Dinner & a photo
Most folks buy artwork for their home or office from boutique shops and arts festivals. But some pick out a piece over dinner and a glass of wine, choosing art right off a restaurant’s walls.
On Thursday, an Oklahoma City eatery will give fifth-graders the same chance as professionals to show off and sell their black-and-white photographs.
Pictures taken by 16 students from Cleveland Elementary in Oklahoma City will be exhibited at Tom & Jerry’s, a steak and fish grill at 1501 NW 23, from 5:30 to 9 p.m.
Each student will get to display two pieces, for a total of 32 items, parent Nancy Woodard said. The subjects of the images vary, though the students were given some instructions — like to consider texture and motion, said Jeanne Davis, co-chairwoman of the school’s PTA yearbook committee.
Professional photographers Kay Wetmore and Michael Muller helped the students select and prepare their art for the dining-room gallery, said Davis, who helped organize the event.
All proceeds from the sale of the artwork will go to the Cleveland photography program, which is in its first year, they said, and 10 percent of food sales from the evening also will benefit the school.
Wendy K. Kleinman
Education Reporter
Teach Me
It’s been a few years (read: decades) since my 8th grade Oklahoma history class.
But I got a refresher course at www.occc.edu/centennial today. Oklahoma City Community College has a handy outline of the Oklahoma Centennial Lecture Series coordinated by the Downtown College Consortium. Free lectures were held at campuses around the metro this fall. The last one is set for next week.
Power point presentations are online for the lectures “Oklahoma and the Great Depression” and “Places We Cried.” The latter is a chronicle of the Cherokee people.
Both presentations have photos and maps that poignantly illustrate these times in state history. The final lecture, “Heroes of Oklahoma,” takes place at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 15, at OCCC. Call 232-3382 for details.
For those who can’t attend, check out the Web site, which also is a great source for teachers who’ll be talking about statehood next week.
Susan Simpson, Education Writer
Pomp School Dropout
I did a lot of things in college, but pomping was not one of them.
That changed Thursday when I went to OSU to write a story about Homecoming and the elaborate decorations created each year for floats and house decorations.
At the Sigma Nu house, two co-eds gave me a quick tutorial in pomping, the art of poking squares of tissue paper into chicken wire. If you do it a few million times, you can create large colorful patterns that form all manner of designs.
There are several types of pomp: Regular pomping is done on relatively large circles of chicken wire and can be done with your finger. Micropomping is done on smaller gage wire using a pencil, and nanopomping uses thin straws or metal rods to create the smallest florets.
I tried micropomping. It looked easy but apparently requires a gentle touch. I poked a hole clear through the paper floret I was making.
I quickly decided I don’t have this kind of patience — but I’m so thankful these girls do. Their hard work has paid off with some spectacular decorations. Check it out if you are in Stillwater Saturday.
Susan Simpson, Education Writer
More than a place on a map
I didn’t know that beer and wine tastings could teach me anything about geography. Apparently, though, they can.
The nation’s largest geography education conference starts in Oklahoma City tomorrow. But don’t think that means nothing more than the arrival of 700 people who could pull a Ken Jennings in the geography category on ‘Jeopardy!’
Twenty-four lucky participants will go out to Bricktown on Thursday night for a “blind” tasting of four microbrewery drinks. They’ll learn “how to critically evaluate a malt beverage” and learn about the geography of brewing in America. Another group will discover how soils, hydrology and climate affect crops of grapes and wine production – during a tasting at the Canadian River Winery and Vineyard.
Also during the National Council for Geographic Education conference, geography teachers will learn things like how to integrate global positioning systems into their lessons, how Asian governments are preparing for future disasters and how climate change is portrayed in American films – “reel science.”
Students – many on Fall Break right now – also will take part. Among the opportunities for youngsters, Washita County 4-H members will host a poster session, and a hands-on workshop is designed for elementary and middle school students to create travel brochures.
Geography is not just about memorizing maps. There’s culture, climate, cartography and more. And it’s all in Oklahoma this weekend.
Wendy K. Kleinman
Education Reporter
QUIZ YOURSELF – Can you answer these geography-related questions about Oklahoma?
1. What is the highest point in Oklahoma and where is it located?
2. Forests cover what percent of Oklahoma?
3. In land area, Oklahoma City is how big compared to other U.S. cities?
4. Oklahoma is one of only two states whose capital city includes the state name. What’s the other?
5. Oklahoma has more man-made what than any other state?
6. What does Oklahoma have more miles of than any other state?
7. Oklahoma’s Cimarron County is bordered by more states than any other U.S. county. Can you name them?
8. Oklahoma is home to the highest what in the world?
9. Only one river in Oklahoma flows north. What river is it?
10. The state’s name comes from two Choctaw words meaning what?
ANSWERS:
1. Black Mesa in the Panhandle (4,973 feet).
2. 24 percent.
3. It’s the third-largest city in the U.S. (608 square miles) – before Jacksonville, Fla. (759 square miles) and Anchorage, Alaska (1,698 square miles).
4. Indianapolis, Indiana.
5. Lakes, with more than 1 million surface acres of water.
6. Original Route 66.
7. Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Kansas.
8. The highest hill, Mount Cavanal, at 1,999 feet.
9. The Poteau River.
10. “Red People.”
Quiz information from www.travelok.com and www.50states.com.
Anybody got 110 candles?
This week I learned more about the histories of two of Oklahoma’s institutions for higher education.
Both were gearing up to celebrate milestone anniversaries.
Oklahoma City Community College will celebrate its 35th birthday on Tuesday. OCCC is one of the state’s newer two-year colleges but also one of the fastest growing. It opened with 1,049 students in 1972 but now is the fifth largest higher education campus in Oklahoma with nearly 20,000 students.
Northwestern Oklahoma State University is one of our oldest institutions, established a decade before statehood. Tomorrow they celebrate 110 years of educating students, having grown from 58 students attending classes in a rented church building in 1897 to a main campus in Alva and branch campuses in Enid and Woodward.
Many more Oklahoma colleges and universities will celebrate milestone anniversaries in coming months and years. The events are a reminder of the continuing will of Oklahomans to better their lives and provide quality education to future generations.
Happy Birthday to them all!
Susan Simpson, Education Writer
Dell-ightful donation
My last computer was a Dell. It got me through college.
This morning, 60 Dells were unveiled in a refurbished lab at the KIPP Reach College Preparatory School in Oklahoma City. Hopefully those computers will help the students get to college.
The KIPP School serves 280 fifth- through eighth-grade students in a building on NE 13.
“This computer lab truly was a community effort,” said Mautra Staley Jones, director of development and marketing for KIPP, in a press release. “From Flintco’s ceiling tiles, StapleGun’s graphics and Dell’s employees who painted the room, polished the floor and installed computers, this lab will bring a world of opportunity to the fingertips of KIPP students for years.”
In the same way the Oklahoma Educational Technology Trust works to get technology into more schools, the new Dell Community Computer Lab is another example of how community establishments in the state pool their time and resources to give students more.
Wendy K. Kleinman
Staff Writer
Brit Wit
A knight in shining humor spoke today at the University of Central Oklahoma.
Sir Ken Robinson, a creativity expert knighted in 2003 by Queen Elizabeth, spoke about reforming education systems to encourage more innovation and imagination. It was a good speech, filled with lots of funny asides in his lyrical British accent.
About moving to the United States and enrolling his daughter in American History: “We don’t study American History. We suppress it. Get over it really. We’ve apologized, what do you want? We stay indoors on July 4th, draw the shutters and look at pictures of the queen and think about what might have been.”
About the technology revolution: “There are scientists studying ways to use our own bodies as broadband receivers. You could exchange files by holding hands, really, or whatever method you prefer. It all depends on the size of the file anyway.”
Of course, those quotes didn’t quite make it into the story I wrote for tomorrow’s paper. All in all, he was an entertaining speaker that created quite a bit of laughter.
Susan Simpson, Education Writer
Can technology go too far?
It’s no secret that students can use technology to cheat. They can use text messages to send each other test answers, or a cell phone camera to capture questions on a test so others know what to study. Cell phones are banned from many schools.
Now, Shvoong.com, a site that offers abstracts and other schoolwork help, is launching a tool called Shvoong Homework. The program will allow classmates to post class notes and assignments. It also alerts classmates when a peer adds notes or answers a homework question.
Says the company: “Class materials are available online at all times. … Catch up by reading fellow classmates’ summaries and homework assignments.” It also says “there’s no need to ask for permission if the writer already chose to share the content.”
Perhaps it’s a way to allow students to have group study time from their individual homes. But it also sounds like it could be a way for students to see who’s doing the homework first and get a hold of their answers – in essence, cheat.
Do you think technology in schools can go too far? Do you think it would be good for your child to use Shvoong? Tell me why, at wkleinman@oklahoman.com.
Wendy K. Kleinman
Education Reporter
Weed Deed
Three Oklahoma State University students proved they know their weed.
The ag students won the top three spots in the 2007 Southern Weed Society Undergraduate Contest last month in Vero Beach, Fla.
Cowabunga Dude!
But seriously, this contest was tough work. The students had to match herbicides to plant symptoms and take a written test on sprayer calibration that was so difficult, it served to “weed out” all but the top contenders.
The winning weed scientists were OSU students Josh Bushong, Amber Brewe and Cody Massey.
Kudos to their knowledge of kudzu!
Susan Simpson, Education Writer
Who are these dudes?
Most of the students entering college this fall, members of the Class of 2011, were born in 1989. For them, Alvin Ailey, Andrei Sakharov, Huey Newton, Emperor Hirohito, Ted Bundy, Abbie Hoffman, and Don the Beachcomber have always been dead.
That’s according to Beloit College’s annual mindset list, which can be found here:
http://www.beloit.edu/%7Epubaff/mindset/2011.php
Here’s a sampling into the mind of today’s college freshmen:
- What Berlin wall?
- Humvees, minus the artillery, have always been available to the public.
- Rush Limbaugh and the “Dittoheads” have always been lambasting liberals.
- They never “rolled down” a car window.
- Michael Moore has always been angry and funny.
- They may confuse the Keating Five with a rock group.
- They have grown up with bottled water.
- General Motors has always been working on an electric car.
- Nelson Mandela has always been free and a force in South Africa.
- Pete Rose has never played baseball.
