Lesson Ideas for Teaching About Holocaust Rememberence Day

April 28, 2014

 

 

Auschwitz plaque with flowers in Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial on Holocaust Remembrance Day

Courtesy of thetheguardian.com:

 

• Defining the Holocaust
Encourage students to think about the meaning of the Holocaust.

• Lesson starter – Jewish life before the second world war
Explore the diversity of pre-war Jewish life.

• Holocaust glossary
An illustrated glossary which includes photos and survivor testimonials.

• Dilemmas, choices and responses to the Holocaust
Students can explore some of the complex moral and ethical dilemmas raised by the Holocaust.

• Germany and the second world war
Help students understand how the the second world war influenced the lives of the people on the German homefront, what the Holocaust was and why it was introduced.

 

 

Click on the link to read Why Many Teachers Don’t Bother Making Their Lessons Interesting

Click on the link to read Why is it Always the Kids’ Fault?

Click on the link to read Student Shot by Teacher Protests His Sacking

Click on the link to read Science Not For the Faint Hearted (Video)

Click on the link to read 7 Tips for Building a Better School Day

Click on the link to read Student Rant Goes Viral

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Engaging Students | Leave a Comment »

Middle School Teacher Gives Student a Lap Dance

April 27, 2014

 

 

felicia

 

The following things make me very concerned by the completely outrageous actions by Middle School teacher, Felicia Smith:

1. How can a teacher, who is supposed to impart wisdom to her students, behave with such flagrant stupidity?

2. For a teacher to do this one wonders if she thought she could get away with it. Is it common for such behaviour to go unreported?

3. What an awful excuse this teacher provided for her inexcusable actions! Her students may have urged her on, but so what?

4. And if the lap dance wasn’t enough, she allowed this student to repeatedly slap her buttock. Not only does this contravene the basic rules for proper treatment of women, it also gives the signal that any of her other students can do the same to her whenever they see fit!

 

I just can’t get over this story:

A MIDDLE school teacher in the United States has admitted she gave one of her students a lap dance in front of the rest of his class.

Felicia Smith, 42, has been charged with engaging in an inappropriate relationship with a student, KHOU News reports.

According to a male student at the school in Houston, Texas, Ms Smith grabbed his journal and stopped him from talking to his friends as he walked into class. When the bell rang, Ms Smith placed a chair at the front of the room, and the boy’s classmates told him to sit on it.

Music started to play. Then Ms Smith gave the student a “full contact lap dance”, grinding against him and rubbing her hands all over his body. The teacher also got on her knees and placed her head between his legs, KHOU reports.

The boy says he “slapped Ms Smith on the buttocks” several times.

At the end of the dance, which apparently lasted about four minutes, Ms Smith hugged the student and said “I love you baby, happy birthday.”

When she was questioned by police, the teacher admitted to performing the lap dance, saying she did it at the urging of his classmates.

Investigators have reviewed video footage of the incident, which is being kept on file at the District Attorney’s office.

 

 

Click on the link to read When an Apology is Not Nearly Enough

Click on the link to read The Type of Teacher We Should be Glad to See Punished

Click on the link to read Primary School Teacher Catches Herself in the Act (Video)

Click on the link to read An Example of Teacher Sanctioned Torture at its Worst

Click on the link to read What if she were a Man?

Click on the link to read Teacher Allegedly Published the Grades of her Students by Writing on their Foreheads

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Professional Conduct | Leave a Comment »

Stunning Homeless Experiment Revealed (Video)

April 27, 2014

 

 

What an interesting idea! I’m afraid I would have likely failed this test:

 

If a family member posed as a homeless person, would you recognize him or her?

That’s the question a new campaign — Make Them Visible — is asking. In a video produced by ad agency Silver + Partners and Smuggler for the New York City Rescue Mission, several people come face-to-face with their relatives and significant others dressed as homeless people. However, not a single participant recognizes their mother, brother or wife.

“There’s only one person that didn’t make it into the film — because they couldn’t handle the fact that they walked by their family,” video director Jun Diaz of Smuggler production company told Fast Company. “It happened every time.”

The jarring social experiment, staged in Tribeca and Soho near the mission’s shelter, shows just how invisible homeless people are to pedestrians on the street.

“We don’t look at them. We don’t take a second look,” Michelle Tolson, director of public relations for the New York City Rescue Mission, told The Huffington Post.

Tolson explained that the ad agency and production company hired actors for a documentary video and quietly contacted each person’s family to see if they would be interested in being apart of the social experiment. While the family members were in on the ruse, the participants had no idea they were being set up, and only learned after the fact when they watched themselves walk past their “homeless” family member.

“The experiment is a powerful reminder that the homeless are people, just like us, with one exception,” Craig Mayes, executive director of New York City Rescue Mission, said in a statement provided to HuffPost. “They are in trouble and in pain. And they are someone’s uncle or cousin or wife.”

 

Click on the link to read Teachers Need to Have High Expectations for all of Their Students

Click on the link to read The Most Common Questions Teachers Are Asked at Job Interviews

Click on the link to read The Profession You Choose When You Don’t Want to Get Fired

Click on the link to read The School They Dub the “Worst Primary School in the World”

Click on the link to read Education New Year’s Resolutions 2014

 

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Education Matters | Leave a Comment »

9 Truths About Children and Dinnertime

April 25, 2014

 

dinner

As a stay-at-home father I can fully appreciate this brilliantly realised list by Beau Coffron:

 

1. You learn to eat one-handed.
When you have a baby, you should get a Ph.D. in doing things one-handed. You find out you didn’t really need that other hand anyway. Serving the food with one hand? Easy. Pouring drinks? Simple. Cutting steak? C’mon, give me something difficult. With a little practice, parents can become magicians with that one hand. In between having babies you don’t lose this skill, either; it just goes into hibernation and comes out again when it’s needed.

2. You wish someone would invent seat belts for the dining room table.
How has someone not thought of this already? We can put a man on the moon but we can’t figure out a way to strap a 6-year-old to their dinner chair? Kids act like you make them sit on nails when they are at the dinner table. Partly it’s just the 45 times they need to go to the bathroom, but the other times seem to be an involuntary reaction to vegetables, little brothers or both.

3. Finding a Kids Eat Free place is like winning the lottery.
Before kids, I didn’t think “Kids Eat Free” coupons were worth the paper they were printed on. Now, I wouldn’t trade them for getting “Let It Go” banned in the United States (although it’s tempting). The beauty of eating at restaurants that give out these coupons is that not only do kids eat free, but you also don’t have to clean up the mess on the floor! This benefit alone automatically triples what the coupon is worth.

4. Chicken nuggets are a food group.
You try to make balanced meals, but honestly, many parents always keep frozen nuggets in their freezer for backup. Nuggets are like the first aid kit of the kitchen. Dinner goes wrong. You have nuggets. Kid’s friends stop by unexpectedly? Nuggets to the rescue. Nothing like breaded chicken… um, pork… uh, turkey? It doesn’t really matter what that meat is — if this is the first time your child has eaten more than two bites at a meal in three days, you are not complaining.

5. Dogs are basically vacuum cleaners.
Remember when your dog used to be your prized possession? You would go dog treat shopping, and buy it that special collar. Now the dog is 10 pounds overweight because of the mounds of food the kids feed him. After your children are done with dinner, there might be a whole meal in scraps under that table. Dogs are now more than man’s best friend; they are every parent’s best cleaning appliance.

6. Who needs napkins when you have sleeves?
No matter how many times you tell kids not to, or how many stacks of napkins you pile in front of their plates, a sleeve always gets used. OK, maybe not at every meal, but every single time you serve fried chicken or spaghetti. When drinking water or eating Saltines, kids will use every napkin in the house to clean themselves up instead.

7. Dirty dishes seem to multiply like rabbits.
Parents, how many times have you looked around after the meal and wondered where all those extra dishes came from? Some of them you don’t even recognize as yours. Since when did mac and cheese require you to use 22 plates, 17 bowls and 8 spatulas? You don’t know how, it just happens. Like how LEGO bricks transform into deadly weapons that attack parents’ bare feet at night, it’s unexplainable.

8. It’s against the law for a parent to have a “hot” meal.
Remember that scene from the movie A Christmas Story when Ralphie states that his mother hadn’t had a hot meal for herself in 15 years? Before you were a parent, you laughed at how far-fetched that line was. You’re not laughing now, are you? Between getting all the kids second helpings, extra ketchup and rags for spills — and cutting up their meat — your hot meal never stood a chance.

9. Dinner with your kids can be your favorite time of the day.
Even after all of this craziness that we call mealtime, it can still be one of my favorite times of the day. Why? I get to sit down with my family and listen to them talk about their favorite moments and their biggest challenges. This is family time. In our busy culture, we don’t get enough of it, and you can’t buy an experience like a good family meal. Meals like these are memories that last a lifetime in our family, and I wouldn’t trade them for all the quiet, clean, hot meals in the world.

 

 

Click on the link to read The Most Original Way to Pull Out Your Child’s Tooth Out (Video)

Click on the link to read Father Carries His Disabled Son 9 Miles to School Every Day

Click on the link to read Never Take the Dream out of the Child

Click on the link to read The Snow Day Song that Has Gone Viral (Video)

Click on the link to read Is Tiger Mom a Racist?

Click on the link to read 44 Things Parents Say to their Kids to Get them to Eat

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Parenting | Leave a Comment »

Teaching Young Children the 3Rs Could be Damaging: Psychologist

April 24, 2014

 

reading

Teaching young children the 3Rs may not be the only skills a teacher or parent should be imparting to their young students, but it is hardly damaging. A considerate, patient and skilled person can teach all kind of skills without causing the distress alarmist psychologists make us believe occurs:

 

Cambridge University lecturer David Whitebread said it was important for parents to play with their children, as these youngsters were more likely to enjoy solving problems, and better equipped to cope with failure.

Former primary school teacher Mr Whitebread also claimed the government was overly concerned with getting children to learn the 3Rs at an ever decreasing age, and said younger children were better off learning to cook alongside their parents.

Mr Whitebread, a developmental cognitive psychologist, said that although learning to read was an important skill, teaching reading, writing and arithmatic to toddlers was a waste of government money and the child’s time.

Mr Whitebread said that learning to read at to young an age could even be damaging for a child.

‘Instead the parent can share something they love, such as making cakes, or tinkering with engines, the key is partly sharing the enthusiasm but mainly the conversations you have with the child while doing it.’

 

Click on the link to read 7 Ways To Teach Kids Self-Awareness

Click on the link to read Kids Explain the Meaning of Happiness

Click on the link to read 5 Reasons Why It’s Healthy to Encourage Children to Play

Click on the link to read Allowing Children to Stand Out From the Pack

Click on the link to read Hilarious Examples of Kids Telling It As It Is

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Child Development | 4 Comments »

The Difficult Challenge that is Starting Your Teaching Career

April 23, 2014

 

new teacher

 

 

I never expected to find it so hard to get my first teaching job and then when I finally achieved it, the challenge was to prove I was worthy of getting a second contract. I can certainly relate to the following account:

Harry Knock’s first term teaching Indonesian and English at Eltham High School might have been his last.

He was hired this year on a single-term contract, replacing another teacher on leave. But fortunately he gained another short-term position so he will remain at Eltham at least for 2014. ”I’d like to have an ongoing job but this is pretty good,” he said.

He is among a group of graduate teachers The Age is following this year, all of whom just completed their first term. Mr Knock said he just focused on doing a good job rather than dwelling on its short-term nature.

So far his experience has shattered the myth that good teachers can start at 9am and leave work behind six hours later. He regularly stayed late and worked weekends.

”I guess I expected it to be fast-paced but I didn’t expect to be exhausted every week.”

Eltham principal Vincent Sicari was still sufficiently impressed when Mr Knock sat the interview for his job. ”To his credit he really outshone the other applicants,” Mr Sicari said. ”He’s a first-year teacher so he obviously still needs some support to establish himself in the profession but he’s a very committed young man.”

About 45 per cent of graduate teachers start on short-term contracts, according to the Australian Education Union.

The union’s state president, Meredith Peace, said short-term work placed considerable strain on graduate teachers. ”When you’re trying to attract people into the profession, security of employment is very important,” she said. ”I think it’s very distracting, particularly towards the end of the school year. Contracts tend to be for 12 months.” These teachers started their careers at a contentious time. The federal government launched a review of teacher training and Education Minister Christopher Pyne has promised to lift the ”quality, professionalism and status” of teaching.

Bronwyn Aitken said her university training was good. But her first term teaching home economics and health at Gladstone Park Secondary College revealed the limitations of a degree, despite the work experience placements.

”You’re in someone else’s classroom when you’re in training,” she said. ”You can’t establish the relationships you need … until you’re on your own.”

At The Lakes South Morang P-9 School Naomi Harris had her own grade 6 classes but also worked in teams with other teachers.

She previously completed a placement at the school but found teaching was a ”big learning curve”. She has also learnt some teachers have a special ”presence” in the classroom that comes with years spent on the job.

Tom Davis, 22, said the support of experienced colleagues and his degree would guide him through his first year at Montmorency South Primary School.

Click on the link to read Getting Your Teacher Fired Has Become a Popular Sport

Click on the link to read Tips for Dealing With Negative Feedback

Click on the link to read Guess What Percentage of Teachers Considered Quitting this Year

Click on the link to read The Classroom Shouldn’t be a War Zone for Our Teachers

Click on the link to read Remember When Teachers Were Shown Respect? (Video)

Click on the link to read If You Think Teaching is so Easy You Should Try it for Yourself

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Teachers Stress | Leave a Comment »

Some Schools Just Don’t Get it When it Comes to Bullying

April 20, 2014

report

When I see a school disseminate the message that bullying should be left unreported, I feel sorry for people like my friend, Mike Feurstein, who has invested so much of his professional life to inspire kids to do the complete opposite.

 

A Nebraska school principal has apologized for sending fifth-grade students home with a flier that advises those who are bullied to not tattle on their tormentors.

Some parents of the fifth-graders at Zeman Elementary in Lincoln complained and posted angry comments on Facebook, the Lincoln Journal Star (http://bit.ly/1j6Abov ) reported Thursday.

Zeman principal Donna Williams apologized directly to the families on Wednesday for the wording of the flier, and the district posted the apology on its Facebook page.

“The flier was sent home with good intentions,” said Williams. “Unfortunately it contained advice that did not accurately reflect LPS best practices regarding response to bullying incidents.”

District student services director Russ Uhing said the LPS philosophy is: Ask the bully to stop. Walk away. If the bullying continues, tell a parent or teacher.

On the contrary, the flier advises that students should not tell on bullies because the No. 1 reason “bullies hate their victims is because the victims tell on them.

“Telling makes the bully want to retaliate,” it says. “Tell an adult only when a real injury or crime (theft of something valuable) has occurred. Would we keep our friends if we tattled on them?”

 

I will gladly combat Zeman Elementary’s pathetic advice with two example that will achieve a much better outcome:

 

Click on the link to read The Bystander Experiment (Video)

Click on the link to read Tips for Managing Workplace Bullying

Click on the link to read 12,000 Students a Year Change Schools Due to Bullying

Click on the link to read The Devastating Effects of Bullying (Video)

Click on the link to read Sickening Video of Girl Being Bullied for Having Ginger Hair

Click on the link to read Our Young Children Shouldn’t Even Know What a Diet Is?

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Bullying | 2 Comments »

Brilliant New Advertisement on Schoolyard Bullying

April 17, 2014

 

 

 

An absolute masterpiece!

 

Click on the link to read The Bystander Experiment (Video)

Click on the link to read Tips for Managing Workplace Bullying

Click on the link to read 12,000 Students a Year Change Schools Due to Bullying

Click on the link to read The Devastating Effects of Bullying (Video)

Click on the link to read Sickening Video of Girl Being Bullied for Having Ginger Hair

Click on the link to read Our Young Children Shouldn’t Even Know What a Diet Is?

 

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Bullying | 3 Comments »

I Wish All Principals Could Be Like This

April 16, 2014

 

 

mr weir

This story gives me so much pleasure:

 

Many adults would have dismissed a Grade 3 girl’s desperation over losing her tooth in the school playground. But her principal took it seriously, writing a letter to the tooth fairy with the school’s official letterhead.

Avery Patchett’s loose tooth popped out last week while she was in class at James Hill Elementary School in Langley, B.C. Her teacher got her a “tooth chest necklace” to keep it safe so she could take it home, said principal Chris Wejr in an email to The Huffington Post B.C.

But Avery fell during recess and knocked the tooth onto the ground. She and her two friends searched for several minutes but couldn’t find it, leaving Avery very upset that she wouldn’t be able to show it to the tooth fairy, said Wejr.

The principal reassured her that he had a plan, one that he had used for another student who lost a tooth at school. Wejr sent Avery home with the official letter above.

Avery’s mother, Debbie Patchett, told HuffPost B.C. she was deeply touched by the principal’s “kind and compassionate gesture” to turn “what could have been a sad memory into such a wonderful memory for our little girl.”

The tooth fairy left Avery $5.

“What is small to us may be huge to a child so it is important to stay in the moment and give children the care they need,” explained Wejr. “We need to model kindness and show them they matter.”

The tooth fairy letter is being shared on social media, which Wejr says is a useful way for parents and the community to see the positive things that teachers do in schools every day.

 

Click on the link to read The 6 Most Inspiring Teachers of 2013

Click on the link to read Brilliant Teacher Alert! (Video)

Click on the link to read Teachers are Better with a Sense of Humour (Photo)

Click on the link to read Would You Want Your Teacher Chair Replaced by a Yoga Ball?

Click on the link to read Worst Examples of Teacher Discipline

Click on the link to read Why Students Misbehave

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Inspirational Teachers | 1 Comment »

When an Apology is Not Nearly Enough

April 13, 2014

students

A teacher allegedly threatens to send a Jewish student to ‘one of your gas chambers‘ for skipping the lunch line and the teacher’s punishment is no more than an apology!

 

One of Britain’s top public schools is the subject of scandal Sunday, after it was revealed that a teacher threatened to send a Jewish student to ‘one of your gas chambers’ for skipping the lunch line. 

The student, a seventeen year-old girl at the highly prestigious North London Collegiate School, later received an apology from the teacher in private over the remark, according to the Daily Mail.

The school has refused to identify the offending teacher, however, or what – if any – disciplinary action had been taken over the remark. The girl’s parents urged the headmistress on Saturday night to make a public statement against the anti-Semitic incident. 

“A teacher was passing by and she rushed up to my daughter and said, ‘Don’t do that or I’ll have to send you to the back of the queue or to one of your gas chambers’,” the girl’s father told the Daily Mail.

He added that several students overhead the remarks. “It was very unpleasant, very uncalled-for and very unfortunate. My daughter was shocked and upset. She didn’t say anything to the teacher at the time but all her friends expressed amazement. They kept saying, ‘Did she really say that?'”

Another student has reported the incident to the Community Security Trust, an organization which combats anti-Semitism in Britain. The organization stated that they are working with teachers and parents to resolve the issue.

North London Collegiate School is an exclusive all-girls’ school; according to deputy head Alex Wilson, between 20-25% of students are Jewish. 

The girl’s father noted that anti-Semitism has not been a problem before, nor since in the three months since the incident. 

“The school doesn’t deserve to be in the middle of a race issue. It is normally a model of correctness in these things,” he said. “But there should be an element of visibility so people see the teacher has been disciplined. My wife and  I would also like the school to make a public statement that there has been an incident and [the remark] was totally unacceptable.” 

Meanwhile, the school’s administration has remained ambiguous about what actually happened. 

“North London Collegiate School is proud of its rich, multi-cultural history and celebrates equality and diversity within the school community,” it said in a statement.

“The school was recently made aware of an allegation of an offensive statement made by a member of staff. The school promptly commenced an investigation. Having reached a determination and sought specialist legal advice, appropriate action was taken.” 

 

By letting a teacher go virtually without punishment for a racist remark we are telling impressionable children that this kind of behaviour is a somewhat minor infringement at worst.

 

 

Click on the link to read The Type of Teacher We Should be Glad to See Punished

Click on the link to read Primary School Teacher Catches Herself in the Act (Video)

Click on the link to read An Example of Teacher Sanctioned Torture at its Worst

Click on the link to read What if she were a Man?

Click on the link to read Teacher Allegedly Published the Grades of her Students by Writing on their Foreheads

Click on the link to read You Can’t Foster Tolerance With Racist Teachers

 

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Professional Conduct | Leave a Comment »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »