Anoka-Hennepin Anti Bullying Policy

http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=878984


This article really hits close to home, as I attended Anoka-Hennepin school district for my entire life. I graduated from Coon Rapids High School in 2006 and really feel a great loss for this family. Anoka-Hennepin was asked to clarify their anti bullying policy after a 15 year old boy from Andover hanged himself. He was gay and was bullied at school. Teachers in this district and probably many others, are confused about the rules and policies regarding gay and lesbian students. Julie Blaha, president of the district's teachers' union stated that teachers need "an effective, clear staff development program for all our staff will help clear up the confusion and give teachers the tools to not only respond to bullying, but create a positive school climate to help prevent bullying in the first place." I think that this is exactly what teachers in every district need! My heart goes out to this family and many others that are experiencing this same problem. 

Bullied

I was unable to attend class the morning we watched Bullied, but a classmate informed me about how to order the free copy. After waiting for the movie in the mail and viewing Bullied I was horrified at what I saw. Not only was this very hard to see, but it was very surreal to see how close to home this happens, Wisconsin! I couldn't believe the amount of harassment that Jamie Nabozney endured during his school years. The most horrifying part of this story was the amount of times Jamie and his parents went to school officials and were told that it would get taken care of, only to endure much more pain from his peers. Fortunately this story did not end with a suicide, although he ran many times to escape the pain. I think that this movie should be shown to children of appropriate ages in schools all over the country. Maybe it takes a story like this one for children to realize the seriousness of bullying and what kinds of effects it has on others.

Russia starting Standardized Testing...?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/07/education/07iht-educSide07.html?ref=education


When I first saw the title of this article I was shocked, I never thought that Russia would start using standardized testing. That being said, I don't think the people and students of Russia ever thought they would be required to take standardized tests. There is a lot of controversy regarding this issue. There are a lot of negative aspects to standardized tests including the details of the tests, which requires students to take them at a different school, with teachers watching over them, and minimum opportunities for tutoring. Guess we will see what happens...

Replace Principals....

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/education/08education.html?ref=education

This article was very interesting. I was shocked to see that schools that had a high failure rate would replace their principals. I don't necessarily agree that replacing the principal would be the solution. The author points out a few issues- there are simply not enough qualified principals waiting for positions to open, and replacing principals could throw the schools into even more disarray. This issue is happening to schools all over the US. Although this idea has its pros and cons, it is relatively new and too early to show very positive or very negative outcomes.