The good folks at Google continue to amaze with their efforts to bring the world to our homes. First came Google Earth, which allows you to zoom in on any spot in the world via satellite imagery. Now, Google offers the Art Project, aimed at putting the great artworks of the world on your laptop.
While today was the first official day of the project, it already has thousands of artworks online, with links to some of the world's greatest collections and countless videos explaining the history behind the art and the museums themselves. Beyond a doubt, though, the coolest feature of the Art Project for young artists is the up-close views of many of the most famous paintings in the Google collection. Through stunning digital photography, you can get closer looks at many of the paintings than would be possible even in real life. Thanks to digital technology, you can zoom in to admire not just the artists' brush work, but individual strokes, including that single dab of gold in the eye of Marie Antoinette's daughter. You can also find hidden details, like the skinny dippers in the background of Pieter Bruegels' "The Harvesters."
Not everything on the Art Project is clickable yet, but there's more than enough for homeschooled and other students to sink their teeth into, and Google plans to add much more. This seems bound to become an invaluable educational resource. For more information, just go to the Google Art Project and see for yourself. |
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Museums of the World in Your Lap
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Ohio mom jailed for seeking better school for her kids
Kelley Williams-Bolar of Akron, Ohio, just wanted a good education for her children. The school district in which she and her two daughters lived was typical of the many impoverished, crime-ravaged districts across the country which poor families are forced to attend. Her home had been burglarized 12 times.
So Williams-Bolar enrolled her girls in the nearby Copley-Fairlawn district, where her father lived.
It's a toss-up whether what happened next is a result of money-hungry union and school officials, or is due to lingering racism in the South-adjacent Ohio.
After the girls attended school in the Copley-Fairlawn district for two years, the district hired a private investigator who videotaped Williams-Bolar, who is black, driving into the mostly white district to take her girls to school. The district then demanded Williams-Bolar pay it $30,000, the alleged cost of the schooling the girls had received without Williams-Bolar paying taxes in the district. Williams-Bolar, who lives in government-subsidized housing, refused to pay.
Superintendent Brian Poe then contacted the district attorney, and Williams-Bolar was sentenced this month to two consecutive five-year sentences for felony falsifying records. Judge Patricia Cosgrove reduced that to 10 days in jail, with 80 hours of community service and three years' probation. Because of the conviction, Williams-Bolar will not be able to earn her teaching degree, which she had been working toward.
The case has upset a lot of people, including the judge, who was angered that the prosecutors would not consider decreasing the charges to misdemeanors.
"The way I look at it is, the bottom line, you need to follow the law," Poe said. The superintendent denies that Williams-Bolar was singled out because she's black.
Williams-Bolar was released Wednesday.
The kicker? Since Williams-Bolar has been jailed, the two girls have been living with their grandfather, in the school district where they attended for two years, but are now forced to go to school elsewhere.
As homeschoolers can appreciate, Williams-Bolar's case points out how fragile parents' rights to educate their children truly are when confronted by an uncaring bureaucracy. With more pressure in many states to cut budgets, school districts are going to be more inclined to fight over tax dollars, and the first people to be trampled on in the scramble may be parents.
So Williams-Bolar enrolled her girls in the nearby Copley-Fairlawn district, where her father lived.
It's a toss-up whether what happened next is a result of money-hungry union and school officials, or is due to lingering racism in the South-adjacent Ohio.
After the girls attended school in the Copley-Fairlawn district for two years, the district hired a private investigator who videotaped Williams-Bolar, who is black, driving into the mostly white district to take her girls to school. The district then demanded Williams-Bolar pay it $30,000, the alleged cost of the schooling the girls had received without Williams-Bolar paying taxes in the district. Williams-Bolar, who lives in government-subsidized housing, refused to pay.
Superintendent Brian Poe then contacted the district attorney, and Williams-Bolar was sentenced this month to two consecutive five-year sentences for felony falsifying records. Judge Patricia Cosgrove reduced that to 10 days in jail, with 80 hours of community service and three years' probation. Because of the conviction, Williams-Bolar will not be able to earn her teaching degree, which she had been working toward.
The case has upset a lot of people, including the judge, who was angered that the prosecutors would not consider decreasing the charges to misdemeanors.
"The way I look at it is, the bottom line, you need to follow the law," Poe said. The superintendent denies that Williams-Bolar was singled out because she's black.
Williams-Bolar was released Wednesday.
The kicker? Since Williams-Bolar has been jailed, the two girls have been living with their grandfather, in the school district where they attended for two years, but are now forced to go to school elsewhere.
As homeschoolers can appreciate, Williams-Bolar's case points out how fragile parents' rights to educate their children truly are when confronted by an uncaring bureaucracy. With more pressure in many states to cut budgets, school districts are going to be more inclined to fight over tax dollars, and the first people to be trampled on in the scramble may be parents.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Homeschoolers changing face of education
The homeschooling movement continues to grow, and homeschoolers continue to show what education can be.
In the past 10 years, the number of homeschooled students has more than doubled.
In 2001, estimates placed the number of homeschooled kids around 1 million nationwide. According to a recently released report by Brian D. Ray, Ph.D., of the National Home Education Research Institute, there are 2.03 million children, or 4 percent of all American children, in homeschooling, as of 2010.
The growth of homeschooling shouldn't be a surprise. With the continued decline of quality in public education, news of homeschooling's successes has gotten around despite ongoing media and political efforts to squelch it.
According to a 2009 study by the NHERI, homeschoolers score an average of 34 to 39 percentile points higher than public schoolers on standardized achievement tests. Nationally, the homeschool students' average ranged from the 84th percentile for language, math and social studies to the 89th percentile for reading.
Further findings showed that the boy-girl performance gap so obvious in public schools disappears under homeschooling. Homeschooled boys and girls scored equally well on standardized tests. Income level disparities also shrank in a homeschooling environment, with only a 4 percentile difference in test performance between the poorest and wealthiest students. And even children of parents without college educations still scored in the 83rd percentile, well above the public school average.
Studies also show the trend continues in college. College students who had been homeschooled have higher GPAs, higher test scores and higher graduation rates.
As for the oft-repeated canard that homeschoolers aren't "socialized" properly, studies consistently show that homeschoolers have much higher levels of civic involvement than public school kids. In fact, this past month saw a swearing in of the first homeschooled member of Congress since 1940, Jaime Herrera, R-Wash., to the House of Representatives.
The NHERI expects the growth trend of homeschooling to continue. It can only mean good things for our children and our country.
In the past 10 years, the number of homeschooled students has more than doubled.
In 2001, estimates placed the number of homeschooled kids around 1 million nationwide. According to a recently released report by Brian D. Ray, Ph.D., of the National Home Education Research Institute, there are 2.03 million children, or 4 percent of all American children, in homeschooling, as of 2010.
The growth of homeschooling shouldn't be a surprise. With the continued decline of quality in public education, news of homeschooling's successes has gotten around despite ongoing media and political efforts to squelch it.
According to a 2009 study by the NHERI, homeschoolers score an average of 34 to 39 percentile points higher than public schoolers on standardized achievement tests. Nationally, the homeschool students' average ranged from the 84th percentile for language, math and social studies to the 89th percentile for reading.
 |
| Rep. Jaime Herrera, R-Wash. |
Studies also show the trend continues in college. College students who had been homeschooled have higher GPAs, higher test scores and higher graduation rates.
As for the oft-repeated canard that homeschoolers aren't "socialized" properly, studies consistently show that homeschoolers have much higher levels of civic involvement than public school kids. In fact, this past month saw a swearing in of the first homeschooled member of Congress since 1940, Jaime Herrera, R-Wash., to the House of Representatives.
The NHERI expects the growth trend of homeschooling to continue. It can only mean good things for our children and our country.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Portfolios preserve homeschool achievements
| One difference between homeschooling and public schooling is that homeschoolers tend not to amass the stacks of paper that public schools seem to thrive on. This is both good and bad: good in that you don't have piles of paper hanging around because you have not wasted your child's time with mind-numbingly repetitive exercises; bad in that you don't have the ongoing record of your child's milestones. Rather than keeping a gradebook or a folder crammed with every project ever done, parents should consider helping their children build a portfolio. A portfolio is different from a simple record in that it is a collection of only your child's best work that can serve as a showpiece for his talents. Think of it as your child's gallery that can grow and change as he does. As your child gets older, a portfolio may prove useful in getting admitted to certain academic programs or even in getting a job. You might want to make a portfolio for each subject. Don't use just any old folder. Splurge a bit and get something with a nice, durable cover that reflects the contents and your child's personality. The older your child is, the more you should consider a "professional" style cover, as the portfolio may be shown outside the family. The folder should be expandable as your child adds more of his best work. A three-ring binder is ideal. If it is an art portfolio, you will want pages that will allow you to mount artwork without damaging it. Center the art on each page to keep a clean look. Be sure everything is dated discreetly so you can see your child's progress. Put your child's name on the cover with a label that you design in Photoshop or another graphics software. For a touch of upgraded class, you could use an engraved nameplate. Done right, a portfolio can not only be a family record but a useful tool for your growing child. |
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Learning HTML at home
Many parents would like to give their kids an educational edge by teaching them the technical skills they'll need later in life. But with technological advances coming so rapidly, especially in the field of computers, more than a few parents not only don't have the skills themselves but have a hard time even discerning what skills are worthwhile learning.
One facet of the technoscape that will linger for some time still is the Internet, which revolves around the concept of "web pages." Creating a web page is something you can learn to do and then teach to your children quite easily.
Web pages work their magic through "scripts" written in Hypertext Markup Language, or HTML. Now, here's the secret: HTML is just text, and all the fancy stuff web pages can do is just based on words in a text file.
Because HTML is a type of programming, there is some jargon, but most of it is easy to remember because the commands are often initials or abbreviations of English words.
To get started making a basic web page, make a text file. It's best when you're learning to do this with a simple text editor like Notepad. If you use something with more options, like Wordpad or Word, you'll find the computer will rewrite some of your work and throw in tons of extraneous coding to boot. Whatever program you use should be able to save plain text.
Once you've created the text file, name it something like "MyWebPage" and change the extension from "txt" to "htm." The computer will ask if you're sure and possibly warn you that the world will end if you change the extension, but just click "OK."
Open the file if you haven't already. Write yourself a friendly note like "I am so happy to be learning HTML." Keep your text window open and then find your file's icon on the desktop (or wherever you put it). Click on it to open it in your web browser. (If the browser doesn't open the file automatically, make sure you've changed the extension to "htm," then right-click on the icon and select "Open with" and your browser.) Your web browser should display an otherwise empty page with your message on it.
Now you can start adding HTML to make things look different. All HTML commands, or "tags," begin with an open angle bracket, <, and end with a closing angle bracket, >.
All basic web pages need to start with the following template:
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
The first command just tells a computer that this is a web page. That's especially important when you start worrying about search engines finding your work, but that's for later. Just remember for now that <html> and </html> should be the first things on your web page. The two commands act like a container for everything else to come.
The next command, <head> and </head> mark off the place where you can put fancy scripts, set styles for your page elements, include messages for visiting web browsers and so on. It's the "thinking" element of the page that contains most of the "unseen" workings of your page.
Between the <body> and </body> tags is where most of your work will appear, including all the elements that will be visible to anyone looking at your page. Elements can be changed by adding what are called in-line style sheets.
The first thing you can do is change the background color of your page. Inside the opening body tag, add "style='background-color:#00FFFF'" so that your tag looks like <body style="background-color:#00FFFF">. Save your file and refresh your browser. This should give your page a nice light blue background. There are literally millions of colors you can choose from. For more on web color codes, check out this page.
Now, let's beef up your message. Put the paragraph tags, <p> and </p> around your message. Make sure your message and its tags are between the body tags. Then we'll add to the opening paragraph tag a stylesheet that says "style='font-family:sans-serif; font-style:italic; color:#FF0000; font-size:72px;'" so your tag looks like <p style="font-family:sans-serif; font-style:italic; color:#FF0000; font-size:72px;">. Save your file and refresh your browser. You should see your message in large, sans-serif, red italic letters. For more about font options, see this page.
Those are the absolute basics. With just those simple commands, your child can begin putting together a nice-looking web page about your homeschooling experiences to share with family and friends. Play around with the numbers and options to see what happens. See the above links for more options.
Editor's note: This is the first part of a planned occasional series about web design.
One facet of the technoscape that will linger for some time still is the Internet, which revolves around the concept of "web pages." Creating a web page is something you can learn to do and then teach to your children quite easily.
Web pages work their magic through "scripts" written in Hypertext Markup Language, or HTML. Now, here's the secret: HTML is just text, and all the fancy stuff web pages can do is just based on words in a text file.
Because HTML is a type of programming, there is some jargon, but most of it is easy to remember because the commands are often initials or abbreviations of English words.
To get started making a basic web page, make a text file. It's best when you're learning to do this with a simple text editor like Notepad. If you use something with more options, like Wordpad or Word, you'll find the computer will rewrite some of your work and throw in tons of extraneous coding to boot. Whatever program you use should be able to save plain text.
Once you've created the text file, name it something like "MyWebPage" and change the extension from "txt" to "htm." The computer will ask if you're sure and possibly warn you that the world will end if you change the extension, but just click "OK."
Open the file if you haven't already. Write yourself a friendly note like "I am so happy to be learning HTML." Keep your text window open and then find your file's icon on the desktop (or wherever you put it). Click on it to open it in your web browser. (If the browser doesn't open the file automatically, make sure you've changed the extension to "htm," then right-click on the icon and select "Open with" and your browser.) Your web browser should display an otherwise empty page with your message on it.
Now you can start adding HTML to make things look different. All HTML commands, or "tags," begin with an open angle bracket, <, and end with a closing angle bracket, >.
All basic web pages need to start with the following template:
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
The first command just tells a computer that this is a web page. That's especially important when you start worrying about search engines finding your work, but that's for later. Just remember for now that <html> and </html> should be the first things on your web page. The two commands act like a container for everything else to come.
The next command, <head> and </head> mark off the place where you can put fancy scripts, set styles for your page elements, include messages for visiting web browsers and so on. It's the "thinking" element of the page that contains most of the "unseen" workings of your page.
Between the <body> and </body> tags is where most of your work will appear, including all the elements that will be visible to anyone looking at your page. Elements can be changed by adding what are called in-line style sheets.
The first thing you can do is change the background color of your page. Inside the opening body tag, add "style='background-color:#00FFFF'" so that your tag looks like <body style="background-color:#00FFFF">. Save your file and refresh your browser. This should give your page a nice light blue background. There are literally millions of colors you can choose from. For more on web color codes, check out this page.
Now, let's beef up your message. Put the paragraph tags, <p> and </p> around your message. Make sure your message and its tags are between the body tags. Then we'll add to the opening paragraph tag a stylesheet that says "style='font-family:sans-serif; font-style:italic; color:#FF0000; font-size:72px;'" so your tag looks like <p style="font-family:sans-serif; font-style:italic; color:#FF0000; font-size:72px;">. Save your file and refresh your browser. You should see your message in large, sans-serif, red italic letters. For more about font options, see this page.
Those are the absolute basics. With just those simple commands, your child can begin putting together a nice-looking web page about your homeschooling experiences to share with family and friends. Play around with the numbers and options to see what happens. See the above links for more options.
Editor's note: This is the first part of a planned occasional series about web design.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Mis-math-ed: Things to make a parent go 'huh?'
| What better way to start off the new year than with a rant against incomprehensible math textbooks? I don't know how it is in other states, but in California, the once sensible step-by-step approach to teaching math seems to have been replaced with a see-if-it-sticks approach. It's not clear to me when this change occurred, other than that it was sometime between my dimly recalled childhood in the Paleozoic Era and my own child's bumbling into the Mirkwood Forest that is modern mathematics. At the risk of sounding like an overbearing parent, I recall when we were taught math (back when we walked 10 miles through the snow and mud to get to school) that the teachers started with what was called "the basics" and made sure we had some command of the facts before moving on to things like, oh, Algebra or Calculus ... or Interdimensional Physics. This sort of teaching methodology apparently is passe. We've been homeschooling for years now, and each year the "new" math textbook has looked a lot like the previous year's. No sooner did our son begin comprehending multiplication than he was being thrust into graphs and algebraic equations. Each successive year brought more of the same, just torqued up a notch. I can't recall a year when the child was not assaulted by what previously was considered high-school-level math. I also can't recall a year when any of it really "stuck." Complicating matters is the fact that the writers of math textbooks are not content with speaking English, instead splattering their lessons with enough jargon to baffle anyone with less than an engineering degree. Far beyond simple concepts like numerator and denominator, students even in elementary school are assaulted with arithmetic means, multiplicative inverses, negative numbers, nonnegative integers, prime factorizations and radicands. It's enough to drive you crazy. It did Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, the author of "Alice in Wonderland." He was certifiable -- mad as a hatter, as he would say. By the time he got done with learning math, what had he learned? He was able to "prove" that two times two actually equals five:
then 2 * (x2 - y2) = 0 and 5 * (x - y) = 0 therefore, 2 * (x2 - y2) = 5 * (x - y) Divide both sides of the equation by (x - y) 2 * (x + y) = 5 Plug in the values for x and y 2 * 2 = 5 And Christ Church College made him a professor of mathematics. Go figure. |
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Homeschoolers head to national robot contest
A group of homeschoolers from Oklahoma City have qualified to compete in a national robotics contest to be held in April, according to NewsOK.
The BEST Robotics National Championship is an annual event that pits student groups from at least 15 participating states against each other in a contest to see who can build the best functioning robot.
The championship features both homeschoolers and students from public and private schools. Last year, a group of Missouri homeschoolers took the top award.
The Oklahoma City group includes 30 students from grades six to 12. The group won second place in a regional competition held in Arkansas, qualifying for the national event to be held in Orlando, Fla.
The task this year was to create a robot that could sort golf balls from Easter eggs.
For more information about the BEST championship, or about starting a competition in your area, go to the BEST website, http://best.eng.auburn.edu/.
The BEST Robotics National Championship is an annual event that pits student groups from at least 15 participating states against each other in a contest to see who can build the best functioning robot.
The championship features both homeschoolers and students from public and private schools. Last year, a group of Missouri homeschoolers took the top award.
The Oklahoma City group includes 30 students from grades six to 12. The group won second place in a regional competition held in Arkansas, qualifying for the national event to be held in Orlando, Fla.
The task this year was to create a robot that could sort golf balls from Easter eggs.
For more information about the BEST championship, or about starting a competition in your area, go to the BEST website, http://best.eng.auburn.edu/.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)