With all of the reforms sweeping through American education at the moment you probably find yourself asking “What is RTI,” or “What are the Common Core Standards.”  Well RTI has been around for quite a bit, and while it is just starting to gain steam in certain states, other have been utilizing the response to intervention framework for years.  When it comes to the Common Core Standards and the 45 states who have adopted them, everyone is pretty much on a level playing.  Many schools should be teaching to the Common Core next school year, while others have already began to implement them.  These new standards aren’t going to radically change the way we do things, but they are altering they way teachers teach.  For most people the changes will probably won’t be that noticeable, but hopefully the students will notice.  Changes will be felt in the way they analyze literature that they are reading, and approaches to solving math problems will be different as well. To learn more about the Common Core, check out this video below:

Your local registered nurse may dispute this, but many may remember when nursing was once thought to be the sure fire profession to enter if you were looking for pretty much guaranteed employment.  While we are always going to need nurses, some are reporting that in the current labor market, a nurses job prospects are far from guaranteed.  In an article published recently by the Georgia Health News, they say nurses with less than two years of experience are finding it tougher to find work, and “more than one-third of newly licensed RNs” from the class of 2011 were still out of work 4 months after graduating.  It’s hard to say if this is a trend that will continue, as the government continues to site a rising demand in the need for nurses, and most people in the profession will still tell you it’s a great career to a part of.  For more on this complicated issue, check out this video: