Author Archives: schatzi

Understanding Nursing Degree Courses

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Nursing degree courses vary from one program to the next. The basic courses that you may have to take as a nursing degree student are biological sciences, anatomy and physiology, chemistry, critical care nursing, adult, pediatric and geriatric care, environmental and occupational health, home health care, human growth and development, fundamentals of practice in nursing, maternal/child and neonatal care, medical and surgical care, microbiology, nursing leadership, nutrition, physical assessment, pharmacology, psychology, sociology and statistics.

The list of courses mentioned above are an example of the courses that an online nursing program may need you to complete. Since the nursing career has a wide scope subject, the courses that are offered are diverse enough for professional nurses to navigate to the role of administrator or educator and as well as other branches of nursing.

Non-nursing courses can also be taken online to help complete the prerequisites of an online nursing degree program. Taking online courses for these subjects allow applicants to fulfill more requirements prior to entering the nursing program which is beneficial in reducing the amount of extra courses to be taken during the program.

With distance learning or online format for a nursing degree, there is a lack of courses offered for science laboratory. Applicants may need to enquire more on the availability of such courses. If it is not possible, it is wise to take science laboratory courses in person. There are a few programs online that offer science lab courses using online labs and home lab kits, but make sure that the online nursing programs are recognized.

Nursing degree courses depend on the level of your degree and can also be selected based on your desired field of specialization. Specialization in some fields that have less competition can give you the edge and increase your demand as a nurse. By choosing courses that can help to cross-train you while you earn your nursing degree will ensure the advancements in your career and land promotions. Courses for specialization that you can consider are behavioral health, critical care, developmental disabilities, oncology, trauma, and many more.

Find out in details about the list of courses that are offered for your online nursing degree program to make sure that they are in line with the career goal you have in mind in the nursing field. Most importantly is to check out the facilities and study materials provided for the whole course.

College Success – What Does it Take?

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College success is not as difficult for most young students as learning how to take on adult responsibilities. Letting go of adolescence and becoming an adult is more challenging according to Carl Pickardt, Psychologist and adolescent specialist. If you take responsibility for showing up to class regularly, turning papers and work in on time, and sacrificing some of the time spent with friends in favor of more study time, you have won half the battle for achieving college success. Being responsible for meeting the demands of college (ability to respond and step up to the plate) is one of the keys to college achievement.

You already have been using some of the higher level thinking skills needed to succeed in college. You use these skills when you solve your life problems and overcome obstacles. Your lack of success in college will not be because you are not smart enough. There are many different types of intelligence and my experience in working with hundreds of students has shown that practically every student is smart in one way or another. For more information on different types of intelligence other than IQ, you can read the theories of Howard Gardner (Multiple Intelligences), Robert Sternberg (Successful Intelligence) and Daniel Goleman (Emotional and Social Intelligence).

In addition to self-responsibility, there are three other factors you will need to succeed in college:

1. Learning how to learn and study skills — You need to learn how to learn effectively and the ways that you learn best. Most colleges offer at least one college success course which can teach you these skills. These courses also need to be taught to high school students, but sadly few high schools provide them. A good college success course will teach you: how to study and learn, reading comprehension strategies, your best learning styles and types of intelligences, how to set and reach your goals, time management, discovery of your talents and strengths, career exploration, writing skills, note taking, problem solving, and more.

2. Work Ethic — Good study and work habits will lead you to success in college and in the work force. Good study skills will only be effective if you apply them. They will be worthless to you if you do not use them.

3. Motivation — Without motivation you will not consistently use good study skills, work habits and your intelligence and potential. There are two types of motivation, the carrot (pleasure) and the stick (pain). When you use these together you will have a powerful motivational combination. Keep your long-range goals for achieving a college education in your mind’s eye. For example, let’s say you want a degree in secondary education to become a teacher. Visualize and imagine yourself as a teacher who is making a positive difference for your students. Enjoy the positive feelings that come when you see yourself as a great teacher. This is the carrot and a reminder of one of the benefits (pleasure) you will experience by achieving your goal. Also remind yourself of the stick (pain) or the consequences if you do not achieve your goal of completing a degree in secondary education. It can deprive you of becoming a teacher. Reminding yourself of the benefits and consequences will help you to stay motivated and persistent. Also break your long-range goals into small steps. Every step accomplished provides you with positive feedback and will increase your motivation to reach your long-range goals.

You can succeed in college, in your career, and in your life. Where to begin? Start with college success by taking responsibility, learning how to learn effectively and how you learn best, using good study skills and work habits, and by fueling your motivation to succeed. Use these four keys and you will open the door to college success and the gateway to your dreams.

What Are the Exam Objectives of Exam 70-431?

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Exam 70-431 is one of the Microsoft’s certification examinations and the name of this examination is MCTS SQL 2005 server implementation. This certification will suit best to the candidates who wish to gain skills and knowledge on ability to maintain as well as implement system information that is incorporated with Microsoft SQL 2005 server. By passing this examination, candidates will earn their Microsoft certified technology specialist certification in SQL 2005 server implementation.

Examination requirements and job roles:

For writing this examination, there are no special prerequisites required for the candidates but Microsoft recommends the candidates to have some knowledge in using database tools, writing codes in SQL as well as in other languages and troubleshooting databases. Candidates can get several job opportunities in the top companies after certifying with this examination. Some of the job roles include: information system administrator, system analysts, network analysts, technical support engineers, database administrators and technical consultants etc.

Exam 70-431 objectives:

The following are the exam 70-431 objectives and they are:

1) Maintenance of database
2) Data customers support
3) Implementation as well as creation of database objects
4) Configuring as well as installing SQL 2005 server
5) Implementation of disaster recovery and implementation of high recovery
6) Troubleshooting as well as monitoring the SQL 2005 server performance.

Other details:

Exam can be registered in Pearson VUE centers or in online through Pearson VUE website b paying the fee. The exam comprises of 40 questions with 90 minutes time duration and no adaptive or case study type questions. Only multiple choices, drag- drop, built a tree, reorder type questions are asked. Minimum score to pass in the exam is around 700 out of 1000 (70%).

Golf Course Types by Ownership

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One of the things that a newcomer to the World of golf would probably like to know is what the difference is between different types of golf course. This question is more complicated than you may first imagine as there are really three different ways to express what category a particular golf course fits into.

The first is by setting and categories a course by whether it is set in heathland, woodland or by the ocean etc. The second type is by length, where the course is categorized essentially by the length of time it takes to play a round, so these types will be pitch & putt, full length or executive, so called because executives may not have time to play a round on a full length course of 18 holes. Most executive courses are only 9 holes.

In this article though we are going to look at how golf courses can be categorized by ownership. The above two types of categorization allow you to know what to expect when you turn up to play. However, this third type of categorization determines whether or not you will be allowed access to the course at all.

The following is not an exhaustive list of course types but these are the most popular types of course that you might come across.

Private Golf Courses are courses which are owned by a golf club and they only allow play by members of the club. If you aren’t a member of the club then you can’t play, unless of course you are lucky enough to be invited to play by someone who is already a member.

Public Golf Courses can be courses owned by private organizations or individuals or by other organizations such as local businesses. The key here is that the owner charges a fee for playing. Essentially this means that the course is open to be played by anyone who can afford to pay the fee.

Courses also exist which are essentially a combination of the above two. Club members can play at any time. The public are allowed to play but usually only on specific days of the week, or times of day.

Municipal golf course are owned by the local government. They operate like public golf courses but the money paid for the green fees goes to the them as opposed to a private individual or company.

Some residential areas have their own golf course which is designed to be played by the local residents only. They tend to be run by the community itself and as such are not open to the public.

Finally there is the resort golf course. Resort golf courses are owned and operated by a holiday resort or a hotel chain for the pleasure of their guests. Play may not be restricted to resort guests however, and so you may find some resort courses are open to the public in return for a fee.

Looking For Accredited Online College Courses

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With educational trends leaning more towards going to college online, finding accredited college courses is a very important for either the new or continuing college student. Accreditation refers to a college or university that has been accredited, or basically has set forth high standards that have been met by the organizations who off accreditation. Accreditation can be on a regional, national, programmatic or national faith-based accreditors.

The importance of attending an online college that is accredited is highly important, specifically if a particular job you are after (for example, a teaching position) requires accreditation from the institutes that teach you, in order to be able to justifiably certify you. With may hundreds of organizations on the Internet that are not accredited schools, this weeds out those who are not conforming to higher educational standards.

It’s fairly obvious why accreditation is important. If you are considering teaching children, then you must be found to have been educated at least to the highest possible standards possible, and with no more than a B average for competencies in various subject matter.  Naturally, some people might become upset at suggesting that B’s or higher should be considered the “norm”, along with having taken classes by accredited institutions, however, what if that B is not based on grades, and only on competency?

For example, there are colleges who strictly operate on this principle: No grades, only competency that meets a standard of at least a “B” equivalency. Not bad, if you can take exams and other assessments till you can reach that through applying various means to your course of study in order to achieve this. Even people who normally have obtained C’s and D’s in high school, can be found to be highly competent in competency-only online colleges.

While it is certainly easy enough to find online colleges, it isn’t necessarily easy to find the RIGHT online colleges. For example, some online colleges have only one or two full accreditations, while others will have more. The more a school has in accreditations, the more likely your degree will be acceptable where you will be working, whether as a teacher or other business professional.

Some college courses that must be accredited include not only the educational arena, but also IS (Information Science), Library and other Science degrees require them, especially when one is applying for work within these particular disciplines.  It is very important, prior to attending an online college, to know exactly what they have to offer at the time you apply with regard to accreditation as well as what they are working on. Both of these answers should be easily answered by the staff at these schools, since the bottom line is that they really do want students who are competent and can therefore handle competency-based work.  It should be noted that not all online colleges that are accredited go by a competency-based curriculum; many are still quite traditional, utilizing a grading system. Any way you look at it, achieving a college degree is a dream that can be accomplished. Just be on the lookout for accreditation with your college of choice.

Education System in India

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India is one of the largest democratic country in the world. Education system in India is having a huge demand because of its quality and systematic education procedures we are following. India’s education sector is emerging fast with sparking demand for every one. Our Education system is the strongest and it will start from pre schooling age with excellent training methodologies with latest models like e-learning, Skill enhancements educational software drives, skills presentation, text books etc.

Indian government is spending a huge amount for education sector for every financial year. The amount spent is utilised in various methods by considering the minority and backward class people and also for poor people facing difficulty in receiving elementary schooling. Government is providing facilities to all kinds of people and the education market is going to hit $70 billions by the end of 2012.

Canon Law Society of America estimates that the total size of India’s private education market could reach US$70 billion by 2012. Private education sector has started in mid 1990’s and set up various schemes and one among them is that state governments will out source the supply of various Hardware and Software in various government and government aided schools. The funds for the out supply has been provided by central government under various schemes called ICT, SA, school programme etc. Various private companies have entered in to market With huge investments. The government is also encouraging various industrial institutes to offer academic and financial aid to private people. Many big companies like L&T, Microsoft etc are showing their interest in participation.

Education system in India is regulated at center as well as at state level too. These regulations vary from state to state. we are having two kinds of educational systems in India, Central board and State Board. Central Board of secondary education is being monitored by central government and State boards have their own education board systems. The Central Board is seeking affiliation that is managing a committee which is controlled by a trust and it should have non proprietary entries with out having any vested control by any individual or others. The trust will approve budgets for the financial year and also for tuition charges etc and the donations incurred to this board will be exempted under Income tax Act as this is meant for charitable purpose for promoting education but not for pursuing the profits on it.

State governments are mainly responsible for the establishment of state colleges and universities and also has power to approve the establishment of private universities as according to UGC Norms.

In order to Impart Professional and technical educational system in India A group of professional councils grouped together and established a council called All India Council For Technical Education in 1987. It promotes professional institutions and gives recognition to courses which comes under undergraduate programmes and provides the standard development of Technical education in India. These regulations continues to show its influence in Indian Education System. Irrespective of all these constraints the educational sector is achieving excellent potential growth with high standards.

Choosing Elementary School Photographers – Part II

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Purchase Options

Most fall pictures are done through a pre-pay program, meaning order forms are sent home in advance and parents choose the photo package they want and send it back with the money before the pictures are taken. This is the most efficient way to handle the process and reduces waste from photo packages that are sent home never to be purchased.

Many school photographers offer a proof program, which allows the parents to see the photos before placing an order. However, most photographers and schools find that proof programs for fall elementary school pictures are not worth the hassle.

Some schools run special “family photo day” sessions as fundraisers, typically held in the spring. With these programs, families pay a sitting fee that usually goes to the school. After the family pictures are taken the families preview their photos and choose what to purchase.

Most spring photo programs will be tailored to meet the needs of the school and can be great school fundraising ideas. That said, they can be time consuming and as with any school fundraiser, schools need to weigh the time and effort against the amount of money that can be raised.

Embrace Technology

The beauty of digital photography is the ability to decrease the need for retakes. Now, a school photographer can snap a picture and look on a screen to see if the child’s eyes are closed or if it is a bad picture.

The other great thing about digital is the amount of custom products that are available. Nowadays, a photographer can take one image and crop it multiple ways so it looks like different poses were taken. If you combine that with green screen technology, the possibilities are endless.

Many companies make the digital images available on the web for download or to reorder additional products. Some companies actually give the original image with a copyright release for free with every package that is purchased. This is something that you will see more of in the years to come. The days of holding negatives hostage are soon to be over.

Quality is Key

I have seen some pretty poor elementary school pictures over the years, which leads me to the most important factor when choosing your school photographer, quality.

School portraits are a time honored tradition and they are part of growing up. You need to make sure the photos that are taken are worthy of hanging on a parent’s wall for the next 30 years or more. If there is one thing that every principal I have ever met states is most important, it is quality school pictures.

There are many good school photographers in San Diego and across the country. You do not have to settle for low quality school pictures in front of a grey background.

How New Technologies Enable Us to Learn Better

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Learn from the best teachers

Gone are the days when we had to attend the best colleges or schools to learn from the best teachers. Now, the technology is bringing them in our study room. We don’t have to travel to far off places or spend lot of money to get access to good teachers. High quality education is available to us in form of videos, eBooks or tests – all prepared by good teachers around the world.

Learn with your friends

Our school days are most memorable because of our friends. Friends share notes, discuss various topics and quiz each other. Not to mention, friends helping other friends who find it difficult to understand in class. The power of social networks is enabling all this while studying in our room. The greatest advantage is the accessibility to number of friends and discovering more people from whom we can learn.

Learn at your own speed

So you missed a lecture? Or worse, you were not able to follow in the class you attended. You can always revisit your classes on your smartphone or computer using recorded videos. And the best part is that you can pause these videos anytime and go at your own pace. Further, you can watch video lessons any number of times you want by rewinding them. It is like reading a book – just that it is more interesting and effective.

Take the most optimized learning path

In the real world we learn in a haphazard way based on events occurring around us. This type of learning is unique to us, i.e., the way we learn is completely different from the way our friends learn. While in our standard course curriculum, learning is standardized – everybody goes through the same course curriculum depending on the age group they fall. Now, using technology, we can enable personalized learning that is customized according to a student’s need. Students can take learning paths according to their strengths and likings.

Go deeper with the information available on web

Today we can get loads of information on any subject we want to know about. There is so much information available on internet. Modern technologies are enabling us to filter out most relevant knowledge out of this information and let us discover what exactly what we are looking for. Pick any topic and you can go very deep in understanding about that. Now, our learning is not restricted to 100 pages of our course book.

How to Choose a Life Coach

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If you are serious about achieving a balanced life, it is important for you to know how to choose a life coach. It is easy to teach others, but when it comes to implementing the same lessons in your own life, it usually sounds very difficult. There are times when you tell your friend or colleague to have a positive attitude in life, but when you yourself are caught in an adverse situation, you forget everything and feel depressed.

That is the reason why, availing the services of a coach is important – especially in this ‘dog eat dog’ world where everything is moving at the speed of light – whether it is about career, relationships, business, or any other area. Besides, you just can’t hire any coach.

Who Is The Best Coach For You?

Before you start learning the secrets of a balanced life, you should first learn how to choose a life coach. The best coach for you is obviously the one whose coaching style allows you to connect with him/her. If you are not feeling comfortable with the coach’s coaching style, you will not be able to achieve the best results. Coaching is like a partnership between you and the coach. Therefore, instead of focusing on the experience and qualification of the coach, you are recommended to focus on his/her coaching style. You should go ahead only if you are convinced and impressed with the style. Always remember that no matter how qualified or experienced a life coach is, if your comfort level does not match, you will not be able to achieve the desired success.

Qualification

While you are learning how to choose a coach, it is important for you to understand that there are no specific legal standard for degrees or certification within the field of life coaching. Depending upon an array of factors, the qualification of a life coach varies. Always remember that not all coaches have professional qualifications like degrees in business, psychology, or counseling. Some of them do have, but most of them do not. That is the reason why the style of life coaching also varies a lot. In fact, the qualifications and experience of a coach should not be an indicator of his/her abilities.

Overall, while you are exploring the different options to choose a coach, you should note that the best approach is to choose the one that you are the most comfortable with.