...dedicated to...hmmm, we're still figuring that one out...
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Pertinent Columns The Boston Globe ran a commentary column yesterday by 16 year old Noah Gopin. In A hurdle too high, Noah articulates what he thinks are his strengths despite having a learning disability and the unfairness of gateway testing for the disabled. Sol Hurwitz, writing for The New York Times, takes an interesting look at the job of superintendent of schools for major city school corporations in The Super Bowl (free registration required). Hurwitz profiles the superintendents of some major city school systems around the nation, noting, "It may be the toughest job in America. This one is an interesting read. It would also be interesting to see a companion piece about moderate to small school corporation superintendents. The Santa Clara Unified School District has constructed and rented a 40 unit low-rent apartment complex for its teachers. In District Offers Teachers Shelter From Housing Costs, the Los Angeles Times Erika Hayasaki reports that to draw and hold teachers in an area that "has the least affordable housing market in the state," the district spent $7 million to built the project. "Nearly 100 teachers entered a lottery for the 40 apartments. The winners are allowed to stay for as long as five years." A Totally "Off-the-Subject" Column Remember Al Gore? That's right! He's the guy who collected the most votes in the last presidential election, but lost in the electoral college. Just a couple of years ago, every word either he or George W. uttered were national news. In scrounging around the editorial pages of many newspapers around the country, I stumbled across an op-ed piece by Al Gore, Broken Promises and Political Deception (free registration required), published in the New York Times. While education was one of the major issues in the 2000 election, Gore makes no reference to either "education" or "schools" in the column. He confines most of his commentary to "a new generation of special interests, power brokers who would want nothing better than a pliant president who would bend public policy to suit their purposes and profits." Software
Apple has posted Security Update 8-2-02 (4.8 MB) for Mac OS X download. It's also available via the software update system preference panel. America Online has posted AOL for Mac OS X (15D) for download. Use the keyword "macbeta" to access the new version. G. Cortis Clark has updated his $39 Mac shareware, Crosswordz, to version 1.4.1 with font and interface improvements. Robin Landsbert has again updated his freeware beta-release of Flash Cards to version 1.0b10. Devotion For August 4-10, 2002 Zach Wood's weekly devotional for this week is A Comforting Example. I hope it adds a bit of brightness to your week. Zach also maintains an archive of previous devotionals. Site News If you missed the "announcement" last Monday, I have returned to the "Monday-Wednesday-Friday 'winter' publication schedule" for Educators' News that seems to work best with my teaching responsibilities. If you have suggestions, news ideas, etc., please . |
Mark Widholm's has updated |
Pertinent Columns The New York Times reports that the Florida's Opportunity Scholarship Program, a voucher program, has been ruled to violate the Florida state constitution. In Florida Court Bars Use of Vouchers (free registration required), Times writer Dana Canedy tells that Florida Circuit Court Judge P. Kevin Davey "wrote that the Florida Constitution was 'clear and unambiguous' in prohibiting public money from being used in any sectarian institution." Richard Rothstein's Lessons column this week, Schools Can Use Help Teaching Parents to Get Involved, tells about the Industrial Areas Foundation and its various efforts in improving schools and the living conditions around the country. Just Right: School Size Matters by Ann Marie Moriarty in today's Washington Post considers the issue of school size (in students) and its effect on learning. Moriarty notes that school size "may be the biggest educational issue that parents aren't fretting about." She writes that research has generally found "that smaller schools work better for most kids." A Yahoo News/AP posting by Greg Toppo, School Drug Prevention Questioned, reports that "researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill say many schools are using popular programs such as D.A.R.E., Here's Looking at You 2000 and McGruff's Drug Prevention and Child Protection, which haven't shown the kind of results that schools should expect, despite years of use." A study Raleigh News & Observer staff writer T. Keung Hui tells about a denial of services case that actually went to court in Special ed is tested: Case examines help for disabled. It sounds like one of those cases where a student's parents want more services than a school can, or is willing, to provide. The Atlanta Journal Constitution's Rochelle Carter reports in Reform law has schools stumped that many Georgia schools have not received the information necessary from state and federal officials to comply with the "No Child Left Behind" law. Lee Lawrence tells of the successes and needs of after school and summer programs in Everybody loves them &endash; and they struggle to survive in The Christian Science Monitor. Lawrence writes that to survive, the programs "require money, leadership, and, above all, unswerving commitment from teachers, children, parents, and staff." New from the SchwabLearning.org New on the Schwablearning.org site this week is Helping Kids with Learning Differences Understand the Language of Friendship. As always, links to all of the new and updated SchwabLearning.org articles are available in the Schwab Learning Online Newsletter (link expires 8-11-02). Software I noticed a posting for WordNet for Mac OS X a few days ago on MacUpdate. While the application description sounded interesting, the file was 7.3 MB and I was on a 28.8 dial-up connection, so I let it be until I could do a late night download. When I followed the links to the WordNet and WordNet for Mac OS X pages, I was really impressed. WordNet is "an online lexical reference system (it's a dictionary and much much more)" developed by the Cognitive Science Laboratory at Princeton University under the direction of Professor George A. Miller. While WordNet is available to use online, it's also available for download as a PC, UNIX, or Mac OS X database. From William Taysom's Read Me file from the OS X port:
While it appears a little overwhelming at first, I think I must agree with William Taysom's assessment. It could well become my "dictionary of choice." And best of all, WordNet is freeware!
Site Note I'm getting ready, as soon as I post this update, to pull my two hard drives out of the G4 I've been using this summer and return them to my G3 minitower. School begins next Wednesday and, after all, the G4 does belong to the school! While there should be one or more bootable volumes on the drives being moved, there's also every possibility that I may be offline for a period of time, trying to figure out how to make the G3 work again:-). Update While I'm back up and running on the G3, I'm just barely running on a partition with OS 9.2.2 and very slowly at that! The comedown from an 800 MHz machine to a 266 MHz one is a bit tough, although the change from the G4's 16X CD burner to my old 2X Ricoh is even tougher! It looks as if I'll have to do a fresh backup and reformat of the drives, connected with a Tempo ATA/66 card, to get OS X back up and running. But...at least it's fixable. Pertinent Columns A Yahoo News/AP report by Will Lester tells about a recent poll on school vouchers. In AP Poll Tracks Support for Vouchers, Lester writes, "Americans tend to favor the idea of school vouchers that help send low income children to private or parochial schools...at least until they hear that could decrease the money available for public schools. Then support dwindles rapidly." The Philadelphia Inquirer's Dale Mezzacappa reports that Edison's deal will be probed by U.S.. He writes that Pennsylvania Auditor General Bob Casey Jr. was already "looking into how Edison got a $2.7 million, no-bid contract last summer to evaluate the district's needs in preparation for the state takeover." Now, U.S. Department of Education acting Inspector General John P. Higgins Jr. has said "he would gather resources to initiate an investigation within two weeks and report back a month later." (I didn't know the DOE had an Inspector General!) While Alan J. Borsuk reports in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in Virtual schools hit turbulence in state that Wisconsin's online charter schools may not even get started this year, the Associated Press reports that online charters are gaining momentum in Cleveland in Online charter schools gain proponents. Site Note I'm finally back up and running OS X again, albeit on a completely different drive than I've been using all summer. I swapped two Barracuda drives out of a Mac G4 I'd brought home from school for the summer back into my G3 minitower. The drives were running on a Tempo ATA/66 card and had installs of OS X and 9 that were made while in the G4. Needless to say, the G3 totally rebelled at running any of the current systems and I was fortunate that I'd left a couple of bootable partitions with systems installed by the G3 intact when I switched over to the G4. Even though I brought the Tempo card back to the G3, I've had a myriad of problems getting the drives to mount, much less boot an operating system. I finally got up and running in Mac OS X by putting a 6 gig drive I'd had in the G3 over the summer back in to boot from. I'm now able to access all the data on the Barracudas, but will have to reinstall the systems before I can boot from them. So...I don't have a lot to post for today...so far, anyway, as my after work time has been spent doing Troubleshooting 101. I'm not sure I'm gonna pass! Look for the next Educators' News update about next Wednesday. 
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