Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with schools

public high schools in NYC

pmaxwell — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:45:09 -0800

What public high schools in Manhatten should I look at for my Daughter? September is coming: Tours, apps, interviews – Yikes!

CBC FLV

pcameron — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 20:49:34 -0800

I want to download a (non-copyrighted) FLV film (called A Film For Schools) from the CBC Radio 3 site, so I can post it on YouTube. How do I download it? The film is not copyrighted because it is made of public domain educational films (this is stated in the end credits). I really love the film and would like to make it more available, but the CBC Radio 3 website is badly designed and the video player stops to re-buffer every 30 seconds so I want to put it up on YouTube.

If I Make This School Better, I Can Change the World! Um, right?

jeanmari — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 11:45:43 -0800

I'm looking for some research or (last resort) anecdotal stories about the effect of improved/improving schools on communities/neighborhoods. I'm putting together a project that would try and encourage local community members to adopt classrooms/teachers in an urban school.

I'd like to be able to describe to people other than parents how improving a school can help to improve a community. I have a hunch that it helps with property values, but I don't have the data to back that up. Effects on crime? Effects on local businesses? Etcetera, etcetera.

Unfortunately, I'm working from home these days and don't have access to the good old university database that I'm used to. And it's been difficult to find what I need on Google.

Anyone have leads on where to look for this type of research, if it exists?

Austin public schools versus SF Bay Area public schools: which will leave our children behind less?

jewzilla — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:03:25 -0800

I can't find a consistent way to compare public schools in two different states, but maybe someone here has personal experience that'll help. We're considering buying a home in either the SF bay area or in Austin. Is there a substantial difference in the quality of the public schools? Regardless of which way we go, we'd pick a neighborhood that has highly rated schools. The definition of highly rated schools for us: In CA, that would be an API score of 850 or more (e.g., Cherry Chase in Sunnyvale); in Austin, it would be an "exemplary" school according to the Texas Accountability Rating System (e.g., almost any school in the Eanes district in Westlake).

Indy, Indiana, not Louisiana, Paris, France, NY or Rome

DiscourseMarker — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 12:01:54 -0800

Moving to Indianapolis, need neighborhood recommendations. Posting this for a friend: Mrs. Friend just accepted a job located near the SW corner of the greater Indianapolis tri-county area. They are currently in South Dakota (Brookings). Mr. Friend is looking for suggestions on where to live. They need a good school system (1 middle-school aged kid) and a house. They also need housing in Indy for grandma who is now in a HUD supported senior apt complex in Brookings. They like the college town vibe, but I think Bloomington is too far of a commute. Mr. Friend is a freelance writer/audio producer/stay-at-home dad.

Please give suggestions for good neighborhoods, MLS numbers, zip codes, etc where they can look. My friend thanks you!

Tell me anything you know about the New York City public school system.

HotPatatta — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 10:04:11 -0800

I live in LA and I'm going to a job fair for the NYC public school system (elementary school teacher). What can I say about the NYC public school system that is flattering and makes me sound like I know what's going on within the NYC Dept of Education? I want to be able to say something like, "I'm really eager to work for the NYC public school system because it is doing a lot of exciting, innovative things to address the needs of its students. Rather than accept mediocrity and underperformance of teachers and students, the NYC schools are doing x, y, and z to improve the quality of education that all students receive."

Basically, I want to be able to say more than just "I really love New York City and I have always wanted to live there. That's why I'm applying for a job there."

Are there any interesting city-wide initiatives, policies, etc. that I can mention or read up on?

Bay Area (horse) Riding School?

penciltopper — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 14:43:11 -0800

Looking for SF Bay Area equitation schools (wanna make with the horse-riding). I have pretty much the same question as this one.

Lots of good information there. But I'm looking for recommendations in the SF Bay Area.

I've lived in suburbs or cities all my life, so my exposure to horses has been limited. But I've gone on trail rides as described above, had a friend as a teen who was a show-jumper, etc. I've found that I like just being around horses in general.

So I'd like to spend my weekends this spring/summer learning to ride (instead of just sitting on top of a horse). Bonus for some place that would allow me to spend time there cleaning stables, grooming horses, whatever, if I wanted/they'd have me, rather than "your 1-hour lesson is over, please go home now".

(also, I don't really have the income that many in the horsey set do; so if I could cut my lesson rates by shoveling sh*t, that would be welcome.)

How do you change a school?

acoutu — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 14:41:02 -0800

Can you turn a bad school into a good school? I live in the downtown of the most expensive city in Canada: Vancouver. My catchment area includes two schools. One is an annex, which goes from K to 3. The other is the main school, K to 7. The annex is well regarded. However, the main school is not. The students there have many, many problems. A recent school report shows that 0% of kindergarten students there have personal preparedness skills and that at least 1/4 students is 20 minutes late every morning. 11% of grade 1s can do grade level math. And so on.

The annex has good results. However, because people don't want their kids to transfer to the main school for 4th grade, people move or send their kids elsewhere. By 3rd grade, only 3 students are original to the school and the class size is quite small. (Not that small is a problem.)

The main school apparently has problems with 7th graders bullying kindergarten students. My friend, who is a teacher, says no one wants to teach at the main school, although the annex is a popular destination.

People have apparently hoped to change the main school, but, if you head there for 4th grade, it's hard to get on the PTA. The people who were there from the beginning don't want to give up their spots or vote for new people. And the entrenched people are apparently okay with the way things are. (This is what I'm told.)

Most of the parents I know are great parents. We all have preschoolers. And we're all unsure what to do about school. A few parents have suggested that we could all band together and work to change the schools. The problem is that we'd all want to send our kids to the annex. Then you're in a game of chicken, when it comes to waiting it out till 4th grade. People inevitably panic and pull their kids out before they need to move to the big school for grade 4. And so things never change.

Is there any way to change this? If our kids don't go to these schools, they'd have to go out of catchment, which involves commuting and kind of defeats the purpose of living downtown.

A few key points:
- starter houses in this city are $800k-$1.1M. Housing prices have spiked in recent years; more people are living downtown than ever before, including families.
- the school board decided not to build a new school in this area and instead transferred funding to build a school on the new Olympic grounds
- we've got about 2 years before our kids get to kindergarten
- the nearest French Immersion is over a bridge and so popular that a lottery system is used to award spaces. It is not necessarily a solution.
- we recognize that many "bad schools" actually do a great job in teaching, but the word on the street is that this is not one of them and that the social environment is dismal.

Where to study History?

Nillocsoc — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 20:33:21 -0800

Looking for unique schools or programs for the study of History. In the US or abroad. I am looking for a school (or other form of education) where I can study History in a broad and inclusive way. I dont want to learn dates- I am more concerned with expanses of time. I want a program that combines the formation of earth, the rise of life, evolution, extinction, geology, the beginings of consciousness, early civilizations, religion, forms of goverment, types of thought, and the cultures of the world.

I want an understanding of history that surpasses birthdates, wars, the reigns of kings, etc...

So if anyone knows of a school, program, internship, university, or any other form of learning that I haven't named... please provide suggestions- and maybe a little about it.

Thank you

Can't find online reviews of Takoma Park Elementary

mistsandrain — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 14:59:42 -0800

What is your opinion of Takoma Park Elementary School in Montgomery Co, Maryland?

Has anyone ever started or managed a company library?

bda1972 — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 16:38:25 -0800

Has anyone ever started or managed a company library? I'm an administrator at a K-12 school district. Today I received a really good book as a gift from a vendor about cyberbullying in schools. While it might be available to order, I highly doubt you'd ever see it at Borders. After leafing through it I was stuck with the thought that it could be useful to other admins on our staff. Since emails with subjects like "Hey, you might enjoy this book" are generally considered spam I'm not sure how to make this book available as a resource.

I was then reminded of an idea I had about a year ago of starting a library for administrators in our district to share books about technology, curriculum, professional development, ect. These books are sometimes very expensive and not available in chain book stores. We're a very large district so extending such a library to teachers would be too much to take on (although a request for access would never be denied).

We already have a pretty liberal policy for reimbursing admins for books related to work so it shouldn't take long to build up a decent collection. However, this policy could also be a problem as admins now keep the books after reimbursement so some will not be happy about turning them over to the district. Personally, I think it's a win-win situation because we'll have access to great books and the taxpayers won't have to buy the same book twice so two people can read it. Luckily, making unpopular suggestions doesn't bother me in the slightest.

Does anyone have any experience with starting a company library or anything similar? I plan on making the suggestion to our superintendent on Monday so any recommendations or advice about potential pitfalls would be appreciated.

Help me further my career!

Attackpanda — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 18:48:22 -0800

Help me with coding... No, not computers! Medical Coding! So I've been in the medical billing for about 3-4 years now and I've always been intrigued by medical coding and transcription. All the jobs I see for this you have to have X years of experience. I would like to learn more about medical coding and medical transcription. How would I go about breaking into these fields? How can I tell if a school offering classes for this stuff is legit? I know trade schools aren't always the route, they don't go indepth enough. (I went to one and we did coding for only one month.)

ps- I'm not trying to find out about this so I can work from home. I really want to try my hand at this.

Database of schools in the US.

Mr_Zero — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 10:15:24 -0800

Looking for a free downloadable database of schools in the US. I am working on a project and need a database of schools in the US, that we can integrate into the web site. I have found a place I can buy it, but it seems this would be public domain information.

moving to Sydney with kids

BaugusC — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 09:34:39 -0800

My husband has just been offered a job in Sydney, Australia. We have two sons, 6 and 9. We currently live in the US. While we are extremely excited about moving, we know nothing about Australia. Ive read the travel books, but am trying to find out about schools, housing, etc. we should be moving in late June. Any info would be great. Thanks in advance!

Schools Filtering DotCom E-mail - DotCom vs. DotOrg

MaxVonCretin — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 09:40:14 -0800

Two Part Question: 1) Do some educational institutions flag ALL .com e-mails as spam? 2) Is it unseemly for a for-profit company to use the non-restricted .org TLD for its e-mail addresses? Part 1: A small educational publisher for which I sometimes freelance - and which has never sent spam - has inquired about changing all their e-mail addresses. (They use the .com variant of their domain, but also own the .org & .net versions.) In making the inquiry, they stated:

"Most of our clients are elementary and high schools, and most school firewalls now detect .com email as spam and send it to antispam folders where it is deleted before being read. Oftentimes our emails never reach our clients!"

Can this be true? I would imagine this would make it impossible for school personnel to communicate with 99% of the outside world.

This client has a propensity for interpreting anecdotal events as sweeping trends, so I'm tempted to think that's what this is - but they insist that they are hearing this from "many people". Can anyone verify this trend, and if so, which TLD(s) are best for combatting it?

Part 2: I could switch them over to .net or .org - though they seem to prefer the idea of using .org. Thing is, they are not organized as a non-profit (though they're barely profitable). I know the .org domain is not restricted, but it is popularly perceived as representing non-profit status. As such, I have advised them that using the .org might cause some people to feel they are somehow misrepresenting themselves. What do people here think - given the (possible) issue above, is using a .org address in a for-profit context a no-no?

Need list of autism schools

jurczyk — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 12:22:55 -0800

Is there a comprehensive list of US schools for autistic children available in print or on the web ? I'm looking for a list of autism schools with contact info (street address, phone, URL, etc.) I've found the info for some regions (usually counties), but not a complete list.

Why not just send your kids to a private school?

Jimbob — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 05:49:55 -0800

Church/State, creationists, private education in the US; why don't all the "intelligent design" folk just send their kids to private religious schools? A point came up in a discussion with my wife tonight; why is there such controversy regarding the teaching of "religious dogma" in public schools in the United States? If parents are so concerned about the need for their children to learn creation myths in school, why do I get the impression very few US parents send their children to private religious schools?

Here in Australia, it's not that expensive. It's my understanding that there are typical, suburban Lutheran schools, for example, with annual tuition fees of only AU$2,000 or less - not a great commitment for a religiously conservative, low to middle class family to make in order to ensure their kids are educated the way they want. I was unfortunate enough to have attended a private Christian school myself; we were infact taught evolution, but only after a letter was sent to our parents first, asking if they raised any objection.

Indeed, my (primarily TV and movie-driven) knowledge of America suggests that public schools really do handle the great majority of education; the only movie I can think that features a private school is Dead Poet's Society, and possibly Donny Darko, although in that case it isn't clear if it's a private school, or a public school in a very nice neighbourhood.

My question is wandering; so back to the point. Why aren't private religious schools more common in the United States; if they were, would it solve the constant "teaching creationism in public schools" mess?

Public or private?

Framer — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 04:34:58 -0800

What questions did you ask when you were choosing your kid's school? It's the classic conundrum: private school seems better in many of the obvious ways (creative ways of teaching, small class size, "whole child" focus), but is costly, involves a commute and feels somewhat elitist. Local public school is good (rural, small), but feels more like an institution and would mean putting our kid through the whole maze of state-mandated standardized testing and us through the annual fretting about whether budget cuts would mean the loss of music/art/phys ed programs. Philosophically we want to support public schools, but should that even play a role in our decision?

Best Naturopathy school in Melbourne?

lemong — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 20:36:40 -0800

My wife wants to study Naturopathy in Melbourne, Australia and she needs some guidance as to which school she should sign up for: a) Australian College of Natural Medicine or b) The Southern School of Natural Therapy...... Both are the same cost.

crossing the pond

humuhumu — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 07:23:55 -0800

Should I move to LA from Oxford? I'm living in Oxford in the UK. We have a good life here. Two children, 6 and 3. Older one in a great school with an established circle of friends. Younger one in a great nursery. Lovely town, marred by traffic and tourists, but not greatly. Weather lovely during spring and summer, horrid during autumn and winter. House prices ridiculous. Not London-expensive, but getting close.

My company is looking for someone to establish their presence in LA. They've offered this to me. No pressure whatsoever but I'm the natural choice. If I don't go, no problem, I stay with them here. We already have clients out in LA that I work closely with (and they're pretty nice, too). The company itself is great.

So: what could I seriously expect from moving to LA? I know - one huge question (I know what the traffic situation is like out there already!).
I'm thinking about:
where could we live?
what are schools like?
where are good neighbourhoods?
what's the cost of living and quality of life?
what's commuting like?
... and so on. Just your average general questions about completely uprooting your life and your family and moving a twelve hour flight away. I'm sure saying "LA" isn't very helpful given its vast urban sprawl, so narrow it down if you want. There are nice places to live there, aren't there?

It's a great opportunity and I would be rewarded for it. I like visiting the US. I just don't know what it would be like (i) living there; and (ii) living in or around LA.

Guest speeches at schools

jimmy — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 19:04:31 -0800

How would I go about giving guest speeches at public schools? In theory.

Is zero speed a constant speed?

Chanther — Thu, 21 Apr 2005 07:33:07 -0800

Mathematically, can a speed of zero be considered a "constant speed"? I teach sixth grade math. Recently, on one of the district tests, there was a multiple choice question asking students to choose which one of four graphs matched the description "Maria biked at a constant speed." All four graphs had time on the x-axis and distance on the y-axis.

Graph A was a zig-zag of different slopes - clearly not constant.

Graph B was a straight diagonal line - roughly y=x - clearly constant.

Graph C was an exponential increase - roughly y=x^2 - clearly not constant.

But Graph D was a flat line - roughly y=4. (Maria's speed is zero).

The answer key for the test said that Graph B was the (only) correct response. In some ways, that makes sense to me, for in the real world we wouldn't say "Maria biked at a constant speed" if Maria is standing still like she is in Graph D. But I was concerned, because in all the definitions of "constant speed" I'd seen (for example, "the object will cover the same distance every regular interval of time") I'd never seen anything that demanded the distance for every interval be non-zero.

I was inclined to treat either Graph B or Graph D as a correct response. The school district math coordinator disagreed, refering me to Newton's First Law. I'm assuming by this she meant that Newton's First Law implies that an object in motion and an object at rest are two different things. Is she right and I'm wrong? Or is this a question on which reasonable mathematicians can disagree? (It's only an academic question now, since in fact none of my kids chose Graph D on their tests).

Need info re: universities that teach in English outside the USA

redteam — Mon, 04 Apr 2005 08:12:37 -0800

I am a 28 year old American male. I completed two years of college between 94-96. I would now like to finish my bachelor's degree (Computer and Information Science, possibly something else, it depends) in another country. I speak Spanish fluently, but I prefer to study in English. I'm looking at Europe or Argentina (where my family's from). Are there any programs, schools, or things I should know and look into regarding programs taught in English? I also need to consider costs, visas, and admission. Please help, I need to get on with my life here, and YES, I'm sure I want to get a degree. Thank you!

Website design contests for school children

Joleta — Sun, 06 Mar 2005 10:35:36 -0800

My company is considering sponsoring a website design contest for grades K-12, with an informational theme. (We're a public utility.) I'm trying to find out how many such contests we might be competing with. Where do teachers go to find contests/competitions like this for their students? So far, I know about ThinkQuest, Global Virtual Classroom, and CyberFair. In addition to these large national/international contests, are there any Midwest-area website competitions for kids/teens?

Question number 14960

calwatch — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 23:48:28 -0800

Has anyone ever become a notary? I'm interested in making some extra money and am wondering which notary schools you recommend, what tips there are to drumming up business, etc. (This is in California).