"I learned more in 10 minutes than 1 month of chemistry classes"

- Ashlee P.

PORTFOLIO BUILDING

Educators should also include material from other individuals when constructing their teaching portfolio.
Examples include student course evaluation data, statements from colleagues and other faculty team
members, student feedback on the instructor, or other honors and accolades, which reflect a positive
overview of the educator.

Teachers should also compile materials relating to how their student’s performed in the classroom and
how the educator contributed to their growth. Samples of student’s work with feedback from the
teacher show how the pupils have performed over a given period of time and how the instructor dealt
with individual situations. A teacher should also include any student journal submissions that have been
compiled over the school year. Scores on tests, department exams, and national exams should also be
included to reflect the success of the educator’s classroom methods. In addition, any classroom tapes or
videos showing how the teacher went about his or her methods are always a good way to build rapport
with others who are looking over a teaching portfolio.

One of the most important components of this material is the personal statement from the educator,
which outlines the instructor’s mission and how they will adapt or modify their methods when changes
arise in the field. This statement should include thoughts on the teacher’s role in different
environments; how the educator’s methods fit within the overall teaching role; and how these methods
have been modified in response to student attitude, course materials, or curriculum alterations.

A teaching portfolio as mentioned should take student feedback into account. A student evaluation on
how the course was taught and what they learned from the course is an important part of the material.
An instructor should analyze these comments to see who enjoyed the course and who did not. These
comments can also be sorted by a student’s GPA or the expected grade a student intends to receive for
the course. This process of analyzing student feedback may help to explain or balance out any negative
comments a teacher may have received.

There is a lot of information and data an educator has to assemble when putting together their teaching
portfolio. This important tool helps others get a better view of how the teacher has performed in the
past across a wide spectrum of educational settings. A teaching portfolio is a step toward a more open,
professional view of teaching and reflects the practice as an academic activity. When it comes to
deciding how a portfolio should be put together, institutions should focus on what exactly is effective
teaching, and what kinds of standards factor into the practice of teaching. A portfolio should only
include the things, which document the teacher’s practice, and not an exhaustive overview of every
detail in the educator’s career.

Science is critical to tackle complex challenges for humanity such as climate change, biodiversity loss,
pollution and poverty reduction, as it lays the foundation for new approaches and solutions. How can
science best fulfill this commitment to society? How can we create dynamic connections between
knowledge and action? These concerns have led to a new approach: sustainability science.

Unplanned Pregnancy

Teen pregnancy isn't just a societal issue or a statistic to shake one's head at. With more than 329,000
births to teen moms in 2011 alone, according to the CDC, unplanned pregnancies have a drastic impact
on many students and their schooling. Teen pregnancy is a societal problem that costs taxpayers roughly
$11 billion per year in health care, foster care and other related expenses. Teen moms have a higher
likelihood of getting lower grades or dropping out of school completely. According to the CDC, only half
of all teen mothers graduate from high school or get their diploma.

Almost everyday we witness in the newspaper or on the TV, there are reports of disasters around the
world. So what are disasters? How are they different from accidents? Disaster is defined as: ",,,,,a
serious disruption of the functioning of a society, causing widespread human, material, or
environmental losses which exceed the ability of the affected society to cope using its own resources."

10 Technological Solutions to Poverty

Technology is everywhere. Electronic dispensers squirt a predetermined amount of soap on our hands.
Cell phones connect us to people across the world. Dishwashers wash our plates, planes transport us
across the globe and video games entertain us. But technology has more uses than just entertainment
or convenience. Modern technology can radically change the lives of the world’s poor by empowering
and equipping them. Modern technology is one of the most effective solutions to poverty.
Innovative Aid: 10 Technological Solutions to Poverty

1. Mobile banking

Mobile banking offers the poor access to banking without transaction costs and without the need for a
traditional, physical bank. A Brookings Institute Policy brief reported that access to banking helps the
poor protect their assets and invest wisely. It allows them to save money without fear of theft.

Brookings reported that, “One study from the Philippines found that access to formal savings increased
women’s economic empowerment by raising their influence over household consumption choices,
children’s education and use of family planning.”

Furthermore, mobile banking makes direct cash transfer programs for aid organizations easier and more
efficient.

2. Mobile health care

Cell phones offer access to medical information otherwise inaccessible to impoverished people. A recent
Ghanaian project, for instance, targets pregnant women who lack access to information on how to
promote healthy fetal development, reports the Research Council of Norway. Mothers receive weekly,
automated messages designed to help counterbalance superstition and pregnancy-related myths.

“All they need to receive these messages is an inexpensive mobile phone,” says Jacqueline Møller Larsen
of the Grameen Foundation in Ghana. “The health information they receive in this way can make a real
difference in the health of both mother and baby.”

3. Access to clean water

Globally, more than 748 million people do not have access to clean water and more than 2.5 billion
people have inadequate access to sanitation. More than 1,400 children die every day of diarrhea caused
by unsafe water and improper sanitation. WaterAid, an organization dedicated to providing access to
safe water and sanitation, writes that access to safe water would not only slow such diseases, but would
also return an average of $4 of increased productivity per dollar invested.

Such advances are not out of reach and modern technology can create achievable goals for water and
sanitation. Practical Action, for example, partnered with Kenyans from the dry, arid Turkana region to
develop a solution to the area’s drought problems.

“We developed a solar-powered water pump that uses locally-sourced equipment to pump 30,000 clean
litres of clean, safe water to the village every day,” the organization reported.

4. Improve farming techniques

Most of the 1.4 billion people who live on less than $1.25 per day rely on agriculture for their
livelihoods, according to the United Nations. Technological advances in agriculture, from better plowing
techniques to rice adapted from saltier water, can reduce hunger for millions.

“If we could get and invent new seeds, new mobile technology and open new data centers to help
farmers connect their crop prices and understand weather variability we can do something
transformational against hunger,” USAID administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah told TIME. “And not just reach a
small percentage of the people that are hungry with food.”

5. Increase access to education

Many children, especially disadvantaged girls, in rural areas have limited access to education. And many
of the schools that rural children can attend struggle with poor-quality teachers and limited resources.
But new technology like solar-powered computers and projectors allow students to participate in real-
time, interactive lessons with quality teachers. Ghana recently started its first interactive, distance
learning project, Making Ghanaian Girls Great! (MGCubed,) with the support of the British Department
for International Development in Ghana, reported Ghana Web. This program uses new technology to
provide access to education impossible before now.

6. Better waste management

The ever-increasing urbanization in many cities of developing countries, such as Nairobi, Kenya, has
overburdened solid waste management facilities and created littering problems. From recycling plastics
to managing human waste, technology has the potential to transform the life of the urban poor.

7. Empowering through information

By 2015, it’s possible that everyone in the world will have access to a cell phone. The United Nation
reports that more people in the world have access to cellphones than justice or legal services. Currently,
more than 5.4 billion people have mobile phone subscriptions. Since mobile phones require only basic
literacy, phones offer almost everyone in the entire world access to information and the opportunity to
make their voices heard.

8. Improved transportation

Especially for the poor living in villages miles away from large towns, trips to town for water and food
can take hours. Often, in medical emergencies, they cannot make it to hospitals in time. Many villagers
that have bicycles cannot use them to transport the ill. Practical Action works with villagers to build
bicycle trailers to transport up to 200 kilograms of water, food or passengers.

“…Whether its bringing clean water, removing waste or sludge, the bicycle still has the power to
transform poor communities,” wrote Matt Wenham of Practical action.

The simple creation of a bike trailer has the potential to save thousands of lives.

9. Disaster relief and management

Natural disasters like tsunamis and earthquakes affect the rural poor most, as they often have no idea
anything is happening. Using mobile phones to alert them of impending disaster can give them enough
time to flee to safety. Bangladesh, one of the most at risk countries in the world for natural disasters,
has implemented a mobile alert system in an attempt to save lives.

“This new initiative will mean that people will get an alert on their phones warning them that they are
likely to face flooding or a cyclone,” Syed Ashraf, communications specialist for the country’s Disaster
Management Bureau, told Reuters. “So they will then be able to take action like evacuate their homes
and seek shelter in assigned places.”
10. Sustainable energy

Access to energy enables people to work their way out of poverty, access education and improve their
own health. New technologies, such as solar and hydro power, can provide access to energy without
building expensive power plants. Even simple technological advances, like fire-less cookers that rely on
stored heat, can save the poor money and time.

“Just providing a few hours of solar lighting alone improves the human condition,” Justin Guay, associate
director of Sierra Club’s International Climate Program, told Take Part.

Further investment in technological solutions by both private donors and the federal government could
radically change the lives of the global poor.

– Sally Nelson