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"The Spectator is a biweekly high school newspaper published by students of New York City's Stuyvesant High School. The paper, founded in 1915, is one of Stuyvesant's oldest publications. It has a long-standing connection with its older namesake, Columbia University's Columbia Daily Spectator, and it has been recognized by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism's Columbia Scholastic Press Association on several occasions. The Spectator′s original reporting has been cited by The New York Times and the Associated Press. Organization The Spectator contains 12 departments. They consist of News, Features, Opinions, Arts & Entertainment, Humor, and Sports sections, as well as the Photography, Art, Layout, Copy, Business, and Web departments. As of Volume 110, there is also an occasional Science section. Departments are headed by editors who encompass the editorial board of the paper. The editorial board meets daily in The Spectator journalism class and is headed by the two Editors in Chief (EICs). At the start of their term, the EICs select three to four editors to be members of the Managing Board, a group that advises the EICs on matters relating to the paper. The current Editors in Chief are Talia Kahan and Erin Lee.http://www.stuyspec.com/about The Spectator is a not-for-profit and is financially independent from the school, but remains a prime news source for students, teachers, and administrators. The Spectator distributes 3,000 copies to the Stuyvesant community and surrounding neighborhoods free of charge. Staff There are over 250 total staff members who help to produce the bi-weekly publication, including a faculty adviser. At the beginning of the fall and spring terms, there are recruitments, but interested students may join at any time. Recruitments usually include some type of application followed by a writing portion. These applications are read by the editors and reviewed by the editorial board before choices are made. New recruits are notified by email, and are trained respectively. Editorial board Each department is headed by one to four editors. The editors, as a group, are known as the Editorial Board, and work on the paper daily in a class informally known as "Spec Class." Editors edit and compile the newspaper for its biweekly distribution. Before the current editors graduate, they choose Editors in Training (EITs) to take their place. The EITs are trained for up to a year before taking on the full role as an editor. History The Spectator has been in continuous publication since 1915. As the “crown jewel” of Stuyvesant High School publications, it was launched on February 25, 1915 under Editor Joseph E. Kasper ’15. The first issue sold for two cents. In the early 1930s, the Spectator became free of charge to all students.The Campaign for Stuyvesant The paper won Columbia Scholastic Press Association Gold Medal and First Place awards throughout the 1950s and 1960s. In 1960, a Daily Mirror article charged that the principal censored several Spectator stories and revoked graduation awards for editors. The paper interviewed past President Harry Truman in 1957 and the Freedom Riders in 1962. A controversy ensued in the early 1960s when teachers disallowed the publication of an article about the firing of a teacher who had refused to participate in nuclear air-raid drills. In the 1970s, The Spectator supported anti-Vietnam demonstrations. 1998 shutdown In April 1998, Editor-in-Chief Micah Lasher published a wraparound spoof edition of the Spectator called "The Defectator," which poked fun at faculty members and the college advisor. Lascher's column called for the end of teacher employment practices based on seniority. On April 9, the day before spring break, the assistant principal of technology changed the locks and all the computer passwords in the paper's windowless office. Principal Jinx Cozzi Perullo shut down the Spectator after mounting tensions between faculty, administration, and students. The New York Times reported that there were months of infighting between the editors themselves and their faculty advisor. The disputes were “inflamed by a handful of articles criticizing the conduct of individual teachers and the policies of the city teachers' union.” Some students believe that the paper was shut down to appease angry faculty members and censor further editorials on UFT politics, teacher hiring practices, and faculty conduct. The day after the April Fools' issue, leaders of the teachers’ union complained about being bashed by the newspaper in a meeting with Principal Perullo. Perullo believed in students’ rights to write about things that involve their lives, including teachers, but wanted the Spectator to have a written set of guidelines. The Spectator staff drew up a charter with help from Columbia University’s School of Journalism. The charter defines the procedures for selecting the editor-in-chief and the roles of the editorial board, the managing board, and the faculty advisor. Publication resumed on May 5, 1998 following a petition opposing the suspension said to be signed by half the school's students. Charter The outgoing EICs and editorial board select the new EICs. In addition, "student journalists, in concert with a faculty adviser, will make the final content decisions for The Spectator."The Charter of The Spectator The charter protects the paper against interference from the administration, specifically review by all school administrators except its faculty adviser, and allows The Spectator to print important and controversial material without struggling for an administrator's consent.The New York Times article It is the basis for The Spectator's independence. The charter resulted from "a highly publicized dispute over The Spectator's plan to publish a series of critical articles about the teachers' union and certain teachers." Online version In April 1999, Jack Rosenthal, president of the New York Times Foundation, met with Principal Stanley Teitel and the editors of The Spectator at Stuyvesant High School. He “had a vision that one day, one day, high school newspapers across the country, in both wealthy and poor districts, would be able to publish stories and pictures daily on the Internet.” A team of Spectator editors, veteran journalists, and web journalism specialists worked together to create The Spectator Online, originally published alternatively every other week between versions of the print paper. With the help of Steven Knowlton, an associate professor of journalism at Hofstra University, and Karen Freeman, a Circuits editor for The New York Times and a former associate professor of journalism at Pennsylvania State University, The Spectator Online was launched in October 1999. The team also created a how-to website, with an online manual and free software, published by the Times. A journalism class was created by the Stuyvesant administration with funding from the New York Times. The Web site has won several CSPA Gold Circle Awards for Online Media.http://cspa.columbia.edu/docs/contests-and-critiques/gold-circle- awards/recipients/2010-scholastic-circles.html#N108A6 9/11 issue The 9/11 issue of The Spectator. On October 2, 2001, the school paper, The Spectator, under Editor-in-Chief Jeff Orlowski and Faculty Advisor Holly Ojalvo, created a special 24-page full-color 9/11 insert containing student photos, reflections and stories. On November 20, 2001, the magazine was distributed for free in 830,000 copies of The New York Times to the entire New York Greater Metropolitan Area. Alt URL References External links * * Campus Weblines, a New York Times Learning Network special based on the Spectator Online. Category:High school newspapers published in the United States Category:Publications established in 1915 Category:Stuyvesant High School "
"SER-Niños II Middle school campus SER-Niños Charter School ("Niños" means children in Spanish) is a PreK-8 state charter school in the Gulfton area of Houston, Texas. The school has three campuses: An elementary school, a middle school, and SER-Niños Charter School II."Contact Information." SER-Niños Charter School. Retrieved on January 9, 2016. "SER-Niños Charter School[...]5815 Alder St. Houston, TX 77081" and "SER-Niños Middle School 5610 Gulfton St. Houston, TX 77081 - Middle School" and "SER-Niños Charter School II[...]5919 Dashwood Dr. Houston, TX 77081 - SER-Niños II" History The concept of SER-Niños was created by Dianne Mancus; she worked with the Houston Hispanic Forum to help obtain a charter to operate the school. Mancus said "if they could open a Rice School in West U, then we can open one in the barrio."Downing, Margaret. "Magna Charter." Houston Press. September 29, 2009. 2. Retrieved on November 7, 2009. SER-Niños, which opened in 1996, was among the first generation of Texas charter schools. SER-Niños was originally within rented rooms of the Bellaire Christian Church in Gulfton before moving into its own $5 million facility on Alder Drive.Downing, Margaret. "Magna Charter." Houston Press. September 29, 2009. 1. Retrieved on November 7, 2009.Radcliffe, Jennifer and Gary Scharrer. "Decade of change for charter schools / Experts say spotty success keeps them from competing with traditional system." Houston Chronicle. Sunday December 17, 2006. B1 MetFront. Retrieved on November 7, 2009. Mancus left her job after her husband's job was transferred to Atlanta, Georgia. Even though the school did not engage in much promotion, it became very popular. The school's initial 155 slots quickly filled after its opening."Texas leading the way on charter schools Educational experiment drawing praise." Atlanta Journal-Constitution. May 25, 1997. H4. Retrieved on November 7, 2009. The school added fifth grade classes in 1997 and middle school classes in 2004."History of SER-Niños." SER-Niños Charter School. Retrieved on November 7, 2009. Word of mouth regarding the school spread throughout the Gulfton community. By 2009 the school planned to find a new site for elementary school classes within a three-year period.Downing, Margaret. "Magna Charter." Houston Press. September 29, 2009. 3. Retrieved on November 7, 2009. The school has since opened SER-Niños II. Admissions The school admits students via a lottery. The only preference that the school gives in the lottery is to siblings of already admitted students. Administration SER-Niños as of 2009 receives state funds per student and relies on philanthropy for other expenses. While the school's teacher pay scales are equivalent to the pay scales of the Houston Independent School District, SER-Niños does not have signing bonuses. Since SER-Niños not a part of any school district, administrators do not go to a central authority to ask for approval of any proposed changes. A decision by the administration is made after a teacher submits a proposal and other faculty vote on the proposal. Curriculum The school's classes are completely bilingual. the language of instruction of the classes alternates each week between English and Spanish. Originally the students switched languages every day, but the faculty believed that the approach was too chaotic, so the school instead had the languages switch on a weekly basis. Allen Matusow, a history professor and academic affairs director who served on the board of directors of SER-Niños as a member and as a one-time chairperson, said that the school decided to use the dual language approach because studies demonstrated that the approach was the most effective manner of teaching two languages. Classes of lower grades tend to have mixed grade level classes; for instance one class would have first and second grade students together. each student has to take three years of learning a musical instrument. All students have to learn keyboarding. Middle school students go on field trips to colleges and universities. Students in the seventh and eighth grades are required to take French. parents are required to sign agenda books and assignments on a daily basis. Parents are also required to attend parent-teacher conferences. The school calls parents and asks them to go to the school if a student submits unsigned or incomplete assignments. Charmaine Constantine, the principal of the school, said in 2009 that students who fail courses at the school tend to do so because they do not continue doing their assignments or because their parents are no longer willing to continue signing assignments and drive the students to extra Saturday classes. School uniforms Students are required to wear school uniforms. The uniform for elementary consists of white or yellow polo shirts and navy blue pants, skirt, or shorts. Middle school uniforms include shirts and blue jeans: the 6th grade has a green shirt w/the logo of the school logo on the left side, 7th grade has a red shirt with the school logo, and the 8th grade has a blue shirt with the school logo as well. Students may not wear pants with tears or any type of skinny jeans. Student body As of 2007 most students are of Mexican and Salvadoran descent and around 80 percent of the students are economically disadvantaged. Most students begin attending the school in the Pre-Kindergarten classes, and the school sees little student turnover. Many parents enroll their children in SER-Niños because they want their children to develop better English language skills quickly or because they do not want their children to lose their Spanish language skills. In 2009, Christopher Strane, a teacher at SER-Niños, said that when the school loses students before graduation, most of the students move to suburbs or out of Greater Houston. Student performance In 2000 the school's overall passing rate for Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) examinations was 27 points below the Texas state average of 78%. The school's scores were below the state's averages by 26 points in mathematics, 29 points in reading, and 27 points in writing.Bowman, Darcia Harris. "Charters, Vouchers Earning Mixed Report Card." Education Week. May 3, 2000. Retrieved on November 7, 2009. In 2009 the school's Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) scores included 97% in mathematics, 91% for reading, 76% for science, 99% for social studies, and 99% for writing. See also * List of state-chartered charter schools in Houston * Language/culture-based charter school * Amigos Por Vida Friends For Life Charter School References External links * SER-Niños Charter School Category:1996 establishments in Texas Category:Educational institutions established in 1996 Category:Bilingual schools in Houston Category:Charter schools in Houston Category:Charter K-8 schools in Texas Category:Public K-8 schools in Houston "
"The Short No.2 was an early British aircraft built by Short Brothers for J.T.C. Moore-Brabazon. It was used by him to win the £1,000 prize offered by the Daily Mail newspaper for the first closed-circuit flight of over a mile (1.6 km) to be made in a British aircraft. Design and development The Short No.2 was ordered from Short Brothers in April 1909 with the intention of competing for the £1,000 prize announced by the Daily Mail for the first closed-circuit flight made by a British aircraft.Barnes 1967, p.6 The layout of the aircraft was similar to that of the Wright Model A, which the Short Brothers were building under license. It was a biplane with a forward elevator and rear-mounted tailplane, driven by a pair of pusher propellers, chain- driven by the single centrally-mounted engine, but differed in a number of significant respects. It was designed to take off using a dolly and launching- rail, like the Wright aircraft, but the landing skids were incorporated into a considerably more substantial structure, each forming the lower member of a trussed girder structure resembling a sleigh, the upturned front end serving to support the biplane front elevators, behind which the rudder was mounted. A single fixed fin was mounted behind the wings on a pair of booms. Lateral control was not effected by wing-warping. Instead it used "balancing planes", each consisting of a pair of low aspect ratio surfaces, mounted at either end of a strut which was pivoted from the midpoint of struts connecting the wingtips.Barnes 1967, p.45 Service history A Green engine had been ordered to power the aircraft, but this had not been delivered when the airframe was completed in September, so a Vivinus engine, salvaged from one of Moore- Brabazon's Voisin biplanes, was fitted. Using this engine, a successful flight of nearly a mile was made on 27 September at Shellbeach on the Isle of Sheppey, where both the Short Brother's works and the Royal Aero Club's flying field were located. A second, shorter, flight was made on 4 October, ending in a heavy landing which caused minor damage. While this was being repaired the Green engine was delivered and fitted, but the attempt to win the Daily Mail prize was delayed by poor weather and did not take place until 30 October, when Moore-Babazon succeeded in rounding a marker post set half a mile from the takeoff point and returning to land next to the launch rail.Barnes 1967, p.46 A few days later, he responded to a challenge to disprove the saying "pigs can't fly" by making a 3 1/2-mile (5.6 km) cross-country flight with a piglet in a basket strapped to one of the interplane struts. On 7 January it was flown the 4 1/2 miles from Shellbeach to the Royal Aero Club's new flying field at Eastchurch, by which time a revised tail consisting of elongated fixed horizontal and vertical surfaces carried on four booms had been fitted to improve stability. It was now Moore-Brabazon's intention to make an attempt to win the British Empire Michelin Cup, and on 1 March he made a flight covering in 31 minutes, being forced to land when the engine crankshaft broke.Barnes 1967 p.47 Although a new engine was fitted, the aircraft was due to be exhibited at the Aero Exhibition at Olympia, and was therefore not flown again until 25 March, by which time it was obvious that nobody else was capable of bettering his flight, and the prize was formally awarded to him. By this time Moore-Brabazon had ordered a new aircraft of the Short S.27 type, and made no subsequent flights in the aircraft. Specifications Notes References *Barnes, C.H. Shorts Aircraft Since 1900. London: Putnam, 1967 Short No.2 biplane Category:1900s British experimental aircraft Category:Single-engined twin-prop pusher aircraft Category:Aircraft first flown in 1909 "