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December 15, 2004
Fantastic Field Trip
We enjoyed a tremendous day in our state’s capitol, Raleigh. Goldsboro Bus Company came out to Norwayne and picked us up this morning and we began our journey. We had prepared along the way this past semester to understand and appreciate the things we were lucky enough to get to see today. Just yesterday we spent some time in class practicing our chopstick skills.
We made it to Exploris just in time for the Nicaraguan market session. Andrew was chosen to go shopping in the market and bought some sugar cane (Andrew can let you know that it is nothing like our refined sugar). The kids got a little time in the museum and learned a whole lot of environmental and geography lessons. The great thing about Exploris is that everything is hands-on.
We boarded the bus for a short trip to Crabtree Valley Mall and one of my favorite places to eat, Kanki Japanese House of Steak and Sushi. Mrs. Evans and the staff at Kanki rushed us in and made our visit quiet an experience. Hibachi shrimp, chicken, and steak were everywhere and almost all the kids ate their meals utilizing their chopsticks.
Another short trip back to IMAX for a 70-foot screen with over 12,000 watts of sound as we enjoyed The Polar Express in 3-D and stereo surround sound. The movie was awesome and fit in with our recent lessons on “keeping Christmas” in our hearts. I hope that the kids had a s great a time as Donna and I did. We appreciate so much our chaperons. You helped make this experience even better for our students and they are grateful to you also. Mrs. Westbrook, Mrs. Johnson, and both of the Mrs. Sassers - we appreciate you!
Posted by hlperson at 10:37 PM | Comments (8)
December 09, 2004
Christmas Concert
Today Norwayne’s students and staff were entertained with a Christmas Concert provided by our very own band program. The All-Star team was well represented in the band program with two of our young men actually assisting with all three of the different grade level band programs. Jeff C. and Andrew C. were in such high demand that they played for the entire one-hour program with all three grade level bands. We wrote a short journal today about our favorite Christmas songs and many of the kids discussed how in the “holiday spirit” they really are.
We will most likely be finishing up The Christmas Carol tomorrow. We have had an excellent time with the play and the kids have learned a tremendous amount about stage directions and according to them, “a ton of new vocabulary words.” To be real honest this is the first time I have taught the play. I always thought it was too old, too difficult, and too old fashioned. What a lesson I have learned in this story also.
Posted by hlperson at 04:01 PM | Comments (19)
December 07, 2004
Great News!
Just found out late last week that a grant from Kappa Delta Pi Education Honor Fraternity I had written with my very good friend Pamela Johnson had been funded. It’s not a large grant but $700 is nothing to sneeze at. It means the kids will have access to a digital video camera and will learn the process of interviewing teachers (in this case) and editing the videos for posting to the internet. Ms. Johnson and I have written several grants together this year and hope to be hearing some good news from some of the others here in the not too distant future. We would both love to be able to spend 2 to 3 thousand dollars a year in our classrooms making sure our kids have access to the most up to date technology.
We took a practice North Carolina Writing test today. 75 minutes of me having to be quiet is almost unbearable. The kids wrote diligently and I think they have a better understanding of how hard we have to work in the spring in order to make the scores we will be happy with. They had some interesting ideas on the prompt (how to improve the school with $500,000). We used this prompt 2 years ago and that amount of money is really a foreign concept to most of the kids. (And their teacher too:-)
Social Studies saw us discussing the trade deficit the United States has with the Asian countries but in order to understand it we discussed our own deficit spending, especially around this time of year. I posted a graphic of the chart we made in Excel at the top of this entry.
Posted by hlperson at 11:26 AM | Comments (20)
December 02, 2004
Where was that made?
In social studies we did a little comparison of where our shoes and clothing came from. 85% of the shoes in our classroom came from Asia with most of those originating in China. When the question was asked what percentage of their clothes they thought was from this region of course most of the students thought it was again 85%. Well it was very interesting to see that only a small fraction of the clothing was from this region, most of it coming from Mexico and Central and South America. We got a pretty good lesson on the India and Pakistan conflict from Hari and we appreciate his first hand knowledge and perspective. Tonight's homework is to check out at least five electronic items around the house to see where they come from.
A Christmas Carol is progressing very well. Kaisheem is a budding actor and keeps us all in stitches. The main discussion today was an interesting quote from the play that discusses how Christmas is a time when "Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices." I was pleasantly surprised by just how much the kids could identify with this statement. It seems many of the kids understand wanting things this time of year. :-) Big congratulations to Samantha T., Jordan B., Hari G., and Nicole S. for having the highest scores on the team on the Vocabulary assignments from yesterday.
Field Trip money is due in. If you want to chaperone, please let us know. We would love to have you join us.
Posted by hlperson at 04:13 PM | Comments (28)