Drama is Taught Very Differently Than It Used To

March 25, 2015

drama

So much for the traditional theatre sports and method classes:

 

Drama students were shocked when their teacher showed them an erotic video where she stimulated masturbation with a tampon, writhed around naked and urinated.

In the X-rated video she also blew a condom out of her vagina and inserted a knife handle between her legs.

The unexpected screening was held by performance artist and PhD student Lauren Barri Holstein as part of an introduction presentation to her ‘Theatre and its Others’ module at Queen Mary University, London.

Ms Holstein is described as the ‘darling of the alternative performance scene’ and the footage was filmed during her recent production of the show Splat!.

Blushing freshers also got to see the part of the video where their teacher gyrated around mid-air whilst dangling naked from a harness suspended from the ceiling.

In another scene where she pretends to masturbate with a tampon, she does so over another woman, and sprays fake blood onto her face.

One drama student told student publication The Tab: “It was surreal.

“I honestly didn’t know how to react.

“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to look her in the eye in person, it’s just weird.”

 

Click on the link to read Teachers Who Bully Students Make Me Sick

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Click on the link to read Some Teachers Are Just Downright Cruel!

5 Ways to Ensure Your Kids Are Shielded From Your Stress

March 24, 2015

parental-stress

 

It is so easy for our stress to become contagious, especially for our children. Here are 5 strategies by clinical psychologist :

 

1. Face up to stress. Don’t think,”Everyone else handles pressure, so why can’t I?” Ignoring feelings backfires; stress festers. So take time to take care of yourself. If it’s hard to justify, do it for your kids. Just as flight attendants instruct, if you don’t put your own oxygen mask on first, you won’t be able to help your child through stressful situations.

2. Take a deep breath. Manage stress in the healthiest possible ways. Do what soothes you best, whether that’s taking a moment for yourself, luxuriating in a hot bath, or watching mindless TV. If you’re calm, you’ll think more clearly and solve problems better. Besides, if you’re in a frenzy, you’ll send your child’s stress into the red zone.

3. Retain perspective. Whatever’s causing your stress, remember that bad times usually end. If it’s your kids who are struggling, making you worried or frustrated, remind yourself that childhood is full of temporary struggles.

4. Talk about pressures. When kids sense something’s up but don’t know the facts, they usually conjure up worst-case scenarios. Give them age-appropriate explanations (using the few words possible) and reassure them that they’re loved and safe. Make your tone of voice and body posture as warm and comforting as your words. Then let kids ask questions and talk about their feelings; research shows that greatly reduces their fear and anxiety about stressful experiences.

5. Get emotional support. There’s no shame in asking for help. Connecting with people is one of the most powerful stress-reducers, especially for women. Rely on the wise, nurturing, and trustworthy people in your life who care about you and your kids. Let them help.

 

Click on the link to read Why Giving Kids Chores Works

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Child Care Centres Sending Kids Home With Their Poo in Bags!

March 23, 2015

childcare-poo-in-bag

I am so tired of the ever increasing rules and regulations instituted in the name of health and safety. They claim to be all about safer work environments, but in reality, they not only fail to hold up to scrutiny but dismally fail the common sense test as well.

Take this stroke of genius new law that clearly made one parent quite upset:

 

Some childcare centres in Australia are sending kids home with their poo in labelled plastic bags.

Yes, you read that correctly. Take home turds.

Let me explain. Late last week a lady sent me a message on my Facebook page:

“Em — help me. You have the BEST answers! I am a young mum with kids at daycare. Today, I was greeted with a plastic bag with an entire poo wrapped in princess pink undies with ‘Ellie 16/03’ written on it. Yes my daughter is named Ellie but surely this isn’t her soiled undies packaged from three days prior after sitting in communal ‘turd’ bucket for all that time! Can I please ask, what would have you have done?”

What the what now?!

From what I could gather, at this particular childcare centre, when parents are collecting the stick figure drawings on scrap paper and the stale pasta collages, they also have to check the COMMUNAL S**T BUCKET to see if their child has made a deposit.

WHAT THE WHAT NOW?!

Initially I thought that perhaps this was just a one off occurrence and that this lady had made a poor choice in childcare. Until the comments started coming in under her post in their hundreds, confirming that this situation is indeed happening in childcare centres all across the country.

Why isn’t there national outrage? Why aren’t A Current Affair and 60 Minutes bashing down people’s doors? Are you all taking this in? Do you fully comprehend the situation we are dealing with here?

I don’t know about you but I had SO many questions. The most pressing being: WHY? For the sake of all that is good and true in this world, why are we giving harassed parents a bag of brown at pick up?

I did some “research” so none of you had to and the short answer is because apparently. if a kid stocks the lake with brown trout (in their undies), it’s a health and safety issue. There is a chance of cross-contamination in sinks and faecal matter flicking up into a worker’s eyes. So instead of putting it in the teeny tiny toilets, the childcare workers just bag the undies up log and all, name them and put them with the other packages of joy for the parents to deal with upon pick up.

Christ on a wheel!

I can categorically state this never happened at the child care centres my children attended. I can also categorically state that if it had happened, I would’ve promptly gone and placed the bag on the desk of the director of the centre and not moved until he/she assured me that it would NEVER happen again. Failing that, I would’ve hidden that bag of borry so deep in their office that the only way to remove the stench would be to light said office on fire.

I mean, doesn’t it go without saying that if a pair of undies is so badly assaulted and can’t be dealt with on the premises, those undies should be destroyed for all of time? I’m willing to let go of a pair of $4 My Little Pony jocks for the sake of NEVER having to be presented with a poo bag of terror. Aren’t you?

If you’re reading this and knowingly nodding your head because this situation is all too familiar, I am so sorry. No one should have to go through that kind of trauma.

Do these child care centres not give a s**t at all? Oh wait, they do …

We should also spare a thought for those who live in warmer climates. There would be some serious fermentation going on in those plastic bags.

Pro tip: If you find yourself the victim of crap bagging in the near future remember that Easter is just around the corner. And who doesn’t love those tiny little “organic” brown eggs?

So in summary no, all the no, just NO.

P.S. Obviously this isn’t happening in ALL childcare centres. I’ve heard of places that freshly wash and dry you kid’s clothes should they get dirty! I also in no way wish to diminish the awesome, difficult and hideously underpaid work childcare workers do across the country. You’re all bloody saints in my book, even the ones bagging and naming crap. I’m sure you’re just toeing the company line because this behaviour would not be anyone’s personal choice.

 

Click on the link to read What the System Can Do to Great Teachers

Click on the link to read Teacher Bans the Word “Awesome” From His Class

Click on the link to read Five-Year-Old Forced to Sign a Suicide Contract by School

Click on the link to read Guess Why this Girl Was Sent Home from Kindergarten

There Are Some Teachers That Just Love What They Do

March 23, 2015

 

Whilst there are more than enough teachers in the system that have all but lost their enjoyment for teaching, their are still many of us out there that love every second of what we do. And then there are some that show their love for what they do by going the extra mile.

 

Click on the link to read We Would Take a Bullet for Our Students

Click on the link to read Teachers Don’t Get Any Better Than This!

Click on the link to read The Remarkable Way A Teacher Brought a School Together (Video)

Click on the link to read Teachers Know How to be Generous

Click on the link to read I Just Love it When a Teacher Gets It

Students Get Rewarded for Setting up Their Vice Principal

March 21, 2015

 

I may be wrong, but I wouldn’t label this man a racist. I think he was trying to be playful rather than hurtful, and even though his comments were unfunny and inappropriate, I’m not sure he deserves what may be coming to him.

What I do know is that those kids that framed him with their hidden camera and “set up question” will be feeling pretty good about themselves and the story they have helped to expose. I don’t feel right about such actions being rewarded. I think they should have been suspended for filming a teacher without his knowledge and uploading the clip onto YouTube without school permission:

 

A California school official has been placed on leave after a video surfaced in which he can be heard saying “I just don’t like the black kids.”

Joe DiFilippo, vice principal of Scandinavian Middle School in Fresno, California, was recorded by a student outside the school cafeteria, district spokesman Jed Chernabaeff told the Fresno Bee.

The full clip, which can be seen below, was posted on YouTube on Friday and shows a man identified as DiFilippo leaning against a pole while several kids speak, mostly off camera.

“Who at this school do you not like?” one of the off-camera students asks. Kids continue to talk, with one saying something that sounds like “me… all of us, all of us.”

After about 10 seconds, DiFilippo says, “I just don’t like the black kids.”

The clip ends suddenly and it’s not clear if he was attempting to make a joke. If he was, parents aren’t laughing.

 

Click on the link to read Another Day, Another Assaulted Teacher (Video)

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Click on the link to read Teacher Forced to Defend Moving a Child to the Front of the Class

Are Gifted Kids Getting a Raw Deal?

March 19, 2015

gifted-students

In my experience it isn’t the academically gifted students who get ignored. Nor for that matter the strugglers. I think the middle band of students, the ones that are not considered gifted or weak are the ones most susceptible to neglect.

A leading educational figure suggests that the so-called “bright” students are not getting what they deserve:

 

Australia’s brightest kids are not being challenged at school and miss out on reaching their full potential because they aren’t allowed to get ahead of the curriculum, according to a leading educationalist.

Geoff Masters, chief executive of the Australian Council for Educational Research, will tell a conference on gifted and talented children on Saturday that Asian countries such as South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan do a much better job of educating their smartest school students.

He said that Australia’s schools were often content if students reached a set standard rather than the higher level they were capable of.

“In some classrooms there are high-achieving students who are not being pushed, they are not being stretched and extended,” said Professor Masters, who will speak at the International Conference on Giftedness and Talent Development in Brisbane.

“Teachers are saying ‘it’s my job to deliver the curriculum for the year level’. There’s set work for the lesson, if students complete that set work, they’ve done the job.”

He said research in Australian schools had shown that often the smallest amount of year-on-year progress was made by the most able students.International comparisons show that Australia has a lower number of highly performing students than some Asian countries. In maths, the top 10 per cent of Australian year 4 students are at the same level as the top 40 per cent in Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong, and in year 8, the top 10 per cent of Australian students perform equivalently to the top 50 per cent in Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea.

Professor Masters said some Australian teachers had reported they didn’t feel confident about extending their most able students.

“I imagine it’s a particular problem for teachers who are teaching out of field,” he said.

Figures from the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute last year showed that 40 per cent of year 7-10 maths classes were taught by teachers without specialist maths qualifications.

He said that problems for bright students were likely to be worse in disadvantaged schools where there were classroom management issues.

“If you are dealing with students who have disadvantages, and you are trying to do the right thing and ensure everyone comes up to a minimum standard, you may not have the time and the energy to be stretching kids who in some ways are doing very well,” Professor Masters said.

Psychologist and gifted children specialist Fiona Smith said that Professor Masters’ analysis was “very much on the mark”. Ms Smith, director of the Gifted Minds assessment and counselling service, said that gifted children often did not fit in at school.

She warned that if gifted children became bored and frustrated it could lead, in the worst cases, to eating disorders, sleeping problems and depression.

“We have to have a teaching workforce which has more training for these students,” she said.

 

Click on the link to read The Moment a 9-Year-Old Became a Star (Video)

Click on the link to read Tips for Teaching Gifted Students

Click on the link to read School Calls Police to Stop A-Grade Student From Studying

Click on the link to read Schools are Failing Gifted Students

Why Giving Kids Chores Works

March 18, 2015

 

chores-children-do

I’m a big supporter of giving kids chores. Even my students have to apply for a classroom job as part of our class economy.

 

A new study says the key to raising successful kids could be making sure they help out around the house.

If getting your children to help with chores is tough, you’re not alone.

A recent survey found that 82 percent of parents did chores growing up, but only 28 percent require their kids to help out.

One reason for the shift is an emphasis on extracurricular activities, which may have caused making the bed to fall by the wayside. Many kids are just too busy these days.

But chores are still one of the most important predictors of future success, teaching self reliance and responsibility, as well as empathy. So don’t give up, even when your kids fight back.

 

Click on the link to read Can You Ever Praise a Child Too Much?

Click on the link to read This Mother Clearly Doesn’t Need a Helicopter License

Click on the link to read The Best Film Nominees Performed by Kids

Click on the link to read Child Given a Bill for Missing His Friend’s Birthday Party

Is This What a Dysfunctional School Looks Like?

March 17, 2015

teacher-upskirt

The following article seems to highlight a school system that has lost the plot.

A student takes an “upskirt” photo via smartphone of his teacher. Then he shares it with his friends on Facebook.

The following happened as a result.

1. The Principal decided not to address the issue with either teachers or students.

2. The mother of the student involved defended her son on the basis that the “teacher was dressed inappropriately”.

3. Some within the school community seem to think the problem isn’t perverted students but the lifting of a cell phone ban.

What hope does this school have of getting talented teachers? At least the boy’s fellow classmates were brave enough to dob him in:

 

A Brooklyn high-school freshman took advantage of the newly lifted cellphone ban by snapping an up-skirt shot of a teacher — and the photo was shared by his classmates on Facebook, The Post has learned.

The 15-year-old student secretly took the picture with his iPhone as the newly hired teacher stood at a chalkboard at John Dewey HS in Gravesend last week, school sources said.

The freshman’s fellow students ratted out the teen to school officials on Thursday after the image made the rounds on social media.

The next day, the teen was sent to the principal’s office, sources said.

Police and officials from the city Department of Education were called to the school to investigate.

“It’s outrageous to have a kid take an inappropriate cellphone picture of a teacher,” a Dewey teacher said on Monday. “This is something that should never happen.”

A citywide ban of cellphones on school grounds was lifted on March 2, less than two months after Mayor de Blasio announced a plan to overturn the rule.

The rules now vary by school. Students at Dewey are permitted to bring their cellphones to school as long as the devices are turned off and stowed in their backpacks or lockers throughout the day.

“A lot of teachers are concerned about the lifting of the ban,” a staffer said. “It has really traumatized the teacher.”

The teacher, hired recently to replace a Spanish instructor who died, was in school on Monday but felt violated and was worried that the photo would explode on social media.

Her peeved parents even showed up at the school, threatening to sue the city.

Dewey’s principal, Kathleen Elvin, has not addressed the issue with either teachers or students, staff sources said.

But the boy’s mother stood by her son on Monday, blaming his behavior on the teacher’s choice of attire.

“The teacher was dressed inappropriately,” she told The Post.

But students who have seen teacher around campus said she wore appropriate clothes.

“She dresses normally,” one student said. “I mean, to me, she doesn’t stand out too much. She just looks young.”

The city Department of Education confirmed the up-skirt incident, saying that it was taking the matter seriously and that appropriate actions have been taken.

One teacher walking out of the high school Monday afternoon said it was not the cellphone policy educators need to be worried about.

“The rules are fine — some kids have bad manners,” the staffer said.

 

Click on the link to read Should Students Be Involved in the Hiring of Teachers?

Click on the link to read School Freaks Out Its Parents for No Logical Reason

Click on the link to read Nine-Year-Old Writes a Stunning Letter to Teacher After He Reveals He is Gay

Click on the link to read What’s in a Name?

Cats vs Homework. What Could Help Children More?

March 16, 2015

cate-homework

Teacher and writer, David MacLean, is of the belief that a cat is more beneficial for children than homework:

 

I hate homework. Or rather, I hate the emphasis placed on the academic tasks set by schools and teachers to be done at home. I don’t have a problem with true “home work”, however.

I have two students – siblings – who are the product of the “tiger mother” mentality. They ask for homework. Their school gives them homework and their tutors give them homework. They insist on being given homework, as if it will somehow make them better students and better academics. It won’t.

Research indicates that homework of the academic kind has minimal benefits – if any at all. Studies have indicated there is no correlation between homework and improved academic achievement. Indeed, some of the poorest academic results come from countries with high homework expectations. In France, President Francois Hollande has introduced educational reforms to ban homework. There are inequities when it comes to those who have parental support at home or access to technology and even tutors who will help them with that homework.

The “home work” of which I approve is a different variety. I was astonished when those two students of mine were awed by a cat leaping on to the top of a fence. They were amazed at the feline dexterity with which it made its way along a beam and found its way into a tree, generating squawks of fear from the resident birds. In my conversation with them, I discovered that these two charges of mine did not really know much about cats. Their parents did not let them keep one and they were too busy going from tutor to tutor to have time to look after a cat. There was a whole world of wonder that was being denied them for the sake of academic efficiency. There was no time to pause and wonder.

There is much to be gained from “home work” where such reflection over a task is possible. That time to read a book simply because it is fascinating or because you are absorbed in the way it is written is essential. Think about what you could learn from kicking around a footy – the co-ordination, the bad language when you fluff a kick, the need to learn social skills to have someone kick the ball back to you.

Mucking in at dinner time preparing the salad to go with the meal or learning how to avoid cutting yourself when slicing vegetables for the casserole are all skills and part of a larger contextualised learning. These activities give meaning and purpose to what we do in the classroom – or, at least, they should. It is often hard to see how what we do in class has application in the wider world. More often than not, the purpose of school work is assessment.

Most importantly, “home work” should be undertaken with parents as participants rather than supervisors. That conversation you have will build vocabulary. That book you read to your child will create a sense of the importance of literature. The article you discuss from the newspaper will help build a greater perspective of the world and what we should value.

Those students of mine were picked up in an SUV and whisked away to a piano lesson or some other tutorial session. In the back of my mind was the notion of organising an excursion to the RSPCA where cats can be adopted. Unfortunately, that institution would prefer families with time to spare and who would delight in what a cat could teach them. There is a catalogue of wonder in “home work”. The other homework simply makes you catatonic.

 

Click on the link to read New Graph Revealing How Much Time is Spent on Homework Around the World

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Click on the link to read Young Child Shows Dissatisfaction with his Homework (Photo)

 

 

Is Guilt a Motivator of Children?

March 15, 2015

guilt

Guilt, especially religious guilt has often been used as a way to get children to act a certain way. But does it work?

I don’t think it does.

Others must disagree because they quite clearly depend on it.

 

A CATHOLIC primary school head is facing dismissal for telling naughty kids to lie face down as she “phoned God’ about their bad behaviour.

Parents of St Joseph’s Roman Catholic primary school in the town of Devizes in Wiltshire, south west England, told Wiltshire Gazette and Herald that headmistress Shelia Jones should reign or be sacked for “humiliating” their children.

Ms Jones made four boys lie face down on the floor in the prayer room before telling them she was telephoning God on her mobile phone to tell him of their misbehaviour. She also has allegedly told naughty kids to lie down face first on the floor on other occasions.

Tammy Brimble claims her 11-year-old son Cyrus was among four boys threatened by Ms Jones with a “phone call to God”.

“I didn’t find out about it when we got home. Cyrus was very quiet and I could tell something was bothering him,” she said.

“When he told me what had happened to him and three other boys, I was upset and I wanted to find out why she did it.”

Another mother, Alexandra Jones, who worked as a lunchtime supervisor at the school, told how the children had been talking among themselves “and then it came out that Sheila had made some of them lie face down in the prayer room while she pretended to ring God on her mobile phone.”

The school’s governors dismissed the complaints against Ms Jones and that decision led the group of parents to contact the school watchdog, Ofsted, which is investigating.

“You should be well aware now that the current head has irretrievably lost the support, confidence and trust of the overwhelming majority of parents, as well as from teaching and support staff,” parents said an email sent to the governors.

“Her remaining in post will continue to damage the school’s formerly good reputation and is causing the school to fall further and further into disrepute. It also damages the good name of the church.”

“I don’t think what she did was appropriate at all,” said Ms Brimble.

“We are not Roman Catholics, but it was still distressing for my child.”

Ofsted said the complaint raised concerns about the children’s safety.

“Ofsted has shared your concerns with the local authority (Wiltshire Council) so they can progress these safeguarding concerns as they consider appropriate,” Ofsted said to a parent who complained.

 

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