PolitiFact | Sorting out the truth in politics: MINIMUM WAGE

Politifact.com Truth-O-Meter rulings from National

Barack Obama: The minimum wage is "lower right now than it was when Ronald Reagan took office." - The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly True | Barack Obama says minimum wage pays less now than when Ronald Reagan was sworn in President Barack Obama has been ta...

9 hours ago

It slipped under today's rate for most of Reagan's second term

PolitiFact | Sorting out the truth in politics

Protect the Right to Vote

Protect the Right to Vote shared Protect the Right to Vote's photo.

 

Protect the Right to Vote shared Protect the Right to Vote's photo.

 

 

 

 

Protect the Right to Vote shared Protect the Right to Vote's photo.

 

 

Protect the Right to Vote shared Protect the Right to Vote's photo.

 

 

Protect the Right to Vote shared Protect the Right to Vote's photo.

 

 

Protect the Right to Vote shared Protect the Right to Vote's photo.

 

 

 

Protect the Right to Vote

Register for AGI's Online Course for Those Who Support Individuals with Autism

Learn the Best Practices to support an Adult with Autism
Register for AGI's Online Course for Those Who Support Individuals with Autism

tile

"the world's largest lost and found."

Tile shared a link.

July 24

Tile™ Raises $2.6M To Become The Most Successful Selfstarter Campaign Ever - iPhone in Canada...

 

http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/news/tile-the-most-successful-selfstarter-campaign/

 

Tile™ has become the most successful Selfstarter compaign ever by raising $2.6M in 34 days.

watch the video

 

 

 

   click here to learn more Tile

Louisiana Teacher Leaders Summer Summit

The Louisiana Department of Education lists various files  (primarily Common Core, as well as, Early Elementary, Middle School, and High School)  to download in the following categories: 

• June Logistics Information

          Teacher Leaders Summit Program (June 2013) Web

• June Session Materials (Wednesday): Common Core Instruction -  ELA Literacy
• Math

June Session Materials (Thursday): District, Principal, Teacher Sessions

• X. Using the Video Library to Support Feedback and Collaboration
• Y. Walk-Throughs Open Doors at Mamou HS
• Z. Finding “Common” Ground - Teacher Collaboration with CCSS
• AA. Ensuring a Successful Journey - Creating Teacher Buy In
• AB. Using Compass as a Tool for Teacher Growth and Improvement
• AC. Using LEADER COMPASS as a Tool to Support PLC’s in a School
• AD. Helping YOU Communicate CCSS
• AE. We Have to do What - Planning for Meaningful Teacher Collaboration
• AF. Effective Teacher Collaboration Practices
• AG. Modeling the Use of Resources to Affect Understanding of Core Content, Assmt, and Tchr Practice
• AH. Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) - A Framework for Implementing CCSS in Sci, SS, and Technical Subjects
• AI. Using Strong Texts in a CCSS Classroom - Identifying Text Complexity, Building Text Sets
• AJ. Using Subpar Text to Teach Above Par Skills
• AK. Are Your Text Dependent Questions Good, Better or the Best at Engaging Learners
• AL. PARCC ELA Evidence Tables and their Implications for Text Selection and Performance Task Design
• AM. Constructing Classroom Assessments from CCSS (ELA)
• AN. CCSS in the Elective Classroom - Using Literacy and Writing Strategies to Enhance Elective Instruction
• AO. Integrating Math Procedures and Skills into the CCSS Classroom
• AP. Identifying, Teaching, and Assessing Conceptual Understanding in Math (focus on 6th grd-Algebra
• AQ. If There's No Wind...ROW; 8th grade Math,Algebra Common Core Practices
• AR. Making Mathematicians with Common Core; Grades PreK-5
• AS. Middle School Math - Teaching & Assessing the Concepts Behind the Procedures
• AT. Identifying and Teaching the Mathematical Concepts Behind the Procedure
• AU. Social Studies and Science - the Ticket to winning with Common Core
• AV. The Implications of Common Core Standards in ELA and Math on the Science Classroom
• AW. What Do Common Core and the PARCC Assessment Mean to Science Teachers
• AX. Understanding the Connection Within Science Standards and CCSS
• AY. Using PLCs to Set Priorities and Coordinate Efforts Across Campuses
• AZ. Building Strong Text Sets
• Using Effective Questioning

Louisiana Teacher Leaders

Holy Mesopotamia Batman: First Grade CCSS vocabulary. – SCHOOLS MATTER @ THE CHALK FACE

I have been giving the New York State Education Department’s new Common Core curriculum modules a study over the last few weeks. I see these modules as an insulting scripted curriculum that favors test preparation skills over learning.  I teach middle school social studies so new reforms such as the Common Core have not had much of a direct impact on my classroom yet, but as a parent the Common Core and its related high-stakes testing machine has my full attention.
July 29, 2013 By Chris Cerrone

Holy Mesopotamia Batman: First Grade CCSS vocabulary. – SCHOOLS MATTER @ THE CHALK FACE

The History of Common Core - YouTube

The History of Common Core - YouTube

Louisiana Teacher Leaders April Kickoff

Teacher Leaders
Engage. Empower. Inspire.
Kickoff Meeting was April 18-19, 2013 at the Lafayette, Cajundome.

April Logistics Information
Teacher Leaders Kickoff Meeting Program

April Session Materials

HANDOUT 1 - Literate CCSS Students
HANDOUT 2 - Math CCSS Students
HANDOUT 3 - CCSS Teacher Instructional Shifts
HANDOUT 4 - Participant Work Guide

Presentation - Optional Compass Update for Teacher Leaders

For more 'Louisiana Believes.com 2013 materials, refer to the
Louisiana Teacher Leaders

Louisiana Teacher Leaders - Video Library

Louisiana Teacher Leaders Summer Summit

 

Video Library
The Instructional Video Library is an online tool that brings the Compass rubric and its instructional expectations to life.
The Video Library includes examples of instruction at different levels of the rubric, and is designed to help educators build observation and feedback skills.
Videos include:

• In this 11th and 12th grade Common Core-aligned ELA lesson, students collaboratively compose and perform a soliloquy.;
•  High School Music Lesson on Composition Performance;
•  Elementary Significant Needs Special Education Lesson on Characters and Setting in a Text ;

Louisiana Teacher Leaders

PARCC States Announce Field Testing and Launches Non-Profit

Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers -

'PARCC States Announce Field Testing; Non-Profit Launched' - Washington, D.C. - July 29, 2013 - Fourteen states and the District of Columbia announced today they are committed to field testing the next-generation PARCC assessments in the...

upcoming 2013-14 school year, a key step in building a high-quality assessment system that will be rolled out broadly in schools during the following academic year.
The states participating in the field tests are Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, District of Columbia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Tennessee.
Not all students in a participating state take field tests. Generally just about 10 percent of students in tested grades and subjects will participate across PARCC states; most of those students will only take a portion of the tests. The PARCC field tests will not generate student scores. The PARCC field tests will be in administered in March-May 2014.
PARCC has formally amended its grant for Race to the Top funding to fully operate as an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with its own funding, board of directors, staff and programs. Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers

PARCC States Announce Field Testing; Non-Profit Launched | PARCC

Poll Finds Disability Community Politically Engaged

In what’s believed to be the first national look at the political views of the disability community, a new poll finds that those touched by special needs are turning out to vote in high numbers and care deeply about candidate views on supports and services.

Some 72 percent of caregivers and people with disabilities polled said they voted in the 2012 presidential election. What’s more, over 60 percent indicated that they plan to cast a ballot in next year’s midterm election, according to findings released Friday.

Poll Finds Disability Community Politically Engaged - Disability Scoop

Accessibility Features and Accommodations Manual Released by PARCC

PARCC Releases Accessibility Features and Accommodations Manual - WASHINGTON, D.C. - July 25, 2013 - The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers()PARCC) today released the first edition of the accessibility features and accommodations manual for the assessments currently being developed.The PARCC Accessibility Features and Accommodations Manual is a comprehensive policy document that outlines the accessibility features and accommodations that will be available for the PARCC Mid-Year, Performance-Based, and End-of-Year Assessments. The release of the manual is an important step in meeting PARCC's commitment to accessibility for all students, especially students with disabilities, English learners and English learners with disabilities, and for meeting the timelines for a 2014 - 2015 assessment administration.

The majority of the proposed accommodations policies are currently in use across PARCC states. What is different from many current state accommodations manuals, however, is that the manual includes not only proposed participation and accommodations policies for students with disabilities and English learners, but also information about tools that will be provided through PARCC's computer-based assessment delivery system for all students.

With the manual, PARCC is also releasing online brochures called Expanding Access for parents and teachers of students with disabilities to explain the PARCC assessment and the accessibility system. "These brochures will be a great resource for parents and teachers," said Otha Thornton, National PTA President.

--http://www.parcconline.org/parcc-releases-accessibility-features-and-accommodations-manual

PARCC Releases Accessibility Features and Accommodations Manual | PARCC

#ABetterBargain

#ABetterBargain

 

"The only thing I care about is how to use every minute of the remaining 1,276 days of my term to make this country work for working Americans." 

Barack Obama, President of the United States

—> http://at.wh.gov/ninLN


#‎ABetterBargain‬

 

The White House

10 hours ago

"The only thing I care about is how to use every minute of the remaining 1,276 days of my term to make this country work for working Americans." —President Obama on rebuilding middle-class security.

You're going to want to watch this —> http://youtu.be/o4KjcuSO-lU

 

#ABetterBargain

 

Everything Wrong With America In One Simple Image (INFOGRAPHIC)

When a country places more importance on sports than on academic achievement, its decline is inevitable. The American Decline is real and this is where it comes from.

America The Stupid courtesy of WTHR-TV

Read more: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/05/12/american-decline/#ixzz2aEX1bUbi

Why America is NOT the greatest country in the world... anymore



Everything Wrong With America In One Simple Image (INFOGRAPHIC)

Advocacy Center features Senator Harkin's ADA speech in ASL.

Advocacy Center shared a link.

Watch Sen. Harkin's speech upon the passage of the ADA 23 years ago -- the first ever to be delivered in ASL!

Senator Harkin Delivers Floor Speech in American Sign Language Upon Passage of the ADA

Upon passage of the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) on July 13th, 1990, Senator Tom Harkin delivered a speech on the Senate floor in American ...

·

Chain email says Homeland Security can seize safe deposit boxes without notice

The Truth-O-Meter Says:

"U.S. Department of Homeland Security has told banks -- in writing -- it may inspect safe deposit boxes without warrant and seize any gold, silver, guns or other valuables it finds inside those boxes!"

Chain email on Sunday, July 14th, 2013 in an email
PolitiFact | Chain email says Homeland Security can seize safe deposit boxes without notice

"Happy Birthday ADA" from PBS.org

In a scene described as having "the fervor of a civil rights rally of the 1960s" supporters of the Americans with Disabilities Act climb the steps of the Capitol without their walkers, crutches and wheelchairs on Mar 12, 1990. Photo by Terry Ashe/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images

 

 

 

Sponsored by Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin and Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer and and signed by President George H.W. Bush on July 26, 1990, the ADA was the result of years of debate over whether it would do as much harm as it would good, because of the new requirements it placed on governments, employers and people who own airlines, bus companies, office buildings, stores, restaurants and any other facility someone with a disability might want to use.

 

Read Judy Woodruff's ADA celebration article:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2013/07/happy-birthday-ada.html

Happy Birthday ADA

www.pbs.org

 

 

 

• via

Southwest ADA Center 

 

 

 

 

The Matter with Megan An Open Letter to Senator Harkin from a Senate Intern |

23 years ago you did an incredible thing. You acknowledged that disabled people have been treated for centuries as second class citizens and moved to attempt to solve the problem.You told Congress that disabled people are people. You told the American people I mattered. You wrote a law, the Americans with disabilities act. And it was passed.
...

You’ve brought to light glaring loopholes that make navigating daily life a continued constant struggle. Accessibility is a right, not a granted favor. I’m sure you know that, too.
...

Thank you. It was because of you that I was able to work there at all. In the wake of your retirement, know that your work mattered, at least to this intern.

Most Appreciatively yours,

Megan

July 25, 2013
 

[Senator Tom Harkin serves as the Chairperson of the HELP - Health Education, Employment and Pensions Committee of the United States Senate.

Today marks the 23rd anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act  in 1990 by U.S. President George H.W. Bush.
[Read Megan Barron's entire letter posted on her blog:
An Open Letter to Senator Harkin from a Senate Intern | The Matter with Megan An Open Letter to Senator Harkin from a Senate Intern |

Celebrating 23 Years of the Americans with Disabilities Act | The White House

President Barack Obama meets with leaders who work with the disability community, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, July 25, 2013. President Obama thanked the participants for their work within the disability community and recognized the partner organizations attending the meeting. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Celebrating 23 Years of the Americans with Disabilities Act

Today marks the 23rd anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA represents the culmination of a struggle for the most basic promise of equal opportunity and protection. For millions of Americans, the ADA recognizes the unique challenges that individuals with disabilities face, and provides the legal basis for fairer treatment.

...

As President Obama said on the 20th Anniversary of the ADA, “Equal access. Equal opportunity. The freedom to make our lives what we will. These aren’t principles that belong to any one group or any one political party. They are common principles. They are American principles.”

These principles should continue to drive us to do better.

Valerie B. Jarrett is a Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama. She oversees the Offices of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs and chairs the White House Council on Women and Girls.

July 26, 2013 2:21 PM EDT



Celebrating 23 Years of the Americans with Disabilities Act | The White House

National Projects | ADA National Network

While the regional nature of the ADA Network is critical to ensuring the network can adequately support the diverse population of ADA Stakeholders throughout the country, the National ADA Network often partners to offer projects of national importance.  The list below highlights these projects.

• General
• Employment Specific
• Title II/State and Local Government
• Industry Specific
• Legal
• Accessible Technology

National Projects | ADA National Network

Juror Says He 'Got Away With Murder'

The court had sealed the jurors' identities during the trial and still hasn't lifted the order, but Juror B29 edged out of the shadows in an exclusive interview with "Good Morning America" anchor Robin Roberts. She allowed her face to be shown, but -- concerned for her safety ...

View videos and photos.

Thursday, July 26, 2013 - Watch More of the Interview Thursday on "World News" at 6:30 p.m. ET and on "Nightline" at 12:35 a.m. ET, and then on Friday on "Good Morning America" at 7 a.m. ET

George Zimmerman Juror Says He 'Got Away With Murder' - Yahoo!

Justice Department Sues Florida Over Disabled Kids in Nursing Homes

July 26, 2013 marks the 23rd Anniversary for the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The Justice Department Monday sued the state of Florida over its longstanding practice of housing medically fragile and disabled children in geriatric nursing homes, alleging that the state is in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The complaint has been a long time in coming. DOJ started investigating Florida's treatment of medically fragile and disabled kids in late 2011. It's been warning the state ever since that if it didn't change its practices and find a way for these kids to be cared for at home with their families or in better settings in the community, it would file suit and force the state to act.
Tea party-dominated Florida has been extremely reluctant to spend any money to provide care for this vulnerable population of children. The state even went so far as to turn down $37.5 million in federal money that would help move children out of nursing homes, all because the money was seen as part of Obamacare. Not even the threat of a civil rights lawsuit, apparently, was enough to get the state to do more.
Monday's complaint was signed by Thomas Perez, the head of DOJ's civil rights division who is now taking over as US secretary of labor.

Read the full article:

Justice Department Sues Florida Over Disabled Kids in Nursing Homes | Mother Jones

higher standards for administrators of adult living facilities

Sign the petition - Josh's voice | Change.org

Home Front Alert: The Risks Facing Young Children in Military Families

This brief examines the special circumstances that characterize the lives of children in military families, and highlights what we know and don’t know about how military life affects their well-being -

download a pdf version
Home Front Alert: The Risks Facing Young Children in Military Families | Child Trends

Home Front Alert: The Risks Facing Young Children in Military Families

This brief examines the special circumstances that characterize the lives of children in military families, and highlights what we know and don’t know about how military life affects their well-being -

download a pdf version
Home Front Alert: The Risks Facing Young Children in Military Families | Child Trends