http://www.mbteach.org/bin/view.pl/RunningBlog en-us Copyright © 2008 by contributing authors TWiki Administrator [abeardsall@mbteach.org] TWiki Administrator [abeardsall@mbteach.org] TWiki http://www.mbteach.org/bin/view.pl/RunningBlog http://www.mbteach.org/pub/TWiki/TWikiLogos/MTS_blue_small.jpg http://www.mbteach.org/bin/view.pl/RunningBlog/BlogEntry19 <p />The CBC continues its swirling and twirling turns down the drain of irrelevancy as it tries mightily to attract an audience with a continuing performance of Dumb and Dumber. <p /> This week the one-time intelligent arm of CBC, the radio service, hurtled headlong into the story of the governor and the hooker. While there was a time when the CBC might examine what this story says about power, hypocrisy or morality, not so today. <p /> No, the Winnipeg afternoon radio program asked people to call in and comment on the fact that the governor&#8217;s wife was at his side when he apologized for his actions and finally resigned. <p /> Just what information, or opinion based on any facts, the average Winnipeg might have about Eliott Spitzer&#8217;s relationship with his wife is a mystery that was certainly not solved by listening. People might just as well have called in and commented on the host&#8217;s relationships. <p /> Granted, everyone has opinions on the various aspects of this story and are quite content to discuss them among friends. But this is the CBC. To provide megaphones to barstool sages is not part of its mandate. <p /> We can get programming that enlightening, free, and usually more entertaining, at any deadbeat saloon on a Saturday night. <p /> <p /> GeorgeStephenson 2008-03-13T14:18:00Z GeorgeStephenson http://www.mbteach.org/bin/view.pl/RunningBlog/BlogEntry18 <p />The Frontier Centre for Public Policy, the wheat field version of the right wing Fraser Institute, has outdone itself for sheer wackiness. <p /> A couple of weeks ago, the "think" tank came up with a report suggesting that schools are spending too much time introducing kids to computers. Too expensive, said the centre. And, besides, kids with computers don't learn any better than anyone else. <p /> One might have thought the author still had shares in some kind of chisel-and-tablet company. Well, after all, the old Remington Selectric was good enough for grandpa, it should be good enough for today's kids. <p /> If that wasn't bad enough, the centre for hayseeds has come up with a report that tops that, this one claiming that students are getting a lopsided view of the environment. <p /> The report makes such sweeping conclusions as "most textbooks and children's books that deal with the environment contain significant exaggerations and fallacies." Apparently, unlike reports from the Frontier Centre on Public Policy. <p /> Children's books? <p /> You mean to say that the Once-ler in Dr. Suess's book The Lorax didn't chop down all the Truffula trees? Get outta town. <p /> Not only that, the centre says that despite "the fact" that "not all scientists accept global warming is caused by man-mad CO2 emissions … students are normally only exposed to the accepted view on global warming." <p /> Indeed. Because it is "accepted." Accepted by, oh, 99 per cent of the world's top scientists. The centre must be one of the lone castles standing against what everyone else accepted years ago. <p /> The author, no doubt, yearns for that old family buckboard and those lazy, hazy school days when he could dunk girls' pigtails in the inkwell on his desk. <p /> That will be next week's report. <p /> <p /> GeorgeStephenson 2008-03-11T14:19:00Z GeorgeStephenson http://www.mbteach.org/bin/view.pl/RunningBlog/BlogEntry17 <p />The Daily Mail in London reports that a survey of 3,000 Britons discovered that one in four believe Winston Churchill is a fictional character. At the same time, the survey found many believe Sherlock Holmes and the Three Musketeers were actual, legendary heroes. Historians and educators are said to be aghast that some many, especially those under 20 years old, had such a pathetic knowledge of British history and its real heroes. James Bond and Eleanor Rigby must be rolling in their graves. <p /> <p /> GeorgeStephenson 2008-02-04T14:16:00Z GeorgeStephenson http://www.mbteach.org/bin/view.pl/RunningBlog/BlogEntry16 <p />The Winnipeg Free Press seems to have discovered the unbridled fun one can have with that new-fangled computer program called Photoshop. <p /> Apparently, believing the old saw that a picture is worth a thousand words the FP has decided that a doctored photo must be worth at least 500 or 600 more. <p /> So, there in the Saturday paper was Education Minister Peter Bjornson standing around holding stacks of 20-dollar bills, alongside a story about the new tax-incentive grant the province is offering to divisions which freeze taxes. <p /> Just to be ethical, the Free Press put a little disclaimer on the picture in the newspaper, saying it was a "photo illustration." By that, readers are supposed to divine that the picture is a fake. Of course, any photo is an illustration so maybe they're making it all up as they go along. <p /> On its website, the paper offered no disclaimer, just ran the picture as it was invented, leaving folks to believe that the education minister is walking around the province with giant bricks of cash. <p /> We can hardly wait to see the illustration it has in mind for the inquiry into Brian Mulroney's relationship with Karlheinz Schreiber. They could go for a triple play: picture of ex-prime minister, picture of money stacks, picture of wheelbarrow. <p /> <p /> <p /> <p /> <p /> <p /> <p /> <p /> GeorgeStephenson 2008-02-04T10:30:00Z GeorgeStephenson http://www.mbteach.org/bin/view.pl/RunningBlog/BlogEntry15 <p />"We don't really conversate.'' <p /> --New England Patriots wide receiver Randy Moss, conversating with reporters about his relationship with coach Bill Belichick. <p /> GeorgeStephenson 2008-02-04T10:19:00Z GeorgeStephenson http://www.mbteach.org/bin/view.pl/RunningBlog/BlogEntry14 <p />Teachers should be on the lookout for students passing around a new forbidden, DVD that could twist their malleable minds. <p /> The first few seasons of Sesame Street have been recently released. <p /> And they carry a warning: "These … episodes of Sesame Street are intended for grownups and may not suit the needs of today's preschool child." <p /> Huh? It's for grownups? Like grownups who can't spell? <p /> Apparently the TV show that saved kids from such smart-as-rocks fare as the Three Stooges back in the '60s is dangerous to children today. The video equivalent of lawn darts. <p /> On those early episodes we saw kids riding bicycles without helmets. Kids ran carefree through construction sites. The Cookie Monster had no concern for the caloric and fat content of what he ate (nor did he use hand sanitizer before cramming those cookies into his mouth without chewing an appropriate number of times). Oscar the Grouch was, well, always grouchy and we know there's nobody like that in the world. <p /> The 1969 intro showed two kids wandering the streets of New York asking strangers "how you get to Sesame Street." Strangers! Eeeek! <p /> Now the intro shows real kids interacting with computer-generated graphics of buildings and colourful landscapes, shifting and turning. It seems to have been developed in the '60s as well, the apparent result of a frat bong party. <p /> No matter. <p /> In 30 years it will be released with a warning that it is no longer appropriate for children, showing as it does puppets playing drums in an apartment building, another puppet talking out the car window while driving. <p /> The new shows at that point will feature children in hazmat suits, rolled up in specially-sterilized mattresses doing, well, absolutely nothing. <p /> At least Bert and Ernie should be married by then. <p /> <p /> <p /> <p /> <p /> GeorgeStephenson 2008-01-18T10:48:00Z GeorgeStephenson http://www.mbteach.org/bin/view.pl/RunningBlog/BlogEntry13 <p />Reading the experts so you don't have to … <p /> Democrats: <p /> Barack Obama first in Iowa caucuses; has unstoppable momentum; Hillary Clinton on the ropes. <p /> Clinton in stunning comeback, finishes first in New Hampshire primary; only 99.99 per cent of the nation to go. <p /> Republicans: <p /> Mike Huckabee finishes first in Iowa, McCain all but done; Romney fades. <p /> McCain in stunning comeback, finishes first in New Hampshire primary, Romney all but done. <p /> Romney finishes first in Michigan, McCain fading; Huckabee all but done. <p /> <p /> Next week: <p /> Someone will make a comeback, somebody else will be all but done <p /> <p /> <p /> GeorgeStephenson 2008-01-17T09:02:00Z GeorgeStephenson http://www.mbteach.org/bin/view.pl/RunningBlog/BlogEntry12 <p />Some stunner of a story the Free Press came up with the other day about a gay teacher who apparently kept a picture of his partner on his desk. <p /> As the tale goes, the parents of a Grade 7 student in the class got all exercised about it and wants to transfer their kid to another school. <p /> Big controversy, except that nobody identified in the story had ever heard of it including the chair of the school board, the Winnipeg Teachers' Association or The Manitoba Teachers' Society. <p /> Indeed, nobody directly involved in the story — the teacher, the student, the parents, the principal — was actually quoted or identified. <p /> Still, the mystery issue was powerful enough to get "educators scrambling to decide how much teachers can tell kids about their personal lives." <p /> <p /> <p /> <p /> GeorgeStephenson 2008-01-10T14:10:00Z GeorgeStephenson http://www.mbteach.org/bin/view.pl/RunningBlog/BlogEntry11 <p />Portage-Lisgar MP Brian Pallister was quoted on CBC has saying he has decided against running in the next election because he wants to spend more time with his kids. <p /> Not a real big shocker, since about every other politician who finally quits, has said the same thing. <p /> It does, however, lead one to wonder whether, conversely, that they all got into politics to get away from the kids. <p /> <p /> GeorgeStephenson 2008-01-10T14:06:00Z GeorgeStephenson http://www.mbteach.org/bin/view.pl/RunningBlog/BlogEntry10 <p />From a speech by Barack Obama after the New Hampshire primary: <p /> "We can stop sending our children to schools with corridors of shame and start putting them on a pathway to success. <p /> "We can stop talking about how great teachers are and start rewarding them for their greatness by giving them more pay and more support." <p /> <p /> GeorgeStephenson 2008-01-09T11:05:00Z GeorgeStephenson http://www.mbteach.org/bin/view.pl/RunningBlog/BlogEntry9 <p />Teachers must sometimes wonder where kids get those great excuses they bring to school. <p /> Well, maybe they're just following the lead of their sports heroes, those fine, upstanding role models. Well, at least the ones accused of cheating. <p /> The latest is New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens, now wailing at every opportunity that he has never taken steroids or human growth hormone, contrary to what has been alleged by his personal trainer. <p /> No, says Rocket Roger, those shots in the butt were a painkiller and vitamin B-12. That sounds plausible since all of us take vitamins by injecting them into our rears. <p /> Clemens has bemoaned the fact few are giving him the benefit of the doubt, but that's understandable given the giant list of sports' figures who at first denied, then admitted getting juiced for matches. <p /> And their initial excuses were the stuff of sports legend. <p /> Olympic Canadian snowboarder Ross Rebagliati blamed a positive test for marijuana on being exposed to second-hand smoke during a New Year's Eve Party. <p /> Tennis player Petr Korda blamed his positive drug test on eating too much veal. <p /> Bobsledder Lenny Paul said his positive test was caused by tainted spaghetti Bolognese. <p /> Shotputter blamed his shampoo. Which he said he drank. <p /> Canadian runner Ben Johnson said his water bottle had been spiked. <p /> Italian soccer player Marco Borriello blamed an ointment he used on his penis after his girlfriend had passed on an infection. <p /> Olympic gold medalist Dennis Mitchell said his positive test was the result of drinking four bottles of beer and having sex with his wife four times in one night. USA Track and Field actually accepted that defense, but the International Association of Athletics Federations banned him for two years anyway. <p /> Cuban high jumper Javier Sotomayor blamed his positive cocaine result on the CIA. <p /> And on and on …. <p /> Yes Roger, it will be a tough climb to get people to believe you. But you can do it. Just take a couple more hits of B-12. <p /> GeorgeStephenson 2008-01-08T13:09:00Z GeorgeStephenson http://www.mbteach.org/bin/view.pl/RunningBlog/BlogEntry8 <p />The federal Conservative government is fast learning that Canadians are a lot more tech savvy than their elected leaders. <p /> There's little doubt that the government thought it could introduce a strict copyright law without much controversy. After all, when the Liberals tried it several years ago, the only people complaining were librarians and teachers. <p /> Now, even the suggestion that a new law would put restrictions on how people can use the technology they own, such as computers and video recorders, created such a firestorm of protest that the government abandoned plans to introduce its new Copyright Act. <p /> It was feared that the government was simply copying the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which favours corporations over consumer. That sparked the outcry against a law that would have made illegal many routine actions by teachers and consumers such as copying a CD onto a computer hard drive or using teaching materials printed from the Internet. <p /> The government won't say when it will unveil its new version, but it could be months away. <p /><b>Tags</b>: <a href="http://www.mbteach.org/bin/view.pl/RunningBlog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&amp;search=copyright" rel="tag">copyright</a> GeorgeStephenson 2008-01-08T12:51:00Z GeorgeStephenson http://www.mbteach.org/bin/view.pl/RunningBlog/BlogEntry7 <p />A raging debate has begun in Florida in the wake of a stunning decision to just consider adding "evolution" to the science curriculum. <p /> The revision to the science standards would include use of the word evolution instead of "biological changes over time." <p /> Teachers have applauded the move, while others are suggesting the teaching of something accepted by the rest of the world is propaganda. <p /> Said the president of the Community Issues Council: "The issue goes to whether our schools are places of learning or indoctrination centres." <p /> Florida, welcome to the New Year, 1863. <p /> <p /> <p /> <p /><b>Tags</b>: <a href="http://www.mbteach.org/bin/view.pl/RunningBlog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&amp;search=evolution curiculum" rel="tag">evolution curiculum</a> GeorgeStephenson 2008-01-08T12:37:00Z GeorgeStephenson http://www.mbteach.org/bin/view.pl/RunningBlog/BlogEntry6 <p />When I was a public school student, back in the days of dinosaurs and eight-tracks, I wrote an essay on how the education system would run much more smoothly if it got rid of all the students. <p /> It was a well-argued disquisition, but for some reason nobody picked up on the idea. It now appears that was for the best given the results of a new study that suggests the biggest problem facing teachers isn&#8217;t students, it&#8217;s parents. <p /> The study, in the psychology journal Anxiety, Stress &amp; Coping, questioned more than 100 German school teachers with and average tenure of 20 years. It found that the most pressure faced by teachers came not from administrators, colleagues or students. The biggest boot heels crushing teachers were those of over-bearing parents. <p /> The study&#8217;s author suggested teachers should not try to meet the expectations of every parent. <p /> &#8220;Teachers should focus on their students&#8217; expectations and needs and get support from colleagues if they feel overwhelmed, but not try to make overly demanding parents happy.&#8221; <p /> GeorgeStephenson 2008-01-03T09:52:00Z GeorgeStephenson http://www.mbteach.org/bin/view.pl/RunningBlog/BlogEntry5 <p />Ah, the sorrow of parents and would-be parents the world over in the wake of the news that the publisher has delayed release of a parenting book by Britney Spear's mother. <p /> Perhaps it was delayed because Lynne Spears was busy negotiating a $1 million fee to a celebrity magazine to announce the pregnancy of her other daughter, 16-year-old Jamie Lynne. <p /> We were so looking forward to the chapter on The Talk. Once again, parents will have to leave it up to the schools to teach all that stuff about avoiding pregnancy and diseases. <p /> Then again, maybe the publisher had to change the title from Parenting for Dummies to Parenting By Dummies. <p /> <p /> GeorgeStephenson 2007-12-20T13:08:00Z GeorgeStephenson http://www.mbteach.org/bin/view.pl/RunningBlog/BlogEntry4 <p />Ah, that Ronald McDonald, what a scamp. <p /> While schools, parents and governments worry about kids turning into ground-bound zeppelins, McDonalds has been busy trying to get fast food coupons into students&#8217; report cards. <p /> One school board in Florida allowed the corporation to put coupons in the report cards of kids who got As or Bs. In exchange, McDonalds paid for the printing of the report cards. <p /> A spokesperson for the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood told <a href="http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3973139&amp;page=1" target="new"> <p /> ABC News</a> that McDonalds has taken in-school marketing to a new low. <p /> &#8220;Childhood obesity is a major public health problem and here&#8217;s McDonalds, bypassing parents, targeting children directly, with the message that doing well in school deserves a Happy Meal.&#8221; <p /> The school board should worry about its decision &#8230; for the real smart ones it might be a disincentive to get good marks. GeorgeStephenson 2007-12-11T14:34:00Z GeorgeStephenson http://www.mbteach.org/bin/view.pl/RunningBlog/BlogEntry3 <p />What&#8217;s happened with toys this Christmas? It seems the only thing we have to worry about is seeing junior gnawing off all the lead paint that the Chinese manufacturers coated them in. <p /> There has been some wringing of hands over importing toys from China, but really, lead paint? How boring. Home-grown manufacturers used to do much better. <p /> Apparently gone are the days when toys came with some sense of adventure, when a vigorous game of lawn darts could get one&#8217;s heart rate up just by watching the little iron arrows arc toward you. Then there was the cute chewing Cabbage Patch Doll that had the ability to nip off tiny finger tips. <p /> For a trip down memory lane, <a href="http://www.radaronline.com/features/2006/12/toys.php" target="new"> radaronline has chronicled some of the more thrilling toys of recent history in what it calls its toybox from hell. <p /> GeorgeStephenson 2007-12-11T11:34:00Z GeorgeStephenson http://www.mbteach.org/bin/view.pl/RunningBlog/BlogEntry2 <p />It was quite the scene, so many in the media dripping tears on their keyboards over the fact tycoon thief Conrad Black will be going to jail for six and half years. <p /> A column in the National Post bemoaned the verdict and sentencing, but credited Black with standing before the court as &#8220;an honest man.&#8221; The jury&#8217;s dissent, apparently meaningless. <p /> A column in the Globe and Mail said his crimes were &#8220;relatively minor stuff.&#8221; Another cried that the sentence was &#8220;too severe.&#8221; The former publisher of the Toronto Star wailed that "he gets 78 months for being innocent and quarterback Michael Vick gets 23 months for the most sickening deed of all, dog-fighting?" Dog fighting. The most sickening deed of all. Brilliant. <p /> The shedding of crocodile tears for poor Lord Black of the Federal Bureau of Prisons shows how many in the media now are such champions of the overdog. <p /> One day they&#8217;re screaming because some teenager who steals a $15,000 car isn&#8217;t jailed for life. The next they are whining about the injustice of a millionaire being jailed for stealing $6 million. <p /> What&#8217;s their point, that teen car thieves should aim higher? <p /> GeorgeStephenson 2007-12-11T10:48:00Z GeorgeStephenson http://www.mbteach.org/bin/view.pl/RunningBlog/BlogEntry1 <p />The federal government of Stephen Harper seems poised to make life a little more miserable for teachers in Canada as it prepares release of a new copyright law. <p /> Release of the legislation was delayed this week after a firestorm of opposition ignited on the Internet based on leaked peeks at the new law. <p /> Most surrounded the fact that the legislation was going to be the most restrictive in the developed world, a flawed mirror of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act. <p /> As well as giving in to large U.S. corporations, such as American record labels, the Act apparently has no free exemption for educators to use material taken off Internet websites. <p /> The Tory government had, of course, promised not to hamper the use of the Internet by educators, but that was abandoned in the now-delayed bill. <p /> Once details of the bill were leaked, tens of thousands of Internet users sent emails to the government, put together YouTube videos and joined a protest FaceBook group. <p /> Whether anyone in this government know what any of those things are is debatable. This is, after all, a prime minister who once said his son was "listening to my Beatles records and asking me what all these lyrics mean." <p /> It would have seemed more plausible had his son asked what this big black plastic disc was, but then maybe not. <p /> <p /> <p /> <p /> GeorgeStephenson 2007-12-11T09:28:00Z GeorgeStephenson http://www.mbteach.org/bin/view.pl/RunningBlog/BlogEntry0 <p />If it isn&#8217;t enough now to be baffled by our children&#8217;s homework, a teacher in the U.S. has taken to assigning homework for parents. <p /> The ninth grade teacher in Montclair, New Jersey, has been asking parents to do things such as read and comment on a Franz Kafka story, a political speech and a Saul Williams poem. <p /> If parents don&#8217;t comply, he tells them their children&#8217;s grades could suffer. How terrifying it all is. What happens when your 14-year-old gets better marks than you do? What happens when the teacher thinks your child helped with your homework? There would certainly be no more making fun of the boneheads on &#8220;Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?&#8221; <p /> As a parent, the idea would be a bizarre nightmare. Kafka would seem to be a good choice of reading material. <p /><b>Tags</b>: <a href="http://www.mbteach.org/bin/view.pl/RunningBlog/BlogArchive?mode=tag&amp;search=homework " rel="tag">homework </a> GeorgeStephenson 2007-11-21T08:43:00Z GeorgeStephenson