When I was a student, our teacher used to hand back our papers with spaghetti stains all over it as a result of him marking during dinner. He should have followed this teacher’s example and taken up basketball instead.
I don’t like talent shows and I find the constant judge and host reaction shots manipulative and distracting, but who can criticise this monumental performance by 9-year-old Amira Willighagen, singing Puccini for the judges of Holland’s Got Talent?
Lucama Elementary School in Wilson County will hold the fundraiser at an event called Fun Fest, according to local outlet The Wilson Times. The Delta Waterfowl Foundation, a nonprofit that aims “[t]o secure the future of waterfowl and waterfowl hunting,” donated the gun. The district’s superintendent approved the gun as an item for auction on the condition that it would never be on campus, reports the outlet.
“The gun will never see Lucama Elementary,” said Ryan Beamon, chairman of a regional chapter of Delta Waterfowl, according to The Wilson Times. “It will never be within 10 miles of the school.”
“With everything that’s been going on, it does seem a little inappropriate,” parent Tim Langley told news station WTVD-TV.
“It’s a gun. A gun is a gun,” parent Sonya Bullock said to the outlet. “If I would have known, I wouldn’t be selling tickets for my girls.”
Others think the controversial raffle item is a good idea.
“With it being an elementary school and the gun is not going to be on campus, from what I understand, I don’t really have a problem with it,” parent Karen Williams told WRAL.
Chris Williams, regional director of Delta Waterfowl, told WRAL the auction item is fitting for the community.
“We’re in a farming community. We’re a hunting community. It’s the culture,” said Williams. “I’ve had the question asked to me, ‘Well, why aren’t you giving a TV or iPad away?’ That isn’t the means that we have.”
Despite the debate, the district has no plans of changing the raffle.
“We understand it’s an unusual prize. We’ve got some concerned parents but there are also parents who are in support of it. It’s important to remember this is a community that clearly understands the distinction between responsible gun ownership and gun violence,” district spokesperson Amber Whitley told WTVD.
“As we leave here today I have a challenge for all of you. We are all different. Not less, just different. We all have things we’re good at, things we need to work on, and things we need help with. Whenever you see someone else who is different, instead of just judging them or being a bully, I challenge you to offer help and treat that person with the kindness you have shown me over the last six years. Remember, all of you can make a difference in someone’s life. You’ve already made a difference in mine.”
Many teachers have had their love of teaching eroded because of the emphasis on standardized testing. The teacher featured in this powerful video above, uses YouTube to resign from a profession she once loved.
I found this quote to be most compelling:
“Raising students’ test scores on standardized tests is now the only goal. And in order to achieve it, the creativity, flexibility and spontaneity that create authentic learning environments have been eliminated. Everything I loved about teaching is extinct.”
This great video reminded me of some of the classic expressions my children have when trying a new dinner recipe:
A heartwarming and hilarious video has captured the brutal honesty of children’s first encounters with new foods, showing their reactions in slow motion.
Made by Saatchi & Saatchi, the two and a half minute homage entitled The First Taste was inspired when a creative director at the company’s Australian branch watched his own daughter try a gherkin.
The video focuses on seven toddlers and infants as they try sophisticated foods such as pickled onions, olives, anchovies and Vegemite.
Give this teacher a second chance. He made an extremely poor choice but his intentions to make his lessons more engaging are extremely noteworthy:
A history lesson took a turn for the worst recently when a Texas middle school teacher opted to show, rather than tell.
According to multiple reports, the Schrade Middle School history teacher attempted to lasso student volunteers with a rope during a lesson on cowboys and herding methods.
Footage of the teacher’s lasso lesson, captured on a cell phone by seventh-grade student Tristan McKissick and shared with local station WFAA, shows a man lassoing a student in an open field. The young boy, who is wearing a hooded sweatshirt, falls to the ground amid laughter from other classmates after the rope is tossed around his neck and shoulders.
A 13-year-old student suffered bruises to his neck following the incident.
As the Dallas Observer notes, the history lesson was publicized after the bruised student’s parents “complained to the school and local TV station.”
The district placed the teacher on administrative leave Tuesday, pending the results of an investigation.
“It was not malicious. It was not intentional,” Garland Independent School District spokesman Chris Moore explained to the Dallas Morning News. “But it was very poor judgment.”
We hear about fighting and bullying but not many understand how bad it can get and how passive the bystanders can be:
Florida 16-year-old Chase Cristia was standing up for a friend during lunch, when another J. W. Mitchell High School student threatened her last Friday, Bay News 9 reports. Though Cristia reported the incident to her assistant principal, “no imminent threat” was found and the sophomore was permitted to ride the bus home, as always.
According to authorities, it was there where a 17-year-old student attacked, while another student filmed the brutal school bus beating. The footage was later posted to Facebook.
Addressing how quickly the video was posted to Facebook, Pasco Superintendent Kurt Browning told local TV station WFLA, “I think it’s a reality of where we are today in our society and our culture.”
She returned to school on Wednesday, but left early after she was subjected to teasing from classmates, Tampa Bay Online reports.
Though the graphic video in which Cristia is beaten by a fellow classmate on a moving school bus is only 16 seconds long, it will live on the Internet for years to come.
“It’s not like we can recall them,” Dennis Alfonso, an attorney for the Pasco County school board, told the Tampa Bay Times.
According to school officials, the two sophomore students have also been suspended, and the district has launched an investigation into the incident, Fox 13 reports.
Cristia and her mother are pressing charges against the female students involved, and Cristia’s mother also intends to file a restraining order against the two on behalf of her daughter.
However, in an interesting change of events, Cristia told ABC News that she received a brief apology note from her attacker Wednesday morning.
“I’m sorry. I am so sorry, Chase,” the note reportedly read.
One straight-shooting first grader quickly became the big man on campus when he sank a free throw to earn his classmates a day off from school the Monday after Super Bowl XLVII.
According to description accompanying the video on YouTube, the proposition at Mater Dei School in Bethesda, Md. was simple: make the foul shot and spend Super Bowl Monday out of the classroom. After a few older students missed their 3-point attempts, Blake Harper was given the opportunity to earn a day off for the entire school from the free throw line.
Harper stayed poised under pressure and sank the shot to the delight of his classmates, who all rushed the youngster immediately after securing the three-day weekend.
Topical Teaching 