Student Safety Month on June, 2024: what is the teacher to student ratio in a preschool classroom based on age?

June, 2024 is Student Safety Month 2024. University Press : FAU promotes not texting while walking and ... riding for Safety Month

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what is the teacher to student ratio in a preschool classroom based on age?

These are the maximum group sizes according to the National Health and Safety Performance Standards from the American Public Health Association and American Academy of Pediatrics:

Birth-12 months: 6 children

13-24 months: 6

25-30 months: 8

31-35 months: 10

3 year olds: 14

4 year olds: 16

5 year olds: 16

6-8 years old: 20

9-12 years old: 24

These are the current ratios of staff to children from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC):

Infants: 1 staff: 3 children

12-28 months: 1:3 with 6 children in group, 1:4 with 8

21-36 months: 1:4

2 1/2 years: 1:7

4 & 5 years: 1:8

(these ratios can vary depending on enrollment of special needs students)

This link is the NAEYC chart where the above info can be found:

What type of laptop for student?

What type of laptop for student?

For me, I'm extremely hard on my laptops. I killed my first three laptops in two months, five months and eight months, respectively.

Then I got my current Sony Vaio, which is about to die after three years. The way I use a laptop (16 hours a day of constant use -- the plight of a Computer Science PhD student), that's about 10 years of normal use. Needless to say, it's been the most wildly durable laptop I could ever dream of, and I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend Vaio as a result. Price-wise, they run about $100 more expensive for the comparable laptop from places like HP and Gateway, but the extra cost is well worth the extra durability. Plus, the keyboard is the nicest-feeling keyboard I've ever used. It actually increased my typing speed.

So I recommend the Sony Vaios FW if you like a big screen like me -- otherwise, one of the smaller Vaios..

As for the things you asked about specifically...

-Battery Life: that's entirely a function of how much money you're willing to drop for the battery. You can always get longer-lasting batteries for more money. By default, most last 4 hours (longer for smaller screens, less for larger screens), and if you take care of them they'll get that kind of battery life for a long time.

-Features: it's up to you what you need based on how you're going to use it. A faster processor will let you do individual tasks faster, but isn't terribly important if you'll only be doing word processing, internet browsing and chatting. More RAM will let you do more at a time, though no individual task faster. You'll obviously want to make sure the laptop has a built-in wireless modem and DVD drive. If you plan to watch movies on it a lot, you might want to go for a Blu-ray drive and upgraded screen and video card, but otherwise the standard ones will be fine.

If you're just going to be doing internet browsing, e-mail, chatting, word processing, etc., the minimum specs you'll want are probably...

1.6GHz Core 2 Duo processor (Core 2 Duo is typically worth the extra money)

2GB DDR2 RAM

80GB+ Hard Drive

Embedded wireless modem

Embedded webcam, if you'd like one

If you plan on doing any gaming on the laptop, you'll want to up the processor to at least 2.1GHz (preferably 2.5GHz) Core 2 Duo, go for at least 4GB of RAM and a bigger hard drive. Msot importantly, if you plan on gaming, go for more video card RAM (usually there's a RAM amount listed for the video card -- for gaming, go for 1GB if possible).

EDIT: Also, do NOT listen to anyone that claims Macs don't get viruses. There are reasons to gets Macs, but that is NOT one of them. Apple themselves have retracted their statement that they can't and recommends anti-virus ( ) and viruses have been seen affecting Macs already ( ). Their relative safety thus far has been because viruses designers design their viruses to impact the 85% of the computers in the world that are PCs, not the 10% that are Macs or the 5% that are *nix systems -- that's a safety that will disappear as more Mac fanboys say "OMG MACS CAN'T GET TEH VIRUSES LOLOLOL BY A MAC!"

Foreign Exchange Student Host?

Foreign Exchange Student Host?

Wow. Starting off with two at a time is ambitious! Hopefully you are with a good organization which will provide a lot of support for you!

OK here are some things, in no particular order, that we've come up with over the years. We too have no children and we've been hosting for 15 years.

1. Your students are part of your family. They need to follow your rules and participate your family activities. Make sure they call you something -- you may decide on your first names (especially if you are a younger couple), you may decide on Mom & Dad. Depends upon what all parties are comfortable. You just want to avoid the "hey you" syndrome. Your students are also not guests. They should have household chores to do.

2. Check around your neighborhood or school (maybe call a teacher over the summer) and get the names of some students who may be interested in mentoring your student. (We have such a program in our school.) Have them contact your students over the summer with e-mail, Facebook, etc. It helps if they have an interest in common. They should help your students with all those "unwritten" rules of high school.

3. Encourage them to go out for a sport or extra curricular activity -- especially in the fall semester. That's where most kids make friends, not in the classroom.

4. If they speak the same language -- don't let them! There are several reasons, one is that it's impolite. The American kids won't like it and neither will you! Also, for every hour they interact (this includes chatting on the computer) in their native language, they lose about three days work in their immersion language.

5. Make sure you all are on the same page regarding finances. In most standard exchange programs you are responsible for room and board. THAT'S IT! You do not pay any school fees (responsibility for school lunches varies by program). You do not buy their clothes, shoes, personal products. You do not provide spending money for their activities (unless they earn it). Even if they do chores, you do not need to provide an "allowance". Chores are part of the responsibility of being a member of the household. When DO you pay? We generally explain it like this ... If you are going out to dinner and a movie as a family, you pay. If they are going out with their friends, they pay.

6. Realize exchange students are not allowed to drive. This may cause some increased transportation issues for you, especially if you live in a place without mass transit. Their friends can help, make sure your kids know that if their FRIENDS drive them, they should offer to pay for gas. In fact, insist on it. If you are driving, that's one of the things you do.

7. Internet access is iffy. Some students will really abuse it and be on the net all time communicating back home. Others won't really care. You need to keep on top of that -- too much communication back home isn't good for the exchange.

8. Learn about YOUR city/state. You'll be surprised how much there is to do where you live -- even if you don't already know it! Get the tourism guide, be prepared to take some short "day" trips to give your kids a taste of where you live. You don't have to take a major vacation to do this.

9. Be a parent! This may sound obvious, but it isn't. We kind of joke that our first student spent as much time teaching us how to be parents as we did teaching him about America. You are responsible for their safety, so give them reasonable limitations. You are responsible for their academics, keep in touch with the school and go to parent-teacher meetings. You are their cheerleader -- go to any events they participate in. Make sure you celebrate their birthdays and that you include them at Christmas (and/or other holidays).

10. Encourage them to share their culture! Let them cook for you (well, they're boys, maybe not LOL). Get recipes from their country. Find out what their parents do, how they live. Ask for pictures.

In the end, it comes down to having fun!

Also on this date Saturday, June 1, 2024...