Recently the United States government unveiled their guidelines aimed at stopping the spread of “2009 H1N1 influenza” (a.k.a. the Mexican or Swine flu) in schools. Now that school is starting again in most countries in the Northern Hemisphere, there is a growing concern about what’s going to happen.

What does all this mean for people working in schools?

Basically, it’s a guideline for good hygiene, like hand washing. In addition to this, both students and staff members with flu-like illness (showing symptoms of flu) are requested to stay home at least 24 hours after fever symptoms have ended.

The government also urges schools to have plans ready for continuing the education of students who are at home, through phone calls, homework packets, Internet lessons and other approaches. They also suggest seting aside a room in school for people developing flu-like symptoms while they wait to go home,  and the usage of surgical masks for ill students or staff and those caring for them.

This all sounds reasonably simple, but takes a lot of coordination and resources from schools. It would require an “influenza action team” on all schools.

How is your school handling this? Are you doing anything special or is your school just waiting to see what happens? I’d love to hear from you, so please post your comments …

A big portion of president Obama’s stimulus bill for the US economy is reserved for education. So is this good news for everyone working in education? In the new plan, education gets about $150 billion in new spending, including $79 billion for state education aid and billions more for (much needed) school modernization.

I personally think this is a important signal that the government is sending out: it emphasizes the shift of the U.S. economy from “tangibles” to “intangibles”:

The tangible sector includes industries producing or distributing physical goods (e.g. construction, manufacturing, retailing, and transportation). These industries are in free-fall, with massive and repeated job cuts, because of a global oversupply of manufacturing capacity and weakness in demand for goods such as cars and electronics.

On the other hand the intangible sector, led by health care and education, is expanding, even in the current crisis. In a knowledge-based economy, there’s still demand for more education, there’s still demand for better health, and there’s still demand for new and better ideas.

Let’s hope this renewed focus on education is permanent though. I’m keen to hear your views on this subject!

Happy new year everybody! Our batteries have been recharged during the holidays, and we’re ready again for a fresh start of the year. We wish you all the best in the coming year!

In February of this year, British Columbia’s education minister Shirley Bond announced that her ministry would investigate the cost and feasibility of offering all-day kindergarten.  At this moment in B.C., all-day kindergarten is only available for aboriginal, ESL and special-needs children. The plan would mean that full day kindergarten would be available to all five-year-olds by September 2009 and they have plans to extend that to four- and three-year-olds by 2010 and 2012 respectively.

The current economic downturn is now threatening that plan (source). The plan would have cost hundreds of millions of dollars, so they are now studying how and when they can best implement these changes. There are lots of advantages and disadvantages when it comes to all-day kindergarten.

Advantages:

Besides the practical advantages like less transportation hassle (no school buses to children from school to daycare), full-day programs provide a relaxed, unhurried school day with more time for a variety of experiences, for screening and assessment opportunities, and for more interaction between adults and students.

Disadvantages:

A lot of people however think half a day is enough. It offers ample time in school and allows more time for the young child to play and interact with adults and other children in less-structured home or child care settings. Half a day provides continuity and systematic experience with less probability of stress. Also, full day kindergarten require additional teaching staff and aides to maintain an acceptable child-adult ratio. Another thing is that all day kindergarten is considered to be too academic, concentrating on basic skills before children are ready. I can also imagine that practically one half-day of an all-day program may become merely child care.

Of course the decision to put a child into a half-day or full-day kindergarten program lies with the parents, and it all depends on the child itself. What do you think is best?

Coming Tuesday is election day in the US, I don’t think anyone failed to notice that.  Both Obama and McCain are mainly focussing on the financial crisis and the war in Iraq. These are also what most voters claim to be the most important issues facing the US at the moment. With the campaigns hardening, it is quite possible to miss out on what the election candidates stand for when it comes to (K-12) education.

I found it hard to find out exactly what the main differences are between the two. But when it comes to K-12 education policies like school choice and funding, there are fundamental differences. McCain is much more supportive of school choice and local control than Obama, and Obama supports a much larger increase in federal education spending.  Obama supports an 18 billion dollar increase in federal education spending, with 10 billion of that increase devoted to an expanded federal effort in early education and preschool.

what do you find more important? More money for early education or freedom of school choice? Or both?

Can playing computer games improve childrens’ math skills? Researchers in Scotland (link) found out that playing Nintendo DS’s Brain Trainer significantly improved the students’ test scores.

Students aged nine and ten completed math tests before the nine week project, and then again afterwards.  All the childrens’ scores were higher, but those using the trainer improved by 50 per cent more than those who did not.

They also noticed when the pupils started the day with a twenty minute problem solving session of the game, that they had and increased attention span during the day.

According to LTS’s (Learning and Teaching Scotland ) national advisor for emerging technologies and learning,  “It shows teachers needn’t be afraid to use technology in the classroom”.

Well I’m not afraid  to use technology in the classroom, but I wouldn’t just let the students play games in school.  As one person commented in an earlier post on this site: “I believe children need to explore and develop fine motor skills and get exercise running around outside. I think a lot of other skills may suffer (Like social skills)”. I completely agree! 

A new pilot has just started in Canada (link) to supply 4 year old kindergarten students with laptops, to be used in the classroom. During the pilot, the computers will be used “in both reading circle and outside the building to explore nature”.

Huh, what is that I thought? Exploring nature with a laptop?

Anyway, the people behind it find it important that “from the beginning, children will experience the technology that will be a part of their lives”. Well, it’s debatable whether that is something desirable, there’s lots of technology that you don’t want your child to experience at age 4: Game consoles, certain websites etc.

I encourage the use of computers in classrooms as a helping tool, but for kindergarten students to walk around with laptops (think about the weight they have to carry around!) sounds to me like one step too far. Although the mentioned “enhancements in their intelligence, non-verbal skills and problem-solving” are undoubtedly substantial, it probably does not help their social and emotional development. Guidance by a skilled teacher in this experiment will be very important.

Nevertheless I’m curious how this pilot works out, and whether these children are really better off later in life. The people behind the idea claim that “The younger they’re exposed to it, the better”. Well, I guess only the future can tell.