Opportunity for Young Photographers, Deadline is Jan 9, 2009

The announcement below comes from VisArts in Rockville... (also in PDF form here).

By the way.. a few CES students will be submitting their photos.

“How You See It”
A juried exhibition of photography, including work by high-school and middle-school students in or around Washington.

VisArts announces an amazing opportunity for Washington-area high school and middle school photographers to have their work juried by Frank Goodyear and potentially exhibited at VisArts along with professional work. Submissions are due by January 9th.

To enter, simply submit any original photo image shot since 2006. Digitally manipulated images man be included. Selected works will be printed and hung in the VisArts Portfolio Gallery from March 10 to May 23, 2008. Some works may be shown in rotation via projector. Student works will not be offered for sale through our gallery.

Submission Requirements:
• Artists must live in the Washington, DC Region
• Minimum 300dpi and suitable size to be printed as an 8” x 10” piece.
• Digital images must be accompanied in email by the following:
(1) Artist name
(2) the image title
(3) artist age
(4) current school
(5) the name(s) of the artist’s photography or art teacher(s)
(6) “Photo Submission” in the e-mail subject line.
• Your name should not appear anywhere on the image itself. Accepted photographers will be expected to supply an Artist Statement by Feb. 13.
• Maximum two submissions per student.

Submissions should be sent to Tim Hampton at: digitallab@visartscenter.org

Calendar:
Jan 09 Submission Deadline: digitallab@visartscenter.org by Jan 30 Notification of selected students
Feb 13 Artist Statement Due
Mar 05 Opening reception at VisArts, 12-3pm
May 09 End of show

No Longer Just The Old Typing Class...

A recent article published in eSchoolNews hit home to me. It addresses issues that educators grapple with on an ongoing basis, particularly relating to how we prepare our students for the world today and in the future. Those of us involved with educational technology have seen a shift in emphasis in the national standards for technology education during the past several years (see ISTE National Educational Technology Standards), from a focus on lower-level skills to higher-level critical thinking skills (creativity, innovation, problem-solving, decision making). The eSchool News article is food for thought as we continue to review the focus of CES' Technology Program curriculum and some of the goals that we are working toward in the middle school computer lab.

Here's an excerpt, with a link to the full article below.


"A lot of people think the skills that students need to learn for the workforce and the skills they need to learn to be a good citizen are two separate sets. But they're not. What makes a student successful in the global workforce will make a person successful at life.... [Employers] . . .don't mind training employees in technology--but you can't teach someone how to think."

Tony Wagner from Harvard argues for a list of seven "survival skills" that students need to succeed in today's information-age world, taken from his book The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don't Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need--And What We Can do About It. It's a school's job to make sure students have these skills before graduating, he says:

1. Problem-solving and critical thinking;
2. Collaboration across networks and leading by influence;
3. Agility and adaptability;
4. Initiative and entrepreneurship;
5. Effective written and oral communication;
6. Accessing and analyzing information; and
7. Curiosity and imagination.

Story: http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=56127

CES Election Day 2008

CES students in grades 4 through 8 lined up outside the Jefferson Building computer classroom to vote for President and 3 ballot referendums today. Outside, students politicked while inside, 8th graders served as election workers and poll watchers.

For those of you following the techie side of things, we used SurveyGizmo to create the ballot, which we embedded onto our Cardinals' Nest Wiki space. We were able to compile results in real time using SurveyGizmos' reporting tools. Mr. Hartranft is happy to report no computer glitches (whew!).

Thanks to Mrs. Harkins for coordinating this important civics lesson!

Hispanic Heritage Month Gallery Update

We figured out how to add audio to our Cardinals' Nest web space (actually, it's a wiki..a web 2.0 tool ), and are pleased to add student voices to the Hispanic Heritage Galleries. Thanks to CES Spanish teacher Marta Bou, the students are recording a greeting en español. Take a look (and a listen!!!) to the 5th grade gallery and the 6th grade gallery. We have a bit more recording to do, so keep checking back in....

Tener un buen día, amigos!

6th Grade Celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month

The CES 6th graders, with guidance of Mrs. Myers, researched prominent Americans with Hispanic roots and wrote a brief biographies based on their research.

During Mr. H's 6th computer class, Mary Beth S. helped to process the text files to publish on on our "electronic bulletin board".... you can read these biographies on this page of the Cardinals' Nest web space.

More to come: The 6th grade recorded their voices to produce an audio companion to the text on the Cardinals Nest gallery. We're trying to figure out the best way to accomplish this. Also, look for a similar gallery on the 5th grade page.

6th Grade Video Arcade, Featuring Frank's Music Animation

Sixth Grader Frank M. produced a music video that brings his stick figures to life. For all of you Jonas brothers Fans, here's an opportunity to see a fun animation choreographed to a good tune. See below, or check it out on the Sixth Grade Video Arcade page on the Cardinals Nest web space.

Good work, Frank!

5th Grade Drawings Featured on Online Exhibit

Visit the Cardinals' Nest Wiki to view gallery of 5th Grade drawings.

CES fifth grades students reviewed the parts of a computer, and then illustrated them using a simple imaging software program (Paint). CES students learn to create an original image using several image editors and save it in several different file formats.

CES Student Literary Magazine Now Available

A bound color copy of Celebrations can now be purchased from Lulu.com for $20. Electronic versions are also available from Lulu.com for $10. Visit Christ Episcopal School's store on Lulu.com.

Ms. Hopper, as faculty advisor for the student literary journal, coordinated the writing entries, along with Mrs. Myers.  The CES 7th Grade worked on the layout and design in Mr. Hartranft' class.