Technology is constantly changing and the Carthage R-9 School District technology staff is working to give our students and teachers access to the latest technologies and to educate teachers on integrating this technology into their curriculum. The technology staff is working around all of the summer technology classes to move and upgrade the Wide Area Network to get ready for the upcoming school year.

Graduate-level college classes are being taught at the Junior High and Technical Center by Pittsburg State University and William Woods University. About 75 area teachers are enrolled in these classes. Carthage R-9 staff members are teaching two of the technology-related classes.

Technology in-service for teachers being offered includes using the mobile labs, SmartBoard, PowerPoint, making web pages and basic troubleshooting. This year the district is planning the Technology Integration Academy. This project will help teachers integrate technology into the curriculum. Each teacher involved will receive 30 hours of training and will create and implement a project rich in technologies in their classroom. To help facilitate this integration, the teachers will have a technician and another teacher available in their classroom. These projects will be made available to all teachers in the district as they are completed. Members of the Carthage R-9 staff trained through different grant programs will supervise this project.

Several computer technology enhanced classes were offered during summer school. All mobile labs were moved to Fairview to allow teachers and elementary students access to computers. Junior High and Senior High were also used for summer school at the secondary level.

The district has approximately 1,400 desktop computers and approximately 200 laptops. The laptop labs use a wireless network. The district currently has one computer for every 2.5 students.

The district technology staff has moved into a new location at Mark Twain Elementary School. This will allow room for technicians to work on computers and will provide a classroom for the intern program taught by Chris Honaker, District Communications Analyst. Six high school students will participate this year in the program and will assist with district computer and network problems.

NASCAR to the Max

Sunday’s running of the New England 300 from the New Hampshire International Speedway proved to be a challenge for the drivers and crews. The track was recently reconfigured through the turns to allow for more passing and side-by-side action.

Also, a portion of the track was ground down and repaved to smooth out some rough areas. The drivers claim that over the course of the race, "marbles", small bits of gravel and pieces of tire that the gravel chews up, was new pavement coming up and the gravel used in the asphalt was causing their cars to lose traction and control if the driver moved out of the main racing groove. The track owner claims that the problem wasn’t with the track coming apart; that the marbles were simply bits of rubber not track surface. Regardless of the cause, the race was slowed for 14 caution periods for 77 laps, over 25% of the race. Most of the accidents occurred as cars got out of the groove, got into the marbles and hit the outside retaining wall. Most drivers likened the race to driving on ice. The most even-tempered of the drivers stated the conditions were the same for everyone.

Meanwhile, the most hot-tempered drivers, and typically those that had wrecked, called the track "junk", "unsafe" or "real bad." Ward Burton survived the battle of attrition to claim his second win of the season.

After being penalized points and fined for being below the minimum ride height a guilty team recently claimed that their springs settled as a result of normal racing action. Dale Jarrett, who was not the driver in question, was asked for his opinion of the fine and penalty. He replied that if your springs were settling you better find some that didn’t.

In an ironic twist, Jarrett’s car was found to be too low during Sunday’s post race inspection. His team was docked 25 driver and owner points and fined $20,000.00!

The series returns to Pocono (PA) Raceway this weekend. The aforementioned Jarrett won the Pocono race contested in June.

For the second time in the last few meetings of the Council, a vote was postponed because members in favor of the particular bill were absent. Now this tactic is perfectly legal as far as the rules of procedure are concerned. Here’s how it works.

It takes 6 votes to pass an ordinance. If a member in favor of the bill sees there aren’t enough votes to make the six, the member moves to postpone the vote to the next meetin’. Now it only takes a majority of the members present to approve the postponement. In the case of last meetin’, four voted to postpone and three voted against, thus savin’ the decision for the next meetin’.

Some of those against the move were not happy with the maneuver, but, the rules of the game were upheld. As is typically the case, ya can’t win for loosin.’

This is some fact, but, mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

by

Metcalf Auto Supply

Click & Clack
TALK CARS

By Tom & Ray Magliozzi

Dear Tom and Ray:

My loser friend keeps asking me to jump-start his loser car. I've done it about five times now and I'm about ready to tell him where he can put his jumper cables. Is my battery going to suffer from all of this jump-starting? My Honda Civic is 3 years old and I haven't had to replace the battery yet, but I'm starting to worry. Is there some technical, car-lingo-laden excuse I can give him for why I can't help him out next time his junk heap dies? — Brad

RAY: Unfortunately, no, Brad. Jump-starting someone else's car is just like donating a pint of blood. A few days later, you'd never know it happened.

TOM: It's just like starting your own car one more time. So it hardly makes a difference in the life of your battery.

RAY: That doesn't mean we can't help you, though, Brad. If he's outworn his welcome, we'll be happy to help you make up a technical-sounding excuse.

TOM: Tell him that electron drain during a jump-start is magnified by Avogadro's number, and the tie-in between Coulombs Law and the Hiesenberg Uncertainty Principle makes it unwise to perform any more than five jump-starts in a given year. Then throw in some reference to global warming and violations of the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization, and he should get the idea.

RAY: Or just tell him you're watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer and he should check the Yellow Pages under "AAA."