Problems and Failure Its YOUR Choice How to React - Introvert Whisperer

Introvert Whisperer / Problems and Failure â€" It’s YOUR Choice How to React - Introvert Whisperer Problems and Failure â€" It’s YOUR Choice How to React There will always be problems and challenges in everything we endeavor to do. The important thing is to grow and learn from those challenges rather than let the issues get you down or stop. I can just hear a few of you moan over this perspective that it’s not always that easy. I never said it was easy to move forward from problems and challenges. It is, however, a choice on how you react to things and how you respond. Since your response to adversity is a choice, why not choose to grow, learn, move on and be optimistic about your path ahead? Use the following checklist the next time something backfires in your face: I choose the following (check all that apply): ___Re-do ___Figure out what to do differently the next time ___Give yourself a break ___Give others a break ___Have faith that the next time everything including you will be better ___Unless the boo-boo is somehow life threatening, acknowledge that there are bigger problems out there in the universe and this is minor in comparison ___If needed, eat a cookie, as they will always make you happy Go to top Do you know what your next career step is?  Many people don’t. I want to help you accelerate your career by connecting you with your Free Instant Access to my eBook on how to construct your Career SMART Goals â€" that will help you put together your actions and keep you accountable. Get your copy now and start your action plan today! Brought to you by Dorothy Tannahill-Moran â€" dedicated to unleashing your professional potential. Introvert Whisperer

Education By Numbers

Education By Numbers For some teachers its becoming what can I do to make my numbers better. Those numbers are of course their students. Numbers and students are not synonymous, but the new federal-funding, education allocation is placing them in the same sentence. An increasing amount of schools are implementing a value-added program to systematically determine how effective their teachers are, according to an article in The New York Times. Schools are receiving mixed reviews on this program. Some believe its an accurate way to measure a teachers ability. Critics, however, contend that its not accurate and shifts a teachers focus from what is best for the students to what is best for them. This system calculates a teachers value by comparing his/her students current test scores to previous years and other students in the same grade. Data analysts can then rank teachers based on this formula. For example if a third grader scored higher than 60% of his/her peers on a state-administered test, then he/she is predicted to have that same score during the fourth grade. If that student scores higher than 70%, the increase in achievement is attributed to his/her fourth grade teacher. The Obama administration has encouraged states to implement more precise methods for evaluating teachers. Many schools have already joined this value-added system bandwagon and even more expected to join soon. Traditionally, teachers have used similar programs to improve classrooms. However, the stakes are much higher now. Administrators are using this program to decide which teachers receive raises and which ones are fired. Michelle A. Rhee, the schools chancellor in Washington, recently fired about 25 teachers for poor evaluations. The Los Angeles Times published an online database that ranked area teachers from the most effective to the least effective. This piece resulted in the further evaluation of 6,000 teachers jobs. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said that The Los Angeles Times work was an exercise in healthy transparency during a recent speech. There are real issues and competing priorities and values that we must work through together balancing transparency, privacy, fairness and respect for teachers, Duncan said. I dont advocate that approach (The Los Angeles Times) for other districts. Some experts claim that this program is unreliable and inconsistent. They state that a teachers effectiveness will be all over this chart because of outside influences. They believe that this program should not be considered the ultimate form of evaluation. It does not account for tutors, transfers, changes in state tests or students motivations or abilities. The program does not reward teachers for maintaining higher-achieving students academic success. It only rewards for growth. Other experts, however, disagreed and claim that the outside influences can be controlled and accounted for. They believe that this system separates the effective teachers from the average and ineffective ones. Some believe that schools will attempt to adjust their teachers value levels to attain more federal funding. They believe that this could corrupt the value-added program.