The College of Teachers produces a high-quality, peer-reviewed quarterly journal, Education Today. It is a primary source for articles by international contributors on current issues in education and offers the opportunity for practising teachers and lecturers to publish their research findings, encouraging debate in relation to topical theory and practice.
The articles centre around the following themes:

• Learning, Teaching and Classroom Research

• Current Issues in Education

• Curriculum and Curriculum Research

• Initial Teacher Education

• In-service Education and Professional Development

• The Governance and Management of Education.

Education Today’s broad international readership includes primary, secondary, SEN teachers and trainee teachers as well as lecturers in FE and HE. Education Today is also of interest to other professionals working in education settings such as school governors, business managers and teaching assistants.

A thesis is formed in the introduction of a paper, and can be simply described as an explanation of your position on a topic, supported by certain points. In the body of your paper following your introduction, these points should dictate the order and content of your paragraphs.

Let me give you an example.

Now remember, when choosing a position, you should avoid obvious facts that are well-known, and focus in on more controversial, obscure positions that can be supported with ample evidence. So, for example, we know that Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Nazi Germany, was soundly defeated in WWII. An interesting position to take, therefore, would be the following: “Hitler could have won WWII if he had taken three different approaches in his military policy.” What this position does is it uses a non-truth to help highlight the subtleties of the truth: that Hitler lost WWII. This position helps us better understand how and why Germany was defeated, and will be of interest to a history professor.

Following the statement of the position part of your thesis, you need to come up with points to support your position. It’s all very fine to make a statement, but we look foolish if we have nothing to back it up with. In undergraduate studies, it is expected that students will use the arguments and writings of established intellectuals to back up their position. Luckily, in this case, there are many intellectuals who have examined why Hitler’s initial success in WWII ended in such total defeat. An examination of these intellectuals, and a selection of quotes from their books and articles allows us to form the following points to back up our controversial position:

“Hitler could have won World War II if he had taken three different approaches in his military policy. First, if Hitler had not associated himself with the other imperialistic power, Japan, Germany would not have been subject to the fury of the United States following the attack on Pearl Harbour. Second, if Hitler had not invaded Soviet Russia, there would have been no Eastern Front, manned by the ‘frantic patriotism of the Soviet people.’ Third, if Hitler had allowed a stable and coherent administrative base to form directly beneath him, instead of micromanaging his generals from afar, then Nazi aggression would likely have been characterized by greater probabilities of tactical success on the battlefield.”

In the above thesis you will note that I have come up with three points to support my position. I did not come up with these points out of thin air. Rather, after much reading and research, I decided that the evidence weighed most heavily in favour of these three points. These three points in turn, support my position.

In order to get an A in university in papers of over 2000 words, it is a good idea to provide one strong counter-argument; in other words, find the weakest point in your argument and attack it for one paragraph. This shows that you are a responsible, unbiased academic, and your professor will go into hysterics of joy. Following this one self-critical paragraph, return to your own position and dismantle this counter-argument with the superior evidence of your position.

Now one last point about how your thesis should guide the outline of your paper. For example, in a 2500 word paper, I would recommend the following structure:

1 long paragraph for Introduction

2 paragraphs for first point.

2 paragraphs for second point.

2 paragraphs for third point.

1 paragraph arguing against your position (counter-argument).

1 paragraph refuting the counter-argument and affirming the evidence-based establishment of your position.

1 paragraph for the conclusion.

Arrange the quotes you gathered into three distinct piles, and start explaining your argument in the order you presented your points in the thesis.

Remember, your introduction tells us what you are going to talk about and why it is relevant and important. Your conclusion tells us what we have learned after reading your paper, and restates your points in light of our new understanding of the evidence you presented.

After I finished reading the article, I went through the comments. A lot of the readers seemed appalled which is understandable. Most of those same readers began rambling on about the state of society. They were saying that this was a sign that the end times were upon us. Then the children’s character was brought into question and they were called all kinds of names. Next, the blame game started. Many of the readers said the blame belonged to parents and teachers alone. The fault of this crime lies with our educational system for failing to teach kids to act.

I’m not sure if it’s because I work in the education field, but people blaming educators got me fired up. We don’t know how old the children are because the article only says they’re underage. More than likely the children are old enough to know better and put some sense into their decision making. It is not the teacher’s fault! First of all, teachers don’t teach entire lessons on how to treat animals. They have plenty of other things to teach and morals isn’t really in the curriculum. Teachers do build a community and foster interpersonal skills, but that’s something that should already have a foundation. Teaching begins at home with the children’s first teacher, their parents. You learn how to act by watching other people and being taught.

All of the blame doesn’t fall on the parents either. You can only teach your children so much and when they hit a certain age, they choose whether to use what they were taught. A parent can’t be with their children at every single moment of the day. Yes, those parents might want to have a stern talk with their children and dole out a punishment, but there really isn’t much more they can do. The parents will probably be held liable if the owner sues over vet charges. If so, those parents should make their children absorb those costs somehow.

At the end of the day, everyone isn’t horrible. Some people will make bad decisions and it is no one’s fault but their own. We don’t always need to find a scapegoat. Blaming everyone else won’t fix it or prevent it from happening again. If you’re so upset about then go donate to an organization, go out and educate people, or be a mentor. I do hope that those children will never do something like that again. I hope the boy who stopped the attack realizes how awesome he is and continues to be awesome.

Firstly, if you make alcohol a mystery to your children, then this is just going to make them even more curious about it when their time comes. From when they are young, you should allow them to sip at an alcoholic drink at meal times, or even have one of their own mixed very weakly with lemonade or another soft drink. This means that once they’re legally able to buy alcohol themselves, they’re not going to rebel against you and just go and drink as much of it as they can. They’re not going to be wondering what it tastes like, as they will have already tried it, nor are they going to think that they are cool for drinking it because it will have just been something that they were brought up being able to drink. It is also important that you set an example to them as well. It is up to you if you want to get drunk, however to do this in front of your children would not be good parenting. This would mean that they would see that being drunk is the norm, and this should not be the case at all.

When they are in their teens, you should tell them that you don’t mind them having a drink at parties, as long as they tell you what they want and then let you buy it for them. You don’t want them to get into the habit of buying alcohol on their own when it isn’t legal, as this is only going to get them into a lot of trouble in the long term. Tell them that you trust them not to drink anything other than what you’re buying for them, and that if they betray that trust, you’re simply not going to allow them to take alcohol or a party again or, if they’re young enough to still be under your control, go to the party at all.

It is important that you talk about the dangers of drinking to them. If you know of somebody who has damaged themselves seriously with alcohol, or even died because of it, then this is a good story. You don’t want to scare them, and they need to understand that alcohol can be fine in small amounts, but it is very important that they do understand just how problematic an actual binge can be to their own bodies. 

Man we have got a long way to go as a species. The turmoil that surrounds this mortal coil at times can almost be unbearable. The topics of global climate change, failing economies, human rights violations, starving populations, globalization, genetic modification, drugs, cloning, war, genocide, and what hell can be done about it! The average person scratches their head and deems the subject too depressing, makes some comment about the futility of the matter, and proceeds to normal animal behavioral function. Critical thought has seemed to have eluded the “Hive”, and this “Hive Mind” mentality is a mold to be broken. No longer do we have to be slaves to a system put before us when we can collaborate to form new systems all together. With the plethora of information available to the world via “the web”, we can learn, build and organize in ways that never would have been imaginable in previous times. New ideas on ethics and philosophy are rising from this climate of calamity like Open Sourcing, Anonymity, and the quest for “truth” and “knowledge”. I feel a different climate coming, one where we will take manners into our own hands and live in a way that is beneficial for all. All children of all species for all time. If we as individuals and communities could occupy our minds we could do amazing things as a species. Taking control of our food, water, and energy needs will be a primary step, while eliminating systems of pollution and implementing standards for universal sustainability. Why should we idly stand aside and bide our time when we can do something about. “But what can I do?” asked the one who’s lost his way. The answer is quite simple really. First you’ve got to care. About something positive, anything…really! Then you’ve got to ask yourself: “What am i good at?” Whether it be cooking, gardening, music, engineering, programming, writing, speaking, organizing,  literally anything you can do can make a dramatic difference in shaping our reality, something we forgot we had the power to do! Educate your self about whats going on in your community and begin to learn about things that would be beneficial. If we can shed the skin of apathy then our sight will be renewed.

The most important thing is consistency. It’s easy to start something and lose interest later. A good way to avoid this is to limit yourself at the beginning. Don’t allow yourself to burn out. If you want to do 30 minutes, only do 25. Keep yourself wanting more. This is very important especially at the beginning.

Preparation

1. Read Learn Latin in 5 Minutes for a quick primer in Latin. It will literally take you 5 minutes. What do you have to lose? This is easy! And no, you don’t need to have ever seen Latin before to read it in 5 minutes the way it is set out here.

2. Purchase Hans Orberg’s Lingua Latina. There are other Latin texts out there, of course, but for a quick jump into Latin you do not have the time to recite declensions for days on end. You want to read it NOW. This 2-month course is based on Orberg’s book, which can be downloaded here.

3. Think about English. You know that there are verbs, nouns, and adjectives in English, right? Language is a little bit more complex than that. Have you ever thought about the fact that “we” and “us” are basically the same word, but said differently depending on context? And making plurals is a bit weird in English also. Most words just get an “s” on the end, like “cat” and “cats”, but other words change a bit more, like “person” and “people” or “leaf” and “leaves”. In Latin, words have their own rules that change them slightly. Luckily, they are quite regular (moreso than English actually!) and you get used to them pretty quickly. Just like when you learnt your first language as a baby, it’s best to start using Latin first and learn about particulars later.

4. Download a Latin-English dictionary. Freelang is a rather good one (it’s free!), but look around and find one you like. A good reference is Whitaker words. These are 85% of all words in written Latin. There are 1400 of them. If you are familiar with these, then you already have a fantastic foundation in Latin. Actually, of the 1400, many are similar to English (e.g. “leo” means “lion”), which makes the actual number you need to learn lower than one thousand.

5. Download the free Fabellae Latinae from Orberg’s website. It corresponds exactly with Orberg’s book.

The Course

1. Listen to the recording for chapter 1 of Lingua Latina while following along the text. Do this two or three times (you will only have to listen once by about lesson 5) to get familiar with the sound and pronunciation of Latin. The recording for each chapter is about 5 minutes long, so this will take 10-15 minutes at first, but only 5 minutes after a few days of getting used to things.

2. Read over chapter 1 more slowly aloud to yourself. Try to guess the meaning of unknown words from context, and use your downloaded dictionary to check. This is the bulk of your ‘lesson’. It will take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes.

3. Look at the exercises for the chapter. These are generally only a page long, and won’t take you longer than 10 minutes to do. Do them carefully!

4. If you have the time, read the corresponding section of Fabellae Latinae. It will be very easy to understand already, and should only take 5 minutes or so!

5. Repeat this each day with the next chapter. There are 35 chapters. Spend 1 day on each of the chapters 1-10 and two days on each of the chapters 11-35. If you can still get one of the later chapters done in a single day, repeat it the next day for a really strong Latin ability.

Notes

You will initially think of what you read in terms of English. This is perfectly normal when you learn a new language! After about chapter 10, you will naturally stop translating in your head and accept the word you see in its original Latin. This is a good sign that you are beginning to develop some good ability with the language.

Remember to restrain yourself each day. If you find the work easy, don’t rush into the next day’s tasks! Take it slow so you don’t burn out. Work out how much time you are willing to spend each day on Latin and stick to it.

This is an intense course, although it builds up from nothing gradually. If you can get through it, you will be almost at the same level as a first year college Latin student. Not bad! You might want to spend more than 2 months, in which case, spend more time on each chapter accordingly.

Finally… Good luck! Feel free to comment if you want any support or extra tips!

All parents want their child to be happy, healthy and successful and in line with their own traditional school experience unfortunately, sometimes they tend to relate the success with the teaching of reading, writing, and number skills to their child rather than knowledge acquisition of the child.

To convince parents about the importance and role of play in children’s knowledge acquisition, the first step would be to convince ourselves on the subject matter. Teacher’s own observation in the classroom would provide many concrete examples to support the value of play and use them whilst discussion with parents.

I would start the discussion emphasizing that we (as a team) share their goals for their child, namely growth and success. It is a point to be emphasized that the children are not taught walking, standing, speaking, recognizing relatives and friends, singing and socializing. Children are intrinsically motivated to do such activities and they learn mostly through play, exploration and interaction with others.

Children through play learn about objects, environment, people, and emotions almost all the time. It is utmost important in this light to partner with parents to provide the child with quality material, rich environment and healthy social circle for quality interaction. Such natural learning process would provide a direction to the ever increasing curiosity energy of the child for overall development.

Furthermore, Cognitive and intellectual skills are not the only skill to contribute towards the knowledge acquisition. Children learn through social, emotional and physical skills and abilities. Interaction with peers helps in providing base for negotiating skills, problem solving skills, listening skills, being expressive, understanding feelings of others, being patient, cooperative, sharing and making friends. Parents would understand that developing social competence is as important as developing academic abilities. Wide variety of physical activities helps child to master his motor skills, bodily control and hand eye coordination.

Parents might not get convinced with fairly new concept of play immediately so teacher should involve parents in variety of context and activities in school, focusing on few ideas one at a time. Sending them timely written update to Childs development, inviting parents for specific days to see or even participate in some planned activities will help them to understand the importance of play.

Years ago, during the Clinton era, I read that the president wanted to establish a universal NHS in the US and he had to endure a lot of criticism, because, according to some of his oponents, he tried to create a sort of European system in the US. I don’t know how far he and his wife went with such a plan, but I guess they didn’t achieved much.

What did those Conservatives meant by “trying to create an European system”?

It was simply that while in the US there prevails what it is known as wild capitalism, in Europe, right after World War Second, the different governments put into practice some of Keynes’s ideas in order to rebuild every country and to give a boost to the economy and employment. One of his ideas was that in the capitalist system, there always will be differences in incomes. Therefore, the State must provide for those who are less favoured. Thus, they created a universal NHS that provided for everybody. The rich will afford expensive schools and universities for their children, but not so working people. Therefore, there must be state controlled schools and universities so as to give opportunities for a majority of people. 

I also read some essays from economists that stated that if a universal NHS hadn’t been created in Europe after World War Second, half of the population of Europe would have died.

Some people may think that these governments were somewhat socialist or even reds, but they weren’t. It is that in a capitalist system there will always be inequality and class differences. 

This Welfare State has been in many countries of western Europe for some decades, providing to those with smaller incomes no matter how hard they work. And , at this time and age, the financial markets want to smash this system urging to the different governments to privatise everything that was State controlled. 

In the wild capitalism, when working people get seriously ill, they have two options -pay up a lot of money for surgery and treatment or die. Private health isn’t a social service, but business. 

If people can afford to buy a house or a flat, they will be fine. But what if one can’t afford to buy it? That is why in many European countries, governments created schemes of affordable housing. 

This is the ugly face of wild capitalism and the one the few financial markets want to impose on all of us. 

I am not saying my problem with Mr. Romney was that he was a fascist.  I have written I could not trust a person who changes his beliefs regularly.  However, I am smart enough to see how democrats out voting republicans in republican primaries has brought us Traditional Values people and conservatives to the choice of Milt Romney.

The reality is that America is in great danger.  The issue is no longer Mitt Romney.  The issue is the death of America through Socialist fascism. 

Obama does not know better than most of us.  Obama’s accomplishments are his healthcare reform and spending 7 trillion dollars.  Obama and his bureaucrats are using Obama-care to interfere with the religious liberties of religious organizations. Obama-care is an extreme financial burden on individuals, organizations, and companies. The interest on monies Obama borrowed are increasing the American debt everyday

Mr. Mitt Romney is a better leader.  His resume is the resume of a talented proven leader.  He knows how to cut spending (including employees) in order to save a company.  He will be able to downsize government and save tax payers money. 

I have written that the relationship between government and the citizens is a delicate balance between governing and freedom. Mr. Romney understands that it is not governments’ job to manage, orchestrate, or run the American free enterprise system.  Governments exist to administrate government departments and protect the public welfare.

 Threats to the public welfare have to be legitimate not perceived threats.  Capital investment is not a legitimate threat to Americans.  Investments fuel business start-ups, which in turn fuel job growth and economic growth.

For too long the liberal democrats have been brainwashing Americans in to hating the American free enterprise system.  Since Obama took office he has been criticizing chief executive officers, Wall Street, and other symbols of the successful American economy.

Yet all these ingredients are necessary for a prosperous economy and successful people.  We need not give up on ourselves.  Everything that is, was, and will be is still possible.

Freedom fuels the greatness that decent and good people can create.  Even in these troubling times I believe that the majority in any people group are good and decent people.  The average person does not believe that his or her success is invested in how much he or she can take from his or her neighbor.

Only Obama and his kind think in such foolish terms. Who spent the US into great debt?  That would Mr. Barak Hussein Obama.  The rich, successful, and wealthy people of America did not borrow and spend America into the current economic mess.

Furthermore, I have no problem in supporting Mr. Romney.  I had the opportunity of watching Mr. Romney’s speech at Liberty University (my Alma matter) and this morning I saw Mr. Romney’s speech to the Hispanic Economic Coalition.

These were great speeches focusing on the public policy initiatives that will lead America out of this current economic mess.  Low taxes, low government spending, and low government regulation will allow for greater investment in American and Americans.

However, do not be fooled. I have my eyes wide open, looking for any signs of wavering by Mr. Romney.  If I see any wavering on ultra conservative issues, I will report it.  My report will not be to knock Mr. Romney down, but to help him improve as a servant of the people.

I want Mr. Romney to win because America will win.  I am fully aware of the challenge.  Liberals are resorting to all their tricks.  The network news is liberal. These liberals are manufacturing polls to make Obama appear more attractive and to demoralize conservatives.

This is why every voter is going to be necessary.  Traditional Values and conservatives have to vote and help promote and market Mr. Romney.

America was built on the tradition of the potential behind freedom.  I heard Mr. Biden, vice president of the US, retort that liberals dream  and want personal success.  It is apparent liberals want to be the only ones that have their dreams come true.

I am not a slave of Obama.  I was born free and will die a free man.  It is impossible to remain free when Obama wants to take everything I earn.

Let us have a mature and serious conversation on petty envy. My life is not defined by how much more my neighbor has than I have in life. This is Mr. Obama’s campaign in a nutshell.  In this year’s presidential election, Mr. Obama cannot campaign on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay Cuba, the national debt, tax reform, and illegal immigration reform.

Afghanistan is a mess.  The US has no influence in Iraq.  Egypt, Libya, and all the other Arab nations who went through the Arab spring are now under Muslim extremist’s control, i.e. Iran’s control.  The residents of Gitmo were not giving civilian trials and Gitmo was not closed down. Ninety five percent of Americans did not get their Obama promised tax cut.  Obama did not cut the deficit in half.  He doubled the deficit.  During Mr. Obama’s first two years the democrats were in charge of the Legislative branch and the Executive branch and did not bother to construct one immigration reform bill.  To date Mr. Obama has not issued any immigration reform public policy.

However, there are still people high on the novelty presidency of Obama.  We cannot allow this man to ruin America.  I have set aside my concerns about Romney.  America is more important than my personal held belief system.  In addition, Romney is not a deviant.   Mr. Romney is educated and has excellent experience administrating large systems, such as the Olympics. Mr. Romney is also a person with high moral character.  Any one when compared to Obama has high moral character.

Therefore, please get involved in building a better tomorrow for all Americans.  Vote republican for president and congress. In addition, get involved in the Romney optimistic and positive public relations effort.

• The first thing that you have to remember is that you should never let anybody influence your final decisions. Of course, you should respect the opinions of your supervisor as they know a lot more about what will gain you marks than you do, but at the end of the day it is you who is going to have to do the project, and this means that you have to make sure that you are doing it on something that you understand and care about.
• Choose the right supervisor AND the right subject. Although you might choose a supervisor based on which subject you would like to do, there isn’t all that much point in choosing somebody who you know that you have struggled to work for in the past, as this will make things difficult for you. In the same way, you should not choose a subject based upon the supervisor that you would like to have, as you have to be really interested in the thing that you’re doing otherwise you’re going to hate every minute of having to put so much work into it. 
• Research. Of course, by this point in your degree you should about the things that interest you, but a dissertation is all about finding a gap in the research; finding a new angle to look at something that has never been considered before, and this is something that you need to think about. However, you don’t want it to be so innovative that there is no previous research on which you can base an opinion, so you have to make sure that you’re not being “clever” to the point of shooting yourself in the foot. 
• Don’t be scared to change your mind. Once you’ve got an idea in your head, you don’t have to stick with it until you’ve submitted your form to gain approval from the ethics board. You can change your mind as many times as you like up until this point, and this is certainly something that you shouldn’t be worried about having to do. It is much better to take the decision to change your mind now and then enjoy the project that you’re doing rather than end up being stuck on an idea that is absolutely no interest to you at all.