Saving Our Unique Style of Learning

Dear Parents and Students,

As you know, last month, the courts announced a decision against Wisconsin Virtual School that may impact their ability to operate.  In order to ensure the continued operation of all Wisconsin virtual schools, our state legislature is going to be writing and enacting legislation that clearly defines virtual schooling in Wisconsin.

As I indicated earlier, iQ Academy Wisconsin and the District of Waukesha are continuing to work with our legislators and the DPI around these issues. 

What can you do to help? 

This Wednesday afternoon, January 16, there will be a large Capitol rally of virtual learning parents and students on Wednesday afternoon.  The rally is in conjunction with a hearing on a bill written by Representative Brett Davis (Wednesday, January 16, 1:00 pm). 

The rally and transportation is being organized by the Wisconsin Coalition of Virtual School Families. For information about the  rally, busses to get there, and more, see http://www.wivirtualschoolfamilies.org/news/newsletter.cfm?ID=722

There will also be a hearing for another bill written by Senator John Lehman on Thursday, January 17, at 10 am.

If you value the education your student is receiving, if you believe families deserve the choice of public virtual schooling, then find a way to attend the rally in Madison and contact your legislators to support legislation that defines and supports virtual public education.

Hope to see you in Madison! 
Kristine Diener
Principal
iQ Academies at Wisconsin
1-866-468-6472

Okay, I think this is totally important and my family and I are actually going down to Madison, even though it's 3+ hours away to give our support to iQ, WIVA, Monroe and other virtual schools around the state. Is anyone else going? If so, we should make plans to meet up and get some school spirit going. (My mom wants my little brother to wear a sign saying "I want to get my diploma at 15" and she's usually not like that.)

I actually contacted Ms. Diener and was able to get an extension (*shock*) for saying I would be going down there, and I'll get it while I'm there. If you're not going because of school, contact Ms. Diener, because you might get a couple more days... (I just have until Monday 8 a.m.)

If anything, just pray that this will work out, because I hate to see a ton of kids left without this alternative form of education.

A call to the Readership

What is the essence of iQ? How would you define the community, the system and/or the principles? How could the problems students and staff deal with be solved? (Falling behind, lack of communication/interest in events, connectivity between students, etc.) Most important, what should we as students focus on to make our unique school as good as it can be, for us and those to follow down the long and winding road of virtual education?

We at the Student Blog would like to hear from you! Post your comments (or email them if you'd rather,) and make yourself heard.

~ The Blog

A Helpful Hack

Many of us may find ourselves using the Dashboard built in to our Macs. It's really handy; with all this Widgets that can do some many different tasks. In fact, you may find yourself using them a lot sometimes, and its an annoyance to constantly press F8 or click the Dashboard icon in your Dock.

Wouldn't it be better to move the Widget to your desktop sometimes? Its very possible.

Now, don't be weary because its called a hack. In fact, its perfectly safe. Apple, which you should all know is the company behind our magnificent laptops, designed this handy trick for testing Widgets.

Simply type the following line exactly as it appears in the the Terminal, which you can find by using Spotlight, that blue magnifying glass in top right corner.

defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES

Then hit enter. Next the Dashboard needs to be reset, and the easiest way to do that is to log out and then back in again.

To get a Widget off the Dashboard and on to your desktop, open up Dashboard, click and hold on the Widget you want, and then get away from Dashboard. Since you're already using your mouse, you're going to have to use the keyboard shortcut, which as I said before, is F8 by default. When it disappears, the selected Widget stays with you, and you can put it back by clicking and holding it, opening Dashboard, and releasing it.

Hope his helps!