Mehlville School District First in region to become certified as Red Cross Ready – StlToday.com
April 9, 2009
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MEHLVILLE SCHOOLS > All are certified as Red Cross Ready — The Mehlville School District became the first in the region to have all of its schools certified as Red Cross Ready Rating members. This means every school is preparing for emergency situations, such as dangerous weather to pandemic illness, based on Red Cross criteria.
The district has had crisis plans in place, but with the Ready Rating Program, the plan includes more parental involvement at school and home, the district says.
The free service is open to any business, group or school. Schools that join earn a yearly $300 safety stipend to help with emergency planning. For more information about the Red Cross Ready Rating Program, visit readyrating.redcrossstl.org.
04/08/2009 – Education Digest > 4/08 – STLtoday.com
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Teachers Learn to Help Kids Behave – WSJ.com
April 9, 2009
This is pretty good. I am always on the lookout for some creative ways to keep the kids eyes forward and brains open.
Behavior problems among small children are a growing issue. The possible causes are many: pressure on teachers to stress math and reading over emotional skills; family instability; a decline in playtime; heavy use of child care; or a rise in learning problems such as attention-deficit disorder. Based on preliminary findings from a federal child-care study, discussed last week at a conference for the Society for Research in Child Development in Denver, the slight increase in behavior problems found in children who spent lots of early time in child care persists all the way to age 15, in the form of more impulsivity and risk-taking.
But now, some novel teaching programs are showing great promise in solving the behavior problems, and perhaps in reducing ADD diagnoses. By giving children more time for dramatic or pretend play, and by building into the school day more lessons in self control, researchers are seeing both big reductions in bad behavior, and gains in cognitive skills. The findings have value for well-behaved children too; research shows behavior problems among a few children tend to drag down other kids’ conduct.
