Symbols of The Great Gatsby

Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

THE GREEN LIGHT

Situated at the end of Daisy’s East Egg dock and barely visible from Gatsby’s West Egg lawn, the green light represents Gatsby’s hopes and dreams for the future. Gatsby associates it with Daisy, and in Chapter 1 he reaches toward it in the darkness as a guiding light to lead him to his goal. Because Gatsby’s quest for Daisy is broadly associated with the American dream, the green light also symbolizes that more generalized ideal. In Chapter 9, Nick compares the green light to how America, rising out of the ocean, must have looked to early settlers of the new nation.

THE VALLEY OF ASHES

First introduced in Chapter 2, the valley of ashes between West Egg and New York City consists of a long stretch of desolate land created by the dumping of industrial ashes. It represents the moral and social decay that results from the uninhibited pursuit of wealth, as the rich indulge themselves with regard for nothing but their own pleasure. The valley of ashes also symbolizes the plight of the poor, like George Wilson, who live among the dirty ashes and lose their vitality as a result.

THE EYES OF DOCTOR T. J. ECKLEBURG

The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are a pair of fading, bespectacled eyes painted on an old advertising billboard over the valley of ashes. They may represent God staring down upon and judging American society as a moral wasteland, though the novel never makes this point explicitly. Instead, throughout the novel, Fitzgerald suggests that symbols only have meaning because characters instill them with meaning. The connection between the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg and God exists only in George Wilson’s grief-stricken mind. This lack of concrete significance contributes to the unsettling nature of the image. Thus, the eyes also come to represent the essential meaninglessness of the world and the arbitrariness of the mental process by which people invest objects with meaning. Nick explores these ideas in Chapter 8, when he imagines Gatsby’s final thoughts as a depressed consideration of the emptiness of symbols and dreams.

 Important Quotations Explained

1. I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.

Daisy speaks these words in Chapter 1 as she describes to Nick and Jordan her hopes for her infant daughter. While not directly relevant to the novel’s main themes, this quote offers a revealing glimpse into Daisy’s character. Daisy is not a fool herself but is the product of a social environment that, to a great extent, does not value intelligence in women. The older generation values subservience and docility in females, and the younger generation values thoughtless giddiness and pleasure-seeking. Daisy’s remark is somewhat sardonic: while she refers to the social values of her era, she does not seem to challenge them. Instead, she describes her own boredom with life and seems to imply that a girl can have more fun if she is beautiful and simplistic. Daisy herself often tries to act such a part. She conforms to the social standard of American femininity in the 1920s in order to avoid such tension-filled issues as her undying love for Gatsby.

2. He had one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced, or seemed to face, the whole external world for an instant and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself.

This passage occurs in Chapter 3 as part of Nick’s first close examination of Gatsby’s character and appearance. This description of Gatsby’s smile captures both the theatrical quality of Gatsby’s character and his charisma. Additionally, it encapsulates the manner in which Gatsby appears to the outside world, an image Fitzgerald slowly deconstructs as the novel progresses toward Gatsby’s death in Chapter 8. One of the main facets of Gatsby’s persona is that he acts out a role that he defined for himself when he was seventeen years old. His smile seems to be both an important part of the role and a result of the singular combination of hope and imagination that enables him to play it so effectively. Here, Nick describes Gatsby’s rare focus—he has the ability to make anyone he smiles at feel as though he has chosen that person out of “the whole external world,” reflecting that person’s most optimistic conception of him- or herself.

3. The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God—a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that—and he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end.

In Chapter 6, when Nick finally describes Gatsby’s early history, he uses this striking comparison between Gatsby and Jesus Christ to illuminate Gatsby’s creation of his own identity. Fitzgerald was probably influenced in drawing this parallel by a nineteenth-century book by Ernest Renan entitled The Life of Jesus. This book presents Jesus as a figure who essentially decided to make himself the son of God, then brought himself to ruin by refusing to recognize the reality that denied his self-conception. Renan describes a Jesus who is “faithful to his self-created dream but scornful of the factual truth that finally crushes him and his dream”—a very appropriate description of Gatsby. Fitzgerald is known to have admired Renan’s work and seems to have drawn upon it in devising this metaphor. Though the parallel between Gatsby and Jesus is not an important motif in The Great Gatsby, it is nonetheless a suggestive comparison, as Gatsby transforms himself into the ideal that he envisioned for himself (a “Platonic conception of himself”) as a youngster and remains committed to that ideal, despite the obstacles that society presents to the fulfillment of his dream.

4. That’s my Middle West . . . the street lamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark. . . . I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all—Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life.

This important quote from Nick’s lengthy meditation in Chapter 9 brings the motif of geography in The Great Gatsby to a conclusion. Throughout the novel, places are associated with themes, characters, and ideas. The East is associated with a fast-paced lifestyle, decadent parties, crumbling moral values, and the pursuit of wealth, while the West and the Midwest are associated with more traditional moral values. In this moment, Nick realizes for the first time that though his story is set on the East Coast, the western character of his acquaintances (“some deficiency in common”) is the source of the story’s tensions and attitudes. He considers each character’s behavior and value choices as a reaction to the wealth-obsessed culture of New York. This perspective contributes powerfully to Nick’s decision to leave the East Coast and return to Minnesota, as the infeasibility of Nick’s Midwestern values in New York society mirrors the impracticality of Gatsby’s dream.

5. Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And then one fine morning—So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

These words conclude the novel and find Nick returning to the theme of the significance of the past to dreams of the future, here represented by the green light. He focuses on the struggle of human beings to achieve their goals by both transcending and re-creating the past. Yet humans prove themselves unable to move beyond the past: in the metaphoric language used here, the current draws them backward as they row forward toward the green light. This past functions as the source of their ideas about the future (epitomized by Gatsby’s desire to re-create 1917 in his affair with Daisy) and they cannot escape it as they continue to struggle to transform their dreams into reality. While they never lose their optimism (“tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther . . .”), they expend all of their energy in pursuit of a goal that moves ever farther away. This apt metaphor characterizes both Gatsby’s struggle and the American dream itself. Nick’s words register neither blind approval nor cynical disillusionment but rather the respectful melancholy that he ultimately brings to his study of Gatsby’s life.

Characters of The Great Gatsby

Nick Carraway -  The novel’s narrator, Nick is a young man from Minnesota who, after being educated at Yale and fighting in World War I, goes to New York City to learn the bond business. Honest, tolerant, and inclined to reserve judgment, Nick often serves as a confidant for those with troubling secrets. After moving to West Egg, a fictional area of Long Island that is home to the newly rich, Nick quickly befriends his next-door neighbor, the mysterious Jay Gatsby. As Daisy Buchanan’s cousin, he facilitates the rekindling of the romance between her and Gatsby. The Great Gatsby is told entirely through Nick’s eyes; his thoughts and perceptions shape and color the story.

Jay Gatsby -  The title character and protagonist of the novel, Gatsby is a fabulously wealthy young man living in a Gothic mansion in West Egg. He is famous for the lavish parties he throws every Saturday night, but no one knows where he comes from, what he does, or how he made his fortune. As the novel progresses, Nick learns that Gatsby was born James Gatz on a farm in North Dakota; working for a millionaire made him dedicate his life to the achievement of wealth. When he met Daisy while training to be an officer in Louisville, he fell in love with her. Nick also learns that Gatsby made his fortune through criminal activity, as he was willing to do anything to gain the social position he thought necessary to win Daisy. Nick views Gatsby as a deeply flawed man, dishonest and vulgar, whose extraordinary optimism and power to transform his dreams into reality make him “great” nonetheless.

Daisy Buchanan -  Nick’s cousin, and the woman Gatsby loves. As a young woman in Louisville before the war, Daisy was courted by a number of officers, including Gatsby. She fell in love with Gatsby and promised to wait for him. However, Daisy harbors a deep need to be loved, and when a wealthy, powerful young man named Tom Buchanan asked her to marry him, Daisy decided not to wait for Gatsby after all. Now a beautiful socialite, Daisy lives with Tom across from Gatsby in the fashionable East Egg district of Long Island. She is sardonic and somewhat cynical, and behaves superficially to mask her pain at her husband’s constant infidelity.

Tom Buchanan -  Daisy’s immensely wealthy husband, once a member of Nick’s social club at Yale. Powerfully built and hailing from a socially solid old family, Tom is an arrogant, hypocritical bully. His social attitudes are laced with racism and sexism, and he never even considers trying to live up to the moral standard he demands from those around him. He has no moral qualms about his own extramarital affair with Myrtle, but when he begins to suspect Daisy and Gatsby of having an affair, he becomes outraged and forces a confrontation.

Jordan Baker -  Daisy’s friend, a woman with whom Nick becomes romantically involved during the course of the novel. A competitive golfer, Jordan represents one of the “new women” of the 1920s—cynical, boyish, and self-centered. Jordan is beautiful, but also dishonest: she cheated in order to win her first golf tournament and continually bends the truth.

Myrtle Wilson -  Tom’s lover, whose lifeless husband George owns a run-down garage in the valley of ashes. Myrtle herself possesses a fierce vitality and desperately looks for a way to improve her situation. Unfortunately for her, she chooses Tom, who treats her as a mere object of his desire.

George Wilson -  Myrtle’s husband, the lifeless, exhausted owner of a run-down auto shop at the edge of the valley of ashes. George loves and idealizes Myrtle, and is devastated by her affair with Tom. George is consumed with grief when Myrtle is killed. George is comparable to Gatsby in that both are dreamers and both are ruined by their unrequited love for women who love Tom.

Owl Eyes -  The eccentric, bespectacled drunk whom Nick meets at the first party he attends at Gatsby’s mansion. Nick finds Owl Eyes looking through Gatsby’s library, astonished that the books are real.

Klipspringer -  The shallow freeloader who seems almost to live at Gatsby’s mansion, taking advantage of his host’s money. As soon as Gatsby dies, Klipspringer disappears—he does not attend the funeral, but he does call Nick about a pair of tennis shoes that he left at Gatsby’s mansion.

Meyer Wolfsheim -  Gatsby’s friend, a prominent figure in organized crime. Before the events of the novel take place, Wolfsheim helped Gatsby to make his fortune bootlegging illegal liquor. His continued acquaintance with Gatsby suggests that Gatsby is still involved in illegal business.

SIGNS OF DISHONESTY.

SIGNS OF DISHONESTY. HOW TO DETECT DISHONESTY IN HANDWRITING

by Sandra Fisher  / June 1, 2017

Yes,  it’s possible to identify several signs of dishonesty in handwriting but it isn’t quite as straightforward as you may think. Let me explain.

You’ve probably noticed that people have different standards of honesty. What is honest to one person is dishonest to another.

There isn’t a straight answer simply because there are so many different types of dishonesty ranging from white lies to outright fraud.

For example, a co-worker may tell you that you look awful after your recent bout of flu.  He is simply being honest.

But your friend may be more tactful and say that you are looking a lot better even though you know that you look awful.

Your friend may be telling a white lie just to make you feel better but can we accuse her of being dishonest? In other words, is tact a form of dishonesty?

Or take another situation where you may return incorrect change to the supermarket, but someone else will hold onto it and consider it to be a minor windfall.

These are different degrees of dishonesty but the bottom line is that in handwriting we cannot label them as dishonesty. The reason is that these “minor infractions” are not ingrained in the subconscious mind of the individual as deceitful.

Dishonesty has to be habitual before it will show up in the handwriting.  When it becomes a habit it makes a mark or impression on the personality.  And this is when we we are able to detect it in the handwriting.

Dishonesty in a habitual thief is therefore easier to identify. His character will bear the scars of his lifestyle and these scars will be reflected in his handwriting.

Signs of Dishonesty

There are quite a few signs of dishonesty in handwriting. But you should only identify them as dishonesty

• if they occur frequently
• or if they are seen to be in groups or syndromes with other similar signs.

I rely on several signs to help me to detect dishonesty. But I cannot publish them here because they are not meant for public use. You see, a lot of damage can be done if dishonesty is miss-diagnosed.

However, if you have a genuine interest in this and seriously want to know more I can let you have my Free Checklist with the most prevalent signs of dishonesty in handwriting. But use these pointers with discretion as this information is for your interest only and is not meant to label anyone.

http://graphology-world.com/signs-of-dishonesty-detect-dishonesty-in-handwriting/

My Embarrassing Elivator Speech

By Sandra Fisher 

One of the most difficult questions that I've ever been asked about graphology is the deceptively simple question: What is graphology?

I remember when I first started studying graphology I was in the library elevator with a pile of graphology books under my arm when a fellow traveller glanced at me with interest and commented, “Ah a graphologist! So what is graphology about?”

For a moment I was tongue-tied. And as everyone watched me fumble mentally I came out with a really lame reply; “It’s about handwriting.”

My fellow travellers smiled and nodded politely but I had lost an opportunity. And I felt a fool.

Strange how embarrassing moments like this have a way of sticking with you.

I replayed the moment many times in my mind trying to imagine how just before the elevator stopped on the next floor I would think up a really clever answer.

“I use graphology to assess personality,” I would say. Or “I describe personality through handwriting.”

But as answers go they are really rather pathetic. Because you can do so much more with graphology.

You can give writers with low self-esteem new confidence. You can even give inspiration and motivation to others who have lost direction and only need a bit of affirmation derived from real evidence in their handwriting.

My vague answers don't explain anything about the challenge and excitement of deciphering and putting together a personality profile from a mere page of handwriting.

And they don't even give a hint at the gratitude of a writer who receives a personality profile that gives him or her some life-changing insights.

Since that embarrassing elevator ride I have written many articles and books describing the various intricacies and nuances of graphology and I have answered many questions about graphology.

But no other question has caused me to arrive at such a head-scratching impasse.

A while ago I did write a blog post that describes 10 things that you can learn from your handwriting. But then again it’s much too long for an elevator speech.

So here I am still struggling to find a really good elevator speech. I simply cannot package graphology into one all-encompassing sentence.

Which is why I’m hoping that you can help.

Because like me, I think there are many who would like to have a quick and descriptive answer to this deceptively simple question.

So do send me your best description of graphology. If I get some good suggestions I’ll feature them in my next newsletter so that we can choose the best one - or even combine one or two to provide a really good "Graphology Elevator Speech."

And if you would like a PDF version of my article on 10 Things you can learn from your handwriting simply reply to this article with your request and I’ll send it to you with my compliments.

Sandra Fisher
Graphology World

For more information click the original link below 

http://graphology-world.com/

To convert JPG to WORD لتحويل الصورة الى نص

https://onlineocr.net/

17 Critical Issues Facing Education in 2017

By Peter DeWitt 

on January 10, 2017 

Education wasn't a really hot topic for the Presidential campaign. It mostly took the backseat to Tweets, name calling, more Tweets, fake news, some more Tweets, and friends unfriending each other on Facebook because of how polarizing the campaign was then, and how the election still is now.

However, education has been a battleground of rhetoric over the years, and 2017 will certainly bring in some changes given, not only the campaign and ultimate election decision, but because of so many issues bubbling up to the top that need our attention. Some of the items may surprise you, while others seem like common sense. The 17 issues that I think will be critical this year are:

1. Betsy Devos - The New billionaire U.S. Secretary of Education pick is clearly coming in with a reputation if she gets approved. According to this USA News article Devos is the champion for school choice, and is well known for her charter school advocacy in Michigan. Educators, parents, politicians and pundits are all waiting to see what she will do when she takes over the position. Will it be that different from Arne Duncan and John King, who were both advocates for charters and school choice? According to Politico, incoming Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer has named Devos one of the 8 cabinet picks he will fight. 

2. School choice - Clearly this has been one of the major priorities of Devos, so those affected by education will soon see what she plans to do. In the same USA News article from above, Devos was quoted as saying,

"I'm most focused on educational choice. But, thinking more broadly, what we are trying to do is tear down the mindset that assigns students to a school based solely on the ZIP Code of their family's home. We advocate instead for as much freedom as possible."

3. U.S. Department of Education - During the campaign there was a great deal of talk about abolishing the US Department of Education, but heh, there is always a lot of talk of abolishing everything during campaigns. With Devos in power, the US department of Education will certainly take on a role. Will their role be about undoing everything that happened over the last 8 years? 

4. The Common Core - President-elect Trump has been vocal about his intentions of eradicating the Common Core. What will the Common Core look like in 2017? Will it be recycled under a new name? According to this NPR article there is little to nothing that the President-Elect can do to the CCSS. However, considering it was such a political mess over the last few years, and the President-elect was vocal about it, there certainly will be some changes. Will they merely just be political rhetoric changes?

5. ESSA Reauthorization - This one is a bit more complicated. For more information click on this link to my colleague Alyson Klein's Politics K-12 blog for an excellent run down of 5 things educators need to know when it comes to ESSA.

6. Media Literacy - Yes, media literacy...still. However, it's just as important for adults as it is for students. If you suffered through your friend's post for one candidate and against another, and now have to listen to the media cover the President-elect's Tweets about everything from nuclear weapons to Saturday Night Live or Meryl Streep (not to mention fake news!), media literacy is bound to take on a different role in education. Media literacy is more important now than ever. Check out the Partnership for 21st Century Learning's 4 C's for help on this one. 

7. Multi-Cultural Education - Can't build a wall around this one anymore. The U.S. is made up of a very diverse population, and in order to move on we have to come to a better understanding and respect for one another. Too many negative, ignorant, racist, anti-religious, homophobic conversations are taking place, and they need to be replaced with a better understanding of the diverse country we live in, which will hopefully help our students get a better understanding of the world around them. That world around us is keeping a keen eye on everything that is happening in the US right now.

8. Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) - The World Health Organization (WHO) predicts that,

"One in four people in the world will be affected by mental or neurological disorders at some point in their lives. Around 450 million people currently suffer from such conditions, placing mental disorders among the leading causes of ill-health and disability worldwide." 

There is a strong need for SEL. In a meta-analysis involving more than 200 studies and 270,000 students, Durlak et al (2011) found "those who participated in evidence-based SEL programs showed an 11 percentile-point gain in academic achievement compared to students who did not participate in SEL programs." 

One of the best resources on SEL is the Collaborative for Social-Emotional Learning (CASEL). Every school should be focusing on CASEL's five competencies for SEL, which are Self-awareness, Self-management, Social awareness, Relationship skills and Responsible decision making.  

9. Transgender Students - In 2010, I finished my doctoral work researching how well school administrators safeguard LGBTQ students. At the time, very few schools allowed me to do my research with them, and only a few that I did get into actually knew what transgender meant. Fast forward 7 years and schools are trying to work with students transitioning. For those of you thinking I'm pushing my agenda, I'm not. However, I have long felt that schools have to be prepared for the students coming to them regardless of their beliefs, and right now many are not, which means we're telling a population of students we don't care about them and they're not reaching their full potential.

10. Recess - Students need a brain break and over the years we have seen schools get rid of recess in order to increase class time. Many of those schools will get an understanding of how wrong they were when they did that. Our students, no matter how young or old they are, need time outside. We will see more and more schools let students play so they can get their childhood back.

11. Crisis Teams - Considering the information by the Global Health Organization, we will see an increased importance in crisis teams at school. Although these have a combination of individuals involved, and different levels of involvement based on the crisis, the most basic crisis teams involve school psychologists, social workers, nurses, teacher representatives and school principals. They meet weekly to discuss students who are at risk because of mental health issues.

12. Collective Efficacy - The research around self-efficacy (Bandura) has been around for many years but John Hattie, someone I work with as a Visible Learning trainer, says self-efficacy is,"The confidence or strength of belief that we have in ourselves that we can make our learning happen." Not all teachers, students and leaders have it, and collective efficacy is the way to help raise the self-efficacy of individuals. Through authentic collaboration and group thinking, collective efficacy can help solve the real problems that each individual school is facing.

13. Testing - Yes, testing is tied to ESSA, but it needs to have its own category as well because it remains a huge topic. The President-Elect has said many times that the U.S. is not competing at the same level as other countries when it comes to international comparisons (PISA). He actually said he wants to spend less on schools because of bad test scores (read here). What does that mean? Does it mean we will pull out of PISA? Does it mean we will see a change in how students are tested? Who knows! However, testing will play a part in educational conversations for 2017. 

14. Authentic Engagement vs. Compliant Engagement - In order to get students to a level where they are assessment capable learners (Hattie) which has an effect size of 1.44 (well over the hinge point of .40 which equates to a year's worth of growth for a year's input) we need to involve students in more authentic learning experiences. Compliant learning will take a backseat to more authentic experiences where students have a voice in their own learning. 

15. Pre-service Teacher Programs - We have millions of teachers who work hard and find innovative ways to meet the needs of diverse students, and then we have others who work from bell to bell and have lower expectations of some students. Teaching is much harder than many of us ever understood when we were in college become teachers. That understanding needs to change, and it's based on how we prepare teachers. Higher education and schools have to work harder on their partnerships because the status quo relationships that have been happening for decades are no longer good enough. We need stronger teacher candidates that can help meet the academic and social-emotional needs of our ever-changing student population, as well as deal with an educational cycle that needs to be based on a pedagogical cycle as opposed to the present political one.

16. Leadership Prep Programs - We need better leaders. There are thousands and thousands of hardworking school leaders who go above and beyond in their daily roles as building and district leaders. However, there are many, many more who have done their time in their schools as assistant principals and are now handed the principalship. The old boys network needs to be replaced with high quality leaders. Leadership programs need to be stronger, and leadership coaching needs to become part of the norm. So many leaders want it, but often don't have the opportunity to take it.

17. School Climate - In order for any initiative to be successful, the school climate needs to be supportive and inclusive. Why? A positive school climate, where there is a sense of collective efficacy, can help eat away at a school culture that blocked authentic learning experiences for all students. Schools face tough circumstances, like those on this list, and in order to address those issues effectively, they will have to foster a school climate where stakeholders want to be a part of the process. 

Those are my 17 critical issues. Please feel free to share your choices below. 

Peter DeWitt, Ed.D. is the author of several books including the best selling Collaborative Leadership: 6 Influences That Matter Most (September, 2016. Corwin Press/Learning Forward). Connect with Peter on Twitter. 

For original topic click the link below

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/finding_common_ground/2017/01/17_critical_issues_facing_education_in_2017.html

Ask 5 Questions to Choose the Right Online MPA Program

Given his passion for public service, Gordon-Andrew Fletcher felt that a Master of Public Administration would be an ideal supplement to his law degree.

When looking into different MPA programs, Fletcher also realized that completing one online would allow him to continue working full time.

"I'm very busy. But I didn't want me being busy to stop me from pursuing another degree," says the 32-year-old District of Columbia resident. Fletcher chose to pursue an online MPA at American University. An added bonus, he says, is that the school has a local alumni network.

An online MPA degree may be a good fit for those seeking leadership positions in government or the nonprofit sector who also need the flexibility to work around their own schedules.

[Learn how to assess the flexibility of an online degree program.]

Here are five questions prospective students should ask as they explore online MPA programs and consult with admissions officers.

1. Are there in-person requirements? Online MPAs vary as to whether they require students to come to campus.

At the University of Southern California Sol Price School of Public Policy, online MPA students visit campus twice – at the beginning and conclusion of the program. During that time, they network with each other and faculty and participate in team-building activities, among other things, according to the program's website.

Given that many online students also work full time, a program with an on-ground component may not be ideal. Students would likely need to take off from work and possibly pay travel expenses.

In addition, some online MPAs have practicum requirements. At the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill School of Government, students must complete 300 to 400 hours in a public service environment, which can be a project or interim duties as part of their current job, says Willow Jacobson, an associate professor of public administration.

2. Is the program accredited? Accreditation is a process conducted by an outside authority to determine if an online or on-ground university – and, in some cases, a specific program – meets certain standards of quality. When John Norwood, who's studying for an online MPA in nonprofit management at the for-profit Capella University, looked into programs, accreditation was top of mind.

[Discover how to check whether an online degree program is accredited.]

"Are they accredited? How long have they been accredited? Is their accreditation in any kind of jeopardy?" says the 36-year-old Tennessee resident.

Experts say prospective students should ensure an institution has accreditation from agencies recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation or U.S. Department of Education. That increases the likelihood that future employers and other universities – should students transfer or pursue additional degrees – will accept their credits or recognize their diploma.

Depending on prospective online students' career goals, they may want to determine whether their MPA also has accreditation at the programmatic level from specific agencies such as the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs and Administration, or NASPAA. This may be important if they want certain organizations or companies to recognize their degree, experts say.

3. What's the regional reputation of the school's on-ground program? Most MPA programs have developed their reputations through face-to-face learning and regional job placements for graduates, says Daniel Smith, MPA director at the University of Delaware School of Public Policy and Administration, which offers an online program.

He recommends asking an adviser about postgraduation employment rates for on-campus students, even if they live far away. That can give prospective online students broader insight into the overall quality of an institution.

4. How does the online program teach real-world skills? Even though online MPA students may never meet each other in person, a program should still teach them leadership and management skills that they can apply in a face-to-face workplace.

[Explore four ways online education teaches real-world skills.]

Vicky Wilkins, interim dean of the School of Public Affairs at American University, says online students in her class write memos under tight deadlines and record presentations about staff training, diversity and inclusion. They also focus on case studies, which may pertain to topics such as violations of law in the workplace, and submit responses to real-life scenarios using a webcam.

Experts recommend asking if there's a capstone course that may allow students to apply what they learn. In the online MPA program at American, students complete a policy analysis project for a specific client.

5. How does the program encourage a sense of community? Community is often an important element of administration jobs in the nonprofit and public sectors, experts say. Prospective online MPA students should ask about student interaction, which can occur through on-campus residencies or events, discussion forums, meetups or online courses in real time.

The same goes for interacting with faculty, whether virtually or on campus, says Maryann Tobin, executive director of programs in the arts and sciences college at the University of Miami, which has an online MPA.

"That connection is very important to student success," she says.

Trying to fund your online education? Get tips and more in the U.S. News Paying for Online Education center.

Tags: online education, education, students, technology

Jordan Friedman is an online education editor at U.S. News. You can follow him on Twitter or email him at jfriedman@usnews.com.

For the original topic click the link below

https://www.usnews.com/higher-education/online-education/articles/2017-10-12/ask-5-questions-to-choose-the-right-online-mpa-program

Why I Don’t Have Classroom Rules

                A teacher tries a classroom management experiment thinking it will fail. Years later, he’s still at it.

By David Tow

October 11, 2017

When I started teaching, I was incredibly traditional in terms of classroom management and discipline. In those early years, a clear code of conduct was reassuring. For infraction X, there was always consequence Y. It gave me a simple if inflexible rubric through which to discover my position in the class and develop a degree of comfort and ease as captain of the ship. As a new teacher, I was thankful for the clarity and certainty this approach offered—and I am sure other new educators feel the same.

However, while I was clearing my credential, working with mentor teachers to reflect on my practice, and finding out how real students differed from theoretical ones, I also spent long hours after school with the speech and debate team reading philosophy and theory and talking about innovative alternatives for national defense, natural resource allocation, and, of course, education.

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So I gradually abolished formal management protocols. Away went the rules about bathroom policies, eating in the classroom, and what defines appropriate behavior in a traditional classroom. Instead, I theorized about the broad, underlying principles that would define the field within which we could have a productive learning community.

To be honest, I was terrified. I was worried that if I started to dismantle my power, the class would devolve into chaos.

But I also knew my students: They were thoughtful and reflective, kind and observant, willing to take intellectual risks when they felt supported and safe.

So we started with first principles—it’s wise to start with a simple framework—identifying core premises from which we could build a classroom community. These depend on the teacher’s values, the school culture, and the needs of the students. In my case, I derived them from ideas of agency and social equity, and let the students extrapolate from there.

Next, we proceeded to norm that behavior. I simply took the time to comment on how particular contributions, habits, and behaviors were either in concert with or contrary to the core principles, with the idea that students would begin to mirror that level of depth and awareness. I made sure to offer opportunities, usually at the end of class, to reflect not just on what learning took place, but on what community standards were missing, newly established, or reaffirmed. For example, without a school-wide policy about bathroom usage during class, and after I expressed my own disinterest in regulating bodily functions, we started a conversation about how to solve the problem, deriving community standards from it. Students recognized that that if they weren’t in the room, they couldn’t be engaged or prepared, and staying in the bathroom wasn’t really respectful if other students needed to go as well. One student suggested that it was impossible to take intellectual risks if you were in the bathroom all the time.

The same approach applies to homework, often considered a non-negotiable in high school classrooms. In my class, it’s a chance to demonstrate student agency and experiment with what we’ve learned in class. If a student fails to do it, the absence is its own punishment—I don’t need to double down with teacher-driven shame. If a student tells me they haven’t done their homework, my response is, “That’s fine, you’re all right, but why not?” From there, I can respond in a more personalized way and unearth how to best help.

Do & Does

كتب في الترجمة القانونية - Translation

     

 كتب في الترجمة القانونية - Translearner

Can/can't