Lewis Elementary
Reed College student Li Zha leads a chemistry lesson with Ms. Jen's 5th grade students. Li is the leader of the Reed College Chemistry Outreach program. The program is modeled after the Reed Biology Outreach program. Both programs provide Lewis students with the opportunity to learn science with Reed students. We thank Reed College for their continued support of these programs.
Ms. Kennedy's classroom has a new reading bench, compliments of her husband Craig. Over the past two weekends he built the bench and it is now placed in Room 17. He did a great job with the finish work, and he experimented a bit to get just the right shade of stain so that it matches the existing 50's era woodwork. Ms. Kennedy plans to utilize the area as a reading corner providing a comfortable area to get lost in a good book.
One of the best features of iOS 5 on the iPad is the ability to project your iPad 2 screen wirelessly to a display via AppleTV. This is accomplished via Apple's Airplay technology. The AppleTV has an HDMI connector so, basically you just plug your AppleTV into an HDTV and your can wirelessly project your iPad 2 screen on the TV. 
This is great if you have an HDTV, but most classrooms do not. This is where the HP HDMI to VGA converter comes in. It is a small attachment that has an HDMI connector on one side, and a VGA adapter on the other. This allows you to plug an AppleTV into a data projector that does not have an HDMI connection. The connector will pass the video, but audio will not pass through. We only have one projector in our building with HDMI and ideally this is the best way to do this, since you get video and audio, but for most of what teachers want to share, being able to pass the video image will be very helpful. The HP HDMI to VGA converter is about $40 and available from HP. An AppleTV will set you back bout $100.
Our 5th grade students have just finished two weeks of bike safety classes under the sponsorship of of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance , Safe Routes to Schools and the City of Portland .
Today our 5th grade students took part in a neighborhood ride where they were able to put into practice the skills and safety rules they have learned over the past two weeks.
At Lewis are very happy to have musicians Kate Finn and Rick Weiss working this week with students in Mr. Colvin's 4th grade classroom. Through a grant, Kate and Rick are working with our 4th and 5th grade students to provide a songwriting residence experience. Students work in groups to write songs on a theme. Mr. Colvin's students have chosen the theme of animals. The experience will culminate with a recording session where the student songs are sung and recorded. Each student will receive a CD with the entire collection of songs. The files will also be available for electronic download to MP3 devices and iPods. Mr. Marchyok's students will be working next month with Kate and Rick, and our 5th grade students will work with them in January. We are grateful to Kate and Rick, and their grant underwriters, for providing this great opportunity to our students.
At Lewis we have two cob benches that were built by students under the direction of natural builder James Thomson. From time to time they need a bit of maintenance and a new coat of plaster. Today Mr. Thomson, along with an assistant, visited the school to make some repairs to our oldest bench, and also apply a new coat of plaster.
In preparation for their visit to the Reed College Cooley Art Gallery, Gregory MacNaughton visits with 3rd grade students at Lewis Elementary. I had the opportunity to observe Gregory deliver his presentation in our 3rd grade classrooms. He does a great job of sharing his excitement for the gallery and the opportunities it provides our students to visit and interact with a world class college.
Our 5th grade students have started bike safety classes this week. They will be working this week and next learning traffic safety and safe riding techniques. We thank our friends at Safe Routes to School and the Bicycle Transportation Alliance for their help and support with this program.
Bicycles arrive….
On October 21 we held our Fall Community Dinner. Over 150 members of the Lewis community joined together in the Lewis cafeteria to share a meal prepared by Chef David Anderson of Genoa. We thank David and the folks at Genoa/Accanto for their generous support of Lewis. Also we would like to thank all of our parent, staff, and community volunteers who made the event possible.
This photo was used on a USDA blog to promote National School Lunch Week.
Room 13 Before...
Room 13 After...
The mail carrier who delivers mail to my school jokes with me that July must be my favorite month of the year. He refers to the school in the summer, when it's basically just me and the custodians, as my Fortress of Solitude. In a way he is correct. I enjoy the time alone at school. It is a good time to read, think, tinker, plan and occasionally mow the lawn. During this time I like to reflect on the previous year and to look ahead to the coming new school year.
One sobering consideration for that planning is our budget situation. Portland, like many school districts, is facing an uncertain budgetary situation. Check that, it is not uncertain, we know we are getting less than we planned for and for this coming school year have to cut $19 million dollars. This is basically 126 teaching positions in addition to a number of other program and service cuts. When the summer ends, and staff returns to school we will be looking at a different teaching and learning situation. Final decisions won't be made until the middle of July, so for now we continue to live with a bit of uncertantly.
One thing that is certain, is that because our school has grown, we are facing what our Facilities Department likes to call "space allocation issues." Room 13 is being renovated to allow for its use as a classroom. Last week the small inner office in Room 13 that we had used for meetings was removed. A bit more work will happen this week, but by the end of the week the room should be ready to serve as an instructional space. Above you will find a before and after shot of the work to date.
My school, Lewis Elementary School, has a gym with two locker rooms. It was built in a time when students would change clothes for PE. The locker rooms are now mostly used for storage. Some of our teachers saw these wire clothes baskets in the locker room and thought they would make great book bins...
We are again working with natural builder James Thomson to create a cob bench in our outdoor classroom area.
New bench under construction...
This is the bench we created with James Thomson in the spring of 2006.
On Friday at school we held our Run for the Arts fundraiser. Run For The Arts is our annual jogathon that helps us raise money to provide additional arts related activities and events at our school. For the past few years we have used these funds to support our drama teacher in residency program. Below is the start of the run.
On Wednesday, April 22, 2009 we will be broadcasting live from the Lewis Elementary School garden. We plan to offer a tour of our garden via ustream.tv. The broadcast begins approximately at 11:00 am Pacific time. Free Webcam Chat at Ustream
On Earth Day, Wednesday, April 22, 2009 Lewis Elementary School will be broadcasting live on ustream.tv from our garden area. We will begin our broadcast at 11:00 am Pacific time. We hope you can join us as we provide a tour or our school garden area. We anticipate a broadcast of between 10 and 15 minutes.http://www.ustream.tv/channel/lewis-elementary-school
On Friday, April 10, 2009 our 5th grade students finished their two week bicycle safety class with a ride through the Springwater Corridor on a trip to Sellwood Middle School. The class was lead by Carl Larson of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance. Carl also has lead pedestrian safety classes for our second and third grade students. Below is a short interview with Carl. We thank Carl and the BTA, for their continued support.
Originally posted on lewiselementary.org
The Lewis Elementary School PTA will be holding their annual auction on Thursday, March 5, 2009 at the Bosanova Ballroom. The proceeds go to help fund various activities at Lewis including support for our OMSI Science Camp experience for our 4th and 5th grade students and to help fund our gardening program. You can preview the auction catalog here.
Students in Mrs. Gould's classroom recently made pop-up books. Below are a few examples...
At Lewis we have been working to establish and sustain a garden education component to our curriculum. Recently the work of our staff and families was highlighted on the Portland Nursery web site. Thanks to Peggy Alcott and the Portland Nursery staff for their continued support to our program...
photo credit: lewiselementary
