Just Cause for Turning Down a Job Interview While on Unemployment

Obtaining unemployment benefits may be a standard next step to bridging the financial gap when you're jobless through no fault of your own, but those subsidized paychecks are not automatically tendered without some serious effort on your part. Unemployment compensation is granted to those job seekers who, once deemed "able and available" for suitable work, do not turn down an interview for any job without "good cause."

Proving "Able and Available"
Being able and available means you possess marketable skills. While it's not your responsibility to identify available jobs, you do have to demonstrate there is a market for your specific experience. For example, creating matchstick animals may be an entertaining talent, but there is no demand for it within the labor sector. Able and available also speaks to your physical capacity to actually carry out the work, as well as having a dependable means of transportation to get to and from the job.

Imposing Job Restrictions
Job seekers are allowed to establish certain boundaries when it comes to the type of jobs they'll accept and still be considered able and available. Health issues, for instance, can dictate whether a position is suitable where there is heavy lifting or unhealthful environmental factors, such as allergens. You may also cite lack of transportation as the reason for only seeking jobs within walking distance, but the onus is on you to demonstrate reasonable attempts to rectify the situation prior to requesting a restriction.

Suitable Work
Suitable work is determined by courts and unemployment compensation referees after considering various factors of your specific situation. These can include work experience and training; proximity of home to job; why and how long job seeker is out of work; plausibility of securing a job close to home in skilled profession; previous wages; job market climate; normal occupational pay rate; and residence permanency.

With and Without "Good Cause"
Refusing a job for "good cause" may include a mismatch of skills to position; physical inability to complete required tasks of that particular job; conflict between religious beliefs and job requirements; lack of transportation; and inability to secure quality childcare during work hours. You must make reasonable effort to rectify the latter two before refusing a job. Suitable jobs refused without good cause can cost job seekers their unemployment compensation when, for example, full-time employment is offered yet only part-time is wanted or vice versa, and refusing to accept a lower pay rate than previously earned.

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Originally written for and published by Demand Media

Integrative Learning

Reaching and teaching students in today's troubled academic climate, no matter their (in)capacity to learn, has presented a significant challenge for educators who are faced with teaching different types of learners within a single classroom. Various methods have been introduced to address how at-risk students fall through the cracks because they're not being taught in a way they understand; predictably, few have demonstrated an ability to overcome the struggle.

Four Blocks
Robin J. Fogarty, a prominent advocate of integrated learning, points out how the absence of such diversity prevents students from achieving any level of varied exposure or understanding of what's being taught, which typically leads to boredom and distraction. The Four-Blocks integrative approach helps teachers harmonize methods, curriculum, instruction and assessment to blend these otherwise independent entities and approach learning in a holistic fashion. Clearly, students are as much a part of the learning process as are instructors; however, this reality isn't always applied in environments where conventionality dictates that teachers talk and students listen. Four-Blocks overrides these traditional barriers by allowing educators to apply an integrated focus that encourages students to learn from their developmental vantage point.

Standardized Testing
The main problems facing instructional supervision today revolve around the fact that teachers are bound too tightly when it comes to choosing their own instructional approaches. The micromanagement of education has become a most damaging aspect of academia, with teachers lacking freedom to incorporate more appropriate learning methods according to specific classroom needs. Eliminating standardized testing will empower instructors to overcome this inequitable measure of academic prowess that forces all learners into a single, rigid classification.

The hotly debated trend of standardized testing has left many academically-challenged students in a wake of confusion and poor comprehension. The theory behind this academic assessment may have had merit when first implemented across the nation, but the extent to which it has turned into a platform for discrimination is both grand and far-reaching. Standardized assessments inherently place all students in the same category of ability, no matter their individual learning limitations or challenges, which speaks to a testing system that divides student populations rather than accurately and fairly evaluates them.

Reach, Teach and Prepare
Curriculum and instruction are no longer mutually exclusive with regard to the critical roles they each play in education; as such, the only truly effective way to reach, teach and prepare students is to adopt an integrative teaching strategy that successfully incorporates more than one learning style. Book and rote education is a thing of the past that many argue was never very effective to begin with; as such, these boundaries are being broken with the help of Four-Blocks so a more connected foundation exists for students to access their future.

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