Monday, February 3, 2003

Shuttle Lost

The ABC News/Associated Press headline Shuttle Lost pretty well tells the story. AP Writers Marcia Dunn and Pam Easton also provide a good narrative. The Washington Post's Rob Stein ties the Columbia disaster to the 1986 Challenger disaster in With the Loss of Columbia, Echoes of the Challenger. A NASA STS-107 Status Report also announces the tragedy.

NASA has established a Space Shuttle Columbia and Her Crew page to "collect and distribute information about the crew, the mission, and the ongoing investigation." The page states, "Anyone who has photos, video or other digital material that may assist in the investigation can upload directly to NASA."

For teachers dealing with questions from students, the STS 107 home page is a good starting point for information about the mission. The crew photo at right and others about the mission are available through NASA's Human Spaceflight Gallery.

Anne and my prayers go out to the families of the seven astronauts lost in this tragedy.

A Good Column About Bill Nye

It's always fun to see when someone else discovers Bill Nye's work. The Los Angeles Times' Lisa Boone made just such a discovery via a search with her 5-year-old daughter for Nye videos at a library. She shares her story and a lot more about Nye in Science is cool in Bill Nye's hands.

I noticed that all of the Bill Nye Online stuff has moved from the previous KCTS public television site to BillNye.com. The site is presented in Macromedia Flash, so be sure to have the latest Flash Player and plug-in loaded before going there.

Nye's latest book, Bill Nye the Science Guy's Great Big Dinosaur Dig, is available from Amazon.com for just $11.89, and qualifies for Super Saver Shipping if purchased in an order totaling $25 or more.

A Very Interesting Column About Computer Marketshare Over the Years

Dan Knight of Low End Mac published a really interesting column last Friday, Apple Has Always Been a Niche Player, about the history of the computer industry. Dan used Jeremy Reimer's Personal Computer Market Share: 1975-2002 page as one of his sources to trace the emergence and decline of various computers over the years. Dan notes that Apple's marketshare "peaked at 12% of the personal computer market in 1992." In 1995, Apple "sold 4.5 million Macs in 1995, their best year ever...although that only represented 3.3% of the market." He goes on to look at Apple's situation today and offer some constructive criticism to the Cupertino computer maker: "Apple doesn't have to sell a $200 stripped computer or a $350 computer system. It does have to compete with name brands such as Dell, HP, and Gateway offering $699 computer systems, and a $799 retread of the 1998 iMac simply isn't going to cut it."

Devotion for February 2-8, 2003

Zach Wood's weekly devotional for this week is Putting UP With Each Other. Zach also maintains an archive of previous devotionals.

Send feedback to

Wednesday, February 5, 2003

Bush Budget Calls for $756 Million for School Choice

The Washington Post's Mike Allen and Jonathan Weisman report in Bush's Budget to Favor Military, Education that the Bush budget proposal calls for "$756 million for school choice programs, including a plan for a pilot school voucher program in the District." Allen and Weisman also note that the President's proposal "did not include provisions for a possible invasion of Iraq." The authors quote John D. Podesta, who was chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, as saying of the proposed budget, "Take the problems governors are having with balancing the budgets in their states, multiply it by 10, and that's where the country will be in five years."

Teacher in Space Program Delays?

Katie Menzer of The Dallas Morning News reports NASA spokeswoman Sonja Alexander said of the teacher in space program, "It's part of NASA's future, and it will continue forward. The program timetable is under review." In NASA reconsidering program to launch educators into space, Menzer relates that NASA again began accepting nominations in January for a program that recruits and trains teachers as astronauts.

Asthma in Schools

Maura Lerner of the Minneapolis Star Tribune tells of program that is reducing severe asthma attacks in Minneapolis school asthma plan gets national spotlight. Lerner describes a program of preventative medication in the Minneapolis schools called the Healthy Learners Asthma Initiative.

New from SchwabLearning.org

New on the SchwabLearning.org site this week is Identifying Learning Differences In Adopted Children.

Apple

Apple Computer yesterday announced a lower price for the eMac computer and speed bumped the iMac line. The eMac price change reduces the entry-level model from $1099 retail to $999. The iMac entry-level model moved up to 800 MHz and is priced at $1299. (Apple also dropped its previously lowest priced iMac from the lineup, thus increasing the price of the lowest cost iMac by $100.)

Thursday, February 6, 2003

The MacReviewZone has published The Mac Partisan: Keeping & Expanding The Mac In Education - The Best Information Resources For The Teacher, Student, Education Administrator. The posting includes lots of links to Apple and other education sources.

Thanks to Scienceman Joe Martha for his kind comments about Educators' News in his Feb. 4 posting on Scienceman.com. The feeling's mutual, Joe.

Friday, February 7, 2003

Bush Budget Slights Education

The New York Times' Diana Jean Schemo writes that "as educators from around the country digested next year's federal education budget, many said it recalled not a new approach, but the familiar practice of an administration pledging more support than it delivers," in Critics Say Money for Schools Falls Short of Promises.

Testing Preschoolers

The Los Angeles Times' David Pierson writes that federally mandated testing of children in Head Start will begin next fall. In Testing Expands to Kids in Head Start, Pierson writes that "Head Start officials and early childhood experts...say 4- and 5-year-olds are developmentally too erratic to provide meaningful test results." Other critics fear that too much focus on math and reading will undermine the other objectives of Head Start, such as bringing "social, health and educational services to needy children and their families." The testing has been strongly pushed by the Bush administration, which says "the pre-kindergarten Head Start program should join the movement in K-12 grades to test youngsters' academic skills as a way to assess schools' competency."

The tests are described as being simple one-on-one oral exams where children will be asked to identify letters, shapes, and count to 10. One administration official noted that "$170 million previously earmarked for professional development will be used for the assessments."

Maybe we need an assessment program to find an administration that really understands education!

16-24 Year Old Unemployment Rate Surges

Bob Herbert writes in Young, Jobless, Hopeless in the New York Times that 100,000 young people, ages 16 to 24, are "out of work, out of school and all but out of hope. In New York City there are more than 200,000." Herbert notes that nationally the figure is "5.5 million and growing." Herbert based his column on a report issued by Northeastern University, Left Behind in the Labor Market (1.4 MB PDF document).

Site Note

You may notice that I've pulled the advertising from the Educators' News home page and all archives beginning with this week. That was the first step in closing up shop. Once the decision was made, it was just a matter of picking a date. This site began publication on April 18, 2001. That seemed to make April 18 a good date on which to end.

The last update to this Educators' News site will be on April 18, 2003.