Letter Written by an 11-Year-Old UK Girl Desperate to Avoid Genital Mutilation

March 6, 2013

FGM

The following is a heartbreaking letter written by an 11-year-old who is deeply afraid that she will be dealt the same awful fate as her elder sister:

Dear Madam
My name is XXX and I am 11 years old. I and my mum, sisters and brother came to England in 2005 when I had just turned 6 years old to join my dad who was at University. We come from Gambia in West Africa.

Three weeks ago we were watching a TV programme on African culture and as they were showing girls having their privates cut, my older sister who is 12 years old started crying. After 2 days she told my dad that she also had her private cut.

Mum and Dad never knew about it and she was told if she ever tells anyone the sprits will come and kill her immediately. She said it was done one weekend by my aunties at my nans house. Last Friday mum took her to our GP to have her checked and the doctor said it was done to her.

This morning when I went to school I told one of my teachers about it and together we went on the computer and found your group. The teacher asked me to write to you and ask for your help. I don’t want my private cut by anyone.

My dad loves us very much and he did not like what they done to my sister and he is very confussed. We should be going back to Gambia any time after Eid and he is worried and upset that they would do the same to me. I don’t what that too.

If you reply to this letter I will showe my dad and I am shore that he would be very glad to have your help. He is my best friend and if he knows what to do he would do it, he would not want anything to hurt us – I know that.

Please madam help me, and my dad. If you reply soon he would definately contact you if you can help. I really hope you can help me, not to have my private cut. I am reallye confused expessically seeing my dad so un-happy and not knowing what to do.

Thank you very much for reading my letter.

In my opinion, the very worst crimes are crimes committed agains6t children. I believe that genital mutilation is torture against children. To read that 24,000 children in the UK are at risk of having it performing against them is horrific! Anyone caught being a party to such a practice should be imprisoned for the same amount of time as a pedophile.

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Support Teachers Before they Have a ‘Meltdown’

March 5, 2013

chalk

Teacher meltdowns are often ugly and they are toxic in a school environment. When they occur, inevitably, disciplinary action must be taken to ensure that the offense doesn’t happen again.

Whilst a teacher doesn’t have an excuse when they act unprofessionally, it is vital that more support and greater welfare provisions are available for what is a highly stressful and sometimes quite unforgiving occupation.

The teacher that wrote an intimidating message on the chalkboard of his classroom deserves to be severely punished for his inexcusable actions. However, with 28 years of service, I only wish he would have been able to seek help instead of  feeling the need to vent in such a way:

A northwest Indiana teacher is the subject of a police probe over a threatening message he scrawled on the chalkboard of his classroom.

According to ABC Chicago, the teacher at Edison Junior-Senior High School in Lake Station, Ind., wrote the following message on his chalkboard following after he had a “meltdown” during his sixth-period personal finance class last week:

A.) You are idiots!!!!!!!!B.) The guns are loaded!!!

C.) Care to try me???????

Students took a photo of the message and the image was circulated on social media, prompting school administrators to take action. The teacher was told to leave the school last Friday morning while an investigation into the apparent threat is completed.

Both police and the Lake County prosecutor’s office are working on the matter, according to Fox Chicago, and charges may yet be filed against the teacher.

According to CBS Chicago, the school sent out a district-wide call to students’ parents assuring them that “your student was never in danger” and that “the staff member is currently not in school.”

The teacher, a 28-year veteran of the school, has never been disciplined before, according to ABC.

 

Click on the link to read I Also Had a Student Hold a Toy Gun to my Face

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Click on the link to read 12 Tips for Managing Time in the Classroom

Click on the link to read If Teachers Were Paid More I Wouldn’t Have Become One

Click on the link to read Different Professions, Same Experiences

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Proof that Batman is Real

March 5, 2013

batman

 

So it seems Batman is real! My students could have told you that ages ago:

A man dressed as Batman walked into a police station in Bradford holding a wanted suspect by the scruff of the neck and telling officers ‘I’ve caught this one for you’ before vanishing into the night.

The caped crusader swooped into Trafalgar House police station in the West Yorkshire city with the tracksuit-wearing man last Monday and handed him over before doing a disappearing act in true Batman style.

The entire incident was caught on CCTV, with Batman – wearing full costume including mask and cape – shown waiting at the front counter with the suspect, who was wanted for handling stolen goods and fraud, before officers arrested him.

A 27-year-old man is now due at Bradford Magistrates’ court on March 8 charged with handling stolen goods.

A spokesman for West Yorskshire Police said today: ‘Last week we had a very strange occurrence at the police station when a male wanted for an offence in our area was ‘escorted’ up to our help desk at Trafalgar House by Batman.

‘Batman came up to the help desk, stated to the staff “I’ve caught this one for you” and then promptly vanished into the night.

‘The whole bizarre incident was captured on CCTV.

bat

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Don’t Look for Rolemodels from Our Sporting Stars

March 4, 2013

athl

Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong and Oscar Pistorius are just some examples of sporting stars with immense talent who were looked up to by impressionable children only to be exposed as dubious role models.

Whilst it is quite natural for our children to seek out celebrities and athletes as role models, and some in fact live up to that label, it is important that children see that looks, strength, charisma and humour are subservient to empathy, kindness, integrity and respect. These latter characteristics are often found not by footballers or lead singers but my ordinary individuals within the community.

Recently I was alerted to the video I have attached below. It features a soccer goalkeeper fainting on the field out of heat exhaustion. Do the opposing players come to his aid and help him? Not at all! Watch what happens next:

Click on the link to read Our Real Heroes are Not Celebrities or Athletes

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The Benefits of Reading to Your Kids

March 4, 2013

read

If you aren’t already reading to your kids, I highly recommend that you do:

MELBOURNE researchers have proven what parents have intuitively known all along – the more often you read to your children from an early age, the greater the positive effect on their reading and thinking skills.

The Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research has not only proven a causal effect between the frequency of reading to a child and his or her development, but have also for the first time measured the benefits.

Children four to five years old who are read to three to five times a week have the same reading ability as children six months older (who are read to only twice or less a week).

Reading to children six to seven days a week puts them almost a year ahead of those who are not being read to. It was also found that reading to small children has a positive effect on the development of numeracy skills.

”It does appear to be the case that children who are read to more often keep doing better as they age than other children,” said Professor Guyonne Kalb, director of the institute’s Labour Economics and Social Policy Program, and co-author of the study.

 

Click on the link to read Why Spelling is Important at Starbucks

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The Levels People Go to in Order to Make a Profit

March 3, 2013

rape

How despicable is this for a t-shirt?

A company is selling t-shirts with the slogan ‘Keep Calm And Rape Them’ emblazoned across the chest on Amazon.

The online clothing store, Solid Gold Bomb, sells the short-sleeved t-shirts for between £15 and £17 on the warehouse website.

But potential customers are clearly not willing to buy the deeply offensive t-shirts, slamming both Amazon and the clothes shop, which has its headquarters in the UK.

Users branded the shop and its message ‘disgusting’ and ‘disturbing’.

The brightly-coloured tops’ message are a twist on the ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ morale-boosting slogan used in World War II by the British Government.

The message has experienced a boom in popularity in recent years, and sparked a trend in shops producing products such as tea-towels, posters and cushions, bearing the slogan, or a play on it.

Solid Gold Bomb, who produce the t-shirts, was created and launched from Melbourne, Australia, and describes itself as a ‘small global t-shirt company’.

They write on their website about their range: ‘We managed to list our Keep Calm and Carry On parody series on the site.

‘Bake On, Beat On and Teach On are Proving Very Popular! Rock On!’

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School Gun Lessons a Disaster!

March 1, 2013

gun teach

I told you it was a terrible idea, but I wasn’t aware of just how bad it would be:

An employee at a Texas public school was accidentally shot on Wednesday during a district-sponsored handgun safety class, KLTV reports.

According to KLTV, Glenn Geddie was a maintenance worker for the Van Independent School District. The school district voted last month to arm some teachers and other employees in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn.

District Superintendent Don Dunn confirmed that the incident occurred. Here’s his full statement, courtesy of KLTV:

At the conclusion of the CHL training on February 27, 2013, one certified person stayed for private instruction with the instructor and had a mechanical malfunction with his weapon. With the assistance of the instructor, the malfunction was addressed, but the gun misfired and the bullet ricocheted coming back to strike the VISD employee in the left leg. The VISD employee was attended to at the scene and transferred to Tyler for further treatment. The injury is not life threatening or disabling. Because of privacy and security issues we cannot make any further statement.

A school board member told The Tyler Morning Telegraph that the shooting would not affect their decision to arm employees on campus.

Many schools have begun to arm teachers in the wake of Sandy Hook. Schools from Texas to Ohio are allowing teachers to bring guns to school, and some states, like South Dakota, have begun to pass legislation to allow guns in schools.

 

Click on the link to read Living With Adam Lanza

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If Only All Special Needs Students Were Treated this Way

February 27, 2013

What a fitting and miraculous end to an absolutely amazing story. I hope this gets played in classrooms all over the world:

A special needs student from a Texas high school scored a basket in the final game of the season after a player from the opposing team gave up the ball.

Mitchell Marcus, a teenage student at Coronado High School in El Paso, Texas, is the team manager for the Coronado Thunderbirds and an avid basketball fan. During the last game of the season on Feb. 12, Marcus, who has a “developmental disability,” was given the chance to play, according to Fox local affiliate KFOX 14 in El Paso. With 90 seconds left, Coach Peter Morales put Marcus into the game.

“Mitchell’s a great shot,” his mother Amy told KFOX. “He took his first shot and missed. It hit the rim. You just hear the whole crowd sighing. It went out of bounds and Franklin got it. We all knew that he wasn’t going to have his chance.”

Then, Jonathon Montanez, a senior at Franklin High School and a member of the opposing team, down by 10 points, tossed Marcus the ball. “Since we were down and there was only 13 seconds left, might as well give Mitchell his last shot,” Montanez told KFOX.

Marcus finally scored, and the crowd went wild.

A video of the game and Marcus’ basket went viral after being uploaded online.

CBS News correspondent Steve Hartnan knew he wanted to tell Marcus’s story. “It’s America at its best,” he told the El Paso Times. “When I grew up, kids like Mitchell got picked on, and to see how far we have come along is touching. I get emotional thinking about it.”

NBC Southwest station KTSM first reported on Marcus’ story the day after the game, calling it “the play of the year.”

“I was so happy then,” Marcus said about his shot. “It made my night.”

Over the past three years, Marcus has helped the Thunderbirds earn a No. 1 ranking in the city of El Paso.

Coach Morales spoke with ESPN’s El Paso radio station, KROD, about Marcus’s amazing experience.

“This kid is very very loyal to your program,” Morales told ESPN radio. “He’s dedicated. We’ve had kids that come to this program and play with us and this kid has been more loyal than some of those kids to us because he wants to be here.”

Click on the link to read I am a Proud Defender of the Mixed-Ability Classroom

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Why Spelling is Important at Starbucks

February 26, 2013

sucks

Too bad a paper cup doesn’t have a spell check option:

 

ursUrsula’s coffee order was made out to ‘Arsela’ by a hurried barista

manMolly must have ordered an awfully strong espresso to have her drink made out to ‘Manly’

ordriThey almost got Audrey’s name right, they just didn’t use the English language version

chadAt least they have two of the letters right from Chad’s name

messBess must not have looked her best that day

vagEven if the barista didn’t hear Virginia’s name they could have come up with something better

anusAnn-Louise deserves a much nicer nickname than the one Starbucks picked

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Oscar Special: Teaching Film Literacy in the Classroom

February 25, 2013

oscar

 

I love film and take much pleasure in teaching my students a subject called Movie Comprehension.

Courtesy of edutopia.org, the following is a list of resources for teaching film literacy in the classroom:

 

  • Teaching for Visual Literacy: 50 Great Young Adult Films: Authors Alan B. Teasley and Ann Wilder share tips for using film as a classroom tool, and include an extensive list of films that are perfect for young adults, focusing on lesser-known flicks, classic films, and movies that students have not likely seen.

 

  • Oscar-Nominated Flicks for Families: Common Sense Media produced this list of reviews of 2013’s Oscar-nominated films for the whole family. Included are reviews for animated films, Brave and Frankenweenie, and films based on historial events, Lincoln and Argo.

 

 

  • 12 Basic Ways to Teach Media Literacy (PDF): This guide from Ithaca College is a great beginners resource for teaching media and film literacy. The tips included by authors Cyndy Scheibe and Faith Rogow are a great kickstarter for any media literacy unit, including suggestions for stimulating student interest in new topics and encouraging students to think about how media messages influence them.

 

 

And while we are on the Oscar theme, here is my all time favourite Oscar clip from my childhood. Enjoy!

 

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