I love the sharing of ideas and information that occurs on our CC days! Thanks to all for suggestions, links, brochures, etc., etc.

Here are a few more (thanks to Tina!) to check out especially related to our studies in CC Cycle 1 geography and history:
http://www.middletownfreelibrary.org/?p=4950
http://www.middletownfreelibrary.org/?p=4946
http://www.middletownfreelibrary.org/?p=4941
http://www.middletownfreelibrary.org/?p=4936

Classical Conversations FREE Parent Practicum is coming this summer!
Here's a great preview video of what you can expect this summer...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpTyvbrGIxg

A Great Introduction to the Orchestra in preparation for our final weeks of Fine Art. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIjtEATkOL0&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Classical Conversations 2013-2014 catalog just in! See below:

http://www.stallionpublishers.com/publication.aspx?pid=1203&pkey=idvoxdeus&pageid=1

The Surface Arrives!

Today my Microsoft Windows 8 Pro Surface tablet arrived! I will be trying to use this thing exclusively throughout the next month. I will document my experience here for all of you, my dedicated readers.

CC Families:

A few helpful links and items of information:

Here is a great link that you might find interesting related to our week 19 science experiment:

http://www.thediscovery.org/PDF/Borax%20Mineral%20Activity.pdf

We'll be studying the orchestra for the last 6 weeks of our Fine Art unit. Here is a great opportunity to hear and see a wonderful local orchestra and their instruments up close:

http://chaddsfordlive.com/2013/02/19/jack-beanstalkand-orchestra-favorites/

If you have friends or neighbors interested in learning more about CC, please invite them to join us during one of our open house dates: February 28th, March 14th and April 4th. There are upcoming informational meetings as well - dates and locations for these can be found on our campus website: 

https://sites.google.com/site/ccwestchester/

Tech Training - February 21, 2013

In case you missed it here is the PowerPoint from the today's technology training.

Tech Training - Session 8 from William Mann

The Bubble Has Landed

fishcreek1269 LANDMEN played a MAJOR ROLE in the #BarnettShale using aggressive tactics. @brett_shipp crooksandliars.com/karoli/when-ga…

— Westchester Gasette (@WCGasette) February 20, 2013

Click here to Read All About the Shale Bubble

What happened to the Barnett Shale? The jobs? The $? @cbsdfw investigates 2nite at 10.

— CBS11 (@CBS11) February 20, 2013

The President's Cybersecurity EO

President Obama warns against
Cyber Terror during this year's
"State of the Union" address.

President Obama's just-released cybersecurity executive order has sparked concern from several advocacy groups debating issues surrounding "too much regulation", "not enough protection" and of course "too much private sector involvement".

 

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce opposed the order. It argued that instituting new regulation is unnecessary.

Meanwhile, the Constitution Project stated that the order poses "far fewer threats" to Americans' privacy rights than the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), which was reintroduced in the U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday. I also believe that President Obama's executive order has far less regulation than President Bush's post 911's "Patriot Act".

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) is among the organizations that contend Congress should pass a cybersecurity law anyway, because adhering to the executive order might expose companies to lawsuits over civil liberties and privacy.

What's in the Executive Order?

The executive order defines what constitutes the nation's critical infrastructure, and states that policy coordination, guidance, dispute resolution and in-progress reviews will be provided through an interagency process.

The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will lead the development of a cybersecurity framework to reduce risks to critical infrastructure. The framework will incorporate voluntary standards and, where they fit, voluntary international standards.

That framework will provide measurable and cost-effective ways to protect the country's cyber assets, while lessening its impact on business confidentiality, individual privacy and civil liberties.
A preliminary version of the cybersecurity framework must be published within 240 days, and a final version within one year. Adoption of the framework by the private sector will be voluntary.
The order directs agencies to incorporate protection for privacy and civil liberties into their activities based on the Fair Information Practice Principles, and other policies covering privacy and civil liberties. Agencies will be assessed on this.

Information submitted voluntarily to the federal government by private entities will be protected from disclosure.

The U.S. Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence have 120 days to issue instructions on how to produce timely, unclassified reports of cyber threats that identify a specific targeted U.S. entity. They also have to set up a process to track the production, dissemination and disposition of these reports.

Is This Necessary?

Yes. During last week's state of the union address, President Obama was correct is sounding the alarm about the threat of future cyber attacks. The government is tasked with protecting it's citizens wherever threats may originate from. Sadly because everyone now relies on technology for almost everything, our enemies will see to hurt our nation not only with guns, ships and missiles and bombs but cyber terror.

Homeschool Geography/History Fair

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Collingdale Christian Family School

814 Andrews Avenue
Collingdale, PA

This is a fun time for homeschooled children to showcase their knowledge of a geographical region or era in history without the pressure of being judged for their work.  It is also an easy way to teach children presentation skills in an area they are enthused and excited about.  All participants will receive a participation certificate, and students traveling through the exhibits will receive passports.  Some guidelines follow:

• Fair set-up will begin at 9:15 a.m., with the fair opening at 10:00 a.m.  The fair will end at 11:30 a.m., and clean-up must be done by noon.

• Decide if your exhibit needs a full 2.5' x 6' table or half that size.  Tables will be provided.  Tables will need to be covered with a cloth.

• A tri-fold board is needed to stand in the back of your exhibit, labeled with the title of your exhibit (geographical region or historical period).  Anything else you decide to display---pictures, charts, fact pages--can go here, as well as on the table.  A map of your region is also good for display.

• Have a rubber stamp and ink pad or stickers available to mark in each student's "passport" as he/she visits your exhibit.  The stamp should have something to do with the region/era you're presenting, e.g., an eagle to represent the United States, the Irish flag for Ireland, etc.

• You may include samples of food to represent your region/era, but this is not necessary.  We used Goldfish crackers one year for our presentation of Japan, and this was a big hit with visitors.  Remember to keep it small and simple.

• You can hang things from ceiling tiles, play music, do cultural dances, etc.  Children love to dress up in costume, and this is recommended but not required.

• Someone must be at the exhibit at all times---whether it's a parent, sibling or friend who has worked on the project.  Know your material and be ready to explain what your visitors are seeing.

You can do as much or as little as you wish.  Some students use art projects they have made, some concentrate on posters, some build models of things to represent their region/era.  Dolls and artifacts are nice to display, but please don't use something that will devastate you if it is broken or ruined.  This is a very hands-on fair, and children like to touch and taste.  Have fun and enjoy!

Please contact Pat Burns by email at pat.burns@rcn.com <mailto:pat.burns@rcn.com> or by phone at 610-626-4846 if you have a question, or to reserve a table.

Best Tweets of the Week (Week Ending February 10, 2013)

Getting excellent feedback from our audience on our survey. Looks like public ed and gas drilling are in the lead. ow.ly/i/1uYSj

— Chris Turner (@ChrisGTurner) February 9, 2013

"@fishcreek1269: @wcgasette @rrcreporter Unodorized (AND UNREGULATED) gas gathering pipelines (under) the Burbs is a ticking time bomb."

— Brett Shipp (@brett_shipp) February 10, 2013

@chrisgturner Environmental Regulation Committee? Excellent!! @txsharon @fishcreek1269 @rrcreporter @rafaelanchia @progresstx @mayortillman

— Westchester Gasette (@WCGasette) February 9, 2013

@watsonwfaa @gfcoleman @chrisgturner Texas Democrats in the wilderness?? Not if you attended @chrisgturner Town Hall yesterday!! #txlege

— Westchester Gasette (@WCGasette) February 10, 2013

And the Grand Prize

@chrisgturner Bring on the Casinos!!I'll put my $62 Chesapeake royalty check on the Roulette Wheel!!!LOL @wcgasette

— Fish Creek Monitor (@Fishcreek1269) February 9, 2013

Protect Yourself from new UPnP Risk

UPnP comes enabled by default on many new routers and that is a problem. But why?

UPnP stands for “Universal Plug and Play.” Using UPnP, an application can automatically forward a port on your router, saving you the hassle of forwarding ports manually. This is fine for inside your network, or better said it is fine behind your firewall. This is why you can easily connect devices like smart TV's, internet radios, printers and more to your network. However it has been recently discovered that many wireless routers sold today actually come with UPnP enabled by default for access outside of your firewall as well.

Is This a Problem? Yes. There’s no getting around this one – UPnP assumes local programs are trustworthy and allows them to forward ports. However if UPnP is enabled for the "internet side" of your wireless network your computers & devices on your network are open to security hackers.

This is because UPnP doesn’t require any sort of authentication from the user. Any application running on your computer can ask the router to forward a port over UPnP, which is why the malware above can abuse UPnP. You might assume that you’re secure as long as no malware is running on any local devices – but you’re probably wrong.

Very recently it has been discovered that millions of routers in the wild (live on the internet) are vulnerable. Many router manufacturers haven’t done a good job of securing their UPnP implementations.

The good news is that if you take time you can check your wireless router and correct the problem. The best and easiest way to check your network is to go to the GRC / ShieldUp website at https://www.grc.com.

When you arrive at the webpage select "Proceed". There are many great security risks you can check here. However the UPnP risk is so prevalent at the moment that this option is the very first first thing you see. Select "GRC's Instant UpNP Exposure Test".  if your network passes the test you have no worries. if it does not, simply follow the directions for disabling UpNP on your router.

Hope you enjoy this link...

one of the best "lists" for me to check off as a woman who wants to be the absolute best Mom for my child! Wow - what a great privilege and responsibility! Thank you CC West Chester community for encouraging me on the journey...

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/

We had a blast today with our science experiment. Many thanks to Barb for providing the oobleck!
Here is a link so you can make it and play with it at home!:
http://www.delawarechildrensmuseum.org/dcm-at-home

Windows Phone Moves into 3rd Place

I have been predicting this for almost a year now so when I read that Microsoft's Windows Phone platform has leaped past Blackberry (formally known as RIM) into the third place position for mobile operating systems I just had to report it here.

Stategy Analytics reveled on February 6, 2013 that "Microsoft Windows Phone" overtook Blackberry OS to become the third largest smartphone platform in the United States maket during Q4 2012.
Blackberry had held this position since 2006 so this is big news for Microsoft as they struggle to gain market share in the mobile world.

If you are a regular reader of this fine blog you will recall that I used a Windows 8 phone throughout January. Although I switched back to my iPhone afterward i was impressed with many of the features Windows 8 had to offer. However the platform is still in the infancy stage and needs a little more time to develop. I am hopeful that I will soon be switching back to the Windows Phone because I do miss having Microsoft Office and Skydrive always accessible to me.

Now accepting registrations for the 2013-2014 school year - 

Foundations, Essentials and Challenge A!

Come find out what CC at West Chester is all about!

Informational meetings:

Wednesday, February 27th & March 20th at 5:00, Chick-Fil-A in Downingtown

Visit the link below to access registration forms for 

Foundations, Essentials and Challenge A:

https://sites.google.com/site/ccwestchester/2012-2013-registration-forms

Mobile's Growth Continues

Yes it is true. The last quarter of 2012 demonstrated that PC sales had fallen for the first time in a decade. Consumers had already been moving to laptops and now it has been proven that laptops may even be a product of the past for many consumers. This can be seen in today's CNN report that for the first time more people are accessing Facebook on mobile devices then on computers.

It has gotten to a point where the company's (Facebook) focus is now on prioritizing mobile over other connected devices like computers. Facebook is only one company, that is true. However the masses have adopted Facebook as their social media choice. Therefore this is just another strong indicator of the continued grown of mobile technology.  It is apparent that mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones are going to continue grabbing product share from PC's.

January 2013 - Tech Newsletter Released

Be sure to check out the January 2013 "West Chester Employee's Tech Newsletter" which is hot off the presses roday.

Volume 2 - Issue 1