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The Ohio State Fire Marshal Larry Flowers announced Monday that the state’s fire fatalities hit a 25-year low in 2011.

According to Flowers, the number of fire-related fatalities dropped nearly 18% from 2010 to 2011.

During the 2011 calendar year, 126 fire-related fatalities were recorded compared to the 153 fire-related fatalities reported in 2010.

The previous low of 130 fire-related fatalities occurred in 2007.

“Smoke alarms are proven to save lives,” State Fire Marshal Larry Flowers said.

“I’m pleased by the efforts of Ohio’s first responders, educators, journalists and citizens in raising awareness of the need for working smoke alarms which undoubtedly played a role in the reduction of fire deaths” Flowers added.

According to a press release from the Fire Marshal’s office, more than 90% of Ohio’s fire-related fatalities occurred in homes with no confirmed working smoke alarms.

Flowers attributes the reduction to a number of efforts, including fire safety education programs, increased media attention to the need for working smoke alarms in homes, and innovative training for Ohio’s firefighters.

When the University of Southern California partnered with 2tor Inc., this online learning collaboration has garnered praise from those still skeptical of this new advancement in education. Others have been more cautious when it comes to online learning. According to an article in The Chronicle for Higher Education, Frank Donoghue addresses some lingering concerns that he has for the future of higher education and this new pedagogical tool of online learning. Donoghue posits that the streamlined nature of online learning may make the courses too sterile and devoid of the creative uncertainty that fosters meaningful learning.

According to the article, Donoghue discusses two pressing issues for professors as well. With many universities using learning management systems or partnering with publishing companies, professors may face greater difficulty gaining the intellectual rights to their courses or the right to choose which textbook to use. Donoghue worries that professors may lose some of the autonomy when it comes to designing courses as well as losing their right to the courses once posted on an LMS. Even with these concerns, Donoghue acknowledges that online learning has established itself as a viable pedagogical tool, but he believes that further discussions should take place about online learning’s impact on the professors and their rights.

You can read more at The Chronicle for Higher Education. 

An 8 year old boy throws a temper tantrum – albeit a somewhat dangerous one, where he pulls wood off the walls, and the police come in and pepper spray him.

What do you think? To spray or not to spray?

Story: Police pepper spray 8-year old

I came across this blog post written by one of our students, Angie S., sharing her experience attending high school at Minnesota Virtual Academy.

And a big THANKSgoes out to Angie herself, for taking the time to share her experience!

Wedding planning – a never ending job. Theres always something else on the list! 

Every trip to San Francisco since September (theres been five!),  has had back to back meetings and events. Im excited to announced that many of the the wedding big-ticket items are done.

Venue – check.

Photographer – check.

Florist – check.

THE DRESS – check.

Bridesmaid dresses – check.

Engagement photos – selected, but need to be ordered.

Catering check.

Invite list including addresses check!

Ceremony musician check.

Save the dates in transit to Chicago
 
Wedding website almost done.

Wedding hotel blocks booked.

On one hand, I review the list and feel accomplished. Theres 7 months left before the big day. However, there are a number of other items I want to get done and I know those 7 months are going to fly. With 7 weddings to attend, next year already has a number of busy weekends. Plus, Im in 4 of the weddings (including my own), which means, bachelorette parties (wee!!) and bridal showers (yay). Its going to be an expensive year.

My other fear is that now I need to get into the details. With spreadsheets, Im incredibly detail oriented, but centerpieces are a completely different ballgame. Is it important to me to have one silverware design over another? I have no idea. Plus, now I need to think about the little things that just make the event pophmm.

Still on the big list:

Alcohol started discussions with the venue.

Limo – havent even started looking.

DJ – waiting for a response.

Photobooth – investigation needed.

Bachelorette party list – in process.

Linens and table settings meeting scheduled.

I know Im missing something(s), just not sure what they are right now.

This is the latest of the blogs dealing with the vexed matter of motivation. A recap: I’ve been musing on the 10 Commandments of Motivation as categorised by two top Hungarians, Zoltan Dornyei and Kata Czizer, and wondering what their practical ramifications might be. In some senses, I’ve left the most interesting two till last. One is the imperative to create a pleasant relaxed atmosphere in the classroom. This is about the physical properties of the classroom, by the way, and not so much about the human relationships inside it – though one way of looking at it is to think about how the classroom atmosphere can facilitate good relationships and an atmosphere conducive to learning.

I’m loath to provide any recipes here as so much depends on the context you’re working in and, for example, the physical condition of a classroom in a state university in my part of post-communist Europe is very different from the state-of-the-art hi-tech private schools students might be in. But atmospheres can always be better and there is a framework to think about them provided by the senses. Why? Well, we know enough from research to have, to say the least, strong suspicions that brains do not thrive in environments with a narrow range of stimuli. In plainer English, poorly kept classrooms inhibit learning. I should say here I’m relying on one of my favourite books on this area – it’s Using Brainpower in the Classroom: 5 Steps to Accelerate Learning by Steve Garnett, and it says some hugely useful things about the classroom environment.

One place to start is with the display. I’m a great believer in displaying students’ work, even that of adults . It’s not just about self-esteem, though seeing your work displayed is likely to increase that. There are also important learning points here. Writing should always be for an audience, and displaying writing gives any bit of work a wider audience than just the teacher. The posters that come with English File can be enormously useful too. If they are legible from anywhere in the room and positioned at eye-level, long term recall of their learning points can be as high as 75%. If we replace these learning displays frequently, then obviously more knowledge can be learnt, almost passively, in this way.

Displays also provide a splash of colour. Now I’m a bit cynical about some of the wackier claims made for colour – but that maybe comes with the territory of being grumpy and middle-aged, and even I accept that dabs of colour provide necessary stimulus.

The other easy way into sensory stimulation is through the ears. Like the man said, music has charms to soothe a savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak… or in classroom terms it can shape atmospheres. Just giving students control of the music to be played at break time is one easy way of changing dynamics. Some claims about the effect of music go further– there are those who have it that listening to Mozart, for example, will raise the IQ, create fertile brains and promote creativity. Even if you’re sceptical about this stuff, it still makes sense that baroque music can create calm, drown out white noise, and if your students are doing writing maybe even promote that sense of relaxed alertness we need to get ideas flowing.

In other spheres those who’ve got a commercial interest in altering people’s moods use different smells to do so. Somewhere there may be a teacher who brings in cinnamon-scented incense to create a relaxed atmosphere. But for me, it’s enough to think about what the walls of my classroom look like, and how it sounds.