Association of Alaska School Boards

E-NEWS

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A weekly digest of education news for Alaska's School Board Members.

Association of Alaska School Boards, 1111 West 9th St., Juneau, AK 99801. Tel.

907-586-1083, Fax 907-586-2995. Carl Rose, Executive Director,

crose@aasb.org:    John Greely, Editor, jgreely@aasb.org. Review past issues of

the E-News on the AASB Website at <http://www.aasb.org>. To unsubscribe send an email stating the same to jgreely@aasb.org.

 

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Sponsored by Alaska Public Entity Insurance Co. <http://www.akpei.com>

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AASB E-News                                                                                        

January 4, 2007

 

 

--PRESIDENT BUSH SEEKS CONSENSUS ON NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND

--REPLACING BOOKS WITH COMPUTERS SHOWS PROMISE

--LOW-COST LAPTOP COULD TRANSFORM LEARNING

--IN-STATE RETIREE BENEFITS UPHELD

--PLANNING FOR A FLU PANDEMIC

--BOARD MEMBER WALKS MILE IN STUDENT SHOES

 

PRESIDENT BUSH SEEKS CONSENSUS ON NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND

 President Bush plans to meet with lawmakers next week to jump start talks over the renewal of the No Child Left Behind education law, a Democratic congressional aide says. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings is optimistic about chances of renewing the law for five more years. See full story here:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/01/03/bush.education.ap/index.html

 

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REPLACING BOOKS WITH COMPUTERS SHOWS PROMISE

 The books are open at Wendler Middle School in Anchorage – MacBooks, that is. Sixty seventh-graders there have received free-to-use laptops. They canŐt take them home, yet. But they haul them around between classes, use them for note-taking and other assignments and tap into wireless Internet for easy research and browsing. See full story here:

http://www.adn.com/news/education/story/8527758p-8421477c.html

 

Link to the AASB Consortium for Digital Learning here:

http://web.mac.com/aasb.cdl/iWeb/Consortium%20for%20Digital%20Learning/AASB-CDL%20Home.html

 

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LOW-COST LAPTOP COULD TRANSFORM LEARNING

 Forget windows, folders and boxes that pop up with text. When students in Thailand, Libya and other developing countries get their $150 computers from the One Laptop Per Child project in 2007, their experience will be unlike anything on standards PCs.  See full story here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070101/ap_on_hi_te/hundred_dollar_laptop

 

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IN-STATE RETIREE BENEFITS UPHELD

 Government retirees no longer living in Alaska will not receive the special cost-of-living allowance available to in-state retirees, the Alaska Supreme Court has ruled. The decision shoots down a challenge led by Bob Gallant, a retired Alaska corrections officer now living in Hawaii. A win by the plaintiff would have cost the stateŐs retirement systems millions. See full story here:

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/ap_alaska/story/8536377p-8430253c.html

 

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PLANNING FOR A FLU PANDEMIC

 The Fairbanks North Star Borough is undertaking a public education campaign to help residents to prepare for the possibility of an influenza pandemic. The series of neighborhood meetings, which will start Jan. 16 and continue through February, come less than a year after the borough finished work on a local pandemic preparedness manual. See full story here:

http://newsminer.com/2007/01/02/4197/

 

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BOARD MEMBER WALKS MILE IN STUDENT SHOES

 As a veteran substitute teacher, Matanuska-Susitna Borough School Board member Pat Purcell is no strange to high schools. But things are different on the other side of the teacherŐs desk, say members of the School District Student Advisory Board. To prove it, they invited Purcell to spend a day as a high school student, a role she says she hadnŐt played since graduating nearly 40 years ago. See full story here:

http://www.adn.com/news/education/story/8519725p-8412777c.html

 

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Association of Alaska School Boards

 

1111 West 9th Street, Juneau, Alaska 99801-1510 Tel. 907-586-1083

Fax 907-586-2995 Email: aasb@aasb.org

Website: http://www.aasb.org