Gwen Mueller is an IT Professional, #dnd Gamer-girl, #coffee drinker, geek in Secondary Education, editor on tumblr #education, curating #science, and #tech resources to inspire lifelong learning with 1/4 cup of #fun.
As Chicago prepares to close 54 schools in an attempt to rescue an academically and financially failing educational system, one of its greatest challenges will be safely maneuvering thousands of students to and from class through the patchwork of rival gang territories that cover large parts of the nation’s third-largest city.
Rachel Goslins from the President’s Committee on the Arts says they’ve found “low income kids who engage in the arts are three times more likely to have high attendance records and four times more likely to be involved in a student club or student government.”
LAUSD students respond to the question, “Do police officers in school make you feel safe?”
In analyzing the ways in which school climate can support—or hinder—academic achievement, Education Week’s reporters drew on the latest research and visits to schools putting into practice approaches intended to assure a secure, supportive learning environment.
I don’t know if you’ve heard about this app, Snapchat? Perceived no consequences, and gamification of texting; “the market provides what the market demands.” (Thanks Mr Loucks)
Snapchat is an iOS and Android app that allows you to snap a picture or a video snippet, send an SMS message (text), and set a timeframe (in seconds up to 10) for how long it can be viewed after being sent. Then, it magically disappears and the receiver can’t see the text/image, and Snapchat promises they don’t store your data. Yes, it can be a fun way to keep in touch with your friends, but it’s also the perfect solution to the nosy parent checking your texts, cheating that you can get away with (no evidence, score!), or sending embarrassing photos of yourself, right?
While not everyone is going to use it for sexting, I think parents and teachers should be aware of the potential risks of the app. This is another great time to discuss/communicate privacy and safety (early and often).
One night, the Montgomery County police captain arrived at a scene where his son was in an ambulance. Ryan Didone had been in the back seat of a Volvo station wagon headed to a Burger King. The driver had taken a winding road in Damascus at high speed, veered off and hit a tree.
Ryan was 15.
Didone knows that his son was not unlike other teens who might, in this season of proms and graduation parties, unthinkingly put themselves at risk.
“Due to the highly charged and high-profile controversy involving this student, Seminole State has taken the unusual but necessary step this week to withdraw Mr. Zimmerman from enrollment. This decision is based solely on our responsibility to provide for the safety of our students on campus as well as for Mr. Zimmerman.”
Looking over case reports of pedestrian injuries or fatalities involving moving vehicles between 2004 and 2011, the doctor and his team found 116 where the victim was using headphones. Seventy percent of these accidents were fatal. More than two-thirds of the victims were male (68 percent) and under the age of 30 (67 percent). Over half of the vehicles involved in the accidents were trains (55 percent), and nearly a third (29 percent) reported sounding a horn prior to the crash.
While this isn’t a large number of cases, they may only be the tip of the iceberg. These were reported cases where the pedestrian was known to be wearing headphones at the time of the accident. Many more may go unreported. Train crashes do have a way of obliterating the evidence.
Headphones and busy pedestrian crossings just don’t mix.
A quick scan of “Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2010” at the National Center for Education Statistics website turns up student issues that school personnel spend an inordinate amount of time struggling with every single day: insubordination, student and teacher victimization, fighting, weapons, theft, verbal abuse, sexual harassment, gang activity, drugs, alcohol, tardiness, and an astonishing rate of absenteeism.
Talking to your students about cyber-bullying can be a little intimidating—technology is one of those areas where we keenly feel our “uncoolness.” Do we know all the latest terms? Are we going to do more harm than good? This article will educate you about cyber-bullying and discuss some classroom strategies to help your students overcome the urge to bully as well as the urge to cover up bullying.
The total number of traffic deaths is at its lowest level since 1949, even as the population, number of vehicles, and number of miles driven have all increased radically.
Existing technology, though, offers universities an opportunity to gaze into their own crystal balls in an effort to prevent large-scale acts of violence on campus. To that end, universities must be prepared to use data mining to identify and mitigate the potential for tragedy.
Black and Hispanic students are far more likely to be kicked out of school when they break the rules, including some that often have nothing to do with keeping students safe, according to a new report from a civil rights research and advocacy group.
And school discipline records are too often seen as a measure of how safe a school is and not often enough as a gauge of how healthy a school is academically, said Daniel J. Losen, the report’s author and the senior education law and policy associate at the Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at the University of California, Los Angeles. But he said there is no evidence that banishing some students will improve the education of classmates still in school, while studies have show that punishing students increases their risk of dropping out.
The report, is the latest in a series of actions intended to draw attention to school discipline practices that some consider overly harsh or punishments that are meted out disproportionately among students of different races, genders, and ethnic groups.
In his report, “Discipline Policies, Successful Schools, and Racial Justice,” Mr. Losen argues that the students who miss class time for misbehavior are at a greater risk of missing out on educational opportunities, but schools only reluctantly turn to alternatives for managing students’ behavior. The report was published by the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado, in Boulder.
Analyzing 2006 data from the U.S. Department of Education’s office for civil rights, Mr. Losen found that more than 28 percent of African-American middle school boys had been suspended at least once, compared with 10 percent of white males nationwide. For girls, it was 18 percent of black students, compared with 4 percent of white students.
High-res
![theatlantic walks into the middle of the street with :
Do Headphones Work Too Well?
Looking over case reports of pedestrian injuries or fatalities involving moving vehicles between 2004 and 2011, the doctor and his team found 116 where the victim was using headphones. Seventy percent of these accidents were fatal. More than two-thirds of the victims were male (68 percent) and under the age of 30 (67 percent). Over half of the vehicles involved in the accidents were trains (55 percent), and nearly a third (29 percent) reported sounding a horn prior to the crash.
While this isn’t a large number of cases, they may only be the tip of the iceberg. These were reported cases where the pedestrian was known to be wearing headphones at the time of the accident. Many more may go unreported. Train crashes do have a way of obliterating the evidence.
Headphones and busy pedestrian crossings just don’t mix.
Read more. [Image: olly/Shutterstock]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0gyvmQDHi1qcokc4o1_500.jpg)
