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No, not that one. I mean, “What grade does my child have in your class?” Which one did you think I meant?
We just had parents’ night here on Wednesday evening. At my school, this annual event gives the teachers a chance to meet their students’ parents and talk up their courses, and the parents a chance to learn something about what they’ve gotten their kids into. Like many schools, we’ve taken to putting homework assignments and other course materials on a portal. Our vendor, Edline, provides its clients the opportunity to place students’ grades online, so that both students — and parents — can see them.
We, however, do not, for reasons I will get into later.
Since Edline portals do not allow students to complete their homework online, I also use WebAssign to allow my students to do many of their homework assignments online. Most of the students actually like the site, and it permits me to maintain my gradebook online for each kid to see his or her grades. Parents, however, cannot. And therein lies the rub.
One of my parents was quite distressed that she could visit the WebAssign site, but could not sign in, unless she used her daughter’s account. The girl wisely kept that information to herself (well, I hope, anyway). This mother wanted to know why (1) she could not access WebAssign and its gradebook and (2) why we do not upload our grades to Edline.
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Although her situation in Kuwait is still far from resolved, Katherine Phillips has at least been allowed to leave the country to stay with her parents. Late last month, Phillips, a US educator working in Kuwait, had been banned from leaving the emirate while an angry parent conducted a vendetta against her.
In a letter to the International Schools Review, which had publicized her plight, Phillips said she had received a text message on her phone that the travel ban had been lifted. Since an earlier lifting had been rescinded, she chose to leave Kuwait immediately. (The complete letter is at the ISR site.)
Meanwhile, she has been officially banned from traveling to any of the Gulf Coast countries, which are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The Ministry of Education in Kuwait has also instituted a ban against non-Kuwaitis serving in administrative positions in Kuwaiti schools.
You would think with such a frantic governmental response, Phillips had been charged with child molestation or murder. In fact, according to her and another person close to the situation, she was just following the school’s disciplinary handbook, which all parents presumably signed off on.
In fact, Phillips had sent three fifth-grade boys to in-school suspension last year for fighting in Al Bayan Bilingual School , where she was a deputy principal. Within short order, one of the parents, an influential Kuwaiti, called her on the phone to blast her with insults and threats. She was then charged with “unlawful imprisonment” and prevented from leaving the country.
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The International Schools Review has issued a travel and work advisory for teachers intending to visit or work in Kuwait, after a middle school administrator reported a powerful parent was harassing her.
Katherine Phillips of the Al Bayan Bilingual School has been unable to leave the country after an angry, influential parent filed charges of “unlawful imprisonment” against her. Phillips had assigned three fifth graders to in-school suspension last year, after the three were caught fighting in school.
Saying that such harassment is not unusual for teachers in Kuwait, the ISR posted the travel/work advisory on its website, saying in part:
We encourage all teachers/administrators to contact their Kuwaiti Schools, calling for an immediate resolution of Katherine Phillips’ situation, one that will lift her travel ban and allow her to return home to her family.
We further encourage all teachers/administrators in Kuwaiti Schools to consider not returning to Kuwait or honoring their contracts in Kuwait until this situation has been resolved.
The advisory includes Phillips’ original email to ISR, a supporting letter from another teacher who has taught in Kuwait, and a message apparently from a Kuwaiti supporting the charges against Phillips.
ISR sent an email to its subscribers containing letters from Dr. Barbara Spilchuk, a teacher placement advisor at ISR, and from Phillip’s parents in Bahrain. It is reproduced here.
While her plight has not yet made the world mainstream media, both the print versions of the Arab Times and Kuwait Times have covered the story. Meanwhile bloggers like 2:48am, an expat living in Kuwait, are publicizing her situation. Commenters at 2:48am are conducting a lively debate about the issue.
This is a preview of Stay away from Kuwaiti schools, says international teachers group . Read the full post (792 words, 1 image, estimated 3:10 mins reading time)Possibly related posts:
Katherine Phillips, a US citizen in Kuwait, cannot leave the country and is in fear of her life, because her by-the-book punishment of three fifth graders pissed off the wrong kind of parent.In Kuwait, it seems, it is dangerous to make influential parents unhappy, particularly if you are a single female in a position of supposed authority. Phillips is apparently stranded in Kuwait, and US State Department officials seem unable or unwilling to assist her.
“I am in fear for my safety,” she wrote in an email sent today to Internationals School Review. “I do not feel safe. I am not safe.”
Phillips has been middle school vice-principal of the Al-Bayan Bilingual School for six years. In March 2006, she sent three boys to in-school suspension for fighting, a standard school procedure, according to her own account.
That afternoon, one of the boy’s fathers, Fawaz Khalid Al Marzouq, called Phillips and in the course of a very brief, angry conversation threatened to “destroy her.” He did nothing immediately.
In fact, things apparently settled down, after she and the parents met with other school officials. The angry father moved his son to a different school that June. Meanwhile, the education ministry advised the Al-Bayan Bilingual School that in-school suspensions were now forbidden.
Then in February this year, Phillips learned that a case had been filed against her with the local police department. The charge was “illegal detainment” of Al Marzouq’s misbehaving son. After interviews, the situation again seemed to be settled …
This is a preview of School official in Kuwait ‘fears for her safety’ after suspending children . Read the full post (1551 words, 1 image, estimated 6:12 mins reading time)Possibly related posts:
On Flickr, here. Really, why bother going now?
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 Before Bill Nye, the Science Guy, and Beekman, there was Mr Wizard. During the dim days of black-and-white broadcast TV, Don Herbert portrayed a kindly, soft-spoken science pal to scores of youngsters appearing on his show, and thousands of kids watching at home on the TV. I turned on “Watch Mr. Wizard” whenever it was on, and mourned its loss when it was canceled in 1964.
Now I mourn the loss of the man himself. Herbert died yesterday at age 89 at his California home, after suffering for years with bone cancer.
Herbert’s show, by today’s glitzy, high-tech standards, was slow and dull. Most kids nowadays would probably not have the patience to watch it all the through. But in the 1950s and early ’60s, that’s what TV was like. The appeal of Herbert’s show was the gee-whiz effect he created, encouraging kids to use household materials to discover science.
(You can order Mr Wizard programs here.)
One Mr Wizard trick I still use is his method of removing tarnish from silver. Fill a disposable aluminum-foil pan with hot water (or place a sheet of Al foil in a glass baking dish) and dissolve a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of baking soda in the water. Place the silver article in the water and wait. Gradually the tarnish (silver oxide) will leave and be deposited on the aluminum. Why? Because aluminum is more reactive than silver; oxygen would rather form an oxide with Al than with Ag.
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The folks at BluegrassRoots.com took a trip up I-75 to visit the Yabba-Dabba-Doo Museum in Petersburg. The more I see, the less I would want to shell out almost $20 to visit the place. I’ll just stay home and watch The 10 Commandments.
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