Blog Posts by Subject: Education

As President Obama is leading our nation in an education reform to Race to the Top and Educate to Innovate, Mayor Bloomberg of the Big Apple is following suit in raising the education standards of K-12 school students by implementing more effective teaching and learning programs. Fortifying STEM education with a focus on the knowledge and skills for the jobs of the future is also an important aspect on the agenda of Bloomberg's education reform.

The GED® test is changing on January 1, 2014.

"You're not going to homeschool for high school are you? How can you possibly teach all those subjects?"

I guess my husband's friend had no idea how insulting his comments were, but they made me laugh. Of course you can homeschool through high school if you have a plan! We've been homeschooling our son since 4th grade using the resources here at NYPL, why would we stop now just because he's headed to high school? Our friend's comments reminded me that it was time to start doing some research and planning to map out the next few years of our son's education.

CUNY Career PATH is a low-to no cost program funded by the grant program of the U.S. Department of Labor Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training, also know as TAACCCT.

It can be a special experience when students make contact with primary resources. I have written previously about a class visit to examine documents from the life of Johann Sebastian Bach. A few weeks ago I had the great opportunity to introduce students to a fundamental primary resource: music manuscripts. My colleague Fred Fehleisen (of Mannes College the New School for Music) brought his class to the Music Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts to provide students with first-hand experience of looking at and handling actual music manuscripts.

Most of the collections at the Stephen A. Schwarzman building are closed-stacked, i.e., we bring them to you. But on the 3rd floor, the Rose Main Reading Room maintains open, very open stacks of about 30,000 volumes on every subject, not just the humanities and social sciences which is our collection strength.

As the nation is going through an education reform to Race to the Top and Educate to Innovate, Mayor Bloomberg of the Big Apple is following suit in developing education programs inline with the national policy in general and meeting the education and employment needs of the New Yorkers in particular.

The City University of New York was awarded $19.86 million through the United States Department of Labor's Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training grant program to offer CUNY Career Path, a three–year program aimed at supporting adult students in career advancement and successful college transition, and building CUNY's capacity to serve adult workers.

The U.S. Department of Commerce Economics and Statistics Administration recently released a report, STEM: Good Jobs Now and for the Future (PDF), that profiles U.S. employment in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.

It's scholarship season and many students will be thinking about who they should ask for a recommendation letter to help secure a scholarship. If you've been an active volunteer, asking your volunteer supervisor is a great idea. While volunteering can be personally rewarding for you and beneficial to the organization that you volunteer with, it can also help to add needed money to your tuition fund.

Now that the lazy, hazy, care free days of summer are a distant memory, and the crisp, cool days of fall have given way to the chill of winter, it may be time to turn our thoughts to more serious endeavors. What activity could be more serious or sobering than getting our financial house in order? Are you saying, "Yes that’s true, but it is too daunting. I need help."?

As the year is coming to an end, many of us are already planning for new and exciting changes in the upcoming year. Some people may consider different vacation spots, career changes or even returning to school. If you are part of the group interested in going to graduate school, we can help!

In this season of gift giving, the New York Public Library has just added a wonderful new resource — lynda.com — for New Yorkers who need the top of the line in online software training. NYPL's business library, SIBL, has entered into a year long pilot to provide free access to the continuously expanding library of 1,500 online training videos.

Charles Salzberg, faculty member, and one of the founders of the New York Writer's Workshop, gave a one-evening seminar at the Mid-Manhattan Library on December 11th. Sign-ups for the evening's seminar closed at the 15 people who registered online at the New York Public Library's website, but Mr. Salzberg graciously allowed in 9 more people. To introduce the program, I brought two copies of The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberg, and asked the participants whether they had heard of this title, which remained on the New York Times' Bestseller List for many weeks a few years ago.

As the holidays are upon us, many teens and their families start thinking about fulfilling community service requirements for school. Winter break is coming up and it might be a good time to get some volunteer hours completed. It sounds simple, but finding volunteer opportunities for kids is not always that easy.

This week, we are wrapping up our second semester of French classes at Jefferson Market. After Saturday's class, we caught up with Shauna, one of the students.

In an environment of globalization, economic volatility and rapid advancement of technologies, the American world of work is evolving with an upward spiral of academic requirements and qualifications. In preparing for the 21st century workplace, an increasing number of students are enrolling in both public and private higher education institutions. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, education pays.

At the New York Public Library's Adult Learning Centers, where adults work on basic English and literacy skills, we're often asked for recommendations of websites for adults to practice English at home. Below you'll find eleven sites, some with a focus on listening, some on vocabulary, others on grammar, and some with a range of activities. Happy learning!

The Jefferson Market Library continues to offer multi-session courses in subjects taught by college professors — just like you'd take in an adult continuing education program at a university. Recently we offered a free six-session Introduction to Western Philosophy course. Here's what two participants in that course, Carlos and Shaan, had to say: