education
A kindergarten teacher in Florida allowed students to vote out a fellow classmate, who is in the process of being diagnosed with autism, from the class.
After each classmate was allowed to say what they didn't like about Barton's 5-year-old son, Alex, his Morningside Elementary teacher Wendy Portillo said they were going to take a vote, Barton said.
By a 14 to 2 margin, the students voted Alex — who is in the process of being diagnosed with autism — out of the class.
Melissa Barton filed a complaint with Morningside's school resource officer, who investigated the matter, Port St. Lucie Department spokeswoman Michelle Steele said. But the state attorney's office concluded the matter did not meet the criteria for emotional child abuse, so no criminal charges will be filed, Steele said.
Link.
John Corcoran is a retired teacher who taught high school for 17 years and all that time he couldn't read, write or spell. Until the age of 48, John was illiterate.
By acting up in school, John was labeled as having emotional and behavioral problems so his inability to read went unnoticed. He made it through school by cheating off of friends and managed to graduate from college with a bachelor's degree in education.
Creating an "oral and visual envrionment" in his classroom, John relied on his teacher's assistants to do board work and read necessary documentation. He did a great job teaching, but felt ill deceiving his students. John eventually took a leave of absence to become a real estate developer.
At the age of 48 he decided to learn how to read and write again and began working with a 65-year-old volunteer at the Literacy Center of Carlsbad. After a year he was able to read at a sixth-grade level.
Link to article.
Programmers Kasper Neilson and Ole Iverson from Denmark have developed interactive learning floors called "Wisdom Wells". Not meant to replace ordinary classroom teaching, Wisdom Wells not only encourages individual learning, but also collaborative learning where the students can learn from each other. [link]
 Michael Benson took a 100 question True/False Communications final last week and scored 0/100. In this case, the saying 'When all else fails, choose "C"', failed him miserably.
What cracks me up most is the email his professor sent him the following day:
Dear Michael,
Every year I attempt to boost my students' final grades by giving them this relatively simple exam consisting of 100 True/False questions from only 3 chapters of material. For the past 20 years that I have taught Intro Communications 101 at this institution I have never once seen someone score below a 65 on this exam. Consequently, your score of a zero is the first in history and ultimately brought the entire class average down a whole 8 points.
There were two possible answer choices: A (True) and B (False). You chose C for all 100 questions in an obvious attempt to get lucky with a least a quarter of the answers. It's as if you didn't look at a single question. Unfortunately, this brings your final grade in this class to failing. See you next year!
May God have mercy on your soul.
Sincerely,
Professor William Turner
P.S. If all else fails, go with B from now on.
B is the new C
Poor schmuck. How he made it into college in the first place is beyond me. [via reddit]
 Here is a method of grading exams that seems fair -- It's called the paper toss. Read the complete guide.
Hong Kong tutors seek the help of stylists, fashion designers and photographers to create a hip and sexy image that will sell.
It's just the latest twist in the competition to grab the business of students caught up in Hong Kong's make-or-break exam culture. Youngsters take two college exams during their seven years in secondary school and they have to pass both to get into a university.
So hoards of students trek to after-school lectures at tutoring centers.
The Census and Statistics Department says a third of secondary school youngsters sought private tutoring in the 2004-05 school year, spending a total of $18.9 million a month — 25% more than five years earlier.
With competition growing fierce on that front, the tutorial centers in recent years have increasingly focused on promoting their teachers as trendy icons consumable by students.
Previously: Ohio school district paying $100 to students for good performances on state exams
In order to encourage students, an eastern Ohio school district (Coshoctoc City Schools) has been conducting a 3 year experiment where students are paid up to $100 for good performances on state achievement exams.
Coshocton City Schools is in the last year of a three-year experiment run by an economics professor at Case Western Reserve University. Officials of the 2,000-student district will decide after getting Eric Bettinger's final data this summer whether to continue it.
The third- through sixth-graders in the study receive $15 for every score of "proficient" on a state exam and $20 for better results -- so they can collect $100 if they have high scores in all five subjects. The money comes as gift certificates redeemable at a local pizza parlor and Wal-Mart.
Coshocton manufacturer Robert Simpson paid for the project with a $100,000 grant from his family foundation, and says the foundation is ready to take the rewards districtwide if the data and the community support it.
What's the lesson here? Learning can buy you things from Wal-Mart. Genius! [via digg]
 A teacher in Monroe, NY apparently used an x-rated font on a third grade spelling packet, which was handed out to parents.
Officials with the Monroe-Woodbury School District in Orange County apologized last week after parents at Pine Tree Elementary School were given the spelling packet at an open house.
Administrators said the teacher did not use the font intentionally.
The article only described the font as "male and female stick figures in provocative poses to form the letters of the alphabet." Digg user, JamesWilson, makes a guess and thinks groupsex might be the font used. You have to wonder what the teacher was thinking. [ Link] [via digg]
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