More on the policy changes in Houston. Background on Houston and why it matters starts here....

Interesting study that just came out proving basically that Botox blocks a person's ability to empathize and take in negative emotions. Somehow the fact that they cannot frown blocks that emotion from getting in. PhysOrg.com says: "The Havas study broke new ground by linking the expression of emotion to the ability to understand language, says Havas' adviser, UW-Madison professor emeritus of psychology Arthur Glenberg. "Normally, the brain would be sending signals to the periphery to frown, and the extent of the frown would be sent back to the brain. But here, that loop is disrupted, and the intensity of the emotion and of our ability to understand it when embodied in language is disrupted."" This is interesting, but since the study only involved forty people, here are a couple of thoughts/ observations for you. Your expressions link to your interpretation of the world! We know that happy people tend to smile more. People who smile tend to be more positive. Positive people tend to interpret the world more positively. Right? Is the converse true? Negative people tend to frown more. People who frown tend to be more negative? Negative people tend to interpret the world more negatively? Right? These are generalities but have been talked about ad nauseum by many "motivational experts" - we have to remember this. We also know that our facial expressions affect how others react to us. (i.e. We tend to approach people who are smiling, shun people who are frowning.) Our facial expressions influence both how people to react to us and HOW WE REACT TO OTHERS more than we know. So, grab out the mirror and take a look. If you don't like the particular lines and wrinkles you see (are they frown lines or smile lines) decide to make a change! And personally, I'd rather change my view from the inside out than somehow use the Botox approach. Related articles by Zemanta Smile! It Could Make You Happier (scientif...

Israel’s Time To Know Aims To Revolutionize The ClassroomI'm always hesitant to listen to research conducted by a company itself touting amazing results, but much of what this company is doing is what needs to happen with curriculum. Of course, any curriculum may be implemented well and often the best teachers are selected for pilots. ;-) tags: education, learning, curriculum, edu_newsPosted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License....

In DC the Wash Post editorial board weighs-in on the fate of the federal voucher program there and don't miss this pretty hot letter to Secretary Duncan over the whole thing (pdf). Meanwhile in LA Macke Raymond (ES Board chair) with three smart reccomendations on policy, charters, and quality.* And a new Brookings report on expanding choice [...]...

This week has been very busy wrapping up the final details for this year's massive collaboration between our students and Don Tapscott, award winning author of Wikinomics and Grown up Digital. Below is the current call for classrooms also cross posted on our wiki. http://netgened2010.flatclassroomproject.org/ We will have a call in the next week for expert advisors (to advise students on wiki content) and judges (for reviewing and providing feedback on video submissions.) Net Generation Education Project: Call for ClassroomsWritten by Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay http://netgened2010.flatclassroomproject.org/ Award winning author, Don Tapscott, and award winning global collaborators Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis (co founders of the Flat ClassroomTM Project) are excited to announce the 2010 NetGenEd Project, another global collaboration to envision the future of education and social action by inspiring today's students to study leading technology trends and create their vision for the future. This is the second NetGenEd Project collaboration between the two organizations with the 2009 project announced at the Flat Classroom conference in Doha Qatar 2009. The 2009 Net Generation Education Project was the replacement for the Horizon Project and included 10 schools with more than 300 students. The application process is now open for schools who wish to participate in the project in March - May of 2010. In this project, students will study and "mash up" the results of the 2010 Horizon Report from the New Media Consortium and Educause and Tapscott's book Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World. Students will study the current research and create wiki-reports with their student partners around the world analyzing current trends and projecting future happenings based upon this collaborative analysis. This project is managed by the students who assume roles such as project manager, assistant project manager, and ...

With 85,000 jobs lost in December 2009 alone (source: Labor Department), employment is one of the nation's biggest concerns. Industry research firm IBISWorld analyzed more than 700 U.S. industries to identify the top 10 fastest growing employment industries in the next five years: Listen to the Working Podcast #94 below and subscribe here. Direct Download...

Think about this:In order to induce terror, you never have to actually commit the act. It is the unresolved possibility of terror that keeps one--or the world--in a state of fear and stress. So it is with daily stress, on and off the job. Whatever is unresolved becomes a stressor. Carried to the extreme, inaction causes us to, in effect, terrorize ourselves. And others. So: Have you been putting off asking for or giving feedback at work? If you're a manager, you have thoughts about people's performance that you are carrying around. And they are building up. Your employees don't know how they're doing. And the first thing we humans do in the absence of truthful information is fantasize about it--negatively. Do something now. Feel the relief that follows. What is reappearing on your to-do list that's giving you second thoughts about yourself? Do something now. Feel the relief that follows. Who has been waiting for a decision from you? Do something now. Feel the relief that follows. You and I have more control over our stress than we sometimes care to acknowledge. Why terrorize yourself when you can get relief by taking even one definitive action toward a tick mark on your checklist? Each step you take brings an additional sense of relief. ______________________________________________But there's more!Online friend Mark Harbeke of Winning Workplaces added this resource from J. Alex Sherrer of Project Management Road Trip®. It's a terrific paper on Combating Workplace Negativity. Let's face it: negativity breeds stress and knowing how to counteract negativity offers value to all of us. Thanks, Mark and Alex....

There's an entire industry built around Leadership. Graduate programs, consulting businesses, workshops, seminars, books, DVD's...I sometimes wonder if it hasn't become a cult in search of an idealized organizational savior. If that's the case for some, then the search will continue indefinitely but the conversation will be wonderfully angst-filled. "Most people who want to get ahead do it backward. They think, 'I'll get a bigger job, then I'll learn how to be a leader.' But showing leadership skill is how you get the bigger job in the first place. Leadership isn't a position, it's a process." --John C. Maxwell Let's Begin HereFor those seeking a realistic and practical approach to building leadership abilities, maybe we need to start by asking:1. What do we really expect? This is based upon each organization's strategies, value system, and the ability to bring in "the right person at the right time for the right leadership role."2. Are we willing to invest the time, money, and energy to build mature leadership capability by purposefully putting people in positions of leadership? Are we committed to making an investment in a process?3. If "yes," how will we do that?4. If "no," then are we willing to change our expectations and live with the results?If it's about speed, it isn't about maturityThe business climate now is about speed, quarterly results, and change. It is almost impossible to develop people's abilities for the long run in the context of a single organization's culture and needs. When there was commitment to-- and from--employees, you could track, train, develop, and promote with longevity in mind. Companies had a sense of confidence about an individual's real capabilities because people had been tested and observed in different situations over a long period of time. You could assess, first hand, both skill and maturity ...

There's an entire industry built around Leadership. Graduate programs, consulting businesses, workshops, seminars, books, DVD's...I sometimes wonder if it hasn't become a cult in search of an idealized organizational savior. If that's the case for some, then the search will continue indefinitely but the conversation will be wonderfully angst-filled. "Most people who want to get ahead do it backward. They think, 'I'll get a bigger job, then I'll learn how to be a leader.' But showing leadership skill is how you get the bigger job in the first place. Leadership isn't a position, it's a process." --John C. Maxwell Let's Begin HereFor those seeking a realistic and practical approach to building leadership abilities, maybe we need to start by asking:1. What do we really expect? This is based upon each organization's strategies, value system, and the ability to bring in "the right person at the right time for the right leadership role."2. Are we willing to invest the time, money, and energy to build mature leadership capability by purposefully putting people in positions of leadership? Are we committed to making an investment in a process?3. If "yes," how will we do that?4. If "no," then are we willing to change our expectations and live with the results?If it's about speed, it isn't about maturityThe business climate now is about speed, quarterly results, and change. It is almost impossible to develop people's abilities for the long run in the context of a single organization's culture and needs. When there was commitment to-- and from--employees, you could track, train, develop, and promote with longevity in mind. Companies had a sense of confidence about an individual's real capabilities because people had been tested and observed in different situations over a long period of time. You could assess, first hand, both skill and maturity ...

Why Is Feedback Important? Feedback started as a term used to describe the signals sent from a rocket back to earth in order to determine the accuracy of the rocket's course. By tracking speed and trajectory, ground crews could determine when and where to make corrections. At some point in time, the term Feedback was incorporated into business language as a way to talk about performance. And, as in rocket flight, it has been determined that the best way for a person to stay "on course" is to assess where one stands at any given moment in relation to the task or goal at hand. Here's the really important point: The chances of impacting performance increase with frequency and timeliness of feedback. That implies the need for ongoing "How are we doing?" conversations. It's our best chance at knowing whether we're on track or not. What Gets In The Way of Giving Feedback? 1. Let's face it: few of us enjoy hearing about those areas of work life where we're coming up short. It's human nature. The flip side is that managers are people, too, and they have the same thoughts and feelings. So it's not exactly a peak experience being the proverbial "messenger" even though it comes with the job. 2. The term "feedback" has morphed into "Here's what you need to correct" instead of "Here's how I think we're doing." 3. Feedback has been institutionalized to the point where it is often done at yearly or semi-annual performance reviews. That's usually too far away from the actual performance for a person to make the kind of changes that will alter an outcome. So it's almost like a "Gotcha!" 4. It takes a relationship built on trust to have meaningful conversations about performance. Trust comes from a series of interactions where people have made agreements, talked about how things were going, and then lived up to what they said they would do. And if somethin...

I don’t know what came over me but I’ve been pumping out eHow articles for the past two weeks. Any ideas that I don’t see fit for Realm of Prosperity will somehow turn into a how-to article – and I’ve seen the rewards from doing so. Although it is just a few bucks here and [...] Related posts:Starting To Use eHow.com For Passive Income Even afterWeekend Links: Becoming a Writer for Money Under 30 As of thisWeekend Links and Designing My Roth IRA Portfolio As I am ac...

529s are great: you put in after-tax money and it grows tax-free. You can put a lot of money into them; the money can be used for tuition, room, board, textbooks, and other fees; there are no age or income limits; and you can change the beneficiary if your kid decides to attend the school of hard knocks instead of college....

In times of plenty, relocating for work usually means a better job or a higher standard of living. But in today's tough economy, many are finding that they just can't find work or maintain their standard of living where they currently live. It's especially bad in New York and California, two places where the economy is suffering and the cost of living remains high. Many of these financial refugees are ending up in Texas, a place where the cost of living is low. And many of those that are relocating are in the very lowest income bracket, a further indication that money is their motivation for moving....

Writing Your Money: The Missing Manual has been intense. I've spent a ton of time researching personal finance topics ranging from buying a car to funding a 401(k) to the relationship between money and happiness. My research has reinforced some of my convictions (index funds are the best investment for 99% of personal investors, for instance) but has toppled others. One of my beliefs that's been set on its head is that Americans are better off buying their own homes. I don't believe that's necessarily the case anymore. Advantages to renting In 2007, Tim Ellis shared a guest post with GRS readers about the realities of home ownership. "It's a real shame when people are driven to get into the housing market because of misplaced notions of imagined financial benefits," Ellis wrote at the time. I didn't pay much attention (because I was in London!), but I now believe he's right. Yes, homeownership makes sense for some [...]...

This is a guest post from Sierra Black, a long-time GRS reader and the author of ChildWild, a blog where she writes about frugality, sustainable living, and getting her kids to eat kale. Talking about money is one of the great taboos of our culture. I know more about my friends’ sex lives than I do about their bank statements. Many of us find it hard to discuss finances under the best circumstances. When we’re stressed about money, we tend to clam up even more. If you’re married (or living with a partner), you don’t have that luxury. Financial success is not a private affair. You need to talk to your spouse or partner about your money. This is vital for both the health of your relationship and the health of your bank balance. You don’t have to take my word for this. This week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Lou Scatigna, a.k.a. The Financial Physician. An [...]...

If there ever was a bullshit excuse, especially today in the accelerated maturity of our young friends, it's this: "Boys will be boys". So when TechCrunch unloaded their empire-building seventeen-year-old intern, I was a little tweaked about the "Boys will be boys" attitude. Not by TechCrunch, Arrington manned up, said something was wrong, apologized, and took [...]...

Although Soap Box Included might be free, you should get used to paying for the best content on the web....

Going back to school... should you? This can be a tough question, especially for nontraditional students, who are generally older than the traditional idea of students in high school or college.... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]...

If you tell me to go to your website instead of answering my questions, I won't do business with you....

You can help other nontraditional students by being part of this project. Take America to College is teaming up with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (among others) and sponsoring this online... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]...