Funds sliced, teacher sells ads on tests

Money helps pay for printing costs after budget cuts

By Linda Lou [Union Tribune]

RANCHO BERNARDO - Kevin Change said it was strange the first time he saw an advertisement across the bottom of his calculus test. But now he and his classmates look for them.

"It's really interesting to see what it is each time," said Change, 16, a junior at Rancho Bernardo High School.

Some are pithy one-liners, hawking the names of local businesses: "Brace Yourself for a Great Semester! Braces by Henry, Stephen P. Henry D.M.D."

Others are inspirational quotes, like "Keep the company of those who seek the truth, and run from those who have found it - Vaclav Havel."

They only appear on the first page of an exam.

The unusual advertising may be here to stay, said calculus teacher Tom Farber, who came up with the idea to pay for his printing costs.

Farber said the money he gets for printing was cut this year to about $300 for two semesters. Printing the quizzes and tests costs more than $500, he said, and doesn't include handouts that students download and print on their own.

To reduce expenses, the Poway Unified School District chose to trim materials and supplies instead of personnel, Superintendent Don Phillips said. Each high school in the district reduced its budget for such items by 30 percent, but how that was accomplished was left to each campus, he said.

Phillips said teachers have been reaching out to parents for donations for a while, but Farber's idea is "one of the more creative ones."

Farber's customers pay $10 for an ad on a quiz, $20 to be on a chapter test and $30 for a spot on a semester final. Some of the quotes, either personal ones or by famous people, are paid for by parents.

The messages must be appropriate and in good taste. Farber hasn't received sponsorships from any major retailers or store chains, but he hasn't ruled them out. He said he would prefer to get ads from local mom-and-pop stores, such as a tuxedo shop around prom time.

Farber said he could have decided to give fewer tests to save money, but that would have meant students had less practice for passing the Advanced Placement calculus exam near the end of the school year.

Farber, a teacher in the Poway Unified district since 1992, said he has never had to ask parents for help until this year. But with the state of the economy the way it is, he said, schools might have to depend even more on parents.

Farber said he came up with the idea over the summer. He saw ads on public buses and sponsorships at Qualcomm Stadium and decided to promote his idea at Back to School Night in September. He collected $270 from parents at that event."I haven't heard any negativity," he said.

Farber said he has sold about $350 in ads, more than enough to make up what the school budget doesn't pay for. He said he still has ad space for next semester, and whatever extra money he collects will go to the math department for other teachers to use. Checks are made out to the department.

Colleagues haven't copied his idea yet, Farber said, but some have been asking parents for donations.

Students said they are paying attention to the messages.

Lauren Meyer, 17, a senior, said the ads are a good solution to the budget problem.Her classmate, Chris Nunez, 18, a senior, always looks at the ads before he starts working on the questions. Both said they enjoy the quotes.

"They're inspirational," Nunez said. "Sometimes, they help when the test is stressful."Luke Shaw, 17, was less enthusiastic. The senior said a recent sponsorship that was the name of a structural engineering company didn't do anything for him.

"I'm always hoping that someone will sponsor it with a trig formula or something useful," he said.
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Ads may be purchased by e-mailing Farber at tfarber@powayusd.com
Linda Lou: (760) 737-7574; linda.lou@uniontrib.com

Study Island Proudly Welcomes TeacherWeb to the Family

TeacherWeb, a company that provides easy-to-use and affordable templates and tools, is now a part of the Study Island family.

TeacherWeb allows educators to create customized classroom and school Web sites to improve communication with students and parents. By following easy step-by-step directions, educators can quickly create and continuously update personalized classroom or school Web sites.

Some special features include the ability to post:
Homework assignments
Announcements
Class schedules
Blogs
Online quizzes
Photos
Webquests
Podcasts
FAQ

We are very excited about the endless possibilities TeacherWeb can offer our customers! Interested in finding out more information? Check out www.TeacherWeb.com!

Teacher Ideas for Using Study Island in the Classroom

The Reading Workshop: Using Technology for Education

Having computers and other gadgets in a class is great. But, does it increase student learning? According to many, the only reason schools can justify any expense on technology is if students achievement improves.

This list details many of the ways that technology is integrated into our daily classroom routine.
1. Students do daily online lessons on Study Island. This is tied directly to the curriculum of the state .
2. Study Island "Student of the Day" is listed on the blog to recognize students with excellent performance.
3. Lessons ... are viewed by the class using the DLP projector, and then sample Study Island questions are answered.

Posted by Mr. McGuire at 10:08 AM Thursday, November 13, 2008
http://www.thereadingworkshop.com/2008/11/using-technolgy-for-education.html

What others (students) say about Study Island

Friday, October 10, 2008
From Kristen and Adam

Hi my name is Kristen and this is my friend Adam and we've done lots of cool stuff in school.First, we would like to tell you about our meal worms. We got them on the day we had the Chinese feast, isn't that great? We also just let our butterflies go. They were Painted Ladies!We also had an art teacher come. We made quilts with geometric shapes and our own free form shapes. They all looked awesome and some of them are in the hallway hanging up.

Also Mrs.Van Fossen showed us the site Study Island and it's really fun. Plus everyone's doing great on Study Island! Although it helps us learn a lot, we still have fun. You should go on www.studyisland.com so you can have fun to!!

We've been doing lots of cool experiments with Mrs.Van Fossen. For one we did an experiment with GRAVITY!!! Science is so much fun!In Social Studies we have been talking about citizenship. Mrs. Domizi has been teaching us a lot about citizenship and it's really fun. Next week we'll be talking about the election. Isn't that great?

We just finished reading the book CRICKET IN TIMES SQUARE by George Shelden. We each did a project on Cricket in Times Square. They were all great!! You should read the book it's really great.We also had a magic assembly that involved reading. it was awesome!! The man who was doing it did really good tricks. Like this one trick a bowling ball come out of his notebook!!!We will write back later!!
Written by. Kristen Jesberger and Adam South. Thank you!

What others say about Study Island

Great Standards Based Website/Program

Today’s website/program of the day is studyisland.com. Study Island is a great program that is offered for grades K-12, in most states, that offers students the opportunity to review subject matter thoughout the year. This program is set up in a multiple choice format that resembles standardized tests. Each topic that is offered correlates to the standards that have been adopted by your state.

The program allows you to set up individual student accounts that can be accessed by them anywhere there is Internet access. From an administrative side, each student can be associated with a teacher, and the teachers can see exactly what a student has been doing and how they are performing on every question.

The students enjoy the program because there are games built-in that open up when the teacher allows them. These games require that the students answer the question correctly before they can play. If you are concerned about students just guessing, the program has a guessing detector built in that will stop the student and tell them to slow down.

Each topic is directly linked to a standard, and each topic offers a printable worksheet for those who don’t have computer time for the students to use. I have seen a few schools that have implemented this system, and I have yet to hear a negative comment about it.

Posted on October 2, 2008 in Products, Websites by John Phillips

The Lab Dweller
John Phillips is a STAR member of the Discovery Educator Network