The Best Types Of Fish For Your Garden Pond

There are many reasons as to why you might want to have fish in your garden pond - they add beauty, color, and interest to your garden and act as a sort of outdoor "pet." But there are other good reasons for putting fish in your pond, as well. For one, fish will eat pesky mosquitoes as well as pond algae. Overall, pond fish are also fairly easy to care for, too.

Now that I have convinced you to get some fish for your garden pond, let us go over a few types of popular outdoor pond fish - most outdoor pond fish are freshwater-coldwater types.

Comet goldfish

This type of goldfish is going to be able to handle varied conditions in your pond - this includes varied conditions due to weather, as well as conditions due to your inexperience with pond fish. Comet fish can endure variations in both temperature and water quality. Comet goldfish are distinguishable by their long single tails - like a comet. They come in a variety of colors, including red and white. Also, comet goldfish tend to be fairly inexpensive. Chances are, your comet gold fish will live for 14 years and grow up to 10 inches long.

Shubunkin goldfish (aka calico goldfish)

This is a very interesting goldfish - like a common goldfish, shubunkin goldfish have long bodies and a single tail, but they are brightly colored in a mix of fantastic colors... red, brown, blue, yellow, and violet. They are also distinguished by black spots on their bodies and tails. This is a very tough goldfish type. Make sure that your pond has plenty of plants and open areas for swimming. If you have shubunkin goldfish, do not put telescope goldfish or bubble eye goldfish (and other slow swimming fish) in with them - they might end up starving because shubunkin goldfish will get to the food first... and they do not share. Rather, you should get your shubunkins a koi or two as buddies.

Koi

Koi range from very inexpensive to very expensive - there is quite a variety as to the type and quality of koi. By quality, I am referring to the color and patterns displayed on the koi's scales. As abovementioned, koi can cohabitate with other goldfish like comets and shubunkins very well. Koi can grow to be several feet long, and they can live from 25-50 years! Some people think that koi are gold fish, but they are only distant cousins to the goldfish - they are actually much more closely related to the common carp. While koi can handle a wide range of temperatures, as sudden change in temperature can affect them adversely. Koi will get along with other tropical fish, as well.

Whichever type of fish that you decide to get for your pond, be sure that you get ones that will cohabitate well and ones that are durable (like the abovementioned types of fish). Also make sure that you do not try to stick too many fish in too small of a pond. Consider having only one inch of fish per gallon of pond water. A 10 foot by 10 foot pond can typically support about 20 five inch fish... This math equation might be a bit too much - a general rule of thumb is to start with just a few, and go from there. Remember that your fish will grow!

Just a note: If you are new to having fish in your pond, you may want to avoid fantail varieties - these are not quite as durable as other types of goldfish.

A Singapore maths PR article by Dougles Chan - Search Engine Guru - Best SEO companies in Singapore and globally.

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What is a CPA Or Cost Per Action Network?

CPA or a Cost per Action network provides a directory of products and services. Companies promote their offers through the CPA networks and CPA affiliates direct targeted traffic to the offers using email marketing, video marketing, pay per click, etc.

Companies within the network are willing to pay CPA affiliate marketers to generate traffic or sales leads for their products and/or services. The great thing about CPA networks is a sale is not required in order for a CPA affiliate marketer to receive compensation.

CPA affiliate marketers using CPA networks do not have to worry about charge backs or refunds because leads do not have to pay anything in order for you to receive compensation.

There are a variety of CPA offers available including offers for ring-tones, health related products, credit cards and government grants; just to name a few. The company will either pay per unique visitor or pay per lead. If a company is paying per action, the lead may be asked to provide contact information like their email address and/or zip code, in some cases. The completion of the form is the action.

CPA networks hire affiliate managers to supervise the process. CPA managers are typically responsible for reviewing CPA affiliate applications, sourcing for company products or services to offer through the network as well as communicating with the affiliates within the network on how to optimize their revenue.

It is important to maintain contact with your CPA manager as he or she can inform you of high converting offers within the network. High converting offers can result in more money for you.
It is not uncommon to see offers with a CPA network paying $25-$35 per lead and .15-.30 or more per unique website visitor.

You do the math: generate 500 leads for an offer pay $25 per lead and your commission is $12,500.

As you can see, a lot of money can be made in promoting CPA offers. There are literally hundreds of networks; each offering different products and service. Apply to at least 3 or 4 CPA networks so that you can have a variety of CPA offers to market.

A Singapore math article by Dougles Chan - Search Engine Guru - The best SEO company in Singapore and globally.

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What Are the Benefits of Being a CPA?

CPA, certified public accountant, CPA's are a vital part of any strong business or organization. In all three major areas of the accounting industry (Public, Private and Governmental) the CPA skill set is valued and respected as the pinnacle of professional achievement, and can equate to job promotions, travel opportunities, and personal growth.

1. Prestige, Respect and Reputation

They are well respected and greatly admired by their peers, clients, and social circles. Through their experience and knowledge, their virtues, ethics, character, technical and academic proficiency are tested. You could say that CPA stands for "Commitment, Professionalism, Achievement" just as much as it stands for Certified Public Accountant.

In today's professional world, these 3 qualities are valued assets in any business. CPA is a highly sought after professions in this society today.

2. Money and financial satisfaction

Let's face it: We all work to make money and earn benefits. If financial success is part of your motivation to become a CPA, you can breathe easily. For experienced CPAs. Salaries between $80K - $110K are common in public accounting, and these figures are likely to increase yearly, according to recent surveys.

3. Job Satisfaction and variety of work

As financial reporting becomes increasingly complex and increased in its importance, there is greater opportunity for criminal activity and negligence. Tighter regulations passed by the Securities Exchange Commission need to be complimented by CPA's high level of honesty and integrity in order to put a stop to white collar crime and financial misstatements. They are frequently called upon to testify during criminal trials as expert witnesses.

As a whole, CPA's are multifaceted professionals capable of performing multiple highly specialized job functions, some examples as below, but not limited to:

o Tax advisory services

o Business consultation

o Auditing

o International Financial Reporting

o Information Technology

o Management consultation

4. Career Security

There is a shortage of experienced accounting professionals, which puts those with their CPA designation even more in demand. What's more, this trend shows no signs of slowing down. Students and young professionals that earn their CPA can almost guaranteed to find and secure a lucrative position of their choice. Firms and institutions are falling over each other in the struggle to locate and hang on to the most talented individuals. Universities and colleges will soon be offering compelling incentives to lure CPA's into a teaching career. In a time when our financial institutions are claiming bankruptcy ; CPA's tomorrow could be the day you write your own ticket to financial security.

5. Personal Growth

The skills you acquire in your training to become a CPA will give you confidence in yourself and your newfound abilities. The money and prestige you gain will allow you to have the finer things in life. Although math skills are important for anyone to have, you only need average level math knowledge to excel as a CPA.

The CPA earns his/her stripes by enduring a rigorous course of study and training, capped off with one of the most notoriously difficult professional exams in the world: The Uniform Certified Public Accountants Examination. Once a candidate passes the exam, it's time to get licensed, which requires jumping through some more hoops. Even better, once you've attained licensure, you've earned the privilege of working long hours doing tough, complicated, and sometimes tedious work.

6. Abundant job opportunities

There are abundant job opportunities once you become a CPA. One does not need to be worried on being retrenched or have your salary cut as this is not something which will happen to a CPA, which current demand for this profession. The CPA profession is thriving

7. The Go places campaign

Some level of credit for this improvement goes to the AICPA', Go Places campaign, which for the past five years has offered high school and college students good reasons to consider a career as a CPA. More than one million students have logged on to the campaign's Web site, o use interactive resources that bring to life the excitement of being a member of our profession.

Each underscores CPAs' important public-interest role as providers of guidance to clients, businesses and consumers. They also represent opportunities. Whether through educating students about the benefits of being a CPA, reaching out to legislators, volunteering to improve Americans' financial understanding or enhancing skills to better serve clients and employers, CPAs can take part in shaping a vibrant future for the profession so that America continues to rely on CPAs for better control of white collar crime.

A Singapore math PR article by Dougles Chan - Search Engine Guru - One of the best SEO companies in Singapore and globally.

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Study Grants For Women Over 30

Older women face many obstacles when they want to go back to school. For one thing, studying is a difficult habit to get back into. For another, it can be very embarrassing to step into the classroom only to be surrounded by an ocean of much younger faces. And then there is the matter of funding their studies. Many older women who need to return to school are not well off, and need grants for women over 30 to pay for their tuition.

All these difficulties may not matter to you if you are in your 40-s or 50-s and your husband is paying for you to go back to school because your kids are all grown up and you are getting bored at home. But what if you had been a housewife for the past decade or two, and something out of your control has forced you into the job market? You have probably already discovered that most jobs pay peanuts unless you have a college degree.

On the other hand, if you have been a working mother all this time, you may have come up against an unbreakable wall in your career. You may be seeing younger colleagues getting promotions that should rightfully be yours just because they have a better education. In this case, you definitely need to upgrade your education.

You have probably already investigated all of the better-known educational grants and scholarships. Most of them have one problem - they take aim at younger students. They are intended to help recent high school graduates get into college, and do not help an older woman who wants to go back to school. Most study grants for women over 30 are not well-publicized.

One exception is the Pell grant. Many recipients of this grant study in online colleges like the University of Phoenix. Unfortunately, it only covers about 30% to 60% of your tuition. If you are a single working mother at her mid-career trying to upgrade herself, this might well be enough to make a difference.

That means a housewife returning to the workforce and seeking higher education needs to find additional educational grants for women over 30 if they want to get their college degree. But how do you find these additional educational aid programs? These are quite highly-specialized and not many college financial aid officers are familiar with them.

You have probably already gone to FAFSA's website. But have you gone to grants.gov to look for a list of federal grants applicable to you? In theory, it collects information about all the grants administered by the US government. In practice, you should only use it as a starting point. Once you have searched their database, you should visit the websites of each government agency to look for additional financial aid programs not listed in grants.gov.

Apart from the government, there are also many private foundations who offer grants for women over 30 to go back to school. The following are just a few of the more prominent charities - the Philanthropic Educational Organization, the Jeannette Rankin Foundation, and the Talbots Charitable Foundation. And these are just the general scholarship programs that aim to help older women.

There are also specific scholarships for women studying science, maths, computing technology, even arts, music and photography. All you need to do is patiently comb through the internet search results using Google, Bing and Yahoo.

Many older women can have difficulty financing their further education. Fortunately, there are more than a few college grants for women over 30 for those who are willing to work hard.

A Singapore math article by Dougles Chan - Search Engine Guru - The best SEO company in Singapore and globally.

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Star Bulletin Board Ideas

Primary bulletin boards can be cumbersome for some teachers to keep up with on a regular basis. We have so many other responsibilities that adding a currently changing bulletin board can sometimes be the straw that broke the camel's back. In an effort to find easy ways to rotate out this daunting task, I have created four simple bulletin board ideas for you to use:

• Math teachers will find this extremely easy! First, place a math-themed border around your bulletin board. Covering the cork is not necessary. Then, split your class into several teams. Teams will be assigned a specific month and will be in charge of creating the bulletin board. Hand over a non-expensive digital camera and assign that group a math theme (number sense and operations or geometry, for example). Explain to the students that they will receive a participation grade, but the most unique board that shows content and creativity will win the team McDonald's gift certificates (or movie passes, or chance tickets, etc.) In this way, you always have a fresh new board with no time or planning from you and the competitiveness will encourage the teams to do their best.

• Science teachers will breathe easier knowing that their simple bulletin board idea will be no stress for them! Each month, put up a border and a theme title on the board. For homework, assign students to take pictures, write a story, draw a picture, or create a song or poem to express their understanding of the topic. As the assignments come in, staple them as a collage on the board. Not only will your board be filled, but students will be interested in seeing what the others have brought in. Simple, easy, and yet effective.

• Social Studies teachers have not been left out! At the beginning of the year, create a timeline of your specialty (American History, World History, etc) and tack it in the middle of your board. Now, as the studies begin, encourage students to bring in family heritage pictures, mementos, or memorabilia that signifies the date from which you are studying. For example, a student might have gone to a museum and taken pictures of a new Ancient Egyptian exhibit. Now the student can add to your bulletin board, while also marking the date on the timeline, which creates a visual that aides in retention. Reward students by offering a small token prize for those who participate. It's about time(line) you don't have to keep track of your bulletin board each month!

• Reading teachers will be pleased to hand over rights to the bulletin board when they assign small teams of students to a specific month and book genre. The team will be graded on creating a bulletin board that shows their genre, several book cover examples, examples of well-known authors, trivia and tidbits, as well as any other relevant information. The team can also conduct an optional book talk for the class to encourage them to read more of their genre. Students will love the opportunity to get their hands on this typical teacher tool and create something for all to share.

Whether it's an open house bulletin board or a monthly hallway or classroom board that needs to be changed, encourage your students to take the reigns and showcase what they can do. Even the little ones can get involved in creating a board with a little help from a parent volunteer. Set parameters (and maybe include a grading rubric) to allow your students the freedom to show what they know. Easy as can be, you are now bulletin board free!

A Singapore maths PR article by Dougles Chan - Search Engine Guru - One of the best SEO companies in Singapore and globally.

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Early Morning Entry Tasks For Teachers

Many new teachers make the mistake of not utilizing every second that a student is in school. Many waste the first 10-20 minutes taking care of, what I call house keeping tasks such as; roll call, lunch count, gathering late work, collecting assignments etc. Usually the students just sit through all this or goof off.

When I first adopted my early morning entry tasks I got several bonus pay offs. Most of my students always arrived on time because they knew that they could be behind 2 or 3 short assignments in the first half hour of school. Each morning I put assignments on their desks in the order that I wanted them to complete them.

These assignments were some that they could do without instruction. The pile usually contained a reading direction that they had to read and do. It consisted of 3 or more parts and was used as a reading grade. Ex. Get a piece of paper, put your name in the left hand top corner, draw a circle and put your neighbors name in the circle.

 Then put your paper in the directions basket on my desk. As the year went along the directions got more complicated. This solved the problems later in the day with reading directions on assignments. When students asked me how to do something I would tell them to read the directions and them when they said "I still don't get it" I would reply.

 "That's funny this morning you got a 100% on your directions paper and it required you to do six things. These directions only ask you to do two. Try again."

Under the directions I would put a handwriting (cursive) practice page. Handwriting practice is very important if you want to be able to read a students work. Under the writing assignment there might be a math drill, or writing prompt or maybe even a paper that I needed them to redo.

The students came right in and went right to work while I did my housekeeping chores. Using this method I was able to get some needed assignments in a minimal amount of time. Sometimes they had more than 20 minutes to get their pile done depending on what needed to be accomplished. Later I expanded to putting accelerated math assignment folders, or review pages.

This use of entry tasks solved problems such as tardiness, reading directions and following them, making time for much needed handwriting practice. The time was not wasted and I rarely had to tell them to settle down and get to work because school had started. This practice can be adapted to any classroom to fit your specific needs.

A Singapore maths article by Dougles Chan - Search Engine Guru - The best SEO company in Singapore and globally.

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How Effective Teachers Teach to Both Hemispheres of the Brain

It is a common mathematical concept -- two halves make a whole. In math, we are typically taught that when something is broken into halves, it has been divided into two equal parts. The same can be said of the brain.

A Little Background Information

The brain is divided into two hemispheres, the right and the left. The left hemisphere controls the right side of your body and is involved in sequential processing. The right hemisphere controls the left side of the body and processes in a spatial/relational manner. Although the hemispheres process information in very different ways, they work in a complementary fashion through a connection of about 300 million nerve fibers in the corpus callosum.

While the corpus callosum connects the two hemispheres of the brain physically, there is a need to connect instruction to each hemisphere. In order to be effective in designing educational programs, lessons, and curricula, we must understand a few basic tenants:

Learners use Both Sides of Their Brains

When we indicate that a person is right-brained, it is not an indication that he or she does not utilize the left hemisphere of the brain. What we are saying is that this person uses the right hemisphere of the brain to a greater degree than the left. Hemispheric dominance relates to the part of the brain that handles the majority of the information in any given task; this is the hemisphere that responds first. Everyone uses both hemispheres of the brain. People who have a dominant Green or Gold temperament are left-brained, and those who have a dominant Orange or Blue temperament are right-brained.

Left Hemisphere Processing = Part to Whole

Gold and Green learners who operate primarily from the left hemisphere of the brain process from part to whole. For these learners, processing is linear, sequential, logical, symbolic, and verbal. They gather a myriad of parts and use them to construct whole ideas and concepts.

Right Hemisphere Processing = Whole to Part

While the left hemisphere is puzzling with the parts; the right is interested in the whole picture. For Orange and Blue learners operating primarily from the right hemisphere processing is random, concrete, and intuitive. Once they have uncovered the relationships and patterns of an idea or concept, they can then take a closer look at the parts that are involved.

Subject Areas Have No Hemisphere Preference

While there are some subjects that seem to lean more heavily toward the processing styles of each hemisphere, there are no subjects that are solely in the domain of the right or left hemisphere. For example, a student in math may memorize theorems or facts (left) for later use in high-level problem solving situations (right).

The Balanced Approach: Teaching in the Nexus

Traditionally, much of what occurs in formal education is within the realm of the left hemisphere. We place a high value on a student's ability to verbalize their understanding of a concept. We instruct, using lecture and text, in a linear progression. This strongly left-leaning approach limits all students and not just student who process primarily in the right hemisphere. Left brain dominant students need to strengthen their abilities to use right brained processes and vice-versa.

To build effective whole brain thinkers, we must consciously strive to teach to the nexus: the place where we connect. We must include activities in our instructional design that build connections between the hemispheres. As a system, we seem to be adept at working in the left hemisphere. So, what do we do to build right-brained processing?

In Teaching for the Two-Sided Mind, author Linda Verlee Williams offers these teaching techniques for the right hemisphere:

• Visual thinking: observation, drawing, verbal description without labels, pictures, maps, diagrams, charts, mind maps, cartoons, posting key words, timelines, colors

• Imagery: fantasy, dramatic language. For example, "Imagine you are a seagull soaring over the coast. What do you see or what do you feel?"

• Metaphor: Using metaphors in all stages of a lesson or unit allows students to make connections between new concepts and content and that which they already know. It provides a way to define conceptual relationships. When students create their own metaphors, this strategy becomes even more powerful. For example, "How is a plant like an apartment building?"


• Experience: experiments, field trips, real object, simulation, role-play


• Multisensory: manipulatives, movement, games, dance


• Music: Music has been shown to increase retention of information. It can also be used to examine mood, theme, metaphor, and historical perspective.

When using these techniques with students, Williams suggests sharing the name and purpose with students. In this way, students can begin to use these teaching strategies as learning strategies. When students develop an understanding of how they learn, they become better able to adapt these strategies to any learning task.

For most of us, allowing students to behave only in the manner of their preferred temperament style would be inconceivable because we recognize that each temperament needs to practice "doing" other colors. In the same manner, it is vital for our lessons to build connections that allow both hemispheres of the brain to work to their fullest. Williams puts it like this:

Children come to school as integrated people with thoughts and feelings, words and pictures, ideas and fantasies. They are intensely curious about the world. They are scientists, artists, musicians, historians, dancers and runners, tellers of stories, and mathematicians. The challenge we face as teachers is to use the wealth they bring us. They come with a two-sided mind. We must encourage them to use it, to develop both types of thinking so that they have access to the fullest possible range of mental abilities. (p. 189)

A Singapore maths PR article by Dougles Chan - Search Engine Guru - The best SEO company in Singapore and globally.

 Contact Dougles Chan @ +(65) 9388 0851 or email to dc@dougleschan.com for more information on how to make your website to be the top in Google.