Common Drops Science To Children At Georgia School

HBO Documentary Films: Hard Times At Douglass High (HBO)

I am fresh off the couch from watching this HBO documentary, and for those who dont know me the Publisher/CEO and creator of this blog, well I am a elementary/ special education major at Temple University in Phila, Pa. My dream is to become a math teacher in the inner city of Philadelphia where I was born. Eventually I would like to be a principal of my high school. The great Overbrook high that Will Smith, Wilt Chamberlain and Guion Buford attended.

But this documentary was shot in 2005 and it raises some of the keys issues with this No Child Left Behind policy. NCLB was created under the Bush administration, and basically its a plan that no child can be left behind. They will continue to get pushed through the system whether they learn or not. Its really that simple minus all the technical stuff.

Now this movie shows some of the everyday problems that Philadelphia school district faces. If a school doesn't reach its Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) then the school may be subject to a takeover by the state (which they will reform the schools administration). Inorder to reach the AYP schools must pass state testing that we all as students took one day in another. As you may or may not know but for the schools that do poorly on these state exams, they continue to receive little to no additional funding the following school year as a result from their testing.

So how does a school improve when they state doesn't help them?

I mean I think of it as a bum on the street, they weren't born a bum on the street. They were once raised, educated and housed... a few bumps in the road and they had no one to turn to. And they are force to succeed in a society that only reimburse and recognize the good and successful. And you have this bum who is down and out but with a simple hand of help he could possibly turn his life around.

I mean the state knows what schools are failing and have limited amount of resources. Not giving them the additional funds and materials they may need to succeed like those schools who pass the test, doesn't make things right. But as a wise man once told me about the worlds jacked up economy "you need poor people in order to have rich people". So in this case I guess the school district never really expects to see every school in the state progress and reach state standards. Can you imagine a world with no dropouts and everyone went to college. But yet in still not everyone can goto college because the world needs janitors, bus drivers and so forth.

BUT IT DOESNT HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS!

You cant expect a bum to live a decent or fair life if he has no job or income, no home, no access to a shower and clean clothes. So you cant expect a school to pass a state exam when they 15 books and 25 students in a class with a permanent substitute teacher (so books are shared and never taken home), over 60% of the teaching staff aren't certified to teach (example from the movie), and so forth. Really can this system succeed truthfully. If your confused think of it in baseball terms. Can your expect a team who's team salary is maybe $50 million, and you have a team like the Yankees and Red Sox spending over $100 million a year on their teams salaries? And we both know that the Red Sox and Yankees make the playoffs every year.

I mean this movie shows you some insights on the students and teachers perspectives so you see all angles from this inner city Baltimore school. Did I mention the school in the documentary had one of the state's top basketball team? If I am not mistaken but the team basketball team won the state championship the year before they taped this documentary. Does on court success mean anything when only person in their entire school received over 1000 out of 1600 on the SAT's?

As an education major you see movies like this almost all the time and you are very aware that this is very much going on today. This was just something I think you guys should watch if you have two hours to spare in front of your cable or satellite box one day.

Upcoming Showtimes

Tue 6/24 12:00 AM HBO - WEST
Tue 6/24 01:00 AM HBO2 - EAST
Tue 6/24 02:00 AM HBO LATINO - WEST
Tue 6/24 04:00 AM HBO2 - WEST
Wed 6/25 11:00 PM HBO - EAST
Thu 6/26 02:00 AM HBO - WEST
Thu 6/26 09:00 PM HBO - EAST
Thu 6/26 09:00 PM HBO LATINO - EAST
Fri 6/27 12:00 AM HBO - WEST
Fri 6/27 12:00 AM HBO LATINO - WEST
Sat 6/28 02:30 PM HBO - EAST
Sat 6/28 02:30 PM HBO LATINO - EAST
Sat 6/28 05:30 PM HBO - WEST
Sat 6/28 05:30 PM HBO LATINO - WEST
Sun 6/29 11:30 AM HBO SIGNATURE - EAST
Sun 6/29 02:30 PM HBO SIGNATURE - WEST
Sun 6/29 09:00 PM HBO SIGNATURE - EAST
Mon 6/30 12:00 AM HBO SIGNATURE - WEST
Wed 7/2 11:50 PM HBO2 - EAST
Thu 7/3 02:50 AM HBO2 - WEST
Sun 7/6 08:00 AM HBO - EAST
Sun 7/6 08:00 AM HBO LATINO - EAST
Sun 7/6 11:00 AM HBO - WEST
Sun 7/6 11:00 AM HBO LATINO - WEST
Tue 7/8 02:30 PM HBO - EAST
Tue 7/8 02:30 PM HBO LATINO - EAST
Tue 7/8 05:30 PM HBO - WEST
Tue 7/8 05:30 PM HBO LATINO - WEST
Fri 7/11 11:00 AM HBO2 - EAST
Fri 7/11 02:00 PM HBO2 - WEST
Wed 7/16 04:30 PM HBO SIGNATURE - EAST
Wed 7/16 07:30 PM HBO SIGNATURE - WEST
Sat 7/26 07:00 PM HBO SIGNATURE - EAST
Sat 7/26 10:00 PM HBO SIGNATURE - WEST

Racial Brawl Of 600 Students At Locke High School In South Central LA! (Blacks & Hispanics) Leads To LockDown

Six hundred students involved in the fight between black and hispanic students. Four students were arrested.

Teacher Gets A Beat Down By Student In Baltimore! (They Hardcore Over There)

MSNBC Reports "April 10: In an exclusive interview, Matt Lauer talks to a Baltimore high school teacher who was attacked by a student while the rest of the class watched — an incident captured in a disturbing video."

3rd Grader Brings Gun To Philly School

Even though the city faces problems like this, I still want to be a teacher. Maybe not elementary and middle school where they have no metal detector but rather high school. Well even with high school them kids are older. lol I love my education major.

Teacher Screaming @ Students, WTF

Social studies teacher Michael Boculac at Poinciana High School in Florida was secretly taped screaming at students about the importance of studying for tests. Shocked parents and students said he went too far. The teacher is still teaching but Deputy school superintendent Terry Andrews told parents and press that the school makes sure it never happens again.

Transcript: "go someplace else! go to another school and screw it up! Go out there and find out what it's like to dig a ditch every day. And do that for the rest of your life. Stand on your feet in public and punch a cash register because that's about all any idiot can do! And you're all adults! And we have to treat you like children! It's time some of you understood the truth, look in the mirror and find out! Look in the mirror because you're a joke!

Disabled Boy Tea Bagged In School. Bully's Puts Taped Attack On Web

The seven-second video clip is short but sickening: A boy sprawled on the floor of a school classroom struggles to get up as a bigger boy pounces on his head (tea bagged).

Laughing maniacally into the camera, the fully clothed attacker repeatedly rubs his crotch on his victim's head, which is jammed face-down into the floor. As the youth finishes his assault, the cell phone camera pans jerkily away, showing several people - including an adult-sized figure - standing nearby. Gereka Bracey, of Logan, was horrified to find the grainy, black-and-white video clip on her son's MySpace page this week. But her horror grew to outrage when she found that the victim in the video was her son - 12-year-old Diontay Boone - and that the video had been maliciously posted on Diontay's own MySpace page by his attackers after they persuaded the mentally and physically disabled boy to give them his password. The videographer also posted the clip on YouTube.

The humiliating clip capped five months of torment that started in September with bullies' dubbing Diontay "dummy-slow" and escalated to near-daily taunting, schoolyard assaults and the theft of Diontay's winter coat on a recent frigid, snowy day. But the bullies who posted their ambush online crossed the line, a furious Bracey said yesterday.

"It really bothers me because not only did they do this to my son, but they victimize him again and again and again every time anybody views that video," said Bracey, who also reported the incident to the Police Department's special victims unit. School district spokesman Fernando Gallard said the two eighth-graders responsible for the Dec. 4 assault at the Thurgood Marshall School, in Olney, have been suspended and may face additional discipline pending the outcome of a district investigation.


"We would consider this to be cyber-bullying," Gallard said, adding that the students also violated school rules prohibiting electronic devices in classrooms. The science teacher who was in the classroom when the attack occurred has been removed from teaching duties and may face disciplinary action, Gallard said.

"We see a failure to supervise. We are investigating whether the teacher was paying attention or not," Gallard said. Diontay will be permitted to transfer schools, he added. While Bracey welcomed such measures, she complained that they were woefully overdue and came after months of indifference to her pleas for help.

"I've been out to the school at least 10 times, when he's been beat or harassed," Bracey said. "But I know it happened way more than that - Tay-Tay got so adjusted to being harassed at school that he don't come home and tell me no more, because after awhile, he got harassed for his mother coming to school too." Diontay doesn't like to talk about the bullying, saying only that he believes that he's victimized because "they bigger than me."

Diontay, - known as "Tay-Tay" to his family - spent his early grades in Virginia. He was a special-education student diagnosed as mildly mentally retarded, autistic and partially deaf. His public school in Virginia provided hearing-assistance devices and tailored lessons to accommodate his mental deficiencies, helping him make the honor roll last year, Bracey said.

When the family relocated to Philadelphia last year, Bracey wanted Diontay placed at the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf in Germantown but said she had been told that he wasn't "deaf enough." Gallard said he couldn't comment on Diontay's disabilities or placement, for privacy reasons. But Linda Williams, executive director of the district's Office of Specialized Services, said every school has a hearing therapist.

Hearing-impaired students generally are placed where their needs can be met; for example, Abraham Lincoln High School and Joseph Leidy School, an elementary school, have entire wings devoted to deaf students.

At Thurgood Marshall, Diontay struggles academically, because he doesn't get needed support, Bracey said. The seventh-grader functions at a second-grade level, she said. Principal Edward Penn couldn't be reached yesterday for comment.

The family has been working with St. Christopher's Hospital for Children to get the hearing-aid devices Diontay needs, but insurance paperwork and bureaucratic snafus have kept the gear out of their hands, she added. Diontay's abuse at the hands of thuggish classmates only made his school struggles more painful, his mother said.

She has considered sending him back to Virginia to live with relatives to escape his school problems here. "He's just very vulnerable," Bracey said. "He wants to just be friends with everybody, and they take advantage of that." It's wrong." *

You can visit Diontay Boone on his myspace page. I checked it and the cops must of removed the video clip from there

http://www.myspace.com/diontayboone

23 arrested in W. Phila. High 'turf' brawl

A large student fight over "turf" at the troubled West Philadelphia High School led to the arrest of 23 students and minor injuries to two police officers, officials said. "The school went into lockdown," said Fernando Gallard, spokesman for the school district, adding that at least two students face suspension and others are likely to be suspended as the investigation unfolds.

The disturbance comes while the school's new principal is trying to control serious assaults that generated large concern last year. It also comes at a time when juvenile gang violence appears to be on the rise. Officials said yesterday they are taking a close look at those involved with the brawl and the motive.

"We're going to determine whether it's organized gangs or just groups of kids brawling," said Capt. Charles Bloom of the Criminal Intelligence Unit, which investigates gang activity and responded to yesterday's incident.

Police spokeswoman Officer Tanya Little said police were called to the school at 4700 Walnut St. shortly before 11 a.m. over a "turf" fight between students from West Philadelphia and Southwest Philadelphia. During the melee, two officers received minor injuries and at least 23 students were arrested on disorderly conduct and assault charges, police said.

Outside the high school yesterday afternoon, a woman who declined to give her name said the incident was "a shame on the school district," adding that students there to learn are worried about being jumped and beat up. Gallard said the incident started as a "mutual" fight on the second floor between two students, meaning both agreed to fight each other. The two students, a 17-year-old 11th-grader and a 16-year-old ninth-grader, were then brought to the discipline office.

While the two students were in the office, Gallard said others tried to force their way into the office to confront one of the students. At that time both students were with a police officer assigned to the high school.

That officer called for assistance, prompting numerous cars to respond for backup and resulting in a large police presence. The school was in lockdown for 40 minutes during the height of the chaos. Gallard said he did not know what the fight was about.

Police said the brawl may have been the result of a dispute that started at 9 a.m. between two students that led to another fight, with the situation escalating through the morning. Lt. John Walker of Southwest Detectives said it does not appear that the fight is gang-related, but rather, "it's just a bunch of bullies."

West Philadelphia High School was the scene of major disruption last year after a rash of teacher assaults. The principal was replaced, and chaos continued as a series of small fires were set in the building. The school also had two small fires set last week.

Earlier this month, several West Philadelphia High School students were involved in an incident in which two girls were slashed while they waited at a bus stop at 48th and Spruce Streets, about two blocks from the school.

But Pat O'Hara, a teacher and union representative at the high school, said the overall environment at the school has improved this year and that the administration handled yesterday's incident well. "The thing that people seemed to like is that they're really taking a strong stance against kids who are doing the wrong thing. Hopefully, we'll see less and less as the year goes on," he said.

O'Hara said there hasn't been any organized gang activity at the school, but that students who belong to different street groups sometimes fight. "This is more neighborhood stuff than gang stuff," he said.



Sorry to say it but Im from West Philly but me, Will Smith, Wilt Chamberlain and others attended the great Overbrook High School in West Philadelphia and not West Philadelphia High.

Education News

I am an Education major and well I do this website as a hobby but I randomly run across news in my field that might be interesting for this site and well here are a few clips of some interesting education news.

Students at two Atlanta schools are being paid to study with tutors.



5 year old kid handcuffed by the feds. How you gonna put cuffs on a child?



Stink bomb evacuates school. LOL. A stink bomb set off in a classroom evacuated students and sent at least one teacher to the hospital. Damn I Never Knew Those Stink Bombs Can Be That Serious



In Arizona - State Senator Wants To Arm Teachers! Wow

Teen Violence Increasing Amongst Philly Girls

Dam Philly we have to do something about this. This shit is drawlin from the murders to the high school violence. I dont know what we can do about this shit, can Nutter save my city?

"Over the past number of weeks, we've been reporting on a number of incidents involving robbery, assault and slashing where both the victims and assailants were girls. Veteran police commanders said the amount of violence involving teen girls has reached a level they've never seen before. Home video of a girl fight at Strawberry Mansion High School was posted on the popular internet site, YouTube. The girls go after each other as a camera records inside the cafeteria. Philadelphia police acknowledged they are dealing with a growing problem of teenage girls committing crimes against teenage girls"- Channel 6 Action News