mathdittos2.com
...dedicated to...hmmm, we're still figuring that one out... |
|
Orionid Meteor Shower
The shower will occur mostly between the constellations Gemini and Orion. To determine their position in the early morning (or whenever you look) sky, I'd suggest the open source planetarium software, Stellarium. The screenshot at right is the view from our house at 5 A.M. (EDT) tomorrow morning. While not up there in volume with some other meteor showers, the Orionids may produce dozens of shooting stars per hour. Looking ahead in meteor showers, the Leonids peak November 17/18. They're one of the biggies in meteor shower watching (sometimes 60 per hour). StarDate Online carries a listing of the 2009 Meteor Showers and Viewing Tips. Related link from Meteor Showers Online: Orionids How many cornstalks are in a field that has 46 rows of 32 stalks each? Javier C. Hernandez relates in A Moo-Moo Here, and Better Test Scores Later how a group of Harlem charter schools uses farm field trips for their students "to expose them to the rural life and lift their scores." Hernandez tells that "New York State’s English and math exams include several questions each year about livestock, crops and the other staples of the rural experience that some educators say flummox city children." Questions such as the one about how many cornstalks were in a field that had 46 rows of 32 stalks each are easier to visualize when one knows what a cornstalk is. One More Mac Software Well after I posted the Software for Mac update last Friday, I ran across word that TypeStyler for Mac OS X had been released. TypeStyler is a text tool that allows users to add all sorts of effects to text for use on web pages, worksheets and such. It's not free, but it's a cool piece of software I used to use a lot when I wanted a classy logo atop a worksheet or a web logo.
And yes, after eight and a half years of publication, Educators' News probably is a bit "twisted" (the effect in the second graphic). Odds 'n' Ends Michelle Obama has a nice article in US News, Teachers Are Key to a Successful Economy. She writes:
A report (568K PDF document) issued this week by the White House and the Education Department says the economic stimulus package "created or saved 250,000 education jobs. Nick Anderson writes in Report says stimulus preserved education jobs that the report " does not address how many education jobs have been cut this year because of the recession, nor does it project how many are in jeopardy in the coming year."
The Ares I-X is part of the Constellation program, NASA's mandated mission to create "a sustained human presence on the Moon, including a robust precursor program to promote exploration, science, commerce and U.S. preeminence in space, and as a stepping stone to future exploration of Mars and other destinations." Constellation really isn't ramped up very well as yet in the PR department, but they do have an Education page and a nice program overview (5.8 MB PDF document) available. One last thing that definitely falls under the heading of Odds 'n' Ends is eWeek's report, Symantec Reveals Rogue Antivirus Pulling Massive Profits. It tells about the huge profits being made by rogue security software scams. I had one a few weeks ago where the New York Times's IP address got hijacked by crooks. I found myself looking at a "Windows Security Alert"...on my Mac! I'm not sure any antivirus program can prevent such stuff. Mine didn't, and it's supposed to block both Mac and Windows viruses. I guess the alert scam is more of a phishing kind of thing. While they probably won't stop something like what I experienced above, let me add again that the freewares AdAware and SpywareBlaster are good ones to have on all of your Windows machines. I'm not sure why I hadn't before, but I did add them today to my Freebies page. Send Feedback to |
|
Hawaii Drastically Cuts School Year Two Associated Press posts this week tell of Hawaii cutting its school year by 17 days "for budget-cutting reasons." In Hawaii slashes school year, Mark Niesse quotes Mark Aoki, a junior at Roosevelt High in Honolulu, as saying, "The 16-year-old in me is pretty excited that I'll be able to chill on those days. But overall within me, what I truly believe is that we'll regret this." Herbert A. Sample tells of public outrage and response in Lawsuits filed to halt Hawaii teacher furloughs. Hawaii has a statewide school district instead of local school districts as in most states. The school year reduction comes as a new union contract between the state and the Hawaii State Teachers Association. Besides giving the state a black eye in education, the school year reduction will also provide aid and comfort to union bashers across the nation. Parent organizations, parents of special-needs students, and advocates for poor families, ethnic communities, and single parents are all decrying the change. Duncan Blasts Colleges of Education In a speech yesterday at Columbia University’s Teachers College, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said that "schools, colleges and departments of education are doing a mediocre job of preparing teachers for the realities of the 21st-century classroom." Duncan referred to schools of education "as a 'cash cow' for universities, because they are relatively inexpensive to run and have high enrollment."
Disheartened and Disappointed New research by Public Agenda and Learning Point Associates found that "Two out of five of America’s 4 million K-12 teachers appear disheartened and disappointed about their jobs..." and a "remarkably pervasive view" among the 900 teachers surveyed that teaching is “so demanding, it’s a wonder that more people don’t burn out.”
As I read through this one, I wondered about how I might have responded to such a survey at different times. As teachers, we all seem to go through low points and exhilarating highs with a whole lot of in between in our careers. I really liked one of the subtitles of the study, Making a Difference. The section talks about "student-behavior problems and a lack of a supportive administration...feeding discontent among teachers," but the making a difference part is what always turned me on in the classroom. Odds 'n' Ends
I tried floating the idea of a new iMac Note that Apple's Boot Camp, which enables installing Windows on Intel based Macs, does not yet support installations of Windows 7. Apple says support for Windows 7 should be available "before the end of the year." Calorie limits for school lunches are recommended was about all I had on my list of things to post on Wednesday and Thursday. I just sat on the link and saved it for today's update. It's sorta like mom, apple pie, and the American Flag in that everyone is for healthier school lunches. The catch is that they will cost more. Space.com's poor pun, Sidewalk Astronomy to Sweep the U.S. This Weekend, is really a good read. "To celebrate Galilean Nights, a project supported by the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009), public observing events will be held this upcoming weekend in over 50 countries. More than 75 events in the United States are planned." Have a great weekend!
Ads shown on this site do not represent an endorsement or warranty of any kind of products or companies shown. Ads shown on archive pages may not represent the ads displayed in the original posting on Educators' News. |
©2009 Steven L. Wood