Navigators News

Harbor Breakfast Flyer

Manning on History May 5

Mr. Manning, head of the History department at Ensign, presented his department at the Navigator meeting on May 5. You can download his presentation:

Ensign's History Department

Liebengood on English April 7

Mrs. Liebengood, head of the English department at Ensign, gave us an overview of her department at the Navigator meeting on April 7. You can download her presentation:

Ensign's English Department

NHHS Update 3/3

Phil D'Agostino and Robert Cunard gave us a presentation on Smaller Learning Communities at Harbor at our meeting on March 3. The smaller learning community structure attempts to recreate the sense of community between teachers and students that might be present in a smaller school. Studies have shown that this results in better student outcomes especially among at-risk students. Harbor has pioneered this concept through it academies for several years and has now received a grant of $135 thousand per year for 5 years to expand the concept throughout the school. You can download their presentation:

Smaller Learning Communities at Harbor

Mr. Mabry on Math 2/3

Mr. Mabry, head of the Ensign math department, presented an overview of math at Ensign at our February 3 meeting. You can download his presentation:

Ensign Math Department Overview

Mr. Blackie's Presentation to Navigators on 1/13

Mr. Blackie, head of the Ensign science department, gave a presentation on the Ensign science department. You can download a copy of the presentation below either as a Microsoft PowerPoint file or as a viewable PDF:

Ensign Science Department Overview

Internet Safety

4/6/06: NBPD put on a good presentation at the PTA's parent information night. Apparently the current teenage "hot spot" in our area is a place called OC Platinum near the airport. This is a teen club and no alcohol is served but various party drugs are alledged to be being shared. They have a web site here. If your kid wants to go, we suggest you check out the web site first, especially the videos page to help you decide if this is an appropriate venue for your kid.

Another predator sting was conducted by the Orange County Sheriff's department recently. Thirteen men were arrested including a lieutenant with the CHP. In case you missed this, you can read the details here.

The Riverside Sheriff's department recently conducted a string operation to find and arrest child predators who were targeting 12 and 13 year old boys and girls via the Internet. Over a three day period, 49 men were arrested for attempted lewd with a child under 14. You can read more about this operation here.

The daughter of one of our members recently called 800-TEEN-HELP thinking it was some kind of Dr. Laura call-in and was quite shocked to discover that it turned out to be a sex line. There was a "hot and heavy" message encouraging callers to get their credit card to talk to real live girls etc. With cell phones now ubiquitous, we need to realize that phones expose kids to the some of the same risks as the Internet. Warn them to be sure they really know who is listening to their instant message.

Officer Vlad Anderson's presentation on Internet safety struck a responsive cord with many Navigators so we will be collecting more information and links to help you stay current with this important topic. In the meantime, you can download his presentation from:

NBPD Internet Safety Presentation (Long Version 18MB)
NBPD Internet Safety Presentaton (Short Version 2MB)

Caution: the long version is a large file and will take a while to download especially if you have a dial-up connection. I created a short version which has the content but leaves out many of the examples.  To view the long version, you will need Microsoft PowerPoint.  If you don't have PowerPoint on your PC, you can download a free viewer from Microsoft here. These presentations are slightly different from the one we saw in the Navigators meeting. The long version features several MySpace entries from students at Harbor and CDM. It's pretty eye opening.

If you would like to talk to Officer Anderson about this or any other topic regarding the safety of your children at Ensign, you can reach him by phone at 949-644-3789 or email at vanderson@nbpd.org. He is at Ensign on Tuesdays and Wednesdays so you can also just stop by and chat. He has also volunteered to attend Navigator meetings, so just come to our next meeting.

Links:

A recent MSNBC program on this same subject can be found here and follow up here.
The NBPD presentation references the GetNetWise Kids site as a good resource for parents.