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Student Blogs to Effect School Change

saladTired of being forced to eat what she felt were nutritionally sub-par meals at school, a 9-year-old student took to her blog in an effort to draw attention to the issue. It didn’t take long for that attention to go viral as Martha Payne's blog, Never Seconds, was eyed by several media outlets in her native Scotland. The attention grew to the point of a nationally-televised interview with the BBC. She explained how she would take pictures of the meals presented to her with a digital camera and write up a summary of the food including a Food-o-meter rating of how much she likes it, a mouthful count, a health rating and a number for how many pieces of hair were in the food.

She started in April and by May 15, school and town officials were seen leading journalists on tours of the school’s dining area. It was then that Payne blogged that there was a new system for ordering food, and that "cherry tomatoes, radishes, carrot and cucumber shreddings," began appearing in the meals.

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Web Giants Warn of Malware

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Making a Difference

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Do You Play Games?

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Teachers Debate Social Media Use in...

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“I’ve always been open to new technologies in the classroom—in fact, in 2010 I argued that we were doing...

Amazon Slashes Children's Titles...

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Count Up!

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After the smoke cleared and the children settled down~ I simply said:

"What you have just experienced is an act of terrorism."

I then led into my lesson on terrorism and how it is unexpected~ shocking and violent. Later~ the class watched...

Pulitzer Winner Publishes Via Twitter

New YorkerProving that even Pulitzer Prize winners are embracing social media, decorated author Jennifer Egan is publishing her next short story via Twitter.

Egan’s story, “Black Box,” began with a first 140-character Tweet on the New Yorker Fiction Twitter account last week. A new line is published every minute from 8 to 9 pm EST. This format of a Tweet-A-Minute...

High Schooler Sets Physics World Abuzz

issac newtonA 16-year-old German high school student has written a paper that purports to have solved two mysteries that were beyond the intellect of the great Isaac Newton.

Shouryya Ray, an Indian-born student who won second prize this month in the math and informatics...

Final Days

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So what do you do with the days left in the school year? How do you use them productively and remain motivated in the process? This has been a burning question in my mind for the last several...

Making a Cohesive School Environment

Probably the most important factor in a school management system is the staff that will be expected to implement it. If the teachers do not come together as a cohesive unit~ agreeing with the philosophy or executing the rules and consequences~ then the system will fall apart. Students will begin to realize which teachers will follow the letter of the law~ as well as which will turn the other cheek. Consistency is key in any K-12 educational setting~ but most...

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