Should iPods be banned from schools?

Schools banning iPods to beat cheaters

MERIDIAN, Idaho - Banning baseball caps during tests was obvious — students were writing the answers under the brim. Then, schools started banning cell phones, realizing students could text message the answers to each other.

Now, schools across the country are targeting digital media players as a potential cheating device. Devices including Apple Inc. iPods and Microsoft Corp. Zunes can be hidden under clothing, with just an earbud and a wire snaking behind an ear and into a shirt collar to give them away, school officials say.

Shana Kemp, spokeswoman for the National Association of Secondary School Principals, said she does not have hard statistics on the phenomenon but said it is not unusual for schools to ban digital media players.

"I think it is becoming a national trend," she said. "We hope that each district will have a policy in place for technology — it keeps a lot of the problems down."

Using the devices to cheat is hardly a new phenomenon, Kemp said. However, sometimes it takes awhile for teachers and administrators, who come from an older generation, to catch on to the various ways the technology can be used.

Some students use iPod-compatible voice recorders to record test answers in advance and them play them back, said 16-year-old Mountain View junior Damir Bazdar.

Others download crib notes onto the music players and hide them in the "lyrics" text files. Even an audio clip of the old "Schoolhouse Rock" take on how a bill makes it through Congress can come in handy during some American government exams.

Kelsey Nelson, a 17-year-old senior at the school, said she used to listen to music after completing her tests — something she can no longer do since the ban. Still, she said, the ban has not stopped some students from using the devices.

"You can just thread the earbud up your sleeve and then hold it to your ear like you're resting your head on your hand," Nelson said. "I think you should still be able to use iPods. People who are going to cheat are still going to cheat, with or without them."

STOP Emotional Eating!

It's not always calories, fat or any other diet factor that causes people to become overweight. For many people, the trigger to overeating is stress, and the answer is mastering relaxation techniques. One recent study found that people who had no strategy to deal with stress gave in to eating temptations every time; those who responded with positive thoughts and action -- taking a walk, listening to music -- avoided emotion-based eating 85% of the time.

I admit, I have been an emotional eater since I was young. It got worse at times in college and then really bad my first year of teaching. At the time I didn't think of myself as an emotional eater. But I now know that when I am stressed, frustrated, upset, etc...I turn towards fatty, salty foods. Usually, knowledge is power, but even when I know I am stressed, I don't work through it...lately I just eat.

It's hard to work through the emotional eating. It really takes a peron to feel good about themselves to stop from grabbing for food. When I am not feeling so pisitive towards myself i will eat to cope with whatever negative thing is happening in my life. However, if I am feeling positive about my self-concept, I deal with the negative situation differently...not with food.

So, with adults and teens we need to focus on our inner self and make ourselves feel good, proud, and positive towards who we are. that's not the easiest thing to do.

RELAX... I don't own a cow!

Teachers "purify" students with cow urine

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian teachers sprinkled cow urine on low-caste students to purify them and drive away evil, reports said on Saturday, in a country where millions of people remain oppressed at the bottom of the ancient Hindu caste system.

Upper-caste headteacher Sharad Kaithade ordered the ritual after taking over from a lower-caste predecessor at a school in a remote village in the western state of Maharashtra earlier this month, the Times of India reported.

He told an upper-caste colleague to spray cow urine in a cleansing ceremony as the students were taking an examination, wetting their faces and their answer sheets, the newspaper said.

"She said you'll study well after getting purified," student Rajat Washnik was quoted as saying by the CNN-IBN news channel. Students said they felt humiliated.

Hinduism reveres the cow, and its dung is used in the countryside as both a disinfectant and as fuel. In 2001, Hindu nationalists promoted cow's urine as a cure for ailments ranging from liver disease to obesity and even cancer.

The newspaper said the two teachers were arrested after angry parents complained to police. They have been released on bail.

BERRY GOOD!!

All types of berries (strawberries, blueberries, cranberries, blackberries) are low in calories and rich in disease- fighting nutrients. For a quick health kick, add berries to yogurt, cereal, sorbet and smoothies. Fretting because you have to wait until they are in season? In the off-season, pick up unsweetened frozen berries to get the same nutrition benefits all year round!

VIRGINIA TECH

BLACKSBURG, Virginia (Reuters) - Police on Wednesday pored over the writings of a student who massacred 32 people at Virginia Tech university, searching for further clues as to why he went on the worst shooting rampage in modern U.S. history.

This kind of violence truly mesmorizes me...what in the world gives a person the right to think that they can take another's life?!? This HAS TO STOP. The Amish School reopened after that man killed 10 girls about a month ago...then the boy who killed a guard and teacher on that reservation in Minnesota...there's so many...

My heart aches for these slain students...maybe it because I am a teacher and I don't know what I would do if anything like that happened to any of my current or former students. It's hard enough when you lose a student to an accident (we miss you Kwizera and think of you often) but for it to be done on purpose, that's a whole different story.

HOW DO WE HELP KIDS REALIZE THAT THEY ARE TRULY SPECIAL?

Health Tip: Never Share Prescription Medications

HealthDay News) -- Although you may be tempted to use a medication that has been prescribed to someone else, this is a dangerous practice.

Even if you have similar symptoms, the American Academy of Family Physicians warns:

• The medication could have been prescribed for someone of a particular gender, size or age, and may not be appropriate for someone else.
• The medication may react with other drugs that you take.
• Your body may react differently to the drug than the person for whom it was prescribed.
• The dosage written on the prescription label may not be appropriate for you.

Study: Antidepressants may help kids

By CARLA K. JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer

CHICAGO - Authors of a new comprehensive analysis of antidepressants for children and teenagers say the benefits of treatment trump the small risk of increasing some patients' chances of having suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

The risk they found is lower than the one the Food and Drug Administration identified in 2004, the year the agency warned the public about the drugs' risks in children. After the warning, U.S. youth suicides increased and some mental health experts said reluctance to try antidepressants might be to blame.

The new analysis includes data from seven studies that were not part of the previous FDA analysis, including two large pediatric depression trials that were unavailable three years ago.

Researchers analyzed data on 5,310 children and teenagers from 27 studies. They found that for every 100 kids treated with antidepressants, about one additional child experienced worsening suicidal feelings above what would have happened without drug treatment. In contrast, the FDA analysis found an added risk affecting about two in 100 patients.

There were no suicides in any of the studies. The antidepressants included Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Celexa, Lexapro, Effexor, Serzone and Remeron.

FULL ARTICLE http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070417/ap_on_he_me/antidepressants_children_1