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A huge network of search-indexed fake domains, loaded with hacks designed to take over your computer and steal information, has been discovered buried in the Search Engine results of Google, MSN, Yahoo, according to this posting.

Download and update your machine's Msoft patches, if nothing else, BEFORE shopping online (especially if using Search Engines to search!).

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Sent home this week in one of our area's 3rd grade classes: a map of Europe (not the European Union) for students to study to bone up for the SOLs.

A few "bonus" items were included, however, for the kids to memorize - that should make for rampant failure across the board, in this section of the testing...

- Czechoslovakia
- Yugoslavia
- East and West Germany
- Mislabelled - Scotland and England

I guess the tests haven't been updated in a while? What the...

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In my own convoluted reasoning and opinion, though perhaps not entirely so, it seems the Washington Post must be reading this blog, and agreeing with us....

Note today's Washington Post Metro Section, an article entitled - "No Child" Law May Slight The Gifted, Experts Say...

The thesis is remarkably coincidental to and supportive of several postings we've made recently about the increasing drumbeat in Loudoun County (and across the US) for additional differentiation in the schools, with equal resources focused towards the advanced learners as with those requiring a "safety net".

"Some scholars are joining parent advocates in questioning whether the education law No Child Left Behind, with its goal of universal academic proficiency, has had the unintended consequence of diverting resources and attention from the gifted", - the article states. The article also says "teachers...have little incentive to teach students who will meet these (NCLB) goals however they are taught". Exactly what we proposed to introduce, from an incentive perspective, in a previous post of ours (with a very lively discussion!).

Please note that this discussion of "gifted" resources has nothing to do with income levels - "gifted" students should be identified and supported no matter what kind of family background or living conditions they have.

The article doesn't say anything about Loudoun County, focusing on the "close-in" counties, including Maryland, where a "particularly vocal community of parent advocates" is active.

Where's our "vocal" community, here in Loudoun?

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Besides the businesses I'm in, as outlined in my eBook at the Mom Force, I've found a whole variety of other good business opportunities to consider....I've started compiling them at this link. Check them out, and let me know how it goes!

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...otherwise known as "Parent Volunteers in the Elementary School Hallways".

2nd-grade non-differentiated Math in our particular area continues to demonstrate inexcusable and nonsensical strategy on the part of school administrators. Recent feedback from parent volunteers in 2nd grade reveals:

- a distressing chunk of the class can't tell which number is higher than the other, like "56" vs. "15".
- most of the kids in this category are typically offered remedial assistance by assignment to the Parent volunteers, in the hallways.
- as this is a consistent practice for the same set of kids, Parent Volunteers are essentially teaching the kids (with many variations in approach and outcome)
- when asked about it, representative teachers aren't pleased, either, as it's simply too difficult to teach to the extremely wide variety of levels in the grade, in a single classroom, and relying on the parents (i.e. non-trained) isn't really appropriate (at least in the school).

Teachers want differentiation, interested Parents want differentiation, differentiation worked very well over the past few years....what does it take to quickly correct this mistake and better serve both students and teachers? Why is there not a standardized practice/approach across the County?

Ugh.

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This post speaks for itself - not a good state of affairs in Loudoun County, VA, or likely any other county around the US...

This post is from from my other blog here

In our very scientific study conducted today (OK, it may have been a statistically insignificant representation, but it was 8 very eager and attentive 3rd-grade Brownies learning about computers and internet safety), we compiled some very interesting, and not unsurprising facts and statistics. THESE ARE NOT GOOD THINGS. Additionally, while this little survey may not exactly support our blog post title, from many years of professional engagement in this discipline, this statistic is very likely actually understated.

- All the Brownies (beginner Girl Scouts, basically) were very eager and interested in exploring the topic of Internet Safety, which was very new and thought-provoking to them
- 5 out of 8 "definitely knew more about computers and the Internet than their Moms"
- 5 out of 8 could "use the Internet whenever they wanted, with no restrictions"
- 3 out of 8 had ever been informed at all about online dangers and Internet Safety

This last fact is a little disconcerting, given the fact that in 2006 the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation requiring that Internet safety curricula be implemented in every public school across the Commonwealth. In fact, an Internet Safety book called "Faux Paw's Adventures in the Internet", is to be sent to every public and private elementary school in the State, focused on 3rd-graders.

What's Loudoun School's policy? It's actually a little hard to discover, as one might on Loudoun Schools main site, when clicking on the link "Some Simple Internet Safety Rules" (all you get is "the Content you wish to view is expired"). I believe I pointed this out a while ago to school officials - obviously no action, yet.

It's also very hard to discover just using Google - search for "Loudoun Schools Internet Safety", and you get many links of ours, the "bad" link mentioned above, and really nothing else. THIS CAN BE CORRECTED REALLY QUICKLY - Edgar et. al., just contact us, and we'll tell you how...

100% of all children should be informed at school and at home about Internet Safety, period.

Parents, Teachers and School Administrators: get educated FAST - check out local, current information at Dadministrator Internet Safety and Whizkids Internet Safety Links.

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Here's a very interesting post by TechCrunch regarding an outfit that "surveyed 862 real estate, mortgage, and financial workers about their intent to start their own businesses following this summer’s subprime mortgage financial crisis." The results are basically that 70% are either in process or intend to start a different business within the next 6 months, and over 40% intend to do some kind of Internet/Technology work.

There certainly are lots of options for Internet-related businesses, coming from industries where entrepreneurialism on the Internet isn't typically practiced as a profession - but these options shouldn't include high-tech work - that market's already saturated for beginners. Look to leverage the business skills you have, simply utilizing the Internet as a new marketing and delivery vehicle.

What business skills do you have? We've been through this...you'd be surprised, upon taking personal, honest inventory, what skills you have and don't have - and which skills can probably be "monetized" over the Internet (and which can't).

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Here's a fresh light - a few local kids have created their own book and website, about the adventures of Danny and Spike....saw this in the recent South Riding Connection - great story, sounds like great help from parents and teachers, altogether a demonstration of creative thinking and teamwork. Their site/blog is at DannyandSpike.blogspot.com.

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Found a neat reading-level analyzer - ran it for this blog...I guess I'm stuck in 10th grade, which as I recall was pretty fun...

"The text you entered has been checked, and scored as follows:


Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease: 45

Ideally, web page text should be around the 60 to 80 mark on this scale. The higher the score, the more readable the text.
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 10

Ideally, web page text should be around the 6 to 7 mark on this scale. The lower the score, the more readable the text.
Gunning-Fog Index: 17

Ideally, web page text should be between 11 and 15 on this scale. The lower the score, the more readable the text. (Anything over 22 should be considered the equivalent of post-graduate level text)."

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Just saw this note compliments of the Loudoun Mom's Network latest newsletter.

"Parents of students in kindergarten through fifth grade are needed to serve on the Elementary Report Card Revision Committee. The committee will begin work in November and work through April 2008 to revise the current LCPS report cards for grades K-5."

This looks like a great opportunity to "give back". Be sure also to go to your home school's website and take the Report Card survey now being held Nov. 7th through 16th!

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....can be found at http://www.questabc.org/ . It obviously took a lot of work, fund-raising, partnerships and buy-in from the State legislature and school system, but it looks like it's working.

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We had the pleasure today of meeting with our 2nd grade teacher, to discuss progress and activities...the most interesting thing to note, was the disclosure that (A) the DRA ("Development Reading Test") given to place students at their correct reading level can be used to place readers at any level, and (B) it's only used so far as it records reading abilities at the 2nd grade level, and no further.

More explanation - a student can be given the DRA at a particular level, for example including questions that indicate 3rd-grade reading skills and comprehension. But in the 2nd grade, the highest DRA level that's tested is the level expected at the end of 2nd grade. So if your student is in fact reading at a 3rd or 4th or 5th grade level, there's no way to know this - the school won't test for it.

It's completely up to the parents to understand and discover what "true" level their child is operating at, and convince/cajole/explain/argue/insist that the Principal allow the teacher to actually provide materials appropriate for the students "true" learning capability.

It's like the school simply doesn't want the trouble or the bother to have to deal with advanced students - and frankly, there's really no benefit from a pure "business" perspective. Schools and Principals appear to be measured on how few under-performers they have, not on how many over-performers they can produce.

Maybe there should be more academic contests, like essay or math contests, that result in competitive benefits for the school - the County could set aside a "scholarship" for each grade, the grade's "teacher team" would select the best 3-5 anonymous entries to submit, and Parents would evaluate and vote...the winning "teacher team" would all get new laptops or something, plus significant recognition.

Who wants to do it? I volunteer the website technology to make it happen - at no cost to the Schools. Perhaps all Loudoun parents can pitch in $5 for the "prize".