Robots Wheel Around Classrooms Teaching South Korean Students

In a pilot program, robots are used in classrooms speaking and reading to students in English with a display of an avatar face of a Caucasian woman. This program is not to replace existing teachers and is funded by the South Korean government that runs them $1.37 million. Mr. Sagong, Senior Scientist for the Korea Institute of Science and Technology stated, "The robots won't complain about health insurance, sick leave, and severance package, or leave in three months for a better paying job in Japan."

First of all, I think it's great that in other parts of the world; they are using unique forms of technology in the classrooms to further their skills such as learning English. I think that it's so awesome that in other parts of the world such as Korea, students are willing to learn the golden language of English to be able to compete on the global market, whereas here in the U.S., learning a second language is much more optional and not so much of a focus. Or at least I don't hear as much interest in learning another language from students. I think that Korea is doing an excellent job in the realm of education and are modeling great successes; where the U.S. should adopt some of those successes and create great reform in this great nation as well.

Teacher-Student Texting Is Targeted in Virginia

The Virginia board of education wants to set strict guidelines to discourage inappropriate use of electronic communication between educators and students. As a result, teachers must report to their supervisors of any communication that goes on between them and their students; this includes coaches too. The article also mentions that the use of online game play with students is restricted to just for academic use only and other types of gaming is strictly prohibited.

In my opinion, I think to completely avoid the issue of misinterpreting messages over digital communication and the internet; it's important to use the technology in a sensible and honest manner, and use only in emergency situations. There seem to be more attention on these types of issues in the news lately and to avoid litigations and problems with the law, it's best to play it safe when using cell phones and social networking programs altogether since there's no such thing as privacy anymore.

White House Eye Again on Bullying

President Obama unveiled a new website to counter bullying (stopbullying.org). It offers advice and guidance for kids, parents, teachers, and community members to help relieve this issue. Obama's staff has linked up with MTV and Facebook to counter bullying. MTV will launch a series of ads talking about the damage being done to kids that are being targeted; and Facebook will also add new safety features so that members will be allowed to report content that violates their policies.

I think that it's great to have this awareness of bullying to make so much attention on a national level. It's something that is happening all over the U.S. and other parts of the world. If administrators, parents, and government officials, and students are united to take a stance against this issue, then I believe that less homicides, suicides, and gang related violence will occur in our neighborhoods. The key is to stand together and set aside some of our opinions and feelings we may have towards one another and focus solely on the issue at hand and only then, just maybe, we can get real work accomplished.

What is the role of Teacher Education?

The article states that the age of the teacher, and the number of years of experience they've had in a classroom, or even where they have taught; the candidates in these programs said that the program was good and they'd recommend it to someone they know.

With all of the multiple teaching programs available in the country and the race to the top, along with programs trying to capture the interests of future educators, the general consensus from the article was that what the candidates found that was the most valuable in their program experience was through student teaching above all else in the program. While it's important for higher education programs to attract candidates and to want to sell their name, I believe that it's even more important that programs focus on building upon the strengths of their candidates and equip them with the tools that will help foster relationships with them and others around them along with their students. If we are committed to create and maintain these, then I can promise that positive academic growth will follow in time especially for the "struggling" students.

College For All Confronted

According to a Harvard study, there has been a lot of attention and focus towards classroom based academics rather than other skills that lead to non-college careers. The article stated that today's youth have been trained for college and not prepared for a career as mutually exclusive options. One idea to ponder that was brought up, was to create a multi track system after high school. Kati Haycock, President of the Education Trust stated, "Every single time we create multiple tracks, we always send disproportionate numbers of poor kids and kids of color down the lessor one."

I agree for the most part about how the education system is narrowly focused about steering kids to go a college route only and leaving other options out of the picture. I think it's important to have those other options for students who want to go those routes and not to feel less of a person for wanting a non-professional career. In all reality, not everyone is made to go to college for whatever limiting reasons there may be for those individuals, and I think we'd be doing a disservice for not having more preparatory courses of action for these students.

School Groups Worry Revised Lunch Law Could Burden Districts

President Obama signed a bill in December 2010 that is intended to give more money to districts to improve school lunch nutritional standards. This a obviously a great act of service towards struggling school districts, but some anti-hunger groups say that hopefully the new bill doesn't harm low income families being supported by federal programs. Many districts charge less than $2.72 per meal and some say that an increase is likely to come.

As I was reading this article, I was curious of how the money was going to be spent on where schools would get there food. Was the food going to come from a catering service? Were meals actually going to be cooked on real grills in the cafeteria? Would they just order pizzas everyday to fill the little bellies of the students and contribute to a high fat diet? These questions were swirling in my mind as I thought about what kind of quality of food that would be given to the students. It seems that the price of raw materials are soaring; and that means with food prices as well. It won't be long until the price of these school meals to begin to rise, if not already; and it'll surely affect many families that are already struggling.

High Achievers Scarce In Math, Science in U.S.

There have been recent international comparisons with the U.S. and other modern developed countries in the areas of math and science. The U.S. doesn't rank very high compared to countries like Finland, South Korea, and others. Overall, these international findings are present overwhelming data to show that the U.S. needs to step up and excel in these subject areas so that jobs won't be outsourced to people of other countries; which seems to be the trend right now.

I think that with all of this education news that is going around across the nation, it is important to keep in mind of the content areas that still need to be addressed and focused on with the future generations. America is definitely getting a wake up call and no matter what direction we decide to take education in, it's important that students, parents, educators, administrators, and community members become united and take a common stance in the pursuit of greatness in all areas of academia.