A New Jersey boy was sent home from middle school for dressing up as Jesus Christ — complete with fake beard and crown of thorns — for the Halloween party.
Alex Woinski, 13, said school officials told him his costume was “offensive to some students.” Principal Joan Broe told CBS 2 that the costume was a [...]
Archive for January, 2009
Happy Halloween: Have a carrot stick!
Published by October 31st, 2008 in Children and Health. 9 CommentsSome California schools celebrated Halloween this year with grapes, apple slices, carrots, cheese and popcorn, reports the San Jose Mercury News. State law now regulates how often schools can serve snacks with more than 35 percent of calories from fats.
After-school parties are exempt, so parents sold cotton candy, nachos and snow cones at Cherry Chase [...]
Steve’s seventh-grade son came home with a list of the seven styles of learning: linguistic, logical/mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily/kinesthetic, interpersonal and intrapersonal. He’s supposed to draw pictures of science definitions, design a book dust cover for language arts and make a diorama for social studies. “Only in math does he have regular homework,” Steve writes [...]
The top candidates can relate to teachers, notes Education Week. Barack Obama’s half-sister has taught in public and private schools, including charters. Joe Biden’s wife has taught high school and community college classes. On the GOP side, John McCain’s wife was a special education teacher; Sarah Palin’s father was a science teacher, her mother was [...]
In my freelance life, I’m writing a “primer” for education reporters on K-12 “rigor,” which is a hot word in education these days. I’m asking people: How do you define it? How do you measure it? Is rigor only for college-prep programs or are there rigorous ways to educate students who aren’t college-bound?
Gentle readers, feel [...]
Most parents of students at low-performing high schools say they want more information about their child’s academic progress, reports a Civic Enterprises report, One Dream, Two Realities. From the Christian Science Monitor:
In schools considered high performing, 83 percent of parents say the school did a fairly good or very good job communicating about their [...]
“You Can Vote However You Like” sing sixth- and seventh-graders from Ron Clark Academy, a private, non-profit school serving primarily low-income black students. The kids advocate voting and debate policies: Half back Obama and half argue for McCain. The song is a rewrite of a tune by a rapper called T.I. In a TV interview, [...]
The mean girl in me enjoys Ohio Education Gadfly’s snarky response to Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland’s education reform blueprint. Under Exciting 21st Century Learning Environments:
Governor’s proposal: Our schools must become collaborative continuous learning organizations that build a culture of strong relationships, professionalism, collaboration, and common purpose for all students.
Gadfly translates: Our schools will be leaderless, [...]
A federal test of technology literacy is being developed for the National Assessment Governing Board, which runs the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). From Business Week:
NAGB officials and others hope the test will help reverse the slide in U.S. test scores and enrollment in such subjects as science, math, and engineering, and ultimately address [...]
First-year teachers who work with mentors, receive extra training and observe experienced teachers don’t outperform other new teachers, concludes a Mathematica study. Researchers looked at two high-intensity induction models that cost considerably more than the support new teachers typically get.
Findings from the first year showed that although treatment group teachers received significantly more mentoring, [...]
Recent Comments