Education Update - July 2002

JULY 2002 ■ FOR PARENTS, EDUCATORS & STUDENTS ■ EDUCATION UPDATEAwardWinner29INNOVATIVE USE OF CABLE IN THE CLASSROOMAWARD TO TIME WARNER CABLETime Warner Cable of New York City waspresented with a 2001 Gilbert Award forCommunity Service for Innovative Use ofCable in the Classroom by a New YorkEducator in a statewide competition that recognizesoutstanding community service programsconducted by cable television companies inNew York.Laraine Mirabile, an educator at PublicSchool 5 in Staten Island, used programmingpertaining to Afghanistan and the September11th tragedy on CNN and Nickelodeon to motivatestudents to write letters to the rescue workersat Ground Zero. A New York CityFirefighter, Mark Solari, received the lettersand began working with Mirabile to coordinatea school wide project to benefit the children ofthe Staten Island victims of this disaster.Students gathered teddy bears and wrote lettersELEMENTARY SCHOOLSCHEDULING SUITEAll the pieces to the elementaryscheduling puzzleSchedulerElementary SchoolSchedulerCreates master, lunchand teacher schedules.Considers:• Block Schedules•Part time teachers•Variable period lengths• Common planning•Wizards speed data entry•Explore alternativeschedules (What if?)Produces:•Teacher schedules• Master schedule•Lunch schedule with tableassignments• Schedule conflicts•Staff utilizationWe provide:District Scheduler•Training and technical support viaphone, fax and e-mail.• What you need to be successful.Mascomm takes great pleasure in seeingtechnology serve administrators, freeing themto focus more energy on improving education.Visit www.mascommsys.com for moreinformation about these time saving tools.TECHNOLOGYClass Aggregator(Rosters)Equitably distributesstudents to classes.Considers:• Placement — teacher/parent requests• Interface w/studentadministration system• Multiple student attributesProduces:•Parent conferenceschedules• Class/Working rosters•Teacher/Student lists•Family track assignmentsof support for the children. Members of the PS56 PTA, firefighters and police officers distributedthe teddy bears.“Time Warner Cable was proud to nominateMirabile for a Gilbert Community ServiceAward for her exemplary use of Cable in theClassroom,” stated Harriet Novet, VicePresident, Public Affairs, Time Warner Cableof New York City. “Not only is Cable in theClassroom a vital teaching tool, she used thisresource to inspire her students to make a differencein their community.”Each year, an independent panel of judgesrepresenting the Governor’s Office, the NewYork State Assembly and Senate, and NewYork State Conference of Mayors selects theGilbert Award winners. For more information,visit www.cabletvny.com .#Class AggregatorSupportDistrict SchedulerMaximizes specialteacher assignment.Considers:•Variable allocationrequirements• School personnel requestsvia web• School scheduling requests•Teacher assignmentrequests•Travel timeProduces:• School staffingrequirements and requests• School and teacherassignment schedule• Allocation conflicts•Teacher availability• Better staff utilizationMasComm systems, inc.11-b East Colonial HighwayHamilton, VA 20158Tel. 888-729-8223email. info@mascommsys.comBuilding Fields, Building CharacterBy TOM KERTESThe crumbling athletic fields of New YorkCity Public High Schools haven’t had publicfunding in 25 years.Shocking, isn’t it? And this is only mademore shocking by the fact that New York Cityhas the highest percentage of students not participatingin physical activity; that the City hasthe highest percentage of child obesity andother health problemsof any majorAmerican city; andthat it has the highestpercentage ofschool absenteeism,while athletics hasalways been knownto serve as the greatequalizer when itcomes to schoolattendance.Based on the principleof “better latethan never”, threepowerful New York personalities—New JerseyGiants owner Bob Tisch, urban plannerRichard Kahan, and community activist TonyKaiser—have decided to respond to this sorrysituation. The result was the formation of Takethe Field, a private-public partnership aimed atfixing public athletic fields.“The pilot program, established two yearsago, was a three-to-one challenge,” saidExecutive Director Mary Musca. “Take theField was going to raise $4 million if the Cityprovided $12 million.” The program was sucha sizzling success—seven horribly damagedfields have already been fixed up—that, a yearago, then-Mayor Giuliani said in his State ofthe City address: “I’ll make sure any field theywant to fix will have funding.”Twenty-one fields are slated to be completedby the end of the summer, including the ancientNight Falls Fastcontinued from page 15manic-depressives, for example, benefit societyby conserving resources when they are depressed,and contributing disproportionately to a culture’sacademic and creative endeavors during themanic cycles.Ultimately, however, Jamison concludes that“suicide usually requires multiple ‘hits’–a biologicalpre-disposition, a major psychiatric illness,and an acute life stress—but only some of these‘hits’ are amenable to change.”And perhaps that is the ultimate value, and lesson,of this book: that those left behind, strugglingto understand the unfathomable and find a peacethat eluded the one who left, cannot carry the burdenof responsibility forever. Ultimately, suggestsJamison, the suicide made his or her choice.#TEXTBOOKS BOUGHTK-12 & College TextsFor price quote, please send list to:Textbook Exchange, P.O. Box 447Jersey City, New Jersey 07303Email: alsaunders45@hotmail.comCall 917-443-4505Please include author’s name,title of book, ISBN# and copyright date.SPORTSathletic facility at Brooklyn’s South Shore HighSchool. “It hasn’t been as much as touchedsince 1970,” Principal Steven Berger said. “It isa mess.” Remarkably, in spite of the horribleconditions, South Shore has been fielding outstanding,sometimes even nationally ranked,football and track teams for years.In fact, it was the great track team thatcaught the attention of John Whitehead, the formerchairman ofGoldman Sachs.An enormous trackand field fan allhis life, Whiteheaddecided to team upwith Take the Fieldto give a leg up toSouth Shore byputting up a significantportion of thecost of the $4.5million project personally.South Shore HS Field“High school athleticsare a very important part of a young person’sdevelopment,” he said. “Among otherthings, it keeps them away from temptationsthat are all over the city.”The building of the new athletic complex,which shall bear Whitehead’s name, has been atremendous boon to the school and its 2,600students. “They’re ecstatic,” Berger said. “Wehave a great deal of athletic prowess at theschool—and now we’ll have the facilities tomatch that.”Whitehead had nothing but praise for theefforts of Take the Field. “There are importantlessons to be learned through playing sports, inleadership, discipline and character,” he said. “Ihope this organization merely scratches the surfaceright now. There’s so much more to bedone.”#Of Historical NoteOn February 24, 2002 The New York Times(front page) reported that lexicographers werenow going to include 9/11 in future editions ofthe American dictionary. Naturally this wouldbe entered under N. It struck me that theEuropeans must have long since included“9/11” in their dictionaries, since for them thisalso refers to a significant date in history.Using the European style for writing dates,9/11 refers to November 9th. On that dayquite a bit happened in history:On Nov. 9, 1918 Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicatedthereby ending WWI;On Nov. 9, 1923 Hitler staged a takeovermarch in Munich;On Nov. 9, 1938, Reichs kristallnacht–thatresulted in the destruction of Jewish propertyin Germany and Austria;On Nov. 9, 1940, Germany invaded Norwayand Denmark; andOn Nov. 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell to openup the east bloc.And don’t we always ask “Where were youwhen the lights (on the East Coast) went out”on November 9, 1965!All just part of history instruction!Alfred S. Posamentier,Dean, School of EducationThe City College of New York, CUNY