Award Your School for Sustainability - Green Ribbon Schools Recognition Award

Children are constantly learning, and educational institutions strive to build a strong foundation for future success. They need to be taught the interrelatedness and interdependence of our local and global existence, and they should be provided the opportunity to constantly improve themselves, their learning, their school, and the environment. We need to empower children to make thoughtful and responsible decisions.

Leading through example, we can promote this initiative through our schools. The Green Ribbon Schools program is the first comprehensive green schools program by the Federal Government. Effective for the 2011-2012 school year, the program recognizes the highest performing green schools in the nation. These schools excel in environmental impact, health and education, and pave the way for a generation of socially responsible citizens. Selection is based on the National Green Ribbon Schools three pillars:

Pillar 1: Reduced environmental impact and energy efficiency

Pillar 2: Healthy school environments

Pillar 3: Environmental and sustainability education

Schools are evaluated based on their progress towards these concepts and a wide variety of green benchmark. The achievements recognized by the Green Ribbon Schools Recognition Award directly benefit School Districts. They advance the complementary aims of cutting schools' costs; fostering health, wellness and productivity; providing a well-rounded education. Healthy, high performing buildings support healthy, high performing students.

Efficiencies recognized through these green schools lead to reduced costs within the school district, allowing the district to retain employees that they could otherwise not afford. Infrastructure improvements to school facilities create jobs within the community and the school district, and save schools money.

Green schools teach healthy behaviors, and foster health, wellness and productivity. They are as vital to individual students as they are to the nation as a whole. Schools should promote high standards of nutrition, fitness and facility conditions in order to improve student and staff health, attendance and productivity.

Green initiatives aim to provide a well-rounded education to all children, enhancing achievement and engagement. Leading by example, these sustainable initiatives increase skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), skills which ensure students' college and career preparedness. In addition, students are more prepared to participate in the green economy.

Environmentally sustainable buildings serve to strengthen the nation's energy security and conserve our natural resources for future generations. Healthy behaviors, environmental awareness and environmentally sustainable facilities are as vital to students as they are to our nation.

The Green Ribbon Schools program recognizes schools "that save energy, reduce costs, feature environmentally sustainable learning spaces, protect health, foster wellness, and offer environmental education to boost academic achievement and community engagement." The deadline for this year has passed, but you can get a jumpstart on your application for next year! Applications are available on the Pennsylvania Department of Education website. This year, schools nominated by the PDE received recognition as a "Pennsylvania Pathways Green School," which included a $3,000 grant to be used to further enhance the school's curriculum in the field of environment and ecology.

In addition to State and Federal recognition, recipients will likely receive national and local press coverage. This achievement may encourage re-energized staff and parents, enhanced community support, increased application rates, and new private financial assistance. Begin thinking about your application for next year, and visit the Green Ribbon Schools website for more information.

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Preparing For Law School Early On In Your Undergraduate Degree

If you are thinking about becoming a lawyer, you probably realize that this path requires a great deal of planning, even as early as your undergraduate degree. After all, getting your law degree is a big step, and being admitted to the right school is important to your success. What you do as an undergraduate, and especially what you study, can make or break your law school application. Some guidelines will allow you to be better prepared for the next phase of your education.

Picking the right major as an undergraduate is imperative, and it is never too early to start thinking about it. After all, your undergraduate education will serve as a foundation on which your law studies will build. If you already know that you will be applying to law schools later in your degree, pick your major with that in mind. Your academic advisor in your undergraduate program can help you to make a decision about a major that will best prepare you for your eventual law degree.

Often, prospective law students decide to major in criminal justice or pre-law in their undergraduate studies, believing that this will be good preparation for law school. The truth is that it is not necessary to major in a subject that you feel is related to the study of law, and in fact, you may be better off getting an English or history degree as preparation. The skills you build during a humanities degree will be better preparation for a law degree than a criminal justice or pre-law degree.

Keep in mind that no matter what major you select, the most important thing is to do well in it. After all, you may have chosen to major in engineering, only to find that you'd rather be a lawyer. That's perfectly fine, and in fact, it is a common story among law students. There are typically no set undergraduate requirements to get into law school.

There are, however, courses that are recommended for prospective law students, regardless of your major. If you use some common sense, you can likely figure out what courses could best help you in your future work as a lawyer. For example, since lawyers might think critically and be analytical readers, English literature classes are highly recommended. Since clear communications are necessary to your role as a lawyer, writing and public speaking classes are also a good choice.

You should also take classes that challenge you. Never take the easiest route as an undergraduate, no matter how tempting it seems. Why? Because any law student will tell you that earning a law degree is three years of extremely hard work. Your classes will be demanding, and your reading assignments will be difficult. By taking hard classes in college, you will be readying yourself for even harder coursework down the road.

It may be that you ultimately decide a law degree is not right for you. If that's the case, you will have lost nothing by working hard as an undergraduate and majoring in something challenging that interests you.

As soon as you realize that being a lawyer is something you are interested in, you should get started preparing for law school. If a law degree is in the cards for you, your preparation as an undergraduate can make all the difference. You may even be able to take a course online to get a taste of what law school entails.

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Has The US School System Really Fallen Behind the Rest of the World?

We sure hear a lot of talk about the US School System being broken, and yet, just because something is repeated over and over again does not mean it's true. So, is our nation's school system broken? Perhaps not, and yet, improvement is always wise regardless of the area of human endeavor, as we must always work to improve. But let's not be so quick to judge, okay so, let's talk about this for a moment shall we?

As a whole our country has not fallen behind the average, at least not that far. Furthermore, with all of the illegal aliens that we have to teach, and the "no child allowed to advance" rules, we are preventing students from moving forward who should. Also we are throwing kids that don't even speak English, and don't speak it at home, and have a hard time taking the tests in with the mix of students in the classrooms - this is driving down the averages.

That is not fair to the regular kids, or the ESL kids, especially considering many of these kids will drop out of high school, I think the rating California something like 50% of the ESL kids drop out of high school before completion. However while they're in school, they are inadvertently holding back the classrooms, and all the other kids from getting a decent education.

We allow the political correctness to skew the statistical basis for the argument that the US schools are lacking or falling behind the rest of the world. If we separate out the ESL kids, our kids are doing about the same as all the other first world nations with similar ethnic demographics, so I am not a "doom and gloomer" on the issue or charge that; US Schools are Falling Behind.

Indeed, despite popular belief, I would submit to you that throwing more money at our nation's schools is not the way to fix them because much of that money never makes it into the classrooms. It appears that the leadership at so many levels is busy infighting on what to do about a problem that is fairly nonexistent. In their haste to fix the stated problem, they've drown our schools in bureaucracy.

Further, I can see a point in the future where we won't necessarily need the types of schools we have today due to the Internet, and free-flowing information. Maybe we need to think a little deeper before we go when chastise our nation's schools, or fall to this false belief that the American school system is so far behind the rest of the world, it isn't. And when I talk to folks on the Internet from around the world, it is rather obvious to me that they didn't have the strong education that I did when I was a kid.

Maybe everyone should stop pointing fingers at education, and trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist using politically correct methodology by the same people that proclaimed the problem in the first place. That's just my opinion, but I can back it up, if you care to shoot me an e-mail.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Future Concepts. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/

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A High School Legacy

We all "know" what high school is. It's a prison of intense cramming coupled with all-nighters- procrastination a notorious inmate. And yet, there are those who have never heard of stress (let alone Sparknotes). In a different category, high school is the scene for drama- ready to infect your weekend with sickening gossip and some weird feeling in your gut. But we all know those students who never seem to have any enemies. So what is high school, and what can we do to enjoy it? Well, I have listed some tips of my own experiences. They won't work for everyone, but there's always one person who finds it a treasure. And you my friend, are worth writing for.

For the student concerned with college

You probably believe you have a wonderful array of AP classes- tutoring included. Playing varsity tennis and conducting in a band isn't enough, so why not be the president of Key Club to show off leadership capabilities? The truth is guys- and I found out the hard way- the top colleges aren't interested in you because all of the above is uninteresting. Actually I lied; colleges love a man who can handle an SAT. But what separates you from all the other 30,000 grinds applying to Stanford or UCLA? The secret is, and I quote Newport again, "to do something that is easy to do, but hard to explain." Think more along the lines of spending time at a research institute tracking migration patterns of horseshoe crabs or hosting golf tournaments that donate proceeds to war veterans. These feats make you interesting and do not require loads of work. After reading thousands of essays on "overcoming challenges and joining Spanish Club", how relieved is that reader going to be when she picks up the first essay on horseshoe crabs?

For the student concerned with procrastination

Alright, this one's my weakness too. But this summer I have definitely conquered my procrastination. From what I see, a student's afternoon consists of a slurry of priorities and leisure time which constantly add stress. And when I say "slurry" I literally mean doing homework while updating your Facebook at the same time. How can you relax each day if you're finishing work at 1:00 AM? The simple fix here is in organization: always strive to finish your work early in the afternoon. (I'll pause for the groaning) Here's why guys; when you finish your work early, not only do you have a crapload of free time, but you also are relieved of all stress until the end of the night. And if you're up for the challenge, organization can cover a lot of ground. You can clean up your room, turn off your computer, file away all important papers, and even start projects the day they are given.

For the student concerned with school life

Oh yes. Even the nerdiest kid in school has a life, but the trick is to maximize your happiness level. Let me tell you first-hand: clothes, shoes, and friends do not make you happy. It's the right clothes, the right shoes, and the right friends that matter. It's easy to be comfortable around others when you are comfortable with yourself. So for heaven's sake, do not start wearing leather jackets and high-tops just because that cute girl in Chemistry thinks they're hot. This brings me to my next point: choosing friends. We're all well aware of fake friends and back-stabbers; oh help me now. Simply, we would never have this problem if we took time to discover who the right friends are. Here's my way of seeing through: if you can look the person eye-to-eye and with the utmost respect, then you have a friend indeed. Friends can pull you down, but more importantly, they can help you get back up.

Interested in learning more about the real student life? Continue here for all the academic advice and survival tips for high school and college. http://keithsakata.blogspot.com/

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