The Caffeinated Carbivore

In the past year, a great deal of media attention has been devoted to the increasing cost of education. College education costs more now than ever, and so do text books. Recently, however, media focus has moved to basic education: failing schools, low test scores, and firing teachers. While the NCLB debate falls to the wayside, we begin to focus on fixing the schools themselves: teachers, bullies , and school security. Is Obama's Educate to Innovate a big deal? This blog talks a lot about how to make lesson plans more interesting or teaching tools. This entry is going to be devoted to the students. John Stewart and Steve Colbert focus on National News. It's no surprise that they too have turned their attention to schools. This week, The Colebert Report interviewed the director of "Waiting for Superman", a documentary about our education system, and the few who have access to its good side. The Colbert Report Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Davis Guggenheim www.col...

Despite my recent blog entry about Cyber Bullying , there is still so much more to say about the topic. As we educate our students on the benefits of social media, we should also alert them to the dangers. There are various approaches to cel phones in schools . As Wes points out , labeling is an important part of image. If the phone is to be used for education, it is called a "mobile learning device" to emphasize its educational importance. However, students, parents, and teachers should be aware of the technology's dark side. As exemplified in the case of the cel phone's educational name, "mobile learning device", parents should be aware of the differences between "bullies" and "Cyber bullies". The many phases of bullying. 1.Olden days: Size: large, often older or taller than the average kid. Skills: Cruel nicknames, stealing lunch money, extreme snowball accuracy. 2. New Wave Size: varied Skills: everything nice, note encoding 3. Cyb...

In the past bullies have been easy to spot on the playground. They even had catch phrases Now, bullies have left the playground and moved online, making them harder to catch. With the help of online anonymity, things like " Juicy Campus " have given bullies new power: now they can trash you at home. After the death of Phoebe Prince , a student who killed herself because of bullies, bullying has been getting a lot of media and academic attention. Now that bullies are using the internet and cel phones to carry out their harassment, bullies can be charged with stalking and criminal harassment. Schools have responded as well. A teacher was suspended after asking students to list who was bullying them, in hopes that the list would encourage students to ostracize the bully. In the end, the list turned regular students on the bully-reversing who the bully is does not solve the problem. As school begins this fall, cyber bullying is among the teacher training catalog. At Illino...