Art is not about thinking something up. It is the opposite — getting something down.
- Julia Cameron
These two posts were so good i wanted you to take a look at them. I am thankful that my education was enriched by both art and sport. I value the fact that i work in a school that recognizes the need for both.
from Dennis Harter at ISB:
- There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.
- Ken Olsen, President, Digital Equipment, 1977
The Carol Morgan School believes that technology improves student learning. This belief does not lay dormant in the school’s mission statement; but instead is expressed and reemphasized constantly in our actions. Over the past five years CMS has introduced, built, improved, and widened its wireless network - a process that continues. The power of a “wired” student (wired meaning: connected to the internet, their teacher, students in their classroom and those collaborating from all over the world) can not be overstated. When teachers are trained and design lessons to maximize this potential and students are given the tools to realize it - the entire learning process is enriched. Furthermore as our world continues to change with incredible speed laptops allow learning opportunities that respond at this speed. The Carol Morgan School is the most technologically advanced school in the region and spends a great deal of resources to ensure it keeps this distinction. We believe that laptops have a place in education and that they present students with learning opportunities previously unimaginable - with this in mind we are focusing a great deal of our professional development to ensure that teachers are getting the most out of student laptops in their room.
In summary, although not required, we believe that high school students will achieve greater success by integrating laptops into their learning process. It is with this belief in mind that we are offering you the parents of the class of 2012 the following offer:
Dell Latitude D630 - $1448 (plus shipping and handling)
Intel® Core 2Duo (2.50 GHz)
Windows® XP Professional
14.1 Wide Screen WXGA
2.0GB SDRAM
120GB Hard Drive
8x DVD+/-RW
128MB NVIDIA® Quadro NVS
Wireless LAN
Touchpad with Fingerprint Reader
90W A/C Adapter
Dell USB Optical Mouse with Scroll
3 Year Limited Warranty[1]
I want to be clear, this is not the only laptop that will assist your child, it is simply one that has been identified by CMS as a good student computer. If your child already has a computer they are comfortable with or prefers another model these will equally help them take full advantage of the opportunities presented to them in their high school career at CMS.
Orders will be accepted until the end of May.
Questions or to place and order please contact Mark Picketts at 809.947.1069 or by email mpicketts@cms.edu.do.
[1]These machines are fully covered by Dell’s warranty; NOT through CMS
May 9, 2008
img thanks to Osiris
“what drives an artist is that you believe that the future is gonna have some use for what you are working on now.”
-Junot Diaz
The opportunity given to CMS students and staff yesterday was one that i will never forget. Junot Diaz is an incredible writer, an absolute genius, a humanitarian, a champion of justice, and a phenomenal teacher. So many incredible gems and sound bytes that didn’t stop from the moment he arrived until the moment that he left -and i would know…he had a magnetic quality to him that kept me a my video camera chasing him all day.
All of these pieces come attached with a mature language warning.
High School Assembly (Reading & Q&A Session)
coming to YouTube soon…Workshop#1 - the sound quality is audible but low
click here
Workshop #2- the sound quality is audible but low
click hereParent/Teacher Reading and Q&A Session
mp3 recording of talk
coming to YouTube soon…
mens’ bookclub with Junot
img thanks to Scarlett
“In some ways I think that this book waited for me to become a better person before it wrote itself”
- Junot Diaz on The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Be sure to see Pulitzer Prize award winner, and MIT professor Junot Diaz as he reads, answers questions and works with Carol Morgan high school students on Wednesday. Junot was born here in the Dominican Republic and is this year’s “artist in residence”; the excitement and accolades that have recently been bestowed upon him for his work The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Have generated an amazing buzz on and around the CMS campus.
Tune in to our Ustream.tv channel and don’t let this opporutnity pass you by.
10:15 - 10:50 - High School Assembly (Reading & Q&A Session)
coming to YouTube soon…11:05 - 11:50 -Workshop#1 - the sound quality is audible but low
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/38385012:00 - 12:45 - Workshop #2- the sound quality is audible but low
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/3839386:00 - 7:30 - Parent/Teacher Reading and Q&A Session
mp3 version of talk
coming to YouTube soon…
time zone - Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic GMT -4
And all the while…construction continues:
April 25, 2008
img 1: http://www.thedeelirium.com/wp-content/uploads/screenshot3.jpeg
img2: with great thanks to Osiris
- “People who say they sleep like a baby usually don’t have one.”
- Leo J. Burke
First and foremost Ella is wonderful and her sleeping and her incredible mother really don’t have me as sleep deprived as the above quote may lead you to believe (personal blog).
Staff appreciation week kicked off today, i feel extremely lucky to work with so many talented, kind, professional and caring people. I found this video very powerful so i thought i would share it with everyone who puts up with me here at work:
Ok i do need to do a little catch up:
HeartCare Dominicana
It makes be incredibly proud to work at CMS when the school smashes the headmasters challenge of raising enough money to provide 4 children with surgeries and medication (320,000 pesos) in raising 410,219 pesos! More then 5 children will literally be given life thanks to your generosity.
Huge thanks to Annikke Olson and the entire team responsible in putting on a great week of activities for a great cause (wiki site).Construction - marching forward (4/18/2008)
Junot Diaz - the pulitzer prize winner is going to be here on the 30th and you can watch his presentations through a combination of the Carol Morgan School channels on Ustream.tv and YouTube. Don’t miss the chance to hear Junot speak and watch him work with Carol Morgan high school students. I will be giving more details about times and happenings on this blog sometime this week. (Junot at Google - language advisory)
“In some ways I think that this book waited for me to become a better person before it wrote itself”
- Junot Diaz on The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
It isn’t everyday you get the opportunity to meet a Pulitzer prize winner, it also isn’t everyday that he comes to do a workshop at your school. This novel was bounced around in Junot Diaz’s head for more then a decade and last night the jurors confirmed what anyone who has read the novel already knew - that the time spent polishing and perfecting was all for the betterment of the readers’ experience. A couple of months ago we reached an agreement with Junot Diaz to come as our artist in residence. Last night he was awarded the Pulitzer for Fiction. What an opportunity for the students! Something tells me the students who get to work closely with Junot will have the opportunity to learn about patience, revision and not settling for anything but their absolute best. Pending approval from Mr. Diaz we will look to broadcast some of his time on Ustream and on CMS Radio so stay tuned - i will put more details up here. (New York Times article, Slate interview).
On a personal note not only am i happy to see this award going to a Dominican but also my book club read this book in December and the discussion was one of the best that we have had. When i asked one of the more well read members of the group to comment (for this blog) on the committee’s selection of Oscar, he responded with this:
The choice of Oscar Wao for the Pulitzer for fiction evinces a sensitivity for the peculiar by the Pulitzer nominating committee at Columbia (they chose Middlesex, too!). Oscar’s skewed narrative structure, delightfully esoteric pop-culture references, and hipper-than-thou wordplay cast it as a somewhat unlikely recipient for what will now assuredly be even wider appeal than it has achieved up to this point. The book’s increasing success is a great endorsement of the level of literary appreciation in the states right now.
If you have yet to read it, go out and get it.
As for this week we have kicked off Heart Care Dominicana week. Last year we raised just less then 300,000 pesos this year we have a school-wide goal of 320,000 enough to provide 4 lifesaving surgeries to children in need. Our high school students have a wonderful service based relationship volunteering at the hospital but this annual even literally saves lives and is the stuff that makes a school community proud of its students. This student created video was shown at the launch assembly yesterday:
follow our progress through this page on our HighSchool Wiki
Wow lots going on here…and all the while construction of our new media center continues:
April 7, 2008
img from: http://www.republicaupdate.com/images/2007/09/03/junot_wao_cover.jpg
- The shortest distance between two points is under construction.
- Noelie Altito
Spring break is over, it was fantastic; relaxing, sharing time with family, unplugging and the week was really marked by some pretty massive waves and some good wind (despite being off-season) - in short everybody wins!
When is the last time you truly unplugged? For how long? I had this discussion with a number of seniors last week and the results kinda scared me. Then i looked inward to see the time that i am spending looking at a screen every day - yikes. After a full week away i must say that the screen break was nice and needs to be scheduled more regularly.
Well we were off on the north coast relaxing the school engineer was overseeing the real beginning of our new media center’s construction. It is pretty exciting stuff to see the footprint start to take shape. It is going to be a tangible expression of the link we at CMS see between library and technology and the fact that the new building will be located at the physical heart of the campus couldn’t be scripted any better. So with construction back underway i return to a weekly image to share our progress with you:
March 27, 2008
So as i slowly work through a weeks worth of posts to get caught up on i found these two particularly thought provoking and thought that you might too:
Diligence on the School of Everything “Everyone has something to learn, everyone has something to teach”
Education 4 Well Being’s recent video on fear, original music, great quotes and the slick finish that is becoming synonymous with ED4WB’s postings.
Huge News!
Our Artist in residence program for 2008 is confirmed. It is one that is not going to be forgotten any time soon, Junot Diaz author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007) and Drown (1996) will be working with our students and staff on April 30th. The opportunity for our high school students to work with a writer of Junot’s caliber is nothing short of incredible. The hard work of deputy head Ernest Peterson to bring Mr. Diaz to Carol Morgan while the “buzz” surrounding him and his recent work is peaking is nothing short of incredible! It is work that will pay off ten fold in providing students (and their teachers) with a learning experience far beyond anything they could ever imagine. I am looking forward to seeing him at work and attending the evening teacher/parent session. If you haven’t read Oscar yet, i highly recommend it (goodreads).
img src: http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2007/10/10/amd_viva13.jpg
Semana Santa here.
I am unplugging for the week and praying for wind although the forecast doesn’t look good. Regardless family visiting will ensure a great time.
Take care all, and even more then usual -
GaDev
img from: http://images.bobvila.com/images/ContentImages/1917/_275.jpg
