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No. 138 | A JWC Media publication
Story remains key for students using top-notch technology
Forest Park ready for unveiling
By Jake Jarvi
By Jake Jarvi
NEWS
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his spring, Apple announced that Steve Douglass, the new media teacher at Lake Forest High School, was awarded a place among the Apple Distinguished Educators, a community who use Apple technology to innovate in the classroom. When Douglass started teaching telecom at LFHS 10 years ago, the most top-of-the-line equipment the students had access to were three low-grade mini-dv cameras. A tour through the new media department these days is a different story. Fifteen Mac Pro towers and monitors capable of handling 4K footage (which is what we see in movie theaters) line the wall. Next to this is a room with a green screen wall and a selection of LED lights rigged to the ceiling. Students have access to 15 HD Canon cameras that shoot using lenses that provide a soft, cinematic depth of field. These kids have everything they need to make a full-blown movie. Though the technology is
outstanding, Douglass still emphasizes that the most important element is a well-told story. “I think it is so important for kids to contextualize what they’re going through, especially in adolescence, but also throughout life,” Douglass says. “I wanted to figure out a way for them to do that by leveraging the iPhone, which is such an amazing piece of equipment.” With the help of Jonathan Kelly of Lake Bluff, the chief technology officer for MightyN, Douglass designed an iPhone app called showNtell, which offers students an easy fill-in the-blanks approach to crafting a two-minute personal story and outputting it as a well-produced video. Following one of several pre-written scripts in the app, users fill in blanks about a subject of their choosing, Mad-Lib style. They then read the script off of their phone as if it’s a teleprompter, recording the narration audio. Douglass’s New Media students have cracked the code on crafting
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have the bark on the outside, creating a rustic look. There are two water fountains he vistas opening up is what’s gotten the com- with built-in water bowls for munity most excited,” says dogs. The north and south ends Joan DePree, co-vice president of the park have been cleared of the Forest Park Project. “And back and replantings have been the pathways for the walkers and artfully designed from a selection runners who will use the park on of native trees and plant life. A a regular basis.” winding boardwalk twists For years, the seven acres over- through the woods on the southlooking Lake Forest’s Forest Park west end of property leading back Beach have served only as a drop- into the south parking lot. And off/pick-up point for people heading gorgeous Lake Michigan vistas down the steps to the beach. The have opened up all along the park. woods were overrun with invasive Throughout the planning species and buckthorn. The only process, residents weighed in on place to stroll was on the ring road, what was important to them in the the same area meant for vehicular park created in the 19th century. “The consensus was that they traffic. A few benches rested on top of the bluff, but the hillside was so wanted the road to stay,” says Peter overgrown that lake views were Cherry, treasurer and project manager. “Originally, we were relatively scarce. The Forest Park that exists going to get rid of it and only have today is much different. A mile- the path. But people like to drive long footpath circles the prop- through it. You also have elderly erty. It starts in the south parking or infirm people, who just want to lot, near one of the three new bike drive up to see the lake.” rack stations. Every few steps are The conceptual master plan for limestone or wooden benches the Forest Park restoration — made from reclaimed oak trees which, for the time being, still Continues on page 12
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Sawyer DePree (left) and Helen O’Neil have a ball at Forest Park. Photography by Mary Carol Fitzgerald
Board upholds one constuction variance, rejects another BY EMILY SPECTRE
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he Wilmette Board of Trustees addressed two land-use cases on May 26 where both applicants sought variances for construction projects that previously received a negative recommendation from the Zoning Board of Appeals.
In the first case, the Village Board voted unanimously to overturn the Zoning Board decision where an applicant sought zoning variances to build a two-car garage. Trustee Dan Sullivan noted that the main hardship to the applicant was simply the small lot size, which forced the applicant to seek variances to build an
average size garage. Trustee Carol Ducommun agreed. “I don’t think it is unreasonable to request a 20-by-22 foot garage. I think it is a narrow lot and this is the best they can do,” she said. While the board was quick to decide for the applicant concerning the two-car garage, the second case
involving the construction of a new split-level house took the board considerably longer. In that case, the applicant sought a variance to raise a portion of the house’s first floor to five feet, from the maximum allowed four feet, in order to build the footings and Continues on page 12
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