiple intelligences. That’s the belief that people have academic intelligence, emotional intelligence, kinesthetic (movement) intelligence, and other specific intelligences. And more importantly, that schools should teach in ways that reach children who learn best in all these different ways.

So the fact that a gifted child in the Seattle Schools requires a different sort of challenge to motivate him, or that an autistic child needs a different environment to facilitate learning, really means they both have special needs. And if a “regular ed” child is an auditory learner, while her classmate is a visual learner; well, aren’t those special needs as well?

What Do Special Needs Students Require from the Seattle Schools?

Frankly, I don’t think that many teachers in the Seattle Schools would argue with my characterization of all children as having special needs. In fact, the best teachers I know strive to individualize instruction in classes with 30 or more students. Of course, one issue is that the resources of the Seattle Schools, while better than most of the nation, are never enough. But the other, and I think easier issue to tackle, is one of knowledge. There’s still a lot of disagreement among parents and educators about the best ways to teach classically labeled “gifted and special needs” students.

Inclusion is often seen as the most desirable option for special needs students, but many a parent will tell you that ideal is often a frustrating reality. One of the best things that the Seattle Schools can do today to make future education better is to track the success of students in different special needs environments. Since the children are required to be in public schools classes, it only makes sense to track their progress in the different venues. Again - cost rears its ugly head. But the Seattle Schools are fortunate to have some powerful corporations and higher learning institutions helping them out with a variety of initiatives.

The bottom line is that it doesn’t matter whether a child’s “special needs” are extreme or not. The Seattle Schools are going to have to find ways to address them.

Why learn german

Ist means is, while Gut means good.

Milch is milk and Kaffee is coffee.

Here’s another one. Bett is bed and Braun is brown.

Do these words have almost the same spelling? Yes they do. Although different in pronunciation, the German and English languages came from the same language lineage. There are words which have translation from German to English and some words have not even been translated at all. These words are still used today by English speaking people around the world.

This just proves that the idea of learning the German language is possible. Even the idea of memorizing the complete language can happen no matter what age you are right now. You read it right; you can learn the German language anytime. Children are not the only ones who can learn and memorize a completely strange language. Although it may not be entirely too easy for adults to learn compared to children, the brain works completely the same.

Online sources for learning different languages are popular nowadays but you don’t want to spend your money on inaccurate software learning programs issued today by many language-learning websites. Before you join the club of learning German enthusiasts, get as many information as you can regarding the software program.

Another reason why learning German is easy it’s because in memorization, different methods can be used. You can use a CD to learn German lessons while you jog or cook dinner. You may also watch German movies and listen to the dialogue and take down notes of the words you don’t understand. But of course, in learning your main lessons, you can memorize the words easily by linking the words together in one image or situation.

A man rises up early every morning. His dog wakes him up everyday and to return the favor, he gives his dog spinach bone as he tells the dog to “spin it” to give the dog an idea that the treat is for him. Did you spot the words? In the example given above, we used the word spinach from the English language and linked it within the same situation to the German word Spinat by putting in the phrase “spin it” for easier recognition. Go ahead, try another one, pick a word and picture them in one idea. You’ll see how easy for you to remember it.

Learn other German words by visiting the site learn-german-program. com.