Math Training- Adding to our Numbers!

OHS Math and Business teachers, along with additional Math teachers from surrounding schools, participated in our final session of Apple Professional Development - High School Infusion. Our trainer shared ideas of implementing Apple's built-in software and additional freeware in our Math classrooms. The two days spent in this training encouraged ways to transform our math classrooms into highly interactive, engaging centers of learning.

Digies Competition

Announcing the 6th Annual Digies Competition.

This is a great opportunity to showcase and share some of the exceptional digital work being created by O'Neill's student. If you are interested in participating, make sure you read the guidelines below, and then see Mrs. Morrow (mrsmorrow@mac.com) or Mr. Peterson (mpetersn@esu8.org) sometime before the deadline.

GO EAGLES!

THE DIGIES

Sixth Annual Apple Nebraska Digital Media Competition

Apple is hosting the Sixth Annual Nebraska Digital Media Competition, the "Digies". We intend to showcase the best digital media work by the K-12 students in Nebraska. We will have many digital categories and two age groups for the competition. The open category is for those projects that may not fit in one of the other categories. All of the time limits and other restrictions apply to the open category as well.

Please note that students may only enter one entry per category.

And the categories are:

Best Senior Video, Highlight Video, Yearbook or other Group Related Video
Best Informational, Persuasive, or Curriculum Related Video
Best Community/State/Tourism Promotional Video (your chance to promote your community, state or favorite local destination)
Best Comedy Video
Best Digital Music Composition
Best Digital Animation
Best Digital Still Image (Photoshop, Freehand or other graphics application)
Best Digital Still Picture (image from a digital camera)
Open (this category will help with those projects that don't fit the above categories)

Due to the small number of entries over the past few years there will be no educator categories this year.


Each category will have a K-6 and a 7-12 winner.


Apple will be hosting an awards ceremony on Saturday, April 19th at a location to be determined.

Prizes:

A "Digie" will be awarded to each of the winners of the categories to
recognize their outstanding work. After all of the winners are announced, we
will place all of the winner's names in a hat to choose the grand prize
winner.


The Details:

Please Note that a new rule has been added this year. Each student or group will be allowed only one entry per category. For example - Susie can not enter 10 different pictures in the Digital Still Picture category. The student must choose their best work in a category and only submit that entry. Susie can still enter one entry in every category if she chooses to. Classes can still have multiple entries in the same category, but the same team or student can not enter more than one entry in a category.

All projects must be submitted between February 12th and March 21st, 2008. The entry address and any necessary forms or instructions will be posted as the deadline approaches. We will be using the web based submission system again this year. No entries will be accepted after March 23rd.

Each entry must be 10 minutes or less and must list a teacher/sponsor and the school name.

Although there is no limit to the number of people on a team, teams are encouraged to keep their numbers small to keep the prize meaningful.

Apple will have right to use any of the projects submitted as part of this contest for a period of five years.

All works must be entirely original works.

Copyright

Any submissions with copyrighted material will be disqualified. Submissions with copyrighted material with a letter of permission will not be accepted. We want this to be original student work. Background music and sound effects from tools such as Garage Band, Sound Track, or SmartSound will be accepted.

Judging

The Apple team will function as initial judges to pare down the projects to the top three to five entries in each category. The groups or individuals chosen by the Apple judges will be notified that they have made the first cut. We will then pass the top projects in each category to local judges from related industries such as TV, advertising agencies, universities, video production services etc... These judges will choose the top entry in each category and those will be announced as the "Digie" winner at the Awards Ceremony.

Thanks and Good Luck

Mark, Janet, Jeff, Jessica and the rest of the Apple Nebraska team
_______________________________________________

Server Sync

When working on large or important projects, it is probably a good idea to sync once a day or so. Go to the homes and Sync Home Now. If you get a sync conflict message, it is safest to save BOTH versions or try to determine which version of a file is the MOST RECENT to decide which one needs to be saved. Once you tell the server to sync an old file on top of a new file, you cannot retrieve the newer file again. Another way to avoid this problem is to save different versions of your file with different names... for example: kmorrow_notes1, kmorrow_notes2, etc. When in doubt, come ask someone before you risk deleting your important work.

OHS Student Discussion Board

The Student Lounge is up and running!
Log on to your Angel account and then enroll in the OPS_studentlounge and check out some exciting new features including:

* A discussion board to air your ideas about OHS student life
* A chat room to discuss things with the entire O'Neill Public School student body

Remember that there are no anonymous posts-- your name will be attached to everything that you write! Right now the StudentLounge is being moderated by Daniel Balderson and Ryan Lieb, so if you have additional ideas to make this a useful tool, please let them know.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Adam Rosenkranz and Cameron Lauridsen! They were the winners of KBRX's Macbook Photo contest. The photo entries can be viewed at www.kbrx.com/macbook and if you see Adam or Cam, tell them to stop down at KBRX and pick up their $25.00 iTunes gift card!

A Few Announcements

Juniors and Seniors with MacBook laptops:
Some announcements that you need to be aware of:
1. iChat use is for educational purposes only during school hours. You have had plenty of time to experiment and "play" with it. If caught using it for idle chatter during the school day it will be taken away for a 2-week time period. You will need to see Mr. Buller after 2 weeks to regain access to iChat.
2. Shoulder straps are disconnecting too easily. It may be a safe idea to use the handle on the top of the bag and not risk the shoulder strap if you are afraid of your laptop hitting the floor while carrying it. Remember, you must use the school-provided case to protect your laptop. You can put the blue bag inside another, but you must use the blue bag at all times.
3. Printing to the library: please put your name in the header of ALL documents being sent to the library printer. If a document comes through the Library print queue without a name on it, it could be pitched.
4. Try to quit unused applications to save on your laptop's memory usage.

Keep up the good work that we have seen from many of you!

Angel Update

Attention all ANGEL users (students and faculty alike)
Please enroll in the Group for O'Neill Public Schools to have access to public announcements and calendar items. To do this, go to "Enroll by Pin" and type in ONeill_Public_Group (exactly like that- no apostrophe in ONeill). Thank you!

Comments from the Kids

Read some recent reactions from the Students' Point of View.

Mrs. Morrow's Digital Media Blog

Mr. Peterson's Class Blog

Great, honest feedback students! Rest assured that we will continue to address some of your concerns and strengthen your positive reactions as well!

Norfolk Daily News- two part news story

Read more of our front-page coverage from the Norfolk Daily News this week by clicking here: http://www.norfolkdailynews.com/main.asp?SectionID=3&SubSectionID=104&ArticleID=8382&TM=53852.72