Tuesday, July 24, 2001

I hadn't visited the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive for a week or so and spent a few enjoyable minutes yesterday gazing at the incredible images posted there daily. On my last visit to the archive I found a shot I really liked and downloaded the image to my hard drive instead of just viewing it in the browser.

While messing around with the image using GraphicConverter, I noticed the "Put Picture on Desktop" command under the "Picture" menu. While adding a desktop picture by placing it in the appropriate folder (System folder/Appearance/Desktop Pictures/Photos) and selecting it in the Appearance control panel isn't all that hard, I gave the GraphicConverter command a try. The image was stored in the appropriate folder and the Appearance preferences updated automatically. It's really slick. I liked the image so much that I've left it as my desktop picture (wallpaper) for the last two weeks. I think this year at school I'll use Picture of the Day images for my desktop. Changing them daily, or at least weekly, will surely stimulate some good questions.

If you're familiar with the Macintosh screen capture utility (Command-Shift-3 to grab the whole screen, or Command-Shift-4 to select a specific area), you know I didn't grab the GraphicConverter menu using Apple's utility. Ambrosia Software's Snapz Pro 2 is a bit of a pricey utility at $40, but it becomes indispensable when writing directions for computer users when menus are involved. I've used Snapz Pro for several years in writing the documentation and instructions for my MATH DITTOS 2 sharewares. It saves a lot of tech support emails.

Several years ago our school's Evil NT techie decided he wanted the Mac 8550 server out of his office space (Out, damn Mac?) and brought it to my classroom. He actually hoped I'd get it up and running to house the school's Mac files and also function as a print server to ease a bit of the load from the main server. I graciously accepted the challenge and promptly swapped out the good 17" monitor, keyboard, and mouse from the server to a deserving Mac in my classroom.

Once I got the server set up, the next task was to create a set of directions the elementary school staff could use to access files on the server or to access the network printer. I immediately discovered that the directions would be almost completely menus and dialog boxes. Without Snapz Pro, I would have been up a creek without a paddle. In just a few days, I'd created a glorious set of dazzling full-color directions on how to access files and print to the network printer(s). I tested the directions by sitting some of my students (mind you, now, they have to have some form of serious disability, usually involving reading, to even get into my room) at a computer, giving them a copy of the "glorious...dazzling, full-color directions" and letting them "have at it." With just a few tweaks here and there, the directions were finalized. The kids had little to no trouble following them.

Years ago at a union workshop for incoming local presidents, we were told never to make anything that went into the teachers' school mailboxes that took longer to read than it took to go from the mailboxes to the nearest trash can. The best news about my "glorious...dazzling, full-color directions" is that many copies never got past the trash. But the other copies...oh, my! It brings to mind what my wife and her geeky buddies at work often jokingly wish they could write on their case files, "Replaced defective user!" From my field of (limited) expertise, we have the expression and pitfall of special education that could be applied to the staff: "learned helplessness!" I haven't volunteered to write any more directions for our staff since the server instruction debacle.

If you can't tell, I decided the page needed a little color and humor.

The SchwabLearning.org this week offers several new columns of interest for parents and educators. One that I find quite pertinent is Dr. Betty Osman Speaks with SchwabLearning.org Helping Kids Understand LD. I know that I spend a good deal of time talking to my students about what it means to be in special education, to have a learning disability, and how to deal with the inevitable nasty comments of peers.

Sometimes once a special education placement is made, little further consideration is given to any contributing factors or other disabilities. When is it more than AD/HD? deals with the possibility of other contributing disabilities that may, in fact, be far more debilitating than AD/HD can be.

Other new columns on the Schwab site are:

• What factors really help your child succeed? Learn what you can do to help your kid thrive.
• Dealing with Frustrating Behavior
• Accepting Your Child's LD

Today's Los Angeles Times carries a column by Ronald Brownstein concerning backlash to the education reform bill. In Belatedly, a Front Is Forming to Fight Education Legislation, Brownstein quotes Indiana senator Evan Bayh as saying:

Everyone is for accountability until it actually gets put into place and applies to them. What we have to do is focus on the kids. You almost have the educational interests serving the system, instead of the kids the system is supposed to serve.

In Secrets of federal education reform, Washington Times columnist Martin L. Gross takes a swipe at teachers in general and the National Education Association. Gross states:

But all of this controversy and compromise misses the real "dirty secret" of educational reform -- the intellectual and academic inferiority of the teacher corps. The Democrats refuse to discuss this because the National Education Association is one of its main supporters, and some 10 percent of the delegates to the Democratic National Convention were NEA members. The Republicans refuse to discuss it because millions of voters have a sister, wife, husband, daughter, son or other relative who is a teacher.

Makes you proud to be a teacher, doesn't it!

In Crossing the Educational Divide, Washington Post Staff Writer Valerie Strauss explores issues in choosing whether to teach in public or private schools. She quotes 25 year teaching veteran Pat Gallagher, now assistant to the Kansas City, Missouri, Mayor Kay Barnes, as saying:

The job is tough no matter where you are. I think most people don't have a clue what it's like. I hate to hear people blame and bash teachers -- even though I, too, know there are some -- a lot -- of bad ones. Even in a private school, it is so hard, so challenging. I don't think there's anyone here at City Hall who could enter a middle or high school classroom and succeed without intense training and the understanding that it's a different world of work.

There's an idea! Maybe Mr. Gross should take up teaching for a few years:-).

Wednesday, July 25, 2001

CNN Education yesterday carried the article, What is a "failing school?" The column deals with Congressional negotiators struggling to reach an useable and useful definition in the new education reform law. An illustrative quote from the column is, "In Texas 78 percent of schools rated 'exemplary' by state officials in 1998 would be labeled 'failing' by federal standards." A related column in the Raleign News and Observer states:

In the new study using test data from North Carolina and Texas, three economics researchers found that virtually every school in both states would have failed to achieve "adequate yearly progress," as defined by Congress, at least one year between 1994 and 1999. The new federal standards would require improvement every year by students in all racial subgroups at every school.

For those of us who are parents and/or teachers, the definition of a failing school is easy. It's a school that hasn't accomplished what we desire for one of "our children" (our offspring or those we teach). Generalizing that definition nationally seems a nearly impossible task.

Columnist David S. Broder of the Washington Post relates the results of a study concerning early childhood education today in Dividends of Early Learning.

In Privacy Group Is Taking Issue With Microsoft, Steve Lohr relates the various governmental groups now expressing concern about the integrated features in Microsoft's new Windows XP operating system.

The Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine has an interesting story about a writers camp for aspiring authors aged 14 and older. For writers young and older, camp to hone craft tells of a summer conference where qualifying individuals can improve their writing skills under the tutelage of seasoned writers.

Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura lashed out recently at Education Minnesota, the state's largest teacher union. The Minneapolis Star Tribune relates:

"What do they do with all that money?" Ventura asked a day after it was reported that Education Minnesota had put nearly $725,000 into lobbying and public relations in the first six months of this year. "What a system! They get our money, then they use it to get more from us."

The column alleges Ventura said the teachers union should use some of its $22 million annual budget to raise its members' salaries instead of pressing state government for greater education funding. Union co-president Judy Schaubach said the governor's statement is "a real disservice to the people in the public schools. ... It's really disappointing." The St. Paul Pioneer Press also carries a related story.

Although their site does not as yet reflect it, Scholastic, Inc. has announced it will be adding MAPMAN's Map Skills to Scholastic News editions for grades 4-6.

If you can handle the multiple popup pages, Space.com is always an enjoyable site for the astronomy minded educator.

Thursday, July 26, 2001

Something that has bothered me for a long time is the number of kids I see who walk in and out of school daily without a single book. I know our children have brought home a varying, but certainly adequate amount of homework over the last few years. Only rarely are they empty-handed going in or out of school. What I'm getting around to (arrrgh, another uncorrected dangling preposition) is a CNN Education column, Homework hours tripled since 1980. With the current national dissatisfaction with public education, it seems like the old adage, "the harder I try, the behinder I get."

Thorsten Lemke has updated GraphicConverter to version 4.0.9. It's available for download in three versions for Macintosh: PPC (2.8 MB); Carbon (2.8 MB); and 68K (2.2 MB). GraphicConverter is the Swiss army knife of graphics tools for the Mac. It easily converts images from one format to another, as its name implies, with many automated options. While all the features of this $35 shareware are just too numerous to list, the one I use most is the image browser. Don't you wish there were a Windows version!

Bill Fox of MacsOnly and Rodney O. Lain on Low End Mac offer differing views concerning whether the Mac OS X 10.1 update should and will be free or not. I already got my shots in on this issue last Monday.

Merritt McKinney, writing for the Reuters News Service, reports Higher Education Level Tied to Nearsightedness. A quote from Dr. Seang-Mei Saw of the National University of Singapore gives the gist of the piece: "Educational level and academic achievement seem to be predictors of myopia."

For those of you not already absolutely sick to death of the subject, Russell Redman of CRN provides what seems so far to be the most objective analysis I've seen of the recent IDC Quarterly PC Tracker report in Apple Squares Off With Dell In Education Market.

Several years ago I had the kids in my class working very hard on their name, address, phone number, and signature. I made up a number of printable worksheets in ClarisWorks for each child to practice signing a number of items. Finding images of major bank cards was easy, but what I couldn't find was a good paycheck or personal check image. The idea was for each child to receive a paycheck personalized to them, and for them to pay out from their account using personal checks. Not finding what I wanted, I just made my own.

I obviously couldn't resist poking a bit of fun at our community in the process. (Do you remember Bachman-Turner Overdrive's Takin' Care of Business?)

Completely editable versions of both the personal check (10K) and the paycheck (13K) in the AppleWorks 5 format are available for download. The paycheck requires several fonts: Helvetica; Script; and Arrus BT. The personal check just uses Helvetica, but takes a bit of work to make succeeding check numbers. I made a template with succeeding check numbers and pasted the name, address, etc. in the appropriate slot. It turned out to be a great activity which I need to repeat in the classroom this year.

Both checks are also listed with some other freewares on the MATH DITTOS 2 and Educators' News Freebies directory index.

Friday, July 27, 2001

Excuse me, but I'm up on my soapbox again!

CNN Education yesterday looked into the issue Should preschoolers be reading? Prompted by First Lady Laura Bush hosting a White House summit on how young children learn, the column notes "the Bush Administration approach...focuses on curriculum rather than underlying problems." Tufts University professor David Elkind, author of "The Hurried Child," is paraphrased as saying that "he would like to see more Head Start programs for poor children, rather than a ramped-up curriculum." Tufts then zeroes in on what I believe is a basic error in the Bush Administration's educational policy:

"We're trying to slop over a poverty problem with a kind of curriculum issue. It's not a curriculum issue. It's a poverty issue, and let's face that."

CNN's Kathy Slobogin presents a pretty balanced view of the situation in the column. I spoke out on this issue last fall in the column Making Schools Better?

The dirty little secret that no politician wants to publicly state is that education won't appreciably improve until our nation adequately deals with a number of social ills. The problems with education in America don't begin or end with the front steps to our schools. They go to the homes and parents that should be providing a safe, healthy, wholesome environment for their children...

 

Who wants to state a problem that has repeatedly defied a cure?

A related editorial appeared in the New York Times earlier this week, Unhealthy Cuts for Head Start (free registration required). Referring to the Head Start Program, it stated, "Mr. Bush wants to cut funding for 2002, in per child terms, by 2 percent."

If you're looking for an alternative to eBay for buying or selling used Macs, SecondhandMac opened for business last week.

For those of you who may be running the Mac OS X operating system, Ambrosia Software today released SnapzProX. The nifty screen capture utility in its OS X native version runs $29 for the basic package and $49 with movie capture abilities. Upgrades for registered users of Snapz Pro 2 are $19 and $39.