Five associates with the AlphaMax Academy attended the first Virtual Educa Caribbean conference,  with  a focus on the non  Spanish-speaking Caribbean that was held in Paramaribo at the TBL February 29 to March 2nd, 2012. The event took place concurrently with the VII Inter-American Meeting of Ministers of Education organized by the Organization of the American States.
The objectives of the Virtual Educa Caribbean conference were to:

1. To include non Spanish-speaking Caribbean region in the activities of Virtual Educa.
2. Offer participants the opportunity to see concrete evidence of how ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) and innovation in education are applied, including examples and best practices through workshops, exhibits and conferences.
3. Focus  not only on advanced technology but also show participants the low-tech means that are available.

One outstanding seminar was presented by Dr. Kenneth Sylvester, of the Caribbean Knowledge and Learning Network (CKLN).  The first public announcement  of the Caribbean’s dedicated research and education high-speed fiber optic network, C@ribNET was completed.  The Project Purpose is to improve the relevance of tertiary education and training institutions in the Caribbean, by increasing the number of relevant accredited tertiary education courses and programs supported and offered to a significantly increased numbers of Caribbean students.
Other associates of AMA, please fell free to write about all the outstanding seminars!

Minache Sawh just started working in the Finance Department as the Accounts and Administration Officer of the AlphaMax Academy .
Minache recently returned to Suriname from Tallahassee, Florida where she  worked as the Center Manager of Advance America and as an Eligibility Specialist at Affiliated Computer Services, a company of Xerox.  Please join us in welcoming Minache Sawh to the AMA!

Christmas Greetings

Christmas Greetings

Learn more about Msiba, My Love

Lily Strand publishing has created a website---http://msiba.webs.com so that online viewers can learn more about their latest publication -Msiba,My Love and its writer Ivan A. Khayiat.


It is also possible to order the book online.


The site has material from Ivan A. Khayiat's early collection of poems Quest by Day, Vigil by Night.. Msiba was launched last Friday in Suriname and has had an enthusiastic response from the public.


This coffee table photo book with the Tagore  award winning poem is a collector's item and an ideal gift. The book is an excellent example of the creative skill of Surinamese.


The book was printed by Suriprint N.V and Design work was done by Studio TMC and ChadLab.com.


Suriname buyers can come to the AlphaMax Academy to get their copies.

Successful Visit to Jarikaba

By Jonathan Liu--High School Senior and member of Business Class

On Wednesday December 14, 2011 the AlphaMax Academy business students went to Jarikaba Stichting Behold Bananen Sector (SBBS). The students left school at 8:00 am and arrived at the Jarikaba banana plantation forty five minutes later. When they arrived to the plantation Mr. Barsingh -the head of agronomic and research department- greeted the student with a warm welcome.            

After a long trip with the bus the business students arrived at the banana plantation. They then rode three more minutes to the banana field. Mr. Barsingh described the field and the banana plants.  Jarikaba has three farms and each farm has a manager and two supervisors.   

                                                                                                             

The banana field is 1280 hectares long. One hectare has 1900 banana trees .The banana are covered with blue plastic bags, so that the pests cannot get to the banana.    

                                                                                                                       

The field has an old sprinkler system to water the banana trees when the field is dry (mostly on hot days). They are trying to put a new sprinkler system. The banana trees are 1.65 M away from each other and are planted in a triangular pattern, so that each tree can get the same amount sun light.

After the field trip the students went to the packinghouse. There is where the bananas are packed in boxes and shipped to other countries. In the packing house the bananas are examined to see if the bananas are too ripe or not ripe. If the banana is not so ripe they are going to export it and if the banana is ripe the going to sell it to the Suriname local market.           

                                                                                                                                             

After the examining the bananas they are then thrown into a pool of water with soap to wash the latex off the banana. The workers then examine to find out if some of the bananas are rotten. If there are rotten bananas they throw them away.  The workers throw the bananas back in to another pool of clean water to wash out the soap .When they are clean the workers pick them up for packing.   

                                

The workers pack the bananas in boxes with two different colors- green and red.                                                                                       

The green boxes are for small bananas and the red box for larger bananas. Further on, the air in the boxes with banana is sucked out, so that the bananas won’t ripen during shipping.

After a long day Mr. Barsingh invited the business students to sit down and gave the students something to drink and to eat. He also told the students about some future plans for the banana sector. It was time to go back to school so the AlphaMax Academy business students thanked Mr. Barsingh for the tour. The students also got some bananas to bring back home.

                                                                

Business Students to visit Jarikaba Banana Plantation

On Wednesday December 14^th, 2011, the AlphaMax Academy business students are going on a fieldtrip to the Jarikaba banana plantation. 


The trip was organized by teacher Sylvana Dankerlui . 


The purpose of the trip is to get the business students to learn how the owners of the plantation set up a business there. From their example, the business students may learn how to make a business plan of their own.  


Jonathan Lui - High School Senior and Member of the Business Class

A Sony VAIO Review by Kristina Taylor

On September 5^th, 2011, I ordered a Sony Vaio laptop, on Sony Companies online.  Although I had to wait an entire month for my order to arrive, I was fairly happy with my order.  An outrageous part of my laptop story is that it is a crazy green color.  Not just apple green, but more of a neon green.  This was ordered in the Sony Fashion Laptop section of the store and I wanted to purchase another color other than a boring silver or black computer.  My laptop costs approximately $600-750.  There are some pros and cons about the Sony Vaio laptop:

Cons:

The screen is flimsy

The CD drive is flimsy as well

It is not recommended for gamers because the card slot does not hold all card types

The Sony VAIO came with its own type of program called Sony Analyzer which constantly feels the need to update your computer

Sony shipping SUCKS

I only received a 1 week trial of Microsoft Office, but a life time of Adobe Photoshop Plus

The Webcam is poor

Pros:

I love the color (green)

It is lightweight- 3.5 pounds

It comes with i3 Windows 7

It does not overheat

The microphone works well

Comes with a free keyboard skin of your own color choice

AlphaMax End of Term Activities

All end of term examination finish today –Friday December 9^th.

There are two field trips next week. One on Tues. 13 Dec for High School History students to Fort Zeelandia. The other for the High School Business students on Wednesday the 14th December, 2011. This group of students will be going to Jarikaba.

There will be a school party for all students at the main building—Scabiosastraat 4 on Thurs. 15 December from 9.am to 12.30pm.

School report cards will be available for collection between 8.00 and 10.00 am on Friday 16^th December.

End of Term Field Trips

AlphaMax Academy is organizing an educational fieldtrip for High School History students to Fort Zeelandia on Tuesday the 13th December, 2011. The departure time will be at 7.45am and the students will be back at school approximately 9.30am.

There will be a fieldtrip for the High School Business students on Wednesday the 14th December, 2011. The students will be going to Jarikaba. They will leave at 7.45am and return to school at approximately 12.30pm.

Staff Tutor Ms. Sylvana Dankerlui will be in charge of both trips.

10 Minutes of National Fame

by Ruth Saman

Monday November 5, 2011 was the first day of the Children’s Day of Broadcasting in Suriname– an initiative of the STVS and the AlphaMax Academy.  Surinamese students worked with the STVS crew to launch this project; this project might be an ongoing project.  Kristina Taylor, Reann Kersenhout, Justin Ho, Emmanuel Landburg, Jason Jones, Yamil Baptista, Aaron Cheuk A Lam and Cherise Playfair are some

of the students who participated in this project.

Ruth on National TV

Along with Cherise Playfair, I presented part of the STVS evening news for 10 minutes.  During the voice checks on Friday December 2, 2011 I was very nervous, and the recording room was very cold.  Before me, other students went, and when I it was my turn, I felt as if my nerves took over because I started my presentation before the camera man gave me the cue.  When I finally got the cue, I presented the news and surprisingly, I was calm.  I was very comfortable being in the spotlight.  As a result the STVS team decided that my performance on my screen test was good enough for me to present the evening news. So I got the chance to be seen on television nationwide.

On Monday December 5, the day of the news presentation, Cherise and I had to be at the TV station by 12 noon.  In the morning, we came to school and left at 11.  We started taping the presentation at approximately 1.30.  I felt very calm and confident while doing it.

That night, when I watched the news, I waited impatiently on the part of the news that Cherise was doing to end. Then there I was…reading the news on National TV.  Seeing myself on television was something new for me, but it lasted only for 10 minutes.  So I had my ten minutes of fame, I told myself.

After seeing this, I felt that I had revealed one of my many hidden talents.

Ruth on STVS Evening News