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1. Chaz Bono makes debut on US dancing show … and nails it
You might know Chaz as the transgender son (born Chastity) of pop singer Cher, which is why his slot on the US Dancing with the Stars caused such a controversy among some conservative viewers. Well, he made his debut and he rocked it. Chaz’s girlfriend, Jennifer Elia, was crying of joy in the audience. Chaz has faced death threats since it was announced he would feature on the program.
R.E.M fans will be hurting with the news the group has decided to split. The band announced the news on their website after 31 years and 15 albums. “To our Fans and Friends: As R.E.M, and as lifelong friends and co-conspirators, we have decided to call it a day as a band,” the band wrote. “We’ve made this decision together, amicably and with each other’s best interests at heart. The time just feels right.” What was your favourite R.E.M song?
3. Facebook to launch ‘major’ redesign this week
You’re probably familiar with Facebook’s constant tweaking, but Mashable is reporting this new overhaul is massive with major changes to the newsfeed and content sharing from partner websites like Spotify (for live music streaming) and video browsers. It’ll be real time, too. So if you’re listening to Muse at one point in time, your friends will know. The redesign also hopes to make user stay longer and become immersed, which will be easy with way more content. It’ll be a hub. And you thought escaping now was hard…
4. Changes to superannuation mean big bucks, says Govt
Look, Super is hardly a conversation winner but this is kind of cool. The Federal Government yesterday released the final details of its superannuation reform which it calls the ‘Grand Final’. And it seems to be good news. A worker earning $45,000 a year for the next 30 years would end up about $25,000 better off when they retire. Someone on $68,000 a year would be $40,000 better off and so on. Australians have about $1.3 trillion in superannuation at present, but this would be about $3 trillion by 2020.
5. Speedo takes bisexual blogger to court
Speedo is trying to get a NSW man who calls himself a ‘bisexual blogger’ to hand over websites he has set up that feature the Speedo brand connected with nudity and ‘offensive images’. The ‘substantial and valuable reputation and goodwill associated with the name and trademark SPEEDO’ was at stake, it claimed.
6. Tassie devils to be saved on mainland
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A deadly face cancer, spread by rampant biting in the close, natural Tasmanian devil community is wiping the marsupials out. If they stay unaided on the southern isle they’ll be gone. Already the facial cancer has wiped out more than 190,000 from the devil population and they could be extinct within the decade. But there may be hope on the mainland. 500 hectares of land in the Hunter Valley (donated by the Packer family) has been set aside to breed devils away from the deadly disease. The Devil Ark program hopes to have 360 animals by 2016, but needs more donations to reach its goal.
The homework debate is back in the news with some researchers and academics saying it really isn’t that effective. Researchers from around the world argued that in primary school it had ‘slim to no’ effect with some effect in high school. But was it worth it? Some argued the time set by teachers in making the homework, collecting it and marking it was a waste because it wasn’t actually teaching time. Some students may benefit, but it depends on the home situation. What do you think?
Jamey Rodemeyer made an ‘It Gets Better’ video in May. This week he was found dead outside his family home, apparently due to suicide. The 14-year-old had been battling with his own sexuality before coming out as bisexual and enduring the taunts and bullying both at school and online. He made a Formspring account where students posted things like “JAMIE IS STUPID, GAY, FAT ANND UGLY. HE MUST DIE!” and “I wouldn’t care if you died. No one would. So just do it 
It would make everyone WAY more happier!” Reports suggest that Jamey had been offered counselling and therapy and was getting help but that it was still not enough. The news comes as America this week officially repealed the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ military ban on out and proud gay and lesbians and Tasmania’s parliament passed a motion in support of marriage equality.
Here’s his video:
 on http://www.mamamia.com.au){kind=link}
Comments
72 Comments so far
Love and tolerance would have saved that boys life and they are 2 things free for every person across the globe regardless of culture, race, religion or socioeconomic circumstances to bestow on as many people as they like. So sad.
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Jamey you gorgeous boy… I have no other words x
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I saw Chaz on Ellen last week, he is so cool. Ellen really comes into her own when she gets wound up about GLBT rights. She was awesome. As was Cher!
I also saw Carson Kressley (sp?) is on DWTS too – he did “Moves like Jagger” – I think he’s flamboyant enough to do well at it. Wouldn’t that be a mindblower for the haters? Mwahahaha!
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Today just gets sadder and sadder. First, Jamie and now Gavin Larkin has passed away also. RIP
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Oh no. RIP.
((
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It is so desperately sad that a 14 year old can’t have the space in this world to be himself, free of abuse and harassment for his sexuality. I can’t understand why people bully others and how they can get to a point where they have so much hatred for other people. From the video I can see how much he has struggled just to get to that point where he did feel things could be okay. You can see it in his eyes. He would have made a huge impact on the lives of his friends and family and I can only imagine how heartbroken they are now. The finality of that loss would be unbearable for them.
Isn’t it incredible that when he was struggling so much himself that he could still reach out to others and offer them hope and courage… His pain must have been so bad that he never wanted anyone else to feel that kind of pain. That is not something a person should ever have to deal with.
Re homework: If you don’t have a supportive or positive home environment homework is really challenging. I can see how you can’t get through all the curriculum during school hours but you need that supportive environment for it to be effective.
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I’m an academic with a PhD and I work full time in a university. Clearly I value education.
But this obsession with homework for little kids is alarming. Many of the schools in my area set 1 hour to 1.5 hrs per night for Kindergarten children. As others have commented, when are they supposed to eat, play, bathe, and just be kids? And especially in the first year, they are so tired when they get home.
My son’s school sets only reading in Kindergarten, which is great. He is in some kind of routine – which I hope will be useful later – but it’s only 5 or 10 mins, which still gives us time to read some other fun books (let’s face it, most readers are no fun for anyone!)
I think it is more important to teach littlies a love of learning, than to shove an hour of homework onto them.
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My daughter is in 2nd class and we are both over the moon she doesn’t have any homework this week due to the school holidays. The amount she has been given since kindergarten is incredible and because I work, it makes afternoons and evenings very tiresome. My little boy starts kindergarten!…I may have to be medicated
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http://www.smh.com.au/national/building-the-foundations-for-a-better-life-20110921-1klcf.html
“THEY were teenage girls on people smuggler boats out of Indonesian ports who came ashore to a bitter debate over who should be allowed to enter the country. One, Zainab Kaabi, then 17, had been to high school in Iraq. The other, Nahid Karimi, then 13, had been home schooled by her mother in Afghanistan.
“A decade later, Ms Kaabi is completing her second degree – pharmacy. Ms Karimi is about to finish final-year medical science.”
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I am in tears writing this. I don’t have words. The poor boy. His poor family.
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My son is in Grade 1 and it takes up to 1 hour to get through homework, as a consequence he is starting to see reading as a chore rather than something fun to do. In fact whereas in the past he has always wanted to get books from the library, yesterday he threw a tanty insisting that I wouldn’t get any out because he is on holidays. So sad. It’s a double edged sword because whilst he does need to do a bit more work than others to achieve than others (think he might be dyslexic and currently going down the path of finding out what to do about this) doing more outside of school is having the opposite than desired effect.
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I can’t believe a 14yo was pushed to the point of suicide after being tormented by his peers for his sexuality.
It is absolutely disgusting and devastating.
At 14yo, it must have taken so so much courage to come out. If Jamie could embrace who he was, why couldn’t others? Why do people go out of their way to make others feel worthless?
I also think that abuse over Formspring is cowardly and has the potential to damage so many young peoples lives.
This has really got to stop.
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I really think homework should only be given in the later years of primary school and high school. My boys are in prep and year 1 and they both have homework to do every night. By the time they are home from school, have afternoon tea, relax/play, do sports…it is then dinner/bath/bed time. And quite frankly I have to do most of the homework with them as they are not reading independently. I am all for brining home books to read…but homework should not be given to students so young.
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1. Awesome for Chazmatazz, shame about the detractors.
2. Can’t choose between Orange Crush and Stand
3. Facebook will throw new members at Google Plus with format changes – Non Techy types hate changes.
7. What do kids need to do at home that they can’t learn for the thirty odd hours they are at school. Home is for life lessons, sport etc.
8. Absolutely terrible that this poor young boy couldn’t get through this. Unfortunately he wont be the last.
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until they realise Google+ has more annoying features*
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Post stuff you want to share on Tumblr…
Socialise on Twitter…
Easy!
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We struggle big time with homework in our family – so much so that I complained about it on my blog (http://melgardener.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/we-love-homework-do-you/).
I think the problem is that it’s still being set in the same old ways as when I was at primary school which doesn’t take into account the fact that it’s norm these days to have both parents working full-time and sometimes not getting home until 6pm or later.
In our case, you also factor in a younger sibling who is starving by the time we used to get home so dinner can’t wait then you have to get them in the bath or bedtime is too late – so where is homework supposed to fit in?
I also despair at the wording of some of the questions and some of the tasks are completely unreasonable. For example, last year when my daughter was in year 2 one homework task was to walk around the block (I think they were doing something about distances). Problem was, we didn’t get home until after 6pm and this task was set in the middle of winter when it’s fully dark by 5pm so that one was never going to happen!
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Is there a place where we can put tech problems? Maybe a tab or something? Surely it would be easier for you to keep track of too!!
I’ve been getting lots of 400 Bad Requests nginx pages come up when I try to post comments, or enter pages when I use safari on my Mac.
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Poor Jamey, making a Formspring account was definitely a bad move, letting a bunch of lowlifes take cheap cowardly digs was last thing he needed.
It looked like Chaz was having a ball, why do those dancers always have to look like oompaloompas?
Facebook, enough already!!!! changes to layout don’t make anyone happy, it just annoys people. If they had kept the network discussion boards for the different countries that would have been the best things, they used to be good fun I still have friends from them.
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Good on the Packers. Its always great to read about the genorosity of the filthy rich..
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My kids get ridiculous amounts of homework and it causes stress every night. Two of them do it without prompting and are self motivated. But the other two hate it and fight it every single night. I sometimes dread them coming home from school because I know lays ahead of us……….But they all do well at school and I honestly cant see how it makes a scrap of difference. All it does is make family time stressful and the kids upset. I think kids in Primary school years need to be outside playing not doing powerpoint presentations (yes that my 8yos homework) etc etc….Glad there is some evidence to back me up! Bring on the school holidays
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I did the bare minimum of homework. I don’t know that it makes a difference either, Lu.
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Regarding super, the costs of it are so high already to small business. When someone wants to work for us with their own ABN, we like it, they are responsible for their own tax and super. We budget a minimum of $150 per employee per week for super already, so the costs may hurt small business further. Especially in WA where you have to keep wages at a premium level to keep staff and prevent them going FIFO, even though your prices are locked in for major contracts years prior.
In saying that though, I completely support super, hopefully in the next 20-30 years everyone will have the opportunity to be self funded retirees.
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I guess the other big news today is that REM have split up after 31 years: http://remhq.com/news_story.php?id=1446
Although only a shadow of the band they were at their height, I’m still a little bit sad about this…they’ve been a big part of my musical world for so long now…will seem strange not to hear new stuff from them…
Trying to think what my favourite song is, but there’s so many to pick from…
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Hands down Losing My Religion, even if I do prefer acoustic covers of same!
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Just decided…it’s Radio Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGXVyDsOV2w&ob=av2e
Like the lyrics to the song itself, when this comes on, I have to stop everything and just listen to it…I can’t ignore this song.
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Radio Song is one of my favourite songs ever!
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I was devastated when i heard this! Im a Night Swimming fan personally. I do have an undying love for so many of their songs though. Also, for a bit of a different Michael Stipe sound (if you havnt already heard it), his collaboration with Placebo on ‘Broken Promise’ is amazing
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The list goes on:
Airportman
At My Most Beautiful
Crush with Eyeliner
Daysleeper
(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville
Drive
Everybody Hurts
Finest Worksong
I Don’t Sleep, I Dream
It’s the End of the World as We Know It
Losing My Religion
Man on the Moon
Me in Honey
Nightswimming
The One I Love
Orange Crush
Pop Song 89
Radio Free Europe
Radio Song
Stand
Star Me Kitten
Strange Currencies
What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?
…and I’m sure I’ve missed heaps…wow, what a track list!
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Great list, but I have 3 words for you: Let Me In. I get shivers.
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I couldn’t watch that video without tearing up. Poor kid
RIP Jamey. As for homework my parents believed in it big time but they come from a culture where academics is more important than things like sport or music etc. So I had to do a lot of homework growing up.
I think for some children it is important to do something outside of school to get into a routine, as a teacher I’ve seen this. I think these days though most schools or at least the ones I’ve worked at don’t want too much homework given out, usually just a book to read and one other piece of work.
High school is a different story.
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I can’t watch it!
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As a teacher, I think of homework in a different way. In my opinion the aim of homework is to keep the parents/caregivers involved in their child’s education. For the parents to see what their child is studying and to participate in their education. Too often these days parents are subcontracting their responsibilities to others. Is it the teacher’s job to educate children? Of course. But they do not carry the sole responsibility for that, parents must be involved too. In fact, I see a huge difference in the outcomes for kids whose parents are actively involved in their kids education versus those who are not.
Another important factor about homework in the high school years is that is is virtually impossible to address the entire curriculum during school hours – it is SO overloaded despite massive overhauls. So unless your kid is doing some homework, they are definitely missing out.
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I think that’s a good point, about involving the parents in the children’s learning. However I wonder if these days most homework is actually done at after-school care?
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This is where I feel like the majority (Geez I sincerely HOPE it is the majority) are being penalised for the actions of a few. I am an involved parent. We read books to our kids every night as they go to bed (and more often than not they read parts of them to us as well). They always have plenty of paper and pencils etc available to them to draw, write etc, and they have plenty of art supplies to play with too. We talk to them, and we are regularly at the school (for reading groups etc). I am involved in my kids lives but I really really dislike homework! My kids are only early primary and I don’t believe kids of that age should have any homework at all. It is disruptive, and even though they both have great teachers the homework is way too simple for them both so doesn’t achieve anything in learning. I have to fight with them to get it done.
Why are we being forced into this painful process because a few people are too busy with their own lives to care about their childrens schooling so need to be made to participate? I would wager those same parents still don’t help their kids get their homework done anyway! I recently spoke to the teacher about the workload and was shocked to discover how few kids actually do their homework. I thought it was something that was compulsory. So my child either follows the rules and is penalised by missing out on valuable play time (I think play is completely under-rated as a means of learning), or learns to not complete the work set by her teacher. Not much winning going on?
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I thought the idea of homework was to finish off and go over what you learnt that day/week and to teach you some responsibility. That’s how we did it. Why do the parents need to be “involved”? It’s the kids’ thing!
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The homework that my kids get doesn’t seem to be finishing off what they have done at school. It seems to be fairly unrelated. When they had an info night at the start of the term they also made a big deal about how the parents needed to show how interested they were in their kids schooling (including homework) so the kids would know it was important. This makes sense, but they were saying that they wanted us to be quite involved in their homework (not doing it for them or anything, but we were to be a part of it – eg listening to kids readers etc). This is where you start to feel a bit like you are being punished when you haven’t done anything wrong. I don’t need set homework to show my child that I am interested in their schooling!
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Oh Jamey, you poor sweet boy. I am so sorry.
As for Forspring- it’s a terrible site and a massive source of bullying.
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That poor kid, beyond tragic.
On homework, I’m a teacher and I try to only give unfinished classwork and assignments for lower high school. I don’t think kids should be doing huge amounts of homework, there should be balance.
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Many of my friends were complaining about the new Facebook (on Facebook) yesterday but I haven’t accessed it from a computer yet so I don’t understand why. But, allegedly, if you don’t like the changes you can switch your settings back to English (UK) then the former Facebook Home page will return. Does this mean the new Facebook is in another language? Haha
Isn’t Super increasing because by the time we’re old there won’t be a government funded pension?
I never had homework in primary school because I’d get it done in class. If other students weren’t able to do that, then perhaps it was beneficial they had to do some at home?
In high school the only time I learned was at home with my text books – cramming the night before exams. I talked too much in class! I was the one the teachers kept moving away from my friends, only to realise I’ll talk to anyone and make new friends wherever they sat me! Still aced the exams so it was hard to complain too much…
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Your story about homework and talking in class is almost identical to mine! Even to the point where i legitimately got asked by a history teacher if i had plagiarised my assignment because i never did anything in class! What he didnt know is that when i *actually focus*, i can churn out some A+ work, which is possibly the story of my life!
High school and ‘focus’ for me were mutually exclusive.
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Me 3!
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From what I’ve heard, Facebook is gradually rolling-out the changes around the world. They have done the USA, hence the changes showing on English (USA). Changing to English (UK) can only be a temporary measure as those will be changed soon too. Of course, I only read this on Facebook from someone commenting on the changes, so who knows what will happen? I guess we will get used to the new format, otherwise the other option is to quit Facebook!
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Aha – well that makes sense!
I wonder what would happen if I switched it to Pirate language again? I could go back to a time when computers didn’t exist!
p.s. the pirate setting is hilarious – but difficult to work out what a lot of things are!
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The English (UK) settings have now been changed to the new format. I was able to change my settings from English (US) to English (UK) last night and it went back to the old FB fomat but this morning it has been changed to the new format
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Regarding homework, as a primary school teacher I can definitely say it’s next to useless as a learning tool when the children are so young. I would much rather just have open ended tasks that the children could do at home that don’t necessarily need to be collected and marked and that don’t come with the whole ‘it’s homework time’ pressure. The last thing we want is for homework to be resented by the children and/or the parents as this is just a barrier to learning and fostering a love of learning.
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I have 2 boys of my own and 2 step sons and it breaks my heart to know what that poor boy has been through to get to the point of suicide.
Yes everybody is different, yes bi/gay/lesbian are born that way it is not a choice.
That site Formspring needs to be taken down, I think it is abhorrent and not at all what beautiful people like Jamie need.
The people who have posted such comments as i wish you would die need to be tracked down, taken to his family and made to explain why they wished their son dead. Then taken to court and explain to the community why they were so hateful and then given a sentence of community service for an entire term of weekends.
I may not have known Jamie but the sorrow I feel for his family and anger I have toward such sites as Formspring have really affected me this morning.
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Sorry that there are people like that. They didn’t care but we do. RIP Jamey
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I’m one of those giant nerds who loves Facebook (I can do with it what I want, speak to who I want or not speak to them but at least the option is mine) and doesn’t mind when it changes.
Sure, it takes some getting used to, but that’s how all innovation has ever happened for anything ever.
As for Jamey. My heart sank when I saw that. It’s all I can say. I’m tired of trying to explain to people why the fight for equality matters so much.
So read Jamey’s story instead.
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I’m on record as not being a fan of Facebook. I think Facebook pales into insignificance as a “social” media in comparison with Twitter…since I joined Twitter, FB just seems completely bland in comparison.
Maybe it’s just the friends I had on FB were less interesting than the people I follow on Twitter…but my gut feeling is that Twitter is a better “social” platform than FB…
My spidey-sense is tingling a bit at the moment…FB is starting to feel old, like MySpace did before it collapsed…I know it has a HUGE number of users, but the growth in new users is slowing (in fact, I think total users might have fallen recently – I could be wrong about that…)
Anyway, if you’re interested, here’s my personal Social Media summary at the moment: http://explore.johnanthonyjames.com/post/10382237557/social-media-my-state-of-play-september-2011
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To me they serve different purposes. I use Facebook to keep in touch with friends and family (especially good for me as I hate making phone calls) while twitter is where I can be me, and talk politics, religion and sex, as the diversity of my fb friend list makes these topics largely taboo.
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Re homework. It’s such a pain but I think it’s important to get kids in the habit of doing some study outside the classroom. Being organized and all that. But maybe it doesn’t need to start until they actually can do it themselves. If you’ve got a baby and a toddler, and you’re working, and trying to get dinner sorted, helping your year 2 kid with his homework is the last thing on your list. Or it was on mine. Hasn’t seemed to hurt his progress though.
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I get really annoyed at people whinging about Facebook changes – it’s a free service that people have chosen to join. If we were paying for it I’d understand
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We are all paying for it – with all the data mining they do with access to all your details.
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What’s the chance that employment packages won’t change and people will have less money to take home?
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That’s a valid point. For us, however, and many in our industry, we rely so heavily on our staff and they could be working for half the time and double the $$ in the mines, so we do whatever it takes to keep them, particularly once the time has gone into training them. We pass on an annual payrise when we get the CPI, simply to prevent our staff moving to Rio Tinto or BHP. It’s unbelievable, this cost to our business. Luckily it’s doing okay for now, but it makes me wonder about an industry which may not be as competitive, like retail or hospitality, where most of the time you can cope with high turnover of staff as the training isn’t as intensive.
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Homework… I’ve long been convinced it’s the school’s way of keeping the parents engaged in what the kids are learning (because a lot of parents aren’t engaged). I don’t think it adds to the kids learning generally. I’d rather see the kids outside playing and burning off some energy after school.
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I am a primary teacher and I am with you – I often feel like setting – go and climb a tree, ride your bike outside or make bikkies with mum and dad as the homework. Given I choice I would give very limited homework. It is an administrative nightmare for teachers and has almost no positive impact on their learning.
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One of my daughters teachers set a homework matrix. Each week a parent had to sign off on the child having done 3-5 items on the grid. There were things like helping a neighbour, going for a walk, taking the bins out, or other chores, reading, watching the news with a parent and other innovative bits and pieces. It was wonderful – the kids loved being able to pick and choose – there was a requirement that they did so many different ones. Some were repeated on the grid such as the reading. Occaisionally other quick homework sheets came home as well but the grid was the constant. I think she was in grade 4 or 5 at the time.
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As a matter of fact, this is the kind of homework my 9yo daughter receives! She gets a matrix of 10 homework tasks, of which she should complete about 5 in a fortnight. Some are traditional math/literacy tasks but most are about helping around the home, being active or observing her surrounds. Her teacher isn’t a fan of homework (for the same reasons as you) but she knows that some kids like it, that some parents expect it and that it’s a good way for some families to connect.
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Why Facebook, why?! If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
With the homework thing, I’m more on the camp of kids being free to be kids… give them more time to run around outside and play or do extra curricular activities, not be chained to the kitchen table once they are home, but having said that I can’t imagine not doing at least reading and stuff with my daughter once she’s at school, or does reading aloud not count as homework and it’s just a given?
Oh Jamey, my heart goes out to you, and your poor family. Rest in peace sweetheart, I’m so sorry you felt this was the only answer
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That is so sad, I literally just found Jamie’s video yesterday morning while doing some research for a story. I thought he was so brave, a real success story of the “it gets better campaign”. I can’t believe some weak bigots destroyed him like that RIP.
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I am so mad at facebook. Just leave things bloody well alone. I don’t like how it decides what’s the most important, and puts that at the top. Don’t tell me what I like, dammit!
And Jamey… oh no. Kids are so mean, and I’m so sad that he felt this was the only way to escape. I’m so sad that *anybody* thinks that suicide is the only answer.
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Yay for the little devils, I’m so pleased.
I can’t believe young gay/bi people are still dying. It’s who they are people! No one would pick such a hard road to travel…..
Homework is a joke. Unless you are a SAHM/D it’s too late when the kids start doing homework to be effective.
Facebook….hate it.
Speedo: Ironic that a swimsuit label does not want itself to be associated with nudity?
Super: How about this govt…. Don’t tax us twice. You tax the money on the way in and also on the way out. Also, for the low income earners, how about preventing fees from being charged that erode your investment once it’s under a certain amount!
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Facebook changes to the newsfeed are horrible.
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RIP Jamey.
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Im a supporter of the “It Gets Better” campaign and i was so sad to hear of Jamey’s death. I just can’t understand the minds of those people that seemed to get some sort of sick joy out of sending those comments to this kid.
Finally an end to the absurdity that was Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.
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Loved this story about Malcolm Fraser this morning. Apparently he’s accused both the ALP and Coalition of appealing to a ‘redneck’ minority. Heh heh heh Go Malcolm!
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-21/fraser-says-asylum-debate-worst-in-history/2910276/?site=sydney
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I read that article too – it was great!
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It’s funny how sane prime-ministers become when they have a ‘former’ in front of their title.
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I don’t think Malcolm or Gough would recognise their former parties if they were to step into Parliament today.
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Oh Jamey. You poor kid. It makes me so sad to see people treated so badly. I was talking to my daughter about that kind of abuse the other day. I’ll be telling her Jamey’s story, may he rest in peace.
Anyway, about homework in primary school… I’m not a fan. My kids’ school leaves homework up to individual class teachers. My daughter in Year 4 has consistently achieved well at school regardless of how much or how little homework she’s had. I really don’t think it helps their progress at all, and I often wonder how it affects the children who don’t live in a home where homework is supported.
I’ve told my kids that I don’t think homework is that beneficial, but I’ve also told them that out of respect for their teachers I expect them to tackle their homework with diligence if and when it comes around. Thankfully the kids happily do that and I rarely have to remind them to get started on it.
They probably do an average of 10min (my 7yo) and 20min (my 9yo) per night. My 4yo does HEAPS of it though! He asks his Preschool teacher for homework and will spend about half an hour on it a day! Nerd
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