End of year DVDs are a popular classroom memento. After all, who doesn’t love a nice reminder of the highlights of the past school year? The classmates. The holiday parties. The science fair. The couch sex.

Yes, the couch sex. An Elk Grove, California teacher sent home a DVD that included a homemade sex scene. It’s unclear what precisely was on the DVD, since the parents only watched a few seconds before removing the DVDs from their players and immediately destroying the discs (*cough* yeah, right *cough*). Although the school district tried to keep the teacher’s identity under wraps, news agencies soon ferreted out her name and splashed it across the paper. The woman in question teaches the fifth grade, and the video was sent home to her 24 students. When the teacher realized what had happened, she phoned each family (in hysterics, of course) to apologize and asked that they destroy the video immediately.
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It’s no secret that Catholic School teachers aren’t always nuns these days, but who knew they were saints? Well, they’re apparently supposed to be, anyway. I caught an article today about an unmarried, male Catholic school teacher who was fired after staying at his girlfriend’s house overnight. The man had too much to drink and didn’t want to drive home. As somebody who sends her kids to Catholic school, I say, “The children! Won’t somebody think of the children?! Fire that monster!”

Okay, I’m kidding. I think the decision to fire this teacher is ridiculous. Is the Church within their rights to fire him? I don’t believe so. He signed a contract stating he would behave morally and in accordance with church teachings, and there is no evidence he did otherwise. He simply went on a date with his girlfriend and slept over. And isn’t it better to stay the night than to leave while drunk and cause an accident? What if he had killed somebody? Isn’t drunk driving a sin in the eyes of the Church? It makes me wonder, too, how they found out about his overnight stay. Nosy old biddy peeking through her curtains? Tracking device slipped into his bible cozy? How?

Suppose the man isn’t telling the truth, and he did have sex with his girlfriend that night. I hate to be the one to break the news, but it is possible to have sex during daylight hours. Heck, the man could have “gone to his girlfriend’s house,” so to speak, every day at 4 pm with nobody the wiser and his job secure. It’s this sort of emphasis on the appearance of propriety rather than common sense that drives me batty. 

Interesting side note: I couldn’t locate the article when it was time to write my blog, so I googled “Catholic school” and “fired” and got distracted by articles on two other CS teachers (both female) who were fired over the past few years for 1) having in vitro fertilization and 2) marrying a divorced man. Are these valid reasons for termination, given that the women signed contracts agreeing to follow the teachings of the church? What do you think?

Is the traditional student’s deskchair soon to be a thing of the past? A 2007 Mayo Clinic study found that students who sat on exercise balls instead of traditional chairs focused better (the benefit was especially pronounced in kids with attention problems). The theory is that kids learn better when their brain has to “engage” to keep their bodies balanced on the ball. The balls also help develop better posture and allow kids to fidget, which builds abdominal muscles and burns calories.  

Teachers who’ve tried the balls have been overwhelmingly positive about the experience in online forums. Some teachers have even worked on their own options, such as podium-like chairs and adjustable desks that allow students to stand if they prefer. 

I love this idea on many levels. With playground time cut back in most schools (from 20 minutes to only 15 in my own kids’ case) and with childhood obesity so widespread, I think any chance to burn calories is only going to benefit kids. The only obvious drawback I can imagine with these options is the price. Like many parents, I had to send an extra $25 this year toward crayons, toilet paper and hand soap. Other districts are barely able to keep the electricity on and the plumbing in good repair. The sad truth is that the seating options would probably greatly help many kids, but are probably out of reach for the vast majority of school districts.

Ah, Patrick Swayze. *dreamy sigh* Who among us 30-something women didn’t dream of visiting a resort in the Catskills with our straightlaced parents and secretly learning to dirty dance with the local bad boy while the “squares” were in the pavilion learning the cha cha? Well, I’m officially old, because Patrick’s, like, so yesterday. My new crush is on High School Principal Jason Perrins. 
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Thanks to the recent election, I’ve become addicted to online news (I know — I’m a late bloomer). Mixed in with all the election coverage, I was exposed to almost-daily reports of school violence. Over the years, I kept myself purposely naive, because that sort of news story makes me want to move my kids into a concrete bunker, where we’d eat canned vegetables, weave our own clothes, and remain blissfully ignorant of the crazy world around us. For example, today’s CNN homepage reported that a 15-year-old girl walked into high school and shot her best friend in the chest. There is no motive for the killing yet, but I suspect it will be something along the lines of ‘she forgot to return my favorite sweater.’
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