September 23, 2012
Talk about an absurd idea!
PRISON staff from scandal-hit security firm G4S took the fingerprints and mugshots of children as young as two who visited inmates at a new jail.
The practice was stopped only after a string of complaints to jail bosses at HMP Oakwood, a privately run prison in Staffordshire that holds 1,605 offenders.
The Mail on Sunday has discovered that over-zealous staff forced children who were visiting family members to pose for pictures and have electronic fingerprints taken, which were then stored on a computer at the prison.
The practice, which has drawn strong criticism from prison groups, continued for four weeks earlier this year until prison governors held an inquiry and put a stop to it.
Click on the link to read Why Are Parents Defending this Sick Priest?
Tags: Children, G4S, G4S took the fingerprints and mugshots of children, HMP Oakwood, Jail, kids, Parenting, Prison, PRISON staff took the fingerprints and mugshots of children, staff forced children to pose for pictures and have electronic fingerprints taken, Two-year olds mugshots and fingerprints
Posted in Child Welfare | Leave a Comment »
September 22, 2012
It’s like a B-Grade movie, only it’s real:
Riot police were forced to break up crowds at a teenager’s 16th birthday party after 3,000 people turned up because she left the Facebook event invitation open.
There were reports of six people hurt, three seriously, as shops were vandalised and looted, a car set on fire and street signs and lampposts were damaged in the northern Dutch town of Haren.
Up to 600 riot police were on the scene and at least 20 arrests were made, media reports said on Friday night.
As police broke up the crowds, stones, bottles, bicycles and pots of flowers were hurled at them.
The mayhem unfolded after some 30,000 people received the invitation from a girl announcing her 16th birthday party on Facebook.
Intended to be a small-scale celebration, the invitation went viral after the girl did not set the Facebook event to private and forgot to mention it was for family and friends only.
Groningen police spokeswoman Melanie Zwama told AFP: ‘She posted the invitation on Facebook and sent it to friends, who then sent it to other friends and soon it spread like wildfire across the internet.’
Reports said up to 3,000 people showed up in the town of only 18,000.
Tags: 000 people Facebook event invitation open, 000 turned up to teenagers birthday party, 3, Dutch party gatecrashers, Facebook gatecrashers party, girl forgot to mention on the invite that the party was intended for family and friends only Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2206919/Riot-Facebook-party-attended-thousands.html#ixzz, northern Dutch town of Haren, northern Dutch town of Haren party, northern Dutch town of Haren riot, open facebook event, Project Haren September 21, Project X, Project X-Party, Project X-Party Haren, Riot police teenager’s 16th birthday party, riot teenagers birthday party, YouTube clip party riot
Posted in Social Media, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
September 21, 2012
I love stories about remarkable people overcoming adversity:
A woman born with no arms is proving to children they can achieve whatever they want to – by teaching them with her feet.
Mary Gannon, who works at a Lakewood, Ohio middle school, writes on the board, types on her computer and hands out worksheets with her toes.
Ms Gannon, who teaches maths and science, grew up in a Mexican orphanage and was adopted by an Ohio family when she was seven.
She joined the school last year as a substitute teacher and now tutors 6th, 7th and 8th graders full-time, driving to work in a car with the number plate: ‘Happy Feet.’
Speaking to Fox 8, she said hopes her determination teaches the children a valuable life lesson.
Tags: Armless, Armless Math Teacher, Armless maths teacher, Education, Inspirational Teachers, Mary Gannon armless maths teacher, Mary Gannon teacher with no arms, Mary Gannon teaches with her feet, math, maths, News, teaches with her toes
Posted in Inspirational Teachers, Maths | Leave a Comment »
September 20, 2012
Playing sexualised games is indefensible, yet the parents of these children disagree:
A police investigation has been launched after a series of disturbing photos emerged showing schoolchildren licking whipped cream from the knee of a Polish priest.
The images – which are apparently part of an ‘initiation ceremony’ at Salesians High School in Lubin, southern Poland – show both male and female 13-year old pupils taking part in the bizarre practice.
Father Marcin Kozyra, who is also the school’s principal, has defended his actions by saying such ceremonies for first year pupils have been an annual event for many years.
In the photos the Catholic priest is shown sitting on a battered armchair, wearing shorts and with some form of stick across his knees.
The pupils are shown kneeling around Father Kozyra as they watch each other lick cream from his bare knee.
Other photos show the students crawling up the stairs in a single file on their hands and knees.
‘This is very disturbing,’ said Marek Michalak, the Polish government’s spokesman on child affairs, reported The Telegraph.
While some people have expressed shock over the pictures, which were posted on the school’s website, the parents of some pupils have come out in support of the priest.
In a letter of defence they claimed that the whipped cream was actually shaving foam and nobody was forced to eat it.
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Posted in Child Welfare | 1 Comment »
September 20, 2012
We all know how seriously Facebook takes its age restrictions:
Facebook has an ugly little secret, a number disclosed nowhere in its voluminous filings to become a public company and now only vaguely addressed by corporate officials.
An estimated 5.6 million Facebook clients — about 3.5 percent of its U.S. users — are children who the company says are banned from the site.
Facebook and many other websites bar people under age 13 because the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) requires websites to give special treatment to children 12 or younger. The law aims to stop marketers prying personal information from children or using their data to advertise to them. Sites must get parental permission before allowing children to enter, and must take steps to protect privacy.
Facebook declines to acknowledge that many of its efforts to block children are not working.
The issue has taken on new relevance as the Federal Trade Commission finalizes rules to further restrict companies and websites that target youths or are geared to young audiences.
Facebook, the world’s leading social media company with 955 million users, has said that the law does not apply to it because it explicitly restricts use of its site to people aged 13 and older.
Click on the link to read Parents and Teachers Should Not Be Facebook Friends
Click on the link to read Introducing the App that will Give Parents Nightmares
Click on the link to read Facebook’s Age Restictions are a Joke
Click on the link to read Facebook and Child Exploitation
Tags: about 3.5 percent of its U.S. users — are children Facebook, Children, Children banned from Facebook, Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, Education, facebook, Facebook age requirement, Facebook age restrictions, Facebook bar people under age 13, Facebook efforts to block children are not working, Federal Trade Commission, kids, Parenting, stop marketers prying personal information from children, using their data to advertise to children
Posted in Social Media | 1 Comment »
September 20, 2012
I hate labels, especially labels given to kids. Too often I have seen a child brandished as a “low ability” student prove everybody wrong. The beauty about mixed ability classrooms is that the group in question isn’t selected based on a label. This allows the students to be appreciated for who they are instead of what they know. This also provides more confident students with the fantastic opportunity of helping their less confident counterparts during whole class and grouped work.
But mixed ability classrooms forces teachers to accommodate for the learning needs of each student and they would therefore have to differentiate the curriculum? Of course we would! That’s our job!
It seems like others do not share my beliefs:
Bright pupils are losing out due to the ‘curse’ of mixed-ability classes, the head of Ofsted warned yesterday.
Sir Michael Wilshaw said thousands were failing to reach their full potential due to poor teaching methods.
Inspectors will now be critical of schools that do not differentiate between high and low achievers.
This could lead to schools falling into the new category of ‘requires improvement’ (which replaces the old ‘satisfactory’ description), or even being labelled ‘inadequate’.
Statistics published following a Parliamentary question show that 55 per cent of lessons in English state secondary schools last year involved children with different academic needs.
Ofsted cannot force schools to adopt setting – grouping pupils according to their academic ability in single subjects – or streaming, where ability groups cover most or all subjects.
However, Sir Michael’s intervention is likely to make headteachers rethink their practice of mixed ability classes for fear of being marked down in future inspections.
Tags: Bright pupils, differentiate between high and low achievers, Education, GCSEs, mixed-ability classes, Ofsted, poor teaching methods, Sir Michael Wilshaw, Special Needs, streaming
Posted in Special Needs | 2 Comments »
September 20, 2012
If duct taping a child’s mouth is the only way you know how to maintain order in the classroom, you may want to find a new profession:
The mother of a Louisiana fourth grader whose mouth was taped shut by a substitute teacher who wanted to stop him from talking in class is seeking to bring criminal charges against the school district and the impatient educator.
“He just told me he didn’t want to go back to school no more, and he didn’t want to be friends with no one in his class, or the school,” Droddy told the station.
Only after school administrators talked to almost 100 students did she learn that a substitute teacher used red duct tape, normally used for arts and crafts projects, to quiet her son.
Click on the link to read Worst Examples of Teacher Discipline
Click on the link to read Why Students Misbehave
Click on the link to read Being a Teacher Makes Me Regret the Way I Treated My Teachers
Click on the link to read Useful Resources to Assist in Behavioural Management
Click on the link to read When Something Doesn’t Work – Try Again Until it Does
Tags: Boy mouth duct taped for talking, Classroom Management, Classroom-Disruptions, D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee has admitted to using tape to quiet a noisy cafeteria, Education, J. Wallace James Elementary School duct tape, Lafayette Parish Schools, Louisiana fourth grader duct tape, Michelle Droddy duct tape, mouth was taped shut by a substitute teacher, normally used for arts and crafts projects, Pat Cooper, red duct tape, Substitute Teacher duct tape, Washington
Posted in Classroom Presentation, Professional Conduct | Leave a Comment »
September 20, 2012
One must be careful how and when teachers reward their students. Chartered Psychologist and teacher, Marc Smith, gives his 5 golden rules for rewarding students:
• Reward schemes based on the accumulation of points that can be exchanged for prizes are costly, unsustainable and ineffective in the long term. Those schools that do choose this kinds of schemes will probably face much bigger problems when the scheme is withdrawn.
• Rewards of any kind given immediately after a task is completed motivate pupils better than those given later (and remember that rewards can be in the form of praise).
• Rewards must be justifiable and based on effort as well as achievement (this will encourage a growth mindset in your students).
• Words can help to ‘nudge’ pupils in the right direction and can have the opposite effect if used negatively.
• Rewards must be fair and not just given to the ‘perfect’ pupils (children have an uncanny sense of what is fair and unfair and they’ll see right through any form of bias).
Click on the link to read Do Kids Need A Classroom Pet (The Four-Legged Variety)?
Click on the link to read Why Spelling is Important
Click on the link to read Tips for Engaging the Struggling Learner
Click on the link to read the Phonics debate.
Tags: Are iPods and Xbox games the right reward for good classroom behaviour?, Education, incentives for good behaviour and hard work, Motivating students, Points system in the classroom, Reward schemes in the classroom, Using ptaise to reward students, Using rewards in the classroom
Posted in Engaging Students | Leave a Comment »
September 19, 2012
Courtesy of doctor-pets.com:
It is a tragic reality that many (most?) children sitting in the classrooms today have not had an opportunity to enjoy and look after a household pet. This is sad because owning a pet brings many benefits to a child – from enjoying the companionship of another living creature (many kids these days don’t have siblings either) to fostering organisation and responsibility.
Some schools have stepped into the breach by replacing the home pet with a classroom pet – most schools opt for a low maintenance species, such as guinea pigs or fish. However this raises a number of questions: Who feeds the pet, cleans the cage, takes it to the Vet? Today’s teachers are busy enough as it is to take on another ‘dependent’ in the classroom.
One solution may be to have dedicated budget and staff time for looking after the pet but most schools are already strapped for money and time. I feel strongly that given the wealth of benefits pets impart to people and especially children, the need for a pet in the classroom should be viewed the same way as a need for textbooks. And pets are more fun, too.
Click on the link to read Strategies for Improving Classroom Interactions
Click on the link to read Why Spelling is Important
Click on the link to read Tips for Engaging the Struggling Learner
Click on the link to read the Phonics debate.
Tags: Animals, Animals and children, Education, Pets, Pets in the Classroom, Psychology, Vet
Posted in Engaging Students | 2 Comments »
September 19, 2012
Apparently our freedom isn’t as clear as we have been led to believe:
A MOTHER in the US has spent the night in jail after she was arrested for allowing her children to play outside unsupervised.
Texas mum Tammy Cooper was arrested for child endangerment after a neighbour saw her children riding their scooters around a cul-de-sac and called police.
Ms Cooper, who was arrested for child endangerment, insists she was watching her children from a lawn chair in her front yard.
According to Ms Cooper a police man arrived saying she was under arrest.
“I went out there to see what he was here for and he said, ‘Ma’am, we’re here for you.’ I said, ‘Oh really? Why?’ He proceeded to tell me he had received a call from one of my neighbours that my kids were riding their scooters unsupervised,” Cooper told KRPC.
She says police also interrogated her children.
“My daughter had him [the police officer] around the leg saying, “Please, please don’t take my mom to jail. Please, she didn’t do anything wrong’”.
She is now suing the La Porte Police Department.
Click on the link to read Who Would Let Their Child Play with Gorillas? (Video)
Click on the link to read Potty Training at a Restaurant Table!
Click on the link to read Mother Shaves Numbers Into Quadruplets Heads So People Can Tell Them Apart
Click on the link to read Parenting Advice that Hits the Mark
Click on the link to read This is What You Get for Doing Your Homework
Tags: arrested for allowing her children to play outside unsupervised, Child Welfare, Democracy, Freedom, kids were riding their scooters unsupervised, La Porte Police Department, Mother spent night in jail, neighbour saw her children riding their scooters, Parenting, Tammy Cooper, Tammy Cooper jail, Tammy Cooper kids, Texas mum Tammy Cooper, watching her children from a lawn chair in her front yard
Posted in Parenting | Leave a Comment »
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