Feast: Friday School Day

Yesterday was Feast School Day, and about 3,000 kids and their teachers were walking around the grounds attending demonstrations and learning about Indiana history.

I was there but not demonstrating anything; I was finishing setting up my wares.

Some of the blackened beeswax ornaments are out on display.

Men's shirts and fabric remnant bundles, ready to go.

Two jars for maple cakes, one on my little desk and the second by the feathers in the back, towels, toques, pin pillows, hussifs, and the cash box with my pewter mug peeking out. (I'll pour any cokes that I drink during Feast into my pewter mug and tuck the can out of sight - no one will know it's 21st century coke that I'm drinking!)

Chemises, aprons, bed gowns, short gowns, cloaks, bum rolls, panniers, and pockets. That tent wall will be opened up fully tomorrow so people can come and go more easily. 

Yesterday the 4th grade teachers from Lisa's school had their kids at the Fort for School Day. Brock, Nick, Brooke, Lisa, and Vinny.

Our dear living history friends (and fellow horse lovers), Carol and Frank Jarboe were still setting up Scoundrel's Alley but took time for a selfie.  Carol usually interprets Maggie, who is an indentured servant, to Frank's Parson John. But not tomorrow. He's playing The Ould Badger at Scoundrel's Alley. She will be Maggie, but not as an indentured servant and thus dressed more nicely than usual to reflect that.

John is an ordained minister in his 21st century life and he always leads the church services Sunday mornings at events.

A real plus of School Day was running into two very dear colleagues from Hershey, the school where I taught. They had brought their classes out and I was lucky enough to bump into them.

Jocelyn, me, and Sarah. Two of the best of the best when it comes to teaching.

Along with them was another fourth grade teacher from Hershey, but one I did not know.

Lisa sure did! It was her former student teacher who is now teaching with Jocelyn and Sarah! (Lisa says she is an outstanding teacher as well. Lucky Hershey!)

My new sign's up, and I'm ready to go. Time to go immerse myself into 18th century life. 

 

Where's Lynn?

Kathy and I had a great time reading to kids yesterday back at Hershey where I'd taught. I was really looking forward to having a photo to remember the day.

Why, yes, I'll always remember what I looked like that day! LOL!

Lego Robotics - A Surprise Message

Sometimes you get something out of the blue that just makes your day. Such was the case with this message that I received from a girl who had been on the Lego Robotics team I'd sponsored at Hershey.

In 2018 Caterpillar had offered to sponsor one team for us (the very first one at Hershey ever) at a very hefty cost. The purpose was to get more girls introduced to and involved in STEM learning so it was to be an all-girls team. 

We had room for ten girls, but twenty showed up and wanted to participate. Bless Caterpillar; they agreed to sponsor a second team, and all the girls got to experience robotics.

This is an example of the fruits of their generosity. (And I have sent this on to the man who facilitated the grants and the team to pass on to Caterpillar.)

Read it and smile.

Volunteering - Hershey Registration

TSC registration is all online unless you are new to the district. If you are, then you need to bring in documents such as birth certificates, immunization records, and proof of residence to the school your children will be attending. I have volunteered to help at registration for the past three or four years, and did so again this year despite having recently retired.

Tables and chairs were set out in the foyer for people to fill out forms that were on a welcome table along with instructions as to what to do.

 I spent a good deal of my time xeroxing and collating the packets for registration.

 Jackie had made a bunch up, but we were getting a lot of walk-ins and needed more.

I ended up working ahead for the coming school year, making some for Jackie to use with kids who move in during the school year.

 I had to smile - the file folders I was using were recycled ones from my classroom!

And, I found a map of the building with me still listed as a teacher at Hershey. That was a bit bittersweet.

While there, I also committed to helping with bus duty the first day of school and then with the Open House the night before, so I will be back soon.

Between helping Lisa, helping Kathy, and helping Hershey, I still feel very much a part of things and that is helping to stave off the sadness I feel as the education world goes on with out me.

My Hershey Retirement Party

Hershey always throws a retirement party on the last work day for teachers of the school year. It's a breakfast, and family members are invited to come.

 Former teachers who have retired are also invited back, so the Media Center is packed.

 Mrs. Eberle (standing), is a longtime lunch aide who is retiring.

 Each of us got to stand and speak to the faculty.

 Steve Dietrich, Mar's husband and friend of Craig's, is in the pink shirt.

 More time with this guy now!

  Lisa (not shown), Vanessa, Ian, Mila, and Lukas surprised me by coming!

The best office staff in the world! Jackie Spitznagle, Jennifer Leahy, Maddie Riordan, and Linda Fields.

 And my dear friend, retired Life Skills teacher, Jan Cyr.

There are more pictures somewhere, of Lisa, of Nancy Sattler, and my 5th grade team, but they must be on someone else's phone. I will see if I can't track them down and do another blog post!

Tornado!

Tuesday evening while working in the temple, I heard that there were tornados in Boone County. (Lebanon is located there.) I knew the temple was very safe should anything happen, but I did wonder about our drive home since we would have to go through that area.

I should have been more worried about my own county.

Sure enough, as soon as my shift was over, I found I had a message from Lisa who had been at our home with the dogs.

That "no confirmed touchdown" would change because there were actually two tornadoes, one of which was out by Hershey.

 As I drove to work Wednesday, I noticed a debris field on the north side on 300, just a mile from Hershey.

 The debris stretched quite a ways through a field.

 I could tell a tornado had hit a metal barn and then thrown the pieces as it traveled north toward Buck Creek.

As I drove home from school that afternoon, I took pictures of the farm building that had sustained the damage.

 Not the best picture, but I was driving and had a car behind me.

This tornado was only a mile from my school. In 1996, a tornado actually hit my school, Yankee Ridge Elementary, and just missed our home by a quarter mile. That tornado wreaked havoc and killed one person. (We lived in Illinois at the time.)

This is a video of that tornado. (After their school had been hit, my students took our drills seriously! It was very, very real to them.)

Whenever we do a tornado drill at school, I reassure the kids that, while I don't think it will happen, that being hit by a tornado is possible.

This recent one so close to my school just confirms how possible that really is.

Lego Robotics

I know NOTHING about robotics. Not a thing. But I knew enough that, when Caterpillar and The Society of Women Engineers offered me a grant to begin a girls team at Hershey, I jumped at it. Their goal was to introduce girls to STEM careers through FIRST Lego League, and FIRST Lego League turned out to be an excellent vehicle to accomplish that goal.

They mentored us faithfully, coming out every Wednesday after school to help me work with the girls.

We only had seven weeks to prepare, but we participated in Purdue's competition for FIRST Lego Leage grades 4 through 8 yesterday.

 Former student Carl Landskron was one of the Purdue students in charge of the competition.

And Brooke Cederquist was helping out, too. It's always nice to see former students!

There were nine girls competing for the Hershey Legoettes, but the other nine girls participating at Hershey were invited to come and cheer us on. I counted fourteen of our eighteen girls there at one time or another!

 Our robot accomplished the tasks at school, but it was finicky at the competition. The girls tweaked its program repeatedly, trying to get it to work the way it should so that it could accomplish its tasks.

We also had to make a project and a poster about it as well as a poster about the Core Values of FIRST Lego League and how we exemplified those values.

We presented those in the morning as well as did a demonstration of our robot. The girls were on their own - their mentors and I could not go in with them for the presentations.

Lanie S. and Hannah S.  ran the computer in the three competitions during the afternoon. We got three tries to accomplish our tasks. It wasn't until our final chance that our computer worked. That meant that we probably would not move on to the state competition.

Linda Fields, our principal, (seated in the upper right) came and watched us and stayed for the awards ceremony.

The girls and their high school mentors, Molly Page and Hailee Rolofson, waited with the rest of the teams in the bleachers, fingers crossed that they might win an award.

They erupted into cheers when it was announced that they were one of two teams to win the Core values award, which is considered very prestigious as it means that they exemplified everything FIRST Lego League wants the girls to do (kindness, cooperation, team spirit, hard work, etc.) We were thrilled when our counterpart, East Tipp, was the other winner!

It was a long day, and I am still tired, but a good one, too. And even better, Caterpillar and The Society of Women Engineers told me that I was receiving another grant to start a boys team at Hershey next fall.

A Summer Visit

Saturday I went out to Hershey to get some yarn for a project that I am working on. (Mila's quiet book.) I walked through the intermediate wing of the building checking out any changes and seeing if the custodians had cleaned my wing yet. (I really can't get any work done until they do.)

 My room hadn't been touched yet and was just as I'd left it.

The fourth grade teachers are shuffling rooms and that means that the Science room is being moved (again.) That's a tremendous undertaking - I felt overwhelmed just stepping into it and seeing the disarray.

 The school's hallways were crowded with custodial machines...

... and items that have been moved out of rooms so that work can be done.

And the new ceiling in the cafeteria and gym is coming along nicely. (Even though it was a Saturday, there were people working to install it while I was there.)

I've said it before, but it bears repeating - a school without children is a lonely, lifeless place!

And the Year Comes to a Close

I finished closing up my classroom this morning.

 Everything is tidied up and put away.

 Things are stacked and out of the way so the custodians can do their summer cleaning.

 And just like that, the 2016-2017 school year quietly comes to a close.