America's Need for Online Tutoring & Education

Online tutoring and education has taken over as a key player in America's educational system. With the growth in student population exceeding what schools can handle, educational assistance had to take a turn. Parents and schools are beginning to partner with online tutoring companies to help educate their students.

Education in today's world is a must. No longer can the youth of today rely upon only a high school education to get them where they want to be in life. As a matter of fact, today's 4-year college degree is becoming yesterday's high school diploma. There are some specific reasons as to why this has happened. Students in America's educational system are growing at a rate that the schools are not able to keep up with. We can also look to America's involvement in globalization. America has more international students studying in the states than ever before. This has created even more competition for the youth of America. Another aspect to look at is the life of students and resources available to them by the school. So what is being done now to help students deal with all these factors that have never before been an issue?

The answer is online tutoring and education.

With the large growth in students throughout America, schools have struggled to keep with the basic needs. According to OnTheIssues, the population of students in grades K-12 is over 50 million. This number is and has been steadily rising by 1 million students per year. OnTheIssues also notes that school spending for grades K-12 is now at $260 billion per year. As the amount of students continues to increase, the amount of spending will also continue to increase. This is not the only factor that is affecting students in a negative way.

Many students today, high school and college, do not have the time to research for sources and help on-campus. Mainly because students today are working jobs while taking full-loads in school. This leaves minimal time to be able to take advantage of a school's resources. Online tutoring and education is becoming the answer to this problem. WashingtonPost author, Mike Chediak, says that according to Sloan Consortium, more than 2.6 million students studied through online tutoring and educational courses last fall. This number is up from 1.9 million back in 2003, which is about a 23% growth rate in only one year.

It's also important to look at the resources that are offered by schools. The main goal of education is to prepare students for a career path. In high school this is a general path and in college this is a much more specific path. It is estimated that only 25% of 4-year college graduates actually work in the field that they earned their degree. Since online tutoring and education is able to cover such a broad area, students are able to get the help they need, when they need it. Online tutoring and education is now offered by some programs over a 24-hour period, which completely caters to the student's needs.

While schools are not keeping up with the resources to fully help their students, online tutoring and education is able to fill the gap. Many schools are starting to partner with online tutoring service companies so they can get their students the help they need. Online tutoring and education is a service that will continue to grow and thrive in the upcoming years for America.

Students Are Gifts

At my school, students are God's gifts to me. They are already wrapped, some beautifully and others less attractively. Some have been mishandled in the mail; others come "Special Delivery." Some are loosely wrapped, and others are tightly enclosed.

But the wrapping is not the gift, and this is important. It is so easy to make a mistake in this regard, to judge the contents of the gift by the wrapping paper.

Sometimes the gift (the student) is opened very easily; sometimes the help of others is needed. And maybe it's because they are afraid to be opened. Maybe they have been opened before, and because the last person didn't value them, they don't want to be opened again. It could be that when they were opened before, they were discarded and thrown away. They may now feel more like "things" instead of human beings.

At my school, just like my students, I too am a gift to be shared. God filled me with a goodness that is only mine. And yet sometimes even I'm afraid to look inside my own wrappings. Maybe I'm afraid I would be disappointed. Maybe I don't trust my own contents. Or maybe I've never really accepted the gift that I am.

Every meeting with my students is an exchange of gifts and an

opportunity to share. I'm a gift; they are gifts. We are gifts to each other.

Education - Billions of Dollars, Poor Results and No Outrage

In the late 1990's, former education Bill Bennett penned a book entitled The Death of Outrage. Even though this was a politically directed book, this title can be applied to many different situations especially public education.

Where is the outrage in public education? We hear about all the reasons why No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is bad and won't work, but the average American citizen is not hearing about the results or lack thereof that are happening each and every day throughout the elementary, middle schools, high schools and college classrooms.

Each year in conjunction with the Gallup organization, Phi Delta Kappa releases its poll of attitudes towards American public education. What is interesting to note is the yearly consistently high scores of A's or B's that respondents who are parents give their local schools. Yet, results from the Nation's Report card as well as another recently released study from American Institutes for Research show that these parents really don't know the "real story."

Here are some facts from a variety of sources that can be easily located using the Internet:

4 year bachelor's degree takes a minimum of 5.3 years to earn.

50% of college students take at least one remedial course

17 year olds have not gained one point in reading during the last 33 years.

Most soon to be college graduates lack the analytical ability to understand a credit card offer or compare the cost per ounce of food.

20% of college students could not estimate if they had enough gas to get to the a service station.

80% to 75% of surveyed adults believe that it somewhat likely to unlikely in securing a teacher with a 4 year college degree who is fully licensed or certified and knows the subject matter (the definition of highly qualified teacher under NCLB).

In 1998, less than 65% of 12th grade students understood the purpose of a tax table.

Between 1992 and 2005 national fourth grade reading score (NAEP)s went from 217 to 219 on a scale of 500.

Eighth grade scores in the same time frame went up 2 points from 260 to 262.

In 30 years, reading scores in grades 4th, 8th and 12th never exceeded 300 points on a scale of 500.(NAEP)

Urban school students still suffer from under-education despite increase of 50% in federal funding since 2000 where much of the federal dollars are directed.

A Thought: If we look at student performance from a simple analogy perspective, would you put your money in a bank that delivered less than a 5% return over the course of 33 years? Of course, not!

Every day we receive new information showing that despite the increase in funding from both states and federal governments (2004-05 school year is estimated at $536 billion for K-12 and another $373 billion for higher education), our spending is not achieving performance improvement when compared to nations that spend far less and achieve higher levels of student performance.

University Business Case Study Choices for Your Team

Every year Universities assign students in their Business School projects. Come up with a business, make a business plan, develop a marketing plan and submit it to the class. This makes sense for students and professors and is an excellent way to learn.

Unfortunately these students will use deception to seek information for their project by pretending to be interested parties of goods or services of real companies in order to gain this information, without revealing they are actually students doing a research project. Although this goes on in the real world of competitive intelligence gathering it teaches the students bad and unethical traits, which they will use later in the real business world.

With corporate corruption at issue in the United States at least with regards to media and regulators, why are we allowing students to lie or looking the other way when we know they are doing this? So much for ethics; apparently the dishonesty is being taught in the liberal land of academics, the same schools, which pretend to teach ethics, foster unethical-ness. This should not be too surprising to anyone, yet it is indeed in need of being pointed out, thus this article.

Often a student will pretend to be a buyer of services or products to gain information while using their @university.edu email address. Most smart business people know that these are bogus inquiries. When they come into our company we usually reply something like this:

"I see you are a student, graduate, administrator or professor at the University is this correct? If so, how long would it be before you choose to enter the industry? Or are you considering do a research project for school? If so what information do you need."

If they are an actual buyer then usually they will correct us and say; "No, I am seriously interested." Yet they often do this because they do not want to be caught in a lie, fabrication of truth or complete falsehood. So, we indicate, call us when you graduate. Then someone else on their "Business Class Team" will email us, always from the same area about a day or a day and a half later, this time more honest. We feel this is good as we are teaching them to be truthful while the Universities deal in lies allowing for dishonesty.

Recently such an email came through and it was; awakefield@university.edu instead of matching the actual name of the submitted inquiry. This the name of the inquiry is probably incorrect and completely fabricated; a lie or AKA. Rather than get upset for these students wasting our time. We replied to this fake inquiry;

"Dear Sir, Your email address does not match your name. Why is this? "A Wakefield" could be a family name, thus there could be misdirection here for some purpose, which would be a tactical error, as you are asking for free information from us. Integrity is the best policy for our correspondence."

Further we asked them questions to make them work for their project, as our company is not interested in getting an "A" in their class as we are in the real world not the BS fantasy world with unethical students and professors who have never had to make a payroll in their lives for the most part; having never been in business. What about the students being used to collect information for a professor wanting to gather data to start his own company, you know this goes on too. Either way these students are going to have to work for it. So we sent these questions back to the students;

"What part of the car wash industry do you see yourself in or what part of the car wash industry are you doing a college project on? Full service car wash, flex serve, robotic, mobile or truck washing? All would be good in your current location or market. Do you see yourself leaving this area after graduation or in the future? Each region in the United States is slightly different and those differences have large effects on how one might strategize to maximize profits?"

Indeed this seems to work as we have not heard back a reply nor do we expect one. We believe this to be because not only are the students unethical and wish to take short cuts in their research and cheat, but that they are also completely lacking worth ethic and are basically lazy. I challenge the next up and coming university students to get off your asses and do your own work, learn all there is to learn and practice some of those ethics that your liberal skewed world in college so gallantly proclaims. Because I think it is appalling the lack of personal character these days in our Universities from the highly paid Professors to the students.

Preparing for Emergency Situations at School

We know emergency situations can (and will at some point) happen in your class. It may be minor, such as a student becoming sick in your room, or even a practice event like a fire drill or tornado drill. Hopefully you won't encounter a real life-threatening emergency. But you should always be prepared for such instances.

Fire drills are probably the most common situations you will encounter. The best way to handle these is to teach your students what to do in the event of a drill or an actual evacuation. Yes, you can teach this to your students. Fire drills are to be surprises only WHEN they occur, not a surprise in WHAT to do. It is good practice for your students to know exactly what the procedure to follow is. The most important part is to be sure YOU fully understand the school's fire drill procedure and you can confidently teach it to your students.

Making sure all of your students are accounted for is your main responsibility. Thus, your attendance taking is very important. You want to make sure you have a means of carefully checking attendance when you and your students reach your destination. Have your grade book, attendance sheets, or a class roster easily accessible and always in the same location so you can grab it as you leave the room. I use the class roster file on my handheld because it's always with me.

Teach your students to exit the room carefully yet quickly. Instruct them in which direction to turn from your doorway, and what exit is to be used. Always have your kids line up and stay organized so you can take attendance easily.

And let them know why it's important to maintain composure and control, not playing or wandering around. If you are new to the building, your students will probably already know where to go! The trick will be getting them there quickly and maintaining order.

You'll want to let the students know how to react to different situations. They may find themselves in the hallway heading back from the library, in the rest room, or involved in a group activity in a far corner of your classroom.

Obviously more urgent matters will constitute true emergencies, and it is very difficult to prepare for these. Hopefully your school has a comprehensive plan to cover bomb threats, intruders, inclement weather, and other emergencies. Take time to carefully read through and understand these procedures, so when an emergency does occur, you can confidently lead your students. The students will respond to you when you give direct, confident directions.

Education

The System of Education

Education has been on-going from the beginning of civilization on the face of this earth. In the beginning, it was acquired by experienceand mutual understanding, sharing, and trial and error. Subsequently it has developed into many forms and systems that now prevail across the globe.

In the old days, it was a case of mucking up books, books, and more books. It hasn't changed much since then, The books are still around, although in different forms of publication and accessibility with the advent of technology, the digital era and the internet. However, the mucking up phenomenon hasn't still gone away for good.

Students still need to cram and answer question papers for lengthy hours using long and explicit paragraphs of text. This is absolutely boring and useless. It only cultivates the ability to memorize and remember so that one can actually answer a set of questions which are also somewhat pre-defined based on previous examinations across time. I believe it has very little value for money.

Of course, everyone wants a piece of paper in his briefcase to supplement his resume in order to prove that he or she is capable.

I think we should change, completely, the way we teach and assess our generations.

Let there be a curriculum and syllabus established for each discipline.

Let there be prescribed texts, comprising of books, websites and other means for students to access and learn.

Let them be tested using only multiple choice questions and answers.

And most of all,

Let the student be able to utilize, fully, the books, the internet, the PC, and any other available educational material that is available to him or her during the examination.

At the end of the day, when the student passes out with his Bachelors or Masters he surely will have access to whatever he pleases in order to execute his/her tasks.

Education: Learning Must Extend Beyond Knowledge For Sustainable Performance Improvement

If you are an educator whether in the K-16 schools or corporate training, can you answer the following three questions:

Who is Krathwohl?

Who is Dave?

And why is that important to me as a teacher or a trainer?

Krathwohl is an educational researcher who worked with Bloom and developed the Affective Taxonomy published in 1964. (NOTE: Bloom and his colleagues indentified the 3 learning domains of affective, cognitive and psychomotor and spent considerable time constructing what is now known as the Bloom Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956) around the cognitive learning domain.)

The Affective taxonomy or classification in ascending order consisted of:

Receiving

Responding

Valuing

Organizing and Conceptulizing

Characterising by Value or Value Concept

Dave in 1975 suggested a taxonomy based upon Bloom's and others earlier works specific to the psychomotor domain. His efforts led to the following:

Imitation

Manipulation

Precision

Articulation

Naturalisation

The reason it is important is that the initial research by Bloom and his colleagues suggested that all three domains must work together in tandem to maximize the effectiveness of learning. When there is emphasis on only one domain, then sustainable learning will not happen.

Some additional questions to consider:

As an educator, teacher or trainer, do you agree that Bloom's work is important to learning?

Do you construct lesson plans or training sessions based upon all 6 categories within Bloom's educational objectives?

Are your lesson plans and instructional strategies reflective of all 3 domains or of just the cognitive domain?

Are you frustrated by the lack of academic progress or results your students or participants are making when compared to your daily efforts?

Are you building the desire or the affective learning domain?

Are your actions intentionally or unintentionally shutting down the affective or psycho motor domains?

After working with the performance of young people for the last 10 years and with adults for over 25 years, I can honestly state that no one wants to be a performance failure. What we as educators or trainers need to do is to ensure that we unite all 3 domains for true sustainable performance improvement.