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Terima Kasih dari Biro Komunikasi PIBG SMKBSD1

Monday, September 19, 2011

Safety Issue - Use of Laptop Computer

This is an article we received from a concerned netizen which was sent on Tuesday, 13 September 2011, 22:19

NB Important to tell your sons and daughters about this:... A well known family in Mequon lost their 25 year old son (Arun Gopal Ratnam) in a fire at home June 4th. This is what happened.

He graduated with MBA from University of Wisconsin-Madison two weeks earlier and came home. Had a lunch with his dad at home and decided to go back to clean up his room at school. Father told him to wait and see his mother before he goes back for a few days. He decided to take a nap while waiting for his mom to come home from work. Neighbors called 911 when they saw black smoke coming out of the house. Their 25 year old son Arun died in the three year old house. It took several days of investigation to find out the cause of the fire. It was determined that the fire was caused by lap top in the bed. When the lap top is on the bed cooling fan does not get air to cool the computer and that is what caused the fire. Uneven surface of the bedsheet has blocked the air intake vent below the cpu fan. When the laptop is placed on a flat surface i.e. on desk/table, there is a gap between the desk surface and the base of the casing to allow air to flow/suck in through the air intake vent by the cpu fan to cool the cpu.

This paragraph is added in by another sender for better understanding of the senerio. He did not even wake up to get out of the bed he died of carbon monoxide (CO). The reason I'm writing this to all of you is that I have seen all of us using our lap top in bed. Let us all decide and make it a practice not to do that. Risk is real. Let us make it a rule not to use lap top in bed or put computer on bed with blankets and pillows around. Share/Broadcast this message & you may save others!!

Friday, September 2, 2011

"Character First" Seminar

Dear Parents,

SMK BSD1 has planned for a "Character First" seminar for the teachers as a staff development programme (LADAP). We would like to open it to you and other interested parents as well. The seminar is conducted in English. I have attached a registration form with all the details of the seminar and also biodata of the speaker/trainer. You can also log on to http://www.characterfirst.com  to find out more about this seminar.

Social media go from school ban to teacher's tool

ENGLISHTOWN, New Jersey, USA — Just a few years back, teachers struggled to get students to shut off cellphones, sign off Facebook and quit Tweeting in school.

Today, the same teachers are encouraging children to log on and get connected. Some New Jersey educators say they’re not going to beat youths’ affinity for social networks, so they might as well join them: A growing number are doling out info on Diigo, tailoring assignments to Twitter and getting student feedback from Facebook as part of the curriculum.

“The important part on our end is to realize that the horse is out of the barn” when it comes to social networking and kids, Freehold Regional High School District Superintendent Charles Sampson said. “To try to pretend otherwise would be foolish on our part.

“So, now the context becomes how do we embrace it? How do we most effectively utilize it?” Sampson said. “That’s the work.”

The district has its own Twitter account, @FRHSD. Sampson blogs on his own Web page. A handful of district teachers use Twitter as a teaching tool and their numbers are expected to rise, officials said.

District science teacher Heather Sullivan — @heasulli on Twitter — said she uses the social media platform to post assignments and help students plan, with hashtags like “#heasullibio” and “#sulliforsci.” The tags allow users to see a thread of posts about a certain topic.

Students would, in turn, update her — and each other — from home on their progress or any trouble they’d had with assignments, she said.

Language arts teachers here also have used the site — which limits posts to 140 characters — to teach students to keep writing concise and on message, Jeff Moore said. Moore is administrative supervisor for curriculum and instruction.

“Students need to learn to work together to solve problems — schools heard a lot of that in the ’80s and ’90s from businesses and the community,” Moore said. “This technology makes it so much easier for teachers to engage students. … It’s taking the school out into the real world.”

Admittedly, the technology has its pitfalls for schools. A Paterson teacher, Jennifer O’Brien, recently made headlines for writing on Facebook that she was a “warden for future criminals.” She’ll learn the fate of her job in November. A Massachusetts teacher last year was asked to resign after calling students “germ bags” on the popular social networking site.

The gaffes are one of the reasons Marlboro public schools introduced a social networking policy draft in August, district spokeswoman Sharon Witchel said.

“Sometimes people don’t take the time to review what they’ve written before they post it,” Witchel said. “And what people have communicated (on social media sites) goes out to millions of people in real time. Those things are stored forever.

“(The draft policy) is providing guidelines, telling them to be mindful, to separate their personal and professional identities,” Witchel said, “because when they’re in a professional capacity what they do, what they say may reflect not only on themselves but the district.”

Edison Schools Superintendent Richard O’Malley said he worries about missteps. But he worries more about students not keeping pace with modern technology.

“I think schools are probably three to four years behind the rest of the world in how we’re communicating,” O’Malley said. “I think we need to take more of an approach of being on the forefront of visionary tools. That’s what we’re doing this year.”

The Edison school district is the first K-12 system in the nation to have its own mobile application, according to O’Malley. The Blackboard Mobile Central platform was launched here this year in a partnership with Blackboard Inc. The app, he said, will provide students, parents and others in the community with school news, events and more via mobile devices.

Students learned their new homerooms this year on the district’s new Facebook page; the district also is launching its first Twitter account this year, O’Malley said.

“I can see the future being posting their homework or videos helping students with long-term assignments,” he said. “The potential is just enormous.”

Rene Rovtar, superintendent of Long Hill Township schools in Morris County, said her district will train teachers to live-blog for students this year. She said she anticipates about 20 to 25 teachers will blog for about 475 students in the fifth through eighth grades.

If a class is reading a particular novel, a teacher may blog about characters or plot lines, she said. Students may comment on the posts to supplement classroom discussions, Rovtar said.

“It’s just part of us trying to integrate technology into instruction a little bit more; it’s the wave of the future,” Rovtar said. “We’re trying to give them the skills they need as they move past elementary school. It’s a way for us to deal with learning and academic subjects in a medium they’re totally familiar with.”