South Bruce Peninsular - Education - Comments

Educators ask HP ... for Linux

garym — Sat, 10 May 2008 18:06:43 -0400

It's because, as educators, they are SUPPOSED to be smart, and so it stands to reason they would make smart demands from their IT vendor of choice ...

"HP listened to our needs and now is delivering a product designed by education for education."

It may sound odd for HP to take its first step into Linux by way of education, but there is money to be made in the education vertical. Lenovo Director of Software Strategy Debra Kobs-Fortner said, for example, that Lenovo had seen its best business so far for its Linux-powered ThinkPads in the American education market.
[ HP releases its first Linux-powered laptop ]

Mind you, not everyone is so sharp: Nicholas Negroponte accused free software advocates of being "open source fundamentalists" and said open source software "hampered usability" and "scared developers", and thus ordered the OLPC XO to downgrade back to Windows; Richard Stallman still hopes old Nick might yet see the light and turn his turn-around around before he blunders it asunder:

Those who have supported the OLPC project with their effort or their money may well feel betrayed. However, those concerns are dwarfed by what is at stake here: whether the XO is an influence for freedom or an influence for subjection.
[ Can we rescue OLPC from Windows? ]

garym: ict evangelist - musician - whatever

clarification

wayne tanner — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 21:19:42 -0500

I guess the pont I was trying to make was unless you have advanced notice, locking down a school exercises a process in futility. by the time this process gets going , well lets say its pointless.
people can wander in at will and I guess unless you have bar codes stamp on everyones forehead and you get scanned when you enter any door there is no way to keep anyone from just wandering in.
This process in futility is just a way of saying we tried but if something happens their responce would be we couldn't deal with all the variables that could occur.
Fire drills are simple. A system is in place to detect or alert of the presence of fire. So you get out. This situation is complicated so... do something and since we couldn't figure it out, They will fall back on the "we tried" atitude. This is afar more cereberally relaxed responce, and we shouldn't expect any thing more

Teaching Teacup Tempest Terror

garym — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 11:13:00 -0500

Ah, ok Wayne, then, um, dare I ask the obvious?

How much danger, exactly, was represented by that one parent? or were they perchance only bent on access to their own? I'm not saying the school shouldn't protect children from insane custody battles, only that I doubt hiding under desks or standing on toilet seats was the answer nearly as much as intercepting the rogue with the likes of a Deanna Troi bent on calming them.
How much danger and cost is involved in tourists playing basketball? Outside of the cleanup from their muddy boots, that is, but I mean seriously, realistically how dangerous is that? Or is this just stark naked xenophobia? A senior friend of mine, himself listed in Canada's book of Who's Who, once lamented how guilty he felt just watching children play in a playground, as such pleasures of old-age are considered today suspect, sick and forbidden. yeah, we can lock them out the evil sadistic bastard tourists, barb-wire the schoolyard and plant guards in towers. or we could live up to the name "Amabel-Sauble Community School" ...
Ditto for allowing a young child to go pee. How freakin' dangerous is that?
And even the crazed terresterone-charged teen, was he armed? Was he a danger to anyone else other than his mark and is there even the slightest indication he wouldn't have simply waited until his mark stepped off the school property anyway? My first real child-hood fight was over $0.75 that I had but refused to give to the local camp bully. He waited until he could get me alone away from the councellors, he hit me once, I broke two of his ribs. Freaked me out. I never fought again.

We have become a civilization afraid of its own shadow! Have we so pissed off every last other person on the planet that we must now cease to be any other than what we used to call the wacko survivalists holed up in Colorado? If preschoolers needing to pee are a threat, then what's to be done about snow-bird-borne deadly virii, or space junk ... or the wrath of Jesus should He find out we're devoting his memory to the terrorizing of school-children ;)

If you search through the google results, you see most everyone just accepting LockDown, lay-down and take it because that's the way the world works, so the teachers, the principals the parents, they just shrug and go on, "it's just another emergency procedure" says the Board, no biggie. Lay down and take it. Two minutes hate is good for National Unity.

Do they still teach Orwell in school? What do they say about it? Do they point out that the original manuscript title was Nineteen Forty-Eight, the year after the planned publication date? Do they talk about the post-war British dystopian world wherein George was writng? Ever wonder just why is it there are so many post-war then-youthful Brits living here in once-peaceloving Canada? Ever wonder what Lord of the Flies was really about?

Perhaps what is really needed is a new policy of cascading alarms and total shut-down procedures evoked whenever the Ministry of Education gets an 'idea'! Seal 'em all up in their offices, pipe in nitrous oxide, give 'em a good long nap. Maybe pipe in some Christmas music while we got their attention.

garym: ict evangelist - musician - whatever

good points Wayne ...

bub — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 02:05:28 -0500

.On your take of the lockdowns, but what Gary was referring to was the nonsense scare mentality to scare the living daylights out of little kids.You are right about people wandering in, and a simple cheap fix is using mag locks with door indicator LED's and buzzer alarm set up in the office, with signs directing any visitor to enter through the main door and report to the office(I think Gary used to spend a lot of time as a kid in the office..hehe)The door can be unlocked remotely during recess or other times, and of course a crash bar inside would let anyone OUT in a fire emergency.If they want even more security a simple webcam through a linux system is cheap enough to install.
But drills for terrorist attacks or other scenarios to me is ludicrous, advising and training the teachers on emergency procedures, yes, but training the kids to *hide under desks*? silly...they will do what the teachers instruct them to do if an emergency arises.I know what to do when a tire blows out while travelling 100 kph on a highway, but I do not need to practice it over and over to make sure my skills work
but..as an aside..umm..if i really have to go while driving past the school..and I kinda snuck in........
;)

**********************************************************
"How does one "Seem to think"? Either you did or you didn't! "
-ZenGary

for goodness sake dont tell the BWDSB I am commenting

wayne tanner — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 01:42:45 -0500

OOOps I guess it is too late for that now :)

Regarding lock downs I guess I have to be the resident expert as I have overseen, implemented more lockdowns than anyone on the system and suggested tweaking of the protocols.
On four occasions I implemented a lockdown due to the direction of the OPP, to mention one source, regarding a parent or such on the way to the school who we believed may be an issue. The rule of thumb is if the cops aren't there yet then the custodian goes out and determines if the rounds are real or not:) ( just a humourism, not policy ok)
At my Lovey's request I went to the SCC meeting regarding LACKdowns as the daycare is involved and to determine what issues could be addressed in sealing a biulding to keep an intruder out. I watched a wonderful powerpoint, produced I think by the high school A/V club of how to do a lockdown.
Remeber folks I am the lockdown guru, and when I asked a few question I was told this is how it suppose to run. Now I asked ( and I hope Osama isn't viewing this sight) how you could do a lockdown when 2/3 of the doors are always unlocked, I was directed to the information provided by the BWDSB in the powerpoint. *&#!%$&^%$%
Unless you have a heads up of someone on the way"lockdowns" are irrelavent.
I had better not say anymore as , well you know I will just be quiet. But I will sometime tell you about how on 7 occasions I had to kick out "tourists" who wandered in to play in the gym cuz they got kicked out of thier campground and had no where to go, or the people going through from the playyard door cuz junior had to go pee, or the high school kid coming through cuz one of the grade 8's owed him money and he was determined to collect. I actually kicked his ass when he had the nerve to swing first, but again keep that between us
Also since Columbine where they pulled the fire alarm to get people into the perfect shooting zone they are not suppose to have unannounced drills....
goodnight
wt

Here we go again

garym — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 18:43:38 -0500

Because once just isn't enough, and what better time than at Christmas!

we decided to yank our kids from the school today, in protest of the Lock Down Drill being foisted on our kids in the name of anti-terrorism. We're going to take them shopping instead, as it seems that for all the commercialism and materialism that may deck the mall, that world is still nonetheless in the seasonal message of goodwill and hope that maybe, just maybe there is the slimmest chance that some child-in-arms Prince of Peace may someday make all such terrors of young hearts a thing of the past. Let's have a drill to lock-down into that concept, eh?
[ TeledyN: Lock Down Your Heart ]

The way we figure it, they can't complain. If Jehovah Witnesses can boycott Christmas, surely we can boycott their festive politicking paranoia, no? Seems only fair. May added that if they didn't want us to react, why warn us in advance? Afterall, they don't telegraph their punches on the firedrills ...

garym: ict evangelist - musician - whatever

many moons ago

wayne tanner — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 00:21:29 -0400

I can remember when slurpin down a coffee in the staff rooms of more than one school this issue bein discussed over and over and over and over .
Ooops sorry, this is a new issue!!!! Never heard of this before. Gary you must have gotten an typographically incorrect form, or one which was marred by the photocopier ebcause you will get an immediate reply to this and it will be resolved. Thankyou for pointing this out to the BWDSB.
see below
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
they may be, but until proven I will show the benefit of the doubt, playin fibsy's...get use to it

Trustee replied

KeeMay — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 00:09:37 -0400

Actually, the trustee replied on Tuesday. He sounded all apologetic on the email. He was away to Kingston from last Friday to this Monday and had no internet access while he was there. I just didn't bother to tell Gary since our insurance agent has assured me that our home insurance provides cover for the liability insurance mentioned.

I refused to put my name down on the waiver though, because it is just plain rediculous. So, I told Gary sign as witness. I wonder though, is a 8-year-old's signiture valid on such an illegal document?

Kaelin went to OEC today for the area schools' cross country meets. He finished the 2km run and had a great time. I am sure he will enjoy it just as much in Meaford next Thursday.

As it turns out ...

garym — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 23:53:20 -0400

I pinged the question off colleagues at work, "Does your home insurance cover you for claims made against your kids over damage they may do to someone's property?" and the universal answer was, "Uh, no. Don't think so." -- reading over our own policy one wouldn't think so either, but Kaelin is really keen to go to that meet, so we called up State-Farm and asked.

"ah ... what exactly happened?" said the worried but helpful voice on the line. Oh, nothing, no worries, we were just curious. "Why?" and so we explained the whole story, about the requirements from the Army for children visiting their land and all and before we could get to the part about collateral damage we were cut short with "No problem, you'd be covered for that."

Oh, really? Interesting. Is this a sly way the military can make massive claims against civilian consultants? Just wonderin' -- the school principle had told us that this was the case, that our home insurance would be the proof we would need and not to worry, to just sign the damn paper and stop making such a noise (not his words exactly). So I let Kaelin sign the papers, witnessed it myself, and he's off to Meaford.

But ... what about families who rent? Clearly no homeowner insurance there, so what happens, their children simply do not go? Or are they then required to purchase that school insurance plan stuff? And why isn't the school board insuring the children for their event? Is this all about downloading the insurance risk and expense on to the parents? We posed that last one to our sharp young new Schoolboard Trustee, but he, ah, hasn't, um, got round to, like, opening his email yet. Takes time y'know, can't learn everything about the job in the first month.

And the really biggest question of all, the real stickler that I find really the very most interesting especially as we round the corner towards another democratic election: Why is it that no one before us had noticed the insane wording on this release form? When brought to the attention of the principal's office, no one in the room had any idea that this is what the release said,.Not one of them. Same with all the parents we asked. Not one had ever actually read the stupid form, they just signed it, witnessed it, and sent it back.

Isn't that just a tad bit strange?

garym: ict evangelist - musician - whatever

As usual!

skyhawk — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 09:07:28 -0400

As usual "Terror is a state of fear and overwhelming sense of imminent danger and is usually characterized by a lack of knowing". This is taken from the dictionary. Is it really that bad in our schools?
As usual, the new proposed lock-down drills are a knee jerk reaction by the Ministry of Education to show the public that they are taking at least some action towards curbing gun violence in he schools in the GTA. Are they?
As usual, these liberal thinkers want to be seen as being politically correct; don't target the hoodlums and young scumbags, but try instead to scare children and teach students how to be passive and avoid any type of confrontation, in case of another similar incident. Are the children leaning anything?
As usual, nobody tried to involve parents nor students before implementing a new safety policy. Please visit: www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/policy/vfreeng.html
As usual the recent shooting in a Toronto school is the fault of teachers and everybody else, except the murders. What else is new?
As usual, parents are quick to blame others for the tragedy and forget that they should always be responsile for their children's behavior where they learn, play and socialize. Would this not go along way toward solving some of the problems?
As usual, taxpayers are asked to fund a system which needs some serious fixing, articularly when it comes to teaching discipline and personal responsibility to students. Apparently there are no real consequences for not playing by the rules, or are there?
As usual, the liberal thinkers believe it's gentler for all concerned parties to introduce the students to the possibility of school terror and violence by way of lock-down drills, instead of taking whatever firm and perhaps unpopular actions are needed to fix the real underlying problem. Can this be productive?
As usual, the legal system prevents the general public from knowing anything about these young killers, sorry,alleged young killers. Should their names and pictures not be published in the media?
As usual, the powers to be are playing politics with a sad, isolated incident at a Toronto school. Is there no other way?
As usual, it remains to be seen whether the initives outlined in the Toronto Star, Editorial section of June 9th "Giving kids a safe haven" will achieve the desired results. Wouldn't it be nice if it works?
As usual, garym your concerns and comments are right on the money.

bwdsb 2006-2007 budget

mxyzptlk — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 11:43:19 -0400

garym, i was looking over the 2006-2007 bwdsb budget and noted that the budget amount for 'classroom computers' is $1,205,235 a 45.47% decrease in expenditure compared to the 2005-2006 budget. i believe the software licence fees are included that figure. do you know if the school board has adopted some open source initiative? i see on page 8 of the 2006-2007 final budget document that some of the decrease was achieved through a reduction in software maintenance agreements. i'll send a quick email to the board to see if they can tell me what percentage of the 1.2M budget is for software licences. i do know that the school board utilizes a lot of mac computers so some of their licence fees must be being paid to apple.
kltpzyxm

Between Town and Schoolboard

KeeMay — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 21:54:58 -0400

Apparently, when the school was built, School Board and the Town signed a "service agreement", which expires in 2 years. Looks like our school may be save for that length of time.

Does anyone know about such agreement, and what it is about? If the 2 parties involve do not negotiate a new agreement, what will happen?

Hubble's latest

zodiac — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 20:46:37 -0400

Hey...thanks for that....don't know if you've
seen the latest Pics of Saturn, but they are
phenomenal!! They have now determined that the distance across the "Rings" is 178,000 miles...Wow!...Z.

The False Star

garym — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 20:09:36 -0400

Bird, plane ... UFO, the planet Venus has been accused of all of the above at some time or another, often by experienced pilots and mariners; it is anyone's guess whether that confusion may have contributed to the twist in the connotations of the planet's other popular name, Lucifer:

Lucifer is a Latin word meaning "light-bearer" (from lux, lucis, "light", and ferre, "to bear, bring"), a Roman astrological term for the "Morning Star", the planet Venus. The word Lucifer was the direct translation of the Greek eosphoros ("dawn-bearer"; cf. Greek phosphoros, "light-bearer") used by Jerome in the Vulgate, having mythologically the same meaning as Prometheus who brought fire to humanity. In that passage, Isaiah 14:12, it referred to one of the popular honorific titles of a Babylonian king; however, later interpretations of the text, and the influence of embellishments in works such as Dante's The Divine Comedy and Milton's Paradise Lost, led to the common idea in Christian mythology and folklore that Lucifer was a poetic appellation of Satan.
[ Lucifer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]

garym: ict evangelist - musician - whatever

Creation of their own stupidity?

KeeMay — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 12:43:37 -0500

I was one of those "the sky is falling" people. It was a hard battle, if I may call it as such. At least, we were given the opportunity to contribute to the review, which led to the decision of keeping the School. This time round, however, if Mr Currie is going to anounce school closure, I fear there may not be turning back. It's true that we cannot act upon rumour. I hope the SCC personnel will attempt to ask for clarification before the said date.

Thank you garym for pointing out the difference in cost between running an old school and a modern one. Since it is the government's idea to bring the codes up-to-date when building a new school, their expectation on cost of running a school should be brought up-to-date as well. If the decision on getting rid of a school is merely based on stand-alone, instead of comparitive, figures, Our newest school, Bruce Peninsula Shores, will face the same plight 5, 6 years from now, unless... the intent is to "rob Peter to pay Paul".

Okay, let's say Dean Currie IS going to announce closure on March 30th, and we, "the sky is falling" people fail to overrule the decision. There will be only Bruce Peninsula Shores and Hepworth Central left in our group of schools. One very modern school and an ancient one. Eventually, Hepworth Central will have to be brough up to standard. What will happen then? A huge expense. If I were Mr Currie, it would make more sense to me to keep Amable Sauble, which is already up to standard.

I am not him. I still take the stand I did 4 years ago, that each community should have its own school.

Sauble Beach community is growing. There are more young family here now than 12 years ago when Amabel-Sauble was built. Here's my personal experience: when Nolan was Riordain's age, I did not meet any parents with children the same age. Already, I know 4 kids of the same age as Riordain. Amable -Sauble Child Care Centre "has never been busier before with children that age. These kids will be starting school in fall 2009, but there may not be a school for them to go to.

What will the school board do with the building when it is not a school anymore? Just let it sit there and rot? And then, build another one when there is a cry out of need of a school here a few years down the road. Then close it down again 10 years later because projected enrollment for the following year is too low. History repeating itself over and over again? When will they ever learn?