BC EDUCATION
Saved by @SteveeRogerr

Given @GavinWilliamson failure to apologise this week for 'last-minute' decisions on schools policy during the pandemic, we thought it might be useful to put to together one handy thread of every U-turn from the @educationgovuk since April last

 Free school meals will come up a lot in this thread, but here is the first governmental U-turn before the Easter Holidays. (2/43) #FSM
https://t.co/Tw7gldA8jl
.@educationgovuk then decided not to fund #FSM in the following half-term break, they changed their minds after a public outcry. (3/43)
https://t.co/zvpY6CCQOW
Taking a break from #FSM, we head straight into the #Alevels2020 exams debacle, with Scotland’s grade U-turn putting pressure on the @educationgovuk (4/43) https://t.co/mOQdT6YsCh
Ministers in Westminster were determined not to U-turn (5/43)
https://t.co/u5iUJwyZWT
BUT... they inevitably did. @heymrshallahan had some questions (6/43)
https://t.co/3wNbkpXLKw
Here is a full rundown of how the summer A-level and GCSE fiasco happened by @CathImogenLough (7/43)
https://t.co/rD7s2ZMhyX
Unsurprisingly @ASCL_UK and @RealGeoffBarton called for an inquiry into the fiasco (8/43)
https://t.co/CBwliVehWQ
During the exams fiasco, @gavinwilliamson fended off calls for his resignation (9/43)
https://t.co/DQ3GtaYsXX
Experts gave five reasons why the crisis around exams last year was avoidable (10/43)
https://t.co/aNTvMbXTam
Now during this crisis, there was growing concern that school staff would be sent back in to teach without adequate protection from the Coronavirus. They were told that they didn’t need to have facemasks…….
until they did… (11/43)
https://t.co/Zc1yzw1LqJ
While this decision was welcomed, its late notice was a burden on headteachers who had to implement it with not much notice (12/43)
https://t.co/8GzMUC7C15
Let’s not forget the continuing saga around #FSM. Enter @MarcusRashford, who got the government to U-turn again (13/43)
https://t.co/AISq2HbrOA
Now let’s jump to before Christmas. Owing to rising infection rates, Greenwich advised their schools to shut before the end of term – several councils later advised the same. (14/43)
https://t.co/zt5PKT06Xr
But @educationgovuk threatened these schools with legal action, resulting in schools re-opening doors for the last few days of term. (15/43)
https://t.co/F0msj2r7HL
The General Secretary of @ASCL, @RealGeoffBarton, accused the @educationgovuk of using "bully boy tactics" to stick to a "robotic mantra to keep schools open whatever the cost" but added "the costs could be incredibly high." (16/43)
https://t.co/YOPeRqFzPj
On 16 December, our reporters @tweetsbyames and @JohnGRoberts started to hear that there could be a delayed return in Janurary after all. (17/43)
https://t.co/z5AGSjhn1c
There was also a whole outcry and U-turn over having school staff carry out Covid tests around the same time… (18/43)
https://t.co/NrFTWrHeVC
Then a Tes scoop revealed that most secondary school pupils would be learning online in the first week back next year, with only exam groups back in person. . .
This announcement came in the same week @educationgovuk took legal action to stop some London schools moving online (19/43)
https://t.co/66wpriA4Pk
In order to get the @educationgovuk testing in place for January, @MattHancock wanted headteachers to work over Christmas to make sure it was ready. (20/43)
https://t.co/u2pRzhiWFb
We revealed the government’s plans of school reopening after mounting pressure for a delayed start owing to Covid infection rates rising countrywide. (21/43)
https://t.co/yeYDz0KRcy
Some primary schools were to remain shut, raising questions over why some councils were chosen above others (22/43)
https://t.co/boQDtUPyFW
School leaders started to demand @educationgovuk’s reasoning around certain primaries being closed and not others (23/43)
https://t.co/Rx6lzCntc1
U-turn incoming! All primary schools in London were closed….raising questions over why some in other Tier 4 areas across England were still scheduled to open (24/43)
https://t.co/aczChktDlk
However, the government insists the U-turn wasn’t about safety concerns… (25/43)
https://t.co/xvmncmls6A
The unions then got involved, forming an alliance to protest @gavinwilliamson’s plan @NEUnion @NASUWT @NAHTnews @unisontheunion @GMB_union & @unitetheunion (26/43)
https://t.co/zLEc4W4rxo
The government then (you guessed it) U-turned, after sending school staff in to teach for one day. It also announced a volte face on exams - cancelling summer GCSE and A-level exams for a second year in a row (27/43)
https://t.co/o3IclFkKM5
January BTEC exams were required to keep going despite concerns about risks to students (28/43)
https://t.co/ouUBAPNbre
Even top Conservative’s said the government’s handling of school policy was a shambles (29/43)
https://t.co/eFr7kh4R1x
Turns out the @educationgovuk was in the dark by the PM’s exam announcement (30/43)
https://t.co/JyiTdhIwB0
Then decision to allow colleges and schools to decide where or not to run their January BTEC exams led to confusion (31/43)
https://t.co/Em0zr2YAwQ
Heads unions ask why a plan B for GCSE’s isn’t ready yet? (32/43) https://t.co/DZtsb8bS1u
From the beginning there has been a mad scramble to get laptops to all students in need, this process has not gone well (33/43)
https://t.co/0SpQIU6VDk
Now unions warn the lack of laptop previsions could undermine the lockdown effort to control the surging spread of coronavirus (34/43)
https://t.co/XzIXPcECt9
.@gavinwilliamson speaking at the commons has said that the DfE has learned lessons from previous problems with exams, remote learning and FSM…….. (36/43)
https://t.co/NUlUrdsoW4
However, some say that the DfE forgot about January Btec exams, leaving individual colleges scrambling to work out how to proceed safely - 60% of colleges cancelled their January exams (37/43)
https://t.co/MSFPT6fRyK
Just in case school staff thought stress levels couldn’t increase, we revealed that @Ofsted planned to send inspectors to schools (38/43)
https://t.co/Olf8zu8iER
We then revealed covid rates among school staff in some areas are as much as four times the corresponding local authority average - calling into question repeated assurances from government that school staff are not at greater risk (39/43)
https://t.co/g7XuEVmc56
The DfE strangely remains silent on phonics plans following cancellation of primary assessments in 2020-21 academic year (40/43)
https://t.co/dEuGY5GNBn
Then thousands of supply teachers are at risk of being “thrown to the wolves” with a sudden loss of earnings due to partial school closures (41/43)
https://t.co/EyfGf6uAIm
Next U-turn drum-roll: Ofsted announces it won’t go into schools until half term after all (42/43)
https://t.co/lxD303eZOE
If you have made it to the bottom of this thread, firstly well done you, secondly let us know if you think we have missed anything (43/43ish)

More from Education

Gail Simone
Gail Simone
@GailSimone
You know what I don’t miss? Parent teacher conferences.

Most of Rocketkid’s teachers were lovely, but we had two that still stick out in my mind as sad/hilarious.

The first one, he was in elementary school. The teacher said it was ‘important’ for us to come in.

1/

So we worried about that for two days until the meeting. What could be wrong? It’s scary for parents to be left hanging like that.

So we meet his teacher, goatee and sunglasses...we live in the boonies and yet there’s something here like he’s trying to be a player.

2/

Not like a lady-player, like he’s got an image of himself in his head. We like teachers, but this guy’s manner is just weirdly kind of pushy a little bit.

Anyway, we sit does in the kid chairs, he’s behind his desk, again, weirdly focused on ‘power,’ somehow.

No idea why,

3/

We ask about our son, he acts as if he forgot that’s why we’re there, says some random stuff, all normal, nothing at all worthy of a conference. I mean, contact and communication is important, but thus just feels off-the cuff entirely.

4/

So then suddenly he gets really intense, but pretends being casual. Like it just occurred to him.

And he says to me, ‘So, I hear you’re a writer.’

What?

I tell him yes, I write comics and some animation and stuff.

He says. ‘I looked you up.’

5/
EDUCATION
Ovcharka
Ovcharka
@ouroboros_outis
OK I am going to be tackling this as surveillance/open source intel gathering exercise, because that is my background. I blew away 3 years of my life doing site acquisition/reconnaissance for a certain industry that shall remain unnamed and believe there is significant carryover.


This is NOT going to be zillow "here is how to google school districts and find walmart" we are not concerned with this malarkey, we are homeschooling and planting victory gardens and having gigantic happy families.

With that said, for my frog and frog-adjacent bros and sisters:

CHOICE SITES:

Zillow is obvious one, but there are many good sites like Billy Land, Classic Country Land, Landwatch, etc. and many of these specialize in owner financing (more on that later.) Do NOT treat these as authoritative sources - trust plat maps and parcel viewers.

TARGET IDENTIFICATION AND EVALUATION:

Okay, everyone knows how to google "raw land in x state" but there are other resources out there, including state Departments of Natural Resources, foreclosure auctions, etc. Finding the land you like is the easy part. Let's do a case study.

I'm going to target using an "off-grid but not" algorithm. This is a good piece in my book - middle of nowhere but still trekkable to civilization.

Note: visible power, power/fiber pedestal, utility corridor, nearby commercial enterprise(s), and utility pole shadows visible.
EDUCATION
Advertisement
Ifeanyi Okpala
Ifeanyi Okpala
@Okpala_IU
Saturday Morning Graduate School Admissions/Funding Breakfast

• 1297 USA Scholarships
• 5 Hot Tips for current B.S, Master/PhD applicants
• Admission and FULL Funding Info to Sweden🇸🇪, Australia🇦🇺, France🇫🇷, Germany🇩🇪 and China🇹🇷
• 6 IGTV Videos

Follow @Okpala_IU

A Thread

Are you working hard to study full time (Bachelor, MS, MBA, PhD) in the United States of America🇺🇸?

Here are 1297 verified Scholarships for year 2021

Search here: https://t.co/3AHhW7RUfK

Follow @Okpala_IU for more

Watch other videos on IGTV:

5 Hot Tips for current Bachelor, Master/PhD applicants

1. Standardized Tests (TOEFL, GRE, GMAT)

Yes, the school may have waived it for admissions but providing it definitely increasing your chances of getting funded. If it strengthens your overall profile, that is excellent.

2. Do not trivialize Letters of Recommendations

Remember that your application packet (all supporting documents) is what is being looked at while you are being considered for admission and funding. A lot of schools read LoRs very carefully so ensure you get strong letters.

Read my notes on LoRs:
EDUCATION
Michael Adebayo \U0001f1f3\U0001f1ec\U0001f1eb\U0001f1f7
Michael Adebayo 🇳🇬🇫🇷...
@MichAdebayo
As you may know, asides sharing graduate school opportunities, I like to share practical insights and directional content that will give you a sense of what you are missing or not missing.

Serving you below:

HOW TO LEVERAGE "OPO" for grad school applications 👇

- A THREAD

2) OPO is an initialism coined from "Other People's Opportunities". This means you will be leveraging opportunities specific to others to your advantage. After this thread, you will stop asking:

"Can you share scholarships for Atmospheric Social Law"? 😂

(you get the drift).

3) PROCESS:

A) Once someone shares an opportunity. Say @olumuyiwaayo, @Jamaticulus or @AaronAkpuPhilip or myself shares an opportunity on our timeline, the first thing to do is to locate the name of the university and the country it is located.

4) (B) Type the name of the institution on Google and locate the website of your department. Often times, if there is a mass recruitment by the institution at the time you saw the ad, its likely there is something for prospective student looking to get into your department.

5) If otherwise, that is, if the ad you saw was particular to the advertised field, the leverage you have is that you are informed about the institution and you have the privilege to dig faculties.

(C) List the names of probable supervisors on the department's website.
EDUCATION
Albert Schram
Albert Schram
@albertschram
A thread about online teaching and learning (T&L).

@wv012 @Passengercis @thebandb @carelstolker @BieTanjade @C4Innovation @rianneletscher @PietVdBossche @wijmenga_cisca @Pduisenberg @QMProgram #highered #edtech #teaching @threadreader unroll (1)

Here is a university road map on how the strengths of conventional, face-to-face teaching and online T&L can be optimally used to address today’s lecture room challenges.

I am not an instructional designer, but I have been teaching online internationally for over 10 years (2)

In the last 2+ years, I taught hybrid & online undergraduate courses at the University of Maryland Global Campus, among the largest top-20 online colleges in the USA.

UMGC has received numerous awards for its innovations: https://t.co/jd7JkHIK8Q and https://t.co/IPKizZwclA (3)

15+ years ago UMGC was one of the founding members of QM “Quality Matters” a non-profit with 1,500+ members in 26 countries.

QM offers membership of a community of practice, numerous free resources, online training, and review/accreditation services https://t.co/ZoFVsgcBC7 (4)

It is obvious that universities will also be affected by the 4th industrial revolution, and things can not stay the same as they were after the invention of the printing press.

Until recently, a lecture room looked the same as 900 years ago incl. flirting and sleeping (5)
EDUCATION

You May Also Like

Vibhu Vashisth
Vibhu Vashisth
@VIBHU_Tweet
Do you know?

The Golden Shine on the artificial jewellery of modern times is a gift by Nagarjuna.

Now,u might be wondering,who is Nagarjuna?

Nagarjuna was the name of an ancient Indian scholar&scientist whose name is associated with the fields of Alchemy,Chemistry& Metallurgy.


He conducted a number of alchemic and Metallurgical experiments directed towards transforming base elements into Gold.
According to Eduard Sachau's Alberuni's India, Nagarjuna was termed as a Metallurgist who was born 100 yrs before Alberuni's time, who was born in 973 CE.


According to some records Nagarjuna was born in 9th century CE near Somnath,Gujarat and according to some Tibetan & Chinese sources he was born in Vidarbha,Maharashtra from where he later migrated to Deccan region.


Edward Schau quotes in his book,'They have a science similar to Alchemy and Nagarjuna is famous for this science which they call as 'Rasayana'.

Nagarjuna's book 'Rasaratnakara' is one of the earliest documented texts on Alchemy,Chemistry & Metallurgy in Sanskrit.Nagarjuna successfully discovered through his experiments the alchemy of transmutation of base metals into Gold.This was not real gold but a gold like substance.
ALL
Liz (Welsh) Beechinor \U0001f605
Liz (Welsh) Beechinor ...
@LizTweetsTech
My dad led an organization of over 300,000 employees.

When I took on my biggest marketing & events team to date (35 employees) I asked him how the *heck* he did it. Here's what he said and what helped me every day. 🧵

Remember you're leading all the employees under you, but you're not *managing* them all. You're managing your direct reports, which should be 5-7 individuals max. Focus on them.

When you interact with the employees you don't manage directly, get to know them as people first, that'll be the most valuable information in leading them. Remembering everything you learn about them is hard, but doing so will make you a superhero.

If you're not going to empower the managers under you, why do you have them? If you see room for improvement, let the manager know and let them make the change on their teams and come to you with questions/concerns. This will save you SO much time.

If you're the smartest person in any room - you're doing it wrong. As a leader, your job is bringing together the best people to get the job done - your skillset is identifying those people, not being one of them.
ALL , WORK , A CATAGORY
Advertisement
Tej Dosa \U0001f602\U0001f9e0
Tej Dosa 😂🧠...
@ComedicBizman
(A THREAD)

18 Things I Would Do At 18:

I was a dumb 18-year-old. I thought I had the world figured out. I didn't.

I stayed up till the wee hours. Drank every liquor invented.

Partied non-stop. Woke up after noon.

Surfed the web aimlessly.

Read BS self-help.

Repeat.

If I could do it all over again, here's 18 things I would do...

PHASE ONE: GET MY MIND RIGHT

ACTION #1: Break the chains - I wish I made the decision earlier. I didn't. I was scared. Anxious. Nervous. I knew once I made the decision, there was no going back.

Don't be like me.

Make the decision at 18. The decision to pave your own path in life. To go against the herd. To choose your own adventure. To commit to whatever sets your heart on fire.

ACTION #2: Cut off every negative person in your life.

Scroll through the contacts in your phone...

Notice how the names make you feel.

Delete any and all names that fill you with doubt and negativity.

ACTION #3: Condition your mind to embrace the producer mindset instead of the consumer mindset.

Consume 20% of the time. Produce 80% of the time.

Case closed.

ACTION #4: Set an intention to make $10k a month and write it out every MORNING and NIGHT as if you already achieved it (in the past tense).

Visualize yourself already having the money as you write.

Cheesy?

Yes.

Does it work?

Yes.

PHASE TWO: EDUCATION
LIFE
\u0932\u0916\u094b\u092c\u093e \u0932\u094b\u0916\u0902\u0921\u0947
लखोबा लोखंडे...
@LakhobaLokhande
Secrets of Ganapati (Author - Keshav Sitaram Thackeray)

This article is taken from Keshav Sitaram Thackeray's book 'Dharmachi Devale and Devalcha Dharma'. In it, Bal Thackeray's father is claiming how the Hindu deity of Ganesha is imaginary.
(1/20)

Buddha is Ashtavinayak and "Ganapati Bappa Morya" is "Chandragupta Morya".

In the era of democracy, the head of state is the President. But in ancient India, there was a Gana culture in the monarchy and the head of that Gana was called Ganapati
(2/20)

In ancient India, a prince named Siddharth Gautam was born in royalty. He later became the king of Shakya Gana in this Gana culture. In time, Siddhartha attained enlightenment.

Let us now understand the difference between a real Ganapati and an imaginary Ganapati.
(3/20)

Some clever Brahmin manuvadis made the real Ganapati the imaginary Ganapati.

Buddha was the king of the Shakya Gana, so people called him Ganaraja. He founded Buddhism and became the head of the Shakyas. As the head of Gana, people used to call Buddha as Ganapati.
(4/20)

But the Brahmins Brahmanized Ganapati and created a false Ganapati. When Buddha used to give the message of Dharma to the people, two words would come out of his message. Chitta and Malla.

Chitta is the body.
Malla means waste
(5/20)
INDIA
Vibhu Vashisth
Vibhu Vashisth
@VIBHU_Tweet
THE MEANING, SIGNIFICANCE AND HISTORY OF SWASTIK

The Swastik is a geometrical figure and an ancient religious icon. Swastik has been Sanatan Dharma’s symbol of auspiciousness – mangalya since time immemorial.


The name swastika comes from Sanskrit (Devanagari: स्वस्तिक, pronounced: swastik) &denotes “conducive to wellbeing or auspicious”.
The word Swastik has a definite etymological origin in Sanskrit. It is derived from the roots su – meaning “well or auspicious” & as meaning “being”.


"सु अस्ति येन तत स्वस्तिकं"
Swastik is de symbol through which everything auspicios occurs

Scholars believe word’s origin in Vedas,known as Swasti mantra;

"🕉स्वस्ति ना इन्द्रो वृधश्रवाहा
स्वस्ति ना पूषा विश्ववेदाहा
स्वस्तिनास्तरक्ष्यो अरिश्तनेमिही
स्वस्तिनो बृहस्पतिर्दधातु"


It translates to," O famed Indra, redeem us. O Pusha, the beholder of all knowledge, redeem us. Redeem us O Garudji, of limitless speed and O Bruhaspati, redeem us".

SWASTIK’s COSMIC ORIGIN

The Swastika represents the living creation in the whole Cosmos.


Hindu astronomers divide the ecliptic circle of cosmos in 27 divisions called https://t.co/sLeuV1R2eQ this manner a cross forms in 4 directions in the celestial sky. At centre of this cross is Dhruva(Polestar). In a line from Dhruva, the stars known as Saptarishi can be observed.
ALL