Teacher education

You might find this pilot site of interest.

It’s a gateway to two SEAL sites, one for primary schools the other for secondaries .

SEAL I’m sure you’ll remember stands for social and emotional aspects of learning.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Young People&s User Involvement and Participation in Their Drug and Alcohol Service .

The Children’s Society have been commissioned by the NTA to develop a policy briefing on young people&s user involvement and participation in their drug and alcohol service.

If you have examples of good practice where this happens, please send them to susie.ramsay@childrenssociety.org.uk , tel: 0207 841 4573.

Filed under: treatment , users voice , Children’s Society , NTA

In UNESCO’s “ Advocacy Kit for Promoting Multilingual Education: Including the Excluded “, the question was posed: “Can quality education for all be achieved when education is packaged in a language that some learners neither speak nor understand? This is the situation faced by many children from ethnic minority groups when they enter formal school systems-the official school language is very different from the language they speak at home. Forcing children to learn in a language they do not understand creates an educational handicap that should not exist.” The document concludes that “…understanding the true panorama of providing education in learners’ mother tongue is one of the crucial steps towards achieving quality education for all.”It is therefore disappointing to note that, after going through the “ Full Report for the Policy Recommendations for the Basic Education Sector Reform Agenda for the National Language and Literacy Learning Strategies for the Filipino and English Languages ” submitted to the Department of Education on Sept. 30, 2006, there isn’t any doubt which among the 170 or so Philippine languages BESRA is “strategizing” for under its Key Reform Thrust #3.Of course there is widespread agreement to use the indigenous languages as medium of instruction in preschool through elementary school in the areas where they are spoken as a bridge to learning Filipino and English plus other areas of learning using either Filipino or English as medium of instruction. But BESRA does not have any KEY REFORM THRUST to keep our non-dominant non-Tagalog languages from dying. All this BESRA strategizing to make Filipino and English so dominant will eventually make the case for the other indigenous languages as bridges or stepping stones simply irrelevant, dead. The socio-economic and political prowess of a dominant language as Tagalog/Filipino and English as they are now aggressively being promoted by the government to be so dominant will simply eviscerate all reasons for anyone to want to stick with any indigenous non-Tagalog language any longer.What’s the real incentive to cultivate our own indigenous non-Tagalog languages if BESRA is there to make sure Tagalog/Filipino and English are going to be the only ones that matter ultimately and that these are the only languages every Filipino needs? The decreasing ranks through natural causes of the elderly population who are the remaining mainstays of our indigenous languages all but insure that many of these languages will be wiped out soon. And so does the varied cultures associated with them unless there is a conscious effort–like a BESRA type KEY REFORM THRUST– woven into a multilingual education policy designed specifically to save them, at least the ones that still manifest the dynamics of surviving. Those languages with, say 30 or so remaining speakers will understandably be difficult to save with any type of intervention.Those who have the power to institutionalize mother tongue-based multilingual education in our schools are urged to NOT water down the recommendations of UNESCO’s “Education in a Multilingual World”. UNESCO’s recommendations on multilingual education are based on years of research so that to tinker with them, such as radically shortening the length of immersion of the child in his mother tongue from the ideal 6 to 8 years, would be the height of myopia. DepEd Order No. 60 s. 2008, the first department order to recognize and recommend the use of mother tongue-based multilingual education, requires Filipino and English to be introduced in grade 1 and that renders UNESCO’s recommendations virtually ineffective. I think we just don’t get it.Those of us in power who make language policy, especially one through our educational system, please watch the above video and the one below and understand their implications. If at first you don’t get the message, pretend you’re one of those who don’t speak Tagalog/Filipino.[Click here to view the movie, " The Linguists ".]Posted in DepED Order No 60 s. 2008 , Education policy , K. David Harrison , Language of instruction , Mother tongue , Multilingualism , UNESCO’s Education in a Multilingual World , When Languages Die , mother tongue as language of instruction , multilingual education | Tags: Languages Do Work! , Lubuagan Experiment , medium of instruction (MOI) , MLE , MLE training , mother tongue as MOI , multilingual education

Prevention Action turn their attention to a piece of research we’ve noted before, which looks at the impact of school ethos on young people’s alcohol use. 
They say:
Simply going to a “bad” school did not turn children to drink; other individual factors were far more salient, but the significance of the differences between schools was very noticeable.
So, to take the case of

Original source : http://www.drugeducationforum.com/blog/?ArticleID=… Filed under: Uncategorized

Substance Abuse Prevention Dollars and Cents: A Cost-Benefit Analysis.

Via the Mentor website I see that the US government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration have published a guide to cost effective substance abuse prevention programs, Substance Abuse Prevention Dollars and Cents: A Cost Benefits Analysis
In the executive summary they say:
If effective prevention programs were implemented nationwide, substance abuse initiation would

Original source : http://www.drugeducationforum.com/blog/?ArticleID=… Filed under: Uncategorized

Positive Activities.

“It’s not like if you don’t do sport you’re going to get pregnant, go on drugs and vandalise bus stops!”
So says one 18 year old quoted in new research for the DCSF, Positive Activities; Qualitative Research with Young People.  The young person was responding to the following messages which went with the picture reproduced below:

“Either get into

Original source : http://www.drugeducationforum.com/blog/?ArticleID=… Filed under: Uncategorized

‘Boredom’ leads teenagers to drink.

ITN news report (once you’re past the short advert) about young people’s drinking based on a Drinkaware survey.

more about " ‘Boredom’ leads teenagers to drink ", posted with vodpod Filed under: Uncategorized

Next week I’ll be here giving a presentation about this blog and the Forum’s website .

I’ll post the presentation once I’ve given it, but this is just to explain why the tumbleweed around here may be a bit thicker than usual at the start of the week.

In the meantime here’s a video from the QCA about initial teacher training:

And here’s one about taking risks with the curriculum which repeats some of the messages from the above video, but adds more depth:Filed under: Uncategorized

Chasing the chemical demons.

Dr John Ramsey, ofSt George’s Medical School in London, writes about legal highs on the BBC website:

While the government consults its advisors on the harms caused by cannabis and ecstasy and then disregards the evidence they produce, UK based websites and high-street “head” shops are exploiting the naivety of young people by marketing to them chemicals never before used as drugs.

Read more here and people’s reaction to his views here .

Filed under: legal high

links for 2009-02-18.

One Response
Young People in Cumbria 2008 « Drug Education News says: 18 February, 2009 at 1:20 pm

[...] People in Cumbria 2008 Earlier today I saw a story about young people and alcohol in Cumbria which said there was a survey of 2,000 young [...]

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DCSF Ministers.

Confirmation of the new roles that Ministers at the DCSF will play:

Delyth Morgan’s principal policy areas include safeguarding and child protection, drugs and alcohol, sport and healthy eating.

Sarah McCarthy Fry’s principal policy areas include admissions, 14-19 reform, the National Curriculum and SEN.

Filed under: Government

Apologies for the lack of blogging these past two weeks. I was away in British Columbia for much of last week and these are the first two weeks of the semester. I do have things planned, hopefully that will roll out next week (as I have a busy weekend of catching up planned).

So, next week expect the slides and a partial podcast of my keynote at DEANZ (the first official installment of VHSM Podcasts), the semi-regular blogging about today’s student and virtual schooling (the latter may be broken up into multiple posts), an update from my British Columbia trip and a discussion of the state of virtual schooling out there, and anything else I can get into the queue.

In the meantime, let me leave you with something from the NACOL forums – which was posted sometime yesterday.

MONTEREY, Calif., September 8, 2008 ¬-Taking classes in cyberspace just got better for Georgia high school students. Since its inception in 2005, Georgia Virtual School (GAVS) has been improving its online offerings to serve a growing number of students each year. As part of this effort, GAVS has become a supporting member of the National Repository of Online Courses (NROC), making this library of top notch online courses available to students and educators across Georgia.

“It’s good, accurate and very rigorous,” said GAVS program coordinator Stephanie Dunbar about NROC’s course content.

Selected as the best of their kind, NROC courses utilize a vast array of digital media options to engage students in dozens of subjects, ranging from algebra to U.S. history. Interactive simulations, flash objects and iPod downloads are among the digital technologies forming the multimedia platform that bring online learning to a new level and gives educators flexibility in using all or part of the material as teaching tools.

“NROC content will allow us to expand the multimedia components of our online courses and provide alternative avenues for different learning styles. It will benefit both our students and the teachers who are using it,” said GAVS program coordinator for course development Jay Heap.

Through its NROC membership, GAVS can adapt NROC content to align with Georgia’s educational standards and meet the needs of individual schools throughout the state. Over 450,000 Georgia high school students can now surf over to the specially designed GAVS website at www.hippocampus.org/myHippo/?user=myGVS where they can access NROC course content tailored to work in conjunction with popular textbooks and the state’s curriculum.

“One of our goals is to support classroom teachers across Georgia, so we are very excited that we can offer the NROC materials as a resource for them,” said Dunbar.

Online classes serve a broad spectrum of students by providing increased access to core curriculum, elective and advanced placement coursework, as well as greater flexibility in scheduling.

Collaboration among NROC Network members adds a unique dimension to online course development. Educators, administrators, technologists and designers from around the globe use the NROC social authoring network to combine their skills and experience to develop and refine existing course materials and forge new content.

This collaboration method, within a non-profit structure, creates high quality courses for a very reasonable cost, according to Gary Lopez, executive director of the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education (MITE), the organization that launched NROC. He said this is valuable “because it frees up resources for other infrastructural needs in educational systems, and because it’s supported by a community of educators – scholarship is back in the hands of scholars.”

NROC is an open educational resource (OER) project of MITE, supported by a grant from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The OER movement is fueled by the belief that everyone is entitled to an education no matter where they live or what their circumstances are. By joining NROC, educational institutions support OER and receive a variety of benefits including customizable content, specialized support and professional development resources. NROC’s content is also accessible to individual learners free of charge at www.hippocampus.org.

The Monterey Institute for Technology and Education is a non-profit educational organization committed to helping meet society’s need for access to effective, high-quality educational opportunities in an era of rapid economic, social and personal change. The Monterey Institute for Technology and Education was founded in 2003 as a 501©3 non-profit organization. Learn more at www.montereyinstitute.org/nroc.

Georgia Virtual School is part of the Georgia Department of Education’s office of technology services. GAVS is fully accredited and offers middle and high school level classes including a full high school curriculum with Advanced Placement© and college preparatory courses taught by certified teachers. Additionally, GAVS offers students a chance to retake classes they were not previously successful in as part of Georgia DOE’s credit recovery program. Learn more at
www.gavirtualschool.org/

Organization Contact
Gary Lopez, Ph.D., Executive Director
Monterey Institute for Technology & Education
(831) 642-9459
glopez@montereyinstitute.org
www.montereyinstitute.org
www.hippocampus.org

I am thinking about attending this conference. It seems like it would be a good one and it is nice to see something that is K-12 based and not higher learning with k-12 tacked on the end to up the participants.
If there is something that we could do from up here in the cold, to assist in this conference just let us know. If you have some great ideas for a joint presentation or something we are all about partnerships…I have talked to my staff and asked them to submit proposals and I will send and pay their way if their proposal is accepted.

D. Cannell

P.S. Really like the new look of the blog.

Comment by Darren Cannell — February 6, 2008 @ 6:48 pm | Reply

Merry Christmas from VHSM!!!.

A Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Virtual High School Meanderings!!!!!

In keeping with the season, a little Christmas Cheer for you in the form of a podcasted story from Stuart McLean of CBC Radio’s Vinyl Cafe Stories .

VC: December 15th, 2007, “Dave raises the Christmas turkey”

Enjoy…

Blogging About Virtual Schooling.

Still cleaning out that Bloglines acount… This time the topic is virtual schooling.

- Online learning experience suits some students better than sitting in class from Distance-Educator.com’s Daily News

- MIT adapts free online courses for high schools from Distance-Educator.com’s Daily News

- Illinois School Looks to Tech Tools to Teach from Distance-Educator.com’s Daily News

- Resources and Materials from 2007 VSS from E-Learning & Online Teaching

- Virtual schools offer flexible education – Sarah Horner, Duluth News Tribune from Online Learning Update

- Online learning experience suits some students better than sitting in class – David steindorf, Times Union from Online Learning Update

- Online learning resources make homework enjoyable (almost) – Dave Chalk, canada.com from Online Learning Update

- More students learning online – Stephanie Takach, the Triangle from Online Learning Update

- Eve: An Understanding Virtual Teacher – Bill Christensen, Live Science from Online Learning Update

- Illinois School Looks to Tech Tools to Teach – Larry Abramson, NPR from Online Learning Update

- More students logging on for class – Encarnacion Pyle, COLUMBUS DISPATCH from Online Learning Update

- ‘Online Nation: Five Years of Growth in Online Learning’ – University of St. Thomas from Online Learning Update

- Online Learning Growing, Needs More Oversight – David Kopf, THE Journal from Online Learning Update

- University of Florida to Present Results of Online Learning Research – Government Technology from Online Learning Update

- And so it begins in earnest… from Situativity

- Online teacher Characteristics from Teaching and Developing Online

- In the News from Teaching and Developing Online

- Hybrid class instructor speaks out from Teaching and Developing Online

- Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools teachers among Canada’s most innovative educators from Teaching and Developing Online

- Web opening new classroom doors – AMY HETZNER, Journal-Sentinal from Online Learning Update

- Jeff Bush: Virtual schools here to stay; law, courts must adapt – Capital Times from Online Learning Update

Until next time…

Tags: blog , blogging , blogs , virtual school , cyber school , high school , education

Got this in my inbox last week. Not entirely related to K-12, but a topic that is of interest to many folks in the K-12 environment.

Can a computer game or simulation improve your knowledge and skill as a teacher?

Find out at our upcoming webinar, “Teaching with Online Games,” presented by Dr. David Gibson. Join us on Thursday, December 11, at 1 PM EST, when Dr. Gibson will explain why digital games and simulation are powerful teaching and learning tools.
A Research Assistant Professor in the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences at the University of Vermont and Executive Director of The Global Challenge, Dr. Gibson is the author of “Digital Simulations to Improve Education,” in which he explores a variety of perspectives.Don’t miss this exciting webinar! Seating is limited.

Click Here to manage your email subscribtions and be notified of all of Elluminate’s upcoming webinars.

Virtual Schooling In The News.

Beginning with the Yahoo! News Alert for virtual school.

Spring Virtual School opens its portals to students on-the-go
Spring ObserverSat, 22 Nov 2008 2:08 AM PST
Spring Independent School District believes that anytime a school system can give children flexibility and a choice in how they learn will only have positive results.

You know we are living in a virtual world
The Sauk Prairie EagleWed, 26 Nov 2008 7:36 AM PST
To get to his public high school, Prairie du Sac teen Shaun Carroll doesn’t have a long commute — just however long it takes him to walk from his bedroom to his living-room couch.”You get up in the morning, get on your laptop and start doing school,” Carroll said.Carroll, 15, is enrolled at Insight School of Wisconsin, a purely on-line accredited public high school open to any Wisconsin …

Next the Yahoo! News Alert for cyber school.

Cyber Teacher May Have Helped Save Student
KDKA PittsburghFri, 21 Nov 2008 9:25 PM PST
The actions of a local teacher may have helped save her student who was 250 miles away. Rae Balog, 28, teaches Spanish at the Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School in Frazer Township at the Pittsburgh Mills Mall.

Moving on to the Google News Alert for virtual school.

Plymouth schools may cut busing, drop extracurriculars
Sheboygan Press – Sheboygan,WI,USA
The board also is looking to increase district enrollment of slightly more than 2400 students through virtual-school participation and an appeal to …
See all stories on this topic

Some Collier students will watch their GPA slide through no fault …
Naples Daily News – Naples,FL,USA
Hayes said students could take an honors class at the Florida Virtual School to receive that 0.04 credit. Letters will go out to parents of effected …
See all stories on this topic

Judge lifts restraining order, allows LHS construction to go forward
Lawrence Journal World – Lawrence,KS,USA
… which also calls for adding baseball, softball and soccer fields at the high school, or the nearby Lawrence Virtual School site, 2145 La. …
See all stories on this topic

Virtual Schools The Right Answer For Many Students
Tampa Tribune – Tampa,FL,USA
Another 63000 plus take classes from Florida Virtual School. The numbers, though soaring, remain a small percentage of total student enrollment. …
See all stories on this topic

School enrollment steady in face of economic woes
TheNewsTribune.com – Tacoma,WA,USA
Of the 722 additional students, about 550 are enrolled in the Washington Virtual Academy, the district’s online program for kindergartners through …
See all stories on this topic

Virtual Schools; Real Benefits
Tampa Tribune – Tampa,FL,USA
Jasmine is in seventh grade at Hillsborough Virtual School. She constantly is in touch with dozens of classmates and her six teachers – zipping in and out …
See all stories on this topic

Finally, the Google News Alert for cyber school.

Cyber Teacher May Have Helped Save Student
KDKA – Pittsburgh,PA,USA
Rae Balog, 28, teaches Spanish at the Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School in Frazer Township at the Pittsburgh Mills Mall. About 120 cyber school …
See all stories on this topic

Student Instant-Messages Teacher To Call 911 During Robbery
WPXI.com – Pittsburgh,PA,USA
Leadership Cyber School in Tarentum Wednesday morning when she received a panicked e-mail from one of her students. Ariel Rivera, 16, of Reading, Pa., …
See all stories on this topic

mrschili
May 11, 2007 at 3:15 pm

She earned an 87 for the presentation. She didn’t make great use of her visuals (which was the point of the assignment) and she mostly read from an essay she’d written, so there wasn’t a whole lot of eye contact or other effective body language. Still, it was a better grade than she’d received for her first presentation, and it represented the improvement that she’s made since starting the class.

Reply

2 Comments.
mrschili
May 11, 2007 at 6:35 am

Honey, any fitness instructor who makes you FEEL like you’re fat, out of shape, and clumsy isn’t doing his/her job.

If you came to my class, I’d notice that you were a new face. I’d introduce myself and ask you if you’ve ever been to a step class before.

I’d explain that I’m left/right retarded and that I point a lot more than I give audio cues (becuase, well, I can’t tell my left from my right on the fly and pointing is more accurate than my voice would be).

I’d tell you NOT to get frustrated, even though you WILL, because no one gets the patterns in the first class and that you’re NOT allowed to just stand there, hands on hips, wondering why the hell you came in the first place.

I’d tell you that it’s more important to keep moving – I don’t care if you just up-and-down on the step for 40 minutes – just keep moving.

All these things are true and important, even though I am getting better at the left/right thing. I still SAY that I suck at it, though, so that people can blame ME when they screw up. I make a point of checking in with new people at least once during the class, and I seek them out when the class is over to make sure they had a good time.

If your instructor isn’t open and friendly and encouraging from the MOMENT you walk in the door, go find his/her boss. Seriously.

Reply

lazarusdodge
September 21, 2009 at 3:22 pm

My wife works for Dover as an editor…forwarded on your entry…

Was just talking to her this morning about Google’s new venture in on-demand publishing with public domain type books for $8 a pop. Dover is far less expensive as you found out…

- J.

Reply

3 Comments.
nhfalcon
September 17, 2009 at 7:47 pm

Nice! A pleasant surprise, indeed.

The one time I thought I was going to have to deal with a dad, it was because I had given his daughter nightmares by showing her (and the rest of the class she was in) the Zapruder film…

Reply

5 Comments.
Chatty
September 16, 2009 at 4:09 pm

I can’t make this stuff up, but I can sure find it! LOL

Reply

1 Comment.
magicalmysticalteacher
September 2, 2009 at 6:16 am

You’re back where you belong! I’m rejoicing with you!

Reply

3 Comments.
magicalmysticalteacher
May 14, 2009 at 8:00 am

Those “won tongs” sound rather deadly to me. Best not to eat them, lest they wrap themselves around your tonsils!

Reply

17 Comments.
Mrs. Chili
April 21, 2009 at 7:32 am

Lily, it’s almost – but not quite – unbelievable.

Carson, I am a WICKED PTI person. I ADORE that show, even if I don’t give a damn about what they’re talking about (hockey? Really?). Kornheiser is a riot, and I think that Wilbon is brilliant; I even use one of his columns in my classes (I wish I could figure out how to subscribe to the thing…).

On the other hand, I think I only saw about six complete episodes of Seinfeld, but I get your point. Public displays of ignorance just make my teeth ache, and it rarely gets more public than in major league baseball fields, you know?

Oh, and I love you, too.

Kelly, what’ll REALLY be amazing is if they keep the uniforms.

Kizz, one of the things that teaching has taught ME is that there really is no limit to the scope of possible dumbassery, public or otherwise.

Seester, I was going to try to give this a political spin, but I didn’t really think it needed much help; the symbolism is profound, no?

Reply