text:
Volume VI, No. 11
The Education Innovator will take a break for the holiday season and not publish in December. Please look for our next issue in January 2009.
What's inside...
New Policy Changes Give Parents More Choices
What's New
- From the U.S. Department of Education
- From the Office of Innovation and Improvement
- American History
- Arts Education
- Charter Schools
- Choice
- Early Childhood
- Education Reform
- Mathematics and Science
- Raising Student Achievement
- Teacher Quality and Development
- Charter Schools/School Choice
- Raising Student Achievement
- School Improvement
- Teacher Quality and Development
- Technology
New Policy Changes Give Parents More Choices
Several years ago, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings asked U.S. Department of Education officials to visit 14 school districts across the country to find out about the impact of public school choice and supplemental educational services (SES) on eligible students' academic achievement and growth. This request was a clear indication of the Administration's longstanding commitment to empowering parents and equipping them with options and opportunities to select the best educational environment for their child's future success. Since that time, the Department has held a national summit to learn more about and compare what districts and states are doing to provide quality public school choice and SES options to families. More recently, the Department published a handbook to answer questions and provide ideas about public school choice and SES implementation and parent outreach. On October 28, 2008, after months of working with legislators and state officials and after receiving more than 400 public comments from the field, Secretary Spellings announced final regulations to clarify and strengthen Title I in the areas of assessment, accountability, SES, and public school choice.
The new regulations strengthen and improve one of the hallmarks of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)—increasing options for parents. When schools fall short of targets for improving student achievement, parents deserve a range of educational options to assist their children. Under NCLB, families with students enrolled in schools in need of improvement have the opportunity to transfer their child to another public school or receive extra academic help at no cost from an approved provider of their choice. Public school choice options are available to all students enrolled in Title I schools designated as in need of improvement, corrective action, or restructuring. SES options are available to students from low-income families who attend a Title I school designated by the state as in need of improvement for two years, in corrective action, or restructuring.The final regulations aim to incorporate lessons learned over the past six years on how states and districts can best implement these provisions.
"School choice is part of the strategy to give every child an excellent education," Secretary Spellings has said, and she noted that SES programs extend "a lifeline for students who need more resources and parents who want more options." In particular, drawing on the success tutoring has had for students from more affluent families, SES makes this type of assistance for low-income families a real option for the first time.
Research indicates that students receiving SES are improving their reading and math skills. In a study conducted for the Department by the RAND Corporation, participation in SES had a positive effect on student achievement in mathematics and reading in five of the seven participating school districts. More importantly, there are data suggesting that the effects of SES may be cumulative; students in the study that received SES for multiple years experienced gains twice as large as those of students participating for just one year.
Despite these promising results, SES and public school choice program implementation could be improved, and student participation remains low. According to reports submitted to the Department by the states for the 2006-2007 school year, just two percent of students eligible for public school choice options transferred to another school, and only 14 percent of eligible students received SES. Additionally, both research and the Department's monitoring visits show that the quality of implementation by states and districts continues to be uneven. Lessons can be learned from these findings, and the goals of the new regulations as they relate to SES and public school choice are straightforward: increase awareness of and participation in these options, and, with respect to SES, strengthen the quality of tutoring programs.
Increasing Parent Awareness and Student Participation
Efforts to educate parents about their options to transfer their child to another school or obtain SES must be improved. The National Assessment of Title I reported that just over a quarter (27 percent) of parents of eligible students said they had received notice about public school choice, and about half of these parents (53 percent) reported being notified about SES options. The regulations intend to increase these percentages and, accordingly, the percentage of students participating in these options by improving the number, timing, and clarity of communications with parents; providing more sources of information on public school choice and SES options; and requiring districts to take additional steps before directing funds set aside for these options to other purposes.
Timely and Clear Notification to Parents
Timing of parent notification is a significant factor in influencing parent decisions to exercise their options under NCLB. This is particularly critical for the public school choice provision of the law. Parents who might otherwise be interested in transferring their child often are reluctant to do so because they generally do not receive notification until after the start of the school year (despite the law's requirement for parental notification to occur before the school year begins). As a result, parents often do not take advantage of the transfer option because they do not want to uproot their child after the school year gets underway. But, as Secretary Spellings has said, "These services can't make a difference if parents don't know they're available."
Research shows that school districts that notify parents prior to the first day of school have higher public school choice participation rates than those that provide notification later. Based on that finding, the Title I regulations require districts to notify parents about public school choice options as early as possible, but no later than 14 days before the start of the school year. Earlier notification will give parents the time needed prior to the start of the school year to make an informed decision about whether to transfer their child.
Another important goal of the new regulations is to improve the quality of the notice districts send to parents about SES. If a district's SES notification is incomplete or confusing, discourages the use of SES, or is buried among information on school improvement that districts send to parents, it is less likely that parents will take advantage of these services. It is essential that the notices adhere to the regulations, which specify that they be user-friendly, clear and concise, explain the benefits of receiving SES, and require the notification to be clearly distinguishable from other information related to school improvement.
More Access to Information about Public School Choice and SES
Districts' approaches to parent outreach and notification vary not only in quality, but also in quantity; that is, how many notices are sent to parents and how often they are distributed. The new regulations aim to increase parent awareness by requiring districts to take additional steps to notify parents, beyond the written notice sent to eligible families. Appealing to evidence from research that parents are more likely to take advantage of public school choice and SES when hearing about these options from more than one source, the regulations require districts to expand the media through which parents learn about their options by posting certain information about public school choice and SES on district Web sites. This information includes transfer options available to students, a list of approved SES providers, as well as data on student eligibility and participation in these options. Some districts also are required to partner with outside groups such as faith- and community-based organizations to help reach parents.
District Use of Funds for Public School Choice and SES
Since parents must be provided the opportunity to transfer their child to another school or to obtain SES, it is imperative that districts responsibly implement these provisions. The law requires that districts spend an amount equal to 20 percent of their Title I, Part A allocations on requests for SES and the transportation needed for public school choice, unless a lesser amount is required to meet demand. If a district spends less than the 20-percent obligation, and wishes to use the funds for other allowable uses under Title I, Part A, the regulations specify that districts must meet other criteria to encourage eligible families to take advantage of choice and tutoring options. These options include: partnering with outside groups, providing timely and accurate parent notices, ensuring that SES sign-up forms are distributed directly to families and made widely available, providing at least two SES enrollment windows at separate points in the school year, and giving SES providers access to school facilities on the same basis and terms as are available to other groups. The regulations direct states to monitor districts spending less than the 20-percent obligation for compliance with the criteria.
Recognizing that it takes resources to effectively inform parents about their public school choice and SES options, the regulations permit districts to count a portion of their costs toward the 20-percent obligation on parent outreach and assistance activities. It should be noted that this does not limit districts to only spending this amount.
Improving the Quality of SES
It is up to states to approve SES providers and monitor their quality and effectiveness. To ensure greater rigor, clarity, and consistency in states' processes for approving providers, the regulations specify that states must consider certain criteria when approving a provider. These criteria include that the provider's instructional methods and content align with state academic content and student academic achievement standards, and that the provider's program is of high quality, research-based, and designed to increase the academic achievement of eligible students. When approving providers, the regulations also require states to consider parent recommendations, results from parent surveys, or other available evaluation results regarding the success of the provider's program in increasing student achievement. Information on whether a provider has been removed from any states' approved provider list also must be considered
Additionally, the regulations require states to consider the following when monitoring a provider: evidence that the provider's instructional program is consistent with the instruction provided and the content used by the district and the state; whether the provider addresses students' individual needs as described in their SES plan; if the provider's programming contributes to improving students' academic proficiency; and whether programming is aligned with states' academic content and student academic achievement standards. The goal of these provisions is to enhance the quality of providers supplying SES at the state and district level.
A New Grant Program Gives Parents More High-Quality Educational Options
In addition to the final regulations, the Department recently announced grants awarded under the High-Quality Supplemental Educational Services and After-School Partnerships Demonstration competition. The purpose of this new grant program is to encourage the establishment or expansion of partnerships between SES programs and 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLCs) projects in order to increase the academic achievement of low-income students in Title I schools identified for improvement, corrective action, or restructuring. The grants aim to provide comprehensive after-school programs for families that combine academic tutoring along with enrichment so that more families enroll in, participate in, and complete an after-school program. Recently, five grants were awarded through this program.
These new grants, along with the new regulations, will make it possible for more students and families across the country to benefit from high quality after-school academic services.
Key Resources:
- Final Regulations to Strengthen No Child Left Behind:
- U.S. Department of Education SES Web site
- Buildingchoice.org
- The Center on Innovation and Improvement
- National Assessment of Title I: Final Report
- State and Local Implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act: Volume I—Title I School Choice, Supplemental Educational Services, and Student Achievement
- Innovations in Education Book Series
- Giving Parents Options: Strategies for Informing Parents and Implementing Public School Choice and Supplemental Educational Services Under No Child Left Behind
What's New
From the U.S. Department of Education
U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced final regulations to strengthen and clarify No Child Left Behind (NCLB), focusing on improved accountability and transparency, uniform and disaggregated graduation rates, and improved parental notification for supplemental educational services and public school choice in Columbia, S.C. The new regulations reflect lessons learned over the past six years since NCLB was enacted, and build on work that states have done to improve their assessment and accountability systems. Click here to find more information, including a webcast, regulations, fact sheets, and more. (Oct. 28)
At the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C., Secretary Spellings hosted a roundtable discussion on performance pay for educators with policymakers, researchers, and state and local education leaders from across the nation. She also released Lessons Learned About Implementing Performance-Based Pay, which outlines best practices in implementing performance pay systems. (Oct. 8)
Secretary Spellings delivered the keynote address at the National Mathematics Advisory Panel Forum. The forum brought together more than 300 educators and policymakers from across the nation in a two-day event to share ideas on how to improve mathematics education in America. She also announced a new section of the "Doing What Works" Web site for teachers called "Critical Foundations for Algebra," which shows how to apply the National Math Panel's findings in the classroom. It may be found on the Department's Web site.(Oct. 7)
The next edition of Education News Parents Can Use will explore the issue of paying for college and using federal aid first. To sustain our country's economic security and high standard of living in today's global marketplace, we must increase our citizens' access to and completion of a college degree. In an effort to help families make higher education a reality, the Department has spent the past two years implementing many of the recommendations of Secretary Spellings' Commission on the Future of Higher Education and her subsequent Action Plan for Higher Education. Key reforms to make college more accessible and affordable include: streamlining the FAFSA application, working with Congress to reauthorize the Higher Education Act, raising the maximum Pell Grant award, and ensuring better coordination among high schools and colleges to encourage low-income students to take the rigorous courses necessary to qualify for Academic Competitiveness and National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent grants. In addition, new tools like College.gov, FAFSA4caster, and College Navigator are helping families navigate the complex process of selecting and paying for college. The broadcast will highlight federal student aid programs, tools, and resources, spotlight schools and districts that are implementing innovative initiatives and programs to help disadvantaged youth succeed in college, and provide options and tips to help parents plan for and finance college. For more information, please visit the program's Web site. Archived Web casts may be viewed online. (Nov. 18)
The Department is pleased to announce the names of the 2008 American Stars of Teaching. These outstanding classroom teachers represent all grade levels and disciplines and were honored this fall. Awards were announced at special assemblies at the schools where the award-winning teachers work. Parents, students, colleagues, school administrators, and others nominated these exemplary teachers. One teacher was recognized from each state, as well as four teachers from private schools. To view a complete list of all American Stars of Teaching, click here. (Fall 2008)
From the Office of Innovation and Improvement
Charter schooling began in 1991 with the idea that public schools—with additional freedom to innovate in exchange for accountability for results—could offer excellent choices for families and stimulate the entire public school system to improve. Now, more than 15 years later, charter schools are no longer an idea but a reality. The sector has expanded to over 4,300 schools in 40 states and Washington, D.C., serving more than one million students—about three percent of all public school children.
Believing that "the charter sector can do more to fulfill its promise as an engine of educational innovation and quality for students across the country," Secretary Spellings released A Commitment to Quality: National Charter School Policy Forum Report. The report provides information on creating and maintaining successful charter schools and summarizes a vision for the future of U.S. charter schools, outlining steps that fulfill that vision.
Produced by the Department's Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII), the report draws from discussions with charter school leaders attending the Department's National Charter School Policy Forum held in May 2008, as well as 15 years of research and experience with charter schools. The forum featured nearly 100 of the foremost leaders on charter schools from across the nation who shared lessons and outlined the future of the charter sector.
According to Secretary Spellings, the new publication "further outlines our shared vision for achieving a vibrant and successful charter school community throughout the nation, and we hope it will serve as an informative and useful tool for education leaders."
American History
The Gilder Lehrman Summer Seminars are designed to strengthen participants' commitment to high-quality history teaching. Public, parochial, and independent school teachers, as well as National Park Service rangers are eligible. These weeklong seminars provide intellectual stimulation and a collaborative context for developing practical resources and strategies to take back to the classroom. (Fall 2008)
Arts Education
New data reveals that Colorado public high schools offering more arts education boast lower dropout rates and earn higher scores on state tests in reading, writing, and science. A first-of-its-kind study PDF (1.86MB) of arts education in public schools by the Colorado Department of Education and the Colorado Council on the Arts shows that while most schools offer some arts education, many students who attend public schools do not have access to any formal arts education. Work is under way to increase access to arts education in these areas, and a team led by Lt. Gov. Barbara O'Brien and Commissioner of Education Dwight Jones has begun a review of standards and assessments for arts education. The committee also is looking into professional development opportunities for educators who want to integrate arts into core subject areas. (October 2008)
Charter Schools
Nationwide, 355 charter schools opened their doors for the first time this fall, with Arizona, California, and Florida having the most new charters, according to survey results from the Washington-based Center for Education Reform. The new schools are educating at least 100,000 students, according to the analysis. The group pegs the total number of autonomous public schools at 4,568, based on its annual survey. Total enrollment in charter schools nationwide is 1.34 million, the group said. (Oct. 23)
Choosing the Right Educational Path for Your Child PDF (233KB), a new book by Paula J. Carreiro and Eileen Shields-West, examines the types of school choice options now available to parents. Various school designs are highlighted from public to private, secular to religious, and progressive to conservative. (November 2008)
Early Childhood
A Goldwater Institute study, Demography Defeated: Florida's K-12 Reforms and their Lessons for the Nation, examines recent education reform initiatives instituted in the Sunshine State and finds "remarkable improvement" in Florida's achievement test scores. The study discusses ways of emulating Florida's success in this regard and highlights specific initiatives. (September 2008)
Education Reform
Looking for information about individual colleges and universities? Explore the U.S. Department of Education's online tool, College Navigator. You also may peruse College Portrait, a source of basic, comparable information about public colleges and institutions, jointly sponsored by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges. The University and College Accountability Network is another source that allows users to search by a wide array of variables to find hundreds of private college and university profiles. (November 2008)
A new report from the Commission on the Use of Standardized Tests in Undergraduate Admission, which was created by the National Association for College Admission Counseling, examines the use of standardized tests in college admissions. According to the report, Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exams, rather than the SAT and ACT, may be more predictive of first-year and overall grades in college because they are more closely linked to high school curricula. (September 2008)
Mathematics and Science
The United States is failing to develop students' mathematics skills, especially among those who could excel at the highest levels, a new study PDF (756KB) asserts. The authors further claim that girls who do succeed in the field are almost all immigrants or the daughters of immigrants from countries where mathematics is more highly valued. The study was published in Notices of the American Mathematical Society. (November 2008)
Raising Student Achievement
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has started a new competition designed to allow high school students to work on real-world engineering challenges. According to Bill Valdez, director of DOE's Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists, the "Real World Design Challenge" (RWDC) is intended to engage high school students with real engineering problems faced by industry. DOE "shares a concern with industry that not enough U.S. students are studying science and engineering. The...RWDC will encourage more students to choose scientific and engineering career paths," said Valdez. The 2009 RWDC theme is "Aviation and Fuel Consumption." (October 2008)
New Leaders for New Schools has unveiled a Web portal that contains in-depth analyses and case studies of schools that have raised the achievement of low-income students. The Effective Practice Incentive Community (EPIC) includes recorded testimonials, video clips that showcase instructional techniques, and lesson plans from successful schools. EPIC identifies principals, assistant principals, and teachers who are driving increased student performance and acknowledges them for sharing promising practices. The program is funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Teacher Incentive Fund. (November 2008)
A new report, Present, Engaged, and Accounted For: The Critical Importance of Addressing Chronic Absence in the Early Grades, coauthored by the National Center for Children in Poverty's senior researcher Mariajosé Romero and researcher Hedy N. Chang, found that one in 10 kindergarten and first-grade students will miss a month or more of school this year—with troubling impact on their short- and long-term academic performance, especially if they are poor. The study was funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. (September 2008)
Teacher Quality and Development
Bobbi Ciriza Houtchens, a Teaching Ambassador Fellow with the U.S. Department of Education, was recently honored as educator of the year by the Inland Empire Hispanic Image Awards. The awards program recognizes the achievements of Latinos in Riverside and San Bernardino counties in California. Houtchens taught English and English as a second language at Arroyo Valley High School in San Bernardino, Calif. Currently, she is working in the Department's Office of English Language Acquisition. (Oct. 10)
In an event created by OfficeMax and Adopt-a-Classroom, Theresa Baker, a teacher at Wheaton Woods Elementary School in Rockville, Md., was one of 1,300 educators surprised in their classrooms with boxes of supplies. The nationwide event, known as "A Day Made Better," was intended to erase "teacher-funded classrooms," according to the program's Web site. The sponsors estimate that teachers spend, on average, $1,200 a year of their own money on classroom supplies. (October 2008)
The Milken Family Foundation has begun "National Notifications 2008," a recognition effort that is crisscrossing the country to honor up to 80 of America's finest elementary educators with the Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award. Winners receive $25,000 and are recognized in surprise ceremonies in their schools. Photographs and blog posts chronicling the ceremonies may be found online. (November 2008)
The Center for Educator Compensation Reform, the provider of information and outreach regarding the U.S. Department of Education's Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF), has launched a revamped Web site. New features include a database of TIF grantees, a series of modules on the major aspects of compensation reform, and an interactive map that profiles compensation reform plans from areas across the country. (November 2008)
Innovations in the News
Charter Schools/School Choice
Inner City Education Foundation, which currently operates 13 schools in South Los Angeles, announced an ambitious plan to expand that number to 35 schools within eight years. Inner City's New Park Preparatory High School is scheduled to be joined by as many as seven more schools in 2009. The expanded cadre of charters will be divided among elementary, middle, and high schools. Founder Mike Pascal estimates that eventually Inner City Foundation schools will be educating as much as a quarter of the South Los Angeles student population. [More—The Los Angeles Times] (Oct. 1)
Raising Student Achievement
Hispanic students in dual-language programs in Idaho's Blaine County Schools outperformed their sixth-grade counterparts in the rest of the state on last year's Idaho Standards Achievement Tests. More than 80 percent of the district's native Spanish speakers enrolled in the immersion program passed the sixth-grade reading test in the spring, compared to a 39-percent state average for sixth-grade Hispanic students. [More—Idaho Mountain Express and Guide] (Oct. 29)
According to a new study of American students' academic skills in comparison to their counterparts in other countries, they "generally fared better at the fourth grade level" and "more unevenly in eighth grade." The study statistically linked the 2003 scores of students in selected urban districts on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) with other countries' scores of the same year on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), and then compared the TIMSS scores to the more recent NAEP Trial Urban District Assessment. Among the districts included in the study are Austin and Charlotte-Mecklenburg, whose eighth graders met the international average in mathematics for developed nations. [More—Education Week] (Oct. 22)
The College Board announced plans for a new test targeted at eighth graders and designed to meet schools' requests for a "measure of students' progress toward college earlier than 10th grade." Called "ReadiStep," the test is scheduled for its first administration next year, and will be divided into three multiple-choice sections on mathematics, critical reading, and writing skills. The announcement met with mixed reactions that included criticism from the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, as well as reports from schools slated to pilot the test that parental interest in the new test was very high. [More—Education Week] (Oct. 22)
Schools in Michigan concerned about the projected need for engineers in the state are taking advantage of a hands-on curriculum from the Society of Automotive Engineers to create interest in mathematics and science in the elementary grades. Students learn to think like engineers as they design and test such things as model bridges and paper boats that they race competitively across classroom floors. In the Plymouth-Canton Community Schools, which has adopted the curriculum for all its elementary schools, Johnson Controls is providing automotive engineers to help the students and teachers ponder the same kinds of problems that engineers regularly encounter. [More—The Detroit Free Press] (Oct.20)
Freedom Schools, a longstanding summer-school program serving more then 9,000 students in 61 cities nationwide, is being adapted to the after-school hours. In Dayton, Ohio, for instance, the program's emphasis on reading is continued in the after-school application, as is homework completion and opportunities to play games and participate in community-building group activities. In a recent study of the Freedom Schools summer program in Kansas City, Mo., funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, researchers followed participating students for three years and found a significant improvement in reading skills compared to similar students not attending the summer program. [More—Education Week] (Oct.14)
After-School Matters, a successful nonprofit after-school program in Chicago that emphasizes apprenticeships for high school students, is being adapted to New York City, thanks to a $410,000 grant from the MetLife Foundation. The program offers students the opportunity to work in technology, the arts, and communications, providing the 13- to 19-year-olds who participate in the apprenticeships with stipends for their work. In Chicago, the program currently serves 28,000 students in 62 high schools. In New York City, the After-School Corp. and MetLife noted the Chicago program's success at improving participants' academic achievement and higher attendance. [More—Education Week] (Sept. 22)
School Improvement
A new statewide measure in Utah permits up to five school districts and five charter schools to pilot new testing methods that use computers to increase the difficulty of tests as students take them over the course of the year. Another part of the pilot has high school students no longer taking the Iowa Test of Basic Skills or the Utah Basic Skills Competency Test, in favor of college-entry tests such as the ACT. [More—The Salt Lake Tribune] (Oct. 10)
Teacher Quality and Development
More than 400 elementary teachers in Miami-Dade County are participating in a program designed to increase the science knowledge of English language learners. The effort has shown effectiveness at increasing the science and mathematics test scores of students in the six schools that have piloted the program since 2003. "Promoting Science Among English Language Learners," or P-SELL, targets students in grades three through five, and combines efforts to improve teachers' understanding of science with hands-on classroom activities designed to promote in-class communications about science facts and ideas. With the program about to complete its five-year period of initial support from the National Science Foundation, Miami-Dade school leaders are pursuing funding to sustain and expand the program. [More—Education Week] (Sept. 29)
Georgia and Idaho are the latest states to move toward a system of teacher evaluations that has consistent, performance-based standards statewide. According to the National Council on Teacher Quality, only 16 states currently have such specific evaluation guidelines. In Idaho, the effort to establish more uniform standards resulted from a recently failed merit-pay initiative in the state legislature, which established a task force to tackle the consistency issue. In Georgia, a new program with five "strands" to measure teacher performance is being piloted this year in nearly 200 schools statewide. [More—Education Week] (Sept. 29)
In Massachusetts, something akin to a mathematics and science "swat team" approach is underway in some urban areas where there are high percentages of low-income students and histories of unlicensed teachers in these core academic subjects. TEACH! SouthCoast, as it is officially known, is headquartered at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, and is dispatching teams of newly qualified teachers, most of whom are mid-career changers, to eight schools in the two cities. Before they are placed, the new teachers must pass the state's qualification test and obtain their licenses. Once in their classrooms, veteran teachers and university professors mentor them for two years. The effort is funded by a $1.75 million federal education grant. [More—The Boston Globe] (Sept. 25)
Since the Internet first came to the K-12 scene, the concept of virtual field trips has transformed the idea of taking students to educationally captivating sites and experiences without the costs of school buses and the logistics of organizing time away from the classroom. A new generation of virtual field trip providers is realizing the potential of the technology and transporting students to sites as diverse as the North Pole, Yellowstone Park, and the Lewis and Clark Trail. [More—Edutopia.org] (Oct. 29)
A growing number of students in New York City have a new incentive to study algebra as more than 100 schools are now using a videogame called "Dimension M." The game presents algebra problems in the midst of typical videogame activities. Students must answer the mathematics problems before they can progress further in the game. A reduction in students' "math phobia," was one benefit of videogame usage, according to a principal of one of the participating schools, along with reported increases in scores on state mathematics exams. Six universities and Microsoft Incorporation have teamed up to study the affects of using "Dimension M" in the classroom. [More–The New York Times] (Oct. 7)
Students across Florida soon will have the option of completing any grade online. A new state law mandates that each district must be able to offer a K-12 virtual school experience by the start of the next school year. To ease the implementation process, districts can collaborate or seek the assistance of private providers approved by the state. Although the state already funds two K-8 virtual schools and the Florida Virtual School, the hope is that the new law will expand the option of online schooling to more students. [More–Palm Beach Post] (Sept. 28)
Educators are making use of a developing communication tool known as Twitter. Since most people use Twitter with their cell phones, it has become an effective way for teachers to efficiently communicate with students. Twitter is a method of messaging among a set group of people who subscribe to your Twitter feed. Teachers are using Twitter to start discussions and remind students of class assignments or relevant events. A Maryland middle school teacher used his Many Voice Twitter account to have his students collaborate with students from six other countries to write a book. [More–Search Engine Watch] (Sept. 25)
Office of Innovation and Improvement
Douglas B. Mesecar, Assistant Deputy Secretary
Office of Communications and Outreach
Lauren Maddox, Assistant Secretary
John McGrath
Doug Herbert
Executive Editors
Sherry Schweitzer
Ann Margaret Galiatsos
Stacy Kreppel
Kelly Rhoads
November Contributing Feature Writers
Cynthia Cabell
Sr. Production Editor
Dramon Turner
Production Editor
Emily Fitzpatrick
Copy Editor
Pamela Allen
Doug Herbert
Dean Kern
Stacy Kreppel
Todd May
Kelly Scott
Tiffany Taber
Issue Reviewers
Doug Herbert
Todd May
Jumana Rogers
Tiffany Taber
Article Submissions


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Welcome TAG U R IT Handbooks USAV and SURVA Policies Sports Related Forms Championships Information Officials Info Adult Players and Teams Club Director Info Region Club Contact Information Coach Education ImpactSafe SportComplaint Report FormJunior Tournaments Junior Training and Clinics Team Codes Junior Rankings High Performance About SURVALinks Contact Us Boys
About SURVA
We are an independent organization formed under the umbrella of United States Volleyball Association. We coexist with 38 other regions in the United States dedicated to the furtherance of play of the sport of volleyball.
We are organized to foster national and international amateur volleyball competition. With that in mind we pledge:
- To teach the sport of volleyball to children and adults by holding clinics conducted by qualified instructors in schools, playgrounds and parks.
- To provide practice volleyball sessions, classroom lectures, seminars and panel discussion through which selected trainees may be schooled in competitive coaching, playing, officiating and scouting techniques.
- To foster and conduct area, regional, state and national amateur volleyball competitions.
- To act as the official representative of USA Volleyball within an area designated as the Sun Country Region.
- To select and train suitable candidates in the techniques of volleyball in national and international competition and thereby improve the caliber of candidates representing the United States in Olympic, Pan American and World Games competition.
- To foster and conduct amateur volleyball programs between the United States and foreign nations for the exchange and training of suitable candidates in the techniques and practices of volleyball in countries other than their own.

subset: commoncrawl


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Marjorie and Bill Springer Center for Excellence in Internships
Students are encouraged to gain a competitive advantage by participating in career-related work experiences prior to graduation. Through internships, cooperative education, and summer or part-time employment, the Marjorie and Bill Springer Center for Excellence in Internships provides students with opportunities for professional development that integrate classroom theory with supervised work experience.
Students have a choice of several options to follow. The part-time option allows students to attend classes while working part-time with a local employer. The full-time option allows students to work full-time during an academic semester or summer. The full-time alternating option is based upon alternating periods of full-time study and full-time work. All the above options correspond with the academic calendar.
A series of job search workshops is offered to assist students in the co-op or intern process. Employers review resumes and/or conduct interviews to make hiring decisions. Placement is not guaranteed. Student-developed jobs may be approved if they meet the work-learning criteria.
While on a registered full-time co-op/intern assignment, students are considered to have full-time student status, making normal progress toward a degree in a recognized University program, and are entitled to all student privileges at the University. Also while on a full-time co-op/intern assignment, students may register for additional hours of classroom study upon departmental approval.
In order to be referred to an employer or participate in an internship or cooperative education work assignment, students must be attending Bradley University. They also must be either registered for a minimum of three hours of non-cooperative education/internship credit or be on a full-time cooperative education or internship assignment. A work assignment or credit will not be approved retroactively.


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The 58th Mid-South Farm and Gin show, boasting more than 400 exhibits of the latest in equipment, technology, and services will be held Friday and Saturday at the downtown Memphis Cook Convention Center.
This year's show offers "perhaps the best set of exhibits ever," says Tim Price, executive vice president of the Southern Cotton Ginners Association and manager of the Feb. 26-27 event.
"We hope everyone in the Mid-South ag community is making plans to attend the show. It's a great day trip from almost anywhere in the Mid-South — or better yet, come for a weekend of showgoing and great food and fun in downtown Memphis."
The show, sponsored by the SCGA, with Delta Farm Press as co-sponsor, attracts more than 20,000 people each year.
"What impresses me with this year's show is the quick reaction and turnaround time by manufacturers and providers of supplies and services to the really adverse conditions with which farmers were confronted in 2009.
"Companies have done a great job of developing really innovative products and services to address the issues and needs that producers must contend with in such situations, and this year's exhibits are a visible demonstration of the industry's forward thinking."
This year's show is a complete sellout, Price says. "In addition to the opportunity to see all this firsthand and to talk one-on-one with company representatives, the informational segments of this year's show will focus on topics of importance to farmers on the threshold of a new season, he says.
"Weed resistance to herbicides has become one of the key issues in agriculture," Price says, "and there is much concern in the farm community about how to manage this critical production issue, which could have a drastic impact on production practices, particularly conservation tillage programs."
A special weed resistance seminar on weed will be held Friday, Feb. 26, at 1:30 p.m., led by Ken Smith, University of Arkansas Extension weed scientist. Other participants will be Jason Bond, assistant research professor/rice weed management at Mississippi State University; Daniel Stephenson, assistant professor/specialist weed science at the Louisiana State University AgCenter; and Larry Steckel, University of Tennessee Extension weed specialist.
Saturday, Feb. 27, at 1:30 p.m., Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, will discuss ag-related legislation and other issues of importance to agriculture.
"We hope everyone will make plans to attend these two special seminars," Price says. "We're fortunate to have these outstanding specialists in the field of weed science to share their knowledge about this major problem, and we're honored to have Sen. Lincoln to bring her insight into the goings-on in Washington that can have an impact on farmers' businesses."
More than 20,000 domestic and international decision-makers are expected to attend the show. Admission is free, but registration is required for admittance to the show areas.
Exhibit hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday.
The informational Ag Update seminars to be held Friday and Saturday will include outlook sessions for cotton and grains, along with comments from industry officials.
Headliner speakers for the 8:30 a.m., Friday seminar will be Carl Brothers, Riceland Foods, and Joe Nicosia, Allenberg Cotton Co.
At the Saturday, 8:30 a.m. session, Richard Brock, Brock and Associates, will present his in-depth seminar on grain marketing.
The member associations of the Southern Cotton Ginners Association will be holding their annual meeting during the week of the show, with informational sessions and other events, including the annual banquet honoring the Ginner of the Year.
"We hope everyone is making plans to attend the show and enjoy a great weekend in Memphis," says Price.
For more information about the show, contact the Southern Cotton Ginners Association at 901-947-3104 or visit their Web site, farmandginshow.com.


text:
Sunday, 8 May 2011
Fish Amok Recipe - Cambodia (Gordon's Great Escapes)
A new series of Gordon's Great Escapes hosted by Gordon Ramsay starts tonight (Monday 9 May) on Channel 4.
In the last series, Ramsay explored India, but this time round he's taking on four countries. The focus is South East Asia, and so he's travelling to Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand to taste and to have a go at cooking the local cuisines.
I'm delighted to say that some of my own recipes are being featured on the Channel 4 website which accompanies Ramsay's new series.
Gordon's first stop is Cambodia, so here's my recipe for Amok Trei or Fish Amok - a Cambodian aka Khmer fish curry.
Amok is a coconut curry steamed gently in banana leaves (the Thais call their version "haw mok") and is considered by many to be the national dish of Cambodia. It's usually made with fish, but chicken, tofu and even snails are also used as the main protein.
The curry base of amok is a deeply fragrant paste known as kroeung, and it comprises a mix of fresh lemongrass, kaffir lime zest and leaves, galangal, turmeric, ginger, garlic, shallots, and dried red chillies pounded or blitzed together.
To this base is added coconut milk, eggs, sugar, fish sauce and prahok, a fish paste which is as integral to Cambodian cuisine as ngapi is to Burmese food. As prahok is a little hard to come by in the UK, shrimp paste eg belacan is okay as a substitute. Chunks of meaty white fish are then folded into this sauce and then the whole lot is steamed in banana leaf bowls.
Strictly speaking, an amok curry should also contain young, bitter morinda or nhor leaves (you could use a little holy basil or Swiss chard) as well as a rhizome called fingerroot - I've used ginger instead. As for the kaffir lime zest used in the kroeung, a fantastic substitute is the zest of the citron fruit which you can occasionally find in Indian shops, such as the little grocer on Drummond Street in London.
The crispy fried fish skin which you scatter on top is my own little twist to add textural variation - think fish scratchings.
The main thing to note is that an amok is meant to be slightly set (think chawan mushi) so you scoop soft spoonfuls of the luscious curry onto your rice as you eat.
My Fish Amok Recipe on Channel 4 Food
Gordon Ramsay's Great Escapes - Cambodia
Monday 9 May on Channel 4 at 9 pm
15 comments:
OOoh sounds lush! (and awesome to see your recipe on the C4 site as well!)ReplyDelete
Oh well DONE!ReplyDelete
That looks amd sounds properly stunning and the crispy fish skin is genius.ReplyDelete
@Pavel - Thank you Pavel - am super pleased :)ReplyDelete
@Nicky - Thanks Nicky!
@chumbles - Very kind - thank you!
Ahhhh wow, that sounds and looks divine Congratulations on having your recipe on the site! :)ReplyDelete
Congrats on the recipe feature!ReplyDelete
Damn straight. The world needs more MiMi and this is a good start. Looking forward to more.ReplyDelete
x x
@suzler - Thank you Suz - I am so excited :)ReplyDelete
@Su-Lin - Thank you Su-Lin!
@Kavey - Haha, but is the world ready? :) xxx
I was completely dribbling anyway, and then you got me good and proper with 'fish scratchings' ;)ReplyDelete
Great stuff, MiMi!
Great to see your recipe featured on C4, having watched it last night I really wanted to know how to make it!ReplyDelete
@aforkfulofspaghetti - I thought you might like that :)ReplyDelete
@Becs - I'm pleased I could help and thank you!
- oldlag17 May 2011 at 23:53
Great post as always, and congrats on having your recipes on the C4 site, but do you really want them introduced with "And yes, dog is on the menu"? No stereotyping there then.ReplyDelete
@Becs - Thanks Becs and glad I could help :)ReplyDelete
@oldlag - Thanks oldlag! You say "as always" so I guess you're a regular reader, so thanks for commenting too :)
Re that intro - hadn't even seen it till you mentioned it, since it's in a separate article that wasn't written by me. All I can say is, I'm used to it, but I'll pass your comments on to Channel 4.
- Anonymous30 May 2011 at 00:56
Hey Meemalee - it looks like your intervention worked, as a quick shuftee around the C4 site doesn't reveal the offending remark - I never for a moment suspected it was penned by you, but happy you can get the Ch4 16 yr olds to think beyond the ends of their noses. Sorry - channeling Ed Reardon there. oldlagReplyDelete
@oldlag/Anonymous - Ha, no probs :)ReplyDelete


text:
Lectures by Pamela Matson, pioneer in environmental science fieldUniversity of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Posted: Feb 24, 2010
Honored lecturer Pamela Matson of Stanford University will give three talks on the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa campus on February 26 and March 1.
- A scientific lecture, titled Agriculture and Environment: A Transition to Sustainability in the Yaqui Valley, Mexico, will commence at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, February 26, in the Biomed Auditorium B-103.
- A free public lecture, The Climate, Energy, Water and Food Nexus: Sustainability Challenges for the 21st Century, will be given at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, February 26, in the East-West Center's Keoni Auditorium.
- UH Mānoa students and faculty can hear Matson's observations and participate in an open discussion with her at a free lunchtime discussion on Monday, March 1, at noon in the East-West Center's Ohana Room.
Matson has been a pioneer in the field of environmental science for many years. Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992 and to the National Academy of Sciences in 1994, Matson is the Richard and Rhoda Goldman professor in the Geological and Environmental Sciences Department and the Naramore Dean of the School of Earth Science at Stanford University.
She was selected as a MacArthur Fellow in 1995 and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1997. Matson currently serves as Past President of the Ecological Society of America.
For more information, contact Glendon B. Hunsinger, post-doctoral associate in the Geology and Geophysics Department, UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, at 956-2363.
On-campus parking is available for $5 after 4 p.m. There is a flat rate fee of $4 for parking in campus parking structures prior to 4 p.m. at the entry kiosks.


text:
Dell Latitude D620
(Possibly) an early 2007 model D620:
HARDWARE DETECT ver 4.8.2 (simple mode) Kernel : 2.6.19-ARCH CPU & Cache: Processor 0 is Genuine Intel(R) CPU T2600 @ 2.16GHz 2161MHz, 2048 KB Cache Processor 1 is Genuine Intel(R) CPU T2600 @ 2.16GHz 2161MHz, 2048 KB Cache Soundcard : No sound card Video : nVidia Corp.|Quadro NVS 110M / GeForce Go 7300 server: Xorg (vesa) Driver : xf86-video-vesa Monitor : Generic Monitor H: 28.0-96.0kHz V: 50.0-75.0Hz Mouse : Generic PS/2 Wheel Mouse xtype: PS2 device: /dev/psaux Drive(scsi): SCSI device sda: 234441648 512-byte hdwr sectors (120034 MB) SCSI device sda: 234441648 512-byte hdwr sectors (120034 MB) USB : Intel Corp.|I/O Controller Hub UHCI USB #1 module: unknown Ethernet : Broadcom Corp.|NetXtreme BCM5752 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express module: tg3 device: eth0 eth1 Network : Broadcom Corp.|NetXtreme BCM5752 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express module: unknown PCMCIA slot: O2Micro Inc.|OZ6912 CardBus Controller module: yenta_socket
A late-2007 model D620 hardware, output from lspci:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03) 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03) 00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03) 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01) 00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 01) 00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 01) 00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 01) 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01) 00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01) 00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01) 00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 01) 00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01) 00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e1) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01) 00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) SATA IDE Controller (rev 01) 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 01) 03:01.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ601/6912/711E0 CardBus/SmartCardBus Controller (rev 40) 09:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5752 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 02) 0c:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02)
The latest version of the Arch Linux installer detects all the hardware fine on the late-2007 D620 (with the exception of a problem involving the wireless network card, see below).
Wireless Networking
Intel 3945 ABG PCI Express
If your D620 comes with an Intel 3945 ABG card, you should install the
iwlwifi-3945-ucode, either during installation or afterwards, then
modprobe iwl3945
And you should be ready to go.
In some cases (at least with the 2008.06 installer) you may have the ipw3945 and iwl3945 modules in your
MODULES=() section of rc.conf after installation. You should remove or ! out the ipw3945 module, as the wireless card will not function correctly or at all with both modules loaded.
The iwl3945 driver can also be enabled during a kernel recompilation. It can be found in the menuconfig under Device Drivers -> Network device support -> Wireless Lan -> Intel PRO/Wireless 3945AGB/BG Network connection. Enabling LED features should fix the LED feature if it was previously not functioning. It is generally recommended to modularize features but selecting the driver as "*" for built in support works fine too.
Broadcom PCI Express
There are two solutions how to make the Dell Wireless MiniCard (Broadcom chip) work: the b43 drivers and the ndiswrapper drivers.
It is highly recommended to use the b43 drivers as some people experienced problems when connecting to WPA2-encrypted networks with the ndiswrapper drivers.
In order to install the b43 drivers, follow the main article: B43.
Install the latest ndiswrapper with pacman.
Go to the DELL support website and download the official Windows drivers for the "Dell Wireless MiniCard". Make sure that you download the right driver for your card. There are 3 different versions for the 13,xx, 14xx and the 15xx MiniCards.
cd /path_to_driver sudo ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf sudo ndiswrapper -l sudo depmod -a sudo modprobe ndiswrapper dmesg sudo ndiswrapper -m
Add ndiswrapper to your MODULES in /etc/rc.conf.
For more information, check B43:ndiswrapper[broken link: invalid section]
PC Speaker
The D620 has an awfully loud PC speaker. To disable it, ensure the module
pcspkr is not loaded during bootup:
#Do not load the 'pcspkr' module on boot. blacklist pcspkr
You should follow instructions for installing cpufrequtils. There have been no problems with suspending and hibernating this laptop - just ensure you have enough swap.
Synaptics Touchpad
The synaptics touchpad should be working out of the box.
Volume, Mute and Super Keys
In Openbox
If you install Openbox3 you may find that your volume and mute keys (next to the power button) and your super (Windows key) are not bound. If you simply want to get these to work in Openbox then create
~/.Xmodmap with the following contents:
add mod4=Super_L keycode 115=Super_L keycode 160=XF86AudioMute keycode 176=XF86AudioRaiseVolume keycode 174=XF86AudioLowerVolume
The first line binds Super_L to Mod4 (where Openbox expects your super key) The second binds your Windows key to Super_L. If your super key is already working as expected you should skip the first two lines. The rest binds the audio keys. To set these you need to use xmodmap:
$ xmodmap .Xmodmap
If you want to set them everytime you start Openbox add this command to your
~/.config/openbox/autostart. You can now use keybindings in
~/.config/openbox/rc.xml that use the W (stands for super) key (e.g. W-d for ToggleShowDesktop). You need to bind the XF86 Audio keys by adding the following keybindings to rc.xml:
<keybind key="XF86AudioLowerVolume"> <action name="Execute"> <execute>amixer set Master 5- unmute</execute> </action> </keybind> <keybind key="XF86AudioRaiseVolume"> <action name="Execute">openbox --version <execute>amixer set Master 5+ unmute</execute> </action> </keybind> <keybind key="XF86AudioMute"> <action name="Execute"> <execute>amixer set Master toggle</execute> </action> </keybind>
These shortcuts invoke amixer to control your audio output.
In Xmonad
To bind the the volume keys and powerbuttons directly use the following bindings in your xmonad.hs:
, ((0, 0x1008ff13 ), spawn "amixer set Master 1+ unmute") , ((0, 0x1008ff11 ), spawn "amixer set Master 1- unmute") , ((0, 0x1008ff12 ), spawn "amixer set Master toggle") , ((0, 0x1008ff2a ), spawn "sudo halt")


text:
This is not an offer for credit and should be used for estimation purposes only based on the information you provided. You should not base your decision on this estimate alone. Title, registration, tax and other fees, and personal circumstances such as employment status and personal credit history, were not considered in the calculations.
Transaxle - Differential with helical gears
Gear selection - Forward - reverse
Pressurized oil system
Oil filter - spin on
Overall (without roof) - 51.5 in. (131 cm) (top of steering wheel)
Overall (with roof) - 76.5 in. (194 cm) (top of canopy)
Dry - 992 lb. (450 kg)
Curb - 1,039 lb. (471 kg)
Service - Rear wheel mechanical self-adjusting drum
Parking - Self-compensating, single point engagement
Front / Rear - Leaf springs with hydraulic shock absorbers
Rear Axle Ratio - 11.42:1 (Forward)
Rear Axle Ratio - 15.78:1 (Reverse)
Level ground (forward) - 16.0 mph ± 0.5 mph (25.7 kph ± 0.8 kph)
Level ground (reverse) - 11.5 mph (18.5 kph)
Bright White
Electric Blue
Flame Red
Forest Green
Inferno Red
Metallic Charcoal
Patriot Blue
Category: Golf Carts
*Price, if shown, does not include government fees, taxes, dealer freight/preparation, dealer document preparation charges or any finance charges (if applicable). Final actual sales price will vary depending on options or accessories selected.
NOTE: Models with a price of "Request a Quote" are always included in a $0 search, regardless of actual value.


text:
In 1994, I was employed as the associate director of the Maine Principals' Association, doing communications and conference planning for a statewide nonprofit organization for educators. My job took me to the National Principals Public Relations Annual Conference that July. It was held in Washington, DC, a city I love, and I built some extra time into the trip for sightseeing. What I wanted most to do was visit the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which had opened in 1993.
I cannot easily articulate my feelings about the Holocaust. They have been part of me since childhood. They have nothing to do with my immediate family background (my father served in the Navy at Iwo Jima in World War II) or anything I learned at school or through the media. Whatever the public consciousness of the Holocaust was in postwar America, I was oblivious to these horrors.
And then I saw The Diary of Anne Frank when the movie was released in 1959. I did not want to leave the theater. I sat through the movie twice and would have watched it again, but my mother and sister had indulged me patiently enough that afternoon, and we left.
The film jolted me into reading all manner of books about World War II in Europe, and about the Holocaust. Naturally, I knew that Poland loomed large in these events and that my family was from Poland, but I still knew nothing of the geography of the war. I read about Warsaw and Treblinka and Auschwitz and Theresienstadt, but I could not have located any of them on a map.
The Tower of Faces
Decades later, that July in Washington, I arrived at the Holocaust Museum well before opening. I wanted to be the first person in line, and I wanted to see everything. I read the signs at every exhibit, watched all the films, stared at the Zyklon-B cannisters, felt terrified to board the train car that would signify passage into the world of the concentration camps, felt sick at seeing the mountains of shoes representing so many lives lost to the Final Solution. I stayed at the museum until closing.
The exhibit that held me the longest was the Tower of Faces, a three-story-high, corridor-long gallery of nearly a thousand pre-war photographs. I searched every face, craned my neck to see as high as possible, studied every image. I kept expecting to recognize people. At the same time, I kept telling myself that that expectation made no sense.
I did not know where the photos were taken. They could have been from Germany, or Poland, or Czechoslovakia, or anywhere in eastern Europe. If I read a sign identifying the location, it meant nothing to me, and I didn't retain the information. But the experience was so riveting that I bought a postcard of the Tower and kept it on my refrigerator for years. I felt haunted every time I looked at it.
There Once Was a World
Fast forward to November 1998. I was then working in the reference department of the Auburn (Maine) Public Library. (Yes, I've had a lot of different jobs.) On a pleasantly slow afternoon, I was browsing at the latest issue of The New York Times Book Review, and there was a photo from the Tower of Faces, featured in a new book: There Once Was a World, by Yaffa Eliach, the woman who, as it turned out, had created the exhibit at the Holocaust Museum.
Of course, I immediately ordered a copy of the book (even though the library was purchasing it too). Finally, I knew where the photos had originated—in a town known to its long-ago Jewish residents as "Eishyshok," Lithuania. It was known in Polish as "Ejszyszki" and in Lithuanian as "Eisiskes." But that had no meaning to me.
At that point, I had been involved in genealogy for a couple of years. I was directing most of my effort to tracking down birth, marriage, and death information for the living generations of my very large family. Between the nine siblings in my father's family and the five in my mother's, my two Prokopowicz families had indeed gone forth and multiplied. I had nearly three dozen first cousins, and their offspring were probably double that number.
Five miles from Ejszyszki
Only after I had the current generations logged into a database did I begin to research my Polish grandparents. Beyond "Wilno," wherever that was exactly, I knew nothing of their origins. Slowly the details emerged. My cousin A. John Prokopowicz, a genealogist since the early 1980s, identified the Szczuczyn area as the home of my maternal grandparents, Aleksandr and Stefania.
A passenger list placed my paternal grandmother near Radun. A handwritten transcript (written by whom, and when, is uncertain) recorded my grandfather Julian's parish as Radun and his birthplace as the village of Odwierniki a few miles north.
Where his Prokopowicz family lived prior to Julian's birth, I do not know. Not in Radun parish, it seems, but likely in one nearby. Perhaps in the parish of Ossow, or Zyrmuny, or Bieniakonie, or Nacza. Perhaps in the parish of Ejszyszki.
Before the war, this whole area was part of Poland. Before the war, people moved freely between Radun and Ejszyszki for business and pleasure. Though they now lie on opposite sides of the Lithuania-Belarus border, these towns are only 9 miles apart, and Odwierniki is midway between them.
I do believe there is some psychic component to genealogy, some energy that guides us in our search for our ancestors. This I know for sure: My grandfather Julian was born in 1895 just 5 miles south of Ejszyszki, the town commemorated in the Holocaust Museum's Tower of Faces.
Decades later, thousands of miles from Ejszyszki, lacking any knowledge of where my grandfather spent his early years, I fully expected to recognize people among those hundreds of photos—people who were complete strangers to me, but almost certainly known to him.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
1 comment:
- AnonymousDecember 12, 2009 at 11:00 PM
Kuzynka Janina
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text: RALEIGH, NC -- Peak Fitness became the largest fitness chain in the Carolinas with the acquisition of the Capital Fitness clubs. The chain is now looking to take the clubs to the next level by upgrading equipment, locker rooms and programming and expanding the facilities to accommodate the increase in memberships. The name of all the Capital Fitness clubs will change to Peak Fitness, says Jeff Stec of Peak Fitness. "Peak Fitness brings a tremendous amount of stability for Capital Fitness in what many consumers consider an unstable market," he says.


text:
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The coconut oil is produced by the expeller-pressed method using a mechanical extraction process. No solvent extracts such as hexane are used in the refining process. This 100% pure coconut oil is a popular local product in the Philippines, and Tropical Traditions is the only one exporting it into the US market.
We feel this premium coconut oil rivals many of the more expensive coconut oils in the market in both quality and taste. The taste of this coconut oil is very bland due to it being steam deodorized. This coconut oil provides a very neutral and consistent flavor to foods.
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text:
Israel News - Stay Informed, Pray Informed
When the Gaza Strip's main power station shut down for lack of fuel last week, Hamas predictably blamed Israel, and found willing collaborators in the mainstream international media.
But over the weekend, evidence surfaced that Hamas may be purposely keeping the people of Gaza living in literal darkness as a means of demonizing Israel.
Bloomberg reported on Saturday that Egypt had offered to deliver a hefty supply of fuel to Gaza to get the power plant running again, but that Hamas had refused because the fuel would be delivered via official pumping stations at an Israeli border crossing.
Up until the end of 2010, Israel provided nearly all of the industrial-grade diesel fuel needed by Gaza's lone power station. Over 900,000 liters (nearly a quarter of a million gallons) was delivered on a weekly basis.
In January 2010, Israel closed one pipeline into Gaza after repeated terrorist attacks on the border crossing where it was situated, but built a new pipeline elsewhere that effectively doubled the amount of fuel Israel could provide.
But Hamas and the media smelled an anti-Israel story, and weren't about to let the facts get in the way.
Israel was harshly criticized for closing the Nahal Oz pipeline, and at that point Hamas gradually began halting the purchase of fuel from Israel to make it appear as though Gaza was being purposely choked by the "Zionists."
Over the past year, Gaza has become entirely reliant on fuel smuggled in from neighboring Egypt, a practice that Egypt itself has been trying to stop due to its own fuel shortages. It has also resulted in a huge increase in fuel rates in Gaza.
In a response to Israeli blogger Elder of Ziyon the Israeli army stressed:
"There is no Israeli decision to purposefully stop selling diesel to Gaza; the decision came from the Hamas... If and when the demand returns, Israel is fully willing to supply, as it did in the past."
Palestinian leaders have a history of exploiting their people as pawns in the long-term quest of first delegitimizing, and then eliminating Israel. Unfortunately, the mainstream media and Western power brokers have been all too willing to buy into the propaganda, regardless of how thinly veiled it may be. And while this does indeed harm Israel, average Palestinians bear the brunt of this deceit.
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text: Hi David, Thank you for the response. > Carsten Aulbert wrote > > > Are you saying that now that you are monitoring you are seeing kernel > > > panics which did not appear before? > > > > > > > No, but there seem to be a switch in the kernel module that allows to > trigger > > a kernel panic upon discovering uncorrectable errors. > > By "switch" do you mean: > A. There is an option that may be set when that module is loaded which > will then cause it to panic on an uncorrectable error, where normally it > would not. > B. There has been a change in the module code between kernel versions > that causes it to panic now on events where it formerly did not panic. It is A. There is a module parameter for edac_core: edac_mc_panic_on_ue=1. We have not tested it yet since uncorrectable errors rarely occur. > > > > You can get some information through netconsole, but you know that > already. > > > > > > > Yup already running, question is if a kernel panic would also be fully > visible > > via netconsole - we are glad that we rarely have those ;) > > I have seen one kernel panic since turning on netconsole, and it did log > across the network and showed up in /var/log/messages as it was supposed > to, with the same information presented as in the tests. Limited data, > but it would seem the answer is "at least sometimes". I got a hint from one of the kernel developer. Including the show show_state() function into panic.c right before dump_stack() should give process information via printk which could be collected with netconsole. We are still waiting for an UE event. > > > Yes, but the memory of any process might get corrupted, thus this is > more to > > learn which user is currently running jobs. Which in turn enables us > to notify > > these users that this particular machine running these jobs had a > problem and > > the user might need to re-run her jobs to prevent "false" data > entering her > > job. > > If the node blows up presumably the output of all the jobs currently > running there will clearly indicate that there was a failure - so you > should not have to notify those users since they will see the problem in > their results. (Unless MPI, or PVM, or whatever is being used to spread > jobs around, ignores fatal errors, which should never be the case.) For > jobs which completed earlier on the same node, this would have been > before an uncorrectable error took place, so the results should be OK. Yes, this is correct. A panic should be enough to avoid corrupted data. Often, jobs are failing for other reasons. A process list might help us to exclude other possibilities for job failure. It makes the work a bit more convenient. Cheers, Henning


text: On Thu, 13 Feb 2003, Srihari Angaluri wrote: > Is there any serious performance/scalability issue to using NIS, Yes. A difference between a clusters and a collection of workstations is that a cluster-wide job will cause all nodes to be active at once. Rather than getting scattered name service requests, all requests will arrive at once. More than about 25 clients will cause a NIS server to drop requests, and even in the best case you end up with a serialization point and slow-downs. The current practice is changing the name system, both implementation and administrative model, to match each installion. - People use NIS when there is a rapidly changing user base - explicitly copy files when there is a small user and node set, or - synchronize, large mostly-static files with 'rsync'. The file approach is typically implemented with ad hoc scripts, which work well for the people that wrote the scripts but make it difficult to trace an error to the change that caused the error. We developed BeoNSS, a cluster nameservice, to address the administration and scaling problems. The advantage of our BeoNSS system is that it - Scales very well - Uses an unchanged administrative model - Allows a single point of administration (add users on just the master), - May be extended to support multiple administrative domains (each master sharing a cluster might have their own user list). > as > opposed to copying the individual files to each and every node on the > cluster? Is this even a desirable option for large clusters, for > example? What if I need to add more accounts? You missed a big one: what about machines that are down or non-responsive (!) when you update? If you are willing to deal with more complexity and administration, copying files to cluster nodes with full installs will result in good scaling, but... then you have administration issues. We designed our architecture on the following principle: compute nodes exist to perform computations for a master. Using BeoNSS, compute nodes only need know about the users that are actively running jobs. They don't keep any persistant configuration that might be outdated. Only the master needs the full user list. Look at this from end-goal perspective: there shouldn't be an administrative change or a compute node performance difference between the master having 10 users, having 10,000 users, or supporting arbitrary job submission from an even larger user base. We still have to try to keep UIDs less that 32767 but that's a compatibility issue with old-style 16 bit UIDs, not a design limit. -- Donald Becker becker at scyld.com Scyld Computing Corporation http://www.scyld.com 410 Severn Ave. Suite 210 Scyld Beowulf cluster system Annapolis MD 21403 410-990-9993


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Washington Redskins tight ends: They're just like us! Chris Cooley, down-to-earth potter, also finds strange gratification in seeing Tony Romo fail. During his weekly guest spot on the LaVar and Dukes show in Washington, Cooley fed the rivalry by sharing how he really feels about the Cowboys QB:
It's so good. I was watching the scoreboard in St. Louis, and I didn't see that they'd lost really until they end, I thought they blew them out so I kind of stopped paying attention. It's amazing, amazing to watch him choke like that...
I'm just saying, I'm up 24 points in the third quarter, if I'm the head coach, I feel like I could probably just take a knee for the rest of the game, punt it away and there's no way that Detroit's gonna drive on you that many times. The only way you're gonna give up that many points is turnovers, right? It's hilarious to watch him throw pick sixes, too, back-to-back. I loved it. But it wouldn't be as good as my cage fight.
Dan Steinberg of the D.C. Sports Blog explained earlier today that Cooley was referencing an earlier spot on the show, when he'd talked for a bit about cagefighting. When asked how he'd fare against Romo in the cage, he responded, "I like to embarrass 'em a little bit. Like, take a 24-point lead, and then just play with it a little bit."
Cooley's rant has already (of course) been called "out of line," even though the rest of the country is almost certainly snicking and nodding in agreement with him. (And burning his jersey. That, too.)
The Redskins host the Cowboys on Nov. 20.
Chris Cooley on Tony Romo choking [D.C. Sports Blog]
Thanks for your continued support of Deadspin. Hickey is here tonight. But first! Here's a song requested by Now Imma Throw My Gyroball.


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Off-duty officer killed while helping injured deer
An off-duty local officer was struck and killed by a car Monday while assisting in an accident between a car and deer shortly before 11 p.m.
Robert J. Johnson, 60, of Mayfield, New York, was a pedestrian on the side of the road and was trying to help a deer reportedly still alive when a car hit Johnson, according to a Fulton County Sheriff's Office police report.
Sheriff Richard Giardino told the Leader-Herald newspaper that Johnson had his service revolver out and was walking north on Route 30 to shoot the animal when he was struck by the front end of an SUV in the northbound lane fog line.
Johnson had worked as a police officer for the small village of Northville for the last 12 years, having previously retired as a Gloversville police officer as well as a Fulton County sheriff's deputy, Northville Village Mayor John Spaeth said Tuesday.
"I think the circumstances under which he died tells a lot about who he was — the fact that he was off-duty and stopped to help, that was the type of person he was," Spaeth said. "He was a valued member of our community and a valued member of our law enforcement. He was greatly respected by the community."
The driver of the car that struck Johnson, Joseph Winnie, 25, of Hudson Falls, told police he had moved toward the northbound shoulder of Route 30 near Pine Avenue to avoid cars parked on the southbound lane, the report stated. He was not charged.
Condolences include one from the Fulton County Civil Defense/Fire Coordinators Office posted on Facebook:
"He spent his entire career protecting the citizens of our County. First with (Gloversville Police Department) and later with the Sheriffs Department and Northville Police Department. Thank you Bob for your service. May you Rest In Peace."