Inside Four Walls: Cheating

Cheating happens. It always has and unfortunately, it always will. But what should a school do about it? At our school if a student is caught cheating on a test, sorry "violating test conditions" (we aren't allowed to call it cheating anymore), or copying homework for the first time, nothing really happens to them. In fact, all they have to do is get a piece of paper signed by their parents. Not even a detention. No one really understands why that policy is in place, but it is.

Anyway, I mentioned this story from a couple of months ago about the whole Facebook group/cheating scandal. And now there is some fallout, if you will. There were a total of 70 students in the group, out of about 100-110, at least 29 are on Facebook as cheating. When the teachers took the information to the administration, they didn't get the response they were looking for. At first they were told that the students that created the group, but the others wouldn't be called in for cheating. One counselor said that the teachers would need the assignments to compare answers. That is hilarious that they would take that stance, considering online the student literally said "hey I need the answers to the homework, who wants to help me out?". And then you saw a bunch of responses with the answers. I guess that isn't enough proof.

The group has been shut down and now all of the cheaters are being called in. The sad part is that no one knows what their punishment is yet. It's one of those "you cheated, we know you did, but we don't know what we are going to do yet." and send them back to class. We have only like 9 days of school left, you would think there would be a policy in place as to how to handle this.

One last thought, the teachers drafted a letter to the parents explaining what happened and how they should monitor their kids a bit more. They sent it to the administrators for approval and...they were told to hold off on sending it out. I'm not sure why, but talking to the teachers they feel frustrated at how long it is taking to figure this out.

Worst part, the students don't think they did anything wrong.

Music Non Stop: In Flames - Deliver Us video

I played the song already, but they released a video for it now. I actually think this one song is better than a majority of A Sense of Purpose, enjoy.

Inside Four Walls: Girl Suspended for wishing her teacher dead

...and surprisingly she is suspended by the school. Not surprisingly though, the mom thinks the punishment is too harsh.

Dell'isola said she agreed that the post was offensive but thought the punishment was extreme and her daughter was entitled to free speech. 

"In hindsight, she's mortified that she said that, but she's a 13-year-old kid," Dell'isola said.  Dell'isola said she usually monitors her daughter's use of the social networking website but found out about the post when she received a phone call from the school's principal. She said a parent of one of the girl's friends reported the comment. 

The concerned mother was urging the school to remove her daughter from class and give her a private math tutor instead of the suspension. 

"You are denying her an education based on something she did at home. That's my business, not your business," Dell'isola said.

So if someone wished her daughter dead, do you think she would say that was "freedom of speech"? Once again a parent is making excuses for their children, instead of teaching them right & wrong.

Music Non Stop: New Dead by April

This has been a fun year for music. It started off pretty strong and slowed down a bit the last month or so, but it looks like it will pick up the next few months again. Anthrax, Trivium, In Flames, Nightrage, and more are set to release albums still. And speaking of Nightrage, their former lead vocalist's band Dead by April will be releasing their album this summer too. I have heard some demos of the new album and another song, Within My Heart, was just released and it seems a little heavier than More Than Yesterday.

These guys are pretty good at making metal that has a super catchy chorus. I would have liked to seen the keys moved to the back a bit more and the guitars up more, but I guess that didn't happen.  Another album to look forward to.

It's going to be tough to do a Top 10 mid albums of the year this year...easily the toughest list so far.

Inside Four Walls: Prom

I don't think people outside of education realize how much has changed from even 10 years ago. It used to be if you wanted to go to prom, you asked the girl. Now? It's a whole big production, seriously it's like these guys are asking the girl to get married. It's a joke and a waste of time. Think about how much time went into this. Now, that is how much time that was spend not studying for a test or doing homework for a class...yeah let's tie test scores to teacher's salary.

By the way, this took place at the other high school in our district, so this is what we deal with. Good times, right? I always tell my male students not to make a big deal out of asking a girl to prom. And if I find out they did, I will take their "Man Card" away from them. Funny thing is, years after I started saying this, I saw this Scrubs episode...with Man Cards...classic!

Music Non Stop: new Limp Bizkit

Gold Cobra was supposed to come out last year and it didn't. I was afraid Limp Bizkit was going the Guns N Roses route of waiting 15 years before releasing an album. Anyway, the new album is supposed to come out this summer, so we will wait and see on that. I have talked a lot about Limp Bizkit in the past and so while I am not a fan of nu metal, I am curious as to how this will sound considering The Unquestionable Truth Part 1 was so good.

It's just one song, it has it's moments...still out on this one.

Video Killed the Radio Star: Ochocinco going for a short ride

How short? About 2 seconds. Whats funny is that he takes more time getting ready than he does on the bull.

The Sun Always Shines on T.V.: Two Starbucks

Where was I when this photo came out? I am a huge Battlestar Galactica fan...seriously huge. The new show was great and hopefully the latest spin off Blood & Chrome will be solid as well...hopefully a little bit faster pace than Caprica.

Anyway, apparently this was taken before the new show aired.  The man on the left was the original Starbuck.  The girl on the left, the new Starbuck.  You read that correctly, they changed the sex of one of the two main characters.  Anyway, Dirk Benedict played nice for the promo tour, but then ripped the show when it aired.  I knew he didn't like the new show, which is why I freaked out when I thought this was a current photo and not an 8 year old one.

The original Starbuck was one of my favorite characters of all time, so to turn him into a her pissed me off a bit.  However, much like the new Star Trek movie, if you are able to forget everything you remembered about the original show then the new one was actually pretty good.  I always hoped Dirk would find his way back to Galactica like Richard Hatch did, but alas it wasn't meant to be.

Music Non Stop: new Unearth

Unearth is a mixed bag for me. The Oncoming Storm was pretty solid...for metalcore. It wasn't ground-breaking like Killswitch Engage, it was good. III: In the Eyes of Fire literally had one good song, This Glorious Nightmare. And The March...well...yeah.

Unearth is almost like the Iron Maiden of metalcore. Simply put, when you have heard one Unearth song, you have pretty much heard them all. With all that said, their new song Eyes of Black from their upcoming album, Darkness in the Light, is actually pretty good. Solid drumming, a nice little guitar solo, and of course the trademark breakdown make this song enjoyable. I might check this out.

Thoughts Without Words: I thought teachers were the cause...

...of the budget problems. That's what I always hear on the radio and read online. Teachers are greedy and if they were to take furlough days or pay cuts then all the budget problems could be gone. In our district our new superintendent is getting $20,000 more than our old sup, and she was only there for 2 years. So some people might be shocked by this, but for teachers...it's nothing new.

For a new position, chief of intensive support and intervention, the commission approved a salary of $171,312. The commission, at an April meeting, had previously set a five-step salary range beginning at $137,496. The amended salary is set at the top step of the range. This position will be held by newcomer Donna Muncey.

So an increase of over $30,000, yet L.A. Unified is going through a ton of cuts. And yet when the teachers refuse to take furlough days or pay cuts, they are the evil greedy ones. I love education.