Bullying

I'm sure it isn't a news flash to anyone that bullying still continues in our schools. There was an article in Science Daily about just this topic. There was a study done to determine if there was any correlation between bullying and the amount of time spent with parents. According to the study, "it was children's perception of how much time they spent with their fathers that had the most impact on bullying behavior." I'm curious as to whether or not anyone has seen this in actual students that they encounter that are considered bullies?

Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110128144324.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Superbugs

I had the chance to read over an article today about how humans are actually "helping" bacteria to evolve and essentially become stronger and more resistant. This is something that we have been told for years was happening, but how many of us actually listen to what is being said. Our school provides industrial-sized bottles of hand sanitizer to each teacher to have in the classroom. I understand the need to have anti-bacterial materials in the building. However, I placed this giant bottle on my desk for student use. Despite the large number of students that I have throughout the day, I was still amazed at how quickly this bottle disappeared. I'm wondering if this is a commonality at other schools, or just the students in my building being so paranoid. I try to explain to them that they don't need to "sanitize" every 10 minutes, but I think my words are falling on deaf ears. The article can be found at: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/69205/title/Pneumonia_drugs_helped_evolve_a_superbug

I'm just curious at to what others are experiencing in the classrooms.

Amazing Experience

I was provided an amazing opportunity this week. A friend of mine teaches Forensic Science to juniors and seniors in our building. She was able to have a guest speaker from the local medical examiner's office come in to that class and talk to them about what they do and some basic forensic information. During their discussion, they mentioned the importance of autopsies. The students were very interested and Brenda (teacher) and I were invited to view an autopsy. So, there it was, bright and early Monday morning we headed down to the morgue. We were able to view 2 autopsies that morning, one external and one complete. I can honestly say it was an absolutely amazing experience. I was able to take the information back to my students and share with them what we had seen. I have mostly sophomores and freshman, but they were so intrigued. I think that discussing this with them, many of them may find that they want to venture into some of the other science electives and maybe even dive into that forensics course. It was something that I will never forget and my students continued to ask questions throughout the week. I'm sure more will arise over the weekend also!

Teaching Vocab/Reading Literacy

Recently I attended an RTI (Response To Intervention) Workshop. One of the key components that our team discovered was that the students in our district have literacy issues across the board. It's not just in English class, they have difficulty with reading and comprehension in most, if not all, core classes. I came across some suggestions/tips for teaching vocabulary on the Edutopia website. If anyone has some strategies for literacy, I would love to hear them. We are trying to compile some strategies to share with the staff.

Physical Activity In The Classroom

Edutopia has an interesting poll on their website........"Does physical activity improve student focus?" If I had seen this poll two years ago, my answer would have probably been VERY different. At that time, I would have said absolutely not. However, I had the opportunity to attend a conference and listen to a speaker that was absolutely phenomenal. She was bound and determined to get us to try getting our students up and moving for at least half of a class period every day. My first reaction was that this lady was crazy, if I have my students up moving around I will never get them back on task to finish the work for the day. But, I attempted to do what she suggested. I'm not going to lie......I was astonished by how well the students responded to being up and moving around. Not only were they more engaged in what we were doing, they were ready to regroup and finish the lessons. This is something that I have tried to incorporate into my class at least 3 days a week. It doesn't always happen everyday.

Planet Makeover

Although I teach various science courses, Earth Science is not one of the them. However, as I was browsing through some Popular Science articles and came across one that sounded rather interesting. The article, New NASA Game: Extreme Planet Makeover, Gliese 581d Edition, caught my attention. In the article, there is a link to the site where you are able to create your own planet. I think that this could be a great activity for those who teach Earth Science to help students understand more about why the planets are different based on distance from the sun, type of star, etc.

Keeping Your Digital Secrets Safe!

Is there a sure-fire way to keep your information safe and private out on the web? Also, how can we keep our children safe on the internet? This was the topic of an article found at Science Daily from January 18th. We are all aware that with the digital age in full swing, it becomes more difficult to ensure privacy on the web. On many of the social applications that exist, there is no simple way to access or even adjust your personal settings. One example that was provided was the use of Facebook. Currently there are tools being developed that will help to give individuals the ability to gain a higher level of control over their privacy settings. I agree that this is something that needs to be implemented, however, what can we do to help encourage our children, as well as students, to improve their privacy settings within those social applications and increase the safety aspect of so many youngsters being so willing to share so much information with anyone and everyone that is willing to take the time to search for them?

Media literacy...............where is it headed? There was an article published on Edutopia entitled Why Media Literacy is Not Just For Kids by Suzi Boss. The article brought forth many interesting ideas. One important idea she addresses is that creating a society of individuals that are media literate, it has to be a national community education effort. I agree that we need to improve the literacy of the masses, however, there needs to be a great effort to first improve the level of media literacy of those that are responsible for teaching the current student population. There area many educators that are not as technologically literate as the students they are attempting to engage in their classrooms. We need to address these issues in order to make our students and general population more globally competitive. However, is simply using the technology and the tools enough or do we need to push our students to think further outside the box and to create and design their own tools?

In an article that was published today from Science Daily, an American Heart Association science advisory states that "all secondary school students should be required to be trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and receive an overview of automated external defibrillators (AEDs)". I have mixed feelings about this idea and I'm sure that there are many others that may feel the same. I agree that having more individuals with knowledge in these skills would be beneficial in many circumstances, but is it something that needs to be "required". There are so many other requirements that secondary students have to meet now, is this really something that we need to add to their already demanding list requirements?