The Wall Street Journal
May 5, 2021 11:06 am ET
Annie Arment had been working from her parents’ Quincy, Ill., home for months when she decided to plunge back into another adolescent experience: getting a mouthful of metal.
The 26-year-old accountant had spent her teen years wearing varying combinations of braces and retainers only to have her teeth go slightly crooked again in young adulthood. Staring at herself on daily Zoom calls throughout the pandemic routinely reminded her of every wayward incisor. But it has been the prospect of returning to semi-normal public life that pushed her to book an appointment with her childhood orthodontist.
Calculating she would have just several more months of remote work before seeing her Chicago colleagues and friends in the flesh again, Ms. Arment opted in January for a heavy-duty wire retainer instead of a lengthier course of Invisalign, a leading brand of clear, removable teeth aligners.
It’s “the one I knew I’d be able to get done,” she says. Meanwhile, “I feel like when I was in grade school and high school, so that’s ‘fun.’ ”
Both a pandemic—and its possible end—are ripe conditions for driving scores of adults back into the orthodontist’s chair, it turns out. For many people working remotely, video meetings have become opportunities to parse their cosmetic shortcomings on screen, real or perceived. And having to wear a mask in many public places can render even full-on braces a secret.
Chicago Teacher: Inhumane Working Conditions are Inhumane Learning Conditions
At my large elementary school on Chicago’s southwest side, the mercury on the thermometer soars to a scorching 90 degrees. Sweat drips down the students’ little round faces, their hair plastered to their foreheads. It’s only 9am, not even at the peak of the day’s heat. Already, a student has become ill. Another student tries to cover his nose with a wad of blood-soaked Kleenex as it drips onto his shirt and down to the floor. The boy runs to the bathroom holding his nose with bloodstains on his palms. He stands over the sink with blood gushing out for over 10 minutes, covering the sink a crimson red. His nose does not stop bleeding. Never have I ever seen such a horrendous nose bleed.
As the Chicago Public Schools opened for the year, scenes like this one were not unusual as hundreds of schools have regularly used classrooms without air conditioning. The exact numbers are unknown as when we asked them, CPS themselves didn’t know. Unable or unwilling to maintain a solid count or communicate with the power company, we are left to alleviate the suffering of our students. It is important to understand that this is not only incompetence, but also a genuine plan to sabotage and destroy traditional schools and open charter schools. Just this year, the Board took out a multi-decade loan and spent millions to close 50 schools because they said there were too many schools and we had a deficit. Many of the schools were high performing and parents and students fought hard to save the schools they loved and had chosen. CPS ignored their choices and destroyed those schools. The next month, plans were released to approve the opening of a dozen new charter schools at an even greater cost.
I hand the student a roll of paper towels and walk him down to the office to call his mom for an early dismissal. I ask him, “Have you had bloody noses like this in the past?” He tells me that he had one last night after being in our 90-degree school and other times last year during another heat wave.
By the time we arrive in the main office to call his mom, he had soaked through an entire roll of paper towels. I tell the secretaries about his situation and they respond that multiple students had nosebleeds that past two days. Yesterday, close to 50 students went home on early dismissal due to heat related illnesses.
My student was not so lucky because no family member could rescue him from the horrendous temperatures. After 30 minutes of continuous bleeding, his nose finally clots. We keep him in one of the 5 air-conditioned rooms in our large school.
Sadly, over the past two days, this was not the only incident in my school. Students were vomiting and feeling dizzy from heat exhaustion. One teacher had already vomited multiple times this week and had nose bleeds. Another teacher’s doctor told her that she should not work at our school because the heat could trigger life threatening asthma attacks.
Not only are these extreme learning conditions harmful, they are unproductive. Most classrooms have their lights turned off, blinds closed to slightly cool off the classrooms that are packed with up to 37 students. The teachers that are lucky enough to own functioning fans (often purchased with their own money) have slightly cooler rooms but the sound of the fan causes students to have difficulty hearing the instruction.
Just last year, I was one of the rank-and-file bargaining team members and Strike Captains that led 30,000 Chicago Teachers Union members on a 7 day strike. While CPS had passed state laws prohibiting us from specifically striking over classroom conditions, many of us felt that we must stand to fight against these inhumane classroom conditions. Day-after-day we spoke of the need for heating and cooling in our schools, reasonable class sizes and basic facilities for our students. While we fought hard, in the end, Chicago Public Schools’ leadership refused to budge in any way to improve conditions for our children.
These learning and working conditions are unjust and are not uniform across all Chicago schools. Many charter schools, after paying only rent their buildings for $1, have blowing central air or cooling units throughout their beautifully remodeled buildings. This year alone, CPS slashed the public school budget by 17% and added 80 million to charter schools. While claiming a major budget deficit, CPS supports charter school operators with proper funding for basic necessities like air-conditioning and Mayor Emanuel sends his children to a unionized private school that has air conditioning, libraries and access to tremendous resources.
Tim Cawley, the Chief Administrative Officer for CPS (who is currently receiving a waiver of state law to live outside of the district so his own daughter does not attend CPS despite criticism from the Inspector General), has said in meetings with parents that CPS had to increase the charter budget to comply with their commitments. It reflects closely the language from the Charter Compact that CPS signed with the Gates Foundation
in 2011. CPS appears to be following the plan of the Compact despite missing out on funding in later years
Within the compact, CPS committed to “equitable resources for all schools” through an increase in funds available to charters schools per pupil and for facilities needs. This may seem counterintuitive given that in the compact document itself, it notes that charter schools enroll special education students of highest need at less than 20% the rate of district schools and English Language Learners at just over half the rate of the district schools. So when I look into my classroom and see my students suffering due to this lack of resources, I know part of it is due to a leadership that has interpreted their agreement with Gates to mean that my students deserve less.
These disparities highlight that Mayor Emanuel and his appointees consistently prioritize their own plans to privatize Chicago education over the basic human rights and learning conditions for hundreds of thousands of Chicago children. Cawley has gone on record to say that they will not invest capital money into schools they are considering closing in the future.
Every child in every school deserves safe learning conditions. When a parent sends their child to school, they expect their child to come home in one healthy piece, not gushing blood or vomiting from heat exhaustion. Schools, the anchors of the community, should always be the safest place for our children, no matter if it’s the $30,000-a-year lab school, a franchise charter school or the free public school down the street.
Along with the parents and students of Chicago, we as educators cannot allow this inhumanity to continue. As we fight against these cruel inequities, we hope that you will stand with us. Those with a heart for children cannot allow them to be treated in this manner.
Sarah Chambers teaches elementary school in Chicago, Illinois.
Socialist Chicago Teachers Union Leader Resists ‘Unsafe’ Schools Reopening — From Puerto Rico Poolside
A leader of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) wants kids to remain out of the classroom because schools are “unsafe,” but she made the claims in the midst of a sunny vacation in Puerto Rico.
Sarah Chambers, who WGN said is on the union’s executive board and an area vice president and claimed she “led four strikes,” is opposed to schools returning to in-person learning on Monday. Chambers made several posts on Twitter this week attacking the plan.
“Just a few hours earlier, Chambers posted a picture on Instagram that appears to show her pool side in Puerto Rico and talking about going to Old San Juan for seafood,” WGN reported.
In a post on Instagram — on an account that has now been made private — Chambers wrote, “Spending the last day of 2020 by the poolside. We have the whole pool to ourselves. Then, we are going to old San Juan to get some yummy seafood mofongo.”
On Twitter, Chambers identified herself as a “socialist.”
“We have an entire private Airbnb house to ourselves,” she bragged in a post that showed her feet at the end of a lounge chair, with the pool and palm trees in the background.
On Friday, it is predicted to be 35 degrees where her students live in Chicago, according to Weather.com.
In another post, Chamber mugged for the camera from her towel with a caption that read, “Pool life.”
WGN noted the CTU “is threatening the possibility of a strike if the district pushes ahead with plans to reopen school buildings.”
After the news story ran, Chambers took to Twitter to lash out:
If you haven’t had someone break into your house and try to strangle and assault you in your house or covid 60+ days where you could barely walk or talk this year, then don’t talk to me
— Sarah4Justice (@Sarah4Justice) January 1, 2021
“If
you haven’t had someone break into your house and try to strangle and
assault you in your house or covid 60+ days where you could barely walk
or talk this year, then don’t talk to me,” she said.
Chambers claimed she received multiple tests prior to leaving Illinois:
I got 4 covid tests (2 rapid, 2 PCR) b4 coming here & wore 2 masks (N95). Scientists said airplanes are safer than grocery stores bc airplanes have ICU level filtration & everyone wears masks.
My doc said it’s extremely unlikely for me to get Covid again since I had it so badly
— Sarah4Justice (@Sarah4Justice) January 1, 2021
Chicago teacher’s union leader who vacationed while claiming it’s unsafe to return to school apologizes
CHICAGO (WGN) – The Chicago Teachers Union leader who faced national outrage and ridicule for claiming it’s unsafe to return to school buildings while vacationing in Puerto Rico appears to be apologizing.
Sarah Chambers, who is a CTU area vice president and member of the union’s executive board, faced local and national backlash after WGN Investigates first reported the story
Dec. 31, 2020
On Twitter, she urged teachers to refuse to return to classroom while on the same day on Instagram she posted pool pictures and talked of getting seafood in Old San Juan.
“I understand that it was insensitive and wrong of me to go on this trip for winter break and for me to share photos of it at a time when thousands of my union sisters and brothers – and the families we serve – are refraining from travel or making only essential plans outside of the home,” read a post purported to be from Sarah Chambers on an educators forum on Facebook. “I deeply regret my actions and I fully understand why many are upset,” the post read.
The controversy comes at an inopportune time for the Chicago Teachers Union which is threatening to strike if the school district pushes ahead with plans to resume in-person learning. Chambers and the union urged teachers to sign a pledge vowing not to return to school buildings Monday.
Chicago Public Schools is resuming in-person learning for pre-kindergarten and some special education students Jan. 11. Their teachers were told to report to school this week. The district hopes to have Kindergarten through 8th grade students back in the classroom in February.
The post purportedly from Chambers said “in order to show my contrition, and not to be a distraction, I will deactivate all of my social media accounts and step back from the Chicago Teachers Union executive board.”
A union official would not comment on whether Chambers had resigned from her leadership posts or if she was simply taking a brief break. When reached by phone, Chambers hung-up the phone without commenting.
Virus, technology, unrest make stressful year for teachers
First-year teacher Cindy Hipps stands outside of Lagos Elementary School, at Manor Independent School District campus east of Austin, Texas where she has taught first grade in a virtual and in-person hybrid classroom during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hipps said she was told she “was introduced to the ring of fire of teaching.” “I feel like a superwoman now, like I can take on anything.” (Acacia Coronado/Report for America via AP)
First-year teacher Cindy Hipps stands outside of Lagos Elementary School, at Manor Independent School District campus east of Austin, Texas where she has taught first grade in a virtual and in-person hybrid classroom during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hipps said she was told she “was introduced to the ring of fire of teaching.” “I feel like a superwoman now, like I can take on anything.” (Acacia Coronado/Report for America via AP)
MANOR, Texas (AP) — The school bell rings, and about a dozen masked first-graders turn to the monitor and wave hello to their classmates — each a tiny Zoom square representing the other half of the class. The teacher — standing behind a plexiglass wall — shares her screen, grabs a pointer, juggles a laptop, projector, marker and board and embarks on another act of her one-woman show.
Ana Saul Romero has seen many changes in teaching methods, testing and technology during her four decades as a teacher. But the past yearpacked in a lifetime’s worth of tumult.
“It’s difficult for me — I am a baby boomer — it is difficult with the technology, and I have learned more, but it is not enough, it is never enough,” Romero said as she reminisced on the personal connections she made with students when she could see them every day in-person.
This spring marks a year since the coronavirus pandemicshut down schools across the U.S., forcing many students, parents and teachers into virtual classrooms. As scientists learned more about the virus and states eased restrictions on gathering, some students returned to school while others kept learning at home — but they all had to be taught. Many classrooms became a simultaneous combination of virtual and in-person instruction, like Romero’s class in the Austin suburb of Manor.
There was a learning curve for teachers, and inequalities in Wi-Fi and technology access added to the stresses, as did social and political unrest that gripped the nation over that period. Now districts everywhere are grappling with exhausted educators wondering if this academic year will be their last.
Educators have coped with their own personal and family impacts of the pandemic, while trying to support students dealing with academic struggles, food insecurity, trauma and social isolation, said Antoinette Miranda, an Ohio State University professor of school psychology who is also on her state’s school board and married to a high school teacher.
“We talk a lot about the stress on students,” Miranda said, “but I think there’s a tremendous amount of stress on teachers.”
As they raised health and safety concerns about resuming in-person classes, some people blamed them for holding up reopenings that could ease pressure on parents.
“I think there’s kind of a backlash against teachers,” Miranda said. “But I think there’s also a renewed respect for teachers — you know, especially parents that had to start teaching their kids at home.”
Andre Spencer, superintendent of Manor Independent School District where Romero works, said the district’s pandemic response has focused on students and teachers. It spent millions to ensure every student and teacher has the technology necessary for virtual learning, including distributing mobile Wi-Fi hotspots for those without internet access. He also gathered a team to examine the resources and compensation his district provides teachers to ensure it stays competitive with others in the growing Austin area.
“I would say to teachers: ‘Don’t beat yourselves up too bad because this was a shift for everyone and it was a shift in a direction that none of us were expecting,'” Spencer said.
First-year teacher Cindy Hipps, Romero’s mentee and teaching partner, said she was told she “was introduced to the ring of fire of teaching.”
“I feel like a superwoman now, like I can take on anything,” she added.
Even before this school year began, district leaders worried about shortages of instructors, support staff and substitutes. More than a quarter of respondents to one poll by the nation’s largest teachers union, the National Education Association, felt the pandemic increased the likelihood they would retire early or leave the profession. And some already did.
With only piecemeal data from districts and states, it’s tough to tell how the pandemic impacted turnover nationwide. Some places report more educators retiring, quitting or taking extended absences, but others say the exodus they worried about didn’t happen.
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten anticipates a big uptick in retirements in the coming months, after a year of perpetual uncertainty and change and more strain for educators than she’s ever seen.
“They love teaching. They know how important it is to engage kids. But this year has been unsustainable,” especially for educators simultaneously teaching students in person and online, Weingarten said.
The union started providing a free trauma counseling program for members, including for those who had COVID-19 or were traumatized by it.
National conversations around racial injustice, the presidential election and the Capitol riot impacted the job too, especially for teachers of color.
Travis Bristol, a University of California, Berkeley professor who researches teacher workplace experiences and focuses on educators of color, recommends that schools intentionally set up opportunities for employees to talk about what they have been through and grieve if needed. Teachers who are supported in addressing their own challenges, stresses and mental health concerns from the past year will be better positioned to help students do the same, he said.
To boost retention and address challenges weighing on educators, some districts are considering spending some of their federal COVID-19 relief funding on professional development, equipping and training teachers for virtual instruction, and increasing mental and emotional health support for teachers and students.
They can also use the money for expenses such as providing extra compensation for pandemic-related duties or recruiting to address staffing shortages.
Romero, the teacher in Texas, was considering retiring. But even after such a challenging year, at her core, teaching is who she is.
“Let’s just hope that in September, if it is not gone, at least we will be able to do a better job,” Romero said. “We will have the experience of an entire year of trying to be above the water, but we will make it — that’s what educators do. We try and we fail and we get up and we shake it off and we do it again.”
___
Franko reported from Columbus, Ohio.
___
Coronado is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative.Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
By
and Yoree Koh
Reporters, The Wall Street Journal
PHOENIX—As if the pandemic weren’t disruptive enough, many American schools are facing a growing shortage of teachers.
School districts are recruiting parents as substitute teachers, online class sizes are soaring to 50 children or more and bus drivers are baby-sitting classrooms. Some are considering allowing asymptomatic teachers who were exposed to Covid-19 to continue to show up.
Public-school employment in November was down 8.7% from February, and at its lowest level since 2000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That includes teachers who quit, retired early or took leaves of absence due to the pandemic, and layoffs of support staff such as teachers’ aides and clerical workers. The staffing crunch leaves teachers educating children in person and online simultaneously, deep-cleaning their own classrooms and taking turns as crossing guards.
California Will Give Free High School Diplomas To Kids Who Flunked Out
Jeanette Manfra CTIA Cybersecurity Summit - DHS on Public-Private Partnerships
Netflix fires Lori Loughlin from Fuller House
Facing backlash over the college admissions scandal, Netflix has canned Loughlin.
It was revealed that Loughlin allegedly paid bribes of up to $500,000 to an admissions consultant, who fraudulently got their two daughters into the University of Southern California.
Lori Loughlin best known for her work on 'Fuller House'
Loughlin is best known for her role as Rebecca Donaldson in the popular sitcom "Full House," and has made multiple guest appearances in Netflix's "Fuller House," as Aunt Becky.This should not be a surprise to anyone. Netflix is not the only one to cut ties with the actress. Hallmark also announced they were done with Lori Loughlin. Hallmark released a statement regarding their series "When Calls the Heart," saying the series will not air on Sunday and are considering all creative options related to the hit series.
FBI started investigation into the college bribe scam
Last week, the FBI had started an investigation "Operation Varsity Blues," into a number of wealth parents who allegedly paid between $200,000 and $6.5 million to get their children into top universities. The scam allegedly included faking SAT and ACT scores and paying college coaches to have their kids designated as athletic recruits. The parents charged in the case include CEOs, real estate investors, and the co-chair of a global law firm.It's time that hard working students are given a fair shot when it comes to getting into the college of their choice.
By Blake Neff for The Daily Caller
The state of California is poised to award thousands of high school degrees to dropouts by passing a new law retroactively removing the requirement to pass a high school exit exam.
The California High School Exit Exam (CASHEE) was created in 2004, and is intended to make sure that students have a rudimentary grasp of English and mathematics before being awarded a high school diploma, and to counter the phenomenon of students receiving passing grades while learning almost nothing. The test is hardly complex. The math test, for instance, only covers 8th grade-level material and can be passed if students answer 55 percent of questions correctly. About 80 percent of California high schoolers take and pass it on their first try while in the 10th grade, and overall passage rates for the class of 2014 were above 97 percent.
But now, a bill passed Thursday by the California legislature, which Gov. Jerry Brown is expected to sign, suspends the exam through 2018, while also retroactively suspending it back to 2004. That means thousands of students who failed to ever pass the exam but otherwise completed all other requirements will now be able to receive diplomas.
Answers to the City of Los Angeles High School
Math Proficiency Exam
Author unknown- Johnny has an AK47 with a 40 round clip. If he misses 6 out of 10
shots and shoots 15 times each drive by, how many drive by shootings
must he conduct before he shoots 50 people?
Johnny hits 15*(4/10) people per drive by, which means that he will have to participate in 9 drive bys to shoot 50 people. However, he will have completed two drive-by shootings and be just starting the third when he has to reload. Since he only stole a single clip, he'll only have shot 16 people when the homeboys with the UZIs' make Swiss cheese out of him.
- Pony has 2 ounces of cocaine and he sells an 8 ball to Jackson for
$320 and 2 grams to Billy for $85 per gram. What is the street value
of the balance of the cocaine if he doesn't cut it?
At 454 grams per pound, 2oz of the rock = 56.75 grams. An "8 ball" is 8 grams, so pony has sold 10 grams total and has 46.75 grams left. If he keeps selling 8-balls, he can sell 5 more (for a total of 5*$320=$1,600) and have 6.75 grams for his own nose. If he sells 2 gram packs, he can sell (46/2-23) packs at $85 apiece = (23*$85)=$1,955. However, he could divide it into small parts, bake it up into crack and sell the rocks for an even larger profit. This problem is really more suited for the Gang Multi-Variable Economics Test.
- Ron is pimping for 3 girls. If the price is $65 for each trick, how
many tricks will each have to turn so Ron can pay for his $800 per day
crack habit?
800/$64=12 tricks plus a dance. Also, Ron should consider making a deal with Pony from Question #2.
- Susan wants to cut her ½ pound of heroin to make 20% more profit.
How many ounces of cut will she need?
If she sells the cut heroin at the same price per unit volume, she will need 20% more volume. 20% of ½ pound (=8oz) is 1.6oz. So, Susan will need 1.6oz of cut to add to the 8 oz of heroin to get 20% more volume. She will want a cut which looks similar to raw heroin and has approximately the same melting point. Plain sugar or laundry detergent are suggested. Laundry detergent has the added benefit of removing the possibility of customer complaints, but will sharply limit repeat business.
- Blade gets $200 for stealing a BMW, $50 for a Chevy, and $100 for a
4x4. If he has already stolen 2BMW's and 3 4x4's, how many Chevy's
will he have to steal to make $800?
Blade has made 2*$200 + 3*$100=$700 dollars from his theft so far. He needs $100 more, so he needs to steal $100/$50=2 more Chevy's. However, he will probably want to steal 4 Chevy's so he can take the extra two and make a really def low-rider.
- Little Willy is in prison for 6 years for murder. He got $25,000
for the hit. If his common law wife is spending $250 per month, how
much money will be left when he gets out of prison and how many years
will he get for killing the bitch that spent his money?
6 years*12 months/year*$250/month=$18,000. Little Willy will have $25,000 - $18,000 = $7,000 left when he gets out of prison. If Little Willy kills her in the USA, he should expect to get 6 years. However, if he takes her down to Mexico and buries her scrawny, track-marked butt in the desert, he can get off scott free.
- If the average can of spray paint covers 22 square feet, and the
average letter is 4 square feet, how many letters can a tagger spray
with 3 cans of paint?
3 cans of paint will cover 3*22=66 square feet. 66/4=16 letters with a little paint left over to spray in the eyes of the cop who's comin' after you. Or the tagger could do 15 letters and a bitchin' skull.
- Hector knocked up 6 girls in his gang. There are 27 girls in the
gang. What percentage of the girls in the gang has Hector knocked up?
6/27=22% of the girls. However, 2 of them are lying because they've been sleeping with Pedro, Hector's lieutenant. So, in actuality, Hector only knocked up 4/27 or 14.8%.
- Rosie's sole source of income is shoplifting. If she gets 10 cents
on the dollar from her fence, how much merchandise must she shoplift
each week to make $250?
Solve X/10=250 for X, X=$2,500.
- Mike carjacked a Chevy Camaro for his date Saturday night with his
young 14 year old girlfriend. He was arrested that night while making
his girlfriend in the backseat. How much prison time is he looking for
for the carjacking and for statutory rape, even though the girl looked
legal? Assume no prior convictions in arriving at your answer.
Mike is only 12 so he will serve no time and will be making his girlfriend in the lot in someone else's car next Saturday.
- If she sells the cut heroin at the same price per unit volume, she will need 20% more volume. 20% of ½ pound (=8oz) is 1.6oz. So, Susan will need 1.6oz of cut to add to the 8 oz of heroin to get 20% more volume. She will want a cut which looks similar to raw heroin and has approximately the same melting point. Plain sugar or laundry detergent are suggested. Laundry detergent has the added benefit of removing the possibility of customer complaints, but will sharply limit repeat business.
Blade has made 2*$200 + 3*$100=$700 dollars from his theft so far. He needs $100 more, so he needs to steal $100/$50=2 more Chevy's. However, he will probably want to steal 4 Chevy's so he can take the extra two and make a really def low-rider.
Little Willy is in prison for 6 years for murder. He got $25,000 for the hit. If his common law wife is spending $250 per month, how much money will be left when he gets out of prison and how many years will he get for killing the bitch that spent his money?
6 years*12 months/year*$250/month=$18,000. Little Willy will have $25,000 - $18,000 = $7,000 left when he gets out of prison. If Little Willy kills her in the USA, he should expect to get 6 years. However, if he takes her down to Mexico and buries her scrawny, track-marked butt in the desert, he can get off scott free.
If the average can of spray paint covers 22 square feet, and the average letter is 4 square feet, how many letters can a tagger spray with 3 cans of paint?
3 cans of paint will cover 3*22=66 square feet. 66/4=16 letters with a little paint left over to spray in the eyes of the cop who's comin' after you. Or the tagger could do 15 letters and a bitchin' skull.
Hector knocked up 6 girls in his gang. There are 27 girls in the gang. What percentage of the girls in the gang has Hector knocked up?
6/27=22% of the girls. However, 2 of them are lying because they've been sleeping with Pedro, Hector's lieutenant. So, in actuality, Hector only knocked up 4/27 or 14.8%.
Rosie's sole source of income is shoplifting. If she gets 10 cents on the dollar from her fence, how much merchandise must she shoplift each week to make $250?
Solve X/10=250 for X, X=$2,500.
Mike carjacked a Chevy Camaro for his date Saturday night with his young 14 year old girlfriend. He was arrested that night while making his girlfriend in the backseat. How much prison time is he looking for for the carjacking and for statutory rape, even though the girl looked legal? Assume no prior convictions in arriving at your answer.
Mike is only 12 so he will serve no time and will be making his girlfriend in the lot in someone else's car next Saturday.
Olivia Sprauer modeling photos: Martin County High School teacher says she was asked and Forced To Resign After Bikini Modeling Photo Surfaces (PHOTO)
Olivia Sprauer who models under the name Victoria Valentine James had to leave her job after confirming she has posed for sizzling bikini photoshoots. The 26-year-old English teacher had been planning to resign from Martin County High School in Stuart, Florida, to pursue a modeling career. But the decision was taken out of her hands after school bosses saw one of her modeling photos and she was called into the principal's office. In her online modeling profile, Olivia describes herself as "very open-minded" and says: "I love being in front of the camera!" Picture by: Demo Photography/Splash News
MARTIN COUNTY, FL - A Martin County High School teacher who had planned to resign at the end of the school year said she was asked to leave a month early. Olivia Sprauer taught English at Martin County High School. Sprauer said she was called into the principal's office on April 29 and was shown a photo that had been sent to the principal. Sprauer confirmed it was one of her modeling photos. Sprauer said the principal asked for her resignation and was escorted off campus. A statement released from the Martin County School District confirmed Sprauer no longer works for the district. Sprauer said she is not upset, but does miss her students. She plans to do more modeling and go to graduate school.
Sprauer said the principal asked for her resignation and was escorted off campus.
A statement released from the Martin County School District confirmed Sprauer no longer works for the district.
Sprauer said she is not upset, but does miss her students.
She plans to do more modeling and go to graduate school.
She plans to do more modeling and go to graduate school. She Was Former freshman English teacher graces the cover of Hustler
Sprauer got canned from her job teaching English after Martin County High principal Alfred Fabrizio learned about her gig moonlighting as a a professional model. She wore bikinis and the occasional see-through lingerie. (RELATED: Florida teacher too sexy to teach) Fabrizio made a big to-do about the whole thing, escorting her out of the school. Sprauer was disappointed. “I don’t make pornography,” she insisted at the time in a statement to The Huffington Post. “I don’t open my legs on camera. I take swimsuit glamour style photography.”
Follow Eric on Twitter and on Facebook, and send education-related story tips to erico@dailycaller.com.
Spanish teacher and Playboy model Cristy Nicole Deweese
Mays Imad offers 10 teaching strategies to support students and help them continue to learn during this time of uncertainty.
On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.
-- John O'Donohue
A few years ago, a student of mine lost his father to an unexpected illness that took a wrong turn. Two days later my student came to class.
Surprised, I let my student know that if he needed to take time off to be with his family, I would later work with him to help him catch up on materials he would miss. I was giving him permission to be absent from class. He didn’t want to. In fact, he said that being in class helped him forget about his problems.
His reason resonated with me. As a student, and even now as a teacher, being in class has always offered me a sanctuary where I could tune down everything else and immerse myself in a community of knowledge seekers, if only for a few hours each week.
Today, growing numbers of colleges and universities all across the country -- including Dartmouth College, Rice University and Stanford University, among many others -- are temporarily canceling their face-to-face classes to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 situation. The conversations on our campuses, as well as on professional Listservs, have turned to the topic of academic continuity plans as the nation continues to deal with the impact of COVID-19. As I look through the materials put together by various teaching and learning centers and instructional technology groups, I have noticed that the resources have focused almost exclusively on the hows of technology: tools to record lectures, create discussions and proctor exams.
Yet while the technological know-how to virtually connect with our students is necessary, it is not sufficient to continue the teaching and learning endeavor.
Beyond the electronic connection, we need to connect emotionally -- especially in times of anxiety and uncertainty. As a neuroscientist, I know that emotions are key to learning. In Descartes’ Error, Antonio Damasio asserts, “We are not thinking machines. We are feeling machines that think.” Recent literature affirms the importance of the affective domains in teaching and learning.
So I began to wonder about the impact such transitions will have on students and colleagues emotionally, psychologically and even physically. The current situation hits close to home for me. During the 1991 Operation Desert Storm, I was a student in middle school in Baghdad. When the bombing started, schools shut down abruptly. We didn't have internet or the ability to attend school virtually. One morning, one of my teachers showed up at my house, hand-delivered homework and reminded me to keep studying. To this day, I remember how her dedication and acts of resilience and hope helped me feel a tiny sense of normalcy during that turbulent time in my life. At night, I would sit by the candlelight to study and dream of going back to school and all the conversations I would have with my friends.
I do not question any higher education institution’s decision to move their classes online or close their campuses. Rather, I am thinking about how we can teach in times of uncertainty and how we can ensure that our students continue to learn most effectively.
More specifically, I am thinking about students who don’t have a safe environment at home -- for whom residence halls and classrooms have served as a sanctuary, students who have found a community within college, or students who rely on college for their sustenance and security. In other words, most students. So how can we, teachers, be that “dancing clays” to balance our students’ mental and emotional loads, so that they may stumble just a little bit less?
Reflecting on that experience and my questions, I came up with a short list of what I would’ve liked my teachers to do had I been a student who was sent home due to COVID-19.
- Email your students to remind them that you are still there for them.
- Tell them how you are shifting your schedule to deal with the new situation and that change is part of life. Humanize yourself and make it casual and lighthearted. For example, you might talk about how, in between reading their discussion posts, you decided to start your spring cleaning, which you’ve been putting off forever.
- Reflect on the notion of rigor and continue to challenge and support your students. As instructors, we often must balance rigor and support, and this situation might be one where students will need more support than rigor. Establishing continuity doesn’t mean you increase the amount of work required of them. I say this because I worry that some of us might be fixated on the rigor of the materials presented. Let’s face it -- the rigor may suffer, and that’s OK considering the situation.
- Repeat some of the lessons you taught in class. Especially for those students who are missing the classroom environment, this will probably help activate their memory of being part of a community and remind them that they are still part of one. For example, in your email you can say something like, “Remember when we talked about this and …”
- Use hopeful and optimistic language, such as, “When you come back this fall …” This will help students look forward to coming back to the campus.
- Offer students an opportunity to exchange phone numbers and, for those who are interested, help them create a WhatsApp chat group. It can sometimes be difficult for a student to ask for a classmate’s phone number.
- Don’t ignore the elephant in the room. If possible, talk about COVID-19 and fear. This is an opportunity for you to remind your students to consider the sources of their news and to beware of the large amount of misinformation.
- Remember that students have left behind more than just their classes and academics. On both residential and commuter campuses, there are important spaces where students meet and talk about their nonacademic lives -- sports, upcoming concerts, recently discovered shows and so on. Consider creating a community discussion board for them to share what is happening in their lives, especially given the stress, fear and strains in these uncertain times.
- Let your students know that you are there for them and that if they need help to reach out to you. Let them know that you are (I hope) in touch with counselors or mental health experts that can help them should they need to speak to someone.
- Most important, ask each of your students how you can help them. The Persian poet Rumi says, “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.” Likewise, in times of uncertainty and unknowing, we can create a space where our students’ voice and insights can illuminate the path we are carving out for them -- and us.
Clearly, this is not an exhaustive list, and I invite you all to add to it in the comments section below or at #hopematters4learning. Think about yourself as a vulnerable student who is trying to learn and complete a degree on an already thinly spread set of obligations. What might help you?
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