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Schools Shut Down A Month Early

For the 400 or so students in Buena Vista, Mich., school is over, even though the academic year isn’t supposed to end until the middle of June.

Last week, the Buena Vista School District fired all of its teachers and closed its schools because it had run out of money.

Instead, they will likely attend “skills camp.” If the school board approves the advancement of students — despite not finishing out the year — students will be able to attend “skills camp,” a voluntary substitute for school, the district announced Monday at a press conference with Superintendent Deborah Hunter-Harvill, Saginaw Intermediate School District Superintendent Richard Syrek, and Michigan Department of Education chief Michael Flanagan.

9-year-old Eileen stopped five 5th grade boys from beating up an autistic student at her school, and was rewarded for her courage to stand up! “She defended this boy because of her courage,” he said during the ceremony at the center in Kihei. “Eileen Parkman is a defender of the defenseless.” The kicker? But she paid a price. The boys turned their attention on the then-2nd-grader, pushing her to the ground, swearing at her and stepping on her hands and arms - leaving shoe marks all over her body, according to Eileen’s father, Sean. And, it wasn’t an isolated incident. Her defiance of the older boys made her a target for bullying at least four more times at Kamali’i Elementary School, Sean Parkman said. Older kids kicked Eileen and threw balls at her face. When the school couldn’t stop the retaliatory bullying, Eileen’s doctors urged her parents to pull her from school and now she’s being tutored privately. “She deserves to be held as a hero,” he said. But “what happened to her was pretty wrong. I felt bad. What she did was the right thing. She helped the kid that needed help. She got beat up,” he said.

9-year-old Eileen stopped five 5th grade boys from beating up an autistic student at her school, and was rewarded for her courage to stand up!

“She defended this boy because of her courage,” he said during the ceremony at the center in Kihei. “Eileen Parkman is a defender of the defenseless.”

The kicker?

But she paid a price. The boys turned their attention on the then-2nd-grader, pushing her to the ground, swearing at her and stepping on her hands and arms - leaving shoe marks all over her body, according to Eileen’s father, Sean.

And, it wasn’t an isolated incident. Her defiance of the older boys made her a target for bullying at least four more times at Kamali’i Elementary School, Sean Parkman said. Older kids kicked Eileen and threw balls at her face.

When the school couldn’t stop the retaliatory bullying, Eileen’s doctors urged her parents to pull her from school and now she’s being tutored privately.

“She deserves to be held as a hero,” he said. But “what happened to her was pretty wrong. I felt bad. What she did was the right thing. She helped the kid that needed help. She got beat up,” he said.

theatlantic: Google Reader’s Demise Is Awful for Iranians, Who Use It to Avoid Censorship RSS readers take raw feeds of data—headline, text, timestamp, etc.—and display that information in a stripped-down interface along with many other feeds, which is what makes them so efficient. (Here is the RSS feed for Quartz.) Less obvious is how many RSS readers, including Google’s, serve as anti-censorship tools for people living under oppressive regimes. That’s because it’s actually Google’s servers, located in the U.S. or another country with uncensored internet, that accesses each feed. So a web user in Iran just needs access to google.com/reader in order to read websites that would otherwise be blocked. Read more. [Image: AP] High-res

theatlantic:

Google Reader’s Demise Is Awful for Iranians, Who Use It to Avoid Censorship

RSS readers take raw feeds of data—headline, text, timestamp, etc.—and display that information in a stripped-down interface along with many other feeds, which is what makes them so efficient. (Here is the RSS feed for Quartz.) Less obvious is how many RSS readers, including Google’s, serve as anti-censorship tools for people living under oppressive regimes. That’s because it’s actually Google’s servers, located in the U.S. or another country with uncensored internet, that accesses each feed. So a web user in Iran just needs access to google.com/reader in order to read websites that would otherwise be blocked.

Read more. [Image: AP]

theatlantic shares: A Pop Star Shouldn’t Shave Her Head in Shame for Having a Boyfriend Minami Minegishi, a popular member of AKB48 since the group’s founding in 2005, faced the camera and apologized profusely to fans. As tears washed over her face, she said those in charge of the group had demoted her to the “trainee” team and, to punish herself, she had shaved her head. Her transgression: being caught leaving a young man’s apartment several days earlier. Thousands in Japan watched the just-buzzed Minami deliver her tearful apology, and on Twitter the video promptly took up five trending-topic spaces. Many were shocked by what she had done to herself, while others believed the punishment was just and were surprised by what she had done. It quickly morphed into the country’s first big entertainment scandal of the year, but Minegishi’s painful-to-watch apology is much more than tabloid fodder: Her situation highlights the more disturbing aspects of the Japanese entertainment industry, and also on a growing gender problem in Japan. Read more. [Image: AKB48] High-res

theatlantic shares:

A Pop Star Shouldn’t Shave Her Head in Shame for Having a Boyfriend

Minami Minegishi, a popular member of AKB48 since the group’s founding in 2005, faced the camera and apologized profusely to fans. As tears washed over her face, she said those in charge of the group had demoted her to the “trainee” team and, to punish herself, she had shaved her head. Her transgression: being caught leaving a young man’s apartment several days earlier.

Thousands in Japan watched the just-buzzed Minami deliver her tearful apology, and on Twitter the video promptly took up five trending-topic spaces. Many were shocked by what she had done to herself, while others believed the punishment was just and were surprised by what she had done. It quickly morphed into the country’s first big entertainment scandal of the year, but Minegishi’s painful-to-watch apology is much more than tabloid fodder: Her situation highlights the more disturbing aspects of the Japanese entertainment industry, and also on a growing gender problem in Japan.

Read more. [Image: AKB48]

Israeli, Palestinian schoolbooks flawed: study A new study weighed in on one of the hot-button subplots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Monday, saying schoolbooks of both sides largely present one-sided narratives but rarely resort to demonization. The study, presented at a news conference Monday, said the books of both sides are flawed but on par with what is typical of societies in conflict. “There’s no hate speech. There is no incitement. There’s selective narratives,” said Palestinian scholar Sami Adwan of Bethlehem University, one of the lead researchers, along with Israeli Daniel Bar-Tal from Tel Aviv University and Bruce Wexler from Yale University. photo via flickr:CC | severinelaville

Israeli, Palestinian schoolbooks flawed: study

A new study weighed in on one of the hot-button subplots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Monday, saying schoolbooks of both sides largely present one-sided narratives but rarely resort to demonization.

The study, presented at a news conference Monday, said the books of both sides are flawed but on par with what is typical of societies in conflict.
“There’s no hate speech. There is no incitement. There’s selective narratives,” said Palestinian scholar Sami Adwan of Bethlehem University, one of the lead researchers, along with Israeli Daniel Bar-Tal from Tel Aviv University and Bruce Wexler from Yale University.

photo via flickr:CC | severinelaville

Kicker: New Media Startup Fights Back Against the Dumbing Down of America Who is Osama bin Laden? Is he famous? Is he in a band as well? And why should I care? These were all questions that teenagers tweeted in May 2011 on the night President Obama announced that U.S. special operations forces killed Osama Bin Laden. Data released by Yahoo! concluded that two thirds of the people who searched “Who is Osama bin Laden?” that night were teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17-years-old. Fortunately, a former New York Times editor is trying to upend the astonishing rise of ignorant Americans with her new startup, Kicker. Intended for people who are “turned off by traditional news media and want to “make a difference” and “get in the know easily,” founder Holly Ojalvo, a Brooklyn-based entrepreneur, hopes to disrupt the way teenagers engage with the fourth estate. photo via flickr:CC | Paul Keller

Kicker: New Media Startup Fights Back Against the Dumbing Down of America

Who is Osama bin Laden? Is he famous? Is he in a band as well? And why should I care? These were all questions that teenagers tweeted in May 2011 on the night President Obama announced that U.S. special operations forces killed Osama Bin Laden. Data released by Yahoo! concluded that two thirds of the people who searched “Who is Osama bin Laden?” that night were teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17-years-old.

Fortunately, a former New York Times editor is trying to upend the astonishing rise of ignorant Americans with her new startup, Kicker. Intended for people who are “turned off by traditional news media and want to “make a difference” and “get in the know easily,” founder Holly Ojalvo, a Brooklyn-based entrepreneur, hopes to disrupt the way teenagers engage with the fourth estate.

photo via flickr:CC | Paul Keller

Teachers’ Contract Includes Peer Review Some teachers will have the opportunity to earn up to $12,500 extra for getting a superior performance rating on evaluations, teaching in a low-performing school, or teaching a high-need subject. Also for the first time, peer reviews will become a formal part of the evaluation process. Under the three-year contract, approved by the city’s teaching force this month, all new hires and teachers with bachelor’s degrees will be placed on a new “universal” salary schedule that replaces premiums for holding advanced degrees with the opportunity to win the bonuses. Other teachers can choose to stay on a more traditional schedule. photo via flickr:CC | Pioneer Library System

Teachers’ Contract Includes Peer Review

Some teachers will have the opportunity to earn up to $12,500 extra for getting a superior performance rating on evaluations, teaching in a low-performing school, or teaching a high-need subject. Also for the first time, peer reviews will become a formal part of the evaluation process.

Under the three-year contract, approved by the city’s teaching force this month, all new hires and teachers with bachelor’s degrees will be placed on a new “universal” salary schedule that replaces premiums for holding advanced degrees with the opportunity to win the bonuses. Other teachers can choose to stay on a more traditional schedule.

photo via flickr:CC | Pioneer Library System

American Council on Education May Recommend Some Coursera Offerings for College Credit

The American Council on Education has agreed to review a handful of free online courses offered by elite universities and may recommend that other colleges grant credit for them.

To pass the council’s test, Coursera will make a few changes in the courses for which it seeks certification. For instance, ACE requires an “authentication of identity,” said Ms. Broad, meaning that Coursera must have some kind of proctored examination or other way to prove that students are who they say they are.