I Love Our PTO Moms and Dads

It's National Teacher Recognition Week and our PTO has been busy, since, yesterday, setting-up a luscious lunch for the faculty, for today. I walked into the faculty room, this morning, and found an array of goodies ready for us.

I often brag about our PTO to teachers in other districts. Sometimes, I take for granted, how good I have it, here. This PTO comes in and prepares ice cream sundaes for our cherubs as a reward, they supply us with food and "stuffs" for field trips and offer to come into the classroom and help out. I will tell you, teachers in other districts envy me.

Here's a big, Pappa Z hug, to the Loyalsock Middle School PTO!!!!!!! Thanks for all that you do.

Half Day For Me, Tomorrow
The marine biology major daughter is coming home, tomorrow, for six-week working visit. She is doing an independent study of wetlands at the Muncy Canal archaeology dig site. I have to take a half-day personal day to get to State College in time for her proposed 1:40 p.m. arrival. My cherubs will watch a really cool video on the Unfolding Universe. It pretty much covers, in a fantastic graphics display, the textbook we are using in science.

Gideon versus Wainwright
In Social Studies, we will look at the 14th and 5th Amendments in regards to a supreme court case in which an uneducated man was convicted and imprisoned for a burglary. There are some parts of this textbook that are really neat. I love the court cases they pick to review.

Have a great weekend, folks.

Space, the final frontier

Well, we started our trip through the universe. The munchkins learned that light travels at 186,400 miles per second and that a light-year is the distance light travels in one year -- that's about 6 trillion miles. Whoa, boy. It will take us 83,000 years to reach Alpha Centauri, if we left, now.

Does Spelling Count?
On May 28, the sixth grade will be going on field trips. Three groups, three locations. We will converge on Riverfront Park at Canfield Island. Well, oops, we made a bit of a boo-boo on the permission slips. Those slips will be going home on May 23, and we inadvertantly called the park, Riverside, instead of Riverfront. And, because we are using so much paper, the sixth grade team has opted to simply let the mistake go through. We will instruct the kiddoes to cross out the misspelled word and write-in the correct spelling.

Have a great night, folks.

Cross-age Teachers Discuss Tobacco Use

Our high school cross-age teachers discussed tobacco use. They even brought out "Mr. Yuk", a mouth cancer facsimile. The jar of liquid tar from cigarettes was enough to turn your stomach. Then, we went outside to watch how cigarette smoke enters the lungs, using a 2-liter bottle as the lungs.

Have a good night, folks.

Okay, I'm Late, Again

Lee Lee sent me a message telling me I am late posting my blog. I know. It was just so nice, this afternoon, I decided to do some yard work. And, believe me, after not being able to walk for 8 years there is a lot of work to be done. So, I trimmed away creeping vines on my lilac bushes and junipers, I cut away biggie jagger bushes growing on a hill beneath my row of Pine trees, cut the lawn and replanted an azalea. Oh, and I had to add more string to the weed wacker. Whew! I feel like one of those gardners on the Home and Garden Network.

Back to school work
Flight durations went pretty well. I had a lot of kids that kept their planes in the air for five seconds, but, I had several notables, such as Brandon, whose plane stayed in the air for 8.16-seconds, and Ryland, who made it last for 7.15-seconds. By the way, 7th grade girls that were warming-up for gym class in the gymnasium, gave Ryland the aaaaahhhhs and ooooohhhhs.

Cross-age Tomorrow
Section 64 does not have science tomorrow, due to cross-age. Section 63 needs to launch planes for duration, and Sections 62 and 61 are gonna build the omni-wing paper airplane. It uses tape, but, boy does that puppy fly.

Whew! Better Hit The Shower
Worked up a sweat, in the yard. Shower and bedtime by 10 a.m. Don't expect to see me at school before 7 a.m. tomorrow. I am starting to show signs of overwork. 10-hour days being paid for only 8, is getting to me.

Have a great night, folks.

I Dig The Dirty Work

Hi guys: Sorry I did not blog on Friday -- I am burning-out. However! Renewed energy and enthusiasm, abounds, once MORE!!!!!

The Saturday archaeology dig at Muncy entered its second week. I took pictures, chatted with Bill Poulton, president of the Muncy Historical Society, and sifted lotsa, lotsa dirt, only to find one tiny chunk of coal. Ho-hum. But, it was a beautiful day and I was outside. I just wish I could've taken my dog, with me.

If you haven't seen it yet, ya gotsta go to my website and view the webpage I put together on the Muncy Canal project. http://www.ltsd.k12.pa.us/497970223125916/blank/browse.asp?a=383&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&c=52353

Well, tomorrow, my kiddoes are launching their paper airplanes for flight duration. Hope they tweeked and refined over the weekend. No gimmees on this project. What they earn is what they get in three throws, or less.

Have a good night, folks.