Author Archives: schatzi

Overview of 1Y0-A08 Exam

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This is the examination for Windows Server 2008 and this is known as Advanced Administration for Citrix XenApp 5.0 Windows Server 2008. The Citrix Certification is accepted worldwide and so it has many demands and to maintain their level the examination will be very tough. The Citrix Certification exams are many in number and one among them is 1Y0-A08. This examination was held in the last quarter of 2008.

There will be total 55 questions in which 47 questions are traditional questions and the remaining 8 are simulation questions. All these questions will be little bit tougher as they have worldwide recognition. Candidates are given a maximum of one eighty minutes i.e. 3 hours for answering these 55 questions. For just answering 55 questions 3 hours is given this itself shows how tough the questions will be and this kind of difficulty level is maintained in questions to keep up to their level.

The eligibility for this exam is also higher and it is 70% but many examinations of this kind will have the eligibility criteria as 50 % or 60 %. 1Y0-A08 is the examination which trains you to be well qualified in windows Server and as an Advanced Administrator on the same field.

The preparation for 1Y0-A08 can be done on either way by self study or by joining in any course which deals with the same subject in a very efficient way. If you join in any course then for those peoples the coaching center itself provides every detail about the certification and how to prepare. In the case of self studying for this certification then you have to go through Monitoring, Managing and Maintaining the Environment, Scaling the Environment to Meet Business Requirements, Maintaining Data and Server Integrity, Troubleshooting and Optimizing the Environment.

Without preparing yourself in all these subjects or area then you cannot pass this test. So go through all these and clear the exam and make your entry into the competitive IT world with extra qualification as Citrix Certifier.

Hiring the Perfect Personal Career Coach

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In today’s times unemployment runs high among the masses. It is getting harder and harder to keep a job for too long. That is why you need to plan your career path very well. You can hire a personal career coach to help you out on this. A coach can help you clarify your goals, develop a feasible career plan, and support you while you act on your plan. He or she will also assist you in learning new skills that will give you an edge in your chosen field.

Hiring a personal career coach that can train you to become a better career woman or man is somewhat of a challenge. Not all career coaches are qualified to bring about positive change in your life. Here are some tips that will lead you to your coach.

You can always ask around for personal career coaches. May be your friends know some that can help you out. You can also access the internet and search in genuine sites. There is also the option to call human resource department of corporations and ask for reputable names of coaches you can consider.

When you have found possible candidates for your personal career coach, it is important that you start checking for their accreditation. Make sure they are accredited by the right agencies. Also you should check their references because it is better to be safe than sorry, since there are many con artists out there. Accreditation will help you figure out whether or not they qualified to meet your needs.

Interview at least 3 candidates for your personal career coach, before you pick one. In the interview you can ask them about their background, trainings and seminars they have undertaken, and about their plans to help you out. You can also tell how effective they can be as your coach through their body language and communication skills.

You will also want to get a coach that you can get along with. This is extremely important because you and your personal career coach will be spending lots of time with each other as you make your way to improve. You need to be comfortable with them and trust them as well, so that you can open up to them about your goals, wants, needs, and future plans.

When all those things are considered, you now have to think about your budget. You want a personal career coach that is not way over your budget. His or her rate will depend on the amount of experience, credentials, and success rates he or she has. There are coaches however that can work with you on this. You and your coach can work out a scheme that can help you out with your budget.

Training Courses

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Continuing professional development has grown to form an important part of staff development and employee retention. For many potential recruits and employees, the presence of a recognised and effective staff training programme has become a key factor in attracting and retaining employees to an organisation. A major decision when designing training courses is obviously the content, however you neglect venue selection at your peril.

Deciding where to hold your training courses requires a great deal of care and thought, not least as the investment in the training programme tends to be high in both direct expense and the opportunity costs/benefits that arise from implementing a training programme. The venue setting will directly impact on the success of the training courses held, and you should make every effort to select venues that can provide a private and quiet atmosphere for participants to allow them to concentrate fully on obtaining the maximum benefit to be derived from the training being delivered. Many training programmes require a degree of isolation to minimise the disruption caused by outside parties such as other venue guests or environmental factors such as traffic noise. It should come as no surprise that a large number of training course providers that are not held in-house select rural or semi-rural locations for delivery of course content rather than city locations.

If you are holding a short one day training course, the ability to travel to and from the venue needs to be very carefully considered. Participants that are required to complete a long journey before the training course commences are unlikely to be in the best frame of mind to gain the most out of the course content. Choosing a venue that participants can travel to and from in a day while maintaining their concentration for the training course itself will help reduce the expense of overnight accommodation and maximise the benefit to be derived from the training. For those participants that are travelling by rail or air, consider what shuttle transport services can be provided to collect participants from the station and deliver them to the venue and return them at the close of the training course.

If you are holding lengthier training courses whether lasting a few days to residential professional training courses lasting several weeks, you must seriously consider the accommodation and catering that will be delivered to participants: the same advices applies to those organisations planning conferences, meetings, team building events, product launches, PR events and the like. If participants will be staying away from home for several days then every effort to ensure that they remain fresh, alert and committed to deriving the benefits of training will pay dividends in the opportunity benefit to be gained from employee training. It is a false economy to spend large sums of money on the delivery of a training programme that is not supported by ensuring participants are properly fed and accommodated. The venue should also be able to provide either in-house or close-by social diversions that allow participants to recharge their batteries and preferably not just using a hotel bar to do so.

It is a feature of many training courses that there is an element of team building and cross-fertilisation of ideas and working practices. Consider how the venue will be able to accommodate small groups of participants breaking off from the main training regime while engaged on team projects and exercises. Think about whether your training course will require participants to leave the venue premises and work outside either to practice sales skills on the general public for instance, or problem-solving team exercises. The point is not to just think of the premises themselves but also the surrounding environs and their suitability to assisting in delivering the training course objectives.

It is also a feature of modern working life that staff cannot readily leave work behind entirely to concentrate upon training and work commitments will impede upon training while it is being delivered, even if only a short one day training course. The venue should be able to provide participants with the ability to maintain contact with office colleagues and their clients, particularly for sales staff. Ensure that Internet access is available together with fax, telephone and photocopying services as a minimum so that participants may address work issues during breaks

In conclusion, when you are implementing a training programme for your staff consider the investment you are making in delivering a training programme and protect that investment by giving proper consideration to the venue. Aside from the objectives of the training courses in terms of educational and professional development, you must consider it your objective to maintain the participants ability to focus and maintain attention in order to let them maximise the benefit to be gained from the training programme. To skimp on the care necessary in the selection of the venue is to run the serious risk of undermining the investment made in the training course itself.

How Will You Teach Writing This Year? – Part 1

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When I first started homeschooling, I decided not to buy a Writing Curriculum!  Why?  Because all the programs I reviewed were activities I could do on my own.  I taught fifth grade for six years and most homeschool writing programs were like my public school writing curriculum, teaching students “what to write”.

Well, that was until I discovered Andrew Pudewa’s Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW).  IEW had a flagship product, Teaching Writing: Structure and Style, that intrigued me.  Mr. Pudewa did not spend a lot of time brainstorming ideas for students to write.  Instead he spent the bulk of his curriculum on “how to write”.  This was a new concept to me because the biggest problem my students had, like all other students, was what to write about. 

Andrew’s approach to writing solves the “what to write about” problem by simply telling the students what to write about.  His program spends more time teaching “structures” or outlines for a variety of writings, offering lesson plans for writing process.  Depending on the type of writing and your purpose for writing, you can use different outlines to organize your thoughts.

In addition to teaching structures, Teaching Writing also shows students how to improve their writing “style”.  Thus, the name of the program is Teaching Writing: Structure and Style.  Students learn a variety of ways to vary their writing style.  Mr. Pudewa shows students how to dress up their sentences with strong verbs and quality adjectives.  Other dress-ups include adverbs and clauses.  After mastering the dress ups, students learn how to open their sentences in a variety of methods.

In my next article (part 2), I will share a simple activity you can use with your own children this week (or the first week of school).  If your older students struggle with writing, this is a great place to start.

5 Quality Golf Courses in Nevada

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Nevada is of course a popular vacation destination, especially the cities of Las Vegas and Reno. Many people visit Nevada to gamble, take in a Las Vegas show, or see the attractions on the Las Vegas Strip. Yes, you could spend all your time playing slots, poker, blackjack or roulette, but the state also has much to offer the golfer, including several excellent public golf courses, so why not get outside, get on the green, and enjoy a great game of golf?

1. Cascata in Boulder City is a course designed by the famous golf course architect, Rees Jones. The course, which is only 30 minutes from the Las Vegas Strip, first opened in 2000. The course takes it name from the 418 feet (128 metre) waterfall (Cascata is Italian for “waterfall”) that forms a center piece attraction of the course.

2. Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course which is in Stateline, was designed by Tom Fazio and first opened in 1968. The course offers stunning views of Lake Tahoe and the surrounding mountains, and the final three holes are actually on Lake Tahoe.

3. Lake Las Vegas Resort is a stunning resort facility in Henderson in southern Nevada, about 17 miles (27 kilometres) from the Las Vegas Strip. The Resort is home to spas and world class hotels, as well as three golf courses, including the superb Reflection Bay Golf Course.

4. Shadow Creek is a beautiful golf course in North Las Vegas, which was designed by Tom Fazio. The course, which has been rated by Golf Digest as one of the top 10 public golf courses in the nation, is associated with the MGM MIRAGE resorts in Las Vegas.

5. Wolf Creek Golf Course in a stunning golf course in Mesquite, which first opened in 2001. Set within and surrounded by rugged desert landscape, the course offers spectacular mountain views, and challenging but entertaining play. This course is particularly known for the dramatic elevation changes that it offers on several holes.

Questions To Ask Before Enrolling In A Real Estate Investment Education And/Or Coaching Program

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If you are like me, then you have an interest in real estate investment and want to do the right thing by educating yourself so that you can obtain your first real estate investment cheque. I have spent thousands of dollars over the years trying to find the company that would help me accomplish this goal. So what did I do? I watched various infomercials on the television with amazing testimonials of real estate investment success. I quickly found that once I registered to attend, my information was sold to various marketing companies, and I was in receipt of invitations to other investment opportunities that I didn’t even know about. Okay. Now I have sifted through all the invitations and I am on my way to a one-day seminar.

For the most part, the information delivered is tantalizing and I am hungry for more knowledge and the opportunity to start working on my first deal. I also find that the information delivered in the one-day seminar is in bits – for a beginner investor, it is not enough material to be useful. But what do I hear? I now have to register for a weekend workshop to learn more. Full of excitement and determination, I pay the $1500 to $2500 cost for the workshop and off I go. Again, the information presented is titillating and at least one of the presented methods is immediately implementable. The other participants and I followed the instructions given, but no results – we could not find a property matching the given search criteria. Therefore, the audience was not taught what the next steps would have been had we done so. Still filled with hope, I took careful notes and listened intently for the remainder of the workshop. What’s this I hear? I can have advanced training if I want, a coach to work with me one-on-one, and the almost guarantee that I would make money at that level? What’s the cost? Oh, only between $10 000 to $100 000. This is where I hit the proverbial brick wall. Where was I to find all that money, and for some of the workshops, the money had to be paid the very weekend! The long and short of the model is this; one has to spend anywhere from $1500 to about $100 000 without even doing your first real estate deal! It didn’t make sense.

Wait a minute. I now found that most of the real estate investors, who were calling themselves and each other gurus, were doing a massive on-line marketing campaign during the market’s downturn, only this time downplaying the ‘guru’ title. They were all offering one-on-one coaching. Why? No one was attending the conventions and workshops as before. The personal coaching idea sounded good. I decided to check out a few of them and tried one of them. I tell you the truth, because I was a rookie, I didn’t know what to ask for or what to expect from this coaching. As you can imagine, I did not get my money’s worth. By the way, the coaching was through e-mail and sometimes instant messaging only, at a cost of USD $1000 per month. Now, I could have allowed all these disappointments to derail my vision and cause me to be bitter. I refuse. Instead, I decided to use the experience to help others in similar situations make better decisions, spend less, and actually make money in real estate investment.

The sum of it all is this: not having the right real estate investment education will cost you money and just as truly; obtaining the right real estate investment education will cost you money. However, obtaining the right education is an investment, not a liability. What should one look for in a real estate investment coach/coaching program? What questions should be asked? Here are a few to consider:

• Before any money exchange hands, an outline should be provided to the student to ensure that both parties/sides understand what will be offered.

• Costs should be clearly defined and explained.

• Discuss funding. Will the coach/organization provide funding for your real estate deals? If not, will the coach/organization provide you with information that will allow you to access funding? What type of funding can you expect? Will it be transactional funding, hard money, private money, other?

• Discuss if there will be or is there an option to partner on deals. Will the coach/organization put up the funding for the real estate deal while the student does the ‘ground’ work? If partnership is an option, discuss and agree on the split. Will it be a fifty-fifty split?

• Discuss availability of the coach: Does the student have telephone, e-mail, and/or text access? What response time might the student expect? Does the student have to pay the fees for services like Skype or is it included in the coaching fee?

• What are all the things included in the coaching fee?

• If the coach is not available, is there a mentor or someone else that will be available?

• Is this a stand-alone coach or is there a professional team available to the student? Is there a lawyer, accountant, contractor, et cetera that are a part of the team? If the coach is a one-man-band, then this might not be a good option for you.

• Is there creative financing for property acquisition?

• What are the payment options for the coaching costs? What are the financing terms?

• How will the education be delivered? Will it be delivered through webinars, CDs, mp3’s, other? For how long does the student have access to the education?

• How current are the strategies being taught? Is there proof?

• Relative to the cost, how long is the coaching? How many hours of one-on-one coaching?

• Will the student be provided with a virtual assistant?

• What peripheral costs are entailed in the program? For example, LLC, websites, 800 numbers, et cetera. What other additional costs might the student expect to pay/cover?

• What real estate investment qualifications does the coach have? If the coach is reticent to discuss this, then that might be a cue to not sign up with that particular coach/organization. Also, if the coach has a bad attitude, then you should reconsider using him/her.

• Research the coach on-line. Look at reviews. Check out Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, LinkedIn, et cetera. Also use these sources to review his/her profile. Hint: If the coach has less than five hundred contacts in their profile, then that could be proof of inexperience.

• What is the approximate turn-around time from the time the student signs up and follows all coaching instructions, to the time the student does his/her first deal?

• How many hours per day/week is the student required to invest?

• How are deals analyzed? Does the coach personally review them? How many exit strategies does the coach utilize per deal?

• What is the coach’s real estate investment specialty: wholesaling, fix and flip, buy and hold, et cetera?

• What real estate strategy are you expected to start with? Will this complement or go against your current financial situation?

• How much money is the student expected to have on hand to do his/her first real estate deal?

• If student does not make any money in say the first three months of the coaching, what is the next step? Will the current real estate investment strategy be changed or adjusted?

• What guarantees does the coach/organization provide?

• Is there a rescission period? What is it?

• Can the student do the coaching with his/her spouse or business partner at no additional cost?

With these points to consider, you should be well on your way to making the right decision as to your real estate investment education and coaching. I am sure that as you read through the points, they caused you to think of other questions that you might ask. Good.

All in all, I am very thankful that I have finally found an organization that is indeed the complete package for real estate investment education and coaching – and the price is right! Working with a team of experienced real estate investors does make a difference in performance and results! For more information please visit www.sell-buy-or-rent-to-own.com.

How Will You Teach Writing This Year? – Part 1

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When I first started homeschooling, I decided not to buy a Writing Curriculum!  Why?  Because all the programs I reviewed were activities I could do on my own.  I taught fifth grade for six years and most homeschool writing programs were like my public school writing curriculum, teaching students “what to write”.

Well, that was until I discovered Andrew Pudewa’s Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW).  IEW had a flagship product, Teaching Writing: Structure and Style, that intrigued me.  Mr. Pudewa did not spend a lot of time brainstorming ideas for students to write.  Instead he spent the bulk of his curriculum on “how to write”.  This was a new concept to me because the biggest problem my students had, like all other students, was what to write about. 

Andrew’s approach to writing solves the “what to write about” problem by simply telling the students what to write about.  His program spends more time teaching “structures” or outlines for a variety of writings, offering lesson plans for writing process.  Depending on the type of writing and your purpose for writing, you can use different outlines to organize your thoughts.

In addition to teaching structures, Teaching Writing also shows students how to improve their writing “style”.  Thus, the name of the program is Teaching Writing: Structure and Style.  Students learn a variety of ways to vary their writing style.  Mr. Pudewa shows students how to dress up their sentences with strong verbs and quality adjectives.  Other dress-ups include adverbs and clauses.  After mastering the dress ups, students learn how to open their sentences in a variety of methods.

In my next article (part 2), I will share a simple activity you can use with your own children this week (or the first week of school).  If your older students struggle with writing, this is a great place to start.

School Rankings Need To Be Based On More Than Standardized Tests

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School rankings based only on the results of standardized tests don’t give students, teachers, administrators, or parents the whole story about how well the school in question is meeting the needs of their students. We all want to make sure that students are performing well. If they aren’t then steps should be taken to help the students improve; however, rankings don’t provide enough information to conclude that schools are accomplishing this goal or not.

School Rankings Should Include Student Backgrounds

Since the standardized tests only provide a snapshot of how a student performed when the testing was being conducted, why is it being used as the basis for rating or ranking schools? We all want and need to know that students are being given every opportunity to get a quality education, and rankings based on test scores don’t really show improvement in student performance over the entire year.

Instead of basing rankings on the results of standardized tests alone, include some information about the student’s background into the mix. Other factors, such as the parents’ income and educational levels, do play a part in how well their children perform in school. Whether the students are being taught in their first language also makes a difference in their performance in school, so that should be part of the information gathered when we are looking at school rankings.

If a family moves a lot, either from school to school or district to district, that may play a role in how well students perform at school. Whether parents are able to get (and keep) steady jobs is also a factor, and school rankings that only look at the students’ performance on standardized tests are missing these vital pieces of information.

Look at How Well Schools Serve Student Needs, Not Just School Rankings

A better way to get meaningful school rankings is to look at how well schools meet the needs of their students. When the socioeconomic factors are included, then we get a better picture of which schools really should be ranked high on the list. Then we can examine what strategies those successful schools are using to improve the learning experience for all students.

With so much emphasis being given to school rankings, some schools are encouraging parents to keep children at home when the tests are being conducted. This practice is being done in cases where there is concern about a student not performing well, and affecting the school ranking for their particular school. School should be about much more than test results and which kids can help to keep their schools at or near the top. It’s supposed to be about learning and I am afraid we lost track of that idea somewhere along the way.

Benefits of a Distance Learning PhD

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Continuing one’s education can be an important part of a person’s career advancement plans. Obtaining a higher degree can open work opportunities not previously considered and help increase one’s income. This of course isn’t guaranteed but it does increase one’s chances of success. To help achieve this goal more people then ever before are looking to distance learning PhD programs.

A distance learning doctoral program is not much different then a regular university doctorate program. About the only difference is most of the school work can be done at home via the internet without the need to drive to and from campus. This gives the student more flexible schedule that allows them to tailor their study needs around their current work schedule.

Each universities online PhD program will differ from other institutions. Even classes within one program may have varying requirements depending on the class and the professor. Some classes may have a more stringent schedule, expecting the student to log into class at scheduled times. Other classes may only require that the student interact with the professor via email, chat, or the phone.

Listed below are some of the many benefits to doing a distance learning PhD program:

-More relaxed setting: Taking classes over the internet allows students the flexibility to live and learn as they go. Morning person or night person it doesn’t matter because the student can do their lecture and course work at a time that works best for them.

-Individual attention: These distance learning programs make interaction with the professors very easy.

-Lower cost: Although this does not apply to all programs in most cases there can be some cost savings in the area of fees. Many of the fees required of on campus students are not applied to distance learners. While not a huge cost savings it can help students who may be on a tight budget.

-Accredited programs: As distance learning has grown more and more universities have been offering online PhD programs. It is an opportunity for these institutions of higher learning to attract more students or students who may have never thought of returning to school. And these programs aren’t just offshoots of their on campus classes; they are being tailored for the online learning environment.

-A Diploma: A degree received through a distance learning program isn’t any different then one received for spending time in class on campus. The diploma will be the same as will accolades that come with it.

A distance leaning PhD program can allow someone who might not otherwise want to go back to school the opportunity to get that most coveted of degrees; a Doctorate in the field of their choice.

Coaching Better Tennis In Practice

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Tennis coaches who are teaching high school and college teams, need to always focus on getting better at coaching during practice.

This is part art, part psychology and strategy.

That means you have to be able to get the most from your players in practice and then, help them to develop faster, by setting up a system, that will help them to discover their own playing style.

The first thing we need to do as a coach, is look at what we are doing now in practice and then try to improve on it daily, everyday, you should feel that you are getting better at coaching during practice.

Just don’t come with the same game plan and energy everyday.

Coaches, players and parents, need to stay in learning mode and also work together as a team, with the same goals in mind.

Tennis coaches should experiment with these tips here.

Let the reps do their part

The repetitions will develop the techniques and the mechanics for your players.

Coaches should leverage the reps in practice, by first introducing the drill or pattern of play and then stepping back and observing, encourage them to keep adjusting their swing and focusing in on timing and FEEL while doing the drills.

But don’t stop the drill, because then you will be breaking their rhythm for doing it, I see this a lot from coaches over here.

Tennis is a timing, rhythm and feel sport, so allow the reps to do their part and talk to them and give advice, while they are taking a break.

Another thing coaches can do during practice is, ,

Ask powerful questions

Don’t just say nice shot.

Ask them why was it a nice shot?

Don’t just correct them in practice.

Ask them why do they think they miss that shot?

Most coaches don’t realize that, the person who is doing the questioning, is the one who is controlling the conversation.

So, stop talking so much and start asking more deep questions, to get your point through and across to them.

Coaches can use practice, to help their players internalize tactics, strategies and mental toughness.

But to make sure that this is happening, coaches have to stay on top of their coaching game.

These are 2 good coaching tips, to build on in practice, but learn some new methods for coaching better in practice everyday, by studying the best coaches from all other sports.

Then take their philosophies and synthesize them with your own coaching style.

“Look at practice time as your own piece of art work and everyday you are creating something and adding on to it, until you have a masterpiece of a tennis team. “

Start the season and keep the end goal in mind, for your team.

Good luck with the season coach!!