While driving, I wondered if the new iPhone 3G S had to be oriented with the screen parallel to the ground for the magnetometer to work properly, like a traditional compass.  This functionality is supposed to enhance the upcoming turn-by-turn GPS apps where a phone is clamped so that the screen is perpendicular to the ground.  But will the magnetometer still function properly?  Well instead of Googling, I put it to the test.  Not only does the magnetometer function as desired when the phone is held vertically but also when tilted to almost 45 degrees past vertical before the Maps app rotates 180 degrees.  Try it out.

While testing, another question came to mind: Will this work in landscape mode?  After testing, I found that the compass doesn’t work as expected in Maps.  When landscaped, the compass points in whatever direction the headphone jack is pointing regardless of whether the screen is parallel or perpendicular to the ground.  However, in the TomTom app demo, it seems to work properly in either portrait or landscape mode.  So it looks like a software limitation in Maps, not a hardware fault of the 3G S.  Not a big deal unless you want to use Maps as a free, bird’s-eye, landscape GPS app until TomTom and others release their apps for sale.

Instead of the usual flick gesture to navigate through screens of iPhone icons, I serendipitously found out that you can tap the slivers of space just under the fourth row of icons and to the right or left of the dots.

To memorize this week’s verse, Deuteronomy 7:9, I captured it from an iPhone Bible app and set it as the wallpaper. Now I can’t help but read it tens of times a day as I check my phone for the time, calls, texts, emails, web, music, weather, calculator, etc.

The income limitations quite properly imposed for the occupancy of public housing at subsidized rentals have led to a very high density of “broken” families–in particular, divorced or widowed mothers with children. Children of broken families are especially likely to be “problem” children and a high concentration of such children is likely to increase juvenile delinquency. One manifestation has been the very adverse effect on schools in the neighborhood of a public housing project. Whereas a school can readily absorb a few “problem” children it is very difficult for it to absorb a large number. Yet in some cases, broken families are a third or more of the total in a public housing project and the project may account for a majority of the children in the school.

Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom

A despotism may almost be defined as a tired democracy. As fatigue falls on a community, the citizens are less inclined for that eternal vigilance which has truly been called the price of liberty; and they prefer to arm only one single sentinel to watch the city while they sleep.

G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man

With respect to teachers’ salaries, the major problem is not that they are too low on the average–they may well be too high on the average–but that they are too uniform and rigid.  Poor teachers are grossly overpaid and good teachers grossly underpaid.  Salary schedules tend to be uniform and determined far more by seniority, degrees received, and teaching certificates acquired than by merit.  This, too, is largely a result of the present system of governmental administration of schools and becomes more serious as the unit over which governmental control is exercised becomes larger.

Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom

Right now, I’m rethinking how to post class lectures since my lectures have changed a lot.  I used to screencast, that is write lesson notes on the screen from scratch every period using a TabletPC, record my screen and voice, and post it all as an embedded flash video on this blog.

PowerPoint changes things.  My biggest concern is copyright issues.  I cut and paste a lot of material from our Glencoe textbooks into the slides.  So if I share the slides, I might be illegally publishing copyrighted material.  Anyone know the law on that?  Fair use?

Screencasting also doesn’t work as well since there’s a lot of deadspace in the time it takes for students to copy notes.  Who wants to watch a lecture with 1 to 2 minutes of silence after each slide advance?  I certainly don’t want to put in any time with post-production trimming.  I guess I could print handouts that make note-taking a lot faster.  But I hate to consume more paper than is absolutely necessary.

The other option I’ve considered is a 5-minute lesson preview/recap.  I could post them a couple nights before a lesson so that students can get a jump on upcoming content or review it when getting down to the homework.  Again, my time is of the essence.

Something’s gotta give.  I’m leaning towards the 5-minute preview/recap.  Thoughts?

It’s three weeks in and I haven’t adhered to any of my so-called discipline manifesto, except for not giving detentions.  A colleague’s idea of giving extra work is so genius, that I don’t have to eject kids from my classroom.  So far, I may have asked one kid to leave.  But for the most part, I’ve been able to mortify students just by giving them something to write.

Before, I couldn’t think of any extra assignments that I’d care to grade.  When punishment equals punishing myself, shoot me.  But then, an epiphany.  I decided to have students atone for their offenses by simply copying about 4-5 pages out of their History or Science books for no academic credit.  To make it applicable and redemptive, I check with their History/Science teacher to see what they need to read or study in the near future.  If they don’t finish it by the same period the next day, I make them finish it 8th period.  If it’s not done by the third day, then it’s a parent call, an athletic consequence, or a trip to the principal’s office.  But the writing assignment never goes away.  It must be done.  The students hate it.  They’ll take detentions, athletic consequences, paddlings, suspensions, etc.  But they hate to read and write.

For once, I enjoy giving out discipline.  The thicker my write-up binder gets, the more satisfied I feel.  It’s made a difference in my classes and I’m making believers out of students who once didn’t care for the gift of education.  Spare the book, spoil the child.

I’m not much of a writer.  I’m not sure I have an intended audience.  But I like to talk and I welcome anyone who appreciates honest dialogue.