The Homewood Star Volume 4 | Issue 5 | August 2014
neighborly news & entertainment for Homewood
Back to fun
August brings the return of the annual Back to School Bash. Find the details on this and other events inside.
Community page A17
Something’s abuzz Beginning this fall, students in four grades will access digital textbooks through computers and other devices. Photo by Jessa Pease.
Not your mama’s textbook Homewood students to start using interactive “tech books” this year Learn about the honeybee production at two Edgewood families’ homes in this issue.
Feature page B1
INSIDE Sponsors ................. A4 City ........................... A5 Business .................. A7 Food ..........................A10 Community ............. A12 School House ......... B5 Sports ...................... B9 Calendar ................. B14 Opinion .................... B15
By MADOLINE MARKHAM Students will receive a username and password in place of a textbook in Cristy York’s geography class this month. This combination of letters and numbers will grant them entry into a new online “tech book.” Once logged in, these seventh-graders can study the relationship between population density and climate in a certain continent through an interactive world atlas. With a click, they can
uncover both primary and secondary sources or find an encyclopedia-like entry for a word. They can also highlight text, make a note, change the text into a different reading level or hear it read aloud in Spanish. Once a week, they can watch a new current events video that is posted to the “book.” “It provides a lot of types of sources and a lot more rich material than just a straight textbook page,” York said. All fifth- through eighth-grade students in Homewood City Schools will use these Discovery Education Tech Books for social studies starting this fall. In the past, gaps between new textbook adoptions have meant that students don’t have easy access to the latest maps and interpretation of
Why these tech books? Why now? Every year Alabama schools adopt a new curriculum for one subject and then adopt a new textbook for the subject the next year. With the recession in the past decade, adoption in some
See TEXTBOOK | page A19
Changing lanes Oxmoor Boulevard project moves forward By SYDNEY CROMWELL
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history. But with tech books, the text will be constantly updated. If a map is redrawn, students will have access to it in real time. HCS Director of Instructional Support Patrick Chappell believes it will make students want to click around and learn more. Chappell further explained the role these books will play in social studies classrooms starting this month.
Residents discuss the Oxmoor improvements project with representatives from the city, ALDOT and the engineering firm Gonzalez-Strength & Associates. Photo by Sydney Cromwell.
An improvement project on Oxmoor Boulevard is moving closer to becoming a reality, but some residents who live near the planned construction are hesitant about its benefits. The Homewood City Council has been at work for months on a traffic improvement project to span from the Oxmoor Boulevard/Green Springs
Highway intersection to Barber Court. At its June 23 meeting, the council authorized Mayor Scott McBrayer to execute right-of-way acquisition and construction and utility agreements with the State of Alabama for the project. The project will add new east and westbound lanes on Oxmoor
See PROJECT | page A19