Hooray for Excellence is a contest sponsored by Diamond Shamrock. Schools enter by highlighting an exciting academic program in a short radio ad. The winning ads will be showcased during the Diamond Shamrock halftime show of the 5A state football championship.
Allen High School won the 1996 Hooray for Excellence Competition with a radio ad focusing on the Live Wire, an electronic cafe.
The Script (to the theme of Mission Impossible)
You are a sophomore student at Allen High School facing registration. You go to The Live Wire to check out whether or not "Fruit, Nut, and Vegetable Production" fills your fine arts requirement for graduation. While you are there you read through teacher profiles and try to determine the age of Coach Hedges.
You are an Environmental Science student. You have just completed your field study in the AHS cafeteria on chapter two: How Species Interact with Each Other. You are up to date with the rest of your work. You ask Mrs. Mitterer for a pass to The Live Wire to surf the Internet for the rest of classtime.
THE LIVE WIRE - WHERE SOMETHING AWE INSPIRING IS HAPPENING BEHIND THE SCENES, A PLACE FOR STUDENT TO TAME A WIRELESS WORLD. SO, PLUG IN AND GET WIRED.
The Live Wire, located in the student commons area of Allen High School, allows students access to critical information that enables them to solve problems in their lives. Allen ISD believes that technology can play a major role in integrating high tech with high touch.
The Live Wire allows Allen High School students to gain skills in utilizing information technologies while also addressing the concerns of students losing their identity while attending a large high school. Due to the accessibility of information, students can make better decisions regarding life, college, and career choices. Specifically, students will have convenient access to college and university profiles pertaining to entrance requirements, degree plans, and course selections.
For example, a students at Allen High School will be able to access his/her transcript from one of the menu selections. By looking at another menu selection, "college counseling," the student will be able to ensure that he is taking all required classes needed in order to gain admittance to the college of his choice.
The Live Wire provides students with an alternative, non-threatening, route to access initial information about life within and beyond high school.
Students can access critical information to solve important problems in their school and social life. For example, a student must balance the adolescent pressures of a full class load, after school work, peer interaction, and college applications. Opportunities to meet with the school counselor are limited. Through The Live Wire, the students can easily access on-line counseling services pertaining to course registration, peer mediation, school to work programs, and college entrance requirements.
Students will have a visible, safe, personalized communication link to on-line counseling services. These tiered services will provide a myriad of information ranging from generic school-wide social questions, for example - the time and date of senior class activities, to specific adolescent concerns, for example - interpersonal relationships.
Likewise, the student’s parent could walk into The Live Wire and access this same information in order to help advise their child about course selections for the next year. Teachers can also view the transcript menu to see whether or not a student has take all the prerequisite courses needed prior to endorsing her enrollment in a certain Advanced Placement course for the following school year.
THE LIVE WIRE - RELAXED, UNCONVENTIONAL, EASILY ACCESSIBLE, SELF-DIRECTED FUN.
You are a member of AHS The Live Wire development team. You are decked out in a tie-dyed shirt. While eating pizza and spinning around in padded chairs at 7th Level, Incorporated, you brainstorm the possibilities of designing and marketing this "electronic happening."
You are an advanced computer science student at Allen High School with two questions: one about programming in TopGun and the other about how to jump to the next level when playing Ace Ventura: The CD Rom Game. You ask the resident programmer on loan from 7th Level to help you during class. Mr. Buckley also introduces you to Battle Beast and beats you mercilessly.
The Live Wire benefits from financial support of MCI Communications. An original grant was given to cover costs of designing and producing an unconventional learning area complete with bar stools and booths. The grant also covered the cost of hardware and software for use in The Live Wire, such as brightly colored keyboards and Internet services.
In addition, 7th Level Incorporated, an international software research and development firm partners with The Live Wire. Students at Allen High School are developing the software and data needed to run The Live Wire. A 7th Level programmer is now an integral part of the daily teaching in computer science classes as students learn TopGun, a programming language used in the “real” world. In exchange, an Allen ISD teacher is now an integral part of the daily curriculum development at 7th Level.
The Student Planning Team is also instrumental in various facets of The Live Wire. The team consists of 9 students representing the sophomore, junior, and senior classes. These students represents all areas of student life at AHS, not just the technically minded. The Student Planning Team is responsible for both the interior and exterior design of the site. It also follows construction from the ground level to the completed project including architecture designs, marketing, methods of operation, and state codes governing safety and access.
THE LIVE WIRE - TAKE A POWER TRIP.
It’s 7:30 at night. Your computer is broken and your German multi-media project is due to Mrs. Darling during first period tomorrow. You don’t panic because you know The Live Wire is open.
It’s Saturday night. Your friend Melissa’s mother just kicked you off of their computer. You only have $7.50 in savings, but have to play G-Nome now. You logoff at Melissa’s and login at The Live Wire.
The Live Wire at Allen High School has many capabilities such as multimedia production, Internet access, CD Rom games, Microsoft office applications, electronic mail and bulletin boards, video conferencing, school and community calendars of events, and AHS lunch menus and daily announcements. The Live Wire is open before school and after school. It also remains open during school to be used by teachers as an reward or incentive for students who complete their work, have no absences or tardies, or maintain good citizenship grades. A lab manager oversees the daily workings of The Live Wire with student proctor assistance.
THE LIVE WIRE - ALLEN HIGH SCHOOL’S RESPONSE TO THE "MISSION IMPOSSIBLE."
special thanks to Maroba Zoeller for bringing "Hooray for Excellence" to AHS and sharing her winning experience, voice, and karaoke machine; to Craig Weiss for his announcer's voice, and for Pam Mack for lunch and inspiration in the bleachers
originally coded 1996