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I ran across a delightful blog posting a few weeks ago on Andy Ihnatko's Celestical Waste of Bandwidth blog. Not-So-Big Love tells Andy's views on the 12" Powerbook. While Andy has named his main computers, Lilith 1, Lilith 2, on up to his current Lilith 7, I've never done so except for two classroom computers years ago named Big Mac (with a Big Mac sandwich icon for the hard drive) and Little Mac (french fries icon for the hard drive). During a period when Andy was evaluating the 12", 15", and 17" Powerbooks, he found the smaller one "gave nothing and took plenty" and dubbed it a "Slab-O-Mac!" Well, now my 12' Powerbook has a name, Slab-O-Mac, whether I like it or not. I don't think I'll be able to use it again without that name popping into my head. Since I'm just getting back into the routine of regular posts on Educators' News and the beginnings of some columns, I did a quick column on Andy's story and my 12" Powerbook just for practice. It's not a teardown piece or anything technical, just An Ode to my "Slab-O-Mac." A Good Resolution to an Issue I'd linked last Monday to a column that told of Marianne Kearney-Brown being fired by Cal State East Bay because she inserted "non-violently" into the state-required loyalty oath. Pacifist Cal State teacher gets job back tells of her reinstatement.
More on Homeschooling in California The ruling by the California Second District Court of Appeals "that California law requires parents to send their children to full-time public or private schools or have them taught by credentialed tutors at home" has drawn a strong response from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and parents. The Story of a Science Fair Finalist Joseph Berger's A Science Prodigy in an Unlikely Place is the story of Eric Delgado's path to being one of the 40 finalists in this year's Intel Science Talent Search. Delgado, a senior at Bayonne High School, "zeroed in on a hypothesis that the plant extract could be engineered to inhibit resistance in bacteria like E. coli" in his project, Engineering a Novel Gram-negative Effective Efflux Pump Inhibitor. Virginia to Opt Out of NCLB? The Virginia legislature passed a bill Saturday, now awaiting the Governor's signature, that would direct Virginia's Board of Education "to recommend whether the state should pull out of a federal school accountability system." Washington Post staff writers Maria Glod and Anita Kumar tell the tale in Assembly Passes Bill to Allow 'No Child' Opt-Out. The Athletic Scholarship Game I'm not sure if I've ever linked to anything on a sports page, but Bill Pennington's article, Athletic Scholarships: Expectations Lose to Reality, is really excellent. Pennington looks at the disparity between the effort of parents and student athletes over years to attain an athletic scholarship and the often meager return. Smaller Classes and the Achievement Gap A Science Daily posting, Class Size Alone Not Enough To Close Academic Achievement Gap, tells of a new study of existing data (Project STAR) that says smaller class sizes may not help in closing the achievement gap. Possibly one of the most informative statements in the full report (176K PDF doc) is: "The findings also indicated that although all types of students benefited from being in small classes, reductions in class size did not reduce the achievement gap between low and high achievers." Garden Update
If you plan on starting transplants for your summer garden or flower bed, it's definitely is time, almost past time, to get started. Garden stores will soon have seed packets displayed, although you can get a much better selection via one of the many excellent mail order seed houses.
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Even though it's only March, the outside garden is beginning to show some signs of life. Garlic 
for guidance on when to plant what. Although all are long out of print, 
are still the best volumes I have on gardening. Fortunately for others, they're still available used at a very reasonable prices through |
The Space Shuttle Endeavour and its crew of seven astronauts roared into space early this morning on a 16-day mission to the International Space Station. Prime objectives of the mission are to deliver and attach the first component of Japan's new laboratory called Kibo and the Canadian Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator robot named Dextre (named by Canadian students).The mission will also deliver NASA Astronaut Garrett Reisman to the complex and return European Space Agency astronaut Léopold Eyharts to Earth. While we're talking about space, The New York Times had a nice piece in their Space & Cosmos question and answer section about the new planet mnemonic, "My Very Exciting Magic Carpet Just Sailed Under Nine Palace Elephants." The mnemonic was selected via the National Geographic Children's Books Planetary Mnemonic Contest. Also, NASA announced yesterday that the Cassini spacecraft will do a close flyby (30 miles) on March 12 of Saturn's moon Enceladus. The purpose of the flyby of "huge Old-Faithful-like geysers erupting from giant fractures on the south pole" of the moon is to collect "water-ice, dust and gas in the plume." The Silly Season Continues A teacher faces a dismissal hearing today in Indianapolis for using an unapproved supplemental reading material (that she had student parent permission to use). Veteran educator Connie Heermann faces the choice of an appeal of her dismissal hearing today or taking an offered buyout from the MSD Perry Township school system in Indy. Perry Township has had a troubled history of late, last year buying out the contract of respected Superintendent Doug Williams. See 'Freedom Writers' teacher might take severance Short Update It's a short posting for now, as I stayed up late to watch the STS-123 launch last night on NASA TV! Intel Science Award Winners The winners of the Intel Science Talent Search 2008 were announced in a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Shivani Sudof Durham, N.C., won the top award, a $100,000 scholarship for her research project that analyzed the specific “molecular signatures” of tumors from patients with stage II colon cancer. Also see North Carolina Student Wins $100,000 Intel Science Award. Florida Science Standards for Severely Disabled Florida recently approved new science standards that include "standards called access points that closely follow the general education science curriculum." In practice, according to Palm Beach Post staff writer Don Jordan, "That means when Sally in third grade is learning how to measure and compare the mass and volume of solids and liquids, Johnny in the third grade Exceptional Student Education class will learn to sort objects by weight or recognize which object is larger." In New tack improves disabled learning, Jordan reports that he result of the new standards will be a "curriculum for severely disabled students that is more relevant and rigorous and easier for teachers to follow." Crusading Principal Samuel G. Freedman tells of GateWay Early College High School Principal Yvonne Watterson's effort to retain students in the face of Arizona's new law known as Proposition 300, which blocks illegal immigrants from receiving in-state tuition at public colleges and universities. In Principal Sees Injustice, and Picks a Fight With It, Freedman relates how the statute also blocked Watterson's high school students, who are able to take courses at a community college in the same building with in-state tuition paid by the high school, from receiving the state aid. While some students dropped out, Watterson's efforts resulted in many private donations that saved the program for all students at GateWay. The Silly Season Continues It appears Connie Heermann of Perry Township in Indianapolis said too much, as the MSD Perry School Board rescinded is buyout offer last night. Indianapolis Star writer, Bill McCleery, reports in Perry board yanks proposed deal with high school teacher, that board attorney Jon Bailey "said Heermann's comments to the media Monday -- confirming her decision to accept the deal even before she had told school officials -- rubbed board members the wrong way. Board members thought Heermann's comments made it sound like the board had a weak case against her." The Perry board went into executive session to hear from administrators and Heermann and will vote on the veteran teacher's future with the corporation in a public meeting next week. Guess I'll also throw in the latest report of proposed teacher cutbacks due to various states cutting education spending in this section. Ventura County districts notify teachers of possible staff cuts tells of another California school district that will have to drop teachers (and more) to cope with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed across the board 10% cut in education spending there.
On a brighter note, NASA yesterday released another fantastic photo of the Space Shuttle Endeavour's night launch. Open it up full size, and it's breathtaking. As with most NASA photos, "You may use NASA imagery, video and audio material for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits and Internet Web pages." See Using NASA Imagery and Linking to NASA Web Sites. I ran across the image at right, Fire in the Sky, via an RSS feed for the NASA Image of the Day Gallery. They also maintain an excellent archive that could prove useful for teachers. More School Voucher Stuff
Views on Leopard The editors and writers at Macworld magazine are taking turns giving their impressions of Apple's Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) operating system based on four months use. Dan Frakes, one of my favorites at Macworld, led off with Leopard, four months later. His Mac Gems column about new software (mainly shareware) is my first read each month in the print edition. Rob Griffiths adds his views in Another view of Leopard, four months later. Changes Suggested for Math Instruction The National Mathematics Advisory Panel commissioned by President Bush has issued its report on math instruction in the United States. "The panel concluded that the math curricula and textbooks in elementary and middle schools typically cover too many topics without enough depth."
Have a great weekend!
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©2008 Steven L. Wood