This article provides great insight into the reality into what education is really dependent on.... funding. New Governor McDonnell has been quite controversial in his reason attempts to fixing Virginia's budget crisis, particularly in his actions regarding public education. There have been many suggested cuts in the field of education. Some of these include: fewer teachers/ larger class sizes, the abolition of middle school football teams and other sports, and even possible teacher salary cuts. This article focuses on the issue of larger class sizes in Richmond schools. The picture at the beginning of this article is particularly powerful as it reveals just how worried people are about the future of their children's education in these economically challenging times. Overall this article covers the budget cuts in general, yet provides powerful insight into the reality that education is dependent on funding. Ever since I told my family that I was going to become a history teacher, the one thing they told me repeatedly was, " well at least you'll have job security." With these budget cuts taking place right as I am about to enter the job market I'm afraid that they might have been sadly mistaken.



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universally designed

So when asked to find a tool within a popular operating system that makes the system more universally designed, I immediately turned to my beloved Microsoft Word. Microsoft Word is perhaps the most used, most adored program on my computer(It is second only to itunes because couldn't go a day without music.) So with this blog in mind, I searched through my favorite program determined to find some useful tool. I was amazed to find multiple applications that made Word universally designed. The most obvious tool was the application that enabled you to change the color and size of your font as well as your background to help combat certain vision impairments. This can be achieved through the use of the toolbar on top of your document.I also found that in the spellcheck tool you can set the language to various languages making the program not only friendly to English speakers,but to many other language speakers as well. I stumbled upon this need tool when typing a German paper....in German. I got so frustrated with those angry little red lines and I was determined to figure out a way to fix them. To change the language you simply go to tools -> language -> set language. You can also decide if you want to check for spelling and grammar errors immediately and if you want the tool to automatically detect the language you are using. Both of these applications enable Microsoft Word to be more universally designed. Microsoft word also proves to be user friendly to those struggling to conquer a language by providing a translate tool. You simply go to tools -> language -> translate-> pick your to and from languages-> and then type in your desired text. Through the tools bar as well, you can upload a speech recognition tool that enables those who are unable to type to speak into a microphone and Microsoft Word will them translate the person's words into text. One can aquire this through setting up and installing a speech recognizor. Once installed one can access this tool by clicking on tools -> speech. These are just a few ways in which the microsoft operating system and the Word program are universally designed. Revealing these tools in the classroom could potentially do wonders for your students. Students who struggle with English can use the translate tool to help improve their vocabulary. Students with physical disabilities can use the speech application as a way of putting their thoughts down on paper. There are so many ways the universally designed applications of Microsoft Word can be used in the classroom, and when taken advantage of Word serves as a powerful tool in all classrooms!