According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, special education teachers are in high demand. Part of this growth is driven by legislation that promotes the education and employment of people with disabilities. Additionally, the number of children with special education needs has risen in recent years. Learn what special education teachers do and what type of education is required to teach children with special needs.

What do Special Education Teachers Do?

Special education teachers work with elementary, middle, and secondary school children with disabilities. Children in special education classes may have learning disabilities, speech impairments, mental retardation, deafness, blindness, autism, and various health impairments.

Teachers typically use a general education curriculum to teach children with special needs. They also tailor curricula to meet the unique developmental needs of each child, employing teaching methods such as individualized instruction, group work, and problem-solving assignments.

Education and Training of Special Education Teachers

Special education teachers must be licensed by the State in which they work. All states require a bachelor's degree, an approved teacher training program, and supervised experience teaching. Some states require a master's degree in special education, which involves at least one additional year beyond a four-year bachelor's degree.

Because there's such a high demand for special education teachers, many States have begun to offer emergency licenses to allow those interested in entering the field to do so more easily. Credential requirements under an emergency license are usually less stringent.

What courses can you expect to take during your education as a special education teacher? Much of your coursework may relate to teaching methods and educational psychology for children with disabilities. You may be able to focus on a particular area of special education, such as behavioral disorders or learning disabilities.

Sources:
The U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics http://www.bls.gov

The American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) is a nonprofit professional society representing more than 34,500 members. It conducts research and provides information on a range of issues related to the interior design profession, including the education of interior designers.

The ASID has issued advice to students on how to choose an interior design program that best suits them.

First, they advise students to decide whether their passion focuses on interior aesthetics or if it also extends to the structure of an interior environment, or what they refer to as the act of "creating a complete solution for a built environment." If you fall into the latter category, you can look forward to a career that involves design analysis, space planning, and the application of principles of interior construction.

The ASID emphasizes the growing importance of getting a degree in interior design, noting that over 20 states have licensing requirements for interior designers, most of which require a minimum of post-secondary education from an accredited program.

The importance of getting a degree from an accredited institution cannot be overstated. To ensure that your institution is accredited, check out the Foundation for Interior Design Education and Research (FIDER), a body that accredits interior design schools. It's worth noting, however, that the ASID states that schools without FIDER accreditation may still be top-notch; it may just be that they have not attempted to get FIDER accreditation.

Finally, the ASID advises aspiring interior design students to talk to advisors at the schools they are considering attending and to find out the percentage of their graduates who actually pursue careers in interior design.

Sources:

The American Society of Interior Designers

http://www.asid.org/asid2/int/planning.asp

One of PHP's key selling points that we mentioned last week was how easily PHP and HTML work together to create dynamic, powerful web sites and how being skilled in PHP can help you get a career in this booming industry. This week we'll look at what HTML programming is, why you should learn it, and what it takes to get started.

The long-delayed next release of Microsoft's popular Windows operating system, Longhorn, is not expected to be released until the end of 2006. Given that XP, released in October 2001, is expected to be at least five years old by the release of a new operating system version, now might be a good time to try installing Linux.

Catalog your hardware

There are a few things you should do to prepare for the installation. First, you should compile a list of all of the hardware present in your computer. In Windows, the device manager can give you a list of most of your hardware. Be sure to print or save this information before attempting to install Linux.

Decide on a distribution

Linux is distributed freely by many different distributors, many of which specialize in offering packages aimed at users with different levels of experience and needs. Mandrake and Xandros are both popular with beginners, but there are as many distributions as there are needs, so researching distributions before you begin is a good idea. That said, most are available via a free download, so you are welcome to try several.

Partition your hard drive

You don't have to delete Windows to try Linux. There are popular partitioning programs on the market that will allow Linux and Windows to co-exist happily on the same hard drive. Investing in one of these programs may be a good idea. There are also free Linux partitioning programs, but support is not as comprehensive as it is with the commercial programs.

Now, with the documentation for your distribution in hand, you are ready to install Linux. After you complete the installation, you may want to consider taking a course to learn about the many unique features and benefits of using Linux.

If you are deciding which web programming language might be the best to learn, you might want to consider learning PHP programming.

PHP is a very popular scripting language which was especially developed for web-based applications. PHP programmers can put code directly into their HTML markup, allowing dynamic PHP based dynamic web sites to be created quickly and easily, with low over-head and training costs to programmers.

Perhaps because of how well tailored PHP is to the Internet, according to a March 1, 2005 survey by Internet security consultants Securityspace.com, PHP is the most commonly installed module on the popular apache web server. It is installed on 54% of the surveyed apache web servers and experienced a 11.73% growth rate since the previous month.

In addition to being widely installed and popular, PHP runs scripts server side, allowing greater compatibility with web site visitors who may run various browsers with a wide array of plug-ins and functionalities disabled or not installed.

Learning PHP programming is also easier than many languages. If you have any experience with C++, C, or Java programming, PHP should come fairly naturally to you. Even if you do not have any programming experience, short courses in PHP programming should be sufficient to get you up and running quickly.

Due to the widespread popularity of PHP, a great deal of ready-made scripts and programs are already complete and ready to implement in your web project. Additionally, the open-source nature of PHP allows the user who is familiar with C based programming languages to add extensions and capability to this versatile language.

"I am a student from Zimbabwe attending the final year of secondary school at the British International School in Belgrade, Serbia. I'd like information as to whether [distance learning] instituitions offer the possibilty of work placement parallel with the studies. I will be finishing my secondary education with an American High School Diploma issued by the University of Nebraska, Lincoln Independence Study High School. I would appreciate your prompt response.
Many Thanks,
R.G. "

Dear R.G.,
Many programs offer work placement assistance upon graduation from college. My own alma mater offered free career services after I graduated with a bachelor's degree, including hosting my resume online, job fair announcements, and exclusive job postings.

The connections with your school will serve you for many years in the future. Each college is unique, and the assistance offered varies from school to school, but generally all accredited institutions of higher learning offer postgraduate assistance, especially if you're a member of your school's alumni association.

I suggest checking with the college in which you're interested in enrolling; they will be willing to give you complete information on their career placement services.

Sincerely,
Jonathan Haeber

Today the former Chief Executive of WorldCom, Bernard Ebbers, was found guilty of securities fraud involving billions of dollars. New York Times reporter Ken Belson suggested in his report of Ebbers' trial that jurors, as well as the American public as a whole, are suspicious of CEOs and, as a result, are not inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt in cases where the evidence against them is thin, as it appeared to be in the Ebbers' case.

The cumulative effect of such scandals on the accounting profession is unclear. What is clear, however, is that such questionable behavior at the highest levels of corporate leadership have already begun to lead to greater regulation of corporate governance.

Much of that regulation has stemmed from the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, legislation that in 2002 established standards and rules relating to corporate governance and reporting. Sarbanes-Oxley is intended to protect investors and to restore their confidence on the heels of several large corporate accounting scandals.

What does this mean for accountants, auditors, and others involved in the monitoring and reporting of a company's financial activities? In part, it means learning how to comply with the new standards, which according to PriceWaterhouseCoopers, are the "gold standard" in the corporate world.

The passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has spawned a slew of consultants to provide advice and support to companies trying to comply with the new legislation. Companies are spending millions of dollars to develop processes and systems to ensure compliance with the Act.

But the real question remains clear; will this legislation effectively restore confidence among investors, as well as the American public, in corporate accounting practices?