An elementary school teacher pleaded guilty to charges of sharing child pornography via social media, in the first hearing on his case at the Nagoya District Court on Wednesday. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/10/01/japan/crime-legal/teacher-child-pornography-trial/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #japan #crimelegal #japanesecourts #nagoya #yokohama #teachers #childporn #socialmedia
One of the folks I had the opportunity to talk to at a #MaineRivers conference some years ago was #PenobscotNation member #JohnBanks. So glad to see him being honored... He has been a tireless advocate for the #PenobscotRiver!
"Banks was the Penobscot Nation’s representative on the Maine-Indian State Tribal Commission from 1987 to 2021, making him its longest-serving member. He also served on many local, regional and national organization boards, including the National Tribal Environmental Council, Native American Fish and Wildlife Society, National Indian Policy Center, and the Tribal Operations Committee with the federal EPA.
"But arguably Banks’ most noteworthy accomplishment involves bringing a Wabanaki voice and leadership to the historic #PenobscotRiverRestorationProject (1999-2016) in which two dams nearest to the sea were removed and a stream-like bypass channel was completed around a third dam at Howland.
"Completed in 2016, the $63 million restoration project opened almost 2,000 miles of habitat for 11 species of sea-run fish that had been choked off from their spawning grounds for almost two centuries by dams across the river.
"Since then, the river has come back alive with millions of river herring joined by Atlantic salmon, shad, sturgeon and other species in numbers that hadn’t been seen on the Penobscot River for nearly two centuries. Laura Rose Day credits Banks with a key intervention in 2002, when it looked like negotiations that had been going on for three years between #EnvironmentalGroups and the #hydro company owner were about to collapse.
" '[John] asked for a few minutes,' she wrote in a 2014 Christian Science Monitor commentary recalling the moment. 'Removing an eagle feather from a cloth wrap, he circled the table, laying the feather on each shoulder. He reminded us that, no matter whom we served, we were also responsible for being the voice for all the creatures of the river – the birds, the fish, and all of the people as well. The common goal had to be the health of the river.' "
Read more:
https://www.wabanakialliance.com/nihkaniyane2025-johnbanks/
#WaterIsLife #WabanakiAlliance #Wabanaki #Nihkaniyane #MaineRivers #DamRemoval #RiverRestoration
Another 2025 #Nihkaniyane honoree -#BrianneLolar!
"Brianne Lolar is one of three individuals honored by the #WabanakiAlliance at the 2025 Nihkaniyane event. A citizen of the #PenobscotNation, Lolar is a beloved elementary school teacher who left the classroom four years ago to begin doing equally important work as the first #WabanakiStudies Specialist for the Maine Department of Education. In that work she is bringing voice and representation to the Wabanaki people through partnerships with Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators and organizations who’ve been working together to achieve unmet goals and objectives of the 2001 requiring that #WabanakiHistory and culture be taught and integrated into the K-12 curriculum.
"A 2022 report from the Wabanaki Alliance, #AbbeMuseum, #ACLU of Maine, and Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission noted the law has not been implemented meaningfully across the state. Those findings and the work of a task force leading up to the report are what led Lolar to leave her 'happy place' of teaching in the classroom and enter the challenging give-and-take realm of state government where she’s been working on year-to-year contracts to help teachers and school districts fulfill the goals of the 2001 law.
" 'I knew I can’t complain about nothing being done if I’m not going to step up and sacrifice,' she says. 'My thinking was ‘It’s just a year and I’ll go back to teaching. It could go away again at any time. So I need to make the most of this opportunity.'
"Her sense of urgency motivated a 'can-do' approach that made sure yearly progress was being made to create a solid foundation for Wabanaki studies being taught across the entire state."
Read more:
https://www.wabanakialliance.com/nihkaniyane2025-briannelolar/
#WabanakiAlliance #Wabanaki #LanguagePreservation #WabanakiLanguage #CulturalPreservation #PreservingHistory #IndigenousLanguage #IndigenousHistory #Teachers
Alex Akselrod
boosted
We have free resources to help you talk about gun violence in your classroom and community.
The Gabby Giffords Won't Back Down film guides include tools for sensitive, productive conversations about gun violence. These guides are powerful, accessible and not political at all. The team that worked on them includes gun violence survivors and it shows.
https://journeysinfilm.org/product/gabby-giffords-wont-back-down/
#GunViolence#SchoolSafety#US#UsNews#Shooting #Education#Teachers#Minneapolis#Minnesota#Teaching #K12
We have free resources to help you talk about gun violence in your classroom and community.
The Gabby Giffords Won't Back Down film guides include tools for sensitive, productive conversations about gun violence. These guides are powerful, accessible and not political at all. The team that worked on them includes gun violence survivors and it shows.
https://journeysinfilm.org/product/gabby-giffords-wont-back-down/
#GunViolence#SchoolSafety#US#UsNews#Shooting #Education#Teachers#Minneapolis#Minnesota#Teaching #K12
The education ministry is considering launching a model project in fiscal 2026 to dispatch cram school lecturers and others with teaching qualifications to public schools as temporary teachers. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/08/10/japan/japan-substitute-teacher-plan/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #japan #schools #teachers #education #mext
Timnit Gebru (she/her).
boosted
What we're reading:
"Asked to generate intervention plans for struggling students, AI teacher assistants recommended more punitive measures for hypothetical students with Black-coded names and more supportive approaches for students the platforms perceived as white, a new study shows."
We know that educators are bombarded with (VC-funded) hype about AI tools as magical solutions. Please don't take these claims at face value and do your own due diligence. 1/3
https://www.chalkbeat.org/2025/08/06/ai-teacher-assistants-promote-racial-bias-study-finds/
What we're reading:
"Asked to generate intervention plans for struggling students, AI teacher assistants recommended more punitive measures for hypothetical students with Black-coded names and more supportive approaches for students the platforms perceived as white, a new study shows."
We know that educators are bombarded with (VC-funded) hype about AI tools as magical solutions. Please don't take these claims at face value and do your own due diligence. 1/3
https://www.chalkbeat.org/2025/08/06/ai-teacher-assistants-promote-racial-bias-study-finds/
What we're reading:
"Asked to generate intervention plans for struggling students, AI teacher assistants recommended more punitive measures for hypothetical students with Black-coded names and more supportive approaches for students the platforms perceived as white, a new study shows."
We know that educators are bombarded with (VC-funded) hype about AI tools as magical solutions. Please don't take these claims at face value and do your own due diligence. 1/3
https://www.chalkbeat.org/2025/08/06/ai-teacher-assistants-promote-racial-bias-study-finds/
The boards of education in two rural towns in Oita Prefecture will together launch a program in fiscal 2026 to nurture educators who have strong connections to the local community. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/08/04/japan/nurturing-teachers-locally/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #japan #education #schools #teachers #kusu#kokonoe #oita
A group chat that teachers allegedly used to share illicit images of elementary school girls has reignited the question: Is Japan facing a systemic failure to protect children from predatory educators? https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/07/16/japan/crime-legal/teachers-students-sexual-abuse/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #japan #crimelegal #schools #students #children #sexcrimes #mext #teachers #sexualharassment #childporn
Alex Akselrod
boosted
STEM teachers, did you know that we have film-based lesson plans for STEM classes, too? Many of these lessons can work with showing just scenes of the film or without showing the film at all.
Check out:
Calculating Orbits for Space Travel - Hidden Figures
Chinese Number Rods - Please Vote For Me
Echolocation Class Activity - Whale Rider
Generating Electricity - The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind
Goldilocks Planets - One Strange Rock
Rainforest Ecology - River of Gold
(These are just examples, there are many more!)
Like all of our resources, these lesson plans are available free from our library. If you have questions about our materials our would like help finding something for your classroom, we're happy to help.
https://journeysinfilm.org/library/
@stemeducation @education @edutooters
#Education#Stem#StemEducation#Teachers#Teaching#Homeschooling
STEM teachers, did you know that we have film-based lesson plans for STEM classes, too? Many of these lessons can work with showing just scenes of the film or without showing the film at all.
Check out:
Calculating Orbits for Space Travel - Hidden Figures
Chinese Number Rods - Please Vote For Me
Echolocation Class Activity - Whale Rider
Generating Electricity - The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind
Goldilocks Planets - One Strange Rock
Rainforest Ecology - River of Gold
(These are just examples, there are many more!)
Like all of our resources, these lesson plans are available free from our library. If you have questions about our materials our would like help finding something for your classroom, we're happy to help.
https://journeysinfilm.org/library/
@stemeducation @education @edutooters
#Education#Stem#StemEducation#Teachers#Teaching#Homeschooling
“It’s catastrophic,” said Jodi Grant, executive director of the Afterschool Alliance, a group that works to expand after-school services for #students. She estimated that the federal dollars for after-school & summer-school programs — about $1.3 billion annually — support 1.4 million students, mostly lower income, representing about 20% of all students in after-school programs nationally.
The move is likely to be challenged in #court & has already been criticized [correctly characterized] as #illegal by #Democrats & #teachers’ #unions, who emphasized that the money had been appropriated by #Congress & was approved by #Trump in March as part of a broader #funding bill.
“This is lawless,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.
Amid heightened concerns over child safety in Japan, the government is expanding the scope of its planned background check system designed to protect children from sexual offenders. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/07/01/japan/crime-legal/japan-version-dbs/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #japan #crimelegal #sexcrimes #teachers #schools #children #childabuse
2/. It just feels wrong for parents to receive a 400 word eulogy about their kid’s artistic talents, when it’s been pooped out by a LLm, based on 6-8 keyword prompts.
As parent I’d feel a bit cheated. TBH rather just have the 8 word prompt.
I know how super busy she is , and reports can be repetitious. But it saddens me to think we’ll end up exchanging ‘puffed out’ responses like this when art is so personal .
It doesn’t feel right.
What you you think, Mastodon?
#teachers