Behind the Headlines

By Paula Wethington / paula@monroenews.com

In Saturday’s edition of The Monroe Evening News, there will be a story and at least one photo of the Monroe Advanced Robotics Competition taking place at Monroe High School.

Now while the story does focus on what’s taking place at the high school and why, there also was a very clever publicity event scheduled at the Phoenix Theater at Frenchtown Square mall.

You see, there’s this new movie called WALL*E, a Disney-Pixar science fiction film that stars a robot who  goes about his tasks on Earth, when he meets and falls in love with another robot.

And the press release that was sent to The Monroe Evening News explained this publicity tie-in. The robotics teams participating in Monroe were invited to “bring their robot to the movies” for a special screening. The plans included reserved seating up front for the robots, while their team members / handlers / students enjoyed the show. And a concession stand display was intended for the robots, with bolts and batteries such as they might prefer in lieu of popcorn and soft drinks.

Now, I don’t know who thought up that idea, because a similar publicity event also was scheduled at Phoenix Theater in Farmington Hills.

But it was a very clever concept to cross-promote the student contest and the movie!

I attended the Michigan CSI (Cyber Safety Initiative) presentation at Bedford High School Tuesday night with a story on the event in yesterday’s MEN.

I wanted to add a few things to the story.

First here are some warning signs for parents when it comes to their child’s Internet usage:
1. You child spends large amounts of time on-line, especially at night.
2. You find pornography on your child’s computer.
3. You child receives phone calls from people you don’t know or is making calls, sometimes long distances, to numbers you don’t recognize.
4. You child receives mail, gifts or packages from someone you don’t know.
5. You child turns the computer monitor off or quickly changes the screen on the monitor whne you come in to the room.
6. You child becomes withdrawn from the family.
7. You child is using an online account belonging to someone else.
8. While online, your child is using a microphone or Webcam you didn’t know he/she had.

If you notice any of these signs, the following are some safety tips for parents:
Create clear and simple ground rules for children to follow.
Place a computer with Internet access in a location that is visible to other members of the family and NOT IN THE CHILD’S BEDROOM.
Explain to your children that they should never give out identifying information- name, address, school name, telephone number- in any public forum such as a chat room or bulletin board.
Discuss the importance of telling you or a trusted adult if something ever makes your child or teen feel scared, uncomfortable, or confused while online.
Become familiar with blocking and monitoring programs.
Get to know the Internet and any services your children use.

Some Web sites that might be helpful are:
http://www.netlingo.com/top20teens.cfm - This Web site has the top 20 acronyms every parent should know when it comes to message boards or instant messaging.

There is a wealth of information on the Michigan Attorney General’s Web site regarding the CSI program. The Web site is www.michigan.gov/ag.

Should school within an intermediate school district be united under a common calendar?

The Michigan State Senate passed legislation last week saying they should and I agree.

After speaking with Monroe County Intermediate School District Superintendent Don Spencer, it would be much easier for schools to share programs such as foreign languages using the common calendar.

However, under this legislation, schools who are on trimesters would be exempt from the common calendar- which means half of the districts in Monroe County, beginning next year, would be exempt.

What do you think? Is this a good idea?

Another point Mr. Spencer addressed was the length of the school year. Should Michigan schools change back to the 180 day minimum?

Mr. Spencer told me students in other parts of the world go to school for much longer than 180 days. For example, Japanese students go to school for more than 230 days.

Do you like the current system of 1,098 minimum instruction hours or should their be a set number of days like it used to be?

I ran into a situation this morning where I should have known better.

My daughter is listed in a scholarship announcement in today’s print edition of The Monroe Evening News. The editors who were working on the page asked me to double-check, on deadline, how her parents’ names were listed.

The question didn’t sink at first. Then I realized what the concern was. There were only two parents listed after her name (mom and stepdad). In previous newspaper announcements, we have also listed dad and stepmom, even though they live out of state. And my co-workers remembered that.

So I scribbled down their names and hometown so that information could be added to today’s article.

My daughter and I had filled out so many scholarship and award applications over the past year that I don’t remember who was listed on what paperwork. We didn’t list family names the same way on every application, because eligibility for various programs depends on parents’ employment, income, residency or memberships - and you want to play up those connections when appropriate.

But family names are also important for the announcements that run on Community Page and Classroom Page. And if parents are listed incorrectly or not at all, that’s not a good situation.

Here’s what happens … when you or your child is filling out an application for an award or scholarship, that application also provides the biographical information that the awards committee relies on when sending its announcement to the newspaper.

You will not, in most cases, be provided with a separate press release form.

As a result, you will want to list the appropriate people with complete spellings and hometowns on the initial application paperwork. If the form is confusing or has limited space for details, it’s perfectly fair to attach a note that says “If she should earn this award, please announce her parents as …”

Harvard economist, Roland G. Fryer, is suggesting school districts pay students cash for high scores on standardized tests with the belief their performances will improve.

Some districts across the country have tried this approach. One district in Massachusetts paid children $25 for perfect attendance. Another in Dallas paid $2 for each book the children read.
I think it’s one thing if parents are rewarding their children for achieving good grades or scoring high on a test, but it’s another when school districts are paying for the achievement.

Should schools offer incentives such as money to entice students to do well? What should those incentives be? Are districts promoting the right thing? What do you think?

This week I covered two really cool events.
The first was St. Patrick School in Carleton’s downtown scavenger hunt. The principal wanted the students to see the history and family-friendly places that are downtown Monroe.

For the whole day, students worked in groups visiting different locations throughout the downtown and around the city. Along the way, they had to find items corresponding to the alphabet.

They learned about Custer, how their school got started and even how pizzas were made.

The other event was Airport Community School’s Pioneer Day.

Once a year, fourth-grade students from around the district travel to Sterling Elementary to step back in time and learn what Michigan was like during pioneer times.

Some students really got into it and dressed in costumes.
I was impressed by the number of kids who told me they would much rather lived during those times because life was simpler.

Simpler? How could waking up at 4 a.m. and working until 9 p.m. every day from the time you were small until the day you can no longer work be any simpler than today?

I was even more impressed some of the boys said they preferred playing with the toys from that time than playing with some of the games nowadays — including video games.

Both events were very creative ways to learn about history. I’m continuously impressed how interactive schools have become in recent years.

I guess I’m a little jealous.

Because both looked like so much fun, I wished I was back in school. Well, almost.

At least 321 employees of the Pontiac School District will be laid off at the end of this year because of declining enrollment and an anticipated cut of nearly $125 per pupil in state funding, 100 are teachers.
Some local districts has announced layoffs of some teaching staff, bus drivers and maintenance workers.

Gov. Granholm is proposing an increase in taxes. What do you think the state should do to cut down on the lay-offs?

We’re getting a few calls at the newsroom from people who need our mailing address because they plan to mail - rather than hand-deliver - a press release because they’d rather not make a trip downtown.

Go ahead and mail your announcements. But please keep in mind that, even if you are mailing a letter from the city of Monroe, it can take two or three days for mail to get to our office and be delivered to the right person. So plan ahead for the extra lead time.

If you need quicker delivery, you can fax or e-mail the announcements. If you need to phone in an announcement, it may be hit and miss for contacting a specific reporter or editor, but generally there are people in and out of the newsroom during business hours Monday through Friday. (Weekend and holiday hours are limited.)
Contact numbers and e-mail addresses are listed at www.monroenews.com.

To prevent school shootings, some South Carolina legislators want more guns on campuses.

A House subcommittee approved a measure today that would allow concealed weapon permit holders to carry guns onto public school campuses, from elementary schools to universities.

I remember seeing an interview with some of the Virginia Tech students after the shootings last month who said they would have felt safer if guns would have been allowed on campus. Those same students said less people would have been killed if concealed permit holders would have been allowed to have their guns at hand.
Do you think this is a good idea or is it going to cause more problems?

I covered and judge the Monroe County Intermediate School District’s Spelling Bee last night.

The winner, Marc Schwartz, an eighth-grader from Cantrick Middle School easily won the competition after spelling “perdition” and “motley” correctly.

After receiving his trophy and medal, I asked him what he thought about beating out 38 other participants.

He shrugged his shoulders and said he didn’t try all that hard to win and he thought the majority of his 14 words were easy to spell.

I am surprised how little he seemed to care about winning. Although, I should not have been so surprised. Every time he went to the microphone to spell a word, he looked really bored.
Looking back, I should have asked him if he would have rather been someplace else last night. I’m sure he would have been more enthusiastic about that.

Nola Ochs is entering the world record books for being the oldest person to receive a college degree.

Mrs. Ochs, 95, graduated last weekend from Fort Hays State University with a bachelor’s degree. But she’s not done yet. She said she wants to pursue a master’s.

I know my grandpa is talking about going back to college when he retires in a few years and getting his bachelor’s degree. He is only 9 credits shy. I think his age of 74 isn’t too bad considering Mrs. Ochs’ age.

Do you know of anyone who returned to school later in life to complete their college degrees?

I’ve been exposed to the education system in Monroe County for just a short time, but I know one thing- the area could benefit from a program similar to the Kalamazoo Promise.

Do you think this area could benefit?

Here are a couple of links about the success of the Promise:

http://www.wzzm13.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=75224

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070514/NEWS05/705140368/1001

The gas prices are predicted to rise higher than that little yodeling hiker person on the Price is Right game. Check out the SEMCOG calculator to see how much you spend on your commute monthly and yearly and see how much you could save if you were to pool with others.

Click here.

I was a presenter yesterday at a local career day for elementary schools students.

Fellow reporter Ray Kisonas told me to get the kids involved right away otherwise they will not pay attention to anything I have to say.

So I asked all of them about reading and what kind of stories they like to read. I received typical responses from kids- stories about family, friends, animals and fantasy.

I thought, okay, this is going fairly well. So I asked them if they read the newspaper and every student said yes. I proceeded to ask them what they see in the newspaper.

They shouted: car accidents, fires, people getting arrested, drug busts, dead people. One girl even said the newspaper does not contain one positive article.

For a minute I think my mouth fell open and my mind went blank (probably because this was my first solo career day presentation and partly because I had no idea how to respond).

I told the students while all of the things they mentioned were featured in the news, there are a lot of positive stories about people doing good things.

Then one student said- Well my mom tells me all reporters lie, so you could just be lying to us right now.

Before I could say anymore, the office announced it was time for the students to move to their next session.

Do all children think there is nothing in the news but negative stories, do they not see the positive stories or are their parents influencing what news they hear?

A state of Michigan proposal to buy iPods and MP3 players for students in K-12 is a good idea and here’s why:

I attended the “We’ve Gotta Reach ‘Em to Teach ‘Em” seminar at the Whitman Center on Tuesday. Elizabeth Johnson, associate professor of teacher education at Eastern Michigan University and Mary Kathleen Walsh, a recent graduate of the EMU education program, were the presenters.

The whole talk was about incorporating different teaching methods into schools from small things such as changing the type of pointer a teacher uses during lectures to using costumes to act out stories and history lessons and even teaching lessons through music.

Teaching today is very challenging because students are easily distracted with their personal lives, pop culture and just about anything else.

Why not offer a way for every student to participate and get excited about learning. Not every student learns the same way and I think this can help break the monotony of lectures.
Now should the state run out and buy a ton of these things when the budget is in the position it is now- probably not- but it is definitely something to consider for the future. I think it can bring back excitement to teaching and to learning