Justin Coleman, 35, of Falls Church, Va., has been indited on two counts of child pornography. The 4th grade teacher allegedly forced students to engage in sex acts and video tapped them without them knowing.
Elem. School Teacher Indicted on Child Porn Charges
Smells Like: porn , VirginiaWord of the Week: Connoisseur
Smells Like: contest , video
The Vocab Film Festival Word of the Week is: Connoisseur.
Check out this recent student contest submission to the Vocab Videos Film Festival....
Vocab Videos currently is running a contest where you can submit your own vocab video and photo entries for a chance to win over $20,000 in scholarships and monthly and grand prizes from A-List Education, Zinch, Knewton, & Cerebellum.
Get your students involved for a fun class project opportunity! Support participating nonprofit organizations—Harlem Children’s Zone, Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, Urban Word, and Year Up—just by voting on your favorite entries. Special prizes and donations go to the nonprofit with the most votes at the close of the Festival.
BREAKING: New Mexico Outlaws Corporal Punishment in Schools!
Smells Like: corporal punishment , New Mexico
Heart Magazine magazine named New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez “Woman of the Year” for her dedication to children’s advocacy and her efforts to keep children safe – and today she lived up to her reputation as she signed into law HB 172 - a law prohibiting corporal punishment as a disciplinary sanction in public schools.
Earlier this month Martinez signed an Anti-Bullying Bill into law and HB172 will further increase protections for New Mexico school children.
We spoke with renown Author and Educator Rosalind Wiseman, who recently hosted a bullying discussion from the White House, who had this to say:
“Any school that condones or doesn't explicitly condemn corporal punishment as a disciplinary strategy will have no credibility to talk to its students about bullying. Simply, if the students know the adults in the school can hit, slap them or worse, it sends the message that physical domination is how you address conflict. I honestly, can't think of a worse policy to alienate our children. ”
New Mexico is now the 31st state to outlaw corporal punishment in public schools. The United States is one of the only developed countries in the world that allows Corporal Punishment in schools - with 107 countries having national bans in place.
Police Pepper Spray 8 Year Old in Classroom
Smells Like: Colorado , police
An 8 year old boy throws a temper tantrum -- albeit a somewhat dangerous one, where he pulls wood off the walls, and the police come in and pepper spray him.
What do you think? To spray or not to spray?
Story: Police pepper spray 8-year old
Word of the Week: Upbraid
Smells Like: contest , video
The Vocab Film Festival Word of the Week is: Upbraid.
Check out this recent filmmaker contest submission to the Vocab Videos Film Festival....
Vocab Videos currently is running a contest where you can submit your own vocab video and photo entries for a chance to win over $20,000 in scholarships and monthly and grand prizes from A-List Education, Zinch, Knewton, & Cerebellum.
Get your students involved for a fun class project opportunity! Support participating nonprofit organizations—Harlem Children’s Zone, Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, Urban Word, and Year Up—just by voting on your favorite entries. Special prizes and donations go to the nonprofit with the most votes at the close of the Festival.
URGENT! Call RIGHT NOW to end Corporal Punishment in NM!
Smells Like: corporal punishment , New Mexico
Governor Susan Martinez will be on New Mexicos biggest talk radio show today at 11am eastern, 15 minutes from now. There is a Corporal Punishment Ban that passed the house and senate that is just waiting for her to sign... Please call-in and ask her to sign the CP BAN into law! You can listen live to Bob Clark’s show on its web site at http://www.770kkob.com/ The call-in number is (505) 243-3333. We are SO CLOSE to our first big http://LostTheBelt.org/ victory! LETS ROLL!
Word of the Week: Bewilder
Smells Like: contest , video
The Vocab Film Festival Word of the Week is: Bewilder.
Check out this recent filmmaker contest submission to the Vocab Videos Film Festival....
Vocab Videos currently is running a contest where you can submit your own vocab video and photo entries for a chance to win over $20,000 in scholarships and monthly and grand prizes from A-List Education, Zinch, Knewton, & Cerebellum.
Get your students involved for a fun class project opportunity! Support participating nonprofit organizations—Harlem Children’s Zone, Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, Urban Word, and Year Up—just by voting on your favorite entries. Special prizes and donations go to the nonprofit with the most votes at the close of the Festival.
Superman is here, and his name is Sal Khan
Smells Like: amazing , invention , video
Khan has been recording simple video lessons for hundreds of different concepts from math to science to world history. He has made them all available for free online, and he has created some amazing tools that allow parents, teachers, home schoolers and tutors to track with real time fine grain detail the progress of the students.
Currently, teachers get to spend about 5% of their time interacting with students, the rest is spent lecturing, giving exams, etc. This new model completely turns the classroom upside down -- students can be assigned the videos for home work, and then in class they get mentoring from the teacher and each other.
Here is a Sal introducing the platform this month at TED:
Here is a more in depth overview of the features:
The system is FREE, being used in schools now, and is READY FOR YOUR SCHOOL TO ADOPT. We'd love to see some of our readers make an effort to pilot the KHAN program in your district.
Thoughts? Anyone have any direct experience with this?
US Sex Ed Actually Increases Pregnancies, Abortions + STD's
Smells Like: policy , sex , waste
Our friends at HypeVocal have an interesting article up about how we've been pissing away money on abstinence education -- and how it's actually increased teen pregnancy, STD's and abortions. We've dumped 1.5 billion $$$ over the last 15 years at abstinence only sex education -- which, much like the Dare Program, doesn't seem to work -- AT ALL.
A new bill, Repealing Ineffective and Incomplete Abstinence-Only Program Funding Act, seeks to divert $50 Million a year to the Personal Responsibility Education (PREP) program -- “evidence-based, comprehensive sex education programs”.
STORY: Wanna Cut Waste? Let’s Start with Abstinence-Only Education
VIDEO: Bully Gets Owned
Smells Like: australia , bully
This scranny kid walks up and punches another kid in the face twice, unprovoked. He then gets body slammed. All caught on tape.
Teacher Fired Over "Have You Drugged Your Kid Today?" Bumper Sticker
Smells Like: 1st amendment , Arizona , drugs , expression
An English teacher was fired after refusing to remove a bumper sticker for her car that read "Have You Drugged Your Kid Today?"
She says it was political commentary on the over medication of students and she never discussed it in class, but some parents complained which led to her being asked to remove it.
She clearly has a right to political expression, and it would be hard to argue the bumper sticker is obscene. The only real question is can the school regulate what is on her car while it is on school property.
What do you think?
STORY: Teacher: I Was Fired Over A Bumper Sticker
Pop Quiz! How many possible different tweets are there?
Smells Like: contest , math , popquiz
Twitter is a micro-blogging service that limits updates to 140 characters.
How many possible different tweets are there?
Leave your answer in the comments below and show your work! (ie explain how you got your answer.)
Bonus points if you do this with your class. I've got a surprise giveaway for the best mathematically / logically correct answer.
Ready go? Also, bonus points if you TWEET this question ;)
Word of the Week: Wistful
Smells Like: contest , video , vocab
The Vocab Film Festival Word of the Week is: Wistful. Check out this video, which is a great resource for helping build vocabulary.
Vocab Videos currently is running a contest where you can submit your own video and get a share of over $20,000 in monthly and grand prizes from A-List Education.
Giveaway! Waiting For Superman DVD!
Smells Like: contest , movieWe have a BRAND NEW BLUERAY DVD of the acclaimed Waiting For Superman. This amazing documentary highlights some of the problems with the US education system and proposes some solutions. If you haven't seen this movie, SEE IT!
If you would like a FREE COPY of the Blue Ray DVD, simply leave comments below (make sure to use facebook, so we can message you) and we will select a winner from those who have left comments.
Official Movie Site: http://www.waitingforsuperman.com/
Help Person with Autism Self-Publish Comic Book, Surprise Him on National TV
Smells Like: promo
Our good friend Jake Sasseville of Late Night Republic is crowdfunding a cool project..
Watch the video, and check it out here: http://latenightrepublic.com/dustin/
North Carolina School District Bans Corporal Punishment
Smells Like: corporal punishment , law , North Carolina
Rockingham County North Carolina joins 69 other NC districts in banning corporal punishment, the infliction of pain -- usually by paddling or whipping. North Carolina is one of the only places in the developed world that still allows Corporal Punishment in schools. The United States stands alone in industrialized countries that allow CP and NC is one of only 20 US States that allows Corporal Punishment. Every year over 250,000 students are hit at least once by educators in US public schools.
DetentionSlip.org commends Rockingham County for joining us here in the future.
STORY: Corporal punishment ban approved in Rockingham County
CONTEST: Vocab Film Festival
Smells Like: contest
The Vocab Film Festival challenges students and filmmakers to create and share their own vocabulary video and photo projects for a chance to win over $20,000 in monthly and grand prizes. Entries must meet the monthly challenge and illustrate the meaning of a supplied vocabulary word. The Festival closes 5/31/11, so there will be a total of 4 monthly challenges. Don't forget to encourage voting for your entries to increase your chances of winning a prize. Everyone who votes must also select one of four outstanding nonprofit organizations to win special prizes and donations!
Visit the VOCAB FILM FESTIVAL to enter for free!
LETS DO THIS! For any DetentonSlip.org readers who enter the contest, let us know IN THE COMMENTS of this post, and we will promote your video on the FRONT PAGE of DETENTIONSLIP.ORG to help you get more votes ;)
Texas Student Gets $637 Fine for Swearing
Smells Like: panic , poop , Texas |
| Image lifted from http://squeegiesounds.com |
Normally I'd make some comment about the right of the school to extort fines from students without due process, an actual court system, and the fact this seems like its the only place a government agency can issue a fine without a mechanism in place for one to dispute it or the legality of it.. BUT, this is Texas, the state which LEADS THE DEVELOPED WORLD in Corporal Punishment cases each year. Yes, TEXAS hits more students in schools than every other developed country in the world COMBINED -- something like 50,000 students are hit at least once every school year in Texas PUBLIC schools.
Thoughts on fining students?
STORY: Texas Student Gets $637 Fine for Swearing
MORE INFO: Wikipedia Definition of Shit
Time Capsule Found Inside SF School Wall
Smells Like: awesome , California
A student doing research in the library discovered a time capsule inside the walls of Cleveland Elementary School in San Fransisco, CA. Students got a hands on history lesson as they opened a metal box containing letters, photographs and other items left for them over 100 years ago.
Have you created a time capsule? Why not make one with your class today!
STORY: Time capsule discovered inside SF school wall
Girl reprimanded for singing National Anthem
Smells Like: idiocy , Indiana , racism , sports
A 16yr old African American girl was "reprimanded" by her principal after some fans complained they didn't like the "style" of her rendition of the National Anthem.
Go 'ol Indiana, birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan.
Watch the video and let us know what you think.
STORY& VIDEO : School To Girl: Tone Down National Anthem Singing
DARE Program Completely Ineffective Says US Gov.
Smells Like: DARE , drugs , policy |
| Image boosted from The only winner in the "war on drugs" is the US Southern Command - which is also worth a read. |
"The estimated cost of DARE annually is already $1 to 1.3 billion. 46 That's a lot for a completely ineffective, often counterproductive, program."Many of us recall the DARE Program in school. A police officer would come in once week or so, and talk about the "dangers" of drug use and offer some ideas about how to not use drugs. It appears the intention of this program was actually good, they intended it to reduce drug use. (I don't say drug & alcohol use, because Alcohol is a drug -- it's redundant.) However, it has been exhaustively shown that the DARE program is not effective in reducing drug use, and in some cases actually increases it.
The Dept. of Education does not allow federal funds to be spent on it for this reason. Why then is it present in 80% of US Schools? Because, like many government programs it gives the perception of effectiveness and and doing something. Folks don't want their children using (illegal) drugs (for example the powerful addictive psychoactive substance, Caffeine, is usually fine, and sold in most schools), the DARE program is run by authoritative police officers in uniform who bring in displays and follow a curriculum, so why wouldn't it work?
Some stats on DARE from Drug Abuse Resistance Education: The Effectiveness of DARE :
1. The U.S. General Accounting Office found "no significant differences in illicit drug use between students who received DARE... and ...students who did not."
2. The U.S. Surgeon General has placed DARE under the category of "Ineffective Programs."
3. The National Academy of Sciences has found DARE ineffective.
4. The U.S. Department of Education prohibits schools from spending federal money on DARE because it found the program ineffective in reducing alcohol and drug use.
5. The National Institutes of Health funded a study by scholars at the University of Kentucky to examine the effect of DARE on students over the subsequent ten years. The study concluded: "Our results are consistent in documenting the absence of beneficial effects associated with the DARE program. This was true whether the outcome consisted of actual drug use or merely attitudes toward drug use."
Next steps?
1) Perhaps check in with your school to still see if they use the DARE program, and tell the school board you want an alternate.
2) Examine your own life for things you are doing that may give a perception of effectiveness and not actually accomplish the results you want (or be counter productive) - this is a deeper step to begin building a more rational america.
What do you think of the DARE Program? What other gov programs give the Perception of Effectiveness?
STORY: Drug Abuse Resistance Education: The Effectiveness of DARE
Pay Pal Founder To Give Students $100k to Drop Out
Smells Like: awesome , California , entrepreneurship , science
Peter Thiel, PayPal Founder and maverick investor has a new program to move our world forward. He intends to find 20 students under 20 years old, and give them up to $100k to "stop out" of school for 2 years to develop ideas, start companies and change the world.
He cites the increased costs of education, a risk averse culture, and limited exposure to entrepreneurship as main reasons for this program.
He made the announcement at the TechCrunch Distrupt event, see minute 18 of the video.
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