Teaching is dangerous

The University of Leicester recently surveyed over 300 teachers regarding incidents of physical and verbal abuse. The results are depressing but, frankly, I'm not surprised at all.

Two-thirds of teachers in the UK have been physically or verbally assaulted in the past year, with 17% threatened in incidents involving weapons, according to new research.

Almost all teachers (99%) said they had been verbally abused by their pupils in the past year, with 74% claiming it happened at least once every two or three weeks.

There are more. It's just too depressing to list them all in this post. You can read the article here.

The real queston should be, "What is going to be done?" Maybe it's a job for the new Secretary for Education (whatever the new title is - it has changed with alarming frequency in the past few years)...not that I'm holding my breath...I've been here less than three years and we're on our third.

Interesting news today...

It seems that in England, private schools are the way to go if you're looking for the best chance at being successful. In a study by the Sutton Trust, of the 500 most influential people in a variety of fields, more than half had attended private schools (compared with only 7% of the population being privately educated).

Dr Lee Elliot Major, the Sutton Trust's director of research, said: "This analysis shows that the school you attend at age 11 has a huge impact on your life chances, and particularly how likely you are to reach the top of your chosen profession.
"We are still to a large extent a society divided by wealth, with future elites groomed at particular schools and universities, while the educational opportunities available to those from non-privileged backgrounds make it much more difficult for them to reach the top."

The Guardian's story.

Free books for kids!

The Department fo rEducation and Skills is spending £2.78 million to provide all of England's 11-year-olds with a free book by Christmas.

They will be able to choose one of the titles from this list:

• Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson (Macmillan Children's Books)
• Cloud Busting by Malorie Blackman (Doubleday)
• A Dog Called Grk by Joshua Doder (Andersen Press)
• Saffy's Angel by Hilary McKay (Hodder Children's Books)
• Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve (Scholastic Children's Books)
• I, Coriander by Sally Gardner (Orion Children's Books)
• Dream On by Bali Rai (Barrington Stoke)
• Framed by Frank Cottrell Boyce (Macmillan Children's Books)
• Evil Inventions - Horrible Science by Nick Arnold, illustrated by Tony De Saulles (Scholastic Children's Books)
• Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick (Usborne)
• The Ring of Words by An Anthology of Poetry for Children selected by Roger McGough, illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura (Faber and Faber)
• Unbelievable! by Paul Jennings (Puffin Books)

The full article is here!

Prepared for the future?

Last Sunday's Observer had an interesting article about the problems that small businesses are having with their new employees.

Only 6 percent of the 672 small businesses surveyed said they found their new employees adequately prepared to work. Only 1 percent said that a university degree was the first thing they looked for. Instead, businesses want (and are having difficulty finding) motivated, well-dressed employees who could communicate well.

The full article is here.

A crucial tool for education writing.

Do you long to visualize mastery-focused critical thinking? Could you cultivate compelling enrichment for your pupils? You could even triangulate classroom-based solutions.

All you need it this link: http://www.sciencegeek.net/lingo.html

With one click on this link, you too can use disintermediate visionary business partnerships...I mean...write near-meaningless educational phrases. Think of the fun at the next meeting!