A few days ago some high school seniors pulled a harmless prank before grad. They are students at Southern Lehigh High School in Center Valley, PA. The students scaled a wall and entered an internal courtyard, setup tents and stayed the night. A quote from a story called Senior Prank Lands Students in Trouble in Philadelphia News, “There was no damage, no illegal substances involved, no horsing around. They simply set up tents, ate food that they picked up, went to sleep and the next morning the police were there,”. The students were suspended for five days.
The school district superintendent had this to say in defending the actions of the school admin. Interesting wording in his statement. Clear, polite, non-accusational and non-inflammatory would be my take. Whether I agree or not with the penalties coming from the school admin, I do appreciate a balanced statement like this one.
This superintendent seems a remarkable man. He seems to attain a balanced viewpoint. Here is a statement he was recorded as saying in a Morning Call article called, Those darned kids these days...
"Friday, before about 75 students gathered to protest the punishment resulting from Monday's camping prank, Liberati sat down with a few students and shared the school's perspective.
"We talked about the escalation of pranks, how classes try to top the prior year and how that becomes problematic,'' he said. ''What happened this week is out of the ordinary for Southern Lehigh. This is not usually how we're viewed. My hope is that there will be greater communication with everyone."

As always, there are 2 (or more) sides to every story. There were 17 kids involved. Did the school admin over-react, or not? Did the kids do something stupid or not?

There has been a lot of local press about over-reaction by school authorities and this article called, Point made, it's time to free the campers by Bill White in the Morning Call paper is just one of many. Whether the charges against the students was a knee-jerk reaction or not, I don't know. However many feel it was not well thought out and too harsh.

Normally one doesn't hear much about other schools unless the school makes the headlines. Then a search turns up all kinds of information, including the more unflattering kind. Here is a link to comments which the school probably wishes would just go away. Whether the comments are just grouching by disgruntled students, or not, they are there, forever. And, they don't do the rest of the dedicated students and school any good. There is usually a reason for comments. What was the reason?

Remember, these days everyone, especially our connected youth, has access to the incredible resources on the internet. As another example, there is this Rate my Teachers website. The link is pointed to the high school.

Most students are proud of their school and demonstrate it in many positive ways. Future blogs will look at positive student contributions for their school and each other, and positive teacher contributions to their students.

Students: have a fun and safe grad!

Cheers - Mike

Well, I came across a teacher's blog and his style is so laid back and as-it-is, that it has given me some motivation to change my style and write more instead of researching and comment. So my future blogs will be quite different. There will be the comments of course, but not as often.

Have a look at the blog of hipster and you'll see what I mean.

'til the next time then,

Cheers - Mike

Sound as an aid to learning in class.

Another very small poll indicates that some students learn better if there is a little background sound. When I asked what kind of sound the indication was: quiet talking.

They pay attention more and ignore the talking.

Then I asked adults the same question and got the same answer. Fascinating.

Here is a link to a good article on the subject. The article is called, Noise in the Classroom: Obstacle or Opportunity?.

Here is another really interesting article called, Sound control in the classroom, from the Behaviour Matters e-bulletin from Teaching Expertise. The site is a very good classroom management resource.

From New Zealand comes this interesting site page called, Students Managing Classroom Noise.

From The Institute for Enhanced Classroom Hearing, we have this article called, Sound Enhancement Systems: Description & Rationale.

On the other hand, here is a story from the Times Colonist newspaper dated Oct 2, 2007 called, Classroom noise hinders student learning, research shows.

It all depends on being able to hear the teacher of course, which is why microphones and surround sound speaker systems are becoming so popular in classrooms, especially classrooms with a poor teacher/student ratio.

Cheers - Mike

Remember when teachers insisted that eye contact be maintained with all the students in the classroom? If a student was looking down (and not writing) or away, teachers felt that the student wasn't listening or paying attention. Then they would yell at the student or throw something at them. (Usually a chalk brush in the old days. I suppose in some schools it hasn't changed.)

Now we know that there are other reasons, such as, the teacher is boring, speaks in a monotone, turns their back to the students for most of the class with more attention on the board than the students, gives a class assignment for the period instead of teaching, is afraid of the students (and they can tell), doesn't want to be there (again, students can tell), is thinking of something else (distracted), is in a bad mood, wears weird clothes (distraction), yells at the students, speaks too softly, can't explain a concept, isn't prepared, fumbles around, commands no respect, doesn't challenge the students, or the student is too far away from the board and can't read it, or the student can't hear the teacher properly, or the student doesn't want to be there, or the student has a big worry (not all students come from a happy home life) and is distracted by it, or the student got harassed by another student earlier, and on and on and on...

If the student seem to be inattentive, perhaps the teacher should make a private attempt to find out why.

A caring teacher at an elementary school did some fact-finding with a 10 year old student one day. The student was getting lower and lower marks as time went on. The teacher found that the student couldn't see the board, it was out-of-focus, fuzzy. The student needed glasses and the student and parents didn't realize it. The glasses made the difference and the student is an "A" student now. There is usually a reason. So let's not yell at the student, let's find out the "why".

Oh, The seemingly inattentive student? If they can hear fine, they are usually getting everything that is said. They are simply not acknowledging it by looking at the teacher.

Cheers - Mike

Some teachers and schools refuse to acknowledge the fact that kids today have, and use, modern technology. Technology that many parents depend on. For example, parents texting their child to inform him/her of something important. Or a child texting a parent regarding an important message. This messaging normally takes place on their phones.

Now here is the problem: teachers either taking their phones or giving the student grief for receiving or replying to a message. Yes, it could be just a message from a friend, but what if it isn't? In some cases the phone is a lifeline. Most of the time, the phone use isn't even in the classroom. And of course, the teacher should not be taking the phone in the first place.

In my opinion, teachers should not hassle students for using modern technology. The students of my acquaintance are very considerate when using their phones. And, the phones are no longer just expensive toys. The phones are important tools to use, which includes the lifeline function.

Sooner or later schools/teachers will have to recognize that the world is changing. Give the kids a break. Ok, some kids will take advantage of a more liberal phone policy, but they can be handled on an individual basis.

Cheers - Mike

As the school year draws to a close a small poll was conducted with some of the kids to determine the teacher they valued the most, who they thought should be Teacher of the Year, so...

From the kids at Kenilworth School in Edmonton Alberta,
the teacher of the year is!!::

Mr. T !!!

From the Kids - thanks Mr. T!

Dave Hancock is Alberta's Minister of Education. Here is a little bit of background. He is the youngest of seven children. He grew up in several different small towns in northern BC and Alberta like, Fort Resolution, Hazelton, Fort Vermilion. His parents valued education and he finished school in Fort Vermilion. All seven brothers and sisters graduated from post-secondary institutions. Dave Hancock became a lawyer before entering politics. More about the Minister can be found here or on his official government website.

He started an initiative called, Inspiring Education - A Dialogue with Albertans.

From the Minister's letter to those taking part in Inspiring Education Community Conversation:
Inspiring Education is not a traditional government consultation. With this initiative, we’re taking a very different approach from what we’ve done in the past. The process in this community conversation kit will challenge you to share your ideas and experiences, and it asks you to listen to and consider the perspectives of others. This process will give us the kind of insight we need to create an education system that will meet the hopes, dreams and aspirations of all Albertans.

The latest (seventh session) report is here. Here is a link to the official Inspiring Education website.

I was fortunate enough to attend one of the day-long sessions, and I felt like something was actually being done. The participants were being listened to and I believe the Minister is very serious about this project. After all, it will help him and his staff and Alberta Education come up with a 20 year plan.

Very worthwhile, and I applaud the Minister for his "forward thinking" in starting and encouraging this project.

This man is on the road a lot and I personally don't know if even I could keep up with his schedule. If you want to keep up with him you can try his Twitter updates.

Good for you, Dave!

Cheers - Mike