Latest news with #KlausVedfelt
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Va. education department plans to launch Office of Excellence and Best Practices
Students in a classroom. (Photo by Klaus Vedfelt / Getty Images) The Virginia Department of Education is preparing to launch a new Office of Excellence and Best Practices by hiring an executive director who will be responsible for fostering innovation, highlighting high-performing schools, and directing resources toward initiatives with a proven track record of improving student outcomes. The agency posted an advertisement for the opening last week. Superintendent of Public Instruction Emily Anne Gullickson, who began in March, said it has been challenging for the agency to track and share successful educational practices and resources across school divisions, despite significant funding. She believes the office will help. 'One of the things we're really working hard at in the department is breaking down silos, including on data sharing, real impact, proven resources that are quickly scalable and usable from the field,' said Gullickson. 'We have made progress, but we have a lot more to do to really better support our educators with this data.' Some Democratic state legislators, including Senate Education and Health Committee Chair Ghazala Hashmi, D-Richmond, are concerned about the timing of the agency's decision to fill a senior position. Since Youngkin completes his term in January, the next governor's administration may have different ideas about the new office and its leadership. 'If this role is truly essential to the department's mission, the decision should be left to the next administration, which will be responsible for setting future education policy and direction,' Hashmi said. 'Rushing to fill it now appears to be more about entrenching a political agenda than serving Virginia's students.' The governor's administration and Democrats have not seen eye-to-eye on many education priorities with few exceptions, including their work to improve assessment testing and increase teacher pay. In 2022, Youngkin laid out his legislative priorities including his administration's efforts to'restore excellence in education,' after pointing to the state's 'low' proficiency standards and parents' battles with school divisions over their rights and concerns. The governor also called for investing in charter schools and developing more lab schools. Democrats have sparred with the administration over most of the governor's initiatives that involved public education funding and equity, curriculum changes and his scholarship program proposal. The administration, lawmakers and educators also disagreed over the administration's process for revising school history and social science standards, which determine what students need to know in those subjects before graduating. The Office of Excellence and Best Practices director, once hired, will work in tandem with the Road to Readiness School Performance and Support Framework Resource Hub, which offers free educational resources to families and educators. The application process closes on June 11. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Wales Online
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Wales Online
Female-friendly sexual wellness brand's site-wide sale includes 'discreet and powerful' toys
Female-friendly sexual wellness brand's site-wide sale includes 'discreet and powerful' toys Smile Makers' range of sex toys and accessories are designed to help shoppers take pleasure seriously Whether exploring as a couple or riding solo, Smile Makers has plenty to get shoppers' hearts racing (Image: Klaus Vedfelt via Getty Images ) Despite years of effort to demystify sex and reduce taboos around pleasure, many people still struggle with improving their sex lives. Whether it's adding some excitement to time spent with a partner or exploring oneself during alone time, the right sex toy can make a world of difference - and that's where Smile Makers steps in. Billed as 'pioneers in female sexual wellness,' Smile Makers researches, designs, and tests stylish sex toys and accessories that celebrate pleasure. Now, customers seeking a new pleasure product can enjoy a 20% discount across all of Smile Makers' range as part of a campaign to promote wellbeing through self-care. With a team made up of 75% women, female pleasure is at the core of everything Smile Makers does. They create products that they hope customers will proudly display on their bedside table rather than feeling the need to hide under the bed. READ MORE: Shopper loses '16 pounds in two weeks' using 'engaging' at-home workout app READ MORE: Boots shoppers praise 'fabulous' beauty box that saves £130 on No7 and Sol de Janeiro For customers who are unsure about where to start when shopping for sex toys, the brand has created a helpful quiz that helps narrow down the products that might be most suitable. Alternatively, browsing the list of top-rated products is always a good idea, with plenty of reviews from real users to help customers decide what might work best for them. Shop the range Various Smile Makers Buy Now on Smile Makers Product Description Sexual wellness site Smilemakers is offering 20% off site wide for a limited time when shoppers use the code SELFCARE20 at checkout There's even a whole page dedicated to vibrators for beginners. The Billionaire - a simple bullet vibrator that can be used externally or internally - is £39.96 after the 20% discount is applied. It offers four speeds, two pulsation modes, and a waterproof design for those venturing into the world of intimate gadgets, reports the Mirror. For individuals searching for something with a bit more kick, the Tennis Pro may hit the spot. This G-spot vibrator boasts an angled head, a flexible neck, and a long-lasting battery, and, like The Billionaire, it costs £39.96 post-discount. Then there's The Whisperer, fashioned as a lipstick vibrator. Subtly crafted for new mums seeking a tender return to pleasure, it's perfectly suitable for anyone yearning for a softer touch. And at £27.96 once the 20% discount kicks in, it's a budget-friendly pick for those dipping their toes into these waters. There are plenty of pleasure emporiums to explore beyond Smile Makers, too. Lovehoney, which claims to have the largest selection of sex toys in the UK, truly has something for everyone - and there are often great discounts to be had, too. On the high street, Ann Summers also has a decent range of sex toys and accessories. Feedback for Smile Makers' assortment is glowing - a testament to customer satisfaction. A first-timer who tried The Tennis Pro shared: "I honestly didn't know what to expect. It's my first vibrator, and my expectations were kind of mid-range. I was pleasantly surprised. I'm still exploring and discovering, but so far, so good." The Billionaire is said to be great for beginners (Image: Smile Makers ) One reviewer raved: "A good starting toy to begin this vibe-y journey of mine. It's not too intimidating, and there are many modes for when you feel confident enough." The Whisperer has garnered 72 flawless five-star reviews, with a shopper singing its praises as "silent, discreet, and powerful." Another reviewer cooed: "I am so so in love with this new vibrator. It is the perfect size, but I love all the different settings. It's super soft and squishy, which I love because it almost feels gentle, like skin. It's my new go-to." However, individual tastes may vary, as demonstrated by a buyer of The Tennis Pro who wished for more intensity: "A bit stronger would have been lovely." Article continues below Across their product range, Smilemakers boasts an impressive average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars from 1,849 reviews, with shoppers commending the designs, prices, and variety. Customers can use the code SELFCARE20 to enjoy a 20% discount on all purchases before 11:59 p.m. on July 7, 2025. This code is limited to a single use per customer and cannot be combined with other promotions, discounts, or bundles.
Buzz Feed
15-04-2025
- Business
- Buzz Feed
These 27 Extremely Common Purchases Are Actually Complete Wastes Of Money, According To People On The Internet Who Learned The Hard Way
Um, hi, so is it just me, or are we all kinda struggling at the moment? Maybe it's my unnecessary spending or perhaps I can blame it on the American tariffs — but the point is, I think many of us are looking for some ways to save money right now. Here are some of the top responses: 1. "Giving money to Televangelists." 2. "Movies in theaters." Klaus Vedfelt / Getty Images "That shit is released on streaming platforms in a month nowadays, and I don't have to be price gouged for popcorn in my own home. Nor do I have to ask an annoying stranger to stop a solar flare in my face by taking out his phone on full brightness every few minutes." — pineapplesuit7 3. "Over-blown weddings..." — a_08- "I had a coworker that spent over $100K on their wedding and was divorced with 16 months. Put it towards a house. Hell, put it towards an amazing year-long vacation." — howard2112 4. "...and funerals." — Pinorckle "My father-in-law passed away last year. We had him cremated. Instead of having a funeral, we had friends and family over at our house. We talked about how wonderful and helpful he was. It cost us nothing. I don't plan on ever having a regular funeral again." — hated_n8 5. "Brand-name ibuprofen or paracetamol vs. generic stuff. It's exactly the same stuff." 6. "Subscriptions, and forgetting to cancel before the free trial ends." 7. "Grilled cheese at a restaurant." — Prestigious_Ant_4366 "If you're going to a restaurant, you might as well buy something that you can't make at home or yourself." — Putrid-Cockroach1497 8. "Antivirus software." Courtneyk / Getty Images — aphadon7 "Windows Defender has been good enough for the average Joe for years, and if it is configured correctly, it is just fine for businesses, too." — LightCharacter8382 9. "AOL." — Reverse-Recruiterman "Remember there is a baby boomer crowd out there above the age of 75 that was in the prime of their career when AOL came out. About a year ago, now 77, she told me she still pays for it. You would be shocked how hard it was to convince her that she didn't have to do that anymore." — Reverse-Recruiterman 10. "ATM fees." Oscar Wong / Getty Images — Militia_Kitty13 "For whatever reason I got an ATM card before I had a debit card. Long story short, I wish I had never bothered getting an ATM card. Almost every ATM I used charged a fee, and I don't even want to know how much money I wasted on ATM fees." — idratherchangemyold1 11. "Bottle service." — w0ke_brrr_4444 "$500 for a bottle of Grey Goose because someone saw a rapper do it at an Atlanta strip club. Give me Belvedere at $25 a bottle instead." — malarkeyBS 12. "Pyramid schemes." Maskot / Getty Images — a_08- "So easy to spot. It's funny because they get so butthurt when I tell people they don't actually sell anything." — dadabkilla 13. "Blue checkmarks." AlexSecret / Getty Images 14. "Tanning." 15. "Video games early access content." Westend61 / Getty Images 16. "'Alkaline' water." Chris Rogers / Getty Images 17. "I smoke cigarettes. So, cigarettes. Paying to die faster." "Because I'm a dumbass." — nauticalcummins 18. "The latest cell phone, when the current one works perfectly." D3sign / Getty Images — a_08- "I bought my phone in 2019, and I get a weird amount of comments from people asking me when I'm going to upgrade. When I say I'm going to upgrade when my phone breaks, it's like they weren't expecting it. It's not even an old phone — it's an iPhone 11. There's literally nothing wrong with it." — eugeneugene 19. "Giving money to politicians." Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images 20. "Uber Eats. Especially for fast food." "Crazy to me." — degoba 21. "Daily expensive coffee drinks. You know, you can make it yourself for 10% of the price." 22. "Lottery tickets." Dave Kotinsky / Getty Images / Bacardi Rum — Majestic_Bet6187 "Should never be viewed as an investment; should be viewed as gambling." — sunnbeta 23. "Fake nails." Christopher Polk / Variety / Getty Images — Longjumping-Mouse-61 "I would like to add false eyelashes." — jeanvelde 24. "A life coach." Luca Sage / Getty Images 25. "For sure Tinder!" Willie B. Thomas / Getty Images — FatihDurukan187 "Some dudes need to pay for a month so they can stop blaming algorithms on their lack of matches." — Everythangs4sale 26. "I can't believe I haven't seen vitamins on this list yet. You're literally pissing away your money." Prostock-Studio / Getty Images — mr_poopie_butt-hole "Of all the great medical scams in the modern world, vitamins have to be the biggest overlooked obsession that doesn't do much good at all for most people." — dumpitdog 27. "I think designer baby clothes are a total waste since kids grow out of them so fast." Flavia Morlachetti / Getty Images
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Proposed changes to NM reading instruction await governor's signature
In this photo, young students are shown completing their work in a classroom. (Photo by Klaus Vedfelt / Getty Images) While efforts to pass a proposed overhaul to how New Mexico educators teach reading fell short during the legislative session, several elements were added to other successful bills, which the sponsor described as a 'solid win.' President Pro Tempore Mimi Stewart (D-Albuquerque) sponsored Senate Bill 242, the Science of Reading Act, this session, which proposed amending the Public School Code to require new and established teachers be trained in what's called 'structured literacy,' and would have prohibited 'balanced literacy techniques.' Structured literacy, a science-backed method of teaching students the foundations of reading through phonics, vocabulary and comprehension, is particularly used to teach children with dyslexia. Balanced literacy, contrastingly, uses context and visual clues. 'Forty-two other states have either already put this in their statute or they are working towards doing it now,' Stewart told Source NM of the push to require structured literacy. She also pointed to Mexico and Finland as examples of countries where using structured literacy has been successful. New Mexico has provided a structured literacy course for elementary teachers called Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) since 2019. Stewart said 'we are now seeing the results of this work in pockets around the state,' including in Gadsden and Roswell, where English language learners and children living in poverty — categories identified in the Yazzie-Martinez lawsuit as at-risk in the state — are showing improved reading proficiency. SB242 would have also required school districts to notify parents of their children's reading performance twice a year for K-3 students, and to notify parents if their first grade child showed reading difficulty following a dyslexia screening. The bill found support on the Senate side, but was held up in the House Education Committee due to concerns over biliteracy needs and what lawmakers saw as a lack of attention to English language learners. Stewart presented amendments to the bill, but the committee eventually voted to table it indefinitely. The Senate later added provisions of the original bill as amendments to several other bills. These included House Bill 167, which would require the Public Education Department to cover the cost of high school equivalency tests for some students, and House Bill 156, which would increase each of the three minimum teacher salary tiers by $5,000. Both bills included provisions to establish structured literacy as the primary approach to teaching the foundations of reading and require colleges of education in New Mexico to teach the approach. The bills were sent to the House floor for a concurrence vote, but representatives took issue with the amendments, particularly with HB167, saying the Senate was attempting to pass a bill despite it failing in committee. The House voted not to concur on SB167, sending it back to the Senate, whose members voted to rescind the amendments in the final hours of the session. HB167 as it originally stood awaits the signature of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. However, the House did vote to concur with the science of reading additions to HB156, which also now awaits the governor's signature. Stewart told Source NM that her original bill was 22 pages long, but she condensed it into three to four pages for the amendments, leaving out parental notification requirements, among other points. Nonetheless, she still said lawmakers made progress on this issue. 'Absolutely a first step, a good, solid win,' she said. Stewart, a retired educator, said she has been working to address New Mexico's approach to literacy education for 30 years, ever since the National Council on Teacher Quality gave all universities in the state a failing grade. This prompted her to introduce House Joint Memorial 16 in 2010, directing university deans and members of the Legislative Education Study Committee to study reading curriculum in teacher education programs. 'I will continue to work with the secretary of education and the governor,' Stewart said. 'As we move forward, I will continue to work with them on ensuring that our teachers are well trained.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill clarifying local control of school calendars moves forward in the Legislature
A bill that would allow local school districts to determine their own school calendars advanced unanimously through the House Education Committee Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (Photo by Klaus Vedfelt / Getty Images) Legislation that would allow local school districts to determine their own calendars for the school year — a proposal that aligns with a recent court decision — advanced unanimously through the House Education Committee Monday morning. House Bill 65, sponsored by Reps. Gail Armstrong (R-Magdalena) and Rebecca Dow (R-Truth or Consequences), clarifies the state requirements for school instructional time in the Public School Code. Since Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed House Bill 130 into law in 2023, public school students in K-12 have been required to receive a minimum of 1,140 instructional hours per year. Lawmakers increased instructional hours in response to the ruling in the landmark Yazzie-Martinez education lawsuit, which found the state was not providing equitable opportunities to at-risk students. The Public Education Department, under former Secretary Arsenio Romero, established a rule requiring schools adopt a 180-day school calendar in March 2024 as a way of providing additional instructional hours. The New Mexico School Superintendents Association sued the PED over the mandate in April 2024 because they claimed it conflicted with state law. Ninth Judicial District Court Judge Dustin K. Hunter agreed and recently ruled the PED lacks the authority to mandate a minimum number of instructional days. The PED still has time to appeal the court's decision. Janelle Garcia, communications director for the PED, told Source NM that the department is 'dissatisfied' with the decision. 'PED firmly believes that our students can achieve better educational outcomes when we maximize learning opportunities, as the rule intended. PED is currently in the process of reviewing the decision for the purposes of determining the appropriate next steps,' Garcia said in a statement. Stan Rounds, executive director of the New Mexico School Superintendents Association, joined Armstrong Monday to address the House Education Committee and said HB65 will erase any uncertainty surrounding instructional hours. 'This codifies, in my opinion, what the court ruled. Once you codify the statute and sign and put it into law, then it's not of any question,' Rounds said. He added that the bill includes an emergency clause, meaning the bill will go into effect immediately if signed by the governor, to stop any challenge to the rule if PED appeals the court's decision. Representatives from AFT (American Federation of Teachers) New Mexico, Public Charter Schools of New Mexico, New Mexico School Board Association, New Mexico Cattle Growers' Association and Grady Municipal Schools all spoke in favor of the bill, citing local control of the calendar as a benefit. Colt Grau, president of the school board for Grady Municipal Schools in Curry County, highlighted his school district's high performance under a four-day a week schedule. 'We should know [students'] circumstances and that of their families,' Grau said during the meeting. 'We do as a board and I do personally as a father of two elementary-aged children. Respectfully, agency officials in Santa Fe don't, nor can they be expected to. They need to understand that New Mexico school districts cannot function effectively with a one-size-fits all approach.' House Education Committee members voiced their agreement with local control and quickly passed HB65 through the committee unanimously. It now heads to the House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
