Expecting too much from teachers
Handling your kids at home may seem like a walk in the park but think of the 30 a teacher handles on a daily basis. Are we asking too much of our teachers? Poorly behaved children sent off to the local school, left to be dealt with by under appreciated staff. And now the red pen fiasco. So not marking blank answers might adversely affect the student’s confidence? So what about the student who takes advantage of the situation and decides to leave the whole test blank? That “0/100″ isn’t going to affect their so called confidence? It’s silly to think that this will help educate students. A simple lesson of right and wrong. If you leave “wrong” to be a gray area this could open a door to all kinds of interpretations and lead children down the wrong path.
Teachers are not counselors and should be allowed to do their job. If parents aren’t going to, who will?
Man arrested for murder
A homeless man has been charged with rape and murder after 4 Asian students were sexually assaulted by a knife wielding intruder in Sydney. An 18 year old Chinese girl and her 19 year old Korean boyfriend were killed when they fell naked from the 3rd floor balcony.
Police suspect that the Australian man raped the young couple repeatedly and forced the boyfriend assault the 2 other women. Brendan Dennison, 26, is charged with murder, various sexual assault charges, assault with a weapon, and robbery. (news)
Carlton Video Dogs ordered to pay students proper wage
A video store which paid six students with free rental videos and DVDs has back-paid workers after a Workplace Ombudsman investigation.
In June, Carlton Video Dogs in Victoria was found to be advertising for students to work two-hour evening shifts in return for free DVD rentals.
This led to an investigation by the Ombudsman, who examined employment, wage records and pay slips.
The employees who worked for free rentals have now been paid a total of $500.
As well as paying some staff with free rental, ombudsman inspectors found a number of other employees were also being paid only $18 an hour, below the award rate of $20.38. (news)
Students suspended over pet deaths
4 students have been suspended over the slaughter of pets at a regional Victorian high school.
A teacher at Bellarine Secondary College in Drysdale, near Geelong, arrived at the school on Sunday to find three of its agriculture and horticulture program animals butchered.
One of the animals, a pregnant rabbit, belonged to a teacher and the other two were guinea pigs.
It has been reported that a group of teenagers with torches and dogs were seen in the vicinity of the school, near Geelong, on Saturday night. (news)
Student database raises fury of parents
Students in Australia may soon be forced to have their photos, interests, and aspirations profiled in a massive database meant to help educators keep track of their progress. The database, called OneSchool, is being pushed rather aggressively by the education system in Queensland, which hopes to profile all 480,000 public school students through year 12 in the state. Parents, on the other hand, have expressed concerns over security and privacy, sparking a heated debate between them and Queensland’s Education Minister, Rod Welford.
1,251 state schools would be part of the OneSchool program, according to the Courier Mail (via BoingBoing), and would be required to upload things like photos, career aspirations, off-campus activities, contact information, behavior records, attendance, and performance records. The state believes that such a centralized system will help the school system keep better track of each student’s progression and allow teachers to check up on how their students are doing. The database would not be publicly accessible, although it would be open to all staff in the school system (there will be at least 12 different levels of access), and accessible over the Internet from home. (news)
