Instructify

With all the hubbub about cyber-bullying going on in schools, it’s easy to forget that face-to-face bullying is still alive and well. Where there’s a cafeteria, there will be a bigger kid demanding a smaller kid’s lunch money. Help crack down on bullying online and offline at your school next week during Bullying Awareness Week 2008, November 16-22.

Don’t let the title fool you — Bullying Awareness Week asks educators to get personally involved in stamping out bullying, as opposed to just being aware of it (which makes sense, since nerds, dweebs and weaklings everywhere have been pretty aware of bullying for some time, and that hasn’t solved anything). The BAW website has several ideas on how you can make a difference, including conducting anti-bullying workshops, involving community leaders, and recognizing/rewarding students who actively work to make their schools safer.

For more information, check out their website, or listen to this public service announcement. By observing Bullying Awareness Week at your school, you can help make it a safer, friendlier place. -BILL FERRIS

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Teach students Internet safety with iKeepSafe.org

Oh, what was that you say? Your third laptop was stolen from you for the third time in a row!? How terribly unfortunate for you… Maybe someone is trying to gaslight you, make you go insane and swindle you out of your rightful inheritance! This whole affair reminds me of a similar crime I once solved. I was summoned to the grim moor outside of the manor of Sit Charles Baskerville…no, wait, that was The Hound of the Baskervilles. No, the mystery I’m thinking of was when I was visiting Hong Kong…no, wait, that one was Rush Hour 2. Okay the point I’m trying to make is that next time your laptop is missing or stolen we can solve the mystery quickly and easily.

Adeona, named for the Roman goddess of safe returns, is an open source system for tracking the location of your missing laptop. Created from research at The University of Washington, Adeona FREE to use. By storing location updates and continually monitoring the location, Adeona amounts to a LoJack for your laptop.

It was also built with keeping users’ privacy in mind: there is no commercial entity involved, the location data is encrypted & anonymous and the location information is available only to the owner. So you don’t have to worry that any secret shadow organizations are covertly tracking your movements. (You should still be concerned about MOLEMEN, however).

As if this weren’t cool and useful enough, Mac users get the bonus of utilizing their Mac’s iSight camera along with some freeware tools provided on the Adeona website. A picture is taken if the dastardly villain uses the laptop! Now you have all the evidence for what criminal prosecutors call a “slam dunk,” or, what NBA players call “the legal system’s equivalent to a particularly powerful, crowd-pleasing method of scoring points.”

This is helpful for students on their own laptops, personal or school-issued. But it might be even more valuable for an instructor—my keen detective instincts suspect that a teacher might keep valuable lesson plans and grades stored on that laptop.

So here we are at last, it is time to solve our mystery and unmask the culprit of who stole your laptops: IT WAS YOU! You stole your own laptop and you’ve been giving me misleading testimony this whole time! No, wait, that was The Ususal Suspects. Ugh, alright, I quit. You should’ve just been using Adeona the whole time. –NICK YINGLING

Adeona

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We’ve all heard the urban legend of Mrs. O’Leary, who carelessly left a kerosene lantern in the barn on October8, 1871 after an evening milking. A cow kicked it over and ignited the hay on the floor. Due to dry conditions and a strong dry southwesterly wind the fire quickly spread throughout the city of Chicago, and burned for two days. When The Great Chicago Fire finally died out thanks to soaking rains, a path four miles long and two-thirds of a mile wide had been burned through the city. To commemorate this historical event, Fire Prevention Week was established during the Sunday through Saturday of week where October 9th falls.

This year’s fire prevention theme is “Prevent Home Fires.” As you work with your local fire department and plan activities for your students, don’t neglect to visit the Davis Fire Department. Here you will find some great interactive activities for your students. They can take a virtual Firefighter Protective Clothing Tour or a virtual tour of a Fire Engine complete with sirens.

Whether you believe in the legend of Mrs. O’Leary and her cow or not, let’s not let history repeat itself. Help prevent future fires through fire prevention education.-MONIQUE ST.LOUIS

Fire Prevention Week

Davis, California Fire Department

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With all the warmth, wind, and low humidity of spring, this is a great time of year to reiterate the importance of fire safety to our students. And who is a better ambassador for this task than Smokey Bear! Yes, the loveable black bear from our childhood has his own website to help relay his important message about fire prevention and natural resource preservation.

Teachers, click the Resources link for K-5 Teacher’s Guides and Lesson Plans on wildfire safety, activity books, and kids posters. Parents and students, check out the Kids link for campfire games, computer simulated smoke jumping, and a way to sign up to get email updates from Smokey himself! Smokey’s site offers a wealth of information presented in a student-friendly manner. Kids can learn Smokey’s important message while having fun and participating in interactive games.

Also, in a rapidly changing world and an ever-growing distance between our children’s learning experiences and our own, it is nice to see this much-loved icon of our youth teaching the nature lovers of the future. Smokey’s a friend that we can all enjoy who will never “extinguish” our desire for fire safety! – DAVID BARGER

SmokeyBear.com