Friday, July 16, 2010

Drowning Leaves Tensions at Columbia Secondary School - NYTimes.com

Drowning Leaves Tensions at Columbia Secondary School - NYTimes.com

At School in Harlem, Resentment Over Girl’s Drowning on a Field Trip




As the academic year at Columbia Secondary School in Harlem drew to a close, students, parents and teachers reeled from the death of a 12-year-old pupil on a class field trip to a beach last month.
But feelings of grief have turned into anger after an inquiry by city investigators that faulted the middle school for the way it had organized and supervised the outing, which ended with the drowning of Nicole Suriel on a Long Island beach that had been closed and where no lifeguard was on duty.
Hours after a report by the city’s Special Commissioner of Investigation was released on Wednesday, Erin Bailey, the first-year teacher who chaperoned the trip, was fired, and the

Teacher Fired Over Field-Trip Drowning of Girl, 12

An investigation found the trip was poorly planned and said a chaperon should have noticed there were no lifeguards on the beach.
Darci Hemleb Thompson, 49, reconnected with a former teacher from Long Island, Alice D'Addario, through Facebook.

On Facebook, Telling Teachers How Much They Meant

People who have been out of school for decades are expressing sentiments they dared not express in their youth.
ON EDUCATION
Julianne Carlson, a graduate of Yale, taught a prekindergarten class in Spanish last week at an elementary school in Houston.

A Chosen Few Are Teaching for America

Teach for America has become an elite brand that will help build a résumé, and in a bad economy, guarantee a good paycheck.
THE APPRAISAL
Based on the advice of an educational consultant, Jonathan and Ann Binstock bought an Upper West Side apartment near Public School 87.

Parents’ Real Estate Strategy: Schools Come First

Developers who sell apartments near good schools should chip in more to help build classrooms, parents say.