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Daily Archives: January 22, 2023

Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution

My Sun Coast: “Manatee County Schools Spokesperson Michael Barber confirms that communication has been sent to principals of schools to vet books teachers have in their classroom. In December, House Bill 1467 stated that School Library and Instructional Materials requires school district to adopt procedures for determining and reviewing content for library media centers. This has been extended to books in the classroom. Educators who reached out to ABC7 say that their books are being inspected Friday and books that don’t meet the guidelines will be removed. All books in teacher classrooms must be vetted to determine they have been approved. The Department of Education must publish and update a list of materials that were removed or discontinued by district school boards as a result of an objection and disseminate the list to school districts for consideration in their instructional materials selection…You can read the guidance in its entirety below: Per the new statutory changes to House Bill 1467 – Section 1006.40 (3) (d), F.S. All material in school and classroom libraries or included on a reading list must be:

  1. Free of Pornography and material prohibited under S. 847.012, F.S.
  2. Suited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the material presented.
  3. Appropriate for the grade level and age group for which the materials are used and made available.

Each elementary school must publish on its website, in a searchable format prescribed by the department, a list of all materials maintained in the school library media center or required as part of a school or grade-level reading list. Penalty for Violating Section 847.012, F.S. Any person violating any provision of this section commits a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in S. 775.082, S. 775.083, or s. 775.084.”

Awesome ChatGPT Prompts

“Welcome to the “Awesome ChatGPT Prompts” repository. This is a collection of prompt examples to be used with the ChatGPT model. The ChatGPT model is a large language model trained by OpenAI that is capable of generating human-like text. By providing it with a prompt, it can generate responses that continue the conversation or expand… Continue Reading

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, January 21, 2022

Via LLRX – Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, January 21, 2022 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly… Continue Reading

Is plastic recycling a scam? Here’s the truth about the common practice

Inverse: “A report found only 5 percent of plastic gets recycled. Experts explain what that means for the American consumer. Last fall, a Greenpeace report on plastic recycling made headlines around the world when news outlets led with the publication’s striking key finding: Only five percent of plastic household waste generated in the U.S. was… Continue Reading

Justice – Official Site

Jezebel – “It’s been nearly five years since Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court by the Senate in a 50-48 vote—despite allegations of sexual misconduct by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez and about 4,500 other tips that the FBI seemingly just kind of ignored. Justice, a new documentary about the botched… Continue Reading

Students want new books. Thanks to restrictions, librarians can’t buy them.

Washington Post: Schools are struggling to keep their shelves stocked as oversight by parents and school boards intensifies – “States and districts nationwide have begun to constrain what librarians can order. At least 10 states have passed laws giving parents more power over which books appear in libraries or limiting students’ access to books, a… Continue Reading