Indianapolis is My Home

17
Jun

Take a 10-yr Old’s Advice - It’s worth it!

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Elementary, Environment, Government, Indianapolis Star, Local Businesses, People, Students

Wynn Brower isn’t really the person you’d expect to be taking advice from these days but it turns out this Bloomington resident has got some stuff many of us should probably be thinking more about.

For a class science project he determined that his family could save a $1/day by just turning off their computer at night. Multiply that be how ever many computers you’ve got going while you sleep, multiplied by the number of homes like yourself and you’ve got a big savings in energy every single night.

It doesn’t stop there though, what if the city governments did it as well?

Wynn demonstrated how he used a device to test the energy use of a laptop and desktop computer, then extrapolated the results to the county’s 550 computers. He came up with a savings of $25,000 a year if all computers were turned off at the end of the workday.

Lot’s of people talk about being "green" and conscious about the environment. I think there are loads of opportunities out there for everyone to make an impact in our city that don’t require buying a hybrid or installing solar panels on our roofs.

Why aren’t we hearing more about these little ways we can all do our part?

10-year-old tells county how to save $25,000 | IndyStar.com | The Indianapolis Star

17
Jan

Are You A Computer Teacher in Indiana?

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Colleges, Convention Center, Downtown, Education, Elementary, High Schools, Things To Do in Indy

A friend of mine is an a technology teacher on the south side in Center Grove. He let me know about a conference coming up next week for computer educators in Indiana. The organization is called Indiana Computer Educators and their annual conference starts next week in downtown Indianapolis. The conference will be held in the Indiana Convention Center, Exhibit Hall D.

Here’s a little more about the organization:

Indiana Computer Educators (ICE) is a non-profit professional group whose mission is assisting educators to enhance learning through the use of technology. David Flowers of the Fort Wayne Community School Corporation founded this organization in 1980. In 1980, ICE was a user group of forty-three people that had an interest in computers, met two or three times each year, and published a newsletter. The first ICE Conference included six hardware vendors.

I was heading into the teaching profession at one time, high school biology teacher was my goal. That changed quickly once in college and I started taking all the educational theory classes. Now what’s odd is I’m very interested in all the theory now. Hmmm….

Visit Indiana Computer Educators website

08
Jan

Silly Safaris Live Animal Shows

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Areas, Business, Business Entrepreneurs, Elementary, Greenwood, Local Businesses, People, Seminars, South Side

If you’re looking for a unique party for your kids birthday and those same kids just happen to love animals, look no further than Silly Safaris.

What kid doesn’t love animals? With Silly Safaris you get to let them see and interact with some really great things they may only see on Discovery Channel.

If you’re a teacher, you can also have Silly Safari come in for a special class or lesson on animals.

Here’s a little bit about what Silly Safari offers:

Read the rest of this entry »

03
Oct

Indianapolis Public Schools Suspend 100+ Students

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Education, Elementary, High Schools, News

One of the biggest changes for this school year was that IPS schools have enforced a dress code.

Some parents and students say Tech High School administrators went overboard yesterday when they suspended more than 100 students for violating the new Indianapolis Public Schools dress code. Parents today will be asked to sign a form saying they are responsible for what their kids wear to school or the children cannot come back. School administrators say parents and students had plenty of time to get the uniforms.

I’m sorry, I just don’t understand the problems here. Both of my kids attend schools where a basic uniform is required. It’s not much, but I just see so many benefits and advantages of having a uniform. For our family, it eliminates the “what am I going to wear today” down to “What color shirt do you want to wear today? Do you want to wear pants or shorts?”

That’s just so much easier.

What do you think?

Source: IBJ

21
Aug

Gary Varvel Does Editorial Comics Justice

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Education, Elementary, High Schools, Local Artists, News, People

I was recently introduced to the talent of Gary Varvel, a local editorial cartoonist featured on the IndyStar.

I love his artistic design and comic style. Here’s one of his recent comics about the changes in local Indianapolis Public Schools with the addition of school uniforms.

My personal opinions are that school uniforms are a great idea and I think decisions like this will be the start of a whole new era in Indy public schools.

For more of Gary’s great editorial insight and artistic talent, you can check him out on the IndyStar website, in the printed edition or on his blog.

21
Jun

Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) Accepts School Uniforms

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Education, Elementary, High Schools, News

The big news around the city this day is that IPS administrators have voted to implement a school uniform policy for attire. K-8 grades will be required to wear khaki, blue, black pants with red, white, blue collared shirts. 9-12 will be allowed to substitute their schools colors for the options with the shirts.

I think this is a great idea. My son has been attending an Edison School now for the past 2 years and they have a similar uniform policy. I think it helps eliminate some of the stress and anxiety for students nowadays in school. Not too mention, it makes it a little easier on families to keep laundry ready to go with a standard grouping of clothes and colors.

What do you think? Are you for or against the school uniforms? Let us know in the comments.