Join us as we come together as people of God, to worship and lift up those infected and/or affected by the HIV/AIDS virus.

The global theme for 2009 and 2010 World AIDS Day is "Universal Access and Human Rights".

Service of Word and Holy Communion on November 29, 2009 @ 11:00 a.m.

St. Michael's Lutheran Church
6671 Germantown Avenue
Philadelphia, Pa 19119
(215)848-0199

All are welcome.

Pastor Andrena Ingram
visit us on the web: http://stmichaelsgermantown.org

Philadelphia Public School theNotebook: Ackerman: 'This has got to be radical.':

Notebook: What do you think about the argument that there should be more robust incentives to get teachers into the hard-to-staff schools?

Ackerman: Money is not the only thing that is going to get them there. [Teachers] ask for several things: a great principal—they will not go if you don't have a great principal. They ask that we address some of the larger societal issues that impact children's learning—health issues, emotional, social kinds of issues, psychological—which is why we put in place the social service liaisons, the student advisors, the parent liaisons.

The other thing that [experienced teachers] have said to me is that they want to be in the lowest-performing schools in cohorts or groups of five or six, because if you're there as a singleton or a doubleton, it's too hard. Those teachers get overwhelmed not only with the issues that they're dealing with in their classroom, but then they're trying to support and mentor new teachers.

And I think on top of that, we just have to look at paying teachers differently. Teachers are in this 19th century model: we all get paid the same thing, and you earn more money by the number of years you put in. That doesn't make sense, and that doesn't happen in any other business but education now.

Read the entire interview.

Read Todd Wolfson and Hanna Sassaman piece summarizing Philadelphia's important pursuit of stimulus money to expand Philadelphia online access.

Philadelphia based Music & Motion Dance has been chosen to perform at Pennsylvania Arts in Education Day at the State Capitol Building in Harrisburg on April 1, 2009. The day celebrates the outstanding artistic achievements made by students and teachers in Pennsylvania schools.

2009 Arts in Education Day at the State Capitol is sponsored by Pennsylvania Speaker of the House Keith R. McCall; the Pennsylvania Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance; the Pennsylvania Art Education Association; the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts/Arts in Education (AIE) Partnership; the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts; the Pennsylvania Department of Education; the Pennsylvania Department of General Services; the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts, and the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association.

Music & Motion Dance will be presenting excerpts from their upcoming premiere of the 9 muses. This new dance work examines the concept of inspiration and is based on ancient Greek mythology, in which there were nine muses who ruled over the arts and sciences. Artistic Director, Steven Weisz goes on to add, “For dancers it is a sacred space, where you can find yourself again and again. A place where one can retreat, nourish the muse and ultimately find oneself. It is a playground that has the power to transport us and help us to resuscitate our imagination. Muses have the potential to inspire, motivate, uplift, create solace, fill us with joy and allow us to reveal ourselves in new and undiscovered ways. What they ultimately do is allow us to create.” To that end, each dancer in Music & Motion has sought their own muse in creating and choreographing the works to be presented. These vignettes offer a brief insight in to a range of feelings and emotions which drive the movement on stage and offer a glimpse of each dancer’s own muse.

Founded in 2000, Music & Motion is a fresh, innovative, performance-oriented, youth dance company. Rather than relying on a single dance style or technique, Music & Motion has developed its own unique movement for each new dance work created. The variety of eclectic styles incorporated into its’ programs include ballet, jazz, tap, lyrical, modern, funk, hip hop and acrobatic styles.

Music & Motion Dance has performed throughout the tri-state area as well as internationally to a range of audiences in its short yet diverse history. With a deep commitment to group collaboration and exposing new audiences to dance and the performing arts, the company has won both critical acclaim as well as many new fans.

The collaborative effort of this group is rich in synergy, imagination, celebration and spirit. Audiences have responded with enthusiasm, finding themselves caught up in a world of exhilarating rhythm, movement and music created by this multi-talented group.

Music & Motion Dance fulfills the need of providing young dancers with performing experience in a nurturing environment with professional guidance, while continually exciting audiences wherever they perform.

2009 Cast Members

Emily Alexander
Breanna Dancy
Jennifer Durham
Jessica Lynn DiFrancesco
Brooke Fiorito
Stacey Folks
Melissa Hunt
Andrea Piovane
Tasha Saleh
Courtney Schiff
Morgan Woroniecki

More on the web at www.Music-And-Motion.com

Wondering how you can affordably and easily incorporate “green” practices into your everday life? Join us at Cliveden, a National Trust Historic Site, on Friday April 3rd and Satruday April 4th for Going Green: Environmental Stewardship for Preservation and Profit.

Located in our historic Carriage House, visitors will hear a variety of perspectives on local “green” issues from renowned scholars and environmental leaders. Topics will include an assortment of subjects including: “green” lawn care, protection of local wildlife, historical environmental issues and the true characteristics of eco-living.

The Going Green forum will begin on Friday evening, April 3rd, from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm with a wine and cheese conversation about Cliveden’s climate control project. Learn about the special challenges historic sites face when balancing sustainability and historic accuracy. A presentation and panel discussion with local museum leaders will be followed by a behind-the-scenes architectural tour of the historic Chew House.

On Saturday April 4th, from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, a full-day of scholarly speakers will address a variety of local environmental issues. Mike McGrath, host of WHYY’s You Bet Your Garden show, will bring his nationally syndicated radio antics to Cliveden. His keynote speech, Get Your Lawn and Landscape off Drugs, will reveal money-and-time saving tips that will help to achieve a lush, green lawn free of chemicals.

Dr. Andrew Isenberg, Chair of Temple University’s History Department, will begin Saturday’s program with a discussion of historical environmental issues. His talk Environment and History: The Historical Context of Environmental Challenges, will focus on how past cultures have attempted to confront environmental problems.
Defenders of Wildlife Outreach representative Richard Whiteford will follow with a discussion about Climate Change: Things Each of Us Can Do About It. An environmental activist, lobbyist and winner of the Sierra Club’s 2006 Environmental Hero Award, Whiteford will provide tips on how to protect natural habitats in the Greater Philadelphia region.

Exploring myths about “going green” will be Barton Partners Architects Planners’ Director of Planning and Urban Design, Seth Shapiro. Mr. Shapiro will question the myths about green design and focus on the chracteristics of what makes homes and neighborhoods truly “green.”

During the lunch break on Saturday April 4th, visitors will be treated to a natural history tour of Cliveden. Phillyist.com Green Scene Columnist Lori Litchman will explain what Cliveden’s 6 acre property would have looked like in 1777 as well as the variety of plant and wildlife at the site.

Farmers from Weavers Way, a food cooperative in Northwest Philadelphia, will provide eco-friendly appetizers for lunchtime and discuss the economic and health benefits of eating locally and organically.

Concluding the Going Green forum will be a brief local field trip to Weavers Way farms at Awbury Arboretum and Martin Luther King High School. Hop on the yellow bus to see a food co-op’s urban gardens and nutrition programs in action.

Admission to both days of the program, April 3rd and April 4th, is $30. Price of admission includes speakers, demonstrations, eco-friendly appetizers, local bus trip as well as a reusable Cliveden coffee mug and shopping bag. A reduced rate is available for one-day admissions and members of Cliveden.

For further information about this program and to RSVP, please contact by email at: rfink@cliveden.org or by calling 215-848-1777. A detailed program for this event can be found at www.cliveden.org.

The country’s unemployment rate stands at 7.6 percent, meaning that more than 11 million Americans are now without jobs. However, while the employment rate among high school graduates with no college education hovers at eight percent, those with bachelor’s degrees or higher are seeing the unemployment rate drop by more than half, to 3.8 percent, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

Additionally, the average annual salary for individuals with graduate or doctoral degrees is $75,000, while bachelor’s degrees command an average salary of $51,000. For those relying on a high school diploma alone, their average salary drops significantly to $28,000.

Therefore, for anyone seeking increased career stability in this shaky economy, higher education is the answer. Now is the best time to pursue an advanced degree to further a career, as demonstrated in a newly released video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDfew0YcDTo) by EducationDynamics.

Fortunately, finding the best program to match a prospective student’s interests and goals has become much easier due to recent technological innovations and expanded access. With 4,146 colleges and universities in the United States, both on-campus and online, never have there been more educational options from which to choose.

Expanded Educational Options
Interest in online education has surged as a result of the convenience and flexibility it affords. Online learners can complete their coursework when it is most convenient―after the kids go to bed at night or even during a lunch break at work. Web-based courses also allow students to take classes at home, in effect eliminating time and money spent driving to class.

For others, a traditional campus setting is the preferred environment. Traditional classes allow students to interact face-to-face with professors and fellow students alike, and generally offer more structure than their online counterparts.

The choice between online learning and traditional on-campus programs is simply a matter of personal preference, and there are comprehensive resources, including eLearners.com and EarnMyDegree.com, that help prospective students find their ideal degree program.

Additionally, the eLearners Advisor (http://www.elearners.com/advisor/) is designed to help prospective students determine whether online learning or a traditional educational format best suits their needs and preferences. For those unsure about which academic program to pursue, eLearners.com offers the Career Interest Test (http://www.livecareer.com/default.asp?lp=TG6A&cobrand=ELRN) to help people determine the career that best matches their personality.

Important Questions to Ask
In addition to deciding which format and degree to pursue, it is also important to note that returning to school will affect a student’s personal life. Some important questions to consider when determining whether now is the best time to enroll in a higher education program include:

1. Do you have support from loved ones? To reach optimal academic performance, it is helpful to have the support of close friends and family.

2. Do you have employer “buy-in”? Ask your boss whether he or she supports you completing coursework during lunch hour and whether it is appropriate for you to use a work computer for such activities.

3. What is your plan or timeline? A three credit college course will require, on average, 10 to 12 hours per week.

4. Do you have a home classroom or study area? A separate space for studying will help you concentrate and stay organized.

5. Do you plan to seek financial assistance? Research scholarship and grant opportunities, and tax credits and deductions to help offset costs. The Debt-Free College Guide (http://debtfree-elearners.com/) is a comprehensive resource providing a state-by-state listing of options to help make college more affordable.

Knowledge opens new doors and changes things for the better. Among the millions of people who will enroll in higher education this year, several will be the first in their families to receive a college diploma. Millions more will finish their degrees online. Many single parents will pursue continuing education to improve their earning potential. A newly-released EducationDynamics video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDfew0YcDTo) provides fresh inspiration to positively change lives and the world through a commitment to life-long learning.

Ann Marie always yearned for a college degree, but she had to put her dream on hold. She is a 25-year-old mother who works to support her two-year-old and seven-year-old step-daughter, while their dad has been deployed overseas. And in addition to caring for her own family, she also serves as power of attorney for her best friend’s young daughter while both parents serve in Iraq.

“With my former husband being deployed on and off over the past two years, I’ve had to double up and be Mommy and Daddy all alone. School couldn’t be a factor when I was alone to raise my family,” said Ann Marie in her Project Working Mom essay.

However, Ann Marie’s greatest wish was granted when she recently applied for, and won, a Project Working Mom scholarship to attend an online college for free. Although she currently works at a retail store as a part-time manager, she longs for a steady career, especially with today’s economic woes. Without a college degree, Ann Marie fears she is being passed over for positions for which she would otherwise be qualified; she fears she is simply not competitive in the job market.

Thanks to the Project Working Mom scholarship, Ann Marie will now get her degree in accounting from Everest University at no cost to her. Online classes grant her the flexibility to attend school from home at any time of day, which frees her from childcare worries. She is home for her children when they need her, and she is now serving as a role model for her children.

“My goal is to do my best so that my daughter can see that if Mommy can do well in school, so can she,” continued Ann Marie.

Ann Marie’s story represents just one of 93 Project Working Mom scholarship recipient stories from across the country. Each recipient is a powerful example of sacrifice and determination as women seek to provide a better life for themselves and their children through education.

Following two successful Project Working Mom outreach campaigns that awarded more than $4 million in scholarships to nearly 100 recipients, Project Working Mom rolled out a third campaign on January 8, 2009, which will wrap up on April 30, 2009. This round of the program introduced a new twist: Fathers are now eligible to win a scholarship, a request logged quite frequently during the previous campaigns. The participating schools for Project Working Mom…and Dads, Too! are Ashford University, Capella University, Everest University, Virginia College, and Ashworth College.

“We launched Project Working Mom as a response to staggering statistics indicating that working moms are an underserved population that simply need to overcome the obstacles of time, money and confidence to achieve the education they need to improve their lives,” said Helen MacDermott, content director for Project Working Mom. “But in today’s economy, we realize there are plenty of dads who are also in desperate need of financial aid and deserve a chance to tell their stories, too.”

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, of the 2.1 million single dads in the United States only 16 percent have a bachelor’s degree or higher. Although the total number of single moms in the United States is much larger, the percentage of moms with a bachelor’s degree is about the same; only 15 percent of single moms have a bachelor’s degree or higher.

According to the federal government, the number of students applying for student aid is soaring. In the first six months of 2008, the total number of Free Applications for Federal Student Aid submitted was about 1.3 million more than the same period in 2007. Project Working Mom has also witnessed this tremendous demand for financial aid. The first two campaigns in 2008 generated more than 120,000 applications for a full-ride online college scholarship.

eLearners.com, an online education resource that connects learners with online education, which created the Project Working Mom campaigns, also created a complementary, interactive, and in-depth web site to help learners tackle their questions and fears about returning to school. The site is designed to empower working parents and it offers: advice on going back to school; self-assessment quizzes on numerous subjects, including how to determine what subjects to study; an online support community; numerous articles; and a database with $15 billion in financial aid opportunities.

Project Working Mom…and Dads, Too! helps to remove the barriers many people face when deciding whether to go back to school, including the hurdles of money, time, and confidence. The scholarships provided by the participating schools allow the recipients to go back to school at no cost, eliminating the huge financial aid burden. By studying online, students can do classwork from home, during their lunch hour at work, and at any time of day. The flexibility of online classes fits perfectly with the lives of busy parents. And through the comprehensive Project Working Mom web site, working parents can get the knowledge they need to feel confident about returning to school.

“I don't have a lot of family members that have gone to school and certainly none that have received scholarships. To my family and me, this is better than winning the lottery,” continued Ann Marie. “This is my time to finish all the way to the end.”

Moms and dads, to learn more about Project Working Mom…and Dads, Too! and to apply for a full-ride, online education scholarship visit www.ProjectWorkingMom.com.

Inquirer: True melting pot helped save libraries:

Stirred by Mayor Nutter's proposal to close 11 branch libraries, the opponents came tumbling off the shelves of Philadelphia society - rich, poor, black, white, homeschoolers from the Northeast, young anarchists from West Philly.

With President-elect Barack Obama's campaign as both inspiration and field guide, they organized, demonstrated and sued, then packed the courtroom for hearings and showered the mayor with boos at his own news conference.

Then, astoundingly, they won. At least for now.

A judge's ruling Tuesday forced Nutter to get City Council approval or a court order to implement his plan to save $36 million by 2013 through closing the branches. Nutter called the ruling an assault on the City Charter's strong-mayor form of government and said he would appeal.

Others called it a crucial victory for communities, even a model for civic participation in public policy.

Tom Ferrick at It's Our City wonders if the outrage Mayor Nutter has earned over this issue is worth it and offers an alternative:

Here’s an alternative: Back off on the library issue, Develop a comprehensive plan for meet the economic crisis that involves sacrifice by everyone –taxpayers, vendors, city employees, the mayor and his top staff — and use the upcoming budget address (for fiscal 2010) to begin the process of selling it to the public.

If people feel that everyone is feeling some pain, they won’t resent as much swallowing their piece of it. If people think the administration has really, actually listened to them and their concerns – and taken them into account – then maybe they will go along with the plan.

In other words, admit you made a mistake and go back to the drawing board.

Library Journal.com: Philadelphia Judge Stops Mayor’s Plan To Close 11 Libraries:

In response to two lawsuits—filed by three City Council Members, seven library patrons, and the library staff union—Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Idee Fox today put the brakes on Mayor Michael Nutter’s plan to permanently close 11 branch libraries at the end of the day tomorrow, saying that City Council approval is required.

TogetherGreen Fellowships have recently been awarded to forty of the nation’s most promising conservationists. Meet Keith Russell, a Fellow who has been involved in conservation efforts for two decades. The Philadelphia, Pennsylvania man is the recipient of a new national fellowship designed to advance the work of individuals with outstanding potential to help shape a brighter environmental future. He is one of only 40 people selected from competitors nationwide for the TogetherGreen Conservation Leadership Program, part of a new conservation initiative of the National Audubon Society with support from Toyota.

Fellows receive specialized training in conservation planning and execution, the chance to work and share best practices with gifted conservation professionals, and assistance with project outreach and evaluation. Each Fellow will also receive $10,000 towards a community-focused project to engage local residents in conserving land, water and energy, and contributing to greater environmental health. For his fellowship, Keith will focus on organizing a volunteer monitoring effort to collect data on bird collisions with building windows, combining citizen science and wildlife conservation efforts. This study will help reveal how building lights and building glass in downtown Philadelphia affect many of the migratory birds that pass through the city each spring and fall, allowing Russell and others to work towards making the city a safer place for these prodigious travelers. Turning off lights and reducing the transparency and reflection caused by building glass will help protect these birds from deadly collisions, educate community members and business owners about the perils migratory birds face in cities, and ultimately help slow the rate at which many of these species are now declining.

The efforts of the Fellows will aid people and wildlife around 39 cities in 24 different states—a full list can be found at http://www.togethergreen.org/fellows.

Despite current economic conditions malls and retailers are facing this season, Oxford Valley Mall, Montgomery Mall, Lehigh Valley Mall and Quaker Bridge Mall have remained committed to the communities they serve and to area teens. Each of the respective malls is now seeking candidates for their 2009 Teen Board program.

Teen Board Programs were first started by Steven Weisz of Rainbow Promotions in East Coast regional malls back in 1990. This youth oriented, volunteer program, now in its nineteenth year, provides an opportunity for young men and women between the ages of thirteen to eighteen years, to represent and work with their local malls to produce fashion shows, create special events and participate in community service projects.

The educational component of this program offers teen members the opportunity to participated in lectures, workshops and activities dealing with the various aspects of the fashion and retail industry -- modeling, retail operations, fashion design, marketing and public relations.

Community service remains a core component of this program. The Teen Boards are committed to helping others with in their own community. Through out the year, members become involved with a number of charitable organizations in an effort to show that teens can make a difference. Campaigns on the mall have included food and clothing drives for those in need, as well as working with such organizations as the American Heart Association, Salvation Army and Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

The programs have been a huge success. For the teen members in the program, it has offered them a voice in their communities, a way to contribute their energies in a positive manner, a better understanding and respect of each others diverse backgrounds, and a way to increase their own sense of self-worth and self-esteem through the positive impact they have on their own community.

Applications for the 2009 programs are now available on each of their respective web sites:

Oxford Valley Mall Teen Board
http://www.teenboard.com

Montgomery Mall Teen Board
http://www.montgomerymallteenboard.com

Lehigh Valley Mall Teen Board
http://www.lehighvalleymallteenboard.com

Quaker Bridge Mall Insiders Teen Board
http://www.quakerbridgeinsiders.com

Applicants should be young men and women, between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, who are well rounded, outgoing, and have an interest in fashion, dance, theater, retail public relations/marketing, and community service.

The Program is conducted at each of the malls in conjunction with their Marketing Department and runs for a full year. Students will be required to make a time commitment of about 4-6 hours each month for attending Teen Board meetings and programs. Participants will help produce and model in the malls fashion shows; attend seminars on various topics relating to the fashion and retail industry; help organize and run mall special events and charity fund raisers; learn basic techniques in modeling, make-up and fashion coordination; and learn techniques in presenting oneself and working with the public.

Each program generally accepts 20-25 outstanding individuals. There are no fees, charges or financial obligations connected with this program. This program is volunteer based and no financial compensation is provided either. The Teen Board programs being offered by these malls is one of the few places where teens can continue show the positive contributions they have to offer.

Part 1 of a series: THE SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS: Whatever Happens In Room 315, Stays In Room 315, Whatever Happens In:

Room 315 is a dumping ground of sorts; here are sent the students nobody else can or wants to teach. They are chronically truant, emotionally damaged, academically stunted and so disruptive that their presence makes mainstream classes unteachable. They haven’t yet offended badly enough for the School District to send them to Community Education Partners, or CEP, as the city’s three privately run discipline schools are called. CEP has a reputation for its hard-nosed student body and is sometimes less favorably referred to in the neighborhood as “Children En-route to Prison.” The kids of Room 315 aren’t welcome in the mainstream and yet can’t be shipped off somewhere else. Room 315 is where education makes its last stand in the lives of a small group of troubled children who slipped through the cracks, and are on the verge of drifting off the map entirely.

According to Michael Lewis at the Wall Street Journal and John Lancaster at The New Yorker, it is an end of an era on Wall Street. According to experts, the effects of the economic crisis have yet to be fully felt and will be touching out into every part of America over the next couple years.

Nationally, fewer are giving to charity, in Philly we have a what appears to be tightening job market, horrific stories of crime and heartbreak, and city budget that is on the ropes, triggering Mayor Nutter to pursue cuts across the board that will certainly effect livability in the city, if not lead it to being less safe.

Monday night residents in Fishtown protested proposed cuts that would eliminate the local library.

WHYY's It's Our City interviews the Inquirer's Ben Waxman on the budget process.

Jim Kenney, City Concilman-at-large, calls for cooperation to see the cuts through for the survival of the city.

If you're not already involved somehow, now it is especially needed. And if you are looking for ideas online, there are many places to discuss them and pursue them. This being just one of many in an ever growing Philadelphia online community.

WHYY’S IT’S OUR CITY TO FEATURE SCHOOL DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT,
MAYOR’S CHIEF EDUCATION OFFICER IN TV12 INTERVIEW NOVEMBER 14

Interview Focuses on Mayor’s Education Plan to Cut the Dropout Rate,
Boost Number of Philadelphians Who Earn Four-year Degrees

PHILADELPHIA, November 7, 2008 — The next installment of WHYY’s It’s Our City will feature an interview with the Philadelphia School District superintendent, Arlene Ackerman, and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter’s chief education officer, Lori Shorr, on TV12 on November 14 at 10:00 p.m.

It’s Our City is a multiplatform civic engagement project produced by the award-winning News and Information Service of WHYY, Greater Philadelphia’s leading public broadcasting station, in partnership with the Philadelphia Daily News.

In the interview, Ackerman and Shorr address Nutter’s plan for the public school system in the face of Philadelphia’s projected budget gap of about $1 billion. The mayor outlined an initiative in mid-September to halve the city’s 45 percent high school dropout rate and double the number of Philadelphians who earn college degrees — both in five to 10 years. Just 18 percent of Philadelphians hold four-year degrees, placing the city 92nd out of the top 100 cities in the nation.

Ackerman explains in the interview the purpose of keeping scorecards for each of the district’s schools to gauge students’ attendance and performance, among other criteria. She also discusses differentiated pay scales for teachers and ways to improve neighborhood schools so charter schools can be utilized as alternatives solely for their curriculum specializations.

WHYY opened its phone lines and accepted e-mails from Philadelphians before and during the interview, originally broadcast on WHYY FM on October 3. WHYY also took its cameras to Philadelphia neighborhoods to gather residents’ questions and comments, several of which will be shown during the episode.

The episode will also be accessible on November 15 at noon on the It’s Our City Web site, www.whyy.org/city.

Dave Davies conducted the interview. The senior writer for the Philadelphia Daily News regularly fills in for Terry Gross as host of WHYY’s renowned national radio program, Fresh Air, and on WHYY’s regional public affairs call-in show, Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane.

Longtime WHYY producer Alan Tu serves as managing editor for It’s Our City, whose first episode, broadcast in June, featured an interview with Mayor Nutter. Wendy Daughenbaugh is the producer of It’s Our City.

Funded by The William Penn Foundation, It’s Our City evolved from WHYY’s award-winning The Next Mayor project, which, Philadelphia Magazine said, “managed a neat trick, creating a place where local political junkies can get a fix and the rest of us can get a clue.”

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If you’re looking to buy your first digital SLR, you’re spoilt for choice — or possibly overwhelmed by the options.

In the last few months we’ve seen new entry-level digital SLRs from three of the big names in the camera business — Canon, Nikon and Olympus — and Sony has also entered this market, using camera technology bought in from Konica Minolta.

To be honest, these cameras are more similar than different. All four are aimed primarily at people making the jump from a compact digital camera to an SLR — people who already understand the digital half of the equation and want to upgrade to an SLR to take their photography further. An SLR is more responsive than a compact, allowing you to take photos more quickly; it gives you more control, so you can be more creative; and it’s more flexible, allowing you to change the lens or use accessories such as flashguns and remote controls.

Because these entry-level SLRs are designed for people who are used to pocket-friendly compacts, the manufacturers have kept them small and light. Experienced photographers may scoff, telling you that larger and heavier cameras are easier to handle and hold, but if you’re used to a compact, you won’t want anything too big. If size is absolutely everything, the Olympus E-410 is the smallest and lightest of the cameras featured here.

The Canon EOS 400D Olympus E-410 and Sony Alpha DSLR-A100 both have 10-mega pixel sensors, while the Nikon D40 lags behind with just 6 mega pixels. This is enough for most purposes, including prints up to A4, but it gives you less scope for cropping your images or making poster-size enlargements. Since many top-end compacts now offer 7 or even 10 mega pixels, you might feel behind the times with the D40, although pixels aren’t everything — you’re still getting the benefits of a physically larger sensor and a bigger and better lens, so the D40 will produce better images than a compact.

The Canon EOS 400D and the Nikon D40 both ship with 18-55mm zoom lens, although the 35mm equivalents are slightly different (because the cameras have slightly different sensors), with the Canon lens offering the equivalent of 29-88mm and the Nikon 27-83mm. The Sony Alpha DSLR-A100 comes with an 18-70mm lens, or 27-105mm in 35mm terms and the Olympus E-410 comes in a twin-lens kit with 14-42mm and 40-150mm lenses, or 28-84mm and 80-300mm in 35mm terms.

In the short term, the Sony and Olympus cameras gives you a better zoom range out of the box, but in the long term, Canon and Nikon offer more lenses and other accessories. If you can imagine buying additional lenses in the future — for example, if you might want a telephoto lens for photographing wildlife — go for the Canon 400D or the Nikon D40. Both cameras are compatible with a wide range of lenses, flash guns, remote releases and so on.

What about other features? The Nikon D40 has a beginner-friendly menu system, with sample images that help you choose the right settings. The Sony Alpha DSLR-A100 has built-in image stabilisation for taking pictures in low light (Canon and Nikon offer image stabilisation via special lenses). The Nikon D40 uses SD memory cards, whereas the others take Compact Flash, although the Olympus E-410 also accepts xD memory cards. The Canon EOS 400D, Olympus E-410 and Sony Alpha DSLR-A100 have cleaning modes that vibrate the sensor to shake off dust.

So which is best? As you can see from the scores, it’s a close-run thing, but for our money, the Canon 400D has a slight edge. It costs a little more than the Nikon D40, but the extra mega pixels will keep you happy for longer.