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Human Interest Stories News sources, including Educators' News, in the absence of any "hard news," often publish human interest stories. So here's some fun stuff I ran across over the weekend. School Gardens School gardens, especially school vegetable gardens, are a tough project for all but those involved in year-round schools. As an avid gardener, I always enjoy reading about folks who are making a school gardening project work. Jacqueline Mroz tells in Sowing the Seeds of Gardening about the successful Princeton School Gardens program. The Princeton Regional Schools have 15 garden plots that are "being used to teach subjects like math, science and language arts." One of the schools, Riverside Elementary, has a great page of photos and descriptions about their various garden plots. The Princeton School Garden Cooperative has "written a guide (3.1 MB PDF document) that contains the steps for composting, planning and planting your edible garden as well as lesson plans and curriculum links for math, social studies, language arts, science, visual arts and health." If you're thinking about a school garden of some type, the guide above and some of the links below may prove helpful.
Turning a School Around Brenda J. Buote writes in the Boston Globe about a school under a state order to improve that appears to be turning the corner. In A school is reborn, Buote tells of the enthusiasm for the Silver Hill Horace Mann Charter School in Haverhill, Massachusetts. She had my interest with her first paragraph:
Beyond the "pigs," what made this column fun to read was that it's an example of a teachers' union and a school system working together to find workable answers for a school in need. Teach for America Applications Up Megan Greenwell wrote in yesterday's Washington Post about the upswing in applications for the Teach for America program. In Applicants Flock to Teacher Corps for Needy Areas, Greenwell looks at why new college graduates are looking to Teach for America and other public service oriented programs in growing numbers. She also takes a pretty objective look at dropping 20-somethings with a summer of training into some of the toughest teaching situations around. I'd messed around previously trying to find a good RSS feed for the Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) that could be incorporated into school web pages. I didn't have much luck until I ran across a feed last night and put it into a Spring Widget. For my use here, I needed to put it into a table so that I could arrange it on the left side of the page. If you were using columns, that shouldn't be necessary. I did a posting about a year ago where I put a bunch of widgets on the page to illustrate what one can do with RSS feeds. I'll not reproduce all of that here, but will give you the link to Other PODs (Pictures of the Day). It includes widgets (which include links to the code necessary to display them) for Space.com's Amazing Images and their Image of the Day, the MODIS Image of the Day, both Yahoo's and Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day, and a bit higher on the page, the Earth Shots Photo of the Day widget.
While we're talking about class web page inserts, I should mention again a snippet of code I borrowed from Tom Rademaker of Oak Hill High School in Converse, Indiana. Tom was using the code in the sidebar of one of his courses on a Moodle site to display the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD). I modified the code a bit so it could be used in a table on a web page without sidebars or side columns. You can grab the code for it here. I almost forgot to add that Spring Widgets has lots of preconfigured widgets in their Gallery. Do note that anytime you add an RSS feed (via a widget or otherwise), you are allowing some entity other than yourself to insert content into your page or site. And yes, I do have a start on my hard drive for a column or feature about using RSS feeds on school web pages. It's just a matter of getting around to it. Pocket Sized Camcorders - A Great Christmas Gift? This week's issue of Time Magazine has an interesting review by Josh Quittner, Meet the Bitty Viddies. Quittner describes his experiences with Pure Digital Technologies' Flip Video MinoHD Camcorder
While poking around Amazon for pocket camcorders, I did have to laugh when I checked the size on some of the offerings. By pocket, some manufacturers must mean the jumbo pockets on some cargo pants! The ones shown above should all fit in a shirt pocket. Send Feedback to |
and the 
. Both are truly pocket sized, and Quittner reports that both yield excellent results.|
Help for Low Income College Students Sara Rimer writes in Gates Grants Aim to Help Low-Income Students Finish College that "the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on Monday announced nearly $70 million in grants as part of an ambitious initiative: to double the number of low-income students who earn a college degree or vocational credential by age 26." Superintendent Change in LA? A couple of articles appeared recently in the Los Angeles Times about the possible firing of Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent, David L. Brewer. Steve Lopez writes in LAUSD flounders as superintendent rakes it in about what he sees as excessive perks for the superintendent. On top of an annual salary of $300,000, Brewer receives another $45,000 a year for meals and incidentals, topped off by a $3000 per month housing allowance. Lopez also expressed concern over the focus of the superintendent in a recent meeting they had. "But instead of talking about students, he went on and on about building a 'matrix' system and 'vertical' as well as 'horizontal articulation.'" Jason Song and Howard Blume write in School board member may back Brewer buyout that one of Brewer's previous supporters on the LAUSD school board would "consider removing L. A. schools Supt. David L. Brewer through a contract buyout." AppleWorks Availability Years ago, I did a number of columns that dealt with using the old ClarisWorks/AppleWorks program. In going over the November statistics for mathdittos2.com, I was surprised to see 99 searches for "AppleWorks." I realized that lots of folks might be looking to buy a copy of AppleWorks, rather than seeking my questionable expertise on the subject. So I did a Google search for "appleworks buy" and was surprised to see that a few outlets still have new copies available! Please note that these listings will eventually go bad as vendors exhaust their supply.
If none of the above work for you, there's always eBay For those of you who are now asking yourself, "What's AppleWorks," it was Apple Computer's productivity suite for many years. It was replaced by the iWorks AppleWorks was the name Apple applied to the old ClarisWorks suite when it changed Claris Corporation to Filemaker Corporation. Most other Claris applications were simply discontinued, much to the consternation of much of the Mac user community. Both ClarisWorks and AppleWorks included word processing, spreadsheet, database, and draw modules. ClarisWorks even had a communications module at one time. The final versions of AppleWorks, 6.2.9 on the Mac and 6.2.2 on Windows, still work well for me under Mac OS X and Windows XP. Columns related to using ClarisWorks/AppleWorks:
The last column comes courtesy of the Internet Archive Project and their dandy Wayback Machine. They archive sites on the Internet to preserve them. The column was written for the old MacTimes News Network site. It was my first professional writing gig, and I wasn't wise enough to retain rights to the columns I wrote there. So while MacTimes is long gone, the columns remain, for better or worse, in the Archive. If you have an old site you'd like to research and have its old URL, you can enter it into the Wayback Machine. If the site is archived, you will see the old pages. Sunset Missed Last night I looked out the office window and saw what looked to be a really great sunset. I grabbed the camera and hustled downstairs, only to see that the sun had set in just that short time. I went outside and snapped the pictures below of the early evening sky over a period of ten to fifteen minutes. For the last one, I had to shift the camera settings from "sunset" to "dusk," which accentuated the colors a bit.
I hope your evening started in as enjoyable fashion as mine did. Math Scores Up, Science Steady I guess how one views the results announced this week of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) depends on your perspective. Maria Glod's column in the Washington Post carries the title Scores on Science Test Causing Concern in U.S., while the New York Time and Boston Globe look on the sunny side with Math Gains Reported for U.S. Students and Study: US students score higher in math. The bottom line is that the study showed improvement in math and steady scores in science for students in the United States. Incidentally, Glod's article was originally titled "International Science Exam Shows Plateau in U.S. Performance." I guess someone at the Post decided that was a bit too negative. And...I'm not sure it make a whole lot of difference for those who will go into classroom tomorrow and again do their best at teaching their students. LAUSD Superintendent Out Yesterday's Los Angeles Times carried the word, LA school board buying out school superintendent. "The Los Angeles school board voted Tuesday to buy out the final two years of its contract with...David L. Brewer III." He will receive a severance package estimated to be worth about $500,000. Ouch Biggest Full Moon of the Year Dr. Tony Phillips says that "Some full Moons are genuinely larger than others, and this Friday's is a whopper." He explains why in Biggest Full Moon of the Year on Science@NASA. Look for the full moon on Friday in the east just after sunset. Blogs on Education The Daily Howler and Eduwonk take some pretty big shots at Teach for America and the Washington Post's Megan Greenwell in The little reform that doesn’t (scroll halfway down for it) and in TFA-Palooza. Parents For America on Edwize gets in its licks with the line, "The Rhees and Kleins of the world cared so much about the children that they couldn’t wait to get out of the classroom, and as a consequence learned not a thing about the teaching craft." The Quick and the Ed had one yesterday that I really liked.
As part of the celebration of the International Space Station's 10th anniversary, NASA is providing a special 2009 calendar to teachers and the public. Approximately 100,000 copies of the calendar will be delivered to schools through NASA education programs. If, like me, you're not on the list to get a free hard copy of the calendar, NASA has made the International Space Station 2009 Calendar (5.2 MB PDF document) available as a free download. The calendar is set up in 11x17 format for two sided printing. I was able to print a nice version on our printer here in 8x10, single sided format. At that size, the print for specific days is a bit small, but hey, it's free! NASA press release: International Space Station 2009 Calendar Available Online Download page (ISS home page) Balancing State Budget on the Backs of Teachers Raiding step pay raises could turn costly tells a really scary story of Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons plan to suspend "step raises for state employees and teachers." Doing away with the raises would save the state about $160 million over the biennium, but would place school districts with binding master contracts in the position of having to make up the shortfall for teachers in a time when the districts are already short on funds. Lynn Warne, president of the Nevada State Education Association, stated, “Unfortunately, he’s (Gibbons) trying to solve the state’s problems on the back of an education system that has already had to cut. The fact he’s going after contractually negotiated raises with school districts is outrageous.” Josh Hicks, Gibbons’ chief of staff, said: “We’ve heard those same comments but no actual contracts have been provided to this office so we cannot comment on whether there is any merit to the statement.” And people wonder why teachers have unionized! Columnist Calls for Comprehensive Abstinence-Centric Sex Education Chicago Sun-Times columnist, Laura Berman, writes in Illinois could set tone for sex ed nationwide, "Let's hope that when President Bush vacates the Oval Office, he takes with him the myth of abstinence-only education." Berman advoces "in the place of ineffective abstinence-only sex education, we need comprehensive abstinence-centric sex education," which "encourages teens to wait, but additionally teaches them how to negotiate condom use and how to practice safer sex, along with illustrating the realities of STDs and pregnancy. There's a big difference in scare tactics and education -- one is effective, and one isn't." Berman's article appears to have struck a resonant chord around the country, as it's been picked up and reposted on Medical News Today and the National Partnership for Women & Families. Free, Online Careers Course for Students An eSchool News article, Microsoft unveils career resource for students, put me onto a new, free online course, CareerForward. The course is intended "to help middle- and high-school students learn about the 21st-century jobs awaiting them and take charge of their own education." It was developed by Microsoft in partnership with the Michigan Department of Education and Michigan Virtual University. The course is open to US students, parents, and teachers. Nikon Coolpix P60
I recently did a column and sorta review of the Nikon Coolpix P60 which replaced my Nikon Coolpix 4300 after it had an unfortunate tumble down our stairs. I really need to go back and update the column a bit, as I've found out lots more about the camera, good and bad, over the last few months. (I did. See A Day Off & A New Camera: Part II.) It's capable of taking some striking photos as seen here on Educators' News. The biggest drawback I've found is some spherical lens distortion on close-up shots. It's built-in flash also recharges agonizing slowly, but the camera is very easy on batteries. It uses 2 AA batteries and does quite well with rechargeables. The Coolpix P60 retails at $299, but online sellers carry it for far less. I paid $135 for mine, and I've watched the price on Amazon go as low as $119 and up to as high as $139. I'm happy with mine. And yeah, I'd love to have a Canon Digital Rebel SLR So if you're gifting a camera this holiday season, why not click through the Amazon ad at right, or just go directly to their main camera page
Shuttle Endeavour Begins Trip "Home" The NASA Image of the Day today is of the space shuttle Endeavour atop a modified Boeing 747, beginning the journey from Edwards Air Force Base on the first leg of its ferry flight back to the Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday.
After School Programs in Trouble Associated Press writer Seanna Adcox tells of Boys & Girls Clubs and other after school programs closing or cutting hours and services in After-school cuts stir fears of kids home alone. After-school programs nationwide, especially in rural areas, are becoming victims of the economic downturn. This comes at a time when parents need affordable care more than ever, according to Jodi Grant, executive director of the Washington-based Afterschool Alliance, which is pushing for federal support. Zelda Waymer, director of South Carolina's Afterschool Alliance, warned of unintended consequences with more kids out on the streets after school. "The "crime rate will go up. Gang violence will increase." The reduced services of such programs will almost certainly have a negative effect in the classroom. New Column I did get that update on the Nikon Coolpix P60 column done that I mentioned yesterday. It turned out to be a new, two-page column, A Day Off & A New Camera: Part II.
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- mostly used CDs 
- again, mostly used CDs, but freaking amazing it's still available! 
suite in January, 2005, but continued to be sold by Apple until August, 2007, when it was declared "end of life."
(1947 version), and the other is 
(1994 version).
should easily arrive in time for Christmas using Amazon's fee Super Saver Shipping (free shipping on most orders over $25). 
, but...
. You'll get a good deal, and Educators' News will pick up a few bucks. 
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©2008 Steven L. Wood