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Saturday, January 19, 2013

UPDATE: Schools’ Design Can Play Role in Safety + Lance Armstrong Is Right About One Thing | toteachornototeach

Lance Armstrong Is Right About One Thing | toteachornototeach:



Schools’ Design Can Play Role in Safety, Student Engagement

Schools’ Design Can Play Role in Safety, Student Engagement
Joplin Interim High School social commons
By Jaclyn Zubrzycki
A building alone does not create a school culture. But research shows that school buildings can affect students’ morale and academic performance. Now, school officials are moving away from the “cells and bells” design marked by long, locker-lined hallways of windowless classrooms, and toward more open, flexible buildings aimed at creating a sense of community and collaboration.
Such new designs tie together a shift to a more technology-driven, collaborative, student-centered approach to education with an effort to improve students’ safety, engagement, and community.
The goal is to get students feeling more invested in their school communities; improved student engagement is 


Lance Armstrong Is Right About One Thing

LanceLiesLance Armstrong Is Right About One Thing

by Victor Dorff
The “Lance Armstrong Story” has the potential to become a classic American literary tragedy, on a par with “Death of a Salesman.” His deceptions and self-denial, combined with his fame and status as hero/icon, make him a perfect leading character, both deeply flawed and a product of his time and place in our society.
There is a significant portion of the American population today that operates under a “win-at-all-costs” ethic, which produces a lot of pressure to cheat. Once cheating begins – in a sport, in a business, or in a classroom ¬- it becomes harder and harder for those who don’t cheat to compete against the cheaters. After a while, it becomes easy to rationalize dishonesty, because cheating becomes the new normal.
In stark contrast to the South African swimmer who admitted to cheating to win his gold medal, Armstrong is now taking some personal responsibility for contributing to the culture of cheating surrounding his sport. By