It’s being described as a watershed moment in B.C. education. Six school districts have embarked on a project that views self-regulation as the key to addressing the mental, physical and psychological diversity in classrooms that sometimes disrupts learning and creates a stressful environment for teachers. Leaders in those districts have embraced the philosophy of York University Professor Stuart Shanker, that teaching children to self-regulate – in other words, remain calm, focused and alert – is the best way to help them learn. It’s a theory backed by education ministry officials, reported the Vancouver Sun Sept. 23. Read full story.
Prime Ministers meets with Iranian-Canadians about embassy closure
“The prime minister indicated that they have washed their hands of the (Iranian) regime, but not the people of Iran and they stand by us,” said York University Professor and Iranian-Canadian Congress president Farrokh Zandi, associate director of the IBBA and BBA programs at York’s Schulich School of Business, reported the Ottawa Citizen Sept. 24. Read full story.
Retro pimping for the latest tech accessory, the iPhone 5
There is, after all, some method in the seeming madness of bulking up your cellphone, since it answers the question posed by Alan Middleton, assistant professor of marketing at York University’s Schulich School of Business: “As we go more and more mobile, what do we do with (our hand-held device) when we get home?” the Toronto Star reported Sept. 21 Read full story.
Girls helping girls
The not so “mean girls” at Canada’s private schools are fighting back against bullying. Jennifer Connolly, professor of psychology at York University and a member of York’s LaMarsh Centre for Child & Youth Research, has been researching bullying for more than 10 years. She says bullying in girls’ schools manifests in the same way it does in any school. However, she says the rates of bullying are somewhat lower in single-sex girls’ schools than in mixed schools. “It’s still not so low that we can say this isn’t a problem – maybe just a bit lower when you don’t have boys around,” reported the Toronto Star Sept. 22. Read full story.
Goodbye summer: The science behind Saturday’s autumn equinox
Bird migration is at its peak, but barely visible. “This is the height of it all, right now,” says Bridget Stutchbury, a songbird scientist at York University. “They (birds) are pouring overhead. The number of birds that leave the boreal forest and head south is in the millions. You can see them on radar. They just show up as big red blobs of migration going over.” The flocks look like rain on Doppler weather radar, reported the Ottawa Citizen Sept. 21. Read full story.
Toronto study finds ‘satellite babies’ common across immigrant communities
The phenomenon of “satellite babies” – children separated from parents and in care of relatives abroad – is more common across immigrant communities than once thought, says a York University study. “It is difficult to have a functional family life for them. They have to use coping strategies that are familiar to them, based on their own cultural values,” said York University child psychologist Yvonne Bohr, the lead author of the study, as reported by the Toronto Star Sept. 23. Read full story.
Canada hasn’t left undesirable days behind
Undesirables: White Canada and the Komagata Maru is a lavishly illustrated account of a key moment in our history, reported the Vancouver Sun in a review of the book. Author Ali Kazemi is a Toronto-based documentary filmmaker and a professor at York University. Read full story.
It’s time to get your hands dirty, Osgoode students!
Keeping in line with its five-year strategic plan to boost hands-on learning, York’s Osgoode Hall Law School has several new experiential offerings this fall. Osgoode Dean Lorne Sossin has been advocating for additional experiential education programs since he took his post in July 2010, and it is now coming to fruition, reported Canadian Lawyer magazine Sept. 24. Read full story.