With the spring holidays here, chocolate candy is everywhere! Yes, it’s a source of fat, sugar and calories. But research has shown that dark chocolate has some health benefits, too. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s philly.com Web site gives you permission to indulge in some dark chocolate.
Your School’s Summer Program and Risk Management
As Summer Program Director, you’ve spent time since last summer’s program to reconsider the design and curriculum for this summer’s sessions. You may not, however, have looked at risk management specifically from the perspective of your program. Or perhaps you noticed some safety issues last year that must be addressed. The safety and care of your students is a priority—and is also essential in our litigious society.
Maintain Personnel Records Diligently to Protect Your School
While many schools expend significant effort to manage student records appropriately, they often pay less attention to handling employee records properly. In an increasingly litigious and regulated operating environment, schools must attend to employee records in a consistent and prudent fashion. This article provides record-keeping recommendations for each employee-related process, and describes how to maintain various files and records for the protection of the school and employees.
Research Report: Faculty Culture Profile II and Student Culture Profile II, Fall 2012 Data
ISM published its Student Experience Study (SES) outcomes in January 2012, and published related articles in Ideas & Perspectives throughout the spring. Among the features in the report were a revised Faculty Culture Profile—ISM’s long-standing measure of the quality of a school’s faculty culture—and a revised Student Culture Profile, along with the study’s statistical findings and an instrument for use as part of any school’s approach to faculty evaluation, the Characteristics of Professional Excellence II.
Zero Tolerance and Young Children: What’s the Common-Sense Answer?
Since the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Connecticut, school administrators and parents are on edge. The tragedy has thrust gun control and school security issues to the forefront of the national conversation, and zero-tolerance policies are once again in the news.
A Lincoln Teaching Tool, Courtesy of Hollywood
Daniel Day Lewis’s striking portrayal of Abraham Lincoln as he works the political maze to pass the 13th amendment to outlaw slavery and involuntary servitude in the film Lincoln will be coming to all public and private school middle and high schools as soon as the DVD hits stores.
You and the Flu: What To Know and Do
In early January, Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, PA, had so many people coming into the emergency room with flu symptoms that it set up a mobile ER—actually a large tent—to handle the flow.
Drink up!
The mix of temperatures during the winter wears down our immune systems. Indoors, it's nice and toasty; outside it's frightfully cold. Our bodies have to adapt within seconds to drastic changes. For some of us, this equates to mid-winter colds and the flu due to compromised immune systems.
Global Education for Global Citizenship
It’s a Small World After All.” Anyone who grew up in the 60s and practically anyone who has visited a Disney resort can probably hear that song, which debuted at the 1965 World’s Fair, in their mind’s ear. It’s a cute, sing-songy way to say what Socrates did more than 2,400 years ago. “I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.”
21st Century Education and Your School’s Parents
ISM has written extensively about the characteristics of 21st century education. The educational landscape has the potential to be vastly different from what it was a few years ago—enhanced technology, pedagogy, facilities, calendar, schedule, etc. When adopting 21st century educational changes, recognize that your school will have a parent education “opportunity” of significant proportions. As School Head, take control of this effort.