August 13, 2006 • 11:05 am
The daycare that made a child’s wandering into a major disappearance has been closed by the State of Florida Division of Children and Families (DCF).
A couple of days ago I blogged that about the disappearance of five year old Austin at dismissal from school. In that blog, I used three sources for my information. One of those sources, the local ABC affiliate made an error in reporting that the owner of the daycare was the one driving the van that picked Austin up at the elementary school, when in fact it was an employee of the daycare. I reported that incorrect fact in my blog, but the fact that the person who picked up the kids didn’t do a head count is the same and the main cause of the whole situation.
It was also brought up by the DCF in closing the daycare that they should have had a second person on the van doing a head count. They also should have been verifying the children on the van belonged there. This would have prevented the whole situation. In fact, the DCF cited many things that the daycare did that were negelgent during the time that they had Austin in their care. One of the most glaring is that they did not answer a call at 11pm when they closed from the school to see if they had an extra child, when there were multiple employees and only one child there.
This daycare has been cited in the past for problems and it seems has had many chances. Why? It is something I don’t understand. If a daycare has multiple reoccurring problems it shouldn’t be open. This daycare was an accident waiting to happen, luckily it had a happy ending. If you would like to read the article on the closing of daycare read about it here in the Sarasota Herald Tribune.
That’s what I think….What about you?
Filed under: Education, Family, In The News, News and Current Affairs , child safety, Children, Daycare, Family Matters, Family News, K-12 Schools, kids, School Safety
August 10, 2006 • 9:56 pm
On Tuesday a 5 year old boy disappeared from a Bradenton, Florida elementary school at dismissal. It was reported in the Sarasota Herald Tribune that the attorney for the daycare where the child was found, blamed the child for his own odyessy.
Attorney Terence Matthews deflected blame away from Kid Konnection, which state records show has a history of safety and supervision problems.
Instead, he placed the blame on the schools and the child himself.
“The mistake occurred at the school where it happened,” he said, adding that the kindergartner misrepresented himself to day-care employees. “I understand the boy contributed to the mistake.”
Okay, Mr. Matthews must never have had kids or he would know that a 5 year old isn’t responsible for themselves. They are going to do and say a lot of things, most of them not intelligent. Lets place the blame squarely where it belongs, the teacher that let the child disappear from their sight and the daycare, whose van that the child got on. The situation would never have happened if the teacher had done their job correctly, but the daycare takes a bigger role in the child even leaving the school grounds and being missing for the unbelievable time frame of 10 hours.
Here are the facts to support this theory:
- The teacher looked away and didn’t account for their student. Teacher not doing their job creates the situation, but the child is still on campus and the whole thing can be avoided if the next event goes the way it should have.
- The daycare van was supposed to have 9 kids on it and left with 10. Even after the owner/driver read a roster and heard 9 “Here’s” from the children. Of course he didn’t count heads, he just listened to the voices. If the daycare driver would have actually done a head count they would have seen they had too many children and could have gotten help from the school staff to find out who wasnot supposed to be on the van.
- The daycare signed the child in, and the child used his real name “Austin A.” when asked. It didn’t click with anyone at the daycare that they had never seen this child before or that they had one more child than they were supposed to have.
- The daycare told the police on two separate phone calls that no child by the name of “Austin” was at their daycare. That’s even with a description of his silver capped front tooth and brightly colored superhero shirt and the sign in name that the child gave.
- The daycare closed at 11 pm and didn’t call the police until 1 am to let them know that they the child, even when they found out who he was. Come on….2 hours to call the police when you close and a child is still there you call right away, especially when you find out it’s a child that’s been missing for 10 hours.
Shame on you Mr. Matthews.
That’s what I think….What about you?
Filed under: Education, Family, In The News, News and Current Affairs , child safety, Children, Daycare, Educational News, Family Matters, Family News, K-12 Schools, kids, School Safety
In a recent blog, well known blogger David Warlick wrote about his typical seminar about blogging and some questions that he has. The questions are not about his methods, but about some questions that should be asked by the student or reader of a blog. As Mr. Warlick states:
Most of the time in these workshops is spent explaining what blogging is, why it is important culturally and instructionally, it strengths, weaknesses, dangers, and the wonderful opportunities. We just haven’t gotten around the assessment, especially in terms of the ethical aspects of a world with everyday, everybody journalists.
Interestingly, he has hit on the point that we are all journalists, amatuer or professional. What standard are we to follow, should we be held to the same standards as news journalist? What standards should a reading public set for our blogging? Well here are some of the questions he has asked:
So I will be suggesting five questions that will be asked, not by the teacher, but by the student, as a way to assess blogged content. I call the questions “Blog’Whats?”:
- What did you read in order to write this blog entry?
- What do you think is important about your blog entry?
- What are both sides of your issue?
- What do you want your readers to know, believe, or do?
- What else do you need to say?
These are great questions to present to your students in teaching them about blogging or just about all learning. Replace blog entry with any term, like book, research or news article and you get very analytical steps to evaluate anything you are learning. This, I believe is a great method to teach students how to view things they are learning.
That’s what I think…How about you?
Filed under: Education, Educational technology
How does a school district claim to give our children the same education across every school in a district when every school does not have the same technology?
I find that a good question. How can we have some schools in the same distrcit with brand new Windows based technology (being new schools or highschools), some schools with an older WinTel platform and some with an Apple platform. The older Windows based schools have not been upgraded unless they are new, with no announced timetable for upgrading the other schools. This leaves students in the older schools with technology that is 8 to 10 years old.
These systems run Windows 98 and cannot be upgraded to Windows XP, while at the same time do not capabily run the programs the district wants to in it’s new technology vision. With the Apple platform being abandoned, with all new purchases being Windows based both hardware and software, the schools that have these computers will fall behind. With that so will the students. I won’t go into students changing schools and platforms and how that places them at a disadvantage.
Another problem is that funding does not go to leveling the technology gap, but to teacher training in new technologies that can only best be used on newer computers. To me, this is putting the cart before the horse. You have teachers trained in new teaching methods and technology, but they can’t use it until they get the proper technology.
Ever heard of the saying “Use it or lose it”?
What’s the solution? Is it as easy as putting the horse back in front of the cart? Spend our money on standardizing the technology, then teaching the teachers how to use it effectively.
I think so…..
Filed under: Education, Educational technology, Technology
For anyone who doesn’t know or hasn’t been watching we have the “The No Child Left Behind” Act/Law in the United States. While a good thought, it is not very well administered or thought out. What it has created is a litany of tests that have created an atmosphere that we have to teach to the test to make the grades or progress that we are mandated to make. Of course what this does is leave out creative teaching of what our children need really need.
Teachers no longer step out of the box because they are evaluated on how their students do on many different tests. Some school districts have several tests that they administer on a district wide basis, along with the state mandated tests. It makes me wonder when the kids get to learn anything. Maybe we need to take a step back, look, reevaluate and focus on teaching, not testing. Maybe that will give our kids the opprotunity to step out of the box, excel past the test and become a knowledgable adult. Maybe even some of those students will become the new Einstein or Gates of tomorrow.
There are many great teachers in our country that are being hindered because they can’t teach everthing they want. I miss the days when I was in school and we talked about history, did real science projects, had complete PE classes, including health classes and didn’t take tests except for the ones my teachers gave on the subject matter we had learned.
Maybe if the parents of todays children didn’t have to both work, or work two or more jobs we would have better graduation rates and better test scores.
Maybe we need a change, maybe we need less tests, more teaching and especially more parent involvement…..I don’t know, but that’s my opinion.
Remember, Anything Goes for Discussion at Dinner…..
Filed under: Education, Educational technology
