The Carnival Of Education: Week 121

Welcome to the midway of the 121st Carnival of Education!Here's this week's roundup of entries from around the EduSphere. Unless clearly labeled otherwise, all entries this week were submitted by the writers.If you're interested in hosting an edition of The Carnival Of Education, please let us know via this email address: edwonk [at] educationwonks [dot] org.Thanks to everyone who helped spread

Carnival Entries Are Due!

Entries for the 121st midway of The Carnival Of Education (hosted this week by us here at at The 'Wonks) are due. Please email them to: owlshome [at] earthlink [dot] net . (Or, easier yet, use this handy submission form.) Submissions should be received no later than 9:00 PM (Eastern) 6:00 PM (Pacific) today. Contributions should include your site's name, the title of the post, and the post's URL

Memorial Day: Just Another Day Of Instruction?

Officials in one Louisiana school district have decided that it should be business as usual this Memorial Day: "Students, faculty and staff in the Lafayette Parish School System won’t have the day off for Memorial Day, as school will be in session tomorrow.According to James Easton, Superintendent of Schools for the Lafayette Parish School System, class will continue on Monday, which is Memorial

Memorial Day EduGaggle

Would you believe a U.S. public school that is in session on Memorial Day? Believe it!Today's Knuckleheads must certainly be those teenagers who decided to put photos of their high school classmates getting drunk and smoking pot in their yearbook. More here.Ward Churchill, Colorado university professor and fake indian, compared the victims of 9/11 to Nazis. It looks as though it was cheating,

The Watcher's Council Has Spoken!

Each and every week, Watcher of Weasels sponsors a contest among posts from the Conservative side of the 'Sphere. The winning entries are determined by a jury of 12 writers (and The Watcher) known as "The Watchers Council."The Council has met and cast their ballots for last week's submitted posts. Council Member Entries: Joshuapundit took first place honors with Israel Faces Its Choices In

Today's EduGaggle

As of 2005, the United States is now spending an average of $8,701 per pupil to educate its children. (New York was the biggest spender on education, at $14,119.) Where is all that money going? (Since the teachers of our California school district now earn less in take home pay than we did in 2002, we know that cash isn't going into our pockets...) And, more importantly, why aren't the taxpayers

FCAT Woes

It seems as though there's something fishy going on down in the Sunshine State: A state Senate education committee will open an inquiry into FCAT testing irregularities after Florida's Department of Education on Wednesday acknowledged a blunder that affected some 200,000 tests.The investigation will center on who knew what when, said Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, chairman of the pre-K-12 education

Thursday EduGaggle

Let's all salute 14-year-old Caitlin Snaring , the second girl to win the national geography bee!New York City is closing its schools for pregnant girls. Low test scores are among the reasons cited.In Alaska, students from the city and the Outback are trading places.The Wanker of The Day is the well-respected Oregon teacher who, after 31 years in the classroom, tossed-away his reputation by

Today's EduGaggle

EduBlogger California Teacher Guy has gotten the type of awful news that almost all teachers have dreaded at one time or another. Read the sequence: part I, part II, part III and part IV.Today's school prank report: Seems as though one Tennessee high school is suffering the effects from an unexpected infestation of white mice...Don't forget to visit today's midway of The Carnival of Education! (

Carnival-Carnival

The 120th edition of The Carnival of Education (hosted this week by I Thought A Think) has opened-up the midway for your EduEnjoyment.Round-out your Educational Experience by seeing what the homies are up to over at this week's edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling. --------------------------See our latest EduPosts.

Morning EduGaggle

There's an ambitious project afoot to provide every child in the world's developing countries with an inexpensive but highly efficient laptop computer. This plan has now begun to turn into reality and get more about the machine here. (Interestingly, their are no plans to provide millions of American school children with any sort of computer...)School Prank Season is now in full gear: Couldn't

Carnival Entries Are Due!

Entries for the 120th midway of The Carnival Of Education (hosted this week over at I Thought A Think) are due. Please email them to: rgrant [at] mlsd [dot] org . (Or, easier yet, use this handy submission form.) Submissions should be received no later than 9:00 PM (Eastern) 6:00 PM (Pacific) today. Contributions should include your site's name, the title of the post, and the post's URL if

The Watcher's Council Has Spoken!

Each and every week, Watcher of Weasels sponsors a contest among posts from the Conservative side of the 'Sphere. The winning entries are determined by a jury of 12 writers (and The Watcher) known as "The Watchers Council."The Council has met and cast their ballots for last week's submitted posts. Council Member Entries: In a three way tie which was broken by The Watcher, Joshuapundit took first

Administrative Buffoonery: Principal Photoshop

One Louisiana elementary school excluded portraits of its special education students from the school yearbook: MANDEVILLE, La. -- If you look at the yearbook for one St. Tammany Parish elementary school, you won't see all of the students.Parents said portrait shots of special education students with learning disabilities were left out of Pontchartrain Elementary School's yearbook. Instead, there

Monday EduGaggle

Twin Trouble: A mom is upset that the school system assigned her twin sons to separate first-grade classes without consulting her first.Historical tragedy in England: The world's only surviving clipper ship, the Cutty Sark, has been extensively damaged by fire. Police are calling the fire "suspicious." We call it a crime against World Heritage.Have you heard the one about the knuckle head

Wonkitorial: Monsters In Pretty Packages

When monster teacher Debra Lafave was arrested and charged with sexually assaulting her 14-year-old male student, she was released on $25,000 bail and ended-up not being sentenced to any time in prison whatsoever and received probation instead.When teacher Collin Holcomb was arrested in Omaha just the other day for allegedly sexually assaulting his 14-year-old female student, the judge imposed

Morning EduGaggle

The ACLU is extorting suing one Louisiana school district for allowing the Gideons to distribute Bibles to students. This is what the ACLU is so rabid concerned about:The lawsuit details an instance in which the girl's class was told by their teacher to pick up their New Testament Bibles in front of the school office. The girl ended up in a line with the entire fifth grade, while two men handed

Friday EduGaggle

Florida Governor Charlie Crist, has just signed into law a statute requiring a minimum of 2 1/2 hours of physical eduction each week for students between kindergarten and fifth grade. Middle and high schools are encouraged to provide up to 3 3/4 hours of gym class weekly.A just released study reports that students aren't forgetting as much history as they used to. Or are they? Meanwhile, over at

His Mouth Runneth Over

This is another example of why teachers should be careful about joking around in the classroom: A Lake Stevens high school teacher is on leave while the district investigates a remark he made to a class.A parent complained that the teacher, Gary McDonald, told students Monday he would take anyone talking in class and line them up against a wall and shoot them.District spokeswoman Arlene Hulten

The Carnival Of Education: Week 119

Welcome to the midway of the 119th Carnival of Education!Here's this week's roundup of entries from around the EduSphere. Unless clearly labeled otherwise, all entries this week were submitted by the writers themselves.If you're interested in hosting an edition of The Carnival Of Education, please let us know via this email address: edwonk [at] educationwonks [dot] org.As always, we give a hearty

Morning EduGaggle

Consider taking a look at the trials and tribulations that most Iraqi school children must go through simply to attend classes.Timing may be everything when it comes to giving birth to a smart kid!For those of you who would like to know what pioneering EduBlogger Jenny D looks like in person, click here. (See the back story there.)The repercussions of what could possibly be the most tasteless

Carnival Entries Are Due!

Entries for the 119th midway of The Carnival Of Education are due today. Please email them to: owlshome [at] earthlink [dot] net . (Or, easier yet, use this handy submission form.) Submissions should be received no later than 9:00 PM (Eastern) 6:00 PM (Pacific). Contributions should include your site's name, the title of the post, and the post's URL if possible. Visit last week's midway, hosted

The Watcher's Council Has Spoken!

Each and every week, Watcher of Weasels sponsors a contest among posts from the Conservative side of the 'Sphere. The winning entries are determined by a jury of 12 writers (and The Watcher) known as "The Watchers Council."The Council has met and cast their ballots for last week's submitted posts. Council Member Entries: Big Lizards earned first place honors with Does America Elect Defeatists?

Unprofessional Conduct

A Tennessee elementary school administrator and several teachers have been accused of participating in what just might be one of the most tasteless (and possibly unlawful) stunts that have been inflicted on unsuspecting students in recent memory: MURFREESBORO — Parents of students at a Murfreesboro elementary school are outraged that teachers and an assistant principal staged a phony gun attack

Monday Morning EduGaggle

California high school math teacher Darren gives a thrashing to President Barbara "Boss" Kerr of The California Teachers Association and wonders why the union is so afraid of testing.Yep. We think that it's a safe bet that nearly all of us can agree that our inner-city schools are a mess, but what's to be done about it? Town Hall's Donald Lambro has some ideas, but they don't involve simply

The Spellings Report: Where's Her Accountability?

Heh. The Queen Of All Testing U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, who is so quick to hold schools 100% accountable for the academic success of 100% of America's children, (while saying nothing about the need for parents and students to also be responsible for at least making an effort to achieve their own success) went before Congress the other day and showed herself to be distinctly

Sunday EduGaggle

Here's a public middle school that gets it right. (But then again, with the advantages that are enjoyed by that particular campus, why shouldn't they succeed?)The Reading First scandal deepens: Officials who gave states advice on which teaching materials to buy under a federal reading program had deep financial ties to publishers, according to a congressional report Wednesday.While many American

Morning EduGaggle

Students and staff at one northern California primary school are being stalked by... an attack squirrel. Two parents and an 11-year-old girl have already felt the squirrel's wrath... Meanwhile, the four-legged fur-bearing assailant is still at large.In today's story from the Odd Side of the Tracks, we have several college girls who are accused of stealing about 1000 copies of their college

It's Teacher Appreciation Week?

Heh. I teach in a California junior high school and didn't even know that it was "Teacher Appreciation Week" until I read Ms. Cornelius' letter to school administrators everywhere. Here's a small sample: It would be nice if administrators would realize that they are managers of teachers, not just commanders. Teacher motivation is part of the job of an excellent administrator. As it is, many of

Morning EduGaggle

This is what happens when a large school district doesn't pay its teachers competitive salaries.When an Arizona college professor is threatened with dismissal because he emailed George Washington's "Thanksgiving Proclamation" to colleagues, something is seriously wrong in the Land of Barry Goldwater.Shouldn't a fifth-grader know better than to bring a pistol to school?Ricardo Montalban never said

Today's EduGaggle

Students in one California College have found a new way to raise their G.P.A.'s: they pay for 'em!Here's something for those of us who like History and Things Historical: The lost site of Jamestown is lost no longer. (Traveler's advisory: the ghosts of Pocahontas and John Smith may very well be lurking nearby...)Follow me to this week's midway of The Carnival of Education! Complete your

Let's Carnival!

The 118th edition of The Carnival of Education (hosted this week by NYC Educator) has opened-up the midway for your EduEnjoyment.Round-out your Educational Experience by seeing what the homies are up to over at this week's edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling. --------------------------See our latest EduPosts.

Morning EduGaggle

New York City school administrator Michael Levy is in need of some serious spelling and grammar lessons.Paul Vallas, 53, an administrator with a reputation for "shaping up" big-city schools, has been hired to take-over the beleaguered New Orleans public school system. Vallas has guaranteed that he would succeed in a city that has had three school superintendents since 1998. (One word:

Carnival Entries Are Due!

Entries for the 118th midway of The Carnival Of Education (hosted this week over at NYC Educator) are due. Please email them to: nyceducator [at] gmail [dot] com . (Or, easier yet, use this handy submission form.) Submissions should be received no later than 6:00 PM (Eastern) 3:00 PM (Pacific) tomorrow. Contributions should include your site's name, the title of the post, and the post's URL if

The Watcher's Council Has Spoken!

Each and every week, Watcher of Weasels sponsors a contest among posts from the Conservative side of the 'Sphere. The winning entries are determined by a jury of 12 writers (and The Watcher) known as "The Watchers Council."The Council has met and cast their ballots for last week's submitted posts. Council Member Entries: Bookworm Room earned first place honors with Cornelia, Mother of the

Morning EduGaggle

English schools are facing an examination meltdown.The Queen of All Testing U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings has taken so many EduJunkets fact-finding tours that she is now kinda-sorta blogging about it. In Canada, 500,000 students and teachers across the country will be singing the same song at the exact same time in what they're calling "Music Monday." The purpose? To save Music

Is EduTechnology Oversold?

The New York Times is reporting that some schools are now dropping their laptop-for-students programs: LIVERPOOL, N.Y. — The students at Liverpool High have used their school-issued laptops to exchange answers on tests, download pornography and hack into local businesses. When the school tightened its network security, a 10th grader not only found a way around it but also posted step-by-step

Today's Knucklehead: Teacher Elizabeth Logan

Did you hear the one about the idiot $69,000 per year first grade teacher who was arrested and charged with stealing a little girl's jacket and selling it on eBay?Elizabeth Lucinda Logan allegedly sold the purloined jacket for $46.She has been suspended from her post. Our guess is that she will soon qualify for a Darwin Award in Education. -----------------------See our latest entries.

Head Start Gets Started

The Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives has approved an expansion of the Head Start program while igniting a controversy over whether or not service providers may be hired/fired on religious grounds:WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House approved more money for the popular Head Start program Wednesday after rejecting a GOP-led attempt to allow religious groups participating in the program

This Just In: Sad News From California

Like many parents, we wince when we read something like this: BELMONT, California (AP) -- A sport utility vehicle jumped a curb outside a middle school Wednesday afternoon, plowed into a group of children waiting for a bus and rammed into a tree, trapping several students underneath, police said.Hospital officials said 13 children and the SUV's driver were taken to hospitals, and that at least

Taking God Out Of One Public School Classroom

How much freedom should a public school teacher have to express his or her religious beliefs on his or her classroom walls? That question is being hotly debated in one San Diego-area classroom where administrators ordered one veteran teacher to remove materials from his classroom walls that refer to the Deity: ANN ARBOR, MI – The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based

Let's Carnival!

The 117th edition of The Carnival of Education (hosted this week by Dr. Homeslice) has opened-up the midway for your EduEnjoyment.Round-out your Educational Experience by seeing what the homies are up to over at this week's edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling. --------------------------See our latest EduPosts.

Student Walkout Redux?

Those who support "rights" for illegal aliens are being urged to take to the streets today: Los Angeles - Demonstrators demanding a path to US citizenship for an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants hope that nationwide marches will spur Congress to act before the looming presidential primaries take over the political landscape.Marches, meetings and voter registration drives were planned

Carnival Entries Are Due!

Entries for the 117th midway of The Carnival Of Education (hosted this week over at Dr. Homeslice) are due today. Please email them to: drhomeslice [at] hotmail [dot] com . (Or, easier yet, use this handy submission form.) Submissions should be received no later than 9:00 PM (Eastern) 6:00 PM (Pacific). Contributions should include your site's name, the title of the post, and the post's URL if

The Watcher's Council Has Spoken!

Each and every week, Watcher of Weasels sponsors a contest among posts from the Conservative side of the 'Sphere. The winning entries are determined by a jury of 12 writers (and The Watcher) known as "The Watchers Council."The Council has met and cast their ballots for last week's submitted posts. Council Member Entries: Done With Mirrors took first place with Earth Day.Non-Council Entries: City