Five Ways to Find Job Openings

t place people turn when they start their job search. It makes sense since newspapers are a good place to find local openings.

The classified ads, however, aren't quite what they used to be. The job opening section is filled with pyramid scheme ads and fewer and fewer real jobs run in these listings.
Culling through them takes time, but can provide you an advantage over those who are not willing to do so.

2. Online Classified Ads

The Internet has become a great source for finding job openings. It's free, easy and may be done from a library or the comfort of your home cumputer.

The search features are fairly detailed on most online job sites. This allows you to narrow your search to find the job that is right for you without wasting time.
Apply with the click of a button and save both time and money.

It's a good idea to have your clean and updated resume posted on the larger job sites anyway, as corporate recruiters frequently scan qualified resumes and mass email candidates. You may get some unwanted spam this way, but that perfect job may fall into your lap with you having to do any legwork at all.

On final note here: Some of the larger online employment resources pull job opportunities from a wide variety of sources both off-and-online. This maximizes the number of job matches that turn up from your search and minimizes the amount of time you spend checking in with several different job search sites.

3. Local Employment Resource Companies

Visiting an area or local employment office is a good idea when you are seeking a new job opportunity. They have resources to test your skill level, help build your resume, teach you new skills, offer valuable job training and provide tips and job placement.

4. Window Shopping for Help Wanted Signs

Depending on the type of job opening you are seeking, you may be able to find one just by driving through strip mall parking lots and past industrial parks looking for help wanted signs.

Of course, this isn't going to work for all jobs, but being in the right spot at the right time may help you land a position with a great employer.

5. Networking to Find a Job

One of the best ways to get your foot in the door with a new company or find out about new job opportunities is to network.

Start by letting your friends and relatives know what you are looking for in a job. Branch out and talk to others about it as well.

Keep your ears open all the time for job openings and be willing to share your job leads with others in the same boat. The bottom line is that an application that is received with a recommendation from a friend or current employee has a much stronger chance of getting the job than someone who blindly responds to a classified ad.

Learn how to create a "buzz" around yourself much as marketers do around a new product.

How you find employment resources and job openings is going to depend on the type of job you want.

A high tech job, for example, isn't likely to place an ad in the local newspaper. Likewise, the corner store isn't going to waste their time placing an online ad for their job opening.

Keep an open mind and use a variety of sources to locate job openings until you are successful.

The Music Gym

Amongst the squash courts and practice nets at Horntye Sports Centre in Hastings is the Decoda Music Gym, an area designed for experimenting and playing with music and movement. For the physically able there's an interactive bouncy castle, dancing-boards that trigger music, or the opportunity to dance with your shadow on a large screen. For the less able, or less energetic, there are Soundbeams, vibro-acoustic seats and cushions, bubbles, and switches to operate film.

The Gym is overseen by popular local blues musicians Tom Smurthwaite and John Ballard. Its clients range from people with profound disabilities to conventionally able but playful or curious adults and youngsters - but this isn't a mere leisure activity. When administrator Sue Heath invited me to attend one of their regular Friday sessions, I was in for a morning of surprises and learning.

Sue says: "Years ago, as a Relate counsellor, I was surprised to find that mentioning a client was a musician would trigger smiles all round. The label 'musician', I discovered, was taken as shorthand for totally unable to communicate except through his/her music. The film The Commitments bears this out - a band delivering Irish soul music on stage and beating nine bells out of each other in the dressing room."

So why is it that a pair of typical pub-musicians have made such a hit as facilitators at Decoda, working with people with profound and multiple disabilities? How did they come to feel at home with people who find it so very difficult to communicate? And why have they have gone to such lengths over the years to bridge the gaps in those people's lives?

John with his band Night Shift, and Tom (playing under the name of Junior Thompson) are regulars on the circuit of blues-loving pubs around Hastings and make occasional appearances in Europe. They're both life-long blues musicians; singer songwriters with a strong local reputation. Playing in pubs has given them the confidence to walk into any situation and know that they can turn it around. A lack of initial response from an audience doesn't worry them. In short, they can bypass the rituals of polite, social behaviour without embarrassment and without making judgemental responses.

Tom says: "In an open situation, [such as a pub] you're not just playing to people who know you. There are people walking in and out all the time. If people stay, that affects you. Equally if people leave that affects you. Sometimes you're not entertaining in respect of people looking at you, but rather you're creating an ambience."

John felt this was particularly important and something young bands don't necessarily recognise - the need to be sensitive to the feel of the venue, rather than demanding attention and immediate positive feedback.

The Decoda project started with the aim of taking good musicians of all genres into day centres and residential homes. It was an inclusion issue - why shouldn't people with learning disabilities enjoy live music in the same way as anyone else? But not everyone was included - the people in wheelchairs, on the edge of a group, couldn't participate in playing the percussion instruments, they simply had something done for them - bells strapped on their wrists, their hand held around a tambourine.

Gradually the attention shifted to those with the least chance of joining in, with the least experience of having an effect on their surroundings. How to enable them to be more involved? When Tom and John were asked to run a regular workshop consisting solely of people with profound disabilities this question became a real issue. None of the things they had been doing with other groups worked with them. It might keep them, and their staff, amused for a couple of hours but Tom and John wanted to be more than entertainers.

They decided to start from where the people were, to explore how their unconventional gestures could be used to express themselves through music. One of the results of their experiments was their installation of The Soundbeam - a 'keyboard in the air' which turns movement into sound.

Using the Soundbeam meant that a young woman who had no movement other than her eyelids was able to compose music, or a man who constantly jerked his head learned to control this to create the sounds he wanted and then, spectacularly, to sit completely still for twenty minutes. People were now making something happen who had maybe never experienced this before.

Communication requires the ability to make choices and to convey them to others. Tom speaks of a "wordless communication that develops amongst musicians, working together to produce the end-sound, recognising their part in the whole and playing the most compatible part."

So for all their reputation for being social misfits off-stage, pub performers know of more ways to communicate than they are often given credit for. "Playing in a pub," says Tom, "you learn to observe how things are going between yourself and the band plus between the band and the audience. The same is true when working with people with PMLD (profound and multiple learning disabilities); noticing how they become engaged, how they react, and noticing in enough detail to see when they doing something they've never done before."

Such moments can be the key to great progress. B is a young woman who has been a regular visitor to the Music Gym since it started. She has no speech, is visually impaired and confined a lot of the time to a wheelchair. She is also blessed with two support staff who saw immediately the potential of the Music Gym. With their help she tried out the castle, pushed the huge ball, played the Soundbeam and walked, supported, with a metal frame - Tom and John noted that the sports hall allowed a lot more space for this than a house would. On the last day of the pilot project she walked without staff support for the first time in her life. She now enjoys the shadow-dancing as the contrasting images allow her to see her support staff making shapes on the screen.

But what of the people who couldn't be enticed to use the Soundbeam? What of someone with so-called 'challenging behaviour' whose energy could erupt in a disruptive manner?

Sometimes in a pub people feel they have a right to tell you what to play. Tom recalls a man asking for a number while he was actually singing - without halting he managed to let him know that that wasn't the right time AND he wouldn't be playing that. In a rowdy environment it can be vital to turn around stubborn or unrealistic demands quickly without getting into a conflict situation. Tom enjoys 'grabbing' people with something they weren't expecting, something beyond what they think they want. He brings the same attitude to his work with Decoda clients. He's always on the look out for ways to extend people's boundaries, to enable them to experience something new and unexpected.

So the Decoda team turned their attention to clients whose behaviours had previously been seen as wholly negative - something to stop, or get control of. What if someone who liked to punch were given a punch-bag fitted with sensors so that each time he punched it he produced a sound? What if there were a room full of similar devices? Plus space to move around and freedom to choose what to do?

This was the thinking behind the Music Gym. It took another two years to access the funding which would make it a reality, albeit for just one morning a week. The pilot scheme started in October 2005, funded by the local Learning Disabilities Development Fund and run in partnership with MCCH (a regional care-providing organisation).

Part of the funding was for an independent evaluation which found that 97% of questionnaires completed stated that their client had benefited overall from their participation in the Music Gym. 88% stated that the client had developed over time and 72% of clients had tried things new to them. In addition 55% of participants demonstrated sustained learning. These latter points are often not seen as potential achievements for people with such complex needs. It was observed that where staff believed in their clients' capacity to make their own choices and in their potential to develop, they were actively encouraged and clearly benefited. In addition to the activities, clients benefited from the opportunity to participate in the wider community, and from the space that the sports hall provided.

The Music Gym is now an ongoing weekly facility for people with profound disabilities, some of whom travel over 20 miles for the experience. In the huge sports hall they can be as energetic, creative, or simply relaxed as they like as they find their way around the fascinating array of technology, but what stuck in my mind after my morning with the Decoda team was the power of music under the direction of these gifted facilitators.

I watched John charging around with a young man in a wheel-chair, activating a patchwork of sound-emitting mats and boards. There was no pattern to it that I could see and I had no way of interpreting the signals John was clearly getting from the young man - but when they returned to us, and John said to his partner in the chair; "That was great - shall we do it again?" Even I could see the eager 'yes' in the eyes that answered him.

Natural Health Schools in Modern Times

Natural health schools today offer prospective students a plethora of invaluable and innovative healthcare training options geared for tomorrow's natural healthcare practitioner in mind.

Whether individuals choose to pursue natural healing careers as acupressure therapists, aromatherapists, herbalists, homeopathic practitioners, hypnotherapists, massage therapists or an alternative medicine doctor, natural health schools give candidates an in-depth look and comprehensive insights into how modern and sometimes ancient healing wisdoms can be applied to common health disorders and conditions through natural and noninvasive methods and medicines.

For example, if you are drawn to healing arts like homeopathy, be prepared to be amazed. As one of the relatively newer developed systems of medicine, homeopathy actually stems from ancient healing schools of thought dating back thousands of years. In natural health schools offering homeopathy as a course of study, students learn basic homeopathic pharmacy, case taking and repertorisation, and clinical internship, among other relevant subject matter.

If you're intrigued by herbal medicine, or plant medicine, natural health schools will supply you with necessary skills and knowledge about botanical medicine, herbal formulation, herbal cultivation and pharmacy, Bach Flower remedies, aromatherapy, and more. Depending on the level of training you'd like to achieve, there are a variety of natural health schools that provide an assortment of herbalism classes ranging from beginner to advanced.

Massage therapy as a natural health treatment is also gaining leeway in modern medicine. A matter of fact, the career outlook for massage therapists is very good considering there has been a steady demand for natural healthcare workers and practitioners in North America, alone. Massage therapy training at any one of a number of natural health schools offers students a diverse array of massage modalities from which to choose. While basic, practical training is afforded in Swedish massage, sports massage and deep tissue massage; a great number of programs have begun integrating a larger selection of bodywork techniques like Trigger Point therapy, Myofascial Release, craniosacral therapy, and Chinese medical massage, among several others.

What's in store for the future of natural healthcare? As natural health and healing concepts continue to expand, and research continues to prevail, there will always be a growing need for the professional healer. Natural health schools play an integral role in meeting these demands by providing extensive and comprehensive educational platforms that either meet or exceed academic requirements; and/or State regulations.* (Massage therapy, naturopathy, homeopathy, chiropractic, and acupuncture are regulated healthcare disciplines.)

The Role of Public Schools in Developing Good Citizens

There is a tendency by some to think in terms of the product schools are supposed to produce. This product is defined as people who possess the knowledge and skills necessary to take their place in the economic and social order of things. In this way of thinking, schools are some sort of manufacturing organization that produces a product. The quality of the product is defined by "its" (the student's) ability to perform certain pre-assigned tasks at specific levels of competency.

This unfortunate tendency leads us to think of schools as some sort of manufacturing organization that produces a product. The quality of the product is defined by "its" (the student's) ability to perform certain pre-assigned tasks at specific levels of competency.

Since we need a sufficient number of people who possess the scientific, technological, and business skills to maintain our competitiveness in the world, the logic continues, it is the job of our educational system to produce individuals (the product) who possess the competencies necessary to meet these manpower requirements.

While competency in math, language, science, history, music, art, and other subjects are all highly desirable qualities, they are not the only, nor even the most important, qualities of good citizenship.

Benjamin Franklin declared that the ability to govern one's passions in spite of temptation, to be just in one's dealings and temperate in one's pleasures were qualities of far more real advantage to a person than being "master of all the arts and sciences in the world besides."

We know how to teach languages, math, and other subjects. But, how do you teach children to govern their passions and to be good neighbors and citizens? How do you teach them to be just in their dealings, to be temperate in their pleasures, to behave with prudence in their affairs, and to support themselves with fortitude under misfortune?

How do you teach these concepts in a public school setting? Where is the opportunity? Where do you get the time or resources? How does character education fit in with our established curriculum?

The most important quality of good citizenship, especially in a free society, is the capacity for responsible self-governance. This means we must not only teach young people such virtues as honesty, respect, and responsibility, but also temperance, self-control, and self-reliance.

Good citizenship is determined more by one's desires than one's knowledge, and less by one's ability than one's character. But how can a teacher appropriately influence a child's desires and help mold his or her character without violating parental concerns or legal requirements for public schools? How can it be done within the limitations of time, resources and opportunity available to the teacher?

Benjamin Franklin answered this question some two-hundred and seventy-seven years ago. His answer? By teaching them how to read the sacred book of nature.

The following excerpt from Benjamin Franklin's The Art of Virtue provides valuable insight into the importance of character based learning and a key to creating effective character based lessons.

In the summer of 1730 the Pennsylvania Gazette published two dialogues written by Benjamin Franklin titled Dialogues Concerning Virtue and Pleasure. The dialogues consist of a conversation between Horatio, a lover of pleasure, and Philocles, a wise philosopher. In the first dialogue, Horatio admits to Philocles that his indiscriminate pursuit of pleasure has caused him a great deal of trouble. Admiring Philocles' freedom from similar cares, Horatio wishes to know his secret. Near the end of their conversation, Philocles explains to Horatio:

Philocles: The chief faculty in man is his reason, His chief good, or that which may be justly called his good, consists in reasonable action. By reasonable actions we understand those actions which are preservative of the human kind and naturally tend to produce real and unmixed happiness; and these actions, by way of distinction, we call actions morally good.

Horatio: You speak very clearly, Philocles; but, that no difficulty may remain on my mind, pray tell me what is the real difference between natural good and evil and moral good and evil.

Philocles: The difference lies only in this: natural good and evil are pleasure and pain; moral good and evil are pleasure or pain produced with intention and design; for it is the intention only that makes the agent morally good or bad.

Horatio: But may not a man with a very good intention do an evil action?

Philocles: Yes; but then he errs in his judgment, though his design be good. If his error is inevitable, or such as, all things considered, he could not help, he is inculpable; but if it arose through want of diligence in forming his judgment about the nature of human actions, he is immoral and culpable.

Horatio: I find, then, that in order to please ourselves rightly, or to do good to others morally, we should take great care of our opinions.

Philocles: Nothing concerns you more; for as the happiness or real good of men consists in right action, and right action cannot be produced without right opinion, it behooves us, above all things in this world, to take care that our own opinions of things be according to the nature of things. The foundation of all virtue and happiness is thinking rightly. He who sees an action is right-that is, naturally tending to good and does it because of that tendency, he only is a moral man; and he alone is capable of that constant, durable, and invariable good which has been the subject of this conversation.

Horatio: How, my dear philosophical guide, shall I be able to know, and determine certainly, what is right and wrong in life?

Philocles: As easily as you distinguish a circle from a square, or light from darkness. Look, Horatio, into the sacred book of nature; read your own nature, and view the relation which other men stand in to you, and you to them, and you will immediately see what constitutes human happiness, and consequently what is right.

Four Points from the above dialogue:

The real good of man consists in right action.

Right action cannot be produced without right opinion

Right opinions are opinions that accord with nature of things, and

Right opinion cannot be obtained without right thinking

While there are those that may chafe at the notion of "right opinions" or even "right thinking", especially when espoused by someone who holds different opinions than themselves, it is doubtful that anyone would argue that all opinions are equally valid or equally beneficial.

If we want to teach young people how to form "right opinions" we need to provide them the training and tools that will help them know how to "think rightly" which is help them learn how to think for themselves. Hence, a critical ingredient of character based learning is helping them develop the thinking skills necessary to look at the sacred book of nature and understand what they are seeing.

This is also a valuable key in preparing character based lessons. If we can get them to see the nature of an act or thought, whether its natural tendency is to improve or injure the human condition, we are well on the way to helping them make right choices.

Nothing can be more natural than to help young people learn how to read the sacred book of nature while teaching them than while teaching them about languages and the meanings of words, or while teaching science and the operations of nature, or history and the accumulated experiences of the human race, or math in which they learn principles of symmetry, structure, and order.

The need exists, the opportunity is there, and the only question that remains is, "Are we up to it?" Surely it is if we keep in mind, not only the future welfare of the children we teach, but also the kind of world we would like to leave them.