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Teachers Without Borders

French parents to boycott homework | World news | guardian.co.uk - 4 views

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    A group of French parents and teachers have called for a two-week boycott of homework in schools, saying it is useless, tiring and reinforces inequalities between children. They say homework pushes the responsibility for learning on parents and causes rows between themselves and their children. And they conclude children would be better off reading a book.
Teachers Without Borders

Warning to parents over children 'being raised online' | Society | The Guardian - 0 views

  • British children are spending more than 20 hours a week online, most of it at social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Bebo, and are in effect being "raised online", according to research from the Institute for Public Policy Research.
  • British children are spending more than 20 hours a week online, most of it at social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Bebo, and are in effect being "raised online", according to research from the Institute for Public Policy Research.
  • The research reinforces the belief of big online brands that social networking sites are the way to get advertisers in front of the lucrative youth market
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  • the lack of awareness among parents about what their children are doing on the internet.
  • "My mum will ask sometimes 'Is it safe?' but she doesn't really know," a 16-year-old girl told the IPPR. A 14-year-old boy added that even the sort of child-locks that are put on internet access at school can be circumvented by youngsters, who often know more about IT systems than their teachers. "We have restrictions at school but we can just get an administrator's account and take them off."
  • Children are also aware of the restrictions that the sites implement, with one 15-year-old girl telling researchers: "Everyone lies about their age 'cos I think it's like if you're under 18, your profile gets set to private."
  • The report suggests there is a lot of work to be done in educating parents about what their children are doing online. Ofcom already looks at the level of what it terms media literacy among consumers, but the IPPR wants the Department for Children, Schools and Families to have overall control of media literacy, with better information and support for parents
Teachers Without Borders

BTW, teen writing may cause teachers to :( - CNN.com - 0 views

  • It's a teachable moment," said Amanda Lenhart, senior research specialist at Pew. "If you find that in a child's or student's writing, that's an opportunity to address the differences between formal and informal writing. They learn to make the distinction ... just as they learn not to use slang terms in formal writing.
    • Teachers Without Borders
       
      It's also a great opportunity for teachers who use blogging in their classes. At the same time, I don't think discouraging informal writing is the right thing to do. Students should have the freedom to use the kind of language they feel is most appropriate given their audience and content. Teaching to adjust one's voice based on audience is therefore crucial.
  • Teens who consider electronic communications with friends as "writing" are more likely to carry the informal elements into school assignments than those who distinguish the two.
    • Teachers Without Borders
       
      I'd be interested to learn how many teachers use emoticons or other informal elements when writing on blogs or communicating with students outside of formal class assignments. For example, do teachers use informal elements when leaving comments on student blogs. Shouldn't they if they want to be seen as readers rather than evaluators?
  • Teens who keep blogs are more likely to engage in personal writing. They also tend to believe that writing will prove crucial to their eventual success in life. Parents are more likely than teenagers to believe that Internet-based writing such as e-mail and instant messaging affects writing overall, though both groups are split on whether the electronic communications help or hurt. Nonetheless, 73 percent of teens and 40 percent of parents said they believe Internet writing makes no difference either way.
    • Teachers Without Borders
       
      If the teacher models informal and formal writing well then this kind of informal writing is not likely to affect students' grasp of formal writing. However, the freedom to use informal, expressive writing might help students develop a stronger sense of voice in all kinds of written work, leading to improved confidence.
Teachers Without Borders

UPDATED: Keeping Cultural Ties Helps Mexican-American Pupils Succeed - Learning the Lan... - 1 views

  • A new study from the University of Missouri suggests that Mexican-Americans in U.S. schools fare better when they maintain a connection to their heritage. "Culture Predicts Mexican Americans' College Self-Efficacy and College Performance," published in the journal Culture and College Outcomes, shows that Mexican-Americans who continued to speak Spanish and remained attached to their cultural heritage had higher GPAs and were more successful in college.
  • He spoke about the importance of educators understanding cultural differences: "Educators need to be aware of students' home lives," Aguayo said. "Immigrant parents, in particular, tend to put more trust in educators, rather than being involved in the child's education like we normally see in the U.S. If educators can take the time to learn about the parents' culture, the educators can have a positive impact on the students' future."
  • The study adds another voice to the conversation about best practices for teaching ELLs. Arayo says that his results indicate that English-only education may hurt some students: "I understand the reasons behind English-only efforts, but the research shows that if we don't accept the cultural identity of these students in our schools, such as tolerating their native language, Mexican-Americans may not succeed."
Teachers Without Borders

A different way to deal with bullying - Parentcentral.ca - 1 views

  • Bound-to-be controversial in light of the recent suicide of 11-year-old Mitchell Wilson, a new approach to bullying uses a “no-blame, problem-solving response” rather than punishing aggressive kids and creating a victim mentality among those they target, say leading Canadian bullying researchers.
  • the idea behind the no-blame method is that it’s “more motivating for a child who has been aggressive.” It also helps the bully save face, and “take responsibility for making change, and to feel good about making change, and it decreases the likelihood of feeling unfairly treated and avenge an ‘injustice’ that was done to (them).”
  • But, in general, “the danger of a very hard-line approach is it elicits sympathy (for the aggressor) ... friends felt justified in their continuation of the bullying.” Bullying is a relationship problem and needs to be solved like any other, says York University’s Debra Pepler, considered one of Canada’s top bullying experts and a founder of PREVNet.
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  • “Putting a label on them really restricts thinking,” said Pepler. “Calling them a bully suggests they are always aggressive and that’s part of who they are.” In fact, they may be bullied themselves at home, or gain respect in the schoolyard for being aggressive, she says. Children who bully at a moderate or high rate are more likely to be delinquent or sexually harass, so “adults need to step in and help them get onto a pathway where they get the attention and leadership opportunities they want in a positive rather than a negative way.”
  • Children who have been targeted first require protection from being bullied — but they also often need to build self-confidence and develop positive relationships.
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