The Thunder Mountain High School (TMHS) yearbook team got inventive this year. The class, led by Janna Lelchuk, used a combination of smartphone technology and raw creativity to come up with what they believe is the first ever “Digitally Interactive Yearbook,” dubbed the “iFalcon.”
Janna attended the Alaska Society of Technology Education (ASTE) conference in February of this year where she learned of a smartphone application called Aurasma:
With the yearbook pages due in March, the team had little time to add such a feature to their already near-complete project.
But after three months of hard work, accompanied by innovative thinking by TMHS junior Gabe Donohoe, the team pulled it off.
The iFalcon in action (that is the actual yearbook cover, not an iPad):
Front of the iFalcon scanned using Aurasma shows a rotating image on the iPhone.This shows the iFalcon bringing smiles to the faces of an unhappy looking crowd.Yearbook team shows in place of credits
Secret image shows in place of the TMHS logo
The whole book is full of these hidden digital gems. For instance, scanning a picture of the school’s band will display a video with sound of them playing live.
Visiting Hamilton High School in Hamilton, Ohio, Jan. 8, 2002, President George W. Bush signs into law the No Child Left Behind Act. (Photo courtesy of the White House)
More than 30 states across the country have gotten waivers from No Child Left Behind. That lets them judge schools with their own measures instead of the federal standards. Alaska joined has that bunch.
Last year, more than half of Alaska’s schools got a failing grade under No Child Left Behind. Next year would have been even worse, according to the state’s Department of Education and Early Development. Deputy Commissioner Les Morse says that not a single school in the state would have passed.
“Next year, every school had to have all their students –100 percent of their students — at proficient. That includes every student who might be struggling in learning, a brand new student to the country who might not know English … All of the them would have to score proficient on the assessments. Otherwise, the school would be deemed as a failing school under the current law.”
On top of the black eye of getting a failing grade, schools would have had to tie up funding in federally mandated tutoring programs. And they would have had to put money toward letting kids transfer to passing schools. Morse says that would have been tricky if there weren’t any passing schools.
“If every school is failing, it’s at a point where that just doesn’t make sense.”
So, like a lot of states, Alaska applied for an exemption from the federal education law. What that means is that instead of being judged primarily on math and reading proficiency tests, things like attendance, the number of kids who take the SAT, and the annual improvement that students show will also be taken into account. And instead of passing or failing, schools will get star ratings, with five being the best — kind of like movie reviews.
Morse says that because the state will now be taking a more complex approach to gauging student achievement, some of the tests will even be harder. The difference is that schools won’t be faced with an automatic failing grade if some students don’t pass the standards test, and they’ll be given a chance to target specific areas of improvement.
“By no means is the waiver is the waiver saying that we think we ought to give up on any child. Actually, we’ve raised the standards, but now instead of saying we want kids to meet a minimum, we’re actually going to build supports and targets to help make sure kids, when they graduate from high school are ready for college if they want to go to college or any post-secondary training opportunity.”
Opinion on the waiver has been generally positive. The Alaska Council of School Administrators says they’re embracing it, while the Alaska Association of School Boards calls it a step forward. But Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski did show some skepticism toward the waiver, suggesting that it could be a “half measure” that replaces federal regulations with a similar set of requirements.
A scholarly publisher has issued a warning to Jeffrey Beall, a librarian who writes about what he calls “predatory” practices in the scholarly publishing industry, threatening him with a $1 billion lawsuit for his blog posts criticizing the company.
Beall is an academic librarian at the University of Colorado; he writes about the journal industry on his personal blog, Scholarly Open Access.
More specifically, Beall identifies and lists journals that he says prey on academics’ need to publish their research. Such companies often charge a “handling fee” that requires authors to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars if a paper is published.
And because OMICS is based in India, The Chronicle says, it also warned Beall that he could also face a prison sentence if an Indian court finds him guilty. There has been no indication that a lawsuit has been filed.
The message from OMICS came in a letter from its attorney at IP Markets, a law firm described on its own website as the “largest Intellectual Property rights management firm” in India.
“I found the letter to be poorly written and personally threatening,” Beall tells The Chronicle. “I think the letter is an attempt to detract from the enormity of OMICS’s editorial practices.”
The Chronicle, also spoke to IP Markets’ Ashok Ram Kumar, a senior lawyer with IP Markets, who said of Beall, “What he has written is something highly inappropriate,” adding, “He has committed a criminal offense.”
Beall explains his criteria for scholarly publishers on his blog. The factors he looks at range from adhering to ethical standards and codes of conduct to being transparent about ownership and staffing. A warning sign, he says, is when a publisher creates dozens of journal websites at once. Or they might plagiarize the submission guidelines they provide authors.
An article on predatory publishers in The New York Times featured Beall last month. It described another ploy of unscrupulous publishers: creating scientific conferences that have names similar to — and none of the prestige of — established gatherings.
The Times article also mentioned the OMICS Group, and its director, Srinubabu Gedela, noting that the publisher “has about 250 journals and charges authors as much as $2,700 per paper.”
Regent Dale Anderson, left, explains the award before making the presentation to Jan during the UAS Sitka Campus Commencement Ceremony on May 3.
Associate Professor of Marine Biology, Jan Straley, was recognized with the University of Alaska’s Meritorious Service Award on May 3 during the Sitka campus graduation ceremony.
The Board of Regents selected Straley for her work in marine research and education.
Straley has worked with the National Park Service in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve’s monitoring program and also studies humpback whales at the NOAA lab in Juneau. She’s been based at the Sitka campus since 1994.
“I am truly honored and humbled by this award presented to me by the Board of Regents,” Straley said. The letters of support were so glowing it was hard to realize that they were talking about me. It seems that when you work with great colleagues who are equally passionate about what they do it creates an enjoyable and productive team effort. I think of this award belonging to that team of researchers and educators, including my students and my incredibly supportive and creative family,” said Straley in a press release.
Straley has been studying whales in Alaska for more than 30 years and founded the Sitka WhaleFest and the Sitka Sound Science Center.
Straley is the first person to receive the award since 1995 according to the release.
A firearm found Tuesday in a Valdez school forced every school in the Valdez City School District on lock down. The Valdez Police Department is investigating as to how the weapon ended up in the school.
Students from Gilson Middle School boarded buses after they spent part of their Tuesday afternoon on lockdown. Around 2 p.m., a loaded handgun was found in the school forcing the Valdez City School District to take immediate action.
“Valdez High School and Herman Hutchins Elementary also initiated lockdown protocol right away. The Valdez Police Department was notified immediately. Students were safe at all times. All students were dismissed by classroom and safely accompanied outside of the building,” Gilson Middle School Principal Rod Morrison said.
Morrison said the students were dismissed at their normal times, but the buses were delayed for about 15 minutes.
Valdez Police Chief Bill Comer said the District followed the right protocol in handling the situation.
“We sent officers to all the schools just to make sure that everything was safe until we could understand what was going on and the nature and the scope of how the firearm got there. We’re working on that, we don’t have any answers right now and we’ll let you know when we can,” Comer said.
Officers spent the rest of the afternoon and most of the night searching for more weapons. For now, the police aren’t releasing the description of the firearm or where it was found. So far, there is no indication as to why a weapon was brought to the school. Comer said despite the incident, no one is at risk.
We’ll likely have an officer around, but the teachers and the school administration is the best read for us on what’s going on, and there’s really been no sign of any kind of aggressive behavior or any kind of threats to the school. So there’s really – outside of just finding this firearm in the school – there’s nothing to indicate that the school would be unsafe,” Comer said.
Students are scheduled to resume classes at normal times.
Capt. Charlie Plumb (Ret.) describes those who provided invaluable support and advice that helped him survive six years in a Vietnam POW camp.
A former Vietnam prisoner of war encouraged Juneau and Hoonah youth to make their own choices and take advantage of challenges and opportunities presented by adversity.
Capt. Charlie Plumb (Ret.) was a Navy fighter pilot who served as an adversarial pilot at Navy Fighter Weapons School at Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego, now known as Top Gun.
He was later based on the carrier U.S.S. Kitty Hawk, flew an F-4 Phantom jet, made over a hundred carrier landings, and flew 74 combat missions over North Vietnam. But Plumb and his co-pilot were shot down over Hanoi just five days before the end of his eight-month tour. He was tortured and spent the next six years in a prison camp.
I’d like for you to try your best to smell the stench of that imaginary two-gallon bucket in the corner I call my toilet. I’d like for you to feel the baking heat of a tropical summer in a tin roof prison cell ten-thousand miles away from Juneau. I like for you to taste the salt, the annoying taste of salt in the corners of your mouth from the sweat, the tears, and the blood. Not that you’ll ever be prisoners of war, God forbid!”
During the last installment of the Pillars of America speaker series on Wednesday, Plumb described the lessons he learned as he and his colleagues survived and supported each other.
Plumb said his fellow prisoners, usually in darkened cells or separated from each other, communicated by code that was based on tugs of a wire pushed through cracks in the walls.
Wearing a khaki garrison cap and flight suit, Plumb started his talk Wednesday in near-total darkness, pacing off the three steps that he could take in his eight-foot by eight-foot cell. Sometimes he would hold out his hand and move it forward and back quickly to demonstrate the pull of the wire as he communicated with his fellow prisoners.
Capt. Charlie Plumb (Ret.) describes how he and his fellow prisoners of war communicated with a wire pushed through the cracks in the walls of their darkened cells. For example, five tugs followed by five more tugs represented the letter ‘Z’. Photo by Matt Miller/KTOO News
This silly, archaic, cumbersome code became our language. No, more than that. It became our lifeblood. It was absolutely vital; It was life or death that we communicate with each other. And the interesting part was (that) it wasn’t the words, it wasn’t the phrases, it wasn’t the meaning of the sentences that was the important part. The life saving value of communication in a prison camp was the simple validation of another human being.”
He used the story of eventually coming home and meeting the seaman on board the Kitty Hawk who packed his parachute and knew exactly who Plumb was.
The best I could do was stagger to my feet, reach out a very grateful hand of thanks. He came up with just the proper words. The guy grabbed my hand, he pumped my arm, and he said ‘I guess it worked!”
‘Parachute packer’ was Plumb’s metaphor for those who gave of themselves, passed on important principles in life, and asked for nothing in return. They were those who youth could look to for support in time of need. Plumb said some of the more-important parachute packers in his life included his middle school basketball coach and the superintendent of the Naval Academy.
If adversity is a horrible thing to waste, how do you waste adversity? Well, you start by blaming other people for your problems. And when you do, you give away control of your life. You start wasting adversity by feeling sorry for yourself and crawling over in the corner of your little mental prison cell and wait for something better to happen. You waste adversity by expecting somebody else to make it fair in your life. And what you find out is — once you’ve worked yourself through this is — that the person in control is you.”
This was at least Plumb’s second visit to Juneau as part of the motivational series organized by the Glacier Valley Rotary. His first visit was in 1995.
Six students from Hoonah were flown into Juneau to eat lunch with First Lady Sandy Parnell during Plumb’s hour-long talk.
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