Quick Hits (5.14.12)

Soliciting student input whatever way possible. Kindergartners in Georgia will be asked to circle smiley, neutral, or frown faces next to statements about their teachers’ performance. It’s part of a pilot program aimed at incorporating student feedback into personnel decisions. (The Hechinger Report)

‘The Morality of a For-Profit College, in One Act.’ A former for-profit college admissions counselor writes a play that illustrates the moral questions he faced in his work, which he said forced him to target “poorly prepared students for expensive degree programs.” When he stopped doing that, and instead helped prospective students get the social services they eeded, he lost his job (in real life; the play’s ending wasn’t disclosed).  (The Chronicle of Higher Education)

We’ll wait for confirmation on this one. But in the meantime, we’re picking up a new book. A new study links reading and other intellectually stimulating, but sedentary, activities to a lower body weight. (Pacific Standard)

Under “What NOT To Do When Your Students Misbehave.” A Florida high school teacher reportedly made bad-behaving students don a “cone of shame,” or a plastic cone-shaped collar usually worn by dogs after surgery to prevent them from licking their wounds. (Tampa Bay Times)