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Creepy crawlers close school
—BBC News
A school in Britain was forced to close October 23 because of an infestation of that country’s most venomous spider. The Dean Academy “identified an issue with false widow spiders” in its school building, which in turn led to the school being shut and fumigated. A change in climate is believed to be contributing to the increase in sightings of the arachnid. Although the false widow spider is poisonous, there have been no reported deaths from its bite in the United Kingdom.
Teacher has great genes
—CBC News, November 9, 2013
Twenty women from across Canada, including a teacher from Newfoundland, are ready to duke it out for a modelling contract and a $1,000 shopping spree from Addition Elle, the plus-sized clothing retail chain. Teacher Michelle Martin, from Clarenville, decided to enter the contest to prove to her students that beauty has no bounds. “I just wanted my students to know you can apply for things ... you can do what you want to do if it’s positive and it’s happy, and you are being you.” So far, Martin is in first place out of thousands of women in North America to be the fan favourite of Addition Elle’s “Do you have great genes?” model search.
School district bans students from asking questions in class
www.thespoof.com
In an effort to increase standardized test scores and prevent a state takeover, a New Jersey school district has banned its students from asking questions in class. A letter from the superintendent announcing the ban was posted on the school district’s website. The letter pointed out that recent budget cuts have caused an increase in class size throughout every grade. “As a result, if 35 students in a 45-minute class each ask one question, there wouldn’t be enough time for the teacher to teach to the test,” the superintendent explained. A poll taken by the teachers’ union the day after the ban was announced showed that every teacher in the district supported the ban, due in part to a new tenure law that ties teacher job approval to standardized test scores. Although critics of the ban acknowledge that any strategy used in a classroom that minimizes distractions and increases time on task should never be overlooked, many agree that this particular ban won’t make much of a difference in the classroom. Research shows that the majority of students raise their hands in class to ask permission to go to the bathroom and not for any scholarly inquisitiveness. According to school officials, students can still ask to go to the bathroom, but they have to ask quickly.
