Spring 2013 TEMPO - Tampa Preparatory School

changemakersspring 2013 tempo19demonstrated iBookAuthor to himonline. Mr. Jalbert was “blown away” bythe five-minute demonstration. Hisresponse was, “Wow! I can do this!”The School’s Technology Departmentinstalled the program for him and he“got familiar with it over spring breaklast year.” Then he received a grant fromthe Head of School to work on it duringthe summer. The stipend enabled him toforego summer teaching and devote himselfto finishing the book. By fall he hadcompleted 170 pages, and since then 80more pages were added.Since the implementation of theiBook, Mr. J has used it as a teaching toolin Cal BC by connecting it to theSmartboard. The book has built-in flashcards, uses creative photography andvideo and is interactive. “I’ve been doingthings like this in class for years. Forexample, the Simulated Patriot Missileproblem in the iBook used to be done inclass on a graphing calculator.” Now inthe iBook, “Students can solve the problemand watch it as often as they want ontheir iPads.” (And, by the way, did youknow that the Patriot in Patriot Missilestands for “Phased Array Tracking toIntercept Of Target?) The frustrum of acone was another hands-on in-classdemonstration that Mr. J used to illustrateby creating a paper cone, then cutting itand laying it flat. In the Cal BC iBook,students can view that process on a video.Although Calculus was discovered byIsaac Newton and Gottfried Leibnizmore than 300 years ago, it remains thesame today. Mr. J explains, “The beautyof math is that it’s black and white;never gray. Calculus is absolute.” HisiBook is a compilation of handouts, classroomdemonstrations, brief audio lecturesand videos, pictures and problemsthat he has used for years. What makeshis teaching methods and his iBook differentis his approach and the insights hehas gained about Calculus during his 37years of teaching. “It’s more intuitive,”he explains. His students would say, “It’sthe J-way.” Tat top: Lynn Koletic Bankston ’87, Hugh Gross ’84, Jill Levine Hechtman ’89, Mike Wilson; above:Robert Bird ’92, Deirdre Dixon, Hiram Garcia ’02, Lisa HenthorneCareers Program for Seniors Pointsto Senior Internships and BeyondNetworking emerged as a key ingredientfor a successful career as fourteen volunteersfrom the Tampa Prep communityshared their experiences and handed outwords of advice like gold nuggets duringthe Careers Program for seniors inJanuary.Kicking off the first session, TampaBay Times Managing Editor MikeWilson (panelist, above) got the seniors’attention by relating a recent newsroomsituation, an afternoon meeting to decidewhether or not to run a potentially controversialstory on the front page or put it