Odds and Ends
What’s Going On in This Picture?
Answers:
- The picture was taken in North America
- The picture was taken by an automated data gathering system (Google Street View).
- The buildings shown in the picture are a school.
- Click here to see the results from the trivia quiz.
The picture I shared last week was of Lennox Middle School in Lennox, California. If you go around to the front of the school, you would see this.
So what should you know about Lennox, California? Lennox is a geographically small, but densely populated town just south of Los Angeles and just east of the Los Angeles International Airport. Let’s compare Lennox and Westfield. In Westfield, we have about 1373 people per square mile. In Lennox, 21,000 people are crammed into one square mile. Westfield has a median household income of $90,406. In Lennox, the median household only makes $38,328 per year.
As we head into spring break, I think it’s a good reminder to be thankful for all the material blessings we have here in Westfield. I also want to use the comparison between Westfield and Lennox to bring up some of the challenges facing education today. Based on your responses to the quiz last week, most of you didn’t find the physical space and aesthetic value of Lennox Middle School to be very inviting. The word cloud below was made from your responses. While school is the focal point, it’s the words surrounding school that are eye-opening: storage, secure, prison, drab, jail, and depressing.
Of course Lennox has other challenges besides just boring buildings. Crime, poverty, and the constant bombardment of noise and pollution from airplanes at LAX just across the street all take their toll. How does all this have to do with the tech newsletter? In the next newsletter I will share how I found out about Lennox Middle School and became interested in many of these issues.
App Pick of the Week
Google+ App
Download the Google+ app to access our “WWS Tech Tuesday Discussion” community on the go. It’s a win-win!
Google Tip of the Week
Google+ Community
Yep, this was here last week. I’d love for some more people to join our group “WWS Tech Tuesday Discussion.” We have six members now. Will you be number seven?
Teachers Using Technology
Do you know of a great use of technology by a Westfield Teacher? Share your own technology tip with me or nominate another teacher!
Teacher of the Week: All of you!
If you are reading this email, you’re using technology! Thanks for everything you do for our students. Take a break and relax over spring break.