Teacher education

Here are some of the key quotes from the Conservative Party s Social Justice Policy Group s paper on addictions .particularly in step with \ journal ‘is not negotiable’ approaches to education to children in greatest need. It also seems to be in step with the concerns of scientific experts on cannabis.
With the understanding of the real dangers of drug abuse and addiction.

Systematic carefully designed research to test the impact of different approaches [to what they call addictation education] – scientific, informational, experiential and personal, and peer led interactive – to be tested and compared across different school settings is required. Impact measures need to look at comprehension and retention in addition to longer term behaviour change. This requires a ‘capture and recapture’ method or other form of longitudinal, cohort study.

Filed under: Conservatives

Stick that on your power cord!

Drink and Drugs News highlight a series of criticisms Conservatives # 8217, Social Justice Group # 8217, with reliance on paper Includes what we said:budget, after assessment, should be primarily directed to detoxification as part of rehabilitation, with the unique advantage of the prison setting and length of sentence. (Section 3.3.3), a therapeutic community and 12-step programs in every prison wing. We propose an extension of the existing 16 such special programs (which are currently mainly of RAPT and Phoenix Futures) for each prison in the yard. (Section 3.3.3) Our immediate recommendations within the current framework is to:

This blog is taking a break until early September. drug and alcohol services.

David Chater, head of policy at youth charity Rainer, says the tax is a brave proposal.  The treatment tax is a brave step and is really positive, it would double the budget for drug and alcohol services. It takes a brave politician to say they  increase tax, especially on something like alcohol.

But Chater is less impressed with the report&s emphasis on abstaining from drugs and alcohol.  Measures like reclassifying cannabis as a class B drug, risk dragging a lot more young people into the criminal justice system. The best bits are outside the addiction section, with ideas for family support that will do more to tackle substance misuse than abstinence programmers.

Filed under: Conservatives

As you note, my new Geoloc maps stopped working. Because e-mail that I received, and a web Geoloc, the French Im not sure why, but I’m working on trying to fix it.may get bogged down in a flurry of other students or any person extending the teacher tossed in. It’s good in some ways, not so good in others. In its view, this is the best way to class that you have, but really arent interested in but shes not born to it. She struggles. Its taking her considerably longer to get through this unit she has to wait for feedback from teachers and tutors. She has to wait til a white board tutor time is set and then she has to wait some more. Shes getting a mid B in the class, right now, at the midway point and its getting harder. A face to face experience would probably have been better for her and were in search of a tutor who can give her some extra real time attention to help her improve her skills.

Comment by Denise March 30, 2005 @ 11:15 am | Reply

Ungdomsengagemang projektmedlemmar both on television and by celebrities. Our peers are another strong influence and we believe that peers who don’t use drugs are a positive influence.

-Boredom contributes to young people using drugs and positive activities need to be more accessible.

-Drugs and alcohol are widely available and easily accessible to young people.

Looking in more depth at what the young people said about drug education Mentor report:

The young people were adamant that the personality of the worker who delivers a drug intervention is key to its effectiveness.

There was a general lack of trust in the ability of some teachers to deliver drug education. It was felt that they were not really motivated to teach the subject and were biased in their messages; they only talked about the negative effects of drugs and did not give a balanced view.

One of their participants said:

“I don’t think [teachers] actually care about it, they’re just paid to do the job.”

Of course I’m sure this isn’t entirely fair, but it does suggest that the way teachers approach the subject makes a significant difference to the way it is perceived by those receiving it.

Filed under: Drug Education Forum Members , drug education , Mentor UK

Those of you who work directly with young people might want to take a look at this competition : to making sure that the review benefits from an open process and takes serious account of the views of all its stakeholders.  QCA has already begun this process.  Over the coming months they will be running a series of regional conferences and seminars to seek views and develop proposals.

Looking at the questions the ones that seem most relevant to us are the two around Personal Development:

-What are the personal, social and emotional capabilities that children need to develop through their schooling?

-What is the most appropriate framework for achieving greater integration of these capabilities throughout the curriculum?

Just to remind people this is different to the Primary Review that&s being underaken here .

Further reading:

- What’s happened to PSHE in Primary School? – evidence on the reduced amount of time spent on PSHE teaching in primary schools

- Brown’s ‘radical’ drugs review & The Prime Minister says he wants drug education in primary schools.

Filed under: PSHE , Independent Review of the Primary Curriculum

mrschili
April 10, 2008 at 5:24 am

These are GREAT, Everyone! See how these little tricks stick in our heads?

Lanie, I like yours – Sweet Stuff (which is what we call dessert around Chez Chili) and Sand. That seems easier to remember than my trick of wanting two desserts. I may steal this – thanks, Mrs. Maybee!

Tense, I learned how to spell together as three words – to get her. I don’t remember who taught me that – I think it was a friend’s father – but I never misspelled that word ever again.

Jules, got any other fun tricks?

Reply

1 Comment.
CaliforniaTeacherGuy
April 9, 2008 at 9:45 am

I’m holding…breathlessly!

Reply

4 Comments.
Darci
March 17, 2008 at 11:05 am

I love this idea for a final. Is it possible that you can email me the format? I would use it for the Narrative final that I am giving at the end of the semester. My students missed this section due to me not taking over the class until mid-November so I will not be using the state periodic assesment. I love the idea of the paragraph edit option. I also include grammar as the warm-up so your opening is helpful. I would of course give credit in the footer.

Reply

10 Comments.
Seth
April 5, 2008 at 9:09 am

So I’m a few weeks late on replying…. .but that’s the way things have been for me lately.

It’s amazing to me how we all forget to look at the basic natures of life. At the primary levels, we all want the same things, need the same things, desire the same things… but somewhere along the lines, we’ve gotten confused and caught up in everything else. We’ve made choices to lead us away from these basic elements and we’ve “put on glasses” that keep us from recognizing each other and all of those qualities that make us so similar.

Beautiful post.

Reply

I thought that I had posted something on this topic on my old personal blog a few years ago, but I wasn’t able to find it anywhere (or on any of my former blogs).

Anyway, today is Remembrance Day in Canada. For those of you who aren’t Canadian, you can get the sense of it here . As I posted in my short note about this last year (see An Act of Remembrance ), today is the reason why we wear poppies on your left lapel in Canada.

It is the reason why we gather to recite the poem…

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.

- John McCrae

Simply put, it is the reason we remember. So take time today to think about those who have fought to preserve the freedom that we enjoy today. And at 11:00am today, make sure to observe two minutes of silence.

A Pittance of Time – Terry KellyFinally, let me at include the link for this week’s broadcast of CBC Radio’s Vinyl Cafe: VC: November 8th, 2008 “Remembrance Day” If you don’t have anyone to remember today, like Stuart, just remember George Lawrence Price.

Session notes from our guest blogger, Abby.

Providing Virtual Success for At-Risk Students Julie McIntosh University of Findlay www.findlay.k12.oh.us/fda

Group Questions:

-What experience do you have with at-risk students?

-Have you worked with digital high schools or online teaching?

-What programs have been successful for you?

-What barriers have been in place at your district?Findlay Digital Academy

-2100 students, 30% defined as at-risk

-Defined at risk as meeting one or more criteria:
-failing one or more classes

-low SES

-behind in credits

-social issues/problems

-emotional problems

-health issues

-teenage pregnancy

-OR Traditional Model was not working for student – Gifted & Talented or learn in large blocks of time.Coaches were a huge intervention mechanism. Licensed teacher available as instructional coach for help. Students not showing up. Pressured them. Started coming and increased performance scores.Several Models utilized for remediation

-Continuous improvement model – more teacher driven, not immediate feedback

-Plato – test-mastery, liked instant feedback

-Apex – provide AP course opportunities, work with APEX teacher

-Family Education Partnership Program- parent can earn diploma at the same time.Findlay statistics:

-If student has not logged on in 21 days they are removed

-2006 had 35 students ended with 124

-2007 had 70 students

-GPA prior to FDA .73, during FDA 3.46, GPA after returning to traditional classroom 1.2Session really didn’t go into much detail about how instructional coaches or other methods were specifically used to help at-risk students. Several of her slides went over starting a virtual school as opposed to addressing the issue of at-risk student support, in my opinion.Tags: VSS2007 , NACOL , virtual school , cyber school , high school , education

Virtual Teachers For The Future.

This is a thread that came from a listserve that I am on which I thought may be of interest to my readers (and may be something you’d like to comment on).

— I deal with preservice teachers, most of whom have never taught before (a few are on alternative certification). I’ve noticed that when training inservice teachers to become online instructors, much of the professional development is online so they’re getting online experience that way. However, my students get no such online experience in our traditional stand-alone technology class. My idea is that we’d be doing them a favor if, somewhere in their teacher preparation program, we gave them the opportunity to be online students. In fact, I’m thinking that if the online P-12 virtual schools trend continues, some amount of training in being a virtual teacher needs to be covered in our teacher ed program.

Do any of you work at institutions that take into account teaching new teachers the skills needed for becoming online instructors?

Shelley McCoyPhD CandidateInstructional TechnologyCollege of Education, Health, and Human SciencesUniversity of Tennesee-Knoxville

We at the University of Michigan-Flint have an entire certificate program for middle and high school teachers who want to learn to teach online. It is comprised of noncredit modules that carry State Board Continuing Education Units (SB-CEUs). Our academic students can take these courses for credit by enrolling in a special projects course and selecting modules that add up to 15 SB-CEUs for each academic credit (maximum three credits).Deborah White, Director, Office of Extended LearningUniversity of Michigan-Flint

Dr. Niki Davis, of Iowa State, ( nedavis@iastate.edu ) leads a federally funded project on preparing teachers to teach in online environments. You may wish to contact her.Tom AndreThomas AndreAssociate Dean for Research and Graduate EducationDirector, Center for Excellence in Science and Mathematics EducationCollege of Human SciencesE262 Lagomarcino HallAmes, IA, 50011-3191voice 515-294-7804fax 515-294-7802

Let me add that the project that Dr. Niki Davis is working on is called Teacher Education Goes Into Virtual Schooling (TEGIVS) project, which I mentioned in an entry back on May 9, 2007 (see Virtual Teaching Internships ). So, what do you think?Tags: virtual school , cyber school , high school , education

Another installment of the funnies, courtesy of Darren at Teaching and Developing Online.

- Gee I was bad at math.

- When you think your day is bad …Part 8.

- This made me laugh.

- My parenting skills.

- This is the one statistic that is true

- When you think your day is bad … Part 9

- This makes a lot of sense…NOT

- When you think your day is bad … Part 10

- this might be why I don’t camp.

- When you think your Day is Bad … Part 10 (yes, this is a second one with the same title)

Until next week…

Friday Funnies.

Another edition from Darren over at Teaching and Developing Online .

- Some say to do this job you must be insane.

- Now that would be interesting.

- Cartoons are aways wrong

- Reality is so real.

- Fifty percent

Until next week…

Virtual Schooling in the News.

Beginning with the Yahoo! News Alert for virtual school.

Virtual school leads way
The Hendersonville Times-NewsSun, 14 Sep 2008 7:09 AM PDT
Brandon Warren leans back in his chair, staring at the computer screen.

News briefs for September 15
The Danville Advocate-MessengerMon, 15 Sep 2008 8:55 AM PDT
Area news briefs for September 15 regarding Junction City Fire Department, Kentucky Virtual School, Stanford chili cookoff and meetings of the Danville Housing Authority and City of Danville Sister Cities Committee.

Districts move toward online learning
The Elyria Chronicle-TelegramSun, 14 Sep 2008 10:09 PM PDT
Remember carrying big, heavy books and using typewriters at school? Well, those days are long gone. Today, technology, such as the online textbooks used in Avon and “virtual computers” being tried in Avon Lake, are changing the way students learn. Both high-tech tools are being rolled out this school year. “Our children [...]

Michael Horn Will Offer Keynote Address at NACOL’s Virtual School Symposium
PR Newswire via Yahoo! NewsTue, 16 Sep 2008 12:30 PM PDT
The North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL) is pleased to announce that author Michael Horn will be the Virtual School Symposium keynote speaker on Tuesday, October 28 at 8:00 a.m. in Phoenix, AZ. His address is titled, Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns, and his keynote will cover the case studies and themes of his book of the same …

Correction: School grades story
Miami HeraldTue, 16 Sep 2008 11:23 AM PDT
In a Sept. 9 story about appeals of state school grades, The Associated Press erroneously reported the name of the school that had its grade raised. It was the Florida Virtual Academy, not the Florida Virtual School. The Florida Virtual School is not graded by the state.

Cheyenne district seeks virtual charter school
Billings GazetteThu, 18 Sep 2008 12:03 PM PDT
CHEYENNE – The school district in Cheyenne is looking into starting a virtual charter school for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Students enrolled in the school would take classes online. …

Cheyenne district seeks virtual charter school
Billings GazetteThu, 18 Sep 2008 11:53 AM PDT
CHEYENNE – The school district in Cheyenne is looking into starting a virtual charter school for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

Cheyenne district seeks virtual charter school
KIFI Idaho FallsThu, 18 Sep 2008 11:16 AM PDT
Associated Press – September 18, 2008 2:06 PM ET CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) – The school district in Cheyenne is looking into starting a virtual charter school for students in kindergarten through…

Next the Yahoo! News Alert for cyber school.

Board briefed on cyber school
Lebanon Daily NewsFri, 12 Sep 2008 9:31 PM PDT
FREDERICKSBURG — Nate Byler, coordinator of the Northern Lebanon High School Virtual Academy, presented the Northern Lebanon School District board with a progress report on the V3
PA Cyber Charter School Weathers Remnants of Hurricane Ike
PR Newswire via Yahoo! FinanceWed, 17 Sep 2008 2:08 PM PDT
The Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School continued nearly normal operations in spite of power outages which closed school headquarters for two days as remnants of Hurricane Ike blew through Western Pennsylvania.

Moving on to the Google News Alert for virtual school.

Virtual school leads way
BlueRidgeNow.com – Hendersonville,NC,USA
The school has 35 students, mostly freshmen and sophomores, who take high school courses through North Carolina Virtual Public School. …
See all stories on this topic

School board approves new online high school
Siuslaw News – Florence,OR,USA
For each class, students participate in a “virtual classroom” where they interact with the instructor and other students by using a two-way …
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Obama, McCain Push Different Visions for Schools, Teachers and …
NewsHour – USA
On September 10 he delivered a major education policy speech in the key election state of Ohio, calling for big increases in federal school spending and …
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Finally, the Google News Alert for cyber school.

New ice rink opens in Campbelltown
The Patriot-News – PennLive.com – Harrisburg,PA,USA
He attends cyberschool, to give him more time to practice the sport he dreams will some day take him to the Olympics. With the opening this weekend of the …
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Madison Central school enrollment is up
MADISONet.com – Madison,SD,USA
Chester Area School dropped from 373 students last year and now boasts 365. This doesn’t include the cyber school enrollment, which went down from 248 to …
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Cyber high school completes transformation
Newport News Times – Newport,OR,USA
By Terry Dillman of the News-Times The Oregon Council for Online Learning (OCOL), the board of directors for Insight School of Oregon (ISO), …
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