Topical Teaching

Tips to Get Kids More Organized

April 20, 2015

1. Establish a great homework routine

With your child, determine the best time for daily school work and stick with it. For some kids, it will be right after school. Others may need some downtime to play, and then it’s time to hit the books. The most important thing is to stick to the schedule so your child knows what’s expected.

2. Set up the space

Have a designated study area, such as the kitchen table. But for unique assignments, allow for some flexibility such as moving to a rocking chair for reading chapter books.

3. Make sure you know what’s going on

Instruct children to unload their backpacks as soon as they come home. Have them hang up their bags in a designated area for easy access tomorrow and bring homework to the designated study area. Check in each day so you’re aware of their workload and take special care when they seem overwhelmed.

4. Encourage the use of lists and planners

The older kids get, the more homework and activities they’ll have. Teach them to manage their tasks with the use of simple lists or a planner or calendar of some sort. When they learn of upcoming assignments, tests, or events, they should write them down in their planners.

5. Encourage colour coding

Colour affects our mood and memory so let kids pick the colours of their folders and notebooks to correspond to different classes. If green reminds them of science, then they’ll know instantly to grab the green notebook when looking for their science notes.

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Tags: organisational skills, tips parents organization
Posted in Parenting | Leave a Comment »

How Does a Teacher Stop an Out of Control Classroom Fight

April 20, 2015

The parent in question is justified in complaining about her son’s teacher, based on his seemingly excessive approach to stopping a classroom fight. But she should also reflect on the reason for such a scene, namely, her son’s involvement in the fight.

Additionally, the question has to be asked, what on earth is a teacher supposed to do when two students, or groups of students are engaging in violent activity in the classroom? Calling for help is the obvious answer, but in many cases the damage would have been done before the help arrives.

A concerned parent in the US has handed disturbing footage of a teacher putting her son in a choke hold to the police in a bid to have the teacher punished.

The Memphis high school teacher is seen completely immobilising the student on the ground after trying to break up a fight between the 16-year-old and another boy.

Students try to separate the pair but the teacher persists until he wrestles the boy to the ground.

The boy’s mum Shunkita Qualls said her son came home with bruises but school officials had initially played down the classroom.

But Ms Qualls was shocked when she saw video of the attack and believes the teacher was too heavy handed.

“(It was) heartbreaking. It brought tears to my eyes,” Qualls told FOX13.

“No mother wants to send their child to school and have to see something like that.”

The school released a statement saying it had reviewed the footage but believes the teacher’s actions were necessary to prevent the student attacking others.

Police are investigating but no charges have been laid.

Click on the link to read Teacher Hires Hitman to Kill Her Student

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Tags: Shunkita Qualls, teacher choke, teacher chokehold
Posted in Professional Conduct, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Is There Anything More Important Than ‘Knowing’ Your Students?

April 18, 2015

For me, knowing my students is an absolutely essential part of what I do. Without that knowledge, I can’t properly plan, teach, motivate or resolve situations. I am so pleased that thanks to one teacher’s experiment, the notion of trying to understand ones students has caught on:

A Colorado teacher who posted notes from her grade 3 class online and started a social media whirlwind under the hashtag #IWishMyTeacherKnew said on Friday the assignment had been a revelation for her.

Kyle Schwartz, 26, asked the eight and nine-year-olds at her Denver inner city school to write down something they wished she knew about them, partly as a writing exercise, and partly as a way for her to learn about her pupils.

Responses included “I don’t have pencils at home to do my homework”, and “I want to go to college”, to one tear-jerker from a girl who said she had no friends to play with at recess.

When the teacher shared photographs of some of the notes on Twitter, similar messages and pictures came pouring in from other schools worldwide.

Ms Schwartz, a self-described suburban girl who has taught at south-west Denver’s Doull Elementary for three years, said she has conducted the exercise each year, in part because she wanted to underline the issue of poverty in US inner cities.

About 90 per cent of Doull’s 532 students are Hispanic, and 46 per cent are classed as English-language learners.

Ms Schwartz said one message that garnered a lot of sympathy online, from a girl who said she missed her father after he was deported to Mexico several years ago, was particularly revealing.

“That student comes to school each day with a smile on her face,” the teacher said, adding that she would not have known what the girl was going through if not for the handwritten note.

She said the pupils were told they could write anonymously if they wished, but that most were happy to add their names and to share their messages with classmates.

One widely commented upon note was from a girl who said she had no friends to play with during break time.

Ms Schwartz said that message had been “heartbreaking”, but that she was gladdened to see how the other pupils rallied to support the child who wrote it.

“The next day at recess, all the girls huddled around her and played tag,” Ms Schwartz said.

“A lot of what we’re teaching is how to be a good friend. My students’ emotional needs are just as important as their academic needs.”

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Tags: #IWishMyTeacherKnew, Kyle Schwartz
Posted in Inspirational Teachers | Leave a Comment »

Teacher Hires Hitman to Kill Her Student

April 16, 2015

This is not a Hollywood movie. Stories like this one reflects very badly on the millions of teachers who do their profession proud:

This is the shocking moment a teacher is filmed hiring a hitman to kill a pupil she was reportedly in love with.

Music teacher Yulia Simonova offered the killer £1,400 to ‘get rid’ of the 15-year-old student, according to Russian media reports.

But Simonova, who worked in the Russian city of Shatura, near the capital Moscow, was caught out in a police sting operation.

The 52-year-old was detained after she attempted to hand over payment for the alleged hit.

An undercover policeman pretending to be a killer met with the jealous teacher and filmed the entire exchange on hidden camera, police claim.

She now faces a 15 year jail sentence if found guilty.

Ms Simonova reportedly saved up for an entire year to pay for the hit. Her plan was discovered when the martial arts instructor she asked to do the job contacted police.

In the hidden camera video, the teacher makes it clear she wants the boy to suffer badly and die slowly.

Click on the link to read Teachers Who Have Sex With Students Deserve Jail Time!

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Tags: Music teacher hires hitman to kill her student, Teacher Hires Hitman to Kill Her Student, Yulia Simonova, Yulia Simonova hitman
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Whilst I Try to Teach About Positive Self Image, the Media Seeks to Tear My Students Down

April 15, 2015

How on earth am I expected to compete with a ruthless and often disgusting media when it comes to the subject of positive body image. Whilst I am trying to share with my students one view on body image and the meaning of beauty, the media goes and projects the complete opposite.

Today I stumbled on a piece that got me so riled up, I wanted to shout at my computer screen. At the bottom of a news article, I noticed a link to a story entitled, “23 Sexiest Celebrities With Ugly Significant Others”. It was written in March last year, but for some reason (perhaps its popularity), the link lives on to the point where it is accompanying recent articles.

Let me share you one of their 23 examples.

As an Australian, this one cuts especially deep. Australia is lucky enough to be the home of two remarkable rolemodels in actor Hugh Jackman and his very talented wife, Deborra-Lee Furness. Deborra is smart and creative. She is a fine person and excellent mother. Some may say, she is a “beautiful” person (for a whole range of reasons).

Not according to this cheap, disgusting load of rubbish article:

He might play Wolverine, but Hugh Jackman is one of Hollywood’s hottest. The couple met in Melboure in 1995 on the set of the TV drama, Correlli.The show, which featured Furness as the leading lady, was Jackman’s first acting gig and he played her love interest.However, the Australian actress, director and producer now takes a backseat to her X Men leading man.The couple was immediately drawn to each other and Jackman popped the question after just four months of dating. The quick romance led to a 1996 wedding, and, with nearly 18 years of marriage under their belts, the mismatched couple seems to be defying the odds.

The couple, who are the parents of two children, say that they are as attracted to each other today as they were all those years ago. Though her career in acting and directing isn’t going anywhere right now, Furness stays busy with philanthropy work.

The “mismatched couple”? Says who? So let me get this straight – a perfectly matched couple must then be two Hollywood bombshells who get married for 2 weeks before realising that they have nothing in common and then get divorced. Make sense, right?

How dare a publication write that Deborra, or anyone else for that matter, is ugly! What kind of message does that send to children?

How can I compete with this gutter trash?

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Tags: Hugh Jackman's marriage, Hugh Jackman's wife
Posted in Body Image | Leave a Comment »

Private School Students Perform No Better Than Public Students

April 14, 2015

I don’t know why it seems like such a revelation to some that private school students have no marked edge over their public school counterparts. Thanks to ever increasing spending on public education, more is spent on a public school students’ classroom experience than the private equivalent.

Australian researchers have confirmed a growing body of international research that finds the high cost of private school education does not give students an academic edge over their public school counterparts.

The study, which has been published in the Australian Journal of Labour Economics, found that once the more privileged backgrounds of private school students are taken into account, they fare no better in the education system than other children.

The research from the University of Queensland, the University of Southern Queensland and Curtin University examined the vexed issue facing many parents when choosing between a public or private education for their children.

Co-author of the study, Professor Luke Connelly, said primary students do just as well academically in either system.

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Tags: private vs public education
Posted in Education Matters | Leave a Comment »

From Maths Teacher to Masters Champion’s Caddie

April 13, 2015

The public perception of elementary teachers isn’t that they are “a calming influence”. But we certainly can be, as evidenced by Masters champion Jordan Speith’s choice of caddie:

The man who celebrated with Jordan Spieth on the 18th green at Augusta National Golf Club on Sunday made his first trip here only three years ago. Michael Greller wasn’t even a professional caddie at the time. He was a sixth-grade math teacher who won a lottery for Masters tickets and spent the day following Rory McIlroy. “I had a few beers and enjoyed the walk,” he said.

Greller’s path from standing outside the ropes to carrying the bag of the Masters champion is far more improbable than Spieth’s impressive victory. And it reveals both the randomness of the caddying business and the way Spieth has approached the game.

… But the reason he has latched on with golf’s biggest rising star has little to do with measuring yardages or memorizing breaks on a green. It is because of moments like this: When Spieth double-bogeyed the 17th hole Saturday, Greller didn’t say much as they walked to the 18th tee box. He mostly just listened.

“You don’t want to overanalyze or make it harder than it is,” Greller said. “I just try to be a calming influence on him. He’s very intense.”

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Tags: How did Michael Greller get to become caddie, Michael Greller, Michael Greller and jordan speith, Michael Greller caddie, Michael Greller story, Michael Greller teacher, why jordan speith chose Michael Greller
Posted in Education Matters | Leave a Comment »

Teachers Who Have Sex With Students Deserve Jail Time!

April 12, 2015

No jail time and not even put on the sex offender list.

A female teacher gets nothing more than a 90 day mental health treatment for bedding a 16 year old student. How is this an acceptable sentence? No wonder she is posting celebratory selfies of herself.

This isn’t just a victory for her, but all the other potential transgressors out there. With punishments like those, what’s to stop others doing the same?

And I’m sorry to repeat this again, but what if the teacher was a male? Would the sentence be so lenient? It’s interesting that the stigma falls almost exclusively on male teachers, but there are more female teachers than ever crossing the line.

I am appalled at the way the courts seem almost disinterested in cases like these. We must put pressure on judges to treat cases like this one far more seriously:

A teacher in the United States has come under fire for posting a ‘celebratory selfie’ after being given a light sentence for sleeping with a student.

Shelley Dufresnein, from Louisiana, was arrested last September after admitting to an improper relationship with a 16-year-old boy.

The 32-year-old was charged with several offences including carnal knowledge with a juvenile, indecent behavior with a juvenile and contributing to the delinquency of a child.

She accepted a plea deal in court on Thursday that means she will avoid jail time and will not be put on the registered sex offender’s list.

In exchange, the mother-of-three will have to undergo a 90-day mental health treatment.

She has also been banned from teaching and going near the victim or his family.

Several hours after she was released, Dufresnein uploaded a photo to her Instagram account celebrating her ‘victory.’

She captioned the photo: “My mood today,” followed by three smiley faces.

Many of Dufresnien’s followers congratulated her.

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Tags: Shelley Dufresnein, Shelley Dufresnein Instagram, Shelley Dufresnein selfie
Posted in Professional Conduct | Leave a Comment »

Schools Don’t Get Much More Scary Than This

April 8, 2015

I’m all for good results, but not at the expense of teacher, student and parent satisfaction:

IT’S a school where children are reportedly praised for wetting themselves rather than taking a break and teachers work harder than Wall Street bankers.

This is the Success Academy, where failure is not an option.

The controversial New York school network has been criticised for its pressure-cooker environment. But its head says the intensive methods are giving poorer students the chance to compete with rich kids with expensive schools and private tutors.

The results-focused network is made up of charter schools, which are independent, but receive public funding. Success claims it encourages children to embrace the discipline and “joyful rigour” they’ll need to flourish.

Test scores are announced in class, displayed on coloured charts posted in hallways and published in a weekly newsletter, according to a New York Times profile.

Those who aren’t measuring up appear in the red zone. If their poor performance persists, they attend “effort academy” while their classmates get a treat. Suspension rates are far beyond those in most public schools.

One parent whose child attended Brooklyn’s Success Academy Cobble Hill wrote on a forum that the school was “strict, cold, and insensitive” to children’s needs.

“My son wet his pants for the first time since he was three years old because the school did not let him go to the bathroom when he asked,” wrote the parent. “The school was incapable of recognising that he had also developed anxiety around going down the hall to the bathroom.”

There is a high turnover of staff, with one former teacher telling the Times she used to cry herself to sleep at night because of the way she had to treat the children.

The newspaper also saw an internal email that said students who were falling behind should be made to feel “misery”. One teacher was told by a supervisor to respond more strongly to a child’s mistakes, by tearing up her work.

There are strict instructions on posture — backs straight, hands clasped and feet on the floor or legs crossed.

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