Sample NJ lesson plan says, ‘You might feel like you’re a boy even if you have body parts that some people might tell you are ‘girl’ parts’

New Jersey public school second graders will be getting lessons related to gender identity this fall under state sex education guidelines that will take effect in September.

The standards listed “performance expectations” for second graders, which include discussing “the range of ways people express their gender and how gender role stereotypes may limit behavior.”

Educators in the Garden State are preparing to carry out the teaching standards, which were established in 2020 but not required to be enacted until Sept. 2022.

One school district in the state distributed sample lesson plans indicating first graders could be taught they can have “boy parts” but “feel like” a girl.

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The lesson plans, which were given to parents at the Westfield Board of Education’s Feb. 22 meeting, appear to be reflective of the Garden State’s new, broader sex education curriculum.

One lesson plan, “Purple, Pink and Blue,” instructs teachers to talk to their first graders about gender identity, and its first objective is to have the students be able to define “gender, gender identity and gender role stereotypes.”

The lesson’s second objective is to have students name “at least two things they’ve been taught about gender role stereotypes and how those things may limit people of all genders.”

“Gender identity is that feeling of knowing your gender. You might feel like you are a boy, you might feel like you are a girl,” the lesson plan states. “You might feel like you’re a boy even if you have body parts that some people might tell you are ‘girl’ parts. You might feel like you’re a girl even if you have body parts that some people might tell you are ‘boy’ parts.

“And you might not feel like you’re a boy or a girl, but you’re a little bit of both. No matter how you feel, you’re perfectly normal!”

Another lesson plan for second graders, “Understanding Our Bodies,” tells teachers to instruct students that “there are some body parts that mostly just girls have and some parts that mostly just boys have.”

“Being a boy or a girl doesn’t have to mean you have those parts, but for most people this is how their bodies are,” the plan states. “Most people have a vulva and a vagina or a penis and testicles, but some people’s bodies can be different. Your body is exactly what is right for you.”

The objectives for this second grade lesson include having children be able to “identify at least four body parts” from female and male genitalia, and for students to describe “why it is important for them to know the correct names for the genitals.”

A spokesperson for Westfield Public Schools told Fox News Digital that the teaching materials were not the school district’s plans. The school superintendent told Fox News Digital that the materials presented to parents at the February Board of Education meeting were a “sample list of resources” aligned with state policy.

“During a presentation at the Feb. 22 Board of Education meeting, we provided an update on the district’s work to revise the Comprehensive Health and Physical Education curriculum,” Superintendent Dr. Raymond González said.

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“The presentation included a sample list of resources aligned to the New Jersey Student Learning Standards to be considered as school districts work on revisions to the health and PE curriculum.

“We made it clear at the meeting and subsequent meetings that these are resources only — they are not state-mandated — and that the district is in the process of developing its revised curriculum to meet state standards,” the superintendent continued.

Republicans say the lesson plans show the educational priorities of Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration are misplaced.

“It’s simple. Gov. Murphy thinks he knows better how to parent your children than you do,” Alexandra Wilkes, the New Jersey GOP’s communications director, told Fox News Digital.

“The shocking, graphic materials taught to children barely old enough to read and write fly in the face of the Democrats’ insistence on the campaign trail last fall that critics of these new standards were exaggerating or even bigoted for raising concerns in the first place.

“Democrats lied to parents, belittled and shamed them for wanting a say in their children’s education, and they’re about to find out this November what happens when you mess with other people’s kids.”

Legislators in the state also blasted the Murphy administration over the school district’s lesson plans.

State Sen. Holly Schepisi, a Republican who was sent the materials by concerned parents, told Fox News Digital that as “a mom and a legislator, I can appreciate the need for students to receive age-appropriate instruction, but this is beyond the pale.

“We knew that when Gov. Murphy used the cover of the pandemic to push these new standards through that something was terribly wrong, and now we can clearly see why they needed to do this in secret. The agenda has swung so far left in an attempt to sexualize our precious children that parents are fighting back.

“Based on the overwhelming outreach I have received from parents, Democrats should expect a reckoning this fall.”

Schepisi’s colleague, Republican state Sen. Michael Testa, did not mince words in a statement to Fox News Digital, calling the elementary school sex education lesson plans “abuse.”

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“We fought for kids to return to school in person. Then we had to fight to take off our kids’ masks. Now, we have to watch our elementary school children, who have already fallen behind thanks to the Murphy lockdowns, learn about genitalia and gender identity?” Testa said. “It’s abuse, plain and simple.”

Testa also had a message to “every Democrat on the ballot this fall,” ahead of a widely-predicted Republican wave, to “get ready for the army of parents who will not sit by and watch you steal the innocence of our children without a fight.”

New Jersey Assemblywoman Vicky Flynn, a Republican, said that as “a mother, former Board of Education member and current member of the Assembly Education Committee, I am disturbed that Gov. Murphy and the Department of Education are not laser focused on addressing learning and proficiency gaps stemming from COVID lockdowns and remote learning, and instead implement curricula intended to indoctrinate elementary school students and substitute the role of parents in these sensitive topics.

“No kid should have to talk about sex with their elementary school teacher.”

New Jersey political commentators also weighed in, with radio host and dad Matt Rooney warning that these lesson plans are what happen “when you let [New Jersey Education Association] radicals and far-left wackos take control of your children’s education.”

Source: New Jersey to require 2nd graders learn about gender identity in fall, alarming parents | Fox News

“WHOSE CHILDREN ARE THEY? – The Film”

From Donna Garner

3.15.22

I hardly ever say this, but “Everyone needs to see the film WHOSE CHILDREN ARE THEY?”

I wish I had the words to explain the depth and value of this film.  Please believe me when I say that every aspect of the problems in our educational system is covered in this movie.  The part on sex education is particularly appalling.  I guarantee you that you will learn things that will astound you. Even truly knowledgeable people will learn new things; I certainly did. 

The real-life testimonies from some 80 people, beautifully woven into various scenarios, are so honest and captivating that no one can doubt the truth of their statements.  

CRT, LGBTQ, the radical social justice agenda, teachers’ unions controlling teachers through fear and bullying, the COVID damage occurring in children, racial equity discipline problems, and many other topics are revealed by people who have “lived and walked through them.”

This film will trouble people on all sides of the political spectrum; but at the same time, the movie provides positive answers as to what can be done to restore our schools.    

WHOSE CHILDREN ARE THEY? is being shown in select theaters across the country from March 14 through April 15. After that first month, the movie will be available via premium video on demand.  Also, on the website, people can sign up to bring the film to various church and school groups. 

Here is the website, and you can sign up there for updates. You can also see various clips from the film by clicking on the box at the top of the screen:  https://whosechildrenarethey.com/

3.12.22 – “Critical race theory exposed in detail in new documentary, ‘Whose Children Are They?’”  — By Elizabeth Economou  — Fox News — https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/critical-race-theory-documentary-children

Demand for cybersecurity experts continues to grow as the projected shortage of cybersecurity professionals increases to 1.8 million jobs in 2022. People who take on these positions play an essential part in the business, and the overall price of a data breach in the world is currently $3.62 million.

There are a lot of mistakes that occur in the field which can make your job challenging and put your company at risk. Here are ten common mistakes cybersecurity professionals must avoid to be the most efficient in their job.

1. Overconfidence

The most frequently-made error by security professionals is overconfidence and an illusion of security, as stated by Bahram Attaie, an assistant instructor of the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University. “They believe they have installed all the necessary security controls, and as a consequence, they believe they’re invulnerable to hack,” Attaie said.

2. To bypass corporate controls.

If corporate security controls hinder cybersecurity professionals from performing their job effectively, They often ignore these or switch their controls off, Pozhogin said. “As security layers need to be in place, there could be incompatibilities among different technologies. Therefore workarounds will be developed, and competing technologies will have to be disabled or turned off, settings that are repetitive need to be modified and neglected to change in various policies,” Pozhogin said.

3. Unsuspecting of false positives

Some cybersecurity professionals are insensitive to false positives when a security software identifies a harmless file as malicious and then blocks it. The possible outcomes are data corruption and an interruption to the operation or total inability to function, Pozhogin said. “Some security experts downplay the possibility of high false positives and opt for security methods. They choose solutions for the security stack with a security stack adjusted to paranoid levels which can result in false positives,” the security expert said.

4. Inability to evaluate the surroundings in their entirety

Security experts are constantly responding to emergencies and fire drills. Still, they often don’t go back to examine if the system is getting less secure, as per Ashwin Krishnan, the author of Mobile Security for Dummies. For instance, a person could elevate the privileges of an administrator who is a senior to super admin, allowing them to perform super admin work during the day, or fill the void left by her boss during vacation but do not be able to go back and remove the privileges due to other issues that occurred. Get your Cyber Security Certification today to become a certified security expert.

5. In disregarding the needs of the user

Though most security professionals recognize that the user is their weakest link in the chain, they tend to ignore users as a component of the solution. They claim “there is no fix for insanity,” said Corey Nachreiner, the CTO of WatchGuard. “The fact is that users training is an essential component to your security strategy when you’re willing to make training a priority,” he said. “Even tiny changes in employees’ behavior will help increase your security performance.”

6. Letting your skills lapse

According to Andrew Newman, CEO and the founder of Reason Core Security, thinking you have all the necessary skills in this field is a risky practice. “In this area of work, you have to be constantly updating your skills or else you be left behind,” he said.

7. The patching process is not completed immediately.

Many companies spend millions of dollars for security solutions only to bypass them simply by not applying the security patch as soon as it is available, Meredith said. Consider recently the WannaCry as well as the GoldenEye attacks, for instance: companies who had put in place a complete security software for managing configurations were not affected because Microsoft had patched the security holes. But many businesses fail to apply the critical security updates until at the very least one week after they’re released, which puts the security of their systems at risk, Meredith said.

8. Alert fatigue syndrome

Alert fatigue is a term that was coined to explain the reason for cybersecurity experts failing to respond to security alerts as they’re overwhelmed by numerous alerts, according to Matt Warner, director of security services at NetWorks Group. “As as a result, crucial alerts are not being received, and threats aren’t identified in time,” he said. “There is no simple solution to this issue other than ensuring that the systems are tuned so that most crucial security alerts following quality and trustworthiness are sent to an analyst to take the correct actions.”

9. Relying too much on third-party vendors

Meredith said that businesses sometimes rely too heavily on hardware and software vendors to safeguard their businesses from security attacks. “As cybersecurity professionals, it’s our responsibility to stay one step ahead of hackers,” he said. “While security hardware and software solutions play a role in the security environment, they’re just that: one cog in the vast array of assets.”

10. Not paying attention to the business aspect.

Cybersecurity is an area full of acronyms like IPS, GAV, XSS, and SQLi, according to Nachreiner. While these acronyms are helpful when speaking to professionals in the field, you have to be aware that many entrepreneurs do not utilize this terminology. “Know your audience,” Nachreiner said. “How you address the upper levels of the company concerning security differs from what you’d talk about with IT administrators and managers.”

Michael F. Shaughnessy

Brief Biography:

Dr. Kenneth Kiewra is a professor of educational psychology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He earned his Ph.D. in educational psychology from Florida State University and was also on the faculty at Kansas State University and Utah State University. Professor Kiewra’s research pertains to learning and to talent development. On the learning side, he has investigated note taking, graphic organizers, and the SOAR teaching and learning method he developed. On the talent side, he has investigated highly productive educational researchers and parents’ roles in talent development. Dr. Kiewra has authored five books, including: Teaching How to Learn: The Teachers Guide to Student Success, Nurturing Children’s Talents: A Guide for Parents, and his most recent book and the topic of this interview, SOAR to Academic Success and Beyond, published by Cognella. Dr. Kiewra is the former editor of Educational Psychology Review, is listedamong the Top 2% of the Most-Cited Researchers Worldwide, and is a frequent public speaker, having made more than 500 invited presentations to education, corporate, and parent groups. In 2021, Dr. Kiewra received his university’s system’s top award for outstanding teaching and instructional creativity.

1. Dr. Kiewra, congratulation on publishing SOAR to College Success and Beyond. Who is this book for and why is it needed?

Most college students use ineffective strategies. When they should be recording complete lesson notes in class, they are instead recording just one-third of important lesson ideas. When they should be organizing information graphically so that relationships are apparent with just a glance, they are instead organizing information linearly in lists or outlines that obscure relationships. When they should be associating new ideas to one another and to prior knowledge, they are instead learning in a piecemeal fashion, one idea at a time. And, when they should be assessing their learning through self-testing, they are instead using redundant and ineffective strategies such as rereading, rewriting, and reciting…ridiculous.

It’s no surprise that college students use weak learning strategies, because educators have not typically taught students how to learn. Schools focus on the products of learning—teaching students content from archeology to zoology, but not the processes of learning—teaching students how to learn any and all content.

Fortunately, it’s never too late to learn how to learn. And, that is the purpose of SOAR to College Success and Beyond: Providing students with the skills needed to succeed in college and beyond college in the real world. The book is therefore intended for any student, from high school to graduate school, seeking to become a top-flight learner. It is especially intended for the academic success courses taught at most colleges and universities, like the Strategies for Academic Success class I developed at the University of Nebraska that enrolls 600 students annually.

2. Your text revolves around the SOAR method. What exactly is the SOAR method?

SOAR is a teaching and learning method I developed, based on information-processing theory, and validated to improve the teaching-learning process. As mentioned previously, students commonly employ ineffective strategies. SOAR is the antidote for nursing ineffective strategies into effective ones and the prescription for achieving success in school and beyond. SOAR is an acronym for the method’s four components: select, organize, associate, and regulate. Effective students select important lesson information, organize it using graphic organizers, associate new ideas with one another and with prior knowledge, and regulate learning and performance readiness.

SOAR components were derived to boost the memory processes inherent in information-processing theory. SOAR’s select component aids selective attention. SOAR’s organize and associate components aid encoding and long-term information storage. And, SOAR’s regulate component aids retrieval and aids the metacognitive processes guiding information processing.

Colleagues and I have validated SOAR methods. An array of experiments confirms that SOAR methods are superior to students’ preferred methods or to SQ3R methods when students are provided SOAR material, are prompted to create SOAR material, or are trained for 30 minutes in SOAR methods and create their own SOAR material. SOAR advantages are evident for fact, relationship, and concept learning, with SOAR versus non-SOAR differences as high as 48%. Additionally, SOAR aids essay writing performance. Those using SOAR methods write more organized and more integrative essays than those using preferred writing methods.

Figure 1 shows a brief and simple SOAR example. As the instructor presents a lesson on spiders and insects, students select and note all important ideas. Following the lesson, students organize notes graphically by creating the spiders and insects matrix. Next, students examine the matrix and create associations between noted ideas (e.g., both have hard outer shells) and between noted ideas and prior knowledge (e.g., a spider is like a table where each corner has two legs). Last, students regulate learning by generating and answering practice test questions.

3. As a researcher, you are probably best well known for your work on note taking. How is your note-taking research present in SOAR and in the text?

I began studying note taking as a graduate student at Florida State University in 1980 and still investigate note taking today. The first SOAR component, select, depends on recording a complete and effective set of notes. Without such notes, the other SOAR components—organize, associate, and regulate—cannot be carried out. My note-taking research has determined how instructors and students can bolster note taking by investigating note-taking issues like the following: note taking versus listening, the consequences of missing lectures, note completeness and achievement, reviewing one’s own notes versus the instructor’s notes, note-taking frameworks, copy-and-paste note taking, note-taking cues, laptop versus longhand note taking, digital distractions, note revision, lesson repetition, text note taking, and note review methods.

In one representative study conducted by Titsworth and Kiewra (2004), college students listened to a lecture on communication theories. There were two lecture versions—one with organizational cues inserted throughout and one without cues. The organizational cues signaled students to the lecture topic (e.g., general systems theory) and the lecture category (e.g., application). Here is a sample cue: “Next, we examine an application of general systems theory.” Students hearing the cued lecture recoded about 40% more notes and achieved about 45% higher than those hearing the un-cued lecture. In another representative study (Luo et al., 2018), college students viewed a PowerPoint lesson about educational measurement that contained 23 slides with text and images. Half recorded notes using a laptop and half recoded longhand notes using pen and paper. Following note review, students were tested. Longhand note takers achieved more than laptop note takers on both text-based and image-based tests. Longhand note takers’ superior test performance was likely due to their superior notes. Longhand notes were more efficient, more paraphrased (reflective of more meaningful processing), and contained more images than did laptop notes.

“Selection Strategies for Noting Lecture and Text Information” is the Chapter 2 title in SOAR to College Success and Beyond. The chapter draws on my note-taking research and explains why note taking is important, provides strategies for boosting note taking before, during, and after the lecture, and offers note-taking strategies for text learning.

4. Many college students lack organizational skills. How has SOAR, your research, and your text addressed organization?

Students left to their own devices do not seek to better organize their linear, list-like notes even though research confirms that graphically organized notes are superior. Graphic notes allow students to quickly see relationships obscured by linear notes. For example, look how apparent relationships are in the Figure 2 matrix notes on planets. With just a glance, these relationships are apparent: (1) As distance from the sun increases, revolution time increases and orbit speed decreases. (2) Inner planets relative to outer planets are smaller, rockier, and have fewer moons and longer rotation times. The first relationship encompasses 24 discrete facts; the second one encompasses 32 discreet facts. A planets outline would not readily reveal these relationships.

Organization is the cornerstone of the SOAR method. When students understand a lesson’s organization, the selection and noting of lesson ideas are facilitated, as was the case in the organizational cue study mentioned earlier. And, once information is well organized, identifying associations is simplified, as was the case in the planet example above. Finally, a graphic organizer is useful for generating and answering regulation questions. Looking at Figure 2, it is easy to generate fact question like, “What is the diameter of Venus?” or “How many moons does Uranus have?” and to generate relationship questions like, “Which planet is the largest?” or “What is the relationship between planets’ revolution time and orbit speed?”

Nelson DuBois and I developed a simple and easily usable representation system based on information storage theories posited by psychologists. Our system includes hierarchies based on networks, sequences based on scripts, matrices based on schema, and illustrations based on duel-coding. Each of these graphic organizers represents and reveals a unique type of relationship: Hierarchies for superordinate-subordinate relationships, sequences for order relationships, matrices for comparative relationships, and sequences for positional relationships. Most of my graphic organizer research has investigated the matrix, which is derived by extending hierarchies and sequences, and has yielded findings linked to best practices for creating and studying matrices.

Chapter 4 in SOAR to College Success and Beyond pertains to SOAR’s organize component. It helps readers develop an organizational mindset in all learning contexts, explains why graphic organizers are effective, and describes and exemplifies how to construct effective hierarchies, sequences, matrices, and illustrations across domains. Graphic organizers are also used as an aid throughout the text to help readers organize and associate information.

5. I was glad to see a chapter on association strategies, because I believe they are often overlooked by students as a powerful tactic they can use. Can you discuss this a bit?

So true. Students often learn in a piecemeal fashion, one idea at a time, and fail to learn important relationships. They isolate single facts such as, “Venus has a rocky surface,” and then mindlessly repeat that single fact over and over trying to cram it into long-term memory. Instead, they should create memorable associations. For instance, (a) all inner planets, including Venus, have rocky surfaces, and all outer planets have slushy surfaces, (b) Venus is next to and much like Earth, and we all know that Earth has a rocky surface, and (c) imagine Venus, the god of love, throwing a rock at her jilted lover.

Chapter 5 on association in SOAR to College Success and Beyond begins by convincing students as to the power of association. How else could someone remember 100-400 consecutive digits presented to them orally, one per second, in a digit span task? Associating digits to one another, to letters, to words, and to places are association tactics anyone can learn and employ with practice, as evidenced by memory champions who accelerate from having middle-of-the-road memories to fast-lane memories in short order. Chapter 5 instructs students in how to build internal associations among lesson ideas, external associations between lesson ideas and prior knowledge, and in raising and answering association questions such as, “Hierarchically speaking, what information is above, below, and alongside this concept?” and “What do I already know about this?” The chapter also focuses on the power of generating new examples and the use of mnemonic techniques from keyword to Mnemonomies.

6. Time and life management are two other issues you address in the text. What time and life guidance does the text offer?

The text argues that the principles for managing time are akin to those for investing money. And, why not? Time is money. Students are advised and shown how to (a) invest time, (b) invest in time, (c) invest early, (d) invest daily, (e) invest wisely, (f) monitor their investment, and (g) enjoy their investment. They are also advised and shown how to create block, semester, and weekly planners, all of which are created in matrix form.

As for life management, I remember when I was a teaching assistant in graduate school and a fellow TA said, “I feel like I just need to take some of these college students home with me and teach them how to live.” So true. Rather than take them home, though, in the text I offer up advice from those who really understand how to manage their lives: The talented and highly productive, whom I have studied the past 20 years. Among those studied are Olympic gold medal athletes, chess grandmasters, world champion baton twirlers, National Spelling Bee champions, National Geographic photographers, National Merit Scholars, world-class musicians, and many others including 20 of the worlds’ most productive psychologists—scholars like Richard Mayer, Patricia Alexander, Barry Zimmerman, Richard Anderson, Michael Pressley, Alexander Renkl, Carol Dweck, Jacquelynne Eccles, and Ming-Te Wang, to name a few. Based on their talent stories, the text offers and describes these guiding life success principles: (a) take the leap, (b) follow your bliss, (c) stay focused, (d) hone your knowledge and skills, (e) get into a routine, (f) collaborate, and (g) frame failure.

7. Reading is obviously a big part of the college experience, perhaps now more than ever in this internet world. How can your text improve college reading skills?

In my view, it does not much matter whether information is presented visually through images, auditorily through spoken words, or visually through written text. Regardless of medium, important information must be selected, organized, associated, and regulated for optimal learning. Thus, SOAR is a powerful learning tool whether instruction is lecture-based or text-based, in-person or online.

Still, lectures and texts are different animals. Lectures are fleeting like a frightened rabbit. Texts are stationary like a pet dog in a sunbeam. Lectures are demanding. They demand you be in a certain place, at a certain time, and select vital information as the lecture speeds past. Texts are flexible. You can read them anywhere, anytime, and at your own pace.

When students read texts, most are not strategic. They read casually as if scanning the Sunday paper. When they are strategic, their strategies of choice are rereading or highlighting the text. Rereading is a repetitive strategy unlikely to boost comprehension the second or third times through. Highlighting, meanwhile, is often a mindless activity that leaves the text looking like it was spray-painted yellow. Highlighting does not equal understanding.

SOAR to College Success and Beyond advocates that students mark their text using a simple system I developed that easily distinguishes the text’s topics with boxes, categories with circles, and associated details with underlining. Students are also advised to record notes on paper, as they would for lecture, or in text margins as they read. Either way, recorded notes should aid in information organization, association, and regulation.

8. Helping skills like metacognition and mindset need to be mentioned. What does your text advocate with regard to these two areas?

I recall Joel Levin, former editor of Journal of Educational Psychology, saying that successful learning depends on two cogs: cognition and metacognition. Students need to understand and enact cognitive principles like selective attention and encoding that govern learning. And, they need to understand and enact metacognitive principles like self-monitoring and self-assessment that drive those cognitions. SOAR to Academic Success and Beyond addresses both cogs. SOAR’s select, organize, and associate components boost cognition. SOAR’s regulation component boosts metacognition. The regulation component directs students to monitor and assess their own learning and performance readiness. The regulation chapter prepares students to regulate learning as they select, organize, and associate information. It prepares them to regulate performance readiness by anticipating, constructing, and answering practice test questions that tap a variety of learning outcomes such as fact, relationship, concept, and skill. The regulation chapter also prepares students to regulate during testing, following testing (error analysis), and in a variety of real-world situations.

One of the keys to success is a growth mindset, the belief that success is made, not born. It’s an important belief because it leads one to set learning rather than performance goals, expend great effort, be strategic, persist when facing obstacles, and embrace critical feedback. Plus, it’s an accurate belief. Successful students, talented performers, and creative artists and scientists all share a growth mindset. Carol Dweck’s growth mindset notion is evident in SOAR to College Success and Beyond’s opening chapter where students are introduced to myriad success stories that convince them that their eventual success lies in their own outstretched palms. Growth mindset is revisited in the Mighty M’s chapter on mindset and motivation. There, students are led to transform defeatist fixed mindsets into opportunistic growth mindsets.

9. Writing skills are perennially weak. How does SOAR and your text address writing?

The text meets the writing-is-weak problem head on in a chapter titled, “SOAR for Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, and Beyond.” Many students falsely believe that writing is like speaking. They simply shoot from the lip and fill the page with whatever thoughts and utterances emerge. Just as students are rarely taught how to learn, they are rarely taught how to write. I recall in the text that my first real writing lessons occurred as a graduate student. My advisor had me read my papers to him out load. “What, I have an advisor who can’t read,” I thought. But, during these sessions, he was a writing problem-detecting and repairing machine. He’d say things like: “This sentence lacks parallel structure. Instead of saying, ‘Short-term memory is limited in capacity and has a short duration,’ you should say, ‘Short-term memory is limited in capacity and duration.’ Use the active voice here. Instead of saying, ‘The proposals were read by several reviewers,” write, ‘Several reviewers read the proposals’…..”

Just as SOAR is an effective antidote for poor learning strategies, it is also an effective antidote for poor writing strategies. A series of studies by Linlin Luo and I confirmed that college students either provided with SOAR materials or trained in how to create their own SOAR materials wrote better essays than those without SOAR materials, better in terms of idea organization and idea integration.

10. Anything else you’d like to add about SOAR to College Success and Beyond?

As you can surmise from this interview, the text information and student application recommendations are science-based, drawn from psychological theories and from empirical research studies, many from my own work on note taking, graphic organizers, SOAR, and talent development. Some study skills texts are not so science-based, instead offering anecdotal and unsubstantiated study advice like, “just record unfamiliar ideas in notes, convert your notes to outlines, and study by rehearsing information again and again.” Other study skills books almost shun strategy instruction all together, instead focusing on student adjustment to college. Adjustment is important, but such instruction can only transform a not-so-well-adjusted student with a 2.0 GPA into a well-adjusted student with a 2.0 GPA. Students need skills in addition to a happy disposition.

Finally, I hope that readers find the text written in a way that boosts learning and interest. For one, it is chalk full of instructive, inspirational, and memorable stories like that of the full-time financial analyst who still found time to run 100+ miles a week and who set the world record by running across America in 46 days, that’s more than 72 miles per day! If he can do that, what can’t you do? Or, the fictional story of Isabelle who was the epitome of bad lecture learning and time-management practices but who made a remarkable SOAR-based recovery in the book’s epilogue. The text is also replete with practice-what-you-preach SOAR-based text aids that guide and boost learning, aids such as objectives, focus questions, focus question answers, graphic organizers, and practice activities. It is never too late to learn how to learn, and SOAR to College Success and Beyond is intent on helping students do just that.

Selected References

SOAR:

• Kiewra, K. A. (2022). SOAR to college success and beyond (First Edition). San Diego, CA: Cognella.
• Kiewra, K. A. (2009). Teaching how to learn: The teacher’s guide to student success. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
• Luo, L. & Kiewra, K. A. (2022). Applying SOAR strategies to curb digital distractions while note taking and studying. In A. Flanigan and J. Kim (eds.), Digital distractions in the college classroom. IGI Global.
• Daher, T., & Kiewra, K. A. (2016). An investigation of SOAR study strategies for learning from multiple online resources. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 46, 10-21.
• Kiewra, K., Luo, L., Colliot, T., & Lu, J. (2021). Learning strategies that help students SOAR to success. In L. Zhang (ed.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. Oxford University Press, Vol 2, 670-700.

Note Taking:

• Kiewra, K. A., Colliot, T., & Lu, J. (2018). Note this: How to improve student note taking. The IDEA Center, IDEA Paper #73, http://www.theideacenter.org/.
• Kiewra, K. A. (2019). 7 tips on how to take better notes. The Conversation.
• Luo, L., Kiewra, K. A., Flanigan, A., & Peteranetz, M. (2018). Laptop versus longhand note taking: Effects on lecture notes and achievement. Instructional Science, 46, 947-971.
• Luo, L., Kiewra, K. A., & Samuelson, L. (2016). Revising lecture notes: How revision, pauses, and partners affect note taking and achievement. Instructional Science, 44, 45-67.
• Titsworth, S., & Kiewra, K. A. (2004). Spoken organizational lecture cues and student notetaking. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 29, 447-461.

Graphic Organizers:

• Colliot, T., Kiewra, K. A., Luo, L., Flanigan, A., Lu, J., Kennedy, C., & Black, S. (2021). The effects of graphic organizer completeness and note-taking medium on computer-based learning. Education and Information Technologies.
• Kiewra, K. A. (2012). Using graphic organizers to improve teaching and learning. The IDEA Center, http://www.theideacenter.org/.
• Jairam, D., Kiewra, K. A., Kauffman, D. F., & Zhao, R. (2012). How to study a matrix. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 37, 128-135.
• Kauffman, D. F., & Kiewra, K. A. (2010). What makes a matrix so effective: An empirical test of the relative benefits of signaling, extraction, and localization. Journal of Instructional Science, 38, 679-705.
• Robinson, D., & Kiewra, K. A. (1995). Visual argument: Graphic organizers are superior to outlines in improving learning from text. Journal of Educational Psychology, 87, 455467.

Talent Development:

• Kiewra, K. A. (2019). Nurturing children’s talents: A guide for parents. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger
• Kiewra, K. A., Luo, L., & Flanigan, A. (2021). Educational psychology early career award winners: How did they do it? Educational Psychology Review, 33, 1981-2018.
• Luo, L., & Kiewra, K. A. (2021). Parents’ roles in talent development. Gifted Education International, 37, 30-40.
• Kiewra, K. A., & Rom, B. (2020). A glimpse inside the lives of the academically talented: What Merit Scholars and their parents reveal. High Ability Studies, 31, 245-264.
• Kiewra, K. A., & Witte, A. (2018). Prodigies of the prairie: The talent development stories of four elite Nebraska youth performers. Roeper Review, 40, 176-190.

“UPDATED:  TX SBOE Races — Who Intends To Fix Our Schools? 

By Donna Garner

Original article published on 1.12.22; updated on 1.17.22

All-Important Tex. SBOE Races: Who Are the Candidates?

***COMMENTS FROM DONNA GARNER: 

TO HELP YOU FIND YOUR CANDIDATES: REDISTRICTING MAPS FOR TEXAS – 12.10.21 — https://apps.texastribune.org/features/2021/texas-redistricting-map/

TO HELP YOU SEE WHAT YOUR MARCH 1, 2022 BALLOT WILL LOOK LIKE:  https://apps.texastribune.org/features/2022/texas-2022-election-ballot-primary/

========================

Below are my thoughts about the upcoming Texas State Board of Education races in the March 1, 2022 primary. Early voting in Texas starts on Feb. 14, 2022. 

 In my opinion, the Texas State Board of Education races are some of the most important on the ticket because of the almost 6 million Texas public school students whose lives can be irreparably damaged by the type of standards and curriculum the TSBOE adopts.

Please remember the Garner Golden Rule:  NEVER VOTE FOR A DEMOCRAT FOR ANY OFFICE IN OUR COUNTRY BECAUSE THEIR PARTY HAS BEEN STOLEN BY THE FAR LEFTISTS.

====================

What is happening in the Texas SBOE races?  Three very good incumbents have no primary nor general race [Ellis, Young, Maynard], but three very good Republicans are being challenged [Hickman, Hardy, Little].

The future of the Texas State Board of Education being conservative and working well together could depend upon the results of the three who have challengers.

The good news is that several new, strong conservatives have stepped up to run.

==================================

SBOE DISTRICT 1 (El Paso to San Antonio-lower West Texas):  Lani Popp (CORRECTION: Lani is not a retired educator as I reported incorrectly on 1.12.22 but is working as a Speech-Language Pathologist in an elementary school.)  Lani is a very strong conservative candidate.  Her district is quite large, but she almost won in 2020 when she was in the old 5^th District.  The other Repub against whom Lani is running is Michael “Travis” Stevens (adult education instructional coach).

The incumbent Dem Georgina Perez has decided not to seek re-election and has endorsed Melissa Ortega (a fellow Dem – no other information known about her).  Other Dems running are Omar Yanar (charter school leader) and Laura Marquez (Special Education advocate).

==============================

SBOE District 2 (Rio Grande Valley through the Coastal Bend):  LJ Francis (Corpus-Christi-based Jamaican-American running against CRT issues); Repub opponent Hilda Garza-Deshazo (former McAllen ISD trustee).

Present SBOE member and Dem incumbent Ruben Cortez has decided to run for the Texas House.  The Dem SBOE candidates are Michael Vargas (Teach for America alum, trustee on the San Benito CISD Board); Thomas Garcia (Teach for America alum, teacher); Victor Perez (former member of Pharr-San Juan-Alamo ISD Board; Pete Garcia (retired educator); and Wayne Raasch (retired educator).

=========================

SBOE DISTRICT 3 (San Antonio & South Texas) – The two Repub candidates are Lana Jean Holland (retired teacher and principal) and Ken Morrow (an insurance agent).

The Dem is SBOE incumbent Marisa Perez-Diaz who badly needs to be beaten to get her off the SBOE. She is a constant problem for those who are trying to put constructive, conservative practices into place in our state.

===============================

SBOE DISTRICT 4 (Houston) – Unfortunately, no Repubs filed to run in this district.

Lawrence Allen (Dem) who is presently on the SBOE has decided not to run.

Five Dems are running:  Theldon Branch (aviation business leader); Staci Childs (attorney who created GirlTalk University which is an organization only for Black girls — https://www.facebook.com/girltalkuniversity/.  Question: Is this where we want students to go to get advice on intimate subjects?); Coretta Mallet-Fontenot (teacher, former unsuccessful Houston ISD Board candidate); Larry McKinzie (teacher, former unsuccessful Houston ISD Board candidate); Marvin Johnson (math professor, K-12 and higher ed).

===========================

TEXAS SBOE DISTRICT 5 (Austin and surrounding counties)

Mark Loewe is a Republican (long-time education activist). Robert Morrow is a sexual pervert who barely lost in the previous SBOE race when it was a different district.  Please go to the Helpful Source section further on down the page to read about Robert Morrow’s sexual antics. 

Rebecca Bell-Metereau (a.k.a., RBM) is the incumbent on the SBOE who won against Lani Popp and Robert Morrow in 2020. RBM is another sexual pervert who loves to teach her students at Texas State University about the LGBTQ agenda. [Please see Helpful Sources at the bottom of the page.] The other Dems are Kevin Guico (Empower Schools, Teach for America alum); Juan Juarez (KIPP-Austin principal and Teach for America alum).

=================================

SBOE DISTRICT 6 (Houston’s western and northern suburbs):  Will Hickman is an outstanding Republican SBOE member who was elected in 2020. He is conservative and brilliant, having completed two bachelor’s degrees from Texas A&M University (Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Distribution) and later having received his lawyer’s degrees from University of Houston Law Center. He also has a B. A. in Spanish. He has worked for a major energy company as in-house counsel since 2004 and knows the Texas Education Code thoroughly. He helped to remove the politics of climate alarmism from the science TEKS in 2021 and encouraged the SBOE to reject three radical LGBTQ textbooks because they did not align with the SBOE’s new health education standards.

Will Hickman is running against Repub Mike Wolfe (former Harris Co. Dept. of Ed. trustee).

Mike Wolfe vs. Eric Dick – allegations and feud:

4.22.19 – “Michael Wolfe claims Eric Dick offered ‘drugs and women’ for vote in suit against HCDE” – by David Yates — Southeast Texas Record — https://setexasrecord.com/stories/512449078-michael-wolfe-claims-eric-dick-offered-drugs-and-women-for-vote-in-suit-against-hcde

4.17.19 –  “HCDE board censures Trustee Michael Wolfe after judge denies restraining order” — By Shelby Webb – Houston Chronicle — https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/HCDE-trustee-Wolfe-seeks-emergency-injunction-to-13774756.php

Michelle Palmer (teacher, unelected Dem nominee in 2020) is the lone Dem.

==========================

SBOE DISTRICT 7 (Southeast Texas): 

Matt Robinson (Repub) is on the SBOE now but has decided not to run again.

Four Repubs are running.  Julie Pickren (former Alvin ISD trustee running against CRT); Abolaji Tijani “Ayo” Ayobami (Nigerian-Amrican pastor); Michael Barton (police detective running against government schools); Danny Surman (social studies teacher/coach in Dickinson ISD).

ABOUT JULIE PICKREN: I have visited with both Julie Pickren and Michael Barton.  Both are good candidates, but I am recommending Julie Pickren because of her strong conservative values, her wide-ranging six years of experience on the Alvin ISD School Board, and her work behind the scenes to help Texas legislators to craft legislation to fight CRT. She is also strongly against the LGBTQ agenda. Julie, her husband, and two sons live in Manvel, Texas.  To see Pickren’s bio, please go to:  https://taketexasback.com/candidate/julie-pickren/

Michael Barton (Repub) seems to have a good heart and has an outstanding resume but probably does not know as much about education issues as Julie Pickren does.  Barton is a police detective with years of experience in national security (U. S. Senate, White House, and Pentagon).  He lives in Sugar Land with his wife and two children.

Daniel Hochman is the lone Dem (science professor).

=========================

SBOE DISTRICTS 8, 9, and 10: The good news is that all three Repub incumbents in all three of these districts (Audrey Young), (Kevin Ellis), and (Tom Maynard) are running unopposed.

=============================

SBOE DISTRICT 11 (Ft. Worth suburbs):  Because of Pat Hardy’s long track-record as a Republican leader on the Board, there should be no question about her getting elected. She is definitely one of the strong conservative leaders. She is running against Joshua Tarbay (P. E. teacher/former Weatherford ISD board member); Rebecca Garcia (no information known about her); and D. C. Caldwell (very frequent filer who has never won).

The Dems are Luis Miguel Sifuentes (Teach for America alum); James Whitfield (former Colleyville Heritage principal fired earlier this year because of CRT issues – recently dropped out of the SBOE race); D. C. Caldwell (very frequent filer who has never won).

*D. C. Caldwell has registered for both the Repub and Dem tickets. If he were to win in the primary, he would be automatically ineligible for the general election under Texas law.  

==================================

SBOE DISTRICT 12 (Collin County and Northeast Texas):  Pam Little is the Repub incumbent and is unopposed. She is reasonably conservative.

Alex Cornwallis (former unsuccessful Prosper ISD board candidate); and Roberto Velasco (Dallas ISD administrator and former principal) are the Dems.

===============================

SBOE DISTRICT 13 (Urban Dallas, Fort Worth, and Arlington): The four Repub candidates are Natalie Kohn (social media strategist), Ajua Mason (an anti-CRT activist); Kathryn Monette (no information known about her); and Denise Russell (unsuccessful GOP nominee in 2018). I feel sure most of these four would be far better than leftist Dem Aicha Davis who is presently on the SBOE.

The Dem incumbent leftist is Aicha Davis.

====================================

SBOE DISTRICT 14 (North-Central Texas Rural and some suburbs): Repub incumbent Sue Melton-Malone (Waco) is running for re-election. My problem with Sue is that she is not a conservative leader on the Board who is willing to fight for what is right.

Entering the primary contest is Evelyn Brooks who lives in Frisco.  Evelyn told me that she had been a Dem in the past, admitted having been misled by the Dem Party, but now is a strong conservative Republican who believes in all parents having the right to decide on their children’s educational environment. She believes Texas public schools need to follow the new laws passed by the last legislative session that will protect children from the CRT materials which have seeped into almost all content areas – not just into social studies.  She also pledges to remain vigilant against Social-Emotional-Learning (SEL) lessons that promote the CRT philosophy.  

The Dem nominee is Tracy Fisher (Coppell ISD trustee).

==============================

SBOE DISTRICT 15 (Panhandle, Plains, and Permian Basin): The Repub incumbent is Jay Johnson.  However, I am recommending Aaron Kinsey for this SBOE position. 

My problem with Jay Johnson is that he was totally unprepared to vote on the Health Education textbooks because he had not read the important information in those textbooks to verify exactly how the SBOE-adopted Health Ed standards were being covered (or not covered).

I also had real concerns when Jay Johnson voted to veto Heritage Classical Charter (Hillside College Barney school curriculum).  Instead, Jay voted to approve Essence Prep which has been in the news recently because of concerns over CRT ( https://www.texastribune.org/2022/01/06/critical-race-theory-charter-school/?utm_source=articleshare&utm_medium=social ).

The good news is that Aaron Kinsey is a great candidate for the SBOE. He is an Air Force veteran, graduated at the top of his class at Texas A&M University (accounting and finance degrees), was in the Corp of Cadets, flew 120 combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, attended Harvard Business School, returned to Midland, Texas where he established his own business which is the largest aerial patrol service in the Permian Basin area for over 70 oil companies.

Aaron and his wife have three young children, and he has committed to fight on the SBOE to keep parents in charge of their children’s lives and education – free from government interference and Critical Race Theory. 

 Aaron is a logical thinker, a proven conservative, a smart businessman, a finance/accounting guru, and is committed to spending the time necessary to serve on the SBOE.

11.23.21 – “Midland businessman makes bid for SBOE” by Odessa American — https://www.oaoa.com/local-news/midland-businessman-makes-bid-for-sboe/

======================================

HELPFUL SOURCES:

SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING / CRITICAL RACE THEORY / LGBTQ

12.31.21 — “The Year of Education: 7 Seismic Moments that Redefined the Issue in 2021” – Breccan F. Thies – Breitbart — /the-year-of-education-7-seismic-moments-that-redefined-the-issue-in-2021/

12.15.21 – “Districts Have ‘Unprecedented’ Funds to Teach CRT Via ‘Social and Emotional Learning’” – by Dr. Susan Berry – Breitbart — /districts-have-unprecedented-funds-to-teach-crt-via-social-and-emotional-learning/

=========================

LANI POPP PATRIOT – VS. SEXUAL PERVERT ROBERT MURROW 

9.28.21 — “ZuckBucks – Need To Add Hays and Travis Counties to 2020 Election Audit” – by Donna Garner – Edviews.org —  /zuckbucks-need-to-add-hays-and-travis-counties-to-2020-election-audit/

3.3.20 – “Robert Morrow, anti-Trump provocateur, clinches spot in state education GOP runoff” — By Julie Chang – Austin American-Statesman —
https://www.statesman.com/news/20200303/robert-morrow-anti-trump-provocateur-clinches-spot-in-state-education-gop-runoff

3.12.20 – “All Republicans on State Board of Education Endorse Against Robert Morrow in Runoff” – by Patrick Svitek – Bryan Eagle – https://www.theeagle.com/news/state-and-regional/all-republicans-on-state-board-of-education-endorse-against-robert/article_d2f6c31e-8c4a-5a6a-9d29-300bb8fb3f75.html

FAR LEFTIST DEM – REBECCA BELL-METEREAU PRESENTLY ON SBOE

9.12.20 — “Clear Choice for Tex. Voters:  True Patriot vs. Hard-Left Extremist for SBOE” — By Donna Garner – EdViews.org — /clear-choice-for-tex-voters-true-patriot-vs-hard-left-extremist-for-sboe/

The racialist essentialist monoclonal antibody guidelines being seen in multiple states appear to originate with the Biden administration.

Thanks, it appears, specifically to guidance from the Biden administration, rules prioritizing the medical treatment of non-white COVID patients over white COVID patients are “spreading” to more states than just New York and Texas.

Last week word emerged that the New York State Department of Health has issued new guidelines listing non-white “race” as a valid prerequisite risk factor for COVID patients seeking the use of monoclonal antibody treatments.

The ruling essentially means that all non-white COVID patients are automatically eligible for the treatment protocol. Their white counterparts, on the other hand, have to satisfy other prerequisites — being over 65, being unvaccinated, etc.

This means, in effect, that a healthy 16-year-old black boy will receive priority treatment over, say, a 64-year-old white man.

A similar policy was observed two months ago in Texas, where a white man under 65 recorded himself being denied monoclonal antibody treatments “because of my race.” The video showed a Texas hospital healthcare telling him point-blank that had he been black or Hispanic, the treatment wouldn’t have been denied.

It’s since been discovered that similar policies have been established in Utah and Minnesota.

Over in the Beehive State, guidelines published in September state that monoclonal antibody eligibility is to be determined through a point system where being non-white is worth two points, but suffering from shortness of breath, coronary artery disease, hypertension or a number of other conditions is worth only one.

And over in Minnesota, guidelines issued late last month directed healthcare workers to “consider heightened risk of progression to severe COVID-19 associated with race and ethnicity when determining eligibility for mAbs.”

In justifying this policy, the Minnesota Department of Health pointed to the guidance of the Biden Food and Drug Administration.

“The FDA has acknowledged that in addition to certain underlying health conditions, race and ethnicity ‘may also place individual patients at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19.’ FDA’s acknowledgment means that race and ethnicity alone, apart from other underlying health conditions, may be considered in determining eligibility for mAbs,” the guidelines state.

This shout-out to the Biden administration appears to be no coincidence.

Fox News suggests that the racial essentialist framework being adopted by states left and right may originate with a monoclonal antibody guidance fact sheet published by the FDA for healthcare providers nationwide.

In listing the risk factors to be considered, the fact sheet does, to the FDA’s credit, focus primarily on traditional factors such as age, pregnancy, heart condition, etc. However, it also explicitly states that “[o]ther medical conditions of actors (for example, race or ethnicity) may also place individual patients at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19.”

Fox News notes that the guidance sheet was last updated in December. It’s not clear when the guidance sheet was originally published, though the document itself does appear to show revisions dating as far back as September.

As disturbing as these findings certainly are, they’re not surprising. Since day one, the Biden administration has been clear in its support for racial essentialist policies that favor certain races (primarily blacks and Hispanics) over all other races (primarily whites, though Asians at times too).

It all stems with this Democrat administration’s fixation on “equity,” an arguably Marxist concept that calls for equal outcomes, not equal opportunities. This fixation has, unfortunately, spread from the federal government down to state and even city governments.

In New York City, for instance, last month the Taskforce on Racial Inclusion & Equity “prioritized the distribution of COVID-19 testing kits” by establishing 13 testing sites on “Staten Island’s racially diverse North Shore” but none on “the mostly white South Shore,” as reported by the New York Post.

The idea was basically that because more black people have died from COVID, testing opportunities should be denied to whites to even things out.

Writing for the Post, commentator Betsy McCaughey noted quite bluntly that “[i]f you’re the wrong race, the push for health-care ‘equity’ could kill you.”

She was not wrong.

In fact, early last year the Biden administration considered even doling out vaccines by race. Below is a tweet from Sen. Ed Markey, a Democrat, encouraging this very plan by citing “equity”:

So-called “public health experts” also backed the plan.

“Having a racial preference for a Covid-19 vaccine is not only ethically permissible, but I think it’s an ethical imperative,” Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University, told Stat News at the time.

“The reason is both because of historic structural racism that’s resulted in grossly unequal health outcomes for all kinds of diseases, and because Covid-19 has so disproportionately impacted the lives of people of color.”

The only reason the Biden administration rejected the idea was because of furious backlash. It’ll likely take the same level of backlash to stop the administration from encouraging states to prioritize monoclonal antibodies by race as well.

Source: Whites to the rear? Biden admin guidance says ‘race or ethnicity’ a factor in prioritizing COVID treatment

Table of Contents:

• How to Launch a WordPress Site?
• How to Choose the Best WordPress Hosting Website?
• Conclusion

Web hosting is one of the most important aspects of any successful website, but it is sometimes underestimated. Choosing the best WordPress hosting for your requirements can help you enhance your SEO and boost your sales. 

WordPress hosting comes in many different flavours, including free, shared, VPS, Dedicated, and Managed WordPress hosting. We’ll walk you through the process of selecting the best cheap WordPress hosting for your website in this guide.

WPBeginner is the most popular free WordPress resource site, with millions of monthly page views. We know how important it is to choose the finest WordPress hosting provider.

We’ve also done a side-by-side comparison of the top WordPress hosting companies, including performance tests, uptime tests, and reliability tests, to assist you to make the best choice.

How to Launch a WordPress Site?

Websites are increasingly becoming a requirement for any business, institution, or even personal initiative. WordPress has become one of the most popular systems for creating a website. However, not everyone is familiar with how to set up a WordPress website. Don’t worry, this guide will walk you through the process step-by-step.

How to Choose the Best WordPress Hosting Website?

So, how do you get a WordPress site up and running? It isn’t quite as difficult as you may believe. After all, WordPress is a content management system designed to help users get their first website up and running. By noon, you’ll have a site up and operating if you follow our instructions.

If you’ve never done anything like this before, setting up your own WordPress website can seem difficult. Fortunately, one of the best aspects of utilising WordPress is that it is so simple and intuitive that almost anyone can do it!

While the technical aspects of putting up a WordPress website aren’t very tough, deciding what to put on your site and how to make it work for you might be.

1. Identify the primary content

Knowing what kind of website you want to build is the first and most significant step before launching a WordPress site. It could be a blog, an eCommerce site, a corporate profile, or something else entirely.

If you’re constructing a website for personal use, decide on a theme for your site. To put it another way, choose a niche for your content.

It could be anything from photography to travel to food. Choose something that interests you so that content creation does not become a chore in the long term.

After you’ve decided on a niche, you’ll need to consider what your website’s ultimate purpose is. Do you intend to make money from it, or is it simply for fun? Make sure to stick to your goals, no matter what they are.

You should also choose your target audience: who will profit from your work? Your content’s format, style, and tone will be affected by this.

2. Decide on a domain name

Making a decision on a domain name is another vital step to consider. This is due to the fact that a domain name will represent your entire brand. As a result, it must be well-considered.

What are the similarities between Wikipedia, YouTube, and Netflix? A brief, unique name that is simple to spell and remember.

What are the similarities between Wikipedia, YouTube, and Netflix? A short and distinct name that is simple to remember and spell. That is the proper format for a domain name. You don’t want visitors to be turned off by a difficult-to-remember or spell name.

You can utilize domain name generators to assist you with this operation.

3. Select a Web Hosting Provider

The next step is to locate a dependable web host for your website. We provide industry-leading servers and infrastructure at HostPapa. We offer multilingual customer service by chat, email, and phone, as well as an extensive knowledge base and video tutorials. What’s the difference between a shared and a dedicated server? In the vast majority of circumstances, shared web hosting would suffice, and it is highly popular among WordPress users.

4. WordPress should be installed

To avoid stating the obvious, once you’ve chosen a web server and a domain name, it’s time to install WordPress and get started. Installing WordPress on HostPapa is super simple and takes only a few minutes thanks to our Softaculous script installer.

5. Pick a theme for your WordPress site

The next step is to choose a design theme for your WordPress site. There are thousands upon thousands of themes to choose from, with prices ranging from free to hundreds of dollars. When choosing a theme, make sure it makes sense for your site’s theme as well as the layout and material you intend to post.

6. Make your material public. Rinse. Repeat.

It’s time to start adding intriguing material when you’ve finished publishing the main administrative pages. Whatever your subject, you’ll want to make sure your viewers have lots of high-quality content. 

Make your pages visually appealing, and make it a goal to update them on a regular basis. If you’re blogging, make sure each post has at least one image. This not only gives your viewers something to pin on Pinterest, but it also improves the appeal of your material.

Creating a content calendar will help you stay on track, whether you decide to create content daily, weekly, or monthly.

7. Don’t forget to market your business.

It’s a two-pronged approach to promoting your new website. First, there’s SEO (search engine optimization): make sure your pages’ titles, descriptions, and body text contain relevant keywords. Second, put in the effort to advertise your website in any manner you can. 

Use of social networking sites, forums, and sending out a regular newsletter are all free choices. To increase your social connections and link popularity, consider guest blogging and commenting on blogs, forums, and communities.

8. Make a backup of your website

Your most significant asset is your material, so make sure you back it up! For your blog, this means backing up your content so you don’t have to start over in the event of a crash. It could take a long time to get back on your feet if you don’t back up your posts, plugins, and affiliate links. 

If you don’t have time to back up your site on a regular basis, your web provider should provide an alternative. For example, HostPapa offers a fantastic automated website backup service that takes only a few minutes to set up — you’ll never have to worry about backing up your site again!

Conclusion 

You’ve learned how to set up a WordPress site. It’s not difficult, but you’ll need to think about it a lot when preparing it because there are so many things to consider. We hope this guide will assist you in the process. Let’s go over the steps again:

• Identify the content of the site, choose a speciality, and define your aims and target audience.
• Decide on a domain name. Think about something short, simple, and memorable.
• Choosing a web host company provides web hosting at a low cost.
• WordPress may be installed with just a few clicks through the hosting control panel.
• With WordPress themes, you may pick a theme and customize it to your heart’s content.
• WordPress plugins can be used to extend the functionality of your website.
• Finally, you may start your online adventure by launching your WordPress website.

The initial 24 hours after LASIK are significant for the recuperating system. During this time, you should relax and not strain your eyes. Attempt to avoid sitting in front of the TV, taking a gander at your telephone or tablet, playing computer games, or perusing for at least the principal day.

You can almost certainly continue most ordinary exercises 24 hours after a LASIK medical procedure (read here: https://visualaidscentre.com/lasik-eye-surgery-in-delhi/), albeit the FDA clarifies that you might need to go home for the times of work to permit the transitory visual unsettling influences and inconvenience to die down.

You might have to limit a tad after a LASIK strategy. Few factors can impact the amount of time it will require for your eyes to recuperate enough for TV. Your eyes can become stressed and dry assuming that you continue screen time too early and various techniques might require a more extended recuperating time.

Table of Contents:

• What Are The Consequences Of Watching A Screen After Lasik?
• What Do Digital Devices Mean for Your Eyes?
• What Are The Factors To Limit After Lasik?
• What Are The Other Precautions For Lasik Eye Surgery?
• What To Note For Different Screens Post Lasik?

What Are The Consequences Of Watching A Screen After Lasik?

There is a 24-hour no-screen time proposal in the wake of going through a LASIK medical procedure. That is because the TV and other comparable screens (PCs, telephones, and tablets) might potentially adversely affect your recuperation interaction promptly following a medical procedure.

For instance, seeing screens diminishes your squint rate, which thus can prompt dry eyes. Keeping your eyes greased up is a vital component of recuperating from LASIK. Dry eyes and LASIK medical procedures regularly go connected at the hip during the recuperation cycle. So it’s doubly critical to restrict the conceivably adverse consequences of screen time on eye wellbeing. It is necessary particularly in the initial 24 hours after a medical procedure.

While we comprehend that you feel exhausted and presumably stuck at home after the medical procedure, it truly is imperative to follow this suggestion. If you’re thinking about what to do after LASIK, consider downloading a couple of digital broadcast scenes. You can download a book recording when you’re planning for your medical procedure. Then again, you can get up to speed with all that rest you lost while fantasizing regarding what life will resemble without glasses or contacts.

What Do Digital Devices Mean For Your Eyes?

You’ve effectively heard that a lot of screen time can cause eye strain. Delayed utilization of numerous normal gadgets including PCs, tablets, and cell phones can cause impermanent vision issues. A few awkward manifestations are related to computerized eye strain, including dryness and disturbance.

There are a couple of motivations behind why advanced screens contrarily sway your eyes. At the point when you’re checking out a screen, you will generally flicker undeniably less oftentimes. Screens additionally include variable components like differentiation, gleam, and glare that make your eyes tired. Moreover, there is a connection between eye exhaustion and the blue light that a few gadgets transmit.

What Are The Factors To Limit After Lasik?

You should make zero in on a couple of focuses to limit the specific dangers of Lasik. Along these lines, Visual Aids Center encourages the accompanying to have a fruitful result of the interaction.

You should pick your eye specialist (check here: https://visualaidscentre.com/service/eyes-specialist-delhi/) cautiously. We have a gathering of specialists who have extended lengths of contribution.

Make a point to talk about each part of the medical procedure with your specialist. Additionally, make sure that you are a decent possibility for the system. Consequently, at Visual Aids Center, our primary care physicians explain each detail before recommending the medical procedure.

You should get the pre-usable report containing subtleties of vision and readings before the medical procedure.

At last, the most effective way to limit the danger is by taking part in ordinary subsequent meet-ups with your eye specialist.

What Are The Other Precautions For Lasik Eye Surgery?

LASIK has a quick recuperation time, and numerous patients are once again working and continuing with the majority of their everyday life. They schedule a little while for medical procedures. In the initial 24 hours after LASIK, it’s vital to give your eyes time to recuperate.

For the initial few hours, you’ll need to rest your eyes; keep them shut and stay in a dim spot if possible. To forestall contamination you ought to keep away from anything getting at you, so avoid dusty places and don’t rub your eyes. You’ll have to wear eye watches when you hit the hay around evening time, and you shouldn’t wear eye cosmetics or get water in your eyes (choose a shower rather than a shower.) You’ll need to apply anti-toxin eye drops and counterfeit tears. During this time you shouldn’t do anything difficult for your eyes. So screen time ought to stay away from.

After following 24 hours, you will have an examination from your specialist, and almost certainly, you’ll have the option to continue a large number of your typical regular exercises, including perusing and staring at the TV. It’s great to know about the impacts that screen time can have on our eyes, in any case, and go to lengths to alleviate these.

What To Note For Different Screens Post Lasik?

When utilizing a PC, tablet, cell phone, or playing computer games, you might encounter more eye fatigue than ordinary, as you don’t squint as much when zeroing in on the screen as you typically would. This can affect your eyes by making them dry.

For the primary little while after LASIK, keep your eye drops helpful and apply generously when before the PC. Attempt to utilize the 20-20-20 standard too. At regular intervals you spend checking out a PC, enjoy some time off to zero in on something no less than 20 feet away. Apply eye drops now as well. This can allow your eyes an opportunity to rest a piece before getting back to the screen.

As a rule, the American Refractive Surgery Council clarifies that you can for the most part return to typical movement around 24 hours after a LASIK strategy. However, you might need to limit it just a tad longer.

“Texas Candidates Bought by George Soros, Including District Attorneys”

By Donna Garner

12.23.21

I always thought it was strange that George Soros would put campaign money into the coffers of local district attorneys. I knew he poured big money into high-profile, national and state leftists’ pockets such as those running for President, Congress, and Governor.

I also have known for a long time about Soros’ intent to destroy America, throw out the Constitution, deny the Declaration of Independence, push Critical Race Theory/LGBTQ, support Black Lives Matter/Antifa, and defund the police.

However, I had never considered that Soros could completely turn a Red state such as Texas into a Blue state by emasculating the power of our conservative Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and our Texas Supreme Court justices. 

Soros appears to have done all of this by funding the campaigns of elected district attorneys and possibly by “buying” members of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The reality is that if Texas goes Blue, then Texas and also the Presidency will be lost for many years to come.

On 12.20.21, the little-known Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) ruled that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton must get permission FIRST from LOCAL DISTRICT ATTORNEYS BEFORE BEING ABLE TO PROSECUTE CASES OF VOTER FRAUD.  

The TCCA has a very tight relationship with district attorneys.  The public, the TAG, and most lawyers in Texas do not even know the judges on the TCCA nor the powers they wield.  

This new ruling from the TCCA has ignored what has been settled law in Texas for 70 years (that the TAG has authority to prosecute voter fraud).

TAG Paxton is trying to figure out how to appeal the TCCA’s ruling and put it back in the hands of the Texas Supreme Court.  If the TCCA ruling is left in place, it will be very hard statewide for any Republicans to win in November 2022. The end result would be disaster for Texas and also for the Presidency.  

GEORGE SOROS’ POWER

As explained by Discover the Networks (https://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individuals/george-soros#resources), George Soros was behind the passage of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill in 2002.  This set up a network of “527 committees.”

Prior to this, soft money could be given to individual donors; big labor unions normally gave theirs to the Democrat Party.  After McCain-Feingold, the soft money was diverted to an alternative network of beneficiaries which George Soros personally controlled himself.  (Please see the Discover the Networks link.) 

Then came the 2016 election cycle in which Soros spent almost $11 Million on 12 district attorneys’ races. Ten of the twelve won; and one of them was Democrat Kim Ogg of Houston, Texas.  Soros/Ogg supported leniency for marijuana possession and making it easier for defendants to get out of jail on bond.  Kim Ogg is still the Harris County DA (term: 2018 – Dec. 31, 2024).

Under Soros’ control came the funding of Black Lives Matter; and during the 2020 election cycle, Soros donated $52 Million to Democrat political action committees and leftist candidates, including district attorneys. 

In 2018, Soros funded Democrat John Creuzot in Dallas by giving him $236,000. Creuzot wanted to end “mass incarceration.”  This led to a 15% increase in violent crime and a 27.5% increase in homicide. He dropped 20% of felony cases. Creozot is still the DA in Dallas County (term:  2019 – Dec. 31, 2022). 

Also in 2018, Soros funded Democrat Joe Gonzales (Bexar County, San Antonio, TX) by giving him $958,000.  Under Gonzales, felony guilty verdicts decreased 13%, and he dropped 11% of the felony cases. Joe Gonzales is still the DA in Bexar County (term: 2019 – Dec. 31, 2022).

We all know that the above district attorneys would never give their permission for TAG Paxton to investigate election fraud; and, unfortunately, many of the district attorneys of the big population/voting centers in Texas are either Dems or fake Republicans!

As I stated in my 12.22.21 article “Disastrous Ruling in Texas by Little-Known Court Would Turn Texas Red” —  /disastrous-ruling-in-texas-by-little-known-court-would-turn-texas-blue/: 

WARNING FOR VOTERS: 

“Bad elections have bad consequences.”  We have to make sure that people who say they are Republicans are authentic conservatives BEFORE we cast our votes for them.

We must get involved right now in locating and supporting conservative candidates up and down the ballot.

We as voters must not vote for any Democrat because their party has been completely taken over by the leftists.

We also need to pray for TAG Paxton and his team as they try to figure out a way to defeat this Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruling and the Dems/Soros cabal.

================

SOURCES

12.22.21 — “Disastrous Ruling in Texas by Little-Known Court Would Turn Texas Blue” — From Donna Garner – EdViews.org – /disastrous-ruling-in-texas-by-little-known-court-would-turn-texas-blue/

“George Soros — 343 Known Connections – 129 Individuals – 214 Organizations” – from Discover the Networks, David Horowitz Freedom Center  — https://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individuals/george-soros#resources

9.30.21 – “The Plot to Destroy America” — By Jonathan Emond – Townhall.com — https://townhall.com/columnists/jonathanemord/2021/09/30/the-plot-to-destroy-america-n2596685

6.15.21 – “George Soros Bought District Attorneys Across the Nation” – by Texans Jack & Dodie – Clever Journeys — https://cleverjourneys.com/2021/06/15/george-soros-bought-district-attorneys-across-the-nation/

2.24.21 – “Soros-Funded District Attorneys Linked to Increases in Violent Crime” – by John Byrne – Capital Research — https://capitalresearch.org/article/soros-funded-district-attorneys-linked-to-increases-in-violent-crime/

2.14.21 – “Soros Spending Big Money Against Texas DA Who Opposes Sanctuary Cities” — By Peter Hasson – Daily Caller — https://dailycaller.com/2018/02/14/george-soros-district-attorney-sanctuary-cities/

3.14.18 –  “Why is George Soros Buying District Attorneys?” – AMAC – https://amac.us/why-is-george-soros-buying-district-attorneys/

5.18.17 – “George Soros Still Quietly Buying District Attorneys’ Seats” – by Peter Hasson – The Daily Caller — https://dailycaller.com/2017/05/18/george-soros-still-quietly-buying-district-attorneys-seats/

2.6.17 – “List of shame: Here are the Republicans who took Soros funding” – World Tribune — https://www.worldtribune.com/list-of-shame-here-are-the-republicans-who-took-soros-funding/

12.16.21 – Western Journal

“Dr. Peter McCullough, Top Cardiologist: Game-Changing Study Shows COVID Vaccines Are More Dangerous Than Virus Itself”

By Mike Landry

Excerpts from this article:

https://www.westernjournal.com/top-cardiologist-game-changing-study-shows-covid-vaccines-dangerous-virus/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=newsletter-WJ&utm_campaign=dailyam&utm_content=western-journal&ats_es=%5B-MD5-%5D

As many as 45,000 people may have died from the mRNA shots being given to halt COVID, according to prominent physician Dr. Peter McCullough.

And teenagers — especially boys — are more at risk from being hospitalized from the vaccine than they are for COVID, he said. The culprit is myocarditis, inflammation of the heart.

McCullough should know. He wrote the book on cardiology. Literally.

Published more than 650 times in medical journals, editor of a cardiology journal, author of a cardiology textbook, as well as being an internist and qualified in public health, McCullough is critical of government response to the COVID pandemic.

McCullough’s background has included serving on review teams for new vaccines, so he was surprised at what happened in early 2021 when the COVID vaccines were rolled out.

“I chaired data safety monitoring boards … a couple dozen times — I know what I’m talking about,” McCullough said.

“I’ve shut down, with my committees, big pharma programs … I mean, huge pharma programs.”

But things were handled very differently for the COVID vaccines, and McCullough called FDA actions “reprehensible and reckless.”

Under normal circumstances, when officials learned on January 22 of this year [2021] that there had already been 182 deaths following 278 million shots, the vaccine program would have been halted, McCulloch said recently on the DarkHorse podcast of scientist Bret Weinstein.

“Our [COVID] vaccine program would have been shut down in February for excess mortality in America,” he said.

McCullough said the shutdown should have been similar to the 1976 suspension of nationwide voluntary vaccination for the swine flu following only three deaths and 94 cases of paralysis due to those shots.

He said there are major risks with the COVID shots, especially for old people.

“We now know it’s the seniors who die with the vaccine … 50 percent of these deaths occur within 48 hours, 80 percent within a week,” he said.

“There’s nursing home studies from Europe and Scandinavia. They show — when they actually review the charts there in the seniors — at least 40 percent, the doctors have concluded, are directly due to the vaccines.”

McCullough said patients suffered “severe reactions, fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, blood pressure dropping and then death within a day or two, whether it’s basically a cardiopulmonary collapse due to overwhelming production of the spike protein or a thromboembolic or bleeding death a few weeks later.

“But they are clearly biologically related to the vaccines,” he said.

There’s also risk to young people, according to McCullough, noting that some obituaries for young adults are listing vaccination as the cause of death.

Then there are the side effects. Even the Food and Drug Administration agrees there is a link between myocarditis and the shots. “It was in younger children — it was serious! Ninety percent required hospitalization,” McCullough said…

The FDA and CDC recognized 200 myocarditis cases in June, but the total has since jumped to 11,000 certified cases in the VAERS [Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System] system, the U.S. database which tracks vaccine-related deaths and injuries.

The myocarditis cases affect boys more than girls and “the real rate of myocarditis is at least 50 percent greater than what the [Centers for Disease Control] ever projected,” McCullough said, adding that children age 12 to 17 are more likely to be hospitalized for myocarditis than for COVID.

When Weinstein noted the vaccine mandates, the bullying, the stigmatizing of the unvaccinated, the demise of civil liberties and general ignorance of myocarditis, McCullough responded that, in general, people are willing to do what it takes to stop COVID.

“But people aren’t willing to sacrifice their life for this.

“And that’s what they’re being asked for; they’re being asked to … take a vaccine, and even though it’s rare, you could lose your life and then people are saying, ‘Well, how rare is rare?’ and I can just tell you, the mortality rate by all expert analyses is unacceptably high.

“We’re at 18,000 people in the CDC U.S. VAERS; about half of those are domestic — Americans — that have died with the vaccine.

“There is very good work done with the CMS [Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services] data suggesting the underreporting factor on this is about five, so if you take 9,000 times 5, we currently are at some number that is, you know, 45,000 – 50,000 [American deaths]. And that’s conservative. It could be greater than that.”

People are becoming aware of what’s going on, according to McCullough. “People are walking away from their jobs because they know they could die with the vaccine.

“Once the word got out that people could die after the vaccine — in fact, deaths were occurring in large numbers — that was by mid-April … Rates of vaccination plummeted in mid-April. They absolutely plummeted.

“The word got out. It doesn’t matter what was on Twitter or on major media, people were talking to one another — everyone knew.

Yet, despite ongoing media and political alarmism, the COVID crisis is over, McCulloch said.

That’s because 80 percent of children in the U.S. already have had COVID.  And they and everyone else who has had COVID are protected by natural immunity.

“And now the CDC in the last week has acknowledged that they don’t have a single case of someone who has recovered from COVID getting it a second time and passing to anyone.

“So it’s basically over with.”

McCullough cited a preprint study posted in September at clinicalnews.org, that, while not yet peer-reviewed, supported his observations regarding vaccinated teens. It noted “a 4-fold increased risk of postvaccination myocarditis in those who had previously been infected” with COVID.

The report said it had been assumed that risks of COVID would outweigh risks of vaccination in 16- to 17-year-old boys, but the study found just the opposite. The report “predicted excess cases of vaccine-associated myocarditis/pericarditis would exceed COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths under the ‘worst case scenario.’”

Also, risks of myocarditis weighed heavily on males, with boys aged 12-15 having myocarditis rates of 162.2 per million compared to 13 cases per million for girls aged 12-15. Boys aged 16-17 had 94 cases per million compared to 13.4 cases per million for girls of that age, the clinicalnews.org study said.