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Sports and the Hard of Hearing Child
As a child growing up with a significant sensorineural hearing loss and no hearing aids to assist me, I found life confusing and often embarrassing. Most of my humiliations came in the arena of team sports, whether it was little league, peewee basketball, or just a pick-up football games with the neighborhood kids.
I recently attended the Angel City Games in Los Angeles—track and field events for kids and adults with physical challenges. Some of the participants were in wheelchairs, some wore prosthetic legs and some were developmentally delayed. I was heartened to see how far we've come in making sports for kids with disabilities both accessible and enriching. I know there are also sports teams specifically for deaf kids, where the coaching is done via sign language, but I got to wondering if there have been accommodations made for hard-of-hearing kids who want to participate in team sports with non-hearing impaired kids, so I did some Internet searching.
Within the public school setting—in theory, anyway—there are assistive devices available. For example, in basketball, a red light can be installed behind each backboard that signals the end of a quarter. Portable loop systems with the coach using a microphone and the kid wearing a hearing device can facilitate communication between the two. These are similar to auditory trainers used in classrooms to augment the hearing of HOH students. The teacher wears a microphone and the child wears the headphone and in this way the teacher's voice goes straight into the student's ear. For football, there can even be a hearing aid within a modified helmet so the player can hear the coach more clearly. These are a few of the adaptations that are obtainable, assuming a school district will pay for them.
Having used auditory trainers with students, I saw that most kids don't like to wear the headphones, especially if they are in a co-taught or a general education classroom because—no surprise here—they don't want to stand out as "different." I can attest from experience that kids tend to treat "different" as though it were some kind of disease, which is why kids who are "different" don't want to call attention to their "differentness." Sadly, the school system and our society still push conformity and sameness and "one size fits all," so is it any wonder kids are reluctant to accept differentness in their peers?
Fifteen per cent of children between six and nineteen have a measurable hearing loss in at least one ear—approximately thirteen million kids. They have significant hearing loss, but are not deaf or otherwise "special needs." Do neighborhood sports programs like the kind I was involved in as a child make any accommodations for these kids to play on their teams with non-disabled peers? That's the more relevant question, I think, for parents who have a HOH child, because those are the kinds of programs most readily available.
My experiences as a child athlete were miserable. I probably misheard every instruction a coach ever gave me, especially if I was on the basketball court or out in right field for little league. In mishearing the command, I did something counter to what I was told to do and got royally chewed out for messing up. Needless to say, I was not popular on these teams because I always did everything wrong. A sensorineural hearing loss, in particular, makes human speech unclear or even, at times, garbled. In that regard, it's not unlike an auditory processing deficit where the brain scrambles up words that enter through the ear and causes the child to respond in a way that might seem non sequitur, defiant, or outright stupid. I got the "stupid" tag a lot. And here's the crazy part—I believed it. I believed I was stupid and inept because I did everything wrong. And I never associated my "ineptness" with my hearing loss because it was "invisible" and hardly ever mentioned by the adults in my life.
I doubt much would've been changed to accommodate me even if people were more cognizant of my disability because "one size fits all" was even stronger back then. So I simply came to the conclusion that I was stupid and clumsy and sucked at athletics and I ended up hating sports with a passion. Only in college did I become somewhat athletic. I took up running and weight lifting and swimming—activities I could do by myself or with a friend that didn't involve a large team or an angry coach demanding to know why I did this or that stupid thing.
This brings me back to sports programs at local parks and YMCA's and other venues that are not part of the public school system. In my Internet search, I found summer camps for deaf and hearing-impaired children, but could not find local sports programs or little league teams promoting accommodations for HOH kids. It's possible that they will make such accommodations if a parent asks, but it seems to me such an important aspect of the program should be advertised, especially given the large number of children with hearing loss.
Even if a child has hearing aids, that doesn't mean they will be effective for an outfielder, a lineman, defensive midfielder, or the power forward in a noisy, echo-filled gym surrounded by screaming fans. Most sports, especially baseball, have numerous hand signals coaches flash to players to bunt or run or hold up on a base. These are perfect for the HOH player. Even more specific gestures can be worked out between the player and the coach (and/or other team members) to ensure proper communication. It really isn't difficult for a HOH kid to play sports as long as the coaching staff and other players remember that communication doesn't have to be verbal.
Colored flags could help. For example, a red flag could mean move closer. To an outfielder this would mean move closer to the infield. For an infielder, it would mean move closer to the bag. A blue flag could mean the opposite—move farther into the outfield or away from the bag. Colored flags could work in most sports to mean whatever the coach and player decide they mean. Trust me when I say how much better my failed sporting life might have been if I'd had even this one simple accommodation.
I think parents advocate more for their HOH kids than in my childhood. It wasn't that my parents intentionally ignored my disability. It was just that the disability was invisible and easy to forget about. As noted above, I forgot about it myself, even as a coach or my mom chewed me out for not doing something right, or for not listening. I was told more than once, "You can hear when you want to." This was not true. A HOH child only hears what his or her limited hearing allows. Nothing more or less. Even "listening harder" won't clarify speech if the other person is too far away or there is background noise or the other person isn't facing the child. Sometimes just the pitch of a person's voice makes clarity problematic. Like all kids with disabilities, I instinctively compensated—which for me meant reading lips. I did this unconsciously and became so good at it I could almost follow a TV show with the volume off and still understand most of the dialogue. As long as the actor faced the screen, I "heard" him or her.
Hearing loss is a physical disability—it just doesn't involve visible damage to the body or limbs. Yes, hearing aids are helpful. But they are limited. Parents and coaches and team members can easily make the small accommodations I mentioned, and many others of their own devising, that will guarantee the HOH child has a positive experience. The child will not only feel like an equal member of the team, but might also blossom into an outstanding athlete. I doubt I ever had such innate ability, but my experiences were so demoralizing I never attempted to find out. As events like the Angel City Games prove, we have gotten better at including disabled children in athletic competitions. However, let's not forget the invisible disabilities like hearing loss or auditory processing. These kids want to play, too.
My first year in little league. I'm in the back row on the far right and I look happy at starting this new adventure.
Here I am with my second (and thankfully final) little league team. I'm in the back row, fourth from the left, much bigger, but with the same hearing loss that made the first season so abysmal. As you can plainly see, I look like I want to be anywhere else but on this team.
Filed Under: Disabilities, Diversity, Raising Healthy Kids, Social Issues Tagged With: acceptance of differences, accommodations for hard of hearing children, adaptive sports for kids, Angel City Games, Angel City Sports, childhood trauma, differentness, hard of hearing children and sports, hearing but not understanding, hearing loss, hearing loss in children, invisible disabilities, little league, neighborhood sports programs, surviving childhood hearing loss
The Path To Hope
Hope. It comes in many forms and from many sources. It is the cornerstone of a positive, productive life. It is an essential ingredient for all of us, especially kids. Adults must model it. Adults must share it. Adults must embrace it if kids are ever going to. Sadly, our media, for the most part, disdains hope. There are serious problems in our communities, our cities, our country, and our world, but the media is like a flock of vultures feeding off the carrion of human self-absorption, greed, and aggression. It purposely deprives viewers and readers of the most essential ingredient to life—hope. Humans have serious issues that need solutions, but if the populace is constantly fed the message that the sky is falling, that everyone and everything is corrupt, that there is no hope of redemption for the human species, then life might as well be over on this planet because there's little reason to keep on living. Too many groups make too much money and acquire too much fame with doom and gloom scenarios, from the climate change movement to people in academia to our justice system and, obviously, within the political arena.
There are two things people can do to keep hope alive in their hearts—tune out the media except in small doses, and spend as much time as possible volunteering.
I had the pleasure of helping as a volunteer this past weekend at the Angel City Games held on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles. This event was four days of clinics and coaching and then actual track and field events for people with physical disabilities, mostly children and teens. It was a truly heartening experience to see so many kids un-stacking the deck that life tried unsuccessfully to stack against them and turning their disabilities into very impressive abilities. I saw toddlers throwing the javelin and discus and putting the shot. But the high jump and some of the track events were the highlight of my volunteer time. One seven-year-old named Antonio competed in the 100m, the 400m, and the 1500m in a regular street wheelchair (there were racing chairs available, but he didn't use one). We clapped and cheered as he finished every race he entered. He came in last, of course. He had short arms and the wrong chair. But he pushed and huffed and puffed his way across that finish line every time. There was no way he was going to quit. It just wasn't in him. I felt honored to shake Antonio's hand. That's a boy who will never allow life to beat him down in any way. There's no "sky is falling" in him, only hope and the will to succeed. The same can be said of all the child and teen athletes. Badass to the bone!
When I mentioned to a friend that I was volunteering at this event, the first question was, "Do you have someone disabled in your family?" I told him no, though I do have a disability of my own that made participation in sports as a child nearly impossible. But that will be the subject of my next post. Admittedly, most people tend to become involved in "causes" and volunteerism based on someone in their family or circle of friends who draws them in. Thus, there is a vested interest, as it were, to be involved in this or that arena. The Angel City Games were started by the family of a boy who has had a prosthetic leg since he was a toddler and who loves to compete in these kinds of events. They finally decided, rather than travel out of state to have him compete, that they'd start their own annual event, not just for him, but for other disabled children. Awesome. Kudos to this family for starting something that will benefit so many.
But do we always have to have a personal stake to get involved and make some situation better? I argue no. In fact, I strongly advise people to step out of their comfort zones and volunteer in areas they would never encounter in their daily lives. I did this over thirty years ago with incarcerated children, and I'm still there today volunteering my time and meager talents toward helping those desperately needy kids.
Volunteering is a fantastic family activity, too. I saw numerous parents and their kids volunteering at the games over the weekend. People are inherently self-centered, and children will stay that way—they can eventually become egomaniacal selfie kings and queens—unless they are brought out of themselves to see and be part of a larger world. That's why volunteering at events like this is the perfect family weekend. Kids who may whine about something in their own lives will see other children who have struggled with far worse and rose above that issue or difficulty to triumph and be happy. Watching people work together, and helping those people work together for the betterment of others, is a fundamental key to hope, and it fosters gratitude in both children and adults.
Another aspect of hope the Angel City Games instilled in me was how much "good" technology has created. There's too much doom and gloom, especially from some the environmental activist crowd, about how technology is destroying the planet (challenge one of those activists, especially a young American, to give up his or her cell phone and Wi-Fi and you'll likely get the pronouncement that other people are the problem, not him/her). Seeing the incredible prosthetics these athletic children were using at the Games, not to mention the impressive racing chairs, all of which enable them to have full, productive lives, reminded me that technological advances are always more of a help than a hindrance. Despite the activists' lament, it's technology that's the key to reversing the effects of pollution, and technology will allow us to heal the earth, at least as much as humans can ever truly "control" nature, of course. To listen to some in the "activist" crowd, we're already doomed. If we're already doomed, why do such organizations keep asking for more and more of our money? I wrote one of my books about the environment and the need for balance on this issue. Not just balance, either, but volunteerism—people voluntarily recycling and using less gas and not throwing away anything useful because it might be outdated, and, number one, sharing their time and material goods with others. It's working together as a community that solves problems, not donating to this group or that or asking the government to fix everything.
Volunteerism is the key. In the Los Angeles area there are myriad volunteer opportunities every weekend and even on weeknights. It's not hard to find them – a simple Internet search will do that job. And if there is something you feel passionate about—like beach cleanups or tutoring or visiting elderly people or helping the homeless or visiting incarcerated kids or mentoring children in park programs or within church groups—gather some of your friends together and make it happen. If no one is willing to help, do it yourself and you'll meet other like-minded people who think about the big picture like you do. I met some very cool people over the weekend, as I always do when I volunteer. I learned about their backgrounds and they about mine. Volunteering breaks down barriers between groups of people and that's something we need far more of in this country.
I call this path to hope and change "We Over Me" because that is how problems are solved – each one of us has to put our ego aside, stop seeking fame, fortune, and self-aggrandizement, and work hands-on with fellow citizens, no matter what they look like or how different they may appear. This is a major theme in my writing because I know that all of us working together—rather than groups pointing the finger at each other—is the only way our species and our planet will ever heal. The primary ingredient in that healing is hope.
So please, turn off the news, spend minutes, rather than hours, on social media, and get out in your community to volunteer anywhere you can. Bring your children and your friends. Bring your heart and your compassion. Bring an open mind. Let yourself be filled with hope for a change, instead of despair. You will never regret your decision. You and your children will be better for giving of yourselves without expecting anything in return. You won't become famous. You won't get rich. But you'll feel rejuvenated, as I did this past weekend. You'll have hope in your hearts that humanity isn't doomed, and you'll have helped in some small way toward a better future, not just for the people you served, but for all of us.
Antonio, seven years old
Filed Under: #WeOverMe, Raising Healthy Kids, Social Issues Tagged With: #angelcitysports, #trueathlete, Angel City Games, communities working together, disabilities, diversity, doom and gloom scenarios, hope, hope endures, no media, prosthetic limbs, self-aggrandizement, technological advances are mostly good, technology, the sky is falling mentality, volunteerism, volunteerism is the key to hope, weoverme, wheelchair kids
Is Screenwriting or Novel Writing the Better Path to Success?
July 8, 2016 By Michael J. Bowler 4 Comments
I always knew I wanted to be a writer. I wrote short stories as a kid and read voraciously and loved telling tall tales to anyone who would listen. But I also loved movies and thought screenwriting might be an easier entrée into a writing career. Not so fast, young padawan…
In college I chose to double major in English literature and theater arts. In both arenas I did lots of creative writing. I wrote short stories and plays and directed plays and acted in plays, all of which gave me insights into how to tell stories and write dialogue that actors could actually speak without sounding stilted or twisting their tongues into knots. Any of you actors out there know what I'm talking about.
For graduate school, I enrolled at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles to pursue my dream of becoming a scriptwriter. I learned television and film writing formats, as well as all the technical aspects of making a film. I wrote and directed some shorts, wrote television scripts, and submitted a final "thesis" screenplay that I never did anything with except utilize its themes in later stories.
After graduation, I partnered with two fellow film majors to make low budget direct to video horror movies. You can find me on IMDB and all those films aren't as bad as I remember them (though some are real stinkers. Ha!). In fact, one of my low-budget "gems"—Hell Spa (later retitled Club Dead and sporting a different beginning and ending featuring former Disney child star Tommy Kirk)—is soon to get a new release on DVD and VHS, bigger than it ever got before. Apparently there's some nostalgia for those old films from the 80's. LOL The story of how that film is resurfacing is quite fascinating, but since it's all still unfolding I'll share it down the line in a new post.
In any case, each of those films was a learning experience. Whether I wrote, directed, produced, acted in, handled sound or some other technical function, each endeavor helped me understand writing a little better. As well-made as most Hollywood films are today, the weakest aspect is usually the script, and that angers me. It's not difficult to get a screenplay right before going into production. Sometimes aspects of a script change or dialogue shifts due to realities of filming, especially if a film is low budget like mine were. But with the massive budgets these films have today, there's no excuse for a bad script. Sorry, folks. There isn't.
Most film schools today provide internship opportunities in the industry for their students, opportunities I didn't have back in the day when I attended LMU. Having said that, breaking into the business via screenwriting is still probably the most difficult pathway. Everybody and their pit bull have a screenplay idea or an actual script already written. However, getting that script to someone who can actually move it forward is almost like winning the lottery.
I wrote a number of screenplays after grad school and tried numerous creative avenues to get those scripts to agents or producers. I even scaled the walls of the Burbank Studios one time to get a script to some producer, but never found his office. I finally began teaching high school and put writing aside. I continued to enter my scripts in screenplay competitions, but never won any of them. Those competitions are about the only way an un-agented writer can get his or her script in front of people who might be able to move it forward. So if you write a script, that avenue might be your best shot. Francis Ford Coppola, director of the Godfather movies, has a big screenplay contest via Zoetrope Studios, and there are many others, large and small, to choose from. Google "screenplay competitions" and they will all pop up. There is, of course, an entry fee, but the fee rule applies to book award competitions, too. For that fee there is the possibility someone significant will read your work. All it takes is one person and you could be on your way. Alas, I have never found him or her.
I wrote my first book in the early years of teaching and attempted to interest agents and publishers. No dice. Years later, with the advent of self-publishing, I did release that book – a middle grade+ urban fantasy set in Northern California in 1970 entitled A Boy and His Dragon. Of course, with no budget for promotion, the book never went anywhere. But I had a number of screenplays in my file cabinet at home and decided maybe I should turn some of them into novels. After all, I already had the templates, so why not flesh them out? With small press publishers springing up, I thought maybe one of those stories might get noticed. I started with my longest screenplay, A Matter of Time. It was a time travel romance set in 1985 and 1912 and involved the sinking of Titanic. With the 100th anniversary of Titanic's sinking approaching in 2012, I set about turning that script into a novel. Once complete, I actually found an agent willing to shop it around, but no publisher wanted it. So I self-published in early 2012 to coincide with the anniversary of the sinking and the book went nowhere, just like my first.
Since then, I converted my scripts Children of the Knight and Healer (which became Spinner) into novels that were published by small press publishers, and I'm currently shopping around the novelization of Like A Hero, a finalist in the Shriekfest Screenplay Competition. Like A Hero was a decent script, but I fleshed it out into what I've been told by beta readers is an excellent book. So far not a single agent or indie publisher has agreed with those betas, but it hasn't been rejected by everyone I sent it to. Yet.
So, how do the two art forms differ? Quite a lot, actually, which is why beloved books seldom feel the same when transferred to the screen.
The one essential element that's necessary for both formats is "showing," rather than "telling." Obviously, film is a visual medium and the screenwriter has no option for "telling" the audience anything unless it's via voice over narration, a lazy technique that seldom works. No, in a script the writer has to convey with action and dialogue everything important about a character and everything needed for the plot to make sense. Descriptions are kept to a minimum because the director will visualize the story however he or she sees fit. The writer provides a very basic outline of a character, i.e. "he's fifteen years old, surfer blond hair, vibrant blue eyes, in a wheelchair, dresses emo style." That's the description of Alex, my main teen protagonist in the screenplay Healer (which begat the novel Spinner.) Such a description would never wash in a book. In a novel, the reader should get a general picture of a character at first, with further details added in along the way. Long paragraph descriptions of what characters look like constitute "telling," rather than "showing" a character through setting or action or even dialogue, i.e. another character: "I love your eyes. They look so blue, like the earth from space." Showing is always better than telling.
Another essential requirement for both mediums is a dynamic opening, specifically the first ten pages. They have to be good. If the reader, or the viewer, isn't hooked right away you're likely to lose him or her for good. Agents and publishers are no different than film executives – they want to be drawn into your story immediately and feel excited about continuing. So start off with a bang whenever possible. Spinner begins with Alex dreaming that his favorite teacher is pushed in front of a truck after being mauled by cats. Children of the Knight begins with the police breaking up a large gang brawl in a barrio section of Los Angeles. Like A Hero begins with a hostage standoff at a middle school graduation. You get the idea.
Writing a script requires a screenwriting program like Final Draft or Movie Magic Screenwriter because the parameters are very specific. Scripts not adhering to the proper format won't even be accepted in competitions. Each scene is established by a scene location and time of day. Character names appear in the middle of the page with dialogue in narrow margins beneath. Action blocks use the full margins and should be detailed enough for a reader to know what's happening, but not as descriptive as in a book. If some object or person is very important to the story, you can use "CU" for Close Up" or write "Close On" to highlight it. Otherwise, it's best to avoid too much "directing" in a spec script, i.e. including camera angles and such. Spec scripts are those you were not hired to write, but have written on your own and submitted somewhere in the hopes it will be acquired by a producer. Most screenplays are approximately one hundred twenty pages, with the generally accepted notion that one page equals one minute of screen time. Obviously, this varies. Most competitions will accept scripts up to one hundred thirty pages.
Because of its limitations, screenwriting will feel restrictive to anyone who started out writing novels. However, the format teaches us writers how to think differently, more visually, with a greater degree of cleverness if we want to get our ideas across to a viewing audience. I began as a screenwriter and filmmaker and both of those helped me as a novelist, I think. Reviewers have often commented that when reading my books they feel like they're watching a film. They can visualize everything in more than enough detail, but don't feel bogged down by unnecessary descriptive information or too much "telling" of what characters are thinking or feeling. They get to "experience" what the characters do and feel and seem to like that style of writing.
Converting a script into a book allows for more information and greater depth of characterization and character interaction. You can have lengthy conversations between characters in a book (though I try not to do this often) whereas on screen dialogue scenes should be relatively short and always peppered with action or something visual to hold the attention of the audience. Obviously in a book, the author can share the thoughts and inner feelings of a character to give readers more insight. This cannot be done in a film. Much of that is left to the actor to convey, and good actors play subtext masterfully. Case in point – I found the character of Katniss Everdeen rather dull and almost entirely reactive in the Hunger Games books. However, Jennifer Lawrence brought astounding depth to that character and said more with a single facial expression than any author could do in pages of description. So yes, good actors truly bring your characters to life.
As an interesting sidelight, after I turned the screenplay Healer into the novel Spinner and added quite a bit to the storyline, I decided to turn the novel back into a screenplay to enter it into competitions. Even though I'd written the book, and had previously written the script, I found the task challenging, as I'd never adapted a book before. Character scenes that advanced relationships often had to fall by the wayside because the book was long and I couldn't have a three hundred-page screenplay. Such scenes also slowed down the pacing. The pacing of a script is different than a novel because an audience will be sitting through the film all at once, as opposed to putting down a book and returning to it.
I also had to figure out how to visualize important information, like Alex's backstory, into a format so the audience would not be bored. Turning key thoughts and feelings of characters into dialogue or action also proved tricky. Spinner is a very visual book with lots of spooky scenes (the kids creeping around a graveyard at night) and action sequences (Alex in his wheelchair hanging onto the back of a speeding pickup truck while the bad guys pursue in a car) that translated well to script format. But the supernatural "connection" Alex had with his friends, as well as his "spinning" ability, were less easy to "show," rather than "tell." The novel is four hundred sixty-one pages and the screenplay came out to one hundred sixty-one, so you can see I had to cut a lot, including a couple of subplots that enhanced the novel but were not essential to the script. I entered the screenplay in three competitions. It achieved semi-finalist status in one, and I've not heard back from the other two.
So, you want to be a writer, right? Here's my take on novels versus screenplays: both are very difficult to market to the right people. Books are easier to get published these days, especially since you can self-publish, as I've done with most of my books. Did having a small press publisher help with the two books that had one? Not at all. Sadly, they have no greater access to the big journals than I do. And by big journals, I mean School Library Journal, Booklist, Library Journal, Publisher's Weekly, to name a few. Especially with books aimed at teenagers or kids, without reviews and promotion from those journals, it's almost impossible for an author to reach the target audience. If a writer pens books for adults, the field is wider and the chances for success are greater.
Promotion is left to the author whether the book is small press or self-published. There are a number of virtual online blog tours that can help raise exposure and interest level for a book (Tribute Books Blog Tours and Sage's Blog Tours being two excellent choices), but again, these are mainly successful with books aimed at adults. For screenplays, as noted above, there are really just "competitions" that might showcase your script to industry professionals. If you actually know someone in the film industry who would read your script, then by all means write it. But make sure you have others beta read it and help you polish it so the script is the best it can be. You will only get one shot at impressing that person you know.
So there you have my experiences writing screenplays and books and attempting to market both to the appropriate people. I hope I haven't discouraged anyone out there. Yes, it's an uphill battle in either arena, and will require a lot of time and effort on your part. But your dream is to be a writer, right? So isn't your dream worth all that effort? Only you can decide. But one thing I know from reading lots of books and seeing lots of films – we NEED good writers, especially those who think outside the box and don't imitate the same old formula or try to create the next carbon copy of Hunger Games or Twilight. So please, if you have an original story to tell, tell it. Share it. Someone will appreciate it, even if you don't become a best-selling author or six-figure screenwriter. Your story will change someone's life. Even mine have, and I'm an author no one has ever heard of. But that's another story for some other time. For now, keep writing!
Filed Under: Writing Tagged With: indie publishing vs self publishing, novel to screenplay adaptation, novel writing, path to writing success, promoting your writing, screenplay to novel, screenwriting, screenwriting can teach you how to think visually, writing novels vs screenplays


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Cet article présente le guide de la saison 2 de la série télévisée d'animation américaine Quoi d'neuf Scooby-Doo ? (What's New, Scooby-Doo?).

Épisode 1 : La Légende de L'Ancien

Titre original : Big Appetite In Little Tokyo
Numéro(s) : 15 (2.1)
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Résumé : Vera et ses amis vont à Tôkyô. La jeune fille va participer à un concours scientifique et présenter son expérience sur les vers de terre et l'espace. Ils y rencontrent le professeur Honodera, un scientifique harcelé par le fantôme d'un vieux sage. Ce dernier invoque un monstre géant pour détruire les aménagements urbains dont le professeur est si fier. Le Scooby-Gang va aider le scientifique tout en essayant d'échapper à Takehiko Tanaka, une jeune policière ambitieuse aidée par Eliott, un adolescent passionné de sciences qui considère Vera comme sa rivale n°1.

Épisode 2 : Le Réveil de la Momie

Titre original : Mummy Scares Best
Numéro(s) : 16 (2.2)
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Résumé : Invités en Égypte, sur un lieu de fouilles archéologiques autour d'une pyramide, Fred, Daphné, Véra, Sammy et Scooby sont surpris, la nuit venue, par la momie d'un pharaon, jadis assassiné.

Épisode 3 : Scoubidou au pays des Lombritropiens

Titre original : The Fast and the Wormious
Numéro(s) : 17 (2.3)
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Résumé : Le Scooby-Gang participent à une course dans le désert. Les participants concourent sur divers moyens de locomotion : voiture, Mystery Machine pour le Scooby-Gang, moto, kart ou encore Monster Truck. Cependant, un ver géant surgit de terre et s'en prend aux pilotes. Pour ne pas arranger les choses, une secte qui idolâtre le ver gigantesque tente de saboter la course.

Épisode 4 : La Maison du futur

Titre original : High-Tech House of Horrors
Numéro(s) : 18 (2.4)
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Résumé : Se rendant à l'exposition universelle de la robotique, ils découvrent qu'une attraction, la maison du futur, gérée par un ordinateur, est fermée à la suite d'une disparition et d'évènements étranges.

Épisode 5 : Le Vampire contre-attaque

Titre original : The Vampire Strikes Back
Numéro(s) : 19 (2.5)
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Résumé : La bande à Scooby se rend dans un château médiéval pour voir leurs amies, des jeunes filles qui forment un groupe de rock et veulent tourner un clip en ce lieu. Mais l'ancien hôte du château, un vampire les prend en chasse.

Épisode 6 : Spécial Halloween : L'Halloween de la prophétie

Titre original : Scooby-Doo Halloween
Numéro(s) : 20 (2.6)
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Résumé : Le Scooby-Gang passe Halloween dans le village de Marcy, la cousine de Vera. Mais les épouvantails se mettent à attaquer les gens avec des armes. De plus, le fantôme d'un vieux fou apparaît et annonce aux fêtards que sa prophétie se réalise.

Épisode 7 : Le Concours canin

Titre original : Homeward Hound
Numéro(s) : 21 (2.7)
Scénariste(s) :
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Diffusion(s) :
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Invité(es) :
Résumé : Le Scooby-Gang visite un concours canin. Mais rien ne se passe comme prévu : les petits chiots favoris du concours sont enlevés par deux voleurs. De plus, Scooby-Doo change radicalement de comportement.

Épisode 8 : Le San Franpsycho

Titre original : The San Franpsycho
Numéro(s) : 22 (2.8)
Scénariste(s) :
Réalisateur(s) :
Diffusion(s) :
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Invité(es) : Ryan Sheckler
Résumé : Les cinq compagnons sont invités par le célèbre skateur Ryan Sheckler à un concours en plein air de skate à San Francisco alors qu'un monstre décharné couvert d'algues et armé d'un crochet terrorise les concurrents.

Épisode 9 : Sale plan pour les Simple Plan

Titre original : Simple Plan and the Invisible Madman
Numéro(s) : 23 (2.9)
Scénariste(s) :
Réalisateur(s) :
Diffusion(s) :
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Invité(es) :
Résumé :Fred, Véra, Daphné, Sammy et Scooby-Doo sont en route pour aller à un festival musical applaudir leur groupe préféré, les Simple Plan. Par hasard, ils les rencontrent lors d'un accident causé par l'Homme invisible.

Épisode 10 : Le Scooby monstre

Titre original : Recipe for Disaster
Numéro(s) : 24 (2.10)
Scénariste(s) :
Réalisateur(s) :
Diffusion(s) :
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Invité(es) : Les Simple Plan
Résumé : Sammy et Scooby-Doo gagnent à un concours où deux choix de vacances sont proposés. Ils préfèrent visiter l'usine de Crock-Scooby, leurs biscuits préférés plutôt que d'aller en vacances à la mer, au grand dam de Fred, Daphné et Vera. Cependant, un gigantesque monstre composé de pâte à biscuit les poursuit. Quelqu'un en voudrait-il au directeur de l'usine ?
Commentaire le personnage d'Ernest s'inspire de Willy Wonka dans Charlie et la Chocolaterie.

Épisode 11 : Le Dragon de Glasborough

Titre original : Large Dragon at Large
Numéro(s) : 25 (2.11)
Scénariste(s) :
Réalisateur(s) :
Diffusion(s) :
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Invité(es) :
Résumé : Le Scooby-Gang participent à un événement festif en Écosse au château de Glasborough. Les visiteurs sont déguisés en chevaliers, princesses et ménestrels. Vera y rencontre son acteur favori qui interpréta Lancelot du Lac dans une série sur la Table Ronde. Mais la fête tourne au cauchemar quand un gigantesque dragon fait son apparition.

Épisode 12 : Tonton Scooby en Antarctique

Titre original : Uncle Scooby and Antarctica
Numéro(s) : 26 (2.12)
Scénariste(s) :
Réalisateur(s) :
Diffusion(s) :
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Résumé : La bande à Scooby rejoint des scientifiques qui mènent une expédition en Antarctique. C'est là qu'un grand savant a été enlevé et jeté dans les eaux glacés par une créature affreuse mi-homme mi-piranha.

Épisode 13 : L'Aigle maléfique

Titre original : New Mexico, Old Monster
Numéro(s) : 27 (2.13)
Scénariste(s) :
Réalisateur(s) :
Diffusion(s) :
 :
Invité(es) :
Résumé : Scooby et ses amis rendent visite au cousin de Sammy et à son chien Shooby qui tiennent un stand d'objets indiens au Mexique. C'est là qu'un aigle géant les attaque.

Épisode 14 : La Porte de l'Atlantide

Titre original : It's All Greek to Scooby
Numéro(s) : 28 (2.14 )
Scénariste(s) :
Réalisateur(s) :
Diffusion(s) :
 :
Invité(es) :
Résumé : Les 5 amis vont en vacances en Grèce. Mais ils sont attaqués par un monstre de la mythologie grecque : un Centaure.

Voir aussi

Articles connexes
 Scooby-Doo
 Saison 1 de Quoi d'neuf Scooby-Doo ?
 Saison 3 de Quoi d'neuf Scooby-Doo ?

Quoi

en:List of What's New, Scooby-Doo? episodes

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Cheektowaga, NY. Native Max Mikowski introduced himself in his Evansville Thunderbolts debut tonight against the second-place Macon Mayhem. Mikowski made a major impact by scoring a goal in his first professional game that would spark a three-goal third period from the Thunderbolts, as Evansville was just barely edged by Macon, 5-3.
Jake Schultz would get in his first brawl as an Evansville Thunderbolt late in the second period, taking on a solid opponent in Macon's Seth Ronsberg. It would be an even bout with plenty of shots exchanged, for a solid 15-20 seconds before being split up by the linesmen and shaking hands in a show of mutual respect before heading to the dressing rooms for the rest of the second period. The Thunderbolts, who were outshot in the first period, took a shot lead in the second period, as the momentum built up. The third period would be their best of the night, as Mikowski scored his first goal at the 3:02 mark, off a deflection play from Frank Schumacher and C.J. Blaszka. After two quick goals by Macon, Scott Donohue would score with 3:59 left on a rebound from Eric Salzillo to make it 5-2. The Thunderbolts would get even closer as Nick D'Avolio scored on a rebound with 1:22 left from Shayne Morrissey and Brandon Tucker to make it 5-3, but that would be as close as the Thunderbolts would get.
Mikowski, D'Avolio, and Donahue had the Evansville goals, while Braeden Ostepchuk made 37 saves in net.


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Hospital nurses
equal pay for nurses
state government nurse
private hospital nurse
Indian Nursing Council
Now, equal pay for private and state-run hospital nurses, recommends committee set up by the Indian Nursing Council
A committee set up by the Indian Nursing Council has mandated that nurses working in private hospitals be paid on a par with those employed in state government hospitals.Hemali Chhapia | TNN | September 23, 2016, 09:57 IST
MUMBAI: Nurses, the lifeline in the patient-care system, may no longer be underpaid.
A committee set up by the Indian Nursing Council has mandated that nurses working in private hospitals be paid on a par with those employed in state government hospitals.
The plight of the private sector nurses can be imagined from the fact that they barely take home a fraction of what nurses in the government sector earn. Arun Kadam, executive president of Maharashtra State Nurses Association, said, "Many in the private sector take home Rs 2,500-6,000 a month. Even housemaids get paid more." Senior nurses in state-run institutions earn around Rs 80,000 a month, said Maharashtra Government Nurses Federation representatives.
The new recommendation covers every healthcare facility—from stand-alone hospitals to tiny nursing homes to large chains and brands. The first recommendation is that the base wage will be a minimum of Rs 20,000 a month.
In case of 50- to 100-bed hospitals, the salary "should not be more than 25% less" in comparison to state government nurses, recommended the committee. Mid-sized hospitals with 100 to 200 beds must "not pay more than 10% less" in comparison to state hospital nursing staff. Larger centres with 200 beds or more must pay salaries on a par with state government nurses, depending on their grades and experience.
The committee's recommendations follow a long-drawn court battle for better working conditions for nurses in private hospitals. In January, the Supreme Court directed the Centre to set up a committee to investigate the living conditions and salary structure of nurses employed in private hospitals and nursing homes.
In its report, the committee said, "Their pay and working conditions is really pathetic and some steps are required to be taken to uplift the standard of working conditions in respect of nurses." The panel has accordingly defined working conditions for nurses as well. "Work hours, transportation, medical facilities and accommodation too must be on a par with the facilities enjoyed by nurses in government hospitals," said the committee report.
Maharashtra Nursing Council president Dr Ramling Mali said, "This is a good move by the Supreme Court and the Central government to give justice to the nurses. But the state government, on its part, must amend the Bombay Nursing Home Registration Act and the Maharashtra Nurses Act, 1966, for the remuneration to paid to nurses in the private sector."
A senior nurse from a south Mumbai hospital said that salaries in the private sector had improved in the last five years, but are nowhere near the government scales. "Private hospitals charge a bomb from patients, but never give their nurses a better deal," she said.
(With inputs by Malathy Iyer)
Tags : Hospitals, Hospital nurses, equal pay for nurses, state government nurse, salary, private hospital nurse, Indian Nursing Council

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Pension System in Brazil
Updates and reforms
June 2015, President Dilma Rousseff announced a short term fix to the countries haemorrhaging pension system. The rule will restrict access to full pensions, Rousseff's decree establishes a progressive scale limiting access to full pensions gradually through to 2022.
Brazil's pension's minister agrees this will ensure stability is restored within the pensions system.
This reform has had a negative response from a Brasilia-based economic consultant, who claims that this reform will only put the country further away from a meaningful overhaul.
However, the cabinet minister does recognise that this fix will only stem the problem in the short term and more established deeper reform could take years.
The day before the announcement 'Rousseff vetoed Congress's bill containing a so-called 85/95 formula, which allows women to draw full pension benefits if the sum of their age and years of pension payments reached 85. The same would go for men if the sum reached 95.
Instead, Rousseff issued a decree gradually increasing that sum by a total of five points over the next seven years: One point would be added to the required sum in 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.'
The Brazilian pension system has been subject to a series of ongoing reforms undertaken since the late 1990s. The need for reforms stemmed primarily from an overgenerous pension system that placed heavy pressure on the governmental budget. With the end of the military rule in 1988, the new democratic government implemented legislation that made the pension system the most generous and expensive among developing countries. The Asian and Russian crisis in the late 1990s further stressed the country's financial stability. The adoption of fiscal reforms was essential to control inflation and to recover internal and external fiscal imbalances.
The pension schemes for civil servants and private sector workers were amended in two rounds. Amongst other reforms, benefits were reduced and limited to a monthly ceiling, a minimum pension age was established and vesting periods were implemented, which has curbed the more generous excesses of the system. Before, the only variable used to respond to financial imbalances was the raising of contribution rates. This undermined the incentives to work and limited economic growth as overall social security contributions amounted to 50%. Despite the initial reforms, the government did not succeed in ensuring long-term financial stability of the system, which forced Brazil to enact further changes.
Total pension assets under management amount to USD 97.4bn, accounting for 18.8% of GDP in 2003. Nevertheless, the overall coverage rate of complementary pension provision remains very low. In terms of assets under management, publicly owned company pension funds remain the largest shareholders providing pension provision mainly of the defined benefit type.
In Brazil, the 1st pillar consists of two schemes. The so-called Regime Geral de Previdência Social (RGPS), the general regime of social security, covers the private-sector workforce. It is financed through payroll taxes (shared by the employer and the employee), revenues from sales taxes and federal transfers that cover shortfalls of the system.
The RGPS is a mandatory, pay-as-you-go-financed single-pillar scheme, which is operated by the National Social Security Institute. A key element of the RGPS is the strong redistribution towards the poor elderly. Redistribution is mainly achieved by exemptions from contributions and reduced contribution rates for low-wage earners and certain sectors by providing a generous minimum pension level. However, these exemptions weaken the contribution basis, which is counterproductive to achieving the long-term financial sustainability of the system.
A high contribution rate under the general RGPS system and for social security as a whole leads to a shift from the formal to the informal sector. The Brazilian system lacks incentives to participate in social security as it provides generous social assistance with low eligibility requirements.
Private-sector employees are entitled to retire with a full pension at age 65 for men and 60 for women if they have a contribution record of at least 15 years. Alternatively, it is possible to retire after having contributed to social security for 35 years for men and 30 years for women, irrespective of the retiree's age.
Public-sector employees are covered by multiple special pension regimes at different governmental levels pooled to the Regimes Próprios de Previdência Social (RPPS). Municipal, federal and state entities manage their own schemes for their employees, but are jointly coordinated by the Ministry of Pensions and Social Assistance. In general, these pension plans are financed on a pay-as-you-go basis with the employee paying a percentage of their salary. The percentage varies depending on the public entity.
Compared to the private-sector scheme benefits, public-sector employees receive higher pensions for lower contribution rates. Reform measures in 1998 led to amendments in the benefit formula, to the establishment of minimum pension ages and to the implementation of a vesting period for employees switching to a public-sector scheme from the RGPS system.
Now, 10 years of work within the government are required to qualify for a pension, whereas there was no vesting period before. The pension benefit formula was also changed from a final salary scheme to one that takes into account the best salaries from positions the member held for at least five years. To be entitled to a full public-sector pension benefit, the statutory retirement age is 60 for men and 55 for women. This applies only to new members who join the system. Those who were already employed in the public sector are subject to more lenient eligibility requirements with men entitled to the pension at the age of 53 and women at the age of 48.
Besides the two schemes for civil servants and private-sector employees, social assistance programmes shield the elderly from poverty. These programmes are non-contributory, providing means-tested pensions amounting to the minimum wage. As a result, the poverty rate among the elderly is lower than the average population poverty rate.
Voluntary Pensions Plans
Complementary pensions have a long history in Brazil and the county has the oldest system in Latin America. Under the Regime de Previdência Complementar (RPC), both occupational and personal pensions are provided on a voluntary basis. Two pension vehicles exist that can be used to finance private pension benefits.
Closed private pension entities are non-profit organisations that can be established on a single-employer or multi-employer basis and by labour unions. The accumulated assets are legally separated from the sponsoring undertaking. In addition to the closed approach, which is predominantly chosen by large employers, authorised financial institutions provide complementary pension provision through open private pension entities.
This type of pension plan is not necessarily linked to employment. Open pension entities offer their services to employers, employees, the self-employed and even unemployed individuals. This approach to pension provision is mostly chosen by small and medium-sized employers and offered to their employees. Compared to closed pension entities, this type of pension plan can have disadvantages in the form of less flexibility in making investment decisions, higher fees and less administrative control.
The Brazilian complementary pension system can neither be classified as a second- nor as a third-pillar system as employers could contribute to a personal pension plan and individuals could participate in the occupational pension plan the employer offers.
The regulatory environment for open and closed private pension entities differs. The State Secretariat for Pension Funds supervises closed funds in regards to, amongst other areas, governance, disclosure, investment and fees. The National Board of Complementary Pensions, which is linked to the Ministry of Social Security, makes the main regulatory decisions. The supervision of open private pension entities is carried out by the Superintendence of Private Insurance, which is linked to the Ministry of Finance. The National Board of Private Insurance is in charge of setting the relevant regulations.
A comparison of the two pension vehicles reveals that closed pension funds clearly dominate the market with assets under management accounting for 15.9% of GDP in 2003, according to publications provided by the State Secretary for Pension Funds. The assets under management of open private pension funds amounted to USD 15.2bn, representing 2.9% of GDP. With total assets under management of USD 97.4bn amounting to 18.8% of GDP in 2003, Brazil ranks quite high in international statistics. According to more recent data from the OECD, total pension fund assets in Brazil have already grown to USD 166bn in 2006. Nevertheless, the overall coverage rate of complementary pension provision remains very low. In terms of assets under management, publicly owned company pension funds remain the largest shareholders providing pension provision mainly of the defined benefit type. Within the market for open pension funds, insurance companies are the main players in providing supplementary pension plans.
The government passed new legislation in 2001 to replace the 1977 regulations. The new law brought significant changes to plans offered under a closed entity arrangement. With effect from 2003, discretionary vesting promises were replaced with a statutory vesting period of three years and the portability of assets between pension plans was improved.
Tax treatment of contributions and benefits
In general, contributions to private pension plans are tax-deductible up to certain limits for both the employee and the employer. New legislation passed in 2001 focused on making supplemental pensions more attractive and terminated the Special Taxation Regime as of 2005. In contrast to the old legislation, the 20% withholding tax on pension fund investment returns was removed, which has generated higher net returns and lowered costs for defined benefit schemes.
Pension benefits are taxed as ordinary income.
Investment regulation
Quantitative investment restrictions apply to pension assets as follows:
- Low credit risk bonds are limited to 80%; this limit decreases with increasing credit risk
- Listed stocks are limited to 50%
- Private equity is limited to 20%
- Real estate is limited to 10%, which will decrease to 8% by 2009
- One single company must not exceed 20% of the company's capital, and only up to 5% of the pension fund assets may be invested in any one single company
Due to the generosity of the state pension system, further reforms are inevitable as pension expenditures account for an increasing share of public spending. Besides the ongoing strengthening of complementary pensions, the OECD made a number of proposals regarding the general regime of social security for private-sector employees. Future reforms should primarily focus on the following:
- Abolishment of the strong link between minimum pensions and minimum wages.
- Presently minimum wage policy directly affects public finances through simultaneous movements in pension benefits.
- The number of years required to qualify for a full pension should be increased and a minimum retirement age implemented.
- Special grants for employees in certain sectors should be abolished.
The recommendations made by international organisations are considered necessary to ensure the sustainability of the public pension system.
It can be seen that complementary pensions are gaining in importance. New legislation, effective since 2005, made supplementary pensions more attractive and has contributed to the gradual shift towards private pensions.
Compiled by Allianz Global Investors
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Susan is a choreographer, teacher, researcher, rehearsal director, and performer. In New York, she trained at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance to become a performer in the Martha Graham Ensemble as well as a teacher of the faculty.
She has worked in higher education for over 20 years, in numerous institutions globally, most notably serving as Senior Lecturer with Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.
She has collaborated with Dr Glenna Batson on imagery research and presented at numerous conferences. She has performed for Tino Sehgal and for Candoco Dance Company in a work of Jerome Bel.
Her personal work focuses on durational installations, using the body, objects, sound, moving/still image and has exhibited in the UK, Ireland, USA, Italy, Portugal, Netherlands, and for the online symposium Waterwheel 2014.
2012: exposed: Film in collaboration with dancer Irina Baldini and composer Ronen Kozokaro. Created for the MA module, Investigative Practice led by Rosemary Butcher. Film exploring 4 episodes of light… into the interior, into the body. Exhibited: dancing bodies, moving images at Decoda Coventry University, UK 2012, HangartFest Pesaro, Italy 2012, AWA Gallery Overtoom 301 Amsterdam, The Netherlands 2013, Open Screening Whitechapel Gallery London, UK 2013, Light Moves Limerick, Ireland Nov 2014.
2014: Waterwheel: Article for the 2014 symposium, See, Sea: an exploration of memory and time.
2014–2015: BST Journal winter issue, See, Sea within Performances category.
2010: Dance Notation Bureau: Library News Publication for the DNB, Volume IV No. 2 March 2010. Article: Laban Restages Primitive Mysteries: A Collaboration Between Kinesthetic Memory and Labanotation.


text:
Posts Tagged 'content areas'
AACTE Receives Longview Foundation Support to Create a Global Education Faculty Professional Learning Community
By Brooke Evans
Through the generous support of the Longview Foundation, the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) is launching a new Global Education Faculty Professional Learning Community (PLC). This PLC will provide a peer support network and professional development to faculty at comprehensive teacher preparation programs to effectively integrate global teaching competencies within their curriculum and practices.
A long-time supporter of AACTE, Longview Foundation Executive Director Jennifer Manise reflects on why the foundation has invested in AACTE since 1967: "the Longview Foundation made a grant to AACTE in its inaugural year to bring global perspectives to teacher education programs. In 2023, Longview awarded our eighteenth grant to AACTE. Together, we will support faculty development and innovative programming to prepare new educators and their students to be globally ready."
NASA Space Science Education Resources and the Importance of Real-World, Authentic Solutions for Meaningful Student Learning
By Anne Tapp
Quality real-world Science Technology Engineering and Mathematic (STEM) educational resources are needed within programs of teacher education and P-12 classrooms. The National Association of Manufacturing (2018) reported that the United States will need to fill 3.5 million jobs by 2025, with more than two million going unfilled due to lack of highly skilled in-demand candidates. The US Defense Industrial Base Industrial Capabilities Report (2021) showed a need for STEM education by stating that the STEM shortage is quickly approaching crisis status. This report is a congressionally-mandated, annual requirement in which the Secretary of Defense informs the armed services committees on the actions, investments, and overall health of the U.S. defense industrial base.
Senate Strikes Efforts to Overturn Rules on Allocating Federal Funds to Charter Schools
By Kaitlyn Brennan
This weekly Washington Update is intended to keep members informed on Capitol Hill activities impacting the educator preparation community. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.
On Friday afternoon President Biden signed a short-term funding bill, otherwise known as a continuing resolution or CR, that will keep the government open and funded through December 23. The CR keeps the government open and freezes funding levels at their FY22 levels while appropriators finalize a deal for the FY23 spending bill. Stay tuned as we now have one final busy week in Washington before Members of Congress break for the holiday.
Opinion: Problems with the 'Teacher Pipeline' — An Unfit Analogy for Finding (and Fostering) Future Educators
By Daniel Bergman
"Teacher Pipeline" is a common term used to encompass issues of teacher recruitment, preparation, and retention. The phrase is not new, popular in seasons of dire teacher shortages —from the 1980s (AACTE, 1988; Ekstrom & Goertz, 1985) to our present age (Choate, Goldhaber, & Theobald, 2020; Goldhaber & Mizrav, 2021; Kyser et al., 2021).
A "Teacher Pipeline" evokes vivid imagery: supply and demand, staff shortages akin to an energy crisis, and an impetus to extract and extrude future educators. To wit, the pipeline analogy lends itself to further symbolism such as "refueling" (Goldhaber et al., 2015/6); "widening" (Gagnon et al., 2019), "excavating" (Goldhaber & Cowan, 2014); and dealing with numerous "breaks," "holes," or "leaks" (Barth et al., 2016; Shah et al., 2018; Stohr, Fontana, & Lapp, 2018; TNTP, 2020).
Preparation to Teach in Technology-Rich K-12 Classroom Environments
By Jenna Conan Simpson
In today's schools, the ability to integrate technology into the teaching and learning environment is a necessary and crucial skill. Many K-12 classroom environments are technology-rich, with 1:1 devices, blended learning, and even distance instruction taking place. However, new teachers often enter the classroom unprepared to successfully utilize educational technology and navigate the technology-rich classroom environment. The research study, Preparation to Teach in Technology-Rich K-12 Classroom Environments, examined the preparation of preservice teachers to teach with technology in today's classrooms and explored the gap between the preparation teachers received in their teacher education program and what they needed to be able to do to be successful as classroom teachers. The study was conducted during the spring of 2022, and a total of 217 K to 12th grade teachers in their first three years of teaching in the United States participated in the survey, with ten participating in an in-depth follow-up interview.
Reflecting Back on 2022; Looking Forward to 2023
By Lynn M. Gangone
Greetings! As we are entering the final months of 2022 and AACTE is strategically planning for the year ahead, I wanted to share some prodigious achievements we have made over the year and updates from our recent Board of Directors' meeting.
Given the scope and scale of the teacher shortage, at the Board of Directors' meeting, we determined that we should evaluate all current and new opportunities based on whether they will contribute to increasing enrollment in educator preparation programs. We are calling this our "North Star." The strategic priorities of the association won't change. Still, we will emphasize the near term on addressing the teacher shortage, understanding that by doing so thoughtfully and carefully, we can advance our priorities in advocacy, DEI, and advancing educator prep policy, practice, and research. I am also pleased that our Strategic Priority, "Promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion," has been changed to "Prioritizing DEI" because it better reflects AACTE's emphasis on racial and social justice and equity.
Call for Manuscripts: The Teacher Educators' Journal
By Kristien Zenkov
The Teacher Educators' Journal (TTEJ) is published by the Virginia Association of Colleges and Teacher Educators (VACTE), a state unit of the Association of Teacher Educators (ATE) and the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE). The journal aims to stimulate discussion and reflection about issues related to teacher education; authors need not be based in and research need not be conducted in Virginia for manuscripts to be considered for publication. Manuscripts submitted for consideration may be research/empirical reports and analyses, position papers, book reviews, or conceptual essays.
To facilitate collaboration amongst teacher education scholars and practitioners and improve teaching, research, and student learning, the Fall 2023 special issue of the journal will call on authors to address two related sub-themes in two distinct sections.
Section I: The sub-theme for this section is "Opportunity Gaps and Collaborative Inquiry: Structures, Explorations, and Early Outcomes of the ATE Inquiry Initiative."
Section II: The sub-theme for this section is "From Policy to Practice: Striving for Inclusive Excellence through Personal Reflection, Connectivity, and the Building of Support Systems for Leaders, Educators, Students, and Families."
Congress Addresses Book Bans and Teacher Union Negotiations
This week, Washington, D.C. welcomed more than 2,000 in-person participants and 1,500 virtual attendees for the annual National HBCU Week Conference. This year's conference focused on the work the federal government is doing to meet President Biden's executive order that directed federal agencies to increase their engagement with HBCUs. Under the order, federal agencies must submit plans each year that describe how they are working to increase HBCU participation in their programs. The conference also comes as a group of Florida A&M University students announced they are suing the state's university system in federal court alleging that the HBCU has not been receiving its fair share of funding for years.
Aiding Teacher Candidates' Understanding of Learner Variability
By Rachel Besharat Mann
Rachel Besharat Mann will share her experience in translating learning sciences into practice using the Digital Promise Learner Variability Navigator tool during the webinar co-hosted by AACTE, "Learning Sciences Research for the Classroom" on September 26, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. Below, Mann offers a preview about her experience using the web app for whole child learning.
You can read all of the teaching books and take all of the courses but being in the classroom is a completely different experience. You are working with individual people with varied backgrounds and needs and their behaviors; strengths, and needs can change based on a variety of factors outside of a teacher's control. There is no roadmap to tell you how students learn differently or even if they are learning at all. This is a lesson I've learned the hard way over the years and have vowed to help my higher education students avoid the same pitfalls in K-12 classrooms that I did.
29 Aug2022
Civics Secures Democracy Act Reintroduced in the Senate
By Michael Rose
A bipartisan group of senators and representatives have introduced the Civics Secures Democracy Act, which would authorize an historic investment to support K–12 civic education and American history. AACTE urges members to reach out to their Members of Congress to encourage them to support the Civics Secures Democracy Act through the Action Alert in the AACTE Advocacy Center.
Over the last several decades, civics education in American schools has seen a significant decline. Given the divisiveness in our politics and the lack of knowledge and understanding of democratic principles, norms, and institutions, a robust investment in civics education is needed.
The Family Engagement Core Competencies: Preparing Educators to Reflect, Connect, Collaborate, and Lead Alongside Families
By Margaret Caspe and Reyna Hernandez
Last summer, the National Association for Family School and Community Engagement (NAFSCE) released, in partnership with AACTE and other vital partners, findings of our national survey of educator preparation programs. We thank many of the AACTE members who responded to the survey the purpose of which was to investigate how educators are prepared to engage families and communities in their practice. Results of the research showed that only half of educator preparation programs have a standalone course on family and community engagement and nearly all struggle to embed family and community engagement topics throughout their curriculum meaningfully. This is unfortunate, particularly in light of the teacher shortage crisis, given that strong respectful relationships with families and communities are key reasons that educators choose to stay in the profession.
Literacy Leaders Undergo Transformative Experience Through Warren Fellowship
By Teresa Monaco Burnett
This May, a group of students in the Texas Christian University's College of Education took a week-long trip to the Holocaust Museum of Houston as part of the Warren Fellowship program. The trip was a culmination of studying the Holocaust and antisemitism in Jan Lacina's Literacy Leadership class. Lacina is the Bezos Family Foundation Endowed Chair in Early Childhood Education and associate dean of graduate studies in the TCU College of Education.
"I was compelled to integrate course goals, readings, and discussions about the Holocaust into my Literacy Leadership class because of recent antisemitic acts that took place in Texas," Lacina said.
University of Iowa $15M Gift to Support School Mental Health
By Lois J. Gray
This article was originally published by the University of Iowa College of Education.
Thanks to a generous $15 million gift from the Scanlan Family Foundation, the Iowa Center for School Mental Health in the University of Iowa College of Education will be renamed the Scanlan Center for School Mental Health, pending approval from the Board of Regents, State of Iowa, at its July 27 board meeting.
In addition to the new name, the gift will expand clinical support for school mental health in collaboration with the Belin-Blank Center, not only across the state but across the nation.
The Importance of Community Engagement and Freedom of Expression in Higher Ed
By Natalie Khairallah
Educational institutions must engage with their communities to illuminate the systemic injustices experienced by those hypermarginalized, including people and communities of color.
In the Spring 2022 issue of AAC&U' magazine, Liberal Education, AACTE member Tania Mitchell reflects on the killing of George Floyd to highlight these structural inequities. She urges those in higher education to rethink how community can be created and how to engage differently within the context of racism, economic inequality, and COVID 19:
"Our community engagement work of colleges and universities should be revealing. It should illuminate the systemic injustices that reify and deepen the marginalization already experienced. Moreover, it should focus on the policies, practices, conditions, and experiences that shape the everyday realities of the poor and people of color."
Register for JUSTEC 2022 by August 15
Educators in the United States and Japan are invited to register for the Japan-U.S. Teacher Education Consortium's 32nd conference, JUSTEC 2022, which will take place September 23 – 25. This year's three-day conference is supported by AACTE; the U.S. Embassy, Tokyo; and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, Japan. It will draw its focus on the theme, "Collaborative Teacher Education in the United States and Japan in the Era of Uncertainties." Register by August 15 to reserve your spot.


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Barbara A. (Curtis) Hall
September 10, 1941 ~ January 2, 2023 (age 81) 81 Years Old
Read more about the life story of Barbara and share your memory.
Barbara Hall, age 81, passed away on January 2, 2023. Barb is preceded in death by her husband of 58 years, Jim Hall.
Barb was born September 10, 1941, to Frank Curtis and Frances (Finlan) Curtis. She graduated from Fowlerville High School in 1959 to pursue an associate degree in nursing from Mercy School of Nursing of Detroit in Ann Arbor. Barb married Jim Hall on August 31, 1963, and while Jim finished his bachelor's degree at NMU in Marquette, Barb worked at hospital maternity and deliveries ward until their first child, James Timothy "Tim", was born in 1964. Barb loved children and would have remained in this field of nursing. Instead, Barb and Jim returned to Fowlerville in 1967; Jim took job with State Farm Insurance and Barb returned to the family-owned grocery store, Frank's IGA. Kelley Joan, Jim and Barb's second child, was born in 1968.
Through the years, Barb's medical training, combined with her compassion and helpfulness, often made her the family, IGA, or neighborhood medic for emergencies or illnesses, and splinters from walking barefoot in the woods on Drummond Island. An organizational outlet for this compassion was Barb's community service for over a decade on Livingston County mental health association boards. She believed that mental health was an underserved area of need.
The oldest of her siblings and second eldest among her generation of Finlan cousins, Barb loved to socialize and host parties of all sorts. She enjoyed travelling with Jim on long vacations, most often to wherever Tim and Kelley were living at the time. Barb's not-so-secret favorite vacation spot was the Hawaiian island of Maui. Barb and Jim were active members of the St. Agnes parish community until their 2009 retirement to Au Gres, Michigan, where they attended St. Mark's Catholic Church.
Barb is survived by her son Tim (Tenly) Hall and step-grandchildren Sophia, Malek, and Gabriel Mabrouk; her daughter Kelley Hall (Jai Miranda); siblings Ken (Juanita) Curtis, Patricia (Don) Dowd, Carol (John) Jelken, Mary Curtis (Lori Horsic); sister-in-law Peg (Bob) Grover; and many nieces, nephews, and extended family. She is preceded in death, by her parents and sister, Joan Curtis.
Visitation will be held at Herrmann Funeral Home in Fowlerville from 3:00-7:00 pm on Thursday, January 5.On Friday, January 6, a funeral service will be held at St. Agnes Catholic Church with visitation at 10:00 am and mass at 11:00 am, followed by burial at Mt. Olivet Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Family Impact Center of Fowlerville.
1005 E. Grand River
Fowlerville, MI 48836
St. Agnes Catholic Church
855 E. Grand River
Mt. Olivet Cemetery
Cemetery Road
Barbara Hall
September 10, 1941-January 2, 2023
Image: Susie B / FreeDigitalPhotos.net


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Coronavirus (COVID-19) National News
CANADA: Pandemic worsening mental health for women more than men, poll suggests
Rates of worsening mental health were also high for single parents in the survey, with 40 per cent describing their mental health as bad or very bad
Jan 14, 2021 9:25 AM By: Canadian Press
OTTAWA — Aisha Addo was having a talk just the other day with a close friend about how they were faring as the pandemic stretched into 2021.
She said her friend spoke candidly about feeling like she was falling into a state of depression and being unable to pull herself out of it.
"We're all experiencing the same things — some people more intensely than others," said Addo, who founded the non-profit Power To Girls Foundation.
New polling from Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies suggests some Canadians feel their mental health has declined as the pandemic has rolled on, with the impacts potentially striking women, single parents, the unemployed, relatively recent immigrants and racialized people more than others.
The survey shows female respondents were more likely than men to report their mental health as bad or very bad across a range of age groups, but especially between the ages of 18 and 34 years old.
Rates of worsening mental health were also high for single parents in the survey, with 40 per cent describing their mental health as bad or very bad.
Tanya Hayles, founder of the global group Black Moms Connection, said many parents are feeling stretched by having to work from home while overseeing virtual learning. She said a further burden for Black parents are issues of systemic racism.
"This pandemic has adversely affected women more than men and it's women who are leaving the workforce altogether to make sure that their children have what they need," she said.
"If you're a single parent, there are no breaks."
Jack Jedwab, president of the Association for Canadian Studies, said mental health might worsen with new lockdowns and restrictions as people lose the outlet of visiting friends and family. Some respondents in the survey said they did that over the holidays.
"It's a very significant challenge for governments that are introducing lockdowns and curfews to not see the mental health side of this crisis get exacerbated," Jedwab said.
The online survey was conducted Jan. 2-3 with 1,523 respondents. It can't be assigned a margin of error because web panels are not considered random samples of the population.
The results mirror findings from earlier on in the pandemic when women reported feeling more worried than men about COVID-19 as they began taking on added care duties for children and aging parents, and lost their jobs at a faster rate than men, said Andrea Gunraj, vice-president of public engagement at the Canadian Women's Foundation.
Another factor at play is the increased risk for gender-based violence that predominantly targets women, she said.
"This picture of increased violence, and increased stresses in caregiving and housework, that intersects with the economic stresses that women uniquely have been facing," Gunraj said.
"It tells a certain picture about women's mental health right now … and the pandemic being a gender-pandemic at large."
The polling analysis also looked at results for immigrants and some racialized communities, which came through reviewing six surveys by Leger involving over 9,000 respondents between Oct. 29, 2020, and Jan. 3, 2021. It too cannot be assigned a margin of error as a web-based survey.
The data suggests that 25 per cent of people who have lived in Canada for less than five years reported their mental health was bad or very bad, while 19 per cent of respondents who were born in Canada reported the same.
Nearly 27 per cent of respondents who identified as South Asian reported their mental health being at that level, while 20 per cent of those who identified as Black and about 18 per cent of those who identified as Chinese reported the same.
Even before the pandemic, there was a lack of mental health resources for minority communities, Addo said. Many relied on their community for mental health support, which has disappeared with public health requests to avoid visiting friends and family, she said.
Accessing other resources is also difficult for vulnerable populations, particularly those with children learning remotely and maybe only one computer at home, Addo said.
Addo suggested governments create a mental health fund or program to ensure people who need it have someone to speak with.
"The moment that people are left to their own devices and are left to their own thoughts, it's easy to fall into depression, it's easy to become more anxious, and it's easy to feel more lonely," she said.
Any mental health services created should be diverse, Hayles said, noting that Black Canadians are often more comfortable expressing their issues to Black therapists.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 13, 2021.
Jordan Press, The Canadian Press
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We follow the Exeter School System (SAU 16) for weather related cancellations and delays Monday through Friday. Both daytime and evening classes are cancelled if school is closed, unless otherwise noted on the website homepage. If there are one or two hour school delays, classes will resume after 10am, unless otherwise noted on the website homepage. To learn about school closings go to www.wmur.com. Weekends please check the website homepage, the YogaLife Facebook page, or call 603-867-3969.
The studio is closed Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Years Day.
With our open drop-in policy, you have the opportunity to explore Yoga with the guidance of any of our instructors. Certified and registered through Yoga Alliance, all of our instructors are dedicated to living a Yoga lifestyle. Students of all ages and abilities are welcome.
The YogaLife Institute offers a wide variety of experiential and educational workshops and class series. All workshops and series are open to the public unless specifically stated in the description. Take your practice deeper and register today.
Our teachers serve to provide a "reminder" of what we already know in our hearts and souls to be true. The following writings reflect these reminders that we need practice and more practice, and a community that supports us in our path towards enlightenment.
The advanced training programs through the YogaLife Institute emphasizes the "living of Yoga" and thereby brings personal transformation to those who are ready and willing. We believe that those individuals who live their Yoga make the best Yoga instructors.
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"extreme" is referenced in the pages listed below.
Explores the Extreme Value Theorem (EVT) which states: If a function f is continuous on a closed interval then f has a global minimum and a global maximum on that interval. Interactive calculus applet.


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Isadelphus armatus är en stekelart som först beskrevs av Johann Ludwig Christian Gravenhorst 1829.  Isadelphus armatus ingår i släktet Isadelphus och familjen brokparasitsteklar. Arten är reproducerande i Sverige. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Brokparasitsteklar
armatus


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Manthey Porsche #911 wins the "Eifel sprint"
Two records at once: record winner Manthey Racing emerged victorious from the shortest-ever ADAC TOTAL 24h race. A 14.5-hour stoppage due to fog turned the 49th edition of the legendary "Eifel marathon" into an "Eifel sprint". After a magnificent opening phase and a faultless final stint, French driver Kevin Estre claimed the seventh win for the team from Meuspath in the Manthey Porsche #911 – the perfect gift to mark the 25th anniversary of the team's foundation. Italian Matteo Cairoli and Danish driver Michael Christensen hailed their team-mate as Estre rolled over the finishing line in "Grello", 8.8 seconds ahead of the Rowe BMW #98 with final driver Sheldon van der Linde, Martin Tomczyk, Marco Wittmann and Connor de Phillippi. It was the second-closest finish in the history of the race. Third place was claimed by the GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG #7. This result put three different brands on the podium.
ANZEIGEN PDF-DOWNLOAD
Yelloly secures pole position for defending champions
•	First Glickenhaus Trophy for the driver of the #1 Rowe BMW •	#19 Konrad Lamborghini and #4 HRT Mercedes AMG second and third •	Dries Vanthoor, Engel, Farfus and Mapelli reach Top Qualifying 2 On Friday evening, Nick Yelloly recorded a best time of 10:01.619 minutes at a rain-soaked Nürburgring to claim pole position in the 49th ADAC TOTAL 24h race for the defending champions. British driver Yelloly kept his cool in the #1 Rowe BMW for the defending champions as the rain poured down, securing the sought-after Glickenhaus Trophy for the fastest driver at the Ring, which he will be presented with on Saturday, around 45 minutes before the race starts.
Curtain up for the race of the year
•	Four days of action with 24h race, FIA WTCR and more racing highlights •	Tickets available: stands open for spectators on the Grand Prix circuit •	Just a few tickets remaining for Saturday - plenty of capacity on all other days •	Comprehensive reporting with live feed and on NITRO in free TV
Weekend Media Events
Accredited media representatives with access to the Media Center are invited to take part in the official press conferences for the ADAC TOTAL 24h race and FIA World Touring Car Cup (FIA WTCR) this weekend. All press conferences take place on the podium at the Media Center, which will also be the location on Friday for the draw to determine the starting sequence for Top Qualifying. The draw for the starting sequence will also be streamed live on the Facebook page for the 24h race. We would also like to take this opportunity to notify you of two special laps of honour at the ADAC TOTAL 24h race. Before Top Qualifying on Friday evening, Johannes Scheid will drive an accurate replica of the "Eifelblitz" around the Nordschleife, in memory of Sabine Schmitz. Just before the grid line-up begins on Saturday, the brand-new Glickenhaus hypercar will then complete a lap of honour around the circuit.
Hall of Fame: The winners list of the 24h race
For general inquiries you can reach us by email at [email protected].
Please send questions about your accreditation to [email protected].


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Accidents at Work – Employer's Liability and Claimants
by Andrew Fairman
Accidents and injuries at work remain a prevalent issue. This was recently highlighted in an incident in Rochdale, wherein a man became trapped in a machine. The man suffered crush injuries, and faced contamination from the chemicals used within the machine.
A harrowing thought that you could go to work and become injured during the normal course of your employment duties. If the unfortunate does occur, it is important to know what you can do in order to put yourself in the best position to recover from your accident.
Accidents at work can range from small occurrences, such as a simple trip over equipment, to a severe accident, such as the one which recently occurred in a factory in Rochdale.
Nevertheless, each incident should be treated the same way. Taking action against the employer with whom the fault lies should be considered, as the claimant should receive adequate compensation (assisting in a return to the quality of life enjoyed prior to the injury).
Employers have many obligations relating to their employees, including ensuring that their employees are:
operating in a safe environment
provided with that correct and safe equipment
provided with a safe and correct system of work
An employee must ensure that these requirements are upheld. Where these requirements are not in place, and an injury occurs as a result, liability will rest with the employer. The employee will be able to bring an action to recover compensation for the injury sustained.
The Enterprise Act took effect in October of 2013. This act provides that claimants will now have to prove the element of negligence on behalf of their employers, rather than simply relying on a breach of a regulation.
Yet, this does not – and should not – preclude claimants from bringing an action.
Whilst this does represent a change from the previous position held under the case of Stark v Post Office, and does remove the previous elements of strict liability on defendant employers for certain aspects, it does not restrict a claimant's action where a Defendant employer has not followed the correct procedure.
If an employer has not taken the reasonable steps to prevent an accident, or to comply with the relevant regulations, a claimant will be able to show that the Defendant employer has been negligent in not implementing regulations and the Defendant employer will still be liable.
In an uncertain world, the changes to Employer's Liability and the implementation of the Enterprise Act do suggest that a claimant will have to work harder to prove breach of duty by an employer. However, this does not mean that an employer can act unreasonably and that a claimant can have no recourse.
With incident's such as the recent occurrence in the Rochdale factory we are reminded that accident's at work remain a serious issue, and that employers should face recourse and sanctions where they have failed to act reasonably.
If you have been injured in an accident at work, contact Hampson Hughes Solicitors today on 0800 888 6888 or email claims@hampsonhughes.com


Yooka-Laylee - A 3D Platformer Rare-vival!
The creative talent behind Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong Country reveal an all-new platforming adventure for consoles and PC!
73,206 backers pledged £2,090,104 to help bring this project to life.
Yooka-Laylee for Nintendo Switch Arriving Soon!
After many months of work, Yooka-Laylee for Nintendo Switch is nearly, almost, so close to being in your possession!
In the lead up to Yooka-Laylee leaping on to Nintendo Switch, our artists have been getting in the mood by revisiting some of the Nintendo classics they helped create. See some of their amazing doodles below!
Kev Bayliss goes festive crazy with his character roster!
D-Boy, Andrew Caluzzi, and 150 more people like this update.
@Wesley Baron You're not the only one. I'm absolutely dying to play this game on the Switch, avoiding all instances of it on other platforms so I can go in fresh. The junk folder on my email never felt so appreciated.
Has anyone gotten their key? Still waiting. Have checked my junk folder a dozen times.
And I am not a bad boy, but I have backed the Y-L since day one for 360 canadian dollars and I wait that for wii U.
First hurt: wii u was canceled !
3e Hurt: Backers doesn't have the code for play ! BUT MEDIA HAVE IT !
4e Hurt: The price ! All other version, the price is cheaper !
So, I am angry and I have the right to be angry !
I am really angry ! We wait our code since so long ! Playtonic games, it's over for me. I never bought your future games !
So two and a half years ago I backed this to get a steam digital edition of the game. By the time it came out I no longer owned a PC and have never been able to play the game. I do now own a Switch which didn't exist when I backed the project, but because there's been no opportunity to change platforms I will now have to pay AU$60 to buy the digital version on switch when a physical version on PS4 sells for only AU$39. The only slight advantage left to me as a backer was the prospect of being able to buy it before its official release date, now just 3 days away. Despite the fact that the Switch version has been made available for free to media outlets since last week, as a backer I still have nothing to show for it. To say that I feel cheated would be an understatement.
How come review codes have been sent out and yet backers who funded the game are still waiting?
Any update on the Switch codes? Release day is only a few days away so being able to "play the game immediately" is becoming less and less of a reward . . .
Has anyone else received their backer codes for Nintendo Switch yet?
I read over this update and missed that important sentence that said backers would be able to play the game immediately after it pre-loads. This makes me very happy! I hope Nintendo turns around the codes in short order. Having it to play this weekend sometime would be awesome, but if not, no big deal. The Switch is always with me when I go to work during the week, so even if it drops on a weekday, I can play during my lunch breaks.
@Magnus Nystrom the option to change versions came up around Feb 5th ( a month before the switch launched), and expired just 11 days later ( still 2 weeks before switch's launch). Which really makes no sense because most people at the time weren't sure if they would even get a switch. The survey most likely was just for the cancelled WiiU version backers to change their version to Switch, but they did allow other versions to be changed to the Switch as well. Strangley it was just an 11 day window to make the change.
I'm sitting here and patiently waiting for my Switch code.
I backed it on WiiU but I never received any info about a Switch version switchover from the defunct WiiU, how can I get this?
Any idea when exactly the codes will be available?
And now we wait for the DLC and N64 Shader Mode.
Thanks Playtonic, looking forward to Yooka Laylee 2 (Twooka Laylee) also.
Thanks for letting us know that the light at the end of the tunnel isn't a freight train ;) ... just one question: if you made up the game in cartridges to sell at stores, then why can't backers get a physical copy of the game instead of a downloadable copy that'll just take up most of the room on the internal storage? I'm looking forward to playing it; however, I'd rather wait a week for a physical copy than have to settle for a downloadable copy that I can't even back up.
How will we receive our download codes if we originally backed for PC then changed to Switch?
@Alan That is how I interpreted the update as well.... The Switch just got pre-load functionality so I think selective game unlocks for redeemed codes isn't happening. I would be pleasantly surprised though if we get the codes tomorrow and can start playing 6 days early.
That's great. Maybe time time you can give us the low down on your DLC plans. We still don't even have that 64 shader.
What I understand is we backers can use the code to pre-load it, and play in the moment it will be released at Dec 14th.
Also that ARMS design of Lanky is incredible! He'd be right at home in ARMS!
Weird... It says the code allows a preload... But then you say we can play immediately. Which is it?
Awesome that this is happening, but as Blake and Timothy have stated/questioned, would you be willing to clarify what you mean by "More importantly, you'll be able to play the game immediately as well!"? I would like to clarify that before anything is thrown out and lost in translation on social media. Will we be able to download and play the game as soon as we receive our codes, or will we still be waiting until the Dec 14th release date?
Am I seeing that right? We'll get to download/play the game before the official Switch release? If so that's awesome and a very nice way to thank the backers for waiting so long!
I sent you an email months ago about switching from steam to switch, but I never got a response. Is it too late ? (got the steam key, but didn't it yet).
Thanks to all the team. I was happy to wait to play it on Nintendo and appreciate the time you took to get it right.
"Backer game codes will allow you to pre-load Yooka-Laylee on your Nintendo Switch ahead of the game's official release on December 14. More importantly, you'll be able to play the game immediately as well!"
As in, 'immediately on December 14th', or 'immediately after entering the code'?