Well done Rhonda Crosswhite for shielding your students from the terrors of the tornado:
Sprinkled in between the tales of horror and sadness to come out of tornado-ravaged Plaza Towers Elementary School, in Moore, Okla., are stories of brave teachers putting their lives on the line for students.
“She was covering me and my friend Zachary,” Britton said. “I told her we were fine because we were holding on to something, and then she went over to my friend Antonio and covered him, so she saved our lives.”
The show also captured an emotional reunion between Crosswhite, Britton and Britton’s mom, Brandi Kline.
“I told you we were going to be OK,” Crosswhite said to Britton.
No, it is true that I don’t know what it’s like to live with a violent ADHD child and it is equally true that I shouldn’t judge other parents, but I can’t help being repelled when I hear a mother speak this way about her child:
A mother has described the torment of having a son with severe ADHD, admitting that if he were an animal, she would have him put down.
Jenny Young has four children aged 25, 23, 19 and 10 and astonishingly, not only have they all been diagnosed with the behavioural disorder, but she too was told she had it in her mid-forties.
But it is her youngest child Ryan, 10, who suffers with the most extreme symptoms of the condition as well as severe learning disabilities, subjecting Jenny to daily violent attacks.
She said that because she is his mother, and not a pet owner, she must put up with it.
My thoughts and wishes go out to all those effected by the recent Oklahoma tornado.
US President Barack Obama declared a “major disaster” as rescuers combed through smashed homes and the collapsed remains of an elementary school in Moore, where twister-seasoned residents were shocked by the devastation.
The dead included at least 20 children, most of them under the age of 12, Amy Elliott, of the state medical examiner’s office, told AFP.
Reporters for local broadcaster KFOR-TV saw children as young as nine being pulled out of the Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, a residential community of 55,000 just south of Oklahoma’s state capital.
Anxious parents were being kept at a distance while search-and-rescue workers scrambled to free the students.
A second elementary school, Briarwood, was also hit but did not appear to have suffered casualties.
1. You are a hero for your kids. You are. You’re a go-the-distance, fight-the-dragon, face-the-challenges hero for your kids. Taking a beating makes that more true. Not less.
2. We all struggle. Every parent. Everywhere. We all second-guess ourselves. And we all want to quit sometimes. Hold the good times close, and when things are tough, remember, “this, too, shall pass.”
3. Finding the funny may not save your soul, but it will save your sanity. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Either way, look for the humor and embrace the crazy. Laughter is a lifeline.
4. Every day, you will feel like you have mishandled something. Like you’ve been impatient. Like you’ve misjudged. Like you’ve been too harsh. Like you’ve been too lenient. You may be right. Apologize if you need to and then, whatever. Seriously. Just whatever. Let it go.
5. The crazy, the crying, the cuddles. The screaming, the sacred, the scared. The minutes, the magic, the mess. It’s all part of it. And it’s all worth it.
This clip of a father sending his quadruplet babies into fits of laughter reminded me how healthy it is for children to laugh. Although teachers are traditionally warned not to do anything that may compromise their authority, making your students laugh is a wonderful thing for building a healthy and positive classroom environment.
Everything seems to be pitched at impressionable kids nowadays. Films have become less sophisticated, television near juvenile and marketers are seeing the exploitation of children as their gold mine.
Today I saw the above advertisement whilst going shopping, and it struck me how deceitful and pathetic its message is. Obviously pitched at impressionable people without a large quantity of “real companions”, Samsung is telling prospective consumers that their product will be your friend for life. There are plenty of children out there who are extremely lonely that will identify with the notion that technology is their only friend.
Unfortunately, to make matters worse, the advertisement wants us to link the universal aspiration of living a happy and fulfilling life to selecting the right Smartphone. It is saying:
‘To all you lonely, disaffected and unhappy people out there, buy this and you will have friends and a rich and rewarding life.’
The challenge of making friends and enjoying life is extremely crucial to young people and for it to be used against them in the name of selling a product is rather sad.
I know that’s the way the world works, but I don’t have to like it!
This is a classic example why male teachers must be extremely careful to act above and beyond the professional standards adhered to by their female colleagues.
Do you honestly think that if a female crossing guard was ‘high-fiving’ children anyone would even blink an eye?
A LOLLIPOP man has been banned from giving high-fives to children as they cross the road because it’s “too dangerous”, according to the health and safety police.
Bernie Robertson – who has stopped traffic to keep young pupils safe outside Mount Annan Public School in Sydney’s southwest for 13 years – has been cautioned after a review of guidelines by Roads and Maritime Services.
Parents with children at the school have launched a furious revolt, starting a Facebook page “Support for Bernie our crossing man”, which has received more than 870 likes and an online petition with 250 signatures.
Mr Robertson said he was overwhelmed by the response from the community. “Of course I’m very pleased with the support, with what the parents have done,” he said.
Rachael Sowden, from the Parents and Citizens Association of NSW, said the issue was an example of political correctness “gone mad”.
“We don’t believe high-fiving little children is an inappropriate thing,” she said.
“Sometimes people take things a little bit too far and this sounds like one of those incidents. While there’s no concern for their wellbeing it does seem a little bit like PC gone mad.”
This rant is disrespectful and quite undignified, but one can’t help but agree with his underlying message. Teaching by worksheet from behind a desk, having a lack of a 1 on 1 teaching approach, ignoring individual learning needs and preaching rather than teaching are just a few reasons why students feel completely let down by their teachers.
There are no winners from this rant. The student involved will get a quick 15 minutes of fame from his peers but will find it hard to avoid negative attention based on this when it comes to getting a job. The teacher may get some support from other teachers, but is also likely to be the poster child (unfairly) for the many teachers out there who have lost all passion for what they do.
When Jacob Barnett was 2 years old, he was diagnosed with moderate to severe autism. Doctors told his parents that the boy would likely never talk or read and would probably be forever unable to independently manage basic daily activities like tying his shoe laces.
But they were sorely, extraordinarily mistaken.
Today, Barnett — now 14 — is a Master’s student, on his way to earning a PhD in quantum physics. According to the BBC, the teen, who boasts an IQ of 170, has already been tipped to one day win the Nobel Prize.
Topical Teaching 