Sitka School District Kindergarten Literacy Curriculum Handbook

The intent of this handbook is to provide support to a teacher and be used as a resource. This document is intended to guide a Baranof Elementary Kindergarten teacher, through the year, with the use of a theme document. However, the scope and sequence contains the skills and content that must be addressed by the end of the year. The literacy curriculum handbook was developed based on Froebel\u27s kindergarten philosophy and Bruner\u27s educational philosophy that early childhood education should be hands-on and developmentally appropriate. The handbook includes programs available to kindergarten teachers in Sitka, Alaska while continuing to be content-based, science and social studies thematic units. The needs of each child will be met through a blend of whole group instruction, small group interaction, as well as differentiation of instruction

Leadership, innovation and strategy development in military hard structures: Bringing chaos to order

This thesis is a critical engagement with the development of leadership for officers in the United States Air Force (USAF) at the USAF’s Air University (AU) through specially designed graduate level education courses in leadership and innovation. These programs have been in regular demand and requests for their dissemination to various other parts of the military are frequent. They are also the seed bed for a number of change initiatives and graduates are to be found at the highest level of decision making. This responsibility to anticipate the future and contribute to supporting officers to lead in increasing complexity, requires me to be constantly questioning myself, my own leadership, my ideas and the ideas of others to inform the design and ongoing evolution of these programs. This evolution is nudged not only from questioning but from the input of students, faculty, and staff in a collaborative endeavor. The context is leadership in, what I refer to as, a ‘hard structure’, one that is heavily regulated and bureaucratized with non-negotiable expectations of its members in service to the protection of systems of security, from economy and law enforcement to trade and civil liberties. In the context of this particular hard structure of the military, the mandate to safeguard a nation’s institutions and alliances can also be a mandate to kill on small and large scales, if ordered to, in the interests of national and international security. This critique has brought into greater awareness the ambiguities, contradictions, and paradoxes faced by military leadership; it questions whether existing formulaic models are relevant to practice in field conditions and tracks my search for concepts as translational devices to negotiate opposing tensions and to see the possibilities in ‘the middle way’. I collaborate with students, peers, and literature to enable leadership and innovation education to shift from a monoperspective to a multi-perspective lens and from leadership as some form of mono-discipline to a multidisciplinary one. I explore the relevance of approaches and concepts including transdisciplinary perspectives as complementary ways to approach leadership for the future. While innovation is part of the leadership portfolio, I arrive at the need to introduce strategy into that portfolio and have set in motion an initiative to integrate all three into a Master’s program that stretches not only the skills of young officers but their imagination. I can now articulate more clearly the concepts, ideas and distilled experience that informs the content and the delivery of the leadership and innovation programs– a transparency of my own understanding including (i) context is pivotal (ii) once leaders understand and are comfortable with their ‘being’ they will be confident to seek cognitive diversity to complement any perceived or actual ‘weaknesses’ in themselves (iii) this in turn results in strong, cohesive teams where individuals can feel less inhibited in expressing and comprehending their strengths and can strive to help each other flourish with an understanding that leaders can only be as great as the teams they create

Greenpreneurs: A guide to curriculum design

This curriculum design guide provides support and guidance to educators working in sustainability and seeking to introduce entrepreneurship and the development of entrepreneurial capacities into their programmes

Exploring Non-Pharmacological Interventions for Behavioral Symptoms of Dementia: A Social Work Perspective

Dementia is a progressive neurological brain disease that affects the quality of life of those diagnosed (Goldberg, 2017; Tjia et al., 2017). The diagnosis of dementia affects the patient and the caregiver in different ways: those diagnosed with dementia may have difficulty in thinking, memory and physical or psychological skills. Those diagnosed with dementia may experience behavior and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD). Behavioral symptoms can be heterogeneous and unpredictable, which can be difficult for caregivers to manage (Cerejeira et al., 2012). Social workers are able to connect families with in-home services and institutional care services if requested by the caregivers (Gould, 2013; Pearce, 2012). Social workers in the nursing home setting advocate for personal preference to be used including in treatment options for BPSDs. Throughout this paper it will explore the social work perspective on what type of non-pharmacological and pharmacological interventions are seen to be more beneficial. Social Workers, who participated in this study, have reported person-centered care can be beneficial as a non-pharmacological intervention. Additional information on the social work perspective and their role in dementia patients will be explored throughout this paper

Exploring Non-Pharmacological Interventions for Behavioral Symptoms of Dementia: A Social Work Perspective

Dementia is a progressive neurological brain disease that affects the quality of life of those diagnosed (Goldberg, 2017; Tjia et al., 2017). The diagnosis of dementia affects the patient and the caregiver in different ways: those diagnosed with dementia may have difficulty in thinking, memory and physical or psychological skills. Those diagnosed with dementia may experience behavior and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD). Behavioral symptoms can be heterogeneous and unpredictable, which can be difficult for caregivers to manage (Cerejeira et al., 2012). Social workers are able to connect families with in-home services and institutional care services if requested by the caregivers (Gould, 2013; Pearce, 2012). Social workers in the nursing home setting advocate for personal preference to be used including in treatment options for BPSDs. Throughout this paper it will explore the social work perspective on what type of non-pharmacological and pharmacological interventions are seen to be more beneficial. Social Workers, who participated in this study, have reported person-centered care can be beneficial as a non-pharmacological intervention. Additional information on the social work perspective and their role in dementia patients will be explored throughout this paper

Teachers\u27 perceptions of the costs and benefits of sitting on a school-based decision-making committee.

The purpose of this study was to identify teachers\u27 perceptions of the costs and benefits of participating in a school-based decision-making process. These costs to teachers are increased time demands, loss of autonomy, risk of collegial disfavor, subversion of collective bargaining, and threats to career advancement. The benefits include: feeling of self-efficacy, workplace democracy, and ownership. The study also determined the relationship between selected variables that were developed through a review of the literature, and teacher members\u27 perceptions of the costs and benefits of participating on a decision-making council. Approximately 400 teacher members of SBDM councils Jefferson County Public Schools were surveyed via Survey Monkey website. The response rate was approximately 40%. The results indicated that one of the main factors that affect teachers\u27 perception of SBDM is the principal\u27s leadership style