Fikrea writes in…

My name is Fikrea Tesema and I am on the Decatur high school journalism staff, the Carpe Diem. Right now I am writing a story at the school about blood donations. I was wondering if you could possibly post this on the Decatur Metro site to see if anyone has a personal anecdote about blood donation. They can either be givers or receivers that had a lasting effect either being a blood recipient or a donor. If there are any people willing to interview with me either face-to-face, phone, or email, I would greatly appreciate it. They will not be an anonymous source but they will not be on camera either. Their name will be stated in my newsmagazine story. Thank you very much for your time.

• -Fikrea Tesesma
• journalism staff at Decatur high school
• [email protected]
• 770-906-3751

Mike wrote in a couple days back that he had been told by the bartender at Carpe Diem restaurant that they would be closing their doors permanently on December 23rd.  A blog post on Patch echoed the news.

Carpe Diem has long sat beneath the Ice House Lofts at the southeastern edge of the Old Decatur neighborhood.  I’m not sure how long it’s been there (I’m sure someone can tell us), but it was already in place back when Fellini’s was still a Greyhound bus station  towards the Y2K end of the last decade.

It sat in a unique location, a bit removed from the rest of retail downtown Decatur, with the exception of Fellini’s.  That may change in the coming years, if the new “Brick Station” (my made up shorthand for the Brick Store venture in the Decatur Depot) and MAR completely reinvigorate that old rail line strip of commercial along East Howard Ave, but for now the space sits slightly off the beaten path.

Farewell Carpe Diem.  You will be missed by many!

Photo courtesy of Next Stop…Decatur

Back in August 2009, the City Schools of Decatur adopted a new grading policy (see Action Item C), which would increase the use of International Baccalaureate assessment for learning in Decatur’s school district.

The new methodology contains many components, including a new, vast evaluation method, which assesses a student’s performance on a wide variety of tasks (compositions, essays, research, presentations, etc.), teacher assessments (observation, selected response, collected response, etc) – and the use IB rubrics, anecdotal records,  models and checklists to evaluate student achievement, among others.

However, one piece of this vast puzzle of acronyms and educational buzzwords has received a majority of the attention in the halls of Decatur High School.

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