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Apple Blossoms
They don't last all that long, but when the apple blossoms come out, they're really beautiful. I think I've tried every spring for ten years to get a shot of them that I was happy with. This year I think I got it. The photo above and others are available for use as desktop photos (wallpapers) from our Desktop Photos page.
Fear and Depression Among South L.A. Students Los Angeles Times staff writer Mitchell Landsberg tells of a survey of students in the South Los Angeles area that revealed that many are "frightened by violence in school, deeply dissatisfied with their choices of college preparatory classes, and -- perhaps most striking -- exhibit symptoms of clinical depression." In Many South L.A. students frightened and depressed, survey finds, he tells of the survey conducted by the South Central Youth Empowered Thru Action organization with guidance from the psychology department at Loyola Marymount University that challenged a recent school district report that said "90% of students questioned at selected schools districtwide said they were being pushed to do their best and 80% said their classes 'give me useful preparation for what I plan to do in life.'" Teachers on the Web The Washington Post's Ian Shapira writes today about teachers' "borderline" web pages on MySpace and Facebook in When Young Teachers Go Wild on the Web. The article notes that teachers in several states "have been removed or suspended for MySpace postings." The issues of propriety and free speech appear to be in conflict on this one. The Candidates on Education As we move through the primaries and into the general election, I thought it might be a good idea to post links to the candidates' web pages on the issue of education. One More National Day... I just received an email from my good buddy, Paula Borders, who teaches at South Adams Jr.-Sr. High School. She's a great science teacher and friend and also an avid biker. She sent along: Bike To Work Day -- Friday, May 16th Send Feedback to |
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Challenge to NCLB Dismissed Sam Dillon relates in The New York Times today that "a federal judge has dismissed a closely watched challenge to President Bush’s signature education law" in Judge Dismisses Connecticut’s Challenge to Education Law. Judge Mark R. Kravitz ruled that "the State of Connecticut failed to prove that federal officials had forced it to spend its own money to comply with the law’s requirements," but also stated "The court wishes to be clear that it has not ruled on the merits of the state’s unfunded mandates provision claim because the argument was never made." Dillon adds, "A parallel challenge to the law by a teachers’ union and school districts in several states, also filed in 2005 and also based on the law’s unfunded mandates provision, has been more successful." Progress in New Orleans Adam Nossiter has a really interesting article about of the comeback of some New Orleans schools in Against Odds, New Orleans Schools Fight Back. He writes, "No road leads to George Washington Carver Senior High School here. It sits on no street and has no address. No sign announces it...And it is beginning to meet that challenge." More on Student Incentives Schools use cash as an incentive to boost attendance and scores is an interesting article by Sean J. Miller that tells of students in Baltimore earning "up to $80 a year, which they can invest in blue chip stocks and cash out when they graduate" via the Stocks in the Future program. He also tells of other cash incentive initiatives being tried and writes, "The district has earmarked almost $1 million for the program over the next 18 months. The goal is to boost the city's graduation rate, which hovers around 60 percent." Similar efforts in other cities are also described. Column Updates
Co:Writer Solo
I recently received an evaluation copy of Co:Writer Solo from Don Johnston's Public Relations Manager, Valerie Chernek. Let me quickly point out that Don Johnston is very good about allowing teachers to evaluate full versions of their software under their Leader Guarantee program. My original purpose in getting the new version was to try it with the chat and forum features of the Moodle course management system. The new version of Co:Writer was able to everything I asked of it in conjunction with a CMS. I also really enjoyed using Co:Writer for the first time under Mac OS X, as the version my school system purchased was a Mac Classic application.
Google Earth and Celestron Partner A press release today informed me of a new beta of Google Earth that includes audio clips from Celestron's SkyScout Audio Tours. I downloaded the new beta and found they're just getting started adding the content. I can, however, heartily recommend the Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium 4D Ionosphere
And in case you were wondering, no, adding the 4D Ionosphere to your Google Earth installation doesn't change any of your other settings in the application. I moved from the ionosphere view at the top right to our house in the country at the left without resetting anything. You can almost see me out there in the garden! Years ago, I had my special ed kids start in the shareware, anAtlas, first finding their hometown. They then used AnAtlas to link to a USGS aerial photograph of their area via the Microsoft Terra Server. From there, most were able to figure out enough landmarks to navigate to their to their house. We printed up the aerial photographic close-up of each child's house. It turned out to be a really cool activity. Several of my students regularly returned to anAtlas, both on and off-line, to find places. Sometimes we'd print and cut up their map to make puzzles for the kids to reassemble. When I first ran into anAtlas and the Terra Server, I got so engrossed in them that I actually flooded our kitchen, as I "was filling the kitchen sink with soapy water to do dishes" when I ran into the cool stuff. It's fantastic that Google Earth does it all with so much more clarity today.
Reading First Report A large-scale study released yesterday by the Department of Education found that the Reading First Program was no more effective in teaching reading than schools using other programs. The $1 billion per year, federally funded Reading First program was included in the No Child Left Behind act at the insistence of President Bush. I've included a bunch of links to the story, as each has a little different slant on it.
Have a great weekend!
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I got totally sidetracked over the weekend when I found that one of the files from the 
In the meantime, I also booted up my ancient G3 minitower under System 8.1 to test the file. The file in question downloaded and decompressed perfectly, but since I'd already updated the templates in the file to AppleWorks 6, Pages, and Word formats, I went ahead and went with the new file. But all of these fun and games got me started updating some files on the Freebies page and updating links and graphics on some old, but still frequently accessed columns.
Science@NASA
NASA has an excellent 
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©2008 Steven L. Wood