Archive for the ‘Education’ Category
How Big is Your Family?
Most Americans know who their grandparents were, and many knew their great grandparents. If they are asked the names of their great, great grandparents, however, the vast majority of people will be unable to give an answer. If they do know who they were, then it is likely that they have either conducted or viewed a genealogical study of their family.
Genealogy is the study of family lineage. It traces the generations back through time, and then forward again to the present day. It can expand our knowledge of current relatives by revealing distant cousins that we never knew existed. For even as our family trees grows broader as we look backward in time, each of the old branches that we uncover grows equally broad as it approaches the present day.
Think about just a few generations back. Did your great, great grandparents have brothers and sisters? Did they have children? Did their children have children who also had children? How many unknown cousins come from going back just one more generation beyond that? If you remember that you had sixteen different great, great grandparents alone and that the number doubles with each further generation before them, you can see just how quickly the numbers mount up to thousands of cousins living in the present day, most entirely unknown to each other.
During the last presidential election it was said that Barack Obama and Dick Cheney were distant cousins. Before that someone discovered a similar relationship between John Kerry and George W. Bush. While it may take few more than six degrees of separation, many of us would be surprised at the number of famous or recognizable names to whom we are related if we performed a complete genealogical survey of our ancestry and the other descendents of our ancestors.
There are companies that specialize in conducting genealogical studies for a fee. These companies often have teams working on each project and can turn in results in a relatively short amount of time, often just a couple weeks. Fees may depend upon how many generations you want traced, or they may have a flat fee to trace back as far as they can. Often they will provide not just a list of ancestors, but a detailed report and an artistic rendering of the client’s family tree suitable for framing.
It is also quite possible to learn about the techniques of genealogical research and to conduct one’s own study. It often takes much longer to conduct the study by oneself. There may be a wait of days or weeks for a reply to a written inquiry which reveals only one more link in the chain. Those who do undertake their own genealogical review often find that it is not the end result so much as the joy of the process itself that is the most rewarding.
Either way, finding out the details of our family tree and the extent of our modern day relations can be an eye-opening experience.
My Brother Knows a Guy
- California contractors license
- Florida contractors license exam
- Electricians exam preparation
- Electricians exam course
- California contractors license exam
- California contractors license exam prep
- California contractors license course
- Electricians exam
- Journeyman electrician exam
- Florida contractors license
When you’re remodeling or making renovations to your house, you’re going to be living with the results every day once the job is finished. Given that, and the fact that your home is one of the biggest investments you’ll make during the course of your life, it certainly behooves you to make sure that any changes made to the home are done right.
Everybody has heard the stories about someone who hired a cousin or a friend of a friend who works construction to come in and handle a major home renovation project. Or worse yet, answered an anonymous online ad from a guy who says he has good carpentry skills. Before someone starts ordering hundreds or thousands of dollars in materials and begins cutting into the walls of your home, check his credentials and his references. Make sure that you are hiring a properly licensed contractor with expertise and experience in the type of work that you need done. You wouldn’t hire a plumber to take care of an electrical problem, don’t hire a hobbyist instead of a contractor.
If your contractor has a license in good standing, then he has at a minimum passed the licensing requirements for your state. In California for example, that involves passing a stringent examination that covers not only proper job site safety procedures and trade knowledge, but also important business principles like basic accounting, proper quoting, contract writing, and equitable dispute resolution. The last thing you want is a guy who settles disputes with his hammer, the more experience and training a contractor has, the less likely that will be.
You should also do business with a local contractor who will be easy to reach in the event you have any problems after he has completed the job and left. Many issues with remodeling or other construction don’t show up immediately, but are only evident a few weeks or months after the crew has finished and left. Cracking ceilings or walls, leaking roofs, doors that don’t close properly and other similar issues related to the work that was done should be warranteed in your contract for a period of time after the job is complete. Get it in writing, anyone will say that they’ll take care of problems, but unless you have it written in the contract, you’ll be unable to get a legal judgment in your favor if a dispute occurs.
Of course, using a licensed contractor doesn’t guarantee that you won’t have problems, but it certainly cuts down on the odds.
ITS Tutorial School Hong Kong
ITS Tutorial School Hong Kong began its operation in 2006 at 3rd Floor Sun House 181 Des Voeux Road Central. It was begun by two long term Hong Kong residents with over 30 years of education experience between them. Danny and Gary the owners of the school felt there was a need for high quality private tuition services specifically targeted at students studying a variety of different International syllabuses at Hong Kong International Schools. Both the owners wished to setup a fully registered school complying with all relevant Hong Kong legislation. Up until this point most private tutorial centre’s in Hong Kong were operating illegally.
ITS started with 5 staff. An English tutor, Maths tutor, Economics tutor, Geography tutor and Physics tutor. Since that time ITS has grown to now offer tuition in most mainstream academic subjects including: English, English Literature, Mathematics, Pure Math and Applied Maths, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Computer Studies, General Science, Economics, Accounting, Business Studies, Geography, History, Italian, Latin, Psychology, Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, French, German, Environmental Science, Theory of Knowledge and Design and Technology. Its currently has over 40 tutors both full and part time.
As well as providing tuition in the above subjects ITS also offers tuition and support for a range of different exams that Hong Kong people take. These include: IELTS, BULATS, SAT, SSAT, BMAT, GMAT, UK common entrance exam 11+ 13+; Cambridge Young Learners and many more.
The school also now includes ITS Corporate Training. This division mainly is involved in English and Chinese language training and support for the corporate Hong Kong community. ITS Corporate also teaches other business skills such as customer service, telephone skills, problem solving, body language etc. ITS Corporate specialises in designing individually tailored courses to meets the needs of specific businesses. The adult education offering of ITS include training in MYOB (http://www.tuition.com.hk/myob-introductory.html )accounting software. This is a software package particular suitable for small to medium size enterprises.
ITS also provides full educational consultancy services and school placement service for those families to relocating to Hong Kong. Finding a suitable school for your child in Hong Kong can be extremely difficult. ITS can take the hassle out of this process for a family. The school has recently published a book to help parents find the information they need in order to choose the right school for their child. This book is called THE UNIQUE HONG KONG SCHOOL GUIDE 2009. ITS can advise on university entrance including help with personal statement writing and interview technique. The school can also help students get places in top overseas schools. A further service that ITS provides is helping parents organises overseas language holidays and study tours (http://www.tuition.com.hk/language/ ). This is a free service offered by the school.
ITS has recently added a Chinese language version of its website it can be viewed here. 英語補習，中學各科專業導師. The ITS website is designed to be a content rich portal of resources for the community at large. Some of the resources available on the site include: Accounting, Business Studies and Economics dictionary (http://www.tuition.com.hk/dictionary/ ), a Geography dictionary, a Psychology dictionary, a large collection of IB resources and links, a large collection of links for ESL English and collections of helpful links for many other academic subjects.
The website also includes a blog that gives comments and news about changing issues in Hong Kong relating to education and training. The blog is call ITS Education News and is updated on a regular basis. Feedback about the website and suggestions of other resources is very welcome.
ITS is set to open its second school in Hong Kong in August 2009. This school is to located right next to Mong Kok KCR station and will provide support for students living and studying in Kowloon and the new territories.
ITS is always looking for suitably qualified people to join our team. More information about current job vacancies can be found here. Tutor jobs Hong Kong.