Friday Snippets - 4/25/08 - Chasing Bananas
Justin Bathon on Friday, April 25, 2008 at 10:31AM On we roll another week.
The big news of the week is the NCLB regulatory changes. Summary. Full Changes. H/T David Hoff. (I will offer thoughts when I have more time to parse through it).
10 students ran around school dressed as bananas. 1, dressed as a gorilla, chased them. All were suspended. Image. Video. Pretty creative, boys.
The case of the coach in Ohio who wouldn't get rid of his Bible gets significantly more interesting ... allegedly he burnt crosses into his student's skin. Whoa. Oddly Ohio also passed a teacher misconduct bill on the same day this came out ... so that was fortunate timing for legislators.
Also in Ohio voucher requests are going up.
More schools in contaminated areas ... what is up with that? Cut it out!
Louisiana's Anti-Bullying Bill moves forward.
Private Kindergarten providers in New Hampshire a possibility.
Colorado is considering going P-16.
The University of Florida comes up with a Taser Policy after the "Don't Tase me Bro" incident. What an odd/revealing moment in American History that was.
Single gender charter schools coming to Delaware. NPR finds South Carolina has had them for a while (audio).
Last week my students asked me about teaching incentives ... well, here is a new housing one in South Carolina.
Doesn't seem to matter how many times we tell them, teachers cannot refuse to give the test.
Still waiting for the California homeschooling appeal decision. And they are still protesting out there ... this time on college costs. Getting feisty in California, everyone seems to protest everything these days.
Wisconsin's anti-discrimination laws apply to private schools.
Shakira becomes concerned about education (video). Good for her.
Here is one benefit of the Friday Snippets ... they just reminded me my wife's birthday is next week (no, not because of Shakira). Happy Birthday Jennifer.
And around the Ed. Law Blogosphere:
The buzz in the latter half of the week was around Jon Becker's post regarding educational malpractice on the part of schools for failing to integrate technology. I am hoping Jon reports back on his thoughts from this years Commonwealth Education Law Conference, which is going on right now.
Found a new educational law related blog this week: Title IX Blog,
which obviously focuses a lot of gender discrimination. The blog is
written by a couple of young law professors and a Ph.D. student. This
week the Title IX blog was happy to see Danica Patrick win her first Indy Car race ... as was I. Women can compete at the highest levels of sport if given the opportunity.
Jim Gerl finishes his procedural safeguards lesson (I am scheduled to teach special ed. law next summer ... by that time Jim may have written the whole class for me).
Mitchell Rubinstein passes a nice barrier this week and has an interesting 14th Amendment case out of Ohio.
Charles Fox calls on us to call on Congress to support a bill that would give parents the right to recover expert witness fees.
The School Lawyer investigation in NY just won't go away. Martha Neil reports one firm in particular seems to have been fingered.
Scott McLeod, who must not sleep, sends word of a concerning trend of teens sending nude photos by cell phone. He also had a nice week blogging about learning issues.
David Hoff finds that most experts think the time is not right for big changes to education policy
at the federal level, but some influential members (George Miller)
disagree. For my part, the time is certainly ripe for big changes to
federal policy ... there is going to be a really nice window after the
new president takes office, but frankly, I think there are a lack of
good ideas on the table right now. There really are no big changes that
are waiting in the wings, save national standards and my thinking is that both Obama and McCain will be reluctant to go there.
Mark Walsh, doing his regular outstanding work, has a challenge to NCLB HQT rules, banning cell phones is fine in NY, and Be Happy, Not Gay is fine in the 7th Circuit, so says Posner.
Pamela Parker at Texas Teacher Law has a little chiding for administrators that under plan for assemblies and graduations. Seating for 500, 3000 show up. Sounds like an Obama rally.
Michelle Laubin does some really cool work totaling the statistics
for Special Education Hearings in Connecticut. About 175 cases filed
for hearing. About 5 decided on the merits in favor of the parents
(lots settled in favor of parents). She also breaks it down by
individual hearing officer (one of the more important parts of special
education hearings is picking the right hearing officer). I would love
to do the same stats nationally.
Finally your Friday Fun ... This week, the Work of Johnathan Harris. Absolutely Breathtaking Stuff You Did Not Know Was Possible On the Net. Watch Jonathan explain his work in this video.
In order of coolness:
The Universe - Creates a Starfield (yeah, really) of Related Items to Whatever you Search For. Explanation
We Feel Fine - Monitors the World's Feelings at any given moment. Explanation -- Related, Lovelines.
WordCount? Tracks the usage of words on the Internet. Explanation.
For fun, give yourself 30 seconds and try to get as far right on the
list as possible. I got "Wrestles" at 81,600. See if you can beat that.
The Whale Hunt - Thousands of pictures chronologically document an actual whale hunt in the Arctic. Explanation
Phylotaxis - The day in Pictures. Explanation
Google Document Link: Friday Snippets - 4/25/08 - Chasing Bananas
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