To those parents who are contemplating assisting their underage children to get on Facebook, I strongly suggest you reconsider. The age requirements for Facebook is necessary, as Facebook has a clear downside. From cybersafety issues to cyberbullying, Facebook is clearly not designed for pre-teens.
Almost all parents of ten-year-olds signing up for the site – 95 percent – were aware of what their children were doing, and 78 percent of those helped them do it.
“Although many sites restrict access to children, our data show that many parents knowingly allow their children to lie about their age — in fact, often help them to do so — in order to gain access to age–restricted sites in violation of those sites’ ToS,” the authors write.
“This is especially true for general–audience social media sites and communication services such as Facebook, Gmail, and Skype, which allow children to connect with peers, classmates, and family members for educational, social, or familial reasons.”
The survey found that 55 percent of 12-year-olds, 32 percent of 11-year-olds and 19 percent of 10-year-olds were active Facebook members.
The authors suggest that the COPPA rules may need re-examination, given that they appear only to be encouraging parents to lie. Universal, rather than age-based, privacy protecitons might make more sense, they say.
A BULLYING school head has been banned from the job for life – but can still teach.
Debbie Collinson intimidated and swore at teachers and even gave pupils “Coke and doughnuts” in exchange for information about staff.
She also told teachers to falsely improve attendance records and test scores.
Collinson, head at Harrow Gate Primary School, in Stockton-on-Tees, Co Durham, was found guilty of professional misconduct.
Tribunal chairwoman Dr Barbara Hibbert told the Birmingham hearing: “It is simply unacceptable to manage a school in the manner in which she did, whatever the motivation.”
Collinson, who is in her late 40s, is no longer at Harrow Gate. It is it not known if she teaches elsewhere.
If your boss can match or better Ms. Collinson, I’d love it if you could share it.
Children born at the start of the academic year achieve better exam results, on average, than children born at the end of the academic year.
This matters because educational attainment has long-term consequences for a range of adult outcomes. But it is not only educational attainment that has long-lasting effects: other skills and behaviours affect adult outcomes too, and can also matter for children’s current wellbeing.
In line with previous research, our report shows that there are large and significant differences between August- and September-born children in terms of their cognitive skills, whether measured using national achievement tests or alternative indicators such as the British Ability Scales; these gaps are particularly pronounced when using teacher reports of children’s performance.
Those born in August are also significantly more likely to take vocational qualifications after leaving compulsory schooling and slightly less likely to attend a Russell Group university.
I was one of the youngest in my class and really struggled to keep in touch with my classmates. I was slow to mature, and in hindsight I probably should have stayed down a year to maximise my academic potential.
Having said that, I believe that parents can get fixated with their children being among the youngest and can use it as an excuse. This then filters down to the child who rationalises their performance by making the same excuse.
Ofsted is wrong. Teacher training doesn’t need to be tougher, it needs to be smarter. The reason why our new teachers find it so hard is not because they cruised through their training but because their training didn’t prepare them for the classroom.
Tougher training should be given to teachers in a bid to raise standards in the classroom, an education watchdog has proposed.
The guidelines, drawn up by Ofsted and published on Monday, would see a greater emphasis on teachers’ behavioural management and ability to teach pupils to read, including those with special educational needs.
The ways in which trainee teachers are currently assessed would also change; inspectors will rate trainees’ effectiveness in few categories but according to a tougher criteria. The inspection will include an increased focus on trainees’ subject knowledge and the quality of training.
My University course was as tough as they come, but it was too steeped in the theoretical. I needed far more exposure to classrooms than 5 weeks in year one and 9 in the second and final year of my degree. I needed to see how different teachers and different schools operated. I needed to be in touch with resources that was shown to work and methods that I could employ later on.
Instead, I was treated to mindless theory and useless advice. It was an extremely tough course, but one that offered me precious little in terms of real experience and practical insight.
Today I was fined by a parking officer for parking in a permit zone. I had only left my car for a few minutes, and clearly that’s all it takes.
On my way back from the shops I noticed a parking inspector processing a ticket by my car. I asked him what I did wrong. I pointed out the 1 hour parking sign. He pointed to another small sign among others that notified those with good eyesight that the spot was a permit zone on weekends but fine during the week.
I told him that I was only gone for a second and that I had made an innocent mistake. He didn’t pay attention. My daughter cried sensing something was wrong and becoming unsettled by the man’s presence. The man ignored her and kept on typing.
$75 – that’s what the tiny mistake cost me!
I realise that the man was doing his job. He probably has a wife and family to take care of and bills to pay. I don’t blame him for his actions or diminish his right to take on this job.
But ultimately, I’m so glad that I am a teacher and not a parking officer.
Parking officers serve no real value to the community. They are employed by council workers who should have enough revenue to waste through our overpriced rates. But no, through parking infringements, they have another steam of revenue they can waste in good measure.
Nobody is glad to see a parking inspector walking around. Nobody goes to lengths to welcome them or engage in small talk. Their job is to prey on people’s mistake and slug for an inordinate amount of money.
Teaching can be so much more than that. We can represent all that’s positive about this world. We can be mentors and role models. We can help children grow to reach their potential.
Unfortunately, we can also do a lot of damage. If we are not good at our job or our heart isn’t in it, we can be the manifestation of what is wrong with this world.
That’s the great challenge for teachers. To be the polar opposite of a parking inspector.
Be punctual — Teachers are on a tight schedule so if you are late you might get bumped to stand-by.
Come with a list of questions — Avoid wasting time by jotting down your most important concerns before the conference. If you have a question that requires a lengthy response, schedule a follow-up time to speak with the teacher.
Focus on academics — The primary focus of school is academics so ask questions about how your child is doing and how you may help your child improve if necessary.
Be open-minded — The teacher may have some observations you do not see at home. Our kids bring out our most basic emotions, but try to opt out of defensive mode and listen to what the teacher has to say.
Ask for clarification — If the teacher says your child is “chatty” or “plays roughly” ask specifically what that means or ask for examples when he or she displayed that behavior.
Don’t complain about other kids — However, suggesting she not sit your child with another child is fine. If there have been specific incidents you feel the teacher should know about, go ahead and share. The teacher will listen and handle it, she just can’t comment on other kids.
Treat the teacher with respect — It’s sad that I even need to say that. Teachers are professionals with the education and experience necessary to competently teach your child. You would not appreciate other people that are not in your profession telling you how to do your job and either do they.
Do not stay past allotted time — Understand that the teacher is not trying to rush you but there is only so much time and others are probably peering in the door for any sign you are about to wrap it up.
I agree with all of them except for the one about keeping the focus on the academic. I believe that parents should be able to focus on any matter or topic that concerns or interests them. I also believe that the social welfare of a child is every bit as important as their academic progress.
Even the best parents and teachers struggle to get kids doing menial tasks on a consistent basis. From making their beds to putting their lunchboxs back in their bag, it’s amazing how difficult it is to get children to be responsible for small yet important tasks.
That is, until an app was designed to assist desperate and exhausted parents:
You may find this shocking, but getting my 11- and 9-year-olds to do household chores is like pulling teeth. Rotten kids!
That may change now that I’ve got You Rules Chores on my iPhone. This clever new app turns household chores into a game, rewarding each kid a designated number of coins for each completed job. Whoever finishes the week’s chores first is the winner. (Of course, we all know who the real winners are: mom and dad.)
The app features cute graphics and music, and after a parent gets set up as the “referee,” each kid gets to choose an avatar (from only six available, alas).
It seems to be more fashionable than ever to knock teachers. Teachers are being dubbed as lazy and inept.
In truth it is easy to criticise teachers but very hard to be one.
We need more articles like this one by Patricia McGuire to defend teachers and set the record straight.
Yes, teachers should certainly be held accountable for excellence in teaching and for measurable results in the progress their students make each day. Teachers are on the front line of student learning assessment, since they really do know better than anyone else what makes a child successful or lackadaisical, engaged or detached in class. Standardized tests rarely measure the real progress that teachers make with some of the most challenging pupils whose learning styles are far off the normed curves.
The current fashion in education reform treats teachers as lazy slugs who care little about whether their students are learning anything. The assumption behind using standardized testing for teacher evaluation is that the only way to make teachers care about learning is to embarrass them publicly when their students do not perform according to someone else’s idea of norms. This assumption is what is truly preposterous!
For teachers who choose to devote their life’s work to some of the most difficult classrooms in America, such as here in the District of Columbia, the testing imperative becomes a monumental disincentive to stay in the classroom for any length of time, since the opportunities for sustained superior results on standardized tests are rare, while the risks of frequent subpar results are very high. It’s no secret that the widely-hailed Teach for America program has ingrained two-year turnover in its teaching corps. TFA teachers rarely stay to wrestle through the down years, which are frequent among students in marginalized communities.
Governments are so busy trying to find a negatively geared incentive for teachers and a scale that compares their effectiveness that they have lost sight of the most important pieces of the Education reform puzzle:
1. Revolutionise teacher training programs to focus on the practical instead of the theoretical.
2. Have measures in place that allow all teachers (especially new teachers) the support they need.
3. Spend more time critiquing schools with questionable cultures of bullying and harrasment. Give these school’s the support they need to better handle their affairs.
How sick and utterly selfish do you have to be to name your beautiful children “Adolph Hitler” and “Aryan Nation”? What an absolute disgrace! These parents can’t understand why their children were taken away from them. It’s a shame that they haven’t as yet worked out that by naming their children after despicable tyrants and murderous regimes they are in fact scarring their children for life.
A COUPLE who named one of their children after Adolf Hitler should not regain custody of their three children, an appeals court has ruled.
Heath and Deborah Campbell’s three small children were removed from their home in Phillipsburg, New Jersey, by the state in January 2009, myFOXphilly.com reported.
The family drew world-wide attention after a store refused to decorate a birthday cake for their son, Adolf Hitler Campbell.
Adolf and siblings JoyceLynn Aryan Nation and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie have been in foster care since then.
The appeals court ruled last week that sufficient evidence of abuse or neglect existed because of domestic violence in the home. The court sent the case back to family court for further reconsideration.
A gag order remains in place and the parties refused to discuss the decision.
In January 2009, the Campbells told myFOXphilly.com that Adolf Hitler Campbell was just like any other three-year-old boy.
“It’s not like he’s growing up to be a killer or nothing like that,” said mother Deborah Campbell.
How dare they do this to their beautiful children! Sure, it is claimed that the children have been taken out of their parents’ custody because of domestic abuse and not because of their names, but what if there was no other reasons? Should the names be enough to warrant a claim of child abuse.
If these people want to continue rearing their precious children they better smarten their act. This includes thinking of more appropriate names for their kids … quick smart!
We all love our internet connections and mobile phones and would find it extremely difficult to live without them. However, addictions are still addictions, and there is no doubt that our children have grown a deep addiction to the internet. So bad is the problem, that children have become more addicted to the internet than to TV:
Just 18% of children would miss TV most, compared to mobile (28%) and Internet (25%), finds Ofcom research
A new research by communications watchdog Ofcom has revealed that more young British teenagers can do without TV but not without mobile and the Internet.
Ofcom research found that just 18% of children aged 12 to 15 would miss TV most, compared to mobile (28%) and the Internet (25%). However, the research suggests that the teenagers are also watching more TV than ever before, with viewing figures increasing by 2 hours since 2007.
In 2010, children aged 4-15 watched an average of 17 hours and 34 minutes of TV per week, compared with 15 hours and 37 minutes in 2007. Nearly one third (31%) of children aged 5-15 who use the Internet are watching TV via an online catch-up service such as the BBC iPlayer or ITV Player, said Ofcom.
Ofcom’s research said that 95% of 12-15 year olds now have Internet access at home through a PC or laptop, up from 89% in 2010 and 77% in 2007.
Social networking is still one of the most popular uses of the Internet amongst 12-15s. Ofcom said that children are visiting social network sites more often on their mobiles. Half (50%) of 12-15s with a smartphone visit them weekly compared with 33% in 2010.
Children aged between 8-11 are more likely to use Internet for gaming, with 51% saying they play games online on a weekly basis, up from 44% in 2010. 8-11s are also spending more time playing on games players/ consoles compared with 2010 (9 hours 48 minutes – an increase of nearly 2 hours), said Ofcom.
In my school days television addiction was a problem. Now we have another addiction which comes with the same side-effects. It creates tired students who have been up so late they can’t concentrate. It has compromised our children’s capacity to have healthy social interaction. Playing with a friend has now become messaging a friend. It’s just not the same.
As soon as people go from the moderate to the obsessive, they lose control of themselves. Children today are certainly showing the signs of a lack of control, to the point where they are smuggling mobiles in their bags so they can reply to Facebook messages as soon as they receive them.
Kids require rules for their internet usage. Rules that outline when, how and where they can use it.
Topical Teaching 
