Did we lose you? Can you see us?

In class on Wednesday, I had the opportunity to be a part of a group Skype session with my section of Paideia as well Knick's section. The Skype session was with representatives from the ISA school in San Antonio, TX. This school is a MAGNET school that offers a non-traditional approach to high school. In this school, students are heavily introduced to concepts surrounding global citizenship and each class takes an out of state field trip every year.
In the Skype session, we had the opportunity to talk with teachers, administrators, and students and ask them a variety of questions about the school and its curriculum. I found the discussion to be extremely interesting and I especially enjoyed that students were allowed to participate in the discussion. This type of school is very interesting to me because I think that this is the type of knowledge our high school students should be learning. Far too many high school students are unaware of issues that are happening in our world. This school teaches its students the essential skills of becoming a part of global society. The field trips allow the students to explore other cultures and learn what it is like to live in another country. I also enjoyed hearing that the school accepts students based on a lottery system that has no basis on grades. This allows all students that apply to have an equal chance of attending the school.
I think the idea of using Skype in the classroom is something that students at all age levels can benefit from. In the future, I hope to establish connections with contacts around the world that will allow me to help my students learn about the world around them.

Another Example of Zero Tolerance gone wrong...

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/04/19/dnt.finger.gun.suspension.cnn?hpt=C2

Got Milk? Well, I hope its not chocolate...

To be honest, when I learned we would be discussing an issue revolving around chocolate milk in my Paideia II class, I was kind of confused. However, as we began discussing the implications of this issue on a school, I immediately was appalled at what Decorah high school did to their student body. To think that the school readily introduced its students to something that causes bodily harm to them is horrible for me to think about. I understand that the dairy industry is trying to get more people to drink milk because it is healthy, but it has been proven that there is nothing healthy about chocolate milk. As we calculated out how much sugar was in the milk that the students drank, I was appalled to see that the amount was equivalent to the amount of sugar contained in a pop. I was also disgusted by how much this amount was above the recommended average for a teenager. As a school system, Decorah should be making responsible decisions for its students and not decisions that could lead to future health problems. I understand that the money was an incentive for the challenge, but the students spent over $5000 buying the milk that won them $5000. I was also disappointed to find out that students were having milk breaks during class time which takes away from instructional time. Aren't teachers always complaining the lack of instructional time and yet they allow a challenge like this to take away about an hour of of instruction time each week.