Its time to move on, time to get going
What lies ahead I have no way of knowing
But under my feet, baby, grass is growing
Its time to move on, it s time to get going
- Tom Petty
4 years of backgammon, 4 years of kitesurfing, 4 years of bowling, 3 kids brought into this world…
cost = 390 pesos.
that is a bargain (12-13 us dollars)
Goodtimes.
Worst part of being an international teachers is saying good-bye to the people who become your family wherever it is you are. We are losing a lot of wonderful “family” members this year, its tough, but perhaps toughest on those staying put?
To the people moving on from CMS, good luck, drop us a line every once in a while and we’ll catch you on the flip side.
KOEm
“It amazes me that most people spend more time planning next summer’s vactaion then they do planning the rest of their lives.”
- Patricia Fripp
Well summer must be upon us, and it seems just in time. My NetVibes shows a significant fall-off in ed tech writing and i know my mind is also looking to the long lazy days of summer. Kitesurfing, reading, playing with my family, visiting my family, reading some more … oh boy now i am really getting excited.
Some new videos will be being posted on the school’s youtube channel in the coming days as i get the time so please check it regularly. For starters here is a little walk down memory lane for the class of 2008 aka Tenacious - congratulations and all the best to all of you as you move on from CMS.
The fruits of the first middle school digital arts elective are here. - WOW!
Third graders made some good friends this year!
I may get you one more of these before the summer but progress will continue:
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.
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
“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 here
Parent/Teacher Reading and Q&A Session
mp3 recording of talk
coming to YouTube soon…
“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…
“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:
Well summer must be upon us, and it seems just in time. My NetVibes shows a significant fall-off in ed tech writing and i know my mind is also looking to the long lazy days of summer. Kitesurfing, reading, playing with my family, visiting my family, reading some more … oh boy now i am really getting excited.
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.
It isn’t everyday you get the opportunity to meet a 
